4 Surprisingly Green Presidents

Presidents Day is upon us once again, a holiday that encourages us to reflect on the legacy on some of our most influential presidents (and gives us an excuse to relax on our federally mandated day off). By the nature of their position, the POTUS has an unrivalled platform from which to dictate policy and enact legislation with regards to the environment. While many presidents have shirked their environmental responsibilities, others have championed our nation's greatest attribute, attempting to ensure its glory for future generations. Here are a few of our most environmentally proactive Presidents. 

Fresh Face of Activism: Jordan Howard

The importance of engaging youth in activism early on is not lost on Jordan Howard. Since attending Environmental Charter High School, a school with a curriculum focused on environmentalism, she has been attuned to those issues and how they connect with her own life. Howard, now 21, has been changing the face of youth engagement one classroom talk at a time.

Perusing her About Me page is enough to make anyone feel like an underachiever. Howard has been involved with 5 Gyres and their Youth Action Tour in India, participated in a Sundance roundtable about green schools and been a part of the TEDx Great Pacific Garbage Patch event. Let's not forget that she's also been featured in a few books, including Girls Gone Green, and she edited Green My Parents.

While she may be currently taking the world by storm, Howard admits she was reluctant when first exposed to environmental curriculum at her green high school.

"There was resistance in the beginning because I saw no connection between me and environment," said Howard. It was after she saw the holistic benefits of environmentalism in her personal life that she felt empowered.

Howard saw first-hand the benefits of being exposed to environmentalism at a young age and seeks to ignite that same passion in youth across the nation, and even world. She approaches education through making it clear that change isn’t impossible.

“Whenever I heard about global warming or other issues, it was always doom and gloom,” she said. “Give young people solutions to environmental issues.”

There's Money in Green Education

With the green economy demanding fresh minds, students who are environmentally concerned but fiscally challenged have options, because schools and nonprofits are rallying resources to assist eco-scholars. Aid comes in the form of both financial assistance and career-development opportunities. The Earth Island Institute's Brower Youth Awards, for one, is granted annually to six young environmental activists. Ariana Katovich, a member of the first batch of recipients, received the $3,000 award in 2000. She's now the institute's director of restoration and director of its Streets Alive! project.

"Winning the award was very cool,' Katovich says. "But more important, it introduced me to the institute's network, which played a major role in me getting the job I hold now."

That's the general viewpoint among institutions: Scholarships that develop students' careers are, in the long run, more valuable than just money. "Students are trying to figure out how to turn their passion into a paycheck. Our recipients use these scholarships to jump-start their green careers,' says Niles Barnes, senior programs coordinator at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). The organization, which has been offering awards to students for eight years, provides not only grants but also access to its huge network of contacts in the environmental workforce.

Eco Ed: Online Classes Change the World for Better and Worse

Halfway into his engineering studies, Roberto Civille Rodrigues quit school. To get across town to the University of São Paulo in Brazil, the 25-year-old battled a rush hour commute that could take almost two hours each way. He dropped out knowing that his "chalkboard and PowerPoint classes" could be replaced. "I wasn't learning what I wanted to learn," Rodrigues says. "I was taking many classes that I didn't need."

Instead, Rodrigues mined the major online-education platforms--Coursera, edX, and Udacity--for subjects he actually wanted to study. By staying home, he also cut the emissions of his former, two-hour commute.

In the United States, though, universities teem with people living close, small, and car-free. But for the world's burgeoning population of eager students, a greener higher education may involve no campus at all.

Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, have emerged from prestigious schools: Harvard and MIT teamed up on edX; Stanford spawned Udacity. Consisting of recorded lectures, online readings, and interactive tests, MOOCs allow anyone, anywhere, to take a university course--usually for free. The most popular ones attract tens of thousands of people.

Jonathan Tomkin, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has already had 60,000 students register for his free course, Introduction to Sustainability, in the two times he's offered it on Coursera, a for-profit platform that presents classes from more than 80 colleges. Online courses, he explains, may not cure pressing eco-problems, but their reach adds up. "The environmental impact of education is not large relative to other factors," he says, "but the same amount of resources could be used to teach thousands as opposed to just tens in a regular classroom. Just think about what you need to do to heat a room with 10,000 people." (Critics counter that online learners are presumably in individual heated rooms instead.)

Beginner’s Guide to Home Brewing: Hard Cider

It's apple harvest season, which is a perfect time for the fledgling brewer to try making hard cider. Home brewing offers the chance to make your own fresh organic drink that's preservative-free and low on sulfites (some sulfites will naturally occur during fermentation). Bonus: This tasty beverage is gluten-free.

