Earth Week 2009!
BU's first Earth Week was a blast! The entire campus participated in the events. Activities included Potluck for the Planet, screenings for WALL-E, a series of Earth-Day related games and education panels on Marsh Plaza, a keynote address by Lakota Leader William A. Means, a Sustainablity Panel meeting, and the annual BU Beach Clean-Up. BU Bikes, SED Green, the Sustainability Committee, Slow Foods, the Organic Gardening Club, and BU Recycling were an immense help and held activities of their own. Thanks to everyone who participated!!!
Deck the Dogs Contest
ESO helped out decorating their own Rhett statue at Deck the Dogs this year. Recycled newspaper-mache and a pop-paper cape certainly made for an interesting combination...
(Yes, your eyes don't deceive you -- that's supposed to spell "ESO!")
Rotaract Boston Extravaganza
RotarAct Boston, a community organization in Boston and part of the Rotary Club, invited all the environmental-related BU clubs to participate at this day-long event. Groups held tables with activities, games, projects, facts, and more:
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BU Bikes showed off their amazing engergy-coverting bicycle
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The Society of Women Engineers showed off "green" architectural concepts and designs
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Model Green Dorm Room!!!
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Fellow student Abhishek Seth, author of the book, Save My World, gave a presentation
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RotarAct showed the movie, Flow, concerning the many problems with the world's drinking water and bottled water
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ESO had a table of its own with posters and fun facts!
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Green Mountain Coffee gave out free coffee and travel mugs
America Recycles Day!
America Recycles Day '08 was a great success! Lots of folks stopped by to see what we were up to at the GSU. We had bicycle-powered smoothies, Vegan cookies, fun facts, and BU's Dining Service had an exhibit about their recycling and composting projects.
Massachusetts Powershift!!!!!
April 11-14 we hosted Massachusetts Powershift!!!!!, a conference of climate activists from around the state. We had speakers (including Senator John Kerry), green art exhibits, workshops for student activism, lobbying at the State House and much more.
Power Shift 2007!
Power Shift 2007! was a four day conference at the University of Maryland. Nov. 2-5. ESO travelled down on buses and trains, many missing several days of classes to participate. Over 5000 students attended the conference where we discussed how to promote environmental activism on campus. It culminated with a day of lobbying Senators and Congressmen followed by a rally in Washington D.C.
Opt-out Green Fee Lobbying at the Student Union
February 25, 2008
The Student Union passed the opt-out green fee and we will soon take it to the administration.
February 12, 2008
In our continous quest to pass the opt-out green fee, we went to the student union and presented out case. Many people showed up wearing green to show support.
Decorating Yogurt Cups for Valentine's Day 2008
We collected used yogurt cups and painted them. They look good, and we planted seeds in them so people could give their loved ones live flowers for V-Day.
Eco-Soccer tournament
April 6th 2008
On the BU Beach two three person ESO teams played soccer against a bunch of real soccer players. We may have lost, but we had fun running around in the great, BU outdoors.
North East Climate Conference!
March 23-25th 2007
The BU ESO hosted hundreds of people devoted to the cause of lowering Green House Gas Emissions. We had the 3 day conference to help everyone discuss the dangers we face, and possible solutions that we have. Meetings with the Sierra Club and other college leaders made the event a real success.
Step It UP!
April 14th 2007
Includes a March to Boston Common, where there was be a Rally for to Support Lowering Green House Emissions by 80% by 2050.
"An Inconvenient Truth" Screening
The ESO decided that "An Inconvenient Truth" was a movie that everyone had to see. So, we showed it in the GSU and had around two hundred people in attendence! That night we sold $300 in carbon offsets and also had a bake sale. The movie was very well received, and many people came up after and signed a pledge to help the environment. The pledges are on leaves that will be hung at our room on the 4th floor of CAS.
For people who haven't seen the film, it is a great way to learn about the science, and political ramifications of global warming. Al Gore presents various forms of scientific data that have been collected, all evidence of global warming, with humanity as the cause. The film is entertaining, and upsetting. In order to stop worldwide catastrophe in the future, we must act now. And in ESO, we are.
Esplanade Tree Marking
ESO'rs got out and did some community service for the Esplanade society over the halloween weekend. The Esplanade society takes care of and looks after the esplanade, the public park area between the Charles River and Storrow Drive/Downtown Boston. This group of dedicated workers does everything from planting trees to picking up trash and painting and restoring benches along the river. Volunteers are vital in to the Esplanade's health and maintenance. Part of this maintenance involves caring for, and if necesarry treating, the many different types of trees along the park. In order to make this process easier, the Esplanade society is identifying and marking trees for study. This is where The ESO comes to the rescue.
A sunny and windy Sunday made for a pleasant but difficult time marking trees. With the help of maps, pictures, and literature, ESO members seeked out and marked trees the good ole fashioned way; with hammer and nail. It was a very fun day down by the river. ESO plans to do more volunteering with the Esplanade Society in the spring so if you missed out on the fun this time, don't stress. More great days on the green will come.
Eco-Village Trip
Members of the ESO bussed it to Western Massachusetts to experience life in an eco-village for a weekend. There we enjoyed a cob-oven pizza party and learned about Peak Oil in Cuba, and later relaxed with members of the community around a Bonfire and played music, well we tried to play music. We weren't very experiences with rainsticks, bongo's and maracas.. ESO'ers contributed by putting forth a little hard labor at the village. This was a great fun and relaxing experience, and it was also a great learning experience. We recieved an extensive tour of the village and learned about different energy efficient, energy saving, and low environmentally impacting ways of life, including the low enviro-impact fuel called biodeisel. Most members of the community run there cars on waste vegetable oil, given to them for free, by local chinese food or fast food restaurants. Stay Tuned for Pictures of the trip.
For more information visit the village's website at http://www.siriuscommunity.org/
Biodiesel fuel is a great way for individuals to save money and reduce their greenhouse gas emmisions. Waste vegetable oil is free, and sometimes even less than free. Many restaurants will pay one to take the waste veggie oil off their hands because they would normally pay far more for special waste veggie oil companies to take it from them otherwise. Anyone with a diesel car engine can transform their car to run on waste vegetable oil.
To learn more about Waste Veggie Oil and to see what some amazing young people from Dartmouth University did to promote WVO, visit http://www.thebiggreenbus.org/
