Preparations for wayward weather

How are students combating climate change?

As 25 plus mile per hour gusts blasted through the Bay Area as the atmospheric river swept up the west coast in January, Nueva environmentalists sighed at the expected yet unpredictable weather patterns.

The Pineapple Express, a buildup of atmospheric moisture that starts around Hawaii and the tropical Pacific, hit California with six more inches of rain than expected.

“Nothing surprises me at this point because everything’s so destabilized,” Director of Environmental Citizenship Sarah Koning said. “Climate change is making it hard to predict and prepare for future weather.”

The latest weather events have sparked dialogue about environmentalism across the Nueva microcosm.

In Soil Health: Innovation & Technology, an elective taught by Koning, students analyze the ecosystem of soil by making compost, experimenting with keystone insect species, and building a biome structure, a composting mechanism, for the Hillsborough campus.

After the rain washed away vital nutrients, the class is reviving the soil across the campuses with the compost they nurtured. The class’ biome structure, which will be installed near the cafe on the Hillsborough campus this spring, will protect against future fickle weather conditions and help dispose of food waste.

The class also bailed out eight inches of extra water from the planters on the sky bridge, saving the fruits and vegetables from drowning in the water. However, the drought resistant shrubs on the second floor balcony of the Rosenberg wing wilted in the dousing. The class is considering planting species more resistant to the flighty weather.

“The building wasn’t really designed with plants in mind,” said teacher assistant Kaitlyn K. ’24, describing the building as treating plants as “static ornaments.”

This spring, the class will be throwing seed bombs made of native seeds and compost around San Mateo.

“Seed bombs are considered ecological warfare against the grass lawns which are largely grown with European grass seed. This invasive plant chokes out native plants, so the seed bombs arm against that,” Kaitlyn said.

The class hopes for these seed bombs to flourish into clusters of native wildflowers.

Drying off a drenched Bay

After being hammered by severe storms, Bay Area officials put flood relief measures into place

emergency press conference on Jan 3.

With only 2% of Bay Area residents with flood insurance according to NBC News, rainwater flooding is an oversight to many homeowners amidst the droughtstricken state.

And yet, from Dec. 31 to Jan. 4, heavy rainstorms hammered the Bay Area with high winds, power outages, and most notably, five to seven inches of rain in Peninsula areas including San Francisco, Redwood City, and Half Moon Bay according to the National Weather Service.

“This has been one of the worst storms we’ve seen in the past 10 years,” Lisa Derderian, a spokesperson for Pasadena, told CNN.

Days prior, on Dec. 21, the National Weather Service (NWS) warned mayor of San Francisco London Breed and local officials of “a significant rain event that would bring high impacts and hazardous conditions,” the first of numerous warnings of dangerous rain levels.

Yet, Breed denied receiving “sufficient” warning at an