#climatevoice

This is the blogger table here in New Work, our Digital Media Centre if you will. You can see Jason, Karina and Jason all prepping their respective tech for the all out digital marathon that lies ahead.

Me? I'm testing mobile uploads from my well-travelled N86. If you can read this, then it's working..

This morning, as we're setting up for the week ahead, we are to be hosts to four women who have traveled from different parts of the world to come and state their case to the world leaders about why something has to be done about Climate Change and why it has to be done now.

The interview is broadcast live on http://livestream.com/voiceproject and while we sit, Vikki Chowney asks the questions and the women, the women tell their stories.

The interview lasts for an hour, the below are random thoughts and quotes captured along the way:

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Four women. Four stories. 

Sharon Hanshaw, USA, is here to talk about her experiences from Hurrican Katrina. The effects are still being felt. The lack of support, the lack of care, the lack of community. The US is supposed to be one of the richest countries in the world, why are people homeless? Why are people without food? Six hundred billion dollars was set aside for affordable housing, but no one can apply for this as they still have mortgages on the land where their houses used to be. It's a global, collective problem. It's a global, collective issue. It should all be addressed.

Ulamila Kurai Wragg, Cook Islands, Pacific, has seen climate change first hand having been born and raised in the Pacific Islands. Wants... No, demands, that their voices are heard because it's not about us, it's about our children. 12 cyclones in 3 weeks. What is it like to search for food, search for clean water, search for the things to survive, for your children to survive. Come and be a 'Climate Witness'. Ulamila is a journalist for the Cook Islands News and uses her network and abilities to amplify the problems going on down there. The shorelines are receding at a rate of one metre a year.

Constance Okollet from Uganda, is here to tell us how the people from her village have suffered because of climate change. In the past they thought it was God, punishing them. But only now do they see that it is a man-made problem. They used to have two seasons a year, but now - since 2007 when the village flooded - they have had only one season. Too many droughts and not enough rain, and when the rain does come - it is harsh, fast and destructive.

Ursula, from Carteret Islands in the South Pacific - her elders and community have tasked her with bringing their plight to the attention of the world. The atoll, where they live was previously a paradise, but it is a paradise no more... They have lost food, crops, grazing areas, farm lands. From December through March the Ocean washes through the villages, carrying over and through anything in its way. All they have to survive on is coconut and fish. Yes they need help, but they also need the responsibility to handle and apply the aid themselves. 

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Question: Back in April, at the G20 in London a LOT of aid was promised for Climate Change, has anyone seen any of this aid? Answer: No. It takes two years to apply for aid...

WHAT?!

It takes UP TO TWO YEARS to apply for AID. I am sat here in shock. TWO. YEARS. That is horrific. We're talking about AID. HELP. People, asking for help. 

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Coming to the end now.

These women are 'Agents of Change': They know they've traveled far, they know they've used planes and crossed seas, but the issue is very real and people are dying. The amazing thing about this women is how they use the web and social media to mass-mobilize networks across the globe. A recurring theme is:

"We are women, we are Mothers and we need this change to care for and protect our children."

The panel is over now and I learn that the name of the session was 'Four Courageous Women', and sat here in awe as I am, I can see why. Cards are swapped, promises are made and within minutes the women are whisked away to their next appointment.

This morning we're up early and out headed to the first of the #ClimateVoice briefings.

Billed as "A morning session for policymakers and members of country delegations to brief #ClimateVoice participants and take questions", it certainly looks like it could be an interesting morning. Sure enough, I've not even finished my coffee and already I'm sat down opposite the CEO of Oxfam GB, Barbara Stocking, who's here to tell us why Oxfam is just so involved with Climate Change.

"The number of extreme weather events has increased four-fold since 1990."

She continues:

"We're very clear that Women are going to be on the front line when it comes to climate change; the forests, gathering food, fetching water, feeding children, even clearing up and moving the home when they're effected by flooded. Women are the buffer for climate change, it hits them first. The frustrating thing is that here we are in the 21st century and yet women are not represented at the upcoming summit in Copenhagen."

I'm reminded of yesterday's visit from the four courageous women. "A lot of villagers still haven't realised what's going on. In Uganda, I met an old man said...

"We have floods and we have never had floods like this before. Tell me, is this because of the war?"  

...Well why wouldn't he think it would be caused by war? That's the only extreme thing that's happened to his country in his lifetime. In Nicaragua, they think they have displeased their Gods. These people aren't stupid, they base their decisions on the set of information that they have. If they don't know why, then they can't plan ahead to helps themselves in the future. So a lot of what we're doing here is to get the message out to the local people who are effected by climate change, educating them with the knowledge they need to diversify their lifestyles, be that through crop rotation, stockpiling food or even moving house."

I ask Barbara about my own personal discovery yesterday that in some countries aid itself can take up to two years to merely apply for:

"It's hard to photograph something that is... disappearing..."

Helena Christensen, talking about her experiences 15000ft up in the Peruvian glaciers, talking to farmers and locals about how Climate Change is effecting them TODAY.

"...but I decided to show what we will lose. What will no longer exist. The farmers will be gone. The villages will be gone. The skills and the cultural crafts of those people, will all be gone."

"The farmers are very confused about what's happening. They keep to their religious beliefs and insist that the tremors, the loss of glaciers, the natural disasters; their punishments from God. The group that went were some of the first people to explain to them that this was not the case. It's much larger. When they realised that it was beyond their power to help, they wanted to know how they could communicate their message to the people that could."

"Meltdown - Images of what we lose when the glaciers diappear" An exhibition by Helena Christensen will be launched at The United Nations this Thursday, September 24th at 6pm.

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