Schools Cool the Earth, Cancel a Car
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 06.17.08
If your school is looking for something to engage in next fall as part of the fight to help stop global warming, you just may be interested in taking part in a program called Cool the Earth.
Begun by a mom in California just a few short years ago, they’re reaching schools across America and encouraging school kids to go home and take action to “Cancel a Car”.
Cool the Earth at School and at Home
Intriguingly, they provide schools with a coupon book that kids take home and return when they’ve taken specific actions like changing their light bulbs, switching to shorter showers, working towards a no waste lunch, recycling or even convincing their parents to go out and plunk down some hard earned cash on a new hybrid.
Ultimately each of the activities has a value assigned to it that corresponds to the amount of CO2 the action saved, and as students bring them in they get to add their savings to the groups.
Each 12,000 pounds of CO2 is considered to be like taking a car off the road, and they’re using the model to really inspire kids to take action.
It sounds like it could be a great program about global warming to get involved with next year.
More Great Environmental Programs in Schools
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via: Press Release
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Good program, and good steps to educating kids about their environmental impact. Taking this further in relation to transportation to and from school, I wonder how many cars could (literally) be taken off the road if school buses were mandatory instead of allowing parents to drop off and pick up their kids. Or students could have free transit passes if rail is nearby.