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.
Author: Daniella Cheslow
Daniella Cheslow grew up in a car-dependent suburb in New Jersey, where she noticed strip malls and Wal-Marts slowly replacing farmland. Her introduction to nature came through hiking trips in Israel. As a counselor for a freshman backpacking program at Northwestern University, Daniella noticed that Americans outdoors seemed to need to arm themselves with performance clothing, specialized water bottles and sophisticated camping silverware. This made her think about how to interact with and enjoy nature simply. This year, Daniella is getting a Master’s in Geography from Ben Gurion University of the Negev. She also freelance writes, photographs and podcasts. In her free time, she takes day trips in the desert, drops off compost and cooks local foods like stuffed zucchini, kubbeh and majadara. Daniella gets her peak oil anxiety from James Howard Kunstler and her organic food dreams from Michael Pollan. Read more at her blog, TheTruthHerzl.com. Daniella can be reached at daniella (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
