News & Updates         Haiti: How You Can Help 1/13/2010 Our thoughts and prayers go out to the children of Haiti. As the immediacy of search and rescue and medial aide give way we will see just how badly Haiti's infrastructure has been hit. A great deal of support is needed for Haiti's families during this terrible humanitarian crisis.   Listed below are some of the reputable organizations working to speed aid: The International Red Cross Doctors Without Borders World Food Programme Unicef The Salvation Army     12 Ways To Help Fight Hunger This Holiday Season Here are 12 things that you can do right now, this holiday season, to help fight against hunger. Most of them you can do online, without even setting foot outside your home. What’s more, many of them don’t involve you spending anything at all. Read Can Giant Microbes Help Kids Learn About Germs? a lot of time telling kids to wash their hand to avoid the flu bug? Microbes can be pretty hard for kids to relate too. But check out these GIANT microbes! Not sure what message it sends to hug a microbe... but these sure are cute. GIANTmicrobes www.giantmicrobes.com Giantmicrobes makes stuffed animals that look like common microbes, only million times actual size -- the perfect collectible gift for anyone with a healthy sense of humor. For more fun teaching resources on germs and hand washing check out EK Hand Washing Science   Visually Impaired Kids Learn About Outdoors with Tactile Flash Cards 8/07/2009 A great way to whet the interest of visually impaired children for learning about nature. Of course to really teach the value of nature to children, make plentiful opportunities available for first order experiences: sitting and listening to the sounds of the forest, touching the considering the soft moss on trees and the rough sponginess of hanging "Spanish Moss", and smelling the myriad scents of the forest. But do check out these tactile flash cards too.  www.treehugger.com Images via Designboom Picture books are great for learning about areas far from where you are and flash cards are great for studying up...if you can see them. But what about learning via flash cards for visually impaired kids?

Please spay and neuter your cats and kittens! Unspayed female cats get outside, get pregnant and give birth to kittens their owners will never see. These feral kittens we rescued are so sweet, but these little guys were sick and dehydrated when we found them -- and terrified! Local predators had claimed the rest of the litter. Thankfully we were able to stop the suffering. But how many more, in other neighborhoods, will not be rescued? Being a feral kitten is a harsh way to enter, and exit, the world. And the feral cat population is only growing... Please, be kind -- spay your female cat, neuter your male cat. For more information about feral cats, visit our friends at the Humane Society:

 Click here for Feral Cat Information

Check out this video about the local feral cat situation here in Silicon Valley from Humane Society supporter (and Apple Computer founder) Steve Wozniak,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN7rMykbquM

This Spring Earth's Kids has been busy organizing Share Your Lunch food drives to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank at a few of our local schools, and of course online as well.  We were very excited this week when we saw the huge banner the kids at Washington Open Elementary made to spread the news.  Great job!  

If you would like to donate to Second Harvest Food bank or learn more about the Share Your Lunch drive which provides free lunches to low income children, click here.

We're still here!   Our apologies to any of our users who may have experienced strange glitches and unavailability on the Earth's Kids website this week.  We were transferring to a new and better hosting provider and experienced some major technical snafus.   Never have so many things gone so wrong all at once! 

  But now that we are safely moved to our new location all should be back to normal.  But please, don't hesitate to contact us if you experience any difficulties.  As always, we are happy to help!

Are you fed up with being told that the only way to solve our energy crisis and stop Global Warming is for you to make small changes -- while all around you are examples of extravagant waste and energy inefficiency?  You turn all your lights out, turn down the heate, and keep the VCR off while companies and businesses all over the nation have lights and equipment on 24/7?  And meanwhile no one will really do anything about providing us with clean, energy efficient transportation!?

What we need is a systemic change!  What we NEED is a  strong national renewable electricity standard (RES) that would reduce global warming pollution, create jobs, and save consumers money. It would require utilities to generate an increasing percentage of their electricity from clean, renewable resources such as the sun, wind, heat from the planet’s interior, and plant and animal waste.

Recent changes in Washington have presented us with an historic window of opportunity to pass this critical legislation. But we must ensure our representatives
support a strong standard that doesn’t squander our opportunity to renew our
economy with clean, renewable energy. Please join Earth's Kids and the Union of Concerned Scientists in urging your representative to co-sponsor the 25 percent by 2025 renewable electricity standard bill that was recently introduced in the House of Representatives.

