If you haven't seen Home yet it really is worth it!
This new campaign is supported by partners including WWF, Oxfam and the Global Humanitarian Forum. It aims to create a unified voice in the run up to Copenhagen and has the backing of Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon who was in New York recently where he announced that the city will host a Climate Week from September 21st - 25th 2009. Speaking in New York he said:
"We are here for one reason: to push for urgent action on climate change from world leaders, from civic leaders and from everyone. Every citizen of the world. Including New York City. Climate change is the greatest challenge facing this and future generations".
Public support for action at the Copenhagen talks in December needs to be visible - hence the growing number of online campaigns like tck tck tck - by signing up we can all show that we demand ambitious, significant and binding outcomes from the climate negotiations
tck tck tck puts environmental justice and human rights at the forefront and declares that If we all stand up, our leaders will stand
up for us. I hope so, the clock is ticking...
The UN Climate Change Conference 2009 is being held in Copenhagen in December. Seal the Deal is their campaign to get collective agreements on environmental issues.There are two actions individuals can take:
The world urges world leaders to:
Seal the Deal at COP 15 on a climate agreement that is definitive, equitable and effective.
Set binding targets to cut greenhouses gases by 2020 to avert the climate change threat.
Establish a framework that will bolster the climate resilience of vulnerable countries and protect lives and livelihoods.
Support developing countries’ adaptation efforts.
Seize this defining opportunity to protect People and the Planet.
Power green growth; launch the green, low carbon economy of tomorrow
"Hopenhagen is a movement created by the United Nations together with the International Advertising Association and a coalition of the world's leading advertising, marketing and media agencies to empower global citizens to ensure the world's leaders make the right choices for our planet and our future."
This site is very quite a refreshing change from other 'eco' type websites. Unusual characters with unusual pop-up books
I love the visualisation of this project about where US cities get their water by Good Magazine
The Age of Stupid: final trailer Feb 2009 from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.
The momentous deal will deliver more electricity than even the largest nuclear plant, spread out among seven facilities, the first of which will start up in 2013. When fully operational, the companies say the facility will provide enough electricity to power 845,000 homes — more than exist in San Francisco — though estimates like that are notoriously squirrely. The technology isn't the familiar photovoltaics — the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity — but solar thermal power, which concentrates the sun's rays to create steam in a boiler and spin a turbine. Via: Wired
The largest series of solar installations in history, more than 1,300 megawatts, is planned for the desert outside Los Angeles, according to a new deal between the utility Southern California Edison and solar power plant maker, BrightSource.
Warmer weather is on the way, meaning lunch in the park, and lazing about on the grass.
But where to go? Well, you can search for somewhere green and lush here, and help improve the service by uploading your photos of your local park here.
While we're at it, Boris has some cash to splash on our green spaces. So tell him where to spend it, by Friday.
Spring is almost sprung.
Hello! Long time no blog, nice to see you all again.
Coming back from a month in SouthEast Asia has readjusted my perspective yet again and I'm even more determined to get to grips with the scandalous amount of waste and over consumption I see at home, at work and just about everywhere at the moment.
Stop one - paper. I have in my inbox an email from the coordinator of Shrink, who are working hard to 'address the madness' and reduce paper waste, and I'm just about to email back and find out how my colleagues and I can make it happen.
So how about it? Why don't you take the pledge too?
Art and design is increasingly playing a role in activism of all kinds - particularly connected to environmental issues. One recent example I liked was Tom Seymour's Care Labels.
Artist Paul Villinski's Emergency Response Studio is a mobile, solar-powered artist's studio built using an old trailer and aiming to highlight the possibilities of off-grid living and shedworking as well as provide artists with something useable in post-disaster settings. The mobile office is entirely powered by a 1.6 kilowatt photo-voltaic solar system and nine large solar panels. It also has a large wall which turns into a deck plus a large geodesic skylight in the workspace. There are lots more green elements e.g. recycled denim insulation (lots more details on the site). The Emergency Response Studio will be on display until January 18 across New Orleans.
Via Shedworking Via Treehugger
Email revolutionised communications. Fast, sleek, paper-free...
But there are still some occasions when a hardcopy has to be sent and snail mail is the only way. Yaaaawn.
But wait! What if you could email it most of the way, thereby saving on the carbon cost of the postage van? What if someone else printed and envelope stuffed on your behalf, and it was still cheaper?
Viapost. Genius.
An interesting idea in the search for sustainable building materials...topiary.
Well, not quite. But Plantware are working on shaping the way trees grow, to turn them into bus stops, street lights and I think one of the best way to impress your house guests...
14: Brandon drew inspiration from Ed Maibach's quote "sometimes the best was to change behaviour is to change the place where the behaviour [15] is occurring"
15: The construction equipment is meant to speak to the force required to compel change in such fundamental structures.
16: Ed's word "place" became "environment" in my mind, environment implies something very basic, the leaves of the tree are represent that basic component.
Ed Maibach is the Director of the Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.
Brandon Page works creatively for the social marketing agency Worldways.
Click on pic to enlarge
For a summary of Al Gore's speech yesterday click here, or watch below. Full Text here.
This speech could be important. The timing is perfect.
Worried about the effect on the climate when you've spent all night bopping around in a sweaty, badly air-conditioned, power-hungry club? Seen the mountains of paper flyers strewn across the pavement outside, and wondered how much water was used with every beery toilet flush?
Well worry no more! Because sustainable clubbing is heading our way courtesy of Dr Earth
A neat 90 second cartoon, telling us why 350 is the magic number, how people are spreading the message across 15 countries, what the G8 are doing about it and how all our individual actions can add up to change.
I appear to be on a bit of a plastic bag rant recently... so here's another great idea to cut down on our usage.
Morsbags are cute little cotton shopping bags, made out of recycled scraps of material. But more than this! Organise a social gathering with friends and make a whole load, and then you go to a supermarket and give them out to people for free, to persuade them not to take any more plastic bags.
Although, it has to be said that food packaging in general is more of a bug-bear for me and I avoid over zealous plastic wrapping like the plague. But I forgot my lunch today and I'm feeling more than guilty about the once-used soup carton in the bin beside my desk. For all those who bring in sandwiches here's a neat reusable carrier from Onya.
(And I will remember mine tomorrow. Promise)
A young student in Canada has apparently worked out how to get plastic bags to degrade in 3 months instead of the 1000 years that they can take in landfill, by using bacteria.
Using a simple mixture of household chemicals, yeast and warm water he was able to find a solution that could provide the solution to our plastic bag nightmares.
Clever kid. As I recall, my science project was an essay on the length of inshore barnacles. I'm still working on the practical application for that...
Although a recent student winner in the International Design Awards designed a building that can farm oysters so perhaps there's hope yet.
It would be nice if we all had an Eco Store near us. Lucky New Zealand!
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