On April 21, National Wildlife Federation will feature the winners of this year’s Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming competition, the nation’s premier competition showcasing campus-based climate action, with a free webcast you can bring to your own campus.

Find out how award-winning students and staff are creating real solutions to global warming on campuses across the country and see the best examples of campus climate action. Register below to watch the Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming webcast on April 21, 2009. The webcast will be thirty minutes long and will feature great students, faculty and staff making a difference on campus. All you need is an internet connection, computer and speakers!

You can watch on your own, or we’ll help you host your very own Chill Out event. Check the host box below and we’ll set you up with a guide to planning and hosting your event. Watch Chill Out in a class, with a campus group, or use as part of your Earth Day events. You pick the time on April 21 – the webcast will be available by 9 am eastern.

Even if you can’t tune in April 21, you can still sign up below and host your event and watch online any time after April 21. Pick the day and time that works best for you.

Please fill out the following entry form. We’ll email you with all the information you need to have a great campus event!

[slideshare id=3585083&doc=tropical-forests-3-11-10-100329085427-phpapp02]

• Introduction (Erica Anderson, Forest Justice NWF)
• Policy overview on tropical rainforest protection (Gustavo Silva-Chavez, EDF)
• Indigenous perspective on REDD (Alex Page)
• Youth Perspective & Engagement in International Negotiations (Kyle Gracie, SustainUS)
• What’s Next: US Legislation and Mexico (Barbara Bramble, NWF)

Brazilian forest (Photo: Rachel Kramer)

An exciting new development was made in Brazil that could represent a step towards forest conservation in the Amazon.

The U.S. State Department announced today that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim signed a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U.) to enhance bilateral cooperation on climate change issues.

The Cliniton-Amorim M.O.U. launches a new ‘Climate Change Policy Dialogue’ aimed at addressing global climate, carbon sequestration and clean energy challenges.

This M.O.U. will initiate dialogue on the need to quickly build on the Copenhagen Accord, reduce national greenhouse gas emissions, develop clean energy technologies, and support adaptation, scientific research, and capacity building in key sectors related to climate change.

Among concepts promoted will be reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in Brazil. Brazil now ranks the third largest global greenhouse gas emitter, after China and the United States. Rainforest destruction is a major contributor to the high rate of emissions from Brazil.

More information on global drivers of tropical deforestation

TAKE ACTION: Ask Your Members of Congress to Oppose the “Dirty Air Acts”

The lobbying arm of Big Oil (the American Petroleum Institute) is arguing that the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific finding of the health risks of carbon pollution “fails to demonstrate a significant risk of harm to public health or welfare” (see release) They have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress in the past year.

Now, several members of Congress have introduced legislation that would substitute politics for science and open a smokestack-sized loophole in one of the nation’s most successful environmental laws–a law that has been strengthened repeatedly by Congress in a bipartisan manner.

National Wildlife Federation stands with a broad coalition of public health, environmental, business, labor, faith and sportsmen organizations in strong opposition to any rollbacks of the Clean Air Act.

Passage of these “Dirty Air Acts” will take us backwards by letting polluters off the hook and preventing the growth of millions of clean energy jobs at this critical moment in time.

Now is the time to move forward strategically and effectively in confronting climate change and building a strong clean energy economy, and the Clean Air Act is one of our most important tools.

How Can You Speak Up to Stop These Proposals?

• Edit and send this automatic email asking your Members of Congress to oppose the Dirty Air Acts.
• Write a Letter to the Editor of your local paper.

The documentary is based on my MSc field study performed in the Amazon to evaluate the local impact of policy reforms reflecting the Climate Agenda on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). In this short documentary, the story of Jesuina Braga Alves (Jo) illustrates the livelihood of many small scale farmers in the Brazilian Amazon whose survival has been challenged by changes on the climate and consequent top-down reform on policies.

To reduce forest emissions small scale farmers have faced personal and technical difficulties to phase out slash-and-burn agricultural practices and implement agroforestry as a sustainable alternative to produce their food crops while restoring forest landscapes. Small scale farmers are on the forefront of forest conservation and are the most legitimate actors to represent the forest. Therefore, decision makers should engage those actors and consider their needs and obstacles to achieve the global common goal for reducing emissions from deforestation and mitigate climate change.

You’re Not Done Yet. And Neither Are We.

Greenpeace’s Every Step Counts Campaign

People&Power investigates fake carbon offset certificates being sold in Papua New Guinea.

1. Developed nations have committed to invest $30 billion over the next three years to help developing nations adapt to global warming and pursue clean energy development.

2, Developed nations made a “provisional” commitment to create a $100 billion global fund by 2020 to help the developing nations respond to global warming and particpate more fully in the clean energy economic transition.

3, There was broad agreement on a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficient to prevent a rise in global temperature above two dregree Celsius.

4, There were pledges by most nations to make specific emissions reductions but .. the specific levels were not set in the accord.

5. There was a general goal set by particpating nations to having international review of actual progress on green house gas emission reductions.

6. China and the U.S. were given diplomatic space to work together on the accord and a commitment was arrived at to assess overall progress on reductions under the Accord by 2015.

See the Full Article…

Girl Scouts Planting Tree

The National Wildlife Federation and the national tree-planting and youth education organization, Erthnxt, have combined forces to further environmental literacy, youth volunteerism, habitat restoration, and reversing global warming.  Our joint aim is to provide opportunities for scouting and youth groups across America to learn how they can make a difference by planting and caring for trees.

“Erthnxt and its Trees For The 21st Century program share a common purpose with NWF in confronting global warming, protecting and restoring habitats and connecting people and nature, and we’re thrilled to build on our shared goals,” said National Wildlife Federation President and CEO Larry Schweiger.

Erthnxt’s Trees for The 21st Century program joins a suite of National Wildlife Federation’s educational programs including: Eco-Schools USA, the Schoolyard Wildlife Habitat Program, Campus Ecology, community and backyard habitat certifications, and will be an important part of NWF’s Be Out There campaign to connect children and families to the outdoors.

“This  could not come at a better time for both organizations as we work to prepare today’s children for a world in which they will need more environmental skills, civic-mindedness, and an understanding of how even our most difficult environmental challenges can be addressed by individuals” said Bernard David, Chair of Erthnxt, “the Erthnxt program is carefully designed to provide children with understanding and confidence in their own inner power to learn and to make a difference.”

National Wildlife Federation serves some four to five million youth and children annually through its school programs, award-winning children’s publications, including Ranger Rick, online curricula, neighborhood habitat restoration, parents’ education and signature outdoor events.

ERTHNXT has partnerships with the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and the service-learning organization, EarthForce, among others. Most recently, ERTHNXT joined forces with New York Restoration Project to launch Scouts for MillionTrees NYC, a youth education, tree planting and stewardship program aimed at engaging New York City’s 80,000 Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to help achieve Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s and NYRP Founder Bette Midler’s shared dream of planting and caring for one million new trees across New York City.