Environment

Six eco leaders from around the world receive a cash prize and international recognition for their accomplishments

The surge in global coal consumption, driven largely by China and India, has climate scientists deeply worried. But environmentalists and a growing number of financial experts say that alarm over global warming may halt the seemingly inevitable rise of the coal industry. BY FEN MONTAIGNE

The American dream is alive and well among girls, according to a new report by the Girl Scout Research Institute, which reveals that girls feel optimistic about their financial futures, yet are less than fully knowledgeable about essential financial principles and instruments, from using credit cards to establishing good credit. And just 12 percent of the girls surveyed say they feel confident in making financial decisions.
“Our research is clearly telling us that girls understand the world—they know how important it is to be financially literate in their daily lives,” said Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA. “It’s also telling us that too many girls lack the confidence needed to become financially independent and responsible citizens.”
The study, Having It All: Girls and Financial Literacy, comes out at a time of continued economic uncertainty. The country’s recovery from the 2009 recession has been marked by slow economic growth and high unemployment, as well as increasing concern over the costs of a college education and the unprecedented levels of student loan indebtedness.
The study, which surveyed 1,040 girls ages 8 to 17, found that girls are averse to debt. However, in order to avoid debt, these girls say they need more education about how credit works. In fact, nearly 4 in 10 girls say they don’t know how to use a credit card, only 38 percent know what a credit score is, and just 37 percent know how credit card interest and fees work. Perhaps not surprisingly, a vast majority (90 percent) say that it is important for them to learn how to manage their money.
Despite the recession and economic uncertainty, girls are bullish about their financial futures. Some 88 percent say they are likely to make more money than their parents, and nearly all girls say it is likely that they will have jobs or careers they enjoy (98 percent), be able to provide for their families (96 percent), and own their own homes (95 percent) one day.
This generation of girls is financially empowered and independent. A great majority feels gender is no barrier to what they can accomplish financially, and they envision a future family structure where they are fully engaged in financial decision making and planning. When it comes to financial capability, 7 in 10 girls say both men and women are equally likely to be financially responsible (73 percent) or in a lot of debt (72 percent).
“Girl Scouting offers girls an opportunity to attain these skills and gain a greater understanding of the financial world in an environment that is supportive and encouraging,” says Chávez. “Our financial literacy programs give girls the skills they need to succeed in life.”
Girl Scouts offers a financial empowerment program that ensures girls have the opportunities to build their business sense and hone their financial literacy skills. Girls build on these skills as they progress through the K−12 curriculum to become knowledgeable, confident, and self-reliant participants in a global economy. Whether a girl is working to earn the Financing My Future badge or the Money Manager badge, she is developing financial savvy, business skills, and innovative thinking.

Exitosa limpieza de playa “Stacks” en El Sauzal, Ensenada, B.C.

Forty years after the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), no marine mammal species in U.S. waters has been extirpated and the populations of many marine animals are more abundant than in 1972, ShutterstockSea lions a new study says. While many species, including the endangered right whale, remain at significant risk, the populations of other species — including gray seals in New England and sea lions and elephant seals on the Pacific coast — have “recovered to or near their carrying capacity,” scientists say. “At a very fundamental level, the MMPA has accomplished what its framers set out to do, to protect individual marine mammals from harm as a result of human activities,” said Andrew Read, a professor at Duke University and co-author of the study, published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Passed at a time when numerous species were on the edge of extinction, the MMPA imposed strict regulations against commercial killing and the incidental bycatch of marine mammals by the fishing industry.

Dolphins' journey to freedom highlights ethical issues of keeping cetaceans in captivity

Supermarket takes steps against bee-harming pesticides

Today's Coast to Coast has zombies, baseball, the Indianapolis 500 Festival Princesses and of course, good deeds! Check it out.

Nevada's ABC Action 13 News reports that the Las Vegas 51s baseball team will hold its home opener on April 12 and the night will benefit our local Girl Scouts. Don Logan, vice president for the Las Vegas 51s, appeared on Action News Midday with Girl Scouts Mary Smith and Sheyenne Howard to talk about the special night.

NorthJersey.com reports that six local Girl Scouts began a book drive campaign for the Big Book Drive in early March with a goal of 500 books. After just a few days, they already had 5,000 books, so they ambitiously increased their goal to 10,000, hoping to replace all of the books destroyed at Paterson’s Northside library branch during Hurricane Irene.

The Girl Scouts of Colorado Blog reports that on Monday, April 8th, 11 of this year’s 38 Colorado Girl Scout Gold Award recipients from throughout state visited the State Capitol in Denver. The girls had a chance to sit on the floor of the House of Representatives as well as take a tour of the capitol grounds, among other activities. Many of the recipients family members joined them for the visit.


