Oil in the Gulf Creating a Dead Zone?
With the catastrophe in the Gulf my mind has been on marine life. I am sure this is also partly due to volunteering at the Marine Mammal Center, which I will share in another post, but today I wanted to bring up dead sea zones and oil spills.
I am not an expert on either, but am aware of both and had not heard of a connection until this NY Times article pointed out that there were giant plumes of oil under the water in the Gulf and they were already documenting a 30% reduction in oxygen there. This is not good as plant and fish life need dissolved oxygen to survive. Once that oxygen drops to extremely low or 0 the area becomes what is called a dead zone. Wikipedia says there were over 400 in the world in 2008. You can see satellite images of some of them on NOAA’s page. So besides the visually obvious concerns of oil on the surface and coastlines we need to worry about what is less obviously happening underwater.
I did not find any lessons for dead zones, but the PBS station in Florida did put together a page of activities and information around oil spills. This is a good starting place for conversation and awareness building with your students. Unfortunately though I expect we are going to learn this spill is of such a magnitude that what has worked in the past will not work this time.
Why Must We Love Sharks?
Bull Shark in South Africa
“As someone who works closely with sharks, I can answer that question. Sharks help balance ocean ecosystems, which we depend upon for our food and our livelihoods. Simply put, sharks help keep the oceans healthy, and that’s critical for a healthy and prosperous planet.” Manny Ezcurra, Associate Curator of Sharks and Rays, Monterey Bay Aquarium
This is an excerpt from an email from Monterey Bay Aquarium. I like it because it emphasizes the system that is the ocean and how even “scary” things may really not be, and do have a purpose. To go along with their call to help save the sharks they have a fun little poll your students can complete to say why they love sharks and a 3 min podcast you can play that talks about the importance of predators. Shark Poll.
And here is where I got this photo of a bull shark. It is a site filled with shark photos and basic facts on all the varieties there are.
When is a French Fry a Vegetable?
Parents want the best for their children and they often assume the schools are doing the same, but that is not always the case. There’s a new show on ABC that is eye-opening and inspiring called Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution that is worth watching.
World famous chef Jamie Oliver is on a mission to change the way schools in America feed our children. In his show, Jamie is doing his best to change the town of Huntington, West Virginia which was dubbed by the CDC as the “unhealthiest city” in America. The 6-part series is halfway finished so if you haven’t been following it, you can catch up on past episodes on the website.
In the third episode, he prepared a beautiful pasta dish with 7 vegetables in it. He was scolded by the food director who, following the FDA guidelines, told him there weren’t enough vegetables in the dish and that french fries count as a vegetable. In essence, she was saying hamburger and french fries met the guidelines better than the veggie pasta dish. Watch it here.
It is up to parents to get involved. Schools may try their best but if the guidelines they follow are flawed, the results may even be harmful to our children. For more information and resources, see Jamie’s website and consider signing the petition.
~~ Rebecca Ho
Freelance writer on health and sustainability
The Story of Bottled Water – A Video
Keeping with the bottled water theme….Here is the newest dynamic, graphical and easy to follow video by Annie Leonard and Free Range Studios. They also created “The Story of Stuff” which we posted in the Fall. The consumption of water, and bottled water in particular, is a great example of a system that is much more complex than its output (bottled water) would make you think. It shows just how closely tied are the issues of water, energy and waste.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0&feature=player_embedded
Bottled Water Free Day – March 11
Koru Fundraising, whose programs we use, is based in Canada and so they keep us informed of what’s going on up yonder north. Next week, Thurs the 11th to be exact, they have declared to be a bottled water free day. The Sierra Youth Coaltion and Canadian Federation of Students (is there an American equivalent to this?) have produced an informative website addressing the environmental, health and financial issues in the bottled water industry. Look through it and consider taking the no bottled water pledge.
If you are uncertain of the environmental importance of making the shift to tap water check out this 3 min video, and share it with your students. I now never buy bottled water and have a water bottle in the house and in the car so I have no excuses. Besides all the larger societal issues, I really like not spending extra money for something I already have in great quantity.
How Big is Your Ecological Footprint?
Exploring their ecological footprint gives students an opportunity to understand how much of the earth’s resources are needed to maintain their lifestyles. Use this calculators to do just that.
Teach Every Child About Food
Continuing on the “food” theme, and because eating healthy is always a button for me, here is a TED talk by Jaime Oliver a well-known British chef.
TED talks are given by individuals whom the TED organization has chosen to give a cash award to and the chance to state their “one wish for the world.” For Jaime Oliver that is to help children, and adults, know how to eat healthier. He recognizes this also demands help from the food business and even more importantly the schools. And he has some ideas, that he is piloting, for how to help schools feed our children better. Well worth a listen (it is long, 20 mins), if you are interested in what we can do to help ourselves become a healthier nation.
Making a litterless lunch easier
In October we shared some data from the EPA on the waste generated by school lunches. We also gave some resources to encourage your community to have less waste at lunch. Now Koru Fundraising has started a special fundraising program so it is easier than ever to get rid of all that trash. We’ll do a longer post with those details in the near future. Until then though I found this short 4 min video on litterless lunches that is very helpful.
Grants for hard working green teachers
Earth Day (April 22) is not quite around the corner, but events are starting to be planned. I just saw this great opportunity in the Earth Day Network email:
“Earth Day Network is looking for teachers who lead by example and make a difference for their students and the environment. If you are working to green a school, implement environmental education, or achieve policy reform.”
http://www.earthday.net/node/13458
Hey Parents, You can bring climate change education to school!
During this week of ghg emission reduction negotiations in Copenhagen I thought it would be good to introduce a project that is about getting students to take action on climate change as quickly and easily as possible. I ran into this group at the San Francisco Green Festival this year and was immediately struck by their level of organization and materials with which to follow through on the kick off event.
Cool the Earth is a 501c3 who offers their program for free to schools but does request a donation for the materials you get with the program. I don’t know how much that would be but since you are able to print most of them from their site I don’t imagine it is a whole lot. That said, having worked for an educational nonprofit that primarily offered our product for free I think it is good to have to give some financial support back to the program. It allows schools to list a value in their budgets for the program and helps solidify commitment to participate. And they do help schools find ways to raise the funds (or you can contact me about green fundraising programs so your students continue learning about the impact of their actions in everything they do.:-) )
Quick synopsis:
– The program is designed to be spearheaded and primarily run by parents.
– You start with a kick-off assembly. While Cool the Earth supplies the script – fair warning you, the school members, will have to be the actors.
– You then have action coupon booklets for all the students that guide them through all sorts of easy actions to take (choose less packaging, use a clothesline for drying (if you can get a parent onboard), etc).
– They also have a way to have the school as a larger group take one action a month.
The nice thing about this project is that there is follow through via the coupons (kids sign them and return them to their teachers when they have done it), which are then tallied and tracked on a big all school banner.
What do you think? If you are a parent, does this seem like a manageable project to undertake? If not, what would make it more so? And if you are a teacher, do you have parents you think would help bring this to your school?
Bright Green Classroom 