Global warming and the climate change issue does not relate to just one person, region or country but the whole world. The solution too cannot be made by one body but the solution to the problem of climate change would require the collective and active participation of all segments of society across all nations. First Earth Day was celebrated when a group of people in the USA got together to draw world attention to it in 1970 on April 22. Since then, it is observed worldwide as a reminder of our shared responsibility to protect the planet earth.
In India too, to encourage various representatives to work together by sharing and communicating best practices, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and HSBC India signed a Memorandum of Understanding at Delhi, creating a forum to be known as the ‘Earth Sciences Forum’. It is a platform where informed people from academia, industry and even the general public can put forth their views and help find ways to mitigate the effects of climate change on all of us. HSBC is at the forefront among global companies, in the study of the impact of climate change and has been working towards doing its bit as a concerned global citizen.
The Climate Change Leadership Council under the Forum is to meet at least twice a year to chart a climate action course and will consist of representatives from the industry, government, academia, and NGOs. Periodic industry-specific learning workshops will be conducted in cities and the main target will be carbon-intensive industries such as Iron and Steel, Electricity, Real Estate, Information Technology, FMCG etc.
The Forum will be responsible for creating communication to bring about awareness on climate change amongst general public, children and youth. It is also expected to disseminate the Climate Change Leadership Council Proceedings, Research Monographs, Industry-specific low Carbon Strategies, Theme Papers, and Country Climate Report etc. It recently held inter-school poster-making competition with the theme “Creating Awareness on Use of Public Transport”. Through various campaigns, the students requested people travelling in personal vehicles to opt for public transport. They distributed car stickers.
The Forum also released the first children Newsletter on environment ‘The Green Crusader’ and also released the Interactive State of Environment Atlas of India. The Atlas is a compilation of categorized thematic maps on green (forest, biodiversity), blue (water resources), and brown (air pollution) environmental issues and provides flexibility and versatility for users to visualize environment spatial data using simple Geographic Information System (GIS) functionalities.
The Green Olympiad, launched in 1999 on Earth Day is India’s First National Level Environment Examination for school children and is held annually in India and abroad with a focus on environmental concerns and needs of the present and the future. The mother earth gives us all life-saving substances and valuable services. The process of economic development and changes in consumption patterns has degraded the land. Therefore, we must put in all efforts to utilize natural resources judiciously. We should observe self control in consumption and we should live with modesty and compassion to protect the precious Earth.