save the world with design & politics

“I believe that utopia is actually possible - but we’re led by the least noble, the least dignified,
the least tasteful, the dumbest, and the most political”

I wonder if man has lost his way, been poorly conditioned and programmed stepping too far in to the lands of fear, greed and destruction from what was abundance, love and care. Its sad how this thinking has created a world where even the human species can envisage its own demise and the separation between people is a catalyst for violence and pain.

"I really do believe that the world can be saved through design, and everything needs to actually be architected," proclaimed Kanye West to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, a statement that has since garnered widespread criticism from the world design community. But ah bless, he stood on a table and everything. While Oxfam's Design for Change had to swallow their pride by allowing a celebrity to endorse their vision, there's so much truth embedded in this.

Ask yourself what could you DO for change?

As someone with a strong kinship with dearly beloved Polar Bears and ever being reminded of the devastating affects that Global Warming is having on the world, especially the Arctic, I hope that people will wake up in time to do whatever it is within their power to address this issue. That people with power will step up and commit their lives to something greater than themselves.

According to the influential AVAAZ online campaign community, we can stop this eventual decline of our planet, if we act fast and all together to step out of this extinction nightmare. We can pull off one of the most inspiring futures for our children and grandchildren; A clean, green future in balance with the earth that gave birth to us.

"There's 24 months until the Paris Summit, the meeting that world leaders have decided will determine the fate of our efforts to fight climate change. It might seem like a long time - it's not. We have 24 months to get the right leaders in power, get them to that meeting, give them a plan, and hold them accountable. And it's us vs. the oil companies, and fatalism. We can win, we must, but we need to blast out of the starting gate with pledges of just a few dollars/euros/pounds per week until the summit - we'll only process the donations if we hit our goal. For the world we dream of, let's make it happen."

According to Avaaz Scientist Julienne Stroeve has studied Arctic ice for decades. Every summer she travels north to measure how much ice has melted. She knows that climate change is melting the ice fast, but a recent trip surprised even her. Vast areas of Arctic ice have disappeared, beyond our worst expectations.

Fatalism on climate change is not just futile, it's also incompetent. The hour is late, but it is still absolutely within our power to stop this catastrophe, simply by shifting our economies from oil and coal to other sources of power. And doing so will bring the world together like never before, in a deep commitment and cooperation to protect our planetary home. It's a beautiful possibility, and the kind of future Avaaz was born to create. Facing this challenge will take heart, and hope, and also all the smarts we have.

Here's their game plan: 

1. Go Political: Elect Climate Leaders - 3 crucial countries have elections in the next year. Avaz wants to make sure the right people win, and with the right mandate. Avaaz is one of the only major global advocacy organisations that can be political. And since this fight will be won or lost politically, it could be at some points just us vs. the oil companies to decide who our politicians listen to.
2. Make Hollande a Hero - French President Francois Hollande will chair the Paris summit - a powerful position. The community will try every tactic and channel - his personal friends and family, his political constituency, his policy advisors - to make him the hero we need him to be to make the summit a success. Smart move.
3. Take it to the Next Level - The scale of this crisis demands action that goes beyond regular campaigning. It's time for powerful, direct, non-violent action, to capture imagination, convey moral urgency, and inspire people to act. Think Occupy. 

4. Out the Spoilers - Billionaires like the Koch brothers and their oil companies are the major spoilers in climate change - funding junk science to confuse us and spending millions on misleading PR, while buying politicians wholesale. With investigative journalism and more, we need to expose and counter their horrifically irresponsible actions.
5. Define the Deal - Even in the face of planetary catastrophe, 195 governments in a room can be just incompetent. We need to invest in top quality policy advice to develop ingenious strategies, mechanisms, and careful compromises so that when the summit arrives, a critical mass of leaders are already bought in to a large part of the deal, and no one can claim that good solutions don't exist.

If you wish to contribute to Avaaz's pretty impressive "Change the Game" plan and save polar bears much to my inner child's delight - please pledge your support here. 

Personally, I find this a great incentive to focus my energy on a children's book I've been working on (most my life) titled "Snowflake the Last Lost Polar Bear" in the hope that perhaps it might also encourage parents and children to care more for the environment and consider the impact their choices and actions are having on the rest of the world.

the polar bear connection

People who know me well enough will know that I have a 'thing' for Polar Bears. It is a little cringing. I sometimes liken it to Britney Spears' obsession with fairies and then I feel even more silly. However, I cannot deny that whenever I see stories about polar bears the child in me gets all soppy and wants to save them.

