:: Delhi Greens ::

The profound privilege of continuing with the blog is because of each of you who visits the site and reads it regularly. I truly appreciate you all for that and especially those who take the time out to comment on it. Similarly, climate change related negotiations exist because majority of us believe that continued greenhouse gases emission is not good. ‘This should not happen’ and so we must take action to contribute in any way we can, even if it means to read a blog or responding to one–all in the attempt to generating awareness on the topic.

This fortnight–7 December to 18 December 2009–is dedicated to negotiations on climate change and is an outcome of this collective belief. The Conference of Parties (COP), with 192 member countries, formed in 1992, is attending this conference. This is the 15^th meeting and is taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) created the Kyoto protocol on 11 Dec 1997. It is a systematic plan for voluntary reduction in carbon emissions by each of the nations, and now expires in 2012.

While a majority of us believe ‘this should not be’, there is no consensus on the actions that need to be taken. There is mistrust and self doubt among the members about the way out.

For economists, carbon has emerged as a trading commodity with experts complaining that the current price of $13 a tonne is too low for encouraging clean technologies such as wind and solar. Among development professionals, discussion are on for technology transfer from the rich to poor countries. 1% of GNP transfer to the developing countries amounts to $400 billion annually, by 2020, is often quoted as reasonable. Briton suggested $100 billion and the EU suggested Euro 100 billion as transfer funds for the same.

Righteous argument of the poor countries towards the rich holds little water with China holding second place with 45,301 million tones of carbon emission between 1997 and 2007 and India being 5^th with 11,870 tonne.

Among political scientists,  the debate is still on whether climate change a real issue and a concern for the future or just another way to promote European superiority over the US by promoting financial transfers through WB and IMF. Obviously politics and climate change make uneasy bedfellows…

And even when we have evidences like late bloom in Kerala or swallows and snow disappearing in Siliguri or sea moving inland in Valsad Gujarat or grizzlies mating polar bears in the Arctic Circles, etc. it is still being debated as to whether these are conclusive signs of climate change.

Whatever be the case, one thing is clear, we are all committed to making a difference in combating climate change. The possibility of being able to control our actions to alter the future and to control nature still excites us. We are continuing to take action in the best way we can. We do not compromise on improving our quality of life and we constantly setup goals for Human Development through HDI. That is what makes us all unique…

Toxics Link’s Environment & Health Public Lecture Series

GM Food : Is India Ready?

Film screening followed by panel discussion

The genetically modified food controversy is a dispute over the relative advantages and disadvantages of genetically modified (GM) food crops and other uses of genetically-modified organisms in food production. The dispute involves biotechnology companies, governmental regulators, non-governmental organizations and scientists. Right to choose safe food is a fundamental right of consumers in a democracy. However, the onslaught of GM crops has been robbing the people of their right to choose. In fact according to some experts the production and promotion of Genetically Modified foods as an act of Bio-terrorism.

Safety is a major issue in this controversy. Adverse health effects coupled with effects of pest and herbicide-resistant crops on ecosystems and their impacts on biodiversity are controversies that mark the entire GM food debate today. The risk and effects of horizontal gene transfer have also been cited as concerns, with the possibility that genes might spread from modified crops to wild relatives.

India is at crossroads. But are we ready?

Screening: Poison on the Platter, Directed by Ajay Kabchan, Presented by Mahesh Bhatt, Duration: 30 mins

Panelist:

• Mr. Rajesh Krishnan of Greenpeace India
• Dr. P. Ramasundaram, Principal Scientist, National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research
• One more speaker is yet to confirm

Date: 11th Dec 2009, Friday
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Venue: Conference Room 1, India International Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi (In collaboration with India International Centre)

For further information, please contact:

Suparna Dutta: suparna@toxicslink.org
Nitin Jain: nitin@toxicslink.org
Email: info@toxicslink.org

Also Read:

• Film Review: Poison on the Platter

Environmental degradation; habitat destruction; pollution; water scarcity; biodiversity loss; depleting forest cover; dam construction and its social implications; social unrest – are few of the issues demanding immediate attention in the North Eastern (seven sisters +1) states of India. Now, with the threat of climate change looming large, the only option is to come together for sustainable development of the region, before time runs out and moshttp://delhigreens.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=2283t, if not, all is lost.

