perhaps something like spending 100 hours cleaning up a watershed that feeds a river, or putting sensors out and collecting data of how some feature or lack of feature affects temperature?
just a few small projects off the top of my head that could be done on a small budget and still make a difference somewhere. I don't think that every project needs to be a grand endeavor.
this could end up being a "good" example of "nickel and diming".
The impact of that on global warming is nil. You'd be just trying to solve some other problem, not the one you wanted.
On the sensors, you can get many with $1k, but you won't be able to spread them and much less make them communicate with a central or each other.
If you were already going to do something and needed money only for acquiring materials, and have a large expertise on how to put complex machines together, you may be able to collect enough information to get a vary narrow view of the problem. But I think if there's any way to help on that budget, it will be by creating some sort of community.
LORA modules, coupled with a sensor, can be spread far out for less than $4 each, I've spread them out myself while living out on acreage.
> But I think if there's any way to help on that budget, it will be by creating some sort of community.
which is yet another good use of $1000 - I don't think that the person who is offering this is hoping that the people that apply make a profit, likely they are hoping that people who apply can help amplify the money by putting their own expertise to work.
as in, I know I could build a data gathering and reporting framework that could run on aws/rds, but sure wouldn't mind if someone else paid for the hosting. that's kind of what's great about this.
Often these programs require the fundee to get 30%-50% of the financing from non-government sources, so this could potentially count towards towards that figure.
Edit: Seems like organizations can’t apply, so maybe this point is moot.
That said, I'm having a really hard time imagining a scenario where $1k would make an impact. It could sustain an individual in a poor or developing country, but it's not enough to finance research equipment or any large scale activity.
That said, it's possible that I lack imagination, and that people will find good uses to that money.