US environ expert, Kathleen Rogers, was in the city on Monday.
Uncle Sam may have been a hard task master at the Copenhagen Summit, refusing to commit on carbon reduction, but in retrospect, the economic giant perhaps realises that the way ahead is not oil and gas but sustainable and renewable “billion acts of green”.
In its latest effort towards involving the developing nations — India and China — to partner with the developed world to combat global warming together, prominent US environmental expert and activist Kathleen Rogers visited VIKSAT in Ahmedabad on Monday to interact with climate change students and members of the organisation. Rogers is the president of Earth Day Network, who has worked for more than 20 years as an environment attorney and advocate. On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, celebrated every year on April 22, Rogers claims India and China are their focus areas to learn from and expand their networks to work together for a better tomorrow.
“India is one of our target countries for the Earth Day celebrations.
We concede that India and China are super powers in terms of technology and ideas to deal with the challenges of the changing climate. A lot of technology will now come from these nations. We need change; cannot stay stuck with economies built on oil and gas,” she said, indicating to the US model. As for her visit to India, Rogers has visited Mumbai and will also go to Kolkata and Delhi.
“We look to work with NGO networks and government in India,” Rogers said on the sidelines of her lecture at Viksat. An informal civil society to society connect is also being undertaken, in addition to spreading environmental awareness in schools and children as focus groups.
In India, Earth Day rightly seems to have identified the impact cricketers have on the society and for celebrations, they hope to rope in cricketers to endorse their message of green acts.
Globally, it has been decided that as part of their celebrations, athletes and artists from all over the world will lend their voice to stop climate change. “When they talk, they have a lot of impact on people. Popular icons can be effective in spreading the Earth Day message,” Rogers said. It has not yet been identified though which cricketers will be spreading the green message here.
However, Rogers feels those countries who have resisted external audit of their environmental efforts are being childish in their approach. “Some countries call it interference, but we have to work together towards this,” she feels.
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