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Environmental Information Portal GEMA Getting U.S. Arm
Environmental Information Portal GEMA Getting U.S. Arm

Elizabeth Kucinich, a longtime social causes advocate, and her husband, former congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, are launching the United States arm of the Monaco-based Global Environment Movement Association (GEMA).

The new organization offers an online platform that brings together research and information resources from across the environmental community. It will also provide guidance for environmental concerns regarding information creation and dissemination, including video production, press relations, event coordination and social media use. The organization has a video introduction you can see here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzsco96hkn0

“We are hoping to build a collaborative network where people can show the things they are already working on, and [further] the approaches we need to take to move from the situation we are in now and repair and regenerate the earth,” said Elizabeth Kucinich, who also serves as GEMA’s director of partnerships.

The organization will enable environment-focused entities to network with each other and access GEMA’s proprietary video distribution capabilities. GEMA USA’s nonprofit application is currently being vetted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It will be a 501(c)(3) organization.

The organization has partnered with, and is drawing information resources from, a number of environmentally-focused entities, including the Paris-based European Space Agency, the Prince Albert II Foundation of Monaco, which funds a variety of environmental projects and the Nairobi, Kenya-based United Nations Environment Programme, which guides the United Nations’ environmental actions within developing countries.

Despite GEMA’s placeholder website being primarily in English, the partner organizations reflect the organization’s global reach and polyglot nature.

“As more content flows toward us, there will be content in all languages that represent the global community,” Elizabeth Kucinich said. “There are the major languages that are used by the United Nations, and therefore they are the languages we will be focusing on initially.”

Once fully established, GEMA will offer information resources appropriate for all levels of the environment movement community, including research scientists, consumers, teachers and students. Video content will be metatagged with references to additional materials that range from high-level scientific papers to education support resources.

“We are working with our advisory board members on how to help someone who is looking at the content not just passively engage, but apply critical thinking by having a series of questions that enable them to analyze some of the things they have looked at,” said Elizabeth Kucinich.

GEMA will soft launch in September with a more formal rollout tentatively planned for Earth Day 2021, on April 22. Even before then, Elizabeth Kucinich is actively looking for advocacy, funding and information resource partners.