Art for the earth

I just learned about a great annual event called The International Children's Painting Competition on the Environment. The competition, which has been held since 1991, is organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer and Nikon Corporation. It has had 180,000 entries from children in over 100 countries. This year's theme was Climate Change, and the 1st Prize Global Winner is above.

Click here for more information on how to enter the competition. What a great way to take action and be heard! Also, if you are feeling inspired to create your own art on the environment, you can send it to me and I will display it on this website.

EcoPhones...Recycle and raise money

Here's a great idea that I wish I had come up with: raising money for your school or community organization by collecting and recycling electronics. Instead of walking around your block selling magazines and other junk to your neighbors that they don't want (but buy out of guilt), do them a favor and take their junk off their hands. They will be forever greatful.

75% of old electronics sit in closets and basements all over the country because people don't know how to properly dispose of them. Popularly known as e-waste, old cell phones, dvd players, tv's, computers, dvd's, cameras, etc., are dangerous to the environment because they leak hazardous materials such as cadmium, lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium or chromium VI and brominated flame retardants into the ground and air. To make matters worse, electronics are made using valuable resources such as precious metals, engineered plastics, glass, and other materials that require energy to manufacture. When electronics are thrown in a landfill, these precious materials are lost and more energy will be required to produce new products from virgin resources.

EcoPhones is an company that has helped 22,000 schools and organizations raise funds by recycling electronics. They pay up $300 per item! For more information visit their website.

Walk, bike, rollerskate or skateboard to school...saving the environment one step at a time

It's that time of year again. The first day of school. If it hasn't happened to you yet, it will soon! Are you a little scared? Or really excited? I used to love the walk to school with my friends the first day back. We would leave really early to leave lots of time to discuss all the critical things: who we hoped was in our class, who we dreaded being in our class, and where exactly we would meet on the playground at recess to update eachother on the these topics. It was our way of easing into the long year ahead of us.

There are about 242,000,000 cars driving around the United States. Cars and trucks run on fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In fact, cars are responsible for 30% of greenhouses gas emissions. Although you may not be old enough to drive, you are old enough to make choices about how you get around. Instead of having mom or dad drive you to school or to practice, walk or ride your bike. Start a club of kids from your neighborhood to walk or bike to school with you. Encourage each other to join in the group everyday. Walking or riding to school is a great chance to hang out with your friends and is much more fun than sitting in a car! So whiz past all the traffic and arrive at school or practice energized and ready to go. For every mile you walk or bike, you will save 1 pound of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.

To help you with this activity:

–Set a goal with your friends for a certain number of days of walking or biking instead of riding in a car. When you reach your goal, celebrate! Have a party or treat yourselves to your favorite treat.
–Turn this into a classroom activity. Have teachers keep track of car–free days, and compete with other classrooms in your school.
–If you live too far from school to walk or ride a bike, ask your parents or bus driver to drop you off a 1/2 mile from school or home and walk the rest of the way.
–Extra Bonus: Walking and bike riding are great for your health and will help you feel great too!
-Click here for safty tips for riding your bike.

Cool Facts:

-Bicyclists get 2,500 miles per gallon (this takes into consideration the extra kilocalories of food you will eat to give you the energy to pedal that bike.)
-Sidewalks and bike paths require a fraction of land compared to roads.
-According to the Department of Transportation, cars in the US are driven an average of 10,000 miles annually—which means that Americans drive more than a trillion miles every year!

Roots & Shoots

We all want to make the world a better place. But knowing where to begin and how to get involved can be a major road block for many of us. As a kid, getting people to take you seriously can be frustrating. And as a parent or teacher, you may want to be leader for your children in making an impact on the environment but don't know how. Roots & Shoots offers wonderful opportunities to join in and get involved. Roots & Shoots teams make positive change happen for their communities, for animals and for the environment through projects, special events and global campaigns. It is a youth–driven network of 8,000 groups in 100 countries guided by the priciples and vision of Dr. Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist, environmentalist and humanitarian. "Her firm belief that young people, when informed and empowered, when they realize that what they do truly makes a difference, can indeed change the world, is at the very heart of our program."

