What BP Does Not Want You To See!

Have you started to use renewable energy yet?  Still think drilling for oil is harmless?  Watch this video featuring Philippe Cousteau (grandson of famous explorer Jacques Cousteau) as he describes what he saw as "one of the most horrible things I've ever seen underwater."  "It's a nightmare."

WYCD #6 - Become an Ambassador

What You Can Do for the world's habitat's #6 - Become an EcoLogic Ambassador. 

What is EcoLogic?

EcoLogic is a non profit agency that works with poor, rural communities to help them become better environmental stewards in order to save their forests and water and improve their living conditions.  They put local people in charge of projects, providing them with the tools they need to sustainably manage their natural resources.  EcoLogic currently operates in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama.

How do I become an Ambassador?

EcoLogic Ambassadors support the organization by making a personal contribution and reaching out to their networks on EcoLogic's behalf.  By hosting a house party, organizing a giving drive, bringing awareness to local schools, town associations, or club chapters, Ambassadors are active members of the outreach effort.  Their efforts provide crucial core operating support and help build awareness in the broader community. 

When you sign up you will receive The Ambassador Toolkit that has been custom designed to make meeting your pledge fun and easy.  For example, it contains excellent advice on planning house parties or small events with a timeline to walk you through the planning process step by step.  And when you host your event, EcoLogic will supply you with slide show presentation, EcoLogic newsletters, annual reports, postcards, and donation envelopes.  You can even have business cards printed with your name and title as an Ambassador.

EcoLogic gets results.

In Belize

• 42,018 acres of coastal wetlands and mangrove forests protected.
• Landmark legal victory achieved for indigenous lands rights for communities buffering the park.
• Five village resource centers built that offer eco-friendly tourism activities coordinated by locals.
• Two river campsites built to further river-based ecotourism development.
• more...

In Guatemala

• 355,780 acres of forest conserved.
• 90,000 trees planted using a new, more effecient reforestation technology.
• 182 clean burning stoves built.
• more...

In Honduras

• 444,790 acres of coastal wilderness under sustainable management or protection.
• 5,000 trees planted in community managed lands.
• 62 communities now involved in microwatershed protection work, covering 16 microwatersheds.
• more...

In Mexico

• 617,763 acres of forest under community management or protection.
• 500 community members trained in watershed protection.
• Communities organized to support fire prevention activities.

Learn more about becoming an EcoLogic Ambassador.

The Ailing Arctic

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a wilderness of 30,685 square miles (80,000 sq km), home to caribou, polar bears, musk oxen, arctic foxes, and grizzlies.  Milliions of birds from over 100 species breed there each year.  Although the Refuge has been protected from development since its foundation in 1960, the proposal to drill for oil on its coastal plain presents a threat to its wildlife, especially to the breeding caribou. 

Rising temperatures and earlier spring melts could expose polar bear cubs, born in snow dens, to the harsh cold of the Arctic too early in their development. 

The deeper causes of many of the problems facing the Arctic, such as global warming and pollution, lie much further to the south, in the industrialized nations, and can only be tackled there. 

Go to Defenders of Wildlife and help save the Arctic.

Visit Humans vs. Habitats to learn more.

WYCD #7 - Have an Inspiring Movie Night

What You Can Do #7 for the world's habitats - Have an Inspiring Movie Night. 

Sometimes people need motivation in order to make even the smallest changes in their daily lives.  One of the best ways to inspire someone towards motivation is through visual aids like - movies.  Here are three of my  favorite conservation inspiring movies.  These will motivate even the most environmentally passive to make sensible changes, and will drive the conservation-minded to find new ways of making a difference. 
Here they are:

1.  Earth


"Disneynature brings you a remarkable story of three animal families on a journey across our planet - polar bears, elephants, and humpback whales.  Earth is both majestic and intimate as it captures rare footage of nature's wildest and most elusive animals." 

2.  Blue Planet


"From the unique vantage point of 200 miles above Earth's surface, we see how natural forces - volcanoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes - affect our world, and how a powerful new force - humankind - has begun to alter the face of the planet.  From Amazon rain forests to Serengeti grasslands, Blue Planet inspires a new appreciation of life on Earth, our only home." 

