Thanks to everyone who contributed towards the ThisPlace book. The trip to Copenhagen was tiring and highly eventful. We met lots of amazing people and based on our calculations managed to get the book to about 15% of delegates. The outcome of the conference itself is being interpreted differently by different interest groups. I have heard all the extremes from ‘the historic first step,’ to ‘an unmitigated failure of leadership and process.’ I guess for us, it is somewhere in the middle. One of the things that we realized while in Copenhagen is that the extreme views are often the loudest and clearest. They are also perhaps the most newsworthy as the press works off drama and antithesis, presenting polar opposites evenly and impartially so as not to have to choose. This project was, and still is, more about the people in the middle – the biggest group but often the least heard and represented. The people who want practical solutions to the problems they face rather than whole new ideologies. That’s why the book is primarily about highlighting the local, personal and immediate impacts of climate change. Impacts that are real and ongoing, despite the politics of global meetings.
Above is the book in its entirety. For some people, it might be worth a look to see if their submission is in there! When we started the project, the overall goal was to spread a bit of empathy amongst delegates. Hopefully now it will help spread a bit of empathy amongst regular people too. We are going to need it in the coming months to stay on the right track towards an ambitious legally binding agreement befitting of the science. So I would encourage you to share it with others. We always thought of the project as a small part of the first chapter in a long journey. In retrospect, perhaps it is more part of the introduction or even the prologue. However when re-reading the back cover, in in light of the outcome of the conference, I think it still conveys the right sentiment… Take a look for yourself.
Before we started this project we had no idea how big 5,000 books was. Problematic if this proved to be more than could fit in two cars while still allowing for five people and luggage. Luckily it was manageable and our focus has turned to getting the books to the right people. This is more difficult bearing in mind that the project kicked off far later than the six months needed to get the accreditation needed to get inside the Bella Centre – the home of the COP15 conference. So far the hotel route has proven difficult to say the least. The Marriot is sporting some very tough looking security guards and their ‘no’ was the swiftest. The email practically landed in Christian’s in-box while he was still walking away from the desk. The Radisson was much nicer and human from the off, and their email came some time later. I genuinely think that the manager was consulted before their ‘no’ landed a few hours later.
I can understand why the big hotel chains don’t want to make any waves or disturb the balance. Nobody wants to get in trouble – not when all eyes are watching. And on paper we are no different to any kind of activist or crack pot who are harbouring mischief in their message. Having said this our project is meant to provide a positive experience and something of value to the people who happen across it. Our approach has always been to try and get a good response from the people we are targeting by giving them something they will like. Everyone we show likes the book and the concept very much, but the gate keepers are proving challenging.
We have been pretty rushed off our feet since we arrived in Copenhagen in the two Toyota Prius’ that were kindly provided and driven by Greentomatocars. More updates to follow about our ‘outsiders’ take on the conference. The book itself is proving to be a big hit and its about time that we started sharing the brilliance of the illustrators that took part, with the world. The cover image is one of my personal favourites and sets the tone of the book really well i.e. positive, accessible, human, simple. It was created by Sarah Dyer who is a well known artist and illustrator. We think its awesome.
Last night, a couple of us went to hear Ed Miliband’s lecture at the LSE – The Road to Copenhagen. You can see the podcast here. Given the recent pessimism from many political leaders and commentators, including Obama, it was refreshing to hear such optimism and commitment from someone who is clearly passionate about achieving a global deal on climate change. Although he did point out that it was probably only if and when the big guys showed up would any real progress be made…
Ed spoke about a prevailing sense of ‘distance’ in the politics of climate change, which has also been described by Anthony Giddens. This ‘distance’ exists on three levels:
Temporal distance: There’s a significant time lag between action and consequences. Changes 30 or 40 years from now are already inevitable because of our actions over the last few decades. That’s not to say it’s too late to do anything, but it certainly poses the question of how protect the rights of future generations.
Geographical distance: The people most affected by climate change are those least responsible for causing it to happen in the first place. Ed told a moving story about the Nomadic people in North Kenya, who have seen frequency of drought increase from every 12 years, to 8 then 6, then 4 and now every 2 years. The carbon footprint of an average Kenyan is 0.3 tonnes. Compare that with the 20 tonne footprint of the average American and you get the idea.
Causal distance: It’s hard to link individual actions with monumental impact. Small steps equals big change works both ways, but I guess there is a kind of cognitive dissonance at play when you’re making the decision about whether to take the car or walk. You convince yourself that something so small couldn’t actually make a difference. Especially when it’s raining.
So part of the challenge is closing the gap on climate change. And I think that in some small way, #thisplace09 achieves this through the messages we’ve captured on twitter. We’ve had tweets from every continent. Tweets about what’s already happening as well as what’s coming. Our hopes and fears for our children and our children’s children. Tweets from some of the poorest and richest parts of the world. From the North and South, East and West. And reading through them, I really get the feeling that we all recognise that it’s people power that will ultimately drive change. And it’s change for a better today and tomorrow that we want, one that could be achieved at Copenhagen.
