Blogs & Ecology

With Notre Dame set to play Syracuse this upcoming Saturday on NBC in a carbon-free football game students, alumni and fans of the two schools are upping the rivalry by going head-to-head all month long in the name of sustainable living on Carbonrally.com. As each school works to create the largest green team with the largest reduction in their carbon footprint, and NBC throwing down some serious cash to help fund sustainable initiatives across the winning campus.

But which school is currently winning?
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According to a study released by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health there’s reason to believe that the development of antibodies to cockroach and mouse proteins is associated with a greater risk for wheeze, hay fever, and eczema in preschool urban children as young as three years of age.

The study is the first to focus on the links between antibody responses to cockroach and mouse proteins and respiratory and allergic symptoms in such a young age group, and the implications for children who live in our inner cities where indoor air quality is often poor are truly significant.
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If you’re a high school student with an idea to make your community a more sustainable place to live then there’s a new contest that just may be a great way to get the seed money you need to get your project off the ground. Put together by The Weather Channel and the National Environmental Education Foundation as a part of Classroom Earth, they’re looking for smart, innovative, and workable solutions to pressing environmental issues.

And get this; they’ll even pay you a cash stipend for being a local environmental intern to go along with the seed money you'll receive to help make it happen!
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In case you weren’t among the fifty or so people who attended 92Y Tribeca's panel discussion on American Media & the Green Movement last night, I just wanted to pass along some of the questions that popped into my mind as I listened to Annabelle Gurwitch pick the brains of green luminaries such as NPR’s Ira Flatow, the New York Times’ Andy Revkin, author Elizabeth Royte, Lynne Kirby of the Sundance Channel and TreeHugger’s very own Graham Hill.

It may have slipped by your news reader during the dog days of summer, but don’t think for a second that the AFT’s recent adoption of a green schools and colleges resolution is anything less than a landmark event; because with 1,400,000 members the AFT has the membership muscle to back up their call for greener schools in America....

I liked this cartoon by High Moon over at Japan for Sustainability. I never thought about it quite this way before. Ranking the 3 Rs in order of importance, they give Reduce the first place, followed by Reuse and a third place for Recycle. Or should they all rank the same?

JFS also has a cute website for kids, called Create Your Future. Do have a look!...

Photo credit: Global Green

Global Green, Hollywood's favorite environmental non-profit, is showing they have the substance to back the style: last week, they launched their pilot program to create five green schools serving low income children in the Los Angeles area. Along with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Global Green unveiled two of the finished projects with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Of course, the ribbon was green. Pics of the school after the jump....

If you’re a high school student with a passion for the environment and a way with words then we’ve got a contest that’s right up your alley. But you’d better hurry because the deadline for the Weather Channel's high school essay contest is just days away. ...

Image source: Bamboosk8

Skateparks, street curbs, park benches and just about anything with a lip is no longer safe - safe from going green that is. Bamboosk8 has developed a shortboard skateboard desk out of 100% bamboo. Not a bit of maple in this deck. For those not familiar with skateboarding or shortboards, what does this mean for sustainable skating and how can you win one of these decks?...

Photo credit: Image Source/Getty Images

School teachers, listen up! This is a call for help. You are one of the first lines of defense in the environmental movement. In a few short years, the upcoming generation will decide the fate of this planet. And when it comes to how to teach children science, math, and geography, you're the best at it. The interdisciplinary skills they learn today will be the planet-saving skills they enlist tomorrow. Now, we know that's a lot to bear on your shoulders, so we've put together a guide that will help you in the classroom -- and outside it, too.

The days of the week have taken on entirely new meanings at our Go Green Initiative School of the Week, Westmount Elementary School in Strathmore, Alberta, Canada.

Plain old Tuesdays became Trash-Free Tuesdays and mundane Wednesdays are dubbed Walk or Wheel Wednesdays. Students are encouraged to rinse and recycle milk cartons with the creative Squish and Swish campaign.
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Image courtesy of Urban Go Green

The Urban Go Green Tour is kicking off in Harlem this month. It’s an innovative event that fuses together a sustainable product expo, hip-hop concert and green job fair with an emphasis on urban environmentalism. The event will focus mainly on developing awareness of environmentally related employment opportunities for city-dwellers via training programs and panel discussions—and it’ll do it all to a hip-hop beat....

When Melissa Ray of Chesterfield, Missouri took home the title this week of America’s Top Young Scientist at the 3M/Discovery Young Scientist Challenge along with her $50,000 prize she joined an elite group of middle school science enthusiasts over the past decade that have proven themselves worthy of the honor....