Day 28

Mobilize

SPONSORED BY SAMBAZON

OVERVIEW

“We see global warming not as an inevitability but as an invitation to build, innovate, and effect change, a pathway that awakens creativity, compassion, and genius. This is not a liberal agenda, nor is it a conservative one. This is the human agenda.”

– Paul Hawken American Environmentalist, Entrepreneur, Author, and Activist

We hear a lot about the bad. Sea levels are rising, coastal cities are flooding, droughts and disease are hurting crop yields, pollinators are dying, the list goes on. These days, it seems like you can’t watch or listen to the news without being reassured that doomsday is right around the corner. Perhaps you have even felt that way as you work through the challenges each day, seeing how they correlate with a social or environmental crisis that requires immediate action. But while it’s true that “the stakes for our planet have never been higher,” as NextGen America Founder Tom Steyer puts it, the bad only covers half the story.

The other half is the good, the innovation, the solutions. And while these stories hardly make it into mainstream media, they are happening everywhere across the globe: from the largest cities to the most rural settings. Extraordinary humans across race, ethnicity, religion, and gender are rising up to meet today’s challenges with incredible passion, dedication, and intellect. The solutions to today’s problems exist, are economically viable and scientifically sound, and provide an opportunity to create a just and livable world.

So, what is Drawdown? In short, it’s “the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming.” Compiled by Project Drawdown, a global coalition of climate solution researchers led by acclaimed environmentalist and author Paul Hawken, the New York Times best-selling book Drawdown uses systems thinking and analysis from scientists and policymakers to identify, measure, model, and communicate the 100 most substantive solutions to humanity’s greatest challenge: climate change. The term “Drawdown” refers to the point in time when greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline on a year-to-year basis. Essentially, if we want to ensure a healthy and just planet for future generations, drawdown is what we must achieve. That’s why today, we’ve partnered with Project Drawdown to focus on the good, the hopeful, and to bring the solutions into the limelight.

With each Challenge, whether you know it or not, YOU are changing the world. Simply rethinking your own practices, you’ve helped to influence people around you. It’s been an amazing journey for us too! Today, we want you to feel the sheer satisfaction of knowing that YOU, your voice and your being are powerful. You, along with all the other incredible humans working to create a more environmentally sustainable and socially responsible world, will be the solution.

CHALLENGE

Green

20 POINTS

Think

“Wrong is an addictive, repetitive story; Right is where the movement is” – Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest.

It’s easy to get bogged down with the negative news, but progress comes from hope and a belief in the future. In order to build a more stable and sustainable environment we must do just that – be forward-thinking and hopeful about what impact we can have on what lies ahead.

Challenge

Let’s ensure that our positivity runs deep and think critically about our media consumption.

Take a look at the video of the day called, Dear Future Generations here. Notice how it makes you feel.
Think about something negative you read or heard on the news in the past few days. It could have to do with the environment, social justice, politics…. Now, browse the web in search of another story that sheds light on something positive around that same topic (For example, New York Magazine’s “The Uninhabited Earth” has prompted several positive and solutions-oriented articles in response, including Huffington Post’s “Don’t Panic, Do Act” and GOOD’s “Debunking Doomsday”).
Share with us both the negative article/news clip/etc. and the positive story and answer the following questions:

How did you initially feel when you read the “negative” piece? In contrast, how did you feel after reading the “positive” piece?
Media is all around us and we have to find a way to interact and consume the news in a way that spurs action and innovation. The deeper question to consider is how do you find a balance between these pervasive “negative” stories and the uplifting “positive” pieces?

Put the news articles side-by-side and caption them with the answer to the question above.

Deliverables

Upload a PDF document with your responses. Please include your name (or team name), username, email address, and school.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit all entries as PDFs – no word or pages docs.
Please save filenames using the following format: firstname_lastname_challengeday_challengelevel.pdf (ex: kasie_shils_day1_green.pdf)
Do not include # or spaces in filenames
Please be sure to include all content for your submission in one doc
Do not upload a file bigger than 5 MB
You will get a confirmation on screen that your submission uploaded correctly (green) or that it failed (red) and to try again.
If your total points do not change, your submission did not load correctly and you will have to try again. You can see your point total by opening the Edit Profile tab on the bottom nav bar. Your point total will be at the top of the page.
Send any questions you have to info@turninggreen.org
Don’t forget to post about the challenge and your learnings/doings on social media and tag us on Facebook @TurningGreen, on Twitter @TurningGreenOrg, and on Instagram @TurningGreenOrg and use #PGC2017.

The deadline for entering this challenge has past.

