Earth Explore Learning - A Path to Success

We've witnessed it so many times in the past 15 years.  Students participate in one of our learning adventures, and emerge as very different people.  More focused,  more mature (yes, we get lots of props from parents on that one), and more prepared to tackle new challenges that lie ahead.

I have two teenagers.  And, like other parents, I've learned that motivation is everything.  It's one of the keys to a successful future.  Although EE students learn plenty (and qualify for college credit in many cases), the personal changes we see are, I'm convinced, more important than what's learned.  How many of us wouldn't like to have had a bit more confidence, a greater ease in dealing with challenges and with people, at an earlier age?  

Our past participants have gone on to be doctors, engineers, scientists, artists and confident adults.  And we're happy that they still call the EE experience an important one in their lives.

After all, when you have a platform for success, anything is possible.

Know a Great Teacher?

You know the kind I mean. Loves kids, and loves teaching. The kind of teacher who encourages students to believe that they are special, and that they can do and accomplish anything.

The kind of person who, through their positive influence on kids, shapes the future.

That is the kind of teacher that we at Earth Explore work hard the entire year to find.  They're out there.  As parents we know them instinctively.  Our kids talk about them.  Love their classes.  Remember them fondly, as do we.  Through experience we know that this kind of teacher will help students to blossom on their away from home learning experiences. 

So if you know of someone like that, and most of us parents do, then do us both a favor and tell them about Earth Explore Adventures at http://www.earthexplore.com/. We provide rewarding opportunities for teachers to venture outside the classroom with their very own students, to share spectacular places and experiences with those kids, and learn and grow right alongside them. 

One of my favorite things all year is to witness this in action.  When I get the chance to join one of our groups, whether it be in Alaska, or Costa Rica, or Jackson, Wyoming...I see teachers and students interacting in ways not always seen in the classroom.  Relaxed, excited about what's to come, and loving every minute of it.  There is no pressure to learn, or to teach, or to have fun.  It just happens. 

Our teachers earn professional development credit on their trips.  Important for their careers, and for the requirements of many school districts.  But I'll bet they'd tell you that's not why they decided to do Earth Explore.  No, it was more likely the chance to travel and learn, and to see their students reinvented belore their eyes, and in turn, be reinvented in their students' eyes. 

Reinvented as someone who just loves learning.  Period.  And loves to mentor and encourage kids to learn as well.

Who are We?

In the end, that simple question, posed by Al Gore at the Copenhagen climate summit, sums up what's at stake.

Just who are we, as a species, if we don't act now to save our planet for our children? 

Together, in the past few thousand years, we've had the imagination and the energy to utterly transform this planet, to redirect its resources to our common (or perceived) good, and a better, more comfortable life.

After all of this, we can't agree to save it? 

Let's be clear.  We are not saving the planet.  The Earth will go on, recycling its raw materials for billions of years into the future.  Mountains will be built, oceans will rise and fall, structures, man made and otherwise, will be dissolved and reused.  The Earth will ultimately be fine, given time.  That is, until our sun enters its final stages, and consumes it all...sort of the ultimate recycler.

No, it is us that needs saving.  Humankind, and the creatures that share this world with us.  Our reign has been, so far, relatively brief on this planet (after all the dinosaurs ruled for 200 million years...us...well, less than a million), and we are in danger of making it end more quickly than we needed to.

Do we sentence our children (yes, the bill is coming that soon), and our grandchildren to a future less prosperous, and less optimistic than our own?  With dwindling natural resources, and the inevitable consequences of too little to go around for too many...wars, famine and disease?

I don't think we will choose that.  I share what Gore calls his core belief, the belief that animates his life, and keeps him moving forward.  Namely, that humans are better than that.

But we have to act soon to prove it.

They're way ahead, and that's good

Listen in on teenagers these days (without being noticed) and you'll hear a common theme.  No, I'm not talking about boyfriend or girlfriend issues, which are still big news.  No, what you'll hear about is communication...that is, the newest, coolest way to keep up with your friends' lives.

Teenagers are classic early adopters.  If it's new, they want it and must have it.  And these days "it" so often is the latest way to stay in touch.  Now, if you're a parent like me, you may struggle a bit to keep up and keep abreast of technologies that are moving at warpspeed (yeah, that word dates me a bit).  But I'm here to tell you that it's a good thing.  Here's why.

Communication, even in its most banal forms, is connection.  It is sharing a moment in time or space with someone else, and often, with new ideas.  It is the antithesis of isolation.  While some argue that young people are too wired (or wireless) these days, I think we should weigh the negatives with the positives...and I'm convinced the positives win out. 

Our planet is facing some tough times.  Money is tight, debt is high, and global changes in climate and shifts in power balance are making lots of people nervous.  The good news is that we're more connected than we've ever been.  Want to see what they're talking about in England? Browse to the London Times website. Or use google translater to discipher news and opinion from sources all over the globe.  Very little can be hidden...for long.  Many celebrities have learned this (Tiger Woods for one), and governments too.  Connection and communication have their downsides, but it can also be argued that they are like a digital cleanser...they tend to scrub away lies, and promote disclosure and in the end, transparency.

The point is, while we're facing tough times, we're communicating and sharing information as never before.  There is no way to remain isolated from information...whether you're in China (where the government has tried), or your kid's bedroom (where many parents have tried).  It's out there and it's not going away.

