Welcome to the Earth
Matters website!
Recent News
Congratulations to our new officers! Last night, we elected
the 2008-2009 Earth Matters E-Board. Congratulations to:
Co-presidents Maggie Craig and Samantha Caravello
Vice
President Molly Anderson
Treasurer Ashleigh Lewis
Secretary Alex Neinast
PR/Publicity Chair Yuna
Park
Webmaster Sarah Henderson
Inter-club Liason
Eliza Kenigsberg
Wednesday, April 16,
2008
Earth Matters Supports Upholding NYU's Ban on
Coca-Cola
The NYU Senate is considering lifting a 2005 ban that prohibited the
sale of Coca-Cola products on NYU's campus. This was ban was put in
place after Coke refused to have an independent investigation of the
assassination of eight union leaders in a Colombia Coca-Cola plant.
Supporters of lifting the ban are citing a report conducted by the
International Labor Organization to say that Coke has met the demands of
the ban. Earth Matters, along with Students Creating Radical Change,
OXFAM, the Law Students for Economic Justice, and Take Back NYU!, does
not believe that the ILO report fulfills the ban's requirements for the
following reasons:
- The ILO report was not independent. Ed Potter, Coca-ColaÕs Director of
Global Relations, has been the International Business Spokesperson of
the ILO for the last fifteen years and was the driving force behind
Coca-ColaÕs selection of the ILO to conduct this investigation.
- The ILO is not a monitoring organization, does not conduct human
rights investigations of individual companies, and is not qualified to
do so.
- This ILO mission did not set out to conduct the investigation that
NYUÕs ban requires. The ILO mission explicitly sought only to do an
assessment of current conditions, not an investigation of human rights
violations.
- Despite the ILO reportÕs probable bias and problematic methodology, it
actually finds that Coca-ColaÕs labor rights violations (namely, the
tactics used to prevent union organizing and infringement on the freedom
to associate) still exist.
- This report does not address the human rights abuses, ties to
paramilitaries, or assassinations of union leaders that occurred to
inspire the ban by NYU and other universities. In fact, nowhere does
the ILO report even mention the words Òhuman rightsÓ or
Òassassinations.Ó
- For access to the highlights of the ILO report, please visit
The PDF file
We hope that our Earth Matters members will support the position we have
decided to take to keep the ban of Coca-Cola on campus in place.
Earth Matters Presents: POST APOLCALYPSE PROM Come join us
on Thursday, October 23rd at 9pm at the Kimmel Center Rosenthal
Pavilion, 10th Floor! Put on your best apocalyptic garb, show off your
trendy Halloween costume, or just come as yourself and enjoy the
end-of-the-world ambiance. Tickets are $5 through ticket central
(http://www.nyu.edu/ticketcentral/) or at the door, all proceeds go to
Sustainable South Bronx. There will be classic prom staples such as
photos, punch, and a dance competition, so come with a honey or find one
there!
NYU Networking Tool for NYU Students Interested in
the Environment! Are You Sustainable is a
site developed by Gallatin student Nate Maton and others as a way to
promote student-driven environmental change on campus. Check it out,
join, collaborate!
Earth Week Calendar Posted! Check out the
Earth Week page to see
our tentative schedule for Earth Week 2008. And then check back, because
it's probably going to change a lot. Email us if you want to be added to
the Earth Week GoogleGroup for updates/to help planning.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Green NYU
Living! The Green House at NYU is a new residential initiative
that intentionally places students into a community where living and
learning is dynamic and constant. The focus of this living learning
community is to provide an alternative living option that is supportive
of a greener student lifestyle, while maintaining opportunities to
connect with other students in a community living environment. Some
members of Earth Matters have been involved in the planning of the Green
House, and we're working on a Green Grant to get some really great stuff
going, so check out the
ResEd page and consider applying!
Friday,
February 8, 2008
Green Grant applications The
NYU Sustainability Task Force is now accepting applications for the
2008-2009 school year. Green Grants will fund projects that reduce
NYU’s adverse environmental impacts, engage the campus community,
demonstrate the viability of best practices and technologies, and
advance applied research and educational goals. For information from
the Sustainability website, click
here.
