Discarded Plastic – What can you do? Here’s an idea ….

May 10, 2012

Build your own greenhouse from plastic bottles! Here’s a great practical project for the whole family – turn used plastic bottles into a greenhouse, and then enjoy the chance to grow some of your own food once you’ve finished. Some of the heavier construction work is probably going to be adults-only – or older kids at least – but there’s still plenty that can be done by smaller children and the basic idea can be adapted to make everything from a small cold frame to a really sizeable greenhouse. It’s a particularly good project for schools or large groups – but even with dozens of willing hands, it’s a big undertaking, so it’s not going to get done in an afternoon!

Getting Started

Clearly, the first thing to do is collect the bottles. Two-liter (or half gallon) clear plastic bottles are the best to choose – but remember, if you’re planning on a full size greenhouse, you’re going to need 1,000 or more, so don’t waste any time getting started.

The bottles will need to be washed, have their labels removed, tops discarded and then have their bottoms cut off with a pair of scissors, in readiness for use. A little appropriate supervision may be called for here, since quite aside of the scissors themselves, the cut surfaces can be surprisingly sharp too. It’s probably a good idea to do this as you go along, rather than wait until you have the whole lot to do at once, which is probably going to be a bit of a daunting task, not to mention tiring!

Preparing The Frame

The basic structure of the greenhouse is made up from rows of bottles, threaded onto garden canes and then fixed to a wooden frame, made from lengths of 2-inch x 2-inch timber. How large the frame needs to be obviously depends on the size of the greenhouse you’re wanting to make.

It works like this. The bottles are stacked one inside another, with a garden cane running through the gap where the cap used to be, to produce a long plastic tube; the last bottle in the line is turned round to face in the opposite direction, so that you have a bottle neck at each end. Once completed, each one is fixed to the frame using fencing staples, or nailed through holes drilled in the cane. Keep on adding the bottle tubes until the whole thing is covered to form one of the panels of the greenhouse.

Building The Greenhouse

The greenhouse door can be very easily made as a separate smaller frame, with hinges attaching it to the rest of the front wall panel and a simple flat or pent-roofed design is probably the easiest choice for a first project. If you add a length of guttering and a water butt when you’ve completed the construction, you’ll be well set up to harvest the rain to help you water the plants you’re eventually going to be growing.

To keep the whole thing anchored to the ground, four 4-inch square fence posts should be driven or cemented into the ground at the corners of where the greenhouse is to be sited. Then the individual frames are simply screwed onto these posts once the cement has set, and that’s pretty much your greenhouse ready for use.

Materials List

The quantities of materials you’ll need obviously varies with the size and shape of greenhouse but as a general guide, for a flat-roofed one that’s around 8ft x 6ft x 6ft high you’ll need:

       Plastic Bottles – 1,600

      6ft garden canes – 150

      4-inch square x 8ft fence posts – 4

      2-inch square x 6ft (side, front and back frames) – 12

      2-inch square x 8ft (side and roof frames) – 6

      2-inch square x 7ft (roof frame) – 2

You’ll also need a supply of hinges, suitable screws, fencing staples and cement.

Making your own greenhouse from plastic bottles is a great way to turn “waste” into something really useful. It takes a bit of effort, certainly, but the end result is a very eco-friendly building that should allow you to grow your own fruit, vegetables and garden plants for years to come – and at the fraction of the economic or energy costs of a traditional glasshouse. All from a few drinks bottles; now that can’t be bad!

We hope you enjoyed this post. Arguably, the project is best suited for those with little (and/or not so little) future builders in the family. Recently, we referenced a great UK site called Eco Friendly Kids. We reposted this article with their permission. We’d like to thank them again for letting us post. Dr. Gareth Evens wrote the post for Eco Friendly Kids. For more information and great ideas to support your green lifestyle, check out their wonderful site at: http://www.ecofriendlykids.co.uk/. There you can also see a picture of a greenhouse made from plastic bottles. The picture accompanying this post was taken by a future little builder and is from our green school. While this greenhouse is not plastic, we think it’s pretty cool too. Thanks for reading!

