Photos from Forward On Climate

So we made it! After a total of 34+ hours of driving (and the unfortunate carbon footprint that goes with it), we have completed our journey to DC to participate in the largest climate rally in the history of the United States of America. It was incredible. I have never in my life been around more people who all care about the Earth. Everybody was there for one thing: to tell Obama to shut down the KeystoneXL pipeline. Bill McKibben, 350.org co-founder, Mike Brune, Sierra Club executive Director, Van Jones, Obama's former green jobs advisor, and many other very inspirational speakers spoke on stage before we marched over to Obama's place, complete with chants, picket signs, harlem shakes, and dance circles.

Here's a few photos from the weekend. More soon to come.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

En Route to DC for Forward On Climate rally

We're passing through Virginia right now. Last night we were lucky enough to stay at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville. Tomorrow's the big day! We are updating twitter much more frequently than the blog so check the widget at the right for more up-to-date info. >>>>>>>>

Meeting / Forward On Climate

We had a Green Club meeting Tuesday featuring two awesome speakers. One was Jeff Cantin, the president of Solar Alternatives, a New Orleans company that helps people go solar, and Angela from Sodexo who advertised a sustainability internship that they are currently looking to fill with a student. We got a great turnout tonight, over 30 people! Thanks to everyone who came out!

Here's a few things we also talked about at the meeting tonight:

• Grab as many Mardi Gras beads as you can, bring them back to the dorms at Tulane, and recycle them in the big purple bins!
• We will be screening The Island President, a great documentary about the former president of the maldives, on February 28th. 
• If you'd like to volunteer to recycled beads at Thoth parade on Sunday, fill out this Google doc
• And perhaps most importantly, we will be driving to DC to participate in Forward On Climate, a rally to get Obama to take action about climate change, particularly to reject the KeystoneXL pipeline. If you'd like to come with, email me at nstracco at tulane dot edu. It is going to be the largest climate rally in the history of the united states.
  
  Here's a few photos from our meeting on Tuesday
  
  

Jeff from Solar Alternatives

Angela from Sodexo

Thanks for reading!

Nick

President ~ Tulane Green Club

Verdi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras y'all! Did you know more than 25 million pounds of petroleum based plastic beads are imported to New Orleans each year and only 2% of them are recycled? Well Verdi Gras is a local non-profit that's trying to do something about it: by collecting beads and working with ARC to employ mentally handicapped workers to sort and resell them to krewes, they're helping to reduce the environmental hangover.

Working with them last weekend was awesome and we'll be doing it once more during Thoth on Sunday 2/10. Sign up below! Besides for fly shirts, good company, and rewarding work, this Sunday you'll also be able to meet David Redmon, creator of the documentary "Mardi Gras Made in China".

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AicYFeM8g5Q2dHdYeEE2V0VHcl96NjhoeDJmRlA3Y0E#gid=0

Mardi on Wayne,
Emma

Recycled Printer Paper

It's official! We have convinced Tulane Technology Services to try out 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) printer paper on one of their printers. If the performance of this paper is up to par and does not jam the printer, they are willing to make the switch for good. This will save untold amounts of trees.

Here's  pictures of our president, Nick Stracco, all excited about the new paper.

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Wrapping It Up: A Great Semester Behind Us and Another Soon to Come

This semester was absolutely awesome and we'd like to extend a big thank you to everyone who helped out along the way. A quick reflection on some things we've done recently:

Clothing Swap (11/16)

What an overwhelming success! More than 80 people participated, sustainably getting rid of their old clothes and getting some cool new stuff in the process (without using any new resources!). With 336 articles swapped, we saved cotton, dye, and an estimated 252,000 gallons of water (shout out to Kate for that calculation). We'll be hosting another clothing swap next semester, so remember to bring clothes you don’t wear back to school after Christmas break! Swap out those lame gifts for some fresh new threads. 

Community Garden Building (11/17)

In the words of Dan: On Saturday about 15 of us went to Holly Grove to work on a community garden that was just getting started.  We weeded, tilled, raked, and moved a lot of dirt!  Green Club provided awesome veggie pizza from Naked Pizza, giving us a much appreciated break.  Overall the day was a great time and we'll definitely be doing some volunteer gardening next semester, hopefully in a combined effort with Hope Garden!

Po-boy Fest bike valet with Bike Easy (11/18)

Working with New Orleans’ own non-profit, Bike Easy, we helped make biking to po-boy fest super easy and accessible! This not only alleviated the already heavy traffic in the area, but also prevented lots of C02 in car exhaust from being released. Plus we met some really cool people, had free po-boys, and got to check out the bike keg in the process. I would definitely recommend volunteering with Bike Easy when you get the chance; it was an absolute blast.

The famous bike-keg

 

 Quadruple fisting. Thanks for the po-boys, Bike Easy!

Lots of great things were done this semester and Green Club's sights are set higher for the spring. From working to green mardi gras, making cool upcycled stuff in BOSS, and fighting for Tulane’s divestment from fossil fuel companies, there are already a lot of great ideas floating around. Keep an eye on the blog and we’ll see y’all next year! Good luck with finals and happy holidays. 

P.S - Remember the Green Theme from our last meeting: Green the holidays! Wrap presents in newspaper, thrift for gifts, turn off your festive lights for part of the day/ at night, and anything else you can think of. Also spread some green holiday cheer and talk up all of our Green Themes with your family and friends, as collectively they add up to make a big difference. 

with love,

Emma Collin

Executive Vice President

To round out the fall semester this year, Green Club had its BLOW OUT WEEKEND! To kick it off, on Thursday the 15th, Green Club co-sponsored the screening of a film with Gulf Restoration Network. The film contained short documentaries and movies that Gulf Restoration Network compiled for their anual film contest.

Some clips were really funny, making fun of BP and other corporations, while others showed the drastic damage and critical state that the gulf shore is still experiencing today. For example, a lot of the oil that was dispersed and just sunk to the bottom of the wetlands during the clean up got churned up again when Isaac came through in August. Some people claim that most of the oil has been dealt with by now, but plants and animal habitats were hit again by the oil spill after the hurricane. It was a great movie, and if you'd like any more info you can check out http://healthygulf.org/. A donation could make for a great gift for friends for family!

Hope ya'll enjoyed the movie and we'll see you at the next general meeting in January! Good luck with exams, you can do it!!!

Susannah