Environmentalists use music, photographs to combat climate change - Young winners from 14 countries including Kenya, Malawi and Morocco have been honoured at a Connect4Climate (C4C) event in Washington DC, US, aimed at using music, photographs, videos to combat climate change.
The ceremony, which took place on the ground floor of the World Bank, an institution of development experts devoted to ending extreme poverty, saw a music video from Trinidad winning first place in the global Voices4Climate awards, according to a statement from the World Bank received by PANA on Saturday.
Stephon Gabriel’s “A Changing World,” with its message to “Rise up, unite up, to help this earth be how she used to be,” was selected from more than 1,000 entries from 116 countries.
He was one of 19 young people from 14 countries who received prizes in the Voices4Climate competition for their photographs, videos, music videos, and podcasts about climate change.
The statement said the winners in the competition, which was organised by Connect4Climate (C4C) in collaboration with MTV and TerrAfrica, were announced during a gathering that attracted hundreds of people at the end of the work day in Washington.
The Voices4Climate event was hosted by C4C, a global partnership dedicated to climate change communication and action launched by the World Bank, the Italian Ministry of Environment and the Global Environment Facility in 2011.
With a coalition of more than 150 partners and an online community of nearly half a million followers, C4C is helping, through social media and the web, to amplify voices of local stakeholders who have stories to tell about climate change.
Applauding the winners at the event, “Connect4Climate: Right Here, Right Now,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim encouraged young people from around the world to take an active role in helping to combat the threat of climate change.
“To deliver bold solutions on climate change, we need to listen to and engage broader and more diverse audiences,” said Kim. “We need to hear the voices of young people. Their futures are at stake. The time for all generations to act is now.”
The winners of the competition came from Bangladesh, Colombia, Croatia, France, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, and Trinidad and Tobago.
C4C also joined forces with UK-based environmental and arts organisation Artists Project Earth (APE) to launch a special edition of Rhythms del Mundo: Africa - a charity compilation album featuring tracks by Eminem, Beyonce, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, and many others in support of climate change projects around the world.
Live performances by two of the album’s featured artists, award-winning Malian musician Rokia Traore and Kenyan rappers TS1, raised the spirit of the evening’s guests and provided resonant proof of the power of creativity to inspire change.
Pana 10/03/2013