Archive for the ‘Weekly Climate Mama wRAP’ Category

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Climate Change Education, Oscars & Ball Gowns, Dolphins & Tim DeChristopher: It’s a wRAP

Friday, March 4th, 2011

Credit: Vogue.com

Did you watch the Oscars this year; Anne Hathaway and James Franco helping or hurting the show? Even if you didn’t watch, you probably heard that the “big winner” was the movie, The King’s Speech. You may also have heard that Collin Firth, the “King” won this year’s Best Actor award. What you might not know though, is that Collin’s wife, Livia, also deserved an award for the best and most “sustainably” dressed. According to EcoRazzi, Livia wore a gown by Gary Harvey that was fashioned from pieces of 11 reclaimed dresses, FROM THE PERIOD of the Kings Speech. Only in London perhaps, could you find all those special dresses! Power to Livia for showing us that the idea of reclaiming and reusing can be fashionable, creative and amazing!

NPR and other News agencies has been reporting over the past few weeks on the unprecedented number of dead dolphins washing up on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, half of which – over 35 – have been babies. The babies would have been conceived just before the oil spill last April; dolphins have a 10-11 month gestation period. Somehow, just as all the oil that spilled into the Gulf has sunk from our view, so too has the uproar and the inquiry about where all that oil is and what damage it has done. Scientists are still waiting for autopsy reports to confirm what has caused these deaths, but we wouldn’t be surprised if somehow it’s related to either the oil dispersants and/or the oil itself. What do you think?

Have you been following the story of Tim DeChristopher? In case you haven’t, here’s a quick overview. Mr. DeChristopher was found guilty t on two felony charges for disrupting a government auction on land and oil leases on Utah wilderness sites. These land lease auctions were pushed through in the final days of the Bush administration. According to DeChristopher supporters, the leases were then later overturned by the Obama administration because the government at the time, “had failed to complete the analysis required by federal law for the protection of cultural and natural resources.” Mr. DeChristopher didn’t have the money to pay for the leases, yet knowingly bid on them to stop the exploitation of lands and drilling for oil. He now faces a jail sentence of up to 10 years. You might may want to discuss this with the kids in your life under the broad heading of “non-violent” protest and “how far” we should go for our beliefs. Our friends at the The Huffington Post ask if Mr. DeChristopher deserve a medal, or a jail sentence? Thoughts….

In the News this week we look at an opinion piece in the Washington Post, along the lines of Mr. DeChristopher’s protests, but from a more individual perspective. In Climate Mama News, we share with you the Top Ten ways to save money and energy at the same time! Our new featured Campaign this month is EARTH HOUR. Check out our homepage and the Earth Hour site for more information; be part of the action on March 26th and beyond.

Cheers, and with something to think about….

Yours,

Climate Mama

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Posted in Animals & Insects, Art, Fashion, Entertainment, Disasters, Take a Stand: Action & Advocacy, Weekly Climate Mama wRAP | No Comments »

International Polar Bear Day, Climate Change America vs Canada – It’s a wRAP, February 25, 2011

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Sunday, February 27th is International Polar Bear Day!

Photo credit: Norbert Rosing

According to the National Wildlife Federation, about 25,000 polar bears remain in the wild today, with that number dwindling because of pollution, poaching and in large part global warming. In 2008, the US declared polar bears “endangered” due to climate change, as the polar bear’s habitat changes as summer Arctic ice disappears. There is no plan for helping the species survive, rather a recognition of the facts contributing to its precarious existence. Talk to your kids this weekend about the polar bear. A majestic creature, the polar can live over 40 years in captivity and around 25 years in the wild. The polar bear has become the “poster child” for the consequences of human caused global warming and the recent and accelerating changes in the Arctic that are threatening the polar bears habitat are important to discuss and understand.

