1. Poly Advisory Piece Created by the Environment Club
Sustainability at BPI
Poly Advisory Piece
Created by the Environment Club
Invasives Removal With Poly Students September 2015

2. What’s Wrong in Baltimore?
Polluted Chesapeake Bay (trash, oil, chemicals)
No more seafood by 2050!
Pollution in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
Trash that people throw on the ground and chemicals from lawns and roads all wash into our waterways and pollute the water, making the Inner Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay not safe for swimming, fishing, or boating. Unhealthy water pollutes our drinking water and kills off sealife!

3. What’s Wrong in Baltimore?
Climate change from carbon pollution
Sea level rise = no more Baltimore
Climate change is caused by increased carbon dioxide. This carbon is released from buildings when we burn fossil fuels to give us electricity and from cars and trucks. Here in Baltimore, we release a lot of carbon pollution and contribute to climate change. Climate change is causing glaciers to melt, which is making the sea levels rise from increased water. With higher sea levels, parts of Baltimore and the entire Eastern Shore might be underwater in a few hundred years.
Baltimore and Maryland after 30 meters of sea level rise (predicted to happen after Greenland’s ice sheet melts)

4. What’s Wrong in Baltimore?
Air pollution from trash incinerators
Increased asthma, cancer, and other diseases
Where does all the trash that we create go? It doesn’t just disappear – although some of it ends up in landfills, most of our trash is actually burnt in that large tower that you see driving south near the stadiums! The air pollution from that incinerator, as well as from cars and trucks, all contributes to dirty air, which actually makes us very sick.
The trash incinerator in Baltimore.

5. Who’s Suffering?
The whole world!

6. Why? Discussion: Why do we have these issues in the world?
What have you done to help?
When was a time that you did something that hurt the environment?

7. Sustainability at Poly!
Here at Poly, the Environment Club and other groups want to make Poly a greener place. This makes students’ lives better and makes Poly a more beautiful place.
This year, Poly is applying to be a Maryland Green School. This is an award that recognizes what we’ve been doing to make Poly more eco-friendly.
Becoming a Green School requires that Poly has environmental education in the classrooms and green initiatives outside the classroom.

8. Some Poly Projects!
Environment Club: Trash cleanups, Recycling, Tree plantings, Bird box construction, oyster reef habitat ball construction, art etc.
Class of 2016: Project Quad – cleaning up the trash from the quad and renovating it as a living space
Big Sib Little Sib & the Environment Club: renovating the courtyard with rain gardens, veggie gardens, benches, and more!

9. Some More Poly Projects!
Aqua ponics lab: sustainable fish farming to grow plants, which will eventually be powered by solar panels in the parking lot.
Poly Day of Service: planting trees around the campus, among many service activities.
Habitat for Humanity: building homes, for those in need, that have a low environmental impact.
Join these clubs to pitch in on these awesome projects!

10. How Can You Help Poly? 1. Pitch in for Poly!!
Put all of your trash in the bin and not on the ground. If you see trash on the ground, pick it up and throw it in the right place. This makes Poly more beautiful and the harbor healthier.

11. Recycle!
In every classroom, there is a yellow recycling bin. Look at the table to the left. What can you recycle? What should you put in the trash?
Recycling is meant as a way all students can contribute to sustainability at BPI. These papers are in school classrooms, and a digital copy of the paper is on a webpage under students called Sustainability at BPI. They are made to correspond with the guidelines of the single stream recycling of Baltimore Department of Public Works.

12. What Can You Do at Home?
Recycle at your home. Baltimore City offers at-home recycling pickup, so take advantage of it.
Plant trees and flowers for butterflies, bees, and birds.
Compost food scraps. This gives you soil to use in your garden.
Turn off the water. Take shorter showers. Fix leaky faucets. It’s easy to waste water!

13. Save Electricity -- and $$$
Replace light bulbs with CFLs or LEDs. These save electricity and last much longer.
Turn off the lights when you aren’t using them.
Put computers, TVs, and other appliances on power strips. When you aren’t using them, turn the power strip off. This prevents them from being energy vampires.
Do a quick survey of whether some kids do these things already or not.

14. How Can You Help at Poly?
What do you not like about Poly’s environment?
Styrofoam lunch trays (these can give you cancer!)
Trash in the halls
Not enough gardens
Bad bathrooms (these waste water!)
Speak with or join the Environment Club!! We are dealing with all of these issues and more. We go camping, plant gardens, and do much more.
Bring your ideas to the club, and we can help make them a reality!
Room 235, Tuesdays after school or Contact:

15. We Can All Make a Difference
Alone, we cannot do much to change what’s wrong. United, there is nothing that can stop us.
Tell your friends, family, and community members how they can go green. Start the Green Revolution!
Reflect: What are you going to do in the next week to help the environment? Next month? Next year? What have you learned from this advisory?

16. References
Slide 2: Slide 3: Slide 4: Slide 5: Seal: Forest: People: Slide 8: Slide 13: bins: Flowers: Slide 14: power strip: light bulbs: