KATHMANDU, APR 14 -

People are aware about climate change but don’t think it’s a problem. Unfortunately, it already is. Climate change is happening worldwide and mostly due to human activities. And it is every individual who has to make sure he or she minimises their impact on the planet.

This was the message at the Climate Change Concert, the first ‘carbon-neutral’ concert in South Asia, which was held on Saturday at Basantpur. The concert was organized by International Climate Champions Network Nepal (ICCNN) and was supported by the British Council.

Why ‘carbon-neutral’, you might ask? Because, we, the organizers, intend to plant trees equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide that the concert generated. It might not be a big step, but it is still a step.

The highlight of the concert was a song dedicated to the environment titled Jagou, which means, ‘Wake up before it’s too late”. The song by Rojesh Shrestha, lead singer of X-Mantra Band and also one of the ten International Climate Champions of the British Council, highlights the vulnerabilities caused by climate change. A digital library, thegreenwatch.net, created by Sushila Pandit, another Climate Champion, was launched at the event as well. The digital library is a platform for everyone to get information on climate change and be a part of the discussion on the issue.      

However, now that the concert is over, our work is not yet finished. We are now calculating the carbon emissions that occurred during the concert, and based upon those calculations, we will plant trees to neutralise the carbon emitted.

So far, it has been estimated that we generated around 800 kg of Carbon Dioxide, but we need more data such as paper used, and emissions caused by artists and the supporting organisations. For the present 800 kg of CO2, we need to plant 946 new trees or adopt 36 matured trees. A single tree offsets around 23 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere, according to scientific research.

This data has been collected by collating the direct emissions caused by the use of personal vehicles

and other public transportations, tee-shirts, and the sound system used at the event.

The event, which emphasized upon ‘Climate Change: My Future, My Concern’, could be deemed successful. But we won’t be successful unless each one of us is made aware that climate change exists, and affects all of us.

Shahi is with The Kathmandu Post and was one of the organizers of the concert.

 

Posted on: 2010-04-14 09:16

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