#350Cute « It’s Getting Hot In Here

As photo curator for 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action, I had the privilege of going through the 20,000 photos that inundated our flickr account. Through this process, my heart started filling with all of your visual stories, the laughter, the sincerity, the time and effort it took to put an event together.

Out of all the photos that came in, the shots that evoked gasps or rapid chat messages to other 350 organizers were the photos of children and babies.

People have different theories on how to raise children and whether or not they should be involved in campaigns before they have consciousness or opinions. Speaking as a former infant participating in environmental protests, I am an in full support of the 350kids movement.

When I was 18 months old, my town, which had a population of 2,000, was cited for a landfill and an incinerator. This sparked my mother, who had 6 children into a career of community activism. In her way of keeping us close, I went wherever she was. You can see in the photo to the right my wardrobe became a platform for strategic messaging, “Don’t Dump On Me.”

It’s no surprise to me that the largest scariest issue we’ve ever faced has parents getting their children involved, educating them early, and teaching them the value of civic engagement.

Of course, when it comes down to it, kids are just also really really adorable. Combining the invaluable experience of involving children at a young age and their unbearable cuteness, we’ve created the 350Kids set and the 350cute & 350adorbs tags. So send your 350kid photos to photos@350.org and we’ll add them to the growing set of painfully cute photos.

Feel free to spread the cute heart warming photos throughout your networks. After all, they are our hopeful future.

About Shadia Fayne

Shadia began at age seven as an advocate for justice and the environment, in an eight year campaign to pass state legislation that, without it, was responsible for cancer clusters and deaths that existed in her community. In response to her efforts she has received the Yoshiyama Award from the Hitachi Foundation, and the Brower Youth Award from the Earth Island Institute. At age fifteen, She attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development, joining the youth energy caucus' efforts to create the Official Global Youth Energy Policy Statement. Months later, Shadia attended the Second National People of Color Summit and there she helped create the Environmental Justice Youth Platform. She is a member of the Environmental Justice Climate Coalition Youth Committee and is on the Kids Against Pollution National Board of Trustees. Shadia graduated from West Canada Valley High School in 2005, where she then took two years off before entering a career in higher education to work as a leader in the Global Youth Climate Movement. She finished working for the EJCC as the youngest Campus Climate Challenge Coordinator in the Energy Action Coalition, in October 2007. She is currently attending American University of Beirut, studying Arabic and Communications.

3 Responses to “#350Cute”

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1 tcchip Oct 29th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

Aww, it’s so adorable and heart warming alright! And so great to see them starting young!
2 Dorothy Finnigan Oct 29th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

Yay! The enthusiasm of young people is the most renewable energy source on the planet.
3 lizveazey Oct 30th, 2009 at 4:40 pm

nice pics Shadia! I’ve heard that my mother had me out at women’s rights protests when I was just a baby, too. On a similar note, I just saw an awesome video from a couple of Canadian groups who are gathering images of kids to “remind Stephen Harper who he is representing at the UN Climate Change Summit in December” find out more here: http://www.takeactiononclimatechange.com/