Blog Action Day 2009: Bloggers vs. Climate Change

Published October 15, 2009 @ 01:09AM PT

Robin Beck is Change.org's Organizing Director and the lead organizer for Blog Action Day 2009.

We at Change.org are thrilled to announce that Blog Action Day 2009 is finally here! For those of you who aren’t familiar, Blog Action Day is an annual event – held on October 15th – in which bloggers from around the world unite to write about the same topic on the same day.

This year Change.org was asked to run Blog Action Day, and I’ve just spent the past two months serving as lead organizer – corresponding with thousands of bloggers in more than 135 countries and working with dozens of leading nonprofits and media partners in preparation for the big day.

In August we asked bloggers from around the world to vote on the topic they wanted to write about, and the overwhelming selection was climate change. I have to admit, I was pleased. I don’t think there is another global issue today as important or urgent as climate change, nor one that impacts more aspects of all of our lives.

I’ve been a lifelong environmental and social justice advocate and it’s been exciting to see the overwhelming response in support of writing about a topic that, not so long ago, was obscure and unsexy.

As soon as we announced the winning topic, top blogs like Mashable, The Official Google Blog, Autoblog, Neatorama and Gadling immediately signed on in support. Even more important has been the enthusiastic response of thousands of niche bloggers covering topics ranging from politics to travel, food, knitting and more around the globe.

We’ve also been fortunate to have many of the world’s leading nonprofit organizations involved, including the TckTckTck campaign, the United Nations Foundation, NRDC, 350.org, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Care, World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, 1Sky, the National Wildlife Federation, and just this week – Al Gore’s organization: the Alliance for Climate Protection.

We were also pleasantly surprised by the active participation of two national governments, showing that leaders throughout the word are not only taking this issue seriously, but are also serious about engaging grassroots citizen participation on the web.

In Spain the ruling PSOE party has helped translate our awesome Blog Action Day video into Spanish and has become an active supporter. In the UK, the foreign ministry, and now the Prime Minister himself, have become not just supporters but active participants. In fact, Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote his country’s first blog post at 12:01am on October 15th.

In the context of all this activity, many people have been asking me lately what I see as the impact of Blog Action Day and what I consider success.

My most honest answer is that I think the biggest impact, and the biggest measure of success, is that today new conversations are happening about climate change in places they never have before. Bloggers who usually write about their daily lives, about business, about design, technology, travel, or family are having a new discussion. And that discussion is bringing one of the most urgent issues of our time to a wider audience than ever before.

You can watch as the day unfolds with our live stream of all of your posts and tweets at: www.blogactionday.org. Thanks for engaging with us in Blog Action Day 09!

Share this Post

Comments (14)

I am an advocate to stop global warming. But I cannot change my focus. From the millions of children thrown into jail every year. For exercising their freedom of choice. They choose a substance, a herb, that is safer than beer or even aspirin. For this they are made felons and having their lives destroyed. To maintain corporate profits the ones that profit billions every year from their destruction. How can we sleep at night I hear them crying in a cage for what? End cannabis prohabition the war is destroying our children to feed the machine. A non smoker...........

CFJ

Posted by Cherokee Fred Jesus on 10/15/2009 @ 07:45AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- 1 person likes this comment. Like
Reply to thread
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Cherokee Fred
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
...hopefully it is not coming to this:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/fried-earth-hans-doller.html

Posted by Hans Doller on 10/15/2009 @ 08:43AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Hans
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
This is great! A fantastic concept and way to connect ALL of us!! The carbon footprint of war, slaughterhouses and our personal food choices are ALL interconnected. Every day we make choices that cause a chain reaction on our planet. I ask everyone who isn't vegetarian, to consider researching this lifestyle as a peaceful positive change to our world. Since 1983 I've been a practicing Vegan and at 53 am in fantastic physical emotional and spiritual shape. Our daily food choices DO make a difference and in 2009 we absolutely do NOT need to be living like our ancestors.

Peace begins on the dinner plate. The carbon footprint of war and slaughterhouses speaks volumes. It's no coincidence that a McDiet society is also one that is crime ridden with multitudes of societal and health ailments. Peace and Ahimsa to all!

