Earthwatch is committed to minimising the impacts of its operations on the environment.
From October 2006 Earthwatch Australia has been offseting our carbon emissions from our business operations, car and air travel and any other activity that uses energy. In addition, from December 2006 we have been offsetting the travel of our volunteers and fellows. Earthwatch acknowledges that carbon offsetting is not the solution to climate change, but it can reduce the organisational impact after minimising our carbon emissions as much as possible.
Aside from our important climate change research and carbon offsetting programs, Earthwatch Australia is taking practical steps every day to reduce our footprint in the three key areas of Energy, Water and Waste:
- Our staff regularly walk, cycle or catch public transport to work and rarely use their cars for work
- In our office we have installed dual-flush toilets, AAA-rated showerhead and flow control aerators
- We don't use incandescent bulbs to light our office
- Our office equipment and lighting are switched off at the end of each day and at weekends
- We use 100% recycled paper in our photocopier and fax machine
- We print double-sided and reuse paper whenever possible
- Our bi-monthly newsletter, "E-Blast" is distributed to our supporters in electronic form only
- Any printed external communications are printed using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks
- We consider the full life-cycle of the products we buy before making a purchase
- We recycle our paper, aluminium and steel as well as plastic where possible
Individually these are small measures, but Earthwatch believes that global problems call for lots of local solutions. If every home and office followed Earthwatch's example, global greenhouse emissions could be significantly reduced.
Future Plans
International carbon offsetting activities are managed by an internal working group at Earthwatch called the 3CMG (Climate Change & Carbon Management Group). The 3CMG is the entity for which all Earthwatch offices address the issues of carbon management, offsetting, and environmental markets.
Earthwatch is currently developing a comprehensive international carbon management strategy that will stipulate how each office will offset, the methods by which this is achieved, and timeframes involved. Earthwatch aims to go 'beyond the basics' with any carbon neutral program undertaken. This involves not only ensuring the appropriate amount of carbon sequestration needed to offset the organisations' emissions, but to ensure that long-term sustainable development and ecosystems benefits are also secured.
Find out more by reading our Climate Change Position Statement
Earthwatch is supporting climate change research
Earthwatch Australia and our Tropical Conservation Program in North Queensland has supported Dr Stephen Williams in his research into climate change and Earthwatch volunteers have helped collected base line data.
His climate models predict that local temperatures in North Queensland will rise about 3.5 degrees Centigrade in the next century, resulting in a nearly 50 percent extinction rate among endemic species. Preparing to conserve rainforest biodiversity in the face of these enormous changes will require a deeper understanding of current patterns of biodiversity.
Dr Stephen Williams (James Cook University, Queensland Australia) measures the distribution and abundance of animals in the unrivalled Wet Tropics World Heritage Site to assess the impact of Climate Change in the Rainforest. As an Earthwatch volunteer you will visit some of the region's most magnificent rainforests and see a diverse array of forest animals at close quarters, from leaf-tailed geckos to possums.
In Australia's tropical northeast corner are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforests exist side-by-side with a combined biodiversity that is unmatched in the world.
Wet Tropics Rainforests harbour half of all Australian bird species and more endemic mammals than anywhere else on the continent, and the richness of the Great Barrier Reef is legendary.
Although the region is one of Australia's least populous, North Queensland's treasure trove of biodiversity is threatened by habitat fragmentation and degradation from agriculture, forestry, urbanisation, tourism, and invasive species.