State of Air

Drive Less, Drive Smart  Almost one third of the carbon dioxide produced in the United States comes from our cars, trucks and airplanes. Here are some simple, practical things you can do to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide you produce when driving:

    * Check your tires regularly to make sure they're properly inflated - Proper inflation can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Since every gallon of gasoline saves money and keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, every increase in fuel efficiency makes a difference! Keep the tires on your car adequately inflated. Check them monthly. Save 250 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $840 per year.

    * Use your legs  and bicycles - Yes. Stop being lazy walk the distance if you can. And having a bicycle is a great option.

      Make sure your car is well-maintained - Regular maintenance helps improve fuel efficiency, reduces emissions, and helps keep your car running at its best. When just 1% of car owners properly maintain their cars, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere.

The Ki is hosting a CleanTech Road Rally along with our premium sustainable lifestyle event.  The road rally will have checkpoints at Bio-dynamic and organic wineries in addition to the Gaia Hotel and Spa in Napa Valley, eventually ending at The Ki flagship event.  The goal is to raise awareness about the need for clean, efficient vehicles and demonstrate technologies that exist today.  We are accepting entries including electric cars, clean diesel vehicles, hybrids or alternative solutions.  Would love to talk to some people about our event and interested participants.  Please check out our website at www.theki.net and e-mail me at david@theki.net for more information.

It's summer in Los Angeles and the air quality plummets, which brought me to look through our 11th Hour Action Community to see what there is about cleaning up our air.  And I found 10 pointers from the South Coast Air Quality Management District which are well worth reading.   So, if you want to improve air quality in your area, here's what you do:

10 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP CLEAN THE AIR IN YOUR AREA

We offer the following suggestions on how you can join the South Coast Air Quality Management District in “Cleaning the Air That We Breathe.” Together, we are making a difference.

1) Motor vehicles are responsible for more than half of all smog-forming emissions. When buying your next vehicle, consider choosing one of the lowest-polluting models available. For more information, go to www.cleanairchoices.org
2) AQMD relies on feedback from businesses and the general public to help design its regulations and programs. Help shape the region’s path to clean air by joining the AQMD Clean Air Congress. For more information, call 1-800-CUT-SMOG.
3) Some older vehicles and those that are improperly maintained emit at least 20 times more pollution than newer models in good working order. Report smoking vehicles and suspected air pollution violations by calling 1-800-CUT-SMOG.
4) Vehicles in the Southland traveled 336 million miles in 200, and the increased congestion slowed travel to an average of 38 mph on freeways and arterial streets. Help cut pollution by driving less. Consider carpooling to work one day a week or more. Combine shopping errands into one trip or shop by phone, mail or the Internet. Also drive smart by avoiding “jack rabbit” starts, obeying the speed limit and using cruise control to maintain a steady speed.
5) Dry cleaners in the region emit about 850 tons a year of a toxic chemical called perchloroethylene. Try non-toxic alternatives to dry cleaning such as professional wet cleaning.
6) During the energy crisis, Californians did a better than expected job at conservation. If you haven’t already, choose from the many options available to conserve energy—and save money—such as using compact fluorescent light bulbs, using the microwave to cook small meals and buying energy-efficient appliances when you replace old ones.
7) Painting homes and other structures causes more than 50 tons per day of smog-forming pollutants—five times the amount from all the oil refineries in the South Coast of California. Read paint labels and choose coatings that contain little or no smog-forming pollutants, identified as volatile organic compounds or VOCs.
8) Energy needed for summertime air conditioning boosts power plant emissions. Plant a tree to help shad your home and cool it naturally.
9) In one year of operation, one older gasoline-powered lawn mower pollutes as much as a new car driven 86,000 miles. Help cut pollution by purchasing an electric mower when you replace your gasoline-powered model.
10) While many Southern Californians enjoy a summer cookout, traditional barbecues can be a significant source of air pollution. A simple solution is to replace your old barbecue with a natural gas grill. Some local utilities even offer rebates when purchasing gas grills.

