Home About Us Programs Newsroom Get Involved Photo Gallery Support Us Contact Us
Donate Now!
A $35 donation will purchase trees and science activities for 10 children.
What is ERTHNXT’s role in environmental education?
What programs for children and youth do you offer?
What kinds of activities are offered in the Trees for the 21st Century Activity Guides?
Where did your inspiration for planting trees come from?
What is climate change? What do trees have to do with it?
Why did you change your name from “The Future of Life”?
How did you decide upon your new name, “ERTHNXT”?
What corporate opportunities do you offer?
How can I make a difference to protect the environment?
How do I get involved with ERTHNXT?
Q. What is ERTHNXT’s role in environmental education?
A. ERTHNXT’s programs educate young people with scientifically-based environmental knowledge and with adult mentoring, encourages them to take action.
Q. What programs for children and youth do you offer?
A. Our flagship program, Trees for the 21st Century, is a unique educational and tree-planting program for children ages 6 to 18 involving a science-based activity guide. We provide adult leaders with a toolkit to help young people learn about the importance of trees in the environment, how to plant and take care of trees, and share the information they have learned with others. ERTHNXT’s successful national partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA resulted in 15,000 trees planted in 2007-08. This effort is expanding the world tree inventory and protecting and improving natural resources.
The Improve Your Footprint program provides an activity series for youth organizations to participate to improve their “footprint,” or demand on the earth's natural resources. Over the course of two meetings, participants see a video presentation, brainstorm ideas to take action, discuss and plan to implement the best ideas.
Q. What kinds of activities are offered in the Trees for the 21st Century Activity Guides?
A. Download Activities at a Glance (pdf)
Q. How do your tree kits work?
A. Find out more about tree kits and how to order them.
Q. Where did your inspiration for planting trees come from?
Thirty years ago, Wangari Maathai from Kenya, Africa was concerned that 90% of her forest had been chopped down. Soil erosion was devastating her country as a result. The women, whose job it was to look for firewood for their families, had to search for hours to find mere branches. Wangari took action. On June 5th, 1977 on World Environment Day, she planted nine trees in her backyard and founded the Green Belt Movement whose mission it is to restore Africa’s forests, put an end to the poverty that deforestation was causing, and recognize the intimate and fundamental link between the environment, democracy, and peace. Wangari gathered women from all over the country and empowered them to plant 30 million trees. In 2004, Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize for her extraordinary contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.
Q. Why are trees important?
A. Learn how trees make a big difference: Ten Reasons for Trees (pdf)
Q. What is a Carbon Footprint?
A. A Carbon Footprint is a way for each person to understand how big of a “mark” their daily actions and lifestyle make on the Earth’s resources.
Learn more about carbon footprints
Q. What is climate change? What do trees have to do with it?
A. Climate change is any large change in measures of climate (such as temperature or precipitation) lasting for a longer period than normal (ten years or more). Climate change may happen because of natural factors, such as changes in the sun's intensity, or because of human activities that change what the atmosphere is made of (e.g. through burning fossil fuels that give off greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide) and/or that change the land surface (e.g. deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.)
Since one tree can sequester or take in more than one ton of carbon dioxide in its lifetime, planting trees and avoiding deforestation are key measures in reducing the human impact on global climate change.
Q. Why did you change your name from “The Future of Life”?
A. Our organization’s original name refers to our advisory board member Dr. Edward O. Wilson’s seminal book about biodiversity, “The Future of Life.” In it, he offers a plan for saving Earth’s biological heritage. Inspired by this challenge, we developed our organization to influence children and youth to become good stewards of environment. However, we found that those unfamiliar with the book or topic were confused by the name and what it meant.
Q. How did you decide upon your new name, “ERTHNXT”?
A. ERTHNXT communicates the idea that our priority for the future is Earth and implies a sense of urgency that is imperative for conserving our planet. Our tagline, “One Planet. One Future. Send the Message.” reinforces this position. Our logo shows the Earth and Moon, symbolizing our home in the solar system; the only home with the exact conditions required to support life. Our four color palette represents Earth’s seasons.
The spelling of our name is unique! In the age of text messaging, (and instead of EARTHNEXT, EARTHNXT, or ERTHNEXT), our abbreviated version supports our call to action: "Send the Message."
Q. What corporate opportunities do you offer?
A. ERTHNXT offers corporate opportunities whose benefits include credit and visibility in our publications, events, and website; exposure to millions of youth and adult volunteers; employee involvement in tree planting events; and community goodwill resulting from direct and positive impact on the environment.
The Paper to Paperless Campaign is a “win-win” partnership that allows any organization that sends invoices or statements – business, government, or nonprofits such as hospitals – to do good and do business at the same time by promoting electronic billing and statements. ERTHNXT will plant a tree for every customer who signs up for electronic statements. Savings to the company bottom line are significant and the program supports children, education, and the environment. Sample campaign.
Our Carbon Offset Campaign offers customers or employees a method to mitigate their environmental impact from travel. Sample campaign.
Through our Tree Planting Sponsorships, ERTHNXT can plant large numbers of trees and provide certificates of recognition, or will arrange a tree planting event in the sponsor’s community with employees and their children or other youth organizations.
If you would like to pursue these or other corporate partnership opportunities, please contact us at info @ erthnxt.org or call 215.495.4550.
Q. How can I make a difference to protect the environment?
A. Here are some daily actions to protect our environment and conserve our resources:
- Plant a tree!
- Sponsor a tree through ERTHNXT
- Recycle your paper, plastic, and metal
- Reuse water bottles
- Recycle junk mail and call the companies that send you the mail and ask to be taken off of their mailing list. Organizations like GreenDimes will do this for you for a nominal fee and if you sign up through our website, ERTHNXT will receive support for our tree planting program!
- Print/write on both sides of the paper
- Turn off the lights and other appliances when not in use. Also unplug chargers when not in use- they use energy even when not plugged into your phone or iPod.
- Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. They use 75–80% less energy and last up to 13 times longer.
- Organize a project to conserve energy or to create awareness in your community
- Challenge your school to recycle more and conserve energy
- Ride a bike or walk instead of driving.
- Conserve water by turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth and washing the dishes. Repair leaky faucets.
- Recycle printer ink cartridges.
- Buy food in bulk instead of in individually wrapped containers that use a lot of packaging. Use reusable plastic containers not disposable plastic bags to create your own individual proportions.
- Take shorter showers.
- Use revolving doors whenever possible to reduce the escape of heated or cooled air.
- Invest in alternative energy like solar or wind.
- And anything else that you can think of. The list is endless!
These are some ideas – you may think of others!
Q. How do I get involved with ERTHNXT?
A. There are many ways to make a difference!
- Purchase a Tree-Kit for your group
- Volunteer for ERTHNXT or get your youth group involved
- Donate to ERTHNXT
- Sponsor a tree through ERTHNXT
- Subscribe to our E-Newsletter to stay informed (see top of page)