Cause ‘n’ effect

How green was my valley…the days spent in the countryside,cycling,bathing in the river streams,jumping in the ponds and playing in the orchards in the afternoon…This was about 22 years back,recalls Vivek Trivedi,ruing the fact that in the last ten years,there’s been a drastic change in the weather conditions,with winter shrinking,summers getting longer,scarcity of monsoon,gradual disappearance of rivers,drying up of ponds,water bodies. “Climate change is of serious concern,for if we did not focus on the issue now,our future generations will have to suffer,’’ says Vivek,who is at present working on UNDP and Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation programme as Director at the MC,Chandigarh.

Vivek has been been selected to be trained by former US Vice-President Noble Laureate Al Gore at The Climate Project – Australia Asia Pacific Summit in Melbourne under the Al Gore Leadership Programme. The summit will bring together 300 people representing a diverse cross-section of industry,advocacy and broad social groupings from Australia and the Asia Pacific region and Gore and a panel of international experts will provide training,hosted by the Australian Conservation Foundation. The A-P Summit is a unique forum for delegates to focus on climate change in the months prior to the UNFCCC Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009,the idea being that the delegates become effective peer-based communicators of the pathways towards solutions of dangerous climate change and a combined voice able to provide a regional focus on the way forward. “Twenty Indians from various walks of life,journalists,scientists,social development professionals,bureaucrats,academicians and policy makers will be part of this summit and it will give me a chance to understand the deep concern over climate change in regard with local governments,which are in a unique position to tackle the cause and effects of climate change,’’ explains the young social development professional with a background of PG in Social Work. His role at the summit,says Trivedi,will hopefully give him a chance to inspire and create change in order to avoid catastrophic climate change here in India. “I plan to be an advocate for this work in the important five month lead-up to the Copenhagen climate change negotiations,” Vivek says the need is to catalyze and sustain behavioural change at individual and community levels necessary for building a resilient community. Climate change impacts are already being observed,signaling an urgent need for response measures that minimize current vulnerabilities.