Click here for more information on the national renewable electricity standard

Volunteer Opportunities for Kids
1/19/2009

Being big supporters of the idea that Kids Can Change the World, we were happy to see the idea get so much air time at the Kids Inaugural on Disney Channel this evening.   Check out this message from the Jonas Brothers regarding an opportunity for kids to get connected with local organizations with which they can volunteer:



Like the video says, just text "JONAS"  to 30644.  You'll be asked to input your zip code.   Then you'll begin receiving contact info for local organizations that need your help!

For additional ideas about Giving Service in the Community, check out Kids Can Get the Job Done!

Earth's Kids Updates Places to Go With Kids to include Contra Costa County

1/15/2009

Help us grow this newest addition to the Earth's Kids guide with your suggestions and reviews!   Look for more fun, education, and local volunteer opportunities for families right here!

12/28/08

12/20/08

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency routinely allows companies to keep new information about their chemicals secret, including compounds that have been shown to cause cancer and respiratory problems, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has found.

The newspaper examined more than 2,000 filings in the EPA's registry of dangerous chemicals for the past three years. In more than half the cases, the EPA agreed to keep the chemical name a secret. In hundreds of other cases, it allowed the company filing the report to keep its name and address confidential.

This is despite a federal law calling for public notice of any new information through the EPA's program monitoring chemicals that pose substantial risk. The whole idea of the program is to warn the public of newfound dangers.

The EPA's rules are supposed to allow confidentiality only "under very limited circumstances."

Legal experts and environmental advocates say the practice of "sanitizing," or blacking out, this information not only strips vital information from the public, it violates the agency's own law.

Section 14 of the Toxic Substances Control Act, the foundation for all the EPA's toxic and chemical regulations, stipulates that chemical producers may not be granted confidentiality when it comes to health and safety data.

"The EPA has chosen to ignore that," said Wendy Wagner, a law professor at the University of Texas-Austin.

The newspaper's findings are just the latest example of how EPA administrators more often than not put company interests above the needs of consumers. Over the past 18 months, the Journal Sentinel has reported on numerous EPA programs that bow to corporate pressure, frustrating health and environmental advocates and disregarding the agency's own mission to inform the public of potentially dangerous chemicals.

The EPA has the authority to fine companies that fail to fully disclose information about dangerous chemicals. And, in at least one instance, it has done so. But critics say the program has been allowed to flounder, and the agency rarely challenges a company's request for confidentiality.

It's been frustrating to see the program "starved of resources and generally abandoned," said Myra Karstadt, a toxicologist who worked on the EPA's program from 1998 to 2005. "It's a very worthwhile program but only if it's given a chance to work."

The program began 30 years ago as a way to help the public avoid contact with dangerous chemicals. The law requires companies that make chemicals to submit any information of potential hazards about their products to the EPA. The EPA, in turn, is supposed to make that information available to communities and consumers.

Companies can claim confidentiality if they are worried that their disclosures will reveal trade secrets. They have to answer 14 questions, including specifics on why disclosing the information would harm the company.

EPA administrators then decide which ones are granted confidentiality.

EPA spokesman Dale Kemery said the agency realizes the claims of confidentiality "do in some instances limit the public's ability to understand the specifics of a particular filing." In those cases, the agency works with the companies to get them to provide more information, which many do, he said.

But the Journal Sentinel examination of the agency's substantial risk program found that large information gaps remain. More than half of the 32 submissions for March 2004, for example, are still missing information necessary for the public to connect the name of the chemical with the information submitted.

Some have no information at all.

Consider File No. 8EHQ-0308-17103A.

The EPA document, filed in March, marks as confidential the names of the chemical and the company that makes it. Even the generic class of chemical has been removed.

What is the information that this unnamed company is submitting about this unnamed chemical so the public can see if it poses a substantial risk? Anxious consumers have no way of knowing.

"No information is provided in the sanitized copy of the submission," the EPA Web site entry reads.

