31:
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
(examples of outrage on forum below)
30:
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
26:
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 : )
18:
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…
18:
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.
18:
We have been thinking for some time that the news only knows how to report on big instant events and so struggles to report the effects of climate change. These happen gradually one day and year at a time. In climate time it’s the blink of an eye but to the modern news media it does not quite compute.
The Copenhagen climate conference is a big global event so it will get lots of coverage but we worry that its full context will not come to life. It might just appear as a load more men and women in suits taking part in the next big wedge of political stuff. Context is needed to makes these things make sense. Without it events like this are just satellites whizzing around with the rest of the white noise.
But the context makes it matter. Like the view of most of the top climate scientists that this conference is pretty much a now or never, do or die event. In context the event represents the biggest platform in the shortest of windows where action needs to ‘get on with it!’
That’s when we started to think that we should do something that brings the true context of Copenhagen to life. Especially for the delegates who are making the decisions but also for anyone else interested.
The truth is that climate change is affecting people all around the world already. And in the seemingly comfortable places where it doesn’t feel so immanent its only a matter of time. Our idea is to try and capture a snap shot of all of these things from where-ever they are playing out; that’s the first part. The second is to bring them together into a format that can make the real context of Copenhagen absorbable as simply and quickly as possible.
If the delegates always remember the real context then we might just be closer to a deal fit for the problem rather than the politics. And if everyone else looking on to the conference sees a glimpse of where it really sits in the grand scheme of things then we might be able to create a bigger weight on their shoulders to get things right.
18:
From December 7th – 18th 2009 15,000 delegates from around the world will meet at COP15 to initiate an international agreement on climate change. Many scientists have defined a very short window to take action in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change so the task at the conference can’t be overestimated.
However there’s a risk that the issues discussed will appear big, distant and too much like politics to most people. Contrary to this impression the effects of climate change are already being felt around the world. A further risk that delegates themselves lose the big picture and end up focusing on local political goals.
#thisplace is a project to remind delegates at Copenhagen to keep it simple! The idea is to capture what’s happening now and what’s at stake due to climate change in a place that matters to people everywhere in just 140 characters. We are going to squeeze contributions from all around the world into a small book to give to delegates at the conference. Then all the worlds shared problems, personal anxieties, hopes & dreams about climate change will be in their hands!
We are asking people to contribute by answering one simple question highlighting something or some place that will be affected by climate change that personally matters to them. In 140 characters or less…
What’s worth saving in #thisplace?
When we have collected and printed the best of these it will create a very simple human snap-shot of how climate change is affecting real people today and in the future.
You can post your contribution directly on your twitter feed with the #thisplace tag or alternatively just fill in the text box in this site and we will post it into our own twitter feed. Thanks for taking part!
