In this day and age, people in Indonesia, particularly Jakarta, are jumping on the “green” trends bandwagon in a quest to save the Earth from the effects of global warming. Unfortunately, many misunderstand the essentials of going green, and take the term too literally – by wearing shirts with environment messages, joining popular environment groups, and basically wearing all kinds of green accessories. And on a higher level, people start buying biofuel products made from palm oils for their vehicles. Whilst biofuel itself is indeed producing significantly less CO2 emissions, the industry continues to sacrifice hectares of forests daily, destroying the very essence of saving the planet.

Click to watch the video: Green Gone Wrong

The T4RA program is developing strategic partnerships with groups focused on climate change issues to both integrate video into their online strategies and to further support the aims of their campaigns.

There are thousands of urgent climate stories in the Asia-Pacific. T4RA harnesses the potential of video and the web to amplify these stories and their demands for action.

T4RA  reveals deeply personal concerns amongst film-makers across the Asia-Pacific, from the people of Sungai Utik in Kalimantan, struggling to maintain their farms in the face of drastic decline in rainfall, to the impacts of climate change on the coastal communities of Somoa.

View / download the T4RA videos below, subscribe to the video podcast or download the entire compilation via bit-torrent (includes Indonesian sub-titles).

Purchase one of more copies of the T4RA DVD at AUD$15 (+GST for Australian orders) via PayPal (inclusive of postage and handling to anywhere). All monies received is allocated to our Climate Crisis program supporting strategic distribution workshops for climate activists in Asia-Pacific.

The T4RA DVD and online compilation has been produced with the assistance of HiVOS, in collaboration with Friends of the Earth, Glow Alliance and Javin.

GloW Alliance bersama EngageMedia dan Jaringan Video-Maker Independen (JAVIN) dengan senang hati mengumumkan bahwa, SEL 49 akan segera beroperasi. Ruangan ini diharapkan akan menjadi ruang alternatif bagi teman-teman pembuat video independen, komunitas lain yang beraktivisme lewat video, serta semua yang ingin memberi perubahan positif untuk planet ini.

Kami mengundang teman-teman untuk datang dan berkenalan dengan atap baru kami pada:

Hari/Tanggal: Jumat, 11 Desember 2009

Jam : 19.00 – 22.00

Tempat: Jl. Sawah Lunto No. 49, Jakarta Selatan

Selain pembukaan sederhana SEL 49, kami juga mengajak teman-teman untuk datang dan menyaksikan layar tancap “Time for Reel Action” yang akan kami gelar di depan pondokan.

Detail Layar Tancap:

“Time For Real Action”

Sebuah kompilasi film-film perubahan iklim yang diprakarsai oleh EngageMedia. Video ini merespon konferensi iklim COP 15 di Copenhagen, Denmark yang diharapkan akan membawa solusi atas perubahan iklim yang sedang kita rasakan bersama. Salah satu dari kompilasi itu adalah film “Green Gone Wrong” yang diproduksi EngageMedia dan kelompok greakan lingkungan GloW Alliance yang menggambarkan kultur “hijau” di Jakarta dan persepsi mengenai biofuels. Kompilasi “Time for Reel Action” juga akan disebarkan langsung oleh tim EngageMedia menjelang rapat di Kopenhagen, Denmark, dan diputar di waktu yang bersamaan di Australia, Indonesia dan Denmark. Video ini adalah bentuk kepedulian kami dari komunitas film untuk permasalahan perubahan iklim.

Di malam ini, GloW Alliance juga akan mengajak peserta untuk ikut menyalakan lilin bersama – sebuah aksi kepedulian yang dilakukan di berbagai negara di hari yang sama.

Acara ini akan didukung oleh para artis independen dari berbagai generasi.

JOSS (Jakarta Organize Sound System) present:

* Indo Beatbox

* Rustique Kollektiv

* Jalan Surabaya (Uncle Ho, Bellal, Rentjong)

* Nova Ruth

* Toto Tewel

KTT di Heiligendamm berakhir dengan beberapa kesepakatan, diantaranya komitmen bersama untuk mengambil langkah lanjutan pasca Protokol Kyoto dan bantuan untuk Afrika.