Posted by dee f. on 10/15/2009 @ 09:48AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
In the run up to the Copenhagen climate change conference, it is vital the following information be disseminated to the public as well as to our political leaders.

A widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Livestock's Long Shadow, estimates that 18 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are attributable to livestock….however recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang co-authors of "Livestock and Climate Change" in the latest issue of World Watch magazine found that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions!

www.51percent.org

The main sources of GHGs from animal agriculture are: (1) Deforestation of the rainforests to grow feed for livestock. (2) Methane from manure waste. – Methane is 72 times more potent as a global warming gas than CO2 (3) Refrigeration and transport of meat around the world. (4) Raising, processing and slaughtering of the animal.

Meat production also uses a massive amount of water and other resources which would be better used to feed the world’s hungry and provide water to those in need.

Based on their research, Goodland and Anhang conclude that replacing livestock products with soy-based and other alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change. They say "This approach would have far more rapid effects on GHG emissions and their atmospheric concentrations-and thus on the rate the climate is warming-than actions to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy."

The fact is that we are being informed of the dangerous path we are on by depending greatly on animal flesh for human consumption. We still have the opportunity to make the most effective steps in saving ourselves and this planet. By simply choosing a plant based diet we can reduce our carbon foot print by a huge amount.

We are gambling with our lives and with those of our future generations to come. It's madness to know we are fully aware of the possible consequences but yet are failing to act.

Promoting a plant based diet to the public is would be the most effective way to curb deforestation, we hope this will be adopted as a significant measure to save the rainforests and protect the delicate ecology.

Thank you for your consideration.

Posted by SAAW International on 11/04/2009 @ 11:34PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Like
Reply to thread
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by dee
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
>Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote his country's first blog post

Backward's Brits - that is too funny!!

Posted by Richard Coshott on 10/15/2009 @ 10:45AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Richard
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
Aloha from Hawaii! I've put 18 solar PV panels and 2 solar water panels on my house in Hawaii and I'm saving about $500/month on my power bill. I'm trying to get off the grid by mid 2011. I've saved over 5000lbs of CO2 according to my Converter. I want to get the word out about the monetary and Co2 savings available through solar power. Would you consider doing a blog post about my house? I can provide pictures and more details.
Here is some detail from my site http://www.alohatony.com/solar.php All I ask is that somewhere in the post you reference that solar page on my site.
Thanks, Tony Kawaguchi

Posted by Tony in Hawaii on 10/15/2009 @ 12:15PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Tony
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
Just took some BAD action for a GOOD cause over at SuperEco. Here are our Blog Action Day 09 climate change post contributions: http://www.supereco.com/news/2009/10/15/blog-action-day-09-5-easy-ways-to-personally-protect-our-climate/ and Lisa Poisso's http://www.supereco.com/news/2009/10/15/its-getting-hot-in-here/Great work Change.org and Keep the climate change activism blogs coming, Change.org!

Posted by Kim Lachance Shandrow on 10/15/2009 @ 02:19PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Kim
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
I have been spending less time in fun or allied sites and much more time all over corporate media land. Since getting deeply involved in the fight for public option, it became more obvious that people who listen to Palin, Beck, Limpbaugh, and other professional liars, repeat their nonsense daily. They are also inflexible bashers of the President.

Every day, they rant about cap n trade and dismiss any thought that there is a single concern about anything environmental.

There is a need to counter the lies with daily messages about climate change. Maybe this idea would work best if most people could choose two (one local, one national) outlets to contrast the silliness with reality. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta

Posted by Rev Bookburn on 10/15/2009 @ 06:04PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
In a few years time, people will look back and think how foolish we were to accept the idea that humans were causing the world to heat up. People acted like this in medieval times when comets appeared in the sky; jumping up and down blaming each other's behaviour for bringing forward the end of the world. But we have a better understanding of science than those living in Medieval times and should know that:

C(fossil fuel) + O2(air) = CO2 + H2O + Heat (Remembering your High School biology?)
You must also remember that :
CO2 + H2O + sunlight = C6-H12-O6(biomass) + O2. (photoautotrophic plant growth)

The only relevant question regarding AGW, is to ask, ‘which chemical reaction taking place is returning the greatest volume of gas to the atmosphere? Is it combustion, respiration and decomposition which consumes oxygen and produces Carbon Dioxide, or is it plant growth which consumes CO2 and produces Oxygen? Come on, which is it?

