Green Concern
The entire world depends on a balance, when it comes to receiving and offering support for development. But unfortunately, we humans have been so avaricious for comfort that the balance between the earth and humans has now been disturbed. We have been so engrossed in extracting benefits from our nature that we have forgotten to reciprocate equally.
I was enlightened about this issue in my 8th grade and realised how callous we (including myself) have been towards our mother nature’s ailments. Initially, I tried to contribute to the idea of sustainable development by spreading awareness among my peers about the same. I believed that by utilizing the potential of clean energies, which are abundant in the region (like solar energy), we could aim to substitute the enormous consumption of fossil fuels which are non renewable resources. This way we could preserve the oil and petroleum resources for the future generations. I presented this idea through a working model in the Social Science exhibition 2010 at my school. I tried to convey the idea of utilizing the excess solar energy in the region for multifarious purposes ranging from generating electricity to heating water and cooking food. (I’ve elaborated on this exhibition project in the “Solar to Electrical energy” section under “Energy Conversions” in the “Projects” segment). The panel of judges was impressed by the idea and awarded my project a Runner-up prize.
In the next year I decided to further spread the knowledge of ecological consciousness among my friends and hence participated in the Project 5S (School Students’ Struggle for Sustainability and to Save environment) organised by The Institution of Engineers India – Qatar chapter in January 2011. This was a year-long competition between 7 high schools for the Ambassador’s Rolling Trophy which was presented to the school that earned the highest points in the environment competition. This competition involved a quiz, a debate session, school books recycling program in the participating schools, an Indian Community Fair and presentations summarizing the schools’ efforts to save the environment. I tried my best to encourage my friends to participate in the competition. The school too reciprocated to my enthusiasm by placing me in the core student team, along with 5 of my seniors, to plan the school’s active participation in the contest. Over the next twelve months, our team participated in all of the above mentioned segments of the competition. After working tirelessly for collecting books to be recycled, planting saplings in the school garden, cutting down on school’s electricity and water bills, the efforts paid off once my school clinched the Ambassador’s Rolling Trophy at the conclusion of the competition.
During the course of those 12 months, 2 of my friends and I teamed up for the Science Exhibition Quest 2011 at my school where we promoted the concept of alternative clean energies. Our project was aimed at promoting organic farming using cleaner and greener energy sources like solar energy and bio fuels. This project was appreciated to be economically viable and feasible and bagged us a runner up award.
Later our team was invited to represent our school in an inter school science exhibition at Shantinikaten Indian School, Qatar in February 2011. Our team secured the 2nd Prize for our school in the inter school competition. Our three-member team continued its efforts to extend environmental awareness among the school juniors through the “Shrishti” social science exhibition at our school, where we introduced our friends to ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). Through the concept of OTEC, we could explain our juniors the benefits of clean renewable energies. Our aim was make the youngest group of students aware about environmental hazards and possible alternatives so that they could discuss these issues with their peers and spread the environmental concern in the school.
I helped my team organise various shuttle buses for the conference delegates, check in and out the conference volunteers and transfer messages to other volunteer departments. To the amusement of my fellow volunteers, I was the youngest in their team. So whenever the conference delegates questioned me about my employment or profession, “high school student” was a very atypical reply. (I’ve elaborated on this conference experience in the “UN Climate Conference” tab under “Volunteer experiences” in the “Social Services” menu). After experiencing the informative sessions about Qatar’s efforts to protect our environment, I encouraged my batch mates to visit the Qatar Sustainability Expo 2012 that was exhibited adjacent to my volunteer department. My school then decided to participate in a special event – “Doha Bank and Qatar Petroleum DG/HSE Climate Change Schools Competition” which was organized in conjunction with the Climate Change Conference COP18. We contributed to above mentioned event in the Energy and Industry Pavilion, Doha Exhibition Centre (DEC). 4 of my friends and I, participated in an interactive audio-visual session and consequentially answered questions asked the by environment experts in the audience.
Meanwhile, my efforts combined with those of my school mates, as we participated in the 2nd Project 5S 2012-13 (School Students’ Struggle for Sustainability and to Save environment) organised by The Institution of Engineers India – Qatar chapter. This time I represented my school as its Science Club Director in the Indian Community Fair conducted by the Indian Community Centre. We collected a school record 8000 books to be recycled and conducted an audio-visual presentation on Climate Change - mitigation and adaptation with 4 of my school mates. Our efforts were mainly at informing people about the massive wastage of resources, the consequences and possible solutions or mitigation methods. The competition concluded in March 2013 as we clinched the Ambassador’s Rolling Trophy second time consecutively. I had previously addressed the same issue in conjunction with disaster management at Global Classrooms International Model UN (GCIMUN), New York in the General Assembly 3.
In my opinion, we should address to Mother Nature’s human-induced ailments by regarding it as a living being. Our world has already toiled to damage the earth’s lungs (the rainforests) to such an extent that we are now confused about our most urgent response to climate change. To present my views on this issue, I grouped with 2 of my batch mates to participate in the 12th annual International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) debate contest 2012-13 organised by Bickel & Brewer Foundation and New York University. We mentioned our views about why adaptation should be the most urgent response to climate change and discussed similar issues with the school juniors.
Throughout my high school, I have tried to play a role in protecting our nature against the human exploitation. We should utilise nature’s resources for necessities and not squander them for materialistic luxuries. The resources are best utilised for a development that’s sustainable and considers future demands. Hence it is said that “We didn’t inherit the world from our ancestors; we borough it from our future generations.”
Later, as I worked to seize wastage of resources like water and electricity at school, I aimed to contribute at larger platforms and legal forums. I got my opportunity during the Doha 2012 UN Climate Change Conference COP18 | CMP8. I decided to participate as a volunteer and assist the conference delegates to address the burning ecological issues in the region. Since I had already been involved in the same volunteer group at the 20th World Petroleum Congress in December 2011 (for more details refer to the “WPC” section under “Volunteer experiences” in “Social Services”), this time I had been promoted to the position of Assistant Manager of the Work Force and Operations Team.
