This guide outlines fifty ways in which you, your congregation, and your local community can help fight global warming and enjoy participation in a vital part of Christian discipleship. 50 Ways to Help Save the Earth makes a clear connection, in a practical and unintimidating way, between stewardship of the earth and living one's faith. This easy-to-follow book consists of seven chapters on topics related to global climate change: "Water," "Energy," "Transportation," "Food and Agriculture," "People," "Other Species," and "Wilderness and Land." Each chapter begins with a statement on how the content relates to global warming, followed by seven action items ranging from individual efforts to activities that encourage the involvement of the congregational and wider communities.

Have you heard the buzz? Bees—the tiny insects that pollinate nearly all our fruits and vegetables—need our support. If you like to eat your fruits and vegetables (and even if you don’t!), you should value our planet’s bees. Yet, because of environmental pollution, loss of green spaces, and a general disregard for the well-being of insects, humans have caused the number of bees to plummet. In the past year, the managed honeybee population of the United States has dropped 40 percent, and there has been a 25 percent decline in wild bees—figures that are alarming at best. Helping the bees is easier than you might imagine, however, as outlined in this charmingly illustrated call to action. Here are 50 easy suggestions, along with an informative introduction, to get you started. Try cutting your lawn less frequently, buying ethical honey, and keeping your yard dark at night. You can follow easy instructions for building a bee-friendly window box or a green-roofed garden shed. Little things can make a big difference. Just ask a bee.

Did you know your food travels an average of 4000 kilometres to get to you? Have you ever wondered where exactly 'away' is when you throw something away? Or what happens to the 3 billion drink cans Australians go through in a year? Think you can't do anything about climate change? Have HOPE! Having hope means that we can make a change. And the kids of Australia have heaps of HOPE! Open your eyes, take a look around and Help Our Planet Every day. From the city to the country to the coast, we all live in different ways but we share this one world and together we can make it better. Full of case studies from kids, practical tips and easy activities that can involve your school, family and community, this book provides a simple guide to making a difference. Don't be afraid to start!

If you are searching for ideas to teach social studies in fun and meaningful ways, 50 Ways to Teach Social Studies is a book that provides a plethora of ideas of practical lessons connected to real-world topics that will save the busy teacher time and effort. The activities in this book are housed under themes and include content connections (civics, history, geography, economics), guiding questions, and literacy connections. From community, primary sources, and music to food, visual media, and experiential learning, this book will inspire you to make connections in your own environment to expand the teaching of social studies.

Thomas L. Friedman's phenomenal number-one bestseller The World is Flat has helped millions of readers see the world in a new way. In this essential new book, Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: the global environmental crisis and America's surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11. It is a groundbreaking account of where we stand now, and he shows us how the solutions to these two big problems are linked - how we can restore the world and revive America at the same time. Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world's middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is 'hot, flat, and crowded'. In just a few years, it will be too late to fix things - unless there is a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency, and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green. This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that we cannot afford to miss. He argues that this cannot happen without American commitment and leadership. In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that the green revolution we need is like no revolution the world has seen. It will be the biggest innovation project in history; it will be hard, not easy; and it will change everything, from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. But the payoff will be more than just cleaner air. It will inspire us to summon all the intelligence, creativity, boldness and concern for the common good that are our greatest human resources. Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge - and the promise - of the future.

No one sets out to intentionally cause environmental problems. All things being equal, we are happy to protect environmental resources; in fact, we tend to prefer our air cleaner and our species protected. But despite not wanting to create environmental problems, we all do so regularly in the course of living our everyday lives. Why do we behave in ways that cause environmental harm? It is often easy and inexpensive to behave in ways with bad environmental consequences, but more difficult and costly to take environmentally friendly actions. The incentives we face, some created by the nature of environmental resources, some by social and political structures, often do not make environmentally beneficial behavior the most likely choice. Furthermore, our behavior is conditioned by habits and social norms that fail to take environmental protection into consideration. In this book, Elizabeth R. DeSombre integrates research from political science, sociology, psychology, and economics to understand why bad environmental behavior makes perfect sense. As she notes, there is little evidence that having more information about environmental problems or the way an individual's actions contribute to them changes behavior in meaningful ways, and lack of information is rarely the underlying cause that connects behavior to harm. In some cases such knowledge may even backfire, as people come to see themselves as powerless to address huge global problems and respond by pushing these issues out of their minds. The fact that causing environmental problems is never anyone's primary goal means that people are happy to stop causing them if the alternative behavior still accomplishes their underlying goals. If we can figure out why those problems are caused, when no one intends to cause them, we can develop strategies that work to shift behavior in a positive direction. Over the course of this book, DeSombre considers the role of structure, incentives, information, habit, and norms on behavior in order to formulate lessons about how these factors lead to environmentally problematic behavior, and what understanding their effects can tell us about ways to change behavior. To prevent or address environmental problems, we have to understand why even good people do bad environmental things.

