By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — When Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood tweets, the world listens.
And when the 76-year-old writer chanced upon a short YouTube video of a 6-year-old girl in Australia named “Ruby, the Climate Kid,” talking about how she admires environmental activists like David Suzuki, Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Sir David Attenborough in a video she made with her mother, Atwood turned to one of her popular social media platforms – Twitter – and tweeted the link to her 1.3 million Twitter followers.
American science star Neil deGrasse Tyson has also seen the video now and social media is spreading the word tweet by tweet and update by update.
Meet ”Ruby, the Climate Kid,” as she calls herself in the video. With several videos already uploaded to YouTube about protecting the planet and other ecological issues, Ruby plans to continue making short videos in the future and slowly build a fan base, her mom, Natalie Cromb, 31, told this reporter. These things take time, but with a Tweet from Margaret Atwood making waves across the seas – Atwood also ”Facebooked” the Ruby video link– there’s a big future for this young girl with a mind for science.
Ruby’s mum says that, from a very young age, her daughter has been influenced by people like Attenborough, Tyson and Suzuki. And now she has a new friend in Dr Atwood
Explaining that Atwood had seen the video online and enjoyed watching it, Ruby told her mom:
“I hope she likes it and thinks that I have good ideas to save our planet.”
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Bloom, based in Taiwan, is a freelance writer and an inveterate websurfer. He may be contacted via dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com . Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)