3.  Planet Earth


"This 11 part series is brilliantly narrated and sensibly organized so that each 50-minute episode covers a specific geographical region and/or wildlife habitat until the entire planet has been magnificently represented by the most astonishing sights and sounds you'll ever experience from the comforts of home.  Without being overtly political, the series maintains a consistent and subtle emphasis on the urgent need for ongoing conservation, best illustrated by the plight of polar bears whose very behavior is changing in the wake of global warming - a phenomenon that this series appropriately presents as scientific fact."

Messing with Mangroves

Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics.  They protect coastal areas from erosion, storm surge (especially during hurricanes), and tsunamis.  Mangrove forests support lichens, orchids, bacteria, and provide nesting sites for birds, and vital nursery and feeding sites fish, crustaceans and other shellfish. 

Florida has an estimated 765 square miles (2000 sq km) of mangrove forests, comprising of three different species: the red, the black and the white mangrove.  During the 20th century large swathes were destroyed as the area was developed, including 44% in Tampa Bay, and 87% of those around Lake Worth.  Even the conservation measures currently adopted in the Everglades National Park are not enough to protect it from water pollution.  Florida's wading birds, which depend on mangroves for their nesting areas, have declined to around 10% of their original level. 

Thailand's mangroves have declined as a result of the timber and charcoal industries, urbanization, agriculture and aquaculture.  In 2004, however, a plan was established to preserve the remaining forests.  The 2004 tsunami underlined to local communities the important role mangroves play in providing protection against surges. 

WYCD #8 - Play Games For Good.

What You Can Do to help the world's habitats #8 - Play Games For Good.  (made for kids, but played by everyone)

There's a recently launched online gaming website out there called Xeko (pronounced "zeeko").  Xeko delivers engaging game play for kids that ignites imaginations and sends the next generations of heroes on an adventure to save the world.  The Xeko motto: Be a Force For Good!

My daughter discovered this game, and ever since, we've been hooked (that's right, both of us).  It's fun.  It's relaxing.  And, realizing that your gaming is making a difference in the real world, it's addicting.  Oh, and for the kids, it's educational (but don't tell them that).

How Xeko Started:

Xeko started out as a collectible card game revolving around endangered species. Launched on Earth Day 2006 it won the Creative Child Magazine 2006 Toy of the Year Award and The National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval in its first year.

Xeko is now a Virtual World...

• Where kids play online games that cause good to happen in the real world. 
• Enables kids to learn how to give, how to be good citizens and how to turn their gaming actions into a real world of Good. 
• Has created a new trend in gaming called "Gaming For Good."
• Turns online gaming efforts into tangible offline results through non-profit partners and "Mirrored Gaming."

Mirrored Gaming:

Kids + Online Gaming + Nonprofit = Do GOOD in real world.

• Xeko partners with non-profits to promote causes through online games called "GoodQuests."
• By meeting a collective goal in game, kids activate the donation to the non-profit.
• Mirrored Gaming engages, entertains and rewards kids for making an impact in the real world by immersing them in the needs of real people, animals and the Earth. 
• Kids feel the empowerment and become inspired to see the results and help change our world. 

How kids have helped others through Mirrored Gaming:

• Built 8 homes for 8 families in Honduras.  (Habitat for Humanity)
• Repaired 6 boats to protect sharks and other wildlife from poachers.  (WildAid)
• Planted 2000 trees in Niger.  (PlantIt 2020)
• Helping scientists track polar bear migration in the Arctic. (Polar Bear International)
• Fed 100 under-served families healthy produce in Sacramento.  (Fresh Producers)
• Adopted a panda from an earthquake-affected area in China.  (Pandas International)
• Built one camp in Uganda for kids living with HIV.  (Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation)
• Sending a chronically ill family to a Disney vacation.  (Bert's Big Adventure)

...and the list continues to grow!

Join Xeko now, and Be a Force For Good.

Grazing in the Grasslands

The grasslands of Asia's high steppes supports around 30 million livestock, many of which are grazed on a nomadic system (moving from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location).  However, over the past 50 years Russian and Chinese herders have been encouraged to adopt more sedentary grazing methods mixed with arable farming.  As a result, the fragile ecology of their grassland has been unbalanced, and around 75% has been degraded. 

The dry Patagonian steppe in Argentina hosts abundant wildlife, including the endemic wild llama, the "guanaco."  Human settlement is limited to ranches and a few small towns.  Its aridity leaves the Patagonian steppe vulnerable to overgrazing by sheep and goats, which are turning some areas into deserts. 

Once common across the Indian subcontinent, the great Indian bustard is now on the verge of extinction because livestock overgraze its grassland habitat.  Fewer than 700 birds are thought to survive. 

