Mom Goes Green

(This giveaway is closed for entries.  See “comments” for winner announcement.)

As if I haven’t mentioned it at least a dozen times, I love reading with my kids.  During Earth Hour we read books by flashlight(!) and, with Earth Day just around the corner, there is a lot of eco-reading happening at Mom Goes Green’s house!

One of our new favorites is The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge… the newest installment in the series.  My daughter was thrilled to help me review this book because ever since she picked up her first Magic School Bus book, she’s been hooked… and so have I!  This time the adventure takes us from the Arctic to the equator to see all of the causes and effects of global warming… and give kids ways to make a difference, in terms that they’ll understand.  And, as always, Ms. Frizzle and her class does it in their usual fun and humorous way that makes “eco-friendly science” extraordinarily kid-friendly too!

Our daughter loves the book and it’s clear that she’s learned a lot because she loves spouting off little facts every so often.  Clearly, The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge made an impact on her and thanks to Scholastic a few Mom Goes Green readers can share the adventure too!

These fantastic prizes are up for grabs:

• One Grand Prize winner will receive a copy of The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge, plus a set of organic, reusable sandwich and snack bags
• Two additional readers will receive a copy of The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge

How do you enter?…. well, just leave a comment saying you’d like to win and tell me about the “little adventurer” you’d like to share these prizes with, or send a Twitter message that includes a reply to @momgoesgreen and a link to this blog. The winners will be randomly selected on April 26! (US entries only… sorry!).

If you’d like to take on an additional adventure join in the live webcast with author Joanna Cole and Bruce Degan on Tuesday, April 20th (1 pm ET/10 am PT) as they join Ms. Frizzle to celebrate Earth Day and their new book at the Liberty Science Center.

In the meanwhile, climb aboard… and join Mom Goes Green on The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge!

(Seriously?!? Be afraid. Be very afraid.)

Once again the Mom Goes Green household proudly participated in Earth Hour 2010!… and the kids were no less excited than they were last year!

They eagerly stacked pillows all over the floor so we could snuggle up to read some books by flashlight and assisted Daddy in getting a fire roaring in the fireplace so we could make “S’mores”!  Undoubtedly our book was about climate change and I might have been annoyed by all of the interruption of questions, but it meant they were listening… and understood… and cared.

They knew it would be fun but they also excitedly talked about how people all over the world were switching off their lights too.  I can’t tell you how many times they asked where the lights were going off!  I’m excited to say that I can actually show them…. thanks to this fantastic collection of photos compiled by Boston.com you can show your kids that they really did participate in an incredible worldwide event.

In this presentation you can click on the photos and watch as the lights dim in these amazing places all over the world… take a look at this list:  Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Seattle, Singapore, Beijing, Moscow, Sydney, Athens, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Atlanta, Hong Kong, Oslo, Albany, Hiroshima, New York City, Abu Dhabi, Bucharest, Capetown and Cairo! When else can you imagine these cities and countries banded together in a unified cause… Earth Hour brought the world together in support of our common thread… Planet Earth!

I loved being a part of Earth Hour again this year. It “moves me”… what can I say!?  Now I’m also excited to see how many students from our daughter’s school participated.  Last week I sent home a notice with all 402 of them(!) announcing Earth Hour and, if they sign the pledge that says they participated, some of them will be randomly selected to win an eco-prize reward including BPA-free water bottles, pencils made from recycled newspapers and TerraCycle pencil bags (made from upcycled drink pouches)!

If you and your family participated, THANK YOU! If not, look and be inspired… and take a moment to enjoy the view of this spectacular event…

Have you marked your calendar?  This Saturday, March 27th, 2010, from 8:30-9:30 pm is Earth Hour!

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning off their lights for one hour as a “vote” FOR the earth, and a “vote” AGAINST global warming.  By 2009, this movement had grown to hundreds of millions of people, and even darkened the Sydney Opera House, Rome’s Colosseum, The Eiffel Tower in Paris, The Parthenon in Greece, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the Las Vegas Strip and New York City’s Times Square.

Last year people from all around the world switched off their lights in a unified vote because, regardless of where you live, we all depend on the same planet! This is the perfect time to turn off the lights, discuss global warming and the importance of “being green” as a family and consider taking actions to assure that we aren’t polluting our earth and overusing resources in our everyday lives.

For more information, go to www.earthhour.org and sign-up to be “officially” counted!

Want to know what we did last year?… click here… now…

Will you “vote” with me again this year?

Until recently I had never really heard much about palm oil… but as soon as I did, everything changed.

