地球日绿色旅行(本站原创）

echozy

小事情真的能做到不同凡响。这就是为什么无论在休假，还是在家里，我们都应该尽我们所能保护环境。这些事情就如你离开酒店房间关掉电灯和空调，或使用更少的餐巾纸一样简单。

“如果每个美国人一天少使用的一张餐巾纸，它将减少1亿镑餐巾纸送进垃圾填埋场的机会，这么多餐巾纸足以填满帝国大厦！”国家地理儿童杂志(National Geographic Kids Magazine)总编辑雷切尔说到，该杂志4月的发行的题目为- 本月我们庆祝地球日40周年纪念 - 孩子们怎么在对地球环境友好的旅行中保护这个星球。
国家地理新绿色家庭指南其中一个部分为寻找生态友好家庭。

这里有一些建议：
以步代车，或者搭乘交通工具。12岁以上的孩子搭乘美国铁路公司(Amtrak)都是半价，随着5月8日全国范围内“国家列车节”(National Train Day)的到来，还有其他学生优惠。

“重复使用酒店的毛巾，让服务员知道你不需要每天更换床单。“一年一个星期少洗一次衣服节省高达2000加仑的水，因此可想而知如果酒店少洗衣服将节省多少水。”Rachel Buchholz建议。

使用可再重复用的水瓶和袋子。在上面贴上标签，他们就成为即时的纪念品。

拜访农贸市场。任何你去的地方吃当地生长的食物，外地输入的食物会浪费燃料。越来越多的旅馆现在都有自己的园子，甚至是不久前我刚去过像Primo这样的酒店餐厅，它位于在奥兰多(Orlando)的格兰德湖度假村(Grande Lakes Resort) 。

淋浴而不是泡澡。国家地理儿童杂志在它的“你能帮助地球的30个方法”里建议淋浴只需要5分钟。

寻找对环境负责的酒店。Travelzoo的报告说，10名美国人有9名会选择一个生态友好认证的酒店，只要它不是花费更高。这确实是有矛盾。我们认为有责任使旅行更环保，但我们不想花费更多的钱。Travelzoo的资深编辑Gabe Saglie透露一个好消息，“你可以节约地绿色旅行”。绿色酒店提供的折扣低到六折。
预订酒店之前先做一些功课 - 也让孩子们参与进来，Buchholz建议。他们使用螺旋形节能灯，水流量小厕所、淋浴和水龙头，以及采用无纸化结算？房间是否有回收的篮子？

了解他们的构造和野生动物保护区。在佛罗里达州(Florida)的迈尔斯堡(Fort Myers)与萨尼贝尔(Sanibel)海滩的推出36个名为任命为佛罗里达州绿色出租的酒店，房间只需要125美元一晚。酒店完全是绿色建筑，有特色的地毯，家具和地板都是由回收材料制成，他们鼓励游客借用免费的自行车，放在在自己的房间多次使用。甚至请勿打扰的招牌也已被磁铁替换，混合泊车，还能优先停车。

今年晚些时候看元素时代广场（Element Times Square）和金普顿的新酒店帕洛马尔芝加哥（Palomar Chicago），有一个绿化的屋顶 - 这是金普顿的第一品牌。

您也可以是绿色的，并享受充分可能的舒适 - 感受在华盛顿特费尔蒙特（Fairmont Washington, D.C.）花4500美元住一个晚上雷克萨斯（Lexus ）的混合生活情调，可以享受雷克萨斯镇（Lexus ）附近低排放工具带来的服务，一份有机菜单、迷你酒吧、竹地板和低水流量的厕所。
个别的一些酒店也正进行他们的工作，像新罕布什尔州（ Hampshire）的山景城大酒店，最近建了一座121英尺的风力发电站，现在发电量已经超过度假村的一半的用电量。孩子们可以在大堂查看其电脑控制系统，系统展示它是如何工作的。
在格鲁吉亚（Georgia）的小西蒙斯岛（Little St. Simons Island ）只能靠小船才能进入，它以拥有堪比7个自然科学家的工作人员为豪，在这里可以教你和你的孩子建立你自己的肥料化系统。
Playa Viva,位于伊斯塔帕（Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo）国际机场以南的30分钟车程的地方，它远离一直困扰着墨西哥的边境城镇的暴力行为，在这里有一个海龟保护区，沿海森林和红树林生态系统。度假区重建了环境和社区，靠与当地盐业合作的独立型太阳能电能运行。
参加一次阿巴拉契亚山（Appalachian Mountain ）俱乐部露营的绿色旅游，教导孩子们跟野生动物一起美化景观或如何保温节能 - 这可是美好的时间。
在海边的缅因州（Maine）是一种特定的蝴蝶迁徙途径的地方，让孩子们在家里播种乳草种子拯救这种濒危的帝王蝶。孩子们还可以装扮成臭虫，从一个臭虫角度来了解生态系统。

