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Take Action
Green Your Downtime
Instead of passing time with computer solitaire, try Planet Green Game from Starbucks and Global Green USA. Choose your character and then bike, walk or drive around a virtual town to amass points by exercising your climate change savvy. At the end of the game, links explain how you can take similar actions in the real world.
http://www.planetgreengame.com/index.html
Kyoto or Bust
Although the U.N. Climate Change Conference will bring together leaders of many countries in December, more and more U.S. mayors are signing an agreement to advance the carbon-emission goals of the Kyoto Protocol, the current international compact. You can try to convince the mayor of your town to join these leaders from Miami, Dallas and 900 other cities.
www.usmayors.org/climateprotection/revised
E-activism
If you are passionate about creating a sustainable future, consider lending your name to Global Green USA's quest. The group champions three causes: slowing climate change, disposal of weapons of mass destruction and providing access to clean drinking water.
http://ggusa.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=Take_Action
Read
Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston III. By Christopher J. Preston (Trinity University Press, March 2009).
Heralded by some as the "father of environmental ethics," Holmes Rolston III works at the intersection of science and religion. This biography details Rolston's life and his philosophy of the value of nature.
Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities. By Jeff Mapes (Oregon State University, March 2009).
Cycling can be about much more than fitness, according to advocate Jeff Mapes. It can be an environmental and political act, too. He documents how, including his own efforts to rally riders in various cities.
Get Out
One Man's Trash…
Be inspired to think differently about refuse. A horse shadow-puppet made from discarded New York City umbrellas is part of Trash Menagerie, an exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., that runs through May 2010. If you can't make it to Salem check out the slideshow online.
http://pem.org/exhibitions/exhibition.php?id=83
America’s Greenest Campus
You can help win thousands of dollars to make your campus greener by getting the most people at your university to sign up and reduce their carbon emissions. Deadline is October 5. You can track your school's ranking on the Web site too.
http://americasgreenestcampus.com
IMHO, T4PE ROX
Anyone can join MySpace or Facebook, but teens who are passionate about the environment can get involved in Teens for Planet Earth (T4PE), a social networking site from the Wildlife Conservation Society. Post photos, add events and find projects.
www.teensforplanetearth.org
Watch
Home (2009)
Home has been released as a free, online, carbon-offset documentary. Aerial shots from more than 50 countries, along with Glenn Close's narration, document the beauty of life on earth and the destruction that humans are causing.
www.home-2009.com/us/index.html
The Age of Stupid (2009)
Starring Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite, this film is set in the year 2055. Postlethwaite plays an archivist who looks back on the present and asks: Why didn't we do something about climate change before it was too late?
www.ageofstupid.net
Learn
Green Chemistry
Some college chemistry labs are turning to green chemistry to minimize the use of hazardous chemicals both in the lab and in the commercial world. Professors and teachers can help prepare students for the greening job market with this database of experiments and topics from the University of Oregon.
http://greenchem.uoregon.edu/Pages/Search.php
Climate's Vital Signs
Keep your eye on 25 trends related to climate change using Vital Signs 2009, Worldwatch Institute's publication. Available as a PDF, paperback and coming soon as an online subscription service, the volume’s graphs and text outline trends in the economy, agriculture, the environment and more.
www.worldwatch.org/node/6090
Kids Write
Teachers can encourage their students to create submissions for Animal Diversity Web, an online encyclopedia from the University of Michigan. The award-winning site is a vehicle to help students learn how to do in-depth research and write scientifically. Worthy student submissions are made part of the permanent database.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html
Do It Yourself
Tweet-A-Watt
Using an off-the-shelf Kill-A-Watt power meter and a little know-how, you can clue-in followers on Twitter to how much energy your home is using. Find out how to make a Tweet-A-Watt and buy a starter kit online.
www.ladyada.net/make/tweetawatt/index.html
Back to Nature
Green University's Montana classrooms typically have no walls—unless you help build them. Interns are sent outbound to learn wilderness survival skills and experience adventures, and are then brought back to work on projects such as construction using mostly recycled materials. “We begin with self-sufficiency,” the program notes, “and look outward toward global sustainability.”
www.greenuniversity.net
