Marine Peace Parks

Dear Children

One of the schools in Hawaii sent me this message yesterday.

"Our charter school has an initiative to build a sustainable vegetable garden integrated with aquaculture of food fish. The project is focused towards development of a garden that will be built in two years time on board a marine vessel which will sail around the globe beginning 2011, escorting the Hokule'a, a traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe. Our school has adopted the task of building a prototype for this food system which will feed/supplement the crews rations of fish and vegetables. While sailing around the globe, the escort ship a "floating classroom" will stop at 25 ports and school groups will be invited onboard to learn about various environmental issues."

How exciting is this for their students. I wrote back and said:

"Your vision is fantastic. Ofcourse it fits perfectly with the International School Peace Gardens' vision. It also fits with Stage 3 Marine Peace Parks. The dedicating of your aqua-culture vegetable/food ISPG with an ocean journey will teach students will engage the students in a sustainability curriculum. It integrates food security, with research. This is truly global sustainability education.

IHTEC can share this with other schools around the world. If you Blog the students jouney, I can link it to my blog, so others can see your achievements over time. I will also add a comment to my 'Granny Julia's Children' Blog.

Have the students been involved with the October Marine Debris Awareness Month re the plastic mat in the Pacific Ocean?

I would like to see how we can support the clean up the plastic mat, and all the plastic that might go into the Pacific Ocean. Brainstorm how people in Hawaii, can help prevent plastic going into the ocean. Discuss the flow of plastic from the mountains, along rivers to oceans. Find out how the oceans flow together. Then look at how many countries are around the Pacific Ocean. Ask questions about how to work together to prevent it. Plastics are made from oil. How can we reuse what comes out of the plastic mat in the ocean? How are the species being affected by plastic? Here are some of the questions I would ask.

This is exactly why I designed IHTEC. The Tourism Industry should be involved with you.

Love
Julia

Hawaiian Visit to Schools and Teachers

Dear Children

On November 30, 2008 to December 7, 2008 we are visiting schools in Hawaii. Granny Julia and Fraser will be dedicating peace gardens, talking to teachers, visiting the big Volcanic Island called Hawaii. They are holding a dinner created with locally grown food, with students helping in the process.

The menu will include only food that was grown, raised or caught in Hawaii. With sustainability as one of Dame Morton-Marr's primary focuses, this dinner will serve as a launchpad for many exciting projects and partnerships. The student organizers of this event will demonstrate some of the important reasons to "eat local
food" including:

* Locally grown food tastes better and is better for us. Traveling thousands of miles before reaching Hawaii tends to also affect the nutritional value of the food.

* Eating locally grown food supports a cleaner environment and helps decrease our dependence on imported oil.

* It also supports our local agricultural industry and economy and helps maintain
open, green space on our islands.

Here are some links for you to look at.

http://www.hawaii.edu/pdknews/Dame_Morton_Marr_Visit.html

http://www.hawaii.edu/pdknews/pdkhawaii.html

and the PDK Hawaii Newsletter

http://www.hawaii.edu/pdknews/documents/112008_PDK_Hawaii.pdf

We are both very happy to see so many schools involved. The challenges are great for all of us on the planet.

Islands are exciting places to live.
Love

Granny Julia

Watershed Peace Pathways Curriculum

IHTEC has worked with Postive News Youth Views / Humanity 4.0 for many years. Our team work this time, has produced a full colour water newspaper for you and your teachers to download and print. Click on the title to this blog, and it will take you to the document on IHTEC's website. Each page has ideas for research on water issues, that will prompt public outreach, discussion, research from teachers and students. There are enough pages for several classes to each take one or two pages and work with the content. Hope you will read at least one page and see if you can achieve some action.

www.cafeweltgeist.org/ihtec/GIPWaterRT/WaterEdition-76pg-26Nov08-medres.pdf

Donate $15 on www.ihtec.org Click on the Canada Helps button.

Love your planet
Julia

Global Issues Project Expert Roundtable on Water

Dear friends

Over the weekend of November 7-9, 2008 I was part of a group of water specialists from around the world, who talked about the water issues on planet earth. The event was called the "Global Issues Project, Expert Roundtable on Water". It was held at Trinity College, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

If you click on the title of this blog, and it will take you directly to the papers and powerpoints on the IHTEC website, from this event. It was wonderful to have a Prof. Jennifer McKay from the University of South Australia with us, as South Australia has such a terrible time with the lack of water due to drought affecting the Murray-Darling Basin.

Please write and tell me what you do to ensure that you have enough clean drinking water. How do you conserve water? There is a zerofootprint counter with the list of items on this link.

Love your water
Cheers
Julia