Whether or not you plan to attend the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball, we want you to be a part of this celebration. We want to start President Obama’s next term with positive wishes and ideas for the future. And so, we’re collecting your Green Wishes.

What #GreenWish do you have for the future?

We’re asking you to send us your wishes for the president, our country and for your community using the hashtag #GreenWish on Twitter or leaving comments on this post. Please keep it positive—let’s unite around what we want to see in the future to protect our public lands, wildlife and great waters, and also what kind of clean, sustainable solutions we want from the president.

What will we do with your wishes?

Before you take the plunge and start thinking about your wish, we should probably tell you that we’ll be showcasing these green wishes on the many displays in the Newseum the night of the ball. We’ll be taking full advantage of the Newseum’s latest technology and live broadcasting your green wishes throughout the venue. Don’t have a Twitter account? We invite you to sign up for one here.

We’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts and wishes for President Obama’s second term. See you on Sunday!

Looking for ideas? Here are some sample wishes:

• “My #greenwish is to spend more time enjoying our country’s great outdoors!”
• “My #greenwish is to take my kids fishing on cleaner waters in Ohio.”
• “My #greenwish is for reforms to hard rock mining pollution laws.”
• “My #greenwish is for the U.S. to embrace more clean renewable energy!”

Tickets Still Available for the Green Ball

We still have a few general admission and VIP tickets available. Come join the celebration!

Purchase tickets to the Green Inaugural Ball >>

Heading to the ball? Tweet using the #GreenBall2013 hashtag, and don’t forget to include your #GreenWish.

Each time you use the hashtag #Hoot2Give on Twitter, Craig will donate $1 to National Wildlife Federation (up to $5,000) to support our efforts to help owls and other wildlife.

So join us in having a bit of fun appreciating owls. Tweet your favorite photos or videos, share stories, articles or your best owl pun, and help honor owls this holiday season.

Craig tweeted his own kickoff to the fundraiser:

If you #hoot2give, I’ll give $1 to @nwf this holiday season: bit.ly/W0S0zg

— craignewmark (@craignewmark) December 13, 2012

Here are just a few fun owl photos and facts that are ready-made to tweet!

1. A snowy owl will attack any predators, including wolves, that threaten its ground nest.

Tweet #hoot2give

Snowy Owl Photo by Marcia Bromley

2. Burrowing owls collect mammal waste to attract dung beetles, one of their favorite foods.

Tweet #hoot2give

Burrowing Owl Photo by Bill Dodsworth

3. A Northern saw-whet is named for one of its calls that sounds like a saw being whetted.

Tweet #hoot2give

Northern Saw-whet Photo by John Kirchner

4. Barred owls have a call that sounds like, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you allll?”
(Listen and watch one here>>)

Tweet #hoot2give

Barred Owl Photo by Amy Marques

5. Snowy owls have lots of names: ghost owls, tundra ghosts, Arctic owls and great white owls.

Tweet #hoot2give

Snowy Owl Photo by Kevin McCarthy

6. Barn owls will swallow their prey whole and locate their prey on sound alone.

Tweet #hoot2give

Barn Owl Photo by Marie Aufderheide

7. Burrowing owls will sometimes use abandoned burrows of prairie dogs, armadillos, skunks or pocket gophers.

Tweet #hoot2give

Burrowing Owl Photo by Amy Marques

8.  A group of owls is called a parliament.

Tweet #hoot2give

Great Horned Owlets by Lois Settlemeyer

9. Owls are silent fliers and nocturnal hunters making them very effective predators.

Tweet #hoot2give

Barred Owl by Laura Kalina

10. Great grey owls are very reclusive. Plunge marks in the snow are usually the only evidence for its presence.

Tweet #hoot2give

Great Grey Owl by Kameron Perensovich

The Clean Water Act protects bodies of water across the country, like those in our National Parks. Yellowstone National Park photo by Flickr user Jeff Gunn.

This Thursday, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. This landmark act has ensured, and will continue to ensure, that America’s waters are fishable, swimmable, and drinkable. Since its inception, the Clean Water Act has logged numerous successes: it has prevented pollution by providing assistance to publicly-owned wastewater treatment facilities, and maintaining the integrity of wetlands.

**Help us celebrate this milestone and tell everyone how important clean water is to you!**

Facebook: This week change you profile picture to the image below and share it with your friends. Remind people that October, 18th we celebrate four decades of the Clean Water Act and the historic results this keystone legislation has achieved: healthier water to drink; cleaner streams, rivers and lakes in which to swim, fish and play; and dramatically lower rates of natural wetland loss.

