Meet Richard from Bedsteforældrenes Klimaaktion

Richard meets regularly with the rest of the local group at Det Bæredygtige Forsamlingshus in Frederiksberg to plan their climate actions.

He gives an example of what an action might look like:

“We’ve done actions a few times where we take some rollators and walk down Strøget or Købmagergade, getting in people’s way a bit. A bunch of older folks with signs and placards,” says Richard.

They also have a set of retired bicycles, painted green and decked out with slogans, which get wheeled around in front of Christiansborg and the ministries. They also show up to demonstrate at key events like the opening of parliament, Overshoot Day, Black Friday, and the climate march, and take part in various green events like the Klimafolkemøde in Middelfart in August. Another member has even developed a climate simulation board game about planetary boundaries.

Since spring, the Copenhagen group has used Oase. It’s the first time they’ve had a digital space that was truly their own. They have a website (bkaklima.dk) and a Facebook page used for visibility and recruiting new members, plus an internal Facebook group for local chapters nationwide. In Copenhagen, all communication ran on email until recently.

“I like email. It’s still a free service that isn’t controlled by a monopoly, and it’s simple technology,” says Richard. “But it’s not great for ongoing discussion.”

The group was missing something more social-media-like for quick chats between meetings — ideally without Meta.

“Like a lot of people, we really do hate Facebook for a lot of reasons, and we’re pretty uneasy about Europe’s dependence on American tech.”

A member set up the oase and sent an invite link, which Richard forwarded to the active members by email. He admits not everyone was thrilled about the idea of a new platform to learn, and that it took a bit of time to bring people on board.

“As I remember it, it took maybe a month to get most people on. There are a few who are a bit slow to move, who aren’t that into digital media in general. But I think we’ve won them over.”

The oase is used to share news from other green movements, photos from actions, and quick polls on who’s showing up to the next demonstration. When the group gave a journalist from Information a green vest as a birthday gift, thanking her for years of good climate coverage, the photos from that were shared in the oase.

Over the summer it’s been quiet in the oase. Even so, Richard has no doubt about what it’s given the group.

“I think it’s really nice to have something in between email and Facebook — a place where you can communicate between meetings and post photos.”