:: Delhi Greens ::

Nature Foundation (India) is a NOIDA based organisation working for a better and sustainable environment for one and all. The organisation recently launched a calendar for the year 2010. The calendar is a result of a phenomenal task of imparting education to the underprivileged children who are on the move almost every year. These are children of construction labourers who have migrated majorly from the Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh and have been responsible for most of the construction happening around NOIDA. To facilitate the provision of education, the organisation had initiated a programme called ‘Gyan Kiran’ almost an year back, under which these children were collected and put in a class room for an hourly session 6 days a week.

Recently, the organisation invited Isa Esasi, a visiting tourist from Spain and an artist at heart, to organise a workshop with these kids to exhibit their creativity on the drawing sheets. Around 70 children participated with full fervour and sketched various festivities with their interpretation and understanding. The paintings came out so well that to give them permanent footing, Shri Rakesh Khatri, Executive Director of the organisation came up with an innovative idea of using these drawings, as table top calendar for the year 2010. Since the theme of the workshop was various festivals of the year that were then drawn by the children, each month of the calendar depicts a prominent festival from that month!

On 6th January 2010, the calendar was formally launched in presence of a number of children who participated in the workshops . Also present were former cricketer Shri Saba Karim, Shri Raja Bundela and Shri Salil Chaturvedi along with Shri Rajesh Dokwal (Chairman), Shri Indra Dev and Ms. Ruchi Pugalia.

For further information and to purchase a copy, please contact:

Rakesh Khatri
Executive Director
Nature Foundation India
9312626909

Your involved participation in the conversation on various issues and your pragmatic actions continue to inspire me to write the blog. Thank you for the continued encouragement, since a little over one year now. May this year be as inspiring to you as it is for me.

We all have our concerns about climate change. With the temperature of Earth likely to rise by two degrees over the next decade, the extreme weather events are likely to increase. The winters will be more severe, summers more hot and there would be more precipitation leading to increased flooding, droughts and severe cold. One major concern is to ensure that the human species is able to survive all this. We don’t here much about population increase now. We believe that all human beings, if given the right training and support, are capable of performing as efficiently as every other human being. Hence ensuring human capital by monitoring Human Development Index (HDI) is a commitment taken by the United Nations to which all the member countries are signatory. This is what we believe in.

Given this context, there is a need for governments in their areas of governance and at all levels to ensure that humans are adequately protected due to climate change related extreme events. Every society historically took care of their poor and their underprivileged through charity. So expecting the government to take on this responsibility should not be an exception but a rule. One of the implications is the need to create temporary shelters for populations displaced due to natural disasters.

In my neighborhood in East Delhi, the Yamuna River bed becomes available for almost 8-10 months in the year as agriculture land. This was traditionally used as grazing lands by the gujjar community. They claim user rights over it even today and rent out these lands to the agricultural labour, mainly coming from Bihar. All year round these labour grow vegetables and some food grains. But during monsoon these lands get flooded and the labour residing here get displaced. There is a retired Colonel from the Army who has taken on to support them. He ensures that tents are made available during monsoon for them when the river floods. I am sure each part of Delhi has similar examples of initiatives to protect the vulnerable from such extreme events. Do share with us if you are aware of such good efforts.

Every locality will need more people like the Colonel I have in my neighborhood and given the trend perhaps more permanent of these ‘temporary’ shelters to support climate refugees. There is a need for more and more local leaders taking initiatives to support their vulnerable communities and truly make a difference. Therefore, today’s headlines about MCD’s decision to destroy the night shelters that housed 250 people is truly disturbing. The temperatures these days is into single digits, a more humane approach would have worked better. No doubt this must have been pending for long, and what was done was with the best of intentions, just wrong timing.

Antraal Theater Group presents “ Ek Aur Drornacharya” – a play written by Shankar Shesh, as a re-interpretation of the character of Drornacharya in the light of the modern education system. The  play tries to situate a protagonist, Prof. Arvind in the web of the allegiance that powers on.

How did Drornacharya become the biased teacher? What conditions led Arvind to compromise with reporting a student’s act of cheating? Vimelendu’s ghost comes as the alter ego of Arvind who forces him to compromise with the demand of the situation, though when alive, he was the one who directed Arvind as Drornacharya in a play. When Arvind is finally jailed with charges of corruption, we see how it is inevitable end of a cumulative process of compromising with the system.

The play depicts how corruption has overpowered this world. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The teacher student relationship hasn’t remained unaffected, here too, power and superiority come into play.

Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes

Date: January 09, 2010
Time: 5.30 pm
Venue: IIT, Delhi

For further details and to attend, please contact:
Fahad: 9971812730
Vishal: 9350241612

Antraal is an independent theatre group of individuals who pursue theatre purely out of interest. The other two plays presented so far are : “Mausam Ko Na jaane Kya Ho Gaya” and “Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya , Oh jamiya Nahi”. In  addition, Antraal has previously been involved with Delhi Greens in street theater performance for generating awareness on the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.