I’ve already emailed Ed Miliband this morning to see if he’ll help us get the books into the hands of delegates at the conference. So come on Ed, help us out!
This weekend was spent with family and friends in a home that still has a VHS cassette machine. In 1989 I was at primary school and a video camcorder was a pretty cutting edge piece of kit. It just so happened that my head teacher was an analogue early adopter and taught at least two years of my education from behind a camera. This was the time when behind the camera meant your entire head was hidden from view. When I left the virtual safety of a school with 60 children to the fear and excitement of one with 1600 we were presented with two VHS tapes of our recent past. Fair play to Mr Clements who clearly had to spend hours with two video recorders running off copies – to say nothing of how hard it much have been to use home editing equipment back then. The main purpose of viewing these this weekend was for everyone to laugh at how short and fat I was for my age. Though for everyone present this was a joke that never got old, I was able to notice a few things other than my tendency to be caught on camera with a giant bottle of orangeade or something equally sugary.
Firstly Puma must have been doing a roaring trade at that time. Full technicolour tracksuits were all the rage – a uniform of sorts. Not the much famed shell suit but a nylon finish worn tight to the skin – or at least mine was. But another thing I noticed which was more likely of making a positive contribution toward my future lives, was the amazing array of things we seemed to get up to. ‘201’ (loosely based on 2001 but with an 0 missing,) was a film, written, produced, and acted by myself and my slimmer peers. The robot was a sorry combination of cardboard and foil all fixed precariously to a radio controlled car. Sound effects were courtesy of an early printer which strangely enough did create a good range of unearthly sounds.
Looking back I remember that this project and others like it were discussed with, what I now know to be, notes of irony, if not ridicule at the school gates. But I am grateful for them and now believe wholeheartedly, in the role of the imagination in understanding anything. In some ways the #thisplace project is meant to bring some little nuggets of imagination into a big global issue. Hopefully we will have an update soon about an injection of creativity that I think will help them come to life more. However this journey back to the way I was in 1989, courtesy of the VHS Camcorder, made me think about the project for another reason.
Though the media is different, the output will still be a cultural artifact or document of a moment in time. Like the VHS tape, in some other time in the future people will be able to know what (at least some) people were thinking and hoping for in the days leading up to a big important opportunity for change. Of course I am referring to the opportunity to do something about the pending threat of climate change in Copenhagen this December. Choosing a book format for the final output of the project gives it far more longevity than a project created as a purely digital object which will hopefully help it last (a good read here about digital and real world teamwork.) If found I hope people will find something positive in what it seeks to achieve. I also wonder about the present day context that will surround it in all those years from now – what will that be like? Naturally I don’t have anything close to the answer but I do know that the range of possibilities is broader than perhaps we can even imagine. It runs from the good, to the bad, through to the very very ugly. Some meaningful yet hasty steps to cut our CO2 emissions in line with the present science could narrow these possibilities to something more favourable. In turn this may improve the view that’s taken by these people in the future when looking back at us and the way we were.
I was reading a forum today related to a recent disruption of television broadcast services in London and people are upset. Actually let me correct that. People are F&%$ing PISSED OFF. As a matter of fact apparently its on “par with the reception disaster at Sutton Coldfield” and therefore “The guilty men need to be brought into public scrutiny.”
So it got me thinking… maybe… just maybe, the key to getting people to do something about climate change is to claim that it will cause a disruption to television broadcasts… potentially even the Internet. Sure it’s not exactly true but…..
I can picture the article now “BREAKING NEWS: Climate Change and increasing temperature will cause all Television and Internet signals to stop working. New research has found that the increase in temperatures will prevent the transfer of signals through its usual conductors causing all homes to lose all forms of entertainment.”
I don’t know much but I guarantee you that action would be taken by even the most apathetic of citizens. That being said I don’t support this sort of campaigning, but if someone wanted to run with the story….
For the record, this outrage is not the peoples fault, their reaction is completely natural. I think it goes to demonstrate the communications problem which climate change has. T.V. is much more in your face and much more personal for the majority of people. We need to become more creative with climate change and sustainability issues (not only in run up to COP15). This is really the only way to get people to take it more seriously and realise that Climate Change is not the too BIG and impersonal issue but something which has an impact on all of our lives… sort of like T.V…. but not really
ThisPlace09 like so many other ideas started with one too many bottles of wine and a non-exhaustive list of conversations which ranged from Bonobo’s over active sex life to the concept of positive reciprocity in advertising.
Anyway… something that I remember discussing was that this project belonged to anybody and everybody who contributed to it. I know that words like that are thrown around far too often, but in today’s world our strength lies in the intent of people. Each individuals intent to add value, create and participate is compiled into what will eventually be the final product.