The degradation of North East India’s environment and ad hoc “developmental” activities taking place in the region will impact the future generations much more severely than it is impacting the present generation. The future of the youth in the North East is at stake and only a path of Sustainable Development can save the region from imminent destruction. But taking this path is a decision that needs to be made. And clearly, the policy makers in the eight North Eastern states (and at the Center) have not been able to take this call so far.

With this backdrop, the North East Environmental Youth Movement (NEEYM) is being setup in the National Capital Region of Delhi to bring together and raise awareness among the youth from North East India and set up a nation wide movement with a similar objective.

Supported by Delhi Greens, NEEYM is participating in the Global Day of (Climate) Action on the 12th of December, 2009 and would be organising events across Imphal, the capital city of Manipur. As part of the Global Day of Action, NEEYM has called for a CITIZEN’s UNITE inviting people from all walks of life to come together in the streets of Imphal. The Plan of Action so far is to make a big mural on environment theme at the front of Nupi Lal Statue and a rally by rickshaw pullers holding a long stretch banner from Thangal Bazar to Bapupara.

Join NEEYM in safeguarding the future of India’s North East…Click here to Sign up for the NEEYM Ning!

For further information and to participate, volunteer – please contact:

Akoijam Surjit Singh (New Delhi-09871546654/ Manipur-9774575952)
Email: surjit@neeym.org

Impuri Shimray
9891477390
Email: impuri@neeym.org

River Kameng in Arunachal Pradesh – a dam in the pipeline…
as is the case for rivers across the Himalayas

Perspectives is a non-funded group of students and teachers working to create a space for debate and discussion in the University on issues of social, economic and political relevance. Perspectives Invites you to a Public Meeting on “Down the Drain: Looking for Justice along India’s Rivers”.

Led by: Amita Baviskar, Associate Professor, Institute of Economic Growth and Editor of “Waterlines: The Penguin Book of River Writings”

Date: Monday, 7th December 2009
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Venue: Students’ Activity Centre (above the Holistic Canteen), Faculty of Arts, University of Delhi

For further information and to participate, please contact:

Mobile: 97171-14182
Email: contact.perspectives@gmail.com

TARA Livelihood Academy of Development Alternatives, a non-profit organisation established in 1983 creating large scale sustainable livelihoods is organising a training onValue Creation Through Renewable Energy Models.

Introduction:

With a strong industrial base and successful commercialization of technologies in wind, spv, solar thermal, small hydel, biogas and improved biomass stoves, India is in a position today to offer state of the art technology to other developing countries and play a leading role in the global movement towards sustainable energy development. India has well equipped institutions which organize training courses and provide technical assistance to managers and technicians of other developing countries who can then fabricate and install RE plants.

Training for trainers is also undertaken so that they can formulate projects, implement and manage them. India, as one of the pioneers in the area of Renewable Energy Technologies, has the competitive edge in terms of prices when compared to other international players providing renewable energy equipments and services. Today’s technological advancements have developed more efficient means of harnessing and using renewable energy sources, and these sources are gaining increasing popularity. They offer us alternatives to non-renewable energy sources, such as nuclear, oil, coal, and natural gas which can cause acid rain and may contribute to the overall warming of Earth’s atmosphere known as the greenhouse effect.

The more we use renewable energy, the more we benefit the environment, strengthen our energy security, create jobs locally, and help improve our economy.

