Social Climate: Alternative Media (P-I)

Aside from a few notable exceptions, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that most of the Mainstream Media won’t be directly involved in actually MAKING any environmental news by at least driving any progressive or new Public Opinions. Fair enough, becauseas we’ve already discussed, It’s not really their job to upset Advertisers much less rail against the industrial infrastructure that supports the corporate regimes and interests that have brought us to this tipping point in history.

Realistically, we should simply look to the Mainstream Media as a Social ‘running record’ that reflects the status quo. So instead, let’s just consider the Media as widely available public resource that simply awaits ‘outcomes’ in order to package up the ‘results’ into tasty little sound-bites. All made more palatable by eye-catching imagery and colour commentary that garnish ’stories’ for our wider consumption.

If we stop expecting more from the Media and simply accept this self-neutered role for the Mainstream, we can promptly move on to consider alternative modes of Communication on all important issues, including Climate Change. That is if we’re to shed our role as a passively consuming Audience, and actually take an active part in creating any positive outcomes such Change.

” The revolution will not be Televised “

Gil Scott-Heron

So if we’re on the same page, let’s compile and rate a list some of our better options when it comes to alternate sources of ideas and information.

While we tally up our options above, let’s start with the most obvious alternate source of info by prospecting for signs of progress in the semi-charted wastes of the Blogspace. Even though the mechanisms for validating/confirming facts in the Blogspace are far from being dependable, hopefully Citizens will continue to offer attentions to these alternative channels for Blogging and other forms off Citizen Journalism. In our search for ecological truth, healthy and holistic principals, and actually actionable and sustainable lifestyle choices, the Blogspace remains a superb (albeit awkwardly named) option. Starting from what we gather among the alternative tentacles of the Blogosphere (ugh) we can then proceed to seeing how the other forms of much-hyped ‘Social Media” all chime in to help us locate and support any valuable info that is already floating around out there in the BlogSpace…if not the actual Mainstream Media

So let’s look at some of the bigger players…uhm…Bloggers.  Rather than re-iterate all the well-known sources, here’s a great rundown of the Top 35 Enviro-Blogs at:  ReadWriteWeb

Although it’s important to assure ourselves that truly great information is indeed getting written (uhm Blogged) about Environmental issues, it’s even more pressing at this point to determine how well we’re sharing/distributing and then acting upon this immense body of invaluable understanding.

We’ve been seeing lots of sites that act as points of aggregation for excellent Environmental content (both blog and full length articles), and some of them are taking the next logical step by offering clear courses of action as well. This is a critical progression, because otherwise we simply risk saturating ourselves with “news”, and info that we can easily feel powerless to act upon as individuals. Like most causes the TakePart.com site offers opportunities to sign more petitions, but I’m sure most people are starting to feel like petitions are just a placebo for true change, and are looking for a more actionable directions. TakePart.com might still be in its ‘Beta’ stage of development, but it is indeed being more proactive than most ‘petition’ driven sights, and follows through by offering focused groups and specific causes pointing us in the right direction for further actions…That alone makes it an excellent point of future reference for anyone trying to make a difference…Or at least post some links to good Eco-Blogs.

The Copenhagen Climate Conference is also offering us all a superb and deadline-driven point of common reference, so let’s look at what’s being developed in the bigger BlogSpace in support of this central, critical, and hopefully well publicised historical event.

First I need to admit that the COP15.dk site has improved immensely since my initial review, so let’s try to maintain positive momentum, and see where it goes from there…

This years Blog Action Day on 15\109 was well described and promoted, showed some great stats and participation. However, it really should only be loudly applauded as a successful ‘proof of concept’ exercise at best, since it didn’t really have any specific ‘calls to action’ embedded in its “Action Day” campaign, much less demonstrate any purposeful clarity in it’s entirely open-ended message of ‘blogging about Climate Change’. Yawn. At least this event demonstrated a pent up desire for Bloggers to pull together on this most common of Human causes. That’s a good start for making a positive effect Climate Change, but unfortunately the race is already well underway!

I was also quite eager to see how the long planned 350 Day rallies would actually take shape, or more importantly, how they’d make any difference to the shape of things to come. As things turned out though, I’m still looking for any real substance behind this event, and haven’t seen enough (yet) to warrant any immediate discussion of the results. Unless we want to take a mini-eco-tour of the planet, and talk about various photo-ops, and clever ways to spell out the number “350″ by participants, I’m afraid that I’ll have to rely on others to fill me in on any perceived value behind that event as well.

So, if there’s anything to add to 350 Day, please feel free to leave any positive comments on this below. In the interim, we should still have enough time for debating the many other ways that the Net is being used to actually affect positive changes to the Climate…Right? Ok, time is short, and the calendar is getting pretty crowded as we near December.

For example…Last months “Global Wakeup Call” generated some great visuals and publicity stunts, but also risked getting lost in an increasingly steady diet of ‘World Climate Events’, that are starting to get homogenized as they blend into each other ahead of Copenhagen. See Again: 350.org

The risk of so many people wanting to have their voices heard through these collective events are becoming more apparent. Whether we’re talking about International Agencies and their political or financial underpinnings, or the ad hoc formation of much smaller groups that gravitate to larger hubs, the collective turns into a teeming mass of disparate events, which all too quickly turn into a mixxed Media memoir, held for posterity somewhere online.

Nevertheless. These throngs are working out the logistics and timing issues of truly world-class events. All the wile the countless voices strain to be heard, or at least clearly hear Others, or the Groups in which they ‘identify’. All of which clamor to gain at least a visible, if not effectively viable, presence for themselves. Add to the the Individuals like myself blogging away in hope of gaining and sharing some personal insight with someone out there, and and the overall message becomes increasingly hard to define with so many versions of truth being held inside the ‘official story’. It get’s harder to attribute trust in the current processes, while continuing to distinguish value in all of the information that get’s tossed about.

Eventually and easily get lost in the background noise…or increasingly numbing effects of a slow, low key disaster unfolding.

In the meantime, we’re being presented with great occasions to test the limits of Humanity in it’s ingenuity and resolve to overcome challenges and looming threats…Admittedly, it’s becoming an increasingly reactive process, where we’re playing from behind a mounting score, in a kind of desperate catchup that starts in a very close game. Just before the score risks getting blown wide open.

In our look at the Social Climate, we’ll also try to tune in some of the quality Channels out there, and perhaps even figure out how to filter out some of the noise using whatever ’social’ tools we can find…Perhaps we’ll even consider some time honored methods of both raising and activating social awareness through the most widely held values, and cherished virtues.