Flag for the Future Competition - join us!
Simon Howlett
Dear friends,
Dear friends,
We have worked with you before and would love to do so again. This email concerns an amazing opportunity for youth, young artists and designers around the globe; and we want your help in spreading the word.
Why?
Because the future depends on us, therefore the present is Saving the Arctic.
Right now the international waters around the North Pole belong to everyone everywhere. But as the ice melts, the people, corporations and countries with vested interests are all anxious for their piece of the Arctic pie. They want to get their hands on the oil and other natural resources which until now have been unreachable.
It is a pleasure to be working with Greenpeace and WAGGGS in the fight for everyone's right to enjoy our world and we would like for you to join us too.
In 2012 Greenpeace launched a major new campaign to save the Arctic.
They are campaigning to create a global sanctuary in the international waters around the North Pole, making it off-limits to industrialisation. Greenpeace also want to ban offshore oil drilling in the whole Arctic region, and to stop the big industrial fishing ships that threaten to destroy the ocean environment. More information can be found at www.savethearctic.org
Everyone who signs up to the save the Arctic campaign will go to the Arctic with them.
This means that the names of millions of people who support the campaign will be planted in a pod on the seabed at the North Pole. With the pod we will plant a flag; but we don’t want this to be an ordinary flag and we need young people’s help to make it special.
The project is a competition to find the design for this special flag.
Instead of a flag for one country, one group of people or one corporation, this is a flag symbolising peace, hope and global community. The competition will be open to all young people between six and 26 years old. Entries can be submitted either online on the website or by post. The prize is to have your design judged by world famous fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, then for your flag to be made and planted at the bottom of the ocean at the top of the world.
We also have T-shirts and Arctic books for runners up.
Full details of the competition are available on the website now: www.flagforthefuture.org
The campaign will be officially launched on December 3rd and we're asking for your support to make this campaign reach all the corners of the world. The Arctic acts like a global air conditioning system, thanks to its huge icy white surface, which reflects the sun’s heat back to space and regulates the planet’s temperature. However, this natural cooling effect is under threat because the Arctic ice is melting due to climate change and that is why we have to act now.
Therefore, we will first ask you to sign in the petition for saving the Arctic
http://www.wagggs.org/en/flagforthefuture/SavetheArctic
Then there is two ways of being involved:
- Run offline workshops and/or contact your national Girl Guide branch to do co-work
The resources are downloadable from www.flagforthefuture.org. This will includes an Arctic Animal fact sheet, a template for the Flag for the Future, posters, an activity sheet and more information about the campaign to protect the Arctic for future generations. The downloadable resource pack will also serve as a supporting resource for young people to host their own workshops and activities to design their Flags for the Future. Perhaps you would consider promoting or getting involved in this aspect of the competition.
- Publicize on social media networking the idea and also to your national youth organisations
On December 3rd the social media campaign will start. We'd love you to join us on that day, if you can, to amplify the pushand spread the word.
We will be advertising it through Girl Guides’ social media (@wagggs_world and /wagggs), Greenpeace (@greenpeaceuk and/greenpeaceuk) and Peace Child’s (@PeaceChild and /peacechildinternational) on the day so all you have to do is watch out for the content coming through and retweet, repost and share your thoughts.
Then on Monday we will be sending you a pack of resources to use on social and new media. It would be great if you could take these resources and share the campaign far and wide. More info will come with the resources pack so do look out for that next week.
Have a question about life aboard a Greenpeace ship? Tell your supporters to tune in to a webinar on Monday 3rd December @ 11:30am and ask Miryam, a Girl Guide who went to the Arctic with Greenpeace: www.synchtube.com/r/wagggs
If you want to know more about the initiative or you want to get more involved, please replay the email telling us about it. For now we just wanted to give you the heads up that this was coming and ask for 5 min of your time on sat, either in an organisational or a personal capacity to support the campaign.
Truly, every tweet will make a difference.