After Bucket traced the electricity dragline back to those “Wasters”….Wormulus, Hufflebot and their awful mountain eating Wormulator, he’s been on a mission to to get the gang to cut back on energy use.

“The more energy we conserve, the more we can really help the planet,” says Bucket. “It helps stop global warming, and your parents will save some cash from the power bill!”

So what can you do to stop energy use today?

Here are Bucket’s 7 simple steps to save energy:

1. Don’t leave your fridge or freezer open. Think about what you want to get from the fridge before opening it, A lot of cold air goes out and warm air goes in when you leave the door open, making your fridge work extra hard to keep cold.
2. Turn off video games when you’re done playing them. Each year, enough energy is wasted by people leaving their video games on to power the entire city of San Diego.
3. Switch off the T.V. and limit your time in front of the tube. Go for a bike ride or hike up your favorite mountain or hill. It’s probably a beautiful day out!
4. Switch off lights when you’re done using them. No need to make an empty room bright as day.
5. Make a high energy meal with low energy use. Sandwiches are a great way to pack protein, vegetables and carbohydrates into a yummy lunch that doesn’t require any cooking. Bucket loves turkey and spinach sandwiches.
6. Take shorter showers to reduce how much water your water heater needs to heat up. Tempting as it might be stand beneath a warm shower on a cold day, you don’t want to be a waster like Hufflebot.
7. Throw on a sweater when it gets cold instead of blasting the heater. Kick out some dance moves to turn up your body’s natural thermostat.

There are plenty of ways to be more energy efficient at home starting right  in your bedroom.

Start saving energy in your bedroom today by following these simple tips

1. Unplug

Unplug appliances that you are not using to avoid unnecessary energy use. Turn off your stereo when you leave your room. Unplug your ipod, video games and cell phone charger.

2. Put Your Laptop to Sleep

Letting your laptop sleep will help you to conserve energy. Ask your parents to help you set the ENERGY STAR power management features on your computer and monitor.

3. Clean Your Vents

Clean out those air vents. It takes less energy to pump air into your room when your vents are not clogged up with dust and debris.

4. Turn Off The Lights

Don’t be afraid of the dark. Leaving the lights on drains more energy than you can imagine. Remember to turn them off  when you leave the room.

5. Use Energy Efficient Light Bulbs

You definitely need light to read and do homework but think about using energy efficient light bulbs. ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. Check the Energy Star website for a complete list.

Do you have other energy efficiency tips that you would like to share? Send us a comment, we would love to know.

There are plenty of ways in which you can help your parents you with their Green Thanksgiving plans. These two kids went off to the park with instructions from the Mom to collect anything that they thought would look great on the table.  Watch this video to see what they came up with.

The talented crafters at Etsy have some very special holiday how-to tutorials to share this season. Earlier this week they featured this adorable “patchwork trivet” for your table. How fun!

Thanksgiving celebrations are abound over at Etsy this year and they can be in your home too…

The creativity shared this season by crafters is inspirational. Have you ever considered taking some time out with the kids of all ages in your family to make a few craft souvenirs to share? Felt acorns and leaves are adorable and make lovely little charms, ornaments and decorations this season.

Read the full story on Ecochildsplay

Mom and Dad have got a lot going on these next two weeks before Thanksgiving.  Ordering the turkey, figuring out the stuffing, making pies…yummy! Why not help them out by creating an awesome natural centerpiece for the table? It’s the perfect opportunity to get your nature hat on and your creative juices flowing.

Go for a walk in a nearby park and collect anything that you think would look good on the table.  There’s loads of Autumn stuff out there…lightweight twigs, fallen leaves, pine cones, acorns. Go for whatever you can find based upon where you live…you want your Thanksgiving centerpiece to reflect your own part of the country. Look for natural objects of different shapes, sizes and colors.  The more variety you have on, they greater they will look on the table.

Once you’re back home, plan your color scheme.  For a really festive look, try painting some leaves gold.  Or sprinkle glitter over the pine cone. Then figure out how you’re going to organize your centerpiece.  Here are two ideas from the Greenhouse Gang.

Centerpiece In a Bowl

Place the bigger objects such as the pine cones in the center of your Mom’s favorite bowl. Surrounded them with smaller things like leaves, acorns and so on.  Then stick some lightweight twigs down into the arrangement; hold them in place with the pine cones or maybe some stones.

Arrangement Along the Center of the Table

Alternatively you can scatter your natural booty along the center of the table. Be creative by interspersing the twigs with the pine cones and fall leaves. Add fruits like oranges or pomegranates to create color. Place some white candles right in the center for a contrast.

Whoa! Now those are a couple of pretty rad Thanksgiving table centerpieces that everyone is going to thank you for!

Besides the Greenhouse, there’s another big house that’s going to have lots of kids in it soon. It’s the White House!

Last Tuesday millions of people got together and voted for Barack Obama. And yes there is a lot of talk about him being the first African American President. All the cheering I heard in the streets on Tuesday night, tells me that it’s a big deal for a lot of people! And from what I can see in the Media Center, it’s a big deal to a lot of people around the world.

