Share and Voice: National Atlas

Hello everyone...

I had to an assignment for one of my other classes on the National Atlas website and I found it really cool that you could make your own map and depending on what interests you there are all different things you could map. You can map the whole country or just an individual state things like, crime rate, mortality rates, cancer rates, climate changes, water concerns, transportation, population, and many more. The website is http://nationalatlas.gov/ when you get to the home page all you have to do is click on the yellow "map maker" icon in the upper left hand corner and start making a map! Enjoy!

**The picture above is showing where the most hazardous wastes are handled**

Share and Voice: Jack Black & Global Warming Video

Hey everyone I found this video on YouTube about global warming with Jack Black and I thought it was pretty funny but true at the same time....hope you enjoy it!

Share and Voice: Further Hand Soap

Hey guys I found this cool story to go along with this new hand soap. It's called....

Further Hand Soap

Further hand soap is made by a guy who for years was going around the fine restaurants of L.A. emptying they're grease traps, through the distillation process of grease he made bio-fuel but was left with lots and lots of glycerin. Him and his wife then combined different essential oils and exotic grasses with the glycerin to make hand soap made from bio-fuel!! Now he sells the soaps to the very restruants where he gets the used grease, making a environmentally friendly circle!

Share and Voice: Planetary Parenting

Planetary Parenting

So this topic doesn't exactly relate to me yet but one of my really good friends is about to have a baby and I found a couple good tips to keep your baby clean and green!

Diapers:
There are cloth diapers that can be washed and reused but if your like me and probably would never use cloth diapers they have biodegradable diapers that can be tossed, flushed, or composted!

Food:
The most natural way to go is breast milk and like we saw on the video The Story About Stuff today, breast is best. But, when babies start to eat solid food, home cooked healthy meals are way above baby food from a jar

Fashion:
I know its fun to dress them up and make them look even more adorable but of you can try to use hand-me-downs unless its a special occasion.

*all these are good money savers too*

Hope these were helpful...maybe not yet but maybe in the future!

Share and Voice: Green Vacations

So with spring break right around the corner I was curious to see if there were any good ideas out there to be more "green" when we on vacation. I found some really good ideas:

• Use Public Transportation: trains, buses, subways are good ways to save money gas
  
• Pack Light: don't bring more luggage than you need it adds weight to whatever transportation
• Book an Eco-Friendly Hotel: if you have the choice, try to stay at a place where they care about the environment too by using recycled materials and conserve more energy
• Shoot Digital Shots:rather than using a disposable camera, you'll get better pictures anyway!
  
• Rent a Smart Car: If you have to rent a car, rent a hybrid or a compact car
  
• Conserve In-Room Energy: turn the lights and air/heat off when you leave your hotel room
  
• Don't Generate Unnecessary Laundry: do you really need a new towel or your sheets changed everyday?
  
• Consume Locally: try to eat meals that were made right in the area you are visiting instead of eating foods that have traveled thousands of miles
  

Hope this helps you be more green on your vacations!

Share and Voice: Earth Day

I saw a commercial advertising Earth Day and it got me thinking about what Earth Day actually is and what the history is behind it. Earth Day is a day set aside for people all over the world to put all of our busy schedules to the side and appreciate the world we live in and what the earth provides for us. It all started in 1969 during a conference in Washington, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. On April 22, 1970 the first Earth Day ever was celebrated. Over 2o million people participated on the first Earth Day and now more than 500 million people in 175 different countries celebrate on April 22. Senator Nelson chose this week in April because he wanted to maximize participation on college campuses. He picked this week because it did not conflict with spring breaks or religious holidays, but it was late enough to have decent weather. If you click on the Earth Day link above it will take you to the Earth Day site. This site has a lot of cool things like links to their current campaigns to improve our earth, another ecological footprint quiz, online store, and a countdown til the next Earth Day which is April 22, 2009! If you are interested in anything else about Earth Day you can check out any of these links:

• Earth Day


• Earth Day and Government


• Earth Day Crafts and Games

National Earth Day Symbol

Share and Voice: Can't wait for Summer

So I am looking outside and it is snowing like crazy and it looks super chilly. I started to look through some of my pictures and I found some I took in California last May. These pictures made me think of summer and thought I would share them with anyone who is ready for winter to be over and CAN'T WAIT FOR SUMMER!

Hope you enjoyed a little taste of summer!

Share and Voice: The Endless Feast

Hey everyone! So we got some new channels at my house when the big digital switch happened and we have a channel called Create. I was flipping through channels last night and I watched a show called the The Endless Feast. This show was really interesting. The show is based on a couple people who travel around the country to bring together local farmers, artists, and many other people to have one huge feast comprised of only local foods and drinks. The feast takes place outside usually in a field where some of the food came from. The episode I watched took place in California and the dinner had 5 courses. They interviewed a couple farmers who provided most of the meal, a guy who had his own cheese factory, and a guy with his own vineyard who provided 5 different kinds of wine to be accompanied with the meal.

I thought this was a really interesting idea and though it would be cool to be able to have a huge gathering of local people enjoying local food and drink. If you wanna check out the show just click one of the licks above it explains a little more about what The Endless Feast is about and what times its on TV.

Enjoy!

Share and Voice: Make a Difference

Hey everyone! I found this cool site that offers great ideas to make a difference for the environment right here in Duluth. It is the American Towns website. There is a lot of different options to pick from such as... Local Foods near Duluth, Recycling Guide for Duluth, Energy Efficient Products, Saint Louis County Pollution Report Scorecard, Nature Conservancy projects in Minnesota, Minnesota Environmental Protection and many MORE~ just thought I'd share it with you all! I hope you find something useful

Hi everyone and welcome to Keepin it green with Shannon! My name is Shannon and I am a Community Health Education major at UMD. I am using this blog for a class I am taking this semester called Environmental Health. Our goal this semester is to have no paper assignments, our class will keep in contact and use our enviornmental blogs to do our assignments.

There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Reviews
5. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post is has been labeled with all five kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The members of my web group are:

1. Noah
2. Brenda
3. Sara H.
4. Samantha
5. Valerie

Want to subscribe and/or follow my blog? You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the subscribe gadget in the gadget column. You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. I am subscribed to all the blogs in my blog list gadget. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile."