Ecofans

Fans for the Environment


May 12th, 2010

advice for tomato fans @ 12:38 am

[info]slashpine:

I live in the warm dry West but oh, my heart went out to all my friends who lost their homegrown tomatoes in the East last year! Here's a news brief and some tips you might not know.

Tomato Growers Told to Take Steps Against Blight
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 12, 2010

CLAVERACK, N.Y. (AP) -- Plant pathologists are already recommending farmers and gardeners take steps to avoid another outbreak of late blight. The disease destroyed millions of dollars worth of tomatoes in the eastern U.S. last summer. Read more... )
 

May 11th, 2010

Do Write for money! Get paid to blog in the DC area @ 06:28 pm

[info]slashpine:

Hmmm, money for writing things online that are eagerly read? I think I know some people with this talent!

*hem hem* This involves writing about environmental issues. You know, that major cause of injustice and generations of war that most of fandom ignores. Also, there's a Warnings challenge: the writing must all be "G" rated. ;-) But - money for mad writing skillz! On a blog! How cool is that?!?!?!

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT:

Water Words That Work, LLC is recruiting a group of bloggers to write about four topics for residents of the Washington, DC metro area. If you can answer "yes" to the following questions, then this opportunity may be for you:

Do you know (or want to learn) how to keep the snappy articles coming? Can you build a loyal audience of regular readers, and engage them on your blog, on Facebook, and via Twitter? And -- would you enjoy writing about one of the following topics -- with a pollution prevention/water conservation twist:

Public works -- water, gas, electrical, and transportation infrastructure:

http://metro-dc-utilities-blog.com

Dogs:

http://northern-virginia-dog-blog.com

Lawn and Garden Care:

http://metro-dc-lawn-garden-blog.com

Raising children (from a woman’s perspective):

http://metro-dc-mom-blog.com

Our bloggers will be independent contractors. You will set your own hours, work from the location of your choice, and use your own equipment. You will earn a fixed payment based on a minimum monthly volume, plus additional payments for traffic, subscriptions, and other performance benchmarks. Payment can exceed $1,000 per month.

Each of these blogs will be sponsored by county and city governments who are working together to engage their residents in a new and exciting ways. The project is a pilot -- each blogger will be contracted to write for 6 months. After that, the sponsors will evaluate the effort and determine whether to continue.

We seek self-starters who can:

• Find topics and produce articles that engage readers in these topics

• Get noticed -- and linked to -- by other bloggers in the space

• Extend the blog conversation into Facebook and Twitter

• Periodically repeat pollution prevention/water conservation messages that the sponsors want to get out

• Ensure the blog content and commentary reflect well on the sponsoring governments

We will look favorably on candidates who live in the DC metro area and who can demonstrate their passion for the topic in question -- but we will give priority to candidates with a demonstrated track record building thriving blogs.

How to apply

Send a resume, cover letter, and samples of relevant work experience to:

contract-blogger-opportunities@waterwordsthatwork.com

***

Eric Eckl

Water Words That Work, LLC

(703) 635.4380

http://waterwordsthatwork.com

"Make a Splash With Your Communications"
 

January 16th, 2010

BIODIVERSITY: 'Pious Words Won't Save Endangered Species' @ 07:30 pm

[info]slashpine:
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: NPR Saturday nite jazz

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49948

BIODIVERSITY: 'Pious Words Won't Save Endangered Species'

By Julio Godoy

BERLIN, Jan 12, 2010 (IPS) - Less than a month after the world's heads of governments failed to sign an international treaty to address climate change at Copenhagen, they are back at making pious speeches, this time in favour of protecting biodiversity, endangered by global warming and other causes.

Meeting in Berlin on Monday, leaders of international organisations, such as the United Nations and environmental groups, and high ranking officials of governments warned again that the present global environmental crisis is decimating biodiversity.

They came to Berlin to officially launch the "International Year of Biodiversity" and celebrate "life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives," as the official line goes.