Twitter: Tweet a message showing your support for clean water. Feel free to use some of the samples we have provided below or create your own.

* When tweeting be sure to use #CleanWaterAct.

Sample Tweets:

• For 40 years the #CleanWaterAct has protected America’s waters and ensured that they are fishable, drinkable, and swimmable. Thank you!
• 79% of Sportsmen favor restoring Clean Water Act protections http://bit.ly/Sj5ez9 #CleanWaterAct
• For 40 years, @EPAgov has worked to restore #CleanWater and protect the #CleanWaterAct. Let’s keep it that way.
• The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most extraordinary places in America. Let’s  protect the #CleanWaterAct
• The #CleanWaterAct, has doubled the water safe for swimming & fishing. Let’s keep working to #ProtectCleanWater
• 73% of Republicans favor restoring Clean Water Act protections to wetlands and waterways. http://bit.ly/Sj5ez9 #CleanWater
• Sportsmen – regardless of political party – favor restoring Clean Water Act protections to wetlands and waterways http://bit.ly/Sj5ez9
• The Great Lakes are the largest system of surface freshwater on earth, they deserve adequate protection. Protect the #CleanWaterAct
• The #CleanWaterAct is under assault from the biggest polluters around. @WhiteHouse, we’re with you to #ProtectCleanWater
• 117 million Americans whose drinking water is at risk count on @WhiteHouse @USACE_HQ and @EPAgov  to continue to protect the #CleanWaterAct

Hashtags:

• Always use #CleanWaterAct in your tweets. 
• Whenever possible make sure @MittRomney, @BarackObama or @WhiteHouse are included in your tweets.  Where appropriate use @EPAgov, @LisaPJackson, or @USACE_HQ (many local Army Corps Districts have their own Twitter handles)
• Other hash tags to consider using, in addition to #CleanWaterAct (space permitting): #ProtectCleanWater, #DrinkingWater, #CleanWater
• Please tweet this at least once: “For 40 years the #CleanWaterAct has protected America’s waters and ensured that they are fishable, drinkable, and swimmable. Thank you!“

*Follow us (@NWFCleanH2O) and other organizations working to protect America’s waters!*

If you care about clean water and would like future generations to have fishable, swimmable and drinkable waters, take action and help restore clean water today!

#Squirrels4Good are everywhere – can you help me help @nwf reach 10K mentions & I’ll give $10K? youtube.com/watch?v=IUqP8T…

— craignewmark (@craignewmark) May 1, 2012

Craig’s Pledge:

“Here’s the deal, for each time someone uses the hashtag, #Squirrels4Good on Twitter or on my Facebook page  or NWF’s facebook page, I’ll give $1 to the National Wildlife Federation up to $5K. I will also donate $1 for each new follower I get over the next couple of weeks.”

To celebrate #Squirrels4Good, here are a few things that make squirrels happy and set them free:

To Stop and Smell the Roses

A Nap in the Park

Ice Cream Cones

The Perfect Photo

The Last Cookie in the Cookie Jar

To Watch Funny Cat Videos

A Mid-Afternoon Stretch (and Snack)

To Squeak Up for What They Believe In!

How You Can Celebrate Squirrels

• Tweet using #Squirrels4Good or post about squirrels on NWF or Craig Newmark’s Facebook page.
• Share and re-pin your favorite squirrel photos on Pinterest
• Turn your garden into a squirrel-friendly Certified Wildlife Habitat with NWF

The flute-like melody of the Western Meadowlark is a familiar and iconic sound across the grasslands of the American West and Midwest. These vibrantly-colored songbirds build their nests and forage for food in native grasslands, meadows, and farm fields during the winter, and in the spring males can often be spotted perched on fence posts, singing out across the grasslands.

Unfortunately, as large-scale agricultural land development destroys and degrades native grasslands, Western Meadowlark populations continue to decline. Right now, crucial conservation programs — including those that protect native grasslands on which Western Meadowlarks depend — are at risk of being cut in the re-authorization of the Federal Farm Bill.

Even worse, federal farm subsidies that lead to the destruction of native grasslands are continuing to expand. Special interests are fighting efforts to conserve and recover some of America’s most crucial wildlife habitat, and that’s why our decision-makers need to hear from you! 

Help Protect the Western Meadowlark

Tweet like a meadowlark. Congress can’t hear the song of the meadowlarks in DC, so we have to tweet for them! Listed below are Senators on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. Simply find your Senator(s), and click “Tweet” to speak up for the Western Meadowlark.