或选择圣达菲的金碧酒店及水疗中心（Santa Fe's Eldorado Hotel & Spa），15%费用捐给“走向绿色保存绿色”。圣马可岛万豪海滩度假酒店（San Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort ）直到4月24日都提供免费生态教育活动。

有人愿意参加海豚星期一的活动吗？在加利福尼亚州（California）的洛伊斯科罗纳多湾度假村（Loews Coronado Bay Resort）邀请每个家庭与环保专家一起探索加利福利亚州的海滩，然后再协助清洁海滩。
在凯悦酒店蒙特雷（The Hyatt Regency Monterey ）让你买的是树与收益的幼树，所得的收益将会捐给美国许愿基金会（Make-A-Wish Foundation）。4月在www.planeterra.org网站预订会获得所有志愿者旅行百分之十的机会。我只希望在整个夏天而不仅仅是地球日酒店都能开展这些活动。让我们去这样要求吧！别忘了带上你的水瓶。
编译：echo

echozy

Travel green for Earth Day

By Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Media Services
April 10, 2010 -- Updated 1343 GMT (2143 HKT)
(Tribune Media Services) -- Little things really make a difference.
That's why on vacation, just like at home, we should all do our part to protect the environment. It's as simple as turning off the lights and AC when you leave a hotel room or using fewer paper napkins.
"If every American used one less paper napkin a day, it would prevent the use of more than a billion pounds of napkins ending up in landfills -- enough to fill the Empire State Building!" says Rachel Buchholz, managing editor of National Geographic Kids Magazine, which devoted its April issue -- in the month we are celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day -- to how kids can help the planet on Earth-Friendly vacations.
National Geographic New Green Guide for Families includes a section on finding eco-friendly family destinations.
HERE ARE A FEW SUGGESTIONS:
Walk instead of drive, or use public transportation. Kids up to age 12 travel for half price on Amtrak, and there are other student discounts as well. National Train Day is coming up on May 8 with events across the country.
Re-use those hotel towels and let the staff know you don't need the sheets changed daily. "Doing one less load of laundry a week saves as much as 2,000 gallons of water a year, so think how much water a hotel would save by doing less laundry," Buchholz suggests.
Tote reusable water bottles and bags. Slap stickers on them and they become instant souvenirs.
Visit a farmer's market. Eat locally grown food wherever you are going. Carting food across the country, or oceans, wastes fuel. A growing number of restaurants now have their own gardens -- even at hotel restaurants like Primo, which I visited recently at the Grande Lakes Resort in Orlando.
Take shorter showers instead of baths. Aim for five minutes, suggests National Geographic Kids in its "30 Ways You can Help the Earth."
Look for hotels that are environmentally responsible. Travelzoo reports that nine out of 10 Americans would choose to stay at an eco-friendly certified hotel, as long as it didn't cost more. That's the rub, of course. We think it is responsible to travel greener, but we don't want to pay more. The good news, says Travelzoo's senior editor, Gabe Saglie, is that now "you can travel greener on a budget." Look for a green hotel sale offering up to 40 percent off.
Do your homework before you book -- get the kids involved, suggests Buchholz. Do they use compact fluorescent light bulbs, low-flow toilets, showers and faucets and paperless checkout? Are there recycling baskets in the rooms?
Known for their shells and wildlife refuges, The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel in Florida highlight 36 hotels named to the Florida Green Lodging Program where rooms start at just $125 a night. They have been built green from the ground up, featuring carpets, furniture and floors made from recycled materials and they encourage guests to borrow a complimentary bike and recycle in their rooms. Even the Do Not Disturb signs have been replaced with magnets. Pull up in a hybrid and you get priority parking.
Look for the Element Times Square later this year. And Kimpton's new Hotel, Palomar Chicago, has a green roof -- a first for the Kimpton brand.
You can also be green and have every amenity possible -- to the tune of $4,500 a night at the Lexus hybrid living suite at the Fairmont Washington, D.C., complete with a low-emission Lexus to tool around town, an organic menu and mini bar, bamboo flooring and low-flow toilets.
Individual hotels are doing their part, too, like New Hampshire's Mountain View Grand Resort, which recently installed a 121-foot wind turbine that is now generating up to half the resort's power. Kids can check out the computer monitor in the lobby that shows how it works.
The Little St. Simons Island in Georgia is accessible only by boat and boasts a staff of seven naturalists who can teach you and your kids how to start your own composting system.
The tiny Playa Viva, located 30 minutes south of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo International Airport and far from the violence that has plagued Mexico's border towns, boasts a turtle sanctuary, coastal forest and mangrove ecosystem. The resort is regenerating the environment and the community, running on off-grid solar energy and working with a local salt cooperative.
Take a green tour at an Appalachian Mountain Clublodge and teach the kids about landscaping with wildlife in mind or how insulation can save energy -- big time.
Maine's Inn by the Sea, a designated butterfly way station, gives kids milkweed seeds to plant at home for the survival of the endangered monarch butterfly. They can also dress like bugs and learn about ecosystems from a bug's perspective.
Or opt for Santa Fe's Eldorado Hotel & Spa and save 15 percent with a "go green save your green" deal. The San Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort offers free eco-education activities until April 24.
(Dolphin Monday, anyone? In California,Loews Coronado Bay Resort invites families to explore a state beach with an environmental educator and then help with a beach clean up.
The Hyatt Regency Monterey lets you buy a tree sapling with proceeds to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Or book in April withwww.planeterra.org and receive a 10 percent on all volunteer travel.
I just wish hotels would offer these programs all summer, not just for Earth Day. It's up to us to ask!
Don't forget your water bottle.
(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow "taking the kids" on www.twitter.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.)
COPYRIGHT 2010 EILEEN OGINTZ, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

