Calling All Green Bloggers – Masdar Competition Wants Your Ideas!

Fancy the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to attend Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in the United Arab Emirates? Well, here’s how.

Masdar, the renewable energy company based in Abu Dhabi, has launched an international blogging contest to raise awareness of the critical issues of water security and energy. “This is your chance to share with the world your thoughts, or a call to action for how to address the water – energy nexus,” they explain. “And a winner will be selected to travel to Abu Dhabi this January to participate in the largest gathering on sustainability in the Middle East [The Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week].” To enter all you have to do is write and publish a 400-600 word blog on what you think individuals, businesses or world leaders can do to address water and energy challenges. Post the link to the Masdar website by the end of this month and then get your friends to vote for you!

How to enter:

1) Write a 400 – 600 word article addressing the following question: What steps can individuals, businesses or world leaders take to address the most pressing and often interrelated water and energy challenges? For example, in the Middle East, the current process to purify seawater to produce drinking water is hugely energy intensive, expensive and unsustainable. What policies or technologies could address this pressing issue? This is just one example of the relationship between energy and water. Be creative. Tell us what you think.

2) Publish your story on your blog and post a link on Masdar’s website. You can also email your story to [email protected]. The deadline to receive entries is December 31, 2012.

3) Promote. Tell your readers, friends and network to vote for and share your story featured on the Masdar website: www.masdar.ae/engage. Voting ends January 3, 2013.

A judging panel will review each entry submitted. The winner will receive an all-expense paid trip to attend Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, January 13 – 17 in the United Arab Emirates. The winner will join more than 30,000 people – including leading thinkers, policymakers and companies – focused on addressing the critical energy, climate and sustainability issues the world faces.

To learn more, and for a full list of terms and conditions, visit: www.masdar.ae/engage.

Here are some energy and water facts to get you thinking:

• 40% of the world’s population is expected to live in water scarce-regions by 2025.
• 27% of the urban population in the developing world does not have piped water in its house.
• Globally, we use 70% of our water sources for agriculture and irrigation, and only 10% on domestic uses.
• Total electricity consumption of the water and wastewater sectors will grow 33% in the next 20 years.
• 99.7% of all the water on earth is not available for human and animal consumption.
• 52% of total global water desalination occurs in the Middle East.

For more on Masdar see: 

Interview with Masdar’s Director of Sustainability – Nawal Al-Hosany

Masdar Looks To Make Good On Solar Power in Saudi Arabia

Masdar Unveils Plans for 100% Renewable Energy Micro-Grid

Author: Arwa Aburawa

Arwa is a Muslim freelance writer who is interested in everything climate change related and how Islam can inspire more people to care for their planet and take active steps to save it while we can. She is endlessly suspicious of all politicians and their ceaseless meetings, especially as they make normal people believe that they are not part of the solution when they are the ONLY solution. Her Indian auntie is her model eco-warrier, and when Arwa is not busy helping out in the neighborhood alleyway garden, swap shopping or attempting fusion vegetarian dishes- with mixed success, she’d like to add- she can be found sipping on foraged nettle tea.

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