TckTckTck

TckTckTck - whose name is intended to signal that "time is running out" with regard to reducing the emissions that cause global warming - is embracing an organising model called the Open Campaign whereby organisations or individuals can adopt its branding and toolset for use in their own campaigns to educate and encourage their supporters to demand action on a climate change agreement. Many of these resources are offered on the interactive TckTckTck website, which features news and tools such as a Climate Orb (personal stories from the climate change frontline), the "I am ready!" pledge, and access to the global campaign song. The latter is a re-mix of the hit song "Beds are Burning", re-written by the band Midnight Oil and recorded by over 60 artists and celebrities. The following instructions illustrate the strategy for engagement here: "Watch the song here or on YouTube....Or, you can download it for free....Every download counts as part of our TckTckTck campaign to let our world leaders know the world is ready for an ambitious, fair, and binding climate deal in Copenhagen this December. As far as we know this is the world's first global musical petition!"

TckTckTck is asking the public to visit the campaign website and add their name to the global call, also spreading the message via social networks, events, and independent campaign activities. The TckTckTck campaign present the list of names to the Secretary General of the United Nations and to Heads of State in the lead-up to the Copenhagen talks. TckTckTck is also organising actions around major international political meetings and other relevant events to demonstrate the "resounding call from citizens around the world for Heads of State to attend the negotiations in Copenhagen and to give them the courage to produce a fair, ambitious and binding agreement." For example, a TckTckTck blogger covering the United Nations (UN) meeting on climate change (October 2009, Bangkok, Thailand), writes: "I see thousands of everyday people filling the streets with colorful banner, costumes, megaphones and drums. They were all there to send a single message to world leaders: Take action on climate change now. And it was great to see many people using the TckTckTck brand in creative ways..." Online communication - in the form of videos, photos, blogging, etc. - is part of an effort to alert other activists to these strategies, perhaps sparking action in other contexts.

Another strategy involves engaging the media. Working with the global media development organisation Internews, TckTckTck organised the Human Voices Award, one of seven major thematic awards of the Internews Earth Journalism Awards that will culminate in what is being described as "a high-profile ceremony in Copenhagen on the eve of the final negotiations." By working together, the organisation and the campaign sought to spread the word and to encourage the broadest possible range of journalists to submit their entries.

Climate Change.

Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, a TckTckTck founding partner, released the following statement in lending his support to the Internews/TckTckTck award referenced above: "Although developing countries did not cause the climate crisis, poor nations are suffering the most as unpredictable weather patterns and the increase in natural disasters affects access to food, water and shelter. We must end the deathly silence around this crisis because it is a major impediment for international action. Those helping raise awareness of the crisis through journalism should be praised for doing so, especially as December's international climate talks in Copenhagen approach."

TckTckTck calls on leaders to go to Copenhagen and sign a legally binding international agreement that can be verified and enforced, and has features including: reduce developed country emissions by at least 40% by 2020; enable and support economically poor countries to adapt to the worst consequences of the climate crisis, reduce their emissions, and ensure technology sharing; protect marginalised communities; and ensure that global greenhouse emissions peak no later than 2017 and then decline steeply.