Thursday, June 3, 2010

Endangered Species

Humans are causing many animals to become endangered or extinct, due to green house gas emissions, and polluting the earth. We do not own this planet, we share it with many other animal species. We cannot do this we are so selfish. Here is a list of some endangered or extinct species:

These are some of the more endangered species, click on the name to find out more about them and how you can help.

By: Emily Newton

Thursday, May 27, 2010

F Is For The Future

Every time I see that telus commercial It tells me that the future is friendly, but i think to my self that that is wrong. In my mind the future is going to be a dark grubby place with gray smog covering the sky. No air to breath and defiantly no wild life. By that time the trees will be gone, the grass will be brown and the animals will be extinct. Well what now telus, what now!

Personally I don't believe in the whole 2012 theory, but i do believe that the world will not be the same. Can you imagine the type of cars we will be driving in about 10 or 20 years. Or even the television. We think having the new mac book pro is cool and very high-tech but by the time my kids get laptops there going to be as small and thin as a credit card, faster that you could even imagine and be 3-D. Well all of that stuff is going to be great but before all that new technology comes out we are going to have to go through some tough times. A little some thing called global worming.

The Arctic warming up, glaciers melting, and intense heat waves covering the globe. That is global warming. Im sure that you have heard of global warming because it all over the news but if we don't react fast enough the world could be a hole other place. In my mind we can use the new technology to our advantage. Like maby we can have a machine that sucks up all the air and cleans it, or maby we can make cars that run off water. there is thousands of possible ways to help our earth but we just are not taking action. It all comes back to Gandhi famous quote- "Be the change you want to see in the world.'' I think that is the best quote because it is telling you that if you do a certain action to change the world maybe your action will grow and actually change the world forever. Well i guess telus is wrong, the future is defiantly not friendly. Thank you.

By Alex Craig

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Environmentally Friendly Healthcare

In 1922 Canadian Scientist, Sir Frederic Grant Banting, was the first person to isolate insulin. Insulin is used in the body to allow your cells to use the sugar you consume for energy. Insulin is made in the body in an organ called the Pancreas. Those people whose body has killed the pancreas have diabetes, and they must get artificial insulin from injections.

Banting found a way to isolate insulin. He could also produce it in small amounts for clinical trials. Up to 1980 all insulin was taken from pigs and cattle. This had an effect on the environment. We all know that cows and pigs produce a lot of methane that enters into our atmosphere and then contributes to global warming. To get the insulin from theses animals they would also have to provide everything for them including water, food, and shelter. Another way to produce insulin is to make human insulin. Scientists can transfer human DNA into things such as bacteria or yeast. This process uses a lot of chemicals, and is also harmful to the environment.

Since them science has come a long way, and is now even more environmentally friendly. In Calgary it was found that you could produce insulin from the safflower. Canadian scientist genetically engineered the human gene for insulin into the common safflower plant. This is the most cost effective way of producing insulin, and it is also good for the environment because as we know plants take CO2 in and put out oxygen. Only 25 square miles would be all we need to produce enough insulin for the diabetic population of the world. The production of insulin has just gotten a whole lot greener.

Monday, May 17, 2010

5 great ways to help our enviroment!

As many people know, Global worming is damaging our Earth and environment. So I think it would be really great if people could take in these idea's and use them in daily life!

1) Change your kitchen habits- You should always use reusable containers for food storage, or in lunch bags, instead of plastic rap or tin foil! You can also use up old rags to clean your mess instead of paper towels.

2) Shopping bags- We all know that plastic bags are not biodegradable, well they at least don't decompose probaly. So we should all be using the Eco friendly bags for when we go shopping! If every one switches and starts using these bags, it will help our environmental issues by a lot.

3) Stop junk mail- The junk mail that Americans receive in just one day is an incredible amount! It could produce enough energy to heat up a quarter of a million homes! Which is terrible! There are some people who you can write to, that can make junk mail reduce by 75%.

4)Clothes- You can all ways make new clothes by the ones you already have. If you are about to throw them out, you should stop and think about what else is a possibility. Maybe you could hand them down, maybe to a younger sibling o friend!

5) Tires- Every two weeks, Americans wear out nearly 50 millin pounds of rubber off there tires. To stop this you can inflate your tires more.

-Georgia

Sunday, May 16, 2010

E-Waste

E-waste

Do you have any old pieces of technology lying around at home? If you do bring it to the E-waste department near you.

What is E- waste some people ask? Well E-waste is types of technology that can be recycled. For example if you have a phone that still works at home but you don’t use it, you can take it into an E-waste department. They will fix the phone, order new parts if needed, erase the memory on the phone and then ship it back to the store so it can be reused again. If it doesn’t work, then they will recycle the phone for you. They will also recycle TV, computers, printers, printer cartridges and any other technology you have.

E-waste impacts the environment by releasing harmful toxins into the soil by sitting in the dump. Also the chemicals can affect the food in wildlife. According EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) more than 4.6 million tons of E-waste goes to landfills each year. There are several health issues which arise from E-waste and the toxins given off by technology. Studies say that computer monitors contain 6.3% lead. That can release into the atmosphere and the soil and surfaces can absorb the lead. When the lead enter the human body it can damage your brain and nerve system.

Next time you need to throw out your computers think twice, and go to the E-waste department near you.

This was posted by Hayley

10 Teriffc Environmental Facts

As many people know, our environment is in a lot of danger because of the amount of polution we are putting into the air. Here are ten interesting facts about our environment.

1 Over 40% of all tropical forests have been destroyed and another acre is lost each second.

2 As many as 70,000 people nationwide may die prematurely from heart and lung disease aggravated by particulate air pollution.