To find out more about whaat we are doing to our planet, check out Humans vs. Habitats.

To find out more effects of grazing cattle, check out The True Price of One Hamburger. 

WYCD #9 - Switch Your Energy, Now!

What You Can Do #9 - Switch Your Energy to Cleaner Energy, Now!

Following two recent catastrophic events, the West Virginia coal mine explosion and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, we all need to reevaluate what we are doing to our planet and to the lives of others. 

Coal is the largest contributor to the human-made increase of CO2 in the atmosphere.  In addition to carbon dioxide, methane is released.  Both of which are greenhouse gases causing climate change and global warming.  Coal mining causes water pollution and a choking of water habitats when debris from mountain-top removals are dumped into the waterways.  And coal mining destroys local habitats, causing some species to struggle harder to survive, therefore landing on the endangered list. 

On April 5th, 29 coal miners were killed in a devastating explosion in West Virginia.  Because of the high demand for coal to turn on the lights for most households, 29 lives were lost, and 29 families now struggle harder to make ends meet. 

Oil drilling pollutes the local waterways and directly poisons wildlife.  When oil is recovered from the ground other substances like mercury, lead, and arsenic come up too.  This is even more dangerous with offshore drilling, where water increases the spread of these toxins.  And, seismic waves used to locate oil under water disorients whales causing them to beach themselves. 

On April 20th, an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded resulting in a huge fire, the sinking of the rig, the death of 11 people, and a massive oil spill.  More than 400 species are at risk in the gulf in addition to habitats such as Louisiana's barrier islands and marshlands.  And hundreds of families along the coast make their living on the shrimp and fish that are prevalent in these waters.  Because of the high demand for oil to turn on the lights for most households, 11 lives were lost and countless others will have a very difficult time supporting their families. 

Now is the time to switch your energy to a cleaner, renewable energy source.  If you live in an area that is deregulated (meaning, you don't have to stick with the "one and only" energy provider), then you can choose your energy source.  There is someone offering clean energy to your area right now.  You just have to look.  If your area isn't deregulated, it will be soon.  And as when as that happens, change your energy. 

In addition to obviously helping the environment, wildlife, and decreasing the demand for dangerous resources, you will save money.  Because the running of clean energy is less expensive, companies offering clean energy can charge less.  Significantly less.  These companies also don't have to worry about high insurance costs for their employees because capturing solar and wind energy is nowhere near as dangerous as the removal of coal and oil. 

Are you going to switch your energy provider to a cleaner, renewable source?  If not, you're saying...

"In today's economy I don't want to significantly reduce what I am paying each month on my energy bill.  I'd rather throw my money away, thank you." 
"I don't mind the arsenic in my water, and I rather enjoy the smell of sulfur from the local coal mines in the early mornings." 
"I don't care about the preservation of wildlife or about how other families are getting on." 

However --  if you have a brain and a heart -- you'll make the switch.

WYCD #10 - Know Your Carbon Footprint

What You Can Do #10 - Know Your Carbon Footprint.

Every choice you make contributes to the health of the planet, for better or worse.  Even a small reduction in your consumption of natural products can make the difference between what's lost and what's saved. 

To make responsible choices, you have to know about your impact.  Then you can start making positive changes in your lifestyle. 

It's easy to identify your personal - or your family's - carbon footprint.  There are many sites online that offer carbon calculations.  However, they aren't all the same.  Some are more detailed than others.  My recommendation is to choose several calculators, complete them, and then come up with an average personal CO2 emmissions.  But, if you only want to do one, go to the Nature Conservancy's website.  They're not only detailed but quick, easy, and they explain how your actions directly impact our planet. 

Once you know what you're doing to your environment, you'll know what you can do to change.

WYCD #11 - Give a Green Gift

What You Can Do #11 - Give a Green Gift.

Are you looking to give a gift to someone who has everything?  Can't find a unique gift that's affordable and meaningful?  No matter what the occasion - birthday, Mother's day, Father's day, Christmas, Hanukkah, or even a graduation gift - you can put a smile on anyone's face with one of these special online gifts, and you'll smile, too, knowing you're making an impact in the preservation of some of the world's most fragile habitats. 

