Earthday call to action

We’re happy to publish this letter from the Earthday organisers.

Dear Global Photographers,

Earth Day Network is seeking your help to create an official poster for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, an event that will reach over 1 billion people in more than 180 countries. In 1970, Earth Day brought 20 million people into the streets in a protest against industrial pollution and the impacts that unfettered industrialization had on our children and society. That effort launched of the modern environmental movement, a movement predicated on the health and well being of people and the sustainability of our incredible but fragile earth.

Now Earth Day is the largest secular event in the world, bringing people of all ages into the environmental movement and supporting their involvement over a lifetime. One of the most important images of the 1970s was Robert Rauschenberg’s arresting and now classic photographic montage that he donated to Earth Day Network. It painted a truly honest portrait of western industrial development, telling a story of endangered species, dying landscapes, and children at risk. But most important, this poster helped stir people into action and it is now viewed as one of the reasons that the U.S. government immediately passed the world’s most comprehensive Water, Air, Endangered Species, and Rights of Citizens’ laws.

 The interceding decades have not been kind to our world and now we face a truly cataclysmic event—global warming. Our 40th anniversary campaign seeks to mobilize broad public support for a global agreement on climate and for large-scale investments in renewable energy, climate change mitigation for the poorest nations, and a transition to a new green economy.

With a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen almost certainly unattainable at this time, Earth Day’s 40th anniversary poster will bring a message to people worldwide that a billion people working together through individual actions as well as civic engagement will convince governments and industry to invest in our future. We seek to build even broader and deeper public support for a strong global effort, to generate at least one billion acts of service through our Billion Acts of Green™ campaign, and to create broad public enthusiasm for a new global green economy.

We are asking photographers around the world to submit photographs that tell a story of a world that can be, not the world as it looks today. Our campaign is partly aspiration, and the poster should inspire people to join a bold new Green Generation™ and to take action. If your image is selected, your work will be distributed throughout the world—through our extremely active website, through paid and earned media in 180 countries, and displays at our large scale events on the National Mall, and our other major event locations.

The rights with respect to the winning photograph will be negotiated with the artist. Non winning entries will not be used in any way unless agreed with the photographer. Deadline for your work is Monday, November 30th, 2009. We welcome your submission to Earth Day. We are also available to speak to you about the campaign by email.

Please contact Nate Byer at byer@earthday.net or Lisa Swann at Swann@earthday.net for more information. Best, Kathleen Rogers President

And here’s more Earthlink news:

Earth Day Network Calls for Eco-Friendly Billboards in Times Square | Earth Day Network
earthday.net | November 22, 2009
Quote: NEW YORK, NY – November 19, 2009 – Earth Day Network is using a mobile campaign in Times Square to call on all companies that own signage in the iconic Manhattan district to “go green” by Earth Day 2010 by pledging to make their billboards more energy efficient. These commitments are part of Earth Day Network’s Billion Acts of Green!22 campaign to collect significant actions from individuals, corporations and governments to reduce energy consumption as part of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, 2010.