HERE. - Rock the Earth

President’s Message
Did you ever stop to notice; All the blood we’ve shed before
Did you ever stop to notice; The crying Earth the weeping shores?
Michael Jackson
It’s hard to make good on a mission to hold polluters
and the government responsible while being
challenged financially. Our would-be opponents
have nearly endless resources while we, still a small
fledgling environmental organization, are supported
by a patchwork of reduced resources. But despite the
continuing economic challenges of 2011, Rock the Earth
soldiered on, Defending the Planet One Beat at a Time
for our eighth year.
Overall, 2011 was another year of great success, and
it was also a year in which we saw changes across a
broad spectrum of areas. For example, the economic
support from the Educational Foundation of America
that Rock the Earth received in 2009 and 2010 had
expired. At the same time, we sought new and creative
ways to keep up with a busy environmental docket,
a healthy Education and Outreach effort, new and
expanded programs, and a decent amount of needed
turnover in several key positions in our almost entirely
volunteer organization.
Combined with less overall grant dollars, reduced
corporate sponsor support, and highly challenged
individual giving, 2011 was one of our hardest years to
date. Despite all of these factors, once again victories in
key areas were realized, new income streams established,
and new partnerships were made.
In the end, Rock the Earth only realized these advances
and thrived due to the hard and generous work of our
volunteers, our Volunteer Staff, our Board of Directors
and our Advisory Board. 2011 also saw the return of
founder Marc Ross into the role of Executive Director,
helping ground the organization and develop a roadmap
for future success.
We also celebrated numerous successes, including our
most successful and far-reaching Earth Day events in our
history, a Summer Education & Outreach Tour that, while
not at the level of our benchmark 2009 Tour, was still a
slight increase over 2010, and we celebrated maintaining
the substantive programs to protect the environment that
are the hallmark of who we are.
Some of the highlights contained within this 2011 Annual
Report are:
Rock the Earth, along with a coalition of
conservation, sportsmen and wildlife groups,
continued to prosecute its second lawsuit in the
Federal District Court of Colorado to prevent
the federal government from leasing Colorado’s
Roan Plateau under a drilling plan that will
needlessly damage important wildlife habitat,
traditional uses and cherished public lands.
For the first time in our organization’s history, we led
a citizen activation campaign on an international
issue, collecting nearly 1,200 signed letters to
Chevron asking that the company withdraw plans
to industrialize Western Australia’s Kimberley
region, a project suggested to us and executed in
collaboration with Australian musician John Butler.
For the second time in four years, Rock the Earth
co-sponsored a community service project with
Revision International to commemorate Earth
Day, helping to expand a community garden in
one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in
Denver. We also held additional Earth Day events
in Chicago, Atlanta and Phoenix.
Rock the Earth expanded its highly successful
cellular telephone collection and recycling
campaign, which kept over 3,000 cell phones out of
landfills, preventing the leaching of toxins into soils
and groundwater. This notable achievement was
a result of a successful partnership between Rock
the Earth, Musictoday, Pace Butler, the University
of North Carolina at Greensboro, festival producers,
artists, music venues, record labels, and of course,
the thousands of people who donated phones.
For the sixth consecutive year, Rock the Earth
created compelling environmental programming on
the Solar Stage at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts
Festival, one of the nation’s largest music festivals,
with a series of artist interviews, panel discussions
and musical performances on the theme of Social