Ever since I was a kid I had always found the Midnight Oil song “Beds are Burning” extraordinarily powerful. Now over 60 artists and celebrities from around the globe have come together to create a video encouraging all to push political leaders to take a strong stand against climate change at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen this December.
Artists and celebrities include Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Fergie, Duran Duran, Scorpion, Mark Ronson,Youssou N’Dour, Milla Jovovich, Marion Cotillard, Yannick Noah, Bob Geldof and many, many more.
The video is here and you can visit the campaign here: tcktcktck.org
Yesterday six youths were arrested in the House of Commons after loudly protesting the slow progress of the passage of a bill that would legally force the Canadian government to set strong reduction targets for global warming pollution. Though I wasn’t at the event itself, some of the protestors had spent the weekend at a conference where I gave two workshops on the role of the carbon market in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And though the conference organizers didn’t organize the spontaneous protest, I could sense from the conference participants that something of the sort might happen.
In his book, How to Ruin Your Life, Ben Stein wrote a unique step-by-step guide on how a person can be a total failure. This provided the reader an opportunity to measure up their own life against Ben’s list, see where they stand and make some changes. It should be required reading in every high school.
Inspired by Stein’s approach, I’ve also compiled a helpful step-by-step guide for our activist community. Following these few simple steps will ensure that any activist organization becomes an isolated irrelevancy. Continue reading »
