One whole wall of the Climate Change exhibition is devoted to the Multiplier Effect: an interactive display that shows how individual actions can combine to make a real dent in our carbon footprint. What kind of change makes the most sense for the way you live? What if you drove less? Or planted a tree, or changed to energy-efficient light bulbs? What would happen to CO2 levels if more people joined you? Even more? Have fun with this cool interactive and find out the answers.

We heard about GoodGuide.com from Daniel Goleman, the author of Ecological Intelligence, when he was a guest on Bill Moyers Journal. This consumer website rates over 70,000 “safe, healthy and green” products (food, personal care, household chemicals, and toys) on a ten-point scale. Ratings are broken down according to the social, environmental, and health impacts of the product. You can see how Beech-Nut Butternut Squash, Ecover Floor Soap and Surf's-up Beach Barbie stack up against the competition, and easily access the methodology and the sources on which the ratings are based. The site also makes it easy to compare prices and find stores by zip code, and has a “news and recalls” section.

GoodGuide originated as a UC Berkeley research project, when Dara O’Rourke was smearing sunscreen on his five-year old daughter Minju for the umpteenth time and wondered (for the first time), “What’s really in this stuff?” An Associate Professor of Environmental and Labor Policy at Berkeley, O’Rourke did his homework and was dismayed to discover that the sunscreen contained a toxic ingredient. Realizing how little consumers know about the products on their shelves, he created a team of scientists, technologists and industry professionals to remedy the information gap. This resulting web resource gives us, in Goleman’s words, “radical transparency”: the actual costs of many of the bottles and boxes we choose between every day.

Since it first appeared online two and a half years ago, the Story of Stuff has garnered over six million views and made its way into classrooms across the United States. The kid-friendly, 20-minute video is an unflinching look at the pitfalls of our production and consumption patterns, super-sized American style in particular. Activist Annie Leonard produced it with money from numerous nonprofit groups.

A school board in Missoula County, Montana, declared the “Story of Stuff” to be biased, and the local parent who complained that it contained “not one positive thing about capitalism” is right. But the video's fundamental message about the ecological and human cost of our linear system — from extraction through manufacture through sales to use and disposal — is accurate and important. As a recent article in the New York Times reports, it's been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution. Take a look and tell us what you think.

Familiar with the term NIMBY (the acronym for “Not In My Back Yard”)? New Brooklyn-based nonprofit ioby.org turns that model on its head, by connecting donors and volunteers directly to green projects in their communities. Designed to redress decades of policy that placed environmental hazards in low-income areas, ioby.org also reminds us that city streets and sidewalks are as much part of “the environment” as the Amazon or Arctic.

Search a map on the ioby site for a project that appeals. Click “donate,” or walk down the street to find out how to get involved. The average price of a project is $410, which might plant a few trees, or buy a rainwater harvesting system, or design a green roof nearby. As co-founder Erin Barnes points out, “A small amount of money can go a long way.”

Have a good idea for a green project in your neighborhood? Does it fit the criteria explained on the site? (It has to be local, help the environment, be site-specific, and make no profit -— and small and simple are a plus.) Apply online, and connect directly to the money and manpower you need to make it happen.

Find out from Alec Loorz, a 14-year-old from Ventura, California. He’s speaking at 1 PM on Tuesday April 14th, in the Museum's first-floor Kaufman Theater.

After watching Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” Alec became an impassioned environmentalist. Convinced that he and his peers could make a difference, he founded Kids vs. Global Warming. This youth-led non-profit organization educates other kids about climate change, and teaches them how to speak up and take action. In this talk, Alec will share his message and suggest ways for kids and families to get involved in protecting the environment. A question-and-answer session will follow. It's free with Museum admission.

Last October Al Gore invited Alec to be formally trained with The Climate Project; he is now their youngest U.S.-trained presenter. On the heels of his Museum presentation, Alec will be speaking at the United Nations “Global Partners for Global Solutions” conference on April 15th.

Whether or not you read about it in the Climate Change exhibition, you probably already know that bottled water carries a high environmental cost. But have you thought about the hit your wallet takes? Eric Yaverbaum, of Tappening, an anti-bottled water enterprise, has done the math. He estimates that “if you drink 8 glasses a day you will spend $1400 a year buying bottled water” — versus 49 cents for the stuff that comes out of the tap. Based on a typical price of $3.79 per gallon, the Environmental Working Group prices bottled water at 1,900 times the cost of public tap water — and reports that Americans drink twice as much of it as they did ten years ago. That’s probably because they’re worried about crud in the water supply, but tap water in the U.S. is subject to more rigorous purity and testing standards. An October, 2008, study of 10 major brands conducted by the Environmental Working Group found “a surprising array of chemical contaminants,” including disinfectants, fertilizer residue, and pain meds. So ditching the habit can be good for our health, as well as for our budgets and our planet.

What will these solutions look like? A distinguished panel will explore this issue on Thursday,  March 12th, at 5:30 in the Museum's first-floor Kaufman Theater.

Panelists include Joseph Romm, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, and executive director and founder of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions; Ashok Gupta, Air and Energy Program Director, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); and Ariella Maron, Deputy Director, New York City Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, discuss efficiency goals, sustainable alternative energy options, and our outdated distribution infrastructure. The discussion is moderated by Michael Oppenheimer, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, and co-curator of the AMNH exhibition Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A New Energy Future.

To buy tickets, visit the AMNH public programs calendar.