Green Options » naturalist

A Creation Neither Perfect Nor Complete - Darwin and Early Theories of Evolution

Michael Ricciardi — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:17:46 +0000

Charles Darwin, 1879

In this the 150th anniversary year of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (and the 200th anniversary year of his birth), it is worth returning to that era of profound discovery and re-examining some of the controversies and earlier evolutionary theories begotten in the years just preceding its publication.

Today (and ever since Origin), the core, controversial idea of evolution tends to be rather simplistically summed up as: “We are descended from apes”. Of course, Darwinism, as it came to be called, was far more than this simplistic distillation. Even still, Darwin’s description of evolution as “descent with modification”, as well as his positing of vast geologic time scales, the agencies of natural and sexual selection, and a common ancestry to all living creatures, were not the fundamental, conceptual causes of the controversies.

A Lesson in Patience: Natural Playgrounds Made From Trees

Jennifer Lance — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:10:14 +0000

Kids growing up in the mountains where I live love to tie young trees’ trunks into knots. As you drive along the roads, you often see older trees with trunks twisted long ago by young hands. Plantware has taken this concept even further in designing a living playground for children by manipulating roots and trunks.

Plantware has made benches, love seats, street lights, gates, etc. from living trees. “Kinder Forest: A Living Playground” takes the idea even further:

KinderForest gives children real trees to play with, gives parents a natural alternative for their children and gives earth urban reforestation that is functional, enjoyable and green. Creating structures from living trees means that ~95% of the playground’s mass is taken from the air using local sunlight and rain. No gasoline-burning chainsaws, trucks, ships or waste. Such structures can live for 700 years and are self repairing, earthquake safe, oxygen producing and provide a habitat for wildlife coinciding with their purpose for humans.

Virtual Worlds Bring Eco-Literacy to Kids Online

Amy Jussel — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 03:55:36 +0000

Even though I spend a lot of time championing the outdoors as the ultimate green play time, greening kids’ minds with environmental stewardship happens online daily.

From greening your electronics to green gaming and havens for the budding naturalist, there are plenty of online to offline bridges to walk if you put on the right hiking shoes.

I love kid-lit and fabulous tree tales like A Forest of Stories and The Giving Tree is still my favorite book of all time…but paper free, online media like Dizzywood’s virtual world of collaborative play prove eco-literacy can transpire on a screen too…In Web 2.0 live-chat, 3-D immersive, fun!

Last week at the massive Virtual Worlds Expo in L.A., Dizzywood’s virtual critters and cuties turned some heads learning that kids’ reforestation efforts online enabled 15,000 REAL trees to be planted off line, thanks to their eco-partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation! Created for preteens 8-12 and Privo Safety Seal tested with accolades out the wazoo, Dizzywood is thankfully, NOT an anomaly…Check out these OTHER eco-positive picks that prove green media is not an oxymoron!