For a week from September 20, young climate strikers and their supporters are demanding action for the climate crisis. “The climate crisis won’t wait, so neither will we,” reads the official website https://globalclimatestrike.net/.
Ecological Society supports the strike. While entering the strike, we would like you to think about our lifestyle, energy and natural resource restoration.
The chairperson of ES Dr Swati Gole first brings our attention to the core of Ecological Society’s principles and one of the solutions for climate change: restoration of nature and natural processes on a mass scale. Manasi Karandikar and Ketaki Ghate long-time faculty at ES and co-founder of Oikos, too want to remind us of the need for restoration and build-up of natural capital.
Manasi shares that the global climate strike will work only when we work at a local scale. “We need an urgent change in lifestyle to make it more eco-friendly,” she says. Ketaki adds, "We need to learn to be a conscionscious consumer. We need to understand difference between NEED and WANT. More consumerism leads to more extraction of natural resources and it's processing leads to pollution and changes in climate and landscapes which is proving dangerous to human life. So limiting consumerism is the first step."
Ajay Phatak, also our long-time faculty member, is quick to add that we must also address the scale of use of natural resources.
Ajay insists that the nexus of economics and energy, and the need for complete transformation of the economic system must be the main topic of any debate and action while discussing the climate crisis.
Prakash Gole, the founder of Ecological Society, believed that the present pattern of education and its contents need to be radically altered, and he looked upon climate change as providing a suitable opportunity to bring this about.
Finally, while demanding action for the climate crisis, we must think about how this crisis affects different people differently - women, fishermen, forest dwelling communities, children, workers in polluting industries. Is what we are asking for just? Will we be able to satisfy the needs and aspirations of all communities while we arrive at solutions for the climate crisis?
Looking for green, equitable answers. Onwards!
