Project Survival Media‘s new website launched at the Copenhagen International Climate Conference and it looks great! Check it out and get dispatches from Project Survival’s media teams around the world.
New Project Survival Media Website launches at Copenhagen
Published December 8, 2009 Projects , Site Development , resources Leave a CommentUnite for Climate: Platform for youth climate solutions
Published October 4, 2009 News Leave a Comment
Children and young people have a new platform to engage in climate solutions, with the launch of UniteforClimate.org today at the International Children & Youth Conference in Daejeon, Republic of Korea.UNICEF, as part of a diverse coalition of UN agencies, civil society groups, youth activists, universities, and private partners, built the open-source online engagement platform for youth people and children to collaborate on solutions to climate change.
Young people from the developed world have pioneered uses of new media for advocacy and partnered with youth networks around the the world to build platforms, like YouthClimate.org. However, UNICEF and the other Unite for Climate partners have developed appropriate technology to connect young people without access to the internet and computers or in low-bandwidth areas, by using SMS polls and other online-to-mobile technology to reach youth in the developing world.
Another focus of the effort is online video, with low cost video-camera manufacturer FlipCam, YouTube, and the 1 minute to save the world contest coming together to provide equipment, host content, and screen video. Alongside the online video initiative, the site will have social networking tool available on the Unite for Climate site, for young citizens engaged in facing the challenge of climate change.
The platform was unveiled at the TUNZA International Children and Youth Conference in Daejeon, Republic of Korea, which is organized by the youth network affiliated with the UN Environment Program, TUNZA. Children and youth from some 110 countries participated in the launch of United for Climate, as well as released a statement they are delivering to world leaders.
The statement, titled “Listen to Our Voices”, led with this statement
We, young people – 3 billion of the world population – are concerned and frustrated that our governments are not doing enough to combat climate change. We feel that radical and holistic measures are needed urgently from us all. We now need more actions and less talking.”
The statement also made commitments by young people to work for sustainable solutions, work to green schools, campuses, and communities, as well as mobilize around the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen, this fall.
To support this youth commitment on campuses and schools, Unite for Climate will connect at least 150 schools around the globe from September 2009. The Connecting Classrooms project will foster dialogue on climate change between school children, and is supported by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the Mediterranean Center for Sustainable Development.
For more information:
United for Climate: www.uniteforclimate.org
Youth Climate Debates: www.youtube.com/youthclimatedebate
Youth Climate: www.youthclimate.org
It’s Getting Hot in Here – dispatches from the youth climate movement – www.itsgettinghotinhere.org
So, we tend to write a bit at Fired Up Media. I mean, it is part of our mission, so it makes sense. However, as another part of our mission is projecting the youth voice into the global conversation on building a sustainable future, we tend to write at a number of different sites. So, to give you all an idea of what we have been writing recently and where you can find it, we are doing a roundup. I hope you find it interesting and see the diversity of topics that Fired Up folks are tackling at any one time.
Madeline J. Kovacs : SolveClimate & It’s Getting Hot in Here- Jul 26th, 2009 – Students Lead Charge to Power School with Renewable Energy
Richard Graves: CommonDreams.org – Friday July 24, 2009 - Unregulated Carbon Credit Markets Threaten Local Sustainability Projects Worldwide
Kevin Kim: It’s Getting Hot in Here – July 21st, 2009 – A Green Way Forward? US/China Launches Joint Energy Research Center
Richard Graves: It’s Getting Hot in Here – July 14th, 2009- Unity over Divisiveness: Generational Approaches to the Climate Crisis
We will do another round-up soon, as we are writing up articles for America.gov’s eJournal USA and other publications, so keep an eye out!
I wanted to introduce our summer intern, Kevin Kim, who is coming to us from the Washington Workshops Foundation. They have the pretty awesome URL of Workshops.org, if you want to check them out. I was invited to open their their Washington Congressional Seminar with a talk on youth, politics, new media, and civic engagement. They introduced me to Kevin and now he is working with us for this summer. He is going to help out writing some manuals and articles and help out with graphic design, logistics, and some web work.
He wrote:
Hey, everyone. My name is Kevin Kim and I’m from the Orange County in California. I’ve been involved with a youth rights organization, many student groups, and grassroots political campaigning, and I hope to bring a new perspective to Fired Up and help you guys out on your projects. I’m really happy that I get the rare opportunity to actually roll up my sleeves and do some serious work that could bring about an important change in the youth climate movement today. I know we’ll have a great time.
Robert van Waarden and Fired Up Media Finalists for Getty’s Inaugural Grants for Good
Published July 2, 2009 Contests , Partnerships , photography Leave a Comment
Getty Images, the leading distributor of still imagery, launched the Grants for Good program to support exceptional photographers partnering with a nonprofit to support a cause and issue that needs to be visualized. Robert van Waarden, together with the Global Youth Action Network and Fired Up Media, submitted an application to photograph the emerging global youth climate movement. It was an exciting application to put together, including the development of a new media platform of social documentary photography. Now, while unfortunately our application was not selected as one of the two winners, it was selected as an exceptional finalist. Read about the finalists.
