Richard Branson appeared in Toronto yesterday to launch a new website aimed at educating Canadians about the effects of global warming, and to announce an accompanying contest which will see the most deserving, environmentally friendly Canadian community getting their own music festival.
Virgin Mobile, MuchMusic, Roots Canada Environmental Defence and the Province Of Ontario have joined forces to create the new website, flickoff.org, which will apparently contain everything that Canadians need to know about the climate crisis and the easiest ways to minimise their carbon footprint. In the next few weeks, details of the aforementioned contest will be announced via the website, a nationwide challenge to see which Canadian community can cut their emissions the most per head in the coming summer months. The winning community will be rewarded with 'Flick Fest', a carbon neutral event featuring some top Canadian acts.
Branson says: "A huge percentage of the population isn't aware of how big and positive an impact they can have on the environment by doing simple things. Flick off is to inform, challenge and inspire people to be concerned and to give them a tool to take action."
He added that although the programme was launching in Canada, he hopes that it will go global. If you're Canadian, see http://www.flickoff.org. You can go there if you're not Canadian, I guess, but you're not going to be able to win yourself a festival.