Posted by Have you ever wondered what climate change looks like? A climate park located in Jotunheiman National Park in Norway opened in April to help visitors understand the environmental impact of global warming. At Klimapark kids and adults can observe glaciers, snowdrifts, melt-offs,
permafrost. There are also tours under the Juvfonna
ice patch, the only ice tunnel in Northern Europe.
Archeologists have discovered hundreds of artifacts in the mountains surrounding the park due to unusual glacier melting, some up to 1,700 years old.
Klimapark also offers a summer “Klimacamp” in August, where kids can camp in the area, explore the land, and learn about the history of Norway. The camp is free, but there are a limited number of spots, so campers are selected through an application process.
Photograph courtesy Espen Finstad, KlimaPark 2469
Visit the Klimapark website.
Find out more about Klimacamp.
Posted by Have you ever been asked, or have you ever thought: Why might having some species that aren’t normally found in a place create a problem for nature? Can this be the case for both plants and animals?
Remember back in my first dispatch to you, when the problem of the hyacinths in Lake Ravelobe was introduced. (See Madagascar Research & Conservation post.)
We’ve been working with the local park service (called Madagascar National Parks) and other partners to come up with potential solutions. The first step is, of course, removing as many hyacinths as we can. As the easiest way to do this is by hand, we’ve coordinated with a local “Friends of the Lake” association and additional people living here to recruit and pay for pulling the hyacinths out of the water from the banks. The park service’s tractor will then take the loads and loads of the pulled plants away for disposal. This way, not only do we have conservation action to help the ecosystem here, the local economy gets a boost, too!
On July 26, Plastiki‘s journey came to an end when the boat reached the harbor in Sydney, Australia. The trip took four months to complete, and Plastiki traveled for 8,000 nautical miles.
David de Rothschild and his crew thank everyone who tracked Plastiki‘s voyage online.
Read about the end of Plastiki‘s journey and learn more about the boat, which is made of reused plastics and aluminum.
Read an interview with David on National Geographic Kids.
Photograph by Patrick Riviere courtesy the Plastiki Expedition/Adventure Ecology
The dental team has finished their work in Madagascar now, and we were lucky enough to have them with us in Ambodimanga (the village where our camp is in Ankarafantsika National Park) for 2.5 days. They were in Madagascar for almost 3 weeks total at different sites. While they were staying with us, the dentists treated more than 125 local people and pulled 500+ teeth free of charge during that time!
Sponsored by The Ankizy Fund (an organization founded by paleontologist, friend, and National Geographic grantee Dr. David Krause), this team of dentists and dental students from North America comes to Madagascar and our site almost every year. While they were here, they converted our meeting area, called “the refectoire” into a makeshift clinic where they could treat up to 8 people at a time.
That animal you see here and in my first post is called a fosa (it has also been spelled fossa). It’s scientific name is Cryptoprocta ferox. It is the largest mammalian predator and top carnivore on Madagascar. We call these animals at the top of the food chain “keystone species” because they act to hold an ecosystem together, much like the keystone of a bridge. (Homework assignment for readers: find out why Pennsylvania is called “The Keystone State.” How does this relate to a “keystone species?”) Fosa help keep a higher level of diversity and (this is a good vocabulary term) species richness in the forests where they live. We only find fosa in healthy, little-disturbed forests and the fact we captured two in one day means great things for Ankarafantsika National Park.
I am one of the National Geographic Emerging Explorers and I am a conservation scientist. One of the winners of the Hands-On Explorer Challenge in 2009, Pete, recently sent me a question about my work. I hope other kids will send me questions about my conservation efforts in Madagascar, and any questions you have about exploration in general!
Please read the blog and send in your questions in the comments below!
Pete’s Questions: Are you in Madagascar yet? If so, what are you hoping to learn or explore in this expedition? How long are you going to be in Madagascar?
I’m in Madagascar now and we’re staying really busy in the forest (called Ankarafantsika National Park). We’re trapping for the fossa (also spelled fosa) here, while also doing census of all the other animals in the forest like lemurs, birds, snakes, lizards, and chameleons.
