BIOMIMICRY SHOW

This is a biomimicry episode in the First Season of the TECHNORATI TV Show , that targets young tech minds. 

Check it out and share it with your kids!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oV2X-DwPNM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oV2X-DwPNM

Our very own Colleen Mahoney has been selected to participate as a judge in the Global Biomimicry Design Challenge.

The theme of  this years' competition is food security.

"Look to the abundance of lessons nature has to offer and develop a biomimetic design that solves an important food system challenge while protecting the health of our planet." (*excerpted from challenge.biomimicry.org)

Read all about it here:

http://challenge.biomimicry.org/en/challenge/food-systems-challenge

Join us at Dillon Beach - June 6th for a Bio Blitz event!

http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dillon-beach-biomimicry-bioblitz-2015

Meet us at Dillon Beach on June 6th for a Bio Blitz. Bring your iPhone to record your observations and document them with iNaturalist.

Kids and adults alike will have a great time at the tide pools!

Click on the loink above for more info.

What you can do about marine debris.

Here in the bay area we are surrounded by water so it's no wonder that we want to keep it as beautiful and as pristine as possible to pass on to future generations. What can you do? Want to help but don't know where to start or what to do to really make a difference? Here are a couple of upcoming events and volunteer opportunities. Just click on either Save the Bay or Pacific Beach Coalition to find out.

Head to our Sources for Educators' page to learn more about these two organizations and many others.

The first time Muir saw Yosemite, he wrote in his journal that he was “overwhelmed by the landscape, scrambling down steep cliff faces to get a closer look at the waterfalls, whooping and howling at the vistas, jumping tirelessly from flower to flower.” -- John Muir

Image credit: "John Muir 1912" by Underwood & Underwood available from the Library of Congress's Prints & Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3a10297.

John Muir was a pioneer in saving our wild areas. He led the fight to keep places like Yosemite and Sequoia National Park safe from development and he founded the Sierra Club to encourage others to advocate for forests and parkland. Known as “the Father of the National Parks,” Muir changed how Americans thought about the land and all the many plants and animals that share it with us.

See a 10-minute biography of John Muir, and learn why wild spaces were so important to him.

Video credit: produced by the National Parks Service, starring Lee Stetson as Muir.

Kaleidoscope of Trash RALEIGH — A new public art installation at one of the city’s garbage and recycling facilities encourages viewers to think about their role in minimizing waste in their communities.

Image credit: Midtown Raleigh News article by Sarah Barr January 21, 2014 Wilders Grove public art project focuses on recycling & Courtesey of City of Raleigh

The colorful 8 feet by 40 feet relief wall inside the Wilders Grove Solid Waste Services Facility is made of layered recycled materials such as t-shirts, cereal boxes and plastic grocery bags and features interactive video kaleidoscopes that focus on the recycling process.

The city will unveil the work at an open house on Jan. 25. The piece is the first of three works of public art officials expect will open in the city before late spring. Matt McConnell, one of three artists who helped lead the project, said the project was a great one, especially because of the level of community involvement. More than 200 volunteers helped collect materials and assemble during 1,200 hours of work. McConnell, who worked with artists William Lee Cherry and Marc Russo on the design and production, said he hopes the project allows viewers to consider carefully how their decisions affect the earth.

“I hope that they can think about the way that they consume and how the waste that they create contributes to the environment,” he said.

Midtown Raleigh News article by Sarah Barr January 21, 2014 Wilders Grove public art project focuses on recycling

Waterwheel Collects Trash

Image credit: NPR News June 23, 2014 By Julia Botero: Baltimore’s Water Wheel Keeps on Turning, Pulling in Tons of Trash

Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a city landmark teeming with tourists, restaurants and — until recently — floating trash.

John Kellett used to walk by Pier 6 every day on his way to work at the Baltimore Maritime Museum on the Inner Harbor. He'd notice the trash floating in the water and hear tourists call the harbor disgusting — and it bugged him.

