Project Polar Bear

Polar Bears International
http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/

Project Polar Bear...Winners:
Small changes from a few individuals can add up to huge difference. Just ask some of the winning teams from our Project Polar Bear Contest. Ever year, we honor the four finalist teams at an Awards Ceremony in San Diego, CA in April, where we announce the Grand Prize and Second Place winners.

Some of the Contest winners of past years:
 Canuck Nanooks from Winnipeg, Assiniboine Park:
Just what didn’t the three Vickery sisters—Miranda, Rachael, and Madison—do to reduce emissions and help the environment? Here’s just a snapshot:
• Organized sheep-mowing patrols to replace lawnmowers.
• Motivated 400 families to grow their own food.
• Collected pledges from individuals, businesses, and politicians to reduce their carbon footprint—and taught them how.
• Built a greenhouse from old windows and inspired others to find recycled uses for cast-off household items.
• ... well, you get the idea.
All told, the team reduced CO2 by 80,270,850 pounds; saved 26 million gallons of water; and kept more than 4.5 million pounds of rubbish from going to landfills. Pretty good, eh?

Green Tree of Tulsa, Tulsa Zoo & Living Museum:
Connor Cass, Mike Barton, and Caroline Adelson launched a campaign to reforest their community, one tree at a time. They actually created a nonprofit with the goal of:
• Planting trees to absorb CO2
• Getting people excited about lowering CO2 levels and helping the environment
They obtained free saplings from nonprofits, gave talks explaining the link between planting trees and saving arctic sea ice, and planted the saplings just about everywhere: at schools, businesses, homes, government agencies—even public housing projects!.
By the contest's end, the team had planted more than 800 trees, touched more than 200 million lives, and reduced CO2 by 163,446 pounds. Special bonus: they're so fired up they plan to continue their efforts for years to come.
This is an excellent way to help the planet. Plant trees wherever you can and encourage other people to do so. Wherever you can get permission to plant. Get nurseries and farms to donate saplings and find out if the gov't of your state will donate saplings. Trees absorb the CO2 which is killing the planet and they produce oxygen. A tree planting  project in your community will get people interested and educated.

Polar Bear Parktection, Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium:

Molly Loy Corder and Kaley Rose Zahren reached out to their peers to inspire them to help save polar bear habitat. They even:
• Taught younger school kids about conservation and motivated them to take simple steps in their own homes
• Launched a greening effort that resulted in 68 student pledges to start their own gardens and 74 plants sold or given away to community members
• Took part in recycling efforts
Along the way, the team reduced CO2 in their community by over two million pounds, saved 806,650 gallons of fresh water, recycled 36,000 aluminum cans, obtained 50 pledges to have Christmas trees recycled, held 18 community outreach efforts that resulted in dozens of carbon-reduction pledges ... plus lots of other cool stats!

Pledge for the Polar Bears, Louisville Zoo:
Brandie Farkas and Emily Goldstein took on CO2 emissions in a big way, generating pledges from people to reduce carbon emissions by 16 million pounds a year—and counting! The students did this by creating a website about polar bears and climate change to inspire people to make lifestyle changes that will help avoid a worldwide climate crisis.
“One ton of CO2 fills up a football stadium,” Goldstein said, “so we're very happy that we'll save more than 8,000 stadiums worth of CO2 emissions in the next year. And that’s just so far—we have many more pledges to come.”

The Canuck Nanooks, Winnipeg: Won a second time
Three sisters, Rebekah, Rachael, and Miranda Vickery, came up with 11 separate projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—including a goat-mowing patrol. One project, called More Sense for the Environment, focused on getting coins back into circulation to reduce the environmental impact of minting. In 2008, the team stayed busy rolling thousands of coins—then lugged over 800 pounds of them to the local bank. In 2009, the teens aimed even higher with coin drives in at least 40 area schools. All funds raised help polar bears.

The Green Teens, Portland, Oregon:
Emily Carlson, Jacob Shimkus, and Sierra Sweigert created a Don't Be Idle campaign that encourages parents to turn off their cars while waiting to pick their kids up from school (in just 15 minutes, a mother in an idling SUV releases over 4½ pounds of CO2). Another campaign, dubbed the Bright Idea, provided community members with three simple products that reduce electricity usage, including compact fluorescent bulbs, hot water heater blankets, and under-house insulators. The teens supplied the products at cost and even offered to install them!
This is another  great project to start in your community. Tell people about these products and how they save energy and where to get them.

The Polar Bear Revolution, Pittsburgh:
Two teens from Pittsburgh--Brendan McKelvy and Tony Pittavino—were tireless in their outreach to schools, senior citizen centers, high schools, neighborhood events, and community clubs. They taught the public about the effect of global warming on polar bears and the need to reduce carbon emissions. They helped homeowners become energy efficient and inspired students—through talks, quizzes, and games—to do their part. They even built an igloo from recycled milk jugs at an elementary school, inspiring the entire school to Go Green!

Some people are actually  take positive action to reduce their carbon footprint. That's what it's all about folks. Contact the folks at 'Polar Bears International' and learn more. 'Save a polar bear.'