Posted by Alec Loorz is a guest contributor to
Green Scene. He is currently
participating in a National Geographic student expedition to Iceland.
Alec’s posts are his personal observations of his experience and of his
commitment to climate change awareness.
Day 13 in Iceland. Only 2 more full days before we go back home. 
I’m sad to leave what has become my life for the past 2 weeks, but at the same time, I’m ready to return to my normal life. At least it will be nice to get a full night of sleep.
My life has changed on this trip. Up until now, I’ve talked to people about climate change, and people have been inspired, but there has been something missing. I realized that what that was: I couldn’t personally relate to it.
Global warming has been something I learned about from books, websites, and movies. It can be unusual weather or something, but it is hard to really see the direct impact of climate change in my normal American life. But here in Iceland, being able to see the glaciers that are melting firsthand, that missing piece has clicked in place inside me.
(Alec Loorz is a guest contributor to Green Scene. He is currently
participating in a National Geographic student expedition to Iceland.
Alec’s posts are his personal observations of his experience and of his
commitment to climate change awareness.)
Wow, that was an amazing week. Just the fact that it’s taken me till day seven to sit down and write something should tell you something about how much we’re doing here in Iceland. It’s about 11 p.m. here, it’s still completely light out, (the sun goes down for about three hours per day, but it’s never really dark,) and I am exhausted. This has honestly been the best week of my entire life, hands down. I’ve achieved at least five of my life goals, and I’m expecting a few more over the next part of this journey. Let me list a few here:
For one, I saw my first glacier a few days ago (they all blur together,) and I walked on my first glacier yesterday. It was unbelievable. Seriously, I felt like I was in a dream, it was so surreal and incredibly beautiful, it was hard to actually believe I was there. The glacier we hiked on was called Fellsjökull (fells-yo-cull,) which is part of the great Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe, and the third largest in the world, right behind Greenland and Antarctica. I honestly cannot think of the words to describe what it felt like to be there, with the glacier, being able to touch and feel what’s happening to massive body of ice. I think the closest I can get is with a few pictures:
Alec Loorz is a guest contributor to Green Scene. He is currently participating in a National Geographic student expedition to Iceland. Alec’s posts are his personal observations of his experience and of his commitment to climate change awareness.
What We Need to Save the Planet for Future Generations
For many reasons, the climate change movement has not been able to bring about the changes we need to actually solve the climate crisis. Even though there are many people putting hundreds of millions of dollars and years of time into the effort, I am not sure we are any better off now than we were ten years ago.
If anything, we can say we’ve made climate change a mainstream topic. So, that’s something. Most people I talk to today have at least heard about climate change, and most have an opinion.
But we’re still not anywhere close to a sustainable society, which is what we need to survive.
I think I have an idea why. In comparing this movement to other social movements in the past (civil rights movement, women’s rights movement, independence movement in India led by Gandhi,) there’s one main difference that sets us apart: we are not suffering. Our lives are not personally affected by climate change.
In other movements, a specific group of people whose lives were personally affected by an injustice stood up to make their voices heard. Their suffering held them together as a movement.
For most people, at least in the United States, it’s still abstract and distant, and too ‘scientific’ to fully understand and be passionate about. It’s a political issue without passion, without suffering.
Read the whole post »
The oil that began leaking with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20th continues to spill into the gulf. This oil spill is now the worst in U.S. history.
The spill is taking a heavy toll on wildlife. More than 800 dead animals, including birds, fish, and dolphins, have been found in areas affected by the spill. The number of affected animals seems to have been increasing in the last few days.
Oil is hard to clean up. Try rubbing some olive oil and canola oil on your hair to see how hard it is to clean off. Now imagine trying to clean crude oil off your whole body using your mouth. Oil-coated birds are unable to keep the oil off their feathers, but while there is oil on their feathers they are unable to fly. Rehabilitators are trying to clean some of the birds by rubbing them with vegetable oil, which breaks down the heavier oil, and then washing them with detergents. Because the oil from the spill is toxic, not all cleaned birds will survive.
