Project Survival MediaEurope

10:10:10 in Utrecht, Cradle to Cradle

robertvanwaarden — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 16:34:21 +0000

In conjunction with the Global Work Party, Cradle to Cradle, a event informing children and adults about sustainability was held today in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The Cradle to Cradle event was packed with kids and families, enjoying the sun, learning about sustainability and creating cool things with recycled materials. The photographs below show kids making wallets from old milk cartons and art from recycled material.

The Global Work Party was organized by 350.org and 10:10 and is being heralded as the world’s largest day of civil action ever. Be sure to hop on over to 350.org for more photography around the world.

Crossposted from photographer vanwaardenphoto.com

Climate Change affecting Agriculture and Farming in Europe

robertvanwaarden — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:30:48 +0000

Climate change is drastically altering the landscapes and farming culture of the European Continent. From the mountains of Norway to the low lying lands of Italy, from the innovations in the Netherlands to the suffering crops of Romanian farmers, the Project Survival Media team in Europe has explored this issue and produced a multimedia piece. A brief look at the situation, the piece touches on several issues affecting European farmers and shows that climate change is an issue that affects us all. Farmers are on the front line of the climate crisis, and we need strong, coordinated global action on climate change to ensure survival of this industry and our food supplies.

The Rise of a Climate Movement – 20 Images from 2009

robertvanwaarden — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:16:09 +0000

2009 will be defined as the year that the climate movement exploded. Millions of people around the world got behind the call for a strong deal in Copenhagen. Although the final result was a failure, the activists pictured in these images know that they are Not Done Yet! These 20 images are from the year of climate activism and important events around the world.

All Images ©Robert vanWaarden

What´s the deal?

project survival netherlands — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:52:03 +0000

Are we going to have a deal tonight? All that is left to do for the Project Survival NL team is wait and hope. While it is crunch time for the world leaders inside the Bella Center to rack out a credible climate deal, we cannot do much more than keep a close eye on the news with our fingers crossed.

The picture was totally different earlier this week: we had our hands full with all sorts of exciting events. Our second week at the COP15 started with a definite highlight. On Monday morning part of the team had a meeting with the Dutch Ministers of Environment and Development Cooperation, Jaqueline Cramer and Bert Koenders. Together with them and the Dutch youth representatives we discussed our project and the Dutch youth statements. It was an interesting meeting and informal meeting in which both Ministers expressed their sympathy for the project and agreed that youth participation is a very important issue in climate change talks. It was not only the Dutch part of the group that got to speak to their Ministers, also our African youth delegates met various Ministers. A few of them got opportunities to prepare speeches and briefings for their Ministers.

The beginning of the week was however not all fun and games for everyone. A few of our project members spent most of Monday out in the cold due to poor organisation. It also soon became clear that due to new restrictions many people with NGO badges would not be able to enter the Bella Center anymore as of Tuesday. Luckily most of the African youth delegates had a Party badge, but a number of us would not be able to get in anymore. We had a number of secondary badges for Tuesday and Wednesday but from Thursday onwards our whole team has been moving between various makeshift offices in the alternative fora in town. The last couple of days we spent trying to attract some media attention, following the talks on various screens and just taking a break from the hassle at the Bella Center.

Now, as the final official hours of the conference have arrived (it looks like the talks are going to be lengthened though) we have some time to reflect on what we did and I think we can be proud. Proud of our little project and the fact that we made it to Copenhagen, but even more proud of work that Ebrima, Ezilon, Margaret, Matildah, Mangaliso, Hubert, Claude, Mahawa and Matias have been able to do for their countries. Now it is up to Obama, Jiabao, Reinfeldt and co to make us proud of being part of humanity! Whatever the outcome, we’re off for a good African dinner with our team before we split up again and spread out over precious globe. The food will taste a whole lot better knowing that everyone´s survival will be guaranteed though!

Go Push, Go

Chris Chang-Yen Phillips — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:17:51 +0000

by Sarabjeet Singh

Yesterday was a lucky day for me at the Bella Center. I met “Push,” or Pushpanath Krishnamurthy, who has walked all the way from his home at Oxford in the UK to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, to show his solidarity and support to the struggle against climate change. I was fortunate enough to spend some time with him and interview him.

Sarabjeet Singh: What do you do and how did this idea come to you?

Pushpanath Krishnamurthy: I am Climate Change Campaigner with Oxfam ,and I strongly believe that this is the time to act and do something about climate change. I was willing to do a direct action and realized that a walk is the most carbon neutral thing one can do. And here I am! It took me about 20 days to reach here and I have thoroughly enjoyed this adventure.

SS: Why climate change?

PK: Well, during my visit to India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and a couple of African countries, I witnessed the number of ecological problems that climate change has caused. In the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in India, the rise in sea levels has made the agricultural land brackish. As a result,, farmers have started shrimp farming which has a lot of bad side effects. Even the paddy cultivation is completely under threat and as you know, we have been witnessing a growing number of farmer suicides in the past few years. The African countries have caused the least problems but are among the first, worst and hardest hit.

SS: What inspires you to work for climate change?

PK: I am a Gandhian follower, and believe the spirit of standing up when you something unjust happening is the most noble thing to do.

SS: Tell us something about how you planned your trip. How did you gather support, and what were the problems that you faced?

PK: I contacted a few colleagues at Oxfam and some friends from India. Since I am not very familiar with using computers, one of my friends helped plan my trip. I got a lot of support from my wife and children, who are also here with me. They too have walked a few legs of the journey with me. I began my journey on November 16th from Oxford along with David Bryer (ex-Director of Oxfam) and a musician. I reached Harwich (140 miles from Oxford) on November 27th , took a ferry, landed on Esberg (on the Danish coast) and walked another 16 days to reach Copenhagen on December 13th. On the way, I was carrying no food with me, to express solidarity with hundreds of people, who have been affected by drought and floods, and I was eating only when I was offered a meal from local people.

SS: Would you like to tell us something else and do you have a message for the youth?

PK: I would like all of you to visit my website, www.gopushgo.com. Another thing I forgot to mention was that my brother, Krishna Raga, recently released a music album called, “Earth Depressed,” dedicated to the environment. As far as a message is concerned, I am really glad that the youth are raising their voice here and I hope that my campaign will help contribute to the global movement against climate change.

(Originally posted on whatswiththeclimate.org)

Photography of the Climate March in Copenhagen

robertvanwaarden — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:00:20 +0000

Over 100,000 people converged in Copenhagen on Dec. 12, 2009 to march towards the Bella Center and demand a fair, ambitious, and binding treaty at the end of the Conference of Parties. This gallery is a selection of some of my best photography from the day.

Introducing Project Survival Netherlands

project survival netherlands — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:19:57 +0000

We are students of the University of Utrecht and the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands. Last year, more than five hundred young people, including us, attended the UN Climate talks last year in Poznan. Daily movies about the conference were made and Dutch youths came in contact with the delegation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The students were appalled by the fact there are such extremes in representations between delegations. For example, the American delegation consisted of more than fifty delegates, yet the delegation of DRC had only two. Hence, the negotiating position of the DRC was greatly diminished, because the delegation couldn’t possibly attend every meeting.

During the conference some American and Australian youths decided to stand up to this unfair process and assisted several under-represented delegations. It appeared to be a win-win situation: the youths felt connected with the conference and the under-represented delegations had more manpower to cope with the enormous amount of work at the conference. Project Survival NL blog to learn more!