Can't decide which Earth Day event(s) to attend this week?  Prefer to keep it local, avoid the crowds and share the day with your closest friends and family?  Consider throwing an Earth Day House Party of your own and screen a DVD copy of 'The 11th Hour'!

HERE'S HOW:

1. Get the DVD! If you don't already own it, order your copy of The 11th Hour on DVD here.

2. Spread the Word! Send out an email or create an Evite telling your friends about your Earth Day  House Party. Remember, electronic invitations are a great way to conserve paper and cut down on waste.

3. Make it a potluck! Consider asking your guests to bring a delicious dish made from organic, local ingredients. 

4. Make it a Zero Waste Event!  Avoid using paper plates, napkins and plastic cups and utensils! If you don't have enough reusable dishes yourself ask your guests to bring their own reusable plate, fork, cup and cloth napkin. Challenge yourself and your guests to see how little waste you can create in the course of the evening! 

5. Share the Message! If you or one of your friends has special knowledge about a particular environmental issue, solution, volunteer opportunity or local organization ask them to share their knowledge with the group after the screening.  

6. Make it Fun! Earth Day is about drawing attention to the important environmental issues we all face but also about celebrating our shared passion for creating a better world and a better future.  Take this opportunity to share stories of success in the environmental movement, news about exciting new technologies, information about easy to implement every day solutions and opportunities to take ACTION in your local community.  Focusing exclusively on the challenges and the doom and gloom news stories can make people feel overwhelms and disempowered.  Remember, we are the generation that get's to change the world forever! Let's make that change a positive one. 

11th Hour Action's fiscal sponsor and partner, Global Green USA has partnered with their board   member Leonardo DiCaprio for an exciting & unique eBay Auction to benefit their initiatives to green America's schools, affordable housing, and cities in order to combat global warming, lower energy bills, and create green jobs.

The auction has an eco-friendly "experience" package consisting of a meet & greet and photo op at the upcoming red carpet premiere of Leonardo's film Shutter Island! The Auction starts at 7pm PST on April 15, and runs through April 22 (Earth Day).


The auction also includes signed fan memorabilia such as DVDs, movie posters, and personalized headshots, and various environmental collectibles such as an Antarctica: The Global Warning photography book signed by both Leonardo and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

For more info, go to Ebay.com/globalgreen

By: Christopher Bartlett 

Deforestation, excessive combustion of fossil fuels, CFCs, pollution, and CO2 emissions have all been linked to climate change and the end of life as we know it. Whilst institutions spend millions on researching carbon footprints, and the public donate millions to offset theirs on land-based projects such as planting more trees or improving developing nations' energy efficiency, virtually nothing is being spent on preserving the balance in the main carbon dioxide-consuming, oxygen-producing interface that covers 7/10th of the planet; the oceans. In fact, billions of dollars are spent every year destroying this precious, life-source giving eco-system. Eh? What? How? you say, and what's this got to do with man-eating marine predators? Absolutely everything.

As the lights fade in Honolulu bringing to a close Earth Hour’s roll out across 25 time zones in over 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries, hundreds of millions of people have “voted earth” in the world’s largest demonstration of public concern about climate change.

“Earth Hour 2009 was an incredible success,” said WWF International Director General James Leape. If you participated in Earth Hour, thank you, your participation made that success possible.

The Anacostia River is about eight and a half miles long, flowing from Prince George's County MD through Washington D.C., where it joins the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac. About 20,000 tons of trash enters the Anacostia each year. The 11th Hour Action Washington D.C. chapter is hard at work on a project called Trash Free Anacostia which is proposing a bill, the "Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009," that aims to reduce the amount of waste deposited into the river each year. The bill also creates a new fund dedicated to the cleanup and restoration of the River. A recent report by the DC Dept. of the Environment states that plastic bags, bottles, cans, snack wrappers and Styrofoam make up 85% of the trash in the Anacostia River.

According to Trash Free Anacostia: "The legislation represents a unique attempt – as best we can tell, the first of its kind in the nation – to work with business and environmental leaders to develop a shared strategy to reduce the amount of trash in the Anacostia River. In addition, this initiative creates a partnership with Maryland to create a shared stewardship for the health of the entire Anacostia watershed."