Posted in Eco-Kids Corner, Family Activities! | Leave a comment

Want to Green Your School? – Here are 5 simple ideas to get started …

May 3, 2012

Earth Day recently passed, and many of us celebrated the day itself, but Earth Day also provides us with a great opportunity to make an ongoing commitment to helping the planet. So, in honor of Earth Day this year, we started to think about different ways to keep the spirit of Earth Day in mind. One way might be to take a small — or large — action to green your school. In our last post, we wrote about the Earth Day Network and their request that people and companies make a pledge to keep up the good work during the year. Contributing towards the greening of your kid’s or children’s school could be one way to do it. Not to veer of track here but since we wrote about the pledg in our last post and, in case you’re wondering, ours (or at least the short version of it), is to maintain a firm, unwavering commitment to ethical manufacturing in the U.S.A. and to continue to exclusively use organic and sustainable fabrics in the process.

Earth Day has always been about teaching people about the environment, so it’s a natural fit for the Earth Day Network to have a whole program (http://edu.earthday.org) devoted to education and green schools. The main idea behind greening schools is that these are the places our children spend much of their time, and where they learn some of their most important life lessons. It’s a place where bad, or good, habits can be learned for life. So, what better place to set a positive example?

There are many ways to green a school, from teaching children more about the environment, to starting a garden or recycling program, to being a champion in different areas such as bringing healthier food into the cafeteria, or even changing the buildings to be more water and energy efficient. Collectively, these efforts can help schools and their communities save millions of dollars and can lead to healthier kids. It can save millions of pounds of pollution, too.  Change, small or large, often starts with a few families, or a group of neighbors, asking for it to occur. So with no further ado, here are five easy actions a family can take at school:

1. Encourage your student’s teacher to include environmental and sustainable issues in his or her curriculum. You can simply direct them to http://www.earthday.org/KnowGreen for lesson plans and other ideas, or you can offer to to give a presentation or lead a project yourself.

2. If the school doesn’t already have a recycling plan, encourage a school leader, like the principal or a committed teacher, to start one. You can start small, by asking your child’s teacher to have students use both sides of a piece of paper and keep a recycle bin where paper and other items can be reused for crafts.

3. Walk or carpool to school. If your family lives near school, try organizing a “walking school bus,” (http://www.walkingschoolbus.org/) where parents take turns leading a group of students safely to school. Check out our post on CoolMom to learn more about the organization behind this initiative.

4. Change the light bulbs: whether its in one classroom or schoolwide, a change from energy sucking incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent ones can make a big difference.

5. Make lunch more sustainable: Your child’s lunch provides an easy opportunity to lead by example. To the extent that you can, choose healthy, organic food that is not pre-packaged. Invest in reusable containers that can hold sandwiches, raisins, and juice – or reuse glass containers and send lunch and snack in those. We use small glass jars of different sizes for lunch all the time — Now explaining why you are sending kids to school with glass will just add to the fun and create an opportunity for discussion :-) .

These are just five ideas to get the ball rolling— greening schools has become a huge movement, and there are tons of resources out there for schools and families wanting to be greener. The Earth Day Network is a leader in the green schools cause, but there are many other resources out there for the ambitious family:  Check out http://www.greenschools.net for a wealth of resources on how to make your school a greener, healthier, happier place. And, last but not least, the Earth Day Network provides action plans for youth too. Here’s a plan your youngster can use to encourage his or her teacher to take class outside for a day: http://edu.earthday.org/resource/taking-classroom-outside-action-plan

If you’ve got an idea on how to green your school and would like to share, we’d love to hear from you either in comments below or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ashmorecarey. Thanks for reading!

Posted in Spring into Action! |

In Celebration of Earth Day 2012, The Earth Day Network Asks That We Pledge One Simple Action…

April 18, 2012

The Earth Day Network, which coordinates the worldwide April 22 celebration of our planet, has set an ambitious goal this year:  their goal is to get one billion people to pledge to take a green action – they call it A Billion Acts of Green.  So far, the number on their website is impressive! You’ll have to visit the site to find out the latest count! :-)

The organizers believe all these small, individual actions will combine to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainability. The pledge can be simple or ambitious. Some people have promised to bike to work in 2012. Others have said they will write a legislator about going green or circulate an anti-coal petition. Still others have vowed to plant a garden at their home or at school; one person said she’ll try to get teachers to turn off lights in their classroom after use.  Another person promised to ask a clergy to deliver an Earth Day Sermon.