3 Raw sewage, poison runoff and other pollution have caused 8,000 beach closures or advisories over the past five years.

4 More than 100 million Americans live in urban areas where the air is officially classified by the EPA as unsafe to breathe.

5 The annual catch in 13 of the world's 15 major fishing zones has declined and in four of those - three in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific oceans - the catch has shrunk by a startling 30%.

6 In many urban areas, children are steadily exposed to high levels of pollutants, increasing the risk of chronic lung disease, cell damage and respiratory illness.

7 The United States is responsible for almost 25% of the world's total energy consumption. We use one million gallons of oil every two minutes.

8 As of 1994, 1.7 million American children, ages one to five, suffered from lead poisoning.

9 As of 1994, 1.7 million American children, ages one to five, suffered from lead poisoning.

10 Mining companies are allowed to buy our public lands for less than five dollars an acre - any they pay no royalties on the gold and other minerals they extract. This taxpayer giveaway, combined with the cost of massive environmental damage and cleanup, amounts to a billion dollars every year.

I hope you enjoyed these interesting environmental facts.

Source: http://www.lightparty.com/Economic/EnvironmentalFacts.html

By: Tommy L

Electricity Wasted

If you're user of appliances and gadgets, you always turn them off when you're not using them. But many electronics don't actually go all the way off, they're still on but using "standby power." Some examples of features that require standby power are:
internal clocks and sensors
external clock displays and panel display LEDs
remote control sensors;
battery recharger's and power-conversion packs
communications between a base unit and a portable unit (as in a portable phone).

Up to 10% f household electricity is wasted in homes around the world. Even when electrical equipment is not being used, they still draw away power, causing electricity bills to rise and contributing to 1 % of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, just from those electrical appliances supposedly being "off".

Each watt used costs an average of $1 US per year for any one of the 28 countries that is a member of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Although this may not seem like a lot, when you take into consideration the numerous appliances (usually 40 or more) scattered around a household, the cost can be enormous.

Posted by: Damon Crumplen

Saturday, May 15, 2010

What my family does to help the environment

In twenty years from now, I shudder to think what the world will look like at this rate. Flying cars will cause permanent fogginess, robot waiters will cause less plants. Less plants will cause less animals. Less animals will cause no food. No food will cause us to starve. If we starve, we will have to make more factories so we can make artificial food. What would happen to our health if we reach that point?

My family is trying really hard to help the environment. I am going to share some of the things that we do and how it can help.

1) Turning all the lights off when we leave the room or the house. If we leave the lights on, the energy stops burning. A bright incandescent bulb burns 100 watts. If we turn the lights on and off and on and off, we keep wasting 100 watts. If we just turned the light off when we don't need it, there's no wasting watts. If it were to burn five minutes worth of extra electricity each time it is switched on, it would burn one hundred watts, times five minutes, times sixty seconds. Basically we are using thirty thousand watts in the one second it was turned on.

2) Our family (having four girls) uses way too much water for our showers, especially considering we have a pool. So we decided to put timers in each bathroom to limit our shower time. Five minutes is the maximum time aloud. Since the world is starting to run short on water, it's bad to waste it on hot water, while we can easily use cold, medium, or 3 minute showers.

3) Buy organic/natural foods. We know how bad it is when we eat food with chemicals in it. Not only does it ruin the plants or vegetables, but it kills animals that eat the veggies. What does it hurt to use a scare-crow for once? It works exactly the same.

4) Use the computer for word documents that don't need to be printed. Yes, it hurts the environment to use the computer, but if you do it quickly, it uses less energy. That way, we don't need to use paper for a little list or plan for the day. For grocery lists, you can also use your phone.

These are just barely a start to help the environment, and doesn't make a HUGE impact because it's just our family, but if the whole world, or at least the country did all of that, imagine how much that would help. Spread the word, help the environment.

Posted by Emilie R.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Enviromantally friendly phones!

Are you looking to get that spacial phone, that you've always wanted? well instead of getting a normal phone, why don't you get an Eco-friendly phone. this blog will be about an Eco-friendly phone that runs on Coke! Yes you read right the phone runs on Coke. But lets get to that later. Did you know that more than 5 million phones are disposed of each year?5 million! Well there is only a small amount of that number of phones are recycled. That's bad, considering most of us can't wait to get a new or first phone. if you want to help, you could give your used phone to Greentec, Home Depo., and Staples can recycle your used phones properly. If you want to help even more than you could buy an Eco-friendly phone. You can even buy them at famous phone stores like rogers, and koodo.

There is a new phone in China that runs on Coke! That's right, Coke. Daizi Zheng was the creator of this "Coke machine." What this phone does is that it runs on sugar Drinks, Zheng proposes that the phone could run on a battery that uses enzymes to generate electricity from carbohydrates. This is what Daizi Zheng said "This is a client project for designing an Eco friendly phone for Nokia. Through out my research, I found that phone battery as a power source, it is expensive, consuming valuable resources on manufacturing, presenting a disposal problem and harmful to the environment." The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment. Bio battery is an ecological friendly energy that generates electricity from carbohydrates. By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugar drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out. Bio battery has the strength to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional batteries and it can be fully biodegradable. Meanwhile it brings a whole new perception to batteries and afternoon tea.

This Blog was by Blayne

When I went to Beijing two years ago, all I could see in the air was grey, humid, stinky smog. do we as Canadians want this to happen to us? Of course not! Then why is our future pointing straight for it? The answer is because we don't care enough. Sure there are people writing blogs about doing stuff, but are they themselves actually going to do it? Is everybody really going to turn off their light all the time? Well, some people will. Most people won't.