When you buy a Gift for a Living Planet you will receive a personalized certificate with a message for your special recipient explaining exactly how your gift to them is making a difference.  You can either print it out and frame it, or email it as is.  Here's a few examples of gifts you can give:

Send a Turtle to Rehab ($15) -

Indonesia is a home to 6 out of 7 of the world's marine turtle species: as it provides important nesting and foraging grounds, as well as important migration routes at the cross roads of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

All 6 species of marine turtle found in Indonesia are listed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered.  The main threats include habitat and nesting site destruction, by-catch, illegal trade and unsustainable exploitation.

When you send a turtle to rehab, one of the thousands of sick or injured turtles that are regularly brought to the Bali turtle centre for recuperation will be nursed back to health. 

Chilies, Dung, and Engine Oil ($25) -

As human populations expand and natural habitats shrink, people and elephants are coming into conflict over living space and food. 

If elephants' and humans' competion for space isn't managed, it could lead to poaching and the decline of elephant numbers across Africa.

A simple rope or wire fence - smeared wih chili grease, engine oil, and dung - can help these majestic creatures live in harmony with local people. 

Because elephants have an aversion to this concoction, a farmer in rural Africa can safely protect his crops with no harm to the elephants that live nearby. 

Give a Panda Room to Grow ($50) -

Panda populations once spread from southern and eastern China to parts of neighboring Myanmar and Vietnam. 

Due to human encroachment and loss of habitat, the panda is now confined to small, isolated patches of forest in the mountains of southwest China. 

When you give a panda room to grow, you are helping to link and grow isolated panda habitats with coridors of bamboo forest. 

Like a bridge connecting an island, this will allow the remaining pandas to extend their range, find more food, and increase the liklihood of interaction with other pandas, which will help them to increase their population. 

Find more gifts that...

• are unique.  When's the last time you gave someone dung as a present?
• are easy.  Just buy online and you can either print or email the personalized pdf certificate.
• last.  You will be helping to find long-term solutions to benefit people and nature.

WYCD #12 - Protect an Acre of Tropical Forest

What You Can Do #12 - Protect an Acre of Rainforest.

Did you know:

• every 4 hours an area the size of Manhattan disappears?
• the burning of forests amounts to 20% of global carbon emissions?
• every year an area the size of England disappears?
• climate change could lead to the extinction of a third of all species by 2050?
• the burning of forests releases more carbon than all cars, trucks, and planes combined?
• the 10 deadliest disasters of 2007 were climate related?

The tropical forests of Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America are the heart of nature's gifts.  Theses jungle ecosystems teem with life - from mysterious plants and insects to majestic gorillas, elephants, and jaguars - and provide countless resources and services depended on by people everywhere.  Yet, we are destroying tropical forests at a rate threatening their very existence.  An area the size of Manhattan disappears every 4 hours. 

When tropical forests are burned and cleared, it affects every one of us.  The burning and clearing of forests pours at least 20% of climate-changing greenhouse gases into our atmosphere - more than all the world's cars, trucks and airplanes combined!

Fortunately, there's a simple solution.  Protecting tropical forests slows the production of greenhouse gases, sustains life by providing homes for thousands of species of plants and animals, and ensures the livlihood of millions of people with fresh air, clean water, traditional remedies, and storm protection. 

Over the past 3 years Conservation International has conserved 143 million acres of tropical forest - equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road.   We can all help stop the burning and clearing of these forests. 

It only takes $15 to protect an entire acre of forest, including the wildlife and people it supports, and it's impact on our future climate.  Learn where your money goes.

Protect a few acres today and help stop climate change.  Your generosity means the world to everyone. 

 

And here's some more helpful, and simple, ideas.

Earth Day Special - WYCD #13 - Join Team Earth

WhatYou Can Do #13 - Join Team Earth

Happy Earth Day!  I can't think of a better day to introduce to you #13 in the "What You Can Do" series to help the world's habitats.  Join Team Earth. 

Conservation International has launched a groundbreaking opportunity, a tool designed to catalyze personal and collective action via the connective power of the web.  It's called Team Earth. 

Team Earth is about doing more and doing less.

Doing more is about all of us doing more of a few simple things.  Things like planting more trees, using more energy-effecient light bulbs, and protecting more acres of forests, which help fight climate change.

Doing less together can help the planet too.  Doing less is about using less paper, driving less, and using less energy by doing simple things like turning down your thermostat. 

Team Earth is everyone, and everyone is made up of all of us.  Together, we can do enough small things to help make our shared planet a better place.  Check it out, and join today.  Happy Earth Day.