GDA 6 at UC, Irvine School of Law, USA

The Environmental Law Society, Environmental Law Clinic, and Sustainability Resource Center at the University of California, Irvine School of Law successfully organized an event for the sixth Global Day of Action lon Monday, November 18. Total event attendance is estimated between 50 and 75 individuals that day (this estimate includes organizing members). 

Following this year's theme of water, we organized the following activities during our lunch hour on Nov. 18:

• Water Footprint Calculator: Event attendees stopping by our table scanned a QR code to calculate their daily water consumption. This short survey on Water Footprint Calculator provides an easy-to-visualize understanding of how much water a person and their household use, and the website recommends tips for becoming water wise. Once the participant completed taking the survey, they could place a dot sticker on our poster board to see how their water usage compares to other members of our community. We also provided attendees with a Google Doc to submit their data if they wished to anonymously submit their water usage, at which point we would apply their sticker to the poster board on their behalf.

  • Participants who completed this activity received a free pizza slice and/or Kaylaan goody (i.e. toothpaste tabs, bamboo toothbrushes, plastic-free floss). 

  • 41 attendees added their data to our poster board, with an overwhelming number of attendees consuming between 1,000 and 2,000 gallons of water every day (this aggregate broadly includes water costs incurred by additional factors like shopping, type of diet, and pet food). 

• Letter to the Forest Service: The Environmental Law Society Executive Board drafted a letter to the United States Forest Service  ("USFS") urging it to (1) more strictly enforce its water permits to water companies that have profited off of California's natural resources for decades and (2) continue working with Indigenous Californians so that their present and future water needs are met. During Global Day of Action, we welcomed participants to add their signatures to our sign-on letter. The physical letter was mailed to the USFS and you can read a digital copy of the letter here.

• California poppy seed ball: Participants were able to create seed balls using provided California poppy seeds and soil. Seed balls allow participants to conveniently plant California poppies anywhere. The California poppy is a native plant in the State of California and is also the state flower. It is a drought-tolerant plant. 

• Clothing Donation Box: Because clothes manufacturing is a water-intensive process, we provided a clothing donation box for students to deposit their unwanted clothing into. Our undergraduate partners with the Sustainability Resource Center will collect them for the Zot N' Clothes event, a thrift pop-up event organized by the ASUCI Sustainability Project Commission (part of the undergraduate student government). This activity helps extend the lifespan of preexisting clothes and hopefully reduces consumer demand for new clothing. 

• And More: First-year law students created 3 informational sheets on water conservation practices, water and agriculture, and Water Drop LA (a local nonprofit we encouraged donations to during Global Day of Action).

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Photos from the event may be found here at this photo repository.