People and Environment: 'On a green mission’

Jan 11, 2009 Deccan Chronicle, page 19

Excerpts from the article ‘On a green mission’, by Chirag Mohanty Samal.

In the hope of saving the earth while they still can, young members of the Indian Youth Climate Network are traveling around the country to spread the message. The solution to almost every modern issue from recession to global warming lies in looking for alternative sources of energy they say. These young green activists who began their road trip from Chennai will drive down all the way to Delhi via 12 cities in their eco-friendly electric cars, urging urban India to switch to a greener lifestyle.

Deepanjali Gupta, the co-founder of ICYN says, “India is busy dealing with issues like poverty and national security; but the overall important issue of climate change is being ignored. Inspite of struggling with inflation and recession, we are not paying enough attention to alternative sources of energy which are cheaper and will do us a lot of good in the future.”

A solar powered heating system maybe expensive initially, but it works out cheaper in the long run. “There are many youngsters working with various NGOs to combat climate change and through this road tip we are trying to bring all of them together on a common platform.”

Kartikeya Singhm a rural energy researcher and a member of ICYN says, “We want to showcase potential solutions and share our experiences with the people we meet. We have visited several universities and held workshops there. The participation of the youth has been encouraging. In the process, we have also learnt about the various eco-friendly projects that enterprising students have come up with. If they get a proper platform and support from the government the scenario can change.”

Caroline Howe, from Yale University who is a part of this team says, “The number of engineers graduating each year in India is more than the population of certain American cities. This is undoubtedly t he land of climate solutions. So we are looking up to India to bring about a positive change.”