Arkansas

Tweet Senator John Boozman: @JohnBoozman Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Colorado

Tweet Senator Michael Bennet: @SenBennetCO Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Georgia

Tweet Senator Saxby Chambliss: @SaxbyChambliss Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Indiana

Tweet Senator Richard Lugar @dicklugar Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Iowa

Tweet Senator Charles Grassley @ChuckGrassley Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Tweet Senator Tom Harkin @SenatorHarkin Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Kansas

Tweet Senator Pat Roberts: @SenPatRoberts Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Kentucky

Tweet Senator Mitch McConnell: @McConnellPress Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Michigan

Tweet Senator Debbie Stabenow: @stabenow Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Minnesota

Tweet Senator Amy Klobuchar: @amyklobuchar Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Nebraska

Tweet Senator E. Benjamin Nelson: @SenBenNelson Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Tweet Senator Mike Johanns: @Mike_Johanns Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

New York

Tweet Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: @SenGillibrand Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

North Dakota

Tweet Senator John Hoeven @SenJohnHoeven Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Ohio

Tweet Senator Sherrod Brown @SenSherrodBrown Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Pennsylvania

Tweet Senator Robert Casey, Jr. @SenBobCasey Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

South Dakota

Tweet Senator John Thune: @SenJohnThune Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Vermont

Tweet Senator Patrick Leahy: @SenatorLeahy Please support conservation programs in the 2012 #FarmBill that protect our soil, water, and wildlife.

Not on Twitter? Click here to send a message urging your Senator to support crucial conservation programs in the re-authorization of the 2012 Farm Bill.

Don’t have a Senator on the committee? You can still help the Western Meadowlark by sharing this post with friends in states that do.

That’s why we’re asking YOU to spread the word far and wide that cuts to our bedrock conservation programs are unacceptable.

Below is a list of facts about how wildlife and wild places depend on conservation programs. Please help us SPREAD THE WORD throughout the week by tweeting and posting these facts to your facebook wall:

The endangered Hawaiian monk seal needs conservation programs to aid in its recovery. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Don’t let congressional budget cuts mean aloha (goodbye) for HI’s endangered species. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

If it weren’t for the Endangered Species Act, bald eagles would have disappeared years ago. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

San Francisco Bay supports more than 500 species of wildlife and depends on conservation funding. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Restoring Clean Water Act protections for small streams and wetlands is vital for fish, wildlife. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Great Blue Herons and many other birds rely on protected wetlands for their survival. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Even as the icy habitat of polar bears melts, Congress wants to take away key protections. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund has conserved important elk habitat in the Rockies. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Fed. budget bill would allow 20 mil. acres of wetlands to be opened to polluters, developers.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

At risk: the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program, which prevents wildlife from becoming endangered.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Proposed restrictions on the EPA would make it harder to keep Florida waters clean. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Great Lakes endangered piping plover depends on funding to protect their breeding habitats. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Chesapeake Bay budget cuts would affect the 1 mil. swans, geese and ducks that migrate there.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Recovery of 21 Puget Sound threatened or endangered species depends on EPA funds.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Chinook salmon are at less than 10% of their historic levels in Puget Sound river systems.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

PA Game Commission is using federal funding to protect more than 30,000 bats. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Fed. budget bill could cut funding for research on bats and white-nose syndrome. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Without federal funding, the now-common peregrine falcon would be extinct.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

In the US, fewer than 100 ocelots exist — conservation laws are needed for their survival.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

There are 21 endangered butterfly species in the U.S. — resources are needed to protect them. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

TAKE ACTION TODAY: Stop the Stealth Attack on Wildlife >>

We need your help!

Here are a few ways you can help by supporting us online. If you can think of others, let us know!

1.) Become our Friend: If you aren’t already part of the National Wildlife Federation family on Twitter, Facebook, Change.org, or any other site that you frequent regularly, we’d love to connect and band together to keep up to date on these issues.

2.) Join and Recruit People to NWF’s Facebook Cause: “Help Wildlife Impacted by the BP Oil Spill” by joining the cause, recruiting your friends, sharing photos and videos, and even starting a birthday cause to ask for donations to help Gulf Coast wildlife in lieu of gifts.

3.) Update Your Blogs/Sites: We’re posting the latest oil spill news (for wildlife) on http://www.nwf.org/oilspill and if you can’t be present to volunteer, the next best thing you can do is share your experience in terms of what news or coverage you’ve seen. If you have a blog post that you’ve written and would like NWF to see it, please send me an email at brigidad [at] nwf.org so that I can spread the word.