The main problem is that people don't want to give up their little habits of having the lights on all the time and turning the temperature on so high that you can wear your shorts and make it feel like summer when it's actually winter. Things like that are the little differences that make the global temperature rise.

So what is it that we have to do? We have to give up these stupid habits. Now. Not tomorrow because tomorrow will become today and nobody wants to do anything today. Now. Now or never.

There are also a lot of extra things you can do to make sure that we, and generations after us will be able to live on this planet. You could for example plant an organic garden. This is probably the most useful thing you could do at a time like this. With the economy sinking lower and lower it would cost less if you grew your own lettuce and tomatoes for your sandwiches and salads. A garden also promotes healthy eating by seeing all the delicious things growing from the ground. It also gives you a sense of pride. To know that you yourself are eating something that you have grown and knowing that you are saving all that energy of driving your car to the grocery store which has its own gigantic carbon footprint. That is why you must have a garden.

Another thing we should do is stop throwing things in the Great Lakes. Raw sewage is being dumped carelessly into Lake Ontario like they'll never see it again. Well, when we finally dump so much stuff in, you'll see it alright, and smell it too. That is when people will stop. Only when they can see it with their naked eye. That is right about when we will have to resort to desperate measures because we ignored the chance we have now and completely ruined any chance of ever being able to live on this Earth again and we'll all have to live on the moon. Which doesnt seem like a great idea to me.

So what will we end up as? Who knows the answer? Not me thats for certain.

Posted by Darcy

10 Manageable Ways To Save Energy In Your Daily Life

1.Only turn on your washing machine or drier when it is full.
2.Turn off all electronics and lights when not in area.
3.walk or ride a bike to work or school if possible.
4.Hang your clothes outside to dry.
5.Turn down your thermostat when not needed.
6.Buy energy efficient and environmentally friendly products.
7.Use fluorescent light bulbs instead of normal ones.
8.If hot out open windows to make heat don't use your thermostat.
9.Don't idle.
10.Use public transit instead of your own car.

As you can see there is a lot of simple things that you can do to save the environment. So try these things and then see what will happen.

As you can see there is a lot of simple things that you can do to save the environment. So try these things and then see what will happen. By Robert Andersonof n

al ones.
8.If hot out open windows to make heat don't use your thermostat.
9.Don't idle.
10.Use public transit instead of your own car.

As you can see there is a lot of simple things that you can do to save the environment. So try these things and then see what will happen.

E is for Endangered Species

Endangered species. I know, I know. Everyone is always talking about this but nothing seems to be happening. But today, I am going to tell you a little about endangered species, then what I would like to do about it.

There are many endangered species in the world. A few examples are, Amur leopards, snow leopards, elephants, over 1 third of bug and amphibian species and more. All of our animals are going extinct because of us. Humans. Our pollution, and habitat misuse are all reasons animals are going extinct. Even global warming is our doing. The reason that polar bears are going extinct? Yeah, I know. This is the same stuff everyone else says but no one does anything anyway. Now though I will tell you about what I want to do. (Not that it is guaranteed to happen!!)

I would like to start a campaign to raise money to help endangered species. The money would be given to an organization like the WWF. (World Wildlife Foundation.) The money raised would be used to fund research to prevent animals from becoming endanger and going extinct. Another idea that I had was to "adopt" an animal. So every month or so, I would send some money to "my" animal. That money would be used to help feed and care for it. The animal that would be my first choice to sponsor would probable be the Amur leopard. Did you know that there are approximately 40 wild Amur leopards left?! (The picture is of an Amur Leopard.)

Amur Leopards have also been reported to leap more than 19 feet horizontally and 9 feet vertically!!! WOW!!!
For more information on the Amur leopard and other endangered species, go to http://www.worldwildlife.org/species

P.S.
Right now, as you read this, a species is going extinct and dying. Do something about it. Don't just continue life as if nothing is dying because of us. Do something and help nature out.

This post was by:
Chloe

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Water Bottles

The amount of plastic water bottles sold per year is 1,809,938. That to me is very shocking considering the fact that you could save so much money and just buy a reusable water bottle for 10.00 dollars. Think about it... if everyone in your family had a reusable water bottle that you could fill with normal tap water

Most people think that plastic water bottles are easy because they already come full of water but they are actually super easy to just grab and go. At schools you can fill it up at water fountains. Most offices have bathrooms with filtered water or kitchens. You can fill them almost everywhere in our modern environment.

Just imaging a world with no water bottles. People would be free from plastic poisoning, and garbage would be way less. A happier safer environment for everyone. Image that.

Cellphones!!!

A quote that is sometimes said is "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust". This is DEFINITELY not true for cellphones. Every time a cellphone is thrown out, a number of toxins are released into the environment such as arsenic, antimony, beryllium, cadmium and lead. These toxins are very bad for you and the environment. Some of these toxins can even be directly linked to many health problems and diseases such as cancer, neurological disorders, damage to the nervous system, and developmental problems.

Have you ever thrown out a cellphone before? A lot of people do, usually because they either broke it, or because they have found a better, newer cellphone that they would rather have. This is a huge problem. When people do go to get rid of their phones, they have the choice of recycling it or sending it to a landfill. In a landfill, toxic substances get in the soil, water and air.

Did you know:

- The average customer only uses their phone for 1 year? In this year, 4, 221 megajoules of energy are used, the equvilent of 32 gallons of gasoline.

- For every 515 cellphones recycled enough energy is saved to power a house for a year.

- 100, 000, 000 cellphones are replaced each year, most of which are sent to landfills because people don't realize all of the dangerous chemicals they contain.

- 61% of people have cellphones, which means that there are about 4.1 billion cellphones in the world.

