By Tanya Dimitrova

Our cohort's Talent Show last month was a very special event for me. (And I believe for a lot of other people too.) :)

I have to admit that organizing it was... tiny little bit slightly challenging. ERG's Annual Talent Show is conceived as a team building event for each cohort in their first year, so the entire class had to contribute is some way. This was not my show.

But it's not just that, there is also stage fright to be defeated, and priorities to be rearranged. After all, who has time to think about a talent show when John Hart's ER102 problem sets are due every week!

Just when I was about to give up (roughly two weeks before the date), things suddenly started coming together! Right in the middle of preparation for finals, the cohort discovered new motivation and we started bouncing ideas off each other.

The day of the Talent Show itself was... pure magic. We put everything together as a team more or less in the last minute, and we all felt... inspired.

Thank you class, from the bottom of my heart.

Yours truly,

Tanya

Dimitry was the best MC EVER! Totally ad-lib-ed the whole thing, but made it seem smooth...

I didn't know that one of John's many talents was poetry writing...

This is what Dick's primary activity after his retirement would look like... ;)

The audience felt inspired too and everyone was dancing!

A remix of Price Tag and Under the Bridge, dedicated to Dick. Check out the lyrics at the end of this post.

Josiah's legendary performance...

We tried to make Dick feel right at home: camping on the 8th floor of Barrows!

A glimpse of our Rock opera - tribute to Dick (check out the lyrics below). FYI, Dimitry is a bus driver!

The incredible class of 2012.

Dick abandoning colors yet again!

Thank you Sharada for being ERG's official and most talented photographer and donating this beautiful album to us! :) (The full album is available here.)

This is the only video available for now. More to come later and I will share them as soon as I have them. This is ERG Salsa Social team! I am extremely proud of each and every one of these dancers!

The one thing Dimitry forgot to mention when he was introducing us, was that this ENTIRE dance was pure improvisation, not a choreography! It is called Rueda de Casino and is typical for Cuban salsa!
 

We didn't know what was coming next, as it was being made up on the moment by the person calling the rueda. All the more reason to be proud! :)

And finally, here are the remixed songs we sang in honor of Dick.

Price Tag 
Original lyrics by Jessie J and B.O.B.

Seems like everybody's got a price,
I wonder how they sleep at night. 
When the sale comes first,
And the truth comes second,
Just stop for a minute and smile.
Why is economics so serious
Acting so damn mysterious
You got your price on your mind
And your value so high
That you can't even have a good time

Everybody look to their left
Everybody look to their right
Can you feel that we'll pay them with love tonight...

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance, 
Forget about the price tag.

We need to take it back in time, 
When value made us all unite!
It wasn't low blows and video hoes, 
Am I the only getting tired?
Why is everybody so obsessed?
Money can't buy us happiness.
If we all slow down and enjoy right now
Guarantee we'll be feelin' all right.

We'll keep the supply/ we won't take the demand
Just give me the IPCC/ and we'll make a plan
Put in some carbon tax/ give us all the facts
And all I need is to take a stand
And guess what, this year he's retiring hard
He's leaving across these undefeatable odds
It's like this man, you can't put a price on life.
We do ERG for the love and we sacrifice every night
So we ain't gonna stumble and fall never
Waiting to see a sign of defeat uh-uh
So we gon keep everyone moving their feet
So bring back the beat and everybody sing
It's not about the money, money, money...

~~

We will rock you... tribute to Dick Norgaard
Original lyrics by Queen

[Protesting crowd in the 60s]

Buddy you're a spray man bug man
making all the poison going up in the air today
You got mud on your face
You big disgrace
Overexposed all over the place

We will we will block you
We will we will block you

Buddy you're a water man dam man
Killing all the fish in the river and the streams today
You got blood on your face
You big disgrace
Sucking it dry all over the place

We will we will block you
We will we will block you

Buddy you're an oil man tar man
Drilling those fields and spilling in the gulf today
You got mud on your face
You big disgrace
Spewing your gas all over the place

We will we will block you
We will we will block you

Buddy you're a delta man, pipe man
Seeing all the streams running low
Can really wreck your day.
All these silos must be 
Run differently
Try interdisciplinarity!

