The Conservation Fund and award winning filmmakers from Nomadsland have teamed up to create our first ever environmental documentary. The 5-6 minute high-definition film features the Fund’s partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Gaiam and its customers as they help address two of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges – habitat loss and climate change.

Gaiam, a lifestyle company, has collaborated with the Fund’s Go Zero program since 2006 by offering its customers the opportunity to zero out the carbon footprint associated with shipping their purchase. Gaiam was the first company in the U.S. to offer such a program. “We know the option for our customers to zero out the carbon impact of shipping their Gaiam order is important to them,” said Christopher Fisher, director of customer experience. “At Gaiam, we believe simple choices make a difference. Providing access to Go Zero is a simple, yet significant way our customers can help the earth. We congratulate The Conservation Fund on the planting of its millionth tree and are proud to be their partner.”

But thanks to the efforts of Conservation International the population of Mountain Gorillas is starting to grow by informing, educating and protecting the land that helps to sustain these beautiful animals.

Our field work includes expeditions to remote places that are the strongholds of biodiversity, and helps local communities protect the forests, rivers, lakes, mangroves and wetlands that provide shelter, fresh water, food, carbon storage and protection from storms. CI leverages those discoveries and experience to rally public engagement and call on governments to secure the sustainable management of vast swaths of abundant, threatened ocean and sea.

We want powerful five-minute films that tell stories of progress in developing countries. What are people doing to help end poverty, disease, hunger, conflict, inequality, and illiteracy? Show us the progress being made towards achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Your film can win the $20,000 Grand Prize, be shown on Link TV and other TV channels worldwide, and can inspire action and change!

You may enter in six categories:

• Empowerment
• Innovation
• Leadership & Governance
• Local/Global Partnerships
• Overcoming Conflict
• Sustainability

Find out how to enter here:

http://www.linktv.org/viewchangefilmcontest

“Link TV is launching ViewChange.org — a digital media hub that highlights progress in reducing hunger, poverty, and disease in developing nations. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ViewChange.org combines powerful video stories with the latest Web technology to make videos, articles, blogs, and actions readily available to key audiences working in global development.

“At Link TV, we know that stories are powerful. They teach us lessons and shape our values. Unfortunately, when it comes to stories about foreign aid or global development, far too often the moral of the story is focused on bad news instead of hope and progress.

This is your opportunity to get your work seen by our judging panel of influential artists and individuals. Judges include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of prizewinning novels including Purple Hibiscus, award-winning filmmaker Wim Wenders, actor-directors Gael García Bernal and Danny Glover, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee Senator Daniel K. Inouye, and Grammy award-winner Angélique Kidjo.

Find out about all of the sponsors: NomadsLand, DAI, United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF), Explore.org.

http://www.linktv.org/viewchangefilmcontest/partners

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Link TV is launching ViewChange.org — using the latest in semantic Web technology to give you the power to change the debate.

“ViewChange.org uses powerful search technology that dynamically refreshes information as the video plays, providing up-to-date links to related articles, videos, and blogs. Inspired by what you see? You can now take action — to donate to a cause or send stories directly to the media and policymakers.

Climate change has become one of the most complex and pressing environmental issue of this century. But while many of us agree that we must do something, the challenge sometimes seems great. What small action can you take to make a difference? Go Zero. The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero program makes it simple for individuals, corporations, or even entire communities to first measure their carbon dioxide emissions, learn helpful ways to reduce those emissions, and then offset the remainder by planting trees.

Did you know?

Estimates are that as much as 50% of the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last 50 years may be due to the effects of changing land use patterns. In the United States alone, we lose more than two million acres of forests, farmland and natural landscapes each year to development. And in the Lower Mississippi River Valley, more than 20 million acres of native forestland have been cleared in the last century.

While restoring America’s forests alone will not stop global warming, given the scale of the effort required to tackle climate change, we need to pursue new technologies that help us reduce our footprint and at the same time, recognize and use the tools we have at our fingertips.

Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace.

Females give birth to a single calf after a 15-month gestation, and they breed only every other year. Walruses are highly gregarious, making them easy prey for hunters. They have been hunted by indigenous peoples for at least 15,000 years, both for food and for their hides.

South Australia contains some of the most pristine marine wilderness left anywhere in the world. Despite this, very little of South Australian waters have any form of protection.

The unique and fragile Arctic Ocean is already suffering from climate change and people across the country understand the critical need to protect it from a risky rush to drill.

Exotic orchids, stealthy jaguars, giant armadillos, colorful songbirds, noisy monkeys and reclusive snakes are but some of the creatures that inhabit tropical forests — along with millions of human beings who have relied on forest fruits, fibers, grains, medicines, cloths, resins and pigments for millennia.

The forest regularly saves our global food supply by offering new, disease-resistant crops. Although we have sampled only a tiny fraction of the potential foods they already have a profound influence on our diet. An astounding number of fruits (bananas, citrus), vegetables (peppers, okra), nuts (cashews, peanuts), drinks (coffee, tea, cola), oils (palm, coconut), flavorings (cocoa, vanilla, sugar, spices) and other foods (beans, grains, fish) originated in and around the rainforest.

If we are not careful though, our appetites for these products could destroy the source from which they came as unsustainable farming methods continue to be a major cause of rainforest destruction and pollution worldwide.

The evidence shows that human activities–like burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas–are most likely responsible for the warming observed to date. And, the trend is clear. If we don’t take steps to curb global warming pollution, the impacts will become increasingly dire.

Our country is home to a diverse array of wildlife ranging from the highest peaks, to the driest deserts, to freshwater and marine environments and to all the places in between. The abundant and diverse wildlife resources, which are so important to our culture and well-being, face a bleak future if we do not address global warming.

Participants come from all types of backgrounds. Students have integrated their volunteering efforts into their curriculum earning credits at their university, college or high school, while others have been professionals, gap year students or recent retirees looking to take some time off and offer their skills and knowledge to those who need it.

We provide real programs for real volunteers.