Happy Birthday Earth Day and Green Up Day!

Happy Earth Day!! Not only is today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, it's also the 40th anniversary of Green Up Day in Vermont. Green Up Day takes place on the first Saturday in May across the state of Vermont. Kids and adults alike gather in their communities to clean up liter. If you have ever visited Vermont, you will notice right away the impact this one day of action has. Not only do the roads, sidewalks, streams and trails get a facelift, but new generations learn the importance of keeping our environment clean. As a kid, I participated in Green Up Day with my classmates every year. I learned the importance not only of putting trash in the garbage can, but also the how important it is to recycle and to reduce the amount of trash we create. While scanning the ground, bushes and ravines for trash, I began to notice how our garbage impacts the habitats of small creatures in my community. Suddenly one day of action turned into a year-long effort to reduce trash, recycle and protect the natural habitats in my town.

If you live in Vermont, you can participate in Green Up Day on Saturday, May 1st. If you live elsewhere in the country or world, why not start your own Green Up Day? All you have to do is gather a friend or two, a parent or teacher and get greening!

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Best Friends for Life

If you are trying to live a green lifestyle, it's hard to not feel guilty at times when shopping. We are constantly faced with tough questions, like "what was this made from?" "where was this made?" "who made this, and were they given a fair wage?" That is why you hear the term environmentally sustainable attached to many products these days. Environmentally sustainable means that a product or process meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

The Leakey Collection is company who not only create environmentally sustainable jewelry but also provides jobs for 1200 Maasai people from the Rift Valley in Kenya. To create their cool friendship bracelets, they use fallen dead wood and grass. Harvesting the grass works to preserve the wetlands by making room for the plentiful grass that cattle eat.

Their new product, two identical ZuluSport bracelets, are connected with a raffia tie that friends cut together and make a wish! What a cool way to show how much you care about your BFF, and the world!

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Tck Tck Tck

The clock is counting down to December 7, 2009, when leaders from all over the world will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. You may be thinking, "what's the big deal about this particular conference?" Well according to scientists, the time to act to stop global warming is now. We need to not only slow the increase in greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, but actually being to decrease them by 2015. That's only 6 short years away! Every year since the industrial revolution, our input of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has increased at a steady rate. If we do not begin to reverse this trend by 2015, the catastrophic course of climate change will already be set in motion.

As of right now, most of our elected leaders are not getting the message that global warming needs their serious attention, and fast. That why we need you! You may not be an elected leader, or even old enough to vote, but you can be a leader on this! Here's what you do:

1) Speak up! Tell your friends, family, school or church community that why this is important to you, and that our future is at stake.

2) Be bold! Call, write or email the elected leaders of your country or state. To search for your country's leader's phone number click here.

3) Call or write to your members of congress. Tell them you want them to take bold action on climate change. Search here for their phone number and address.

4) Visit tcktcktck.org to learn more about the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, and New York City Climate Week, which is a series of events and actions to get the attention of the leaders at the United Nations in town to discuss climate change this week.

5) Sign up to attend or host an event for 350.org's Day of Action on October 24th. More on this event to come!

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A new book about being a vegetarian

Ruby Roth's new children's book "That's Why We Don't Eat Animals" tackles some difficult questions and concerns about eating meat. If you or your child are considering becoming a vegetarian or vegan, this book will certainly help to persuade you. It covers some difficult topics without being gory or scary. Visit the book's website to learn more about the book, and the author!

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Too Young to Vote?

You might have been too young to vote in the recent presidential election, but don't let that stop you from voting with your light switch for Earth Hour 2009. On Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 PM, as many as 1 billion people around the world will turn off their lights in a universal vote to stop global warming. The World Wildlife Fund will present these votes at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this year. At this important meeting, governments from all over the world will gather to decide how to fight global warming.

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007. 2.2 million home and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. The following year, Earth Hour went global, with 50 million people world wide sending a powerful message against global warming. Important landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Sydney Opera House, Rome's Colosseum, and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all went black.

This year, you can VOTE EARTH just by switching off your lights. Visit Earthour.org to sign up so that they can count your vote.

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Pennies for the Planet

What do colorful seabirds on a rocky island off the coast of Maine, an ancient swamp in South Carolina and a vast sagebrush habitat in Wyoming have in common? They all need your help! Pennies for the Planet is making it not only possible, but easy for you and your friends to to make a real contribution to help conserve these threatened creatures and habitats.

Pennies for the Planet is a nationwide campaign that taps into the amazing power of kids to help critical conservation projects. Working in their classrooms, clubs, scout troops and other groups, kids have been collecting pocket change to help save wild species and wild spaces.

Visit their website makes it easy to get involved with a downloadable educational kit, containing a poster, an educator’s guide, four reproducible activities, a newsletter for kids, and a participation form.

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The Story of Stuff

"The Story of Stuff" is a must-see video about where all of our "stuff" comes from, how it's made and where is ends up. Not only that, but the effect that the manufacturing, selling and disposing of all our "stuff" has on our planet, our bodies, and even our happiness. Going to the store will never be the same again!

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The Green Olympics

All across the world, eyes will be focused over the next few weeks on the athletes competing in the Olympics in Beijing. There are a few that are should be admired not only for being world class athletes, but for speaking out about protecting the environment. Grist has put together a great list of these Green Athletes. Check out what they are doing to make a difference.

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Tuvalu, a disappearing tropical paradise

The nation of Tuvalu is a string of low-lying islands midway between Hawaii and Australia. After the Vatican City, this remote nation of 11,600 people is the second smallest in the world. It may be a small country, but it has big problems.

Tuvalu, along with many other islands, is very vulnerable to the threats of climate change. The islands, which sit just three feet above sea level, will completely disappear as sea levels rise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-sponsored group made up of more than 2,000 scientists, predict that global warming will cause oceans to rise as much as 3 feet in the next 50 to 100 years.

Many of the people of Tuvalu aren't waiting around to see their beloved island home slowly disappear under the waves. They are migrating to other countries like New Zealand and Australia, where life is very different for the Tuvaluans. Coming from islands with few cars and quiet communities, where knowing how to fish and climb a tree are the two most important skills for survival, the hustle and bustle of city life in their new countries is a huge cultural shock.

Immigrants from Tuvalu are part of a rapidly growing group known as "environmental refugees." According to the United Nations, there are currently more than 20 million environmental refugees worldwide, more than those displaced by war and political repression combined. By 2010 the number will grow to 50 million, and 150 million by 2050.

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Going global

All over the world, voices are speaking up in concern for our planet. From Singapore to Portugal, from Argentina to South Africa, our collective voices are growing stronger and bolder. Although our struggles maybe very different, and the consequences of global warming and the loss of natural resources and habitats may be greater on some, we all are fighting to make a difference and be heard. It can be easy to get swept up in our own worlds and not realize that the fight to protect our planet is a truly global one.

For the next month on the Green Guide for Kids we will be taking a look deeper into the environmental issues facing communities all over the world. If you would like to contribute or share your own story, pictures or ideas, they would be very welcome. When you share your ideas with others on the Green Guide for Kids, you have a truly global audience. People from 99 countries around the world have visited this site for information and inspiration.

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