350 Global Day of Action, October 24, 2009, Charminar, Hyderabad

From the first Hyderabad Youth Summit on Climate in June 2009, that proved to be the launchpad for kicking off IYCN’s activities in the city, it has been a rollercoaster ride for many of the members. Andhra Pradesh has seen a recent flurry of organizations and activities that are addressing different environmental issues. Besides the veterans like WWF, CSA, Greenpeace, DDS, APNGC et al, new bodies and networks like the Andhra Pradesh Environment Connect, Lets unite for a greener tomorrow, SOUL, Planet 3 protection alliance and a multitude of small environment clubs across schools, colleges and corporate campuses have added to the variety and diversity to the people and the ways deployed to tackle the environmental crises. This is evidence enough of growing awareness and people taking up action irrespective of any support from the Govt. or otherwise.

The campaigns and workshops we organized brought us closer to organizations and individuals from various backgrounds and it is always wonderful to recollect the fact that a majority of the people out there are concerned about the issues we fight for and are only waiting for the push that will come through mobilization and/or being an example of change ourselves. This aspect runs across the country and is one of the major reasons for IYCN to begin engaging people beyond campaigns and get into projects and influencing policy at different levels of Govt. operation. It is always easy to convert the cynicism that proliferates the status quo into a element of motivation and encouragement when we work in a team and look at the examples of change that people are busy creating around us. Often quoted examples of Pragati Nagar in the city that banned plastic in the entire colony or the first green commercial (CII-GBC) and residential green building from Hyderabad remain positive influences for many young groups which need to see and understand the possibilities out there.

Most if not all the members of the chapter are young people who are exposed to an incredible amount of information and activities happening across the world. With communication becoming global and easier, one can expect to find a sense of dissonance and delusion to the events of our time amongst the youth. A changing climate does not merely change the temperatures but affects the political, economical and social spheres in many unknown ways. This is a crucial aspect that IYCN Hyderabad works on by networking and working with different organizations that are not necessarily working on climate change at the surface. Events around Bhopal, contemporary media, human rights, peoples struggles, energy issues and a lot more. Sensitization aside, this gives the person a holistic experience and an opportunity to piece things together and view them in relation to climate change.

2010 and the years ahead hold a lot of promise with new teams settling in and new opinions and ideas entering the organization and we have moved into a new office as well. IYCN Hyderabad with the Great Power Race is aiming high to reach out to campuses across the city and create massive awareness that will definitely result in a few projects being executed on the ground. Communication is one of the major focuses this year and employing innovative ways of communication through art, audio, video are underway. Documentation can always be an Achilles heal for NGOs that fail to record their activities and to avoid that, documentation of all activities meetings will be done through effective and innovative means for benefits in the future. Partnering with more organizations and continuing to explore and understand new areas that find a relation to climate change will be a key focus for the team here. IYCN recently started a chapter in Kakinada and that gives us immense pride.

Ideas are endless but with the aim of structuring and institutionalizing our work, a long term and a focused approach will be adopted to sustain the organization and its key activities. IYCN Hyderbad is always open to new people with new ideas and an interest in anything under the sun. You could love football, enjoy watching the stars or just wish to sit quiet, we have a need for you and we know how you can help protect the environment and become a part of our global network. Here’s to more learning and more action!

Swetha recounts:

We the “Hyderabadies”, (Swetha, Ramya, Nakul, Pratusha, Namrata, Abhinay and Sanjay) after Badlaav  were in full spirits and wanted to start taking action. We were so impatient that we decided not to waste the train journey time from New Delhi to Hyderabad. So we decided to have a “350 on the Train” campaign. At around 11:30 am on 26th July 2009, we started talking to people right from coaches S1 to S12 and then moved on to those in the 4 A/C compartments. We started talking to people in the language they were comfortable with:  Telugu, Hindi, or English.  In order to cover a larger audience we split into two groups.

We talked to the passengers about climate change, its effects, actions they can take and about the concept of 350ppm. We also asked them to join the 350 global campaign on 24th of October 2009. During the ride we met people from various professions (doctors, teachers, journalists, etc).  Some of the passengers loved our zeal and enthusiasm but others acted like skeptics.  Time will have the latter on our side.
The campaign came to an end at Secunderabad station where we gathered as many people as possible. We had 350 banners and took a number of photos. When it was over, we were all completely exhausted. The satisfaction we had in spreading the message to around 1000 people in just one day was greater than the exhaustion!

