Friday, March 29, 2024

Are you a Wannabe Climate-Activist? I’m sorry there is this little matter you need to answer yourself





Lets say you are an Indian climate-activist. Or that you want to do all you could to save humanity from its so-called existential threat.

Here’s a reality-check. Measure yourself on the scale below. Thereafter, hopefully, your climate activism won’t just be skin-deep. 

So here it goes: 

1) How many Indian languages do you know other than English – one point for each and maximum 10 points

a) Read

b) Write

c) Speak

2) How many States of India have you been to in the last 5 years, not by air, not by car, not by AC Train and not by AC Bus – one point for each State, two points for the Island States if you went by sea.

3) Does anybody in your immediate family (parent, spouse, sibling, offspring, SOH) own or operate a private diesel motor vehicle? Minus 5 points if the answer is yes,

4) How many videos on environmental issues have you made and uploaded on the net, in an Indian language that is not English. One point each video upto a maximum of 10, repeat videos on the same subject do not get additional points.

5) Have you done a plastic, polymers and metallized film audit of your own kitchen at home or workplace, and are there any plastic containers for anything? Minus one point for each container and if there are more than 10, then you may exit this test.

6) Do you maintain a kitchen garden/balcony garden, on your own without a mali/gardener, and do you grow seasonal vegetables there? One point for each vegetable, up to a maximum of five.

7) Do you know the kind of dyes used on the clothes you wear, and does your wardrobe have any garments which use chemical dyes? Minus one for each garment, upto a maximum of minus 10.

8) As an adult, do you know how to open the air-filter of a motor vehicle and clean it, regardless of whether you know how to drive or not? Plus 5 if you do and minus five if you don’t.

9) Have you looked at the paints and coatings used at home, and verified what were the solvents and paints used? Minus 2 if oil based solvents, Minus 3 if VOC paints and Minus 5 if you have wall-paper. Plus 2 if water based solvents, plus 2 if limewash in cooking areas and plus 1 for no paints on external walls.

10) Do you use the stairs or the lift if you live in a multi-storeyed building? Disqualified if you are physically fit and still use the lift.

11) Does your home use a solar cooker regularly? Plus 5 if you do, minus 5 if you don’t. Additional 5 points if you made the solar cooker oven yourself.

12) Have you ever tried to milk any four-legged animal, have you ever tried to launch a fishing boat from a beach or gone out on a fishing boat? These are two of the biggest farming industries in India.

Rapid Fire Round

A) Indian agriculture is most threatened by climate change.  It is based on lunar calendar. Can you name the lunar months.  

B) Fishing and maritime industries are based on tides. Can you explain Spring, neap, ebb and atleast 3 important farming practices based on lunar calendars/tidal movements.

C) Please identify a few ways in which farmers/ rural men and women are trying to adapt to climate change affecting their output/ lives in any part of India.

D) Should there be a gender sensitive approach to clean water and toilets to every household programme. If yes, what is lacking in the current approach.

E) How would you introduce measures to ensure ownership / protection of the commons (land, forest, water resources both ground and surface).

F) Gobar gas plants was touted in the 1990s as a huge success story. No one talks about it any more. Why has  the programme been abandoned. Was there a flaw ?

G) Biggest threat to a farmer’s livelihood are during and after a flood / drought. Name five.

Tie-Breaker Shoot Out

Name as many varieties of green fodder as you know with their local names in any Indian language other than English.

+++

How you measure up to this Climate Challenge would allow you to get hold on your activist-passion. All are invited though for the pretty talks we do in parties. 

Veeresh Malik was a seafarer. And a lot more besides. A decade in facial biometrics, which took him into the world of finance, gaming, preventive defence and money laundering before the subliminal mind management technology blew his brains out. His romance with the media endures since 1994, duly responded by Outlook, among others.

A survivor of two brain-strokes, triggered by a ship explosion in the 70s, Veeresh moved beyond fear decades ago.

 

 

 

 


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