There is a great online tool that will calculate your environmental impact at home and help you learn ways to decrease your footprint – the Environmental Impact Calculator from Low Impact Living. It’s easy, fun and pretty comprehensive. The questions address your home, your car, your travel, your water habits, recycling and lots of other every day living activities. A score of 100 is average, 50 is green territory and 20-30 is you should be teaching class. I scored a 48, which I consider pretty good considering I have yearly long haul “love miles” from Germany to the States to visit family. The quiz doesn’t account for offsets (I do offset my air travel) for electricity or flying and there are plenty of topics that... [Read more]

There is still time to enter the TIME For Kids Earth Day Photo Contest. TIME for Kids wants you to show them (in pictures) What’s the Most Precious Thing on Earth? If you are a photographer, and you care about the environment, we invite you to submit your original photograph for the TIME For Kids Earth Day Photo Contest. The grand prize winner will receive a Canon digital camera and publication of his or her winning photo in the April 18, 2008 Earth Day issue of TIME For Kids. WHAT: Judges will look for originality, creativity, photo composition, and how well your picture shows us the Earth Day theme: What’s the Most Precious Thing on Earth? The deadline is March 31, 2008 so get out your cameras! Get the official entry rules here. [Read more]

In Portland, the Center for Biological Diversity along with four other conservation groups, are seeking Endangered Species Protection for 32 species of snails and slugs that live in old-growth forests, according to ENN. While these animals aren’t high on the food chain, they are an important part of the ecosystem and, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, “protecting them will help protect the environmental integrity of the Pacific Northwest.” Apparently these animals have fallen through the cracks left by conservation program eliminations that have occurred under the Bush administration and their habitat is diminishing. In a press release, The Center for Biological Diversity explained the importance of protecting... [Read more]

TreeHugger’s Carnival of the Green makes its way around the blogosphere every week at eco-conscious weblogs. This week is especially good and worth checking out. Plus, Natural Collection is a great site devoted to ethical retail: About Natural Collection: Natural Collection is the award-winning and UK’s leading (non-food) ethical retailer helping you to make stylish and green choices in your everyday lives. We stock a wide range of carefully selected items for you, your home and your friends and family. We believe in finding the most inspiring environmentally-minded options to help you live a greener and more natural lifestyle. To find out more about the research involved in bringing you the best of ethical retail click here. It’s... [Read more]

It may seem like birds and bees have plenty of places to call home but consider how much habitat we take from them when we change and development the landscape. Picture the perfect meadow of sunny summer days and likely little sunlit moths, butterflies and bees are floating and dancing above it. There’s no reason why you can recreate this kind of perfect tiny critter habitat in your garden and the birds and bees will thank you. Here in Germany I often see “habitats” integrated into agricultural land. For instance, farmers get an incentive if they plant wildflowers along the edge of their crops and I’m pretty sure they get the seeds for free. This little edge of shelter brings insects and bees back to places where they... [Read more]