Sunday, November 28, 2010

Will Green Jobs Promote a Green Economy?

So this week I decided to go back and look to see what Captain Planet and the Planeteers were talking about. The lastest information they're talking about is green jobs and a green economy. I found this article at http://captainplanet.me/archives/2269 and it talks about how to create green jobs and a green economy by just weatherizing your house and making buildings more energy efficient. The director of this program is Kalia Lydgate and she tells us that about 40% of carbon emissions come from buildings. Kalia is planning on weatherizing thousands of homes in New Bedfor, Massachusetts which will create more jobs, lower their carbon emissions by a huge percent and save residents there aroung $7,000,000 in utility bills. Kalia does all this through 'barn-raising' where a team of volunteers weatherizes a few homes on a Saturday.

On this website they have a video up from youtube that talks some more about the project. I have embedded here on my blog so you can see it.


I went and researched some more and found this information out: (http://www.marioninstitute.org/programs/green-jobs-green-economy-initiative) on June 10, 2010 the city New Bedford recieved a prestigiour $300,000 award with the P.A.C.E. YouthBuild to receive a grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation to help expand training programs for Green Jobs.

This relates to class because we have been talking about the carbon cycle and how what we do effects it. By doing a simple thing like this we can help improve the carbon cycle.

I think that this is a great idea. Who knew that something as simple as weatherizing your home could help improve the carbon cycle. If everyone did this we would make a huge impact on the carbon cycle and hopefully other enivronmental changes.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

China Setting the Standards for the Future

This week a came across this article called China's Urban Low Carbon Future in Shanghai by Warren Karlenzig. I found this article at http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011697.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+worldchanging_fulltext+%28WorldChanging.com+Full+Text%29&utm_content=Google+Reader.
Picture from : http://reconciliation.typepad.com/chinaencounters/images/2007/12/18/chinapavilion121807.jpg

The photo above is a picture of the Shanghai World Expo and it was closed in hopes that is will become the "plants primary hope for a low-carbon future. China's Premier Wen Jiabao then talks about how this "will influence the way we live and will lead the course of industrial development in the future."

The article then goes on to talk about how this World Expo center is the world's largest in history and that it has had 73 million attending it. Next it says that by 2050 China plans to have 350-600 million more urban resident will change the earth's scale in the areas of climate change and the economy. With this China will now be focused on the fifth global industrail wave which is low-carbon or green economy. Sir Nicholas Stern says that this is a new industrial revoluion and will cause "low-carbon growth to be cleaner, safar, far more attractive while high-carbon growth will kill itself. China is well placed for this industrial revolution."

In Baoding, a low-carbon city, has added 20,000 new jobs in wind, PV solar, and other renewable energy technologies in the last three years. The World Expo is planning on adding "more than 500 new technologies in solar, heat pumps, energy efficiency, transportation and advanced material" in a six-month run. China is really pushing the idea of sustainable cities. This sustainablitiy is encouraged in every aspect of there life and their concern for the climate change is high. By cutting their gas emissions this way China could only be cause 17-18 percent of the world's population of greenhouse gas.

I wasn't quite sure what the Shanghai Expo center was about so I looked it up and found this information at http://en.expo2010.cn/a/20081116/000004.htm. The Shanghai Expo is an event. The theme of this center is about having a better city to make a better life. THey gather together to find new ways to make the planet better and better the ecomony.



I think that is is a great idea to have people always looking at the future and how to better it. Espeically since they deal with the environment, if we don't take care of that then the world won't last long. If this continues to happen hopefully the world will develop in a good.

In class we've been talking a lot about cycles and what we do to the environment effects how this cycles work. This article related to class because if we've doing things to improve the environment hopefully the cycles should run smother. Also the food chain won't be affect as much because the animals won't be dieing out because of pollution.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Green Boardgames

When playing a board game do you ever think about how much material is wasted to make that game? Or how all that material is wasted once you throw it away? If you do then that thought can be down sized because there are new games out that use recycled products. I found this article http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/monopoly-with-carbon-credits-7-green-board-games-for-the-new-generation.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29&utm_content=Google+Reader that talks about these games. These are were made to encourage help to use teamwork, cooperation, and sustainability in an eco-friendly based board game.  Through this article there are seven games mentioned.