Now that you know why cellphones are bad for the environment, here are some tips on what you can do.

Don't throw out your cellphones. There are many places that will take them, give them to charity, or take them apart and reuse the valuable parts inside of the cellphones. Some of these places you can take your phone are: The Body Shop, Best Buy, and Value Village. You can also call 1 - 800 - 505 - 5525 for locations near you.

Every single person makes a difference. So what if your just a kid? You can make a huge impact on the earth just by telling everyone around you to recycle their phones, and doing the same. If every single person makes this small change to their lifestyle, imagine the worldwide effect it would have!

By Jenny (some of this information is from our cellphone project that I did with Emilie V.)

Monday, April 26, 2010

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY.

Imagine if instead of seeing gas stations every second while looking out the window, you saw green fields filled with wind turbines, and solar panels covering every buildings roof. That could happen if the world decided to use greener energy sources, instead of our current way of using fossil fuels. There are three main types of achieving this goal of a greener planet without the use of fossil fuels. The ways are using these types of energy are solar panels, dams, and wind turbines.
Solar panels ( also known as photovoltaic cells ) make renewable energy using the sun, and is very environmentally clean. They are mostly made of cystalline silicon and gallium arsenide, which is only used in solar panels. In the best conditions possible for a solar panel ( on the equator, sunny day, and it is brand new ) if the solar panel has diameter that is about 1.5 meters it creates a 2 amp current at around 2 volts. The best thing about solar panels is that they use the suns rays, which keeps on coming and the amount can not run out, they will never run out of the fuel to make their energy.
Dams are man-made structure that are built across rivers. Even though the majority of them them are used for flood prevention and to control the river's flow, lots are used to produce hydroelectric power. The energy is created when the water passes through the dam. So the more water that goes through, the more energy is created. Dams are usually huge, and the biggest one ( located in, Tadzikistan, Asia ) is 300 meters tall! ( around 984 feet ).
Wind turbines create the wind into kinetic energy. The first machines that used wind as a way to get energy was around 200 BC in Persia! Wind Farms are where many wind turbines are kept together. They usually have 3 points, and they can reach a speed of over 320 kilometers per hour! They have the highest efficiency of any the sources here.
I think that if the world replaced coal with hydroelectric energy and gas with wind energy the word would be a better place. I don't see many reasons why the world can't change there ways, and use greener energies.

I used the following websites:

http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.solarpanelinfo.com/solar-panels/what-are-solar-panels.php
http://www.mbgnet.net/fresh/rivers/dams.htm

Posted By Michael O

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Deforestation

Deforestation is when Earth's trees are cleared at a massive amount, because of deforestation our rain forests could be completely demolished in 100 years.

most forests are cut down for money or so people can provide for their families.
Normally it is farmers who cut down forests so they can expand their farm, to do this the farmer will cut down part of the forest and then burn it.

Deforestation has a very bad impact on the enviroment, it kills many scpecies. Seventy percent of the worlds land animals live in rain forests and if we keep destroying the forests they will all die. Deforestation also is a major producer of climate change. Without shade from the trees the ground dries up, trees also help in the water cycle.

Without trees they also can't absorb any of the green house gasses, or CO2, this also polluting.

A solution to all this would to manage clear cutting smartly, so the forests stay intact.

by Liam

I got my information from
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview.html

This is a blog post I wrote for Ms Weldon

Its called G is for Green! Check it out!

by Hannah

20 Facts About the Environment

Here are 20 surprising facts about the environment:

1. Hybrid cars- If you were thinking about buying a hybrid car, think again. According to scientists from the University of Chicago, you would help the environment more if you go vegan than if you buy an eco-friendly car.

2. Water pollution- What do you think is the #1 source of water pollution? If you were thinking chemicals, you're wrong. The biggest source of water pollution is actually the waste from farm animals.

3. Marine animals- Studies have shown that 70% of the world;s marine animals are at risk of extinction.

4. Wasting water- You could save more water if you didn't eat a pound of California beef than if you didn't shower for a whole year.

5. Wasting food- Many people cannot afford to buy fruits and vegetables, so the government spends thousands of dollars to get rid of them. While this happens,

40,000 children die every day due to starvation.

6. Methane emissions- Animals raised for food create 15-20% of the methane emissions the world produces every year.

7. Fossil fuels- Fossil fuels are being consumed 100,000 times faster than they are being formed.

8. Resources- By the time a Canadian is 6 months old, they would have used more resources than someone in a developing country would have used in their life.

9. Idling- Just 10 seconds of idling your car uses more energy than to just to restart your car.

10. Paper- Every tonne of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil. 50 million tonnes of paper are consumed every year by Americans- that's more than 850 million trees being cut down.

11. Faucets- A single dripping hot water faucet can waste 212 gallons of water a month. That not only increases water bills, but also increases the gas or electric bill for heating the water.

12. Extinction- By the year 2100, a third of all animals living now will become extinct. Not only will the animals be gone, but ingredients to many medicine will be gone as well.

13. Forests- More than half of the world’s tropical forests have been lost. Each year, over 63,000 square miles are destroyed.

14. Recycle- It takes over 450 years for 1 plastic bottle to degrade, so recycle it! For every tonne of paper you recycle, you save 17 trees.

15. Computers- Laptop computers consume up to 90 percent less energy than standard desktop computers.

16. Food- Twenty-seven percent of all food produced in North America is wasted.

17. Plastic bags- Currently, Canadians take home over 55 million plastic shopping bags every week.

18. Cleaners- Canadians use approximately 54,000 tonnes of household cleaners annually.

19. Oil- One litre of oil can contaminate a million litres of ground water.

20. Aluminum cans- The energy saved from recycling 1 aluminum can is enough to power a TV for 3 hours.

I got my information from Green Expander, Stonyfield Farm, and Thinkquest.

