Climate, Copenhagen, and the world: We've come a long way, baby

sign at Copenhagen conference on climate change

photo by Maurita Prato

Things are brewing and building to a climax at this week's conference at Copenhagen. Will world leaders decide on a "survival pact" (let's get serious about the future of humanity and do something about it) or a "suicide pact" (let's chicken out and blow this opportunity to truly take care of the planet before it's too late).

As I write this, some of the campaigners and activists that I follow on Twitter, who are reporting on the proceedings at Copenhagen - Kris Krug, Jason Mogus, Jason Barnett, Joe Solomon, The Uptake - are alternately despairing and determined. But no one knows whether a last-minute "Real Deal" can actually happen.

Now people are saying: what next? What happens after Copenhagen, regardless of the outcome?

What happens is: we keep building the movement of the millions around the globe who are speaking out, joining together, becoming a part of the wave of change that is needed, until the wave is the whole world.

Regardless of what happens at Copenhagen, our survival on the earth requires changes from all of us.

But I have hope. I have been around awhile now, and we have come a long way, baby.

Twenty years ago at Clayoquot, we leaders of the blockade were publicly labelled Eco-Terrorists when we sang and danced on logging roads. There were about twenty-five of us in 1992, fighting against major international corporations. And then we'd hear about things coming down the road like climate change, and I wondered how in heck we would ever get to the mass awareness needed - to make the changes we would need to make -  when we ragtag bunch with no resources were being publicly ostracized for caring about our little corner of the planet.

Twenty years is not a long time for change in the human race. But we have changed. We have come a long way, baby. There aren't just a handful of people who are taking action. We are millions. We are growing exponentially. No matter what happens at Copenhagen, this movement is growing and we will not be stopped until we have woken up enough of humanity to join us as we endeavour to save ourselves.

Join us.

More info:
www.avaaz.org
Kris Krug, Jason Mogus, Jason Barnett, Joe Solomon, The Uptake

An open letter to Stephen Harper

Dear Mr. Harper,


Please breathe deeply , Mr Harper, and tell me something, if you'd be so kind.
It's about climate change, and Copenhagen. I'm really glad you're going.
I'd like you to forget the science, for a bit. Let’s forget, for a moment, whether you “believe” in climate change or not, and just answer this one thing, as you breathe deeply for me - 

Mr. Harper, is the air clean, like when you were a kid?

Is there a good amount pollution in our atmosphere now? Or should we add more without thinking much about it.

How much longer can we keep adding to it?  

Because it’s not just disappearing, vanishing, going to another planet, magically leaving our atmosphere.

Nope, it stays there. And next year we add more, and next and next.

And regardless of whether or not this has any effect whatsoever on our climate (though it’s hard to see how it wouldn’t, frankly), it just can’t be good for our human lungs.

So what do you think? Can we wait?

Breathe deeply, Mr. Harper, and tell me. Maybe we should act on climate change - if not for the climate and humanity's, than for our own lungs. And our kids. 

You know rates of asthma and lung diseases are rising. 

It's not going to magically get better.

Here's your chance.


On behalf of the lungs of all Canadians, I remain,

Yours Sincerely,

Vanessa LeBourdais

Port Moody, BC

Teachers rave about littering play

It really warms my heart to listen to these principals and teachers speak so enthusiastically about our littering-vandalism-graffiti play Clean Up Your Act. Now in its 12th year of touring Metro Vancouver elementary schools, Clean Up Your Act teaches kids how to "take care of this place" - one of the goals of most schools student responsibility codes.

I toured with Clean Up Your Act for ten years. Now Sara Holt has taken my place. Lucky Sara gets to dump garbage on Ian's head twice a day.

Our Climate Change Anthem

We've written a new climate change anthem. Check it out! I wrote and recorded the song, and did a mashup from videos from around the world, submitted to 350.org, a global organization for climate change activism. Sing it, share it!

We're on CNN!

A clip from our video from World Climate Day (see the October 24 post, below) was used in the CNN coverage of the event! How amazing is that? We uploaded the video shortly after we got home from the event, to the site of the group that organized the world-wide events - 350.org. Our clip is the one with the girl (name unknown!) holding up a climate action bumper sticker. That's my music playing underneath. On CNN. (!)

It is very inspiring to see how 350.org managed to organize this world wide event using social media and the internet and to see the power of positive connection that can happen between people as a result.

World Climate Action Day

Bridge to a Cool Planet

Today, over 5200 events were held around the world - from Africa to Australia to Asia to Canada and every place in between. In over 150 countries, people around the globe stood up to be counted on climate change, telling our leaders that we must ratify the climate change treaty in Copenhagen in December in order to save our planet. This is the biggest event ever held in the world. People all around the world are united in our desire to take action on climate change.

Let yourself be counted. Check in at www.350.org for the next opportunity to get involved.

In Vancouver, the action was called Bridge to a Cool Planet.

Music for the ocean....

Recently I had the good fortune to be able to offer some of my music, which had literally been sitting on the shelf for years, to the service of the ocean.

My friends photographer Chris Jordan, cinematographer Jan Vozelinek and filmmaker Bill Weaver took a journey to Midway Island, smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on the other side of the world. They were there to document, with a writer and a poet, the massive amount of plastic that is in a place so far from civilization that there should be no plastic at all.

I met Chris, Jan and Bill at the Media That Matters Conference at Hollyhock in May, I realized that I wanted to give more of my music in service to social change. As I listened to the tweets of their journey, I realized they might be able to use some more music, and I had a whack of mine which had literally been sitting on the shelf for years.

The cinematography is breathtaking, belying the tragedy all around. Enjoy the videos, then read more about the Journey to Midway.

