Seven plus years, hundreds of kids and tens of major projects later, the environmental club thrives on, but what is the environmental club? Not to spoil it for you, but they do not just tell people to pick up their trash, as they feel what they do is far more important. Yet, the adviser of the club, science teacher Daniella Ellingson, does not even think there should be an environmental club. Wait. What?

But how did we get here, why is the club so important, and what do they even do?

The environmental club is a collaborative effort primarily led by students. Their goal is to inform people about the environment, but not just with boring and “same old” strategies, that are perhaps negative in nature. They try to encourage environmentally conscious behavior and overall positivity.

Their main recurring source of this would be their newsletter. Every month the Environmental Club compiles a newsletter for every student to read. The newsletter features stories about our planet that are local and stories about LA, to stories about our country, to stories about places far off. Informing is important but changing your habits is more.

The goal of the environmental club is to get people to change their habits. They also want to change the environment. They raised $850 for the Santa Monica Mountains Fund as fundraisers are high on their agenda of what they want to accomplish. They sold cookies online and in person to cover the $850. They also want to change whatever is unnecessary and harms the environment around the school. They encourage meatless days in the cafeteria as they meet with the people who are in charge of the cafeteria and explain alternatives to meat and why they should be available at the cafeteria. They were also able to shut off water that was running in the senior gardens.

“My wish is that there does not need to be an environmental club, that this is just something that we are just already doing, that we are aware of our choices,” Ellingson said.

The environmental club needs you. They have seen dwindling participation in the last few years. This also comes as a disappointment, because what they do is so important, as they help protect the environment.

“The more people that join the more people get internally motivated to make different choices,” Ellingson said. “Our mission is to get more students,” Ms. Ellingson said.

Everyone cares about the environment, but everyone does not really care, as most people do not change their habits. If the environmental club could get even a little extra help it could go a long way.

“There are ways to think about the environment in history, in English, even in math,” Ellingson said. “My wish is that there didn’t have to be a club.”

Environmental Club is a group with a focus on the environmental struggles and successes of our world. Each Wednesday they meet to discuss new important environmental events and brainstorm ways in which they can make a difference. From fundraisers to community service events, Environmental Club has always found a way to support their causes both within our school community and outside of it. Today they met to discuss the monthly newsletter that contains info on the latest events and their animal of the month, this month it was the Saoloa, an antelope-like animal. While at the meeting today, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the leaders of the club, Keira Dhaliwal. 

“What inspired me to join?” Dhaliwal said. “Well I feel like the prospect of climate change and its effect on our generation’s future has been very ominous and a little scary to me. So I think doing even small things just helps me kind of deal with that and be able to focus on other more productive things.”