TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
Emily Davila's blog
« previous 5


In Copenhagen, climate change is visual
Related to country: Denmark


Making the complexity of climate change something people can relate to is no easy task.

But this month in Copenhagen, ‘green culture’ is everywhere you look. Subways walls are plastered with signs urging negotiators to ‘seal the deal’, and every museum and city plaza has a special exhibit about climate change.

You can learn a lot about Denmark by how they have taken on their role as host for the climate negotiations known as COP15. With so many art and cultural activities, Denmark is recognizing that sustainability will only catch on if it is linked to social and cultural identity.

Here is an overview of the few climate art exhibits in Copenhagen this week, many of which are also online or will soon travel to a city near you.

It’s a Small World http://www.itsasmallworld.dk

As a world leader in design, the soul of Denmark seems to lie in the Danish Design Centre.

The exhibit “It’s Small World” offers a welcome concreteness at a time when the global stakes are so high and yet so amorphous. The exhibition is about reconsidering scale – from the small choices we make about what we buy, to big visions like widely adopted electric cards.

The worlds of public policy and design merge in an interactive video-exhibit about the future of energy in Denmark. The video features a conversation between designers and the charismatic lead negotiator of the COP15, Connie Hedegaard, Danish Minister for Climate and Energy.

The participants outlines a serious vision for Denmark in 2020-- where half the countries energy comes from windmills that in turn power a new generation of electric cars. With nearly 5,000 windmills currently powering 20% of the nations energy, Denmark is working hard to position itself as a leader and future exporter of sustainable innovation.

In the basement of the center, an exhibition by young designers portrays a series of winning ‘sustainable fashion’ outfits. There is a particular burst of creativity in http://thefashiontotem.blogspot.com/.

Sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, the exhibition will travel to the US and around Europe starting in February 2010.

100 places to remember before they disappear

Near the central subway station of Norreport, this outdoor photo exhibition puts a stunning human face to climate change. From archipelagos in the Pacific, to the hills of Caracas and the streets of Chicago, the pictures show 100 places on earth that are vulnerable to extreme climate change and other human influences on the environment.

While the photos are beautiful, they are also painful to look at; one can sense the vulnerability of the landscapes. By offering pictures of the beauty that we have, the exhibit portrays a sense of wonder and value of exactly what is at stake. One of the goals of the exhibition, sponsored by Care and CO+Life, is to put people living in poverty at the center of climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

The website < http://www.100places.com/en/> is a great learning tool, with an interactive map. The photographs are also available in a hardbound coffee table book.

Consequences

In a round dome just outside of the conference center, Greenpeace is also presenting a photo exhibit.

During the opening Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International spoke about the importance of artists in fighting climate change, comparing it to the role of artists in fighting apartheid in South Africa.

“Artists are using their skills to communicate what is happening and that is a critical component that is coming together here at COP15,” said Naidoo. “We recognize the power of the images to cut through the crap of negotiations and show the face of the frontlines of climate change.”

Ranging from photos of Nenet reindeer herders in Siberia, to people in India living in the shadow of a coal disaster, all of the photos were shot within the past three months. The exhibit was a collaborative project of ten photographers from the Dutch agency Kadir von Lohuizen with support from Greenpeace.

A slide show of the photos is available on their website. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/photosvideos/slideshows/consequences-photo-exhibitio

~

With so many people in Copenhagen this week, the art is sure to reach many of the climate faithful, though probably not the government negotiators who are trapped behind closed doors until the late hours of the night. Hopefully the exhibits will reach many more people as they travel the world, prompting the cultural shift necessary for change.

As one activist explained, climate change is about culture. If you listen to the speeches of negotiators from small islands like Tuvulu and Maldives, projected to disappear within a generation, they are fighting for their lives. They are thinking about how their children will grow up not knowing their own cultures.

More climate art:

The World is Yours: Contemporary art at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
http://www.louisiana.dk/uk/Menu/Exhibitions/The+World+is+Yours

Rethink: Contemporary Art and Climate Change, four large art exhibitions by Nordic and international artists http://Rethinkclimate.org

Everyday Miracles: an art installation by Presens, real-life climate solutions
http://everydaymiracles.dk

December 16, 2009 | 10:40 PM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


Crossing boundaries, making commitments
About this event: XVII International AIDS Conference

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

To spread a social movement, like scaling up the world AIDS response, religious leaders need to talk to religious leaders, business to business, youth to youth, and media to media. Studies show that messages spread most effectively when they come from their peers.

In an initiative to bridge the gaps between groups that don’t usually connect, the World AIDS Campaign is convening 12 “leadership encounters” – small facilitated meetings away from the microphones and crowds of the main conference. By having these meetings, the campaign hopes the different sectors will find common ground and uncommon activities.

For instance, in the dialogue between leaders of the youth and media, MTV committed to convene a youth advisory panel. Other dialogues occurred between leaders of faith communities and men who have sex with men, and between commercial sex workers and the business community.

The World AIDS Campaign will compile a report of the commitments, and follow them up and report on them in Vienna at the AIDS conference in 2010.

But this isn’t the only group collecting commitments in Mexico. At the Youth Pavilion in the Global Village young people staff a “youth commitments desk”, asking for leaders to promise to scale up youth participation in their programs.

