October 2009 Update On: Project Survival Media, Contributing, Photography, Consultancy, & Our New Home
Project Survival Media: After a rigorous application and selection process, Project Survival Media (PSM) has seven talented youth new media teams, one on every continent. These teams are producing six professional mini-documentaries, 70 professional photographs, and over 100 blogs in the lead up to COP 15 in Copenhagen this December.
Then, teams are distributing content through youth blogs in 15 languages, online and offline news outlets. We will be showing delegates what is happening on the front lines of the climate crisis in their region, what it is doing to the people they are sworn to serve and protect. We are taking the message to our delegates at Copenhagen: As you negotiate our planet’s climate, “Survival is not Negotiable.”
Team leaders have compiled a media pitch that we are using to approach hosts and syndication partners, as well as some outlets who want to pay for original content. It’s awesome. We also made this video, 350=Survival, with Jon Warnow of 350.org. Read the conversation below the YouTube post – a prime example on how a video like this can help educate on climate change.
Fired Up Contributors: This fall, Richard was hired as the online campaigner and blogger for the TckTckTck campaign, which is run by the Global Campaign for Climate Action. The campaign’s highlights include organizing the Global Wake Up Call, with 2600 events in 134 countries, as well as serving as the liaison with Change.org for Blog Action Day, single largest social change event on the web, with 13,600 Blogs in 156 Countries participating, collectively reaching an audience of 18,085,076 people.
Richard also wrote a series of articles for Grist Magazine on climate policy and healthcare, and an article for the US State Department’s eJournal USA, “International Youth: Fired Up About Climate Change“ which was featured together with articles by Dr. Pachauri and fellow It’s Getting Hot in Here editor, Zoë Caron. Richard is also now a contributor to The Huffinton Post. Lastly, Mara MacKinnon, a friend of Fired Up, recently wrote a noteworthy piece on the American Pika and implications for US climate policy for SolveClimate.
Photography: Fired Up and PSM Europe Team Leader Photographer Robert Van Waarden was accepted into the International League of Conservation Photographers as an Emerging Photographer. A collection of his photos on the youth climate movement was also on display at Bonn – Presently, we are seeking donations to help get this amazing display of artwork in place for climate negotiators to view during their next meeting in Barcelona.
Consultancy and Connections: Shadia worked closely with 350 in New York, pulling together thousands of photos from climate actions around the globe. Fired Up also made contact this summer with It’sHotInHere, an awesome environmental campus news show out of Ann Arbor, MI. Madeline appeared on the show! (That’s right, after the Nelly song 20 minutes in). Madeline has also been working for the last four months part-time as a Communications consultant with http://www.ourtask.org. She helped them film a new video, and will be taking some information about OT with her to Copenhagen, including resources about the global outlook studies and strategies that shape our future.
We are the new project of the Earth Island Institute: Lastly, but certainly not least, we are very proud to announce that Fired Up Media is the newest project of the Earth Island Institute. We have been accepted into a wonderful family of environmental organizations, including the Energy Action Coalition, Baikal Watch, Women’s Earth Alliance, and the Sacred Land Film Project. We had our orientation in early October, and can’t wait to keep growing our capacity.