Scientists are not yet sure how the deaths of so many creatures will affect the Gulf ecosystem.
See more pictures of affected wildlife on National Geographic News.
Photograph by Win McNamee, Getty Images
After veering slightly off course, the Plastiki reached land on the island of Upolu in Western Samoa. David de Rothschild and Plastiki’s crew will chill out, shower, and sleep in beds in the port city of Apia before continuing their journey to Sydney, Australia.
Be sure to check out the Plastiki updates and learn about the boat, which is made of reused plastics and aluminum.
Read the Wayward and Windward blog post to find out what the locals use plastic bottles for!
Find out about Adventure Ecology.
National Geographic’s Environment website has created a new Personal Energy Meter tool to help you and your family measure the amount of energy you use. Ask your mom or dad to help you figure out what your carbon footprint is based on where you live. The site also gives you tips on how you can reduce your energy use!
Check out the Great Energy Challenge and the Personal Energy Meter.
Get more tips on how you can Save Power.
A massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening the wildlife and may spread all the way to North Carolina. The oil slick began to spread soon after the April 20 explosion. Eleven people died and the oil continues to pour out of leaks about 5,000 feet (1524 meters) deep. Experts think as much as 5,000 barrels of oil are leaking into the water every day–that’s about 210,000 gallons (795,000 liters) of oil.
Animals like this dead Portuguese man-of-war (pictured) are beginning to be affected by the oil pollution.
Officials now plan to cover three leaks at the bottom of the ocean with a large box to contain the oil, which is now spreading closer to sensitive coastal marshes and wildlife breeding grounds along Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama.
Photograph by Alex Brandon, AP
This year’s BioBlitz species study in Biscayne National Park near Miami, Florida begins today. The 24-hour event teams together volunteer scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms as possible.
A BioBlitz gives kids and adults the opportunity to join biologists in the field and participate in a real-life research expedition. It’s a fun and exciting way to learn about the biological diversity of local parks and to better understand how to protect them.
National Geographic is helping conduct a BioBlitz in a different national park each year during the decade leading up to the U.S. National Park Service Centennial in 2016. Volunteers at the 2009 Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore BioBlitz turned up more than 1,200 species compared with more than 1,700 in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in 2008, and more than 650 in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park in 2007.
Would you consider participating in a BioBlitz?
Learn more about a BioBlitz.
Get BioBlitz updates on National Geographic’s Blog WILD.
Photograph by Susan Poulton
David de Rothschild and the Plastiki crew have sailed over 3,600 miles on their journey from San Francisco, California to Sydney, Australia. David recently recorded a video that explains the impact of plastic trash in the ocean, and why it’s not only an environmental problem, but also a health problem.
Watch the video on the Plastiki blog.
Learn more about the Plastiki’s journey.
Find out what kids asked David in a recent interview.
Read an interview with David on National Geographic Kids.
This weekend April 23-25 is Global Youth Service Day. Kids and youth ages 5 to 25 years old get involved in community projects all over the globe. In the Washington, D.C. area alone, there are 40 projects that will involve about 3,500 youth. Around the U.S., there are events in communities focusing not only on Earth Day clean ups and the environment, but also childhood obesity, helping the hungry, and many other service projects.
Find out if there are any projects in your neighborhood by visiting the Global Youth Service Day website.
How will you help your community this weekend?
Let’s celebrate planet Earth today and vow to be better stewards of the environment! Over the past 40 years, people all over the globe have participated in projects to bring attention to issues such as pollution and come up with solutions that everyone can support, like cleanup projects and tree planting!
As part of an Earth Day project last year, 100 Bulgarian students participated in a school and park beautification project led by a now Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Alison Bell of Alpharetta, Georgia (in pink shirt below). Students planted over 350
donated trees and plants.
They also cleaned up trash from the town, school grounds, and park.
Play a Peace Corps Challenge game and solve issues like volunteers.
