2021 Winter Update

The High School Environmental Club, along with the collaboration of other service clubs has continued to work in the Uplands Habitat Restoration. In a recent talk, I heard about the benefits of giving, and how bringing other people in, can only reap more rewards. By applying the principle of drawing others in, we were able to get over 25 people volunteering recently! Below is a picture of the growth of a plant we planted one year ago.

Learning about Native American culture and practices is very helpful in teaching ways in which we can better maintain our natural world. From the knowledge of Diana Almendariz, a local cultural practitioner of Maidu/Wintun, Hupa/Yurok descent, we learned how to braid bracelets out of Tule; an important native wetland species in cleaning our water. She said in the presentation, “If you have any waste you can just toss it on the ground, because it’s biodegradable!”

To educate the local elementary students on climate change, some members of our environmental club acted in the “Search For Queen Carbon play”. Through involving the youth in an interactive quest, they were able to learn about the climate crisis and some early actions to make a positive difference. It was really uplifting to see all the students eager to learn about our affronting challenge.

The final activity our club has been involved in is participating in Climate Protests. We have gone to two protests so far. The first one being centered around “Uprooting the System” which has led us on course to increasing our global temperature above the 1.5 degree Celsius tipping point. The second protest was on global action day to put pressure on the politicians meeting at the United Nations Climate Summit.

One interesting article I read about Crypto currency discussed their climate impacts. According to fortune.com, “Bitcoin will consume more power than Australia”, due to the constant maintenance of the blockchain networks. Although bitcoin appears to be one means of amassing wealth, it is another example of how uncontrolled human growth and greed can harm our future.

A bipartisan U.S. Infrastructure bill of 1 trillion dollars was passed in November which will go into roads, ports and power lines. It fell short of its more ambitious goals which included “human infrastructure” such as at-home health care, child tax credits, and namely for the environment, climate adaptation infrastructure. These ambitious goals, packaged under the name of the “Build Back Better Plan”, were passed in the House but blocked in the Senate by Senator Joe Manchin. Most unfortunate since a green infrastructure is essential to reducing Americas emissions.

This year’s UN Climate summit also known as COP26, set more goals to avoid the precarious red line of 1.5 degrees Celsius of increased temperature. Let us hope that our leaders take the right action while also doing what we can to save our planet.

A final note I would like to make is that although there are many environmental issues confronting us, we have to remember to have hope because there are just as many of us working for the good.