Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Urban Thinkers

http://www.urbanthinkers.ca/

Urbanthinkers is a cluster of sustainability advocates based in East Vancouver - led by Arthur Orsini, Director of Programs.

Arthur Orsini, M.A. (Env. Ed.) has been working on school-based sustainable transportation initiatives since 1997 in communities across BC. His focus on youth engagement and student leadership earned the Off Ramp program an OECD award for Sustainable Transport (Education & Youth) in 2000.

In 2007, he recruited, trained and facilitated a team of teen leaders in delivering the YWALK Youth Forum at Toronto's Walk21 conference. Orsini is currently the School Travel Planning Facilitator (BC) in a national pilot project. In 2005/2006 he was a School Travel Co-ordinator in Auckland, NZ. Orsini lives car-free in East Vancouver where he is the Parent Volunteer Co-ordinator of the Templeton Secondary School Bike Crew.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Environmental Film Festival: Hotspots

Environmental Film Festival: Hotspots
March 12, 7:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Register now.
When: March 12, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Visitor Center Auditorium

Come early and enjoy the cash bar from 6:30-7:30 p.m.!

Parking is free for FONZ members or $5 for nonmembers.

The Environmental Film Festival has become the leading showcase for environmental films in the United States. Presented in collaboration with 101 local, national, and global organizations, the festival is one of the largest cooperative cultural events in the nation’s capital.

This year, for the 17th annual Environmental Film Festival, the National Zoo will show Hotspots, a fascinating new film highlighting the work of field biologist Russell Mittermeier.

The richness of our planet and the importance of conserving its extraordinary biodiversity for medical purposes is the central theme of this film. It takes viewers on an adventure with Russell Mittermeier through a handful of the 35 most biologically rich life zones on earth. By making these locations a priority, conservation ecologists believe that the rapid rate of species extinctions might be reversed. The possible obliteration of these species with their unknown potential benefits, illustrates how critical it is that we humans protect our environment for the sake of all species inhabiting the earth.

Don Moore, Associate Director of Animal Care at the Zoo, will introduce the film. A discussion with filmmaker Michael Tobias and field biologist Russell Mittermeier will follow the screening.

Directed and written by Michael Tobias, hosted by Russell A. Mittermeier, produced by Jane Gray Morrison and Michael Tobias.

At 7 p.m., preceding the screening, Russell Mittermeier will sign copies of his book, Hotspots: Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecosystems.

Pennies for the Planet

An exciting conservation program for kids across America!

Colorful seabirds on a rocky island off the coast of Maine need your help. So do an ancient swamp in South Carolina and a vast sagebrush habitat in Wyoming. What can you do? Join Pennies for the Planet!

Pennies for the Planet is a nationwide campaign that taps into the amazing power of kids to help critical conservation projects. For the last several years, kids have been collecting pennies (and nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars, too!) to help save wild places and wildlife in the United States and around the world. Working in classrooms, clubs, Scout troops, other groups, and on their own, kids just like you have turned pennies into an absolute gold mine for projects dedicated to protecting wild spaces and wild species.

Raising thousands of dollars for conservation, kids have proved that by working together, they can make the planet cleaner, greener, and wilder. That means you can, too!

On this website, you’ll find everything you need to get started, including information about each project; fund-raising ideas; recognition and prizes; and more!

Be sure to check the Pennies for the Planet Honor Roll to see what you and other kids have accomplished!