We will we will block you
We will we will block you

[Change in scene. Wearing black, present times.]

I've paid my fees
Time after time
I've done my homework
And submitted online

And bad mistakes 
I've made a few
There are lots of things fucked up on this earth
We've got shit to do

We are the ERGies, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the ERGies
We are the ERGies
No time for losing
Cause we are the ERGies - save the world!

I've got big goals
And my Macbook Pro
You brought me drive and insight and everything that goes with it. 
I thank you all.

But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race
And I ain't gonna lose

We are the ERGies, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the ERGies
We are the ERGies
No time for losing
Cause we are the ERGies - save the world!

I will post the videos here as they become available

THE SPIRIT DANCE

THE TURTLE KING

WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SHOW HERE:

By Ann Brody Guy

This article originally appeared in Breakthroughs, the magazine of UCB College of Natural Resources

Diego, Ranjit and Ana working to instal the biodigester. (Credit: Sharada Prasad)

“It’s a big plastic stomach that’s outside in the yard, with a pipe that leads into the kitchen.” That’s how Ranjit Deshmukh, an ERG Ph.D. candidate, described the biogas digesters he and eight other Berkeley students installed this winter in five households in the Mayan community of Yaxche in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.

The contraptions take livestock waste and digest it anaerobically — bacteria decompose the waste, sans oxygen, and convert it to methane and carbon dioxide. The clean-burning methane is used for cooking, and as an added benefit, the digested waste makes excellent farm fertilizer. “It’s the cleanest, most sustainable energy system,” Deshmukh said.

The project was the brainchild of Deshmukh and his former Humboldt State University classmate Alex Eaton, who builds and installs the kits through the International Renewable Resources Institute-Mexico (IRRI), which Eaton directs. The students — eight ERGies and one from the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management — wanted to travel, and to contribute to the communities they’d visit. Through IRRI they identified a community that used three-stone fires, the most polluting kind of cookstove.

The students raised $2,000 from friends and family to cover the cost of five prefabricated digester kits, and a Yucatan nongovernmental organization, Fundacion Mundo Maya, partially matched their funds. Everyone paid their own travel expenses.

Working together with the locals, the group installed the biogas generators. Of course, new stoves meant celebratory cooking. The best post-installation meal? “Definitely the homemade waffle cones and ice cream,” Deshmukh says.

Written by Diego Ponce de León Baridó, Lindsay Holiday and Rebekah Shirley

This winter, Ranjit, Sasha, Felix, Ana, Grace, Sharada and ourselves (Diego, Lindsay, and Rebekah) traveled to the Yucatan state of Mexico to enjoy the warm water and sunshine of Central America and to work with Alex Eaton, Ranjit’s long-time friend and social entrepreneur. Alex is the CEO of Sistema Biobolsa and our aim was to help install five biogas-digesters that we helped fund in the Mayan community of Mani. The Mayan people of Mani continue to speak their indigenous language, eat traditional foods, use their traditional medicine, and seemed to hold unique, communal values that have lasted through time and seem to bind the community together.

It was incredible to work as a team, to travel with other ERGies and to see the components of a fantastic trip unfold: nature, sustainable development, friendship, love and adventure go hand in hand! For instance, the group spent the first three days of our time in Tulum, a quaint coastal town that is part of the karst landscape of the peninsula. Here water flowing through the limestone over hundreds of years has led to the formation of many connected underground caverns, called cenotes, along the Riviera Maya. The three of us had the opportunity to scuba dive through two cenotes. Down in the deep, quiet depths of the cave, the mystery of nature imposes itself on you. The ivory stalagmites like crumbling, ancient Grecian pillars were almost a stage for some Shakespearean tragedy. The eerie scene demands your attention, and your awe. It reminded us that even here, in the forgotten darkness, nature is beautiful, bold, teeming and alive. We were inspired by the sheer weight of that experience and it geared us up for the work ahead. In our own ways, all of us experienced new things through photography, diving, snorkeling, swimming, language, food, and culture. Indeed, the novelty in life blooms when surrounded by a positive and challenging environment, and new friendships.

