Youth Presence on 1st Day of COP15

I'm a little behind with this post ...

Youth actions @ COP15 began last Monday with a "flash dance" in the main hall of the Bella Center.




Youth also formally presented TckTckTck's petition signed by 10 million world citizens to Yvo de Boer and Connie Hedegaaard, Danish Climate Minister and President of COP15.


photo: Flickr Robert vanWaarden

Leah Wickham, 24, of Fiji, gave a captivating short speech about the 'hopes and dreams' of the petition signers.




To "meet" some of the youth delegates check out the below video and these photos.

Participatory Campaigning - check it out on Mon Dec 14!

This is one of the many side events being held @ COP15. I wish I could go to this one. Hopefully it'll either stream live, or will show up archived on this website.


December 350.org candlelight vigil in Campo Grande, Brazil.

Participatory Campaigning: how new organizations are using storytelling, technology, and distributed campaign models to grow the movement and engage millions of people in change

Who: a panel of the leaders behind the Global Wake up Call, 350 International Day of Action, this weekend’s World Wants a Real Deal talk about how these incredible outpourings of public support were organized with small resources, short timelines, and entirely new organizational models.


* Ricken Patel, Executive Director, Avaaz, the world’s largest digital campaigning org, with 3.5M supporters
* Jamie Henn, Communications Director, 350.org, organizers of the world’s largest climate action on October 24
* Ben Margolis, Campaigns Director, TckTckTck, an open campaign involving 220+ global NGO partners


Why: Avaaz’s Global Wake Up Call in September organized 2,400 events in 120 countries in less than 3 weeks. 350.org’s Oct 24 had 5,200 events in 181 countries, getting over 1M people engaged with climate in their own communities. This weekend’s Real Deal action saw over 3,000 events in Copenhagen and around the world show their support for a climate deal, and may yet shift the dynamics. The creativity of these real stories from real people helped each own the news cycle, including on Oct 24 making “350ppm” the biggest news story in the world.

These NGO’s have used new, network-centric organizing models to pull off some of the largest global political actions we’ve seen in our times. Working at light speed, they marry tight political analysis, global grassroots organizing, compelling storytelling, and a deep understanding of technology to empower people, distribute work, and gain huge network effects. The leaders of these orgs will share their stories about how this is done and how it might point to new organizing models more NGO’s will move towards towards in the future.

A premiere of the new campaign video from this weekend’s World Wants a Real Deal will also be premiered at the event.


Date: Monday, December 14th
Time: 7:15pm – 8 PM


Location: TckTckTck’s Fresh Air Center http://tcktcktck.org/freshair

"To The Streets" in Copenhagen Today

photo: Angelique Kidjo

100,000 people took to the streets of Copenhagen today to call on world leaders to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding global deal on climate change as part of TckTckTck's Global Day of Action. Events are being held today in 130 countries, including 2,600 candlelight vigils in Kabul, Afghanistan, a beach in Madagascar, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and the Hudson River in the US. To see a list of all the global events, go here.


photo: About 5000 (police estimate 3500) activists, artists, youth from schools and colleges joined the colorful and noisy citizens march in Delhi with the message “INDIA WANTS A REAL DEAL”.

The signature TckTckTck event was the march in Copenhagen. Go here for a short video of the event, created by a Brazilian activist who is in Copenhagen for COP15.

According to Oxfam UK the demonstrators included:

Mary Robinson, Honorary President of Oxfam International and Former President of Ireland.
“This global day of action is reminding governments that climate change is hurting people. This is a human rights issue – climate change is undermining people’s livelihoods and their access to health and education. It is affecting poor countries efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals. Copenhagen must deliver deep emissions reductions, and at least $200bn a year in new money to help the poorest countries tackle climate change. ”


Helena Christensen, Danish model and photographer.
“Returning to my mother’s country, Peru, made me aware of the heartbreaking issues the country is dealing with due to the impacts of climate changes that are already occurring.”

“This is part of the reason why I have decided to join the big march - to pass on the word and to appeal to the world’s leaders to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding deal. It is not an easy task, but it needs to be done, there is no way around it anymore.”


Rahul Bose, Bollywood star.
“Poor people are hit first and hardest by climate change. I come from India, where seven out of ten people depend on the weather to earn their living – they are farmers and fishermen.

″Rich countries have the moral obligation to provide money to help the poorest to adapt to the climate impacts and develop in a low carbon way. This money must come on top of development aid.″


Angelique Kidjo, Grammy Award winning Benioise singer songwriter and UN Goodwill Ambassador.
″It is time for world leaders to take action. The clock is ticking. We’re the last generation who can stop irreversible climate change. We must hold our politicians to account.″


Constance Okollet, a peasant farmer from Uganda.
″Our lives have changed because of climate change. We need help. Put some money for us. Help us adapt to the devastating impacts of global warming. Where is the next generation going to be if the children are dying now?″

We're Ready! (So is Jason Mraz)

Environment America, TckTckTck and EMA produced this video featuring Cedric the Entertainer, Simon Baker, Alanis Morrisette, Chevy Chase, Amy Smart, Jason Mraz, Jake Mclaughlin, Frances Fisher, Ollivia Wilde, Kevin McHale, Emily Van Camp, Dana Delany, Michael Rady, Ed Begley Jr. and Diana Agron calling for strong action to fight global warming in Copenhagen.