More and more, palm oil is commonly being used as an ingredient in everyday products including margarine, shortening, baked foods, cookies, candies and even soaps, candles and personal care products. Its main purpose, aside from its “binding properties”, is to replace trans fat that we’re all trying to avoid, however, there is also a great sacrifice being made through the acceptance of palm oil as our alternative to such things as hydrogenated oil…

… The sacrifice is vast amounts of rainforests and the animals that make the rainforest their home. These forests are being cleared at alarming rates to make way for palm plantations and to keep up with the demand for the product. Malaysia and Indonesia account for 83% of the production and 89% of the export of palm oil.  Within these countries the threat is enormous for endangered species including orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinoceroses.  The threat is the greatest for the orangutans, as they live ONLY in these areas that are being cleared to make way for the palm oil plantations.  As you can imagine, the occurrence of hunting and poaching these poor animals has dramatically increased as well, and it is estimated that 50 orangutan are being killed each week.  At this rate, their existence is limited… and I find that absolutely heartbreaking and unnecessary.

It’s also important to realize that when this deforestation occurs and the rainforests are burned, they release decades of stored carbon back into the atmosphere, contributing to the tragedy of global warming.

Also keep in mind that, though the health effects of palm oil may be a BIT less with palm oil as a substitute, it is NOT a heart-healthy food or adequate hydrogenated oil substitute, like olive, soy or canola oils.  It is only a smoke-screen used by manufacturers because it is a cheap substitute and keeps the words “trans fat” off of the content label.

Sadly, the demand for palm oil is expected to double in the next 10 years… IF we continue to support the products that are using this oil as a “new” substitute.  This is NOT an option.

When you are shopping, DO NOT PURCHASE products containing palm oil.  By NOT buying, and selecting products without palm oil, it speaks loud and clear.  It means you will not support this product and the harm and destruction it is creating!

(* Note: the image above shows a palm oil plantation as it butts up to a rainforest that has been cleared for this crop.)

That’s a question I had always wondered about.  When we think about climate change, or global warming, we often visualize an image like a polar bear precariously balanced on a small floating patch of ice but, in the bigger picture, can it affect our own health?

The answer is absolutely.

Unfortunately, there are many ways that are often overlooked and never even discussed when we consider climate change.  The change in global temperature can have long-term effects on human health because it affects the food we eat, the diseases we get, the disorders we develop, the air we breathe and the water we drink… all the things essential to a healthy body.

Here are just a few concerns to consider if anyone ever thinks this is only an environmental issue:

• Greenhouse gasses can cause respiratory issues and more severe problems for asthma suffers because plants will actually produce more allergens when temperatures increase.

• Extra heat creates more ground-level ozone, and increases pollution, which creates added stress for our heart and lungs.

• Rising temperatures can increase the range of infectious parasites and therefore increase the rate and severity of infectious diseases.

• Weather extremes will increase, resulting in intense heat waves or bouts of bitter cold, resulting in cardiovascular and respiratory disorders.

• Crops can become compromised, decreasing the yield and reducing their nutritional quality.

• Water supplies are reduced along with the quality of water, coupled with an increase of water-borne illnesses.

Research has shown that bugs, plants, animals are all literally moving closer to the poles to escape the increases in heat.  Tropical fish have even been found off the coast of Long Island, New York, because of the rise in water temperature.

The next time someone rejects the idea of climate change affecting their lives, remind them that our environment can’t change without changing us too!

Until a few years ago, the term “carbon footprint” was absolutely foreign to me.  In all honesty, I had no real sense of what it meant… just a very vague understanding that it had something to do with global warming and climate change.

If you still don’t have a true sense of what it means, here’s a quick and simple definition:

Carbon Footprint – the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by your daily activities and use of material goods.  Used to determine your personal participation in global warming.

Eww.  That makes it sound so villainous!… my “participation in global warming”…

So, have you ever wondered about your footprint?  I’ve ALWAYS wondered.  The Global Footprint Network has a fun little calculator (if discovering how horribly we’re impacting our planet can actually be fun!) and it probably told me more than I wanted to know.  Answering some basic questions about my daily lifestyle alerted me to the fact that if everyone lived like me, it would take 3.5 planets to provide enough resources to support us. Ouch.  Although it doesn’t tell you how you rank, I’m sure I’m below average, but still… ouch!

There is also a great calculator for kids at Zero Footprint.  My kids scored fantastic, and far below average, so at least I’m doing something right!

