How to get your kids to spend more time outdoors

Many will once again resolve to get organized or lose ten pounds in the new year, but National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is recommending a resolution with profound impacts because it recaptures an essential part of childhood, outdoor play. By making the 2010 Be Out There Resolution to spend more time outside in 2010, Americans will be making a resolution that’s both good for their families and fun to keep. Everyone who makes the 2010 Be Out There Resolution will receive the Know, Go and Grow Be Out There Toolkit with important facts, fun tips and interactive tools to help them keep the resolution.

Outdoor time significantly enhances children’s physical and mental well-being, but, sadly, today’s kids don’t get much. In the last two decades, childhood has moved indoors. While previous generations ran around in nature until called in for dinner, modern children spend only four to seven minutes outdoors per day. Research in the fields of public health, psychology, and medicine documents the toll an “indoor childhood” takes on kids. NWF launched the Be Out There movement (www.BeOutThere.org) to return to the nation’s children something they don’t even know they’ve lost, their connection to the natural world.

“To address childhood’s fundamental shift indoors, we are asking parents to make the 2010 Be Out There Resolution to Know, Go and Grow,” says National Wildlife Federation’s Vice President of Education, Kevin Coyle. “We want them to know and understand the importance of outdoor time; to go outside more with their kids and grow the Be Out There movement by spreading the word and inviting friends along.”

Children reap wide-ranging and numerous benefits when encouraged to interact with nature in an outdoor setting including better eyesight, enhanced physical fitness and less obesity, increased classroom preparedness and lower levels of stress and depression.

There’s a reason they call it the great outdoors™. NWF hopes parents will show their children what that reason is by making the 2010 Be Out There resolution at www.beoutthere.org/resolution. This is one Time Out kids will actually enjoy.

Government Wrong About Ease Of Arctic Oil Spill Cleanup, Report says

A World Wildlife Fund report released today reinforces widespread doubts about the oil industry’s ability to clean-up an offshore oil spill in arctic conditions. The authors counter conclusions in a recent report from the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) that the technology and expertise exist to clean up a major offshore oil spill.

“The MMS touted its findings as ‘look, we can do it,’ but after taking a closer look at their research, they probably should’ve said ‘we’re making progress, but we’re still a long way from being able to clean up oil from an icy ocean,’” said World Wildlife Fund Vice President Bill Eichbaum.

The WWF report highlights a series of instances where the government ignored real-world variables that affect the ability to detect, access, and effectively respond to an offshore oil spill in Alaska’s arctic waters.

WWF’s report brings to light challenges that commonly occur in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas including extreme weather and variable ice conditions, along with vast distances between drilling and response infrastructure. These circumstances severely limit the industry’s ability to detect oil before it spreads, get necessary equipment and personnel to the spill, and operate the spill response equipment effectively without putting responders at great risk.

The report also highlights the lack of ice class vessels in Alaska’s arctic and the fact that much of the new technology touted by the industry is not commercially available or adequately tested in the arctic.

According to the report, “Current arctic mechanical response technology will leave most oil in the sea…Oil skimmers are not effective in ice conditions if they cannot reach the spilled oil…Oil trapped under ice is nearly impossible to recover.”

“The weakest link in the response chain will limit response capability,” the authors add. “The inability to track and logistically access the oil under typically severe arctic weather conditions are major weak links in the spill response chain.”

Recent large oil spills in Australia’s Timor Sea and on Alaska’s north slope demonstrate the difficulty of containing and cleaning up oil even under favorable conditions. Oil flowed into the ocean from the blown well in the temperate Timor Sea for 74 days before it could be contained. The Alaska BP spill occurred on land only 1.5 miles from the Prudhoe Bay infrastructure and it took responders several days to build ice roads and ice pads necessary to access the spill.

“If a company that’s been operating in the arctic for decades can’t reach a spill on land only a few miles from its base of operations, what makes MMS think industry can effectively get to a spill that’s hundreds of miles across ice-filled waters from the nearest infrastructure?” Eichbaum said, referring to the BP spill. “Citizens deserve information that’s accurate, not cherry-picked.”

See the report at http://www.worldwildlife.org/oilspillreport/

Are Toy Hamsters Unsafe?

A few weeks ago, parents and grandparents were scurrying all over town trying to find Zhu Zhu Pets Hamsters their children were crying for. Now, those popular techno-pets may have lost some of their charm.

Good Guide, a consumer watchdog group based in California has made the claim that Zhu Zhu Pets are made with toxic substances and should be recalled because they are not safe for children to play with. The group says the plush, mechanical hamsters contain antimony, which has been shown to cause dangerous health issues, should be returned to the stores where they were purchased, or contact the manufacturer.

We were not surprised to learn that Zhu Zhu Pets are made in China. Once again, it seems American consumers are being faced with the problem of made in China toys being accused of having been manufactured to safety standards that are lower than products made in the USA need to be.

You can see more information about the Zhu Zhu Pets Recall at http://zhuzhupetsrecall.com/

Cleanse Your Heart to Heal Your Body

Experiencing and refusing to let go of negative emotions, whether caused by us or inflicted by others, can weigh heavy on our shoulders. Oftentimes, this disease of the human spirit causes disease in the human body.

Peter J. Rappa, MD, explores the intricate connection between the soul and the body in his new book "Healing Heart to Soul: One Doctor’s Journey of Health, Healing, and Life" (Brown Books 2009). In this unique collection of medical narratives, Dr. Rappa reaches beyond antibiotics and physical therapy, recognizing the need for medicine to dig deeper for answers. By watching and learning from his rehabilitation patients, Dr. Rappa discovered the power gained from cleansing the heart in order to heal the body. He calls the process healing from the inside out.

“I spend most of my day assisting people from the outside in—this is comfortable in the traditional doctor/patient relationship. But to really heal requires a change in context; to change context requires expansion of awareness, which is not easy but essential to embark on a journey of change,” says Dr. Rappa.

"Healing Heart to Soul" gives readers insight into the very personal stories of individuals struggling to overcome disease and injury. Their journeys are heroic, uplifting, and true testaments to the role spiritual growth and self-reliance can play in healing. Dr. Rappa introduces power principles as practical steps to jump-starting the process of becoming emotionally aware and ultimately transforming physical health.

As a rehabilitation physician with a special interest in brain injury, Dr. Rappa began to see the connections and implications of mind, body, spirit, and health in 1998. "Healing Heart to Soul" recounts experiences he has had with these entities as a health care professional. Dr. Rappa lives in Dallas with his family. "Healing Heart to Soul" is his first book.

"Healing Heart to Soul" is available online and at bookstores everywhere. For more information visit www.healinghearttosoul.com.