First Timer's Hard Cider

yield: one gallon

Ingredients and Supplies:

1 clean glass gallon jug
1 gallon of organic, unpasteurized, preservative-free apple juice with no added sugar
2 cups of sugar 
2-3 cinnamon sticks
1 pinch whole cloves
1 balloon
1 rubber band
1 packet of bread yeast

Edible Opera: How Artists Turn Music into a Meal

The opera may sound good, but it tastes even better — at least that's what artists Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta (Burton Nitta) think. Together, these masters of design and science have created the Algae Opera, which transforms a singer's voice into an edible experience.

In this installation, they use mezzo-soprano opera singer Louise Ashcroft to highlight humans' unique relationship with algae. The artists designed a special futuristic suit that collects the carbon dioxide exhaled as Ashcroft is singing. This carbon dioxide feeds algae, which  grows during the performances and is later prepared and served. The audience can literally taste her song! The singer has trained herself specially for this project so that she can further enhance her lung capacity to produce the best quality algae possible. The slightest changes in pitch and frequency can determine tone, color, texture, and even whether the algae will be sweet or bitter. 

7 Literary Basics for Environmentalists

You wrapped up the Song of Fire and Ice series and can't bring yourself to read Fifty Shades of Grey. Why not indulge your green side, and learn something in the process? One of our Top 10 Cool Schools, UC-Santa Barbara, places such a high premium on the intersection of literature and the environment that it currently offers more than 30 undergraduate courses about the topic. For long-term research the university is your best bet, but if school is out reach, stock your shelf with these basics to get started.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Filled with both meditative, literary beauty and broad philosophical concepts, Thoreau used Walden to connect the personal to the environment. A product of Thoreau's stay in a self-built cabin near Massachusetts' Walden Pond, the book remains a touchstone for environmentalists.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Whether you're similar to Rachel Carson or not, the author's masterpiece is essential reading. Thoreau and Muir use gorgeous language to articulate their love for the environment, but Silent Spring takes a sharper approach, raising an alarm by highlighting the dangers of pesticides and other harmful substances. There's a reason the 1962 book helped to jumpstart the modern environmental movement.

INFOGRAPHIC: Green College Trends

Unique Ways to Green Your College Dorm Room

 

Sierra’s "Repurpose" column provides step-by-step instructions for making this handy phone holder.

You're all set for your first day at one of our Coolest Schools, and it boasts efficient facilities, respected environmental student groups, and an eminent environmental sciences faculty. But what about the nuts and bolts of maintaining a green lifestyle in your new living quarters, the college dorm?

 

Simplify your life with environmental style.

College living presents young adults with tests of organization and efficiency on a daily basis. Why not enhance solutions to common problems with a green flair? For example, organizing chargers, cables, and the other manifestations of a digital lifestyle can be challenging —  cut an old plastic bottle in half to make a nifty holder for charging small electronic goods. Consumed with thoughts of midterms, extracurricular activities, and social events, keeping track of keys often becomes an afterthought for college students —  plus, some colleges fine students for misplacing or losing keys. With some wood and old keys, make a key rack to permanently solve this problem.

Start a mini-garden.

Living on the fifth floor of a dorm outfitted with fluorescent lights that reeks of Lysol and body odor can be a dreary experience. Spice things up — literally — by nurturing some plants on your windowsill (or, if you're ambitious, suspend them from the air). Flowers are great, but so are herbs. Fill in the culinary gaps of dining hall cooks by bringing some homegrown herbs to the table. You'll be the talk of the town, and your mystery meat will taste better, too. Dorm room spice gardens make for a trifecta of excellence: tastier food, pleasant aromas, and a pretty room.

Improve your desk area.

Did Your Alma Mater Make Our Top 10 List?

It's back-to-school season, which means that Sierra magazine has unveiled its seventh annual ranking of America's greenest universities. This year, the University of Connecticut took top honors. The number-one school offers more than 600 sustainability-related classes, produces its own honey, eggs, and seasonal produce on campus, and has cut its water use by 15% since 2005.

In addition to naming the Top 10 Coolest Schools, Sierra asked the question "Do Green Schools Matter?" We covered life-changing teachers and classes, examined how green education leads to jobs, reported on the newest on-campus activist movement, and compiled eco-scholarship opportunities. Our conclusion? At America's Coolest Schools, the future looks bright.

Check out the latest issue of Sierra magazine to find out if your alma mater made our list.

--Cover artwork by Harry Campbell