Well, come’on!  How did you fare?… Baby footprint?  Gargantuan footprint?  Take the quiz, and fess-up… if you dare…

When we were planning for our recent vacation I knew there was a lot more to consider than just being green once we arrived at our destination.  Obviously we had to get “from here to there” first.

Our greenest travel options would have been to travel by train or rent a hybrid, but definitely not by plane, since the emissions from airplanes are astronomical and have a tremendous effect on global warming!  In fact, a one-way flight from New York to Denver produces as much carbon dioxide per passenger as an SUV produces in a month!  But since we were driving our own car, we had it maintenanced before our trip (including proper inflation of the tires) and used the cruise to assure maximum fuel efficiency.

While we planned our driving route, we not only considered the trip that was the shortest, but also with the least likelihood of “stop and go” traffic because this only burns huge amounts of fuel (much more than steady driving for a longer distance) and again creates more emissions.  (We mistakenly challenged this thinking on our way home and paid the price in both time and fuel consumption!)

On our way to vacation, we also needed to spend one overnight in a hotel during our travels.  It’s not always easy to locate and select a green hotel when you’re in a remote area of the country, but there are ways to make your stay a little greener.

• Although it was only an overnighter, had we stayed longer we would have chosen to keep and reuse our towels and sheets more than once.  More and more hotels are offering this option and it certainly saves the energy required to do the washing.
• Also, use your same “at home” rules about turning off lights and TVs, reasonable AC temperatures and the length of your showers.  Being away from home shouldn’t be a license to overuse.
• And if you find yourself with recyclables but the hotel doesn’t recycle, take them with you and be sure to find a place where they can be recycled instead of having them become trash.

No matter where you go, how you go or where you stay along the way, choose to “follow the greener brick road” to your destination!

First, it is World Environment Day.  I had never heard of it either, but it actually commemorates the day the United Nations General Assembly established its first global effort aimed at protecting the environment in 1972.  It is meant to bring worldwide awareness to the environment, enhance political attention and bring action for future generations.

Sounds pretty intense to me.  But while part of the event is to show an urgency for nations to agree on a crucial climate deal at the Copenhagen Convention later this year, it is also simply another opportunity to “do something”.  Afterall, this year’s theme is “Your Planet Needs You – Unite to Combat Climate Change.”

I sometimes get intimidated by these huge scale projects, but I guess it all really boils down to the fact that “it really does take everyone” – from individuals, to local and national governments, to entire nations.  That’s really how it gets done.

If you want to commemorate the day, consider:

• Tweet for Trees – follow the Twitter page by June 5 and UNEP will plant a tree for each follower in their Billion Tree Campaign
• Choose a new habit – there is a great list of ideas provided by WED.  Add something to your daily life today
• Consider an ever grander scale commitment – WED has a list from A-Z

The important thing to remember is that you make a difference and every effort is worth the effort.

My other celebration today is my stepdad, Ted.  It’s his 62nd birthday and, while he is still in critical condition, he is still here with us and he is still fighting.  Now more than ever, I realize how fragile life can be.  Whether it’s the gift of life or the beauty of the extraordinary world we live in, give thanks.  Do your part to protect and care for everything and everyone that makes it worth living.  Isn’t that what it’s really about?

Happy Birthday, Dad… from all of us, with all our love.

First of all, this has absolutely nothing to do with “Purple Rain”(!), but everything to do with saving cherished tropical rainforests!

The Prince’s Rainforests Project (as in Charles, Prince of Wales) was started in 2007, but is being given a big push by the release of this new PSA. If it takes royalty and celebrities to get a cause noticed, I don’t care… I’m all for it, as long as the cause DOES get noticed and positive steps are made.  I think this will appeal to kids too… take a look.

The mission of this project is to create public awareness, work with governments, businesses and non-profit organizations to find a solution for deforestation, and find sources for funding.  This global effort is aimed at getting top level support from nations around the world.

Saving these tropical rainforests is so critical because they absorb about a fifth of all man-made CO2 emissions, and we all know how CO2 affects climate change.  In fact, these forests are often burned down, which releases all of the CO2 they have stored back into the atmosphere, as if they had never existed.  And this doesn’t even consider the fate of the animals that call these forests home.

So check out The Prince’s Rainforests Project, sign-up to have your voice heard, find new ways to help and spread the word.  Stand up and say you want this preventable disaster to stop.

And when you take a look at The Prince’s Rainforests Project site, be sure to watch the counter at the top of the page.  In the time I spent reading one page on the site… 445,129 square meters of rainforest were destroyed.  How horribly sad.