The ideas are endless and you can browse them at  http://act.earthday.org/, or you can come up with your own pledge and enter it at the same web address. Earth Day Network still needs lots of people to make a pledge in order to meet its goal by April 22.  In doing so, you’ll join a huge number of people around the world in doing something to help the planet.

Since Earth Day first started in 1970, it’s been about finding ways to bring people together to make a difference. That year, about 20 million people participated in a “teach-in” about the problems the environment was facing. Many people see that day as the beginning of the environmental movement as we know it today because it united lots of groups who had been protesting different environmental problems but hadn’t worked together.  After Earth Day, groups raising awareness of air pollution or protesting toxic dumps, for example, began to see that they had a lot in common with other groups raising awareness of the loss of wilderness, and vice versa. Many groups came together and found a common ground and strength in numbers.

Now Earth Day is an annual event, encouraging us to see how many problems are interconnected and that we all have a role to play in fixing them. Earth Day encourages us to come together to protect the planet. More than 500 million people from 175 countries participate each year. Join them this year by vowing to take at least one, simple action to help the environment!

For more information on the Earth Day Network and A Billion Acts of Green, again, check out their website at:  http://act.earthday.org/ We’d love to hear what you think either in comments below or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ashmorecarey. As always, thanks for reading and Happy Earth Day!

Posted in Eco-Kids Corner, Spring into Action! |

The Rainforest Foundation US – An Interview with Suzanne Pelletier

April 5, 2012

We mentioned in our last post that this week the Rainforest Foundation is celebrating Rainforest Week. In an effort to help raise awareness of the issues, we interviewed its Executive Director Suzanne Pelletier and asked her a few questions. There’s a little twist though — we enlisted help from a few young friends and posed questions from a kid’s perspective to help spark discussion in the family.  So, here it is and, as always, thanks for reading!

Ashmore Carey:  Many families have never seen a rainforest. Why should saving rainforests matter to them?

Rainforest Foundation: Because we all need air to breathe and water to drink, and 1/5 of all of the world’s oxygen and fresh water is produced by the Amazon rainforest alone. Rainforests also house countless numbers of plants and animals from which we derive important medicines that keep us all healthy.

Ashmore Carey:  What can kids and families do to help?

Rainforest Foundation:  Learn more about rainforests (check out our kids page  http://www.rainforestfoundation.org/kids), and share what you learn with your friends. You can also raise money to help us protect the rainforest. One easy way to do that this spring is by joining the Rainforest Foundation in the Live Below the Line campaign. Check it out here:  https://www.livebelowtheline.com/us-rainforestfoundation-about

Ashmore Carey:  Are there things we can do in our own homes to help the rainforests?

Rainforest Foundation: Yes, be a more conscious consumer by knowing where the ingredients in the products you buy come from. Some products use ingredients that contribute to tropical deforestation, like palm oil and wood that is not harvested sustainably. So by decreasing demand for products that destroy the rainforest you will help decrease rainforest destruction.

Ashmore Carey:  A lot of us think of the Amazon when we think of the rainforests. Are other rainforests in trouble too?

Rainforest Foundation:  Yes, rainforests are also found in Asia and Africa and unfortunately they are also threatened.

Ashmore Carey:  Why are rainforests in so much trouble?

Rainforest Foundation:  Because of people’s increasing demand for products. In the Amazon the main cause of deforestation is clearing of the forest to plant soybeans or raise cattle.

Ashmore Carey:  Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

Rainforest Foundation:  Rainforests are also important because millions of people around the world depend on them for their everyday life: their food, their medicines, their livelihoods, and their spirituality. When we destroy the rainforest, we not only lose countless plants and animals, we also lose indigenous cultures that are inextricably linked to these forests. In other words, we all lose.

Ashmore Carey:  Thanks so much Suzanne!

For more information on the Rainforest Foundation, please check out their website at:  http://www.rainforestfoundation.org/

Posted in Eco-Kids Corner, Inspiring Interviews, Spring into Action! |

Celebrate Rainforest Week with The Rainforest Foundation!