Photographs courtesy Peace Corps
Did you know that the average bathtub holds about 40-50 gallons (151 to 189 liters) of water? So when you take a bath you use a lot of water. Why not skip the bath on Earth Day and save some precious water?
Or take a quick shower to wash off the day’s grime. If you have a water-saving shower head installed on your shower, you might use only 10 gallons (38 liters) of water during a 5-minute shower.
What other water-saving tips do you have to share with other kids?
Earth Day celebrations began 40 years ago on April 22, 1970 to make people aware of pollution and other environmental problems that are harming the Earth. Small choices that people make every day contribute to the health or cause harm to the planet. When you think about it, every day should be Earth Day!
Many kids are finding ways to help the environment. Two committed kids on different continents have started websites to help kids around the world understand the issues and give solutions to some of the problems facing the planet.
Alec Loorz
Fifteen-year-old Alec (right, and with friends above) started Kids vs. Global Warming after he saw former Vice President Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth. Alec’s website explains the issue of global warming so kids can understand the causes, but he also offers solutions in his iMatter area of his site. He is planning a million kid march next year to bring attention to the issue, and he also has an iPod/iPhone application to connect kids and their projects around the world.
The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is only a few days away! Earth Day is a reminder to take time every day to clean up the environment, save energy, recycle plastic and paper, and reuse old items you have around the house in new ways!
If you spend time at a park this week, take a few minutes to pick up trash from the creek bed or the playground. Cleaning up your local streams can help keep waste from reaching the ocean!
After you help clean up the real world, treat yourself to an online game of Creek Cleanup!
Did you take part in the fourth annual Earth Hour on March 27, 2010? People around the globe turned off their lights, computers, TVs, and other energy consuming devices for one hour from 8:30 – 9:30 p.m. local time to show their commitment to saving energy.
Last year our blogger Ayat participated in Earth Hour from Jordan. Read her post!
Learn more about Earth Hour 2010 on National Geographic News.
If you didn’t participate this year, will you try this next year?
Freshwater is incredibly precious. All humans need water to live, but by 2050, a third of all people may not have a dependable source of clean water to drink. National Geographic’s new Freshwater area is full of information on the Earth’s sources of freshwater and the challenges that face them, as well as ways to protect this vital resource.
Visit the Freshwater site on National Geographic.
Play Creek Cleanup and see how much trash you can pull out of a waterway.
How much do you know about water on Earth? Quiz Your Noodle and find out!
The Plastiki is a 60-foot (18-meter) catamaran made of over 12,000 plastic bottles, as well as other recyclable plastic. The Plastiki will sail from San Francisco, California to Sydney, Australia. National Geographic Explorer David de Rothschild and his crew hope to raise awareness of plastic waste in the ocean, as well as to raise interest in using waste in new ways. Even though plastic bottles are recyclable, only about one fifth of them end up in the recycling bin. The rest end up in landfills.
Follow the journey and learn more about the catamaran.
Learn about Adventure Ecology.
Read an interview with David de Rothschild on National Geographic Kids.
Photograph courtesy Adventure Ecology
Read the whole post »
You want to save energy and help the environment? Why not start with your school? DoSomething.org and Hewlett-Packard want to see your ideas for making your school more energy efficient and they are handing out some cool prizes!
Check out a video with Nick Cannon explaining the program and find out how you can get involved. Check out Increase Your Green.
Photograph courtesy DoSomething.org
The wild tiger population in Asia’s Mekong River region has dropped by 70 percent in just over a decade, from 1,200 tigers to only about 350 remaining, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Poachers are hunting the tigers for use in traditional medicine.
This year, 2010, is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac. Later this month,
ministers from 13 tiger range countries will meet in Thailand for a
conference on tiger conservation. It’s hoped the governments will agree
on future needs in protecting this big cat from extinction.
Read more about the tigers on National Geographic News.
Learn about the Big Cats Initiative.
Luke Dollar is trying to save big cats. Read an Interview With Luke Dollar.