"I think my mom must have skipped her prenatal vitamins the day my fetal chromosomes for domesticity were forming. The only thing domestic about me is that I'm housebroken - usually." Introducing Sharon May, who dedicates her weekly humor column to the idea that Laughing Matters. In every column, she invites us to roll with life's punches by joining her in laughing at ourselves and the zany world we live in. For ten years, Sharon has been entertaining Southern Utah newspaper readers with her hilarious accounts of everyday life. She delivers the grins in such common experiences as assembling furniture with directions that begin, "Align Dowel D-3 with Hole H-26 in Door B"; fighting thighs the size of grain silos; pulling out a tree root obviously wound around the earth's core; misplacing eyeglasses in the microwave; and operating complicated technology such as toenail clippers. And then there was that time she tried to weigh her head in the grocery store produce scale ... Sharon's hilarious mishaps and uniquely worded observations reveal a screwball world that every reader will recognize at once. She takes the mundane and makes us laugh at her foibles and misadventures, which are our own as well, no matter who we are. SHARON MAY has been a humor columnist since 1998. She has been a middle-school, high-school and college English teacher for even more years, and did a two-year stint as managing editor of a weekly newspaper. She grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles but has lived the last decade in Hurricane, Utah, from where she launches her adventures into the Southwest. Laughing Matters is her second book. She can be contacted at smay@infowest.com.

The oceans, and the challenges they face, are so vast that it’s easy to feel powerless to protect them. 50 Ways to Save the Ocean, written by veteran environmental journalist David Helvarg, focuses on practical, easily-implemented actions everyone can take to protect and conserve this vital resource. Well-researched, personal, and sometimes whimsical, the book addresses daily choices that affect the ocean's health: what fish should and should not be eaten; how and where to vacation; storm drains and driveway run-off; protecting local water tables; proper diving, surfing, and tide pool etiquette; and supporting local marine education. Helvarg also looks at what can be done to stir the waters of seemingly daunting issues such as toxic pollutant runoff; protecting wetlands and sanctuaries; keeping oil rigs off shore; saving reef environments; and replenishing fish reserves.

A growing chorus of voices has suggested that the world’s religions may become critical actors as the climate crisis unfolds, particularly in light of international paralysis on the issue. In recent years, many faiths have begun to address climate change and its consequences for human societies, especially the world’s poor. This is the first volume to use social science to examine how religions are helping to address one of the most significant and far-reaching challenges of our time. While there is a growing literature in theology and ethics about climate change and religion, little research has been previously published about the ways in which religious institutions, groups and individuals are responding to the problem of climate change. Seventeen research-driven chapters are written by sociologists, anthropologists, geographers and other social scientists. This book explores what effects religions are having, what barriers they are running into or creating, and what this means for the global struggle to address climate change.

In this thoughtful study, respected Old Testament scholar Patricia K. Tull explores the Scriptures for guidance on today's ecological crisis. Tull looks to the Bible for what it can tell us about our relationships, not just to the earth itself, but also to plant and animal life, to each other, to descendants who will inherit the planet from us, and to our Creator. She offers candid discussions on many current ecological problems that humans contribute to, such as the overuse of energy resources like gas and electricity, consumerism, food production systems--including land use and factory farming--and toxic waste. Each chapter concludes with discussion questions and a practical exercise, making it ideal for both group and individual study. This important book provides a biblical basis for thinking about our world differently and prompts us to consider changing our own actions. Visit inhabitingeden.org for links to additional resources and information.