Winners - Viator’s Earth Day Contest
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| A former ski chalet in the Swiss Alps? |
As part of Viator’s Earth Day celebrations, we kicked off a contest here on the Viator Travel Blog. We wanted to know what our blog readers thought about Earth Day, about global warming, and about how they could help minimize their impact on the planet.
The contest posed a simple question: “Global warming: Imminent disaster or ‘my mountainside property will soon be ocean front… sweet!’?
We asked people to give us their opinions in 50 words or less. So what did we learn from the contest? Well, we learned there are lots of creative people reading our blog (we had quite a few people submit poems — though nobody discovered a good rhyme for ‘carbon dioxide’ or ‘imminent threat’). We also had some people (you know who you are) who submitted more than the required 50 words. Way more. Like, hundreds and hundreds of words more. Maybe next year we’ll host an Earth Day novel-writing contest.
In the end, we chose three entries that made us think, made us smile, and made us more aware of our impact on the planet. After much deliberation we are pleased to announce our winners! So congratulations, and thanks to everybody who participated. If you want to read more of the notable entries we received, click over to the original contest blog post. Now without further ado…
1sd Place: Leah Finity
Our first prize — 100,000 miles worth of free carbon offsets — goes to Leah Finity, largely for coining a new word, ‘homewrecks’. Leah’s entry:
Oh, oceanfront property will quickly be swept out to sea. But, rather than scrounging for dinky shipwrecks to visit, tourism will boom with people rushing to visit deep sea homewrecks. What’s living in your underwater home now? Probably nothing, as most aquatic life will be dead by then.
2nd Place: Terry Roberts
Terry earns second-place honors for his poem. It’s a little confrontational, a little worried, a little hopeful, which means Terry pretty much summed up our own feelings on the matter.
Disaster or lose carbon feet;
disaster means ocean roar
but we can’t accept defeat
and live on the ocean floor
A vision, a scare? do we care
Yes?
So we’ll have to do a whole lot more
to keep the sea from our door
and see CO2 no more.
3rd Place: Janette van der Vyver
Third place goes to another poetic entry from Janette van der Vyer. She really nailed the topic from the perspective of a fish.
I don’t like being wet
I’m not ready to live by the ocean yet
So can I be on the next shuttle
To Mars or the moon I will scuttle
Because this planet is seeming rather gloomy
Unless you’re a fish then it will be very roomy!
You can learn more about offsetting your carbon impact over on Viator.com. Happy travels, and let’s all be kind to Planet Earth this year.
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