Standon Calling Fairies @ Super Cape-Abilities

My good friend Candice Quartermain (formerly Landsman) has a similar connection with killer whales and horses. She's really grown up so when the Britney Spears association makes me feel like a muppet I remind myself of 'Landice' and allow myself to feel cool and compassionate through her inspiration. Nothing wrong with loving animals after all. In fact fairies aren't even real (I am really sorry if that statement just killed one) but I mean... they're like not animals that need protecting. Admittedly I did meet a couple of fairies recently at Standon Calling music festival who granted me a wish by virtue of a glittery fairy dusting, so I shouldn't write them off... but well... they're not Polar Bears and they looked pretty happy and safe making capes to complement their wings and pink hair.


Now one of the most wonderfully illuminating realisations I've had on my travels has been the understanding of why Polar Bears are my 'favourite'...

As a child I went to Venezuela a lot to visit my mother's side of the family. There I would witness and perhaps even empathise with my father and uncles joy as they would be tucking in to the local Venezuelan beer... POLAR BEER. As you can imagine, this year I smiled a lot to myself as I, an adult, had the opportunity to embrace two loves at the same time; beer and polar bears. And now despite realising this personal conditioning and very amusing synchronicity; I still love polar bears. Obviously. They're awesome creatures.

Recently I read that polar bears 'may need to be fed by humans to survive', and my love and kinship for this giant mammal went to another level. I was heart broken at Berlin Zoo seeing Knut looking desperately misplaced and lonely and now seeing that it might take for Polar Bears to become a nuisance to mankind for the issue to really come to the fore really makes me wonder. Without adequate sea ice for enough of the year, bears will not be able to use ice as a feeding platform to hunt their favoured prey, seals, hence will be forced to spend more time fasting on land and posing a risk to human populations on the Arctic. The future's looking pretty bleak for this beautiful animal.

Global warming is directly affecting this animal's survival and no matter where you stand on the issue, it is safe to say that mankind is mostly ignorant to the idea of loving and protecting nature if our collective behaviour is anything to go by. I mean we do have a very unfortunate and shocking tendency to kill one another in big wars that we often don't fully understand the political undertones of.

On a very basic level, littering is a classic example of ignorance. I have found myself giving 'a look' to people chucking their waste on the street biting my tongue sometimes. Some people who claim to be 'spiritual' or 'awake' or 'in love with the world'... and of course this behaviour is unconscious, forgivable and another conditioning or lack of education and we can't be expected to be perfect human beings HOWEVER I suppose this wee polar bear is getting really disappointed with it... The question I find myself pondering is; will it take mankind to absolutely destroy this planet before we come to the realisation that we cannot eat money? 

And when that time comes... will polar bears already be dead?

I sincerely hope not. 


Dear God please can we not destroy it by nuclear activity, cockroaches (one of the few animals likely to survive) and I have a very, very strained relationship.

what's your totem?

Knut at Berlin Zoo January 2011

It might seem rather childish this bizarre infatuation I have with Polar Bears. Perhaps it is. I wrote stories about them from the age of 4 or 5 and collected them until I was a teenager (and it quickly became uncool).

This year it was a dream come true for me to see a Polar Bear up close at Berlin Zoo. I must've taken 50 photographs and stood there staring in the freezing cold, shaking off a flu, admiring the magnificent beasts. I think they're awesome, although I cannot deny, there was a part of me that felt a little sad to see these Polar Bears in the desperate place they were in. At a zoo. Another attraction to entertain us and give us insight in to the lives of beasts that in the wild would walk over 5 miles per day. Of course in Knut's case he was saved and the reality is that human intervention is needed to help prevent animal species that are depleting.

Knut, whether he liked it or not, did a great job of bringing attention to a rapidly dwindling species. The hype perhaps didn't do him many favours but may be he helped raise awareness not just for Polar Bears but animals even closer to extinction.

Knut bottom right

He looks pretty sad doesn't he? When we observed Knut and the bears it appeared that he was being bullied in to hiding behind rocks out of their sight. I've since learned there was a mauling and little love from his mother who had rejected him at birth. It certainly wasn't the romantic picture I had in mind.

Sadly, this week Knut died unexpectedly at the age of four (19 March 2011). It appeared he had a fit of some sort before falling in the pool around his enclosure. A sad tale but a reminder of the precious lives these bears lead. There are only 20-25,000 polar bears living in the wild, while the species is not currently endangered, its future is far from certain and if current warming trends continue unabated, scientists believe that polar bears will be vulnerable to extinction within the next century.

Somehow this latest news gave me the boost I needed to get off my ass and do something, hence I've signed myself up for the Sydney half marathon to raise funds for WWF. Given I have cartilage missing from my right knee (and other ailments such as a curved spine, fused vertebrae and a twice fractured coccyx) this is a brave task for me and more specifically my body. And by publicly announcing it - there's no pulling out now... I'm also toying with an idea to trek Everest in Nepal...

WWF are a leader in Polar Bear (and animal) conservation, and unlike me they don't have favourites, why not check out their site to learn more?