Canadian astronaut Roberta Bondar addresses Niagara Catholic students during a presentation at Lakeshore Catholic to celebrate the eco school program.

Seeing the earth from hundreds of kilometres away, Roberta Bondar knew change needed to happen.

As she gazed down on the arctic from the space shuttle Discovery in 1992, she knew there were going to be drastic changes on Earth. Cracks appeared in what was once a solid ice shelf. Over time, those cracks will widen. The ice will melt.

The organisms living inside will die.

Bondar is concerned about all the information humanity will lose through the loss of those organisms.

"Once those organisms are gone, that's it," said Canada's first female astronaut, who was the guest speaker at a celebration of the progress schools in the Catholic board have made in their efforts to go green.Bondar said some of the best innovations have come from nature, which is why it is so crucial to protect it.

"We will lose the diversity of our ecology because of the warming of the planet," she said. "You will go outside tomorrow and expect the world to be the same, and it will, because evolution is slow. But there will be change."

Students across the Niagara Catholic District School Board have been making small changes in the way they view the environment. The students are taking new steps each day to protect the environment.

Whether its shutting down computers, consuming litterless lunches or planting trees, students at 47 Niagara Catholic schools are working towards change.

"Here we see the potential for change that is possible when students ... become environmental stewards of the environment," said Catherine Mahler, coordinator of the eco school program in Ontario. She said the ministry of education is currently developing a policy for implementation of the program in all schools.

Niagara Catholic is the first board to implement the program on a board basis. Forty-seven of its schools reached a bronze, silver or gold standing for greening efforts last year.

"You did it, you brought us here today," said John Crocco, board director. "Each and every one of you brought us here today through the changes that you made."

In 2006 when Crocco talked to students across the board about the environment he gave them a simple test. He asked students if they left their computers on at home, if they recycled their water bottles, if they left the water running when they brushed their teeth and if they threw their leftovers in the garbage. At the time, answers varied with most nodding their heads.

When he asked the nearly 100 students gathered at Lakeshore Catholic last Friday the same four questions, no one answered yes.

"You can all make a difference, you can all make a change in this world," he said. To continue with the green theme of the event, elementary school students rode alongside high school students so fewer buses were needed to transport students, lessening the emissions.

The board was celebrating its goal, set in 2006, of having all schools participate in the eco school program.