Interfaith Earth Month Poster Contest:
All Wisconsin Kindergarten-Grade 12 students are encouraged to participate in the Interfaith Earth Month poster contest. Students are invited to create a poster that can represent Wisconsin Interfaith Earth Month. Participants should create a poster with an interfaith environmental message for the general public. It must deal with food as an environmental issue from an interfaith or multi-faith perspective.
Contest Rules:
Judging:
Participant entries will be evaluated on how well the message in the poster promotes interfaith environmental values.
Four criteria will be used to determine the top entry for each age group:
Prizes…Prizes…Prizes….Prizes…
First and second place winners in each of the following grade categories will receive valuable prizes:
|
|
For any questions or more information, please contact Huda Alkaff, Coordinator of the 5th Annual Wisconsin Interfaith Earth Month at interfaith.earth@yahoo.com
Dear Friend:
The award-winning Wisconsin Interfaith Climate & Energy Campaign and the Islamic Environmental Group of Wisconsin are celebrating the 2nd Annual Wisconsin Interfaith Energy Awareness Month in October 2008.
Want to do your part for the environment while saving energy and money?
Change the World, start with ENERGY STAR. Join us in the fight against global warming by taking the ENERGY STAR Pledge.
When you pledge, you are making a commitment to save energy and money and reduce global warming by taking energy-saving actions in your home, such as changing a light to an ENERGY STAR qualified model, enabling your computer to power down when not in use, installing and using a programmable thermostat correctly with pre-programmed settings, choosing products that have earned the ENERGY STAR, and more. Taking these actions will also save energy and money.
Wisconsin Interfaith Climate & Energy Campaign and the Islamic Environmental Group of Wisconsin together set a goal of reducing 519,800 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, we reduced more than 122,700 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions while saving 84,600 kilowatt hours of energy.
To date, nearly two million people across the nation have pledged to take small, energy-saving steps that can change the world. If every American household took part in the ENERGY STAR Pledge, we would save more than $18 billion in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from more than 18 million cars.
Click here to take the ENERGY STAR Pledge now, and join with millions of Americans who are taking small steps that make a big difference in reducing global warming.
Last year we met our goal of 100 pledges. We saved 84,600 kWh of energy and prevented 122,700 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions!
Thank you for your support!
For more information, please contact Huda Alkaff, Coordinator of the 2nd Annual Wisconsin Interfaith Energy Awareness Month at interfaith.earth@yahoo.com
My college buddy Dean Eggert, in New Hampshire, wrote of his grandfather, who was “an accidental environmentalist when it came to plastic.” Dean wrote: “I can recall his incessant railing against plastic in the early ‘70s. He would talk about how plastic was not fully degradable and how it would destroy our environment …and how one day our society would struggle to dispose of our plastic and speculate that it would be useless to dispose of plastic in landfills.” Read More >>
Background:
The Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign (WICEC) is a group of people of all faiths working to reduce the emissions that cause global warming. They are concerned about the effects of climate change, especially the majority which are caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The combustion of fossil fuels not only releases carbon dioxide—the most common of the “greenhouse gases”—but a host of other toxins and carcinogens including nitrogen-oxides, mercury, sulfur-dioxide and particulate matter or soot. WICEC emphasizes that it is also our own future at stake. Studies have linked air pollutants to health problems: respiratory disease, asthma, heart and lung conditions and premature death.
All faiths profess the protection of nature in their teachings. For example, consider the teachings regarding the earth from the four following faiths:
Christianity—“And God created the great whales, and every living creature that moves…and God saw that it was good.” Also, “Justice, justice, you shall pursue, in order that you and your children may live.”
Judaism—“…speak to the earth and it will teach you; the fish of the sea, they will inform you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Eternal has done this?”
Islam—“And the earth We have spread out; set thereon mountains firm and immovable; and produced therein all kinds of things in due balance.” (The Qur’an 67:1-4). “…and He has set up the Balance (of Justice), in order that ye may not transgress (due) balance. So establish weight with justice and fall not short in the balance.” (The Qur’an 55:7-9).
Buddhism—“…a king banyan tree called Steadfast, and the shade of its widespread branches was cool and lovely. …Now there came a man who ate his fill of fruit, broke down a branch, and went his way. Thought the spirit dwelling in that tree, ‘How amazing, how astonishing it is, that a man should be so evil as to break off a branch of the tree, after eating his fill.
WICEC (formerly the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate Change Campaign, WICCC) is one of more than 20 state campaigns of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE). The aim of WICEC is to inform, train, and activate faith congregations to take concrete steps to reduce global warming and work toward a sustainable future out of a faith-based value orientation. It is the belief of all involved that our various faiths can transform our world and give us a sustainable future. We also believe that interfaith projects foster healthy, sustainable and secure communities through creative relationships between diverse people.
Our Board of Directors consists of people of all faiths with remarkably diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. Members are available to speak at conferences, services or gatherings on such topics as:
|
|