Penguin Books India and Resident Commissioner, Government of Arunachal Pradesh invite interested citizens to the book launch of ‘Arunachal Pradesh – The Hidden Land’, authored by Mamang Dai.

Date: Friday, 8th January, 2010
Time: 6.30 pm
Venue: Arunachal Bhawan, Kautilya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi

The book will be released by Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India.

To confirm your participation, RSVP: Bharthi Taneja: 4613 1411.

The term ‘Biodiversity’, as defined by Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is the variety of all forms of life, from genes to species, present throughout in the narrow to the broad scale of ecosystems.

“Biodiversity” was coined as a contraction of “biological diversity” in 1985 by the W.G. Rosen for the first planning meeting of the ‘National Forum on Biodiversity’ held in Washington DC (September 1986), the proceedings of which (E.O. Wilson and F.M. Peter, 1988) brought the notion of biodiversity to the attention of a wide field of scientists and others. But over the years, the new term arguably has taken on a meaning and import of its own.

Why is Biodiversity important? Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, have an important role to play. But, the present times (especially since the Industrial Revolution) have put nature under immense pressure. The rate at which we are exploiting the resources of nature far exceeds the rate at which nature can replenish itself. It is feared that human activity is causing massive extinctions. From various animal species, forests and the ecosystems that forests support, marine life, the costs associated with deteriorating or vanishing ecosystems will be high.

The global importance of biodiversity is now reflected in the widely accepted target to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of loss of biodiversity by declaring 2010 as International Year of BIODIVERSITY. Thus, its high time that everyone should be made aware of the results of even their most basic actions which might adversely affect the environment. We need to conserve our biodiversity and choose the pathway of sustainable development and reduced consumption which alone can help in averting the ecological problems that are knocking on our doors today.

The South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy (SADED) invites you for a Seminar and Dialogue on Sustainable Futures: Learning from Diverse Pro-People Traditions & Launch of Two Books Published by SADED.

Date: January 5, 2010
Time: 10 am to 7.30 pm
Venue: India International Centre (I IC) Annexe, Conference Room No. III, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

For more information and to participate, contact:

Mr. Ajay Mahajan – 9891282118
Mr. Bhuwan Pathak- 9555445350
Sh. Vijay Pratap- 9313344402; SADED office: 011-26101580

A sudden and unexpected death of a person close to us leaves us paralyzed. What next is a familiar question in such an event. We suddenly realize there is a lot that needs to be done which we had left to complete with that person for ‘someday… but not now.. (because)…’and we are suddenly left with the realization that it is too late.

We get into any of these spaces. ‘I am helpless without you.’ ‘Oh! The things I could have done with you and your support.’ ‘I am sinking and life is not worth continuing.’ Or we can get into ‘A great person to have known and been with and left me enriched but time to move on.’ “ I learned a lot and my life is not the same but now I have new goals and aspirations.’ Whatever space we find ourselves in is just the way we are meant to be.

What we become present to is the person we have lost is not really lost to us. He /she is the person who while did have a physical existence outside of us is really the person that we created. Whatever that person is to us is a result of our creation. Who s/he is or who s/he is not, is all in our mind and we actually relate to this person of our own creation. So any person that we have come in contact with in our lives is really an image that we created of that person irrespective of who s/he really is, and who he really is not.

That can never be lost. It is our creation and therefore will be with us as long as we choose to let that person be with us.  One of the implications is that all the conversations we have are conversation with ourselves. Therefore, the physical existence of a person for our conversations is not necessary. If we can imagine the person, we can continue to have conversations with that person and we can continue to refer to that person as long as we live.

The same thing applies to the idea of climate change. As long as we can imagine the impacts of climate change, we can create images/ data/ proof of its impacts and take the necessary actions that are needed to make it disappear and feel good about it…

COME WITH YOUR PLAN AND IMPLEMENT THE CHANGE

Hindustan Times – Brightest Young Climate Leaders (BYCL) 2010 is an exclusive national platform to select, felicitate and recognize the TOP 50 brightest young minds in India who have been involved with climate change ideas, initiatives or activities. The Brightest young climate leaders may be from the private or public sector, entrepreneurs, youth or student leaders who have shown exemplary work in the field of climate change mitigation. They will be chosen from a nationwide application and nomination process in association with Hindustan Times and will be recognised at the national BYCL summit in February 2010.The summit will also bring together exceptional set of judges and mentors who are making a difference in the field of climate change through business, community work, thought leadership, Government and policy activity or simply by leading a seriously green life!

Eligibility: Below 35 yrs

Participation guidelines:

GROUP A (Creator), B (Implementer) and C (Attendee)

Deadline: December 31, 2009 till 5 p.m IST. Deadline Extended till January 15, 2010

Format of the Conference:

• Applicants must apply with a specific climate change initiative or idea (Group A) or they must apply to implement a climate change initiative or idea with a strong background in project implementation (Group B)
• Anyone can also nominate an applicant in the same categories i.e. Group A or Group B. If you are nominating someone you would need to complete the application process on the applicant’s behalf
• At the summit the winners will be going through interactive sessions to further develop their climate change initiatives, ideas and business plans and an opportunity to pitch to the BYCL Plenary of mentors and judges

The top 3 ideas/teams will be incubated by BYCL platform.