echozy

参考资料：
　1.帝王蝶(Monarch butterfly)是在北美很常见的一种大型蝴蝶。　
　在澳大利亚，这种蝴蝶被叫做Wanderer Bufferfly，也是一种非常常见的蝴蝶。　　帝王蝶可能是世界上知名度最高的蝴蝶。原因有二：一是因为帝王蝶非常漂亮，被称为世界上最好看的蝴蝶。 二是因为帝王蝶是唯一的一种迁徙性的蝴蝶。它们每年会飞行上千公里躲避北美的严寒。这种习性在昆虫里是独一无二的。
2.Make-A-Wish Foundation
美国许愿基金会;希望基金会 (美国一个协助18岁以下,罹患绝症不久于人世的小孩实现其最大 (或最后)心愿的非营利组织, 1980年成立于美国亚利桑那州;目前这个慈善团体的分会遍及美国及全球.网址: http://www.wish.org/)
3.Playa Viva
生态度假村 Playa Viva提供了树屋和真正的可持续性
原始的海滩，茂盛的原始森林，丰富的野生动植物，生机勃勃的社区，度假村带给客人一种脱胎换骨的体验，他们来此一游后带回去的是一种全新的世界观。这正是这座与众不同的 Playa Viva  生态度假村创始人 David Leventhal  和 Sandra Kahn 夫妇追求的一部分目标。
他们的宏伟目标是在墨西哥的太平洋海岸重建这片占地200 英亩的土地，使它生机盎然。到那时，后人将这样评价他们“他们做到了，他们做得对”，其他的开发商也将效仿他们。项目的目标既有保护，还有重建，恢复原有的植被，使遭到破坏的生态环境得以修复。Leventhal 和 Kahn 坚信三重结果，因此，社区发展项目——以当地就业、博物馆和有机建筑学学校的形式——也是整个规划的一部分。建设项目将于 2008 年初启动，度假村将于 2009 年初对外开放。
象许多墨西哥的度假村一样，Playa Viva 将会有美丽的白色沙滩、豪华的酒店及骑马等娱乐活动。但是 Playa Viva  将会是第一个体现永续农业理念的社区，在这里游客能够有机会体验一种自给自足的生活。这个“生态乌托邦”规划包括：
在海滩棕榈树上建造树屋
在可食用的景观中提供当地生长的食品和有机食品
使用当地天然材料的建筑，用棕榈树叶搭屋顶、用椰子壳做隔热层。
开辟湿地、湿地和草原对度假村排出的污水进行纯化。
这里有接近一英里长的海滩，还有海龟庇护所、红树林、神圣的考古遗迹和被保护的湿地；80% 的地方都被指定为野生动植物保护区。去年，一个由 12 名专家组成的工作队——永续农业专家、生物学家、土壤水文学家、建筑师、规划师、项目经理和树屋建筑人员——一直在对这个地方进行考察了解，收集种子，着手重建过程并对基础设施进行规划。涉及这么多领域的项目是很少见的，但是也反映出这一项目的复杂性和始创人员对于开发的整体和系统思维。
http://www.autodesk.com.cn/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=1170359&id=10536721
4.小圣西蒙岛 (Little St. Simons Island)　　在这座10000英亩的原始障蔽岛上，湿地、水道和景色绝美的海滩星罗棋布。踏着鸟儿们在小岛上留下的足迹, 您将观赏到各种各样美丽可爱的海鸟。