Guest Editor: David Hayes - Social Networking for change

It’s safe to say that the use of social networking sites worldwide has exploded in the past year, with popular sites seeing total visits increase by as much as 270 percent, according to a recent study by ComScore Inc. MySpace, alone drew more than 114 million global visitors in June 2007, a 72 percent increase over the past year while Facebook, experienced a 270 percent increase in worldwide visitors over the past year.

Alongside the growth of these networks the emergence of niche networks is also growing, coupled with the increased media attention on climate change its no wonder that we are now seeing a host of green social networks emerging. Personally I welcome this for a host of reasons but primarily anything that puts climate change at the centre of the debate is both necessary and essential. While I enjoy dabbling with Facebook and other networks the communication involved seems to be rather limited and the content rather egocentric. This is not a criticism rather an observation and it’s totally natural given that we are really just beginning to explore the potentials of this form of communication.

What ever your beliefs in regard to climate change and its effects it’s hard to ignore the problems we are facing in relation to escalating fuel prices, food shortages and extreme weather conditions. Whether we believe it or not they are inextricably linked and the need to address these issues is paramount. For the first time in human history the Internet offers us the tools to communicate and collaborate on a global scale. While the net may not offer all of the solutions it does however allow each of us to partake in the discussion and therefore it is unquestionably a truly democratizing tool and one that needs to be safeguarded.

As I said earlier I welcome the proliferation of green focused networking sites and I myself am part of a new networking site www.edenbee.com that offers users a platform to tackle climate change through better personal choices (with a little encouragement from like-minded souls). It has all of the essentials of a social network — ways to build a network with friends, and groups and discussions — but on Edenbee, personal profiles get a unique spin with “Lifestyle Profiling” and “Carbon Logbooks,” and a framework for setting goals against the two.

Edenbee encourages not only information sharing, but also a way for people to cheer each other on. If you are looking for up to date news and information you can browse through the blog posts that offer a host of news and interesting articles on how to be more eco conscious and other topical green issues. We feel that we are encouraging a more meaningful conversation, one that is necessary if we are to leave any kind of lasting legacy for future generations.

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Guest Editor: James Russell - How to Turn our Children Green

It’s hard to remember what the world was like before we found out about climate change. For children it’s probably impossible. Yet ten or fifteen years ago Greens were still perceived as slightly crazy, unrealistic misfits – people who refused to engage in the eternal political battle between right and left, but instead wanted to send humanity back to the Dark Ages.

With Green politics rapidly becoming mainstream and the Environment high on everyone’s list of important subjects, we’re moving into new territory. The old campaigners from the 1970s are suddenly discovering that politicians and pundits are listening to them, and you can hardly pick up a newspaper or open a web page without somebody telling you how to Green up some aspect of your life. Rarely a day goes by without an alarming news story about melting ice or vanishing species. In fact the news story that doesn’t have climate change as an important component is now as rare as the Panamanian Golden Frog.

News and opinions inevitably filter from the adult world into the playground, and children are worried. A government-sponsored UK survey of primary (4-11) education last year found that kids were pessimistic about the future and concerned about everything from climate change to trade injustice. Many equated these huge issues (which they felt powerless to address) to their immediate environmental problems – traffic, bullying and so on – creating a general climate of anxiety.

This has worsened a tendency that should alarm environmentalists across the spectrum: children’s abandonment of the real world in favour of TV, the internet and fantasy fiction. A recent editorial in the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust magazine suggested that children’s lack of enthusiasm for nature (in reality, rather than on TV) did not bode well for wildlife organisations that rely both on the work of enthusiastic volunteers and donations from supporters. The people currently filling the ranks and the coffers of the RSPB and other organisations developed their passions when they were children, but if our children spend their free time at home (or in manmade playgrounds), how can they do the same?

Other factors are at work here, for instance the misguided health and safety rules that make it so hard for schools to arrange trips. My son went to a wonderful pre-school set beside a city farm, yet the kids never went to the farm during school time because to take them fifty metres required supervision at a ratio of one adult for every three children.

If children are raised in these surroundings, driven everywhere in cars and offered the easy solace of the bedroom computer, it’s no wonder they find the real world alarming. Add to this fears of climate change and you have a generation ill-equipped to face any sort of challenge, never mind the ones our kids are likely to encounter.

Yet many children want to be active and informed citizens, and thankfully they are now getting more and more opportunities to do so. The international organisation Eco-schools (www.eco-schools.org) is one that doesn’t yet have the cachet of Greenpeace, but it could prove a vital force for change. Some 40,000 schools around the world (8,000 plus in the UK) have signed up to this programme designed to help schools teach kids about a whole range of Green issues and carry out practical work.

A glance at the nine topic areas listed on the UK website (www.eco-schools.org.uk) shows that this programme goes way beyond light bulbs and composting. It is, in fact, a revolutionary exercise in consciousness-raising, covering everything from Fair Trade to Biodiversity. It insists on the importance of children leaving the classroom and experiencing the world as much as possible, emphasizes that the Environment is all around us and ours to look after, and empowers students by putting the school council rather than teaching staff at the centre of the decision-making process.

