The First Green School Summit In Canada - Sept 25, 2015 Calgary Alberta

Stephen Ritz

I wish every person could meet Stephen.  At least watch his Tedtalks or read about his story at  greenbronxmachine.org.  He has transformed his community by planting seeds, seeds of hope.  He said, "I'm going to change what I can't accept",  I can't accept how misinformed we are about the quality of our food, how unsustainable it is, and how toxic it is (See Dr. Lanphear's video below) and the irony as Stephen says, "Cheap Food is expensive".

"You can't be well read if your'e not well fed" where 37% of residences in his community are food insecure.  Stephen insists that we "Vegucate" with "Endless resourcefulness" quoting Day "the biggest mistake is to play things very safe".
 
       http://greenbronxmachine.org
       http://at.progressive.com/apron-projects
       http://greenapple.org

"Lets Make every space a learning Space"
The Green Centre for Green Schools
        http://www.centerforgreenschools.org
Netzero: Energy Building certification
        http://living-future.org/netzero
Living Building Challenge
        http://living-future.org/lbc
Well: how interior environment creates maximium health of the occupants in that space
        http://www.wellcertified.com/well
Green Schools
        http://www.greenschools.ca

Annual Green Commuting Challenge
Captain Nichola Goddard School

Interesting video about how students methods of transportation to school has changed.
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/why-seattle-needs-better-public-transporation-in-one-eye-opening-gif/

Students who walk have better direction, better focus, better health, reduces traffic as parents drop off students.  Driving to school causes high traffic, unsafe for students and staff walking into the school, and it increases the number of late students.  Parents don't listen to principals.
"Your'e not stuck in traffic you are traffic."

Perceptions of distance and safety, culture of convenience, idle habits.
Project Drivers - National Data Active Healthy Kids 2014 Report Card D grade for transportation for Sedentary behaviors

Problem:
         6 week challenge: getting school without getting in a vehicle
Methodology
         collect data and present at Mayors Environmental Expo
         "Individual, hubs, drop zones"
         Grade 9 students acted as hub leaders to walk younger children to school
         Private google account to access each students' closest hub address
         Tracked weather conditions - work intensive
Results
          80 in 2013, 200 in 2014, and 434 in 2015
          Total distance and total offset graph
Analysis
           What worked: homerooms tracked
           What didn't work : requiring students to register, start up is still
Conclusion
             Create app, that tracks all data, get parents more educated

Place Matters: Impacts of place
Dr. Bruce Lanphear
Child & Family Research Institute, BC Children's Hospital

"Little things Matter"
Autism, CD, LD, ADHD, Asthma, Preterm, overweight
Boyle C et. all 1994  Pediatrics

In 2010 Deaths from chronic disease

Autism
Weintraub K Nature 2011; 479:22-24
2009 1/110

Autism Research 90% of funding on treatment, 10% on prevention
Genes and the environment  (Autism, ADHD)

Factors that impact development of disease
Environmental Disasters - placenta doesn't protect the fetus, the fetus is more vulnerable to toxins than developed cells.

Brain growth occurs over a longer duration than other organs - fetus and child may lack enzymes to detoxify contaminants.

Now its ppb that can be harmful not ppm as Rachel Carson said 50 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6KoMAbz1Bw

"NO ACCEPTABLE LEVEL?"

Cancer causing chemicals are regulated
after smoking ban 15% reduction in PTB  Mackay DF, et al PloS Medicine 2012 :

Pregnant Women 95% were exposed to pesticides from ingestion of food, 10x toxic levels in infants = 151 grams in birth weight
Rauch SA etal EHP 2012

Pesticide and Insecticide use during Pregnancy and Leukemia
Turner MC et al. EHP 2010
causes proximity to roadside spraying, tobacco, paints and solvents

Just A et al.  EHP 2012  Prenatal

Whyatt R et al EHP 2014

We have created environments that make it very difficult to get from one place to another therefore causing people to drive.

Karner et al. 2010 Environ Sci Tech  = pollutants near roadways distance to roadways

Pope CA et al, Circulation 2009 air pollutants and death from heart disease
steepest incline on heart disease comes from minimal amounts

Roberts et al EHP 2013 Adjusted for maternal age  Risk of autism by exposure of airborne metals

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov

Trasande L et al Health Affairs 2011   76Billion  lead 50billion $ cost

Cost of Lead $1 = $17 to $220  Gould E  EHP  2009
Vaccines $1 = $16.5

There is evidence that lead is associated with altymers

Failure of toxicity Testing 3,000 high production chemicals 75% lack even the most basic toxicity tests Claudio L Toxicol Appl Pharm 2000/  Rice D Env Health Persp 1996  1996

If it is cost beneficial to prevent why don't we do it ?  Because nobody knows how to capitalize on it.

Max Planck "Science advances 1 funeral at a time"

• "If we didn't evolve with it, avoid it"
• Things to do that prevent it (avoid it)
• avoid canned foods lining DES developed as an estrogenic drug.
• Avoid cosmetics, fingernail polish and lotions
• support bans on smoking in public spaces and cosmetic pesticides
• support efforts to update chemical management policies and reduce industrial pollutants

The industry gets in between a father warning and educating his own daughters from using cosmetics, as they are convinced that they still need to wear it.


Nature as the Classroom
Hunter J 2009 Researching as if place mattered.
Winkle-Wagner R Hunter C Ortloff (2209) Bridging the gap between theory and practice in educational research
Mueller Worster & Abrams 2005 Sense of Place : Stewardship
Whispering Woods near Dr. E.W. Cofin
Peer Sharing in place using the interpretive signs with GPS co-ordinates
Ecological Pedagogy in an Outdoor Alphabet Diversity and Interrelationships
designing signs for the streakers, surfers, seekers,
Let people know about what we do, sharing, makes us more connected