Kids know this instinctively.  They have adopted these technologies...the technologies of communication, as their very own and they will fight to keep them.  And that's important.  Because our kids are the future...they will say what stays and what goes.  It seems to me that communication, connection, is in.  To stay.

Let's Get Real

Hey...did you see it on the news?   It snowed in Colorado early this year.  Really dumped.  I even saw video of them skiing in October.  Denver was a complete mess.

Guess the climate crisis is a bunch of baloney, huh?  Glad to get THAT over with.

I guess it's part of being human.  We tend to look out our windows, and make conclusions about the entire planet.  And, it's easier too.  How many of us really want to believe that sea levels could rise and flood our major cities...or 200 million people could be climate refugees?    Turns out 2009 wasn't even the hottest of all time either.  Just 6th or so.  Nothing to worry about.

It doesn't hurt of course that hundreds of millions of dollars is being spent to encourage our ambivilence.  Muddy the water, so to speak, with doubt.  Relatively simple...just nudge people in the direction they already want to go.

Who would do such a thing?  Well, let's follow the money.

Flush with record profits of the past few years totaling in the tens of billions (remember $4 plus gas?), oil, coal, natural gas and other industries that stand to benefit by the status quo (and their proxys in DC by the way), are doing all they can to insure you don't believe what you're being told.  Scientists....what do they know?

And it's working.  Recent polls released in Newsweek magazine show just 57 percent of Americans believe the world is warming.  Down from 71 percent last year.  And even fewer...just 36 percent believe human activity is to blame.

In that Newsweek article, Al Gore is interviewed about his just released book "Our Choice."  Despite these numbers, he says he still believes the tipping point is nearing, when governments, led by the U.S., will take bold action to address climate change.  Have to admire him for that.  I hope he's right.

Here's the rub.  As Gore says "reality really has a way of knocking at the door."  Humans sadly are more moved by emotion than fact.  Will it take a dramatic disaster...say a continent-sized chunk of Antarctica slipping away...before people are swayed?

Disturbingly, 80 percent of CEOs and CFOs say they would not take action to make their factories run more efficiently and save money in the long run....if it hurt their next quarter bottom line.  Way to go guys.

Is that just incredibly myopic, or is it truly insane?  I'll leave that to you.

Let's just hope the rest of us don't need a full preview of doomsday to get moving.  And that, in our actions in the next few years, we show a bit more wisdom, and a bit more respect, for the generations that will come after us.

Concrete Kills

Ok, granted, that is a bit harsh.  But close to the point actually.  A big new study out of the Netherlands comfirms in an empirical way what most of us (who love the outdoors) have long suspected.  That getting out in nature just flat makes you live longer.

Actually, it's more than that.  The health study of almost 350 thousand dutch people found that even being in close proximity to nature...has big benefits.

One of the major findings; that living near (within 1 km) to a park, or any green open space, significantly reduced people's anxiety and all forms of stress.  And, as we know, stress has been found to be a contributing factor in everything from hives to bad digestion, to cancer.

Another very interesting finding of this study.  When people of all kinds and income levels were living near nature, the gap between the health of rich and poor lessened.  You might say that beautiful surroundings, bring enhanced health to everyone, but especially those with less access to the best health care technology.

As you might expect, the study has huge implications.  Not only on how we live, but where, and why.  Already urban planners are looking at the findings, which could have a great impact on how neighborhoods of the future are planned (with more parks we presume), and how aging neighborhoods are brought back to life.

With health care costs running amuck, it may well be in our best interests as a society to give these findings a hard look.  Developers may not make as much money leaving open space for parks, but the human and societal cost of not doing so may be far greater.  It may kill us.

Read the article at Nature and Health Study

Nine Days Left

I got your attention didn't I?  But here's the problem.  Can you or anyone you know tell me what is nine days away? 

I thought so.  And that's part of the challenge we all face.  For the record, in nine days the International Day of Climate Action will arrive.  That's October 24th...a day designed to get people talking, and more importantly, doing things to bring about change. 

The goal of course is to make a big splash, to jump start our collective consciousness, and in so doing spur popular pressure to force decision makers to actually do something about onrushing climate change.

Of course, here in the U.S. the health care debate is sucking up all of the oxygen in Washington D.C.   That doesn't help.  Neither does the fact that lobbying organizations for those who would be most affected by climate change, like farmers and ranchers, are actively opposing or watering down proposals that are on the table in advance of the Copenhagen Climate Change summit in December.  Sigh...it appears the U.S. will join other industrialized nations in forwarding no bold initiatives.

Here's the rub.  We know now that climate change will impact our children and grandchildren in huge ways.  But its a gradual process.  So, like that bump that we ignore, we try to think about something else.  Because we can.  For now.

The southwest as a dust bowl?  Very likely if things don't change.  A global explosion of climate refugees?  How about 200 million by latest estimates.  And a sea level rise of 80 feet swamping our most important cities.

Perhaps a new approach is needed.  Don't think about climate change in terms of impacts on polar bears, or deserts.  Think about its impacts on your kid.  What crushing problems are we passing along?  What will they say about us if we don't act?  It is past irresponsible now to be the ostrich, with its head in the sand.  We owe our kids better.

So go to http://www.350.org/  Take action.  Ride your bike.  Make a sign.  Spread the 350 video virally.  It could help.