April 2, 2012

The world’s rainforests face many threats, such as deforestation but, thankfully, there are groups working hard to protect these ancient, important ecosystems. This week, we’re highlighting one such group, the Rainforest Foundation, because of the innovative approach it takes to conservation. We were also fortunate enough to have been able to catch up with its Executive Director, Suzanne Pelletier and will post the interview with her later this week.

The Rainforest Foundation works with the people who live on the land to keep it in their ownership and protect the land. 50 million indigenous people live in rainforests around the world, sharing them with a huge variety of other living things. Often, the people don’t have much political power and have little say over what happens to the land they live on.

In 1989, the Rainforest Foundation formed after the musician Sting and Trudie Styler saw the devastation that was happening in rainforests. They started working with indigenous groups and local grassroots organizations in Central and South America to secure rights to their lands, influence laws and policies to protect their resources, and build strong community leadership. Their first mission was to work with the Kayapo people to protect their lands in the Brazilian Amazon. By 1993, 6.7 million acres were legally demarcated for the Kayapo.

After 23 years, they’re still going strong today, providing financial support and advice when needed to indigenous groups that want to save their land. In the process, the thousands of plants and animals that can only be found there (yes, nowhere else in the world) are saved too.

To learn more about their work, visit their website at: http://www.rainforestfoundation.org. There, you can also find a great section for kids that offers games, activities and a wealth of kid-friendly facts on the rainforests: www.rainforestfoundation.org/kids

For the week, in celebration of Rainforest Week, Ashmore Carey will donate 10% of our online sales of our t-shits and tanks to the Rainforest Foundation. To view our tops, please click here: http://shop.ashmorecarey.com/t-shirt/ As always, thanks for reading!

Posted in Eco-Links for Kids!, Spring into Action! |

Eco-Friendly Kids! Let’s Talk About Animal Rights

March 29, 2012

If your kids are anything like ours, once they learn about some of the environmental issues that we are all trying to wrap our heads around, they become passionate about learning more. Then they want to do something about it and are bold enough to believe that they can.  Good for them! In talking with other parents, it usually starts with seemingly simple questions – like Why Are the Rainforests in so much trouble? And what IS wrong with plastic anyway?

Well, if you are following Ashmore Carey’s Connecting Dots blog, you know that we try to write about environmental issues and highlight organizations and people (adults and kids) doing good work on behalf of the environment.  Now, in addition, we would like to introduce an Eco-Kids Corner (or link really) where kids can go to read about environment-related topics and activities written just for them – not that curious kids couldn’t read our other posts, if interested, but this series will be posted with them specifically in mind.  We hope that it can become one resource among many to help spark conversation among kids and, of course, between parents and kids about various topics related to the environment. In doing research for it, we came across a wonderful UK-based website that had the same idea. It really is a small world! The website is called Eco-Friendly Kids and it generously shares a wealth of information and articles. We’ve selected a few articles to share with you and this post is the first in that series. We are, of course, reposting it with their permission:-)

The first in this new series is about animal rights. The references below are based on UK data but if you’ve got similar data for the US (or other comments and would like to share), we’d love to hear from either in comments below or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ashmorecarey. Thanks for reading!

Animal Rights!

Animal rights are exactly what the title says – those rights that belong to animals. Just as humans have rights to healthy, safe lives, so to do animals. But animals have other worries as well. Many humans feel that animals are their property and treat them with little respect or with downright cruelty. Today animal rights laws are on the books across the world, and some campaigners are even pushing for a United Nations Universal Declaration of Animal Rights to mirror the declaration of human rights. You don’t have to become an international campaigner to do your bit for animal welfare, however. Use the tips in this article to get on your way to protecting animal rights in your daily life.

Animal Welfare in the UK

As of April 7, 2007 (March 29, 2007 in Wales), the overriding legislation governing animal welfare is the Animal Welfare Act 2006. This Act makes it a crime not only to be cruel to an animal, but to neglect an animal’s welfare needs as well. The main provisions of this Act include:

  • A minimum age of 16 to purchase or win an animal.
  • A requirement to provide a pet with a suitable home and diet.
  • A requirement to allow animals appropriate conditions for normal behaviors.
  • A requirement to protect animals from pain, injury, suffering or disease.

