Nature Deficit Disorder

Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD) still might not have been recognized as a mental disorder by the medical fraternity but it is in fact a serious problem that has crippled the young minds of our society.The following wikipedia link provides a detail discussion on NDD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nature_deficit_disorder&oldid=381399877

Dam to Drown Tribal Land

Activists flay Subansiri power project

"No cheap change is possible"- An article by Sunita Narain

An eye-opener article by Sunita Narain...........the current policies adopted throughout the world will not help in the long run.We will have to invest a lot in green technologies. Innovations are reqiured and as fast as it can be.Dealing with climate change won't be cheap!

Read the article in the following link:

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/editor.asp?foldername=20100531&filename=Editor&sec_id=2&sid=1

A YOUNG INITIATIVE…………..

On the 10^th and 11^th February, 2010, Youth Alliance for Climate organized the first Youth Summit on Climate Change in association with Indo-Global social Service Society at Guwahati, Assam. Such an event was lacking in this region of the India. It was a great opportunity for me to attend the event. The summit was attended by youths with different backgrounds and from different parts of North East India. A total of about 25 participants attended the summit representing 4 states from the region. On the first day Dr. Walter Fernandez gave a lecture on how climatic changes have been affecting the people throughout the world and the northeast India in particular. He is an eminent social activist working in the region for a long time and also the Director of North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC), Guwahati. The other speaker of the day was Mr. Rakesh Saud. Mr. Saud has been working in the field of wildlife research and conservation since few years and has been able make some important contributions to this field. One of his major research works involves community conservation at Manas Biosphere Reserve. The second day of the summit involved lectures by Mr. M. Kikon , an FST fellow and Mr. Naba Thakuria who is a renowned journalist and author. Both this persons have attended the COP15 at Copenhagen. Both of them shared their experiences at COP15 and also explained certain facts related to climate change politics and talked about climate justice in detail. The lectures were followed by a brainstorming session on the post summit follow up activities to be taken up by the participants. Different groups were formed among the participants and they presented their ideas and projects which they would be doing within the time-frame of a year. 

 Now what i feel is that, although many NGOs and academic institutes have been organizing seminars, awareness campaigns and workshops on Climate Change in Assam and other North-Eastern states but none has addressed the role of Youth in fighting this global phenomenon. Also, a common platform for exchanging ideas and knowledge in this regard is also missing in northeast India. However there are many organizations at the national level which are engaging the young ignited minds in huge numbers for the same cause. In this regard the first organization that comes to my mind is the IYCN. IYCN has been engaged in this field since few years and has been doing well. They have spread their wings to different states of the country and have established regional chapters of the organization like those at Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore etc. But such a chapter is missing from the Northeast India even though it is one of those places in the world which has the potential of being affected by climatic changes in a disastrous way. Perhaps this is due to communication gap or might be due to lack of public awareness in its truest sense in this part of the country. YAC’s initiative is very commendable and I hope this is only the first step towards a great environmental movement in this region. Maybe this initiative or any other of its kind will generate interest among the people and also organizations from other states to work for welfare of this region. This region has always been in front-page of newspapers only for the wrong reasons. This region has seen a lot of bloody revolutionary movements by its natives. But, maybe this time, this will be a revolution driven by the Gandhian Principles and powered by the zeal of great Krantikaris. 50 years from now the current world leaders will perhaps not survive to see the wrath of climatic changes but it will be our generation who will have to answer the future generation. Why do we have to wait another 50 years to take responsibility? We are global citizens and we need to take up responsibility today itself………every individual on this earth matters and so each and every individual must change his life to minimize his or her carbon footprint or ecological footprint. Come on guys…….Let’s do it!