Communicating Climate Change- You've got the power!

Climate change communication is a collective work of creation- about intricacies of conveying the message to the public. Imaginative and reasoning between the cold, impersonal world of climate change deniers and the much more ignorant group of people. Photography as tools of exploration, ticket to inner sanctums, instruments for change. Images are the proof that photography matters in bridging the gap of awareness, now, more than ever.

Communicating the urgency of climate change is particularly challenging, scientific facts and figures can be overwhelmed, but sometimes the lack of visual medium is rather prominent. To instill the beauty and fragility of nature, i hope with the communication medium of photography can illustrate the environmental challenges faced by wildlife and ecosystems due to climate change impacts. I'm intend to record the changes through events, awareness campaigns, action groups.

You've got the power!

 Capturing the essence of light is perhaps the greatest challenge in the very place of event/campaign action and tame intersected. My wimpy skill of photography to tell a story although this may be open to multiple interpretation of viewers. Images, to not only be the eyes but also a voice to connect people, deriving the flow of energy across a scene as creative analogy for key role enablers- message of movement.

In a world seemingly dulled by a daily overdose of images; i call upon Photographers with conscience, climate change can't wait, we need you, the world needs you, cut through these avalanche of images, standout and express the imperiled beauty of the world- divulge climate change- You've got the power!

CLIMATE PICNIC Sembang-Sembang! 

 An unusual- Early Sunday morning of 21st Sept 2014, nearly hundred of people attended "Climate Picnic". This gathering is in solidarity with People's Climate March, to pressure Malaysia's leaders to take action on climate change now. This picnic highlights the importance of opposing climate change for the sake of clean air, water and healthy communities. Full story here.

To change everything, we need everyone.

Tim visualizing his love for planet in words. 

Plenty of colored pencils and recycle "art paper" to express your love for the planet and against climate change.

Vegan foods!

Adrian, the founder of 350.org Malaysia (PowerShiftMsia) sharing his thoughts of change.

Jeffrey Lim (an advocate of Cycling KL Bike Map Project) sharing zero-carbon bicycle as the main transport and solution during the picnic.

Ms. Choy Kim Lee was sharing her experience of participated in youth-led training workshop in New York City recently. It baffles her that youth are now given the information and access to decision making process, and the importance of Joining #PowerShiftMsia!!!

To change everything, we need everyone.

His favorite animals are dragon and tiger, in that specific order. He has a 3 legged dragon and a 7 legged dragon. He also love outdoors and the environment. He will ask his dragons to steal and eat those bad people's shoe if they destroy the planet.

So, EVERYONE!!! Don't let the dragon eat your shoe.


Photographers with conscience, climate change can't wait, we need you, the world needs you; to express the imperiled beauty of the world, divulge climate change- You've got the power! 
Use your photography skills to make the world a better place.

JW. 

#PowerShiftMsia

The world is running out of time if we wait solely rely on political will to solve the climate crisis.

2015 looms as a critical year when we must act swiftly and strong if we are to have any chance of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celcius, let alone get back to the 350 parts per million of atmospheric CO2 that scientists say is necessary.

The Rio+20 Earth Summit in June of 2012 was meant to be the starting point for a three year push to 2015, but the summit ended in a whimper rather than a bang and 2015 will eventually follow, unless an international climate movement can generate an unprecedented level of political pressure for climate action.

We need a massive and sustained show of force that disrupts the status quo and captures the public imagination. This ambitious goal is within reach. With a loose collection of organizations, activists, and networks in nearly every country on earth, the climate movement has the necessary potential to facilitate this sort of global groundswell. Now it’s time for us to realize this potential.Global Power Shift (GPS) began with an international climate leaders summit of mostly young people in Istanbul, Turkey, June 24-30, 2013. The week-long summit was the chance for us to refine skills, create personal bonds and community, share a global vision for change, and strategize how to organize different actions and similar summits back home. Now, in country after country we are organizing national, regional summits.

Depending on the size of the host country, the summits bring together anywhere between hundreds or thousands of activists and partners. The national summits are opportunities to build on or launch national climate campaigns and to empower participants from around the country to return home equipped to lead local action groups. Local groups in turn educate the public about the realities and solutions to climate change, implement solutions projects and campaigns, and recruit for mass global action leading into 2014 and 2015.

Thus, through 2013 and beyond, together, we are creating the global power shift our world needs to effectively confront the climate crisis.

 On 10th – 15th December, gather together 25 Malaysian youths, joined by experienced speakers from Malaysia’s UNFCCC climate change negotiator, NGO and community leaders. We aim to empower participants with variety of workshops like Digital Campaigning, Policy & Governance, Understanding Media and Active Activism. 

 Empower participants with variety of workshops: 
  • Digital Campaigning - being the most efficient channel in reaching out to Malaysian audiences, spreading climate change and environment awareness on the internet is vital, tips and tricks in using social media tools, how to effectively tell you story on youtube, facebook, twitter and many more.
  • Policy & Governance – understanding the policy is crucial in affecting change in the system, connecting the policies on the United Nations level to the local government implementations, what are the difficulties and how can we leverage and apply influence on the system.
  • Understanding Media – mainstream media can be both allies and enemy in environmental campaigns, more often allies, learn what kind of stories do the media wants, what publications do the readers want to read, how to draft a press release
  • Creative Activism  – taking meaningful action is not restricted only taking it to the streets, there are many non-violence direct action in the book, and many are shockingly creative and effective, join us to learn more
  • Idola Demokrasi - participants first learn how to define the problem. Is the problem really the problem? Or is the so-called problem actually a symptom of an underlying issue? Get to the root! Defining the problem requires interaction, discussion and debate.
  • Theory of Change – our aim to shift our wasteful fossil-fuel focused society to efficient renewable centric is easier when we can identify the sector of the society behaviors, once we understand this, we can cater our strategies effectively
  • Storytelling – getting personal with our personal naratives and campaign stories, and how to craft a campaign story that will move mountains
  • Roots Camp -  is an open space “unconference” where the agenda is driven by the people who attend. The agenda is set on-site. At the start of each day, attendees fill out cards and post the sessions they’re interested in presenting. Before RootsCamp session, talk to friends about what you’d like to present and see if you can work together on something. 
http://world.350.org/malaysia/

































IT'S WRAP for all the PowerShifters! The most "awesomest" participants! There might be information overload but keep the motivation and inspiration you can never go wrong.There are no failures, it was an intense 5-day workshop and all of you came out of it more alive than ever (we hope). Keep calm and Shift Power!

#PowerShiftMsia You've got the power!

JW.