This year’s topic is air pollution, last year plastic pollution. The solutions are not coming through very fast and our governments are very slow to react, they’re too busy with their immediate concerns of position and control rather than tomorrow’s
I think it’s good we have campaigns like these to draw awareness, I think it’s useful to include some guides to what we can do to minimise pollution but I don’t see enough action. The day itself is poorly advertised, I haven’t seen anything about it in national media and a “day” hardly seems sufficient. Whilst reading the site I can’t help but feel it suggests the activities that take place on the 5th of June could somehow compensate for the damage we’re doing… It’s not the intention but it’s the risk that after doing so some will feel they’ve wiped their hands clean of responsibility for another year…
Maybe it’s just a marketing issue or maybe it’s that emphasis on just a “day” seems to miss the point but we are yet to see effective use of the internet to drive systemic change.
So how could the internet be better used for campaigns like these? If we were to run such a campaign how could we make it more effective? Is there continued direct action that the internet can foster, enhance, and make easier?
True I’m guilty of that too, focus is difficult, the domain is very broad - it’s the world… It is good that the conversations emerging in Internet of Humans is helping narrow down to something to focus on though
I think another problem with events and campaigns like this is that their punctual nature allows it for people to turn off light for an hour on one day or to like something on Facebook to feel a bit better and a bit as if they are helping to solve the problem. Of course generating awareness is important but as mentioned in more long lasting ways and without easy options to satisfy the uneasiness the shared knowledge generates via a a light or like button.
Therefore I would argue to simultaneously not make the campaign too easy for the receivers, but of course work on making it easier for those initiating them.
Awareness that leads to more individual responsibility is a good thing, but that awareness really has to become political pressure to get governments not just on board but assigning to this the proper priority. So for in the countries with the most impact that is not happening.