Join the Net2 ThinkTank: How Can Nonprofits Use Flickr. Please respond by August 27, 2008.
Policy-makers and the public will have a greater understanding of the latest climate change research (such as the "Big Melt" of last summer in the arctic), future scenarios, the urgency of acting immediately and strongly, the huge opportunities for a "new deal on green jobs," and the consequences if we don't. This will impact the next President and Congress, who *must* pass and begin to implement binding global agreements and national policies on reducing greenhouse gases. The impacts will be both direct (allowing elected officials to see a more clear and direct view of the science and policy options) as well as indirect (supporting and growing the growing movement for climate change action and climate justice).
This project also creates a new platform, which could have many other applications: a way of combining web video and the intelligence of hyperlinking, using the timestamp inherent in all digital video (hr:min:sec) as the central reference point. It allows existing video, from shorts to feature-length documentaries, to be "sliced and diced" in a way that gives the viewer more control over the "flow" of the information. This benefits learning by (a) chopping up long narrative content into more bite-sized blocks; (b) allowing the mashup of smaller bits of video which have logical links into a new narrative; (c) giving the user the option to investigate 'tangents' off the main narrative without getting "lost on YouTube", and (d) allowing the viewer to fit new information into her brain in the order and way it makes sense to her, not to the filmmaker. It speaks to the shorter attention span of the "YouTube" generation, while maintaining the integrity of the information presented. Finally, it uses video, rather than text or traditional web content, at the center of a mashup of information which brings viewers to other content online, as their curiosity leads them there.
documentaries and feature films about climate
science talks (e.g., from conferences) captured on video
talks by affected peoples (e.g., Arctic indigenous) about the impact of climate change on their people and cultural survival
speeches about policy options
white papers about policy options
personal testimonials by climate scientists
climate animations (e.g., showing sea level rising)
I participated in StepItUp actions in 2007, and helped organize and produce the Focus The Nation climate change teach-in at San Francisco State in January, 2008. I have been an activist for decades. I was just in Ecuador this summer, seeing the multiple impacts of climate change and oil exploration in the Amazon. I'm also a grad student in the field (environmental science and policy).