Of course schools can ignore the whole thing if they choose, but this is part of a wider movement to encourage and facilitate children’s involvement with their environment. A few years ago play workers in the city of Bath launched a Play Rangers scheme, which offered children adult supervision in local parks, encouraged adventurous play and gave lessons in outdoorsy skills. Now local authorities all over the country are launching similar schemes, and children are coming out to play.

Personally, I am less excited about the much more loudly-trumpeted Greening of children’s TV and websites. While it might be inspiring for children to see their favourite characters saving the planet, the children themselves are still staring at a screen. If we want a new generation of eco-warriors to stand up to governments and corporations in the future, they need the opportunity to fall in love with the world around them and to develop the strength and imagination to become its protectors.

James Russell is the author of How to Turn Your Parents Green
howtoturnyourparentsgreen.blogspot.com

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Applied Green by Russell Davies

A must read for everyone interested in green marketing is Russell Davies’ presentation at Applied Green that took place last year. Russell is the big daddy of planners and communications strategists in the UK as well as globally. He brilliantly discusses potential routes to reinvent consumer capitalism, a cultural and economic phenomena/reality that has such a devastating effects on the environment yet it is fairly naive to hope to eliminate it all together.

Fantastic read.

Filed under Sustainability, Shopping, Media | Comment (0)

Consume Less

Recently I had been sent a e-mail with a link to this wonderful video that explained that as consumers most of us don’t see or see too little of what the big picture has to tell us about what the real cost of what it takes to produce a product in terms of money, content and pollution to create and make a item we see in a store.

There are five steps in the process of creating product. First there is extraction of natural resources next comes the process of production made from the natural resources, chemicals etc. then comes distribution at your local stores which leads people to consume or buy a product and finally the disposal of the product. This short video digs deeper into these five steps in making and distributing from life to death of a product. The short movie with Annie Leonard is about 20 minutes long which you can see at The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard also on their web page you can watch, download the video which is about 55mb in size, or you can even buy a DVD with this video for $10. I recommend this video for everyone to watch especially for the real consumers that keep buying products more than what the average person may buy in a given month or year. Spread the word about this video it may even get you thinking about what you even buy for the holidays, birthdays party’s or even things you buy for your own self.

Filed under Shopping, Recycling, Sustainability, Transport, Marion Iowa - USA, Employment, Power & energy, Pollution, Fashion, Education, Health, Marine & coastal, Nature & wildlife, Media, Climate change | Comment (1)

Guest Editor: Jack Guest - A Convenient Truth, a film about the world getting better

Only a few years ago, anyone working to raise awareness about climate change was doing just that: working to raise awareness. The challenge was primarily to convince people that climate change was happening, and that it was a problem to take seriously.

One of the refreshing things about today’s climate is that this first challenge has been won. Thanks in large part to Al Gore, and all the work preceding his, global warming is all but uniformly recognised - both on a national and international level- as the greatest threat facing humanity today.

This means that for the first time in the history of environmental campaigning, activists, politicians, mothers, fathers, businesses and anyone else moved to act can focus all of their energy on creating solutions to the problem. And this means that the challenge of global warming can become an opportunity for things to get better.

From all I’ve seen so far, the cornerstones of this opportunity are two-fold: collaboration and action. Action is self explanatory: we have to do something, and we have to do it now. Collaboration is the mechanism to do it. Gone are the days of ‘them and us’ approaches to environmental issues- more clearly than ever we all see that there’s a massive problem, and the only way out is to work together.

That means governments, businesses, pressure groups, families, students, civil servants, red, blue, green, black, white, pink, capitalist, anarchist, socialist , upper-class, lower-class, working-class, middle-class, religious, non-religious, 4×4 driving, cycle driving, suit or sandal wearing, you name it. We are united by our common humanity, and if that doesn’t make sense to you, then by our common being on this blue ball together a long, long way from any other coloured balls on which we can live.

So what’s the convenient truth about all this? That doing the work- doing what’s needed to stabilise the climate, not only enriches our own lives, it also enriches the lives of those around us, and everyone with a stake in planet earth- which is everyone. Everyone wins.

It’s not always easy. Collaboration, whether within a family, or within the arena of international politics takes work. It takes work to get through our clashing egos in order for our common humanity to emerge: imagine Mr Capitalist and Mr Anarchist in the Big Brother House arguing over whose turn it is to do the washing up, meanwhile the chickens in the garden are being eaten by a hungry fox who got driven from his home in the woods.

The question is the nature of our end goal. Too often in life the end goal is drama, tension, sparks flying and continuing to fly. Is that what we want on a planetary level? Or can our end goal be harmony? Can we do away with the drama of doom and gloom, now? Do away with the tension of political stand-off? Can we collaborate enough so that once the initial sparks of ego clashes have flown, they can recede and we can get on with the job at hand?

I think we can, and I think it’s worth it. And that’s A Convenient Truth.

The feature length preview of my film, A Convenient Truth, is now available online, www.climatefilm.com/preview

View the trailer on YouTube or visit the website at www.climatefilm.com

Filed under Campaigns, Media, Education, Climate change | Comment (1)