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On the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, as we sit inside our homes, we have never found more time and space to think about our home, our planet Earth. Over the course of several centuries, ‘man has mastered the planet Earth’ or so it is believed. The human will, the grit, the wild ambition and most of all, the greed has seemingly ‘conquered’ the Earth, turning everything to the human use. “We are at the tipping point of action. We have all the solutions available, and yet politicians and corporates continue as if everything is normal,” says 23-year-old climate activist, writer and Global Peace Ambassador John Paul Jose.
He continues, “Over the years, most nations have chosen profits over life, and so global emissions and the destruction of nature has continued to rise. However, this is the final warning now. This is our last chance to keep global warming at 1.5 degree Celsius. Some regions have already seen the temperature rise beyond that and since 2018, India has been facing the worst of disasters with displacements and death. Even the economic loss out of has very high. All the predictions of IPCC including the case of Australia has come true, but the crisis is earlier than we noticed and actions need to be quick. India being the most vulnerable region should treat climate crisis as a crisis. During a crisis, we declare an emergency and quick actions are taken to avert the crisis. When it comes to climate crisis its nowhere in sight.
“As we know, historically, many movements across the world were led by the youth and it was in the 1970s when we saw large scale global environmental justice movement. If those movements were for the society and ecosystem, the climate movement is for the survival of everything and continuity of life on earth.” Jose has been leading a movement to make everyone aware of how fast the change is coming and what we can all do about it.
At a time when our physical spaces are confined and movement is stifled, the only constant in our lives is our own creativity.
Homegrown as a brand has always stood for responding to the Indian youth’s needs, and to this end, we bring to you HG Academy, to teach you everything your school didn’t. As we spend our days inside our homes and within ourselves, HG Academy with its commune of creative thought leaders and pioneers will teach you the basics that you might not get access to elsewhere. We hope for it to evolve into a culture of creation, collaboration, discovery through an exchange of thoughts and ideas.
In light of Earth Day today, we have John Paul Jose over to discuss justice and activism with us as we learn to navigate the pollution problem as a people. He is one of the youth leaders of Fridays For Future in India. He talks about how badly Indian forests are affected due to the worsening climate change and tackles topics like sustainable development and how Indians are trying to save water, food, and trees.
On thinking about the planet amidst the COVID-19 scare, he says, “ COVID-19 is a wakeup call to the world. It shows that we are not even prepared for a short term crisis like this. If we don’t act now, it will be difficult at the full swing of the climate crisis as well. This crisis shows how it impacts everyone. No matter the economic status or location, everyone and everything including the economy is in danger. Same or much worse goes with the climate crisis. During this crisis, we have seen nature coming back to life in many areas, it shows if we could give up our business as usual attitude nature can heal itself provided that we do our part to part of the solution. But an interesting fact behind the management of COVID-19 around the world is that when we treat a crisis as a crisis situation, we can make quick decisions and for the sake of life we could stop everything. If such quick actions and standstill for-profits can be made why is the same level of action not possible when dealing with the climate crisis? Climate crisis is frequent now and the loss from it is beyond the profits. And it’s illogical that we are still lagging behind the action.”
The following are his resource recommendations if you are interested in learning more about climate change and the environment:
Podcasts:
1. Future for Life Institute air numerous talks on climate change, deforestation, fossil
fuel industry, carbon emissions, etc.
2. In relation to the Australian environment and forest fire, if anyone would like to listen
more WWF Australia has started a few podcasts
3. A collection of various talks to listen on climate change denial, mitigation, etc
including those of Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough can be found at BBC
4. Listen to podcasts on climate action on Clean Technica. Attaching one of renowned
scientist Michael E Mann
5. For those who are interested in listening to climate change and Arctic, Umea
University initiative on Arctic Circle.
6. Sustainable has weekly podcasts on the environment.
7. Listen to Christiana Figueres, one who made Paris Agreement happen
8. Listen to 350.org founder at the New Yorker on the pandemic and environment
Books:
1. The Future We Choose: Surviving Climate Crisis: Christina Figueres (On the
future of climate crisis)
2. Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking - Rachel Love Nuwer
(Explore into the business of wildlife trade, a case related to COVID-19)
3. The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World - Andrea Wulf
(Naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the
the process created modern environmentalism)
4. Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm - Isabella Tree
5. Nature’s Restoration: People and Places on the Front Lines of Conservation - Peter
Friederici
6. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative -
Florence Williams
7. The Sense of Wonder: A Celebration of Nature for Parents and Children - Rachel
Carson
8. Renewal: How Nature Awakens Our Creativity, Compassion, and Joy - Andrés R
Edwards
9. The Way Home: Tales from a Life Without Technology - Mark Boyle
10. Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
11. The Uninhabitable Earth - David Wallace-Wells
12. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History - Elizabeth Kolbert
13. The End of Nature - Bill McKibben
14. On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal - Naomi Klein
15. Losing Earth - Nathaniel Rich
16. Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change
- George Marshall
17. Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning - George Monbiot
18. Earth: Bill McKibben
19. Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You
Have - Tatiana Schlossberg
20. Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet,
Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy - Michael E. Mann and Tom Toles
21. Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future - Mary
Robinson
22. The Tantrum That Saved the World: Megan Herbert and Michael E. Mann
23. Doughnut Economics: Kate Raworth
24. The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us: Diane Ackerman
Documentaries:
1. Planet Earth (Since 2006)
2. Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (2013)
3. Years of living dangerously (Since 2014)
4. Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014)
5. Racing Extinction (2015)
6. After the Spill (2015)
7. This Changes Everything (2015)
8. Tomorrow (2015)
9. Before the Flood (2016)
10. A Plastic Ocean (2016)
11. Death By A Thousand Cuts (2016)
12. River of Gold (2016)
13. Ice on Fire (2019)
14. 2040 (2019)
15. Costs (2020)
People/Accounts to follow:
1. @ecosia
2. @junglekeepers
3. @get.waste.ed
4. @americanrivers
5. @mongabay
6. @downtoearth
7. @lonelywhale
8. @patagonia
9. @ipcc
10. @least.waste
11. @cifor_forests
12. @rainforestactionnetwork
13. @amazonaid
14. @amazonwatch
15. @earthdaynetwork
16. @savethereef
17. @redefininghuman
18. @amazonfrontlines
19. @racingextinction
20. @fridaysforfuture
21. @extinctionrebellion
22. @plasticpollutes
23. @people.vs.oil
24. @woke_to_the_planet
25. @rainforestalliance
26. @greenmatters
27. @greenpeace
28. @wwf
29. @unep
30. @globallandscapesforum
31. @earthalliance
32. @bushheritageaus
33. @stopadanimovement
34. @350org
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