theClimateers

On the last weekend of February, a friend of mine tipped me off to a video competition put on by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, YouTube, and Sony. The task was to create a three-minute video about one day in the life of someone who gives back to his/her community. In about 48 hours, I got in touch with Daniel Boese, a friend, climate activist and journalist in Berlin, talked to him about a community solar project he’s currently working on, filmed him working on that project, and cut this video together to submit it by February 28.

The video is now up for the Project Report Community Award. Please take a look at it below and click the Project Report Thumbs Up that pops up over the bottom of the video to vote for the video.

The community solar project that Daniel is currently starting demonstrates the “Get to Work” attitude that 350.org has been promoting as the movement’s motto for 2010. We need to work on all fronts to curb global climate change, and we mustn’t overlook what we can do in our own neighborhoods.

As Daniel says:

“What I like about the project also is that it makes sense in both a local and a global context. You’re doing something that’s interesting for your community, my community here, and it directly relates to THE global problem of the 21st Century of climate change. Because in the end, this is about fighting climate change.

2009 was kind of the year where the climate change movement around the globe came together and tried to put a lot of pressure on politicians, with very mixed results. And I think with things like the solar project we’re trying to do here, there’s a possibility of the movement around the world to just start being the change and start doing the change, what is necessary.

The size of the challenge is much bigger than just putting up a couple solar panels. But this not something you can just do overnight. There’s no one who has a master plan. So you definitely, you need a conversation, you need people to try out things, you just need to get going. That’s what I think. You need to get the conversation going, you need to try. This is one experiment of seeing how the community reacts to this. And hopefully, it’s a starting point to go further. That’s my big hope.”

For more ideas on how you can take action at home, check out this recent post on the the 350.org blog!

I just wanted to blog this photo. I was sleeping in (until 8:30) for my birthday, so sadly I missed this fun SustainUS-organized event. “Don’t leave us out in the cold,” yelled US youth as delegates and others waited in security lines to get into the Bella Center. We need science-based targets – ahem 350ppm – for survival of all the world’s peoples and for a habitable planet for future generations.

Last summer, Louise asked me one night in the middle of a July week to write and record a rap song about 350.  After a little pestering, I complied.  I wrote, recorded, and edited the rap all together in about three hours that night.  I uploaded it, tweeted about it, and pretty soon 350 caught wind of it.

All along, I said, “This is just a demo. I’m going to re-record it with a real band. I’m going to make a music video.”  Ok, so life caught up to me (hey, I moved to from the US to Germany and started a master’s program over here…) and I just got around to the music video part after skipping the “working with good musicians” bit. After missing the October 24th Day of Action as a video premiere date, I wanted to be sure to get it out before Copenhagen.  So without further ado, the 350 Rap music video (which premiered yesterday on N30):

Dot .- (read aloud: “dot dot dash”) is my rapper moniker. Right. I don’t think I need to write anything more to explain the title of this post.

Oh, and if you like my work (heh), please consider donating $10 or $24 to my Copenhagen Fund.  My expenses ($130 train, $500 hostel, $$$ food, etc.) are adding up as I’ll be serving as “video queen” for the SustainUS delegation and I am covering several hundred dollars of equipment costs for microphones and a tripod and all that good stuff myself. I look forward to providing you with high quality video updates from the negotiations, which will almost certainly involve more interviews and less rap (but hopefully a lil bit of rap makes its way in there as well), but I also hope to have enough money to eat!

October 24, 2009, was an amazing day in Berlin and, from what I can tell, around the world at over 5200 events in 181 countries.

There were a few major events in Berlin.

1. 350, the Show. Put on by the Klimapiraten (Climate Pirates) and the Kampagne Klimakanzlerin gesucht (Climate Chancellor Sought Campaign of the Klimaallianz, GermanWatch & Avaaz), this short theatrical show in front of the Brandenburg Gate was highly successful despite some last minute changes to the program.

   The initial idea that we had was to have a casting show (like American Idol) to seek out the true Climate Chancellor, a title Angela Merkel likes to give herself despite doing little for the climate, amidst 350 people with Merkel masks on. At the end, a Climate Pirate from 2050 would deliver the true Climate Chancellor 350 roses and a note thanking her for all the right steps she took at Copenhagen in 2009 that led to a sustainable, beautiful world in 2050. I was always a bit uncertain of whether we could pull this final messaging off – how could we make it clear that we were thanking a Merkel that we’d like to see and not the real, current Merkel; how could we be sure to convey the 2050/time-traveler aspect? Luckily, in the last few days before the event, others made the decision to overhaul the program despite already sending out the press releases and mobilization emails. (I was unable to make the final planning meetings due to class and a trip to Bonn for a scholarship retreat.)

