An Open Letter from the Students of Frederick Banting Alternate Site

April 20, 2007

To all human inhabitants of the earth:

We, the students at Frederick Banting Alternate School, are working toward a brighter and greener future. Frederick Banting is a small alternate site high school with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board in Stittsville, Ontario, Canada. As active members of EarthCARE http://earthcarecanada.com, we work on energy conservation initiatives at our school and in our community. We have a global concern for the environment and are active in setting goals for improving the environment, and brainstorming ideas as to how to achieve a greener planet. This year we have done a number of things focusing on the environment, with emphasis on the negative effects of climate change.

One of the activities we did to help achieve our goal of a more environmentally friendly earth was to create a "word wall". We went around to each class in our school and asked the students to brainstorm ideas as to how to stop climate change and save the environment now and in the future. We also took this Word Wall to an EarthCARE meeting, attended by members of numerous schools, to gather ideas from the outside community as to how to reach our ultimate goal of a greener earth.

Attached are some of the ideas brainstormed as to how to achieve our goal. How will we be taking action? Well, you're reading it! We are sending our ideas to influential figures in the community/country and beyond and are asking them to help us take action by taking action themselves! A lot of the ideas can only successfully be reached if each and every individual works to accomplish them. To reach a larger number of people, however, the aid of those with more authority than a classroom of high school kids is required.

We hope to find support from a larger scale of people, since climate change ultimately affects everyone. We are urging everyone including community and government leaders to join us in our urgent and immediate task. One factor that shocked us during the creation of this Word Wall was the simplicity behind the things that we came up with. These are common sense ideas that need to be made more easily accessible to the public and that, in the long run, will save money as well as our environment. If these are so simple, why are we not following these practical procedures now? We need to focus NOW on research that will help us in the future.

We will be lobbying municipalities and governments to meet some of our requests. However, most of it is up to the people!

In grade 10 civics class, we learned the definition of a democratic government; however it is hard to recall word for word what the definition was. The principle behind a democratic government was that our government is here to help the country achieve goals that an individual or small group or people can not achieve alone. We cannot think of a better goal for our government to help us achieve than to take effective action as a country against climate change and the other harmful effects happening from our careless actions.

Please find below lists of our ideas. We are really counting on support from not only the community, but also from people that are known and respected and have a huge impact on hundreds of peoples' lives. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

The Students of Frederick Banting Alternate Site,
1453 Main St. Stittsville, Ontario, Canada K2S 1A3

Stop Climate Change

Hey there! Students from Frederick Banting Alternate Site who are involved with EarthCARE have taken a special interest in climate change and energy conservation. We're asking others to help support our cause. On the first phase of our undertaking we asked that each class at our school brainstorm and contribute to our list of ideas to reduce climate change and help the environment now and into the future. We went from class to class at Frederick Banting and created a word wall on recycled cardboard boxes. We typed our list and are sending the ideas to you, our Governments, the Prime Minister, David Suzuki, Sierra Club, Stephen Lewis, The United Nations, EarthCARE, Daily Planet and others, all of whom can impact positively on our environment now and for the future. Please read our list, add to it with your own ideas, and pass it to on so we can all make a difference for our Earth. For more information on EarthCARE see www.earthcarecanada.com

Thank you for your future help and support. Mandie Norton, Danielle Barka, Ryan St. Michael, Emma Karwowski, Janet Perry (teacher) and the other students of Frederick Banting.

Ideas to Stop Climate Change and Save the Environment from the Word Wall at Frederick Banting Alternate Site, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, 2007