By Erika

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Endangered Species

Did you know that today 512 species are at risk of extinction. There are 13 species already extinct. About 75% of these species are endangered because of human induced habitat destruction. Many of the species at risk live in the Arctic. The polar ice cap they live on melts by 5% every decade. At this rate the ice cap will be totally gone by 2050.

What you can do is: become a member of P.E.T.A. an organization that protects endangered animals. You can learn more about the endangered animals by going to sites like the world wild life so that you can teach more people about these poor animals.

I hope that I have changed your thoughts about the endangered animals and I hope that you will help this situation. I hope that these animals will be saved!

By, Hannah
www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2007-04-03-arctic-ice-melt_N.htm
www.naturecanada.ca/advocate/wildlife

Go Green

Green, be greener, go green. As global warming becomes a greater concern for us we hear these words everyday! Whether its coming from your radio, TV or just at school people everywhere are being told to "go green". But how do we "go green"? How do we save our environment? I mean how can one person save an entire planet???? Well one person alone can't save our planet but one person can help. And think about it if all 6 billion of us helped then maybe we could save our planet!!!

So here are some easy things that you can do to help, and you never know if you start to help maybe the people around you will follow your example and help too!

STOP JUNK MAIL!!! -did you know that if you were to save all the junk mail that you find in your mailbox everyday for one year you would have the equivalent of one and a half trees!! You can stop junk mail by writing to: Mail Preference Service Direct Marketing Association of Canada 1 Concord Gate, Suite 607 Don Mills, Ontario M3C 3N6

RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES!!!- batteries contain heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium if your batteries end up in landfills these harmful heavy metals are released into the air. Did you know that the average annual use of mercury in batteries is over what the government limits in landfills by four times! You can buy rechargeable batteries or recycle your alkaline batteries, they can reuse the mercury and cadmium.

BEWARE OF YOUR SHOWER!!- if a four person family showered for five minutes each day over one week they would use 700 gallons of water!! This would be enough water for a person to live off of for three years!!! If that same four person family had a low-flow shower head installed they would save over 14,000 gallons of water every year!

Now you know what you can do to help!! Go green and help save our planet, its the only place that we have to live!!!

I got my information from: http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/gather/help.htm and http://www.lovearth.net/stopjunkmail.htm

By: Rowena

How You Can Create Less Trash

1. Think about whether you really need the item before you buy it.

2. Buy in bulk from loose bins when possible to create less garbage. You can get bulk food at your grocery store.

3. Avoid products that have a lot of packaging, when you don't need that much. About 33% of what we throw away is packaging.

4. Buy products that you can use over and over again

5. Maintain and repair products instead of buying brand new ones

6. Reuse cloth bags and containers when you can.

7. Use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins

8. Use reusable plates and utensils instead of not reusable ones

9. Use reusable containers instead of plastic wrap and tin foil

10. Use cloth bags instead of plastic or paper bags

11. Buy rechargeable batteries for devices that are used more than others

12. Reuse packaging boxes and shipping materials

13. Compost your fruit and vegetable scraps

14. Buy used furniture, instead of buying brand new furniture

I got this information from 100 ways to save the environment.

By Jamie

Friday, April 23, 2010

What's Greener?

When it comes to being green, everyday choices affect the most. Which of the following is more eco-friendly?

1.Organic or Local Food?

Organic food means that no one uses farmers don't use harmful pesticides to the plants or feed hormones to animals. But not all organic food is nearby. Some organic farms ship their products far and wide which uses a lot of fossil fuels along the way.

A average North American meal travels about 2 400 km before it reaches our stomachs. Local food is a meal that's grown within 160 km of where we live. Food that's grown nearby doesn't generate the same pollution that comes from flying, shipping and trucking food thousands of miles.

The Greener Choice: Food that's both organic and local is the best. But when isn't available, go local. However buying locally means that we would have to cut out certain foods we need that are in our diet. For example, a Canadian family on a local diet can't eat bananas because they're only grown in tropical areas.

2.Leaving the computer on or off?

Some people say that leaving the computer on lasts longer. They say turning it on and off a lot times a day can stress its components because of the heating and cooling of the CPU(central processing unit). A broken down computer would end up in the landfill where it would probably be there forever.

A average PC computer uses 300 watts an hour, which equals to 7 200 watts are used every 24 hours. A family may use a computer for only up to 4 hours a day, wasting 6 000 watts of energy. Plus, the TV have many of the same components as a computer has and it's not on 24 hours a day.

Greener choice: Turning the computer off. But some computers are hooked up to networks or are used as web servers. These computers need to be on or they can't do their jobs.

3. Hand Dryer or Paper Towels?

Hand Dryers can last 5 years before being thrown away into a landfill. Also they need electricity to work so they use non-renewable resources.

Trees are cut down everyday just to produce paper towels. Energy is used to transport and manufacture the towels, which are only used once and then thrown away. Since used paper towels can't be recycled, they're then headed to the landfill.

Greener choice: Hand Dryers. But some say that these are health hazards because some people walk away before their hand are completely dry. This leads to the water transferring bacteria onto other surfaces.

Hope this helps. Got information off Owl Magazine, September 2009 issue.

Emma S.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Enviro Challenge

Do you have what it takes?

The environ-challenge is taking place on May 3rd, 2010! We only have 5 people signed up! Please sign up on the sign up sheet above the water fountain! The questions are easy enough for everyone to be able to understand, and the prizes are absoluley outstanding!!