Tahun lalu dalam pertemuan negara-negara industri maju di St.Petersburg Rusia, Kanselir Jerman Angela Merkel merupakan wajah baru dalam lingkaran G8. Namun kini, satu tahun sesudahnya, ia menjadi tuan rumah pertemuan akbar tersebut. Di kawasan wisata mewah pemandian tua Jerman, Heiligendamm, Merkel menyatakan kepuasannya, atas hasil-hasil kesepakatan KTT G8, yang telah ditutup Jumat kemarin.

“Saya dapat mengatakan bahwa pertemuan ini berhasil. Karena menurut saya telah ada keputusan dalam skala besar, untuk berbagai isu inti Jerman sebagai pemimpin G8. Kita telah bertekad membahas tema pertumbuhan dan tanggung jawab dalam berbagai dimensi. Dan kami berhasil, memasukannya secara tegas dengan berbagai bentuk dalam dokumen penutup G8.”

Tema-tema yang dimaksud adalah soal kesepakatan yang diambil sehubungan upaya memperlambat perubahan iklim dan membantu Afrika. Negara-negara maju sepakat untuk mengambil langkah pasca Protokol Kyoto, dengan kerangka Perserikatan Bangsa-bangsa. Meski tidak menaruh target yang pasti batasan emisi yang harus dipotong.

“Titik keberhasilannya terletak pada bahwa misi perundingan yang jelas, dengan berdasarkan mekanisme Perserikatan Bangsa-bangsa. Juga negara-negara yang dalam KTT G8 menjadi tamu, seperti India, Cina, Meksiko, Brasilia, dan Afrika Selatan, juga telah menyatakan dengan tegas bahwa mereka merasa wajib terikat dalam mekanisme tersebut. „

Kini Perserikatan Bangsa-bangsa yang akn menjadi lokomotifnya. Dimana PBB akhir tahun ini akan menggelar konfrensi perubahan iklim internasional di Bali.

Dalam pertemuan KTT G8, para pemimpin G8 setuju untuk mengurangi emisi gas rumah kaca dan berjanji untuk membahas kesepakatan baru apa yang akan dilakukan setelah Protokol Kyoto. Namun sayangnya Merkel tidak mampu meyakinkan G8 untuk menargetkan pengurangan emisi rumah kaca 50 persen hingga tahun 2050 mendatang.

Sementara untuk Afrika, disepakati pengucuran dana bantuan untuk memrangi AIDS, malaria dan TBC alias tuberkolose.. Namun belum jelas juga kapan tanggal waktu pencairan dana tersebut.

Sementara untuk penyelesaian Kosovo, para pemimpin gagal memecah kebuntuan menetapkan kemerdekaan provinsi di Serbia itu. Sementara untuk kasus atom Iran. Para pemimpin negara-negara maju mendesak negara itu untuk tidak mengabaikan peringatan PBB.

Di bidang ekonomi, para pemimpin negara-negara maju sepakat untuk lebih fleksibel dalam perumusan perdagangan bebas, agar dapat memecah kebuntuan perundingan Putaran Doha.

Sementara itu di luar arena KTT G8, Jumat kemarin, helikopter-helikopter kepolisian sibuk memaksa turun balon udara LSM pemerhati lingkungan Greenpeace yang mengibarkan petisi di udara. Mereka sengaja memakai cara itu, agar dapat dilihat oleh para pemimpin negera-negara G8, Greenpeace menagih janji G8 untuk menurunkan emisi gas rumah kaca. Sementara itusejumlah pendemo menanggalkan busana mereka dan melompat ke Laut Baltic, di depan pusat media KTT G8 di Kuehlungsborn, sebelah barat Heiligendamm. Sebagian diantara mereka ditahan kepolisian. Di kota tetangga Rostock, polisi pun disibukkan oleh aksi ribuan demonstran penentang KTT G8, yang melakukan reli damai, dalam mengakhiri aksi pemblokiran jalan.

Modbury is the quintessential small West Country town. Set in a hollow among rolling Devon hills just a few miles from the sea, it has 760 households, a high street, three churches, a primary school, several pubs, two takeaways, a surgery, a small supermarket and 40 or so small shops.