   Our new show, which I first caught word of AT the event on Saturday morning, was much easier to handle. We had our 350 volunteer Merkels as the studio audience and split inner-conscience of Angela Merkel during a studio interview. The messaging changed to “The time for uncertainty is over” and we left Merkel saying “Jein” (yes/no) at the end followed by the rest of us saying “Act! Now!” The 15-minute show was perhaps still a bit long for most reporters to take note of all the details, but the masks were great and got us in as one of the nine featured events in the New York Times slideshow. I call that success.

2. Deletion of 350 tons worth of emissions credits. At the end of the 350 show, we tagged on another action put on by the Compensators, in which they popped a balloon labelled “350t CO2″. Once popped, 350 slips of paper, each representing one ton of CO2 pollution that the Compensators and donors had purchased out of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme, flew out like confetti.
3. Carrotmob. After some tear-down and clean-up, a bunch of the Climate Pirates headed over to Eve & Adam’s organic salad and smoothie bar to enjoy a refreshing lunch. The little restaurant committed 45% of proceeds to energy efficiency improvements and boy did it pay off! Carrotmobbers enjoying any of the tasty menu items including a special carrot and ginger soup for 350 cents more than doubled the restaurant’s record daily income.
4. Silent Climate Parade. Honestly, going into this event, I was a bit skeptical and I only intended to show up, take a bit of video, and go home. I was given one of the 350 wireless Sennheiser headphones, though, and was quickly sucked in to the awesomeness of this event! The idea here was that 350 ravers listening to live techno music being played by Dr. Motte, the man behind Berlin’s famous Love Parade in the 90s, would dance and party through the streets of Berlin, from Potsdamer Platz to Alexanderplatz.

   Honestly, this was the most fun protest/action/whatever that I’ve ever participated in. Basically, it was bunch of youth partying in the middle of the main streets in downtown Berlin. Like getting into a very underground or elite club, we with headphones were rocking out to sweet jams that no one else could hear. Passers-by were quite perplexed, so we handed out 5,000 fliers explaining the event: greenhouse gas emissions are a mostly silent problem, but if we listen to the scientists, it is clear that our politicians have been too silent on the issue of climate change.

   Many of the people on Unter den Linden are tourists, so I volunteered to help deliver the German fliers and had one ear out to try to identify non-German speakers who might want an explanation in English. I talked to dozens of people, giving a full 2- or 3-minute explanation to maybe 20 people, and they were all captivated by and supportive of the Silent Climate Parade and broader 350.org message.

   A chance meeting with an old friend who lives in another part of Germany and the adrenaline rush from dancing through the streets certainly helped make this one of the best days of my life. However, I think it was seeing all the volunteers behind their Merkel masks at the Show, all the hungry activists at the Carrotmob, and all the energized youth and interested bystanders at the Silent Climate Parade – at least a thousand of us, all behind the call for 350ppm – was really what made this day a day to remember.

I was lucky enough to have had access to a wonderful new HD camcorder and edited this little highlights video together before hitting up the 350 After-party on Saturday night (also a fun time, hah). Click to view the video at Vimeo.com to see it in HD.

Berlin 350 International Day of Action Highlights from Valida Prentice on Vimeo.

Did you organize or participate in a 350 International Day of Climate Action event? How did it go?

Things have been busy here in DC (and in 170 other countries!) in preparation for the International Day of Climate Action on October 24th!

On a personal note, it’s been really gratifying and energizing to have been helping to plan the rally. Between phone banking, petitioning, and mobilizing other DC volunteers, climate change action has been monopolizing my free time, but it’s great to see all the different environmental groups come together for this.  And, it’s been so interesting to see all the different types of events that people have come up with, which, I guess, is the beauty of the 350 grassroots-based campaign. From the big march in DC and regional campus PowerShifts to protests at coal plants and bike rides, I’m so happy to see people getting involved in all sorts of ways.

I think the best part of this whole process is that it’s been a good platform to talk about climate change with people (both friends and strangers) who did not think about taking action otherwise.  My friend at UC Davis just told me that she signed up for a big climate bike ride after seeing all my 350.org plugs on facebook, and I’ve gotten several other people to volunteer. Even just getting climate issues on people’s radar is great.

For our U.S. readers, here are the details for two 350 events in DC and Chicago.  Unfortunately, it looks like possible rain on Saturday in DC, but at least the forecast won’t be too cold!

Chicago:

1-4 pm at Fisk Coal Plant in Pilsen (1111 W. Cermak)

Speakers and performers will include Alderman Joe Moore, Executive Director of Greenpeace Phil Radford

DC:

Malcom X/Meridian Hill Park, 12-3: Rally at Malcolm X; 3-5: March down 16^th Street to the White House

Speakers and Performers will include:
Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus
Friis Arne Petersen, Danish Ambassador to US
Steve Ma, Live Green
Joe Uehlein, former director, AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Campaigns

For folks interested in marching as part of an MTR contingent, see this!