Video by Jan Vozenilek. Music by Vanessa LeBourdais.

Video by Bill Weaver. Cinematography by Jan Vozenilek. Voiceover by Chris Jordan. Interviewee: Matt Brown. Music by Vanessa LeBourdais.

Video by Jan Vozenilek. Music by Vanessa LeBourdais.

What principals & teachers think about ReThink

Now in its twelfth hit year, ReThink teaches kids about reducing, reusing, recyling and composting. Here's what teachers and principals have to say:

Reel Youth at the Vancouver International Film Festival

Our buddy Mark Vonesh from Reel Youth talks about the success of the launch of their films at the Vancouver international Film Festival, at a party that Mark and I co-hosted last night. What a blast! Folks from several social change conferences at Hollyhock were there, including Media That Matters, Social Venture Institute, Web of Change as well as of course the Reel Youth crew.

This took place at the home of the ever-gracious Joel and Dana Solomon. I call them gracious because in fact they weren't even home but entrusted us with their space. (Many many thanks to you both, and to Lynn and Carla from Renewal for helping keep things sane!)

This is the first party for a hundred people I've ever hosted at someone else's home who wasn't even there. Wait a minute. This is the first party for a hundred people I've ever hosted, and the first party I've ever hosted at someone else's house, and etc. Actually, I felt very honoured to do it.

Warning: the iPod Nano these videos were shot with did not handle the party noise well. (You might want to turn down your volume before playing!)

TCK in a Box

Check out this great site - a movement to engage citizens across the world to speak up about climate change. Sign up now - it's easy. And there are inspiring videos, news, etc. too.

DreamRider Theatre on the road!

Never-before seen, behind-the-scenes footage of our intrepid actors as they tour "Keep Cool! a play about climate change".

I must be famous now!

A couple weeks ago I attended the Vancouver Arts Summit, and was interviewed by my new friend, the social media king Kris Krug. I met Kris at the fantastic unconference Media That Matters at Hollyhock. Now I find this video posted all over the place, so obviously I need to also post it here.

Hmm, wish I could control which image is the static one. :-)

Watch more of Kris' interviews here. 

At Media That Matters, Kris did a mind-blowing social media workshop with social activist/blogger Leif Utne, which literally got me all a-Twitter. I feel fully part of the new Web 2.0 wave, and am excited about the possibilities for online interactivity for kids and how DreamRider can make learning about the environment as fun online as it is with our shows. 

VanCity sponsors Keep Cool! a play about climate change for second year

For the second year in a row VanCity Credit Union has sponsored our climate change play Keep Cool! 

Today Ian and I went to a fabulous lunch/cheque presentation. We had planned on showing a video of Keep Cool, but the presentation was in broad sunlight, so we ended up, impromptu, performing the idling rap for the crowd.  

Here we are with VanCity's Vice President of 

Finance, Rob Malli. 

Both years at these presentations, we 

have been blown away by the diversity of incredible community projects that VanCity is funding. 

This year, food issues were at the forefront, with such projects as Biggest Little Garden in Town and Haney Farmers Market also receiving funding. How great that VanCity profits go back into the community! Kudos to VanCity for having a triple bottom line!

Earth Day Canada calls DreamRider a Hometown Hero!!!

DreamRider Theatre just made the top ten of Earth Day Canada's national Hometown Hero list, for the effectiveness of our environmental work in the community. Yay, team!

Full house for climate change play!

Today we had a full house for our free performance of "Keep Cool! a play about climate change"! Flo, the front of house lady, said she'd never seen an audience of kids so engaged. That was our last day of filming "Keep Cool!" for TV. Can't wait to see what magic Sean, our DOP (that's Director of Photography, aka camera guy and editor) will do. 

 

New videos added of littering, vandalism & graffiti play

Getting used to this whole YouTube thing. Check out the right hand side of the page for our new Video Bar, where you can watch all our YouTube videos. New today are clips from last Friday's very last school show of the year! Sara Holt and Ian Gschwind have performed 200 plays this year (if I'm counting right!). In the backstage sneak peak, you can see how tired they are. But in front of the kids, it's magic as usual.

Blundell School wins climate change pledge contest!

It's official - Blundell Elementary School in Richmond, BC, has won DreamRider's climate change pledge contest. They had the highest percentage of responses to our online contest, where Metro Vancouver kids pledge to take action to remove more then 10,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases. Way to go, kids!

Blundell wins $1,000 towards arts programs. Don Dixon, Principal, says the kids have decided to spend the money on a hip hop program for all grades in the fall. Yeah!

Filming of Keep Cool - a play about climate change

Yes, that's right, Keep Cool is becoming a TV show! We have been filming the play to turn it into a one-hour TV special. This is part of our long-term goal to create a TV series for kids: Enviro-Zanies.  

Here we have Esmeralda Super-Spy (Sara Holt) and the evil Dr. Carbon (Ian Gschwind) being filmed. 

Filming Sara and Ian as aliens.

Here's our crew:

Sean Sullivan, director of photography.

Mike McKinley, cameraman (when he's not a skateboarding god).

And Corliss Chi, a student from Blanche MacDonald, who did our hair and makeup!

Zany environmental theatre for kids!

Welcome to DreamRider Theatre's brand new blog!

We're creating this so that kids (and adults!) who like our work can get a peek behind the scenes, hear what's going on, and keep connected with us.

After our shows, we love to answer kids' questions, but there are always more questions than we have time to answer. So this blog has been created so that you can ask questions any time! We'll also post questions that we receive by mail, because we get hundreds of letters from kids each year (we love 'em, keep 'em coming). And we'll post your artwork too.

In the next few days I'll be posting some info about cool stuff we've been up to.