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North East's climate change champion chosen

Thirteen-year-old David Saddington has been chosen as the North East’s young climate change champion. David, from Stockton-on-Tees, is one of nine champions across England who are at the start of a year in which they aim to communicate to their generation the risk of climate change and the role that young people can have in tackling it. The group will also have a number of engagements throughout the year, including a fact-finding tour to Switzerland to witness the effects of climate change at the Gurschen glacier. The nine winners were chosen out of more than 600 entries following a competition asking them to use different types of media to communicate the dangers of climate change. He says he will keep his message on climate change simple and easy to understand, adding that he felt it was cool to be eco-friendly and that everyone can be part of the solution rather than the problem. Environment Secretary David Miliband said he was delighted with the high calibre of winning entries: “Clearly these winners have put in a tremendous amount of effort in learning more about climate change. They understand that tackling climate change is the greatest single environmental issue that we all face in this generation.” Yesterday’s winners met up with Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Chief Scientist Sir David King. Mr Blair said: “If we are going to raise awareness about climate change and what we can all do in our own lives to stop it, we need people up and down the country to take an interest. These young people have shown their commitment to the cause - and with our help, they can now spread the word about climate change.” David and the eight other climate change champions yesterday put a question on climate change to Sir David King at a science briefing in Downing Street. The answers can be found at www.climatechallenge.gov.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .