Green Education
"When people see things differently, they will do things differently." ~ Suzuki Roshi (Japanese Zen Master)
May we give young people energy and courage, instead of the burden of fear and powerlessness. ~ ZHS

The Big Picture   Awareness and Action   Farmers Market   Green Film Festivals   Green Workbook  

Green Education means learning how fragile life on this planet really is, and it also means figuring out what to do to protect the natural world in which we all exist. These two films clearly explain the big picture, and all that follows is the healing effort of Green Education.

The Big Picture:

An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary is based on Gore's lecture series that he has spent years giving around the world. The world's science community says that the film is 99% accurate. There is virtually no real scientific dispute that Global Warming is happening now. Yet, when the creators of this film offered to give thousands of copies of this DVD to high schools across America, they were blocked by the power of corporate influence on education. Please preview this film to determine if your children are ready to see it. If you view this with your children, please plan for time to discuss it with them after viewing.

The Eleventh Hour This film is considered the sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. This brilliant documentary tells us that now is perhaps the last chance we have to change things. The film's host is Leonardo DiCaprio. The film's intelligent dialog points out the error in believing that human life is somehow separate from nature. This Taoist view is explained by some of the world's foremost scientists, poets, authors and conservationists. The American public was not given much of a chance to view this film in 2007. It is out now on DVD. We encourage families to show it to friends, at home in your neighborhoods. Please preview the film first to determine if it is something your children are ready to see.

Green Awareness and Action:

About Meg Gawler: When Meg was a young adult, she lived at the Zen Center Tassajarra in northern California. One day she told Zen Master Suzuki Roshi that she was very concerned about the health of the world. In reply Roshi gently said, "When people see things differently, they will do things differently." After Roshi's death Meg became a biologist and moved to Europe to work for WWF to protect wildlife in Madagascar and countries in Africa. Now, she works as an international consultant for conservation and positive human development all around the world. www.artemis-services.com
Meg writes...    "I can suggest The State of the World and other publications from the Worldwatch Institute (http://www.worldwatch.org/taxonomy/term/37), although unfortunately these are not free. The advantage though is that their books are well researched and authoritative - not just one person's (perhaps eccentric) ideas.    Another suggestion, not a book, are Carbon Calculator sites. There is one at CI (http://www.conservation.org/English/Pages/Default.aspx), and another at TNC (http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/?src=nav0).    On climate change you might also like WWF's Climate Witness site: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/problems/ people_at_risk/personal_stories/index.cfm.
Specifically for education, take a look at these two: "CI's educational website is for people of all ages interested in exploring endangered ecosystems. Investigate Biodiversity offers online expeditions, an interactive species focus on primates, tips and information about environmental careers, ideas for science projects, and ways you can help conserve biodiversity" - http://investigate.conservation.org/xp/IB/ WWF's site tailored for students and teachers: http://www.panda.org/news_facts/education/index.cfm. WWF also has a large number of publications that can be downloaded: http://www.panda.org/news_facts/publications/index.cfm.    Then TNC has a lot of good scientific information (http://www.nature.org/tncscience/resources/) - including an interesting page on the big ideas: http://www.nature.org/tncscience/bigideas/. There is a wealth of information out there!" -- Meg

The Farmers Market Revolution:

The smart activism of ordinary Americans buying locally grown food and products is a Win/Win revolution! The Farmers Market is nothing new, it is simply how we used to buy our food before big business took over. The beauty of buying locally grown vegetables, fruits, and eating local eggs, fish and meat, is not only in health benefits, but also in a much reduced carbon footprint on the earth. Order ZHS Green Workbook

Create Your Own Green Film Festivals:

Have a neighborhood Green Film Festival at your house! Invite your friends, have a potluck. Enjoy, educate, enrich. Encourage young people to make their own videos of Green issues in your area. Show the amature videos at the Festivals along with the professional DVDs. You can't charge for watching the copyrighted DVDs, but you could have a bake sale or a raffle to generate funds for Green projects. Be creative!

Green DVDs:

Wildlife DVDs:
These beautiful DVDs could be shown interspersed in your Film Festivals with more serious films. The first row is top films of real wildlife around the world. The second row is fictional feature films that speak about personal experience with nature.

Green Library:
Start a Green lending library for your community. Books, CDs and DVDs could be on display during your film festival. Start Green Teams that organize clubs of favorite Green Topics and Green Projects. People could get started networking during intermissions at your festivals.

Sounds of the Natural World:
These authentic CDs are of Africa, the humpback whales, morning birds and wolves of North America.

Green Poetry:
Encourage young people to write Green Poetry and let them read to your friendly festival audience.

"Paved Paradise" Joni Mitchell's brilliant new Green/Protest/Peace jazz-infusion CD, "Shine," is bitter-sweet. She asks all of us to take a realistic look at the condition of the natural world. Through awareness, we know what to do and what not to do. "Money, money, money... Money makes the trees come down It makes mountains into molehills Big money kicks the wide wide world around."

A few favorite Green Education web sites:

JaneGoodall.org DavidSuzuki.org Koko.org WildlifeWarriors.org.au NatureServe.org NationalGeographic.com EdensLostandFound.org (PBS) "Recycling" eia.doe.gov M.I.T. Global Change Forum Stanford Global Climate and Energy Project Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

ZHS Green Education Workbook
Order Workbook