Pet owners and anyone who mistreats or neglects an animal’s needs face a number of penalties under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Punishments include:

  • A ban on owning animals.
  • A fine of up to £20,000.
  • A prison sentence.

Protecting Animal Rights

Government laws banning cruelty to animals and promoting animal welfare are a great start towards protecting animal rights, but it requires everyone to take responsibility for animal welfare before threats to animals are truly diminished. If you are wondering how you can possibly make a difference to animal welfare then there’s good news! There are many easy ways that ordinary citizens can protect animal rights in their everyday lives. Some of the most common methods of protecting animal rights include:

  • Joining the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA) or Animal Aid to show your support for their good works.
  • Donating money to animal welfare street campaigns, or donating your time and talents to local animal shelters.
  • Raising funds for animal rights campaigns, or fundraising to make a lump sum donation to an animal rights organization of your choice.
  • Refusing to purchase products that cannot be labeled “cruelty free” or be guaranteed that they haven’t been tested on animals.
  • Purchasing only cosmetics and household products that meet humane standards.
  • Adopting abused or abandoned animals.
  • Providing a loving, healthy home for pets.
  • Signing petitions protesting animal testing.
  • Avoiding fur and even leather clothes and accessories.
  • Cooking only natural and organic foods.
  • Considering a change to a vegetarian lifestyle.

Animal rights can be a controversial subject, but at the bottom of any argument remains the fact that animals are living creatures that deserve the best life possible. Whether you are a pet owner or just an animal lover, there are many ways that you can promote animal welfare and protect animal rights every day. Lead by example and you never know how many others you will inspire to follow. The more the merrier!

Posted in Eco-Kids Corner, Eco-Links for Kids!, Green Kids |

Kids, Food and The Environment – Check out AllergyKids

March 21, 2012

Oh my, we’ve had a bit of a break — not because we weren’t writing but, between a bunch of work, a bunch of travel, and getting quite sick, all things social media were put on hold :-( . The constant challenge to maintain family health and a healthy immune system prompted the idea for this post.  Also, we keep hearing from others too something that rings true for us — If one person in the family or “the office family” for that matter gets sick, everyone seems to get sick. In this post we are tackling the topic of health from the perspective of food allergies though.  The impact of food on health is a complex subject and an environmental issue that is as important as any other.

If your kid has allergies, your family is not alone. One in three American children have allergies, ADHD, autism or asthma. And Robyn O’Brien, an acclaimed author and mother of four, says much of this has to do with unnatural additives that have found their way into everyday foods in recent years. But Robyn, who has been described as “food’s Erin Brokovich,” also believes there’s a way to address the problem. To do so, she’s created a great website called AllergyKids.com, which she launched on Mother’s Day 2006. Like Ashmore Carey, AllergyKids is a member of 1% For the Planet.

AllergyKids brings together respected dieticians, medical advisors and parents to build community and provide information about food additives and the health problems they can cause. Robyn is a self-described unlikely crusader for cleaning up the food supply, having been recruited by Enron right out of business school. But in becoming a mother, she saw the hazards of the additives in everyday foods and began passionately tackling the problem. She began working to bring attention to recent changes in common foods and the huge increase in the rates of allergies, asthma, autism and ADHD in the last twenty years.

In particular, AllergyKids provides families and kids ways to avoid the additives now found in food— especially GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. GMO food means foods whose genes have been altered by scientists, usually to be more pest or disease resistant. That doesn’t sound so bad, but the process of altering sometimes introduces strange bacteria, viruses or other allergens into the food product. Some of the most common foods we eat tend to be laden with GMOs: Corn, soy, sugar beets, canola, cotton and papaya. AllergyKds says it is no wonder, then, that allergy rates have skyrocketed in recent years. Thankfully, AllergyKids provides detailed, scientific evidence to back up its findings and step-by-step ways to avoid these foods. It also provides ways for concerned parents to take action.

