Participate in Earth Hour or Earth Day!

Earth Day

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans performed a demonstration in the streets, parks, and auditoriums to protest for a healthy, sustainable environment. In 1990 Earth Day went global, 200 million people in 141 countries participated in the event. Earth Day raises awareness to the world about environmental issues, by educating people worldwide about different ways we can all help save the environment. Share ideas with friends on how to reduce, reuse and recycle and how to stay green, let’s do what we can to reduce climate change.

If you want to take part:
Earth Day is held every year on April 22.

For More Information Visit: http://www.earthday.net/node/77


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24_gqlIURMs

Earth Hour

Earth hour will not fix climate change, but it is a good way to raise awareness around the world. Earth hour was originally started by the World Wildlife Fund of Australia. It was first held on the last Saturday of March in 2007, and more than two million people and businesses took part in this event. They shut off their lights for an hour, resulting in a 10% reduction in consumption on the city electrical grid. In the next year the event went global. Earth Hour 2009 included: 83 countries; which had 2 400 cities, towns and municipalities, just under 19 000 business and 5 500 organizations.

Earth hour is encouraging the world to conserve energy, and has been effective with the increasing number of countries each year it is celebrated. Next time think twice about conserving energy, turn off a light when you leave the room or even change some or all of your light bulbs in your house to energy saving bulbs. These are just two ways you can reduce energy consumption on a daily basis.

If you want to take part:
Earth Hour is held on the last Saturday of March at 8:00pm.

For More Information Visit: http://wwf.ca/earthhour/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CRs-7lRlPo

Reduce Your Grocery Footprint!

Thinking about reducing your grocery footprint? Here are some simple ways that can help you contribute to the environment:

Reduce the amount of plastic bags used in grocery stores. Using cloth bags that can be used over and over are a more green way to control the amount of plastic bags given in the grocery store. They are also bigger so you can carry more items in one bag. Be careful about putting certain foods together (For example: chicken and lettuce).

Fact:
The average global citizen has a global footprint of about 5.56 acres per year.

Global Footprint: Is the measurement of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems, and it compares to the Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the human consumption of resources and their waste.

Purchase foods that are the most affordable, available, tastes the best and have a low impact on the environment.

Try: Local groceries!

Reduce the amount of unnecessary plastic packaging. Select food items with the least amount of packaging to reduce waste.

Fact:
Plastic is very hard to breakdown the molecules it is made of, and takes years to do so!

Make sure that you follow your disposable instructions for your region. If you don’t have specific instructions to dispose of your garbage use a compost when applicable and remember to try and reduce reuse and recycle all products.

Purchase foods that are seasonally available. These food items will more likely be from local farmers.

Fact:
"Food Miles"- the distance that the food travels to get to its destination. By decreasing the
amount of food miles, you are contributing to the reduction of fossil fuels.

Choose food items that are packaged or processed closer to you, rather than across the country.

Fact:
Food items imported from other countries are less envrionmentally friendly, this uses high
amounts of gas, which gives off large amounts of "greenhouse" gases.

Polar Bears at Risk of Survival

Polar Bears have been struggling to survive over the past five years. Their food is scarce, pollution is affecting their habitats and overhunting is threatening this species. They live in the harsh environments of Greenland, Norway, Alaska, Canada and Russia. With the extreme climates it is making it difficult for the polar bears to to hunt for food in order to survive.

One of the major concerns of the polar bears survival is the change in global temperature, causing their habitats to melt. They are starving to death because climate change is melting the Arctic sea ice at an alarming rate. In the past five years, summer sea ice has declined about 20% due to the warming temperatures. Even though polar bears are excellent swimmers, they cannot catch seals easily in water. The death count rises, as the bears are found drowned or starved all over the Arctic. Even their cubs are not being able to survive over a year because of the scarce food.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjHlNA2dql4

Another concern is overhunting. For example, Alaskan natives depend on hunting the bears as part of their diet. Because certain country regulations are not concise the risk of overhunting the bears left is at a threatening rate.

Environmentalists are hoping the Endangered Species Act protections will eventually provoke the government to provide a cut back of emissions of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases” blamed for global warming.

The government has decided to wait about a year before they decide to whether or not they should put polar bears on the endangered list, meaning the species is more likely to become extinct. In a year what will our world be like? Will we have caused more damage? Or will we each try to do our part to reduce global warming? Will these bears be on the endangered species list next year? ... I hope not!

For More Information Visit:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35524
http://www.seattlepi.com/national/297479_polarbears28.html