- Is there a climate change community issue that can provide the setting for you and your students and your local community to work together to resolve? You don’t need to have the Artic ice cap in your back yard! You can consider any facet of these seven global issues: energy, waste reduction, urban design, nature, transportation, environmental health, or water, as described in the Introduction to the San Francisco Urban Environmental Accords,” United Nations Environment Program, World Environment Day, June 5, 2005. http://wed2005.org/pdfs/Accords.pdf.
- Is our community a Coolcities member? Has our mayor signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement? Would this be a Cool challenge? (See: Coolcities: Solving Global Warming One City at a Time, Sierra Club, http://www.coolcities.us and/or U.S. Congress of Mayors, U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/resolutions/73rd_conference/env_04.asp; Newsweek, April 16, 2007 issue)
- Could we take on the Fairchild Challenge? The Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois is organizing a series of ten contests including events for T-shirt design, recycled artwork, a poetry slam, picture book design, photojournalism, civic engagement, etc, all focusing on a variety of Illinois-specific ideas. At this point, the competition is designed for high school groups, but there are allowances for elementary or middle school possibilities. You can find out more by contacting Tree Sturman (tsturman@chicagobotanic.org or 847/835-8343).
- What is our school’s carbon footprint and what might we do to reduce it?
- How can our community become more aware of its greening/cooling responsibilities?
- What about organizing a Lights Out Campaign, already happening in many US cities? Or a Household Hazardous Waste Pick-up?
- Can we address the challenges of greenwashing---questioning the environmental-friendly claims on common products?
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