May. June 25Andy Ridley
Reef crowd-puller
A childhood fantasy turns into a global initiative as the citizens of the world
join forces to save our Great Barrier Reef.A
S A SMALL BOY in Norwich, England,
Andy Ridley (pictured left) dreamt
of an underwater world so vibrant, so
full of life, it couldn’t possibly exist.
But decades later, a grown-up Andy
found it in real life – and his underwater fantasy
world turned out to be even bigger than the UK.
The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is 344,400sq.km
and is so large it can be seen from space. As one of
the world’s most famous marine landmarks, it has a
notoriety that makes it perfect for mobilising crowd
power to save it. And that’s exactly what Andy aims
to tap into. As CEO of the fledgling Citizens of the
GBR initiative, he wants ordinary people around the
world to play a part in protecting this famed habitat,
which is suffering from yet another widespread
bleaching event.
It’s not the first time Andy has taken on such a
gargantuan task. He co-founded Earth Hour (EH),
which involves people and businesses turning off
their lights for the same hour each year. Launching
in Sydney in 2007, the movement saw 2.2 million of
the city’s residents participating. By 2014, when Andy
moved on, EH was in 7000 cities, across more than
160 countries, reaching a global audience of billions.
It aims to encourage people to think about their
environmental impacts and individual footprints and
the GBR project is looking to follow suit.
“The Great Barrier Reef is a mirror on humanity
- the health of the reef reflects how we’re treating
the planet,” Andy says. “I was working in the
Netherlands and I started to see the stories about
what was going on in the reef. Since I was knee-
high to a grasshopper, I’ve been in love with the
reef and I wanted to see what was really going on
and how serious, or not, the issues were.”
So, in 2002, Andy, his zoologist wife, Dr Tammie
Matson, and their two young children, Solo and
Shepard, left the bright lights of Europe for a life
under the stars in Cairns.
Andy, now 46, says one of his most magical reef
encounters was on an early trip to Osprey Island.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” he recalls. “It was
teeming with life, extraordinary.” After this memora-
ble dive Andy imagined how he could use the reef
to spark change, and the Citizens of GBR was
born. The project will be launched officially in July,
although you can become involved now (see below).
Whether you’re a child growing up in a New
York apartment or a grandfather living in Beijing,
anyone can register as a ‘citizen’ and have a say in
how the GBR is protected. Registration will entitle
you to vote online on which projects the initiative
funds and be kept updated on the outcomes.
“It’s a big task – a big part is to learn more
about the global issues, like climate change and
pollution, and how we need to dramatically change
the way we’re living in the world,” Andy says. “How
do we use this as an opportunity to educate? The
reef is a canary in the coalmine but we hope it’s a
rallying point.” The rise of technology, he says,
allows for unlimited social reach like never before:
“We’re thinking these issues are a daunting problem
but they’re an opportunity for us all.”
JOSEPHINE SARGENTportrait
SIGN UP now to become a Citizen of the GBR at
http://www.citizensgbr.org