1.Earthopoly ($30.00) The purpose of this game is to fine-tune your green cred. This is odne by buying carbon credits that you use buy clean air. While playing this game you learn about nature and climate regions. The great thing about this game is that when your ready to throw this game out and get a new one everything in this game can be recycled.  I decided to look up more information on Earthopoly and found this website http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37005/earthopoly and it gives more details about the game. The game is for 2-6 player, and the playing time is 120 minutes. This game was published in 2008 by Late for the Sky Production Company.
2.Head1Liners ($38.00) For this game a person is to make up a headline that goes with a photo and the score they get from the other players tells them how much to advance. The cards are recycled paper and soy-based inks, tokens are recycled glass and wood, and the score-keeping pencils are biodegradable and non-toxic.
3.The Wild Seed Game ($22.00) The goal of this game is to get kids to connection Earth, food, and health. The game is gor 4-9 year olds. Also they can play the game for different ways. Players choose cards saying whether their crops die or grown while teaching the player about the food chain, growing process, nutrients, and sunlight.
4.Bioviva ($24.00) The production of this game produces 63 percent fewer greenhouse gases, uses half as much water and energy, and gives off only about 20 percent of the toxic compounds of the other games. This game is for six players over the age of 8. Each player travels around the world to gain Eco Points by answering environmental questions. There are more than 800 questions.
5.Gaia's Garden ($44.00) This game is to teach kids to cooperate. The players have a garden and have to keep it free from insects and pests. The game board is made with watercolor paint on recycled paper. The board is then mounted with natural flour-and-water gule to recycled boards.                                 
6.Liebrary,Call It! and Famous Last Lines ($23.00, $30.00 and $15.00) These games are based on social interaction. In Liebrary players try to invent the most convincing first line of a book. For Famous Last Lines the player make final bon mots from well-loved films, and in Call It palyers have to be the first to yell out winning entried in random categories.
7. Used and Vintage Board Games-For classic games try to use used game boards that have all the pieces, they are better for the environment than the new ones. Also game companies won't waste as much product to make new game boards of classic games.

I think that these games are a great idea. Some of them don't seem fun to me but to a little kid I'm sure they will be entertaining. The nice thing about these games are that the all have a purpose to help the kids in life and I think that is important for a game to have.

In class we talked about evolution and these new game boards about the environment is an evolution. People took the idea of a game and adapted them so that they could become new games that help a child to develop.



Pictures froom google.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

A Facebook Game that relates to the Real LIfe

 When most people play a game on Facebook they do it for fun. But what if there was a game that is fun but also help to inforce recycling. Well there is, it's called Oceanopolis. I found this article called Can a Facebook Game Really Boost Recycling at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/can-a-facebook-game-really-boost-recycling.php?campaign=th_rss. I was drawn to this article because it had to do with facebook and I wasn't sure if this game was actually going to teach people anything.
   This article talks about the company Greenopolis and how they came up with a new way to motovate people to recycle. When recyclers take cans and bottles to kiosk's they earn points that can give them coupons for restaurants, theaters, and retail shops. From this idea they decided to expand it to Facebook with a game call Oceanopolis. In this game you own your own island and have to keep it beautiful by recycling all the bottles that wash up onto your island. By creating this game Greenopolis is hoping to expand social media dn boosts awareness about real-life kiosks. Another feature they added to this game to encourage people to play is that you can earn points that can be added to your real life Greenopolis kiosks. The company believes that by 2020 the amount of recycled items will triple. In the article the question, is it really going to work comes up. The response to that is that they are familiarizing the players with how to us Greenopolis kiosks and if people are going to play games why not teach them the benefits of sustainablility.  In this article a negative comment is brought up, what if people are just sitting around using up electricity earning up points to consume more items and not taking the step in real life. Then the game doesn't do any good at all.
   Here is a trailer for the game Oceanopolis


I decided to look up and find some more information about Oceanopolis and went to the Greenopolis webstie http://greenopolis.com/games/oceanopolis/help. Under the category "What's this Greenopolis Recycling Kiosk all about?" it talks about Greenopolis putting up thousands of  Recycling Kiosks acroos the U.S. It says this is going to help wiht our plastic problems and that when you recycle you earn points that can be turned into coins on Oceanopolis. Once you fill up your pockets you go to the website and it shows you how many coins you've earned. A bonus is that sometimes companies will give people "special offers".

In environmental class we've been talking about statistics and this kinda relates because we're using the statistics that most people use the internet and play games to reach people on the idea of sustainability.

At first I thought this was a really cool idea let's teach and encourage people to recycle and we'll give them a reward. Then after reading about it on the Greenopolis page I thought it was a bad idea because the way I took it was that all the stuff you recycle gives you coins on a game. I don't recieve anything from those coins and I already recycle and get nothing from it. Just getting coins from an online game makes the whole concept bad no one wants coins for a game especially when their are people that already recycle and don't care to play games. This game does teach people how to recycle but I'm not sure if it will kept people playing for long.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Stolog5 Are businesses trying to help to the environment?

