Spreading the green message

“Youths are not the problem, it’s trying to get the older generation to change,” says Bittu Sahgal, editor of Sanctuary Asia Magazine, speaking about conservation efforts in India.

Indeed, in almost any university or college in Chennai today, you would find an environmental club dedicated to promoting the green message to their fellow schoolmates. A combination of youthful evangelism and the efforts of non-governmental organisations seem to have borne fruit as youths are becoming more aware of issues faced by the environment today and want to do more to help it.

Whether it is tree planting, staging awareness rallies, holding camps, or distributing pamphlets to the public, going green has become something of a culture amongst many of the young here.

This is a far cry from the situation 10 years ago, where you would be hard pressed to find anyone aside from a handful of hardcore activists who would concern themselves with anything environment-related.

Is it, however, just a façade?

“When I travel to all these schools to present to them data on climate change, most of them are very receptive and concerned, I believe there is a real change in the mindset of these schoolchildren, especially the young ones,” said Dr. A. Ramachandran, Director for the Centre of Climate Change at Anna University.

Non-governmental organisations are also finding it easier to recruit volunteers because of the increased exposure of youths to such issues. “Of course we could always do with more volunteers, but it is a fact that we have been seeing an increase in the number of college students coming in to help out”, said K. Vivek of IT Exonora, an organisation that runs camps and conducts programmes for school children to expose them to environmental issues.

Other environmental organisations operating in Chennai, like Greenpeace, have also benefited from the people here being more aware of environmental issues as “they become more receptive to listening to us and are more willing to contribute to the cause.”

“The movement today is becoming more credible with supporters like the British Council, and people have also become more receptive to the cause whenever we approach them” said Archana. J (18), one of the British Council’s International Climate Champions.

Dialogue sessions are held regularly by environmental clubs in schools as well as non-governmental organisations to foster a sense of urgency and continuity amongst youths in this subject area. During one such session, a panel discussion titled ‘Young India on Climate Change’ was held by the British Council in conjunction with the World Environment Day earlier this year. Survey results were presented to show that while a healthy percentage of youths in the country today are aware about the problems faced by the environment, not many were willing to help to change the situation.

The event, fronted by wildlife filmmaker Shekar Dattatri, saw panellists and interested audience members alike calling on India to rally to the green cause. And these youths, led by the six International Climate Champions who made up the panel, were determined to disprove the apathetic stereotype of youths when it comes to the environment.

Besides fieldwork and educating their peers, some of these young environmentalists have been involved in the development of environment-related projects. One of the projects is to develop ‘green printers’ that would recycle used paper by removing the ink prints and converting it to brand new paper. Another project is to develop a cheaper variation of the energy-efficient LED light bulbs that would be more affordable for purchase by the masses.

R. Nagendran, an environmental science professor at Anna University, recounted how some students from another school who attended his lecture on environmentalism were so inspired that they contacted him a few days after to ask him for advice on how to embark on their own environmental project. “We need the wisdom of the old and the strength of the young in fighting climate change,” he declared.

From the looks of things, we are halfway there.

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