OBJECTIVES OF THE TRAINING:

• To make participants aware and understand Value Creation through Renewable Energy
• To make participants understand the concept of energy based businesses and its applications.
• To acquaint them with tools, techniques and information that would be required to conceptualise, develop and implement such innovative programmes in the area of Renewable energy and natural resource management
• To share DA’s experiences in energy generation and its application for various purposes.

PEDAGOGY: The following techniques would be used to conduct the training program.

• Lectures/interactive sessions
• Group Discussions
• Case studies/Group exercises
• Brainstorming sessions/ Experience sharing
• Training Support materials/ Handouts
• Power-point Presentations

Dates: 18 to 20 December, 2009
Venue: TARAgram, Appropriate Technology Centre, Orchha, Madhya Pradesh

COURSE ELIGIBILITY

This programme is designed for Officers from Central & State governments, National/International Development Organizations, Corporate as well as CSR Professionals, Academic institutions, Business owners/entrepreneur and individuals who possess an interest in Renewable Energy Sources.

FEE: INR 9,500 per participant | INR 12,000/- (240 USD) for Overseas Participants

Last Date for applying: December 15th, 2009

For more information and to register, contact:

Bhavana Gadre
Telephone: 011-26132718
tla@devalt.org

Manager-Training
TARA Livelihood Academy
Development Alternatives,
111/9-Z, Kishangarh, Vasant Kunj,
New Delhi-110070

The Sarai Programme at the Center for Study of Developing Societies, Delhi is an interdisciplinary platform for the investigation and interpretation of contemporary urban experience. Sarai produces events and processes, publishes offline and online content and generates contexts for research and creative practice concerning contemporary urban conditions.

The Sarai Media Lab invites expressions of interest and intent from artists and practitioners in diverse media – textual, visual, aural, spatial and temporal – who could be – visual artists (photographers, sculptors, installation artists, graphic artists), writers and independent scholars, filmmakers, architects, experimental musicians and composers, sound recordists, performers and people whose practices straddle or transcend different areas of practice  - for participation in the ‘City as Studio’ Project.

The City as Studio initiative will create contexts for high intensity inter-disciplinary processes at different locations in Delhi and at the Sarai space at CSDS. Sometimes these process(es) may be rendered as an exhibition, at other times as a gathering, as a library, as a temporary archive or as an occasion for performances, conversations and debates. At still other times it may take the form of a workshop, a temporary atelier, a media studio, a publication or an online
platform.

The City as Studio is neither a one off event, nor a workshop or a residency, nor a festival or a simple cluster of public programmes – though it has elements of all of the above. It is primarily a method of generating a new public profile for creative work in the city, a scanning of the horizon of possibilities that can be opened up in urban spaces through the presence of art, experimental cultural activity and public exchanges.

The studio process plans to bring together artists, filmmakers, photographers, discursive interlocutors, architects, writers, urbanists, scientists, architects, social actors and cultural workers, neighbourhood initiatives and diverse audiences to create art works, participatory performances, media works, and transmissions of
different kinds of signals.

Possible areas of that will be reflected upon could include but need not be limited to:

• the city as spectacle, as a site of consumption, as an arena of power
• the growing intensity of surveillance,
• the question of distance and anchorage: housing and transportation
• access to resources, location and privilege
• the local pursuits of pleasure
• life, death, and rites of passage in the city
• the everydayness and banality of terror
• imagined histories and urban legends, the fantastical and uncanny city
• the archived and remembered city
• urban ecologies, the city as a zone of bio-diversity, urban forests, rivers
• ways of life, sub-cultures, bodies of informal knowledge, local practices
• migrants, margins and minorities

Sarai invites applicants to imagine that the city itself is their studio, and that urban realities are their materials in order to create artistic work that acts as a body of public knowledge in and about the city.

Read the rest of this entry »

As appropriately put by Yvo De Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, “the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) will be a turning point in the fight to prevent (the) climate disaster. The science demands it, the economics support it, (and) future generations require it.” COP15 will begin in a few hours from now.