The bill proposes a five-cent fee on all single-use plastic and paper carryout bags from retail and food establishment license holders in the area. The bill also requires that these single-use bags be recycleable. Trash Free Anacostia explains how the new legislation will be eased in to the community: 

"The legislation delays implementation for 6 months to a year, requiring the city to conduct an intensive public information campaign and outreach that includes providing reusable carryout bags to residents for free or low-cost, and work with service providers to distribute multiple reusable bags to seniors and low-income households."

For more information, and to help support Trash Free Anacostia, visit their website: www.trashfreeanacostia.com

To join the 11th Hour Action DC group or to get involved with this effort please contact Brie Schwartz at iambrie@hotmail.com

Green Towns USA is a national campaign focused on supporting and documenting the transformation of American towns towards a more sustainable future.  Inspired by 'The 11th Hour' and the 11th Hour Action Campaign, Green Towns USA will be a multi-faceted media project that energizes citizens, organizations, business and government leaders to take part in reshaping our country and growing the green economy.

FIND OUT MORE [pdf]

Because the cause is so prolific, we thought it best not to mince words and let Earth Hour's own writing deliver the message:

"Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning their lights off for one whole hour. Only a year later and this event had become a global sustainability movement with up to 100 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour."

"This year EH09 is targeting 1 billion people in more than 1000 cities and 50,000 organisations to unite for action on climate change by turning off their lights for one hour on March 28th showing their support and sending a powerful message that it is possible to take action on climate change and succeed. The 2009 campaign has particular significance with the UN Climate Conference taking place in Copenhagen in December."

"77 countries and 680 cities have already committed to VOTE EARTH for Earth Hour 2009, as part of the world's first global election between Earth and global warming."

As of this writing, thirty national capitals, including London, Los Angeles, Chicago,  Hong Kong, Sydney, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro have been signed on to the cause. According to Earth Hour, by participating you are "voting." People across the globe will show their solidarity by flicking off their lights for one critical hour on March 28th.

Help stop global warming this March, get out there and vote! [Via Earth Hour]

NOAA: The NOAA's website has dropped shocking news: it's getting warmer. And colder. According to the site, "Temperatures for the contiguous United States last month were slightly above the long-term average, based on records going back to 1895, according to a preliminary analysis by scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C." Fact: California had its sixth warmest January on record. Maine and Michigan had their eighth and ninth coldest January on record, respectively.

There you have it. It wasn't just you and your broken A/C unit after all. [Via NOAA]

Conference watch: This Friday, February 27th, "innovators, entrepreneurs, visionaries, and eco-designers" will meet at the Greener Gadgets 2009 expo in New York City. Well-known eco-inventor and engineer Saul Griffith has been enlisted to give this year's keynote. The 2008 lineup included keynote speaker Mary Lou Jepsen of One Laptop Per Child, and leaders from HP, BusinessWeek, Nokia, Climate Savers and Engadget.

Greener Gadgets promises this year to "be even bigger and better" than the 2008 inaugural event. Among the more exciting things happening at the conference, the winner of the Greener Gadgets Design Competition will be announced and presented with $3,000. Awesome.

At the conference, attendees will "discuss the future of sustainability for the consumer electronics industry." According to the facebook event page for the conference:

This year’s conference will feature engaging discussion on:

-Emerging energy technology
-Real solutions for e-waste recycling
-New inventions in energy generation and efficiency
-Future forward recyclable gadgetry
-The business case for going green

While registration is now closed, you should be able to catch exciting news over on their blog.

In 2007, Mary Anne G. Bowie opened Sarasota Green Marketplace, a retail store and resouce center serving Sarasota and Southwest Florida.  SGM is 100% woman owned and is committed to bringing you environmentally safe and people friendly products to enhance your home and our planet.

Sarasota Green Marketplace is a retail store and showroom that offers products to help you go “green” one step at a time, from a light bulb to a whole house or guest house addition.  A few of our most popular products include SoyCrete concrete stains, DuraSoy One soy-oil paint,  Caroma dual-flush toilets, EcoTimber bamboo and FSC certified floors, Milliken carpet tiles, Forbo Marmoleum flooring, Gulfwave2 tankless water heaters and Savvy Rest organic latex mattresses, voted #1 by organicmattressreviews.com.

Pictured above: The 'Green Home in a Box" a prefab kit house made from green building products.