That's when he developed his idea: a big water wheel to collect the plastic cups, cigarette butts and Cheetos bags that flow into the waterway after rainstorms. Kellett approached Baltimore officials about ways to remove the trash — and they listened. The water wheel is now docked in the harbor.

"It looks sort of like a cross between a spaceship and a covered wagon and an old mill," says Kellett. "It's pretty unique in its look, but it's also doing a really good job getting this trash out of the water."

"I started out thinking, 'Maybe we could bale it like a hay baler.' And then I said, 'Well, that's not necessary; maybe we can make it even simpler — we can just use the power of the runoff that brings it to collect it,' " he says.

Kellett is talking about the runoff from the Jones Falls river. He placed the water wheel right where the river spills into the harbor. That's where trash lingering on Baltimore's streets ends up after rainstorms sweep it into storm drains. The city used to catch the trash with crab nets. But since the water wheel began churning in May, it has removed 40 tons of trash from the harbor.

NPR News June 23, 2014 By Julia Botero Baltimore’s Water Wheel Keeps on Turning, Pulling in Tons of Trash

A Force For Change

Whether you're thinking about youth as consumers, future policy makers or global citizens, the question of whether children and young people should be involved in business decisions cannot be answered simply.

Children under the age of 18 make up almost one third of the global population and so have a huge stake in the market and can be a powerful force for change. They are able to offer a fresh perspective and their voices and opinions are valuable not only in business, but across society as a whole. However, when engaging with children, companies must ensure child rights are respected and the correct protection mechanisms are in place.

Some companies have gone beyond seeing children and young people as future purchasers of their products and are looking deeper, adopting programs that actively promote leadership skills to socially disadvantaged children, offering youth insight initiatives into big business or using the creativity and ideas of children to create new products.

Article from Guardian sustainable business: Giving children a voice in business by Sarah LaBrecque Nov. 27, 2013

The Key is Education

Leslie Tamminen, director of the Clean Seas Coalition and part of Seventh Generation Advisors, agrees that stopping the epidemic of plastic waste takes more than bans and laws. It takes “wide and sustainable changes in consumer behavior. Data from the over 121 local plastic bag bans has proven that bans are effective at reducing litter and changing consumer attitudes, and have refuted industry’s claims of apocalyptic impacts on jobs and poor communities.

A state plastic bag ban saves taxpayers the huge amount of money spent on litter cleanup, and protects the environment.” But the key, she goes on to say, is education – and organizations like hers and like PPC are focusing on exactly that. There is one more side of the issue that is just as important to Cohen as clean oceans and fiscal responsibility: the risks of plastic toxicity to human health and wellbeing, not to mention that of other living creatures. “Plastic pollution doesn’t just foul landfills, water ways, and ocean currents, the ‘bloodstream’ of our earth. It also contributes to the fouling of our blood streams, and those of animals who ingest it or become entangled in it.”

Article from Plastic Pollution Coalition, article written by Tracy Russo Sept. 30, 2014  

Wilderness and the Millennial

Image credit: Sierra Club article Wild Connections by Jeff Wagner

There's a growing hunger in my generation for something raw and true. To be on the loose, free from traffic jams, professional references, and masses of people lost in the pale glow of their electronics. Young people tell me they want a different lifestyle, one where simple things like peace and health are more important than a quick profit or instant visibility on the internet. They want to live in a society that values the things that pay off in the long run, like clean air, clean water, and a starry night sky. They want things that pay off in human terms. Lots of things come in instant form, but not happiness, kindness, peace, empathy, genuine connections, and certainly not patience. So what's the role of wilderness for my generation? All those twenty-somethings trying to make their way in this world? Environmentalists have no greater ally and teacher than wilderness. I see it in every person I spend time with in wild places and how it changes their perspectives on the world. Wilderness lets us experience an alternative to what humans have created, and it demands that we ask ourselves where our world is going.

Article: Nov/Dec issue of Sierra Magazine Green Life: Wild Connections by Jeff Wagner