After an exciting 3rd quarter, the score is 35-36 in favor of Bishop O’Dowd.

The game is tied at 20-20 at half time.

13-12 Acalanes at the quarter. Sloppy passes and missed opportunities abound.

The 2007 Acalanes Boys Varsity Basketball team has had the most successful season in the school’s history, winning DFAL, NCS Division III with hardly a rough patch along the way. Today they are in the Northern California Championships at the Stockton Arena. I’m here along with hundreds of fans, hoping that our team will win and advance to the State Championship at Arco Arena in Sacramento. Today’s game is against Bishop O’Dowd and promises to be a close match. I’ll be giving score reports at each quarter so you can keep up with the action.

-Will Ewing

Global warming has been getting a lot of attention in the media lately and with good reason. It is a drastic environmental problem with worldwide implications. Scientists around the world are publishing data that supports the conclusion that the problem will cause noticeable damage in the very near future. Blah blah blah, right?

Wrong. This problem affects everybody in the world, especially teenagers in California. From an environmental perspective, California’s diverse range of climates and habitats are much more sensitive to temperature change than more homogeneous geographic areas. The front page article on Monday in the Times addressed a key aspect of global warming reality in California: water. Much of the beauty we all enjoy in California has been made possible because of a complex system of water distribution, which will be severely compromised as less snow falls each year. If you are a teenager who enjoys living in the diverse and lush Bay Area, you should care about global warming.

On a more materialistic note, anybody who enjoys snow sports should care A LOT about global warming. Lots of Contra Costa teenagers plan their winters around snowboarding and skiing in the Sierra Nevada. If you would like to be able to someday teach your children to enjoy snowboarding, you should care about warming. As today’s article said, many ski resort officials are very concerned about the long-term future of Tahoe snow sports. Of course, anybody who surfs should already be aware of the consequences of global warming. As a surfing enthusiast myself, I fully realize that the slowly rising ocean ( 7 inches in 100 years and speeding up) will, if unabated, destroy many of the world-famous surf breaks along California’s coast.

So if all of the attention in the news about global warming gets to be bothersome and you find yourself thinking “I just don’t care,” then think again. We’re all in this together and whether you realize it or not, there is probably something that you value in life that global warming threatens. And to really stop the hub-bub, go out and DO SOMETHING. If you get enough people involved, hopefully someday this problem will be solved and you will never have to hear about it again.

-Will Ewing