You know that the planet faces a myriad of problems: global warming and climate change, resulting in violent weather changes and rising oceans; the loss of millions of acres of forest every year and, with it, the extinction of countless species of plants and animals. You know of the resulting spread of deserts, of the threat to the world food security an the rapidly disappearing supply of drinkable water.

You know the planet is warming up. We know that burning oil, coal, and other fossil fuels contributes to global warming by adding to a heat-trapping blanket of carbon dioxide around the planet. We know that carbon dioxide, regardless of where it is produced, distributes itself evenly throughout the global atmosphere. We know the island nation of Tivalu has signed a treaty with New Zealand so it’s population has a place to move to when the oceans swallow up their island. We know Bangladesh is losing much of its land to the growing sea, just as islands in the Chesapeake Bay have disappeared under the rising water levels over the past 50 years.

You know the African Sahel is losing the battle to the encroaching Sahara Desert. We know that rising average global temperatures have already caused destructive and costly climate disruptions on every continent – heavy precipitation, heat waves, and extreme cold – and that more disasters are likely in the future. We know that the recent destruction in the eastern United States by several hurricanes is not normal.

You know that farmers in our home state of Maryland and farmers in our projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, are struggling with global climate change. You know we have higher rates of malaria and West Nile virus in places where they used to be nearly non-existent.

So far, the problems resulting from global climate change are even more severe in tropical Developing Countries. Soil erosion on the mountainsides of Haiti, Honduras, and the Philippines, multiplied by hurricanes and tropical storms, are killing children and crippling families who have depended on these lands for centuries. The Nile River Basin is watching the River carry billions of tons of topsoil to the ocean while their crops fail and ancient aquifers run dry.

We must look at the earth as an island in the black sea of space. Climate doesn’t respect boundaries, and neither does pollution, carbon-dioxide, nor the lack trees to produce oxygen. We only have one world, and we all share it.

It is not too late. We are solution-oriented people. We have developed programs that work. We are restoring trees and forests to degraded lands. We are showing communities how to utilize renewable energy sources, and we can be leaders in the world for a positive change.

We are a hands-on people-to-people program at the grassroots level, and we are leading by example. In the US and around the world!