As readers will know, I've had the pleasure of involvement in this rather wonderful project for a good few years. Read the update below, and then, maybe, join the fun....
We're very much hoping you can help us out with the small matter described below. But first a recap: ~220 of you lovely people invested 450,000 pounds in the production of our movie,
The Age of Stupid, and then another ~150 people invested a further 450,000 in its distribution. The hardy souls known as
Team Stupid proceeded to spend your cash organising the Guinness-World-Record-box-office-No-1-only-1%-of-the-emissions
UK premiere, followed by inventing the revolutionary
Indie Screenings film distribution system, through which 1400 local Stupid screenings were held in six months - and which later spawned
Good Screenings, allowing other change-the-world films to get the same treatment. Meanwhile the
Not Stupid campaign - also funded by you - distributed 35,000 action packs to cinema goers and reduced the immensely complex international climate negotiations into the adorable
Copenhagen Sprint, before morphing in to the
10:10 campaign, which launched at Tate Modern on 1st September and which had the whole cabinet and Prime Minster committed to cutting their personal emissions by 10% within 24 hours - followed by a full-on
three-hour parliamentary debate, which we narrowly lost. Just three short weeks later - after 64 volunteers had finished translating the film into 31 languages - came the biggie: one million people in 63 countries took part in Stupid's
Global Premiere, which was swiftly followed by cinema releases in 30-odd countries. Next, at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December, Team Stupid produced a daily hour-long web TV show,
The Stupid Show, aimed at making some kind of sense of it all. Since then, 10:10 has exploded in all directions (see the
press book if you suspect I exaggerate), and there are now 79,664 people (inc Nick Stern, Colin Firth and Stella McCartney), 2,631 businesses (inc Microsoft, Sony, Adidas & Pret A Manger), 1,657 schools & Unis (inc Edinburgh, Kings & Imperial), 1,541 organisations (inc the Science Museum, Royal Mail & the WI) and 40% of the UK's local councils (providing services to 24 million people) busily cutting their emissions by 10% this year.
All of these things happened as a direct result of you giving us your cash.
And it doesn't stop there. Here's the progress from the last two weeks:
-> Within 48 hours of getting into office, the UK Government signed up to 10:10. Meaning that all the government departments will have to produce 10% less emissions than last year, adding up to a staggering 600,000 tonnes of C02 not being pumped into the atmosphere - equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road. Watch
the video to see Cameron breaking the news and sounding as though 10:10 was all his idea (not that we're complaining - I can admit to watching the video several times, enjoying the head-spinning sensation with each play). Other new 10:10 sign-ups this week include Pizza Express, Marks & Sparks and Sienna Miller.
.
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Video here of 10:10's Eugenie and Duncan gazing in rapture as the new Prime Minister commits
all Government departments to cut their emissions by 10% in a year.
-> The new Climate Change Minister, Chris Huhne (farewell Ed) is coming in to our office to discuss what 10:10 would like the government to do, climate change wise. If you have any questions you'd like us to put to him, please
fill in this form. We've had more than 400 questions already.
-> Since 10:10 Global kicked off in March, helmed by Stupid producer
Lizzie Gillett, 10:10 campaigns have launched in nine countries -
Ireland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Ghana, Portugal, New Zealand, Norway and the UK - with Canada, Mexico, Hungary and Nepal about to hit go and Sweden, Denmark, China, Argentina and Spain following on behind.-> As one of the highest profile organisations doing 10:10, The Royal Mail has taken it upon themselves to stamp a 10:10 logo on loads of (all?) letters arriving on your doormat for the next two weeks. Thrilling.
-> 4,348 people watched Stupid when we made it free online for 48 hours before the UK election
-> Lizzie and I are going to the premiere of The Age of Stupid next week. Er? Yup, a German distributor has decided to do a full-on cinema release, so we're heading to Berlin and then Hamburg. Please nag all your friends in Germany to support the film in their local cinema in Berlin, Hamburg, Munchen, Nurnberg, Bonn, Frankfurt, Potsdam, Gutersloh, Freiburg, Bremen, Hannover or Koln, all details on the distributor's brilliant website at
http://www.ageofstupid.tao.de. (They're very proud that the German actor who usually dubs Pete Postlethwaite's big budget movies agreed to do our little film - see their trailer
the German cinema trailer for a taster.)
10:10-ers show off their morning mail
So I think everyone would agree that the whole Stupid adventure has been a success. And that all involved deserve a round of applause and a big pat on the back. Clap clap, pat pat. Great stuff.
Now could you give 10:10 a thousand pounds?
The problem, you see, is that, according to a grant foundation we applied to, 10:10 is just "too fundable". Because we've stormed from success to success, everyone thinks that everyone else is showering us with cash, when the reality is that we've been scraping by from week to week, with the situation getting more and more perilous.
But if everyone who invested in the film could reach in to their pockets again and find about a grand, that would add up to a rather healthy 370,000 pounds - and as one kind soul has agreed to match-fund the first 50,000 pounds we raise in this way, that 370 would become 420. Which is over half the total budget (staff, website, mailing list, materials, policy research) needed for the rest of the year. And would mean that we could now divert all the team away from chasing pennies and put them back on to solving climate change. Obviously we can't offer you any shares like we did with the film - 10:10 is not a commercial proposition - but we can offer shares in keeping the planet habitable. Oh, everyone already has shares in that.
NB1. No money goes to the campaigns in the other countries, as they all fundraise for themselves - 10:10 France is rocking ahead on that front, with 10 full-time staff already in place.
NB2. We don't give them cash, but we do share all the resources produced in the UK with our country hubs
If you'd like any more info about 10:10's plans - not least the
massive international day of community emissions cutting parties on 10/10/10, which already has 1,000 "Work Parties" registered - Lizzie would be very happy to send you the budget or strategy doc or have a chat on the phone. She's on
lizzie@1010global.org. And if you can't stretch to 1,000 quid, we would of course be happy to relieve you of 50 pounds or 20 hours of your accounting firm's time or six new mac laptops or your first born. Whatever you can do to help will be much appreciated. And if you're ever in London and would like to swing by the funky 10:10 office, please contact
julika@1010global.orgTo part with your cash, either take your credit card over to the paypal account on our website (
http://www.1010global.org/global/support) or send a cheque made out to "The 10:10 Trust" to Lizzie Gillett, 10:10, 8a Delancey Passage, London NW1. If you'd like to pay by bank transfer, contact
julika@1010global.org. If you're a UK tax payer, the cash will go to our brand new 10:10 charity so we'll be able to claim Gift Aid.
Here's hoping you can help - only 4.5 years left to stabilise global emissions...
Greetings from sunny Camden Town,
Franny & Lizzie
Sunday, December 19, 2010 at 1:25PM 