>
Flavia Watering Trees & Sawdust in Cement Bays |
>
Flavia Watering Trees & Sawdust in Cement Bays |
>
Team Marine and Marine Biology students from Santa Monica High School |
After a morning of recycling on New Years Day, “our total was 2147 plastics, 1300 cans, and 453 glass“, according to Jane Davidson of the Polytechnic School in Pasadena, CA. Team Marine worked alongside San Gabrielino High School, UCLA, and SaMo’s Marine Biology students to recycle trash left behind from Pasadena’s Rose Parade. We rocked out “Ask Me Why I’m Recycling” T-Shirts, signifying that we were recycling for LifeStraws. The LifeStraw is a portable water filtration system that prevents common diarrhoeal diseases from sickening less fortunate people in third world countries. We had a great time helping fellow Eco-Beasts make SoCal a greener, cleaner place.
>
>
Team Marine with Professor Somerville |
>
Team Marine members recently collected and sorted about 20,000 straws to donate to The Last Straw Program by the 5 Gyres Institute and the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. The goal of this program is to build a fully functional boat out of single-use straws, in order to spread awareness about our oceans’ transformation into a plastic soup. Single-use straws are unnecessary and contribute to our planet’s massive problem with plastic pollution, so do not use them!
Team Marine’s mechanics have been working on converting a gas-guzzling 1971 Candy Red Volkswagen Beetle into a zero-emission electric vehicle.
The Whole Gang with SAMOHI’s Lesson on Wheels |
Our Team’s car committee has been created, and currently meets every Tuesday and Thursday in Santa Monica High School’s Auto Shop. A million thanks to our Auto Guru, Mr. Cox, for allowing us to work in his shop.
Here are some updates on the project:
We are still researching what type of battery will be best for the car and budget we are currently working under, but are already getting our hands dirty. We also need to pick a name for the Beetle; comment with suggestions!
>
Ian and Morgan with Future Vehicles |
Team Marine members were able to see zero emissions vehicles of the future on November 19th, 2010. The ZERO Emissions Race teams met in Santa Monica to show off their state-of-the-art electric creations. These plug-in electric vehicles will help us cure our addiction to oil! Paul Pearson of Gas 2 Electric Conversions talked with us about the operations of these cars, as well as the nature of the race. The three cars are not actually in a race, but actually on a world tour. They visit popular cities and educate the public on the benefits of switching to EV. Sounds good to us!
>
Eco-Beasts: Sarah and Garen |
>
Today, on November 16th, 2010, history was made as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 to ban single-use plastic bags in LA County. This ban will cover about 1.1 million residents of the area, making LA County the biggest municipality to ban the plastic bag in the country! Stores in the affected area will be prohibited from providing single-use plastic bags to its customers, but have to the option to provide paper bags for 10 cents each. Plastic bags for produce and meat will not be banned for sanitary reasons. This ban will severely reduce the SIX BILLION plastic bags per year that are currently being used by the county. Team Marine is so proud of the board for supporting the ban, and hope that Santa Monica officials will follow.
As an update, the City of Santa Monica has postponed their decision on banning plastic bags even further. Their last proposed date was November 23rd, which was announced after Team Marine’s march.
>
Team Marine was given the opportunity to assist student teams participating this year’s QuikScience Challenge, a collaboration between QuikSilver and the USC Wrigley Institute, on Thursday November 11th, 2010. We brought our fleet of plastic monster costumes, as well as educational material involving sustainability, anthropogenic impacts, water purification, etc. Team Marine has been quite successful in past QuikScience Challenges, and decided to a year off from competing to mentor other environmental teams. Thank you to the 100+ students who came out for the event, as well as our partners over at QuikScience.