Heidi Meudt was one of many students from across America who signed a petition asking President George H.W. Bush to attend the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. She is shown in the forefront of this photo testifying at a Special Senate Hearing chaired by then Senator Al Gore. After the hearing Senator Gore presented the petitions to President Bush. The rest is history. President Bush attended the Earth Summit and was a signatory of the UNFCCC agreement. This led to COP 1 in 1995 and all of the subsequent COPs – including COP 14: See https://www.socialstudies.org/social-education/73/5/copenhagen-2009-could-cap-and-trade-market-combat-global-warming-and-conserve.
Heidi, a student founder of Save the Rainforest, is now the curator of botany for New Zealand’s national museum of Wellington.
