Just Creative Design

Climate change is about people

As part of this year’s Blog Action Day focusing on climate change, I have Simon Owens from CARE come to talk to you about the effects of climate change and what you can do to help. I’ll pass you onto Simon now…

Climate change is not only about melting ice caps and polar bears. Climate change is about people.

Swinging weather patterns are creating disasters on a scale that human civilization has never before witnessed. For the world’s poorest people – the ones least equipped to deal with its effects – climate change is devastating their crops, livelihoods and communities.

“Climate change is worsening the plight of those hundreds of millions of men, women and children who already live in extreme poverty – and it threatens to push hundreds of millions more people into similar destitution,”

says CARE International’s Secretary General Robert Glasser.

“A concerted international response to this unprecedented challenge is required if we are to avoid catastrophic human suffering.”

CARE is working toward a world where poor people can create opportunity out of crises like climate change. But the current reality is that climate change makes poor people even more vulnerable.

For instance, agricultural production will likely decline in the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Less reliable rainfall will likely affect planting seasons, crop growth and livestock health – and lead to increased malnutrition. In other parts of the developing world, flooding will likely further diminish the quality of already-marginal soil and could cause outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

Climate change also is hurling many poor families into “Catch-22” situations. For example, they may select crops that are less sensitive to rainfall variation, but also less profitable. As incomes decline and people are not able to eke out a living, children are forced to leave school, assets are sold off to afford essentials, malnutrition rates increase and large-scale migration ensues. The end result? Deepening poverty for tens of millions of people around the world.

What Must Be Done?

At the international level, negotiations to develop a new treaty to guide global efforts to address climate change will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark in just a couple weeks. The United States must help lead those efforts, and forge a strong agreement that caps emissions, stops global warming and responds to the effects already in motion. We must do this for the sake of all of humanity.

What can you do to help?

First, you can make a tax-deductible donation to CARE to help poor families access the tools and education they need to adapt to the effects of climate change, make efficient use of their existing resources and overcome poverty for good.

Second, if you live in the Unites States, you can write your senators and urge them to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, a critical step toward U.S. leadership in tackling climate change. U.S. leadership is critical to making the Copenhagen negotiations a success.

Third, you can join the CARE mailing list to be kept up to date on CARE’s activities and other ways you can take action in the days counting down to Copenhagen.

To donate, take action and join our e-mail list, please visit http://www.care.org/climate.

Thank you once again Simon. Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

It’s that time of year again - October 15th is Blog Action Day.

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.

This year the topic is Climate Change (of which I voted for back in August) and am glad it was picked as this years topic of choice as Climate Change is effecting us all (and our children) whether we like it or not.

I don’t want to bat on like some Greenpeace activist but Blog Action Day is for a good cause and you should consider getting involved - at least check out the video below.

Only last year did this blog raise USD$1620 in funds for the Blog Action Day Poverty Fund so it shows that you can help.

What can you do now?

Blog and Twitter about it, let others know about Blog Action Day and line up a story to be posted on October 15th too. Register your blog and get more information by going to the official Blog Action Day website.

You could also add a banner to the side of your blog such as the one you see on the right side bar of Just Creative Design.

Donate & Win A Free Logo

Since the 7th of February 2009, more than 200 people have lost their lives and close to 2000 homes have been lost due to ferocious bushfires here in Australia. This is one of the worst natural disasters in Australian history.

I am trying to do my part for something that I feel very close about (we nearly lost our home in 1994 due to bush fires) and I thought I could do this by running a small competition here on Just Creative Design.

I am giving away a free logo design to one lucky winner who enters the competition. Entry into the competition will consist of a $10+ donation to the Australian Red Cross.

For those who do not want / need a logo, please leave a comment on this post and I will personally donate $0.50 per comment that is left over a 1 week period.

Or if you just want to donate, please donate directly to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal however if you are wishing to enter the logo competition please read on as you will have to make payment to my PayPal account so I can track the entries. I have previously raised USD$1620 through this blog so your donation will be in safe hands - 100% of all proceeds will go to the Red Cross.