New York's Nanuet Patch reports that The Faith Temple Church Food Pantry in Spring Valley re-opened its doors on March 10 thanks to the hard work of two Nanuet Girl Scouts and volunteers. Erin Devoy and Helene Carey took on the task of helping the food bank return to serving the community as their Girl Scout Gold Award Project.  In November 2011, their Girl Scout Troop #40504 went to deliver Thanksgiving items to numerous food banks and discovered the Faith Temple Church had shuttered its food bank earlier that week due to dilapidated conditions. Devoy and Carey realized what an impact the closure would have on the local community and decided to look into what it would take to get it operational again.

Indiana's WLFI News 18 reports that Indianapolis 500 Festival Princesses were out in the community this week to educate kids about the big race. The princesses helped Girl Scout Troops 1436, 1502 and 2748 in West Lafayette make black and white bracelets, color race car pictures, and also learn about the meanings behind the racing flags.

New Jersey's Warren Reporter reports that nearly 50 Girl Scouts from Warren County recently participated in a murder mystery overnight at the Holiday Inn Express in Easton, Pa. The murder mystery, which took place in Zombietown, was played out in two meeting rooms simultaneously so that each girl could take an active part in the mystery. The girls, aged 13-17 were from Franklin Township, Washington Borough and Washington Township.

Alys Fowler's tips for healthy bees and stunning gardens

¡PARTICIPA EN LA LIMPIEZA DE PLAYAS EN EL SAUZAL - ENSENADA! Sábado 13 de abril, 10:00 am

LIMPIEZA DE NUESTRAS PLAYAS EN EL SAUZAL DE RODRÍGUEZ, B.C.

Rosemont mine would impact ecology of Arizona’s unique “sky islands”

Susie Hewson remembers last year's ride

Recently, we've noticed that young people are increasingly joining together to have a greater say in national policy debates. A few organizations have sprouted up in recent years started by young social entrepreneurs. One that comes to mind is Students for Education Reform, founded by two college students and focused on social justice and urban education. Another is Student Voice, which is all about giving high school and college students a platform to express their thoughts on the issues they care most about. There are others and whether this constitutes a movement or not is hard to say. What is clear is that some millennials aren't waiting to have a voice on the great issues of the day.
So it won’t come as a surprise that Student Voice is holding its first-ever national summit on Saturday and it will be live streamed worldwide. In fact, we at Girl Scouts will be taking part in Student Voice LIVE!, as the daylong conference sponsored by Dell Inc. is called.  Eileen Doyle, vice president of program at Girl Scouts of the USA, will be one of the participants in a panel discussion titled From Home to School to Community: Fostering the Student Voice. The session will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and you can view it online (as well as the rest of the conference) by logging on at http://new.livestream.com/Dell/stuvoicelive. And the Twitter handles are #StuVoice #DoMoreEDU

You don’t have to wait until Saturday, however, to get the conversation going. Do you think that students and young people are all-too-often left out of national conversations about issues that affect them, such as education? Would including their thoughts and perspectives lead to better policies and programs?

The Danish capital is moving rapidly toward a zero-carbon future, as it erects wind farms, transforms its citywide heating systems, promotes energy efficiency, and lures more people out of their cars and onto public transportation and bikes. BY JUSTIN GERDES

The Danish capital is moving rapidly toward a zero-carbon future, as it erects wind farms, transforms its citywide heating systems, promotes energy efficiency, and lures more people out of their cars and onto public transportation and bikes. BY JUSTIN GERDES

Coalición Internacional denuncia incumplimiento de la legislación ambiental en la autorización de cuatro mega proyectos turísticos en el Golfo de California

The process by which the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certifies seafood as sustainable is too lenient and discretionary, allowing for “overly generous interpretations” from third-party certifiers and adjudicators, a new report says. Launched in 1997, the UK-based MSC administers a well known eco-labeling process to inform consumers which fisheries are sustainable and provide incentives for better fisheries management. But in an analysis of 19 formal complaints against the council, a group of researchers found that several of the fisheries that received the MSC’s “sustainable” label — accounting for 35 percent of labeled seafood — apparently do not meet the council’s standards. For example, they found that Canada’s longline fishery for swordfish resulted in an extraordinary amount of incidental bycatch of other species, with the annual catch of 20,000 swordfish also netting 100,000 sharks, 1,200 endangered loggerhead turtles, and 170 leatherback turtles, according to the report, published in the journal Biological Conservation.

FoxNews.com LIVE – “On the Hunt”
Jonathan Hunt Asks
“How bad is the humanitarian crisis in North Korea?”

Richard Walden discusses the difficulties in getting help to the people who really need it in North Korea.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

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This interview was recorded on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013.