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City
350 degrees of change
City’s youngsters came forward to do their bit for putting a check to the growing level of carbon emissions
Pune Mirror Team
Posted On Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 02:56:23 AM
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Youth from Pune too leapt into action regarding this. October 24 is observed as the International Day for Climate Action. These activities have been planned in the run up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) scheduled in December this year in Copenhegan. Eight American students who have been studying in Pune for four months now, participated in this campaign by picking up 350 pieces of trash. Their act of collecting this trash attracted many morning walkers, students and citizens near Patrakar Nagar. Garrett Larson, Megan Helseth, George Hallenbeck and Nathan Grady, four among the eight students came to Pune Mirror’s office to share their experience. Their ‘350’ campaign On Octorber 24th, thousands of people around the world participated in the International Day of Climate Action to send a message to global leaders regarding climate legislation. Recent studies have shown that a safe level for atmospheric carbon dioxide is 350 parts per million (ppm). Legislators, however, have yet to acknowledge this as the appropriate goal. They instead have shot for 450 ppm, a level that would melt the polar ice caps and disolve coral reefs around the world. For most of the history of the Earth, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have averaged at 285 ppm. Currently, the level is at 387 ppm and rising. Today, environmental activists in 181 different countries organized over 5,200 events symbolising the goal of 350 ppm. We eight — Nathan Grady, George Hallenbeck, Megan Helseth, Garrett Larson, Allison Seger, Logan Caswell, Sydney Parms and Liz Knauz — are American students studying enviromental science, sociology, and politics in Pune. We participated in this campaign by picking up 350 pieces of trash each and echoing the message within the local and global communities by photographing our efforts. Using up the entire morning, we scoured the streets, picking up everything in sight. At first, only the eight of us contributed to this effort. As the day progressed, however, Indian citizens began to join the campaign. In the end, we collected several large bags of trash. Although our efforts were not some of the largest in the world, we felt we made an impact, especially on the local community. We have come to love India in the past two months, and we hope that even this small act will inspire Puneites to be more proactive in their approach towards saving the environment. |
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05:16:18 PM