Earth Hour

Tomorrow night (March 28th) is Earth Hour - show your support for taking action on climate change by turning off your lights for one hour starting at 8:30pm at your local time. From the Earth Hour website (Global, US):

"What is Earth Hour?
-Earth Hour is World Wildlife Fund's global initiative where individuals, businesses and governments turn off their lights for one hour to show their support for action on climate change.
-Earth Hour is a symbolic event designed to engage people from all walks of life in the climate change discussion to send a strong message to our political leaders that we want them to take meaningful action on climate change.
-The largest climate event in history where millions of people around the world will unite by turning off their lights for one hour, Earth Hour, to demand action on the climate crisis.
When is Earth Hour?
-Earth Hour 2009 takes place on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm–local time.
-Just like New Years Eve, Earth Hour will travel from time zone to time zone starting at 8:30pm in New Zealand."

There's lots of information of the website about how to get involved and tools to help spread the word.

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Captain Planet

My post about the platypus t-shirt reminded me of the cartoon "Captain Planet and the Planeteers", as 5 kids from around the world would combine their powers to summon Captain Planet (with an awesome green mullet). Throughout the series they mainly fight villains that pollute the earth and give tips on how you can save the planet at the end of episodes.

I found the first Captain Planet episode over on Youtube and in it the villain starts drilling for oil in a wildlife sanctuary which looks to be in Alaska, given the wildlife. Despite being made in 1990, this sounds a lot like President Bush's desire to look for oil in Alaska. I'm sure most of the environmental issues dealt with in Captain Planet are still issues today, 10 years later.


(This is part 1/3, the other parts can be found here)

I remember watching episodes in school for teaching purposes, I hope they're still being used in some aspect today. Internet searches seem to indicate that Boomerang still airs episodes, but I don't get fancy cable channels like that, so here's hoping for a DVD box set. Although for younger kids, I still think Its a Big Big World is a wonderful introduction to science and exploration.

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