There is very little of this sense of imminent catastrophe in the villages where I live, at the centre of India’s semi-arid belt. Why is it that farmers most likely to be affected by drought don’t sound half as hopeless as the TV channels? The answer lies in their worldview of weather, water and warnings.

When India’s scientist-in-chief said on a news channel that the spread of the monsoon is more important than the volume of monsoons, the channel suddenly discovered a big truth.

But my illiterate 60-year-old neighbour, Musaligari Laxmappa smiled and said, “This is what we have been saying for several generations. How come the television never gets wiser through farmers’ wisdom and gets its gyan only through telegenic farming scientists?”

Though the gyan of Laxmappas and their ilk has not brought them closer to the news channels, it has surely given them an equanimity of sorts.

It is because their knowledge of agriculture keeps them by and large insured against the vagaries of the monsoon and the despair it produces. In the Deccan, the farmers who still defy the Green Revolution model of agriculture, and have stood by their traditional agriculture, know how to mix and match their crops to suit early rains, late rains and right-time rains.

They also know how to cope with less rain and more rain. Even within the varieties of jwar that they grow, they have some that mature within three months and hence can do with an early spell of rain and survive. They also have varieties that take six months to grow and mature to cope patiently with the madness of the monsoon.

If the first six weeks of the season see no rains, they dip into their seed baskets and bring out bajra that can be planted late into the season and still flourish. If all this fails, they plant one of the hardiest of crops, horsegram. Their agricultural diversity is extremely climate-compliant. And they are despair-protected, since they see farming as a way of producing crops and not as a sensex- or GDP-booster.

In the dry regions of the Deccan, Rajasthan, Kutch and Madhya Pradesh, farmers have always pursued  their agriculture while defying the climate Cassandras. Without irrigation, in high temperatures, in chilling winters, they have provided the country with an amazing array of millets, pulses and oilseeds.

Some of these crops flourish with excessive rains, some survive scanty rainfall, while most can bravely withstand water stress. In fact each of these crops has a niche use related to the culture, festivals and rituals of the regions. This is what keeps them going against the assault of markets and the science of monoculture.

In some ways this continuity of tradition has also emerged as an answer to the latest crisis: climate change. That these crops are not water-guzzlers like rice and wheat and hence can grow without irrigation is their big plus point. Some of these crops can fix organic carbon into the soil thus responding to the impact of climate change.  Thus, they become climate-asset crops, unlike rice and wheat, that some describe as the causal factors for a climate crisis.

When the genetic engineering industry makes daily incursions into the Prime Minister’s Climate Action Plan, promising saline-resistant rice varieties to fight the probable rise in sea-levels, it might be sobering to know that farmers in the Sunderbans already have more than a dozen such varieties.

So in our current anxiety about drought, we will do well to learn from the deep ecological and cultural knowledge of our agricultural communities.

P.V. Satheesh is Director, Deccan Development Society, Hyderabad

Abstract from Hindustan Times

Since the charter is quite extensive, I have mentioned only the sailent points. For details on any of these, the charter can be downloaded from here.

• Climate change is undeniable and immediate action has to be taken with relevant actors involved.
• Hyderabad is a growing metropolis. Sustainable development has to be defined and adopted in Hyderabad.
• Urban planning has to be under public purview and public forums on issues of urban development need to be identified and encouraged.
• Dedicated transport lines and creation of sustainable mass rapid transit systems.
• Creation of platforms for architects, builders and scientists to begin adopting green solutions in buildings. Ex: CGBI
• Business ethics need to be rethought and reframed with environment as a priority.
• Renewable energy needs to be encouraged and green jobs should be introduced in industry.

• Student education and awareness through methods of footprint calculators, science experiments and field trips.

• Religions and different faiths need to be respected and environment should be expressed as an offshoot of religion.

• Communication and outreach of policies under public purview and also effective usage of RTI and other forums.

• Traditional/ eco friendly ways of living need to be documented and encouraged via market mechanisms and incentive based approaches.