Photo credit: A. Jennis

As reported in Scientific American at this week’s gathering of scientists for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, scientists expressed “bafflement as to why the global research consensus on human-induced climate change remains contentious in the US.” Well funded campaigns that sow doubt as well as media disinformation, and the current political and cultural context all seem to drive this “dissing” of the facts. As a Canadian and American, I’m not sure if a recent survey by two Canadian organizations, the Public Policy Forum and Sustainable Prosperity are suppose to make me feel bad, good, sad or happy, or maybe just cry. The survey found that 80 per cent of Canadians polled said they believe there is solid evidence of global warming, compared to only 58 per cent of Americans. Around the world, the percentage of people that recognize global warming as a real, human caused concern, is more similar to that of Canadians, rather than Americans. Yet as one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases in the world, American need to listen to the facts, not media and lobbyist spin.

In Climate Mama News this week we featured a “guest post” from Kitty Holman who shows us 5 ways our children’s schools can be more environmentally friendly. In our Video Peek of the Week our friend Peter Sinclair brings us a fun video you can share with the kids in your life that helps explain the difference between “weather and climate.” As the Rodale Plastic Free Challenge winds down, we’d love to hear from you on things you learned, or want to share. For us, the challenge was eye opening, as we realized how pervasive plastics have become in our lives and how hard it will be to wean ourselves off of them.

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Plastic Free, Extreme Weather, Climate Science – It’s a wRAP, February 4, 2011

Friday, February 4th, 2011

Photo Credit: Chris Jordan

“Plastic Free” …four days and counting! That’s when we jump on board on the Rodale.com Plastic Free Challenge. Are you going to join us? Theresa Loe, from Growing a Greener World lays it “on the table” as she tells us that failure is an option when factoring in the kids, life and eating. For a walk on the “irreverent side”, check out our Video Peek of the Week, dance and sing along to the latest “rap” on single use plastics..

In the News this week we look at some of the extreme weather taking place around the world, and also right here at home where rain, ice and snow have been pummeling our nation, week after week. As we scramble to get coverage for our kids who are at home for yet another “snow day” a parallel world seems to be unfolding in our nation’s capital as a new Congress tries to tie the hands of the regulatory agencies that are charged with protecting our environment. A group of eminent US scientists, including 8 members of the independent US National Academy of Sciences called on the US Congress to take a “fresh look” at the strong scientific evidence linking human activity to climate change.

Want to help scientists with their work on climate research? In a recent article in the New York Times, two interesting projects were identified where scientists are looking to you for help in collecting data. Check out Data.Rescue@Home, a program where you can help digitize data collected decades ago. A similar project is OldWeather.org, where you can help scientists recover world wide weather observations by helping to transcribe old Royal Navy ship’s logs. Share these links with the kids in your life, they may want to get involved too!

We are already in reruns! In Climate Mama News watch our TV Network Debut on Lifetime TV.

Posted in Art, Fashion, Entertainment, Disasters, Lifestyle & Fun, Oceans & Water, Recycling, Take a Stand: Action & Advocacy, Weekly Climate Mama wRAP | No Comments »

Year of the Forest, Mass Extinctions, Living Plastic Free – It’s a wRAP, January 28th, 2011

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Did you know that the United Nations has designated 2011 as the Year of the Forest? Officially called Forest 2011 – With the theme “Forest for People” – countries and organizations all over the world will use a wide range of programs and events to bring attention to the importance of forests. The UN officially “launched” the program this week at UN Headquarters in NYC. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN): “Forests protect our watersheds and conserve our soil. They help combat climate change by absorbing and storing vast amounts of carbon, provide food, building materials and medicine, and are home to 80% of the world’s biodiversity.” Talk to the kids in your life, see if you can come up with your own family or community plan to celebrate our forests. Let us know!

In the News this week we take a look at a story from an old “friend” Raffi, as well as what the New York Times has to say about mass species extinctions. In our Video Peek of the Week we showcase the film “Climate Refugees” which was the talk of the recent Sundance film festival. Another one of our new “favorite” documentaries, Gasland, also recognized at Sundance, was nominated this week for an Oscar. We’ll talk “fracking” next week, stay tuned!

