As Rebecca Hains, a childrens media expert and Christian Science Monitor blogger, pointed out, it’s also a chance to reset often deeply engrained media habits.

As the father of a five-year-old Caillou and Berenstain Bears fan, I know just how engrained those habits can be. Daddy has to shower? How about a video?! Got to run Mom to the airport? Grab the iPad! Need a little more sleep? Let’s turn on a cartoon!

The harmful affects of too much screen time—childhood obesity, poor school performance and attention problems—are not a mystery to me. And I know the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under the age of two, and a maximum of two hours daily for preschool children.

That said, while we’ve largely observed those rules in our house, its easy to slip into bad habits.

Enter Screen Free Week, which my daughter’s elementary school is observing this week. Last weekend we broached the subject of our participation with her and she responded, with a bit of a scowl, “I don’t want to participate.”

But we persevered, she agreed, and it has been a revelation. The last several mornings she’s used her free time to draw cards (it turns out Teacher Appreciation Day was also this week) and work on her Lego creations. And in the evenings, we’ve spent more time outside hitting balls and inside building forts with blankets and cushions from the couch. Sure, these activities took more planning or time on our part, but they’ve been a lot of fun and really fulfilling, for her and us.

I won’t say that we’ll never turn the television on again. We will. But just a week without screen time has helped me understand how reflexively I acquiesce to my daughter’s requests for a quick Caillou fix. I feel better prepared now to guide her in a more creative direction, thanks in no small part to the resources offered on CCFC’s site, including this downloadable list of things to do instead of turning on the TV, from another blog. You can even print it and post it on the fridge!

How about you? Did your family observe Screen Free Week? Either way, we’d love to hear any additional ideas for screen free activities in the comments below!

I’m more excited to share this movie with you than any of the six we’ve made since releasing the original Story of Stuff because it explains how we can make big change together by exercising our citizen muscles.

You see, I’m convinced that there’s one main thing keeping us from making big change.

We’ve got the ideas — solutions to many vexing environmental and social problems exist right now

We’ve got the commitment — the vast majority of people want a healthy environment, good jobs and vibrant communities.

We just need some serious action!

Here at the Story of Stuff Project, we’re going to do our best to inspire millions to action with The Story of Change. Like every movie we’ve made, we’ll offer it for free to anyone in the world who wants to view or share it.

But to do that, we need the help of folks like you.

Will you contribute $25, $50 or $100 right now to help us finish The Story of Change for release this June?

With your contribution, you’ll receive a co-producer credit on the movie website and a first peek at The Story of Change before we release it.

But more importantly, you’ll be helping us take a giant stride toward what has always been our goal with The Story of Stuff Project: turning a movie into a movement.

As I’ve traveled around the world these last several years, the number one question I’m asked is “what can I do?”

There’s so much big change to be made, yet when I ask people what they think they can do, I’m almost always met with the same response: I can buy fair trade or I can stop buying bottled water or I can ride my bike to work.

Those are all good things to do — they’re things I do in my own life and I hope you do too — but we’ll get on a real roll when more of us start saying ‘we can’ instead of ‘I can,’ and when we step out of our consumer-selves and step together into our power as citizens to make big, bold change.

That’s the basic message of The Story of Change, a message that I believe needs to be heard far and wide.

So please, make a contribution to The Story of Stuff Project today. And keep your eyes open for The Story of Change — we’ll be counting on you to share it with your friends and family.

Thanks for your generous support and for everything you do to make the world a better place.

Earlier this year, Annie spent a day with Karla Trotman in her home near Philadelphia for a taping of ABC’s The Revolution. Like many busy women, Karla has her hands full with kids, work and managing her home. In 0ur third installment of The Good Stuff you’ll hear about what steps Karla took to reduce her family’s waste and increase their savings! Our favorite part, though? Hearing about the big changes Karla’s made after taking the initial, smaller steps.

_ Guest_
Karla Trotman
Monica Wilson

_Learn More_
Karla’s email to Annie
Why Care About Waste?
Annie’s Tips & Trick on Reducing Waste
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

_Suggest a Story!_
Click here and fill out our form to suggest a story for The Good Stuff

_Download_
Episode 3 — Getting Started

I’m a total sucker for videos of people using their bodies to make shapes and words for aerial photography. Never gets old.

Check it out:

If you’re feeling particularly inspired, check out Resolutions Week and get involved with people all across the country who are getting together this summer to take a stand against the disastrous Citizens United decision.

Hat tip to Good Magazine for the post.

