Help minimize printing!

...by adding the following tag line to your email program signature:

Before you print this or other documents, please consider the impact on the environment


One little thing that I think we can all do is make a concerted effort to use fewer resources. A simple little change would be to save your emails electronically instead of printing them out.

Below is a little screenshot of the signature that I've added to my email messages. Consider giving this a shot in your email program. Perhaps you'll encourage a few others to think twice before they indiscriminately hit the print button!

Earth Day 2008 Webcast-athon!

Earth Day is on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 this year. In today's Webcast Academy class of 2.4 meeting, we briefly discussed the possibility of doing some type of webcast-athon as a means to recognize and celebrare Earth Day 2008 around the globe. The idea involves a 24 hour conversation about an issue that every person on this this planet has a stake in-the health of our planet.

Here is what I am kind of envisioning at this point, and believe me, this is a total brainstorm and starting point for this project:

1. Ideally it would be nice if we could webcast for a 24 hour time period throughout Earth Day as it moves around the globe. Different people in different parts of the world would sign up for an hour long block as the lead moderator. In that hour long block they would moderate conversations with special guests.

2. Guests could include scientists, engineers, student leaders, parents who are passionate about environmental issues, teachers, local business owners, local grass roots environmental leaders, scientists in Antarctica, experts in the field of clean energy production, politicians, polar explorers, corporation sustainability representatives, etc. The sky is the limit to who could possibly participate.

3. I'm guessing that the conversations would mainly take place in English, but who knows, maybe this isn't necessary. The idea here is to get a world view on environmental challenges and solutions. If the conversations can't be in English in certain regions, perhaps that is OK and they can be transcribed into a document that is posted in the show resources (I have no idea about this as I'm very new to webcasting) .

4. All moderators should most likely either be interns or past interns of the Webcast Academy. I'm guessing we'll be streaming out via the shoutcast server at World Bridges, so it only makes sense that the lead moderator be a past or current intern.

5. If you are not a current or past intern at the webcast academy, there still will be many options for you to participate. You could co-moderate one of the hours, help with getting guests to be interviewed on the Earth Day 2008 Webcast-athon, help promote the event through your various networks, etc.

Further planning and a sign up schedule has been created online at a wiki page. Please visit this page and enter your contact information if you'd like to help out in any capacity

I look forward to your comments and suggestions on ways we can best implement the Earth Day 2008 Webcast-athon. Likewise, please let us know if you are interested in participating in any capacity whatsoever!

Photo courtesy of arimoore on flickr.

50 days on the bike!!

Today marks the 50th day that I've traveled by bike to and from work this school year! I set a goal at the beginning of the year of 100 days and I'm pleased because I'm halfway there and we have several more weeks before the halfway point of the school year. With the winter weather approaching shortly, I'm sure there will be stretches where I'm unable to ride as much as I'd like to, so I'm pleased that I'm hitting 50 prior to Thanksgiving. So, what does this mean for me? Here are a few numbers to break it down:

1140 Miles-this is the number of miles that I did not put on my car's odometer. According to Google Maps, my round trip drive amounts to 22.8 total miles. My bike commute is probably slightly longer than this due to a little less direct of a route...we'll call it 24 miles. So I've managed to put 1200 more miles on the bike!

$193.75 Saved at the pump...I estimate that my car probably uses 1.25 gallons of gas per day at $3.10 per gallon. This past summer I bought a really cool Surly Long Haul Trucker frame and had it built up as a commuter bike. Total cost on the bike was about $1400, so I'm on my way to paying off my bike!

62.5 gallons of fuel conserved!

1250 lbs of CO2 not released into the atmosphere (this is based on the www.fueleconomy.gov's calculations of 20 pounds of CO2 per burned gallon of gasoline).

3 Coyotes-I've seen all kinds of wild life for some reason this year, including coyotes in Estabrook Park! One morning I even saw one balled up sleeping about six feet off the parkway road! On bike ride #49 I saw a red-tailed hawk on the ground. I then saw the hawk take off and fly with a squirrel trapped in its talons - too cool!! Deer, more hawks and cool water birds are a few other animals that I've seen frequently along my route.

1 Car Sold-My wife and I made the decision to sell the Ford Taurus earlier this fall because I rarely drove it. We dropped down to her car and my utility van. I rarely drive the utility van, but this is what I'll take to work on the days that Mother Nature is getting nasty.

The forecast is calling for some snow in the next week, but hopefully not enough to keep me off the bike! Happy Thanksgiving!!!