Happy new year - got any resolutions? If not, this video could help!

Happy New Year and welcome back!

So, have you made any resolutions? Apart from usual (more exercise, less chocolate), I am trying to reduce my consumption. I started with some of the xmas pressies I bought ('experiences' like a trip to the cinema or going for afternoon tea, rather than manufactured goods, or alternative gifts such as mosquito nets or fluffy ducks through various developing country NGOs), but want to continue my 'dematerialisation' into the new year.

This is mostly inspired by Annie Leonard's 'Story of Stuff', a great video which explains, from a US perspective, some of the economic basis for environmental issues and the importance of the drive we all need to create towards sustainability. The video is 20 minutes, but packs a lot in, explaining the linear 'extraction - production - consumption -disposal' lifespan of our material goods. Some of the language is complex, but all the key terms are explained, and there is a comprehensive list of references included. The use of animated graphics really helps to bring the statistics to life and illustrate the problems.

The accompanying blog and comments are also very interesting, do check it out and share it with people - she is making some good points about the key issues and barriers to global conservation.

Teens for planet earth

Teens for Planet Earth is a programme run by the Wildlife Conservation Society in the US. They run the Bronx Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and New York Aquarium in New York and have extensive in situ and ex situ conservation programmes. A few years ago it was realised that girls were not taking science as an option at high school. WCS decided to address this through developing 'Girls for Planet Earth'. girls would come to a conference-type, 2 week workshop with WCS staff and learn how to develop, run and manage their own in situ conservation project within their own community.


Girls for Planet Earth has since been expanded into Teens for Planet Earth and has gone global. The website about the programme is focused at the participants, but includes case studies of the kind of work the students have been doing to improve their local environment and conservation in their regions and a series of web pages to lead teenagers through the process to start their own project. Most recently teams in Bangladesh have been getting involved, outlines of their work are also on the TFPE website.