Not much happens in Modbury. Some say the last time the peace was disturbed was in 1643 when Roundheads and Cavaliers fought in its streets. But a revolution of another kind will take place on Monday. At 8am it will become the first plastic bag-free town in Europe.

Spurred by environmental fervour and growing concern about the 100bn or more plastic bags thought to be littering the world and clogging the seas, the town’s 43 traders have unilaterally declared their independence from the plastic bag and have pledged to no longer sell, give away or otherwise provide them to anyone in Modbury for a minimum of six months.

No one knows knows how much it will cost them or the town, or indeed whether Modburians and the holiday-makers who visit the town will rise in revolt.

But from now on, if you buy olives from Adam in the deli, a steak from Simon the butcher, or a sweet and sour from Phil in the Chinese, they will come wrapped in corn starch paper. Helen in the ironmongers, Sue in the gallery and Sarah in the gift shop are moving to cotton. If tourists nip into the Co-op for ice cream, they will be given a cloth bag. Modbury will be full of biodegradable, organic, fairtrade, unbleached, recycled carrier bags of every description – except plastic.

So committed are the retailers that they have commissioned 2,000 official Modbury bags, which could soon be collectors’ items. Made in Mumbai, India, they will sell for £3.95.

The idea of a plastic bag-free town comes from Rebecca Hoskins, a young Modbury-born-and-raised wildlife camerawoman who went to the Pacific last year to film marine life for the BBC but experienced horrendous plastic bag pollution.

“It really affected me,” she said. “I have never cried behind a camera before. I’m not a blubby person. But it broke my heart to see animals entangled in plastic, albatrosses dying in plastic, dolphins trailing plastic and seals with their noses trapped in parcel tape roll. The sea is now like a trash can and the plastic is there for ever. It doesn’t go away for hundreds of years. What I witnessed was just so unnecessary. All this damage is simply caused by our throwaway living.”

She returned to Devon, went diving and found the seas there also full of plastic. “So I booked the Modbury art gallery, invited all the traders and showed them my film. At the end they all said they would give up plastic bags.”

“It was very moving,” said Sue Sturton from the Brownston art gallery. “I thought people would turn a blind eye to something happening as far away as Hawaii. But I was wrong. We have a responsibility here. People go to the beaches here and we as shopkeepers are just handing out plastic shopping bags.”

“She massaged us. But it didn’t need much,” said Jane, who runs the St Luke’s hospice charity shop which is turning to paper and cloth bags. The other traders are buying bags for her to use in wrapping customers’ purchases. “I think it could work elsewhere, but this is definitely not a normal town at all.”

“They’ve got it now,” said Ms Hoskins, who gave up her film work two months ago to concentrate on turning the town plastic bag-free. “It seems to have really brought people together. The shops have sent all their unused plastic bags to Newcastle where they are being made into plastic chairs, and they have all set up plastic bag amnesty points where people can bring in the hundreds of bags that they keep under the kitchen sink. Now it’s just a question of seeing if people accept it. We are all trembling now. To be a pioneer is pretty scary.”

Apakah orang Indonesia perlu peduli terhadap pemanasan global? Jawabannya tentu “ya”. Kenapa? Pertama, pemanasan global paling dapat dirasakan di negara-negara tropis dan kepulauan. Dan Indonesia adalah keduanya. Indonesia lah yang mengalami kekeringan, hujan tak menentu, banjir, angin puting beliung, kebakaran hutan dan meningkatnya penyakit-penyakit tropis seperti demam berdarah dan malaria. Lebih lagi, jika masyarakat Indonesia tidak melakukan apa-apa, dalam beberapa dekade kedepan, Indonesia harus rela kehilangan pulau-pulau indahnya yang tenggelam karena naiknya perrmukaan air laut.Seberapa seringkah kita protes tentang panasnya hawa? Parahnya banjir? Polusi, dll? Sadarkah kita jika semua itu ada campur tangan ulah manusia? Namun sudah saatnya kah kita pasrah? Tidak, namun, waktu kita tidak banyak. Karena itulah gerakan GloW Alliance dibentuk oleh berbagai macam individu dari berbagai macam latar belakang dan profesi dengan tujuan untuk menyelamatkan bumi Indonesia sehingga anak cucu kitapun masih dapat menikmati dan hidup di tanah air yang masih layak tinggali. Lingkungan sudah rusak, efek pemanasan global sudah semakin terasakan, namun dengan campur tangan manusia, gejala ini masih dapat minimal dilambatkan.

