Little Green Books - Little Green Blog

Know somebody who deserves recognition for their efforts to take green to the mainstream? The Daily Green’s Heart of Green Awards honors celebrities and stalwarts of the environmental movement. Like in years past, they are looking to the public for nominations for a Local Hero. Nominating your friend, teacher or child is a great way to show your appreciation for all of their efforts in making their communities green. Best of luck!

Heating your home creates greenhouse gas emissions, whether your family uses electricity, home-heating oil, or a woodstove. In fact, heating and air–conditioning devours more than half of the energy that an American home uses. Making door snakes is a fun way to defend our home from drafts that leak from under doors and around window sills.

Here’s what you can do:

Make a door snake that will fend off drafts, keeping rooms warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Here’s what you’ll need:

One yard of fabric (scraps work great)

Small piece of felt or ribbon for the tongue and eyes

Masking tape

Sand or fine gravel

Scissors

Pins

Measuring tape

Fabric glue

Funnel

And here’s how you do it:

1. Measure the width of the door.
2. Cut out a fabric rectangle that is about 1.5” longer than the width of the door and 7” wide.
3. Turn the fabric upside down and fold in half lengthwise.
4. Glue the long end and one short end, leaving a 1 inch border. Make sure to leave one of the short ends open!  If needed, hold the seams in place with tape or pins until the glue has dried.
5. Use masking tape to seal the seam shut so that the sand won’t leak out.
6. Turn the material inside out so that the other side of the fabric is showing. Using a funnel, fill the snake with the sand.
7. Glue the last end shut.
8. Cut out the tongue and eyes and sew or glue them onto your snake. You can also use googly eyes or buttons if you have them. Add any other embellishments you can think of—like spots, stripes or even a rattlesnake tail!

Hey Green Parents!

Nothing says Christmas like a beautiful tree covered in chemicals, right? Wrong! Sadly, many trees, that timeless symbol of Christmas, are dangerous to your child’s health. Some farmers use 40 different pesticides, as well as chemical colorants, when growing christmas trees. The good news is that there are now a number of tree-farms that sell pesticide-free trees, so ask your local Christmas tree seller, or search for an organic tree farm near you.

If you want to go the extra mile and ensure lasting memories, you can purchase a tree with roots still intact. Once the holidays are over, you can plant the tree in your backyard or donate it to a local organization and watch it grow for years to come. To learn more about trees with their roots intact, click here.

Hey Green Kids!

Mother’s and Father’s Day may have come and gone, but it’s never too late to help out with the household chores. In the summer, you can get the sun and wind to pitch in too by hanging your clothes outside to dry. Sun and wind are both renewable resources, which means they will never run out!  Line drying one load of laundry prevents about 3.35 pounds of C02 emissions by saving the electricity it would take to run the dryer.

© Norman Rockwell

Hey Green Parents!

For many families, piling suitcases, kids and even cats and dogs into the car for your summer vacation is a yearly tradition. You and your family can green your car trip and get the summer off to a cool start by trying these simple steps:

1) Don’t idle. Have you ever walked behind a car in a parking lot that was sitting with it’s engine going? Cough! Cough! Idling causes unnecessary pollution. It’s a good rule of thumb to turn off your engine when parked for more than 30 seconds. The best way to “warm up” your car is to drive the vehicle and it will be “warmed up” in 30 seconds.

2) Lighten up! Get that junk out of your trunk. Driving around with unnecessary weight makes your car less fuel efficient.

3) Be a smooth operator. Avoid jerky starts and stops and use cruise control to maintain a steady speed. And slow down! Your car uses less fuel when driven close to the speed limit.

4) Keep it in tune. Get regular tune ups and make sure your car’s tires are properly inflated to boost it’s MPG.

5) Check your cap. Many cars have missing or broken gas caps which cause gas to leak and harm the environment.

6) Don’t be a drag. Remove bicycle and ski racks when not in use, and keep those windows closed when driving on the highway to reduce drag and improve your fuel economy.

7) Make a plan, Stan. Plan your route to avoid sitting in heavy traffic. 

Photo Copyright the Arbor Day Foundation

Hey Kids!

Did you know that last week was Arbor Day? On Arbor Day, people all around the country plant trees in their communities. If you haven’t planted a tree, it’s not too late! Trees do many wonderful things for the planet, like filtering carbon dioxide from the air and giving us oxygen to breath. When planted near a house, trees provide shade that cools the home in the summer, helping to save energy. Planting trees native to your area is a good idea. They require little maintenance and provide homes and food for the creatures in their ecosystem. To learn more about how you can get started planting trees visit the Arbor Day Foundation.

Today we have great suggestion from “Sam’s Mom” about raising chickens with kids.  Thanks for sharing!

Hey Kids! Too Young to Vote?

You might have been too young to vote in the recent presidential election, but don’t let that stop you from voting with your light switch for Earth Hour 2009. On Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 PM, as many as 1 billion people around the world will turn off their lights in a universal vote to stop global warming. The World Wildlife Fund will present these votes at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark this year. At this important meeting, governments from all over the world will gather to decide how to fight global warming.

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007. 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. The following year, Earth Hour went global, with 50 million people world wide sending a powerful message against global warming. Important landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Sydney Opera House, Rome’s Colosseum, and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all went black. 

This year, you can VOTE EARTH just by switching off your lights.

Do you have any ideas you would like to share with our readers? Would you like to inspire us, like Lilly Tougas did, with your own going green stories? Click here to share!

Lilly in China for Hands Across the Ocean

Lilly Tougas, a young girl from Florida, has done extraordinary things to educate her community about going green. She is a great example of how one small person can make a big impact. Last year Lilly was invited to travel to China during the Beijing olympics to paint a mural with the artist Wyland and with children from all around the world. The goal of the mural was to raise awareness about taking care of our oceans. I was lucky enough to get an interview with Lilly to ask her about her quest to go green.

How old were you when you learned about what it means to “go green?”

When I was 3 at my Montessori school, I would sing a song ”the Earth is our Mother, we must take care of her” and I took it very seriously. When I was 6, my Mom and I read a book called “Hold Your Water” by Wyland and Steve Creech. At the end, I took a pledge, like a check off list of things and learned a lot about what to do.

How did it make you feel to find out that people were hurting the planet through our everyday actions?

It hurt me really deep.

What was one of the first ideas you had to go green?

Well, at first, it was just turning off lights and water when brushing my teeth, then I would leave messages on the answering machine telling people about doing that.

What are a few things that you do to save the planet everyday?

Turn off lights,T.V., and water, recycle and take my friends trash home with me to make sure that it gets recycled. I also tell people every day how important it is to do these things. We are Mother Natures eyes and when we see what is wrong we need to help. 

 Is there something you wish you could do to help the earth, but don’t know how?

Yes, I was hoping to get the use of plastic bags banned in my town, I wrote a letter and nothing happened, I feel sad when I see them as trash all around town, and I feel really really sad when I see a picture of a Sea Turtle who tried to eat one.

Which of your going green projects are you most proud of?

Hand’s across the Ocean in China, my idea of having a Lemonade stand to purchase reusable grocery bags to hand out to people who need them, bringing recycling bins to school, writing a note to Congress with pictures of plastic bags stuck in trees and in pastures with cows. I guess I am most proud of all of them and it is a long list.

What was it like to travel to China for “Hands Across The Ocean” at the Olympics?

It was amazing to join hands with other kids around the world and pledge to care for the worlds oceans together. Not to mention painting with Wyland, he is such an inspiration, I hope we do something at the Olympics in Canada. 

Lilly working a booth for Earth Rehab to raise money for the Wyland Foundation