Plant native trees...

Planting native trees is a small act that will have a huge impact. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and in turn produce oxygen for us to breath. A tree can absorb and store between 700 and 7,000 pounds of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. When providing shade for a house, a tree can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and can save an extra 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide over it’s lifetime.

Native trees are a good idea because they are plants that have evolved to live in your area. They require little maintenance and provide homes and food for creatures in their ecosystem.

If you want to learn more about planting trees, the American Forest Organization has a nice guide here. Visit Arborday.org to find out what trees will grow in your area.

A brilliant idea….

One of the best things you can do for the planet is also one of the simplest. Replacing one traditional incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (known as a CFL) will stop 100 pounds of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere. The energy you would save would be equal to the amount used to run a nuclear power plant for one year. Now just imagine if you changed all of the light bulbs in your house!

Recycle, for gorillas' sake!

While visiting the Bronx Zoo yesterday I went to the Congo Gorilla Forest, a great exhibit with more than 20 western lowland gorillas. Outside the exhibit I noticed a recepticle and a sign asking people to recycle their old cell phones. You are probably wondering, what does my cell phone have to do with gorillas? Unfortunately, according to National Geographic News, it has a lot to do with it. Many electronic devices, including ipods, most computers, dvd players and game consoles, contain coltan, a mineral that is extracted from the forests of Congo in central Africa. These forests are the home to the endangered lowland gorillas. In recent years Congo's coltan mining has gotten out of control and has led to a dramatic loss of animal habitat and a 70% population decline of gorillas. More than 10,000 illegal miners have come to dig for coltan in protected parks in cental Africa, killing gorillas and elephants for the bush-meat trade (the hunting of wild animals for food.)

But thanks to Eco-cell, which runs a recycling program at 46 different zoos, we can recycle old cellphones and be a part of the solution. Click here to find where to go in your area to recycle your old cell phones. For more information on the Congo and a list of products that contain coltan, visit The Friends of the Congo website.

Lick global warming...the fun way

Check out this great website created by our favorite ice cream guys, Ben & Jerry's. Lick Global Warming is a colorful and animated website with an easy to understand guide to the climate crisis, along with an interactive map that explains the effects of global warming on glaciers, oceans, weather patterns, plants and animals, along with other difficult to comprehend topics such as how global warming is impacting people around the world. For a fun way to learn more about what you can do to reduce carbon emissions, play the Lick Global Warming Memory Game. It's almost as fun as eating a whole pint of cookie dough ice cream all by yourself!

Welcome to the Green Guide for Kids

When I was in 4th grade, my school, and the entire country, celebrated the second ever Earth Day. This was the first time that adults had spoken honestly to me, and probably most of my classmates, about the environment. I learned that day that the well-being of the earth that I lived, breathed and played on was, in a way, sick. I was taught that human beings, by going about their day to day lives, were slowly polluting and destroying the planet. But instead of letting this very distressing news get me down, I got right to work at fixing the problem. I picked up all the litter on the walk on the way home from school. When my friends came over after school we continued cleaning up all the litter on our block and in the woods across the street from my house until dinner time. I was determined that I could make a difference, and I did!

Today, the environmental crisis we face is much more dangerous than we realized 17 years ago. You may think that kids can't really make a difference. You probably feel frustrated with adults, wondering when are they going to do something? Kind of like when your mom or dad are talking with another adult at the store and they won't stop blabbering. You get antsy and just want to go!!! That urge for kids to get up and go is why kids are such a powerful force to change the world. While most adults stand around and talk about doing things, kids do things.

This website is a place for you to get information, share ideas with kids from all over the world and learn about cool activities that will change the planet for the better. So don't be afraid to speak up and share your questions and experiences. Let's get started!