Despite a number of technological hurdles, I left feeling inspired. I came away bolstered by the great efforts being made across the country to ensure that how we invest our money works for us and not against us.

If you missed us online or are looking for ways to plug into bank accountability efforts and want to move your money, there are tons of great resources available online.

To get started:

Take a look at The New Bottom Line and their fabulous Move Our Money USA site.

Also, Green America has a great site that’s filled with resourced dedicated to breaking up with your mega bank which you can find here.

For those of you looking to change the way your place of worship invests their money, take a look at PICO’s “Our Money, Our Values” campaign.

And for the college campus folks, check out the Responsible Endowments Coalition.

]]> http://www.storyofstuff.org/2012/04/05/move-your-money-resources/feed/ 0 http://www.storyofstuff.org/2012/04/03/4000-v-7000000000/ http://www.storyofstuff.org/2012/04/03/4000-v-7000000000/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:59:57 +0000 C. M. Samala http://www.storyofstuff.org/?p=4452 If you think corporations have too much power in our democracy (or yours), we need you to keep reading.

Last March, our Project released The Story of Citizens United v. FEC, a look at the disastrous 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that permits corporations to spend unlimited funds to influence how Americans vote.

If you’ve been following this year’s U.S. Presidential race, you know what I mean by disastrous:  out of control fundraising by unaccountable Super PACs, dirty attack ads funded by shadowy corporate front groups and total combined spending on the Presidential and Congressional elections estimated to reach as much as 6 or 7 billion dollars.

That’s right, $7,000,000,000.

And believe you me, if you’re a corporation pumping millions into an election, you’re expecting more than a bumper sticker in return! (Maybe a pipeline permit?)

Over the past year, The Story of Citizens United v. FEC has attracted over 400,000 views. The petitions for a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United have garnered hundreds of thousands of signers, and cities and states from coast to coast have expressed their support as well. That’s a great start, but we’ve got to reach far more people.

You can help today by supporting our partnership with LoudSauce to buy online ad space for a 30-second teaser for The Story of Citizens United v. FEC.

Watch the teaser here.

For only $2,000, we’ll be able to get this teaser in front of 200,000 potential viewers, with a specific focus on reaching young voters.

While $2,000 probably wouldn’t buy us a tax break or Ambassador appointment, it may reach enough of ‘We the People’ to keep our fight to overturn Citizens United on a roll.

So if you’ve got $5 or $20 or $100 to contribute, please help out.

Many thanks for all the things you do to build a more sustainable, just and fulfilling world.

Take action today and support World Water Day. Thanks for all you do!

That got me thinking about the corollaries with getting involved in working for a healthy environment and fair economy. At the Story of Stuff Project, we get thousands of emails from people who care deeply about the health of their communities and the planet, but aren’t sure how to take that first step.

For years, most environmental organizations operated on the assumption that information was the key—that the truth will set us free. Our basic belief was that if people just knew the science, they would act to help solve the problem. So we ran awareness campaigns with heart wrenching photographs of wildlife in distress, wrote and shared reports, made fancy graphs and charts out of our limitless data, and more.

In a sense, it worked. Most people today understand there is an environmental problem and a clear majority believes we should do something about it. Sure, not everyone knows and there’s always more research and education to be done, but enough people know and enough people care to make some serious change.

But now, we need to move on from the “there’s a problem” part of the conversation to the “let’s do something about it” part. Clearly, knowing and caring is not enough; we need to act.  We need to take that first step.

We at the Story of Stuff Project want to learn more about what inspires people to get involved and then to stay involved, even though making change is often a hard and frustrating path. The more we can understand this together, the better we can inspire others to join in.

So, we’re reaching out to you – the Story of Stuff Community –  to learn from each other.

I’ll start with the story of my first step. I was in 1st grade and a representative from McDonald’s came to my school to tell us how much the company cared about nature. Being a nature-loving 6 year old, I rushed home to plead with my mom to take us to McDonald’s for dinner. I still remember feeling happy and proud walking into an establishment that shared my love of nature. I also remember my shock at seeing all the pots of plastic plants and flowers inside. Plastic flowers are the antithesis of nature to a six year old kid. I felt devastated, tricked and angry. With my mom’s support, I wrote a letter to McDonald’s expressing my outrage at its plastic plants and environmental posing. So, I guess I have both McDonalds and my mom to thank for teaching me to question greenwashing and to use my voice. Once I wrote that first letter, they just kept coming every time I’d see something that I knew could be done better. My most recent was to the Mayor of my town, asking him about a long promised stop sign at a terrifyingly busy intersection. As Cole said in our recent podcast, our voice can only be heard if we use it.

