It’s not too late – Climate Change – Let’s Act Now!
Kushali Oza a 14 year old from St Paul’s School, Sirohi, also stood first in her age category amongst all the entries we received on the online writing contest on Climate Change and the World I want to Live in. She shared her initiative towards climate change sensitization of the students and common mass in her local area. She says “Gaining the knowledge from the work of scientists in the field of climate change, I learned that the issue of climate change is not new in the world. I can remind the Mythological stories from India and other nations. The story of Manu (Indian mainland) or Adam-Eve (Christian land) or Adam-Hawwa (Islamic land) had all made us aware of the climatic disaster. Further, with the advancement of the modern sciences, the extinction of the dinosaur age is another classical example of climatic drift. As I learned that the present age if the Information Age which is very fast. Unfortunately, the speed of the development overlooked the natural principle. The nature has the ability to change as per the need of the time. The humans induced the changes and resulted into the catastrophe of the climatic changes.
From a very young age, I got a chance to visit Abu Hills which is considered to be the only Hill Station of Rajasthan and Gujarat. It holds the highest peak (Guru Shikhar) of the central India. The climate of the Abu Hills is pleasant throughout the year. The human settlements have grown over the period. Knowing the facts from my Scientist Aunt (Dr. Sarita Mehra) who lived in Abu Hills during 1980s, the climatic conditions has shown a major drift. As per the interactions, I learned that the fans were hardly needed for the residents of Abu Hills. Today, conditions are changed, the use of ACs are quite common. Further, temperature profile has changed with the feeling of hotness by the local people. The rainfall pattern has also shown the changes. Thus, my first sight observations from my native district mostly came from the Abu-Sirohi Hills. Keeping in view, I felt that the awareness on the climate change is the need of time. I took this as a key motivating factor during the course of studies. I took the concept of Rajputana’s Shakuntalam (a green building and eco-compatible landscaping to cope up climate change impact) as my case study with reference to sensitize and mobilize students and the intellectual mass of my district. I introduced the concept of the integrated model of eco-friendly housing society for the common mass.
The concept of the Rajputana’s Shakuntalam is to:
1. Low-cost housing
2. Green landscaped campus
3. Water budgeting
4. Energy conservation
5. Waste management
Thus the development of eco-friendly setup included – the use of traditional material for construction (customized as per the availability and costing at the local level); introduction of the indigenous and locally naturalized floral species along with concept of kitchen and terrace garden, aquaponics, aeroponics; availability of the water (drinking, daily consumption, other purpose like gardening and harvesting of the rain water); use of renewable sources of energy and consumption; management of the solid and liquid wastes from the house.
Out of these, the urban dwellers were more or less interested in the following:
1. Green landscaping – Kitchen and terrace garden, aquaponics (soil less culture)
2. Water budgeting – rain water harvesting
3. Waste management – solid and liquid
4. Energy conservation – use of solar energy
In terms of climate change, the people showed their interest in the natural conditioning of the societies and use of the clean energy technologies.
Keeping in view, I formed a team of my fellow friends and initiated a step in this direction. Learning from my Aunt’s interventions and execution at my house, I am trying to implement the same in my school campus during my upcoming years of study.
Through this platform, I would like to introduce my approach of future vision:
1. Assessing the demand and supply chain
2. Mobilizing the family, relatives, school administration at the first level to execute the above concepts
3. Forming a team of green saviors within my school to sensitize the fellow friends about the issues of climate change.
I hope, my learning from the environmentalists and conservationists around me would continue their support and give the opportunity to contribute and realize the dream of reviving the ecological setup of the degraded region through small steps interventions.”
