Visiting Author Inspires Young Stewards for the Planet

By David Kowalski

Lynne Cherry, a children's author, illustrator and filmmaker, visited Windermere and Smallwood Elementary Schools this week to interact with the children and encourage them to explore Nature through observation, drawing and writing.

Cherry also gave an evening presentation which I attended at Smallwood Elementary School. She spoke while showing slides and film clips from her "Young Voices for the Planet" project. She encouraged children and parents to enjoy Nature more (and TV less) and to protect our environment. She introduced them to clean energy sources through images of wind turbines and solar panels, as well as through group participation in a song featuring Pete Seeger in a music video  called "SolarTopia!"

She carries her own reusable spoon and bowl when she travels, as shown in the photo below taken at Windermere School. She does so to avoid using disposable plastic utensils and dishware. She also favors a ban on plastic bags.  

Derek Gee / Buffalo News

Derek Gee / Buffalo News

Cherry told me that she explained to the children the concept of watersheds, and how plastic waste can make its way from land to streams, rivers and lakes, and ultimately pollute Earth's oceans, which are all interconnected.

Lynne Cherry is the author and/​or illustrator of over thirty award-winning books for children. Her best-selling books, such as The Great Kapok Tree and A River Ran Wild, teach children to respect Earth. To learn more about these and other books, visit her personal website.

"Young Voices For The Planet" is a series of short films produced by Lynne Cherry. She has documented inspiring success stories of older kids shrinking their carbon footprint, finding solutions to the global warming crisis, banning plastic bags, planting trees, reducing waste, experiencing the excitement of scientific discovery through citizen-science, and conducting energy audits that save energy and money. View the video trailer below:

You can view all of the films in Lynne Cherry's "Young Voices For The Planet" series here.

Plastic Bags: UB Monster, Music Video, and Bag Bans

Plastic bags are not bio-degradable and they are accumulating in land fills, polluting our waterways and oceans, and can harm wildlife. Cutting back on plastic grocery bags will not only protect our environment, but also reduce our need for oil, the source of chemicals used to make them.

Students in the UB Environmental Network recently held an event that included the "UB Bag Monster", a creature made of 550 plastic bags and one eco-friendly UB student who wanted to make the point that plastic bags are bad for the environment.

Instead of packing groceries in single-use plastic, Do One Thing for the Environment: bring your own re-useable bags to the store.

Another group is using music and comedy to show you what you can do to oppose the plastic bag industry, as seen in the video below featuring a parody of the song "Empire State of Mind".



Bans on Plastic Bags are spreading across the U.S.

Plastic bags are outlawed in San Francisco and other California cities, including Malibu, Fairfax and Palo Alto. Bans are in effect in Westport, Connecticut, Bethel, Alaska, and Edmonds, Washington. A ban in North Carolina's Outer Banks was expanded from large retailers to all stores. Bans take effect in January in Brownsville, Texas, and Hawaii's Kauai and Maui counties.

Parts of Los Angeles County have recently banned stores from using single-use plastic bags. It bans stores from giving customers single-use plastic bags and would require them to charge 10 cents for each paper bag. The ordinance would apply to parts of the county where an estimated 1.1 million people live. Read the recent report at BuffaloNews.com.

Fun Friday: Canvas, Not Plastic

VIDEO - "Canvas Bags": Tim Minchin, comedian, actor and musician, is a self-proclaimed rock star in this satirical music video, imploring us (more than once) to bring eco-friendly canvas bags to the supermarket and reject those disposable plastic ones which are not bio-degradable and can harm wildlife.



Cutting back on disposable plastic bags will also reduce our need for oil, the source of chemicals used to make plastic bags.