This week, hungrycityhippy.co.uk was ‘highly commended’ and awarded the runner-up prize at a prestigious UK environmental awards ceremony at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.
It was all thanks to the WWF Earth Hour Hero awards, and as a result, on Tuesday afternoon I got to rub shoulders with a mix of MPs, climate experts, and international media – all whilst watching the sun set on the river in my favourite city in the world. What a day!
Inspirational afternoon with @wwf_uk & @earthhour heros at Westminster. Congrats to everyone for doing something! pic.twitter.com/dIOiAYPya3
— Andrew T Hodge (@andrewthodge) February 28, 2017
The WWF competition which started it all, invited people to nominate themselves, or others, for taking action to help to protect the planet, and I filled in the entry form a few months ago without really giving it a thought.
A few weeks later, there I was being presented with the commendation in the ‘Lifestyle Hero’ category by environmentalist and Olympic gold medalist Andrew Triggs Hodge.
I was gobsmacked. There were so many inspirational people involved in the Earth Hour Heroes competition this year – people like David Saddington – the overall winner in my category. David was selected by DEFRA at the age of 13 to be a ‘Climate Change Champion’ and as a teenager, he met with the then PM Tony Blair, and influenced government policies by suggesting the implementation of climate change on the national curriculum. In the ten years since, he has given talks to tens of thousands of people across multiple continents, and even led fact-finding expeditions to Iceland. Still only 24, he is now a member of the United Nations Environmental Programme to help on climate change education, and his work has already made a lasting change to the planet. If you’re interested, you can read more about David on his website.
The fact that I came second to someone like David is a little bit mind-blowing, but the judges said that they felt that the content I share here on hungrycityhippy.co.uk demonstrates that “all of us individually can do more to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to experience this amazing planet.”
When I think back to starting the blog a few years ago, I could never have imagined getting to this point, and so I just want to say thanks a million to anyone and everyone who has stopped by for a browse, left a comment or shared a post from this blog. I really appreciate it.