To enter the free logo design competition, please make a $10+ donation by clicking the donate button below. Leave a comment or email me telling me why you need / deserve the logo. On March 16th I will announce the winner.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Update: Thank you everyone who donated, the victims of this disaster will be extremely grateful!  The winner of the free logo design was Adrian Belfast, who I have emailed. I also upped the original 50cents to 1 dollar for my part - thank you once again!

Below you will find a tribute video to the those affected by the Victorian Bushfires and below that, some images of the bush fires, courtesy of The Big Picture.

A fire truck moves away from out of control flames from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest near the township of Tonimbuk, 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country’s worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. (AP Photo)

Flames and smoke rise from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. (AP Photo)

A Country Fire Authority (CFA) Sector Commander looks up at a giant fire raging in the Bunyip State Park near Labertouche, Australia, on February 7, 2009. More than 40 blazes raged across two states as a once-in-a-century heatwave pushed the mercury as high as 46 degrees Celsius (115 Fahrenheit) with fire bans in place across much of the south-east. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images).

A general view of the devastation from the Peats Ridge Valley bushfire on February 9, 2009 in Peats Ridge, Australia. (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Small acreage is burned out in Kinglake, northeast of Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Craig Kidd looks at the melted metal of alloy wheels from his burnt out vehicles after a bushfire swept through his property on February 9, 2009 in Bendigo, 160 km from Melbourne, Australia. (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

The burnt remains of a house are left standing in the aftermath of a bushfire on February 3, 2009 in Boolarra, approximately 200 kms southeast of Melbourne, Australia. (Luis Ascui/Getty Images)

The remains of properties destroyed by bushfires are seen in the town of Kinglake, 55km (34 miles) northeast of Melbourne February 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Mick Tsikas)

Family members react after learning that their parents Bill and Faye Walker and disabled brother Geoffrey were killed in wildfires in Marysville, north of Melbourne, Monday, Feb. 9, 2009. (AP Photo)

A fire truck moves away from out of control flames from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest near the township of Tonimbuk, 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. (AP Photo) #

For more information please visit the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfire 2009 Appeal.

Blog Action Day: Stand Up To Poverty, October 15th

October 15th is Blog Action Day 2008. Get involved.

What is Blog Action Day?

“Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.” - This year the discussion is poverty.

In layman’s words… the goal of Blog Action Day is to get as many bloggers as possible writing about the same issue on the same day and to do it in a unique way that is associated with their own blog.

You can read more about Blog Action Day here.

Why?

To raise the awareness about poverty and make people talk, think and act about it.

Did you know half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day?

There are even more frightening facts than that.

What Can Just One Person Do?

• Advocate
• Work
• Give
• Inform

More details are available on the Blog Action website .

What to do now?

Blog about it now, let others know about Blog Action Day and line up a story to be posted on October 15th too. Register your blog and get more information by going to the official Blog Action Day website.

Save The Earth Campaign - 100% of all proceeds go to charity

I am trying to raise money for Greenpeace and WWF to help ‘save the earth‘ and I am doing this through the ‘Save The Earth Campaign‘ however this is only going to be possible, with the help of YOU.

I also hope to raise awareness of Earth Day being held on April 22nd.

How are we going to raise the money?

I have set up a shop in CafePress that features the save the earth illustration (which can be seen above and below) on a large variety of products, some of which are shown below. 100% of all proceeds will go straight to the charities mentioned. 50% to Greenpeace and 50% to WWF. Why not get something you need and give money to charity at the same time!?

Please check out the shop and buy a product!

As you can see above there is a wide range of goods to choose from including Apparel (Clothing), Baby Goods, Housewares, Hats & Bags, Stickers, Buttons & Magnets, Posters, Prints and much more! There is something for everyone. I have got a t-shirt on the way

About The Charities

Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation that uses non-violent direct action to expose global environmental problems and to force solutions which are essential to a green and peaceful future.

WWF works to conserve Australia’s plants and animals by ending land clearing and degradation, addressing climate change, and preserving and protecting fresh water, marine and land environments.

Spread This

Please spread this campaign around the blogosphere and anywhere else you can. A blog post would be appreciated or you could just email it to a few friends… Anything at all you do to promote this campaign will be greatly appreciated!

Please stumble the shop page.

Please check out the shop and buy a product!