Educating youth on climate change

« Hands-on exercise: The youth learning climate change through use of GIS
The event is a prequel to the main one scheduled for November 17-19
Bhutan’s Climate summit To provide a clearer picture to the region’s future generation, 40 youth from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal are begin taught about how climate change is occurring the world over.

A part of the upcoming Bhutan’s Climate Summit scheduled for November 17-19, the idea was to enable the youth gathered at the swimming pool complex to understand better through use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

In an effort to support awareness, foster regional cooperation and build participating nations’ capacities, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) since yesterday, began providing hands-on exercise and tips on addressing issues of climate change.

ICIMOD’s senior GIS specialist, Birendra Bajracharya said through the GIS system, they could learn of the rate of glaciers melting and detect how and how much of it was changing.

“The system will also help locate severity of natural and climatic damages in a place,” he said. “That way, it helps in preparing the emergency response mapping.”

One of the participants, a Sherubtse graduate, Sonam Pelzom, felt it such an exercise was timely, particularly at time when the country was experiencing disasters associated with climate change like dengue out break in colder regions and the impending threat from glacial lake outburst floods.

“I had little knowledge on climate change and never knew how GIS helped detect the impacts,” she said, adding it was about time the rest of the Bhutanese youth should be brought up to speed with such systems.

A post-graduate student in environment science from Nepal, Ashish Adhikari said the tips he gained from the use of GIS would buttress his research on wild life that he intends to venture on soon.

The need to target the youth, ICIMOD division head Basanta Shrestha said, because they made up half the region’s population, representing an important segment in the society.

“They need to be empowered with the right kind of tools and technologies, and information to have better understanding of climate change,” he said. “Satellite-based technology is one of the tools that can be used in detecting the change process of the glaciers in the 70s, 80s and 90s and now and see how change is taking place.”

“Unless we mobilise the right kind of force in our society, we will never be complete in the context of fulfilling the target of addressing climate change,” he said. “The youth is one among them.”

Satellite-based information in combination with field level data, he explained, provided vital knowledge in terms of understanding and monitoring the change and predicting future scenarios of climate change.

The youth comprising conservationists, activists, civil society members, members of non-governmental organisations, media representatives and students will continue with the program until November 18.

Source: kuenselonline