A 13-year-old from Mayoor School, Ajmer, Wamil Goyal, says “In the time it took to build the case that climate change is a pollution problem it has become unnervingly more than that. The climate change has become a global concern over the last few decades. These changes are having various impacts on the ecology and ecosystem.” Further he remarked that “You say you Love your children above all else and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes”. And wrote in response that, “Things need to be changed. We don’t want hope. We don’t want you to be hopeful, we need to panic and act as if our house was on fire. Government is and will act on its part but it is the people who need to respond and change the climate change. This is the time to react, together we all can make a difference. No worries, there’s a lot each individual can contribute to make the world a better place to live in .We can stop burning fossil fuels, sans pollution, sans usage of plastic, plant more and more trees, sans – deforestation, maximize the use of CNG instead of using diesel and petrol in automobiles, switch to eco-friendly household products, stop gas emissions, switch to the system of reduce – reuse – recycle, use renewable energy, reduce water wastage, shrink our carbon profile, use energy wisely (switch to solar energy) and the most important thing – work together.
It’s not too late, nothing has been lost. Our correct step will make a better world, it’s time to get angry and understand what is at stake, and then we need to transform that anger into action. We all have a single mission: To protect and hand on the planet to the next generation.”
Renu Saini from NKV School, Khora Bisal, a small village near Jaipur in her entry wrote a beautiful story describing climate change and the possible solutions to make her world like she wants, say wrote “In a hot summer day Lalli asked her granny, Granny, why the weather is so hot ? I have heard you saying that when you were in my age the weather was not so hot and there was a perfect system of different seasons. Spring (Basant), Summer(Grishm), Monsoon(Varsha), Pre-monsoon (Hemant), Autum (Sharad) Winter (Shishir) . All the season had a perfect 2 months time and people enjoyed all the seasons with great fervour and celebration. So what happened today? Why the summer is so long and hot? Why the Monsoon stay so long and why the winter delayed the summer season? Why there is extreme of seasons and so many diseases spreading out taking shape of epidemic, endemic or pandemic? Nanny became sad and after thinking for some time and taking a long pause replied in her grave voice. Dear Lalli, this is all happening due to greed of human being, in the race of so called uncontrolled development we humans had destroyed the very structure of the earth and its natural system. Have you ever heard about global warming Lalli? Yeah! said Lalli. I had read in news paper but I could not understand it Nanny. Please explain it to me in such a way that I can understand it easily. OK. Lalli, listen carefully.
The globe is heating up. The average temperature has increased a lot since last century. This rise in temperature is global warming. This rise in heat is caused by humans. The burning of fossil fuels has released greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which trap warmth from the sun and drive up surface and air temperatures. Burning fossil fuels like coal and oil releases water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), ozone and nitrous oxide (N2O), the primary greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas. Deforestation is also a large contributor to excess CO2 in the atmosphere. Globally, methane is the second most common greenhouse gas, but it is the most efficient at trapping heat. Methane can come from many natural sources, but humans cause a large portion of methane emissions through mining, the use of natural gas, the mass raising of livestock and the use of landfills.
I understood Nanny. So, is it the global warming responsible for drastic climate changes? Yeah, and climate change can affect the globe in several other ways like melting of ice, drying out arid areas,causing extreme weather, disrupting the delicate balance of the oceans etc.
Nanny I can clearly see the world ahead. This is not the world where I want to live in. I have a dream for the world I like. I would like to live in the world where I can enjoy every season with all the creatures of nature. I would like to live with perfect balance. I see the world with latest of technology but love for nature. I wish to enjoy travelling through the Jet-Plane but enjoy a flight of sparrow in by court yard. I would like the speediest of car, train or bike or any vehicle but enjoy a journey on foot through lush green thoroughfare with nature blooming all around. I would like a world with sophisticated devices (mobiles, laptops, computers) but also loving, sensible people chatting in friendly manner and respecting time and relations. Nanny technological advancement is necessary and it will happen willingly due to curious human nature but our roots (values) should be deep and so interconnected that we should respect nature and go ahead without at the cost of it. A dream world swam in the eyes of Nanny and she was completely lost in it.”
Stay tuned in for some more such stories from our future generation of what they feel can make a difference to this world to make it secure for them and generations further. SolarMaxx took this initiative to invite children to write on Climate Change to make them think and let families together make a difference while we are staying home during lockdown and come out with a positive mindset to create a better world.
