We've moved!

The BIOSPHERE blog has moved to a new location. But you can still easily access it. Simply click HERE to go to our new blog location. And once you're there, you can click the Follow button and you'll receive all of our updates.

Thanks for reading!

Shelley

We're live! Please support our crowd funding campaign

We've been given a truly golden opportunity to run our first ever Youth Environmental Ambassadors Program in collaboration with Students On Ice, on their arctic expedition this July. There will be about 80 high school students on the expedition and we'll get the opportunity to deliver our environmental education program to them. But we need your help!

We need to raise the funds to cover our costs on the expedition. So we've just created an IndieGoGo crowd funding campaign.

We'd be so grateful if you could make a donation to our campaign. There are perks for each level of donation so you'll get something to say THANK YOU for your support.

Click on the image of our campaign website to visit our campaign webpage and donate. And please pass the link on to all of your friends, family and colleagues. :o) The farther we reach out to people for support, the more likely we are to meet our funding goal.

Thank you for your support!

Shelley

SOI Arctic Images on display at Winterlude

Students On Ice, our collaborating organization that we'll be running our first ever Youth Environmental Ambassadors Program with this July, has a small display of beautiful image at Confederation Park in Ottawa, during Winterlude. The images, a joint display by Students On Ice (SOI) and the Canadian Museum of Nature, are of SOI's arctic expedition.

So if you'd like to get a sense of what we're in for this July, head out down to Winterlude, grab a beavertail and a hot chocolate, and check out display. And while you're at it, don't forget to ogle over the incredible ice sculptures too! :o)

Here I am beside the Students On Ice/Canadian Museum of Nature arctic expedition display.

The inaugural Youth Environmental Ambassadors Program... arctic bound in July!

We just been given a fabulous opportunity to launch the Youth Environmental Ambassadors Program (YEAP). In July, BIOSPHERE Environmental Education, in partnership with Frame of Mind, will be running the very first YEAP with Students On Ice!

Students On Ice (SOI), founded and run by Geoff Green, is an award-winning organization providing unique educational ship-based expeditions to the arctic and antarctic. SOI provides students, educators and scientists from around the world with incredible, inspiring educational opportunities which help them foster a new understanding and respect for the planet.

In order the run the inaugural YEAP, we'll need to raise the funds for our expedition costs.  This is epic opportunity that we can't miss out on and so we're in the process of putting together a crowd funding campaign to raise the $24,000 needed to launch the YEAP on the 2014 Students on Ice arctic expedition. We'll need your support. We hope that you'll send our call for support far and wide.  Your support isn't just for this expedition. By launching the YEAP, it will give us the experience, photographs and proof of concept that we need to seek funding through major grants to put the YEAP on solid footing, to run the program to the antarctic and other locations around the globe. Your support of the YEAP is an investment in the future.

Our partnership with Students on Ice is critical. The SOI arctic expedition will provide us with the opportunity to run the very first Youth Environmental Ambassadors Program. Deanna del Vecchio, executive director of Frame of Mind, and I will be teaching students the tools of environmental visual communication (EVC), to create inspiring messages of environmental awareness and preservation. Using photography and videography, students will learn to see and document the beauty, uniqueness and value of the arctic as well as how human activities threaten its existence. They will use their images and video to create stunning visual presentations to inspire their peers to create the changes needed to address global climate change, habitat destruction, species extinction, and global pollution. The YEAP's goal is create a generation of change - positive change for our planet. We hope you will support our program and the youth that will be the generation of change.

My thanks to France Rivet at Polar Horizons for the use of her beautiful images. Please visit Polar Horizon's website by clicking HERE.

People, planet and profits.... The B Team

"Our mission is to catalyze a better way of doing business for the wellbeing of people and planet". This is the mission of the B Team, a team of influential business leaders from around the world. The initiative was created by Sir Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz, as a means to 'screw business as usual' and create a world where people and planet are as important as profits.

The bottom line of this initiative is sustainability. Getting us back to living off one planets worth of resources. It's a lofty goal and one that will be met with plenty of opposition and resistance. But it HAS to happen. The world needs a new generation of thinkers and doers - young people who know that our current model of doing business as well as our current lifestyles in developed nations is simply not sustainable.

This is one of those monumental and fundamental changes that will be huge. It means we're in it for the long haul. But I'm optimistic.

One of the core component of our program here at BIOSPHERE Environmental Education is to educate youth about our planet - about the incredible beauty of its diverse habitats and species. But we also look at the human impacts on our planet. The goal is to understand those impacts and to learn to change the way we live, work, and play so that we can have good lives, but not at the cost of the destruction of the earth's climate, habitats and species as well as the cost to human health and wellbeing.

It is time for change. BIOSPHERE Environmental Education will be part of that change. Our goal is to inspire youth to understand and appreciate our natural environment and develop a sense of stewardship towards it. 

Have a wander through our website to see what BIOSPHERE is all about. We're just starting out. But many big things started out small and we're are only just getting started.

Cheers!

Shelley

Welcome to BIOSPHERE Environmental Education

Welcome to BIOSPHERE Environmental Education's Blog. I'll be posting on a variety of topics - environmental education, environmental issues, conservation, photography, and a whole lot more.

I hope you'll sign up to receive notification of our new blog posts. We've got lots of great topics we'll cover.

Thanks for tuning in,

Shelley, Founder of BIOSPHERE Environmental Education