Congratulations to Komachin Middle School, the nation-wide winner in our We Add Up fundraising contest. Together, their students sold 182 We Add Up tees and, in addition to their 15% earnings, won a cash prize of $500! Their top-selling student, and winner of a $100 cash prize, is Jayda Cobb. Congrats, Jayda!

Komachin Middle School, located in Lacey, WA, is a public school with over 800 students. Service learning is a big deal at Komachin and students work to earn seals in the categories of Academics, Pride, and Wellness. An Americorp volunteer works with the students and they grow food for the food bank in their garden, recycle, and compost food from their cafeteria, among other things.

Teacher Vicki Leonard did a great job leading the fundraiser and helped inspire motivation by offering a fundraising certificate for the Pride seal when students sold 2 or more We Add Up tees. Ms. Leonard says, “Our kids were so excited about these t-shirts. Environmental science is very much embedded in our science program and school culture. Every day you see someone wearing one – staff or student. And, every time I wear one of the t-shirts, people always ask – what does that t-shirt mean?”

Ms. Leonard and the students used their earnings to help fund a trip to their port on Puget Sound. They saw the operations there and got to see and touch the 125 foot wind turbine blades that arrived at the port, bound for a wind farm in Eastern Washington.

Congratulations to Komachin Middle School!

I met Brian and Connie Harris in November at the San Francisco Green Festival.  Like many people, they wanted to get their whole family counted in the fight to stop climate change and give We Add Up tees as gifts.  But, the Harris’ took the commitment to a whole new level - their family created a “Cousins Rule Team” made of their eight grandkids!

As Ellie, one of the kids, so clearly put it: “We Add Up to save the world.”  Each of the three families is developing 1-3 earth-saving projects and they are updating each other every month through email (in addition to frequent family visits) on their progress.  They are using “50 Simple Things Kids can do to Save the Earth” and “Winston of Churchill, One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming” as their core inspiration.

We commend this clan of cousins and hope they’ll keep us updated on the great things they’re doing!

Cousins Rule Team: (left to right) Merrick (4 months, held by Dad), Connor, Allison, Kate, Holden, Ellie, Dayton and Lauren (aka “Number 1″).

We’re excited and honored that the Melissa Etheridge Fan Club is adding up! Thank you for all your support and for spreading the message of hope and action in the face of the climate crisis. Melissa has a voice that inspires change within oneself and beyond and her life continues to be a real testimony to that. Her motto, “Be Strong, Speak True, Spread the Peace” is one she follows. Go to MelissaEtheridge.com and learn more about her. We love her “Green Tips” page in particular and “M.E.I.N. Breast Cancer Awareness page.” Become a member of the Melissa Etheridge Information Network (M.E.I.N.) and be even closer to this incredible artist and humanitarian with member privileges.

Melissa Etheridge has won an Academy Award plus 2 Grammy’s. Her battle with breast cancer in 2004 turned her focus around and changed the way she lives her life. Her 2007 album, The Awakening spreads a strong message to bring hope, joy, and importance of life and community, and includes the song, “I Need to Wake Up” which was written for the Al Gore film, An Inconvenient Truth. Her recent Christmas album, A New Thought For Christmas, delivers holiday songs of old and new, including “Ring the Bells” which she co-wrote with Salman Ahmad, a Pakistani Sufi-rock artist. It was an awesome collaboration and has inspired a “Ring the Bells” event on December 21.

The NYTimes reports on a UN report.  Asia’s rise of the middle class is catching up with it and it’s affecting us all.  A large brown cloud, often a mile deep, is often formed over much of Asia and even sometimes extending as far east as California.  What makes up this brown cloud?  Soot and toxic chemicals from coal-fired power plants, automobiles, wood-burning kitchen stoves, and slash-and-burn agriculture.

I find this brown cloud to be an illustrative tale of the complexity of the climate change issue.  There is no doubt this development has disastrous effects- $82 billion/year on pollution-related health issues, the further melting of the Himalayan glaciers, altered weather patterns like decreased monsoon rains and increased flooding in areas.  However, this gigantic cloud is also mitigating some of the worst effects of climate change for the rest of the planet because it is reflecting a large amount of sunlight back into space.  If this brown cloud would all of the sudden disappear, we would see accelerated polar ice cap melt and increased temperatures, among other consequences.  Perhaps this brown cloud is like the recent economic bubble and when it finally bursts, we will feel the real effects of what we’ve been doing.  If anything, this UN report should serve to spur us into even greater action to reduce greenhouse gas emmissions, as there really is not going to be any easy fix.

Wish you could turn back some of the environmental decisions the Bush administration has made over the past 8 years?  Yea, us too.  We’ve lost a lot of ground  in taking a serious and active role in mitigating the climate crisis.  But, there is hope with a new administration.  Already, President-Elect Barack Obama is considering three measures to turn back decisions made by Bush.  Read about them here.

We’re in Charlotte, NC at a science teacher’s convention getting lots of schools in the south signed up for our WE ADD UP fundraising program!  Though we didn’t get a chance to trick or treat (after standing on our feet all day, we’re happy to kick back tonight), we did get a little visit from a a scary fellow who wanted to do his part to stop climate change.  But, I’ll tell you what, if we WERE taking part in tonight’s festivities, we would be passing out organic Crispy Cat Candybars. Yum!!  We hope you’re all having a wonderful Halloween!