Just yesterday was talking with someone about how important injecting humour into the Canadian political debate was now. For example, the tongue-in-cheek political pressure ads prevalent in Australia (and prevalent from my last gig at GetUp) are great examples. Love this ad the Cancer Council in Victoria piut out for plain packaging on ciggies taking off of a product recall announcement.
via Osocio .
Frightening infographic from the always poignant Information is Beautiful on the effect overfishing has had in the last hundred years .
And a fantastic point about the phenomenon of “shifting environment baselines”. Find it’s probably as true of the sea as land based issues like climate and air quality.
Forgot to mention it, but Amnesty International hit their 50 year mark.
Despite my issues with how it is run, they are an incredible organization that does essential work preventing torture, freeing political prisoners, working to abolish the death penalty and making sure the human rights of all peoples are respected. They deserve your support . The world was a much darker place 50 years ago before their candle. Happy Birthday Amnesty.
Extremely effective (and simple) animation from Nigel Upchurch on why you shouldn’t be eating farmed fish. Engaging and memorable.
Damn, now I feel guilty about the (almost certainly farmed) sashimi I had today.
Also, check out Nigel’s equally effective animation on why you should turn off your computer at night .
via FlowingData .
Australia, much like the rest of the world, has seen climate deniers start to regain traction over the last two years, despite them not having a single scientific leg or credential to stand on. Oz’s Hungry Beast is here to tell you straight with some actual climate scientists.
Like that? You can also check out the COP 15 Rap Battle .
Sydney’s WWF and Leo Burnett Sydney bring you probably the best Earth Hour ad I’ve ever seen. If you needed any more reasons…
Please remember to turn off the lights (hell, everything) for Earth Hour 2011, 8.30pm, Saturday 26 March.
I have to admit to being really impressed with the video work coming out of Amnesty’s French section in the last little while. Visceral and evocative they really bring home the struggle for human dignity that is still being fought in far too many places. So, signez.
Also, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International . Please donate .
I was surprised the other day talking to some tech friends who weren’t aware of Anonymous and especially were intrigued about how they managed to take down the sites of both MasterCard and Visa in response to their blocking funds (in my opinion, unethically, since Wikileaks nor Julian Assange have been convicted of any crimes) to Wikileaks. The friends hadn’t heard about the campaign Anonymous had conducted against Scientology and the RIAA either or, more importantly, the all powerful weapon in their arsenal, the Low Orbit Ion Cannon< or LOIC.
Great campaign ad from FalseEconomy.co.uk on how the British government’s severe austerity choices are liable to stall the economy and make the crash worse rather than deal with some of the real issues we could use it to deal with - and also how those measures will unfairly impact the poor and average earners rather than those who caused the financial crash. Great video.
via GetUp’s Oli .