One report, posted by an unnamed company about an unnamed chemical, shows that if the substance is inhaled, it produces "foamy macrophages" or diseased cells, in the lungs of rats. The report also indicates the chemical may cause pulmonary fibrosis - a deadly and irreversible disease in people.

There is no way to know if this is a chemical coming out of a smokestack in some town or a concern for workers at a factory. The write-up does not say where the chemical is produced or used.

Nor is there any indication in the description of what this chemical is or how it works.

Another filing in May refers to a study that shows a chemical had caused liver abnormalities consistent with cancer. Again, the chemical name and any identifying information are blacked out.

"The public is being denied useful and sometimes critical information on chemical-related health and environmental hazards," said Karstadt, the former EPA toxicologist.

Karstadt said the whole point of the program was to provide the public with information about dangerous chemicals.

"By law, health and safety data is supposed to be kept open," she said.

The EPA's own Web site indicates that studies, letters and accident reports are intended to be viewed by the public so citizens can "understand potential human health and environmental risks associated with exposure to chemical substances."

The EPA posts all reports, redacted or not, on its Web site.

The law that requires companies to report data on dangerous chemicals is just one of 10 laws that the EPA is supposed to enforce. The office oversees 28 programs that address air pollution, water pollution, hazardous waste, toxic substances and pesticides, among other things.

The EPA is an enormous agency with three headquarters in the Washington, D.C., area and 10 regional offices all over the country. The office that administers the dangerous chemicals program has eight divisions. The overview describing their responsibilities fills 41 pages.

Even Kemery, the spokesman, could not say exactly who or how many people decide what information is allowed to be kept confidential. Nor did he know how many claims of confidentiality have been submitted and how many were granted.

The Environmental Working Group, a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., reports that less than 1 percent of the EPA's enforcement and compliance budget is spent on the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Renee Sharpe, a senior scientist with the Environmental Working Group, spent more than a year trying to get information from the EPA about some of the chemicals under the program, only to be denied at every turn.

"It's pretty outrageous, isn't it," she said.

The EPA advises companies on how to keep information confidential. It is less helpful to consumers.

The information on its Web site is difficult to access. You can't look up the chemical by name or by the name of the company that makes it. So, you have to go through the filings month by month to see if there is any information listed on that particular chemical.

There are huge gaps in reporting. The Web site does not have any information on chemicals before 2004. For reasons the EPA does not explain, the Web site does not include the second half of 2004.

That means there is no information at all about more than 16,000 entries.

Sometimes, the program works.

In 2004, the EPA fined DuPont de Nemours and Co. $10.25 million for not reporting data on Teflon. The chemical, used as nonstick coating in cookware, was found to be toxic and had been linked to birth defects. The EPA alleged that DuPont had information for more than 20 years that the chemical was harmful but did not disclose the risks.

The company agreed to settle and pay the penalty. It was the largest civil administrative penalty the EPA had ever obtained under any federal environmental statute.

Other times the EPA has encouraged companies to withdraw chemicals found to be dangerous. In 1999, 3M agreed to phase out its use of perfluorinated chemicals after discussions with the EPA. The chemicals, used in furniture coatings and to waterproof clothing, were found to cause reproductive and developmental toxicity in rats.

Still, critics including Karstadt and Wagner say the agency's policies have grown too lax.

The real problem with the program "is a complete lack of commitment," Karstadt said.

Even when companies say they understand the need for transparency, they aren't always willing to provide it, the Journal Sentinel found.

Adam Bickel, manager of the Product Regulatory Center of Expertise at BASF, a major German-based chemical producer, said his company recognizes that toxic law is a "key chemical control and chemical management statute to protect human health and the environment."

BASF is one of the companies that files the most reports to the EPA under the program. Bickel said his company takes its obligations "seriously and complies with the reporting."

BASF submitted 101 reports to the EPA in 2008. It blacked out the chemical name in 85 of those entries.

___

© 2008, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Visit JSOnline, the Journal Sentinel's World Wide Web site, at http://www.jsonline.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/36514449.html

4/14/08

(Reposted from http://www.thegreenguide.com/blog/tow/825 )

1) Replace five incandescent lightbulbs in your home with compact fluorescents: Swapping those 75-watt incandescents with 19-watt CFLs can cut 275 pounds of CO2.
 

