There are many influences that have brought me here. The original epiphany was about 13 years ago. I explored our family's contribution to the environment - our waste production, water, food, power and petrol use. I was horrified. It led to a family challenge to go 6 months without spending a dollar (we failed, we spent $300). We learnt to grow our own loo paper, milk a backyard goat and eat garden snails. Strictly speaking I didn't eat them, my partner did - they taste like rubber gumboots :(

The journey led to more epiphanies around the magnitude and intractability of the environmental problems we face not just as a family, but as a species. I wrote about it in the book 'Living the Good Life, How One Family Changed Their World from Their Own Backyard' Hardie Grant, 2006.

I often felt there was growing momentum, a ground swell of understanding, a commitment to find solutions. It's become sexy to grow your own vegies, heat your water with the sun and eschew those plastic bags. But, sadly, it isn't enough. It's only one form of action, Resilience, in what needs to be a four-pronged approach.

But how to get the message out there? I wanted to create something that didn't use a lot of physical resources, was accessible, powerful, personal and managed to avoid the consumerist pitfalls.
Social media, to a large extent, does all that.

I've spent the last two months creating a 4-minute animation - Peak Challenge. I've managed to squeeze it in between everything else. At this rate I'll be still working on Peak Challenge in another years time. There's a further 26 mins to go, and it's the important stuff, not just more of the scary stuff. It's the dig deep into our collective and individual psyche to understand why we're not changing, taking a brief look at the grieving process, and then the aspect so many of us are itching to get at, the part where we look at the types of action, see how we stack up, where we can move forward as an individual, a family, a community and a world.

The movie has been created in Flash and can be viewed higher resolution, but a smaller file size (4MB) here - Peak Challenge 4 min Movie (updated Nov 18)

This is the critical decade and we're already three years through it. With recent political events in Australia, and the world, it seems the only place we're going rapidly is backwards.

My passion is to share the epiphanies, invigorate or reinvigorate people to help turn the tide, the one that's rising. Maybe we can rise too. Just everyday, ordinary people, uniting and addressing what is likely to be the biggest issue of our lives.

My project, Peak Challenge isn't going to turn the tide on its own. We need to create a domino effect of cultural change.

I don't want to preach to the converted. They're sick of being preached to. The Peak Challenge animation is for those teetering on the edge. For those who understand that something big is up, but have no idea what to do about it.

It's also for those who are sick to death of hearing how bad things are and who want to address the issues. The movie provides a personal action plan for real change. Those who watch the movie decide the boundaries of how far they want to go.

I'm hoping you'll join me.

Updates

I can produce a high quality animation pitched at those who are ambivalent about the environment. My main concern is that compressing all that really depressing environmental woe in the first four minutes is likely to put people off. I've stated I don't want to preach to the converted but a lot of the people I hope to connect with are in deep denial. If I can get them through the first four minutes with fast-paced, interesting graphics and a bit of humour it might provide incentive to go further.
here - Peak Challenge - 4 minute movie (updated 18 Nov)

Then the challenge will be to help people break down the thought processes that go into their denial with logic and understanding.

The risk to the world is the greatest it's ever been. We've had World Wars, but most of us are barely aware of the war we're waging on the environment. In 'winning' it, we will have lost the only home we have.

The risk to the project is missing the mark with the target audience and not getting it out there. I'd be very appreciative to Pozible supporters to provide periodic feedback to ensure it does. To me it's a joint project.