Watch Team Marine’s 2019 Bow Seat Entry!
Team Marine is Interviewed by KCRW
On September 5th, four members of Team Marine, Lilly Chertock, Ansel Garcia-Langely, Anastasia Shakhidzhanova, and Isabel Homberg Reissmeier, met with KCRW. They spoke with DnA (Design and Architecture), a show on KCRW, to discuss Greta Thunberg and the climate crisis around the would in general. We are very grateful for this wonderful opportunity to further educate our community on the environment. Listen to the interview here.
Plastic Ocean Film Premiere
On January 17th, Team Marine attended the premiere of Plastic Ocean, a documentary about plastic pollution and its effects on human and environmental health. Before the screening we were able to talk to community members about the effects of plastic on the environment. We were also able to show our eco-costumes made up of things like plastic forks, straws, plastic water bottles and bottle caps. The movie itself highlighted the health and environmental concerns of plastic, especially on the ocean. After the movie we listened to the panel discussion which featured a wide range of environmentalists, one of which was actually Benjamin Kay, our club advisor. We would like to say thank you to the production team behind the movie, to everyone who attended and to those who spoke in the panel.
Sea the Change Youth Summit
By Sixtine Foucaut:
On Sunday, January 29th, we gave a slideshow presentation to local teen environmental clubs at the Sea the Change Youth Summit put on by Heal the Bay at the SM Pier Aquarium. We presented our methods of communication as a team, as well as examples of our past eco-art projects, through a powerpoint presentation filled with our past projects and tips for groups interested in pursuing similar eco-art projects. We’d like to thank Heal the Bay for organizing this event and allowing Team Marine to act as an inspiration to other schools and hear ideas from other environmental clubs! Thank you to the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium for hosting this event!
Break Free from Fossil Fuels March
By Amanda Samimi
On Saturday, May 14, thousands of Eco advocates convened at Los Angeles City Hall to march against fossil fuels. The “Break Free from Fossil Fuels” march consisted of speeches from both people affected by the hazardous consequences of oil drilling in their communities and ordinary advocates of climate action. There were also musical performances in both Spanish and English. There were hundreds of posters and signs cleverly supporting Los Angeles’s divestment from fossil fuels. Amanda and Mr. Kay held up signs that stated “Kill the Drill” and “Renewable is Doable”. At 3pm hundreds of renewable energy supporters walked the streets of downtown LA to send a message to elected officials such as Eric Garcetti and Jerry Brown that now is the time to break the chains of fossil fuel dependency.
Visit https://la.breakfree2016.org
UCLA Earth Now: Earth 2050 Presentation
On October 20th Team Marine captains Amanda and Zoe, and Mr. Kay presented to a total of around 120 students at UCLA for the Earth Now: Earth 2050 event put on by the UCLA Office of the Environment and Sustainability. We presented to three different high schools in the LA area about the state of our planet surrounding environmental issues such as climate change and what actions we undertook to mitigate climate change and pollution in our school and community. The presentation consisted of two components: the scope of the earth’s environmental problems and our community-based solutions. We mentioned some projects and activities such as our water audit, cigarette study, plastic bottle/cap art, and protests/marches just to name a few. We hope to see what the student attendees will do in their communities as they undergo environmental stewardship
!
Bernie Sanders Rally
By Amanda Samimi
On Monday, May 23, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders held a rally at our school, Santa Monica High School. Many Sanders supporters, including some Team Marine members, were overjoyed to have a presidential candidate speak at their very own school. Bernie talked enthusiastically for little over an hour about the platform of his candidacy, which includes policies such as providing universal healthcare, raising the federal minimum wage, and perhaps most importantly, combating climate change.
In previous debates and speeches, Sanders noted that climate change is the most important issue facing Americans today, and Team Marine could not agree more. On Monday, he dedicated a few minutes of his speech to addressing the grave issue of global climate change, which happened to be one of the segments in which he received the most applause. We would like to thank everyone who helped plan and set up such a successful rally and would like to remind everyone in California to vote in the Tuesday, June 7th primary.
Nothin’ But Sand
Another successful beach cleanup complete! On Saturday May 21, 2016 Team Marine and Marine Biology students attended Heal the Bay’s Nothin’ But Sand beach cleanup at Will Rodgers State Beach along with over 700 volunteers. All in all we ended the day by collecting around 110 lbs of trash off the beach, even though people were comme ting about the beach already looking trash free. Thank you to all the volunteers!!!
Side note: Heal the Bay just uploaded their 2016 beach report card for California, look up your beach to see if it is a ‘bummer’ beach or not here
Streets to Sea
By Amanda Samimi
On Thursday, April 28, 2016, Amanda and Christa represented Team Marine and Santa Monica High School at the annual Streets to the Sea Challenge put on by Generation Earth. Five middle schools and five high schools traveled to Disney Synergy Lab in Glendale to display their environmental projects. The students were asked to create and implement a water-wise solution to a problem present on their campuses. Team Marine submitted their water fountain audit to enter the competition. The day started off with breakfast, a presentation from one of the judges, followed by a walk-around display of students’ projects, lunch, another presentation, and lastly awards. Each school was asked to make a tri-fold display of their project. Team Marine repurposed an iMac box into a tri-fold poster board. We included pi charts of our data, photos of water fountains, and slides from our presentation to the sustainability coordinator of our district.
Every school received a glass trophy for making it to this stage of the competition, but only one middle school and one high school received the grand prize of a boat trip on the Floating Laboratory. Both Santa Monica High School and El Camino Real High School received the same score from the judges, but El Camino was the ultimate winner. Team Marine would like to congratulate El Camino Real High School for the success of their grand-prize winning project. We would also like to thank Generation Earth for putting on the competition and choosing us as finalists.
Great LA River Cleanup
On Saturday, April 23, Team Marine members joined hundreds of dedicated volunteers as part of the Great LA River Cleanup. This event was hosted in conjunction with Friends of the Los Angeles River and the Frog Spot. When we first got to the event, we were warmly welcomed by Frog Spot volunteers, who gave us sturdy gloves and transparent trash bags. When we initially started cleaning, we were shocked that the LA River was not concrete as we imagined, but actually an overgrown bamboo forest. We were even more shocked when we began collecting trash! Some trash highlights included a complete tennis net, clothes, and shopping carts embedded into the soil. Even more stunning were the sheer multitudes of photodegraded single-use plastic bags incorporated into the soil.
A full tennis net!
Team Marine member trying to dispose of a photodegraded single-use plastic bag.
We postulated that we could spend the whole time spent at the cleanup in one area, and still not fully clean it! This is so concerning, as the trash from the LA River goes straight to the ocean! Just imagine the harm just the trash featured above would cause to the already fragile marine environment.
Trash Team Marine members collected.
Team Marine co-captain Zoe Parcells was also featured in an interview with La Opinion! Read more here.
We had an extraordinary time interacting with the environment of the LA River, and would not hesitate to clean it up yet again! We also had a great experience with the Friends of the LA River and the Frog Spot! Check out their websites at folar.org and The Frog Spot!
The next Great LA River Cleanup (and the last one of the year!) is Saturday, April 30 from 9:00 am – 12:00 noon. Check out this link for more information! folar.org/cleanup/
