Students gain awareness of environment

Chemistry students learned about mustard seeds and biodiesel. Drama students learned about second-hand Armanis and sustainable fashion. Still others toured a transfer station to investigate the "life cycle of urban waste."

About 100 Seattle-area high school students, intent on getting beyond the "gloom and doom" of environmental news, zoomed in yesterday on sustainability and the environment, learning what they could do to improve air, land and sea -- locally and globally.


		Karen Ducey / P-I
	Sydney Smith, 15, left, and Naomi Picinich, 17, listen to a talk about organic foods at the Seward Park PCC.

Most students attending the 16th annual, daylong YMCA environmental symposium, based at Seattle University, said it was uplifting knowing that science, technology and humanity have found solutions to environmental problems.

Now, many said, if they could only get their peers to focus more on how canola oil can make cars run or how sustainably harvested wood is used to make guitars.

Erin York, 17, a Chief Sealth senior, was among those who acknowledged that creating a broader awareness among fellow students is a hurdle -- "a lot of kids think more about football" -- but said people have to start somewhere.

Already a sustainable design devotee, York spent the morning with other conference participants, shopping downtown at sites where second-hand fashion is not an oxymoron.

"I'm not an Abercrombie girl," she said, referring to the national retail chain, as she displayed an orange T-shirt with black tiger-cub paws, a gray zip-up sweater, cream-colored cords and multistriped socks inside her red Pumas.

"I'm the queen of Value Village," she said with a grin. "I like being different, finding my own style."

Such youthful enlightenment is welcomed by Sean Schmidt, "style ambassador" and co-founder of the Seattle-based Sustainable Style Foundation, who led the tour.

"It's not about trends and conformity, it's about expressing your individuality," said Schmidt, sporting second-hand finds such as hemp Armani jeans and an Armani wool sweater. He called York "a budding stylist."

Schmidt said while global warming, pollution and other environmental problems are real, the "sky is falling" environmental messages tend to either turn off the public or lead to despair. Yesterday's conference, he said, was to counteract that, showing kids ways to reduce materialism and "still be cool."

"We're trying to dispel a lot of the gloom and doom of environmental news like global warming, trying to make people realize you don't have to wear tie-dyed shirts and Birkenstocks to be environmentally aware," Schmidt said.

Schmidt added that he just returned from a trip to fashion mecca Milan, Italy, where it was apparent that Europeans are far ahead in sustainable fashion and design, producing sustainable products ranging from shoes and handbags to furniture.

"Doctor Dan" Freeman, owner of the Ballard-based Alternative Fuel-Werks, urged a group of students to be encouraged by the broad range of alternative fuels. Passing around a jar of pale gold vegetable oil, he discussed the merits of biodiesel versus more polluting gas for cars, how natural gas can be harnessed even from landfills and how healthful products such as Omega-3 oils can be harvested from mustard seeds.

"It just doesn't make sense to get energy products from around the world when some are right in your own back yard, especially when it costs so much to transport it," Freeman told the students. "The whole idea of sustainability is using what's produced locally ... and using 100 percent of what you've got -- with no waste."

Rebecca Guiao, 17, a senior at Northwest School, said she was impressed and encouraged.

"Re-using the (otherwise) wasted oil from frying French fries to produce biodiesel -- it makes sense to me," Guiao said. "I'd drive a car with that, though it takes money. I think what's important is that we gradually change our lives."

P-I reporter Debera Carlton Harrell can be reached at 206-448-8326 or deberaharrell@seattlepi.com

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