In 2006, the youth commitments desk at the Toronto AIDS conference collected 371 commitments. But making commitment doesn’t guarantee action. A team of youth followed up the 371 commitments and found a completion rate of 25%.

August 6, 2008 | 1:30 PM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


lets face it, drug users and sex workers are scary
About this event: XVII International AIDS Conference

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

What is standing out for me at the conference is the need to focus on investment and programs for and research of the most at-risk groups---, men who have sex with men, drug users, sex workers and prisoners.

Let’s be frank, this is no “save the children” kind of cause – generally people are afraid of these groups and don’t know much about them. I’ve had a lot of global experiences in my life, but I have never spoken directly with a sex worker or prisoner (to my knowledge). With so many sex workers here, I can surely change this soon.

Simple prejudices and impressions aside – the numbers tell a shocking story. Of global AIDS expenditures, only 1.2 percent is spent on specific responses to men who have sex with men. This totals $3 million out of the estimated $30 million needed according to UNAIDS.

“Less than 10% of high risk populations are receiving appropriate prevention.” Alex Coutinho, Executive Director, Infectious Disease Institute Uganda.

Outside of Africa – drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men make up the vast majority of those contracting HIV. It’s amazing after 25 years and billions of dollars we are not able to better address these populations. There is research and success stories that document what works in these populations, especially in Mexico and Brazil.

Youth are key to this struggle actually – we need a generation of young people that can fearlessly empower and protect the human rights of sex workers, prisoners and drug users.

August 6, 2008 | 1:27 PM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


Crossing boundaries, making commitments
About this event: XVII International AIDS Conference

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

To spread a social movement, like scaling up the world AIDS response, religious leaders need to talk to religious leaders, business to business, youth to youth, and media to media. Studies show that messages spread most effectively when they come from their peers.

In an initiative to bridge the gaps between groups that don’t usually connect, the World AIDS Campaign is convening 12 “leadership encounters” – small facilitated meetings away from the microphones and crowds of the main conference. By having these meetings, the campaign hopes the different sectors will find common ground and uncommon activities.

For instance, in the dialogue between leaders of the youth and media, MTV committed to convene a youth advisory panel. Other dialogues occurred between leaders of faith communities and men who have sex with men, and between commercial sex workers and the business community.

The World AIDS Campaign will compile a report of the commitments, and follow them up and report on them in Vienna at the AIDS conference in 2010.

But WAC isn’t the only group collecting commitments in Mexico. At the Youth Pavilion in the Global Village young people staff a “youth commitments desk”, asking for leaders to promise to scale up youth participation in their programs.

In 2006, the youth commitments desk at the Toronto AIDS conference collected 371 commitments. But making commitment doesn’t guarantee action. A team of youth followed up the 371 commitments and found a completion rate of 25%.

August 6, 2008 | 12:08 PM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


Thembi's radio diary offers powerful HIV positive youth testimony
About this event: XVII International AIDS Conference

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

With her doll-like face, she hardly looks her 23 years, but Thembi has learned a lot about life. After she was diagnosed with HIV at age 16, she started taking a tape recorder with her everywhere to capture her life.

At aidsdiary.org, listeners travel with her on her first visit to the doctor, hear firsthand about the decline of her T-cell count. The diary covers her progression to full-blown AIDS, starting ARV treatment, and finally having a daughter.

Presenting her story at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, she talks about how keeping a diary empowered her. “Ever since I knew my status my life has changed for the better. Ever since I started my diary I have felt more confident and comfortable and I am an inspiration to other young people.”

In a conference or thousands of experts, the most powerful presentations still come from personal testimony. In one of her entries, she reflects on the future.

”I’m just imagining what a world would look like without me in it. I’m not scared of dying but of leaving my baby behind. I want to see her grow a little bigger. HIV will try to rule my life on the inside but outside I will be boss. I want to study and have a good job, I want to go on with my life.”

Beyond the radio, Thembi also writes a blog http://thembisaidsdiarytour.vox.com/.

A recent concert hosted by the South African government, she reflects below on how AIDS messages still don´t effectively reach young people at risk.

”I felt like those images on those big screens with infected people had nothing to do with me. It reminded me of high school. When they would show pictures of thin, poor orphans that look like they are dying, and try to scare you out of having sex. But it never works because young, South African, at-risk kids do not see themselves in those images. They cannot imagine that it can happen to them.”

Her has been used as a teaching tool all over the world and aired on National Public Radio in the U.S., and in the U.K., Australia and Canada, reaching more than 50 million people.

August 5, 2008 | 12:31 PM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


« previous 5


Emily Davila's Profile

Emily Davila's Friends


Latest Posts
In Copenhagen, climate...
Crossing boundaries,...
lets face it, drug...
Crossing boundaries,...
Thembi's radio diary...

Monthly Archive
January 2004
September 2005
October 2005
December 2005
August 2006
September 2006
July 2007
December 2007
March 2008
April 2008
August 2008
December 2009

Change Language


Tags Archive
abc abstinence activism africa aids arvs climatechange condom creativity digitaldivide faith flipvideo hiv ict international kenya peace pharmaceuticals reconciliation religion rwanda sex technology toolkits ungass unitednations youth youthcaucus youthleadership youthparticipation

Filter By Type
Events
News
Travel
Topics

Friends
Susanne Thalacker


42971 views
Important Disclaimer