Backyard Campout

The Great American Backyard Campout is June 27 this year. What on earth can this possibly have to do with good deeds and spreading change?

Well, there have been numerous articles in the last couple of years about children and getting them outdoors. Many of the articles talk about childhood obesity, but the importance of children communing with nature goes way, WAY beyond getting more exercise.

There has been a study about childhood myopia. It is proven that children SEE BETTER when they spend less time indoors.

There has been a study about the alleviation of ADHD symptoms.

There has been a study about how children learn about their physical world better when they do it while outdoors.

There has been a lot of writing about how children relate to the environment and show concern about the environment when they've spent more time in nature.

As adults many of us are entrenched in our various ways of living. Sure, I agree it would be great to use less gasoline, but I haven't done anything to change my driving habits. It is difficult for most humans to make the large-scale changes in our daily lives that are needed to benefit the environment.

So, one thing we can do is use our influence to help the next generation do better than we are and we can start by getting kids outside.

And here we circle back to camping in the backyard. Mark your calendars. Do you have kids? Grandkids? Nephews and nieces? Why not plan to camp out in your backyard this year? The site even has a map that shows people all around the U.S. who have made the commitment to camp out this year.

Don't have kids and don't know any kids? Consider making a kid-friendly cache and registering it at geocaching.com. That will provide one more place in this small world of ours where kids can go to explore nature.

If you want to read more about this topic, check out the article at APA Online. Also, the wiki on "nature deficit disorder" has more info and some interesting links.

And one last cool thing... nature is free!

Great Sunflower Project

My dad was a beekeeper, so I have a fondness for bees. I've always thought it was a shame that they are highly misunderstood and feared for being such gentle, industrious creatures.

Bees are highly important to our ecosystem and they are frequently threatened by sicknesses and pests in their hives and also more aggressive varieties of bees. It's urgent and important that we all become educated about the value bees add to our world and how much trouble we'd be in without them.

I ran across this wonderful project called The Great Sunflower Project. The goal of the project is to gather data on bees that might be helpful to scientists and environmentalists. They will send out free seeds to anyone who wants to participate in the project. All you need to do is sign up, plant a particular type of sunflower and, once per week, track how long it takes five bees to find your flower. Simple and fun!

Do you think you can help? Head on over and check it out if you think you can spare a little time. Who knows what your bee-tracking will do for the world. Count a bee, save a species!

(Incidentally, this is a GREAT project to do with kids!)

[photo credit: thai jasmine]

GreenPrint

Have you ever printed something and when you went to the printer to retrieve the document you had one line or one word printed on the last page? What a waste of paper.

I'm really good about looking over my word processing documents to make sure those little orphan pages aren't hanging out there, but when during the times I print pages off the Web I don't always see what is coming out. And sometimes there's a lot of wasted space due to ads that you don't really need. Not all web sites offer a "print friendly version" of their articles online.

Well, this is where GreenPrint comes in. It's a free program that intercepts your document job before it actually gets to the printer and it then recommends ways you can reduce the amount of pages you're about to print -- for example, deleting the useless end pages or graphics or parts of the text that you don't need. It also has a PDF maker so you can print an electronic version that you can email if you want to do that. Handy dandy!

I've not actually used the program myself, but I just watched a video review of it and it looks really handy. So, if you're looking for a good deed to do, go check out the review of GreenPrint and see if it's something you can use to make our environment better.

Grow Your Own Air

Don't be alarmed. You've not fallen accidentally into an environmental blog! This is still the same old good deed blog you know and love, but today I ran across this awesome video over at Reduce Footprints and just had to share it.

I love plants (when I manage not to kill them) and was so fascinated by the idea that you can actually create your own air. I live in an area that has very, very good air (small country town) but not everyone is so lucky. I used to live 100 miles from Los Angeles and every time I'd drive to the city my tension level would rise because as one drives into the city you see this blanket of yellow-brown haze sitting over the city like a cat waiting to lay on your face. It seemed oppressive and unsettling.

So, today I'm calling this one an environmental good deed, be it for your own environment or the environment in general. Watch the video and then see my comments below for additional thoughts.



How am I working this in as a good deed? Here are a few ways to do it:

• Get this video into the hands of people who can make a difference... hospital administrators, CEOs of large companies, managers or owners of small companies, school teachers, health care professionals. Even if you can't do the thousands of plants required in this video, maybe just doing 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 will help.
  
• Give plants to friends and family members.
  
• Make your own environment better. This blog has never been about changing the world. It's been about making a change in yourself and ONE OTHER PERSON so that the change will spread like ripples in a pool. Go buy yourself some plants and see how it makes you feel.