If you are concerned that your and your kids immune system is being challenged by common foods and want to eliminate GMOs from your family diet, encourage your school to do the same, or even write a letter to congress, AllergyKids can help you do it. Families wanting to eat healthier foods will find great, practical advice here: http://www.allergykids.com/what-you-can-do/what-you-can-do/12-cooking-tips-for-families-with-food-allergies-insight-from-food-allergy-chefs-parents-and-advocates/. Here are some ideas on what food to buy at the grocery store if you want to avoid GMOs: http://www.allergykids.com/what-you-can-do/in-the-grocery-store/ And for families wanting to talk to their teachers or principal about problems with GMO’s, they can find ideas here: http://www.allergykids.com/what-you-can-do/in-the-school. Finally, if want to take action in a different way and you’d like to write a letter to congress, here’s a guide for doing just that:  http://www.allergykids.com/what-you-can-do/do-one-thing/online/

As parents, we found that the information provided by Robyn and her organization helpful and hope to be able to help spread the word about the importance that food plays in children’s health. This is a topic near and dear to our heart. One doesn’t have to dig deep to make the connection between food, health and the environment. If you’ve got any thoughts you’d like to share on this topic, we’d love to hear from you either in comments below or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ashmorecarey Thanks for reading :-)

Posted in Health and The Environment, Spring into Action! |

One More Generation – An Interview with Olivia Ries!

February 21, 2012

Ashmore Carey was fortunate to catch up with one of the inspiring co-founders of One More Generation — nine-year-old Olivia Ries.  As you know, this wonderful organization is dedicated to the protection of endangered wildlife and the environment, and its founders work tirelessly on the behalf of the cause.  Here is that interview.

Ashmore Carey: How did you first get interested in helping animals?

One More Generation:  We have always loved animals and as we learned that some of them are in trouble, we decided to help.  All my life we have had animals around the house.  We currently have 6-cats, 3-dogs, and a Guinee Pig named Rapunzel (a.k.a. Punzzy).  We also have 2-Cheetah’s (Talala and Diputsu), a Whake Shark named Wally, 2 Fruit Bats named Kurri and Tyrant.  We have had up to 20-fish, two lizards and a Hairless Rat named Brownie as well.

Ashmore Carey:  Wow, that’s a lot of pets! How did you decide to adopt Cheetahs? And how did you go about it? How can other kids do the same thing?

One More Generation:  Well my Aunt was visiting South Africa about 5 years ago and as a present, she brought us our first adoption certificate.  She always knew we loved animals.  Carter and I decided to continue the adoptions each year.  We have been adopting the same two Cheetah’s ever since.  If anyone else wants to help save an animal, it is very easy. You just have to get online and search for your favorite species and find an organization which offers adoptions.  It’s really easy and I have done it many times.

Ashmore Carey:  What has been the most rewarding part of One More Generation?

One More Generation:  Wow… that is a hard question.  Since starting OMG we got to go and help save all the animals during the Gulf oil spill.  We went to South Africa where we delivered a big donation check to the Cheetah Center. We also collected soccer balls and toys for the poor kids in the townships over there.  We recently were successful getting the Claxton GA Rattlesnake Roundup to officially be changed to a Wildlife Festival were no snakes will be caught and killed anymore.  We have had great meetings with the O’Charley’s restaurant chain in an attempt to get them to help their customers stop using so many plastic bags by encouraging them to bring their own as they come to pick up their To-Go order.  We are also working with the GameStop Corporation on a science project that will ask every customer to consider carrying out their purchase as opposed to accepting a plastic bag.  We are hoping to run the experiment all summer and then the students at GA State University will help us conduct an environmental impact study.  I also love watching the looks on all the kids faces as we teach our Plastic Awareness Week program and they learn how easy it is for them to also make a difference.

Ashmore Carey:  What has been the hardest part about starting a non-profit? Does it take a lot of time to run a non-profit? Kids are so busy these days, how do you make it happen?

One More Generation:  Well my parents help us with all the hard stuff.  They make most of the phone calls and help set up most of the meetings and events for us.  My brother and I usually come up with the ideas of what we want to do and then ask them to help us and show us how to make it happen.  Having OMG does take a lot of time but it is always fun.  My brother and I play soccer, have piano lessons, in the summer we are on a swim team and we are trying to learn racquetball as well.  We could not do this without our parents help.

Ashmore Carey:   What advice would you give to other kids who want to do something similar?

One More Generation:  The first thing we tell kids and adults alike at every event we do is that “Anybody Can Make A Difference… If We Can They Can Too”.

