WILD

How many are left?

My husband and I have been working on a National Geographic project that is helping to bring digital storytelling into high school classrooms. One of the students in a Communication class created a stunning powerpoint story about the decline of endangered species. When she shared this presentation to the full 11 & 12 grade class a collective gasp could be heard as the last slide finished. Her story made a huge impact on the audience. I think you'll agree that this piece is quite powerful in its simplicity. Alejandro became so enthused about the topic and the ... Read More

Phoenix Rising: The promise of Greenburg, Kansas and New Orleans

A tornado completely wiped out a town of 10,000 in Greenburg, Kansas.  One of the ideas being floated for the rebuilding process is to make it the first completely green rural town. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is one of the proponents of this idea.  She says:” If we could start over, wouldn’t we want to do things differently? This is a chance.” Although the politics and powerplays are much more complex in New Orleans, one of the bright spots is Brad Pitt’s commitment to rebuild an area using state of the art green building techniques.   In partnership with global green, an ... Read More

Yet another Canary: Coral Reefs

This story was heart breaking. In 2002, Dr. David Obura a specialist in Coral Reefs visited the Phoenix Islands in the heart of the Pacific and declared that they were  “Earth’s  last pockets of primal ocean…those underwater havens that have remained unspoiled as long as the ocean can remember” Because these islands are so remote no one visited them again until 2004. They were shocked to see that these once pristine reefs teaming with fish were now dead.   They test for all known causes of coral reef destruction and none were found. Given their remote location it could not have been industrial waste ... Read More

Al Gore hosts SOS films at Tribeca Film Festival

He may not have invented the internet… but he sure has ushered in a new era of storytelling.  Inconvenient Truth catapulted global warming onto the public stage almost overnight.  Kevin Wall, the founder of SOS and  producer of the upcoming Live Earth Concerts in July,  states: “The mission of the SOS Short Films Program is to create a series of educational and compelling short films that highlight the problems of, and engage people with solutions for, the global climate crisis….The SOS Short Films Program harnesses some of the world's most creative minds to educate, inform and inspire people across the globe to ... Read More

The Encyclopedia of Life

It’s called The Encyclopedia of Life and when it is finished it will offer photographs, video, sound, maps and multimedia information. Already 1.25 million pages have been scanned. This project could not have been done even 5 years ago.  It is only possible because of recent advances in technology, media and search capacities. Their introductory video walks you through the vision and possibilities for this site. http://www.eol.org/home.html    And check out the demonstration pages to see how the site will work http://www.eol.org/vision/bear_novice.html Read More

About the price tag: Can you afford $10 a year?

Total population of the earth: 6.5 billion  Multiply this times the GDP of the world economy: US$59 trillion. Then multiply this by the IPCC cost estimate of 0.12% of the world's domestic product to substantially reduce our collective greenhouse gas emissions. Cost per person to significantly reduce heat-trapping gas worldwide: $10 a year. Cost of saving the planet from droughts, famine, mass flooding, species extinction and rising sea levels: priceless. Borrowed from http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/4/162223/0465 Tags:  Climate Change Read More

We have 8 years to get it together

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has determined that the cost of reducing the worst consequences of climate change will be just 0.12% of the world GDP.  That’s just about nothing. And they also say we already have all the technologies we need to address this problem. That’s very good news. It’s relatively cheap and we have the tools. Here’s the bad news. We have only 8 years.  We have until 2015 to stop the rise in CO2 emissions and then begin turning back the clock. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,481076,00.html If we can meet that goal, we then have until 2050 to reduce emissions by 80%.   I ... Read More

Sea Turtle Release

This is a great video, check it out! Read More

A Guide to Carbon Offsets

So you want to do your part and purchase carbon offsets.  But if you have been keeping up with the news, some offsets are not what they promise.  That’s all some of us needed to hear, in order to have an excuse not to act.  This is a great consumer guide to carbon offsets offered by Clean Air/ Cool Planet. It tells you which offerings are best and what questions to ask. www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/ConsumersGuidetoCarbonOffsets.pdf Read More

Tim Minchin -Environmental Message

Great video - check it out! Read More