The final week of the Copenhagen summit is the 12th hour: the defining, crucial moment for leaders to sign on to a treaty to avert climate catastrophe and unleash a low-carbon future. In communities everywhere on earth, we can lead the way by showing the leaders exactly what we want them to do. But they will not act until they hear us. So, it is time to raise our voice, and it is time to get loud – FOR the Climate!

A Drumbeat to Save the Planet:

Climate Ke Liye Bajao!

December 12-12/12 is the midpoint of the Copenhagen climate talks. At this crucual moment, governments around the globe need to hear a clear, simple message from people everywhere: The time has come to sign a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty. Join the Global Day of Climate Action – December 12h – and participate in what will be the largest public protest in history. A protest to wake up world leaders to the urgency of climate change!

In Delhi and dozens of cities in India, the Climate Satyagraha Coalition is organising a CITIZEN’s march. As a symbolic action to wake up the world leaders to the urgency of climate change, we will make noise for the Planet using anything we can lay our hands on: dholak, khartaal, mridang, bansuri or even spoons, plates and buckets.

We are the last generation that can ensure the plante doesn’t tip over the chaos. Its time we showed that we don’t want talk anymore, we want action. We want leaders not politicians – lets show them they they can’t take us for granted. That the negotiations they are engaged in are about people’s lives, not just words.

Come, join the Rally at Rajghat on 12th December from 11 am onwards!

Join us in this global call for action. For further information, please contact:

Bidhan: 09845535405  ||  bidhanchandrasingh@gmail.com
Naveen: 9910702114  ||  nmishra7@gmail.com

With the objective of empowering women through technology, Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT) is organising a three day workshop for women on “Online Campaigns and Social Media for Nonprofits”.

You’ve probably already heard about using social media as a powerful tool for social change. Maybe you already set up a Facebook profile and have even braved Twitter, but are you really understanding how to use these tools effectively? We’ll walk you though planning your social media goals and how to measure the outcomes. Whether you are looking to recruit new volunteers, energize existing supporters, inform donors or just market your cause, we’ll talk about ways to get there.

Objective of the Workshop:

This workshop is for women working in the development sector (associated with a non-profit organization or working individually) to learn how to plan and execute online campaigns using social media and other online tools.

Content:

• Strategizing online campaigns
• Integrating online tools into your communication and fundraising plans
• Website best practices, including synchronizing with social media outreach
• Best practices for a range of social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, etc.)
• Other interactive tools, such as email blasts, discussion forums, fundraising widgets etc.
• Creating a social media strategy for your organization
• Learning how to use analytical tools to measure online results

Also…

• You’ll receive hands-on practice
• Social Media Strategist Lisa Hodges (Joint Leap Technologies) will be leading the workshop
• Experienced activists will share their knowledge, including guest speakers Pramada Menon, queer feminist activist from Delhi, and Sanjukta Basu, Breakthrough, who will share her experience with the successful “Bell Bajao” campaign

APPLICATIONS SOLICITED FROM:

Women working towards a social cause, whether associated with a non-profit organization or working individually. Applicants should have basic computer literacy. The workshop will be conducted in English.

Cost:

Participants are expected to contribute Rs. 3000 towards the cost of the workshop. This will cover equipment, food and snacks, resource material and resource fee. Participants are expected to bring their own laptop. Outstation participants will have to arrange for their own stay and travel.

Thanks to Sarai for generously providing the space for the workshop. Limited scholarships available.

HOW TO APPLY:

Download and fill the application form and send it to projects@fat-net.org

REGISTRATION CLOSES ON: 7th December, 2009

For further information, please contact:

Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT)
A 6/1, Ground Floor, Adhchini
P.O: Malviya Nagar
Near: Punjab National Bank, Sarvodaya Enclave
New Delhi 110017, Phone number: +91-11-46595829

Context is decisive. It all depends on how you look at an issue, that provides the solutions that it throws up. Sharing with you one anecdotal example in the context of malnutrition among children below five years of age in a South East Asian country.

