Posts in “Tips” Category

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks, so why not show the Earth some gratitude this year? Prepare an eco-friendly feast that even Mother Nature would be proud of. Here are some small things you can do to make a difference.


Bring Your Own Bag
Shop for the holidays with a reusable fabric bag. You'll help reduce millions of plastic bags that make their way to landfills, waterways, and oceans each year.

Turn Down The Heat
With all the heat produced from cooking a giant feast, your house will be warmer than usual. Turn down the thermostat at least two degrees.

Let's Talk Turkey
The big meal is over, so what will you do with all the leftover turkey? Don't let it go to waste. Using the extra meat, make a delicious soup you can gobble down for several days.

Every fall, beautiful red, yellow, and orange leaves become a big outdoor clean up project for many families. Rakes, leaf blowers, tarps, plastic bags, and brown paper kraft bags are the tools of the trade for leaf warriors. Depending on how many deciduous trees you have in your neighborhood, raking, piling, bagging, and dragging leaves can take hours!

Composting yard waste saves space in landfills and can help reduce overall methane gas produced in landfills. Many local governments require that leaves be picked up as yard waste by trash disposal companies. The leaves are taken to a facility and are turned into mulch along with other yard debris, like grass clippings, small sticks and branches.

If you have room in a corner of your yard, pile the leaves and leave them there for a couple of years! Over time, the pile will become compact and you'll have leaf mold, which can provide nutrients to the soil in your garden.

Do you help your family or neighbors with yard clean up? Do you stuff your leaves into plastic bags or do you use brown paper kraft bags as they do in Canada? Or do you haul your leaves to the curb to wait for the big vacuum truck to suck them up on recycle day?

Get some tips from the EPA's Create Your Own Compost Pile.

Photograph by Photo Library

Get creative and make your own costumes. Cat Up a Tree, Spaghetti and Meatballs, and Aquarium costumes can be made for less than $20.

Participate in a costume swap with friends or other families in your neighborhood. See if your friends have some costumes they don't want to use this year.

Avoid Halloween-store makeup kits. Use real eco-friendly makeup that mom can use long after the holiday is over. Zinc oxide is a great option to use in place of white face paint and can be used as the base for a number of costume make-up ideas. Brown, green, grey and blue eyeshadows, and dark eyeliner can be used to create ghastly-looking scars and bruises.

Encourage your family to hand out candy made with organic sugar or fair trade chocolate. Natural foods stores will often carry individually wrapped candies including lollipops, chocolates, and toffee. And it's still sweet enough to not get tricked for handing it out.

Decorate a pillowcase or reusable canvas shopping bag to carry the trick-or-treating haul. Don't buy a new plastic pumpkin this year, go old-school and decorate a pillowcase or canvas shopping bag.

Have you ever been to a swap meet? Swaps are a great way to conserve resources because instead of tossing out items that you don't need anymore, you can exchange them for items that you want or need.

How Swaps Work

Go through your belongings and find items that you don't use anymore. Be sure your parents aren't planning to pass them down to a younger sibling!

Pick a date to have a swap party at your house, church, or school. Double check these dates with your parents, teacher, principal, or church leader to find out what works for them.

Pick a theme! You can have a winter swap to swap winter coats and boots, winter sports gear such as ice/hockey skates, sleds, or even snowboards and skis. Or you can have a summer swap to exchange rafts, snorkeling gear, camping equipment, kayaks, and boogie boards.

Or you can set up a swap based on the items your are swapping. Books, DVDs, CDs, video games, and toy swaps are great way to get some new media to keep you busy.

Costume swaps and clothes swaps help you to exchange items that are too small for you for something that fits! Maybe you can plan a Halloween costume swap.

Ask people to bring only those items that actually work and are clean.

Donate any leftover items to charity.

Image courtesy energystar.gov

Did you know that your cell phone charger still uses energy if you keep it plugged in after your phone is charged? That is one of the amazing facts you can discover on the Energy Star website created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. You can find ways you can save energy, watch a slide show about global warming, and learn how your school can get involved and become more energy efficient.

Visit the Energy Star website.

Get more Green Tips: Save Power on National Geographic Kids

The poor neighborhoods of Cairo are harnessing the power of the sun and microbes to find new sources of energy in the city. Since 2003, Thomas "T.H." Culhane, an urban planner and NG Emerging Explorer has been working on these projects with a nonprofit called Solar CITIES.

Using simple materials and waste from kitchens, he and Solar CITIES have installed 34 solar water heating systems and five biogas reactors to help residents get clean energy in their homes.

(Pictured: Solar CITIES project leader T.H. Culhane (right) and organization intern Omar Nagy stand next to a solar-powered water heater.)

Learn more about the Solar CITIES project on National Geographic News.

Play Recycle Roundup.

As you head back to school, see if you can add a few of these tips to your school routine.

• Ride your bike or walk to school.
  
• Use last year's school supplies.
• Buy a canvas and cardboard binders instead of plastic.
  
• Buy recycled paper.
• Carpool to sports practice

Read the whole list and then tell us which tip works best for you and your family.

What are you going to do with your dad or grandpa on Father's Day? What does your dad like to do on a day off?

If you are looking for some fun outdoor activities that help the environment, check out this list of things you can do with your dad! Then invite him to join you.

-Help with yard work duties.

-Plant a fruit tree, berry bush or plant a garden together.

-Pick some berries at a local farm. Then make a delicious dessert for dad.

-Get some green tips from the stars of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

-Go on a bike ride with your dad.

-Campout in your backyard with your dad.

-Recycle paper, plastic, aluminum, and glass containers. Then challenge your dad to game of Recycle Roundup. See who can sort the most items in the shortest amount of time!

-Pick up trash at a park or creek near where you live.

Photograph by Chris Rice, My Shot

The amazing new National Geographic Kids Almanac 2010 has thousands of fun facts, but it also has lots of great information about the environment in the section called, Going Green. Check out the Weird But True facts about how you affect Earth and learn some new eco-lingo. Watch this video to see all the other fascinating tidbits you'll find in the new book.

AD: Find out more about the book and how to order it online. National Geographic Kids Almanac 2010

Stars of the new movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian told our young reporter, Calla Rosenfeld, some of their favorite green tips. Watch the video!

What is your favorite way to use less energy and help the environment?