Pretty cool right? Are you curious what happens in those big water treatment plants that clean the water? You can ask your parents to call ReWa or sign up on the internet on ReWa’s website for a Wastewater Treatment Facility tour. You can bring your friends who may be in your girl or boy scout troop, church group, classmates, family, or even just your neighborhood friends who like to play with. Just think how you can show off to your teacher and classmates this fall at school by telling them how ReWa cleans water while protecting and preserving the environment! Well I’m out, I’mgoing swimming with the other tadpoles in the pond, cannonball! Enjoy the rest of your summer, and remember to drink lots of H20!

Whenever you go camping remember this green golden rule “If you brought it in….you take it back out. Leave the area just as you found it.” Leaving food and garbage laying around will attract unwanted animal scavenger visitors and it is also unnatural and really bad for the environment. You always want to leave the campsite cleaner than you found it.

Remember to stay on the trails when you are hiking to avoid disrupting the habitat and for your own safety, take it from the frog… poison ivy is no fun and very itchy! Ask your parents to bring along flashlights and lanterns with LED lights that are more energy efficient so the batteries will last longer!

Don’t forget to bring along lots marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate for the s’mores around the campfire and make sure you always have the fire completely out before going to bed or leaving the campsite. I know smokey the bear hates wildfires and they are very dangerous! Have being active and enjoy nature this summer!

Have you ever wondered what a drought is and why you hear that word so much? A drought is when we have less rainfall than we thought we were going to over a certain amount of time. Drought is a normal part of climate change and can occur anywhere on earth, including in your city. You might be asking yourself, “How can a drought happen since we have so much water in the form of the ocean?”

It’s true that almost 70% of the Earth is ocean water, but we can’t drink or use ocean water. Sea water contains a lot of salt and drinking it can actually make you even thirstier! It also takes a lot of energy to remove the salt from the water, so it is better to use the freshwater we find in our rivers, lakes and streams. But we can overuse those supplies.

You play an important role in making sure we have enough drinking water and help keep us out of a drought.

Here are some tips you can use to help conserve water:

1.       Turn off the faucet when you’re not using it. By turning it off while you brush your teeth in the morning and at night you can save up to 8 gallons of water a week.

2.       Trying taking showers instead of baths. By trying to keep your showers less than five minutes you save a lot of water and you have more time to play with friends!

3.       Help your parents water the plants by using a watering pot instead of a hose. Using a hose can accidently over water a plant and use more water than is needed.

April 17 & 18: Global Days of Service – Worldwide, volunteers will spend these two days cleaning parks and beaches, recycling, changing light bulbs and doing other activities to help our environment. Organize a clean up at a nearby park or gather items around your house to take to your local recycling center and participate in the “Billion Acts of Green” that will be taking place all over the world.

April 22: Global Day of Action (Earth Day) – Ask your parents to help you write a letter to your local government leaders, urging them to support laws that would reduce harmful gas emissions that pollute the air.

April 25: Global Day of Celebration – Join volunteers around the world, who will spend this day celebrating accomplishments in the effort to preserve our environment! Revisit the park you cleaned on the day of service and have a picnic with your family and friends, using recycled paper products.

By taking part in the A Billion Acts of Green Campaign, you and I are ensuring a greener future! 

A “carbon footprint” is a term you might hear in the news or in school from time to time. An individual or a group’s carbon footprint is measured by the amount of Carbon Dioxide or CO2 that they release into the atmosphere through the things they do every day. Driving a car or even using household appliances releases CO2 into the environment.

CO2 is hazardous to the environment when released in large amounts, because it traps heat in the atmosphere, causing temperatures to rise. This is process is known as global warming. This increased temperature may be harmful to things in our natural environment. For instance, global warming can cause unusual weather changes, which could possibly lead to bigger weather problems like hurricanes.

Here are a few tips to help you reduce your carbon footprint:

1.)    Carpool with your neighbors

2.)    Walk when possible

3.)    Turn appliances off when you are not using them

4.)    Ask your parents to do all of their weekly shopping in one trip

5.)    Have your mom hang your clothes to dry, rather than putting them in the dryer

Put these tips into practice and help preserve the environment for many years to come!

