Today is : a day to think about our amazing global resources that provide us with oxygen, food, recreation, relaxation, and a cooler climate.  It’s also a great day to learn a little more about the ocean and how our modern society impacts its environment.  On that note, here are 2 amazing short videos that will get your thinking about the ocean today…why we should protect it and what we can do to make it a better, healthier place.

Sea of Change

The trailer for the new environmental film, , forces us to imagine a world without fish.

Plastic Soup for the Soul

An interview with Capt. Charles Moore of the , on the Great Pacific Plastic Patch and the presence of plastic vs. plankton in the world’s oceans.

Created by Ted Turner in 1990, Captain Planet and the Planeteers was the first ever environmentally-themed animated series.  Captain Planet and his team of eco-superheros inspired an entire generation of kids to respect the planet and do what they could to take care of it.  And now, almost 13 years after the show went off the air, the Captain is back to inspire a new generation of eco-stewards.

For the next 12 months, (I’m the blogger behind their Family Channel) will unveil more than 20 episodes of this classic cartoon as well as never before seen bonus footage from the show.

Twenty-five year old Marisa Picker of New York City is not embarrassed to admit that she’ll be tuning in.  As a kid, Captain Planet inspired her to take care of the environment, a lesson she carries with her today.  After all, she can still sing the theme song in full and she always thought Captain Planet was “hot, despite being kind of greenish…”.

Even if you may have missed the series when it was in its heyday, you can share it with your kids today.  I’d pick a greenish eco-hero over a purple dinosaur anyday!

Got an old pair of jeans hanging around? Recycle them into a cute mini-backpack with just a few quick stitches. Check out this video to see how its done.

Photo by Tofutti Break

Cloth or disposable? Neither!

Are you a parent who has struggled over the great diaper debate…the decision between cloth or disposable diapers? Well then you may get a kick out of Saturday Night Live’s more “palatable” solution to the problem. Warning…this video is gross…hilarious, but gross!

Lil Peppi

Cardell Hopkins thinks of himself as an “average American kid.” The ten-year old Floridian loves basketball, reading, making music, Wii, skateboarding, and hanging out with his friends. But this young kid has recently become an internet sensation with his eco-rapping songs and videos like “Mother Nature’s Crying,” and “Melting Ice.”

Cardell, or Lil Peppi as he’s known to his fans, became concerned about the planet after learning about global warming at school and watching the movie Happy Feet.  When his father showed him that famous 1970s “Keep America Beautiful,” commercial (you know, the one with the crying Indian,) Lil Peppi decided he wanted to do his part to clean up the planet. With the help of his dad, he wrote “Mother Nature’s Crying,” and recorded a YouTube video to go with it.

Here’s an excerpt from the song:

“What’s going on in this world that we live in,
Too much taking and not enough giving
Mother nature keeps on crying,
She’s kind of sad cause the planet keeps dying
I’m telling ya… If I were the king of the world,
I would make a better place for the boys and girls

I would clean up, all of the pollution

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If we work together we can find the solution”

In Lil Peppi’s latest eco-rap, “Melting Ice,” he asks everyone to do their part to find a solution.  Check out the video:

Find out more about Lil Peppi at his website: www.lilpeppi.com.

If you haven’t already seen her stuff, be sure to check it out. Wendy spearheaded the Going Green series that is now mandated at all NBC stations across the country. And (if I do say so myself) she has an uncanny knack for bringing great green info into your living room each week.

Click here to see the video and here to read to story.

Gather up these supplies:

Scrap wood (preferably reclaimed or FSC certified)

Nails
Hammer
Drill

Cut your pieces to these dimensions: (Click here for a larger version of this sketch)

And then follow the instructions in this video:

Happy Building!!