GRAND PRIZE:

Top 50 applicants will be chosen and invited to Delhi to be awarded as the “Hindustan Times – BYCL 2010″ in a summit in February, 2010. Selected entries will be published in Hindustan Times “SAVE OUR PLANET”

NOTE: If you are NOT an Applicant or nominating an applicant you can come as an Attendee. This event will be opened to selected professionals and students who want to attend and participate in this unique event of leadership in climate change.

For more info log on to http://www.bycl.sacredfig.com/

This Conference Of Parties, COP 15 is not COP 15^th.. It is not one among the series of 1st to 16th that comes before 16th and after 14^th. It is ‘COP 15’ – a stand alone event and it is the best ever so far, most successful meeting right now. After weeks of hectic negotiations at COP15, five countries including India, China and the US arrived at a proposal. Not, as the media highlighted to be, something that was salvaged by the President of USA’s intervention for hammering out an agreement among the BASIC group, but the best outcome we got out of the four major polluters contributors to come up with a consensus. “BASIC” is something to celebrate and take actions toward the future and towards controlling climate change. This ensures that the five major polluting countries including the USA have take responsibility for the changing climate and have made a commitment to the future of less than 2 degrees of temperature rise and saving the earth from the deleterious impacts of climate change. This is an empowering context to operate from.

There is resignation and cynicism, because the countries involved and the groups they can form seem to be infinite. It seems like a struggle, between various groups of countries and among various countries, based on their size, their location, their level of development, and their claim to responsibility towards global warming. There is a group formed by countries that are low-lying small island nations. Then there are the developing countries (G77) and thenthe developed countries (G7), and then still another group plus India and China (G7+2). Permutation and combination for 187 countries has infinite possibilities.

The resignation and cynicism has set in thanks to the media, because we are swimming against the current, we were hoping to see actions, in order to reach a goal, so that we could have consensus on the issue and feel good about it. We wanted to feel good about doing something, and thought that actions should come first, so the goal of controlling climate change can be achieved. It is a struggle and as we are swimming against the current, hence resignation and cynicism is more likely to set in. What we normally do is that we set up a target and we act and we struggle to achieve it and that leads to us feeling upset, and angry about not getting what we want. Then we give up.

The natural flow/ direction of the current for us human beings is exactly the opposite. We are human beings and we are the only creatures who have language and the ability to conceptualize and create a ‘world’ using the words. We are the only creatures who can create a possibility for a future that inspires us using words, then we can plan actions towards achieving it, and then feel good about the completion of such projects. We create dreams using words, then we do and then we have the satisfaction and fulfillment on meeting the dreams we created. Hence the BASIC and USA consensus is perhaps the right direction.

Now we are really thinking and looking for actions in the area of climate change as is obvious though your feedback comments. Using home cooked food, not buying water, reducing plastic usage, exploring possibility of where else can we plant trees besides government lands. Truly practical and do-able concrete solutions come to mind for some of us reading the blog. I truly appreciate you putting your mind and thought to it. Thank you for the simple steps that you guys succinctly suggested.

Using popular media coverage including print media, as a thermometer to gauge the feelings of the people on this earth it is obvious that the majority of civilians are not convinced about climate change and its dooms day prophesies or the urgency of the situation. Articles quoting even our own political leaders indicate the skepticism of scientific proof of climate change. At the Al Gore interview on ‘Tonight Show’ a month back, the tone and feeling of Jay Leno–the talk show host–indicated skepticism about even the ‘cause’ for which he won the Nobel Prize. Even the legitimacy of the UNFCCC and its claim to represent the concern for future of earth is questioned by some, claiming that it is a non-elected body and therefore not representative of the public opinion. Who knows what next?

With increasing possibility of climate change talks failing to come up with a consensus, where do we go from here? We cannot undo what has happened. First step is to accept that expecting governments to take actions is not going to happen soon. We can both bemoan all that has happened and be resigned and cynical about our future, or we can create a future that works for us.

To create a future that works for us we can start with small steps. We can continue to be committed to keeping alive the issues and debates on climate change, through concrete actions at individual levels, however small. It is for us–the citizens of the earth–to push the governments to take actions. As long as the divisive forces in the governments that can create  a ‘we versus they’ divide among nations, there would be no consensus on issues that do matter substantially. What is missing is connectedness and relationship with people across the globe as One.

A possible small step would be to get in touch and keep in touch with the India migrants abroad over past several generations across the globe. Enroll them into the future that is favorable to the Earth. You will be surprised to find how far and wide we have migrated over centuries. With one small step at a time, we as humans are perfectly capable of setting long term goals and time tables towards which we can take guided actions to ultimately reach there..