Diving in the deep blue waters of Cenote ‘Dos Ojos’ was a ‘one in a life time’ opportunity for several of us! It is amazing to know that there is a lot in the world that is yet to be experienced and seen with our own eyes, development work and friendships from all over the world make this not only meaningful, but possible as well! Photo Credit: expertvagabond.com

Diego, Rebekah and Lindsay after the dive in ‘Dos Ojos’. After we finished our work in Yucatan and Quintana Roo we traveled to Mexico City to continue discovering the country and held stakeholder meetings for another ERGie project measuring the energy embedded in household water consumption in Mexico.

While in Mani we were hosted by a local agriculture and ecology training center (Mayan: ‘U Yits Ka’an, Escuela de Agricultura Ecologica). Being in this peaceful, gorgeous oasis of warm smiles, lush green forest and amazing home cooked Mexican meals was worth a trip in itself. In a matter of only five days, our ERG group managed to learn the mechanics of the biogas-digester system, inspected four households where they were currently installed, and installed five new systems. We also designed and built a hot water heating system for the school’s shower. We created a routine of helping and working together with each other and the community, and were immersed in a supportive space for collaboration and boundless ideation. Lindsay, often reflected on the similarities to existing social, political, cultural and infrastructural challenges that exist in her own Navajo reservation in Arizona. Diego, a Mexican himself, was blown away by a Mexico that he was only beginning to discover, and Rebekah, who hails from the Caribbean was touched by the friendships she formed with strangers of the village. It was a reminder that our differences do not divide us. Rather, the glue of curiosity binds us together. Needless to say, we had an amazing time of revelation and learning and we hope to have many more experiences like this again in the future together. 

Grace with women involved in the BioBolsa project, Woman Power in Mexico! ☺

Written by Svetlana Zenkin

Finals are almost finished, and we have a month-long break ahead of us. As my ERG cohort's first semester draws to a close, it's time to reminisce a little bit. I feel like a lot has happened since September, but also have perfectly vivid memories of our first meeting in Barrows Hall as a class.

It's been a challenging, yet rewarding few months. A big part of the challenge was that I had worked for six years between undergrad and grad school, so it took a while to re-adapt to student life. I was extremely nervous about doing well at the beginning of the semester. I even cried two days before one of my homework problem sets was due because I was afraid I wouldn't complete it perfectly and on time. This was for an assignment that was maybe worth two percent of my grade! Thankfully, I felt progressively better.

As far as the good parts, here are a few of my highlights:

• Living and enjoying Berkeley, probably my favorite place in the US!

• Learning a lot in Dan Kammen's Energy and Society class, which most ERGies take.
• Having fun working and griping about the homework assignments with my Microeconomics study group.
• Our newbie camping and canoe trip in September.
• Going to a salsa-dancing party organized by Tanya.
• Being constantly inspired and humbled by the knowledge, experience and good nature of my classmates.

Next semester promises to be busier, but hopefully also very rewarding. In addition to classes, I will be a Teaching Assistant for John Harte's "Quantitative Aspects of Environmental Programs" class. Also, I will be editing the blog and newsletter for the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC) as their VP Communications.

For now, I am looking forward to having an enjoyable and productive break. It'll be nice to read for pleasure, visit friends in San Francisco, go on more hikes and cook some of the recipes I've bookmarked during the Fall! Oh, and put some serious time into researching and applying for summer internships.