GREENPEACE COPENHAGEN: COVID-19 and its impacts on the future of climate activism

Timely topic:
My proposed topic is COVID-19 and its perceived impacts on the future of climate activism. This topic was chosen as it merges two timely global issues, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the climate crisis. Worldwide lockdowns, including shutdowns of factories, the aviation industry, and more noticeably traffic being dramatically reduced, have led to drastic reductions in air and water pollution (Al Jazeera, 2020). The public in India can now see blue skies, and some can see the Himalayan Mountains for the first time, where in Venice the water has become transparent (ibid).

Source of information:
The source video comes from the’Inside Story’ segment on Al Jazeera seen below. In the programme aired on 14th of April 2020, host Richelle Carey speaks with three experts about the impacts of the pandemic on climate change, and what we may learn from it. They discuss issues ranging from a drop in consumerism, industrial shutdowns, and people interpreting the pandemic as a warning from ‘mother earth’. Moreover, they discuss how the pandemic has demonstrated what is possible when there is political will (the shutdowns). They hope the crisis will not go to waste, as there is global common interest in avoiding another disaster (i.e., climate change).

Given the convergence of these global phenomena, I am interested in exploring the perspectives of

climate activists. I have scheduled an interview with a representative of Greenpeace Copenhagen, where I am interested to know how COVID-19 has impacted, or might impact, the organisation’s work and strategies, but also on a political and cultural level (will policies change and will the public’s habits change, referring to the drop in consumerism, etc.) This focus naturally narrows the scope of the feature to a Danish/European perspective.

Desired publication:
The desired publication for my feature is the Danish news publication, Politiken. Politiken has been selected as it provides a national reach and influence, as it is the second largest news outlets in Denmark (Steele, 2012).While the environment is one of the core areas that Politiken covers (Berndt, 2019).
My target audience  are climate conscious members of society, as well as businesses interested in navigating the issue of climate change post COVID-19.

Structure, hypertext, multimedia and interactivity:
As for the structure of my feature:

• Strong SEO headline indicating what the article will be about
• Short subheading going in to depth about the topic
• A fitting image of Greenpeace to indicate the reader what perspective the article will have
• Hypertext to increase interactivity and legitimacy when referring to facts
• Multimedia: I may portray a map of places where air pollution has decreased, and add a poll.
• Further interactivity: Give the reader the opportunity to share the article on SoMe, as well as expressing their opinion on the matter in the bottom of the article.