Change Starts Here

Written on 07/12 at 11:00 AM by Andy Posner 2 comments

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Michele Finnel, Marie-Laure Couet (a fellow grad student at Brown), and I worked together to produce this submission to Current TVs ecospot contest. The idea of the contest was to create a 15, 30 or 60 second commercial that either highlights an environmental issue or has a powerful eco-themed message. The submitted videos will be evaluated by a panel of science, policy and activist experts, who will narrow the field of videos down to the top twenty. At that point users will be able to vote on the winner. The top prize is, perhaps ironically, a Toyota Hilander Hybrid SUV. The voting will take place here. I will update the results of the contest when they become available.

Our submission makes a connection between the devastation of our forests and the devastation of our urban landscapes, and makes the case that while we may feel overwhelmed by global environmental issues, we can take proactive steps in our own neighborhoods to make tangible improvements to the situation. There is an implied connection between what we can do as individuals in our neighborhoods and cities, and what we can push our business leaders and politicians to do on a regional, national and international scale. In other words, when we talk about global issues such as climate change, peak oil, and overpopulation, the individual is often made to feel that the problems are beyond the scope of his or her ability to act. This feeling is, in many ways, justified; after all, while individuals can take small steps to mitigate their carbon emissions or change their patterns of consumption, their capacity for action is far smaller than that of governments to set smart policies and businesses to capitalize on those policies. Are we saying that individuals are impotent in the face of global problems? Not in the least. (continue reading)

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