Earth Matters will be working on a grant in relation to the
Green House. To get involved, please
contact us. In addition,
Shaun Woo will be working on a proposal involving water use at NYU. His
email is shw250 at nyu.edu, so contact him to get involved with that.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Get the
latest news on climate change, right to your inbox The Daily Climate is a daily
email newsletter that compiles all the latest mainstream media articles
on a variety of topics related to climate change. It's a really great
resource, and it makes it easy to keep up with what's going on.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
How are
you connected to mountaintop removal coal? iLoveMountains.org has a new
web tool utilizing
Google Maps and Google Earth to show how mountaintop removal coal mining
affects and involves Americans all across the country. Type in your zip
code and see your connection... we bet you're closer than you think.
Friday, November 16, 2007
A new
meaning to "guilt-free" potato chips Here's a fun story for
today: Frito-Lay is embarking on an ambitious plan to change the way its
factories operate. Its goal is to take one of its Arizona plants off
the power grid, or nearly so, and run it almost entirely on renewable
fuels and recycled water. See the
New York Times article on what Frito-Lay and some other
companies are doing to enhance their "green" image. The calories
probably still count, though.
Thursday, November 15,
2007
Camping pictures posted! Our webmaster
has stopped being lazy and has finally posted the pictures from our
camping trip to Bear Mountain. They're pretty awesome, so
check them
out! Thursday, November 15, 2007
Reduce your carbon impact! Footprint Forward week at NYU has
arrived - for more info, check out their
website.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Washington Square Park Stepped It Up! Our Step It Up rally
this past weekend was a HUGE success. Pictures will be posted soon, and
keep a look out for more Step it Up action tables around the NYU campus
over the next few weeks.
Tuesday, November 6,
2007
Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign
Rainforest Action Network recently officially launched its
Rainforest
Agribusiness Campaign targeting U.S. Agribusiness giants ADM, Bunge,
and Cargill. By promoting industrially produced soy and palm oil as
biofuel, these companies are diverting our resources and attention away
from truly renewable energy and profiting off of false solutions to the
climate crisis. Check out the campaign's
website
for more information, and
click here to send a
message to the CEOs of these companies telling them how you feel about
this issue!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
EM speaker a huge hit! On Tuesday, October 9, John
Shegerian, NYU alum and CEO and founder of California's
Electronics Recyclers
came to speak to EM about the work his business does, details of the
electronics recycling business and crusade, and other environmental
issues. Check out our
meetings page for more details.
Sunday, October
14, 2007
Recycling Drive a Success! 
Last week,
Earth Matters teamed up with POM Tea to promote recycling, and the event
was a HUGE success! We recycled 84 pounds of paper and 176 pounds of
cans and bottles. The 176 pounds of cans and bottles consisted of over
2000 bottles! Great job, guys!
Pictures from the event have been posted as well.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Congratulations
to our new e-board members! EM is very excited to announce that
Molly Anderson will be our 2007-2008 Secretary, and Alex Neinast will be
our PR Chair, a new position we have created for this year to better
spread our name and news of our events on campus. Congrats!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Hayden Dining
Hall goes green! The Washington Square News had a front-page
article today detailing Hayden Dining Hall's transformation to a
sustainable eating locale. Hayden is now offering sustainable (and
often vegan) eating alternatives, and even the dining hall itself, newly
renovated, is made from recycled materials. Get the whole article
here.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Court rules
against automakers in emissions case On Wednesday, a federal
judge in Vermont rejected automakers' challenges to a series of rules
passed in California and 13 other states (including Vermont,
Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York) that intend to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions from cars and light trucks. This ruling was a victory
over automakers, and will hopefully embolden Califoria and other states
to continue efforts to mitigate climate change, even if (and precisely
because) our national government won't.
Thursday,
September 13, 2007
EM starts the year off
right! Our first meeting was this past Monday, and boy was it a
success! Click
this
link for more details!
Wednesday, September 12,
2007
NYU Bookstore goes green! The NYU
Bookstore is promoting sustainability this fall by encouraging customers
to cut down on plastic bag use
and by funding environmental
causes. Each time a customer declines a plastic bag, the Bookstore will
donate 5 cents (the average cost of a plastic bag) to one of four
charities: the National Audubon Society, New Yorkers for Parks, the
National Wildlife Federation, or Greenpeace. When customers purchase a
canvas bag from the Bookstore, they will donate a full dollar!
Monday, September 3, 2007
NYU begins work on
co-gen plant As you can see from
this flyer, NYU has begun
work on its new cogeneration plant. The new plant will produce more and
cleaner power, resulting in a lowering of emissions for both NYU and
NYC!
Monday, September 3, 2007 
