Warwickshire News Mine

Rugby School pupil Sofia Zabolotskih has become one of just nine young pioneers nationally in highlighting the crucial climate change message and only recently collected an award from Warwickshire County Council through the Eco Schools programme.

Sofia is also an Eco Champion for the Midlands and has been commended for her passion and commitment to the plight of climate change.

The 17-year-old pupil is to be joined by the South East champion Jordan Stephen to talk about a recent trip to Switzerland where they saw how climate change was affecting Swiss glaciers. They will also be explaining how they intend to change people’s attitudes and behaviour on climate change in their regions.

Sofia said: “What struck me was that you could immediately see that the glaciers are retreating. In order for glaciers to keep moving 50 per cent of them need to be covered by snow and this was obviously not the case on most of the mountains.

“I never realised how much the glaciers were affected and they are of course an indicator that even laymen like me can recognise as having suffered fro climate change.

“I believe it is vital that climate change gets taught more in schools and am inviting speakers to come and talk on the environment.”

Sofia was chosen as a climate champion along with eight other students who all created impressive modes of communication to reiterate to other youngsters the threat of climate change in their particular region.

The nine climate change champions were crowned by the Prime Minister Tony Blair and Environment Secretary David Milliband earlier this year.

Sofia produced a flash animation and entered it into a competition organised by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 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 threat of climate change in their region.

This animation was demonstrated at Warwickshire’s Eco Schools Awards, and was also recently demonstrated to more than 100 delegates at the launch of Warwickshire’s Climate Change Strategy.

The strategy launch saw Sofia meet with keynote speaker Jonathon Porritt, the Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission.

Recently all nine of the champions, including Sofia, spent five days in Switzerland visiting the 3,000 metre high Gurschen Glacier and trekked almost 800 foot to the Chelenalp hut to witness first hand just how dramatically the Glacier has shrunk since the erection of the hut 80 years ago.

The nine eco warriors each poignantly stood at the site where the glacier stood when they were born to symbolise how climate change as dwarfed the glacier in such a sort amount of time.

Glacial retreat has worsened in the last 20 years; our increasingly hot summers (due to climate change) are melting the snow and effectively starving the glaciers. The champions were informed by glacicogist Professor Wilfried Haeberli that unless something is done they would witness the extinction of most the Swiss glaciers in their lifetime.

Simon Featherstone, the UK ambassador for Switzerland praised the champions for their efforts, saying that they were now ambassadors for Britain and asked them to spread the urgent word of the need to take action to fight climate change.

Defra tour leader Alex Palman said: “One of the most remarkable aspects of this trip is the fact that these gifted young people have gained an insight into climate change through visiting these glaciers, which has given them an immense confidence to return to their region to share their understanding about climate change”

Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “Sofia is a remarkable young woman and she has shown tremendous passion in highlighting how climate change is impacting on all our lives.

“Warwickshire has launched its Climate Change Strategy, and there will be many activities over the coming weeks, months and years that everyone should take heed of, because climate change is something none of us can ignore.”

The conference, `Local Action: what can I do locally to help slow climate change’, will look at practical action to reduce emissions in carbon-friendly towns and what individuals can do to reduce their own emissions. 

For more information on the efforts of the nine climate change pioneers visit http://www.climatechallenge.gov.uk

Link to WCC