The Ark Campaign

On January 24th in Cardiff, ON launched the 2009 “Ark Campaign.” See the report on the ON website

The aim is to raise awareness of the critical importance of the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen this year by using the symbol of the ark as a mobilising vehicle. The ON board have defined an “ask” for the summit that global power station emissions be reduced by one third by 2020 and to zero by 2030. This is what we are asking Gordon Brown and the UK delegation to broker a deal on later this year. As a campaign action, ON has provided a template of an origami “ark” (see resources.)

In Cardiff more than 300 locals gathered on a Lightship in Cardiff Bay to sing hymns
and recite Psalms, accompanied by a Salvation Army brass band and a local soprano
soloist. The children processed on board in costumes and animal masks. Christian and
Muslim students joined forces to sing Pwy wnaeth y sêr uwchben? : (Who made the
stars on high?)

The Ark theme has many campaigning pluses:

a) It is upbeat and focuses on youth – inter-generational justice.
b) It unites environmental and developmental agendas: this event was backed by
Christian Aid, CAFOD, TEARFUND, WWF, FOE and many more.
c) It is highly visual and attracts media attention.
d) It gets people to reflect on Biblical themes of water, flooding and climate
change in the Noah story and apply them to the modern period.
e) It allows people to campaign in their own locality.

Early moves are afoot to replicate this in a number of locations elsewhere: eg.
Plymouth, Portsmouth and Newcastle (Tynemouth), but we need a spontaneous eruption
of events for this to make maximum impact. Over to all CEL members networks….this
is a campaign tool for you!!

New resources

A short film of the Cardiff event will soon be viewable on the ON website and also
it will be available in DVD form (small admin and copying fee applies.)
As a tool linked to the campaign”ask”, an A4 size origami ark is downloadable from
the ON website.

http://www.operationnoah.org/resources/arkcampaign/origami-arks-no-10

We already have schools in Plymouth, Cardiff and Thetford working on these and they
will all be sent to Number Ten. We need this to spread through every network possible.

Thank you. Any queries to m.dowd@operationnoah.org or 07968 131639