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN DO AT

www.cleanairchoices.org

Michael Jackson's album Off the Wall came out 21 days after my 17th birthday, and at the time thanks to ABBA, I really did think I was a Dancing Queen. (lol) My 8-track of Off the Wall was played and danced to over and over and over again. That album and Michael Jackson have made an ever lasting impression on me. Music, art, and film always have the greatest impact on you when you are open to receiving the message.

Michael Jackson's Earth Song which came out in 1995 was his first single that overtly dealt with the environment and animal welfare. I was not completely surprised when I read this past week how Earth Song was a top five hit in most European countries, and in the UK, it remains Jackson's best-selling single. Sadly, Earth Song was not even released as a single in the United States. I wonder why? Maybe the reason was the US was not open to receiving this message at the time.

Earth Song was accompanied by a lavish music video which had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Jackson and the world's people unite in a spiritual chant Earth Song which summons a force that heals the world. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, war ends and the forests regrow.

The video was filmed in four geographic regions. The first location was the Amazon Rainforest, where a large part was destroyed a week after the video's completion. Natives of the region appeared in the video and were not actors. The second scene was a war zone in Croatia, with residents of the area. The third location was Tanzania, which incorporated scenes of illegal poaching and hunting into the video. No animals were harmed in the making of the Earth Song, as the footage came from documentary archives. However, a poacher killed an elephant within a mile of the shot. The final location was in Warwick, New York, where a safe forest fire was simulated in a corn field.

Michael said this about Earth Song:

"I remember writing Earth Song when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is "Earth Song." And that's what inspired it."

I was happy I came across so many eco-bloggers like Treehugger, Ecorazzie and many others blogging about this song since Michael Jackson's transition last week. I hope this music video gets shown all over the world and especially here in the United States.  Here's wishing that we are now more open to receiving this message and the wonderful gift of music and video from a true genius.

You can view Michael Jackson's Earth Song video HERE.

Experimental Design Labs: My favorite green idea: using live plants and LED lighting to provide air purification. Genius. [Via Engadget]

LEXUS Challenges Kids to Perform

The Lexus Eco Challenge is a life-changing opportunity for teens across the nation to make a difference in the environmental health of our planet, one community at a time.

The annual Lexus Eco Challenge just began its second year, and it's not too late to participate. Developed with Scholastic, the Challenge is a national competition that invites middle and high school students to devise solutions to environmental problems in their communities through a series of challenge categories: water, land, and air/climate. The student team with the best idea in each category will win $10,000 in scholarships and grants, which go to the students, their schools, and their teachers. The winning teams will then compete for a $50,000 grand prize in a Final Challenge - in all, $1 million in grants and scholarships will be awarded.

Parents, teachers, and students interested in participating should visit http://www.scholastic.com/lexus/to learn more.

American Museum of Natural History
Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A New Energy Future

On Display October 18, 2008 – August 16, 200

If you live in the New York area or are planning a visit to New York City over the next 10 months, you may want to check out a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History on climate change.

Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A New Energy Future, will examine one of the most pressing scientific issues of our time—the massive, human-induced warming of Earth, a phenomenon that could lead to drought, rising sea levels, heavy storms, and other events with potentially dire impacts on the health of society and the natural world. This exhibition will explore the science, history, and impact of climate change, and illuminate ways in which individuals, communities and nations can reduce their carbon footprints.

"Evidence has been accumulating for some time that Earth is warming due to human activity," said Museum President Ellen V. Futter, "but we are only just beginning to come to terms with the breadth of the consequences of this phenomenon, and to learn what we can do to mitigate them. The fact is," Ms. Futter continued, "we do have options; but implementing solutions will require individual, national, and global action. Climate Change will examine both the consequences of global warming and possible solutions to this critical problem."

Climate Change will give visitors a scientific context to help make sense of today's most urgent headlines on global warming. More importantly, the exhibition will inspire visitors to participate in the world-changing discussion on how best to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The central part of the exhibition will explore the effects of climate change on several separate but interrelated areas: Earth's atmosphere, oceans, land, and polar ice sheets. Scientists have documented a dramatic increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the past 150 years—especially CO2 (carbon dioxide)—caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other changes in land use. Climate Change will use realistic dioramas, hands-on activity stations, and dynamic animations to understand the climate's response to the build-up of greenhouse gases and explore the repercussions for today's world and future generations.