“In its inaugural year, Getty Images received more than 403 proposals from photographers in 26 countries, who partnered with non-profits working in more than 55 countries. Jurors Dennis Freedman, Creative Director for W Magazine, Christopher Phillips, Curator for International Center of Photography and Lesley Martin, Publisher for Aperture Foundation, selected the winning proposals. [emphasis added]” Read their release.
“In addition to the two grant winners, Getty Images and the judges wish to recognize a number of outstanding finalists and their innovative grant proposals benefiting non-profits from around the world:”
For more information on these finalists and their proposals, please visit www.gettyimages.com/grants. Those interested in supporting any of these exceptional projects can secure additional information by sending an inquiry to Grants2@gettyimages.com.
The winners were really incredible photographers and one project in particular is one that will be really powerful on the issue of climate and justice is Karen Kasmauski’s project with Save Our Cumberland Mountains. She is going to be showing the Appalachian way of life and its devastation by Mountain Top Removal mining, one of the great American tragedies. View her work here.
The Story of One Photo – Why Photographers Matter to a Movement
Published April 3, 2009 Victories , photography Leave a Comment
You may have seen this photo, on the left, from the Bonn meeting of the UN Climate Negotiations. It seems simple enough, two men sitting at a table with a framed photograph perched in front of the microphone. Yet, it shows how everything has started to change on the fight to create a global agreement in Copenhagen this December. Why? It demonstrates how everything is in our hands now.
First, lets start with the framed photograph itself. You probably can’t see it too clearly, so lets take a look at the original. Floating above a sea of signs, Ethan Nuss of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network is speaking to the Power Shift 09 Lobby Day Rally in front of the US Capitol building. He is wearing a suit, but he is holding a megaphone. It is wicked cold out, due to a freak snowstorm. Ethan is an incredible speaker and despite the crowd noise is inspiring all the young people in the crowd, who are vigorously waving their signs, and fired up to go lobby Congress.
What does this have to do with Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate official and the Executive Secretary (think Secretary of State, not your dentist’s secretary) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – the body charged with creating a global agreement on climate change, and why did he put this framed photo up? In Poznan, Poland – there was an intergenerational inquiry on the role of youth and the UN climate process. There, I recorded Yvo de Boer state that, ” I think that civil society loses its power, when NGOs put down their banners and put on suits.” He spoke on how young people need to provide the passion, the activism, and not lose sight of their goals in policy thickets. He also called for governments to live up to their promises to include youth representation. See Unicef’s reporting on it, here.
At Power Shift 09, there was an incredible effort to document the conference and tell our own story. Our New Media Warroom, filled with bloggers, photographers, and videographers hailing from the Obama campaign, youth climate organizations, and Fired Up Media – recorded the incredible gathering.
Robert vanWaarden, the leading international youth climate photographer, came with Fired Up Media to shoot the conference. He captured some of the most stunning images you will see of Power Shift, showing the importance and vitality of the youth climate movement. He took this photo of Ethan and the Power Shift rally. Two days after the rally, Yvo de Boer came to Washington DC to speak at the Brooking Institute, a thinktank, where a lineup of speakers talked about political ‘realities’ that will force compromising on Capitol Hill. You can read a bit about it, here. Robert and I printed out the photo, met with Yvo and told him, “We may have put on suits, but we are never putting down our signs.” Continue reading ‘The Story of One Photo – Why Photographers Matter to a Movement’
Fired Up: Youth Report on International Youth at Poznan Climate Talks
Published February 27, 2009 News , Partnerships , Television Leave a CommentI am very excited to tell all of you that we have completed our Fired Up: Youth Report segment on the International Youth Delegation at the Poznan climate talks.
This was a painstaking endeavor, involving serious project coordination, fundraising, and accreditation to the UN climate talks to spend two weeks filming the work, struggle, and the aspirations of the young people from over 54 countries that came to demand that their future and that of the most vulnerable be protected. It is airing as part of EarthFocus 12 and has been partnered with a piece on climate change and how it threatens the survival of Island Nations, focusing in this episode on the Maldives. We interviewed a Nobel Peace Prize Winner – Dr. Pauchauri and youth from countries all over the world. Take a look!
The Maldives/Youth Segment starts at 12:39. It is always hard to distill weeks of work into a few minutes, but I think many of the highlights are covered.
For a little more information about where this will be shown and who helped put this together, here is some information about LinkTV’s EarthFocus.
The Stats:
Earth Focus is broadcast to over 31 million U.S. homes receiving satellite, 6 million cable TV households and is available to millions more worldwide on the Internet (www.linktv.org/earthfocus). Link TV is also carried on many U.S. college campuses. Based on a review of other independent media outlets, it appears that Link has the largest audience of any independent print, radio or TV outlet in the U.S. Five million adults watch LinkTV regularly, on average 2.5 hours a week.
Earth Focus is broadcast to over 31 million U.S. homes receiving satellite, 6 million cable TV households and is available to millions more worldwide on the Internet (www.linktv.org/earthfocus). Link TV is also carried on many U.S. college campuses. Based on a review of other independent media outlets, it appears that Link has the largest audience of any independent print, radio or TV outlet in the U.S. Five million adults watch LinkTV regularly, on average 2.5 hours a week.
