have you voted?

This week, the online voting lines are open for the national Australian climate change poll. I blogged about it here if you missed it. If you haven't voted yet, head over to YOUth Decide and do so! And tell your friends to vote as well. We've only got a few days left.

Aren't the flash mobs in the video cute? I'd never heard of flash mobs before this. If you haven't either, they're a form of art or activism (or both) where people in public, seemingly randomly, break into dance. This is the first one I saw and I was totally gobsmacked by it's awesomeness:



It was put on by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition a few months ago, with choreography by So You Think You Can Dance. I think it got some kind of global flash mob award? I'm really proud of Australia for getting together and putting on events like these.

franny armstrong and ethical living

I've been getting more and more inspired by the maker of The Age of Stupid Franny Armstrong. Here's a quick interview with her about how making the movie increased her carbon footprint and about her fulfillment in making a difference. I also really like this quote about her, from her Wikipedia page: "When, in a few years' time, Franny Armstrong is being discussed as one of the key documentary film-makers of our generation, you can say you were in there at the start."

I want to get a hold of her previous documentary, McLibel, because I don't know much about the ethics of McDonalds, except that they're probably non-existant. I'm going to try to forego my occasional french fries purchase, but without knowing compelling evidence it's sometimes easy to ignore that nagging feeling.

That's an idea that you're probably already familiar with, but I'm going to remind you about it anyway: positive purchasing. When you are a customer of a company, you sustain them and reinforce what they're doing, whether that's ethical or not. It's our job to find out which companies are aligned with our ethics (or which is the lesser evil, in some cases) and to support them. Looked at another way, it's also moral boycotting.

And it's not just at gift-giving time that we can choose handmade. It's a way of every day living, to try to ensure we're being kind to both the environment and people. It doesn't have to be expensive, often it's cheaper. If I eat before leaving home I won't have had to spend money on drive-through fries. A second-hand piece of furniture costs less than a new piece. If I buy less processed foods, I can afford to buy organic basics. Etc.

What have you bought this week? Could you have made more ethical choices instead?

the age of stupid

Australia & New Zealand Trailer HD from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

Just found out about this movie, The Age of Stupid. It's about a man living alone in 2055, after the world has been ravaged by climate change. He looks at footage from 2008 and wonders why the hell we didn't stop it from happening.

The movie is screening all over the place except Australia, it seems. But it's launching online on 21/22 September, so I've happily signed up to the newsletter to be reminded. There's a 50 minute documentary here for the meantime though. I'm excited about it for two reasons. The first is because I'm really interested to see what it's like, and the second is that I'm hoping it will be a big step to people understanding just what is happening to our planet (and working to change it).

I was watching Grey's Anatomy the other day and there was a woman on it with four broken limbs because she'd been bulldozed down from a old growth tree she'd been living in to save it. I was a bit offended by how ridiculous they made the character sound - she'd given the tree a name and talked about it like it was a person, she ranted about greedy corporations, and she'd changed her own name to 'Willow'. I get that it might have made the situation more believable, but couldn't they have represented the level-headed side of environmental activism, rather than implying it's for crazies?

vote for the world you want to inherit

Tim has started volunteering for YOUth Decide, which is run by World Vision and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. They're hosting an voting week in September that gives young Australians (from 12-29) the power to make significant positive change to help our futures.

The deal is this:
You vote by choosing one of three options online during 14-21 September (register to vote and get a reminder!). The results of our voting will be taken to the crucial United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen this December. They need at least tens of thousands of us to vote for it to have an effect. They're campaigning like crazy, have enlisted celebrities, gotten some major sponsors and they're encouraging people all over Australia to host voting events.

I'm utterly excited.

Just voting isn't enough. Tell your friends, blog about it, add it to your website, tweet it, and post it in your Facebook updates! Attend an event in your area, or organise one yourself! The more people that vote and the more attention this gets, the bigger difference it will make.

To repost, you can use the banner at the top of my blog, or the image in this post, or use their other promo material.

Here's a video about it: