Play the Song: “People Power” by Talib Kweli, Jabba, Zolani, Zap Mama, Angelique Kidjo and more

About Radio Wave

We are using the power of song and our voices to take the climate movement to the airwaves. African musicians have created a new song, titled “People Power,” that both tells the truth about how hard climate change is affecting Africa and our world, and it calls us to action. Read more…

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News

Thank You for Riding the Radio Wave!

Friends,

Huge thanks and salutations to all of you in the 350 network!

Many people around the world really went above and beyond to ensure that “350 Radio Wave” (our project to take over the airwaves with stories from the climate movement) was a huge success.

350’s amazing global grassroots network spread People Power, a new climate change song, to the airwaves in over 60 countries!  Together, we harnessed the power of music to educate the public about climate change. Some organisers managed to get their personal stories onto radio stations with huge audiences; others were smaller stations that the local community listened to. From stations in Texas to Cape Town, uplifting messages from the movement’s front-lines reached thousands of people’s hearts and minds.

The story of the song, People Power, continues to unfold. It was in regular rotation on South African radio stations during the UN climate talks in December 2011, and DJs are continuing to create amazing remixes. iTunes featured it as the “Free iTunes Song of the Week” in December 2011 — the first time a climate song has ever made this coveted spot. The song has been downloaded 100,000 times and counting!

This wonderful energy of people power – rippling out in story and song – is incredibly important. At this moment in history, politics and our media seem to be dominated by corporate polluters. Hope for climate action can seem dim, and we all worry that our message isn’t getting through.

But 350 Radio Wave has helped inspire people around the world to create a new wave of climate action, and I couldn’t be more grateful to be part of the movement that made it happen.

Let’s keep turning it around,

Samantha Bailey for the whole crew at 350.org

P.S. Check out this great Thank You video from Zolani, one of the artists featured in the “People Power” song.

Wave from rural India

I have always believed that the solutions to the climate crisis in India lie in its villages. Rural India, where around 750 million Indians live is visibly the most impacted by climate change and also the most important demographic to tackle it too. Leading a less carbon intensive lifestyle, rural India exemplifies the real solutions to the climate problem.

The following is a wave from Bundelkhand, a small town in the state of Madhya Pradesh. A community radio station called ‘Radio Bundelkhand’ recorded this program. The Bundelkhand Region has faced persistent droughts for the past 8 years. Even when the rains do come, it is late in the season and does not provide much relief as the kharif crops planted are already withered and lost and this results in rising debt for the farmers.

In the hope of increasing yield, the farmers of these regions mostly use petroleum derived fertilizers, unaware of the adverse effects they have on the soil and climate.

Radio Bundelkhand started airing a program aimed at stopping the usage of these chemical fertilizers. The programme motivated many of the villagers including Mr. Summer Ahirwar. Radio Bundelkhand team came to know about him and interviewed him where he discussed on how climate change is affecting Bundelkhand, what inspired him to work on different adaptation measures, how he motivated other villagers and the difficulties he faced.

The broadcast is in Hindi and the Bundeli dialect which might be difficult for some of the listeners to understand. But Mr. Ahirwar’s lessons are an inspiration to many who could transition towards organic farming and tackle climate change in their own small way.
Radio Bundelkhand Programme for the ‘RadioWave’ Project by chaitanyakumar
Credits: Radio Bundelkhand & Pragya Tiwari from Development Alternatives.

Remix by Naira from Nigeria

The Nigerian-American singer Naira just sent us a beautiful remix of People Power.  Listen to her remix Stand Up! and read her personal story below.  And then join the wave by creating your own remix of how climate change is affecting you personally, your people, your country, our world by going to our remix page.

Let’s spread the wave worldwide

From Naira:

“I am a Nigerian-American based in Atlanta, GA and as an artist, I seek to revolutionize the way we interact with people and the culture that is being created globally with music as my medium. I am among the many Africans worldwide who have something to say and someone to beautifully inspire. We are one in the Digital Revolution. No more dreams deferred the world will hear our story of trial and triumph! Musically Yours, NAIRA www.iamnaira.com”

Here is her remix:
Stand Up – NAIRA ft Talib Kweli & Angelique Kidjo by _NAIRA_

 

Good Morning Africa (1.5 Million Viewers) Interview

Amazing 350 activist Tracy Frayne tells about her first T.V. interview that she did to spread the word about Radiowave and the growing climate movement.  The interview was for Good Morning Africa – a morning T.V. show that is broadcast in South Africa and numerous other African countries.  Join the wave and lets keep on spreading the climate message!

Here’s Tracy’s recap of the interview:

“Friday morning saw me head off to Planet Image Productions in Johannesburg to be interviewed along with artists C.9ine, for the Good Morning Africa television show, which is broadcast on the Africa Channel on DSTV right across Africa – to some 1.5 million viewers – in order to promote 350’s “People Power” song.

