16 Electricity-Free and Fun Earth Hour Activities

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is a global climate change initiative that aims to create awareness of people taking action and moving towards a sustainable future by turning the lights off.

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change that year. Today, there are over 162 countries and territories participating worldwide.

Join the movement this year to halt the damage on our environment by turning off your electricity on March 28th, from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM local time.

Effects of Earth Hour

About 39% of America’s total energy is used to generate electricity, meaning, electricity consumption is a prevalent portion of a consumer's environmental footprint. Earth Hour is a tool to spread awareness of this damage to the environment. Even a mere hour without the use of electricity has a direct effect on the environmental impact.

After Earth Hour 2013, external lighting on several major city landmarks in Dubai was turned off and street lighting in certain areas was dimmed by 50%. The Electricity and Water Authority reported savings of 100 megawatt-hours of electricity. This represented a 2.4% reduction in demand compared to before the hour began. Now, multiply these results to a global scale.

Though these are important results, the purpose of Earth Hour isn’t primarily about conserving electricity in that hour, it’s a symbolic action with a long-term goal in mind; for people to continue to practice sustainable habits moving forward. Earth Hour acts as a reminder and celebration that we all have the power to come together and re-examine, re-focus, and re-engage the environmental topics that truly matter. Increasing awareness of environmental issues acts as a catalyst for future sustainable action.

Have Some Fun With Earth Hour

Participating in Earth Hour is simple to do and can be celebrated with friends and family. Whether it’s at home, at your favorite hangout, or even in the office, there are plenty of fun ways to participate!

1. Play games - sit around the living room and play a boards game, tell ghost stories, play a game of truth or dare, or play charades with friends and family. Get cozy and light some candles! 

2. Cook a raw dinner - Who says you need an oven or stove to make a delicious meal? Try out these raw recipes you can make without any electricity; Ahi Tuna Salad with Miso-Wasabi Dressing, Pistachio-Pear Cucumber Salad, Thai Peanut Zucchini Noodles.

3. Hula hoop party in the street - bring out the hula hoops and get active! This Earth Hour go outside: jump, dance, and hula hoop your way through the hour.

4. Have a block party - make it a community event and invite your friends and neighbors over to partake in the movement.

5. Dance in the moonlight - a wonderful way to show your love for the environment is to dance under the moonlight. It will be a first quarter moon on the 28th of March, meaning a half-moon, so plenty of illumination to show off your moves!

6. Succulent terrarium - make a craft during Earth Hour. We recommend creating something new out of something old...take an old coffee pot you rarely use, or that bowl that’s been sitting in your cabinet untouched, and decorate it with beautiful succulents to add some green to your home.

 

7. Build a fort - Earth Hour is an opportunity to use our hands, build something, get creative, and step away from electronics. Remember how fun it was to gather chairs, sheets, and pillows and build a fort?

8. Star gazing - spend Earth Hour looking up at the stars and remind yourself how important our Earth is.

9. Go to the park - look up your local park hours and play in the park. Slide down the slides or swing on the monkey bars. Depending on cloud cover, there should be enough natural light to see.

10. Read a book - finally finish that book you have been wanting to read for ages but haven’t found the time to.

11. Go camping - celebrate the environment in the environment! Go to your favorite campsite for the night or pitch a tent in your backyard.

12. Make puppets - create puppets and put on a puppet show for friends and family!

13. Paint or water color - get creative and use your artistic skills to paint a portrait of the Earth, your favorite beach, or a butterfly using water colors to add fun details!

14. Make world flags out of construction paper - celebrate the oneness in the global community that participates in Earth Hour by creating flags of your different countries using construction paper.

 

15. Play an instrument - whether you're playing the recorder or xylophone with your kids or guitar and bongo drums with friends, jam out with an instrument and make some groovy music!

16. Scavenger hunts - plan out an awesome scavenger hunt before Earth Hour, and once the lights go off, let the games begin!

