Environmental enthusiasts from across the UW campus gathered in the HUB for the “Save the Earth Social,” hosted by the UW Green’s Coalition. The social was an effort to bring many of the environmentally active groups on campus together for an opportunity to network with one another. In addition to environmental groups such as SEED and UW Earth Club, members from Young Democrats, WashPIRG and ASUW were in attendance as well.
This Thursday, February 5th, UW will be hosting a videoconference with our senator, Maria Cantwell, to tell Washington, D.C. we must act now to stop climate change. This is a really unique opportunity to meet face-to-face (or face-to-screen?) with our elected official - let's make sure she gets the message loud and clear. Come represent UW in this important dialogue.
Going “green” with compostable products has been a goal for the UW’s Housing and Food Services (HFS) for two years now.
The compostable Coca-Cola soft drink ecotainer, unveiled in front of spectators in the Husky Den yesterday morning, is another part of the goal. It is being labeled the final piece in the HFS line of environmentally friendly utensils and food containers that have been widely publicized during the past year. A biodegradable lid is still being developed.
The UW group Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED) has transformed an unused overgrowth between Hall Health and Fluke Hall into a blossoming garden.
The garden, known as the P-Patch, is a project that includes a diversity of plants, said Ariana Taylor-Stanley, a junior at the UW who spearheaded the project.
Flowers, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, strawberries, melons, peas and lettuces are already growing in the gardens.
A bus running on vegetable oil was parked near By George Café last week as part of the national BioTour, and a bluegrass band performed on top of the bus by plugging their amps into its solar panels.
The UW chapter of the Washington Student Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG) booked the bus for a tour stop and invited the student band Old Technology to play a concert on top of it. Though WashPIRG members were a majority of the audience, the curiosity turned more than a few heads and attracted Tukwila School District students who were touring the campus.
Wolves, cloud forests and biofuels will be featured in this year’s Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival.
The festival, which is in its 10th year, will be on-campus from May 1-4, and will feature more than 50 films, speakers and workshops.
“The goal for the festival is to make available opportunities for people to see films they may never get a chance to see anywhere else about our environment,” said Dave Atcheson, festival co-chair.
Atcheson highlighted the beginning and end of the festival.
The opening night film is award-winning Oil + Water.
Led by Your Revolution, WashPIRG, Washington Student Lobby and ASUW, Earth Day 2008 aimed to unite various activists and introduce new developments in voter registration.
“Our vision was to link Earth Day with civic engagement,” said sophomore Chris Jordan, a member of Your Revolution.
Organizers brought in multiple musical acts and speakers, including UW President Mark Emmert and musical group The Senate.
“I really liked the music,” senior Jessica Caple said. “The booths were informative and there was a lot of variety.”
Despite the Dalai Lama’s concurrent visit, more than 30,000 environmentally conscious Seattleites ventured to the city’s first annual Green Festival April 12 and 13. The two-day event featured hundreds of booths and more than 125 speakers illustrating how to be environmentally sustainable.
Many water and lighting outlets are sucking energy at an unneeded rate. One UW team is hoping to conserve energy in UW sororities and fraternities by swapping out older light bulbs for more energy efficient bulbs.
The Greener Greeks project was created to educate students about energy and water efficiency and create ways to further seek change. Chris Bruno, member of the conservation project development team and former UW SEED director, and Angie Gaffney from Chi Omega, created the project.
At the conference, a papier-mâché polar bear and a petition with 1,000 signatures was presented to Sen. Craig Pridemore (D-WA), asking that the Washington state legislature make climate change and other environmental issues a top priority.
Junior Tamara Mitchell gave a speech addressing why climate change is an important issue for the legislature and important to college students across the country.