And you? What inspired you to take that first step? And, more importantly, what made you take the second and third and fourth step?

We’d love to hear your stories. Please leave a comment here.

Last week I spoke with five separate people who have been personally affected by cancer. Then last night I opened the National Geographic to unwind and learned that black rhinos are being poached to the point of extinction, mostly for their horns’ use in medicinal powders, including a “cure” for cancer.

Then there’s fracking in Appalachia, lifeless rivers in China, elections poisoned by dirty energy dollars, and as Annie said in a recent interview (LILIPOH, Winter 2012, pp. 15-20), “Many scientists say we have less than 10 years to take serious action on the climate if we want life to continue on this planet as we know it. “

Whoa.

Ever wonder if it might be better to just soak in a tub of denial and pretend it’s all going to be okay?

Mercy, I have. But I don’t think any of us really wants to marinate in stagnant denial. At our deepest cores we know the truth about our situation: What we and our ancestors have done and are doing in the name of progress has bumped up against the earth’s natural limits. If we continue in this manner, things look bleak.

But where do we go once we’ve admitted this inconvenient excruciating truth?

For me it always comes down to this: the choice. Do I choose Denial or Faith? Despair or Hope? Paralysis or Action? It’s my jumping-off place. And when I get to this place I cannot do it alone. I need a community. I need to hear from others who refuse to be beaten down by this harsh reality.

So I make my choice. I call up a good friend. I meditate, listening to these truths in my body. And it comes to me, “Oh, you are just thoughts, my monkey mind. You are not reality. Yes, there is terror, destruction, absolute darkness – but they coexist with serenity, love beyond understanding, miraculous healing, light without end.”

Then I remember:
Bless all beings around the world that are suffering. May all be filled with love, joy and peace. Help me let go of fear, grief, control – all negativity. Help me be of service, part of the solution. Show me opportunities today to work with others to increase impact. And remind me to ask for help when I fall.

More than a few environmentalists have been won over, citing the power of the behemoth retailer to move suppliers, distributors and others in its supply chain toward sustainability. What could be bad, they argue, about Walmart using its purchasing power to open new markets for organic products or to close them for chemicals like the flame retardant PDBE?

But as writer Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance pointed out in a thoughtful and well-researched series of posts at Grist over the past year, Walmart’s motives are not entirely, or even perhaps even mainly, green-hearted:

“With [the environmental groups'] endorsements and the flood of positive press that seems to follow each of Walmart’s green announcements, the company has managed to turn around flagging poll numbers, shift its labor practices out of the limelight, and, most crucially, crank up its expansion machine.”

Greenwashing isn’t new, nor is it, in the case of Walmart, particularly surprising. The company has waged public relations battles with everyone from labor unions to anti-sprawl advocates for decades. Neither is it fair to say that companies with suspect motives are incapable of doing good things.

But the question of Walmart’s intentions — whether they are rooted in a shrewd public relations strategy or the desire to maximize financial returns or even a spirit of environmental good will — is important, because those intentions are a good indicator of the likelihood the company will follow through on its current green promises (and go deeper still) even if it means questioning some of the company’s core business practices.

The company’s follow-through, as it turns out, has been mixed at best. Take the case of clean energy, which Walmart promised would supply 100% of its energy needs in the coming years. That audacious goal was splashed across the news media when it was announced, but today, Mitchell reports:

“Walmart currently derives less than 2 percent of its electricity from its solar projects and wind-power purchases…At its current pace of converting to renewables, it would take Walmart about 300 years to get to 100 percent clean power.”

Which begs the question:  have environmentalists been snookered? And if so, what’s the best strategy for gaining the upper hand with Walmart?

Over the next several weeks, we’ll be sharing a number of Stacy Mitchell’s pieces from Grist on our Facebook page and here on the blog, including her recommendations for keeping Walmart on the hot seat. We’re interested in hearing what you think.

We’ll also be encouraging Story of Stuff Community members to support an effort later this month by Walmart workers to highlight the impact the company has had on them, their families and communities.

Supporting these workers makes moral sense – they are our neighbors. But it also makes strategic sense. When environmentalists make common cause with Walmart workers’ efforts to win respect in the workplace – as well as the efforts of small businesses, community leaders, farmers, factory owners and others – then Walmart won’t be able to pit us against each other or buy us off with lofty promises.

No, when we stand together, they’ll have to deal with us. And we’ll be asking for more than window dressing.