Ashmore Carey:  Can you tell us a little more about you’re your Plastic Awareness Coalition? What do you think is the worst thing about plastic? Was it hard to develop a curriculum to take to schools? How do you reach kids?

One More Generation:  Well we wanted to get communities involved with trying to stop plastic pollution.  Our parents told us we needed to build a team of companies who also wanted to do the same so we could show everyone we were not alone.  Since starting the coalition, we have now over 50 organizations supporting our efforts.  The worst thing about plastic pollution is that not all types of plastics are easily recycled.  Some plastics can not be recycled at all.  The other thing bad about plastic trash is that it never goes away.  The plastic itself is not necessarily the problem, but what we are doing with the plastic is more the problem. We need everyone to recycle and to avoid plastics that are not recyclable.  The school program was written by a great teacher in Boston who helped us create a program that would be fun for kids and their parents to learn about the problem.  Getting schools interested in our program is easy, helping them find the funding for the program is harder.

Ashmore Carey:  What can we all do to encourage recycling plastic?

One More Generation:  I think everyone should have a sticker on their cars and books and homes reminding them to Recycle.  Everyone needs to also learn about the harms of plastic pollution and to understand what the recycle numbers mean.

Ashmore Carey:  Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

One More Generation:  Not really, I do want everyone to know that ”Anybody Can Make A Difference… If We Can They Can Too”.  I am nine (my birthday is on Aug 30th) and my brother is ten (his birthday is coming up on Feb 22nd) and we are proof that if you really care about something, you can make a big difference.  Oh, one more thing.  My Grandfather gave me a small greenhouse for Christmas and I am going to start a new division in our OMG organization called GreenWell.  GreenWell will grow organic fruits and vegetables which we plan to sell to our local zoo and aquarium to help make sure all their animals have healthy food.  We already have a reptile company interested in our first crop.  I am so excited.

Ashmore Carey:  Awesome. Thank you so much, Olivia, for taking time for this interview!

Posted in Green Kids, Inspiring Interviews, Spring into Action! |

OMG! Green Kids Doing “Good” & Having Fun!

February 15, 2012

OMG, in this case, stands for One More Generation. It might seem unlikely that two youngsters — nine and ten years old — could make a real difference in saving animals from extinction, but brother-and-sister duo Carter and Olivia Ries have set out to prove otherwise. Like many kids, the ten-year-old boy and nine-year-old girl from Fayetteville, Georgia have always cared a lot about animals and conservation. They made a decision early on to put time and great effort into developing an organization dedicated to protecting endangered species and the environment. They formed One More Generation (www.onemoregeneration.org)  in 2009 and it officially became a non-profit in 2010. Like Ashmore Carey, they are also members of 1% for the Planet. The goal is an ambitious one: to “ensure that all endangered species survive at least One More Generation… and beyond.”

Having said that,  the goal seems less ambitious when you consider all they’ve accomplished in just a couple years. Already since founding OMG, they have made great strides. They had already “adopted” cheetahs in South Africa for years.  When they first learned that Cheetahs and about 1,000 other species were in danger of going extinct, they were dismayed. But instead of staying sad, they got busy on many fronts. For example, after visiting the Gulf of Mexico and seeing how polluted it was, they did research to see what some of the biggest threats to the ocean were.

The biggest culprit they found? Plastic. So they developed a Plastic Awareness Program, which includes a curriculum that they take around to elementary schools and environmental camps. Carter and Olivia are trying to reach out to every elementary student in the country to show them how they can help solve the plastic problem. To show just how serious the problem is, they’ve come up with some creative strategies. For instance, they ask students to bring in all their plastic trash from home each day, storing it in a big trailer. Then Carter and Olivia teach the students about the different kinds of plastic — which types are easily recycled and which should be avoided because communities don’t usually recycle them. At the end of the week, all the children create an art sculpture out of the plastic they’ve brought in. These are just some of the examples of the work Carter and Olivia have undertaken through OMG.