One activity allows visitors to investigate raising the sea levels on a dynamic scale, model of Lower Manhattan to graphically illustrate the flooding that would be caused by the melting of ice sheets and warming of oceans. The movements of clouds, ocean currents and seasonal ice that reveal how climate works will be internally projected on digital video globes throughout the exhibition. A ghostly coral reef—a victim of "coral bleaching"—will show how increased CO2 in the oceans and higher water temperatures are killing corals and the communities that they anchor. And a six-foot-tall model that represents one ton of coal will provide a startling visual reminder of each visitor's own carbon footprint: Scientists estimate that every person in the world burns, on average, the equivalent of three tons of coal every year. The exhibition will also explore the options for future energy sources—including coal-burning combined with a CO2 capture and sequestration, solar power, nuclear energy, and wind power.

Climate Change does more than examine a complex and immediate problem—it lays the groundwork for potential solutions, from the personal to the national and global, and shows how these are within our grasp. The exhibition will empower and encourage visitors of all ages to help address the climate change problem by reducing energy consumption in their daily lives, whether by buying energy-efficient appliances, growing their own food, switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, or choosing to walk or take mass transit to get to work or school. Please visit the American Museum of Natural History web site for more information and details.

Source: City Pass

 We have have over 1000 Environmental based Experiments, labs and lesson plans 

for Teachers/Home Schoolers and their students. Search topics like Global Warming (of course), climate change, air pollution, science, ocean etc..

*The site is fun and easy to use

*You do not have to hassle with any login procedure

*Grade ranges are from K-12

*The site is 110% kid safe 

www.greenplanetsearch.com is also: 

*An environmental search engine with over 3000 sites indexed and adding more green sites daily (we are an actual search engine, this is not another Google custom search)

* Original Environment related News Aricles

*Green Website Awards for sites that deliver great content in a unique qnd captivating way

*Submit your Green Website feature

Below is a screenshot of our home page showing  the ECO LESSON PLAN ENGINE on the top of the page.

Directions for LESSON PLANS, go to www.greenplanetsearch.com on the top of the page it will say ECO SEARCH ENGINE.

On the right of that you will see the black which states "switch to eco lesson plans" Click It, then you will see it change to the ECO LESSON PLANS, type in your search and learn!!! 

         Hey everyone.

                  Just wanted to share an amazing new company that I recently came across. It's called Melaleuca. They have over 300 completely natural products that are also biodegradable and the packaging is recyclable. Their goal is to get people to switch their everyday household products like: laundry detergent, stain remover, dish detergent, soap, vitamins, makeup, toothpaste, deodorant, cookies, cereal, weight loss bars & shakes, meal supplement shakes and bars, breakfast bars, shampoo & conditioner and so much more. As you can see there is pretty much everything and all the products actually work better than the other leading brands and are either the same price as or less. Most products are heavily concentrated so they last longer but come in smaller packaging which saves energy and waste.

        Until the 20th of August the one-time membership fee of $29.99 is cut in half. So you can become a preferred customer for only $14.50. The membership fee is also completely refundable for the first four months if you are not satisfied or find its not right for you. Also, ALL products are completely refundable no matter how much you've used if you are not satisfied, as long as you return it within 60 days. There really is no risk. Try it! You may like it. Not only are the products great but you can have the satisfaction of knowing you are saving yourself, your family and your home (the environment) in the process!!!

     If you are interested please visit this site to get more info:

    http://www.livetotalwellness.com/CrystalB

   Also, if you know of anyone who may be interested please refer them to the site to get more information.

 THANK YOU!!!

   LIVE GREEN

Commuters are driving less, the federal government says. Workers are leaving their cars at home and finding other ways to get to work. Highway funds at risk.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer miles in May compared with a year earlier, according to a report Monday from the Federal Highway Administration.

READ MORE
Site provided by www.cnn.com