While efforts to address global climate change have been met with recent resistance and defiance, some sectors of society and business recognize the sheer weight of the body of science and are acting accordingly and responsibly.
Among those who are responding to the need for us to redesign systems and do things differently are those involved in the business of giving. As Nature News has recently reported, the US philanthropic sector has significantly stepped up its attention to climate, having witnessed a more than threefold increase in climate related donations in one year alone.
Citing a recent Foundation Center report, Nature News indicates that climate related donations jumped from $240 million in 2007 to nearly $900 million in 2008. From 2000 through 2006, annual climate-specific donations hovered pretty consistently near the $100 million mark before exhibiting the rapid and dramatic increase.
Nature News writes that a large portion of the very recent increase results from a $549 million gift from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation that primarily came in the form of a one-time $500 million gift to ClimateWorks for their efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
But as the Foundation Center report indicates, even with this substantial nonrecurring donation removed from the equation, the overall trend in giving that is dedicated expressly to climate still reveals a clear pattern of heightened attention and action. Climate donations apart from the Hewlett gift increased nearly 50% from 2007 to 2008.
Across this philanthropic sub-sector, the financial support is being given to boost a variety of public programs and research initiatives, covering areas ranging from pollution and greenhouse gas emissions reduction, agriculture, and preparation for higher sea levels and temperatures.
Photo by US Department of the Treasury via Wikimedia Commons.
