Dynamo Effect - Alejandro Moreno and Guillaume Buteau,
project coordinators in Spain
The cleanest energy
is the one you never consume
Media frequently considers
environmental issues a secondary question. They use them when there are great
disasters or controversial news. This way, population gets a distorted image of
environment problems. Dynamo Effect is a European project which helps the Planet
fight against climate change
By ISABEL BENITEZ (isabel.benitez@wavemagazine.net)
from
Seville, SPAIN
Three
hundred radio stations. Seven countries. Responsible energy consumption habits.
These are the ingredients; the recipe for Dynamo Effect, a European project
which helps the Planet fight against climate change. It is based on citizens'
power to protect and preserve the environment. Its main value is the fight
against global problems from a local scale; bring people closer to air pollution,
greenhouse gas emissions or increases in the average temperature of the Earth.
According
to the latest Eurobarometer, climate change is the second most serious
worry faced by the world. However, few people take personal action to prevent
it: three quarters of respondents think citizens are not doing enough.
Dynamo Effect wants to break this trend through radio waves. The partners
of the campaign - each radio network associated - has to produce, in collaboration
with a scientific partner, 30 radios shows of 30 minutes each one on energy
efficiency and eco-friendly behaviours. They share the topics and contribute
with their creativity. So, at the same time, every week, radio stations from all
over Europe talk in seven different languages - their mother tongues - about climate
change and how to combat it.
At a Spanish level, the campaign is
being broadcast in more than 100 radios - members of EMARTV, the Association
of Local Radio Stations in Andalusia, and around 20 in Galicia from the
EMUGA network. That means two million people in the whole country.
But
it includes more activities. Under the slogan "The network transmitting
a new energy", Dynamo Effect adds local initiatives and events.
They are called Energy Days. Actions which let partners exchange best practices
and experiences also spread around the Internet in www.dinamoeffect.org.
In Spain, for instance, Energy Day is planned by 5th of June, coinciding
with the International Day for the Environment.
In
order to know about it and Dynamo Effect, WAVE magazine has talked
to those who make it possible: Alejandro Moreno, presenter and producer
of the radio program, and Guillaume Buteau, project coordinator.
Why
an initiative like Dynamo Effect?
Guillaume Buteau: In my opinion,
the international context concerning the questions of Energy Saving and Climate
Change is a huge opportunity for media to spread a new approach about these topics.
As media network, we cannot limit ourselves in just broadcasting some information
about what happened in Copenhagen or in Seville in terms of environmental questions.
We also have to try to promote the use of green energy, to give different
concrete ways to our audience so that they can change their habits. If people
begin to understand that each one of us has the responsibility and the power to
change things, they will be open to change their behaviour.
Alejandro
Moreno: It is an awareness campaign. Change burst in Spain so quickly.
Our grandparents were poor and now we live times of plenty: we have one or two
houses, we buy big and expensive cars, and we eat food which causes obesity...
These dizzy processes have not only social costs but also environmental effects.
Most of people find it positive to go on building highways, supporting speculative
town planning or creating new electric power stations. Capitalism needs an
unlimited development, but natural resources are finite. People should know
it and act.
What does Dynamo Effect mean? Because it is an international
cooperation project and its main tools are media...
G.B.: Yes,
they are. And Dynamo Effect is more than a group of individual or national
radio programs. It is a way to build closer ties, stronger networks between
EMARTV, Spanish stations and foreign media. But it is also a tool to develop
"platforms" for future international projects. This big initiative
let us reach great aims we can't imagine alone. And it is not easy. In order to
work all together we must break cultural barriers. We are seven different cultures
trying to get common goals. Although we are all aware, understanding is a
hard work. On the other hand, it is rewarding: we can jump over these barriers
and make an Italian, a German and a Spanish friends.
A.M.:
Dynamo Effect permits to share experiences, anyway; so we learn a lot
from each other and it helps us to find new journalistic and audiovisual formats.
In Spain, we work from Seville to produce our "Spanish radio show",
but we keep continuously in touch with our regional stations, with EMUGA -
the radio network in the North, in Galicia - and, of course, with our European
partners: we try to know what they think, what they talk about, what they suggest.
And then we work. Guillaume and our colleague, Pilar, periodically meet them.
Apart from that, we can forget environmental questions are collective worries.
What we do here, in a small house in Andalusia, affects us all. So it is interesting
to open our minds and listen to other proposals.
And what about contents,
what does Dynamo Effect talk about?
A.M.: Everybody talks about
climate change but we know nothing about its effects; I mean, loss of biodiversity,
altered weather patterns, floods, droughts... We analyze those daily habits
we can introduce in our lives to preserve environment. Can we heat our houses
with a solar energy system? Yes, we can. And if it is possible and it is comfortable
too, why do we prefer paying a gas company every month? We usually think responsible
solutions are expensive, prohibitive. There are too much disinformation and misinformation.
G.B.:
We have defined 30 topics included in nine larger issues. We will broadcast
three programs on the mobility issues and the ways to imagine the mobility of
tomorrow, through the use of bike, the public transport and the car sharing. It
is the same for food and agriculture, green home, renewable heating and cooling,
electricity end-use, or recycling practices.
Are there many programs
or magazines on climate change or energy in Spain? Is it usual to talk about environment?
A.M.
Not at all. Media frequently consider environmental issues a secondary question.
They use them when there are great disasters or controversial projects. This
way, population gets a distorted image of environmental problems and, of course,
of those who fight against its destruction, like environmental collectives - people
think NGOs just protest and oppose everything. Apart from some public radio stations
and televisions, these kinds of program rarely exist. And when they appear - it
seems a paradox - they are sponsored by petroleum companies and contaminant firms.
Are
people conscious of what they can do to fight climate change?
A.M.
It is difficult in this context. We talk about issues like climate change
from global perspectives, forgetting local actions: what people can do at home
or at work. My neighbour doesn't probably understand that the time his air conditioning
machine is working causes CO2 and greenhouse gases. If we selected nearer examples,
if we were more pedagogical, our behavior would be different.
What have
you learn? Can you give us some pieces of advice to save energy?
A.M.
Common sense. The cleanest energy is the one you never consume. So turn
off the machines you are not using at the moment. It is advisable just switch
off TV sets and other gadgets; leaving them on standby mode waste energy. And,
of course, choose and eat local products and go to work by bike or selecting public
transport. Last week, I went home, I visit my native village, and it was fantastic
to have time to gaze the landscape.
G.B. I agree. Electricity
is not an unlimited resource and to produce it we are still polluting our planet
with carbon, fuel and nuclear inputs. I would also insist on the mobility: do
not take your car for a two minutes travel, share it with colleagues to go to
work. But there are more things you can do. I recommend readers take a look at
www.dinamoeffect.org.
"Seven European Partners"
The radio campaign
aims at reaching about four million people in the seven countries that are part
of the project. Radio Popolare (Italy) coordinates the initiative, but
there are six partners more. There are six radio networks which broadcast "Dynamo
Effect" in different local stations all over their countries.
Apart
from the Spanish one - EMARTV, they are: Corali - the Association
for the Cooperation of Free Radio (France); the Irish Radio Near 90 FM;
Radio Orange from Austria; Radio Dreieckland (Germany) and Klubradio
from Hungary.
(Published: 10.03.2010.)
