Fight Climate Change

On June 21st London takes to the stage to promote Climate Change with the Lights Out London campaign. Londoners, including businesses, are being encouraged to switch their lights off between 9pm and 10pm on the 21st to help promote climate change and send a message out to the world that they care for the wellbeing of the planet.

The initiative is being supported by the likes of Capital FM, Sky, Black Out Britain, Metro, XFM and Classic FM as well as The Mayor of London. A number of celebrities, including Denise van Outen and Kim Wilde have also backed the campaign – find out the latest news.

To show your support you can register at Lights Out London and then remember to switch off non-essential lighting between 9pm and 10pm on June 21st. You don’t have to live in London to participate either.

I was lucky enough to visit the Earth from the Air Exhibition that’s currently being staged at Swansea Museum (and is open until the end of July). It’s a free event and is described as a “photographic portrait of our planet towards sustainable development by Yann Arthus-Bertrand”. The pictures are dramatic and you can get a feel of how they look online, as well as purchase books and prints. However, the images on the internet do not do the pictures justice as each one is amazing and dramatic in their own right.

Apart from being just “great pictures” they have an impact in getting the message of climate change and how man interacts on the earth in a way that no number of TV programmes can convey. From a Tank graveyard in Kuwait to a refugee camp in Sudan through to the wind farms of Copenhagen each and every picture tells a story through a few lines of information and these provoke many thoughts and questions.

As well as the exhibition the Swansea Springwatch Festival also came to town this weekend. Although mainly aimed at kids the festival did offer hints and tips about helping the environment, growing your own veg and recycling. BBC Wales presenter Iolo Williams was also there! Other festivals are being held across the UK and you can find out more at BBC Springwatch.

Dorothy Perkins have announced a new initiative to conincide with the release of their Limied Edition Woodland Trust range of clothing. They want to Plant More Trees and you can help them by planting a virtual tree. For every 100 virtual trees Dorothy Perkins will plant a real tree in the UK.

The aim is to plant 40,000 new trees and you can find out more in their latest podcast. Find out why it’s so important that “we fight climate change and protect our environment now”. The podcast also explains how trees are crucial to our planet as they generate oxygen and protect wildlife.

You can also help the Woodland Trust when you make a purchase from the Woodland Trust Collection. Buy the Woodland Trust t-shirt (shown above) and £5 from the sale of this item will be donated to the Woodlands Trust charity.

Unpluggit, backed by ice cream giants Ben & Jerry, is the world’s first campaign dedicated to helping prevent climate change one plug at a time! Did you know that simply leaving your mobile phone charger plugged in at the wall when you’re not using it wastes electricity.

By signing the online petition at Unpluggit, “you’ll be adding your voice to the force behind putting the responsibility on the mobile phone industry to put an end to these energy wasting pests”!

Looking at the stats on the site, Unpluggit require 10000 signatures to hammer home their message – yet disappointingly they still require almost 8000 more signatures. It’s shocking that so few people want to get behind this campaign – especially as there’s a year of Ben & Jerrry Ice Cream waiting to be won too.

Sign the petition!

Following in the footsteps of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, Leonardo DiCaprio has launched his own documentary film about climate change at The Cannes Film Festival. The 11th Hour is written, produced and narrated by DiCaprio and contains interviews with “71 people to create a narrative about the state of the world and how human beings impact our only home, planet earth”.

According to the movie synopsis from Warner Bros: “The 11th Hour” is the last moment when change is possible. The film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment — how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course. Featuring ongoing dialogues of experts from all over the world, including former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolsey and sustainable design experts William McDonough and Bruce Mau in addition to over 50 leading scientists, thinkers and leaders who discuss the most important issues that face our planet and people.

The film is not due for release until later this year, but details can be found at the official site. You can find reviews and comment about The 11th Hour, following it’s showing at Cannes, at a number of sites but the best are Variety, LA Times and The Guardian. DiCaprio has come under fire for the movie, but he claims he’s playing his part in fighting climate change and the movie is from the viewpoint of an ordinary citizen. He has also announced he no longer takes private jets and has installed solar panels at his home.

Whether DiCaprio can deliver his message and how much impact the movie will have remains to be seen. If The 11th Hour, as the reports suggest, paints a realistic and bleak picture of how things are, will the public be up for paying to see something that may leave them down and depressed about the state of the climate, especially if The Simpsons Movie is playing on the screen next door?