P&P campaigner profile: Matthew Tozer
Every fortnight People & Planet profiles an individual campaigner, in order for us to celebrate and highlight what P&Pers are doing. If you think one of your friends should be displayed on this page then get in touch with us. This fortnight's offering is a 6th form member of the P&P network...
Matthew (right) with fellow student campaigner Richard Kelly
Name: Matthew. J. Tozer
Age: 18
School: Robert Smyth’s School
What are you studying? Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science and Economics, the last two being favourites as it allows me to understand in detail some of the scenarios and issues that People Planet are campaigning about.
What inspired you to start campaigning? I’d been interested in the Environment for a long time and had always wished to do something more active, so when an Environmental Group started at our school to try to win the Eco-Schools green flag award, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately the group tapered off as the teacher running it couldn’t commit enough time. After about a year of thinking about re-starting the group, Anne-Marie O’Reilly from P&P came to our school to do a talk on Climate Change. At the end of the session she asked if anyone would be interested in starting a P&P group at our school. With a bit of prompting from one of my friends (cheers Simon!) one of my best friends Richard Kelly and myself ended up being joint leaders of the renewed RSS Green Flag Action Group!
Describe your most memorable P&P experience. Don’t know really, the forum was good fun and we got loads of good ideas (including the legendary rubber chicken!) for our group. However I suppose that the recent Go-Green day at school was good fun, especially turning an old pirate outfit into a go-green walking billboard! That got some interesting looks, especially when combined with an old green karate belt!
How did you first hear about P&P? When Anne-Marie O’Reilly came into our school for the aforementioned talk.
What’s the best thing about being involved in a P&P group? That you can really get engaged with the issues facing the wider world as you have somewhere to start rather then just starting a campaign from scratch. The campaign packs also provide solid information about how to get other people involved and interested.
What can be done to engage young people in the campaign for social justice? Hmm, Tricky. Getting the facts out in a clear method with very few contradictions would be a good start, then presenting it in a way that’s engaging for the audience would hold peoples’ attention. Also, getting people informed of what your group’s doing and what they can do to help has always had a positive response.
What do you think is the most pressing issue in the UK today? Climate Change is probably the big one, it links to nigh-on every other issue in the country and if it’s not fixed, fixing all the other problems will amount to nothing. The general lack of knowledge of what to do at all levels in the country is a serious threat.
What was the last film you watched? Eragon with a few of my friends. Aside from the bits where it completely wandered away from the book, it wasn’t too bad. I’d really like to hire a copy of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, having just read the (excellent) book.
Where would you most like to visit? Tough question. Possibly Switzerland, they seem to have good ideas with regards to the environment and it looks like a really nice place!
What are your ambitions for the future? I’d like to do well in A-Levels and Uni, and then get a job (Preferably something creative with as little paperwork as humanly possible!) where I can do some real good for the environment and the planet.
