by Tan Copsey
Tomorrow is Step It Up 2007. Tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of Americans will be congregating in ‘meaningful, iconic places’ to ‘call for action on climate change’. It’s hard to describe Step it up without reverting to adjectives like ‘cool’ and ‘awesome’. So I won’t. Step it up is cool and awesome. It is also important. So on the off chance that you are a) reading this and b) American you should c) get involved somehow.
Awesomely cool.
This raises a question: are distributed demonstrations of this kind the way of the future? Also how do they compare to mass events of like the upcoming 7/7/07 Live Earth concerts, which were predictably skewered on The Guardian’s comment is free today?
Since you asked, I’m not really sure. There’s something inherently appealing about the Step It Up events – they seem so much more a product of new-gen bright green thinking. By and large the events planned actually demonstrate that low energy lifestyles are both possible and attractive, which is no mean feat. And whilst there’s every chance that I’ll be doing my good enviro-NGO bit at said 7/7 concerts, I find the notion of listening to so-called ‘stars’ who know considerably less than us about climate change a little hackneyed. In fact the whole thing is soooo 80’s man. But perhaps that’s the appeal?
Events like Step It Up and the upcoming ‘cool living debate’ on chinadialogue seem to indicate that our generation is reasonably on to it. It’s the old timey, Madonna listening, car-driving codgers with the heat turned way up who need a little shove in the right direction. So perhaps we should let them have their day in the sun, whilst the likes of the Step It Up crew reinvent protest.
