Posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 by Natalia Farbiarz
“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe“, assures an Albert Einstein quote. The concern about global energy disasters has been in the minds of scientists and politics for a long time and has now reached the Internet through Counterspill.org – “a living archive that combines best in class reporting, research, social media and community engagement.” Based on the premise that press is the Fourth Estate, Counterspill intends to create and respond — week by week, month by month, year by year — to energy industry narratives.
“Big Energy has their communications war room”, state the the creators of Counterspill.org, a group of concerned global citizens motivated to reduce the dependence on non-renewable energy. While the energy industries try to minimize liability, deflect, defend, distract and keep the status quo by controlling the stories of their own disasters, this website is devoted to keeping the truth in the news and inspiring positive change.
The first approach to the subject is made by an interactive map that show all the catastrophes by type, size and location. The research can easily move on to the “Disasters” section, where the user can find information – videos, pictures – about each single one. Another must see of the website is “In your face”, a compilation of disaster videos gone viral. If you are the informed kind of person, you can’t miss on the “Spin Central”, where the news about the subject are introduced with interesting quotes by people involved in it. Lastly and most importantly, you can take part by joining the global intervention launched by the website in April 2011. Time to change the course of history?