A certain development professional was given an assignment to remove malnutrition from the poor rural community in a South East Asian country within six months. Those of us, who have some exposure to the development initiative, will be well aware that a baseline survey to assess the status of the community is a first step to any social policy intervention.  Only carrying out such a baseline survey of a community easily takes an year. Therefore an action program that shows measurable outcomes within six months is an impossibility.

Faced with this challenge the professional talked to others and was advised to look at the community for new learning and action. So he went and stayed with the poor community and observed for clues. What he found was that all the families earned a living as agriculture labour. There were some families among them whose children were not malnourished. He wondered why and decided to follow these family routines over a few days each. What made these families unique where just three things that they did differently from the other families.

First the mothers of these children fed their below five year olds with their hands as against leaving the food for the children to feed themselves. Second, they added the greens of Casaba and Sweet potatoes to the meals and fed these three to four times a day to the children. These greens grew on the farms that these labourers went to. So no special effort was needed. Finally when they went out for labour work, they collected crustatians like small crabs and bivalves and brought them home to add to the food being cooked for the children.

Given this ‘key’ to reducing malnutrition among children, all that the professional had to do was to draw others’ attention to this. This was done by organizing group camps for collective cooking, where the mothers from these families also joined in. Their habits were observed by others, along with their healthier children. People and especially young mothers are smart and given an empowering context to operate from they can and do make a difference in the lives of their young ones.

On the eve of UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, a ‘Climate Bicycle Ride’ is being organised in Delhi on Sunday, 6th December at Ambedkar Nagar Terminal on BRT corridor; by the Delhi Cycling Club with support from Delhi Integrated Mass Transit System (DIMTS)’s NMT Cell and ‘The Open Planning Project’ (TOPP).

The event is open to people from different walks of life, age group and professions from Delhi & NCR and foreign nationals.

Key objectives of the event are to:

1. Raise awareness about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions;
2. Promote Cycling, Walking and Public Transportation as the most environmental-friendly way of commuting and as part of the solution to Delhi’s growing traffic woes; and
3. Experience the joy of cycling on dedicated bicycle tracks and have fun.

Participants will be encouraged to take a voluntary pledge to reduce their daily carbon footprint for a better and greener future. Your presence is key to the success of this event and also in promoting an important environmental and public cause.

ROUTE: The 11-km Climate Bicycle Ride will start from Ambedkar Nagar Bus Terminal at 09.00 a.m. and pass through Pushpa Vihar, Chirag Delhi, Moolchand on the BRT corridor and culminate again at Ambedkar Nagar T-point by 10.30 a.m. Click to view the route map

REGISTRATION: The event is open to all and there are no registration charges. You can confirm your participation simply by sending an SMS (type: 1) your name, 2) age, 3) phone number, 4) email ID and 5) locality you are coming from) to mobile number: 9990-22-66-44 or through email at delhicyclingclub@gmail.com before 4.00 PM, Thursday, 3rd December, 2009.

Subject to availability a limited number of cycles will be arranged free of cost on first-cum-first served basis for people who either don’t own a bicycle or find it difficult to bring them at the venue.

ASSEMBLY TIME: You are requested to assemble by 08.45 AM at the venue. Those participants who would be cycling in real traffic for the first time or after a long gap, are requested to arrive at the venue at-least 45-minutes before the start so that they could be given useful cycling and road safety tips by our volunteers.

Please note that this is not a race or a competition.  All participants will be cycling at a moderate speed on the dedicated bicycle lanes or curb side along the route. Participant cyclists will follow all the traffic rules, road etiquette and safety.

For further information, please contact:

Nalin Sinha
Convener
Delhi Cycling Club
Email: delhicyclingclub@gmail.com

Image courtesy Delhi Cycling Club