$2.5 Million Donation Empowers 20 Million Students and Their Teachers to Get the Real Deal about the Environment
Today, The Weather Channel and its affiliated foundation, Landmark Communications Foundation, further demonstrated their commitment to climate and environmental awareness and education, by announcing a $2.5 million donation to the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF). The funds, to be contributed by the Landmark Communications Foundation over the next five years, will be dedicated to creating an interactive, web based environmental education program that will ultimately reach and impact 20 million American high school students.
The new program draws on expertise and content from The Weather Channel’s Forecast Earth properties and The National Environmental Education Foundation’s innovative educational programming. High School students and teachers nationwide will be invited to design this program from the ground up to make teaching and learning about the environment easy, accurate, timely, accessible and effective for any subject taught in high schools.
“The Weather Channel clearly understands the climate and its impact on the environment. The Landmark Communications Foundation’s significant donation will allow us to share our knowledge, expertise and resources with the next generation in a meaningful way. We are the ideal partner to further advance American high school students’ knowledge of the environment,” says Debora Wilson, president and CEO of The Weather Channel.
This donation from Landmark Communications Foundation, on behalf of The Weather Channel, is one of the largest donations made to date from the Foundation, furthering the company’s Forecast Earth efforts and signifying the ongoing importance of climate and environmental education to the company. Additionally, this marks the first time a major media company will be actively involved in contributing to environmental education programs that reach such a large number of high school students.
“This generous gift is a fabulous contribution to environmental education,” states Diane Wood, President of The National Environmental Education Foundation. “The Weather Channel’s focus on high school students and teachers allows us to join forces with our environmental education partners to support motivated and caring teachers and teens to channel their interests and concerns where and when they can make the greatest environmental difference.”
NEEF’s Environmental Literacy in America report, based on ten years of NEEF/Roper surveys and related studies, notes that just 12% of Americans have a basic understanding of energy topics and less than half of the population understands that the cars and appliances used in everyday life contribute to climate change.
“This means a lot of teens head off to school leaving their cell phone chargers on and computers plugged in, not realizing they are making a serious problem worse. The NEEF/Weather Channel environmental education program will be developed by students and teachers to share this kind of knowledge in a way that make environmental issues important and personal to the next generation,” says Wood.
The program is meant to prepare students for the future and provide them and their teachers with base-line environmental knowledge needed to make informed decisions and take action to protect the environment at home and in their communities. Specifically, the program will encourage high school students to develop critical thinking skills to make informed decisions to protect the environment throughout their lifetime, engage in solving environmental issues in their communities and pursue environmentally-related careers.
“At a time when environmental awareness and understanding is critical, we are thrilled to have support from The Weather Channel -- a brand that is well-versed in environmental issues. High school students are tech savvy, increasingly environmentally concerned and the perfect choice for a program that invites them to tell us what they most care about and how they want to change the earth’s forecast,” says Philippe Cousteau Jr, Trustee of The National Environmental Education Foundation and President of EarthEcho International.
About The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel, a 24-hour weather network, is seen in nearly 94 million U.S. households. Its Web site, www.weather.com, reaches more than 30 million unique users per month. Its content is generally ranked within the 15 most popular in the U.S. by Nielsen//Net Ratings. The Weather Channel also operates Weatherscan, a 24-hour, all-local weather network available in 22 million households, The Weather Channel Radio Network, The Weather Channel Newspaper Services, and is the leading weather information provider for emerging technologies. This includes broadband and interactive television applications, with wireless weather products accessible through high-speed Internet services, phones, pagers and personal digital assistants. The Weather Channel is owned by Landmark Communications, Inc., a Norfolk, VA-based, privately held media company.
About NEEF
Chartered by Congress in 1990, the National Environmental Education Foundation, formally known as the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation, is a private non-profit organization offering objective environmental information to help Americans live better every day. By forging public-private partnerships and working with professionals in health, education, public lands and media, we connect the environment to everyday choices and actions so Americans can live well while protecting and enjoying nature. To learn more call (202) 833-2933 or visit www.neefusa.org