Author: Team Marine

On June 19th, Team Marine united once more for a meeting to thank all of our supporters and sponsors that aided our efforts this amazing year. Thanks to the talents of Team Marine members Hannah Persinko and Kimberly Fuentes we had homemade “Thank You” cards made and signed by all members present. It was definitely a fun-filled afternoon as we reminisced over all of our accomplishments this year and a grateful one at that as we personalized the cards with messages. The list of people we had to thank is too long to fit in one blog post but we would just like to acknowledge  Mimi and Russel Poon-Fear for donating us the amazing 1971 Volkswagen superbeetle 4 years ago with the hopes that we may convert it into an electric vehicle! We would also like to thank our encouraging and dedicated mentor, Mr. Benjamin Kay, for always pushing us to be a better team and believing in us this whole year. From being on CNN Latino, to getting ACE to give a presentation to our school, being on the Sound Radio, having the best Life Straws year EVER, going to lobby at Sacramento on Ocean Day, and going to the mini maker’s faire in Pasadena this year was jam-packed opportunities and events for the team! Without all of the unconditional support that we received from everyone none of this could’ve been achieved, so on behalf of everyone on Team Marine, thank you.

 

On Sunday, June 8, Team Marine attended a party at member Ellie’s house to celebrate the end of another sustainable year. In addition, we celebrated with a special Team Marine cake (check it out below). Special thanks to Joel and Ellie Reynolds for making this party possible!

 

On Friday, June 6th 2014, Team Marine’s  seniors graduated. Stoles were ordered by senior Aubrey Dondick and the graduates wore them proud. Mr. Kay and the rest of Team Marine wishes them the best of luck for next year and beyond!

Angelina Hwang will be attending Duke University

Aubrey Dondick will be attending Oregon State University

Ellie Reynolds will be attending McGill University

Katie Oran will be attending State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry

On April 1st, we co-hosted an Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) presentation with ASB, Solar Alliance, and Heal the Bay Surfrider clubs at Santa Monica High School. We had two, hour-long, presentations with approximately three hundred students each. This presentation was important because there are many students that are unaware of the effects of climate change. An interactive and engaging presentation brought environmental awareness to our peers; we love to eco-educate to eco-activate our community. We learned about the increase of carbon emissions creating a greenhouse layer in our atmosphere which heats up the planet, therefore increasing sea level rise and causing ocean acidification. Thank you to Kristina von Hoffman, the West Coast Region ACE associate program director, for giving us this eye opening presentation.

On Saturday March 29^th, 2014 Team Marine was invited to attend the Los Angeles Mini Maker’s Fair where we exhibited our fabulous Volts Wattson once more. The Mini Maker’s Fair is a collaboration of the Los Angeles County Science Fair where “makers” show off our inventions (or in our case conversions) to fellow inventors as well as the public. It was such a great experience to be able to be in the midst of such great exhibitions where we were able to see a 3-D printer, the Aquarium of the Pacific portable aquarium, and also a interactive exhibit where you could make a 3-D image of yourself! It was so inspiring to see all of the inventions, as well as the curiosity of the public to learn about our electric car conversion. The point of our conversion and bringing it out to these events is to eco-educate others about the benefits of driving electric, so you can guess our excitement when after talking to a few people we actually convinced a family to go buy an electric car! Special thanks to Mr. Gerald Blackburn for inviting us to this great event, and we hope to return next year!

After POPS, we drove from Dana Point to Sacramento for Ocean Day – March 24. There we met our group leader Sarah Sikich from Heal the Bay, who helped us lobby for SB 270 (California statewide bag ban), SB 1132 (moratorium on fracking), and AB 1699 (ban on polyethylene micro-beads in personal hygiene products). We camped out at KOA Campgrounds by night, and lobbied in the state capital by day. We were fortunate to meet other members of the Clean Seas Coalition like Kirsten James (Heal The Bay), Nancy Hastings (Surfrider Foundation), Nathan Weaver (Environment California), and Leslie Tamminen (7th Generation Advisors).

We met with eight very diverse assembly members, from the most liberal Democrats to the most conservative Republicans. We learned a great deal about government as well as policy-making, including the 2 to 1 ratio of assembly members (80) to senators (40), the process a bill goes through to get passed, and the priorities of many Republicans (that they generally value economics over human and environmental health). Although we mostly met with staffers, we met with Assemblywoman Sheryl Brown, Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, and previous mayor of Santa Monica, Assemblyman Richard Bloom. We expressed our gratitude to Bloom for authoring SB 1699 and for his bill that bans orcas in captivity. When a handful of representatives expressed concerns about the ten cent fee for a paper bag and its impact on the lower class, we explained the programs that distribute reusable bags to less the fortunate such as “ Give A Bag” and “Share A Bag“. We divided our overall message amongst team members so each person could contribute their own elevator pitch concerning economic benefits, environmental impacts and effects, and supporting evidence. Our evidence included our bag research results indicating that bag bans do work effectively. Ultimately, we learned that sound science and arguments centered on economics and human and environmental health are what resonate with politicians.

The  beginning of a very intense eco-filled weekend began with Team Marine at an international youth summit this past Saturday and Sunday. We applied and were accepted into the Plastic Ocean Pollution Solutions International Youth Summit 2014 in Dana Point sponsored by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. We arrived at the Ocean Institute around 8:00am and participated in workshops that included learning about plastic pollution and spreading awareness. We met the famous Captain Charles Moore, the man who discovered the plastic soup in the North Pacific gyre and toured his custom-made research vessel, The Alguita. We learned from  very well spoken scientists and eco-activists, such as Jordan Howard, Captain Charles Moore, Rocky Beach, Danni Washington, J. Nichols, and Kristal Ambrose, who spoke about the issue of plastic pollution. After this full day of eco-education, we stayed at the hotel a couple blocks from the ocean institute.

Sunday, we were back at The Ocean Institute for another fun schedule of speakers and activities early in the morning. After practicing, we presented a proposal of removing single-use plastic water bottles from Santa Monica. We were very honored to listen to Anna Cummins from the 5 Gyres Institute give an insightful presentation. In addition, we also did a lot of fun activities like tide pooling and learning different sea anemones and macroalgae. There was also a pool party and a special guest performer, Jack Johnson, with whom we discussed plastic pollution before the show. We were very impressed with Kim and Jack Johnson’s environmental organization called The Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation ,which provides the youth with sustainability focused education in Hawaii.

This youth summit was an amazing experience and we are very happy to have attended and met other youth like ourselves from all over the world. Thank you to the other environmentally committed students who attended this event with us and work hard for a better plastic free world. Thank you Katie Allen for coordinating this event and making it possible. Another thanks to the Algalita staff for selecting us out of many competitive international students interested in this summit.
#POPSYouthSummit