Past Contests
2023
Climate Heroes in Action
The media – whether a newspaper, broadcast, or TikTok – tends to focus on the negative. These stories get clicks and attract interest. Yes, climate change is the greatest threat that our blue planet is facing right now, but it is easy to doomscroll through this bad news and miss optimistic stories. There are reasons to feel hope for the future. Scientists, activists, artists, and educators are creating radical and innovative solutions in response to these environmental threats. Their work is far-reaching and impactful but is often not covered in the mainstream news. It’s easier to see a positive path forward when we understand the steps that people are already taking to get us there. Climate Heroes in Action encouraged students to uplift a trailblazer who is making strides to fight climate change.
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2022
The Funny Thing About Climate Change
We are inundated with the scary realities of climate change, which can make us feel helpless, hopeless, and overwhelmed. Approaching climate change from a fresh perspective can help alleviate climate anxiety and build resilience. How can we use unfamiliar and unexpected approaches, to discuss something as serious as climate change without minimizing or undermining it? Humor, satire, and irony are powerful communication tools. Yes, even for an issue as serious as climate change. Studies have shown that humor can break down barriers, empower people, and instill hope. In other words, humor is disarming and provides a safe way for people to approach and understand divisive topics like climate change. Humor and satire capture attention… they are effective ways to make sure your message is heard. The Funny Thing About Climate Change challenged students to use humor, positivity, irony, or other unconventional approaches that are not typically used in environmental communication to address the climate crisis.
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2021
Water Rising
The ocean regulates global climate, produces more than half of the oxygen we breathe, and holds nearly 97% of Earth’s water. Global ocean systems largely influence life on land, even hundreds of miles from a coastline. Salt, fresh, warm, or cold, all water is connected through the water cycle. Like our human bodies, 70% of Earth is water, and this water is continuously in motion: it rises from the ocean, creates clouds in the sky, and returns to land as rain or snow. This precipitation soaks into the ground; collects in freshwater streams and lakes; is taken up by trees and plants; and sustains every living being it encounters on its journey—bacteria, fish, insects, birds, mammals, and of course, humans. All life needs water, and where there is water, there is life. Water Rising challenged students to explore and understand their connection to water, and to creatively communicate the need to protect this vital resource and life-sustaining relationship.
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2020
Climate Hope: Transforming Crisis
Oceans play a central role in regulating Earth’s climate and act as a buffer that protects us from human-caused global warming; but oceans are feeling the heat. Climate change—primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas—is changing water temperature and chemistry, altering marine habitats, and threatening marine life. The good news is, there is much cause for hope: individuals, communities and cities, organizations and movements (largely youth-led!) around the globe are already working to slow the climate crisis and drive the transition away from destructive, polluting, and unjust practices to systems that respect, value, and protect the diversity of life on Earth. Climate Hope: Transforming Crisis invited students to learn about the climate crisis and its impact on oceans; discover or imagine solutions at local, national, or global scales; and create work that explores hope in action.
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2019
Presence of Future
Climate change requires that we think about the past, present, and future simultaneously. Because of earlier human actions, our ocean is facing real and imminent threats today; our every action—or inaction—now impacts the future of our communities and our blue planet. The effects of climate change are not something that will happen to faraway generations—it is happening now; it is happening to us. What do we stand to lose? What can we gain from learning from our past and taking steps now to create a sustainable and just future? Create a piece about a coastal/marine species, place, or system that will be threatened, altered, or lost due to climate change.
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2018
Our Oceans in a Changing Climate
Our health is tied to ocean health, whether we live on the coast or 500 miles inland. Human systems – social, economic, political, and cultural – are interdependent on the ocean; however, human-caused global warming is already producing substantial changes to our coastal and marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. Your work should explore the relationship between human systems, climate change, and our oceans. We challenge you to create a piece that not only presents issues and challenges, but also communicates a message that inspires others to act.
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2017
Ocean Pollution: Challenges & Solutions
You may choose to focus your work on one type of pollution, or the impact of ocean pollution as a whole. Whichever way you choose, we want your submission – visual art, poetry, prose, or film – to make viewers reflect on the impact of ocean pollution, inspire them to consider possible solutions, and challenge them to take action.
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2016
Making Meaning out of Ocean Pollution
Research, explore, interpret, and say something meaningful about the connections between human activities and the health of our oceans through art, poetry, prose, or film.
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2015
Our Oceans, Our Plastic
Submit a work of art, a poem, a written work, or a film about plastic pollution in the ocean. Look for connections between science, creativity, environmental advocacy, and your personal interpretation of the theme.
2014
Ocean Plastic Pollution
Why is there so much plastic in our oceans? Where does it come from? How does it affect ocean animals and ecosystems? Is this a problem worthy of international attention? Are there alternatives to plastic that could help alleviate the ongoing problem of ocean pollution? How does our “throwaway culture” impact the amount of plastic in our oceans? You may work alone or in a group, and submissions can take one of the three following forms: art, essay, or advocacy (film).