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.

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.

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.”

I asked those pontificating about the impossibility of getting midwestern senators to support a climate agreement, if they thought the emergence of a citizen-based climate movement could change political ‘realities’, on camera. They seemed to be surprised to have heard of Power Shift 2009, let alone the fact that young people are stepping up to lead this movement. This brings us to the second part of the first photo, the man sitting next to Yvo de Boer.

His name is David Turnbull, he is 26, and he is the Director of the Climate Action Network – International, the coordinating body for Environmental NGOs at the UN Climate process. [Full Disclosure: He is my roommate.] David and Yvo are presiding over the liason meeting between the NGO community and the UN in Bonn. The fact that a twenty-six year old man is serving in this role and joining other rockstars like EAC co-founder, and 25 year old Meg Boyle, as a lead negotiator for Greenpeace, while Yvo de Boer holds up Power Shift 09 as the model for climate action before the assembled NGO community, means that we are in a new era. The youth climate movement might not have the money, the glass faced building in DC, or teams of economists at our beck and call, but we are starting to influence and direct the global climate movement. That is the story this photo tells us.

However, this story won’t be told without the photographers, videographers, writers, bloggers, and networks around the world dedicated to telling it. That is why I have been working on Fired Up Media and have been excited to partner with Robert vanWaarden to shoot the youth climate movement since the UN climate talks in Bali. Thanks to Marr Maiorana for snapping this last photo in Bonn and to everyone dedicated to telling the stories of victory in this movement.

I 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.

So here it goes, the unveiling of the Global Youth Climate Movement’s work in Poznan, Poland, for COP 14 at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change:

To Download this video, click here. It’s the video labeled COP14 (Say What You Want).

And the other video:

To download this, click here . It is labeled COP 14 (teardrop)

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!

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.

Also, this isn’t the only project we have been working on! Check out the Fired Up Online Organizing Wiki.

Fired Up: Youth Action TV is a funded project of Project Slingshot, awarded by Focus the Nation and funded by the awesome folks at Clif Bar.

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

See other related posts here:

Introducing Fired Up Media
Project Slingshot Winners Announced!
Focus the Nation and CLIF MOJO Award Three Innovative Young Leaders [pdf]
Focus the Nation
They’ve been Slingshot-ted

Cross-posted from It’s Getting Hot in Here, originally by Minna Brown of Focus the Nation.

Millions of people are celebrating and rallying for climate action this Earth Day, but we’re also seeing how dedicated young people are to spending more than just one day working to pass legislation and find community solutions to global warming. Today, Focus the Nation and Clif MOJO are proud to announce three projects that will be examples of that determination to make positive and sustainable change through Project Slingshot

After weeks of deliberation, the Project Slingshot judges have zeroed in on three projects to propel from ideas into action this summer with grants of $10,000 each. With 45 great applications full of ideas on how to spark more youth action on climate change, the judges didn’t have an easy job, but the winners stood out for their commitment to innovation and to broadening this movement in tangible ways. The lucky three are:

Maya Donelson, Graze the Roof, San Francisco, CA, will integrate local organic food production and the efficiency gains of a green roof with an edible green roof at Glide, a diverse San Francisco church and nonprofit located in the Tenderloin District serving low income and marginalized people. Students from Glide’s Training and Employment Services Youth Build Program will construct and maintain the garden.

Richard Graves, Fired Up Youth Action TV, Washington, D.C., will produce five minute news segments covering youth issues ranging from education, to politics, to jobs and the economy, to entertainment and culture – all through the lens of the most important challenges facing young people: the impact of global warming and the construction of a cleaner, more just economy and society.

Jesse Hough, Sunnyside Neighborhood Energy Project, Portland, OR, will run a summer “think-and-do tank” institute that will engage students to help advance an innovative, community-owned, thermal district energy system utilizing low carbon energy supplies to provide space heating and cooling and domestic hot water to a mixed residential/commercial neighborhood of Portland, Oregon

These projects will serve as replicable models for all of us to become more involved and Maya, Richard and Jesse will be sure to keep getting the word out about how their projects are going.

[Editor's Note: This is what I posted on It's Getting Hot in Here to announce who we are and what we are up to.]

So, if you are regular reader of It’s Getting Hot in Here, you may have noticed that I have been a little absent recently. Why, you might ask, as what could be more exciting than sharing information with the youth climate movement? Well, I have been working on a project behind-the-scenes that I want to share with you all.

I have been working on launching Fired Up Media. Let me take you for a spin. Fired Up Media just won Project Slingshot for our Youth Action TV proposal, so we are terrifically excited and want to tell all of you about what we are doing!

What is Fired Up Media? Fired Up Media is a growing network of videographers, editors, and journalists reporting from the front lines of the youth climate movement and disseminating through the Fired Up Virtual Newsroom. The network has grown out the diverse media projects of the youth climate movement, such as It’s Getting Hot in Here, I Shot Power Shift, and CSSC TV.

Fired Up Media is harnessing dynamic advances in digital communications and new media, creative social entrepreneurship, and existing youth media on and off-campus to build a revolutionary media network. Read more here.

What do we do? Fired Up Media is launching two major projects this summer, Fired Up: Youth Action TV and Fired Up Africa.

Read more after the fold.

Fired Up: Youth Action TV

The Concept: Fired Up is a periodical 5-minute video news segment on climate change, energy, and activism produced by a network of young producers/editors from around the country.

The Story: Stories will cover youth issues ranging from education, to politics, to jobs and the economy, to entertainment and culture – all through the lens of the most important challenges facing young people: the impact of global warming and the construction of a cleaner, more just economy and society.

New Media Story Submission and Selection: Fired Up will solicit stories from youth groups and organizations from around the United States in the format of a 250-500 word narrative and an accompanying photo. Stories will be published online on the Fired Up website and syndicated to It’s Getting Hot in Here – dispatches from the youth climate movement. Fired Up’s reporting teams will select stories of particular merit and interest. Once news segments are produced and aired, they will be uploaded to the web and posted to Fired Up affiliate sites along with the original story that inspired the episode.

Fired Up Africa

Fired Up Africa is an international media training program aimed at telling the African youth perspective on climate change. This division of Fired Up Media will partner with One World and the Earth Journalism Network to provide African youth with the technology and the training to create video, audio, and written pieces for distribution to online and traditional media outlets. The development and implementation of low-cost media technology will expand communications capacity for youth community-based sustainable development projects around the globe. By creating a network of incredible youth leaders from across the world trained in new media technology, and working with other divisions of Fired Up Media to widely distribute media outputs from this network, we can ensure all voices of the youth movement are heard.

So what do we need from all of you to make this a success?

We are going to need everybody’s incredible stories, once we are up-and-running, but in the interim – I would love to talk with anybody who is interested about our big idea, whether you want to profile it, you are interested in joining, or following the project – Subscribe to Fired Up Media by Email. Lastly, we need what every new project needs – money – or more exactly: pledges. We are hoping to match the $10,000 project slingshot award with individual donors. If you are feeling generous, please donate. If you have a project or funding idea, please contact me, richardb.graves[at]gmail[dot]com.