At the ceremony, the leaders repeated the well-known mantra that the variety of species biodiversity represents constitutes an essential condition for human life, which needs to be preserved.

But biodiversity faces severe man-made dangers. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's largest coalition of environmental organisations, well over 17,000 species - out of the 47,677 the group has registered in its list as endangered - face immediate extinction.

IUCN affirms that the number of the endangered species rises by the day. At the ceremony in Berlin, the German head of government Angela Merkel called for "a reversal of (this) trend.’’ Merkel emphasised: ‘’Immediately and not some time later."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who attended the ceremony in Berlin, also warned that "species and ecosystems are disappearing at an unsustainable rate. Our lives depend on biodiversity, which we take for granted," he said.

Merkel admitted, however, that the objective of halting the extinction of species by 2010, set at different international conferences on the issue during the past decade, is now illusory.

This is precisely why environmental activists urge governments to end their pious speeches and finally take significant action. Referring to Merkel's speech at the U.N. event, and the lack of policies by her government to protect species in Germany, Magnus Wessel, of the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, said: "Enough has been said, it is time to act."

Read more... )
 

Job posting for webwise communicator for conservation group @ 06:56 pm

[info]slashpine:
Current Mood: bouncy

I decided I'm tired of seeing great-looking jobs that aren't in my area or field or whatever, and just passing on by instead of sharing the info with my fellow fans! Especially because some of my flist are, like me, looking for a better job (or *a* job) or might be. So I created a free comm called [info]fandom_jobs for us to share info when it comes our way, or ask about the kind of job we're looking for, or whine about the one we have. I'm also posting it to [info]ecofans as it's an environment-related job.

Besides, wouldn't it be neat if all the best jobs were held by fans? :D *visualizes the Obama family at a con, in costume*

The job announcement below came my way via a posting to the "Environmental Communication Network" list-serve by Eric Eckl. Eric is a good guy, who has an env'l communications consulting business in the D.C. area. It's one of his clients doing the hiring, as he says, so he might well be able to give some additional info, but certainly the CPB/ACB groups mentioned would have good info online that would be the best place to see more about who they are, and what they might be looking for.

Deadline: Jan 29. Location: region of Washington, D.C., USA. Other aspects of note: it seems they may only want a cover letter, CV/resume, and two work samples (much less than a lot of job apps require!)

Eric wrote: One of my clients is hiring a senior level position for conservation communicators! Please feel free to apply or forward.

The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay seeks a qualified individual to plan, implement and coordinate all aspects of communication for the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP). The CBP is the federal/state partnership responsible for leading the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort.

The Director of Communications is responsible for and oversees the operation of the Communications Office (staff of two), including strategic planning, media relations, event planning, internal communications, outreach and website activities and other communications needs for the CBP partnership. The CBP is a partnership of federal and state agencies responsible for leading the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort. The director will coordinate and centralize public communications, ensuring that stakeholders and the public receive consistent and coherent messages about the partnership's effort.

For the complete job announcement, point your browser to:
http://www.chesapeakebay.net/jobopenings.aspx?menuitem=14893#comm

The Director of Communications position is located at the CBP office in Annapolis, Maryland. The salary is competitive and includes a full benefits package. Interested candidates should e-mail a resume, cover letter and two work samples to mail@acb-online.org no later than Friday, January 29, 2010. Please include “Director of Communications” in the subject line.

***
Eric Eckl
Water Words That Work, LLC
PO Box 2182
Falls Church, VA 22042
703.635.4380
eric.eckl@waterwordsthatwork.com
http://waterwordsthatwork.com
AIM/LinkedIn: ericeckl

"Make a splash with your communications"

--------------------
ECN - Mailing list of the Environmental Communication Network:
http://www.esf.edu/ecn/
To subscribe to, unsubscribe from, or change your settings for ECN go to:
http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ecn&A=1
Indications: Environmental Communication and Culture blog:
http://indications.wordpress.com/
 

Ecofans

Fans for the Environment