How to Participate 

Join the global community in showing your commitment to this planet by turning off non-essential electricity from 8:30 PM until 9:30 PM (local time) on Saturday March 28th. During Earth Hour, turn off your lights, TV and computer.  Unplug any electronics not in use like coffee machines, lamps, chargers, and hair dryers. Get together with other families and friends and encourage them to participate. Go to EarthHour.org and sign up to participate in this year’s Earth Hour. Spread awareness of the movement now and get your friends and family to partake by tweeting #EarthDay or sharing on Facebook.


Beyond the Hour

Earth Hour is a symbolic action showing that nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something. Take your passion for the planet beyond the hour by being aware of the effects we have on our environment in our daily lives. Together let’s turn the inspiration of one hour into the actions of every hour. Reduce your carbon footprint by leading a sustainable lifestyle. Incorporate eco-friendly habits awareness into your everyday lifestyle. Turn off the lights when you leave a room, turn off the water faucet while brushing your teeth, take shorter showers, ride your bike, eat a meatless meal once a week. By participating in Earth Hour, you are joining millions of not only individuals but large businesses across all seven continents for a truly powerful and symbolic demonstration. 

No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Are you ready to act?

Sources 
https://www.earthhour.org//official-videos  
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/world/earth-hour
http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/affect/index.html
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/03/earth-hour-benefit-sustainability/
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2013/03/jersey_city_joins_global_commu.html

11 Ways to Celebrate World Ocean's Day

There are 48 days between Earth Day and World Ocean's Day.

48 days to learn about the land we live on and the water that surrounds us.

48 days to teach ourselves something new and make an effort to change some our of actions, because how we behave and how our behaviors affect every part of the world. From the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, to how we commute, how we watch TV and prepare meals, how long we let the water run before turning it off to conserve. Every action matters.

Earth Day and World Ocean's day inspires us every year, more than just the days marked by the calendar. We love this season where the connection to conservation buzzes about in the news, online, and in our communities. Hope and action is in the air.

The first step towards action is awareness. If we do not know a problem exists, we cannot fix it. If we are unaware of the vast, beautiful, important world of the ocean, we do not care to protect it.

The ocean provides most of the air we breathe, and is a major source of food and medicine for the global population. In 2008, the UN General Assembly designated June 8 as World Oceans Day. This designation encourages awareness of the challenges facing the global community revolving oceans. We cannot afford for ocean to become a barren wasteland.

image via Earth Times

Get involved. Here are 11 ways you can celebrate World Ocean's Day:

1. Learn more about the day and the importance of the ocean. All action starts with awareness.
2. Take shorter showers. Did you know a 5 minute American shower uses more water than someone in the developing world uses all day! Challenge yourself to shave off several seconds of your showers by first timing several of your showers. Set goals to shower in less and less time, soon you'll be shaving a minute, or 2 or 3 in each shower! 
3. Reduce, reuse and recycle because our trash ends up in the ocean!
4. Green your life by eliminating plastic packaging from your purchases and switch to reusable water bottles, grocery bags and even sandwich bags!
5. Sign up for a beach clean up.
6. Check out a thrift store before buying new.
7. Turn the water off while brushing your teeth.
8. Eat less meat. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization estimates meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide... far more than transportation. Switching from a meat-centered weekly menu to a diet rich in vegetables and grains could save 2,500 liters of water a day! (source)
9. Collect runoff water in your home and garden and reuse. Rain water is perfect for watering plants and water from the shower before the heat turns up is great for making tea or coffee!
10. Eat only sustainably farmed or caught seafood.
11. Tell someone you know about World Ocean's Day and how we can all get involved to protect our oceans and our world.

What do you pledge to do this year?

Four Leopards Found In Remote Valley in Pakistan

The Snow Leopard Trust has found four cats in Pakistan! Now they need to find ways to protect them.

In May and June of this year, the Snow Leopard trust team was able to photograph snow leopards at 19 different sites in Misgar Valley. Misgar Valley is the most northern point of Pakistan, before reaching China. Known for it's remoteness and unpredictable weather of floods, mudslides and snow, the area is a very difficult place to for the team to work.

After extensively evaluating the coat patterns, the team was able to identify at least four cats.

