climate change
A Little Goes a Long Way: MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENTS TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE
In 2007, the city of Minneapolis became the first city in the
country to fund small grants for its residents to prevent climate change. The
grants garnered tremendous success; Minneapolis residents pledged to prevent
over 8.2 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually and save over
$650,000 on their energy use in the year following the grant period. This
year's 25 diverse grant recipients have almost $100,000 to make a difference in
the attitudes and actions of Minneapolis residents.
Community Building is Sustainability
Community Brings Happiness. How many of your
happiest moments have been spent with those you love? We are social creatures;
healthy family and community ties are the foundation for our physical,
emotional, economic, and spiritual health. Our common future will be built
through healthy community as we band together to solve climate change and
create clean, green, and local living economies.
Turning lemons into lemonade. By joining hands with neighbors, communities are turning lemons into lemonade.
Climate Cafés CONVERSING TOWARD A CLEANER WORLD
Climate cafés are a relatively new offshoot of the café
discussion movement, which takes its inspiration from philosophical discussion
groups tracing their ancestry as far back as Plato and Socrates. Recognizing
that it is too easy for people to become disconnected from their
community-particularly if their neighbors hold conflicting opinions on
important issues-discussion cafés offer a venue for respectful public
conversation on the challenging subjects facing us every day.
PROFILE: Sarah Waddle, St. Paul Central High School
Roots and Shoots Program Founder at St. Paul Central
Sarah Waddle's eighth grade teacher inspired her to learn about Jane Goodall and her organization, Roots and Shoots. Sarah founded a Roots and Shoots group at St Paul's Central High School in her sophomore year.
One of Sarah's dream projects for the group is to install a green roof at St. Paul Central. Her Roots and Shoots club is fortunate enough to have Macalester College nearby and was able to meet with students and tour their green roof.
Mentoring for Future Change
Like many people, I was deeply affected by the movie An
Inconvenient Truth in the summer of 2006. I "greened" my family's
life and was honored to be accepted as a volunteer public speaker. Through the
Climate Project, I was trained by Al Gore and his scientific advisors for my
mission: to present and discuss climate change in my own community.
I'm a social studies teacher and a parent of two high school students, so I primarily addressed school groups. I'm proud of the fact that I spoke to over 40 groups in the spring of 2007, but what I've found most
How to Talk to your Kids about Climate Change
Many researchers and educators argue that young children are
not mature enough to handle the reality of climate change, and parents are
often understandably overwhelmed by the task of translating the technicalities
of climate change to so young an audience. Yet young people are asking about
climate change because they hear about it every day. It is an issue that not
only scientists are talking about, but mainstream media is covering as well.
Because climate change is a problem with clearly alarming consequences for our
Largest Contributor to our Carbon Footprint
As we learn more about the potential effects of climate
change, many of us are exploring ways to reduce our "carbon footprint" or how
much carbon dioxide is created by the choices we make in our homes, our travel,
the food we eat, and what we buy and throw away. In Minnesota, more than 25% of
the carbon dioxide emitted into the air is from motor vehicles, making cars one
of the largest contributors to our individual carbon footprints.
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to immediately reduce our
WE Can Solve the Climate Crisis
The WE Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate
Protection-a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former
Vice President Al Gore. The goal of the Alliance is to build a movement that
creates the political will to solve the climate crisis-in part through
repowering America with 100 percent of its electricity from clean energy
sources within 10 years.
AS MINNESOTA ADDRESSES CLIMATE CHANGE: Some Legislators Get Cold Feet
After an extraordinary 2007 legislative session that set
Minnesota on the path to a comprehensive plan for curbing greenhouse gas emissions,
the 2008 legislature encountered delays in implementing real climate change
solutions. First, Governor Pawlenty's Office of Energy Security stalled release
of the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group's recommendations for realizing
the goals set in 2007.
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