Take Action

Changing the course of our planet’s health becomes more viable with each of our individual contributions. Volunteering entails meeting about once a month with your group to brainstorm ideas and then researching or working on a certain task until the next meeting. To get started, click on the survey above or email us at admin@urbanarktech.org. We invite and encourage your participation in the following ways:

  1. Shift the conversation.
    • Share our website with your friends and family. Cultivate curiosity in the issues most pressing to the Earth. Most folks are unaware of basic environmental scientific principles. E.g. most people do not know why coral reefs are so critical to our survival. See this video for the long explanation and here for the short version. Discussions with friends raise questions, lead to personal research and the possibility of long-term, heart-felt transformation. Often, conversation precedes action.
  2. Collaborate. We have three advisory boards. However, we envision advisory boards in the following areas and need volunteers. Email us to get involved at admin@urbanarktech.org.
    • Coral Restoration Advisory Board: Earth has traversed its first major tipping point, that is the collapse of the warm water reefs. While many avenues are available for restoration, we are unaware of any globally coordinated effort to address this issue. Thus far we are aware of Coral Vita, the Super Coral Program, and Hope Spots by Mission Blue. Biorock seems to hold promise, as well as do other recent 3D printing innovations. However, we need a specialist volunteer to assess this avenue of restoration and how it can be scaled to meet the rate of loss.
      • How quickly can different methods grow coral?
      • What is the resiliency of each type of coral grown?
      • At what rate are we losing current warm-water coral?
      • What is the net effect? Are certain species at dire risk of extinction and where are they located?
      • Are there any regional plans to address the loss?
    • Persecution of Environmental Defenders: For the indigenous whose land contains coveted natural resources, the struggle to protect the planet often involves risking everything.
      • Where is protecting the planet most dangerous?
      • Where does speaking up and organizing for the rights of nature risk a person’s freedom or even his/her life?
      • Which communities most need support in facing the impacts of pollution?
      • Where are there opportunities to stand as allies for those persecuted?
      • Our organization has software to generate email campaigns. We need volunteers to draft petitions to international organizations to advocate for environmental detainees.
      • There is an explanation of this problem and current on-going efforts to address it here.
      • While a handful of leading organizations is important, we believe that a chorus is more powerful in bringing widespread attention to this critical reality.
      • Join the chorus with us. Help us help those on the front lines.
    • Treaties, Constitutions, and Charters Research: Documents that enunciate the core beliefs of a people are key in protecting the planet. There are recent cases demonstrating that indigenous treaties encourage international agreements that can result in enforceable laws. These instances can be replicated and scaled to bring visibility and opportunities for action for the planet and indigenous peoples.
      • Which political documents explicitly address environmental protections?
      • Do any provide for the legal personhood of non-human life (i.e. rights of nature)?
      • Do any contain conceptual innovations with yet untapped potential for propagation?
      • Is there regional common ground that would provide for cross-border cooperation?
      • Are there databases which would answer these questions?
    • Tech Development: We are working on designing a mobile app to serve as a planetary dashboard. We need help in the design process.
      • We need an annual Earth carbon budget that maps emissions and absorption rates by region. This is similar to the Earth Overshoot Day which calculates the calendar year on which the Earth’s renewable resources have been expended for that year.
      • We would like to map each of the Earth’s tipping points: coral reef loss, polar ice loss, extinction rates (ie biodiversity decline),et al.
      • Which communities are immediately impacted?
      • What opportunities are there to advocate?
      • What are the barriers to action?
      • What other technologies can be transformed to protect our planet?
    • Innovate: Do you have an idea to explore? Do you have an under-represented expertise in the struggle to fight pollution? Every perspective is unique. We welcome your ideas and experiences. We are all ears. E-mail us at admin@urbanarktech.org.
  3. Financially support our organization and others.
    • Our current goal is to fund 1/3 of our administrative budget with public donations, that is we match any donation 2 to 1. This is to comply with the organizational requirements in our jurisdiction. It includes our website, email, Zoom, and organizational filing fees. All of us volunteer our time.
    • Our upcoming financial priority may be the planetary dashboard app, described above under Tech Development and here. We are looking to produce it with grant funds or with free resources before resorting to cash outlays.
    • Organizations for which we encourage donations include the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights and the Indian Law Resource Center.