An International climate conference Dialogue for Our Future: A Call to Climate Action was held in Dharamshala from April 21 to 23to mark Earth Day which falls on April 22. The three-day meeting was attended by scientists, activists, authors, environmentalists, academicians and researchers. The event was held both on- and offline, covering different topics on climate change and conserving the global system.
Participants received special audience with His Holiness
On first day of the conference, the founder of the Green Generation Initiative, a youth led non-profit organisation that focus on educating youngster to love nature, and climate activist 26-year-old Elizabeth Wathuthi, addressed the delegates. She said, “We still somehow find ourselves at the precipice of an interconnected triple-planetary emergency of our climate, nature and pollution crises. And I have found myself asking how this can be, why is it that even as we are presented with more and more information about the causes and the solutions to these problems, we are failing to take the actions needed to address them?”. Another climate change advocate, Sonam Wangchuk from Ladakh, attended the conference with an ice block from the glacier at the Khardungla Pass in Ladakh, with the message that this was to emphases the rapid melting of glaciers due to global warming and climate change. He spoke about being mindful of human activities and living in harmony with nature, and emphasized the importance of the Himalayas to the rest of the world as major a source of freshwater.
Sonam Wangchuk presenting ice block to His Holiness
Photo: OHHDL
On the second day of the Conference, Earth Day, all the conference participants received a special audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Sonam Wangchuk presented his block of ice to His Holiness to serve as an “urgent reminder of how fast Himalayan glaciers and other glaciers around the world are melting due to climate change”. His Holiness acknowledged the importance of water and said that human being shave responsibility for securing clean water for future generations. The meeting continued with discussions on “saving our Global system” and “the role of technology and businesses”.
The third day focused on the topic Why the Third Pole Matters and Energy Democracy: Local Solutions in Action. Tibet is considered by environmentalists to be the Third Pole and their concern is that Tibet’s glaciers are melting due to rising temperature with resultant release of methane from the melting permafrost. There was discussion about how to change energy model so that ordinary people can be directly involved.
On the final day of the meeting Kim Stanley Robinson, bestselling author and climate science visionary, spoke on the topic of a carbon free future and reflected on the key take-away of the conference – a message of justice, biodiversity, carbon and values.
The conference was co-hosted by Czechs support Tibet – a network that focuses on educating Czech public about the real situation inside Tibet, International Campaign for Tibet – non-profit advocacy group working to promote democratic freedoms for Tibetans, Eurac Research – a private research center headquartered in Bolzano, South Tyrol and the Tibet Policy Institute – the Central Tibetan Administration also known as Tibetan Government-in-Exile’s think-tank and policy analysis institute based in Dharamshala.
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