Luke, second left, was part of the UK Delegation at the UNICEF Children's Climate Forum in Copenhagen, December 2009.
Photo: UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase
Young campaigner Luke Hughes has launched an inventive international online campaign which takes the climate change fight right to the US Senate.
Frustrated by the fact that young people around the world won’t have a say on the US’s crucial upcoming climate change bill, Luke, 17, decided to start a Facebook petition – with a clever twist.
The snappily titled PHOTOsynthesis differs from your average Facebook campaign in that it uses members’ profile pictures to create a massive collage. This will then be presented by young climate change campaigners in the US to key Senators who will be voting on the bill, which is expected to be debated sometime this year.
“Other Facebook campaigns and groups tend to be more of a joke, or if they’re not, they often haven’t got a clear plan about what to do with the members who join,” says Luke, who was one of four young people to represent the UK at the Children’s Climate Forum in Copenhagen last December. “Our group has something unique in the use of profile pictures in a picture petition that will then be sent to important people in the US.”
Why is Luke targeting the US in particular?
“The US is one of the biggest emitters in the world, but they have so far failed to pass any decent climate change legislation,” he says. “(The petition) gives all of us, regardless of which country we come from, a chance to remind US senators that their vote on the bill will affect more than just the citizens of the US, but us and our communities as well.”
But what if the Senators don’t listen?
“Even if we remind just one single Senator that his or her vote means more than just some extra supporters for another term in office, we think that’ll be a tremendous success,” says Luke. “And even if we don’t manage to do that, any campaign which raises awareness about a tremendously important issue can’t be a bad thing!”
‘PHOTOsynthesis: US climate change, one picture at a time’, to give the campaign its full title, already has almost 700 members on Facebook – you can join them by following this link.
Stay tuned to Tagd for news on PHOTOsynthesis – and look out for a special event to coincide with Earth Day on 22 April.
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