If you look, you’ll find the color green in our environment a lot….in grass, trees and flowers, for instance. People associate green with the environment and with doing things to protect the environment. So when someone is “Going Green,” you know they have decided to make good choices for our environment and try to save our natural resources.

Being “green” is to choose lifestyles and activities that benefit and preserve the environment, such as recycling, carpooling or cutting back on water usage.

As a frog, I have always been green! And I love to share tips on how you can be green too, so check back often for my latest thoughts!  

A renewable resource is one that can recycle itself, such as freshwater or trees. We can use these environmental resources, but there is a limited supply. If we are not careful, we might exhaust our renewable resources and have none left! However, if we manage these resources properly, we can make them last forever. For instance, if we replant trees as we cut them down, we can maintain our forests and still have wood for furniture or paper.

ReWa helps to renew the environment be cleaning the water from our homes (from you sink or bathtub) and placing it back in the water environment to be used again. This helps put back the water we take from our local rivers, lakes and streams.

Make it your New Year’s resolution to find ways to renew your local resources, so that we can enjoy them for many years to come!

Here are a few to get you started:

In the kitchen: use your good plates and utensils instead of paper plates and cups and plastic utensils; choose “green” cleaners made from products that are non-toxic, biodegradable, and use renewable resources (not petroleum); recycle everything you can; use reusable water bottles and cups; compost kitchen scraps; eat at home; and buy local foods or grow your own.

In the living room: set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer; use a fan to keep cooler at higher room temperatures during the summer and blankets to keep warm in winter and consider this for the bedroom as well; and change light bulbs.

In the bathroom: take showers instead of baths; turn water off when you brush your teeth; buy recycled products; use those green cleaners I mentioned earlier; and use exhaust fans wisely.

In the laundry or utility room: wash in cold water and wash full loads; use refillable detergent containers; dry several loads back to back; hang clothes to dry; and keep south-facing blinds closed during the summer.

·         Batteries

·         Fluorescent lights

·         Aerosol cans

·         Used cooking oils

·         Thermometers

·         Prescription medications

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) estimates that the average household disposes one pound of hazardous waste every year.  That adds up to about 1,150,000 pounds from households in South Carolina!  Most of these hazardous waste products aren’t harmful unless they are used, stored or disposed of in the wrong way.  Unfortunately most people improperly dispose of hazardous waste by:

·         Pouring it down the drain

·         Throwing it in the trash

·         Burning it

·         Pouring it in a ditch

·         Burying it in a field

·         Dumping it in a vacant lot

By not disposing of them correctly, hazardous waste products can contaminate our lakes, rivers, streams and groundwater.  It only takes a small amount of hazardous waste contamination to cause big problems with the water that we use in our homes.  That is why disposing of hazardous waste properly is so important.  You can play a big role in protecting our water and our environment by helping us teach people the proper way to dispose of hazardous wastes!  Here are just a few ways you can help when disposing of hazardous wastes:

·         Follow the instructions on product’s label.

·         Use all of the product – if you use all of it, there will be no hazardous waste to get rid of!

·         Recycle the product by contacting your local recycling center and ask what wastes they accept.

·         Donate any unused products to local service organizations. 

Another way you can help is by using different products.  When you and your family are shopping, try buying products that are nontoxic or less harmful to the environment.  Also, remember to only buy as much as you need so you won’t have any waste to get rid of!  By looking for alternatives and getting rid of waste in the right way, you can help keep our water safe!

Check back next month when I’ll have more exciting and fun ways for you to help keep your community clean and healthy!

This is what I have so far…

·         Use candlelight or battery-powered lights at your Halloween parties and on Halloween night. This will save electricity and set an eerie tone too!

·         Consider giving out reusable or organic items to trick-or-treaters, such as small books or toys, rather than candy. Candy wrappers produce tons of waste!

·         When trick or treating, don’t use disposable bags. Try using a pillowcase. Not only will they not tear through, they won’t produce as much waste.

·         Walk or ride your bike while trick or treating.

·         Reuse Halloween decorations each year, instead of throwing them away.

I am going to keep thinking of ways I can be environmentally-friendly this Halloween, and I encourage you to do the same!