2) Instead of short haul flights of 500 miles or so, take the train and bypass 310 pounds of CO2.
 

3) Sure it may be hot, but get a fan, set your thermostat to 75 degrees and blow away 363 pounds of CO2.
 

4) Replace refrigerators more than 10 years old with today's more energy-efficient Energy Star models and save more than 500 pounds of CO2.
 

5) Shave your eight-minute shower to five minutes for a savings of 513 pounds.
 

6) Caulk, weatherstrip and insulate your home. If you rely on natural gas heating, you'll stop 639 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere (472 pounds for electric heating). And this summer, you'll save 226 pounds from AC use.
 

7) Whenever possible, dry your clothes on a line outside or a rack indoors. If you air dry half your loads, you'll dispense with 723 pounds of CO2.
 

8) Trim down on the red meat. Since it takes more fossil fuels to produce red meat than fish, eggs and poultry, switching to these foods will slim your CO2 emissions by 950 pounds.
 

9) Leave the car at home and take public transportation to work. Taking the average U.S. commute of twelve miles by light rail will leave you 1,366 pounds of CO2 lighter than driving. The standard, diesel-powered city bus can save 804 pounds, while heavy rail subway users save 288.
 

10) Finally, support the creation of wind, solar and other renewable energy facilities by choosing green power if offered by your utility. To find a green power program in your state, call your local utility or visit U.S. Department of Energy's Green Power Markets page. See also our Green Power Utilities Product Report.

________________

This item reposted from the Green Guide, http://www.thegreenguide.com/blog/tow/825, which is sponsored by National Geographic.  

4/09/08

3/01/08

Reading opens the door to all kinds of new worlds for kids -- worlds of imagination, worlds of wonder, and worlds of opportunity.  But how can we help them to love books and become great readers?  Check out this new Earth's Kids special section to learn more.

2/28/08

April 13th-19th, 2008, is the Week of the Young Child.  This year's theme is "Bring Communities Together for Children—Children Bring Communities Together" -- a theme Earth's Kids is understandably excited about! 

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)  encourages you to start planning your WOYC 2008 events now!  See their website for information about planning and ideas for WOYC events.  Also, because are such a passionate and creative buncy, they invite you to please feel free to share your ideaswith them online.

Remember, great promotional resources for Week of the Young Child can help get people in your community excited about WOYC.   After all, people can't  participate in something they don't know about.   So the NAEYC has new materials with the 2008 theme, including posters and kites, to help you build awareness of your events. Order these and other materials through the NAEYC web site by March 21st to ensure you receive your shipment on time.

Also, the NAEYC has developed a free communications kit that you can use to promote WOYC. The communications kit includes:

• Week of the Young Child News Release

• Invitation to television stations to cover event

• PSA Script

• Letter to the Editor

• Proclamation for the Governor or Mayor

• Business Flyer Template

• Participant Flyer Template 

For your own editable copy of the WOYC Communications Kit and for more information, please see their website.

Tell the Candidates to Help Poor People Adapt to Climate Change.

2/28/08

During the presidential primaries, the candidates have all discussed how they will tackle climate change. Unfortunately no one is talking about those most affected by climate change-poor people in the US and in developing countries.  We are desperately concerned about the impact this development will have on the world's children.  What will become of them when their parents haven't the resources to remove them from areas at highest risk from the consequences of global warming?

Climate change is happening right now. Developing countries, which have played little to no role in this crisis, are suffering the consequences of global warming right now-more intense storms, flooding, droughts, crop failures, water shortages, and disease outbreaks. They need help from the next president of the US, and that's where we need your help. 

The next president needs to re-engage with international climate negotiations, help fund developing countries' efforts to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and commit the US to a pollution reduction that limits warming to a level that science says we can and must achieve and shifts fossil fuel subsidies to clean energy solutions. 

Poor people around the world are suffering from the dramatic effects of climate change right now. We need strong leadership from our next president to make sure we do our part in helping them adapt to their changing climate.

Tell the candidates to help poor people adapt to climate change.
 

We at Earth's Kids join with Oxfam in thanking you for standing up for poor people around the world.   Click the link below to learn more about Oxfam, the sponsors of this petition.