A Bridge to Bring People Together

Ever since Barack Obama was a young boy, he dreamed of bringing people together to collectively work towards bettering the planet. From the beaches of Hawaii to the streets of Chicago, from the jungles of Indonesia to the plains of Kenya, Barack held onto this dream. Even as a boy, he knew he wasn’t quite like anybody else, but through his journeys he found the ability to listen to the voices of challenge and become what he was meant to be: a bridge to bring people together.

Inspiring A Nation To Go Green

Obama inspired an entire nation in his victory speech by saying “Yes We Can“  as he described the spirit of the American people. According to him if we stand together as a diverse group of fellow citizens, we can overcome the challenges that face our planet. Barack has said that lowering greenhouse gases through clean energy and conservation is a big part of his plan. We’ll wait and see, I think he might be calling us soon for advice!

Barack has even pledged to create 5 million green jobs. We’re going to need people that can set up all of those solar panels. Now that’s pretty cool stuff for a hot planet.

Click here for Barack Obama’s complete victory speech. It makes for a truly inspiring read!

—- Cypher

Do you want to go green this Halloween? Kids like IH from San Francisco have been spreading the word about going green on this traditionally black and orange holiday.

Green Halloween is a nationwide organization that helps kids and parents all over the country rally their communities to go green on Halloween. It offers great tips for green halloween parties, games, costumes and much more. Corey Colwell-Lipson, the Founder of Green Halloween says that green Halloweening helps bring communities together as people focus on conservation and environmentalism during a traditionally un-eco-friendly holiday. This photo was taken at one of the many Halloween parties in Southern California organized by Corey and her friends.

Kid Blogger IH’s 5 Tips On How To Have A Green Halloween

1. When you go Trick-or-Treating don’t create litter with candy wrappers. Think about how you can use them for a craft project. If you don’t want piece of candy, don’t throw it away. Share it with a friend or save it for later.
2. Use a reusable bag for Trick-or-Treating this year.
3. If you want to Trick-or-Treat don’t drive. Walk or take your bike there instead.
4. Instead of buying a a new Halloween costume, see if you can make one out of old stuff instead: Halloween masks,
5. Don’t eat too much candy.

Bonus Tip: HAVE FUN ON HALLOWEEN!

— Contributed by IH, Age 10, San Francisco, CA

If you like IH’s Green Halloween suggestions, then you might want to check out this other cool stuff:

• Fun green Halloween costume ideas at Go Green this Halloween with a Green Monster Mask

• A number of great ideas for having a green Halloween at www.greenhalloween.org

• Green Halloween games and Halloween party ideas at www.celebrations.com

And send us photos about you Green Halloween. We’d love to post them on our site.

Do you have your green Halloween costume picked out yet? If not, here is a great way to create your own out of stuff that you already have at home.

Go green this Halloween by creating a scary Green Monster Mask from recycled materials. Not only is it easy and fun, it’s a great way to use those bits and scraps of leftover stuff that you never know what to do with. Besides, it’ll make for some very cool art that you might just want to display well beyond the scary season.

And if you have a costume already, you might want to go ahead and make one of these anyway. Set it at your doorstep with a flashlight inside and you will have a scary looking jack-o-lantern!

Click here to learn how you can make the Green Monster Mask

Want to take a trip to Washington D.C.?

The Weather Channel is bringing environmental experts and students together to share ideas on environmental issues at the Forecast Earth Summit in December. They will select 20 outstanding high school students who are passionate about taking action to make a difference to the planet. Submit an essay describing what you are doing to keep the planet green and clean on www.forecastearthsummit.org and why you should be selected to be one of their top 20 Eco-Ambassadors.

Do your eco-friendly ideas draw on tips from Green Gorilla? Send us an email telling us how. We will send the first five responders a reusable Green Gorilla bag.

The deadline for the Weather Channel’s high school essay contest is less than one week away! Submit your essay before midnight EST on October 19th.

Ever thought about how much junk actually gets into our oceans or what you could actually do with it?

Marcus and Joel, two super eco dudes from Southern California, decided to sail across the Pacific Ocean on a junk raft made from plastic bottles and recycled sailboat masts. Marcus’ fiancé Anna (get this, they were engaged in the Gyre on their last journey) stayed on shore to tell everyone about it.

Why would anyone do this?

The two sailors are focused on ‘single-use plastics.’ That is, things we only use once, for thirty seconds or five minutes then throw away (usually in the landfill). According to these adventurers, recycling is a cool thing to do but the only way to get rid of the plastics problem for good is to stop using them! And we take one big step closer to that if everybody knows just how much of a mess this junk is creating in our oceans.

Oops!

As soon as Marcus and Joel set sail from Long Beach headed towards Hawaii, they realized that the winds were not in their favor and the trip through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was gonna take way longer than they thought. Uh oh! What about food? That was gonna be a tough call.

They spent a lot out there fishing for their meals. One day, they caught a fish, and were just about to eat it, but when they cut it open they found its stomach was full of plastic particles. Eeeeewwwww!!!!! From the ocean to our bellies.