We wanted to let you in on our newest campaign and ask you to “jump on board” with us on this one. We have signed up with Rodale.com as a participant in their Plastic Free Challenge. Climate Mama has the kids on board, and we plan to bring you regular updates, starting February 7th, on our personal trials and tribulations of living in NJ, plastic free! Stay tuned, as the program begins next week on Rodale.com. Plastic has become ubiquitous in our society. It is a symptom and a byproduct of not only our throw away, consumption based economy, but also our demand and expectation for convenience. As our land fills fill up, and our use of single use plastics continues to increase, the role of plastics in our lives, and plastics role as a contributor to global warming, needs to be closely examined. Join us on our adventure, as we look closely at how intertwined plastics have become in our daily lives. We plan to get everyone involved, including the family dog, so stay tuned! Join us. Share with us how plastic has become an integral part of your day to day living, and how your life might change if you went “without!”

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Posted in Art, Fashion, Entertainment, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle & Fun, Oceans & Water, Take a Stand: Action & Advocacy, Weekly Climate Mama wRAP, building materials | 1 Comment »

Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day, Welcome Portlandia, Garbage, Baby Beluga and Cows – It’s A wRAP, January 21, 2011

Friday, January 21st, 2011

According to the NWF website, today is Squirrel Appreciation Day. What is one suppose to do with that information you ask? Living in the Northeast whatever the season, even in the midst of winter with 2 feet of snow on the ground, squirrels are busy driving the neighborhood dogs crazy, traversing yards, jumping from tree to tree, enjoying nature with what seems to be a playful but focused attitude. Let the kids in your life help you celebrate nature today, use Squirrel Appreciation Day as an excuse, channel some of that energy and help them focus and remember why we need to take care of our environment – both they and squirrels deserve to have a safe and sustainable place to play!

To go along with the various reports of animal die offs these past few weeks, the latest news comes to us from Vietnam where over 10,000 cows and buffalo have died in the past week – in part, it is believed – due to unusually harsh winter conditions.

At Climate Mama we aren’t sure if it’s our Canadian bias, but we love this recent piece in the Huffington Post by Raffi, the singer, songwriter and activist behind one of our children’s favorite songs, “Baby Beluga.” Raffi eloquently tells us that we need a new “lexicon” for conveying climate change, as the greatest threat on earth, a tragedy of epic proportions, especially for the very young. He tells us we have a choice, Gaia’s gifts or the Midas curse, and that it is time for us to make some hard decisions on how we live our lives and what we want for our children. Or it will be too late.

For all you eco-moms and dads out there – are you waiting impatiently for the launch tonight of Portlandia which airs on IFC? The show is touted as a fun, irreverent, and humorous take on the lives of a group of eco-conscious friends living in Portland. Let us know what you think of the show!

Finally, from our friends in Spain, share the tale of the “Garbage Hotel” with the kids in your life. The “Hotel” is up until the end of June and is built entirely from garbage that has washed ashore on Spanish beaches. As our oceans continue to warm and fight for survival, we do an added disservice to our natural world when we forget to properly dispose of the garbage around us and close our eyes to where our trash might be going. If you missed our post on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, you may want to catch it now.

Carpe Diem, Seize the Day!

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Welcome to Climate Mama

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You are a mother, a father, a grandparent, an uncle, an aunt, a teacher or a child at heart. When you hear the Native American saying, “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”, it makes you stop for a moment and think. You love nature, travel, adventure and believing in a world that is special and unique. Climate change and global warming are words that alarm you, that often seem too big to get your arms around. You care about what’s happening to the world and notice small changes in your own life that seem to point in the direction of a threatened environment. But you wonder if these changes are real, and if they are you can’t imagine what you can do to help change what is happening.

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Climate Mamas and Papas

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Climate Change so often seems too big to get our hands around. We wonder where we can start and how we can actually make a difference. Each one of us has a different path that we will follow. Some of us cut a wider swath than others, but each of us has a role to play. We would like to introduce you to some amazing individuals, Climate Mamas and Papas who are making a difference, who are, through their daily lives, affecting the lives of all of us. They inspire us, empower us, and challenge us to reach for the stars, to strive to do the best we can to help change the crash course we are currently on with our environment. Lets meet some of these amazing people and find out what inspires them. Meet our featured Climate Mama, Janae Shields, today!

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Featured Partner & Campaigns

Earth Day New York promotes environmental awareness and solutions, all year long, through partnerships with schools, community organizations, businesses, and government entities; educating public and private policymakers through conferences and publications; and involving the general public in annual Earth Day events.

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