Blog

So we've just about recovered from our week at Glastonbury, and I thought it time to share some musings with you.

What I have learned...

*That cheap 'waterproofs' don't always do what they say on the bag
*That mobile phones disappear into mud much faster than you'd think
*That once they've sunk, there's no hope of getting them back
*That marquees are pretty damn heavy
*That blow up sofas can be moe comfortable than the ones you have at home
*That people are intricate beings, with amazingly different views on the same subjects
*How competitive you get playing Bottom Trumps (before you ask, it's a card game)
*How to spell photovoltaic (as in the cells, as in solar cells), and how to increase my success in describing how they work
*How a free smoothie with no stirngs attached can breakdown all defences
*How people are genuinely interested in finding out things they don't know about Climate Change. I'll be honest, I thought there'd be quite a few people we were boring the socks off who just popped in for freebies, but I was wrong. Often it was the people with the lowest levels of previous knowledge and interest who were asking most questions and sparking genuine debate. And it was great.
*That when a marching band hand you a kazoo, it's impossible not to dance behind them playing Seven Nation Army.

Bring on Party for the Planet and Battle of the Bands, that's what I say!

It’s the heart of Glastonbury. Saturday evening surrounded by the colours of the markets, mellow jazz tunes from the Jazz Lounge, and just a stone’s throw away from pyramid stage.

We had a quiet start today, and more rain. But after lunch the sun came out to play, and with it fresh visitors to the C-Change marquee.

I have been working in ‘Dan’s House’, a simulation of a household lifestyle that gets you thinking, acting, and Facing Your Elephant. It’s the Two Tonne Challenge to cut that carbon.
I feel inspired and positive that people really do want to change, that it IS possible. I know that this is the generation of action, when I see children not yet seven who are so clear on the issues we face and how best to deal with them.
The tent has been alive with creativity. People leave talking about what they are going to do to make that difference. The graffiti boards are crammed with thoughts, ideas, and pictures. People are becoming the change they want to see.

In the words of my grandmother, oh my giddy aunt. Today we had rain. No, let me rephrase that. Today we had RAIN. Lots of it. And we loved it!

Let me set the scene for you. Smack bang in the middle of the Glastonbury festival, we have a marquee that's been divided into various sections. There's a welcome section with info and pretty pictures, a section with a house that you can change aspects of to make it more environmentally friendly (and be as realistic or not as you like), a play section that Kit described yesterday, an art section which is being run by an artist who offered to help us with the project, and a discuss section with things like games, books, and before and after pictures of climate change effects to date. And ridiculously comfortable sofas. People come in, mooch at their own speed, draw pictures, make smoothies, have a chat... you get the picture.

Weatherwise, things were perfect until today. Not baking hot, but warm and nice with just occasional showers. Now we have a flooded corner of our marquee, not to mention muddy sofas and possibly gangrene... so why would we be happy? Because every new burst of rain brought a new surge of people, with a new load of opinions and lots of new enthusiasm. For the last 2 days I've been working in the discuss section, which involves me lounging on sofas (remember how comfortable I said they were?) and chatting to people as they come through. It's a hard life. Today's been absolutely fantastic for me because I have been hosting huge parties of people who all (whether they joined us because of interest or the rain) seemed really keen on soaking up the atmosphere and seeing what they could learn.

In other news, my personal favourite freebie we've got here are the temporary tattoos of our logo. I think I must have "branded" half of glastonbury today, but don't worry; there's plenty of time for the other half tomorrow. In case you're interested, favourite locations for tattoos have been down the nose and on the inside wrist, although variety has been strong. In fact, there's one gentleman walking around the festival with not one but two bum cheeks promoting the cause. Now that's what I call getting the message through and through.

khen you want to be the centre of attention you kind of have 2 options. Either you find the party and plonk yourself in the middle of it, or you make your own party.

C-Change decided to do both.

And what’s the biggest party this summer?... IT’S GLASTONBURY (of course)

Glastonbury has got a very distinctive hum, and when your day is spent within 4 white canvases and the hum is your only contact…you grow to love the hum.

But inside our marquee, today's challenge was to form our own kind of hum. It was the hum of the bicycle, that made smoothies…the hum of the propellers as they wizzed around under the power of the sun…and it was the hum of the hydrogen cars, strutting their technological stuff on the tables of the “play” area. The most important hum though was of the people that really, genuinely wanted to talk about an issue that they felt strongly about. Those people who wanted to know what they could do, those who wanted to think about the problem and those people who were discovering some inspiring solutions.

- Pedal harder, they’re just around the next corner!

Everyones talking about it, but are we REALLY talking about it? Theres an elephant in the room when it comes to climate change and thats our own personal contribution. For me it's 5.6 tonnes a year, that's well below the average person in the UK, but about twice my global fair share. It weighs about the same as an African Elephant.

Why am I thinking about Elephants? It' because instead of revising, i've spent the last few days playing with hydrogen cars, sewing 100 silk flags and making 2 giant Plywood elephants. All part of the epic "face your elephant" tent that will be touring festivals this summer.

I'm very excited. Not only will the tent be crammed full of information about climate change, there will also be techno-toys to play with, computers to work out your emissions on, walls to graffiti over, Sofas to chat on and people to talk to.

Bring on the summer!

Kit

p.s. you can work out your own contribution to climate change at http://carbongym.cat.org.uk/carbongym/?q=calculate

Hello hello

So the film festival taster days were the last two Saturdays in London and Manchester. I went along to the one in Manchester last weekend, and it was great! I was very pleasantly surprised, I was dreading the idea of being up and enthusiastic that early, but everybody seemed wonderfully keen and active.

We went through some climate change information in the morning, it was really interesting to hear the kind of questions that came up and I'd like to think we managed to answer them fully. The big things we got across was how much difference small changes can make, and why we should try to make that change, two messages I hope everybody took to heart and took home.

In the afternoon the more hands on stuff came out: filming! In small groups we discussed what we'd learnt in the morning, what we wanted other people to know, and storyboarded the most effective ways to get that across. We then went out and had - in my group at least - the loudest, craziest, most active filming session in the history of the world... I'm still recovering now. Once we'd got the material we headed in and everybody got a go at editing their work.

Some of the films were really good after all their hi tec polishing, hopefully we'll be able to get some of them up on this site and you can all admire their handiwork before stealing their ideas and making your own films to enter into the film festival! If you'd like some more info about the film festival have a look at the film festival page of the site.

Hey guys - in case you haven't noticed (how could you not...?) voting for bands is up and running!

So get going, vote for your favourite band today and you might see them on 7 July, at Clapham Common in London playing to 1000 people! How cool is that?

And remember, if you're in a band and want to enter, just post up a song for all to listen to and enjoy. Good luck!

Kat x

One of the really exciting things that is happening here at C-Change right now is the development of Climate:Mobile. This is a mobile phone application which will let users calculate their average annual carbon emissions.

Climate:Mobile will also give you tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint, and let you send your results to this site so that we can find out what impact young people across the country are having on climate change.

Climate:Mobile is current being 'programmed' and is expected to be ready and available for text message download in early June.