The Chic Ecologist

Instilling Green Values in Our Children

Instilling green values in our children is more important now than ever before. We take the time to teach our children study habits, math, and reading, to prepare them for college.  We also teach them to manage their money, and spend their allowances wisely. We do these things because we care about their future. But are we also caring for their environmental future? It is important that we not only go about our own environmental efforts, but that we teach our kids to care for the environment as well.  We adults often do a good job of living up to the green ideals and values that we believe in, but all too often we fail to instill green values in our children.

Start by introducing fun activities at home that demonstrate green values or principles. There are a ton of good books out there for ideas if you need it. Below are links to four of my favorites.

• 365 Ways to Live Green For Kids: Saving the environment at Home, School, or at Play — Everyday!
• The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth
• Green Mama: The Guilt Free Guide to Helping You and Your Kids Save the Planet
• Everything Kids’ Environment Book: Learn how you can help the environment-by getting involved at school, at home, or at play (Everything Kids Series)

There are also many websites for kids to learn more about the environment. My favorite resource for kid-friendly sites is from the National Resources Defense Council (Find it here!). They have the largest list I’ve found of fun sites for kids of all ages. I have to admit as an adult, that even I like to play around on a few of them in my spare time. There’s also a few sites listed where kids can get involved in enacting policy change by writing letters to local legislature or identify areas for change in their schools or at home.
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Tags: environmental education, Environmentally Responsible, future, Green Living, values

Pacific Plastic Trash Island

A very troubling recent find in our ocean was a huge ‘island’ of trash twice the size of Texas and more than 30 feet deep. Just imagine a 3 story Wal-Mart sprawling from the Mexico border up from California and Arizona, through Nevada, Idaho and the whole west coast (including Oregon and Washington) and you have and idea what I’m talking about. The overall area of this behemoth is twice that of the Continental United States given its depth. Now imagine that there are TWO of them: the Western Garbage Patch just north of Hawaii, and the Eastern Garbage Patch just east of Japan.

I can’t say it was that recent, as it was predicted by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) back in 1988 and has been tracked (and growing) ever since. So why has it taken so long to get out to the public and why are there still people who don’t believe in it’s existence?

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Tags: biodegradable, Disposable, Environmental Awareness, environmental education, environmental impact, plastic, trash island

EPA Dubs May as Sustainability Month

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are celebrating Sustainability Month this May as part of the Year of Science 2009. The Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS), the creators of the Year of Science 2009, are attempting to promote science in peoples everyday lives and engage the public.

Highlighting the need to meet our needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, Sustainability Month addresses the EPA’s efforts in sharing ideas for a sustainable future. This includes connecting with the public through blogs, podcasts and demonstrations of the importance of sustainability in our communities, and encouraging our youth to be more involved in science.

May activities:

• Science of sustainability photo project on Flickr: http://www.epa.gov/yearofscience/sustain_photo.htm
• EPA scientists including Dr. Alan Hecht will blog on sustainability on
  Greenversations under Science Wednesday http://blog.epa.gov/blog/category/sciencewednesday/ and http://www.yearofscience2009.org/themes_sustainability/celebrate/
• On May 8, EPA staff will give hands on science demonstrations for Math and Science Day at the Maryland Six Flags Amusement Park. Staff will also microblog at the event: http://twitter.com/greenversations
• Dr. Diane Bauer of EPA will be featured on “Meet the Scientist” on COPUS Year of Science Web site: http://www.yearofscience2009.org/themes_sustainability/meet-scientists
• On May 18, EPA will host a science of biofuels session at the American Institute of Biological Sciences
• EPA podcasts on science issues: http://es.epa.gov/ncer/multimedia.html

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Tags: Environmental Awareness, environmental education, science, sustainable