Many kids are naturally curious about the Earth and taking care of the environment. You can do good green habits as a family. You can make small, simple, easy habit changes that all add up to a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Here is 10 ways to teach your kids how to be green:

1. Keep your kids busy with activities that don’t promote consumption or waste: walks on the beach, bike rides to a public playground, bus trips to a museum and regular stops at the public library.
2. Make gardening a family activity. Eating means no gas is required to ship those blue-ribbon tomatoes.Good for you: “Kids with exposure to gardening programs do better on science tests, do better socially and develop a sense of responsibility,” says Charlie Nardozzi, senior horticulturist with the National Gardening Association. “And they develop better eating habits.”
3. Take the green lead. Your children will pick up habits from you, so try to conserve .Your kids learn the most from you. If you would like to see certain traits in your children, then lead by example. Take quick showers - you can use a timer - turn off lights, televisions and appliances when you leave the room, and switch to more efficient light bulbs.
4. Participate in cleanup days at a beach or park. Use those outdoor trash cans! Never litter. Keep our waterways clean. When you visit a park or beach, be sure you deposit your trash in containers and volunteer at some state and national cleanups. Read more

We all want to help the environment, but many times we are too busy with our daily lives to make changes that we think are needed to develop a more sustainable lifestyle and a more environmentally friendly culture.
Therefore, you can make small, simple, easy habit changes that all add up to a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Eco Habit Tip 1: Drive Less. Driving less doesn’t mean you have to stay home. Try combining driving with alternative modes of transportation:
- If you live close to school, walk or bike. If you live far away, carpool.
- Take the bus.
- Shop by phone or mail.
- Drive electric/hybrid cars instead of gas-guzzlers.
- Plan all trips. Plan the timing and the route of your trips such that you will avoid being caught in the “thick” of traffic.

Eco Habit Tip 2: Eco-Friendly Eating. Planting a garden and buying seasonal fruits and vegetables at Farmers’ Markets, is both healthier and better for the environment. Unfortunately, many big food processors, even ones that grow organic fruits and vegetables tend to neglect basic, good for the earth, farming techniques like crop rotation. Organic fertilizers are trucked in and produce is trucked out to be sold across the country using precious fossil fuels and contributing to air pollution. Avoid McDonald’s. Well, not just McDonald’s, but they’re the worst. Not only is their food nutritionally empty, and actually harmful to your health, but they are one of the worst polluters and destroyers of the environment. Read more

The risk of a fatal heatwave in the UK within ten years is high, but overall global warming may mean fewer deaths due to temperature, a report says.

 A seriously hot summer between now and 2017 could claim more than 6,000 lives, the Department of Health report warns.

But it also stresses that milder winters mean deaths during this time of year - which far outstrip heat-related mortality - will continue to decline.

The report is to help health services prepare for climate change effects.

A panel of scientific experts commissioned by the Department of Health and Health Protection Agency (HPA) has looked at the way the UK has responded to rising temperatures since the 1970s, and how the risks are likely to change.

While summers in the UK became warmer in the period 1971 - 2003, there was no change in heat-related deaths, but annual cold-related mortality fell by 3% as winters became milder - so overall fewer people died as a result of extreme temperatures. Read more

If Valentines Day is an essential day for you or the one you love; then you can show a bit of love for the environment by carefully considering what you buy.

Here are a few distinctive gift ideas that make a positive ecological impact:

Give Organic Flowers
Conventionally grown flowers are often dangerous to the environment and the workers involved with growing them. An option to giving cut flowers is seeking out locally grown live houseplants. There are plenty of flowering varieties available, and they are beautiful, year-round gifts, which add vibrancy to homes and offices. One of the advantages to purchasing plants grown close to where you live is that you are not contributing to the resource use and greenhouse gas emissions of air shipping, which is common with imported flowers.

Give Natural perfumes and fragrances
Many perfume fragrances are synthetic and often made from toxic petrochemicals derived from crude oil. There are more earth friendly alternatives and it is easy to make your own natural perfume too. Read more

Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, Americans throw away a million extra tons [900,000 metric tons] of garbage each week, including holiday wrapping and packaging.

Many of today’s products are available in environmentally friendly versions. There are staplers that do not use staples, remote controlled toys that do not use batteries, clothes made from natural products and even eco-computers that are made with gentler chemicals and make fewer emissions. It is easy to choose an environmentally friendly gift.

However, the most environmentally friendly gifts are made from creative ideas rather than material packages. Pass on the eco-friendly spirit with these gifts!

• - Give recycled gifts. Look in your closet, your cabinet or storage space. What is in there that you have not used in the longest time, is gently used and could be of service to a family member or friend? You can also recycle or create decorative wrapping paper and cards using old Holiday cards, decorations and papers that you have around the house.

• - Don’t buy Christmas gifts that are over packaged. Toys are especially bad for this, with cardboard boxes covered by plastic sheets, sealed with tape and fastened with plastic ties. Buy products that have the packaging fit to them, or even better aren’t packaged at all.

• - Give homemade gifts. If you make great holiday cookies, pies, or other treats. Whip up a batch and give them as gifts in reusable decorative container. If you’re an artist, create miniature works to share with family and friends. Read more