Menyikapi hal itu, maka kita harus bersama-sama mulai membukakan mata, hati, dan pikiran seluruh lapisan masyarakat mengenai apa yang terjadi saat ini disekitar kita yang akan berdampak di masa depan. Untuk itu GloW Alliance dan Pemuda Maluku Bersatu (PMB) berinisiatif menyelenggarakan konser amal SOUL FOR INDONESIAN EARTH “Sayangi Bumi Hari Ini” pada tanggal 07-07-2007 (7 Juli 2007) di Tennis Indoor Senayan dengan tujuan membangun kebersamaan untuk peduli akan pemanasan global, hal ini.

Seperti diketahui di bulan Desember 2007 ini, Indonesia akan menjadi tuan rumah United Nations Climate Change Conference yang akan membicarakan kelanjutan dari Kyoto Protocol*. Kemungkinan besar hasil dari konferensi antar negara ini akan disebut “The Bali Mandate”. Apa kontribusi rakyat Indonesia dalam mandat tersebut? Masyarakat Kyoto di Jepang mempersiapkan diri mereka satu tahun sebelum konferensi United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) yang menghasilkan Kyoto Protocol tersebut. Sudah saatnya kitapun melakukan hal yang sama dalam waktu yang lebih singkat. Sudah saatnya kesadaran pemanasan global masuk ke dalam rancah sosial, budaya dan pendidikan, tidah hanya dalam obrolan politik dan ekonomi.

Tentang GloW Alliance

Glow Alliance adalah sebuah aliansi untuk memerangi pemanasan global dalam konteks Indonesia. Aliansi ini melibatkan sekumpulan aktivis muda dari berbagai latar belakang seperti aktivis lingkungan, filmaker dokumenter, wartawan, praktisi production house, relawan independen, dosen, pelajar, dan mahasiswa.

Tentang Pemuda Maluku Bersatu (PMB)

PMB atau Pemuda Maluku Bersatu adalah sebuh organisasi yang dibentuk berdasar inspirasi untuk menyatukan Pemuda Maluku yang berkeinginan melakukan koreksi kritis terhadap perpecahan sesama anak negeri. Berbagai potensi masalah yang terpendam selama konflik dan pasca konflik yang menurunkan keterpurukan spirit dan moral, kesejahteraan, maupun keindahan alam Indonesia

“Lihatlah ini perbuatan kita sendiri. Sayangi Bumi Hari Ini”

* Kyoto Protocol adalah satu-satunya perjanjian internasional mengenai pemanasan global. Indonesia, termasuk dari 84 negara yang meratifikasi perjanjian tersebut ikut komit untuk melakukan usaha reduksi emisi gas rumah kaca.

Despite the horrors caused by global warming, we can still make a difference, according to Climate Crisis Project presenter, Emerald Starr.

During a presentation at the Canggu Club in Bali last week, Starr presented the real facts and cause of global warming: greenhouse gas emissions.

It is a terrifying fact that we humans are wiping themselves out at an ever-increasing pace, much the same as they managed to wipe out almost 60,000 different animal species over the past 100 years.

Starr is one of 1,000 people chosen by former U.S. vice president and environmental activist Al Gore to spread the message of the dangers of global warming. Gore’s Climate Project aims to dispel the myths and controversies surrounding global warming, and to promote the measures to be taken in order to slow down — and even reverse — the rise in deadly greenhouse gas emissions.

“Since the industrial revolution in the 1860s, global temperatures have been rising. Temperatures are now higher than ever before. In 2006 India recorded temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius, and extremes of temperature have been noted around the globe. This is a worldwide phenomenon,” Starr said.