Greener

40 POINTS

Think

Innovation is everywhere. It can be as simple as making changes to your personal habits or as complex as hyperloops and electric cars. Innovation powers our economies and offers us endless reasons to have hope in a sustainable future. In this challenge, we want you to take some time to explore creative solutions that people have developed to protect the earth. One place for inspiration is Project Drawdown, a compilation of collective wisdom to help reverse global warming.

Challenge

Inspiration doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You often need to observe how other people are using resources and innovative thinking to solve pressing problems. That’s what makes resources like Project Drawdown so powerful — they offer a glimpse into a world of creative problem solving you may never have stumbled across.

Read this interview here with Paul Hawken about his book and what each of us can do to “drawdown” the atmosphere’s carbon load – 100 reasons to hope.

Spend some time searching through Project Drawdown’s solutions page

After exploring the solutions, share one that resonated with you.

Give us a brief overview of that solution and answer the following questions:

Why did this solution resonate?
Was there anything that surprised you?
Is there anything you would add to enhance the solution?
Share your solution on the social media platform of your choice. Include a caption with a brief description of the solution and why it matters. Tag @TurningGreenOrg, @Sambazon, @ProjectDrawdown, any other relevant organizations, and hashtag #PGC2017

If you want to dive more deeply into Drawdown solutions, check out Northwest Earth Institute’s Drawdown Campus Eco Challenge. Use the sign-up code ‘campus1718’.

Deliverables

Upload a PDF document presenting your ideas. Include a screenshot of your social media post. Please include your name (or team name), username, email address and school.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit all entries as PDFs – no word or pages docs.
Please save filenames using the following format: firstname_lastname_challengeday_challengelevel.pdf (ex: kasie_shils_day1_greener.pdf)
Do not include # or spaces in filenames
Please be sure to include all content for your submission in one doc
Do not upload a file bigger than 5 MB
You will get a confirmation on screen that your submission uploaded correctly (green) or that it failed (red) and to try again.
If your total points do not change, your submission did not load correctly and you will have to try again. You can see your point total by opening the Edit Profile tab on the bottom nav bar. Your point total will be at the top of the page.
Send any questions you have to info@turninggreen.org
Don’t forget to post about the challenge and your learnings/doings on social media and tag us on Facebook @TurningGreen, on Twitter @TurningGreenOrg, and on Instagram @TurningGreenOrg and use #PGC2017.

The deadline for entering this challenge has past.

Greenest

60 POINTS

Think

As we reach the end of what we hope has been an extraordinary journey, here is something for you to ponder. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

Challenge

Take a look at this Prince Ea video here and then think about what it is that you want to change, fix, heal, more than anything on earth. And then figure out how to get there. Be bold. Be great. Be brilliant. Because you are.

Deliverables

Upload a PDF document with your idea. Please include your name (or team name), username, email address and school.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit all entries as PDFs – no word or pages docs.
Please save filenames using the following format: firstname_lastname_challengeday_challengelevel.pdf (ex: kasie_shils_day1_greenest.pdf)
Do not include # or spaces in filenames
Please be sure to include all content for your submission in one doc
Do not upload a file bigger than 5 MB
You will get a confirmation on screen that your submission uploaded correctly (green) or that it failed (red) and to try again.
If your total points do not change, your submission did not load correctly and you will have to try again. You can see your point total by opening the Edit Profile tab on the bottom nav bar. Your point total will be at the top of the page.
Send any questions you have to info@turninggreen.org
Don’t forget to post about the challenge and your learnings/doings on social media and tag us on Facebook @TurningGreen, on Twitter @TurningGreenOrg, and on Instagram @TurningGreenOrg and use #PGC2017.

The deadline for entering this challenge has past.

TODAY’S PRIZES

up to 10 winners from the greener challenge will receive:

Sambazon Organic Cotton Tote Bag
Sambazon Organic Acai Seed Bracelet
Sambazon Organic Amazon Energy Drink
Sambazon Free Product Coupon (2)

U-Konserve Lunch Bag
U-Konserve Spork
Lake Champlain Organic Toffee Almond Crunch Bar
Ethical Bean Exotic Coffee

up to 10 winners from the greenest challenge will receive:

Sambazon Organic Amazon Jungle Drink
Sambazon Organic Amazon Light Drink
Sambazon Coconut Bowl and Spoon
Sambazon Free Product Coupon (2)

Guyaki Yerba Mate Loose Leaf Mate
Guyaki Yerba Mate Insulated Stainless Steel Tumbler
Penguin Random House Drawdown
Onyx + Green Jute Backpack