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Earthrise: Youtubers Jack and Finn Harries join filmmaker Alice Aedy to launch new digital platform for younger generation of climate activists

Rebecca Speare-Cole
·8-min read
Earthrise
Earthrise

A pioneering digital platform has been launched in a bid to mobilise younger generations in the fight against climate change.

Former YouTube stars Jack and Finn Harries have joined forces with filmmaker Alice Aedy to set up the inclusive new online space, Earthrise.

Between them, the London-based team boasts around four million online followers.

Now they want to harness their audience to build a platform that can infuse climate activism with a strong sense of diversity and optimism as we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.

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What's the story behind the name Earthrise? On December 24th 1968, Bill Anders took a photograph of the earth during the Apollo 8 space mission. In the picture the planet appears finite, floating like a blue marble in the abyss. The most influential image ever taken of the earth, it highlighted the collective fragility of humanity and is often cited with having kickstarted the early environmental movement of the 1970s. This photograph became known as ‘Earthrise’. We believe we are now at a similar groundbreaking moment in history. Scientists tell us we have just 10 years to drastically change all aspects of our lives in order to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown. To act on this information would require radically transforming every aspect of society as we know it, yet those in power are doing little to address the issue. The climate crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, and racial injustice have forced us all to consider how the systems that govern us consistently fail the most vulnerable in society. It has forced us to think more deeply about systemic inequality, our collective fragility and our relationship to the world around us. As we begin to rebuild our strength and our resilience, there has never been a better time to question everything we know. One thing is certain, we can’t afford to go back to ‘normal’.

A post shared by earthrise (@earthrise.studio) on Jul 4, 2020 at 5:06am PDT

Within days of landing on Instagram, Earthrise has already garnered more than 20,000 followers — and the team has barely got started.

It will develop into a curation of content from scientists, journalists and storytellers, aiming to untangle the intimidating jargon which has “too long dominated the climate conversation.”

Alice told the Standard that the space will strive to reframe the narrative surrounding the crisis at a time when the potential for real proactive change has reached a tipping point.

By breathing a more positive message into the climate activism space, she said that Earthrise hopes to stamp out widespread “eco-anxiety” caused by overwhelming and fatalistic discourses.

Filmmaker and photographer Alice Aedy (Earthrise)
Filmmaker and photographer Alice Aedy (Earthrise)

Alice said: “We need a new roadmap and we believe in the power of storytelling. We are going to need imagination. We are going to need optimism. We are going to need hope to create a new world.”

Twin brothers Jack and Finn, now 27, gained a massive subscriber-base aged 18 with their travel YouTube channel JacksGaps. Over the years they then turned their attention to raising awareness of environmental issues.

In 2017, while working in the Calais Jungle, Jack met — and started dating — Alice, 26, who was reporting on the refugee crisis.

The trio’s social media audience have watched them travel the world, make films, win awards and join Extinction Rebellion. Jack was even arrested at an XR protest in London last year.

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We are not scientists, or experts, we are young people forced by our new reality to confront the climate crisis. These are our guiding principles and we invite you to hold us accountable. As we build and develop this community, we are committed to learning openly, and with vulnerability and we hope you’ll come on this journey with us. 🚀

A post shared by earthrise (@earthrise.studio) on Jul 7, 2020 at 4:39am PDT

Together the team now want to highlight through different channels how climate change is, crucially, a global social justice issue.

For them, telling the stories of people already living on the frontlines of climate change is key to bringing home the severity of the situation.

Finn said: “We have always felt the larger our audience has grown the larger our responsibility is to talk about things that matter."

“With Earthrise, it is fundamentally not about us or our personal narratives," he added. "We are trying to amplify voices that are so often not able to participate in this conversation, incorporating broader social stories such as the inequality that has been revealed by Covid and Black Lives Matter."

And Alice said the current landscape for activism amid the BLM movement, on and offline, is "incredible".

Jack and Finn protesting in central London (Earthrise)
Jack and Finn protesting in central London (Earthrise)

"There has been a remarkable use of social media and an appetite to learn about social justice issues that I just haven’t seen before," she said.

“And we are aware that we need to make great strives to improve the societies in which we live. So it feels like the right time to launch. We can build a world that is fairer, greener and more equitable for everyone."

The short term plan is to establish the community on Instagram through multiple different strands and multimedia storytelling.

The group will share articles, quotes from inspiring individuals, and explanations of "confusing concepts" like the New Green Deal and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.

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For decades, climate change is a story we have failed to tell properly. We’ve known about the issue for over fifty years, yet little has been done to tackle it. In fact, we have done as much damage to the state of the planet since Al Gore released ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ than in all the centuries and millennia before. We believe that our collective failure to tackle the climate crisis so far, is in part a storytelling issue. The problem of climate change is complex and difficult to communicate, confused by abstract graphs and numbers. As a result, the conversation has often felt intangible and distant. Climate change has been reported as a purely ‘environmental issue’ when it is also an issue of human rights and social justice. On top of this, tackling the climate crisis is bad business for powerful corporations and multinationals, many of whom inform public policy. During the last few decades fossil fuel companies have spent billions on misinformation campaigns to seed doubt and confuse the public, including companies like Exxon who's own scientists highlighted the dangers of climate change as early as the 1970s. In the last two years the narrative around climate has started to change. Extreme weather events and natural disasters are starting to get global attention, and activist groups like Fridays For Future, Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion have successfully elevated the conversation onto the global stage. The alarm bell has been sounded, so now, we must urgently reframe the way we talk about the climate crisis, redefining sustainability as good for both people and planet. Ultimately, we aim to tell a new narrative; one in which young people, like you and I, are brave enough to imagine the future we want to live in.

A post shared by earthrise (@earthrise.studio) on Jul 4, 2020 at 9:53am PDT

Climate in Colour activist Josslyn Longdon will run her own strand called “Climate in Colonialism 101” as part of the platform’s drive for inclusive conversations.

Then a podcast called "Down to Earth" will be launched with an interview format to spotlight guests whose perspectives on the climate emergency often go unheard in the wider movement.

The long-term plan, on the other hand, includes nationwide live events, like talks and workshop, "to activate a huge group of young people who maybe hadn’t yet engaged in climate".

Alice said: “One of the most dangerous things we are trying to tackle is this idea of, “Oh we’re f*** anyway. What’s the point? I’m just going to live my life."

Jack Harries has built up a large following through his Youtubing and filmmaking (Earthrise)
Jack Harries has built up a large following through his Youtubing and filmmaking (Earthrise)

"So that feeling of powerless is something that we are going to dedicate this platform to trying to fight.

“We’re saying we're not experts. We're not scientists. We’re young people, and we're inviting you to join us on our journey as we dive into these issues that are really really complex.”

Jack said that they have already been inundated by young writers, designers, activists and science researchers who want to collaborate on the project.

The team have travelled all around the world to the frontines of climate change (Earthrise)
The team have travelled all around the world to the frontines of climate change (Earthrise)

He said: "It’s so exciting because I think all of our generation want to take action but they don’t necessarily know how.

"And we are going to need everyone. We need to radically transform every aspect of society. This isn’t just one industry that needs to change but every sector of the economy.”

They trio argued that the language and storytelling must now change in order to push the movement forward.

"Last year’s story, mainly told by XR and the Youth Strikes, was essentially “we’re *f****ed,” Jack said, adding that they woked people up by “escalating the language from climate change to climate crisis".

“But now, especially post-Covid, the story should be: “How do we build back better? How do we build a better world for everyone? How do we make it positive?"

“We simply can’t afford to return back to normal and we are absolutely heading towards that direction. It is going to take a lot to steer us onto a new course."

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