Saving+the+Planet

Saving the Planet to a U2 Tune
[] It’s 100 days till the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, and over 10,000 dancers have gathered on a beach in Belgium to urge leaders to help save the planet.

They want to make sure politicians and business leaders will stick to their promises to cut C02 emissions by 2020.

[Michel Genet, Greenpeace Belgium]: “We know that we at least need 40 percent decrease in CO2 emissions for 2020 and it’s far from sure that we will get there at the end of the Copenhagen negotiations. So what we want to make today is to put as much pressure as possible, 100 days before the start of the negotiations, on the political leaders so that we are sure they take the right decisions and ambitious decisions in Copenhagen."

This is a Big Ask Again event organized by filmmaker Nic Balthazar and sponsored by the Belgian Climate Coalition.

The video clip will be broadcast freely on the Internet through Facebook, Youtube and other sites.

Balthazar feels this is a powerfull way to mobilize people into action.

[Nic Balthazar, Big Ask Again Organizer]: "Will the clip change the world? Will doing nothing change the world? I am sure that we underestimate the power of protest marches for example. This is a new, modern protest march, over the Internet. And protest marches were the cause of the end of the Vietnam war, the collapse of the iron curtain, what have you.”

The 11,500 participants are dancing to the tune of U2 on a beach off Oostende. U2's lead singer Bono agreed to give his song "Magnificent" for free to The Big Ask Again.

[Nic Balthazar, Big Ask Again Organizer]: "Well Bono and I then one night said 'Well why don't we do this together, Nic?,' he said, and I said 'Bono why don't you do something for a change?' And he said 'Well I am going to give you my music' - and he did.”

Last year, the filmmaker shot a Big Ask video clip with 6,000 participants and over three million people watched it over the Internet.

[Janine Lemaire, Big Ask Again Participant]: "To mobilize people like this, so they feel a little responsible for their planet, it is everyone's wish. It is time we do something."

Greenpeace Belgium is planning a mass demonstration in December, days before the Copenhagen climate change conference.

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