Thanks,

The Environ-Challenge team

NAME!!!

Bloggers of grade 7 please remember to add your name at the end of your post.

Thank you
-Kyle

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

20 practical ways to help the environment

1. Prevent energy leaks at home.
2.Lower your thermostat.
3.Switch your light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs.
4.Use a low-flow shower head.
5.Compost or use a Green bin.
6.Use a drip irrigation system in your garden, so you don't have to use the hose.
7.Plant trees in your yard and community.
8.Go "mostly organic" in your garden.
9.Use a reel or electric lawnmower.
10.Replace your single paned windows with double paned windows.
11.Turn off lights and electronic devices when they are not in use.
12.Fix water leaks in your kitchen and bathroom.
13.Switch to a low flow toilet.
14.Use ceiling fans to cool off in the summer.
15.Dry your clothes outside instead of using a dryer.
16.Invest in solar panels.
17.Rethink transportation.
18.Use small efficient devices to cook food.
19.Use native plants in your garden.
20.Get involved locally.

I got my information from: Practicalenvironmentalist.com

By Tyler

Monday, April 19, 2010

GREENTEC

GREENTEC is an organization that disposes your electronics safely. Here are some things GREENTEC can do with your electronics: they can recover the remaining value of your end-of-life IT equipment. They also sell recycling boxes (boxes where you put recyclable electronics to be recycled). Their core competencies are acquisition, qualification, disposition, and/or recycling. They recycle ink cartridges and cell phones, and they give some money back to the people that gave them the electronics. A great program they have is that for every 24 products they collect from someone, they plant a tree in their name. Some of you may have read in the Friday File that on Monday, April 26, GREENTEC has kindly offered to bring in an e-waste bin so we can drop off our old electronics. When it gets full, someone will take it back to GREENTEC so the electronics can be recycled. The e-waste bin will be in the back parking lot, near the middle school. Please help the environment and dispose your electronics properly. If you want to find out more information about GREENTEC, visit their web site at www.greentec.com.

By Erika

Environmeantally friendly and fun.....gardening!

For environment day, the gardening group is doing something environmentally friendly and fun. We are making a garden with many flowers, pumpkins, and more. We have talked with Mr. Spackman and Mr. Southward about the issues, so we havent figured out where this garden is going, but we have a few ideas. Our main spot is where everyone will see it, we can get to it easily, and it has the sun and other environmental opportunities to grow faster. We are thinking behind the chapel. To include our younger lower school students in this garden, we will let them find rocks, then they can paint them (with environmentally friendly paint)as their own pet rocks. If students dont want to get messy with paints, they can participate in making the "pet rock houses" and the "wind chimes". The houses are made with just rocks and sticks and other fun nature items to decorate them. The wind chimes are made with sticks glued together, strings hanging down, then attaching the rocks to the strings. All these things will make our garden look fun, environmentally friendly, and fantastic. All the kids can look at it and say that they made it too.

Apart from all the gardening, here are some tips to help our environment and all the earth together:

Turn off the lights after leaving a room

Have showers, not baths

Use bamboo products, not paper

Reduce, reuse, and recycle

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Keep the air good (:

Keep your doors closed in the summer when your air conditioning is on, or open your doors instead of using air conditioning!

Keep the air nice and fresh and don't pollute it! And try using more energy efficient things for your everyday tasks.

Christine

Recycle!

For the last little while, the desire to help the environment has increased. An easy way to help the environment would be by recycling! Many towns and cities are making it a requirement rather than an option. Also, they are running out of places to put garbage, so if we all recycle this could start to help this problem. And even seeing something new coming from things we have already have used, may be a nice thing to see, and it's better for the environment.

We could do things like using reusable bags, and we could have compost bins! Just little things like this could help the environment!

Here are some facts about recycling!

In a life time, the average North American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. This means thateach adult will have a legacy of 90,000 lbs. of trash for his or her children.

You can make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one new one.

Enough aluminum is thrown away to rebuild our commercial air fleet 4 times every year.

A glass bottle can take as long as 4,000 years to decompose.

9 out 0f 10 people would recycle if it were made easier.

I got my environmental facts from:

http://www.rribitt-why-is-recycling-so-important.com/recycling-facts.html

Emelie F

Global Warming

What Can We Do To STOP Global Warming???

Use Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

Replace your old light bulb with a compact fluorescent one. If you use three compact fluorescent light bulbs in your home you will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide and $60 per year!

Inflate Your Tires

Change Your Car's Air Filter

Check your car's air filter every month. You can save $130 per year and keep 100 lbs. of CO2 from going in to the atmosphere by doing this small little thing.

Fill the Dishwasher

If you only run your dishwasher when it's full if will save you $40 a year and 100 lbs. of CO2 emission a year. Adjust Your Thermostat

If you Move your thermostat down two degrees in the winter and up two degrees in the summer you can save up to $98 and 2000 lbs. of carbon dioxide a year.

Change the AC Filter

If you clean or replace dirty air conditioner filters you'll save 350 lbs. of carbon dioxide and up to $150 per year.

Take Shorter Showers

Cut your shower short and you can save 350 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $99 per year.

Install a Low-flow Shower Head

Using less water in the shower means that less energy is used to heat the water, saving 350 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $150 a year .

Buy Minimally Packaged Goods

Buying less packaging reduces garbage up to 30%. You also save 1200 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $1,000 per year.

Carpool When You Can

Carpooling with friends saves fuel. You can also save 790 lbs. of carbon dioxide and hundreds of dollars per year.

Don't Idle In the Car

Drive Less

Reduce Garbage

Plant a Tree

Trees suck up CO2 and create clean air for us to breathe, so we need them to survive. A single tree will absorb one ton (that's 2000 lbs.) of CO2 in the course of its life.

