VGen fights Climate Change on Blog Action Day

by Alana Smith, VGen National Director

If you are addicted to the ‘on-line way of life’, whether it be for work or play, make it your priority to contribute something productive to the on-line conversation – on Blog Action Day!
What's Blog Action Day?

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.

VGen first embraced National Blog Day last year when the theme was ‘Poverty.’ While the topic was general, it encapsulated much of VGen’s core business, its existence being the motivation behind our campaigning initiatives.

This year’s topic is climate change – an issue that VGen has focussed on in relation to its impact on the world’s poor. Accordingly, the time is NOW for VGenners around Australia to get blogging on climate change, hardly difficult given that this issue has been our focus for the second half of 2009. Our focus on climate change and poverty has manifested itself into fundraising initiatives such as the 40 Hour Famine as well as campaigning initiatives such as Youth Decide and STIR Sessions.

The link between poverty and climate change is undeniable
...We will either solve the problems of climate change and poverty together or we will solve neither of them.

Climate change is the greatest threat affecting those in the developing world – it affects their ability to grow food to feed their families, results in difficulties in accessing water, makes it difficult to control the spread of infectious diseases and can result in conflicts over dwindling food resources.

Why the fuss about the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen this December?

“We can see that we are standing in front of a fork in the road,” Al Gore recently said.

“We can say to the scientists ‘we don’t want to listen to you.’ If we take this option, it will no doubt lead to a catastrophic outcome for our generation and those in the developing world. OR “we can respond to the opportunity that this climate crisis presents – the opportunity to take serious action – and invest sensibly in the building of new infrastructure that can make our countries stronger and put people to work and give them money that they can spend to get the economy moving again.”

National Fortnight of Action: 23rd November– 5th December 2009

VGenners around Australia will have the opportunity to be involved in a fortnight of action. Stay tuned for suggestions on how you can contribute during this period. This fortnight is crucial as it marks the week before the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen are to begin.

During this period, local politicians will be based in their electorate thus presenting VGenners with the perfect opportunity to meet with them to:

1. Present the Youth Decide results both nationally and for their specific electorate and challenge them to share the results with the Prime Minister and/or do a speech in parliament on Youth Decide and climate change
2. Use these results to demonstrate that there exists a strong youth voice campaigning for stronger action on climate change, particularly as we draw closer to the negotiations in Copenhagen.

Visiting a politician is one of the most important things you can do whilst campaigning for an issue as important as climate change. It carries much more weight than signing a petition, sending a postcard, making a phone call or even sending a letter. As someone who has been elected to represent your concerns in Parliament, they will be very interested to know what action young people think the Australian Government should be taking in relation to climate change.

Head to youthdecide.com.au for tips!

Next week on Wednesday 21 October,

I’ll be in Canberra to share the Youth Decide results with key politicians. So far, we are locked in to speak with Minister Kate Ellis, Kay Hull MP, Greg Hunt MP. Senator Christine Milne, Prime Minister’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Dr Mal Washer MP. We’re also hoping to secure meetings with Malcolm Turnbull and Senator Xenophon. I’m looking forward to hearing their thoughts on how they will respond to the results from Youth Decide.

Walk Against Warming
National Day of Action: 12 December 2009

Across Australia, in each capital city, VGenners will be joining thousands of fellow Australians in the Walk Against Warming on 12 December. This event is Australia’s largest day of community action on climate change and deliberately coincides with the midpoint of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit and International Day of Action on Climate Change.

So right now...

Blog Action Day presents bloggers worldwide with a unique opportunity to embrace their inner-online-activism. Blogs can play a crucial role in influencing and sparking debate in the community that may lead to inspiring others to take up a cause, eventually resulting in social change.

The reality is that for our generation, much of our activism journey begins online – we may google ‘youth volunteering’ or ‘getting involved’, may join a Facebook group or cause to show our support for a particular issue and/or take part in online forums - the hope is that this online experience will be so inspiring that they will feel compelled to join a real-life community that advocates for the world’s poor such as VGen.