Having never done a television interview this was both exciting and nerve-wracking, but I think I managed to pull it off!

The South African group, C.9ine, is busy working on a remix of 350’s “Power People” song and we were to be interviewed together – C.9ine talking about their remix and myself acting as a representative of 350 and my interview. For various reasons, I ended up doing a separate interview to C.9ine, which gave me some extra space to talk more about climate change and why we all – rich and poor; urban and rural – need to concern ourselves with the climate crisis.

I hope the interview will come out well, and that once the full segment is put together, with both the 350 views on climate change and C.9ines views on how music aids spreading the message, we’ll end up with a great story.

I’ll be sure to share the details as to when the show will air just as soon as I get them!

Tracy

350 Johannesburg

 

Remix the song

Do you like the song, “People Power,” above? Want to join in the music making? We’re inviting folks to submit their own “People Power” remixes here. Check out the first remix by DJ Shiftee up and out already:

Onwards!

We’re extending Radio Wave by one week more.

Our push to take the movement to the airwaves continues to spread across the globe. As of today there are waves signed up in 59 countries and counting. So why stop now?

COP17 (the 17th UN climate change negotiation conference) is underway here in Durban, South Africa and it goes for another week until December 9 as well. Briefly, the conference, COP17, isn’t very uplifting with rich countries hiding from their responsibilities and looking to delay the whole process (more than they already have). So we’re going to extend Radio Wave through that duration as well to make sure our people power message is shared ever wider.

And remember, to all of you reaching out to your local or national radio. When you do succeed in getting on that radio, please be sure to send in a report about your success here: http://radiowave.350.org/report-a-wave

For a bit of the more exciting, uplifting news from COP17, click here to read a new blog post up on the main 350 site.

Onwards!

Wave in India

Here in Hyderabad, India, climate change is not a phrase that the general public is aware of. With a population of 9 million, Hyderabad is a city that is running high on fossil fuel adrenaline. Sustainability is a key aspect for this growing megalopolis and the Government, private sector and civil society, all have a critical role to play.

In one of our first waves from India, N.S Prasad, our local organizer from Hyderabad has sent us this interview of his with the city’s most heard radio station called Rainbow FM. Here he speaks in a mix of Telugu (the local language), Hindi and English on subjects ranging from the science of global warming to the COP 17 negotiations in Durban. The show ends with the “People power” song.

350-radiowave-hyderabad by NS prasad

We hope to have more such shows before the campaign ends on December 2nd and relay these voices to our leaders and decision makers around the world.

A greeting from Durban

Sauti organizer Winnie Asiti from Kenya recorded a message yesterday to introduce folks to some of our 350 work here in Durban and invite you to join in Radio Wave. This is a smile you won’t want to miss…

#occupy with music

The UN climate meeting in Durban, South Africa, COP17, just got underway this past hour. And 30 minutes after typing this there will be the first general assembly outside the conference (#occupy style).

Fitting with the musical spirit of the climate movement thus far in Durban already as well as with our push to share the “People Power” song on radio across the globe these days, local musicians here put out a Climate Justice #Occupy song to get us fired up as well. Here it is:

OCCUPY by Creamy Ewok Baggends

The Power of Youth, the Power of Song

Cross-posted from 350.org

The annual United Nations climate summit is about to get going again — COP17 (the 17th conference of parties) in Durban, South Africa. But before diving more into the UN side of things, much more fun to share is the news from the seventh Conference of Youth (COY7) that’s happening as I type.

COY is a special time for the youth climate movement every year as hundreds of youth from dozens of countries come together for 3 days building new relationships, sharing stories from the past year, learning from one another, and making plans the movement ahead. The conference typically has all the youthful energy you can imagine — as young people we know what’s at stake, deeply, and we pour our spirits into the work of building a movement and creating solutions. But this year, the level of energy has reached even greater levels than in the past.

How? Well, watch this…

The young people you see leading that song in the video just completed an overland journey starting in Nairobi, Kenya — the We Have Faith, Act Now, Climate Justice Caravan. Song is part of what sustained them through that long journey to be here, much the way song has been a driving, sustaining force in African social movements for decades, particularly the South African anti-apartheid movement.

Now that energy and power of song has united with the energy and power of youth at COY — a recipe for some beautiful movement building weeks to come.

We have our work cut out for us, no doubt — how to channel this people power into a force that can overcome the corporate influence holding the world back from the solutions required. We’ll have our first large show of people power here in Durban at an interfaith climate justice rally with Desmond Tutu tomorrow, the Sunday before the UN meetings commence.

And it’s not just here in Durban. We’re taking people power to radio stations worldwide this week — in more ways than one! Check out http://radiowave.350.org to listen to a new song titled “People Power” and join us in taking the movement to radio where you live (you’ll find the guide and resources you need there on the Radio Wave website).

More from Durban to come.