Unplug Un-Used Electronics

Even when electronic devices, like your stereo and phone charger, are turned off, they use energy, so unplug 'em and save over 1,000 lbs. of CO2 and $256 a year.

Put on a Sweater

If you put on a sweater instead of turning up the heat you can save 1,000 lbs. of CO2 and $250 a year.

Air Dry Your Clothes

If the weather is nice, put your laundry on the line to dry. You'll save 700 lbs. of CO2 and up to $75 a year.

Turn Off Your Computer

Eat Your Greens

The average American diet is full of meat products and thus contributes an extra 1.5 tons (that's 2500+ lbs.) of greenhouse gases per year, compared with a vegetarian diet. Eating 20% less meat makes the same impact as switching to a hybrid car!

Ditch the Plastic

In total, if you did all these things, you would save $3, 448 per year and 9,000 Ibs. of CO2 Per year.

By: Laurel

I got my information from Action Tips: Ways You Can Stop Global Warming.

Friday, April 16, 2010

A Greener Home

So if you think about simple ways to save on electricity bills, you can make some smart changes to your home, making it more eco-friendly and save a considerable amount of money in the long term. The term green energy refers mainly to the use of devices that consume less energy or use renewable energies like solar and wind power as eco-friendly and profitable energy sources.

The following tips are practical ways so that you can make your house more energy efficient and eco-friendly:

1) Installing solar water heater is a great way to make your home more energy efficient and eco-friendly.

2) The placement of solar photovoltaic panels: the use of renewable energy from the sun and convert it into electrical energy can be easily done by placing solar photovoltaic panels on the roofs of your house.

3) If you build a new house, you can make your house to be more energy efficient by build your house through the use of bricks which are made of insulation material, installing doors and windows to allow the house to use the sun shine optimally.

I hope those tips useful for you. Let us start to make this world greener and better for our future.

By Pooja

Thank You.

carbon dioxide emitions

Carbon dioxide emissions are a main cause of global warming and here are the top 5 out of 100 worst sorces of co2 emissions. In first place for worst carbon dioxide contributor China with 6,103,490 metric tons. Followed by the US with 5,752,289 tons. Then we have European Union with 3,914,159 then Russia with 1,564,669 tons. Finally India with 1,510,351. Now we weren't in that list because Canada is 9Th. If you put all the worlds emissions together there would be 28,431,741 tons of co2 wow what are we going to do about that?

thank you International Energy Agency for the info

Enviro Challenge

Do you think you know about the environment? We need 10 students from each class to participate in this competition. The sign up sheet is posted at at the water fountain. You can win some cool prizes, just sign up before April 24th.

Do you have what it takes to win the enviro challenge?

By, Emilie Vos

Interesting Enviro Facts

If just 25% of U.S. families used 10 fewer plastic bags a month, we would save over 2.5 BILLION bags a year.

On the average, the 140 million cars in America are estimated to travel almost 4 billion miles in a day, and according to the Department of Transportation, they use over 200 million gallons of gasoline doing it.

Every year we throw away 24 million tons of leaves and grass. Leaves alone account for 75% of our solid waste in the fall.

Over 100 pesticide ingredients are suspected to cause birth defects, cancer, and gene mutations.

Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil.

About 1% of U.S. landfill space is full of disposable diapers, which take 500 years to decompose.

Energy saved from one recycled aluminum can will operate a TV set for 3 hours, and is the equivalent to half a can of gasoline.

Glass produced from recycled glass instead of raw materials reduces related air pollution by 20%, and water pollution by 50%.

Americans use 50 million tons of paper annually -- consuming more than 850 million trees.

Homeowners use up to 10 times more toxic chemicals per acre than farmers.

By turning down your central heating thermostat one degree, fuel consumption is cut by as much as 10%.

Insulating your attic reduces the amount of energy loss in most houses by up to 20%.

Enough glass was thrown away in 1990 to fill the Twin Towers (1,350 feet high) of New York's World Trade Center every two weeks.

One ton of carbon dioxide that is released in the air can be prevented by replacing every 75 watt light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs.

Many banks lent large sums of money to developing nations. In order to pay those debts plus interest many nations have turned to the mining of their natural resources as a source of financial aid.

Every day 40,000 children die from preventable diseases.

The public transportation that we have is a wreck. The U.S. continues to promote and invest in private car travel rather than public transportation.

The human population of the world is expected to be nearly tripled by the year 2100.

A three percent annual growth rate will result in the doubling of consumption and production of food and other products in 25 short years.

The amount of motor vehicles that are expected to be operated will increase 15 million a year until at least 2010.

The world's per capita grain production has been on the downfall since 1985 despite the use of fertilizers and pesticides.

Already a train system has been developed (back in 1987) which is based on magnetic levitation and causes minimal pollution. These versions of a train are already in use in several countries.

Fibre optics, made of glass, are being used to replace copper cables throughout the world.

The uncontrolled fishing that is allowed has reduced the amount of commercial species. Some species, up to one-tenth of their original population.

Every day 50 to 100 species of plants and animals become extinct as their habitat and human influences destroy them.

Found at: http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/facts.htm

Posted by Kyle

WANTED!

SJK is having its very own “GREEN” fashion show!

What we need is for you to volunteer to be our models!
All you need is some “GREEN” clothes, which could be anything from hand-me-downs, to recycled clothes or even clothes that are the colour green, with recycled materials stuck to them! But there’s a catch, your clothes have to be approved!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

EnviroZine http://www.ec.gc.ca/envirozine/english/issues/33/print_version_e.cfm?page=feature1

EnviroZine: Environmnent Canada's On-line Newsmagazine

Mounting Concerns Over Electronic Waste

Mountain of computers in landfill.

