Global Climate Wakeup Call in Hamilton

[adam]

Global Wake Up Call

Monday, September 21 at 12:18 PM
Place: King and James, Hamilton, Canada
Host: Lisbie Rae

Individuals will make their own way to the King and James entrance to Jackson Square, mingling with the shoppers and workers, trying to disappear into the crowd. They will set their cell phone alarms (or any alarm or noisemaker) for 12:18. When all the alarms go off, everyone involved will move towards each other on the stairs making sounds like a ticking clock “tck, tck, tck”. Drummers will start drumming to set the rhythm for the clocks, and to wake up our politicians to the dangers of climate change. When we’re all together on the stairs or upper level, we will each move one arm in a circle like the hand of a clock. Those who can, will do this while balancing on one foot in a yoga pose. We’ll take a group photo in easy or hard yoga poses (finding balance in the midst of change). In the middle of all the noise of wake up calls, drumming and ticking, we’ll each phone politicians on our cell phone, demanding that they craft a strong climate change strategy. Individuals will bring the telephone number of a politician to phone, or use one that will be available on site Here’s the message: Climate change is putting life on earth in peril. There is still time to build a greener, safer world. But the clock is ticking. On December 18th (12:18) world leaders will meet in Copenhagen to decide our destiny. On the 21st September at 12:18 we will give the global leaders such a Wake Up Call to Climate Change that it will still be reverberating when they meet in New York and Pittsburgh. We call on our leaders to go to the UN meeting and then the G20 Summit and agree the financing so the Copenhagen meeting in December can agree a global climate deal that is FABulous! FAIR AMBITIOUS BINDING. Campaign Asks COPENHAGEN: An ambitious, fair and binding treaty for the planet. We want our political leaders to be in Copenhagen and to show historic leadership in achieving a treaty which is: FABulous. FAIR: for the poorest countries that did not cause climate change but are suffering most from it. AMBITIOUS: enough to leave a planet safe for us all. BINDING: with real targets that can be legally monitored and enforced. Here is the timeline between the Global Wake Up Call and the December Copenhagen Meeting on 12 18 Date Event Significance 21st September Global Wake Up Call Wake Up World! 22nd September UN High-Level Event on Climate Change Global leaders discuss action needed on climate 24th 25th September G20 Summit G20 Leaders need to agree financing for Copenhagen deal 7th - 18th December Climate Meeting in Copenhagen (COP 15) Make or break meeting Post Copenhagen Celebrating a FAB treaty! And making sure that governments keep to their commitments!

Directions:
meet outside the mall at the King/James entrance

More info here.

[SteelTown]

Which will follow with holding hands and singing Kumbaya. HAHA

[emge]

yoga poses, ticking and "FABulous"? you've got to be kidding me.

talk about a good cause and lousy means.

[highwater]

I was going to try to make this, but this is seriously dorky. And I like yoga.

[SteelTown]

Flash mob pops up, but few seem to notice

September 21, 2009
Ken Peters
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/639017

If a tree falls in a forest...

Or, more to the point, if a protest group behaves in a bizarre fashion at the corner of King and James on a Monday noon-hour, does anyone really notice?

Not really. Not the guys in suits, the scooter riders, the mothers with baby buggies, the tattooed tube toppers, the wild-eyed wanderers or the bored teens with piercings and colourful hair smoking aimlessly.

It seems when it comes to protests, the key element — as it is with real estate — is location, location, location. And to get noticed at King and James on a weekday at noon, a protest group has to bring out the heavy artillery.

So it appeared to be with Hamilton social justice activist Lisbie Rae’s global wakeup call on climate change today. Rae organized a flash mob event that saw some 30 people assemble on the Jackson Square front steps. A flash mob is a group of people who assemble in a public place and perform an attention-getting action before dispersing quickly.

The group called politicians on their cell phones to urge action on the climate and struck yoga poses to draw attention. The event was purported to be one of 2,300 rallies taking place in 130 countries to bring attention to climate change. The events were organized by AVAAZ, a web-based protest organization.

Rae said the intention of the event was to push for a fair, ambitious and binding agreement on climate change at a international Conference on Global Warming in Copenhagen in December.

But as wakeup calls, go this one appeared to be a real snoozer to most passersby.

Downtown officer worker Marlene Sear came out to support a friend taking part. But she questioned whether anyone was paying attention, particularly the politicians who were being called.

“I think the people at the end of the phone are thinking ‘Oh, oh, telemarketer,’ and hanging up real quick,” she said.

Sear said no one in the vicinity seemed to be paying attention.

“Everyone is eating pizza and thinking ‘I’m getting out of the rain today.’ It’s very lame,” Sear said.

But protester Michael Nabert said some media attention would make the Hamilton event a success.

“I’m hoping that we have enough of a showing here in Hamilton that we get in the paper, we get on television, we get more people conscious of the movement and conscious of the issues,” he said.

Nabert wasn’t sure exactly what actions the group would take.

“I’m here to show up and offer my support. I may sing or make a fool of myself because that’s what I like to do,” he said.

But Rae, a yoga instructor, was beaming after the event.

“I feel pumped. I think that was great. We got lots of people to stop and listen and I think we were able to get our message across.”

Rae said she believed this Hamilton’s first flashmob event.

She admitted the cell phone/politician call/yoga pose might seem a bit out of the ordinary for most Hamiltonians.

“Sometimes you have to be a little bit nuts to get the attention of people in power,” Rae said. “I think the unusual is what catches people’s attention and we want to catch the attention of as many people, especially people in power, as we can.”

[bigguy1231]

No wonder no one noticed, when there is only 10 or so people involved. If they want to get noticed they have to do something noticable. Maybe a group of good looking young women standing there naked would work instead of a bunch of grey heads fully clothed.