Newsletter - Focus on Sustainability this Spring Quarter!

[SSC UCSD]

Happy Spring Quarter, everyone!

We have so much coming up this quarter and we would love for you to be a part of everything on the horizon. This newsletter contains tons of opportunities for you to get involved. Among them, learn about the CSSC Spring Convergence (April 30th, May 1st-2nd), the Earth Week Arts Competition, and Human Rights Month in May! 

Also, please become our fan on Facebook to get the most up-to-date information about events on campus and in our community, as well as news on all things sustainable anywhere in the world.

IN THIS WEEK'S NEWSLETTER:

1. CSSC 8th Annual Spring Convergence - to be held April 30th, May 1st-2nd

2. Cycling for Commuters Workshop Series - Fri April 9th at 3pm, Wed April 14th at 2pm

3. Transition Town Workgroup - help us find smart solutions to respond to peak oil and climate change

4. Earth Week Arts Competition - CALLING ALL ARTISTS!

5. Neighborhood Community Garden - choose your own plot!

6. Engineers for a Sustainable World - GBM on Thursday, April 8th @ 7 PM in WLH 2114

7. Human Rights Month - All of MAY is Human Rights Month!

8. Community Supported Agriculture: Garden of Eden Organics 

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1. CSSC 8th Annual Spring Convergence to be held April 30th, May 1st-2nd

Hello Sustainable People!

I want to take this opportunity to personally invite you to the California Student Sustainability Coalition's 8th Annual Spring Sustainability Convergence held in San Diego and hosted by all the universities of San Diego.  The year 2010 began with the disaster in Haiti and still the undeniable prospects of a year new, now as winter winds into spring the and the rains slow the call for sustainable action sounds loud as ever.  Furthermore, there beams the now indisputable tie of effort not only for the earth but for social justice. 

And thus, on the dates of April 30 thru May 2 at the University of California San Diego will be the Spring Convergence bringing forth the intimate beauties of care for Mother Gaia (Mother Earth) and the humanities of effort with our fellow beings.  The weekend will be full of delicious local and organic foods, hands on learning, instrumental workshops, and captivating speakers.

If you are interested in aiding the Convergence in any way please email me at jareda...@gmail.com.

I look forward to seeing you in San Diego and until then...lettuce make whirled peas (say it out loud).

Sincerely, 

Jared A Muscat

Convergence Coordinator

California Student Sustainability Coalition

2.  Cycling for Commuters Workshop Series

Want to ride your bike to campus? Already do?
Join us at the Sustainability Resource Center (next to PC Theater) this coming Fri April 9th at 3pm to increase your urban cycling knowledge. Week 3, the workshop will be held Wed April 14th at 2pm.

Learn how to:

• lock your bike properly
• use the bus bike racks
• ride safely with traffic
• be visible at night
• and more!

Free local, organic snacks will be provided!

3. Transition Town Workgroup

Greetings,

We would like to invite you to join us in discussing a possible solution to some rather pressing problems.

As most of us know by now, there are several acute problems converging to challenge our ability as a global society to continue as we have been.  Two problems in particular stand out as key:

(1) Peak Oil threatens to make energy that's usable to the modern world painfully scarce, possibly very quickly and arguably very soon.  This will make both electricity and transportation expensive, which will in turn make virtually everything we take for granted - grocery stores full of food, potable tap water, well-lit streets, etc. - too expensive to continue being readily available.

(2) Climate Change (i.e. "global warming") makes the consequences of our global community's unsustainable practices more dire and immediate.  Resources like drinkable water, farmable land, and livable spaces will change and become harder to find.

These two influences alone will force us to transition to more sustainable practices and lower energy consumption - whether we're ready for that transition or not.  We need to prepare for this; unfortunately, governments are doing too little and taking too long to address this challenge meaningfully, and as individuals we just don't have enough resources to prepare for transition on our own.

But if we change the scale so that we as small, local communities become resilient and committed to reducing our collective carbon footprint, that just might do the trick.  Such communities are called Transition Towns: http://transitiontowns.org/

We would like to create a Transition community here at UCSD.  We have many of the components already developed, but what we currently lack is a cohesive vision of how these can all be brought together as a true Community In Transition.  We would like your help in developing and implementing that in a way that will respect the autonomy of each of the sustainability projects on our campus.

Please join us for an opening discussion on this matter.  We're very open to input; this is no single person's project but instead must be something communally created and agreed upon.  We have a number of challenges ahead of us in trying to create a Transition Town on a university campus, and we certainly don't have all the answers.  But we very much think it's worthwhile to try to develop them.

To ensure that as many community members as possible can attend this discussion, we ask that you fill out this "When is Good" to indicate your availability. http://whenisgood.net/e4q55y

We look forward to seeing you!

4. Earth Week Art Competition CALLING ALL ARTISTS!

Earth Week is coming up!  To honor our fabulous planet and all the ways we can keep it alive, the Earth Week Committee is hosting an interdisciplinary art contest.  We’re accepting all media, including but not limited to:

• Paintings - including oil, acrylics, and watercolor
• Drawings - including pastels, colored pencil, pencil, charcoal, ink, and markers
• Collage
• Prints - including lithographs, silkscreen, and block prints
• Mixed Media/Sculpture
• Computer Generated Art
• Photography
• Short Film (less than 5 minutes)
• Dance performance (less than 5 minutes)

Entries can be made in the following categories:

Environment

Awareness

Responsibility

Teaching

Healing

Send all questions and submissions to earthw...@gmail.com with your name, art piece, category you’re applying for and a brief description of the piece in the context of Earth Week.

5. Neighborhood Community Garden Choose your own plot! Deadline: April 9th

Wanna plot at the Neighborhood Garden to grow your own food?

Behind the Che Cafe is a UCSD garden/farm that is growing and offer to sell their plots for reasonable student prices. Come out every sunday, behind the Che Cafe from 10am-12pm

e-mail: ncga...@gmail.com

website: http://s197443059.onlinehome.us/garden/

Deadline: April 9^th, 2010

Award Ceremony (winners announced): April 23^rd, 2010

6. Engineers for a Sustainable World

Engineers for a Sustainable World GBM on Thursday, April 8th @ 7 PM in WLH 2114.  Network with the guest speakers who work in the engineering field.  Guest speakers will be Jan Kleissl, head of the environmental engineering department, Chris Prelitz, pioneer of the modern green movement and keynote speaker for the US Green Building Council, Walt Pennington, sustainability strategy specialist of Biomatrica, a bio-sustainability company.  Gain hands-on experience by working on engineering projects.  Open to all majors!  Great resume booster!

7. Human Rights Month 

 ALL OF MAY IS HUMAN RIGHTS MONTH!

Van Jones is Coming to UCSD! (Tuesday May 11th)
Host an Event!
Plan an Event!
Get Free Food or get early event passes.
Get free money/publicity for your org!
Get involved: contact ris...@gmail.com

8. Community Supported Agriculture: Garden of Eden Organics 

Do you want to help keep the food chain safe and local? Garden of Eden Organics is the largest co-op Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the San Diego area. Join our program with a monthly, quarterly, or annual membership for a weekly delivery of seasonal fresh, certified-organic fruits and veggies! Learn more at goeorganics.com

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Thank you for your continued interest and support!

-The Student Sustainability Collective 
at the Sustainability Resource Center

University of California, San Diego

ssc...@gmail.com
sscucsd.com