Earth Day Network Blog Updates

Intuitively, we all know that children learn best in a healthy environment, but sometimes it can be difficult to measure exactly what a healthy environment looks like. Here at Earth Day Network, we constantly strive to make the vision of green schools as clear and straightforward as possible. Recently a study has bee published that makes our task a bit easier.

Tuesday was a very exciting day not only for Earth Day Network, but also for nonprofit organizations and college universities all over the country. In Pittsburgh last week, The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education held a conference to publicly announce the Billion Dollar Green Challenge Campaign. The challenge calls for colleges, universities and non profit organizations to invest one billion dollars to support a nationwide campus sustainability movement.

Heartbreaking is a word that should never have to be used to describe a beach scene. Unfortunately, that is the only word that can be used to describe the result of the latest oil spill, “New Zealand’s most significant maritime environmental disaster,” according to their Environmental Minister, Nick Smith.

Thanks to the help of Earth Day Network supporters and others, Governor Jerry Brown of California has signed a ban on the sale of shark fins. 

"The practice of cutting the fins off of living sharks and dumping them back in the ocean is not only cruel, but it harms the health of our oceans," Brown said in a statement after signing the bill, AB 376.

Renewable energy has passed an important milestone. In the recent Monthly Energy Review by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, domestic production of renewable forms of energy have now surpassed nuclear power and is closing in on oil.

Are you looking for a fun and creative way to increase recycling participation in your school? Do you need technical assistance and help starting a school recycling program? Recycle-Bowl, a new nationwide comprehensive school recycling competition, could be your ticket to success.

This past Monday and Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon was more than just a competition on the National Mall; it was also the host for Education Days, an exciting combination of tours, presentations and fun attended by over 4,000 middle and high school students from across the Mid-Atlantic region. The goal? Teach students about solar energy in an exciting way.

On September 26-27, middle school students from across the Mid-Atlantic made their way to the National Mall for the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon. This competition between university teams to design and build cost plus energy efficient (and attractive!) solar-powered houses. I was assigned as a mentor to thirty-three students from George Washington Middle School in Alexandria, VA.

On Sunday, September 25 environmental activist Wangari Maathai (born 1, April 1940) passed away in a Nairobi Hospital after she lost her battle with ovarian cancer. Wangari has always been a woman that I looked up to.