Global Forum for Sports and Environment
Artists and Athletes Inspire and Empower Fans to Help Plant Seven Billion Trees by the End of 2009
Launching on World Environment Day (June 5), the innovative program enables fans to join with their favorite artists and athletes to plant trees via mokugift.com. (Moku means tree in Japanese.) Organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Environment Day 2009 (theme: 'Your Planet Needs You--Unite to Combat Climate Change') will focus attention on a global tree-planting drive that is part of larger awareness-raising campaign leading up to a crucial climate policy meeting in Copenhagen, in December 2009. Through its "Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign," UNEP is appealing to global citizens to achieve the goal of planting seven billion trees--roughly one tree for every living person on the planet--by the end of 2009. An official partner of UNEP, mokugift not only empowers people to participate in the Billion Tree Campaign, it also provides the tools to inspire others to participate. Tree planting is an easy first step to a more environmentally responsible lifestyle, and Mokugift enables anyone concerned about climate change--even those lacking access to planting space--to make a difference. Mokugift.com fosters global environmental solidarity by letting everyone see how their actions inspire their friends, and friends of friends, to take part in the Billion Tree Campaign. Farmers practicing environmentally sustainable forestry and agricultural methods plant mokugift trees in tropical zones in Central America, Africa and Asia. The plantings not only restock, with native trees, existing forests that have been depleted, but also contribute to more diverse, productive and economically sustainable land-use systems. An average tropical tree absorbs 50 pounds of carbon dioxide annually over its lifetime, providing enough clean oxygen for two people. Artist and athletes who sign up with mokugift will be recording public service announcement spots for radio and video. These spots will air across the nation for the duration of the year, inspiring fans to participate in the Billion Tree Campaign before its conclusion in December 2009. By visiting artist and athlete web pages on mokugift.com--which track the number of trees planted and can be easily promoted through blog posts, Twitter, e-mail and social networks--fans will have the opportunity to plant real trees, for each, and to prompt others to do the same. Anyone purchasing a mokugift tree receives their own mokugift.com web page, a virtual island that serves as a platform for encouraging others to plant trees themselves or "gift" trees to others. Active promoters of tree planting via mokugift receive acknowledgement for their achievement on the site and are rewarded with free tree planting. The planting of real mokugift trees is administered by award-winning nonprofit agroforestry organizations such as Trees For The Future and Sustainable Harvest International. "The Artists and Athletes Program is intended as a call to action, to accelerate participation in UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign," says mokugift co-founder Krates Ng. "It's not so much about the artists themselves planting trees as it is about empowering ordinary people to inspire everyone to plant trees." SOURCE mokugift LINK : |
1 June 2009--Inspired in part by pop culture heroes from an earlier era who used music and mass media to spawn social and political activism, mokugift, through its Artists and Athletes Program, is leveraging the latest Internet technology to rally support for an issue of the utmost urgency: combating climate change.