Become a Data Provider
Help Us Find and Eliminate Environmentally-Harmful Subsidies
Our goal to provide comprehensive, real-time information on government subsidies that harm the environment can only be met by working in partnership with organizations and individuals around the world. We invite and welcome your help in contributing what you know to the site, and providing feedback on information you see here that needs to be improved, or information that you don't see here and think would be valuable.
Contribute Subsidy-Related Information
- Add subsidy-related documents. If you know of publications on subsidies to natural resources that we do not have in our resource database, registered users can upload information.
Uploaded documents go through site administrator review, so will not show up immediately on the site. Please do not upload documents that are copyrighted by other parties, though you can include a link to them if they are hosted elsewhere on the web.
- COMING SOON: Provide detailed information on subsidies to specific industrial facilities or mining sites. Earth Track is beta testing a "Plant Tracker" information base to consolidate plant-specific subsidy data on key industries linked to natural resource extraction and processing. If you or your organization have a particular interest in a specific plant or industry sub-sector, you can become the manager for data collected on those facilities. Our goal is objective, factual information on the facility, so people interested in playing this role will need process information sets by strong opponents or proponents of the facilities to extract the usable data.
- Run an Earth Track web page on an area of specific subsidy-related expertise. For individuals with specific expertise in a subsidy-related area that we believe would be of interest to our users, we can provide you with a page (or pages) on the Earth Track site to write on that topic. Examples might include the details of specific subsidy measurement methods, international policy on oil security, the link between civilian nuclear energy and nuclear proliferation, or specialized subsidy areas such as Canadian support of asbestos production.
The specific terms of these agreements will be worked out individually. For people wishing to have the page show their name and/or organization, the platform can be a good way to educate the public on these importance of your area of expertise and to provide increased leverage to your other work. Under certain circumstances where topical experts cannot have their name listed, this can also be accommodated. To submit a proposal, contact us at partnerships (AT) earthtrack.net.
- Provide General Feedback or Ask Questions. Contact us at comments (AT) earthtrack.net. We value your input regarding how to make the site more useful and easier to understand.
Research Partnerships and Consulting Services
Earth Track is interested in broader research partnerships with other organizations. These can take a variety of forms, from straight consulting (generally with the right to publish the resultant subsidy information on the website for the benefit of all users) to co-development projects to build subsidy tracking and valuation capabilities and subsidy data sets. Much of our past subsidy work has been completed this way. Please direct inquiries or letters of interest to partnerships (AT) earthtrack.net.
Mechanics of Providing Information
Registration. Although anonymous contributions can be provided by e-mail (see below), all information uploaded to the site for consideration for publication can be done only by registered users. This is necessary to control informational quality and to minimize spam problems.
Even for registered users, however, there are three ways you can provide information: acknowledged contributions, background contributions, and anonymous contributions:
- Acknowledged Contributions. We recognize the hard work that goes in to identifying government interventions and trying to assess their magnitude and impacts, and we want to be sure contributors receive proper credit for this work. Thus, unless otherwise requested, we will cite contributions back to the provider on our site and in our products.
- Background Contributions. In some cases, contributors may wish not to be identified on the site. This is also fine. Site administrators will need to know the source in order to verify accuracy, but we will not post your name on with the data.
- Anonymous Contributions. Users interested in providing anonymous information can do so using anonymous e-mails (e.g., http://www.nonymouse.com/). Learn more about the large variety of options at http://www.epic.org/privacy/tools.html.
Site administrators will not know the name or location of the contributor at all when anonymous e-mail is used. We will treat information provided this way as "Tips" requiring important follow-up. Information will be included on the site it if appears important, but with appropriate caveats regarding the unknown source or quality of the information. If possible, anonymous providers should include references to existing documents or data sources that would allow corroboration of the information provided. Members of the press who do investigative reporting in the environmental area are welcome to contact us if you would like to be considered as an outlet for some of these tips for follow-up. Please note that even anonymous remailers may not be anonymous if your computer is compromised, or if your particular country systematically monitors web users. Thus, contributions that may be anonymously received by us can still potentially be tracked and monitored within your country.
