Who said being an environmentalist is thankless? If you’re worried about how global warming may drastically change the Middle East, and you know how to work a reporter’s notebook, paintbrush or computer graphics program, there are two international competitions coming up to raise awareness of climate change.
The first one, which we came across on the Dot Earth blog at the New York Times, is for students enrolled in undergraduate or graduate creative programs anywhere in the world – US citizenship not required. The contest’s organizer, Artist as Citizen, announced the following rules:
“Your may choose format, media, and interpretation (examples: illustrations, graphics, photo montage, YouTube videos, flash movies, or any combination). Data compared should be faithful to the IPCC, MIT, or other scientific primary source. (Please include the name of your source.) OR: come up with a personal way to engage, or examine, the risk assessment in ‘burning embers’ — literally, or impressionistically; as a narrative, or in documentary form.”
Prize is $2,000. You can submit alone or with a group. Deadline is July 31, 2009; more details here.
The second climate change prize is from the Earth Journalism foundation. They’re offering 14 awards of what appears to be a cash prize plus an all-expense-paid trip to their conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009. There are seven regional writing awards and six thematic ones covering things like negotiations, energy, forests and human voices. A last one will be decided on by a global audience of online voters.
Deadline for the Earth Journalism award is September 7, 2009. Thanks to the Society of Environmental Journalists for the tip.