Wildlife Corridors

Wildlife corridors are a crucial way in which we can protect species from changes in habitat associated with climate change. It is important to have preserves connected across geographically vast distances so that animals can migrate north-south as weather patterns and temperatures change. One example of such a project is the "Spine of the Continent" which would connect land from Alaska to northern Mexico. For more information click here. One major threat to the success of this project is, believe it or not, border patrol. Connecting crucial jaguar habitat between Sonora, Mexico and the United States would be made nearly impossible by the construction of walls or fences on our borders. One way to help is to call your congressional representative and ask that they:

Support HR 2593, "the Borderlands Conservation and Security Act," which will, if passed, require full environmental assessment of all border security activities and protect critical international wildlife corridors.

Oppose HR 4987, the "Fence By Date Certain Act," which would, if passed, require the full, double-layered fencing of 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border no later than June, 2009.

Three Presidential Candidates Discuss Global Warming

Presidential Candidates' Forum on Global Warming and Energy Security

At the end of 2007 all the presidential candidates were invited to participate in a forum on Global Warming and Energy Security. Edwards, Clinton, and Kucinich gave speeches and answered questions (REAL questions about climate change and energy). To hear what they had to say, check out the audio from Living on Earth.

"The torch has been passed to a new generation. We are the generation that we've been waiting for and we just need to move forward, with courage and compassion and with vision, to create the world that we want." JFK

A Great Climate Resource

Interested in keeping up to date on climate issues? Frustrated by some well-known climate blogs that cage information in language you have to plough through to understand? Check out this great blog site by author Joseph Romm (Hell and Highwater). His site is authored by him, as well as a variety of professionals, and of course the requisite number of looney commentators. ClimateProgress

Kick the (Bad) Habit

Television is pretty ubiquitous these days. The average American spends more than 4 hours per day watching television (source), which adds up to about 9 years of watching TV in a 65-year life. Time is precious, and its easy to get sucked into watching more television than you meant to. Think about how much you could get done if you stopped watching television (hiking, reading, applying for the job you really want).

Additionally, TV has a very significant impact on the lives of children. According to one report, children see about 40,000 advertisements a year (source), and its been shown that because they are less able to understand that commercials are a biased attempt to sell a product, they often believe what commercials portray, sometimes leading to depression. One study says that on average parents have 3.5 minutes of meaningful conversation with their children per week, who in turn, spend 1,680 minutes per week watching TV (source). Who would you listen to? Finally, if your kids are watching hours of TV a day, that means they are inside, more or less stationary. Think about how beneficial to their health and imagination reading a book or playing outside could be!



So try and cut TV from your life. Instead, take a hike with your loved ones, read that book you've always wanted to, or find a project that gets you involved with your community (ex. stepitup2007.org).

For more information, check out newdream.org.

Tap vs. Bottled Water

The best way to save resources is to not use them in the first place. One easy way to shrink your global footprint is to not drink bottled water.

Reasons to drink from the faucet:
1. It's free! It costs about $0.49/year to drink the prescribed 8 glasses/day tap water, and about $1,400.00/year to drink bottled. 40% of bottled water is just filtered municipal water. What a scam!
2. 9 out of 10 bottles are NOT recycled. There are 30 million discarded bottles per day in the U.S.
3. It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to make one year's worth of plastic bottles.
4. It takes fuel and releases emissions to transport bottled water.
5. Disposable plastic bottles can contain toxic substances.

So, instead of spending money for water you could get for free (in addition to utilizing resources unnecessarily), carry a reusable drinking container and fill up at any faucet!

Want to learn more? Check out these news items from NPR.

Black Screens Save Energy

Check out Blackle.com. It's a search engine, powered by Google, but with one small, but possibly important difference: a black background. Black computer screens take less energy than white screens, and so having blackle.com as your homepage or standard search engine could eventually mean energy savings, especially if everyone who uses google switches over. They also have some tips for easy ways to save energy in your home and car, so check out their tips page.

You can't help but wonder... if the site is powered by Google, why doesn't Google.com just switch to a black background?

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... meteors!

The peak of the Perseids, an annual meteor shower, happens from dawn to dusk on the August 12th-13th. This year the moon is positioned in such a way as to allow the best viewing during the peak of this years shower. In really dark skies you may see as many as 80 meteors per hour!

Meteors are comet dust that burns up as they graze the earth's atmosphere. This particular annual shower has been observed by the people of the earth for more than 2000 years. Get outside on the night of the 12th for an amazing show!