September 15

September 15



The spiritual journey of life always begins with a wail, but we began our program on September 15 by invoking God Almighty with the school prayer by the music teachers of all the branches. This was followed by the lighting of the lamp by the guest of honour, Mr Matthew Sanderlands, Science Officer, US Embassy, New Delhi and Mr Jagdish Gandhi, founder-manager, CMS. Mr Jagdish Gandhi introduced the guest to the students and all those present. Mr Sanderlands holds a significant command over climate change, terrestrial and marine conservation, pollution, and water resources. He holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of San Diego as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from University of California, Los Angeles.

The day began with the guest bringing out the significant role the UNO has played to protect the world from perils like hunger, poverty, famine, disease, etcetra. Though the UN has done its best to fish the world out of the problems it has faced from time to time, yet the reality that emerges at the end of the day is that the UN cannot do anything by itself. The mystic power of one is a myth in the contemporary world. No single country could ever have done anything nor can any country do anything by itself. The countries of the world need to unite in a single group to counter problems that the past century has witnessed.

The past century has been the bloodiest century ever witnessed by mankind. The war and destruction that the world has witnessed in the past few years has been unmatched in the history of mankind. The climate of the planet has changed drastically in the past millennium. This is a reason of serious concern. Human activities are to be blamed for a large part of the mess we see in the world in the name of global climate change. Temperatures have been on the rise all over the world. As a consequence, there has been an unprecedented melting of glaciers have been melting and consequently, there has been a constant rise in sea-level. Also, there has been an abject increase in poverty in nations around the globe. Things need to be changed with immediate effect to counter these problems.

These problems and their implications increase our responsibilities to provide a safe future to the incumbent and the coming generations. The guest took a page out of Indian society as he congratulated India for the amazing diversity it has. The amazing diversity makes us aware of the different laws and acts like the Wildlife Protection Law that India has enacted to protect its ecological diversity. Despite all the laws that the government has enacted, India lost 69 tigers in 2009. The laws deemed to protect wildlife in the country are only on the paper. They need to be enforced. Efforts need to be made to conserve wildlife, efforts should be made to conserve tigers to begin with. Another matter related to this came to light when it was discovered that carcasses of lions were being sold as carcasses of tigers. Steps were taken in this direction when the Government of Gujarat put the perpetrators of the crime behind bars. This did act as a deterrent, but stricter laws ought to be formulated and enforced.

The country needs a government agency to protect its environment. An awakening of the political parties in India in this regard is what is needed. This way there could be a government agency to protect the environment like the United States Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) in the US and the Green Party in Europe. The Indian public needs to launch a massive campaign against the exploitation of the environment. NGOs need to be formed and become operational, people ought to launch a large scale protest in this regard, people need to learn that the adversity of climate change has brought out an opportunity to change the world. People of the world could be brought together on a common platform to counter the problem of climate change that is affecting all the countries of the world. Climate change could be another common concern that could unite the countries of the world.

The world stands before other challenges like the emission of greenhouse gases that have increased over the many years. China emits the most greenhouse gases in the world, while the US and Russia hold the second and third positions respectively, India holds the fourth position. All countries including India need to take serious steps to resolve this problem.

A question and answer session followed this. Kshitij Jaiswal from CMS Kanpur Road Campus pointed out the need for the development of renewable sources of energy. This would counter the constantly depleting natural resources that we have. Solar energy, and biomass could act as a substitute to the non-renewable sources of energy in the form of coal and oil. India has a lot of sunshine that could be made use of. It could be converted to usable energy using special devices. Further the government could do its bit by levying a price for carbon emissions in the country. People ought to pay attention to the plans of the government to conserve the environment.

Saumya from CMS Kanpur Road Campus pointed out that nuclear energy could be a possible remedy to the crisis of energy the present generation faces. This would reduce the carbon emissions in the air that is a reason for concern of the incumbent environmentalists. This way we could have a world devoid of the problem of pollution. The biggest problem associated with the use of nuclear power as an alternative to the conventional sources of energy is the disposal of nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is such a hazardous entity that its very creation causes a big problem. The US remedies this problem by burying its nuclear waste. At the end of the day, the US gets 80 per cent of its power through nuclear generation.

The generations to come are going to face a grave problem in the face of the growing menace of unchecked population growth around the world. The growing population has created problems of its own. It has pushed populations of animals out of forests to make space for itself. The need of the hour is to make it a global issue for the problem does not concern a single country or a single continent, but it concerns the entire world. Governments all over the world ought to take strict steps to curb the demon of population. NGOs ought to take steps towards the resolution of the problem.

The crux of the matter remains that we ought to realise that the whole world is one station, one family. All that happens in one country affects all the nations of the world. Such issues as overpopulation, greenhouse gases, energy deficit, etcetra could be dealt with only if the nations of the world come on a common platform to resolve all these problems. All the governments of the world ought to be made responsible for all this. The students who had put up questions before the eminent guest were rewarded with a jute bag containing a book on environmental conservation.

One of the EVS teachers present in the gathering pointed out that India contributes to the problem of greenhouse gases by encouraging the use of CNG. They release CO2 in the atmosphere. The use of CNG releases 20 times as much CO2 as any other activity in the atmosphere.

Sudhir Mishra, class IX, CMS Gomtinagar Campus pointed out the immense amount of pollution done to water bodies during the construction of dams. He wanted to know if it is worth all the pollution that the construction causes. If the potential for damage by dams and their construction is so great, some serious thoughts consideration ought to be made in this regard. We derive so many benefits from dams that their construction can never be done away with. The dam is built on the Colarado river and is on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. It is currently the world's 35th-largest hydroelectric generating station. It serves drinking water to a large population. The US can certainly not do without it.

It becomes imperative to prevent the pollution of rivers as Colorado as polluting rivers would mean polluting the oceans as river water ultimately flows into the ocean. We would be polluting the entire world in a way by polluting the river waters of the Colorado, or any other river for that matter.

Diksha from CMS Gomtinagar Campus wanted to know what steps the students could take for environmental conservation. Students could contribute their lot to conserve the environment by making more use of CFLs as they are a lot more energy conserving than the traditional means of illumination used in India. Green Building Concepts could be adopted in our lives. Green Building Concepts supply information exchange on a more resource and energy efficient lifestyle. Adopting Green Building Concepts could certainly help in the cause of conservation of the environment by reducing pollution. It could help by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing electricity and gas bills. It could also help by creating accurate electronic output of your photographic and video memories. It could be valuable in teaching us the best windows or flooring materials with minimal environmental impact.

Mr Samdeland's session finally came to an end when the guest gave kits designed to measure the climate and climate change to the students gathered for the occasion. He also gave a special global environment kit with instruments to measure climate change to Ms Manjit Batra, Principal, CMS Gomtinagar Campus. He also presented some books by US President Barrack Obama. He gave out some folders containing magazines on US efforts to contain environment pollution.

This was followed by the applaud by the students that greeted the other guests, Mr Charlie Seten, Counsellor Officer, US Embassy and Ms Madhuri Sehgal, Culture Specialist, American Centre. It was time for lunch now, and an interview of Mr Charlie Seten by CMS Multimedia Department.