POSITIVE THING TO DO # 90 –94:BUILD A TEAM & CREATE A MOVIE TO PROMOTE OUR NEW SOCIAL NETWORK AND NEXT BIG TREE PLANTING PROJECT

Photo: Brainstorming On The Way Back From Inner Mongolia

The Plan
Our recent trip to the deserts of Inner Mongolia, where we participated in the planting of 100,000 trees began something new. On the long journey back to Beijing the organizers and guests, ourselves included, were so excited by what had happened that we got all fired up and began planning next year’s event. In no time at all it was decided that next year’s planting would be even bigger. But there was far more. Next year, we would try not to house everyone in hotels, but attempt to house them in the desert, where closer to the tree planting site they would be able to do much more in the time allotted and truly experience the wonders of nature. Imagine the stars at night, the gatherings around the camp fire, the music, the fun, the enhanced contact with nature.

On that long bus trip back we united under one banner. Next year would be very different from the previous five. People living in the desert, maybe they could advance sustainability through doing such things as building earth-bag homes, and using solar etc. Our experience of walking through China would be invaluable to the organisations involved that currently have to rely on travel agents for their arrangements. Much better for the local economy is for us to buy Yurts (traditional Mongolian tent like homes) to house the volunteers. Much better for the environment. Much better an experience for the volunteers.

But we took the bus brainstorm much further. What if we could bring some of the great environmentalists into the desert, for a shared working experience, and to find new commitments and ways to reforest the deserts? Host a conference in the desert, in as sustainable a way as possible. It takes ten hours to get into the deserts of Inner Mongolia and by experience we know what can happen if you put like minds on a bus together. Even before we reached the desert our working conference would be under way. In the desert people would work together during the day and meet and party together in the night, beneath the stars. How enlightening.

The Social Network: ‘There’s Something Happening Here’
From the moment I heard of the Earthday.ning social network, I was impressed and knew it would go somewhere, providing an invaluable tool of communication for environmentalist all over the world. I invited my friends, added my blogs, video’s and photo’s and discovered all sorts of great people doing great things. “Let’s create our own social network.” I said. “That way we can all stay in touch and have an idea about what each other is doing. On the network we can plan next years tree planting and at the same time give people an opportunity to observe what’s going on.”

I explained more and by the time we left the bus, I knew that I had one more thing to do; create a new social network. The name came easily. All the way back on the bus I could not stop singing in my head ‘There’s something happening here’ the lyrics of a song by Buffalo Springfield that for many captured the essence of the summer of love and the Anti Vietnam War movement. Yes, there was something happening here and I wanted to strike while the iron’s hot. I would create the network would everyone want it? “Yes” came the immediate response and so I got to work.

The Movie
We said goodbye to our tree planting friends who flew back to Japan and made our way back to Ma’Anshan City in Anhui province where we would restart our walk through China, with us was Cliff Spenger, The Walking Treeman. Cliff would be with us over the Earthday period and then walk for a few days before making his way back to the US. Cliff is full of energy and his energy rubbed off on us. Soon I found myself making several new movies, the last being the one that tells of our Inner Mongolian Tree Planting trip. At the end we decided what better way to promote the new Social Network and our next Inner Mongolia tree-planting trip (2009) than through this new movie. So, with no other thought in mind we chose ‘There’s Something Happening Here’ as the title. Because there is somthing happening here.


Movie: There's Something Happening Here
The Team
Yuji and Joy, our walking companions through China got all fired up with the Treeman’s energy and presence and soon they wanted to become involved in the film making promotion package. Joy, who’s been learning Japanese while on this trip, could translate Konomi’s Japanese translation into Chinese. Yuji, who is Japanese, also speaks and writes fluent Korean. By the time Cliff the Treeman left, he had movies in English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. We are now a four-person film production crew. Yuji is so excited that he’s having his computer sent from Japan, and already we have got another four movies with Chinese translation. Our audience grows bigger everyday. This is the value of people working together as a team.

The Invitation
Please join us on our ‘There’s Something Happening Here’ Social Network