In the short term, an increase in global temperatures will result in the occurrence of more storms and hurricanes, floods, droughts and typhoons. In the long term, global warming will wipe out entire countries, as land will become inundated by ever-increasing sea levels, Star explained.

“The earth is experiencing a record number of hurricanes, heavy storms, droughts and floods,” Starr said. “Japan had a record ten typhoons in one season and the U.S. suffered from 1700 tornadoes strong enough to lift houses. Tornadoes were registered in areas that had never been affected by this kind of weather pattern in the past.”

Starr cites the prestigious Michigan Institute of Technology research into storm strength, which points to an increase in the occurrence and intensity of storms since 1970. He says that scientists have no doubt that global warming is the reason behind these radical shifts in weather patterns, because as the sea warms-up, air currents, such as monsoons, are affected and change pattern.

It is in the near future that the most destructive aspects of global warming will be seen, says Starr, with countries such as the Netherlands losing much of their land base.

“As the ice caps and glaciers around the world melt, sea water is rising. Within a couple of decades we can expect waters to rise by more than five meters. At that level much of California would be under water; almost half of Florida will disappear; cities such as Beijing will become nightmare zones,” said Starr.

Diseases are also on the rise as a direct result of global warming, says Starr, with viruses such as malaria and dengue now prevalent in areas that once were cool climates.

“As colder areas warm there will be more diseases. Malaria and dengue will move from the tropics into newly warm areas. The case in America is one example. The West Nile virus is now prevalent in North America, since the country has warmed to a temperature in which the virus can survive. In the past it could not survive the cold winters.”

The impact of global warming on coral reefs can be seen, says Starr, and that is a major disaster as 25 percent of the earth’s oxygen is created by coral reefs. The destruction of reefs and wholesale slaughter of oxygen-producing forests, such as those in Kalimantan and Sumatra, is evidence of how humans are slowly suffocating themselves.

It does not have to be this way though, says Starr and other environmentalists, such as Naneng Setiasih of Reef Check Indonesia Foundation, working to protect viable reefs across Indonesia.

“We have a major crisis occurring from global warming with reefs bleaching and dying. What we are trying to do at Reef Check is map the most resilient reefs, those that are able to withstand the stress of global warming, and protect them,” said Naneng, citing reefs off Padang in Sumatra, Thousand Islands off Jakarta and reefs along the North Coast of Bali, as those that may be able to survive the effects of global warming.

According to Starr, one of the best ways to help reduce the volume of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the gas that causes most greenhouse gas emissions, is to plant trees, because trees absorb carbon dioxide.

This is what the East Bali Poverty Action program is doing in the poorest and driest zones of east Bali. Tree-planting is offering an income to local people and protecting the environment. Bali Teak Farms, under Sayu Made Putri, is also mass-planting teak and using the leaves to make recycled paper.

However, unless governments get tough on industry, automobile manufacturers and other heavy polluters, and financially back non-fossil fuel energy alternatives such as wind power, solar, even the use of coconut oil, humans will be running a losing race against the clock.

Kemarin malam saya, Christa & Boyke ngobrol lama dengan Glenn Fredly. Hasilnya, doi mau ikutan cuap2 mengenai pemanasan global, dan yang lebih hebat lagi, kami sempat didengarkan lagu barunya dia (masih di cd demo) yang berbau kampanye kita. Semalam Glenn juga cukup antusias ingin berikan kita izin untuk gunakan lagu itu di kampanye2 kita (entah di film, radio atau TV). So, mudah2an kita bakal punya theme song ya.

Btw, ini lagu yang didengarkan kemarin, coba aja mainkan pakai kunci F, kalo enggak kunci Inggris aja

Rico

PEDULI

Hati gelisah melihat dunia merana
Apa kau rasa hal yang sama, musim berganti
Alam tak lagi berseri …
Teriknya panas menjadi …

Apakah kita peduli demi masa depan nanti
Dunia rumah kita sendiri …
Apakah kita peduli demi anak cucu nanti
Dunia rumah kita sendiri …

Lihatlah ini perbuatan kita sendiri
Sayangi bumi hari ini …