East Cobb Branch helds a Green Week Activity to help preserve the environment I

On April 8-11, 2021, 8 ​members of the East Cobb branch of AYLUS decided to take part in celebrating Earth Day. The call to take action was started when Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said, “The risks of not taking action are too great to ignore, and collective action is needed to avoid the significant impact of climate change on our most vulnerable communities.” Wells Fargo encouraged many people to take action and start conserving water and energy, reducing waste, or making simple changes that could make a significant impact for a sustainable tomorrow. Climate change is one of the most significant environmental and social issues of our time. Anyone can do their part by taking action during Earth Month, Earth Week, and every day — at work, at home, and in our communities. Doing so can help strengthen communities, the economy, and the planet for the long term. People can also check carbonfootprintcalculator.carbonclick.com, to know how to save the environment which can be calculated with the help of  carbon footprint calculator.

​Supporting Sustainability Climate change is one of the most urgent environmental and social issues of our time, and one where the risks of inaction are too great to ignore. Wells Fargo has pledged to align our business activities with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. To get there, one member decided to contribute by planting some plants in their backyard. The member found a nice spot where the sun could reach the plants and started raking away leaves and other debris to plant. After the selected location was cleared, five holes were dug to plant the five plants. The member made sure to use compost and topsoil in order for the plants to have the healthiest lives. After the plants were firmly in the ground, the member watered them generously to make sure they would not dry up in the sun. After planting, the member was very happy because even though he had only planted a few plants. The member had still done his part even if it was small. If more people could do these kinds of things, no matter the size, it would still help tomorrow’s earth.

Sean went to his local plant nursery to not only support his local business but also to collect plants in preparation for this upcoming earth day on the 22^nd.  At the nursery there was a multitude of various plant species, ranging from lavender to a Venus fly trap. Sean meticulously picked out plants he thought would be suitable to plant. He decided on getting watermelon, tomatoes, lavender, squash, and radish. When checking out Sean realized that there is a lot more depth in growing crops than just planting the crop. He realized he needed fertilizer, nitrogen, and phosphorus all to boost the growth rate of different areas of the crop. In addition, pH of the soil and sun intensity need to be factored into the area where you decide to plant.
After buying all needed supplies, Sean began to plow to loosen up the soil before planting and adding fertilizers. After that he measured the recommended space between each plant and began digging five inch holes. After placing the plants firmly in the soil. Sean watered the plants with phosphorus supplements mixed in.

Faith Huang helped the environment by planting flowers. Faith bought the flowers, soil, and nuggets from a local store. She used a shovel to loosen up the soil and create a flower bed. Then, she planted the flowers by using a smaller shovel to dig a hole, removing rocks in the process, and adding fertilizer near the area. Pine bark nuggets were later added as an additional layer on top of the soil in order to retain moisture. Finally, Faith watered the flowers.

Planting flowers helps the environment in many ways. Flowers create fresh air, reduce erosion, keep the soil healthy, provide beauty to the landscape, and many other benefits. Faith really enjoyed the process of planting and gardening something herself while also being able to do something helpful for the environment.

Eileen Zhang and Delrick Shen built a garden area and planted crops in celebration of Earth Month (the month of April). With the growth of US cities and concrete jungles, issues of global warming and environmental pollution have also escalated in severity. Local gardening contributes to alleviating the effects of global warming by reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, even if just by a little. Gardening also provides an ecosystem for wildlife such as birds, worms, insects, and other small critters.

Eileen and Delrick prepared the garden area by first uprooting the grass in the area and removing large roots. In the soil, various types of insects could be observed such as worms, beetles, and grubs. Then they added some garden soil and cow manure, so that the plants would have more nutrients, and then they added the topsoil that contained white pellets that could soak up extra moisture in the soil. Afterwards, they dug out shallow holes in the garden bed to plant the crops, and they watered them generously.

Report By: Sean Yan, Eileen zhang, Jay Pan, Faith Huang

Attendance: Eileen Zhang (4 hours), Delrick Shen (4 hours), Faith Huang (5 hours), Jay Pan (2 hours), Sean Yan ( 4 hours), Selina Huang ( 7 hours), Cynthia Ruan (2 hours), Jonathan Wang ( 4 hours)