Press Conference – My 10% Change for Mother Earth, Global Work Party 10:10

9^th Sept 2010

Waterfall Survivors Joins “Global Work Party” to
Solve the Climate Crisis

Over 180 countries join 10/10/10: a day of practical climate action

Kuala Lumpur-- From Selangor, Malaysia to the roof of the president’s house in the Maldives Islands, people from 183 nations will be joining in the largest day of carbon-cutting the planet has ever seen on the 10^th October 2010.

This year Waterfall Survivors will once again join our partners at 350 and 10:10 in the 10/10/10 Global Work Party. Spearheaded by 350.org, this event is shaping up to be the largest day of practical action to fight climate change in human history. In thousands of cities and towns across the planet, people will get to work on local climate solutions -- installing solar panels, planting community gardens, painting bike lanes, and more -- and send a simple message to their politicians: we're getting to work, what about you?

The event will kick off with a My 10% Change for Mother Earth Photo Pledge contest followed by a Recycling Collections of Plastic bottle, Aluminum Can and Newspapers at all Fitness First Outlet from 20^th to 26^th September 2010 then their Main event on 10th October 2010 at Rawang. Response from our members has been encouraging. To date more than 200 people have confirmed their participation for our 10/10/10 Global Work Party. We estimate that by the day of the event, we will have 500 participants.

“Waterfall Survivors will be working together with the Members of Waterfall Survivors and the Selangor State Government to push towards the reduce on 10%. We have a theme for this year “One World, One Goal” as we will stand together with the world to push for the reduce of carbon emissions.” said Joe Yap, the founder and President of Waterfall Survivors.

Last year saw millions of people across the globe (5,000 simultaneous events in over 180 countries) taking to nearby streets, mountains, reefs, parks to demand strong action on climate change. Waterfall Survivors joined these global communities in our very own symbolic “Save Our Waterfalls Campaign” at Kanching Waterfalls on October 25^th. More than 350 volunteers participated in this event where more than 450 bags of rubbish were collected. These bags and the participants then formed “3-5-0” - to draw attention to 350 parts per million (ppm), which an overwhelming number of scientists now insist is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

350 ppm originally came from a NASA research team headed by American climate scientist James Hansen, which surveyed both real-time climate observations and emerging paleo-climatic data in January of 2008. Their peer-reviewed article concluded that above 350ppm CO2 the earth’s atmosphere couldn’t support “a planet similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.”

The carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is currently at 390ppm – well above the safe zone. We risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost melt unless we can reduce the CO2 level to 350ppm within this century.

Malaysians still remains either unaware or unconcerned about what is really happening to our earth. Waterfall Survivors, aside from cleaning up the waterfalls, also aims to educate the general public on this grim situation as well as inform them of this global event. We hope to garner support from fellow Malaysians to help nudge politicians into seriously taking action to rectify the CO2 problem. We are already plagued with ‘dead’ rivers, dirty water supply, and illegal dumping of toxic wastes to name a few. The people can only do so much – but politicians can do a lot more. We need stricter policies and tougher enforcement.

“We in Selangor State Government will fully support this kind of environmental event, for a greener and healthier lifestyle for our future generation” said Adrian Yeo, Special Assistant to YB Elizabeth Wong, EXCO for Tourism, Consumer Affairs and Environment Selangor State Government.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to our main sponsor, Fitness First Malaysia, our co-sponsors, Olympus Malaysia, Bacfree Sdn Bhd, Teva Footwear and World of Sports and also to our product sponsor, Southern Lion. This campaign is supported and endorsed by Selangor State Government, Tourism Selangor, Majlis Perbandaran Selayang and Jabatan Pertahanan Awam.

The event per se will be a lot of fun, but it will have a serious purpose. Before the day is out, pictures of it and thousands of other actions will be all over the globe and on 350.org. But we want to make sure that people in our city know how they can play a real role in making the future work. Please join us!

To join in the actions and adventures, log on to http://waterfallsurvivors.blogspot.com, or waterfallsurvivors@hotmail.com. Feel free to give them a call at +6019 678 7460 for more information.