Headlines
Former Student Nominated Among Top 50 Planet-Savers
23rd January 2008
Former Hereford Sixth Form College student Joss Garman, whose activities as an environmental activist were featured recently here in The Review Online, has again been grabbing the headlines and making a name for himself.
Joss was named by The Guardian newspaper recently as one of the top 50 people who could save our planet, which proves you don’t have to be a “wrinkly” to change the world!
Joss, who is 22, works with Greenpeace, in their London headquarters. He has been associated with the environmental charity since he was 14. It was during his time in College that he set-up the Herefordshire Greenpeace group.
As an active environmental campaigner, Joss has been selected as one of the top 50 planet-savers for his work in establishing and leading Plane Stupid, a group which fights airport expansion plans and highlights the environmental impacts of flying – on the climate and on the environment generally.
He hit the headlines last year when he was instrumental, along with other colleagues from Plane Stupid, in setting up the Climate Camp at Heathrow Airport, protesting about the expansion of London’s airport.
The Guardian’s top 50 list was chosen by a panel which included Bob Watson, former World Bank Chief Scientist and now the Government’s advisor on climate change; Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London; Indian physicist and ecologist Vandana Shiva; Kenyan biologist and Nobel prize-winner Wangari Maathai (who was nominated by her fellow panellists as one of the top 50); Green Party co-leader and MEP Caroline Lucas; and Philip Pullman, the novelist.
Alongside his role with Plane Stupid Joss has also been campaigning against proposals to build new coal-fired power stations.
In the nomination to the top 50 list, The Guardian said of Joss: “Dubbed the ‘new Swampy’, he has been arrested more than 20 times and helped set up Plane Stupid, a direct action group which in its short-haul life has infuriated airline companies and airports, disrupted the transport select committee and shut down easyJet's London offices. BAA tried to stop Garman and others organising the climate change camp at Heathrow last summer, but the camp went ahead and Garman demonstrated elsewhere.”
He was nominated by Guardian columnist, George Monbiot, and novellist Philip Pullman as one of the activists of the future.