Electronics are being replaced every day with faster and smaller devices, and yet few are recycled after these products become obsolete. As a result, mountains of electronic waste are piling up in landfills across Canada.

Of even greater concern is that most electronic equipment contains toxic substances such as lead, cadmium and mercury. These heavy metals and other substances found in electronic products can pose elevated risks to human health and the environment if they are not properly managed.

Electronic waste can contain both toxic substances and recyclable materials. Photo: John Wlodarczyk. Click to enlarge.

These products also contain valuable material such as aluminum, ferrous metals and copper that could be recycled. However, due to the shortage of electronic waste recycling facilities in Canada, very little is being recovered.

In response to the growing need to safely manage obsolete electronic equipment and promote product-focused resource recovery strategies, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Industry Canada are working together with equipment brandowners, provinces, territories and other stakeholders to forge a national industry-led program to take back and properly recycle unwanted equipment.

How much e-waste is there?

Environment Canada commissioned two studies to estimate the amount of computer equipment, phones, televisions, stereos, and small home appliances disposed each year. The first study on Information Technology and Telecommunication Waste in Canada, released in October 2000, and the Baseline Study on End-of-Life Electrical and Electronic Equipment in Canada, released in June 2003, provide a better understanding of the magnitude of the e-waste problem in Canada. Combined, these studies reveal that disposed computer equipment, phones, audio-visual equipment and small household appliances account for more than 140 000 tonnes (or 4.5 kg per capita) of waste each year in Canada.

Producers Take Responsibility

Several major brandowners of electronic products have identified that they are committed to developing, financing and administering a Canada-wide program to divert e-waste from disposal by ensuring that it is properly recycled. This concept, commonly referred to as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), places the onus on producers to properly manage their products at the post-consumer stage. EPR has rapidly gained much popularity, both in Canada and other parts of the world, because it has a potential to stimulate producers to design longer-lasting, less hazardous, and more recyclable products. In Canada, EPR has already been applied to target a broad range of post-consumer product streams such as used oil, scrap tires, batteries, beverage containers and packaging.

The Canadian electronics industry established a not-for-profit organization known as Electronic Product Stewardship Canada (EPS Canada) to lead design and implementation of a national EPR program for e-waste, and liaise with Canadian governments and other stakeholders on this issue. The organization is composed of industry representatives from two industry associations, namely Information Technology Association of Canada and Electro-Federation Canada, and 16 major multi-national corporate funding partners.

EPS Canada plans to roll out the implementation of a national industry program over a five-year period, starting in 2004. Designed to encourage consumers to reuse and recycle their electronics, the program will initially target personal computers, laptops, printers and televisions. In time, the program will broaden in scope to include other types of electronic equipment.

Similar to other EPR programs, industry proposes to finance its national program by imposing environmental levies on their products. It is anticipated that consumers will be charged between $2 - 7 for laptops and printers, and $20 - 25 for televisions and personal computers.

To help ensure that hazardous wastes and recyclables are managed in an environmentally sound manner, Environment Canada is revising its existing Export and Import of Hazardous Waste Regulations and developing federal guidelines for managing end-of-life computer equipment. Combined, these tools will provide added measures to protect human health and the environment from hazardous waste and hazardous recyclable material streams, including electronics.

Computers for Schools refurbished computer. Photo: M. Blondin. Click to enlarge.

Refurbishing programs aimed at recycling electronic goods are gaining in popularity. Computers for Schools is just one of many programs that encourage reuse of older electronic products like computers. The Computer for Schools program reconditions donated equipment and distributes them free of charge to schools and libraries across Canada. Computers for Schools currently delivers over 340 refurbished computers per day. To date, it has refurbished over 426 000 computers.

E-waste and You

You can help to keep electronic products out of landfills by:

Encouraging vendors and brand owners to subscribe to a take-back and recycling program for the electronic products they sell or make.
Upgrading or repairing electronic products where feasible instead of replacing them with new ones.
Donating your old equipment to a family member, friend or charitable organization.
Checking with your municipality to learn about reuse, recycling and disposal options for electronics in your area.

Fast Facts

More than 140 000 tonnes of computer equipment, phones, televisions, stereos, and small home appliances accumulate in Canadian landfills each year. That's equivalent to the weight of about 28 000 adult African elephants or enough uncrushed electronic waste to fill up the Toronto Skydome every 15 years.

An estimated 4 750 tonnes of lead is contained in personal computers and televisions disposed each year in Canada.

By 2005, yearly disposal figures for personal computers alone will contain an estimated 4.5 tonnes of cadmium and 1.1 tonnes of mercury.

Exposure to high levels of lead, cadmium and mercury in the environment has been linked to adverse effects on human health and wildlife. This includes subtle neurobehavioural effects for lead, chronic kidney damage for cadmium, and sensory or neurological impairments for mercury.

Electronics contain valuable resources such as ferrous metals, aluminum, and copper, however most electronics are currently sent to landfill. In 1999, it is estimated that disposed personal computers alone contained 4 400 tonnes of ferrous metal, 3 050 tonnes of aluminum and 1 500 tonnes of copper.

Extended Producer Responsibility recognizes that brandowners and manufacturers are in the best position to control the longevity, content, and recyclability of the products they design and market.

Related Sites

National Office of Pollution Prevention

Transboundary Movement Branch

Extended Producer Responsibility & Stewardship

Computer for Schools

Electronic Product Stewardship Canada

Information Technology Association of Canada

Electro-Federation Canada

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