Pageant, Purpose, Planet: Meet Miss Earth Lindsey Coffey
Lindsey Coffey is a model and environmental activist whose talents led her to be crowned the first U.S. representative as Miss Earth in 2020. With a background in Political Science that focused on government, public policy, and political behavior using humanistic and scientific perspectives, Coffey turned her public platform into a place of environmental awareness and green solutions. While campaigning for the protection of our natural resources and addressing the water crisis, she also advocates for climate justice, focusing on racial inequality and economic disparity, and their impact on sustainability.
Growing up in the small country town of Centerville, Pennsylvania, Coffey spent much of her time outdoors and with her neighbors… they were cows! As she always felt compassion towards animals, Coffey currently eats a plant-based diet, and supports the efforts of The Humane Society and Food For Life Global.
Coffey is also a Climate Reality Leader, WWF Ambassador, and works with Clean Ways, Greenpeace International, Adopt-a-Highway, Keep Orlando Beautiful, and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership to promote environmental protection and address overconsumption, littering, and waste management. With her background, she also lobbied on Capitol Hill for nature and wildlife conservation with our legislative branch.
With her environmental efforts and as an international beauty pageant winner, Coffey has been featured on CNN, ABC, Yahoo, Global Asia News, Rappler, CONAN Daily, Fashion Edits, and Authority Magazine.
Lindsey Coffey working Keep Orlando Beautiful to clean city parks. Photo credit: Aaron King
Her expertise is in the following areas...
Environmental impact
Climate change
Climate justice
Global conservation
Wildlife preservation
Biodiversity loss
Recycling
Renewable energy
Racial & gender inequality within climate change.
Water scarcity
Ocean conservation
Ecological restoration
Contour farming
Rainwater harvesting
Desalination
Carbon offsets
Green tech
LEED system
Sustainable design
Here are sample quotes from Lindsey Coffey...
“By focusing on climate justice, we can create change in every aspect of life, touching all ecosystems. Climate justice speaks on many levels. It represents taking action on preserving Mother Earth, stabilizing the future of humanity, and securing equality within gender, race, the economy and socio-economic status, as well as between countries.”
“Inequality within climate change stem from socio-economic status, gender, minority groups and geographical location. We see these affects within air quality, rising sea levels, warmer climate, habitat destruction, and within the quality and availability of our water.”
“We see biodiversity loss in every ecosystem. Biodiversity, which is every living thing, consists of interdependent relationships where one change affects all areas of life. There is a system within nature that creates the perfect balance and when that balance is disrupted, the life cycle alters significantly wreaking havoc on habitats and wildlife, alters our air and water quality, affects climate, and impacts humanity.”
“Pollution is one of the main contributors to the climate crisis and is also the easiest to combat. Visually we see pollution everyday, mainly through improperly discarded items and single-use plastics. However, there is pollution that is more difficult to notice. Due to improper waste disposal and increased air pollution, our oceans absorb more CO2 causing ocean acidification. This affects our aquatic ecosystems and the harvesting of multiple food sources. Not only are our fish intoxicated, the vaporized ocean water that is stored in our clouds, fall down as acidic rain watering our crops.”
“As the water crisis is not just a human issue, our demands on water sources such as lakes, rivers, and streams cause drastic harm to ecosystems. Overuse, increase of demand, pollution, poor management, lack of infrastructure, and changes in weather patterns due to global warming are all key factors that affect the availability of fresh water. According to World Wildlife, because of these stressors, by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages, which will cause humanity and entire ecosystems to suffer. Some viable solutions are to implement desalination plants, harvest rainwater, restore our ecosystems, and as large amounts of waste water comes from agriculture, turn to contour farming. There are always solutions, and it is our choice if we continue to be a part of the problem.”