Conservation Education On the Web

All this talk about getting outside is not intended to bash technology. Obviously, I embrace a little technology in my life. Here are two noteworthy websites that allow children and adults to learn more about nature through the internet:

WolfQuest is a video game, free to download on your computer, that illustrates wolf behavior and biology. Hunt, search for mates, and fight other wolves in an addictive format that’s competitive with other video games on the market today. The game has a multiplayer option, and players can talk to wolf biologists online to discuss what they’re experiencing through the game.

Developed by EduWeb, the International Wolf Center and the Minnesota Zoo, WolfQuest was designed as an edutainment tool for children in more urban environments who might not be able to visit large expanses of wilderness and gain nature appreciation that way. So far, it’s been a big hit, especially with girls (an oddity in video game-land). That being said, it’s great for adults, too. You can design your own wolf, down to the fur color, and hunt by scent tracks. What’s not to love?

Wildlife University, run by The National Wildlife Federation, is a set of free online courses for those interested in helping the conservation cause from home. Courses range from endangered species and their legal protections to how to encourage wildlife in your backyard. I’m taking the Leading Communities to Conservation set of courses right now, and have already learned much about how I can contribute to society by using my personal abilities and interests. Courses are self-paced and include do-at-home exercises. Why not take some free education when you can get it?

Anyone have more websites to share for nature-minded folks?

Walkable Cities on the Web

I just heard of a great site called Walk Score. While the site’s owners are the first to admit that the system isn’t perfect (yet), it does allow you to see the “walkability”–suitability for walking, that is–of a town and its amenities in a sidebar list. The google map is displayed for you as well. Check out your own town, your friends’ and families’ towns, and maybe a town or two you have been curious about. Or, learn about places that you didn’t even know were there. A coffee shop on Second? Who knew?

In addition to being fun to use, Walk Score makes walkable cities cool and encourages the meandering lifestyle. That’s something applaud.

(Thanks to The Nest.com for the tip)

The Need for Trees

Quick Facts about the need for trees, from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/forests/forester/mdfacts.asp):

Landscaping, especially with trees, can increase property values as much as 20%.

One acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and produces four tons of oxygen. This is enough to meet the annual needs of eighteen people. USDA Forest Service

For every 10,000 miles driven in a vehicle that gets 20 mpg plant 15 trees to offset the CO² production.

Tree loss has a financial cost. Tree loss in the Baltimore-Washington region since 1973 has resulted in a 19% increase in stormwater runoff (540 million cubic feet) at a cost of $1.08 billion American Forests

Kids and Nature: What Really Counts

Since I wrote about Growing Nature-Loving Kids, I have become aware of an entire movement spurred by Richard Louv’s powerful treatise on the necessity of getting children into the outdoors. The author himself is chair of the Children & Nature Network, a network of regional groups dedicated to the cause. Several states have issued proclamations and plans to move kids outside during school, free time, and family time. The National Wildlife Federation is promoting a daily “Green Hour” of outdoor play. In short, it seems like everyone is jumping on this very worthy bandwagon.

I believe the reduction or elimination of recess and the increased structuring of children’s extracurricular time is a serious issue, along with childhood obesity and the widening gap between kids’ perceptions and the reality of the natural world. That is why I take great heart in these developments, the rallying to a call for more green childhoods. But I think we might lose the quintessential part in all the pomp.

If we are not careful, we will begin structuring this green time to the extent that children do not have the chance to learn from nature and experience the thrill and spiritual awakening that free exploration and natural wonders can provide. The most important point in all of the emerging research on the ill effects of nature deprivation seems to be that kids must be kids in the most kid-friendly environment there is, and that is the outdoors. No where else can a child have all the limitless variables with which to play, experiment, invent, dream, learn, and ponder. Indoor environments will always be contrived and lacking in comparison.

And so the most important thing that anyone–parents, relatives, teachers, mentors and friends–can do for a child is to get him or her outside for some genuine, unstructured, free and fun play. Who knows? The adults might realize that they needed the same thing, all along.

A new approach to driving

Within the last week, National Public Radio did a retrospective on the Ford Model-T, remarking that the assembly-line car domesticated driving and changed the landscape of America, in addition to contributing to the very fuel situation in which we now find ourselves. This highlights a feeling that has grown in me over the past month, as I react to the way people are not changing their habits.

I want to offer a public service announcement, if you will, about our nation’s driving habits. It is true that our choice of vehicles–their overall size, fuel economy, and emissions–and our driving patterns–making fewer trips–have changed in recent times, mostly due to rising gas prices. This is to be cheered. But there are still some who insist on driving large, military-style vehicles when they truly don’t need them; some who still deny that their actions affect others. I want to say, for anyone feels the same, that you do not really need to waste that much gas. You can change. You do not need to continue taking your 13 mpg vehicle down the street to mail a letter. You do not need to continue driving it separately when you could carpool. You can trade it in; you can get a four-while drive vehicle to replace it, if you truly need that feature, but you might not even need that feature, either. I do not deny that some need to haul things and drive in more rugged places. I do, however, call to account those who are now affecting us all out of a style preference.

It is time to recognize that every time we use more gas than necessary simply out of laziness, we are hurting the entire world supply of fuel. That includes, eventually, our own. The prices will continue to rise. Gas will become prohibitively expensive for all but the most wealthy, and that includes those who now say it doesn’t matter to them because they have enough wealth to absorb the increase.

The bottom line is, unless you are conducting tank maneuvers or bushwacking through the Amazon, you can change your fuel intake. You can recognize that the amount you use today is only contributing to the price hikes. Until all of our vehicles use alternative fuel sources, we must work together toward stretching the remaining supply. It is so easy to become selfish in trying times. What we need now is intelligence and compassion. You can change your habits, and it won’t change your life as much as you think.

I just thought I would say it, once and for all. What do you think?

Hooray for Big Corporations

. . . Okay, maybe not all of them, but some consumer product giants like Deer Park, Kraft, and others are making their plastic containers sleeker to deliver the same amount of product in less packaging. They have even anticipated the fears of consumers and printed “Still 8 ounces!” or similar encouragements right on the package. It warms my heart to see even such a small step by the companies that, like it or not, control the majority of the product stream for the majority of the American public.

Another supermarket development you may have noticed is the introduction, and even T.V. promotion, of concentrated dish and laundry detergents. Buying liquids in concentrate saves money and packaging, as penny-pinchers have known for decades with their (admittedly sometimes scary) concentrated juice drinks. We all remember those from school. Now, it seems, concentrate is cool again, as long as you remember to use the amount on the package.

There are, of course, still corporations that need a push from their voters–the consumers–to make some needed changes to products millions use frequently. If you’d like to help, go here to sign a petition for safe cleaning products and disclosed ingredients from leading companies (with thanks to the Audubon Naturalist Society for promoting this opportunity).