The team took community surveys and found generally negative attitudes towards snow leopards among local herders, mostly due to livestock depletion. Now comes the challenge of working with the community, addressing negative attitudes. The families seem interested in their livestock insurance program, started by Indianapolis Prize 2014 Nominee Charu Mishra.

To the Trust, there are three pillars to conservation:

• livestock insurance programs
• livestock‐free wildlife reserves
• environmental education

These initiatives will restore wild lands, increase wild prey abundance, reduce persecution of threatened predators, catalyze greater use of the habitat by the endangered snow leopard, and raise conservation awareness.

The Snow Leopard Trust, based in Seattle Washington, is a world leader in conservation of the endangered snow leopard.

Little Critterz supports the Snow Leopard Trust, and we are very excited about this recent accomplishment.


sources:
http://www.snowleopard.org/securing-paradise
http://www.snowleopard.org/snow-leopard-researcher-charu-mishra-nominated-for-2014-indianapolis-prize

Orangutan Adoption Follow Up

Hi all! We wanted to update you about which adorable orangutan we decided to adopt! You weighed in and we listened, we chose Gunung because of that great smile and his struggle. We are so happy to be able to provide food, care, and support in his journey to rehabilitation and reintroduction into the wild.

Thanks for being apart of this experience with us. We look forward to sponsoring more amazing people, animals and organizations. If you have suggestions, write to us in the comments below.

Check back as we add more organizations to our 'Who We Support' page so you can learn more about these courageous and passionate people helping animals.

We love the world, and know you do too. Let's make a difference together.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Our World Without Water

As you've probably seen us post about on our Facebook and Twitter pages, we've been shocked, nervous and curious about food production and waste as of late. We know that climate change is occurring and population is growing. So we wonder, what factors are contributing to the impending food crises? After all, there is estimated to be 9 million people in the world by 2050, and poverty and starvation is already a huge problem.

Water is the Worlds Most Precious Commodity

In Developed Nations, 95% of water that enters the home goes down the drain.

We know long showers, and letting the water run while brushing your teeth and washing your face wastes water after all 27% of water usage is from showering. But did you know that receiving one newspaper every day uses 66,000 gallons of water each year? Holy cow!

70% of water usage is for irrigation. But over half of the water used for irrigation is lost to leaks!

Trends

Increased population
Decreasing productivity due to climate change
Changing consumption

What People Are Eating Is Changing

In 2010, the world consumed 235 million tons of meat. By 2020, it is expected the world will consume an additional 60 million tons.

Producing 1kg of animal protein requires 100 times more water than 1kg of grain protein.

Let's Talk About Waste

24% of calories produced are not consumed. That's 198 million hectares, or the size of Mexico. Think about all of the energy and water that goes into producing this food, only to be thrown away!

In monetary terms, the average US American family wastes $1600 in food every year.

A UK report suggests that food waste if given to pigs instead of incarcerated could provide 800,000 tons of pork per year.

Anyone Else Nervous Yet?

So what can we do?

Grocery shop more often, but buy less. Buy what you need for the next day or two. I think we in the US feel so pressed for time that we make excuses about not having time to run to the store for an item we need. But wouldn't we rather make the time to go more often instead of over buying, over spending, and wasting what we don't really need just because we want to be "safe not sorry"?

Drive less. One car uses 40,000 gallons of water in gasoline. Walk or ride your bike to the grocery store. Making lifestyle choices to be more active everyday will cut down on gym time, leaving more time to be conscious about buying habits and the environment. Can we say win, win!

What are you doing to save water or prevent food waste? Comment below and let us know!

World Oceans Day: June 8

The Earth's dry land covers just 30% of the planet. Conversely, the ocean covers 71% and is home to 99% of the world's inhabitants. One mouthful of ocean water can contain millions of bacterial cells, hundreds of thousands of phytoplankton and tends of thousands of zooplankton. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth and the blue whale is bigger than any dinosaur that ever walked on land.

Why you should help protect the ocean:
-generates most of the oxygen we breathe
-provides fish and other seafood to feed us
-regulates climate by absorbing carbon dioxide
-naturally recycles and cleans water; 86% of the water we drink comes from the ocean
-offers potential medicine

In honor of World Oceans Day next Saturday, June 8, we encourage you to get involved, and get educated about our ocean!

