Transform your online zeal into offline activism

Each one of us has different strength, different surroundings. Our priorities are also based on the need of our immediate surroundings. Think about what your locality/town/city needs the most, and then try to find out whether you could help make a difference.  Talk to your youth club and community leaders. Get support from your friends and the local people (their parents).  Does it sound fun? If it doesn’t, then stop complaining. Stop saying, “The government is sleeping…”

Each one of us has his/her own way of doing things and a set of special needs. Try to understand what you’re passionate about and then proceed with the painful task of thinking. Be realistic. A solution to any social problem that has existed for several years cannot be found immediately. Even if you think you’ve found a solution, it might take years to get into effect or produce a visible change. 

We have listed 10 ways you could transform your online zeal into offline activism: Part 1 and Part 2.

You could choose any one of these 10 ideas and get into action. There are many ways you could contribute. You could also create a group: http://www.jaagore.com/groups and post links of your activities and discussions on our Facebook page to inform and get more people to participate. It’s likely that you’ll get a lot of responses but please remember, there is no substitute to the offline work—the real work, if you like. 

If all your online enthusiasm doesn’t transform into the real world, congratulations! You’ve become just like those people who are enormously passionate about a social cause but have no real intention whatsoever to do the boring, hard work. 

“An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.”— Sydney J. Harris

Conserve Energy Conserve Life

One aspect of knowledge is that is tends to make its possessors cynical. When the hidden complexity of seemingly simple systems makes itself apparent our incapacity to master the system in its entirety is the first realization we afford ourselves. This, I am speaking in reference to the environment. With awareness and scientific attitude on a rise it is becoming increasingly stark that the numbers of things we have contributed negatively to the planet majorly outweigh the positives, which happen to be zero. We like to think that the special status we have that has been provided to us by chance as the dominant specie also sanctions the license to use the planet as a workshop and see how much of our products it can take before it starts giving things back.

Most activities that can be associated with human habitation are in some way or the other harmful to the environment. For example, electricity, the most revolutionary human discovery comes with tremendous harmful emissions to the environment irrespective of the generation method. Hydro electricity releases superheated water in the water bodies which charge aquatic extinction as fees for keeping our houses lit. Thermal electricity releases fumes, which after going through various layers of the atmosphere and causing havoc there, returns back to us in some or the other form that is not appreciated by humans. There’s some justice here, if you are looking for it, as in this case we are the ones causing damage to ourselves to keep our houses lit. But then we pay the electricity bill anyway. We, however, fulfill our responsibility as caring species of the planet by mulling over which method will cause lesser damage and try to implement that with a greater gusto.

Modern structure of the world is such that there are provisions made for most concerns that a considerable section of the population can have. Sounds ideal? Now you should know that the concept of ideal is a total abstract. There is nothing ideal in this world. The downside of this facility is that unless your concern becomes a concern to a major section it does not merit a hearing. This is where the need to be able to take measures on your own comes to the foreground. A single person, a single locality, a single district, a single town, a single state and even a single country cannot undo changes happening in a foreign country that cause havoc in your backyard. There’s no point in waiting for international legislation to come to your rescue. You can start with changes in your own life. Energy conservation doesn’t have to be a public undertaking.

Global warming and warming up to responsibility

Our general discourse daily spans a wide variety of topics. We take sides in national politics, pass judgment on politicians, make unrealized suggestions on civic matters and ardently support our national team. We have sure solutions for corruption and the crowded public transport. We are all, without a doubt, tremendously knowledgeable on world history and the culture of India. Furthermore, all these activities are accomplished while maintaining a healthy interest in the private lives of actors, actresses, cricketers, politicians, businessmen and the girl/guy from the opposite building. Life is busy.

We even have ingenious solutions to all the environmental problems plaguing our planet. Take global warming as an instance. Our simple understanding is that earth is getting warmer and ice is melting. That’s comprehension enough for us to provide environment altering solutions or at least account for half an hour of office travel time on certain weekdays. We however fail to realize that the casual resignation that we practice towards most other aspects of modern life will be of fatal consequence to not only ourselves but to the entire planet in case of Global Warming. There’s always someone or the other to pass the responsibility onto about everything else. In this case the responsibility will have to be shouldered by all of us. Together.

The above-mentioned basic understanding of Global Warming is of little use in getting people to move towards making environmental changes. That’s the shortcoming of easy-to-consume, fast-food variety descriptions of important issues. They are consumed real fast and real wide, real quickly, but fail to leave any noteworthy impact. Global Warming is essentially a scientific issue. Unless we have an understanding of the scientific basis for tall claims by environmental organizations, we will not be able to promise full support to the cause. The earth is getting warm but how and why do we need to be bothered by it? Do we realize how close the problem is to every one of us? Have we contributed to the crisis?

Here’s a quick description.
Any activity which unbalances the amount of carbon dioxide in atmosphere contributes to global warming. Carbon Dioxide absorbs heat which should ideally escape back to space and thus ends up increasing the temperature of the planet. Increased temperature melts ice, changes climate and causes havoc. Some of the major activities responsible for global warming are as casual as burning of fossil fuels, using vehicles and deforestation.

The casualness of these activities has a two-fold aspect. It is what makes them widespread and at the same time leaves the possibilities of change in the hands of each and every one of us.

We all dream of playing a part in the shaping the planets future. A potential global catastrophe like environment shift can surprisingly serve as the reason to bring everyone together. With information dissipation on a rise and awareness of environmental issues gaining importance it is only a matter of time before the big corporate interests are made to relent into giving way to big legislation changes leading to betterment in our handling of the environment.