Here are a few additional pages that may offer up some great answers:

• How to Help With Volunteer Efforts
• Compare the Exxon Valdez to the BP Oil Spill
• How Crews are Cleaning Oiled Wildlife
• Ranger Rick Parent’s Guide: How to Talk With Kids About the Oil Spill

4.) Speak up for Wildlife: Taking action is an incredibly important way to help be proactive against future disasters. Edit and send this message to your senators demanding cleaner energy options. After you do, pass the page onto your friends to spread the word.

5.) Share Your Photos and Videos: On the ground along the Gulf Coast? Share your photos and videos on Flickr by tagging them SPILL_NW10.

6.) Share Your Status: Donating your support and time is another way that really makes a difference. If you don’t have the money to text, donate to Causes or otherwise–consider how much you can do just by spreading the word! Donate your Facebook status or Twitter updates and be sure to tag @NWF or @National Wildlife Federation.

Sample Messages to Re-Tweet and Repeat:

How the BP Oil Spill could hurt animals–and how you can help: http://www.nwf.org/oilspill
—
Volunteer with the National Wildlife Federation’s Gulf Coast Surveillance Teams: http://www.nwf.org/oilspill
—
Help Wildlife Impacted by the BP Oil Spill by joining NWF’s Facebook Cause: http://www.causes.com/oilspill

Please comment below if you have any ideas for other things people can do to help wildlife online. We truly appreciate all of you who have helped during this important time.

With nearly 25,000 followers, National Wildlife Federation’s Twitter feed has become the go-to place for the latest news on wildlife and the natural world. Planet Green says “@NWF is a must-follow for quick, interesting updates on animals, plants, ecosystems, and politics surrounding our planet.”

Thank you to all of those who helped vote NWF to the top of the list. And, if you are not already, be sure to follow NWF on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NWF.

The conversations that lead towards a sustainable society happen in many places–classrooms, coffeeshops, offices, student centers, fields, and mountains. More than any of these, however, the future of climate change activism is happening on the Web. Unlike many traditional forms of disseminating information, social media facilitates an all-way communication hub that make yesterday’s newsletter look like a dirt donkey path.

In some ways, sustainability and social media are diametrically opposed: sustainability is necessarily the stuff of real-life and intensely local concerns, whereas social media spans the globe with virtual connections. In practice, however, these two seemingly disparate elements of campus life often partner each other quite elegantly as international knowledge fuels and supports local practices.

Many colleges and universities already use social media to communicate about climate change and sustainability with their students, alumni, and other institutional investors. The wide variety of media available allow a school to blanket their target audiences with comprehensive coverage. Recently a class at American University on interactive media created a social media and discussion site for an American Forum on “The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, and Politics in an Unsustainable World.”

Features at the site include video interviews with AU students on the topic, a Twitter feed that student attendees and public radio listeners post to, a Facebook group, a news aggregator on climate change, and various topic driven discussion boards with topics ranging from policy options to evaluation of news coverage. This multifaceted approach multiplied the impact of the event with minimal additional organizing, therefore efficiently extending the ability of the school to affect public thinking about climate change.

The Web 2.0 world breaks down boundaries; much of the information shared to inform and engage students and other institutional investors around sustainability issues on campus comes from outside organizations or informal person-to-person communications. (This is often called “tribesourcing”.) Tribesourcing is particularly prevalent on twitter, where the practice of “retweeting” relevant bits of information or links causes interesting news to travel like wildfire-when food activist Michael Pollan recently suggested on Twitter that college students go vegan to affect climate change, his message was retweeted dozens of times within the hour to spread to audiences across the nation.

For many schools, it is often unclear with whom the responsibilities for social media should reside, which departments will be involved, and what new position(s) should be created. The long-term likelihood, though, is that social media and sustainability can be integrated and adopted at every level. This parallels the decentralization of information that has been driven by social media and the ability for students and others to produce their own content and to become active participants in media, rather than passive consumers.

Social media allows students to connect and collaborate with activists around the globe, both reducing the need for travel and allowing connections to be made that otherwise would be nearly impossible. And yet, this is just the first part of the process. Attracting a “fan” or “follower” is one thing; getting that person tangibly involved is another. While a valuable storytelling tool, social media is still the tool or the medium, not the change or the action.