After watching the video, click here to take action - through Environment America's website.

Environment America's website says ... It’s time to repower America—to unleash the power of clean energy to protect our environment and rebuild our economy.

We can achieve dramatic improvements in the efficiency with which we use our energy, harness the power of the wind and the sun to get the energy that we do need, and create millions of jobs for Americans at the same time.

We're calling on the U.S. Senate to pass legislation that will drive the transition to a clean energy economy and help to stop the climate crisis.

Another International Day of Climate Action -- Weekend of December 11 - 13

photo: Christie, Dave & I @ 350.org's October 24th International Day of Climate Action @ San Francisco's Ferry Building.

TckTckTck is working closely with partners Avaaz, 350.org, World Wildlife Fund, Oxfam, and Greenpeace to organize a weekend of international climate actions from Friday December 11th - Sunday, December 13th. This is timed so that it falls right in the middle of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which will take place from December 7th to the 18th.

This weekend of action will be called the World Wants a Real Deal . People all over the planet are demanding a binding global climate agreement guided by the latest science and built upon principles of justice and equity.

Around the world on Friday and Saturday night people will gather to light lanterns or candles, in solemn solidarity with the citizens of those nations who will be first to face the challenges to their very survival. Some of the planned candlelight vigils will take place at iconic places in communities all over the world. Others will be outside American consulates and embassies, and at senators' offices throughout the United States.

The candles we will light are candles of hope.

To volunteer to host or attend a candlelight vigil, visit 350.org's site.

There will be big rallies on Saturday in many cities, and on Sunday communities of faith the world over will ring church bells, beat drums, blow horns -- all 350 times.

December 12th events will also include public "signature walls."

To volunteer to organize a December 12th event in your community visit the TckTckTck site or the AAVZ site.

all-star remake of Midnight Oil's 1987 hit, 'Beds Are Burning'

photo: Serena Ryder

I recently stumbled upon this video - absolutely love it. (Partly because I saw Serena Ryder open for Paolo Nutini @ Slim's in San Francisco earlier this year, and loved her set.)



This video was created by TckTckTck campaign co-founder and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's new organization, the Global Humanitarian Forum -- along with the organization's partner global advertising giant Havas Worldwide, and their film production arm, The:Hours.

Mr Annan said: “By downloading the song, people from around the world will add their names to this growing global petition, and together we will create such a noise our leaders will listen".

Visit this website to learn how to download the song for free in iTunes, and to sign the "I Am Ready" pledge.

They're Ready. Are We? Copenhagen.

What's Going On in Barcelona???

Barcelona, Spain is the epicenter of the climate world this week -- the last official UN negotiating session before the Copenhagen climate talks next month.

Here's a bit of a recap of what's going on in Barcelona --

The team from 350.org, who organized October 24th's International Day of Climate Action, are in Barcelona to carry our message to the approximately 4,000 UN delegates from 181 nations who are on site.

The team is there to carry our voices from October 24th to the delegates. Here's a great video the highlights the world-wide actions from October 24th:



And another video from 350.org, explaining what they're up to in Barcelona this week:



In addition to what you just saw in the video, the 350.org team is scheduling meetings with dozens of delegates to deliver photos, 350 policy briefings, and the global call for bold climate action. 350.org is asking citizens to gather together in their communities to deliver 350.org materials to their local elected officials. Sign up for a delivery, here.

The 350 team upped the artistic stakes with a stunning visual display outside the conference center with hundreds of LED lights in the shape of a world and a performance to create the now famous number - 350.




On Monday, November 3rd, the group TckTckTck welcomed delegates to the opening of the talks with 1500 clocks and more than 200 people demanding a fair, ambitious and binding treaty. The activists turned the time on some of the clocks to 3:50, for the reason that 350 ppm (part per million) is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere according to some scientists.



The clocks were re-used later this week -- they were turned into an art installation in the lobby of the conference center. Additionally, TckTckTck's Campaign Director Ben Margolis and members of the 350.org presented Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, with a clock to remind him of the urgency of the situation, as well as a photo from the Copenhagen taken on October 24th, to remind him of the public mandate for ambitious action.

According to the TckTckTck website, as TckTckTck activists stood behind the pair holding up pictures of these recent actions, Margolis recapped the September 21st Global Wake Up Call involving over 2,600 events in 134 countries organized by TckTckTck, Avaaz and other partners; as well as the October 24th International Day of Climate Action, organized by TckTckTck partner 350.org, which entailed more than 5,200 events in 181 countries.

The U.N. climate chief thanked TckTckTck for helping to raise public awareness ... however, de Boer said that the alarm bells are not ringing loudly enough. A lot of governments have not woken up yet to the urgency of the situation, de Boer told Margolis and the assembled crowd in the front hall of the Fira Gran Via conference center.

He suggested that the alarm bells need to continue to grow louder in order to remind governments that they have a mandate to act in Copenhagen and that the world expects nothing less than a response commensurate with the scale of the problem.