• The level of damage due to Industrial pollution and industrial usage of water should be compensated under the principle of Polluter pays.

• Youth needs to be given a recognized platform to discuss social, political and environmental issues.

• Campaigns need to base on sound science and the urgency of climate change needs to be considered in every aspect of urban development.

• Community based solutions on energy, transportation, waste and water should be encouraged with more emphasis on youth.

• Climate change affects all actors in society and all of them need to be included to create a groundswell of massive response to this problem.

Finally, ACT NOW!! YOU ARE THE SOLUTION!

The 2-day Hyderabad Summit on Climate Change (HySocc’09) on 20th & 21st June by IYCN was a unique affair: one that created impact, invoked inspiration and involved diverse actors from the society: students, IT professionals, Green analysts, activists and most importantly individuals and organizations which ‘did something about it’. It involved in-depth analysis of issues such as Urban Planning, Water, Waste and Energy & Transportation, from the perspective of the youth. One could sense the energy and the urgency of the messages, as the speakers talked of their experiences. It was a heady mixture: speakers from the AP Forest Dept., Sukuki Exnora, Prayas Pune, WWF-India, MV Foundation and even a farmer!! All of them had well-researched ideas, tried-out plans and personal experiences on the Environment to share.

The opinions of the youth present, made the discussions extremely interactive, and the Group Discussions were a treat in terms of the quality of ideas and suggestions. We ended up drafting a Youth Charter on Climate Change, which not only highlighted personal steps for action, but also our recommendations to the Government and Corporatations. The entire spirit was: there are precious environmental resources which we’re squandering thoughtlessly at present, simply because they are abundant now; but if we continue this way, it’s clear that we’ll start finding ourselves in dangerous territory few years down the line, and it’ll become very difficult to undo the damage. We can make tremendous difference by being conscious of these issues, and by taking simple, but crucial steps.

The IYCN in Hyderabad is organizing the Hyderabad Youth Summit on Climate Change ‘09 on June 20,21. The summit is open for young students and professionals between 16-30. The applications for the participants are out and can be downloaded at the above mentioned links.

Objectives of the summit:

1. A Hyderabad Youth Charter on Climate Change that will reflect the aspirations of the youth and young professionals regarding development and CC.

2. To facilitate exchange of ideas and sharing of techniques and practices on climate change mitigation and adaptation that can be replicated by youth across Hyderabad.

3. Create a network of youth and create an agenda for the coming year along with govt. bodies like the APNGC.

4. To serve as a platform for further in depth policy analysis and proposals on the key development issues facing Hyderabad in the wake of climate change.

5. To create an environment that will engage youth in policy issues of the capital and encourage youth leadership to find the solutions.

Participants at this conference will include:

1. Youth from educational institutions, organizations or young professionals from across Hyderabad who have a passion to create change in this subject.

2. Selected specialists and eminent speakers on key development challenges facing Hyderabad from a range of sectors.

3. Teachers and social activists working on climate change and sustainable development related issues.

For more updates on the summit, venue, organizers,speakers and more related info, please visit  this . Join the hysocc facebook group here

Learn.Engage.Change and spread the word on the summit and help us making it bigger.

IYSoCC 2008 (Hyderabad, India)

Even as we all hold our breaths awaiting the release of the national strategy on climate change adaptation and mitigation which has been delayed time and again, the Indian youth are mobilizing once again to turn up the pressure. Rumors abound around this national strategic plan which is being formulated without input from civil society (granted there are noted environmentalists on the PM’s council who are working to draft the policy). The Indian Youth Climate Network in conjunction with the Friendship Foundation, Global Citizens for Sustainable Development and the Nature & Biological Sciences Society are organizing a national level summit where 200 youth and young professionals from across the nation will gather to set India’s agenda on climate change, debate the post-2012 scenario and evaluate the national strategy which will hopefully be released by then (the Summit is scheduled for early August).

For more information, please email: iyscc08@globalcitizens.org.in

Or visit: http://iycn.in/summit/iysocc

Applications are now available (Deadline July 26th, 2008):

IYSoCC Application Form

Agents of Change Application for first ever Indian Youth Delegation to the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland (COP14), also now available (Deadline July 31st, 2008):

COP 14 Application