I want to focus on the word ‘individual’ for a moment. Despite the collective movement being what brings it scale and momentum, think of it as the vehicle, nothing would happen without the individual driver. What’s my point? Well we hear about climate change very often through mainstream media. In the midst of all that spectacle and all of the science which is thrown around it is easy to forget how personal it can all be.
The personal element is one of the motivations for this project. As I read through the submissions it strikes me how the personal local stories and worries are the entries with a really profound impact.
Examples of great submissions;
See what I mean? Individual local stories submitted by real people. Can’t think of a better reminder to the delegates at COP15 whilst drowning in politics that there is so much which is really worth saving…
*The ones submitted under the thisplace09 profile were email submissions that we then posted on twitter, in the book these will include the name and location of the person
So we’ve been live for four days and we’re really happy that we’re starting to get some good local, personal tweets for our tweet book.
As we continue, we’ve been thinking about the type of people who we need to appear in the final book. Most contributions should be from regular people, of course, such as those who provided these little snippets…
“Koalas: No Tree, No Me. With a 3-5° warming in #thisplace, only suitable areas are those that we have already clear-felled and urbanized.”
“Wild samphire picked from the banks of the River Orwell. Rising sea levels will make this perfect summer treat a distant memory. #thiplace”
“The Swedish winters. I’m tired of the mild weather and the lack of snow! Where’s the powder???”
And even though we’re making great progress, it would also help to get some from the great and the good on board too, for a handful of reasons.
For example, if we encourage those famed for their knowledge on climate change – those in the proverbial climate change hot seat – to contribute, then it will help with credibility. Alternatively, it could be that they are quite the wordsmith in the mould of Oscar Wilde, or George Orwell. Or it could be that they hold a position at the highest table of Tweeters – someone who will inspire people to participate and help the idea grow.
Perhaps it’s because I’m priming myself for watching his talk on ‘Last Chance to See’ at the Royal Geographical Society tomorrow night, but Stephen Fry sprung to mind as ticking at least two of the three boxes. I then got to thinking his partner for the talk Mark Carwardine might be able to help with the other.
So Stephen and Mark, if you are listening, don’t be alarmed when someone tries to pass you a note tomorrow night after your talk – their intentions are good.
Failing that inevitably awkward meeting and to avoid the stress of such a real world interaction you could always tweet “What’s worth saving in #thisplace” from your perspective!
Thanks!
P.S Stephen – I selected the most youthful picture of all those availaible on google images : )
I wonder if we are any closer to this now than we were say 10 years ago. Empathy is not very newsworthy so its difficult to say. When Barrack Obama got elected one of his regular sound bytes was around the belief that we have more in common to unite us than differences to divide and set us apart. I think that’s true on almost any scale but it does not sit well in politics, media or drama that prefer stories of goals set poles apart. If there was one issue where the empathy idea is most true then its climate change. This is because its worldwide context put us all in the same boat. So any positive or negative step for any one place and people is a positive or negative step for every other at the same time. The more you understand this the more you should be able to look at every other place with the same understanding care or empathy that you would your own. Trying to help towards a climate of empathy was the first thing we agreed as the kickoff to this project. Some of the ideas to make this happen were far too big to try and tackle but in many ways the spirit of this is alive and well in the #thisplace concept. However it relies on getting enough individual answers to the question “what’s worth saving in this place,” to log and compile in order to show how much they all have in common. You can add yours here…
When thinking about a useful project to contribute towards COP15 we wondered if there was a way to condense the real context of climate change into something that could fit in the palm of your hand. Could we create something that could bring all of the people in all of the affected places closer together; we hoped so? If you are looking to squeeze and simplify then twitter seems like a pretty good place to start. We would capture a personal story, insight or concern about the impacts of climate change in any place anywhere in the world in just 140 characters. If we put enough of these together they would all have a voice. However we would need a format still small, digestible and portable enough to grasp; thisplace, all of it, in one little volume.
Twitter is a great platofrm for getting snippets and stories but it is also fleeting. Its good at ‘now’ but not so good at ‘here for keeps.’ We would need the help of another media and could not think of anything more suitable than a book. For both storing and transporting all the #thisplace contributions to the delegates at the conference it would be a fabulous medium to use. It’s somewhat of a contrast to place new and old media together in this way. But media itself has never been about one being better than the other, its about playing to their strengths. This new meets old mash-up of sorts seems to make sense.
With our tweetbook we hope we can give a little reminder to the delegates in Copenhagen to keep the big picture in mind. We hope it helps them remember that they have all of the worlds shared problems, personal anxieties, hopes and dreams about climate change in their hands. We are still working on the best way to get this book to the right people. We have plenty of our own thoughts but if anyone has more ideas or some good contacts to pass on to us we would be very grateful. We’d love to hear from you.