Now

Know and Understand that we are all connected and one with all of nature
Love and appreciate nature - get out and enjoy it!
Stop WAR - it increases the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, destroys habitats, and complete ecosystems and kills organisms including humans and complete ecosystems. War machinery such as armoured vehicles/tanks spew out greenhouse gases
Encourage and develop sustainable ways of making a living - industry and governments needs to support this; Educational institutions need to consider this in education program development
Composting
Grow your own veggies even in patio garden
Concept of only eating foods grown within a 100 km radius
3 Rs: Reduce, Re-use and Recycle
Use both sides of your paper
Trade items you need
Use your gray water to water plants -i.e., catching the water from the shower; washing dishes in a tub and watering plants with this water
Avoid the stores - this will cut down on needless shopping on unnecessary goods
Avoid excess laundry - avoid small loads of laundry, don't wash your jeans every day, do hand washing
Cut down on packaging
Use natural light
Turn off tap when not using
Time your shower
Wind power
Weather strip your windows in the winter
Shower not bath
Alternative transportation - move away from the 'car culture'
Don't run your cars at fast-food/coffee drive through - get out and walk
Lug -a- mug for all drinks, even coffee/tea at the coffee shop!
Car pooling
Walk more
Lobby municipality to increase the number of bus routes to provide better service to areas that are not well served, i.e., including outlying communities
Lobby the municipality to purchase buses that use alternative energy fuels/ more energy efficient technology in buses and light rail transport
Lobby municipalities and governments for more green space
Lobby municipalities and governments for increased bike and walking paths between communities so people can safely, healthfully commute to work and school
Turn electronic devices off completely including TV - turn it off at a power bar or light switch
Don't use plastic water bottles unless they are environmentally friendly options including metal ones
Increased subsidies for bus transportation or other alternative low energy transportation methods
Cycling and cycling walking paths developed further between communities
Support development of alternative energy products including solar bikes - as developed by Peter Sandler
More plants
Lights off
Use heavy curtains to keep heat in or out dependent on the season
Computers off
High-efficiency light bulbs
Use environmentally friendly cleaners such as baking soda and vinegar
Yellow mellow, brown flush
Low flush toilets
Cold water for laundry
Air dry your hair, not blow dry, or blow dry it in the wind
Hang clothes to dry
Recycling clothes and other products
Lobby municipalities to start Recycle Depot so other people can benefit from good items that many people discard, i.e., bikes, toys, furniture, wood, etc. Have the city pick up the items for repair and recycling. This could create an employment program. The items could be given to those in need or traded.
Lobby the municipalities and governments to support a total pesticide ban locally and nationally
Government subsidies for smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles including electric and hybrid vehicles
Government subsidies for environmental initiates and development of projects that reduce energy consumption
Government encouragement for industries to develop alternative fuels and technology to replace inefficient fuels and products. Avoid technologies that harm or could potentially harm the environment.
Passive solar energy
Improved building construction
High-efficiency appliances
Reduce air conditioning/ heating
Stop smoking
More vegetarian lifestyle
Water off while brushing teeth
Reduce consumerism - plastic and packaging
Decreased production and purchasing of consumer goods
Big businesses + schools - lights off at night
LED light bulbs
Candles
3 Rs fluorescent lights
Select green building technology and design - for example energy efficient home and building construction including straw bale construction; bubble technology
Lights with motion/ clap sensory
Smaller homes, vehicles
Increase energy efficient technology including development of strong light weight materials that can replace metals in vehicle design - decreased weight reduces the amount of energy required to operate vehicles
Self-educate on better environmental choices
Look into solar cookers - Arbour Environmental Shop
Less animal testing

Continued Into the Future

Focus on environmental education
Develop cleaner alternate fuels and energy sources including further development of geothermal, solar, wind, ethanol, bio-diesel
Development of energy efficient technology
Subsidies for development and use of energy efficient technologies
Research and development of light weight strong materials, i.e., carbon fibre
Work toward sustainable living in the near future
Straw - bale construction - do more
Smaller homes
Smaller more efficient vehicles
Alternate energy development
Off the grid living
Microfibre - cleaning
Public transportation - light rail
Eliminate pesticide use
Composting toilets

Additional Ideas generated by participants of OCDSB EarthCARE are meeting April 2, 2007 morning session

Protect what is precious - Our Mother Earth in general.
Protect wetlands
Friends of the Jock River
Ducks Unlimited
Clean up the city/country initiatives
Plant trees
Vegetarian potlucks
Electric / Hybrid school buses
More emphasis on public transit
Carpool lane on local highways including the 417 in the Ottawa Region
School yard clean-up
Battery and toxic waste depot