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Save the Arctic
The waters surrounding the North Pole belongs to everyone! What is the Arctic? It is a region at the top of the world that stretches millions of square kilometres. It includes parts of Canada, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Alaska and Greenland. It is surrounded by a frozen ocean at the North Pole. It is home to 4 million people, is unspoilt with rare species. It serves as an air conditioning system and regulates temperature for the planet. It is covered with ice. Why is the Arctic in danger? The arctic ice is melting due to climate change and global warming. About 75% of the sea ice has already melted, increasing sea levels, it is now about half the size it was in 1980. The ice melts faster than predicted. Companies are/wants to drill for oil and natural gas liquids and are depleting natural resources. This destroys the Arctic, releases more greenhouse gases and leads to more ice melting. Please help save the Arctic: visit http://greenpeace.org http://www.postcarbon.org http://www.savethearctic.org http://waggs.org/en/flagforthefuture/SavetheArctic 
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A (South African) Flag for the FutureBlogpost by Margot Maritz
- April 3, 2013 Margot Maritz, a sixteen-year-old eco activist from Pretoria, was recently honoured for coming in the top 5 of our "Flag for the Future" competition. We asked Margot to write something for us about her awesome design, and this is her post: 03 April 2013: Finalists flags in the "Flag for the Future" competition These were the short listed designs for the flag that will be planted on the seabed at the North Pole in April 2013. The flag designs were entered in the global competition "Flag For the Future." Margot's design is in the bottom right. When I heard about the Flag for the Future competition, I immediately knew it was my chance to contribute to the protection of the Arctic. The task was to design a flag for the future that represented peace, hope, and global community. It was not going to be easy but I welcomed the challenge. At first I gave some thought to what peace, hope, and global community really meant. My favourite definition of peace is "freedom from disturbance", it's about quiet and tranquillity. Hope can be defined as a feeling of expectation and a desire for a certain thing to happen. Global community means the people or nations of the world, considered as being closely connected by modern telecommunications, and economically, socially, and politically interdependent. It took a few moments until I got a first idea, but once I did so, everything fell into place. Designing this amazing symbol of the future was so much fun. We need to protect the Arctic, because it is one of the most incredible and beautiful places on earth. I never dared to dream that my flag would be one of the top 18 finalists and that it would be taken to the North Pole, much less that it would be selected as one of the top 5 designs! The moment I received the message I was, and I am still, very excited, happy, grateful and honoured to be part of such an amazing experience! Although I did not win the flag for the future competition, I definitely won in my heart and I am so proud of myself that I came this far -- and to have my flag in the wonderful place called the ARCTIC. http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/News/Blog/a-south-african-flag-for-the-future/blog/44557/ |
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