Green Moms & Hopenhagen

December 14th, 2009

Today a new Green Moms Carnival on Climate Change  goes up over at Big Green Purse.  Rather than head to Copenhagen as we had hoped, Diane MacEachern  is blogging about climate change from home.

Still, it’s remarkable that for a group of women who just over two years ago had nary a mention of Climate Change on our blogs, we’ve rocked the blogosphere and the Twitterati with our campaign to elect Diane as the Huffington Post’s climate change ambassador. Although Diane didn’t win, she ran an amazing race.  We nominated Diane after being approached by Huff Post’s PR team to help them get the word out about the contest, which had been up for two weeks but lacked many contestants.

Despite technical difficulties on the Huff Post’s side that delayed Diane’s entry from being posted until just 3 ½ days before the end of the contest, we helped her rock the vote. She finished in the top 5 contestants by popular vote. There’s no doubt in my mind that if Diane had benefited from a full three weeks of campaigning – instead of just 3 ½ days of campaigning – she would have won.  How? We enveloped her with love and support, and tweeted, blogged, and emailed our hearts out.   We helped her get so many endorsements from leading environmental groups and bloggers that the Huff Post literally cried Uncle, asking us to stop sending in the 42+ endorsements she eventually racked up because we were overwhelming them!  (Once, again, tech difficulties. Hey Huff Post, you need a new web platform before you run another contest!)

So while Diane’s not at the climate talks to carry the flag for @GreenMoms and the Green Moms Carnival, there are many women over there doing an incredible job. Have you heard Indian environmental activist Vandana Shiva speak? (There were only 21 views on this YouTube video last I checked, go listen – she’s eye opening and amazing, although not completely accurate. She got the premise behind the Cash for Clunkers program all wrong).

Vandana laid it on the line the other day,  pointing out that helping “climate refugees” – those that have been displaced from their homes due to flooding, drought, fire, or other climate-related devastation – is not an act of charity for the US to bestow. It’s justice. As the biggest contributor to the pollution that has caused climate change, we must act to help those now suffering the most.  As she put it, “It is time for the US to stop seeing itself as a donor and recognizing itself as a polluter, and a polluter who must pay.”

Which female voices are you listening to from COP15?

— Lynn