You can either join a pre-existing group or start your own. If you are an educator, click here for information on how to implement a Roots & Shoots program at your school.

Go take a hike!

While visiting Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island, Maine, I have been enjoying the seemingly endless number of hiking trails on the island. I have gone on 5 hikes in 5 days. (Disclaimer: some were more like picnics in the woods, but others were so long that it all averages out!) I have 2 days left on the island, and I hope to do 2 more hikes. Being a country girl, living in the city, being anywhere near nature is such a thrill for me.

With the summer days winding down and cool fall days just ahead, now is a prime hiking time. Hiking can be as simple as strolling in the woods or as rigorous as scaling a mountain top. All across the country, thousands of beautiful, secluded trails are ready and waiting to be explored. When you step away from the daily sights and sounds of your life and into the woods, the desert, or the field, you will begin to notice the incredible diversity of life we have on our planet. Hiking is a fantastic way to strengthen your relationship with nature, and a rousing reminder of what is at stake if we don't take care of the environment.



For a helpful guide to hiking and information on taking a volunteer hiking vacation visit americanhiking.org. This website also has a great
guide to trails across the U.S.
Visit abc-of-hiking.com for a beginners guide to hiking.



We need the tonic of wildness…We can never have enough of nature…We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.

Henry David Thoreau from Walden Pond

Create a backyard habitat

Growing a backyard habitat can do many wonderful things for the environment besides halting the use of a polluting lawnmower. You can plant a variety of native trees, bushes and wildflowers that have evolved to live in your area and require virtually no maintenance. Trees grow deep roots that prevent soil from eroding and also conserve water. Your habitat will encourage beautiful birds, butterflies, insects and other wildlife to your yard. Because so many animals are crowded out of their natural habitats by buildings and roads, your backyard will become an important sanctuary for them to thrive in. Wildlife need food, water and shelter to survive. When you plant native trees, bushes and flowers, you have already begun to provide food and shelter.

Here are some more helpful tips to attract creatures to your yard:

–Put out a birdbath. Make sure to change the water in the birdbath every other day so that it doesn’t turn into mosquitoville! Every few days scrub it with a stiff brush or pinecone and rinse it well.

–Choose plants that flower and produce fruit at different times of the year so that creatures will have food to eat year–round.

–Provide shelter by placing logs, brushes and rocks in your habitat.

This is a great opportunity to create a nature journal to record the exciting changes that you will see as your habitat begins to grow and attract creatures!

Activity: The Toad Abode

Get a medium-size clay pot and saucer. Fill the saucer with water and put it on the ground. Close by, put the pot upside-down with one edge propped up with a rock. This will give the toad enough room to fit inside his cozy “abode”. If you can find a broken pot that is missing a chunk then there will be no need to prop it up—all the better!

For more information on backyard habitats, visit the National Wildlife Federation website on gardening for wildlife and click here to watch clips from Animal Planet's show Backyard Habitat.

The grass isn't always greener...

Do you find that you are running out of good excuses when your parents ask you to mow the lawn? They will be surprised to hear that using a lawnmower for one hour pollutes the air as much as driving in a car for 350 miles!

Lawns can pollute in other ways, too. A lot of water is used to keep grass green...in fact, almost one-third of all household water use–more than 7 billion gallons per day–goes to watering lawns. And to make matters worse, we in the United States use 580 million gallons of gas for our lawnmowers, spend $5 billion dollars every year on fertilizers made from fossil fuels and use 67 million pounds of synthetic pesticides for our lawns! Convinced? Good, now here's what you can do:

1) Use an electric lawn mower. They produce less than 1% of the smog-contributing carbon monoxide that gas mowers put out and 1/9000th the hydrocarbons. However, they only produce 6 less pounds of carbon dioxide.

2) So, better yet, use a reel push mower like one of these. With no electricity costs, zero on-site emissions and a much smaller price tag they are a great option.

3) Water your lawn only in the morning or the evening. Water evaporates 8 times faster during the heat of the day!

4) Collect water from downspouts to water your lawn.

5) And finally, turning your yard into a backyard habitat is the best way to make your yard really green. But we'll save that for the next post. So check back in to learn more...