Earth 2100 is a television special airing tonight (June 2) at 9:00 pm Eastern time on ABC that uses real news clips and information combined with a fictional graphic novel that narrates the next 90 years on Earth through the eyes of a fictional woman named Lucy as the world experiences climate change.
The story follows the story of Lucy, who was born on June 2, 2009, and explores some of the things that could happen in the coming century concerning climate change. To find out more about this special, watch the video on YouTube here:
The US House of Representatives passed the No Child Left Inside Act! The act received bipartisan support and was approved with a vote of 293 to 109. This is only one step in the long process of getting the Act approved, but it is a major step that provides strong momentum to keep working to pass the Act in the months ahead. What a victory for all of us who support efforts to continually incorporate environmental education into our schools and communities.
In light of this victory, please take a moment to write your representatives about your support of environmental education and to thank them for their support as well. In Utah, you can thank Jim Matheson (who voted for the act) and notify Chris Cannon (who voted against it) and Rob Bishop (who did not vote) about your support for environmental education. You can find their contact information here.
Today's post has a little more to do with my work than anything. It is, however, something that I've been thinking about all day long so I might as well share it with you all. The No Child Left Inside Coalition (NCLI) is an organization that is working to bring strong education about our natural worlds to kids in school. NCLI's focus is to pass the No Child Left Inside Act. This federal legislation, if passed, would provide major funding for states to be able to provide high-quality environmental education.
There are over 600 organizations that are members of the NCLI Coalition and they range from education centers, businesses, outdoor recreation groups, environmental groups, and to public health agencies. The organization that I work for, The Utah Society for Environmental Education (USEE), is also a member of the NCLI coalition and the NCLI Act basically embodies a lot of what I do at USEE.
Today, I received an email from the NCLI Coalition notifying me of a very important event. The date has been set for Congress to vote next week on the No Child Left Inside Act. This is a chance for me to get the word out! I contacted my representative, Jim Matheson, and sent him an email asking him to support the NCLI Act in next week's House vote.
Do you want to make a difference in Environmental Education?Well, contact your representatives and ask them to support this important piece of legislation. It was a piece of cake for me to do this, and I was very surprised how simple it was. Just quickly fill out some information and presto, NCLI already has a letter prepared with all of the details! You can even edit the email so that it says exactly what you would like it to. (I have heard it said that for every person that a representative hears from is considered to represent 1,000 other people who haven't said anything. We'll see how this goes, I guess...) For more background information on NCLI, check out the post on Green Fork's blog.
And now, after all of this, one of my favorite things that the NCLI Coalition has done is a movie entitled Get 'Em Outside. It isabout the importance of environmental education in all of our lives and is only about five minutes long. Definately worth it. I highly recommend this movie (as I have watched it several times myself), especially if you have kids. And so, without further ado:
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