While they work on global issues, including the problem with plastic that we face globally, they also on local issues like saving rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes might not seem like the most sympathetic animal, but Carter and Olivia realized these slithering critters are an important part of the ecosystem. In their home state of Georgia, the snakes were being killed in huge “Rattlesnake Roundups” — and animals like the threatened Gopher Tortoise were dying with them. So they organized a campaign to stop the roundups, writing to the governor of Georgia and gathering more than 1,000 signatures. Carter and Olivia continue to set admirable goals, including raising $50,000 for a Cheetah Rescue in South Africa. Ambitious, yes, but they’ve already proven such goals are attainable!

Regarding plastic, we’d also like to say that it is an issue that Ashmore Carey has written about before when we featured 5Gyros in our blog, and we’d like to join OMG as friends in their Plastic Awareness Coalition. If you have ideas on how to reduce plastic waste, we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment here or join us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ashmorecarey and comment there.

Also, note that we caught up with the busy duo and will post our interview with Olivia next week. So be sure to check back to find out more about them and their wonderful organization. And, of course, check out their website at www.onemoregeneration.org.

Posted in Green Kids, Organizations for Kids |

CoolMom– An Interview with Terri Glaberson!

February 8, 2012

If you’re following Ashmore Carey’s Connecting Dots blog, you know that last week we caught up with CoolMom Executive Director Terri Glaberson. Check out Part II of that interview below, and feel free to leave a comment or reach out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ashmorecarey. We’d love to hear from you!

Ashmore Carey:  Most of us have at least a vague idea that climate change won’t be good for our kids, but do you have specific concerns about what the health impacts might be? Do you see the link between climate change and health problems that parents should be concerned about?

CoolMom.org:  Carbon and particulates in the air already directly impact air quality creating health challenges like asthma.  But the impacts of climate change are also indirect – more violent and more frequent storms and flooding, extreme drought all impact food and water availability – rising temperatures will impact crop production.  Professor Shi-Ling Hsu, professor at University of British Columbia, estimates a 3-5% chance that our children will have to wait in line for food and water by the end of the century.  This scarcity will likely be far more extreme in poorer parts of the world, creating its own direct and indirect health issues.

Ashmore Carey:  How did you get the idea to have a scientific advisory board? How did you connect with those scientists?

CoolMom.org:  The founders felt that a scientific advisory board could sort through the facts and the myths surrounding climate change.  It would help moms connect their everyday decisions, with the science of climate change.  We take the science and translate it into why this is important to your family.  Two of the original advisory board members had climate scientists in their families and they helped make other connections.

Ashmore Carey:  What is the coolest project that CoolMom has taken on?

CoolMom.org:  Several come to mind, but one of the coolest is “Think Outside the Car” http://www.coolmom.org/programs/think-outside-the-car It urges us to think about mobility differently.  It helps educate and connect a community and allows for families and residents to get involved through their school or the larger community. It promotes better health, cleaner air, money and energy savings for families. We start with educating families about the impacts of idling outside schools and also encourage them to start Walking School Buses and Bike to School Days.  One elementary school took on this campaign in the spring of 2011 and reduced their car idling by more than 88%!

Ashmore Carey:  Your organization appears to be primarily local but is there a way for moms around the country get involved in CoolMom?

CoolMom.org:  Yes! We encourage any mom to get involved through signing up for our local newsletter and learning about our organization. Inspired moms can start local networks in their communities and take on at least 2 to 4 projects to make a difference.  Information and helpful tips can be found on our website on how to implement projects in your own area.  They could be anything from organizing a toy swap, helping organize moms to visit their legislator regarding an environmental issue they care about, educating their community about recycling, composting, and/or reducing consumption, or starting a Walking School Bus, etc. Our strategic plan calls for us to expand nationally for maximal impact.  We hope moms contact us and start taking action in their area!

Ashmore Carey:  Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

CoolMom.org:  CoolMom is always looking for blog writers, project interns, and sponsors to help us grow and implement our mission. Right now we are developing a “local lunch box” program and we need writers, designers and sponsors to help us launch it!  The local lunch box program will encourage parents to buy local, healthy products and reduce waste in kids’ lunches.   Our goal is to unite families around the US, in order to promote sustainable lifestyles and to affect climate policy. We want a healthy sustainable planet so our children will have a healthy and bright future!

Ashmore Carey:  Very cool — Couldn’t resist saying that:-). Thanks so much Terri!

Posted in Green Moms, Inspiring Interviews |