If you are looking for websites providing environmental news, research, and viewpoints, you can find thousands of them by doing an online search.

Many web sites use interactive tools and social media that allow visitors to participate in learning activities.

♦ At the No Impact Project, visitors are challenged to take a “one week carbon cleanse.” If you sign up you’ll join a group of people for a seven-day experiment. Each day focuses on a particular topic and actions you will take to reduce your carbon footprint. For example, one day focuses on not buy anything except absolute necessities, another day focuses on not creating trash, etc. At the end of each day, you post a blog or video log and share it with friends and communities.

If you’re an educator, you can order a No Impact Man Lesson Plan for free. If you are a community organizer, you can screen the No Impact film at a reduced price on Earth Day.

The website’s mission, as the No Impact Man and website founder Colin Beavan puts it, is to show viewers how each of us can “make a better place to live for ourselves and everyone else ....” If you want to learn more about the challenge, visit No Impact Project. To learn about a recent participant’s experience, see Paige MacKenzie’s daily video logs.

♦ Visit the Repower America Wall to watch video clips made by individuals and to add your own video. When you visit the site, you’ll see a wall of photos. As you scroll over each photo it enlarges and, in most cases, includes a camera icon that you use to view the video clip.

If you want to see a message from a particular person, use the Search icon at the bottom of the screen. You'll have several options. You can search by a person's name, by most recent or most popular posts. The search box also includes an interactive US map where you can view participants from the state of your choice.

To submit your own video or comments, click on the Add Your Voice arrow.

This website is sponsored by the Alliance for Climate Protection and the Climate Protection Action fund. Visit Repower America Wall. To learn more about Repower America, visit the website’s Home page.

♦ Learn how you can reduce CO2 emissions at the Planet Green Game by completing challenges. You start by choosing a character and a mode of transportation. You visit various destinations in the town of Evergreen, such as a park, a school or the municipal center. At each location, you'll have the opportunity to make choices that can reduce Evergreen’s carbon footprint.

The game was created by Global Green USA and Starbucks. Play the game at Planet Green. Learn more about Globalgreen.org.

♦ At The Planet 100 you can watch the top environmental news stories of the day in 100 seconds or less. In addition to viewing today’s news, you can watch previous editions and read articles. Watch the news at The Planet 100.

♦ Living on Earth offers audio podcasts about, well, living on earth. You can listen to the most recent podcast in its entirety or you can choose individual stories from the show. In addition, you can read the show’s transcripts. You can also access previous programs from the archive links.

If you are interested in particular topics, you can use the website’s search engine. Another feature includes a searchable list of broadcast radio stations listed by state.

Viewers are given an opportunity to suggest new topics or the possibility of having one of their stories considered.

The show is produced and hosted by Steve Curwood, and has run on public radio stations since 1991. Listen to the podcasts at Living on Earth.

♦ The Eartheasy Blog offers games, virtual earth tours, and other learning activities for kids. Visit Eartheasy Blog: Environmental websites for kids.

♦ If you have a question about the environment, go to Green Answers.com. You can ask a specific question or search on related topic at Green Answers.com.

If you are interested in exploring information based websites or blogs, you have many options. Just do a web search on “Environmental Websites.” You'll find links to Top 1000 Web Sites; The Ten Best Environment Websites in the World; All U.S. Government Environmental Web Sites; Tree Hugger, and many pages offering more choices.

-- Lynn Robbins
Email: lr@webandofficeworks.com