WWF-Australia - for a living planet

Honorary Custodians Unveil The People's Orb To Deliver Message To World Leaders

05 Dec 2009

Sydney, Australia: A message for world leaders attending the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen has been unveiled today in the form of The People's Orb - a shimmering 20cm silver sphere containing a 350 gigabyte mosaic of stories, voices, images and action collected from around the world to inspire action on climate change in Copenhagen.

Unveiled in Sydney by the first joint honorary custodians, Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore MP and 14 year old "Climate Girl" Parrys Raines, The People's Orb will travel to Denmark to be presented to a representative of world leaders during a dedicated Earth Hour Copenhagen when the lights of the city will be turned off for one hour from 7pm on Wednesday 16 December.

During its journey, The Orb will be entrusted to a sequence of honorary custodians. It will arrive in the city via The Climate Express, on Saturday 5 December, where it will collaborate the efforts of all major climate campaigns including Vote Earth, tcktcktck, 350.org, UNEP, Raise Your Voice, Hopenhagen, the Copenhagen Climate Council and the Earth Journalism Awards.

Custodians will include both citizen and official representatives including Professor Tim Flannery, Director General of WWF International, Mr Jim Leape and Executive General of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Mr Achim Steiner.

Earth Hour Executive Director, Andy Ridley, says that the huge numbers of people who took part in Earth Hour 2009 - when hundreds of millions of people in over 4000 cities and towns in 88 countries throughout the world voted for Earth over global warming by turning off their lights - is evidence that the planet's population is calling for definitive action on climate change.

"The People's Orb represents the spirit of collaboration across the globe. It gives the world's citizens a voice to make a difference in the global battle against climate change," Ridley says.

The People's Orb will retain sufficient memory for world leaders to include the final piece - a binding agreement for the future of the planet.

A global appeal for suggestions of material to be included in The People's Orb has sparked conversation across the world. Social media networks facebook and twitter are already a buzz with suggestions and comments from the planets citizens.

Michael Jackson's Earth Song has been the number one suggestion via online forums. Further suggestions being suggested on blogs, twitter and facebook include

  • images of our current world leaders children and grandchildren;
  • inspirational quotes from throughout the ages ("We do not inherit the world from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children")
  • a copy of The Girl Who Silenced The World For 5 Minutes.

    • Along with suggestions from individuals, The People's Orb will also contain key climate change reports from the world's most eminent scientists; representation from the world's great thinkers on the need for action on climate change and representation from the leaders of the world's cities calling for action on climate change.

    Suggestions for what should be included in The People's Orb are being collected via Twitter, Facebook () and the Earth Hour blog.

    Notes

    Businesses, community groups and individuals are encouraged to host a Vote Earth ballot box on their website. Click here for more information.

    More information

    Kirsten Hodgon
    Earth Hour Global
    M: +61 (0) 424 507 095
    E: Khodgon@wwf.org.au

    Billy Gentle
    Earth Hour Global
    M: +61 (0) 4 1016 1789
    E: bgentle@wwf.org.au