Earth Grants
2009 Opportunities for Innovative Leaders
Each year, 40 new
promising and proven
leaders selected by
TogetherGreen from
among scores of out-
standing applicants,
receive professional
development opportuni-
ties, a $10,000 grant to
help support an in-
novative conservation
action project, and introduction to an international network of committed
leaders. Results of these role model programs roll out as significant gains
in habitat, water and energy conservation and environmental education.
In 2008, TogetherGreen awarded $1.4 million in funding to new and
existing collaborative projects, ranging from restoration of wetlands, grass-
lands and global bird habitat to engaging children with nature and encour-
aging the next generation of conservation professionals. The 2009-2010
Grid Parity
Fellows program runs 18 months. Participants attend a five-day Leadership
Solar Could Rival Fossil Fuel in
Institute this summer and a three-day retreat next summer.
Five Years
“We’re confident that we’re not that
Applications are due April 15, 2009; selections are announced in July. For
far away from a tipping point, where
details, visit
TogetherGreen.org.
energy from solar will be competitive
with fossil fuels,” says Ray Kurzweil,
who participated in a 2008 National
Growing Answer
Academy of Engineers panel report-
Tree Planting Movement Gains Support
ing on the future of solar power. “I The National Climatic Data Center re-
personally believe that we’re within ports that the average global temperature
five years of that tipping point.” in 2008 was .88º Fahrenheit higher than
To do that, the cost of electric- the 20th century average. Whether global
ity produced by rooftop solar panels warming is due to planetary cycles, as
needs to fall by half, from about 32 44 percent of U.S. voters responding to a
cents per kilowatt hour today, includ- Rasmussen Reports survey now say, or to
ing subsidies, to about 15 cents per human behavior, or both, levels of green-
kwh by 2012, according to a report house gases are accelerating. Related envi-
by FBR Capital Markets. When such ronmental issues are increasingly touching
“grid parity” arrives, a sharp surge in people’s lives in terms of health, science,
residential solar panel use is expected, business, politics, technology, fashion and
driven by a desire to lower utility bills. travel.
In 2009, enough solar panels will Against this backdrop and in the face
be sold in the United States to gener- of ongoing tropical deforestation in Asia,
ate 330 megawatts of power, FBR Africa and Latin America, a Swedish en-
projects. But the country could well ergy firm, Vattenfall, has examined the large-scale potential for foresting
see a 20-fold rise in solar panel sales manmade wastelands as part of global climate stabilization. Researchers
by 2013, enough to power 3.5 million estimate that reclaiming half the world’s degraded land, some 2.3 billion
homes using two-kilowatt rooftop acres, has the potential to absorb 21.6 billion tons of CO
2
each year. For-
solar arrays. As one think tank pun- esting even 18 percent would sequester 3.5 billion tons a year.
dit put it, “In five to seven years, the Meanwhile, another initiative, a United Nations Environment program
idea of building a home without solar that has planted 2 billion trees in 150 countries in less than two years, has
energy on it will be as silly as building set a new goal of 7 billion trees by 2009. That’s more than one tree for every
without plumbing.” person on the planet.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor Primary source:
Grist.com
Pr i n t e d o n re c y c l e d Pa P e r t o Pr o t e c t t h e en v i r o n m e n t
April 2009 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48