Clean-air mission on two wheels

The Telegraph , Friday, January 09, 2009
Correspondent : MALINI BANERJEE

Vinay Jaju and Huub Dekkers, who will cycle to Delhi for a green cause. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha From Calcutta to the capital on two wheels, powered by two legs and the drive to clean up the air. That’s the mission on which two young men will embark this January 18.

Even as the city is on the boil over the phase-out of two-stroke autorickshaws, Calcutta boy Vinay Jaju, 25, and Dutch student Huub Dekkers, 22, are preparing to cycle to Delhi for Climate Ride. The voyage, which is expected to end on February 4, aims to draw attention to the need for renewable alternatives to coal and other fossil fuels.

“Coal is responsible for two-thirds of the CO2 emissions in India, and is the single largest contributor to global warming,” feels Jaju, who is the founder of Switch On! The project was conceived to spread awareness about climate change in city schools and colleges.

Flagging off the trip will be a city-wide ride with students that will be a part of the Climate Urgency Fair at the Nature Study Park Calcutta on January 15 to 17. The fair involves sit-and-draw contests, quizzes and workshops on video making, photography, theatre and lots more, in partnership with Concern for Calcutta and WWF.

Jaju and Dekkers will set off early on January 18 for Delhi, via the Jharia coalfields, Allahabad, Varanasi and Agra. On their way, they aim to collect 1,500 signatures voicing opposition to carbon-intensive energy policies.

“Sustaining a growth rate of 8 per cent requires an increase in installed power capacity from 160,000 MW to 800,000 MW by 2031-32. The energy policy is still dependent on coal. How can this make sense at a time when we face a climate and energy crisis?” asks Jaju.

The activists point out that global annual deaths resulting from pollutants from coal-based power generation number around 170,000.

India accounts for the world’s greatest concentration of coal fires. Rising surface temperatures and toxic by-products in groundwater, soil and air have turned the densely populated Raniganj, Singareni and Jharia coal fields into wastelands, they say, quoting from a report titled ‘Fires in the Hole’ in the Smithsonian magazine.

Jaju and Dekkers will visit coal-affected communities to document the hazards they face. The journey will be partly documented by Ekta Kothari, an FTII graduate and part of Switch On!

 
SOURCE : Friday, January 09, 2009
 


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