Today is officially Earth Day, but DE has been celebrating for the past week. At the Middle School, we’ve taken part in an inspirational Assembly, a cool art competition, received wildflower seeds to plant, and also heard from Alumni doing some amazing things. All this wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work and dedication of DE’s Environmental club.
The Blimp recently caught up with 8th graders, Ben Gmyrek and Len Glozman, the leaders of the MS Environmental club, to chat about Earth Week as well as some ways the DE community can help the environment.
Ben: Since the 3rd grade.
Len: For me, it was since I was in 2nd grade.
It’s an obvious question, as we should all be passionate
about the Earth, but why are you so passionate
about the environment?
Ben: I think the environment, in general, is a time-sensitive problem. It’s only going to get much worse, but it’s a scientific problem with a clear solution….so it needs to happen now.
Len: This environment is this shared space but it's time-sensitive like Ben said. A lot of the actions being taken now should have been taken 5 years ago, so we really need to get a move on, otherwise, there will be immense consequences, I mean there already have been immense consequences.
Len: Mostly the focus has been composting and getting people to compost because there is so much food waste and the planet has been covered in trash that could be reusable. We started in the 6th grade with 3 tumblers and we now have 6 tumblers on campus.
Len: The simple version is that we put food that came from the earth like vegetables, fruit, rice, that decomposes in tumblers and that turns into nutrient-rich soil … the soil is used on DE’s campus.
For 6 months it rots and then we sift through the soil and then we use the soil on DE’s gardens. The gardens grow food like apples, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, raspberries, peppers.
Ben: Some of the food is used for classes, some for the cafeteria, and some we donate to the Center for Food Action.
Ben: Throughout most of 6th and 7th grade, it was just me, Len, and Steven Cui. It was just us and we would occasionally have a member for 3 months and they would leave. But this year, we got 13 new members!
Wow, it definitely seems like more people are getting excited about doing something…so how do you encourage people to get more involved? How can DE take action?
Len: Many people don’t realize is that you are the consumer and you have tremendous power over what you consume. So, if you choose to not eat meat one day a week, or eat organic, or buy products with labels that certify it as environmentally friendly, or use a reusable bag -- all this has a HUGE impact.
That’s interesting. Most people wouldn’t think that a simple action like not eating meat once a week or not using a plastic bag could be the key to saving the environment…
Ben: It’s the little things that add up. We try and educate the best we can.
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The Library team was so inspired by the work done by DE's Environmental clubs that we've decided to make some eco-friendly changes of our own. Ms. Mamdani will go meatless two days a week, Mr. Petkus will compost more in his garden, and Ms. Shaurette will read "One Earth: People of Color Protecting our Planet." What will you do? Comment below and let us know!
For more information on how you can get involved with the Environmental Club or explore other ways you can go green, please reach out to Ms. Urbanowski.
Also, if you haven’t received a packet of wildflower seeds yet, please stop by the Earth Day display in the Library.
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