Why coal? Why Obama?
We believe in protest: Digital and analog, asynchronous and global. Sending packets of charcoal to politicians is of course symbolic protest. The question is how to enable all of the people around the world who want to protect the climate to raise their voice? The millions who have seen “An Inconvenient Truth”, who by energysaving-lightbulbs, who fight new coal plants in their neighborhood, who buy cleanpower - how can they be heard around the world? Companies have lots of money, they can buy ads on tv, buy fancy dinners for journalists and politicians to influence them. We don’t have these kinds of ressources. In fact we have no budget at all and nobody pays us. We only believe that all of us together can do it. If we send packets of coal to governments around the world, in India, USA, Brasil, Germany, Britain, Chile… people will notice. We will create pressure for a strong treaty in Copenhagen in December. And for the first time there will be a global movement to solve a truly global problem.
So why Obama? We could have also called it coalforbrown.org or charbonpoursarkozy.org or kohlefuerangela.de (In fact we got those domains, just in case). But the only truly global domain would have been www.coalforsinghjiabaolulabrownobamamerkelsarkozy….org Not so pretty. We thought coalforobama is much catchier. Obviously, Barack Obama is the closest we come to a president of the world. He has inspired millions of people in many countries who yearn for change. But he has made it clear that he can’t do it alone. He needs us to take responsibility. So we do. We send him packets of coal to show that we want him to act decidedly on global warming. Just the way he did by picking an amazing energy-team right after he got appointed, including Nobel-prize winner Steven Chu. And those of us who don’t live in the States send packets to our heads of state. They all have to work together. Yes we can avoid dangerous climate change.
Hello! Gruesse aus Australien!
I like this idea and I’m inclined to join the movement.
There’s an issue I’d like to raise. If I put myself in a critic’s shoes for a moment (think right-wing journalist who wants to make people like us look stupid), I can’t help but ask why people who want the world to stop supporting the coal industry are encouraging the world to buy coal. Imagine telling people to mail whale meat to their heads of state to encourage an end to whaling.
I think it would be very helpful to your cause if you made it *very* clear that what you’re sending to these politicians is NOT COAL but *charcoal*. BBQ fuel is charcoal, which is made by burning hardwood; it’s not coal. This raises another question: Where is this charcoal coming from, and how sustainable is the process? I’ve done a little bit of looking around online and it seems that most commercially available bbq charcoal comes from unsustainable forestry practices (eg. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/sustainablebbq.shtml).
It might be a good idea to encourage people to send SUSTAINABLY PRODUCED CHARCOAL to their heads of state, not coal. Maybe try to find a company that sells only sustainable BBQ charcoal and encourage everyone to buy their product. That way, you’ll be supporting a sustainable business, keeping your protest self-consistent and making a strong point to the world.
Here’s another opportunity for a powerful symbol in your movement: Encourage the politicians to BURY the charcoal, NOT burn it. I saw a comment on the main feed that the obvious thing to do with the ‘coal’ after the politicians receive it is to have a big BBQ and burn it all. This seems counterproductive to me, given that burning charcoal produces pure CO2, exactly the thing that we’re trying to stop producing. BURYING the charcoal will SEQUESTER the carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere. It may also help to fertilise soil, which will help more plants to grow, thereby sequestering more carbon. I think that would be a powerful symbol to the world and it would make the politicians look good, as well as your movement, which makes it more likely to happen.
Please think carefully about how you set up this movement. I REALLY LIKE THE IDEA and I can also see a lot of potential for it to backfire if it’s not done well.
Viel Glueck!
Drew.
Drew
6 Apr 09 at 09:47