Many thanks
to all participants for submitting their photos and sharing their climate change stories!
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Nakkeran Thirunavakkarasu, 22 years
Tamilnadu, IndiaNakkeran Thirunavakkarasu is in his final year studying mechanical engineering in Tamilnadu,India. In his final year he is working on a project looking at purifying waste water with help of solar energy.
The project is called "studies on solar stills coupled with biomass energy". Nakkeran is an active member in various social clubs and programmes aimed at educating illiterate people around where he lives.
'In the past there was enough rain, but now things are different. The rain has disappeared. The drinking water that we used to fetch from the riverbeds can no longer be found. There is a lot of thirst; even the few livestock we own have so little water. What can I do to address this thirst about losing our home, about losing our crops, about going hungry? I get so anxious. There aren't enough words to express the pain.'
Climate change is real, indisputable and will, in one way or another, affect every human being alive today and hundreds of millions more who will be born in the coming decades. Climate change shows up countless weaknesses in our current institutional architecture, including its human rights mechanisms. As a world, as nations, as peoples and as rights-holders, none of us are fully prepared for most of the likely future scenarios, including both climate processes and climate events, that rising sea levels, crop failures, extreme storms and other environmental failings are likely to bring about. It is important to inform the people about the causes and effects of climate change.The fact is that despite what many nations, companies, cities and people are starting to reduce their emissions, the world is emitting more CO2 into the air than ever before, which inturn causes decrease in sea ice cover and global glacier retreat. Deforestation and Degradation also play a major role. These effects creates impacts on adequate housing, security of tenure, lands, property and peaceful enjoyment of possessions, privacy, security for a person, movement from one place and to choose one's residence.
While strategies of reduction, prevention and mitigation are all critical and must be put in place, we need to dramatically improve our approaches to adaptation and begin promptly to turn theories into real plans, backed by political will, finance and humanitarianism grounded in our shared humanity. And, finally, as far as human rights are concerned, we need to support the contention that an integral approach to climate change demands that human rights and adaptation strategies are pursued hand-in-hand, and only in so doing can we hope for the best of all possible outcomes. National Earth Day is on the 22nd of April. I think everyone should get involved.
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