Properly used, social media engages and encourages contributions as it moves people up the ladder of engagement. In the American Forum on climate change, contributor Matt Nisbet suggested participants frame climate change in less environmentalist terms, but rather in terms of health and stimulation of the economy through green jobs. His comments attracted feedback, acclaim, resistance, and criticism on twitter, facebook, and the American Forum website. It was, in other words, a resounding success.

Resources: The Many Faces of Social Media

There are many forms of social media, with new options coming onto the market all the time. Here are just a few of the ways that campuses are using social media for sustainability:

• Popular facebook pages for sustainability offices at universities, like the one at New Mexico State University and for single-aspect initiatives, such as Recycle-Mania at Rice University or the Knox College Ride Board, a student-run initiative which boasts a fan base of 20% of the school’s enrolled population.
• Brief educational videos on Youtube, such as the Emory University sustainability video series.
• Lengthy educational videos for those who wish to delve deeply into issues of sustainability. Many of these can be found on Ustream , which hosts videos in a longer format than Youtube. The site offers series of videos from the University of British Columbia’s Office of Learning Technology and Institute for Sustainability Research and Education, Hosei University. Stand alone videos such as Working with Green Roofs from Portland State University allow access to university-level sustainability education to any student at any school at any time.
• Co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, Current.com hosts College Current Issues: Sustainability where student/citizen journalists can upload videos to the website and, following a voting process, potentially have them aired on its television-channel counterpart. Download a podcast or email Current to request a DVD copy for classroom use or to schedule an on-campus speaking appearance by one of their journalists.

See More:

Luring Students With the Promise of Green: ClimateEdu

Welcome to the University, Here’s Your Green Guide: ClimateEdu

In an effort to raise awareness for the decline in honeybee populations around the world, they are helping fund research for scientists to learn more about the problem and find solutions. Over the last three years, one in three honeybee colonies has died. Scientists are calling the phenomenon CCD for Colony Collapse Disorder. In CCD cases, all of the bees in a colony abruptly disappear, deserting the hive.

Fast Honeybee Facts:

• One of every three bites the average American eats is directly attributed to honey bee pollination.

• Honey bees are responsible for the pollination of more than 100 crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

• They provide 80 percent of the country’s pollination services.

• Without honey bee pollination, one-third of our food supply would be in jeopardy.

How You Can Help Honeybees:

• Tweet using #helphoneybees: For every tweet between Nov. 5-11 that includes #HelpHoneyBees, Häagen-Dazs will donate $1 to the University of California at Davis, which is doing great research into Colony Collapse Disorder. The donations are capped at a maximum of $500 for each of the 7 days (a total of $3,500). Find out more…

  For easy copying and pasting:

  Häagen-Dazs to donate $1 for every #HelpHoneyBees tweet Nov. 5-11 to fund Colony Collapse Disorder research http://su.pr/5oMnCY (via @NWF)

  ** UPDATE FROM TWITCAUSE ** “Following our extremely successful first day of #HelpHoneyBees, Häagen-Dazs has generously decided to DOUBLE their maximum daily donation, from the initial $500 to a new maximum of $1,000 per day (for a new grand total of $7,000)! We’re super excited with the news and want to send a special thank you to all of you that have been tweeting! Keep it up!”
   

• Learn more about Häagen-Dazs’ efforts to “Help the Honeybees”: Not only can you spark donations through Twitter, but also with your “bee built” ice cream purchases. They even created a special flavor as a tribute: Vanilla Honey Bee.

• Turn your garden into a Certified Wildlife Habitat™: Provide habitat suitable for bees, birds, butterflies and other pollinators.

More Honeybee info:

“The Buzz on Native Pollinators” – National Wildlife® magazine: As European honeybees decline, indigenous bees and other pollinating animals can provide a backup–with a little help from their human friends.

“Busy with Bees” – National Wildlife® magazine: In Bavaria, a team of industrious scientists uses high-tech tools to study the secret lives of honeybees–work that could shed light on the pollinators’ mysterious disappearances.

Three Ways to Plant for Pollinators

Get more tips from this National Wildlife® magazine web exclusive.

1. Select plants that provide a lot of nectar and pollen. Many ornamentals have been specifically bred to produce little or none of these essential foods.

2. Plant a diversity of species so your yard will provide bees, butterflies and other animals with nectar and pollen from spring through fall. To attract bats and nocturnal moths, consider night-blooming plants in addition to day-bloomers.

3. Be a “messy” gardener: Leave some patches of unmulched soil and brush piles that bees, birds and other animals can use to construct nests. Consider building or purchasing a bee house for wood-nesting wasps and bees.