15th Carbon Neutral Dance to celebrate the UN International Year of Forests 2011

The 15th Carbon Neutral Dance took place on the 6th December 2011 to raise money for reforestation projects in our Paradise Farm project in Sri Lanka. It was set in a beautiful venue with Cuban artwork on the walls along with a great atmosphere. Entry was £15, which is the actual costs of planting and maintaining an organically grown rubber tree for 35 years, with environmental, social and economic benefits in mitigating climate change, and also creating sustainable livelihoods for poor local communities in Sri Lanka. VIDEO

This dance was even more special as it celebrated the UN International Year of Forests 2011. According to the World Bank, forests support the livelihoods for 1.6 billion people. The Carbon Neutral Dance has taken place in many other countries around the world for various global projects such as New York, Sao Paulo, Geneva and Itacare, to name a few.

We had a packed night of music and dance, started off by Mariano Ortiz and his band from Latinos in London which was then followed by a great performance from our carbon neutral artist, Milli Moonstone, who was very excited to play at the event. Viktorita Wilton from Inspiration 2 Dance gave us a short cha cha cha lesson with her partner, Maxim Pitirimov. After our lesson, we settled down to watch a wonderful film about forests; "Of Forests and Men" - by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. This was followed by a Third Sector Edge Award winning short film project made by students at Shooters Hill School about the Carbon Neutral Dance and a short film about our Paradise Farm Project. It was great and inspiring for those attending to able to see Paradise Farm on film and the work that is done there.







To end the evening, we were given a performance by Viktoriya and her partner, in a Charleston Dance, which ended the evening perfectly. It was a lovely evening with dance and music, where all guest got to take home a packet of green tea directly from Paradise Farm Project.



We hope to do more of the Carbon Neutral Dance in the near future, and for it to take off globally. It would be great if events were organized in cities all around the world to raise money for local projects and local communities. We are already planning another event in London in November and a Carbon Neutral Dance is to be organized in Mexico for December.

Paradise Farm (Sri Lanka) -
The ultimate in health products and eco-tourism

Paradise Farm was started in 1996 by a group of environmental enthusiasts in promoting organic agriculture in Sri Lanka. Due to its links with international institutions and its valuable experience in sustainable agriculture and forestry, Paradise Farm is an ideal partner for Worldview Impact in setting ambitious goals to contribute to reduction of climate change by massive tree planting projects with sustainable methods.

WIF supports PF also by promoting its Tea in the UK market and ecouraging eco and responsible tourism in the area. After a decade of peace negotiations, this is an excellent time to travel and sustain the stabilization and development of the country!

If you would like to know more about WIF activities in Sri Lanka please visit www.worldviewimpact.org

For more information about PF click on the following link http://www.paradisesrilanka.com/.

The Small Is.. Festival celebrates the idea that ‘Small is Beautiful’…

The beginning of September saw a return of the unique Small is.. festival, run by charity organizations Engineers Without Borders and Practical Action. Bringing together organizations and individuals concerned with international development and the planet, the weekend featured discussion and debate about the role of intermediate technology for development, all set within the stunning grounds of the Practical Action Headquarters at Bourton Hall.

Over 400 development and sustainability enthusiasts, experts, families and locals learned, explored and shared ideas and inspiration on the challenges faced by the world today on subjects of FOOD, SHELTER, ENERGY and WATER, as well as sustainability, off-grid living and technological ideas for social good.

You can find out more online at www.smallisfestival.org

Worldview Impact: Interactive Forum for Engaging Young People to Fight Climate Change in London

Interactive Forum for Engaging Young People to Fight Climate Change

WHEN: Monday 15th August 2011 from 7:00pm – 9:00pm

WHERE: UnLtd Office, 123 Whitecross Street, Islington, London, EC1Y 8JJ. Nearest Tube is Barbican - if you get lost, call Nathan Hayes on: 07590 692577

RSVP: Please reply by: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=218956311483237 or email: nathan@worldviewimpact.org

Confirmed Speakers:

Tim Cooper, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. Tim completed a Master of Science in Sustainable Development and Environmental Change at the University of Exeter in 2009, and has worked for the Meeting Place since February 2010. Tim's role is to oversee the development of workshops to maximise interactions between attendees and to ensure strong positive outputs via editing workshop reports. Tim has also worked on UKERC's response to the government earlier in the year on Electricity Market Reform. Before joining the UKERC Meeting Place, Tim worked as an Environmental Consultant focusing on carbon finance mechanisms, both compliance and voluntary and their associated development opportunities for African countries for various UN and government departments. Tim is an Associate member of the IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment), and is currently working as a 'Climate Champion' with the British Council to develop UKERC's 'Energy Island' exercise suitable for use in Schools. He has also worked on researching leadership in sustainable development during his MSc and has an undergraduate degree in Geography.

Peter Richardson, Baker and McKenzie; Projects and environmental lawyer with a focus on clean energy. Mr Richardson has been working with Baker & McKenzie since 2006. In 2009 he spent a year on secondment with a major carbon fund and experienced how climate change projects are developed 'first hand'.

Sarah Corbett, Oxfam UK: Born in Everton, Liverpool (fourth most deprived ward in the UK) into a family of local activists fighting in the 80s for better housing and services under Thatcher, now fighting for support for young people in an area rife with drug dealing and gangs. Studied Religions and Theology focusing on Liberation Theology. My mum is a local Labour Councillor and my dad is the local Vicar. I support regional Campaigners in this role with Oxfam and my previous work was with DFID on a scheme called Platform2 trying to turn young people 18-25 year olds from 'disadvantaged' areas into activists. I also run a awareness raising/campaigns group called Craftivist Collective. We have 900 craftivists across the world who deliver activism through craft to raise awareness of human rights injustices and global poverty. We have been featured in the Observer, RWD magazine as well as arts and cultures publications that rarely talk about politics.

We have designed the event to facilitate a lively and intelligent discussion across the board, involving both speakers and participants. So - think of some questions for the speakers in advance, or general topics that you want to discuss on the themes of climate change and youth engagement.

If you don’t have much of a background in either of these topics and want to learn more – great and we hope you can gain a lot from the event. We hope that we can attract people from all backgrounds, so our only mandatory requirements are that you bring energy and an enthusiasm for learning and participating.

"(Young people) are making important contributions to our work to eradicate poverty, contain the spread of disease, combat climate change and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. I call on Member States to increase their investments in young people so they can do even more." Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon