British Council selects southern regions Indian Climate Champions
Four Standard XI students will compete for the international title For Agastya Muthanna, it's the sight of bleached corals while scuba diving off the Andaman Islands that sparks off his concern over global warming. Quite apart from wildlife, Ann Raymond is shocked by what she has learnt of the human costs of climate change. For K.N. Shruti and Archana Jayaram, one man's efforts have awakened them to the global crisis: "Al Gore,' they chorus together. The four Standard XI students, along with Jaswanth Madhavan (who was unable to be present) were selected as the southern region's Indian Climate Champions 2008 by the British Council on Friday. Later this month, they will compete with 15 youngsters from other parts of the country to be selected as International Climate Champions, who will attend an awareness and training camp in London and then represent youth interests at the meeting of Environment Ministers from the G8+5 countries in Japan. In spite of those global prospects, the four students have planted their own climate change solutions squarely in the realm of individual and corporate action, rather than international diplomacy. "There are too many top-down government approaches which are not effective. We need to push for CSR [corporate social responsibility],' says Agastya, a student of Aditi International School in Bangalore, who is convinced enough of the importance of environmental economics that he intends to study it. "It's important to mobilise youngsters. And everyone talks about the cities, how about village youth? At the end of the day, it's the farming communities who are worst affected, and they have the least awareness,' says Archana of Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School in Chennai. Her schoolmate Shruti chimes in: "We need to take more initiative and be responsible for our actions.' Solutions suggested Switching from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps, planting trees and conducting energy audits in their schools and homes, car-pooling and using eco-friendly fuels are among their suggestions for solutions that Indian youth can actually put into practice. "After all, little drops of water make mighty oceans,' says Ann, a student of Bhavan's Vidya Mandir in Kochi. Whether they make it to London or not, the students will have a chance to spread their ideas. "We plan to create opportunities for them to engage through youth programmes, meetings with Ministers and the media,' said Anu Thampi, British Council programme coordinator.