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A Big, Crazy Idea (April 2015)

  • April 7, 2015

A Big Crazy Idea is the extended finale to the very successful three part series, Canoes Vs. Coal.

This seven-minute documentary borders on being a short film that dives head first into the larger social and political issues behind climate change.

In this third and final installment of Canoes Vs. Coal, we hear from 350.org’s Oceania Region Coordinator, Aaron Packard and how he came up with the idea for the Newcastle Flotilla. He further speaks about the significance of the Flotilla, and how it contributed to giving the Pacific Warriors more motivation and inspiration to continue this fight against coal mining and climate change.

Combined with his quirky sense of humour and his very real passion and anger for climate change, Aaron sheds light on the fact that the debate about climate change mirrors our world full of inequality, where only a select few have the money and power to call the shots, and the rest do not.

The release of this video had to be delayed up to 4-5 weeks due to the effects on Cyclone Pam in Vanautu as we were uncertain of the damage it caused the people, and the land. This video contains footage directly from the islands that was shot in 2014. Thanks to the production company, ‘Island Reach’, for letting us use some of the footage.

The date was Friday 17th October 2014. 30 Pacific Warriors came from twelve countries across the Pacific Islands. In a bold fight against coal mining in Australia, they came equipped with the locally built hand made canoes to barricade the open waters of the world’s largest coal port, Newcastle Australia.

This coal port exports destruction to their homes and land.

Together, they stopped eight ships scheduled to leave the port that day.

Through this demonstration the Pacific Warriors achieved world wide attention to their fight.

Watch Part 1:

Watch Part 2:

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