What you can do to help protect the ocean:
Use reusable grocery bags and always choose paper over plastic. The United Nations Environmental Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. Plastic debris causes deaths to over a million seabird and 100,000 marine mammals every year.

Global climate change has an impact on the oceans. Curve energy consumption by turning off lights when your not in the room, unplugging electronics when not in use, riding your bike or walking when you can (fun fact: 40% of car rides are less than 2 miles!), take the stairs, switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, and open windows or bundle up instead of oversetting the thermostat.

Respect the Beach and clean up after yourself when you go. Don't interfere with wildlife, or remove rocks and coral. And participate in beach clean ups in your area! They're fun, only a few hours, and you can't beat the view!
**Click here to view events in your area. Events happen all year round!

Make safe, sustainable seafood choices. Some fish species are being overexploited due to demand, habitat loss and fishing practices. Know which fish are good to order and shop for. Eat lower on the food chain
**For help on what seafood is best to eat, and which to avoid go to this Seafood Decision Guide here.

And most importantly, educate yourself about the ocean and it's marine wildlife. The more you know, the more you will want to help protect it because after all, which ocean do you prefer?

Amazing Animal Profile: Octopus

Many of you may know Octopus as calamari, yet it's talents far exceed a seafood dish. The octopus has several defense mechanisms including, expulsion of ink, deimatic behavior (any pattern of threatening of startling behavior such as suddenly displaying eyespots), ability to jet quickly through the water, ability to hide and camouflage. Check out the octopus blending into the algae! I would never have guessed it was there!

Octopus weigh on average 110 pounds (50kg) and measure 16 feet (5 meters) from the tip of one arm to the tip of the opposite arm. One was recorded at an astonishing 600 pounds (272kg) and measured 30 feet (9.1 meters).  If an octopus looses an arm, it is capable of growing it back.

There are 300 species of octopus. The octopus lives in all of the world's oceans, but most commonly found in tropical and temperate waters. The common octopus is considered to be the most intelligent of all invertebrates. Giant Pacific Octopus are also very intelligent, they can mimick other creatures, open jars and solve mazes in labs.

Octopi can live as little as 6 months, but the average life span is 3-5 years. Reproduction is the main cause of death. Males live only a few months after mating and females die shortly after their eggs hatch. Female octopus fail to eat in the month following the hatch of their eggs, eventually dying of starvation.

For an incredible, short video on octopus camouflage and more miraculous under the sea visuals, watch this TED talk here.

Grassland Art and Preservation

Grasslands by Patrick Korch

"Grasslands" by Patrick Korch represents the Grasslands Preserves located near Ramona California in the Santa Maria Valley just behind San Diego, Ca. This area is nearly 7,500 acres of  land protected for animals that human developers are encroaching on with developments. 

Images of this sculpture as a "Marquette", a smaller version of a monumental sculpture that would allow children to play in and around. 

The artist's hopes? That children would get familiar with the animals of the "Grasslands" and their plight in the hopes that in the children's  future they would recognize the need to "preserve" lands, thwart and ward off developers of all of our precious lands. Some of it must be kept sacred for the future.  

The sculpture includes mountain lions lions, eagles, owls, squirrels, frogs, mice, rabbits, chameleons, lizards, butterflies, dragonflies, ducks, raccoons, and more.  It is a story of their interaction with each other. The full, monumental version will  include many stairs and slides (internally and externally)  that would allow the children to climb, slide, and interact with the sculpture and become familiar with the animals. 

Can you find all 22 animals?

Patrick Korch the Art Director of Little Critterz.  A nationally recognized and award winning Painter and Sculptor.  This recently completed bronze sculpture,  measures 42" x 24" x 22" and is finished with subtle coloration patinas.  It is a very complex sculpture with over 22 animals represented.  

Only 6 limited edition sculptures are to be released.  Should you be interested in one of the limited editions please contact Mr. Korch directly through Little Critterz.  Again, there are only 6 available.  You can see his other award winning works at www.pkorch.com.  

Thank  you for your support and belief in wildlife preservation.