First Post

With this blog, I hope to provide an in depth analysis of the effects of efforts by student and teacher organizations like the SAJE Climate Action Committee or the separate "Environmental Action Committee" that it spawned. This study will deal with both the awareness aspect and the actual policy-change aspect of the transformations (or lack there-of) for which these groups are responsible. I was inspired mostly by the Climate Action Day held recently in the auditorium. The particular presentation I visited aroused a lot of discontent among the crowd who deemed it "socialist" and (quite fairly) extremely hypocritical. The particular video clip was called "the story of stuff" which I had known previously for being hard hit by critics as being childish and naive as well as patronizing and hypocritical (perfectly in line with the stereotypical upper class Brookline liberal). The presentation itself was not made by the SAJE group, but the fact that the group was presenting highly hypocritical material called into question whether they themselves practice what they preach.


Some of the things I hope to do are:

• Talk to some SAJE people about what they think they've accomplished so far and then follow up and investigate those claims.
• Acquire a timeline of their accomplishments over the years.
• Interview the cafeteria lunch ladies about the effects of the cafeteria reforms made several years ago.
• Develop a deeper understanding of the general position of the student body regarding the Green Initiative.
  

By the end of this I hope to have a concrete understanding of what the Green Initiative at BHS has changed for the better and what it has cost us. I will then evaluate the initiative as either a success or failure defined by criteria I will set forth. Finally, I will provide several ideas for a potential plan for improving or maximizing the effects of the Green Initiative.