The answer to this question is yes or at least one company is. The company P&G are making a step in helping the environment. I found the article Protor and Gamble Makes New Major Commitment to Sustainability at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/09/proctor-gamble-green-commitment.php?campaign=th_rss.

This article is very short but has a lot of information in it. It talks about how the company P&G is the world's largest comsumer company and now it has a new commitment to sustainability. They have three main goals to do this, which are: powering its plants with 100 percent renewable energy, using 100 percent renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging, and cutting down on packaging materials. With P&G taking this bold step other companies may take on this feat as well. This huge change is going to be a big step so P&G will be putting out yearly progess reports. The first major benchmark will be coming out in 2020. The article then goes on to mention four product: Pringles, Tide, PUR, and Olay, that will be in better packaging. Along with having their first benchmark out by 2020 they also want to replace 25 percent of petroleum-based materials with renewable materials, reasulting in a reduction of 20 percent in packaging. That isn't the only thing P&G wants accomplished by 2020, they also want to power its plants with 30 percent renewable energy and cut back on truch transportation by 20 percent. Finally the article goes on to say that P&G is acting to the new world of business which has increased resource competition and climate change concerns. With making these changes P&G can market to consumers and investers that it is among the greenest companies. Another thing this is doing for P&G is lowering future expenses by limiting fuel and packaging expenses.

In this article they also leave a link to a webpage that shows the full plans for their switch. There are seven catorgies to look at on this page: overview, environmental sustainability, social responsibiliy, product safety, employee engagement, points of view, heritage & recognition, and reports. Each of these talks about steps or actions P&G is taking.

After reading this article I decided to look up videos on P&G sustainablility and found this clip. I found out that P&G has been working on being evironmentally friendly for a while and helping other countires.





I think that this is an amazing idea for P&G to do. They are taking a risk but this risk is going to change the way businesses work in today's society. Other businesses will take this idea to get cosumers but P&G will get the credit for starting it so they are helping themselves in the long run with their business. The bonus to them expanding their business is that they are helping the environment. I think it's awesome that P&G isn't just doing this change for business but they see that the environment is being damged and that it needs to stop.

Friday, September 10, 2010

stolog5 Old Shows are still around and Fighting the Environmental Issues

I found an article about Captain Planet at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/09/captain-planet-turns-20-and-gets-his-own-holiday.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29&utm_content=Google+Reader and thought wow I remember this show from when I was little. Seeing this character from my childhood got me into writing a blog about Captain Planet.

This article talks about celebrating the 20th birthday of Captain Planet. For those of you who have never seen Captain Planet check out this video to get a feel about this TV show



This article says that the Captain Planet Foundation," an organization dedicaed to educating youth about the environment, has declared September 15,2010 "National Captain Plant Day."' This event will be celebrated in Atlanta. Ted Turner who created the series and also happens to be one of the top 5 green billionaries will be there. At the Altanta City Hall on September 7th Councilman Kwanza Hall made Captain Planet the first ever proclamatoin to an eco-superhero. Not only did Captain Planet get that he also got award from the city's mayor and the governor of Georgia.It then goes on the say how people who are determined to help the earth have created a website http://captainplanet.me/. Finally at the end of the article it says to go to Captain Planet @ 20 to volunteer because they need all the "Planeteers" they can get.

The reason why Captain Planet is related to the Environment is because in each epidose the "Planeteers" and Captain Planet fight evil villians who are destroying the Earth. Then at the end of the show they give an example on how you can help the environment and how only you can help kept the planet clean. The example at the end always referes to the story that you just watched.

This video shows one of the examples on how you can help the environment.
  

I think that this is awesome!!!! Giving an award and recognizing a superhero that helps the environment is great. I think that this will help to promote the show, possible getting more air time, and encourage people to keep the planet green, especially with all this talk of global warming. I think that Captain Planet should be shown more often, ot keeps the kids interested and also gives good advice on how to care for the planet


I love Captain Planet <3

Thursday, September 2, 2010

stolog5 Me

I enjoy acting/musical theater and the arts.As a senior in high school I'm planning to attend college to major in theater and major/minor in business management or marketing.

Anything I can get involved in school or the community I usually do because I love be active. I dislike just sitting around and listening to a speaker, I'd rather be involved.

While taking environmental I would like to learn how to help keep the environment clean. I'm already helping the enviornment by picking up trash along the highway and recycling. Also global warming is a big deal at the moment and I want to know how to help stop that.