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SRJC students help curb climate concerns

Michelle Peirano, Staff Writer
Published: November 18, 2009

Marchers with signs made of kindling and poster board advertising the number 350 paraded down Mendocino Avenue from SRJC’s Emeritus Plaza to Courthouse Square. A man with a rickshaw peddled with the marchers and offered rides in his 350-covered vehicle. Cars honked to show their support and only one person flipped them off.

“Happy 350 day!” SRJC students called out. The Unitarian Universalist Congregation Santa Rosa greeted people with a happy 350 day too as they marched near the students.

The marching students were taking part in the international climate change awareness day, Oct. 24, one event out of 5,200 worldwide to raise awareness of 350. They wanted onlookers to ask questions and develop an interest in 350.

So, what is 350? It is the highest number of parts per million of carbon that is safe to have in the atmosphere. Right now, the carbon levels are at 387 parts per million.

SRJC student Jessica Jones wanted to do her part in raising awareness of 350 and decided to organize a march. Kasey Wade, instructor of Natural Resource Management, spread the word and encouraged her students to attend. Although it was Jones’ first time organizing a march and tons of people didn’t attend, she is confident every bit makes a difference. She points toward countries like India that have made huge strides toward being
more climate friendly. “If Third World countries can do something like that, we have to do something,” said Jones.

Jones’ dedication to the environment stretches beyond this one march. Although Jones had never met anyone who attended the march, they bonded over their common goal and formed a new, Students for a Sustainable Community, of which Jones is vice president.

This club, founded last week, is going to serve as a “green team” on campus and has many plans to continue working toward the goal of 350.

Their next planned event to make a statement toward lowering carbon levels is to rip out one of the campus lawns and replace it with an edible food garden on Earth Day 2010.

SRJC already has a garden at Shone Farm but Jones wants to have something on campus where more students can get involved. Jones regularly makes and sells compost bins and teaches composting to customers. The original idea for when the Bertolini center opens Jan. 11 was to truck all the food waste
to Shone Farm the emissions would not be great for the climate and Students for a Sustainable Community want at least half the waste to compost on campus and use for their garden.

Students for a Sustainable Community also want to get more eco-friendly eating utensils and plates for the Bertolini center
like reusable plates and silverware rather than paper or plastic.

Fresh and Natural, SRJC’s cafe with several kiosks, uses compostable plastic cups but even compostable plastic will not be good enough for Jones since Sonoma Compost, the closest composting company to SRJC, does not have the technology to break down compostable plastics. These plastics do not
break down by themselves and will end up in landfills.

“It’s just an initial investment for a long term return,” Jones said.

San Francisco just implemented a new law in June mandating that residents and businesses must dispose of their compostable trash in a separate bin from recycling or normal trash. Fines for failing to separate compostable garbage in San Francisco will be enforced in 2011.

In addition to San Francisco’s composting law, they are one of the top 10 solar cities in California with 1,493 solar roofs producing 12,763 kilowatts of electricity.

However, just below San Francisco as a top 10 solar city is Santa Rosa with 729 solar roofs producing 11,212 kilowats of electricity.

Santa Rosa has more than half the amount of solar roofs as San Francisco but produces almost double the amount of electricity. California
is working toward reaching a goal of one million solar roofs by 2017.

Sebastopol and Sonoma are also top 10 solar cities in California but they lead in the category of solar roofs per household. In Sebastopol, 15.5 percent of households have solar roofs producing 325 watts per person, and in Sonoma, 5.8 percent of households have solar roofs producing 347 watts per person.

Although California aims to lower carbon emissions with a goal of one million solar roofs, SRJC is taking a different approach with the new Bertolini center.

The Bertolini center has a hybrid geothermal climate system that uses water heated and cooled naturally underground to regulate temperatures in the building.

“The Bertolini center plays a huge part in the greening of the campus,” Jones said.

Jones is also working with the Institute for Environmental Education – of which 20 faculty from Petaluma are members – to put together a letter writing campaign.

The goal is to write 350 letters to Lilburn Talley, the U.S. Director of Global Change representative for the Copenhagen meeting in December (COP15) expressing what students would like to see happen at COP15, what they are doing or plan to do on a personal level to help curb emissions and what
change they would like to see made on a local, regional and worldwide level to help combat climate change.

COP15 will take place Dec. 7 to Dec. 18. Nations from all over the world will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to re-evaluate the Kyoto Protocol and make proposals as to what each nation will do to bring down carbon levels in the atmosphere.

The letters will be mailed Nov. 16 and will all be handwritten.

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