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january 2008 |
- Letter: Stop Marketing PG-13 Films to Young Children
- Healer's Project Needs Your Votes for Funding
- Toxic Bibs for Sale
- Taking Care of the Caregivers
- The Green Teen Scene
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Letter: Stop Marketing PG-13 Films to Young Children
Led by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CFCC), a coalition of 21 advocacy groups is demanding that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) comply with the Federal Trade Commission's recent recommendation for explicit restrictions on the marketing of PG-13 films to young children. In a letter sent last week to MPAA CEO Dan Glickman, CCFC urged the MPAA to develop a policy that would restrict the advertising of PG-13 films on children's television; prohibit restaurant toy giveaways or other food promotions aimed at young children for PG-13 movies; and insure that any toys released in conjunction with a film carry an age recommendation consistent with the film's rating.
This past summer, CCFC filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission that Transformers—rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language—was being marketed extensively to preschool children through television advertising, food promotions and licensed toys. Last week, the FTC acted on CCFC's complaint by urging the MPAA to adopt guidelines for the marketing of PG-13 movies.
"Transformers is just one of a string of violent, PG-13 movies marketed to preschoolers," said CCFC's director, Dr. Susan Linn. "For too long, the film industry has undermined its own rating system by bypassing parents to target young children directly with marketing for films that the industry itself has determined warrant parental caution."
Read more about the letter and its signatories at http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/pressreleases/coalitiontompaa.htm.
Download the complete text of the letter to the MPAA here: http://commercialfreechildhood.org/mpaaletter.pdf.Healer's Project Needs Your Votes for Funding
When it comes to bringing aid and comfort to mothers and babies, Kara Maia Spencer has credentials galore—she is a Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Birth and Postpartum Doula, CranioSacral Therapist, Holistic Childbirth Educator & Consultant, Homebirth Midwifery Assistant, Reiki Master & Energy Healer, and is Certified in Bodywork for the Childbearing Year.
Dedicated to providing gentle, non-invasive, effective healing—as well as creating community among new parents—Kara intends to facilitate a free monthly CranioSacral Therapy clinic for pregnant women, mothers and babies, at a community therapeutic pool near her home in Eugene, Oregon. She has entered a funding contest with the hopes of winning $10,000 with which to rent the Tamarack Wellness Center's warm, salt-water, solar powered therapeutic pool (the most eco-pool in Oregon) each month to host the free community clinic.
Please vote here to support Kara's goal—each vote counts, and registration is very quick and free.
When Wal-Mart learns that one of its products has been recalled, we all expect it to get pulled from store shelves immediately. But that's not always the case.
Last year, animal lovers were outraged to find recalled pet food still sitting on Wal-Mart's shelves. One customer went so far as to spend $1,000 on the tainted dog food, attempting to buy out the entire inventory at her local store.
Now customers are finding recalled baby bibs—bibs that were found to contain high levels of lead over seven months ago—still available at their local Wal-Mart store.
These sorts of "mistakes" shouldn't be happening at a retail chain with the most sophisticated distribution system on the planet. Tell Wal-Mart to get serious about product safety, and ensure that recalled products aren't for sale: http://www.recallwalmart.com
According to a study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, 44.4 million caregivers in the U.S. (21% of the adult population) provide unpaid care to an adult family member or friend. These devoted families, friends and neighbors volunteer more than rides, meals, housekeeping and childcare. They often sacrifice their own health needs, and can become prone to stress-related illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and depression. Caregivers can also struggle emotionally as they care for their loved ones, while balancing the financial implications of missed time at work and the physical implications of being overscheduled.
To help manage these challenges a new online service called
Whether used to coordinate assistance for someone with a sudden or chronic illness, or to prevent a new family from receiving four lasagna's on the same night, this unique concept harnesses the power of online social communities to organize—more efficiently accomplishing what previously seemed so daunting, and rekindling the strength of participating in community action.
Lotsa Helping Hands is a simple, immediate way for friends, family, colleagues and neighbors to help loved ones in need. To date, this easy-to-use private group calendar has helped organize more than 5,000 Lotsa Helping Hands 'circles of community' around the world.
For additional information, please visit www.lotsahelpinghands.com.
Participating in an environmental club is an excellent way for high school students to learn about environmental issues while providing measurable benefit to their community.
Given their local focus, most clubs focus on issues close to home. Many undertake hands-on activities like cleaning up local riverbanks and beaches strewn with litter, restoring degraded wildlife habitat and planting and managing a community organic garden. Other worthy ideas include starting a recycling program (or setting up a compost bin) on school grounds, involving the school or community in measuring and lowering their "carbon footprint," organizing energy- and emissions-saving carpools for students who drive, and asking school officials to print all documents double-sided (to save paper).
Another way for an environmental club to get involved is to offer assistance to a local green group already working on a project, be it an effort to preserve a threatened parcel of open space, promote bus ridership, get a wind turbine installed in town or pressure a local polluter to clean up its act. Polling club members on what issues matter most to them is a good way to get started on picking projects and activities.
Several national nonprofits also help environmental clubs find focus areas and accomplish their goals. One of the leaders is EarthTeam, formed in 2000 with the mission of "creating a new generation of environmental leaders" by introducing teens to inspiring environmental experiences. The group's website offers up extensive resources for starting an environmental club, finding resources and getting going on various environmental projects. The group also helps facilitate collaboration among clubs.
Some popular events among EarthTeam clubs include tree plantings, river and beach clean-ups, visits to local wetlands and nature preserves, and holding environmental awareness days at schools. Movie nights are also popular. Showing a relevant environmental documentary on the big screen in a school auditorium or some other venue is a sure way to get a larger membership base and stir up student interest. Some recent releases that might stimulate discussion and ideas include: The Cost of Cool, an in-depth look at the environmental consequences of excessive consumerism, hosted by former Baywatch star Alexandra Paul; A Crude Awakening, about the impact of global oil dependency; and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.
Another great resource is Earth Tomorrow, a national network of high school environmental clubs administered by the National Wildlife Federation. Through the network, clubs gain access to a wide range of resources on which they can base projects. Examples include the Schoolyard Habitats How-to Guide, which walks high schoolers through the steps involved in enhancing wildlife habitat and ecological health on school grounds, and the Science and Civics program, which shows students how to use science, economics, the law and politics to address a local conservation issue and implement an action plan. Beyond these pre-packaged resources, Earth Tomorrow members can tap each other for project ideas, help and general guidance to help make their club experience as productive and rewarding as possible.
Source: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.
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