News Article

Nine regional climate chnage champions will be spreading the messages about global warming and climate change to their peer groups, to give a young person's view to other young people.

The North East’s Young Climate Change Champion is David Saddington, 13, from Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside, who entered a newspaper article on climate change for the competition.

The nine – who were crowned champions by the Prime Minister Tony Blair and Environment Secretary David Miliband earlier this year – will leave on Wednesday to travel to the Gurschen glacier in Andermatt region

The champions – one from each region of England - were chosen from more than 600 entries following a competition asking them to use different types of media to communicate the threats of climate change in their regions.   They will all be writing blogs during their trip, which can be accessed on the www.climatechallenge.gov.uk website.

The winners are three months into a year in which they will communicate about climate change in the regions and the role that young people can have in tackling it.  It is part of the Government’s Climate Change Communications Initiative, “Tomorrow’s Climate, Today’s Challenge” – a three year drive to communicate the threat of climate change and the need for everyone – Government, industry and individuals to help tackle the problem.

Research released by Defra today on what 750 young people (11-17 years old) think about climate change found:

* 97 per cent believe that the climate is changing
* 75 per cent believe climate change is caused by human behaviour
* 50 per cent are worried about climate change
* 56 per cent believe that people their age are doing something to help slow down climate change
* 70 per cent believe they could use less energy in their homes.

The Gurschen glacier, nearly 3,000m (10,000 feet) above sea level, is melting like many others across the world, with the worst damage taking place in the Summer. The glacier has sunk 20m (66 feet) over the past 15 years, making Andermatt’s ski slopes very inaccessible.

Researchers say that 70 per cent of Switzerland’s glaciers will disappear in the next 30 years, due to the effects of global warming.

In a bid to stop the glacier retreating further, scientists have put a thin protective layer of foil covering an area of around 3-4,00 square metres (about 43,000 sq ft).