Air-breathing plants plus aquatic carbon-fixing phytoplankton produce about 150,000,000,000 tonnes of biomass every year. This is a huge mass but it includes everything that grows on this planet including everything that grows in the rivers and oceans. To accomplish this, photoautropic activity has to sequester about 470 billion tons of CO2 annually from the atmosphere in order to produce this amount of biomass. Of this, about 10% of the CO2 (47 billion tonnes), is permanently lost to the atmosphere due to the creation of irreducible biomass and carboniferous depositions. (Domestic and Commercial waste buried yearly in landfill sites alone accounts for 4 billion tons!)

Since the declared total amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere worldwide is 29 billion tons (US Energy Information Administration) this leaves a 30 billion ton shortfall of CO2 in the atmosphere. That explains why there is so little CO2 left in the atmosphere. Unfortunately it doesn't explain why so many educated people believe CO2 levels are going up! That's just weird.

Posted by Justin Gudgeon on 10/21/2009 @ 05:24AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Like
Reply to thread
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Rev
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
Thank you Change.org for jump starting the climate change discussion that is certain to continue on blogs all over the world. I've been posting articles in support of Blog Action Day all week at T1 Rex's Business Telecom Explainer http://t1rex.blogspot.com/ and will continue with regular posts related to technology and climate change.

Posted by John Shepler on 10/15/2009 @ 07:16PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- 1 person likes this comment. Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by John
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
Solar panels are great but I've been using peddle power to generate electricity. I have a row of stationary bikes in my garage and an agreement with the neighborhood kids that they can come over if they peddle for power. In less than an hour with 17 kids spinning, I have enough juice to power my microwave AND my radio! We need to consider all of the alternatives and get off the grid! Go Vegan!

Posted by Turk Fowler on 10/16/2009 @ 03:36PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Turk
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
What's the problem? Can anyone here tell me how the long the Earth has been around? How many ice ages or mass extinctions have occurred since the Earth has been here? I'm new to this movement, and I find it hard to explain that since the industrial revolution (only a couple hundred years ago), human beings have single handidly, destroyed the Earth, using only the items that we found here on Earth. How do I respond when a conservative asks me to explain these things? I'm pretty sure the Earth has been around for 4,700,000,000 years. (That's billion with a B). How can we compare that to only 40,000 years of carbon dating?

Posted by Adam R. on 10/20/2009 @ 11:05AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Adam
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
"Humanity's Leap to the Golden Era:
Washington D.C Climate Change Conference." - I like the title! Reminds me of "The Great Leap Forward" that was so successful under Mao.

Posted by Turk Fowler on 10/20/2009 @ 11:27AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Turk
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
Powerful Essay on Understanding Global Warming as Human-Induced

To truly understand Global Warming as due to HUMAN activity one needs to understand the time-scales involved.

Here's a powerful essay in advance of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, with a foreword by Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies:

A Day in the Life of the Earth

http://blogontheuniverse.org/2009/06/13/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-earth/

In addition, a number of other powerful CLIMATE CHANGE posts at Blog on the Universe at: http://bit.ly/HHgif

These posts are also outlined for use in classrooms, with essential questions, key concepts, learning objectives, and hands-on activities.

Jeff Goldstein, Center Director

National Center for Earth and Space Science Education

Posted by Jeff Goldstein on 10/21/2009 @ 08:37PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Jeff
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply

Add a Comment

For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

Comment

Check Spelling

Email me when there are new posts to this thread
Comment Policy

Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.

Author

Robin Beck is the Organizing Director at Change.org and lead organizer for Blog Action Day 2009. He was formerly an organizer for Rainforest Action Network.