Earth Focus is also available on YouTube, Apple iTunes video podcasts, the Participatory Culture Foundation’s Miro Internet TV platform and on Empivot.com. During the past 6 months, Earth Focus videos were accessed by iTunes 104,539 times, by Miro 116,621 times and 688,924 times by other video feed services.
The Team:
As to whom, Shadia Wood pulled together the team that flew to and filmed in Poznan, Poland, Christine Irvine did the lion’s share of the filming, along with the Indian Youth Climate Network and Jon Warnow (I did a little, too!), and Raisa Scriabine put the whole episode together. We really all owe her so much, as she is the force behind EarthFocus and a strong supporter of youth produced environmental journalism. Sean McCall edited our cobbled together clips into a TV segment and Alexander K. Smith gave his voice to the piece. This may be the start of year’s work but it is wonderful so many people have contributed to it.
As to whom, Shadia Wood pulled together the team that flew to and filmed in Poznan, Poland, Christine Irvine did the lion’s share of the filming, along with the Indian Youth Climate Network and Jon Warnow (I did a little, too!), and Raisa Scriabine put the whole episode together. We really all owe her so much, as she is the force behind EarthFocus and a strong supporter of youth produced environmental journalism. Sean McCall edited our cobbled together clips into a TV segment and Alexander K. Smith gave his voice to the piece. This may be the start of year’s work but it is wonderful so many people have contributed to it.
The Funders!
This segment was funded by an award from Focus the Nation and Clif Bar’s Project Slingshot, which are both awesome organizations that do newsworthy things in their own right, check em out!
This segment was funded by an award from Focus the Nation and Clif Bar’s Project Slingshot, which are both awesome organizations that do newsworthy things in their own right, check em out!
I just wanted to tell everybody about what Fired Up has been upto at the UN climate negotiations in Poznan, Poland! It has been a rollercoaster, full of ups, downs, and lots of filming!
Yes, we are making our second segment for LinkTV’s Earthfocus – this time with interviews with Nobel Prize winning Rajendra Pauchari, Chair of the IPCC, Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate official, Harlan Watson – the controversial lead negotiator for the Bush Administration on climate, and lots of amazing youth activists from around the world.
It has been a bumpy road, as we have been learning (the hard way) the difference between Pal and NTSC film, how to find lighting in pale Poland, and the very, very important difference between 4to6 and 6to6 firewire cable. They really should send film students to these things, they sure would learn a lot. We have had some great help from other youth media folks and I expect a number of them to join us on this list. (I also am thinking of going to film school on the weekends)
However, we haven’t just been filming! We have also been writing, taking photos and more. You will get to see Christine Irvine’s camera work later when we produce the show, but you can see Robert van Waarden, David Wargert, and Shadia Fayne Wood’s photos here: http://www.photoshelter.com/va/climatechange – our own ‘virtual’ photo agency!
I also have been writing a bit:
I wrote this: “Which Path Will the Youth Climate Movement Take?” – which was published on Common Dreams, Watthead, and Climate Progress.
and This: “Global Youth Mobilizing to Demand Survival” – which was published by SolveClimate
…and this little post: Introducing YouthClimate.org – Voices from the International Youth Climate Movement – yes, we finally have a global home for youth climate blogging, videos, and photos. h/t to Jon Warnow for putting it together.
So, exciting times! On the Road to Copenhagen, make sure to hold onto your hat!
Fired Up: Youth Action TV Launches!
Published November 26, 2008 Partnerships , resources Leave a CommentTags: Climate, Project Launch, TV, Youth
Hey everybody, so I wanted to update you on all the incredible progress we have been making on developing the communications capacity of the youth climate movement – with Fired Up: Youth Action TV. It has been a huge learning curve, starting with blogging and YouTube video and moving into the world of TV production. However, Fired Up Media is starting to produce our first TV content. We partnered with LinkTV’s Earthfocus, with the support of Focus the Nation and Clif Bar, to introduce the youth climate movement. Watch EarthFocus 9 now!
We gathered archive footage, learned how to edit, compose, and identify TV quality film…but this was only the beginning. The big success was producing the content at all! With our next segment, we are getting more ambitious and are sending a team to UN climate negotiations, to tell the story of young people trying to build a global movement to build a sustainable world.
As to whom will be seeing it…Link TV is the first nationwide television channel dedicated to providing Americans with global perspectives on news, events and culture. Currently, the channel is available as a basic service in more than 31 million U.S. homes that receive direct broadcast satellite television (DBS). Pretty exciting, as the channel is available in 1 out of all 4 US households.
Fired Up Media launches Online Organizing Wiki
Published September 25, 2008 Site Development , resources 1 CommentTags: online organizing, resources
Hey, everybody. So, in the effort to expand the knowledge base and resources for all the youth climate bloggers and activists out there, we have launched the Fired Up Media Online Organizing Wiki. It will try and showcase the best resources, materials, links, and lessons learned from the new media and online organizing work we have been doing. So please check it out and if you like it, contribute!
The address is in the right hand sidebar, but you can find it here: wiki.firedupmedia.org