There is however no reason to wait for governments and businessmen to play heroes who save the earth against disaster. There are small steps we can all take that will go a long way eventually and also serve as proof that we have, though on a small level, made a change we can be proud of.

Earth Hour: Switch off your lights, switch on your minds

In India last year, more than five million people and 56 cities switched off their lights for one hour to call for immediate action for climate change that saved approximately 1000 MW of power. (Wow!)

The Indian government reciprocated by announcing its commitment to slow the growth of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 prior to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

That one hour that showed that we can all make a difference at an individual level is called Earth Hour. It’s a WWF initiative which sends across an inspiring message of hope and action for climate change by doing something very simple — turning off our lights for one hour. Earth Hour 2010 continues to be a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community to stand up, to show leadership and be responsible for our future.
Celebrities and cricketers including Aamir Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble have supported the cause with Abhishek Bachchan pledging his support as the brand ambassador. Key historic and landmark buildings like Qutub Minar, Red Fort, Humanyun’s Tomb and Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus switched off their lights on Earth Hour 2009. Connaught Place in Delhi and Brigade Road in Bangalore offered a unique visual spectacle with just the essential lights turned on. And of course Jaago Re! is a huge fan of this initiative!

This year more than one billion people are expected to switch off their lights in over 6000 cities around the world for one hour on Saturday at 8:30 pm local time.

Join the cause, if you care to show to the world that India is united in its stand against global warming and is demanding immediate action. Switch off your lights. Switch on your minds.

Take action against politicians who abuse power

These politicians are really a big trouble for citizens. They don’t have any civic sense and they are always with a group of useless and brainless people who think that they are the ultimate. They don’t think about the citizens or how much trouble they are causing to them. I live in Hyderabad, near hi-tech city. There is a small politician who owns a hotel in front of my building. Actually he has constructed his hotel on to the road (beyond his area), without proper parking space or emergency measures like fire accidents. He has constructed generators room on the road. But the municipality or government or police don’t take any action against him. They are not even willing to register complaint against them and whenever any resident asks them to move their vehicles, they manhandle them. 

Volunteer for NGO Work on www.jaagore.com

Jaagore.com has different solutions for all users who want to get informed and connected on issues related to ‘Social Well-being’ in our country. The four main sections on the portal are – Act, Speak up, Learn and Connect. The first of these four sections is called ‘Volunteer’ which hosts a bank of live volunteering opportunities posted by various NGO’s (Non-governmental organizations) who are registered on the portal. You could view this section at www.jaagore.com/volunteer .

‘Act’ section enables citizens to convert their intent of contributing to social causes to reality. This section is a pool of active projects being run by various NGO’s in different parts of the country which requires volunteer assistance and support. Currently more than 280 volunteering projects are being featured in this section which users could opt for. Even users who are not registered on the portal are encouraged to get connected with NGO’s projects they may be interested in contributing to.

‘Volunteer’ section simplifies the user search for a suitable NGO project or opportunity with the help of different ‘Search’ options. A user could filter the projects by relevant fields like ‘ Issues’ which gives a list of various issues that are featured currently on the portal. The second search filter is ‘City’ where user can select the location where they are interested in. The third option is the ‘NGO name’ by which user can specifically search for an NGO of choice. The last, but not the least, is the filter of ‘Date’ where user gets to search for work of specific dates like holidays or weekends.

The main page of this section features 10 projects from the project pool which get selected dynamically. The users can view all the projects by clicking on ‘View all’ where the information is displayed page-wise chronologically. Each project listing carries the gist of information like Issue category, Location, Dates and a brief description.

Each project listing has three options for the users – NGO Profile, Project details and Volunteer. ‘NGO profile’ links to the profile page of the contributing NGO while the ‘Project details’ links to the project description page. The ‘Volunteer’ tab links to the page where a user can submit cursory details and thereby a notification gets sent to both the NGO and the user alerting the NGO of the user interest to volunteer for the chosen project.

Users can choose the projects not only basis the Issue or the City but also basis if the work is based at the NGO office or could be completed at the user location. Volunteer contribution is keenly desired by NGO’s for skilled projects like Website management, Corporate presentation-making, Fund-raising etc. Other volunteers who wish to have a real-time experience of NGO operations could opt for projects being conducted at the NGO location.

Climate Change and what we can do about it

The world around us is changing. When most people think of global warming, they think of icebergs melting, seas rising and low-lying areas getting flooded. But it is no longer just an apocalyptic warning of doom. It is no longer something that will happen in some distant land. 

  

The impact of climate change is no longer something that will come in the future – it is happening right here… right now. It is difficult to believe raising price of Onion is directly linked to impact of climate change and its effects on our farming systems, market, insurance sector and so on..We are the worst hit due to climate change. Especially the livelihood of poor communities from rural India is affected heavily.

Recent Flashfloods in Karnataka and Andhra, hurricanes, droughts, heat waves and other natural disasters are becoming commonplace. Each one of us is being affected.

 

 Hence it is very important to record these changes happening around us, sharing this information among others, building networks of all stakeholders and supporting the Government in evolving appropriate policies in addressing climate change issues in terms of mitigation and adaptation to protect people and wildlife on this planet.

On www.jaagore.com, we are trying to raise awareness about issues related to Global Warming and Environment. Please logon to www.jaagore.com/learn and read up on this issue and related articles