Earthzine » Essay Contest 2009

And The Winners Are…

Paul Racette — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:00:52 +0000

Sustainability through Earth Observation and Engineering is pleased to announce the winners:
*First Place $500 to David Tshimba, Uganda Martyrs University, Kampala, Uganda for
“By Trying to Solve a Problem, Human Beings Have Now Created a New Issue”
**Second Place $250 to Sulaiman Tejan Jalloh, Institute of Advanced Management and Technology, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa for “Agriculture”
***Third Place $150 to Benjamin-Axel Mugema, Uganda Martyrs University, Kampala, Uganda for
“Sustainability: From Modernity to Humanity”
The seven finalists will also receive Earthzine t-shirts; and the winners, letters of recognition to their universities.

This has been an exciting competition from the opening announcement on July 9, 2009 at the annual IGARSS conference in Cape Town, South Africa to the close of blogging on December 15. The contest received enquiries and essays from students around the globe. This response met our overall goal of stimulating thinking about sustainability worldwide. We are deeply appreciative of the efforts of all the contestants who submitted essays, the finalists for maintaining engaging blogs and the dozens who raised the level of discourse by posting thought-provoking comments and questions.

We are also deeply appreciative of the competition judges, who selected the seven finalists and chose the winners on the basis of their essay blogs. We also congratulate Dr. David F. Mullins, Associate Editor for Education, for doing an excellent job managing Earthzine’s first essay competition. We are grateful to the IEEE Foundation for sponsoring the competition and its prizes.

If you haven’t read these essays already, please take a few moments to do so. I think you will share our feelings of encouragement and hope that the passionate commitment evidenced by these students will be utilized in their home countries. Each essay demonstrates the great potential Earth observation has for discovering and implementing sustainable remedies for the difficult environmental problems we are experiencing on Earth.

Please stay connected to www.Earthzine.org for notice of the 2010 Student Essay Competition!

Paul E. Racette, D.Sc.
Editor-in-Chief

First Place: David Tshimba’s “By Trying to Solve a Problem, Human Beings Have Now Created a New Issue”

Tshimba — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:20:08 +0000

David Tshimba of Uganda Martyrs University takes a critical look at sustainability in modern society and how the Green Revolution has altered humans' impacts on the environment in light of the interrelatedness of the slew of environmental issues facing humanity.

Second Place: Sulaiman Tejan Jalloh’s “Agriculture”

Jalloh — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:15:30 +0000

In their submission to Earthzine's 2009 Student Essay Competition, Sulaiman Tejan Jalloh of Sierra Leone's Institute of Advanced Management and Technology discusses the negative environmental effects of traditional slash-and-burn agriculture and presents alternatives aim to reduce human's impact on the environment.

Third Place: Benjamin-Axel Mugema’s “Sustainability: From Modernity to Humanity”

Mugema — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:05:17 +0000

In his contest essay, Benjamin-Axel Mugema of Uganda's Martyrs University explores humankind's negative impact on the environment since the Industrial Revolution and how sustainability can lighten our toll on the natural environment while simultaneously improving life for people around the world.

Sulaiman Tejan Jalloh’s “Seawater Agriculture”

Jalloh — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:07:34 +0000

In their second Earthzine 2009 Student Essay Contest submission, Sulaiman Tejan Jalloh tackles the issue of population growth and food production by proposing seawater agriculture - producing edible food using saltwater - as a means of augmenting the current food supply.

Victor Sunday and Onyemachi Praise K. C.’s “Environmental Monitoring, Mapping and Protection of Erosion Site in Parts of South Eastern Nigeria: A Case Study of Umuahia in Abia State”

Victor Sunday and Onyemachi Praise K. C. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:04:11 +0000

Victor Sunday and Onyemachi Praise K. C. from Nigeria's University of Port Harcourt present an essay for Earthzine's 2009 Student Essay Contest in which they explain the detrimental effects of erosion in southeast Nigeria, and how environmental monitoring, mapping and protection of erosion sites in the zone has risen awareness and helped prevent future problems.

Smart Energy Management for Households

Depuru — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:03:45 +0000

University of Toledo's Soma Shekara Sreenadh Reddy Depuru discusses the financial, technical and political issues surrounding energy production and how adoption of smart energy management techniques could not only conserve massive amounts of energy, but could increase security and efficiency.

Abhinav Kumar Shukla’s Essay

Abhinav Kumar Shukla — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:02:49 +0000

Abhinav Kumar Shukla, from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in Kerala, examines resource use and technological advances in modern society and explains the crucial need for a new paradigm in engineering - the paradigm of sustainability.