We knew the end was near, we didn’t know it was this near. Half of India is currently reeling from a water crisis, cities are experiencing abnormally high temperatures, himalayan glaciers are melting faster than predicted.
According to reports, a 16-year-old student named Aman Sharma has initiated a petition on Change.org in May. He is urging the govt to declare a climate emergency.
His petition was inspired by the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg who has been fighting to create more awareness about the growing climate emergency.
His petition gathered more than 17,000 signatures which included demands such as increasing the country’s green cover and meeting pledges made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement to try to limit a rise in global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
He mentioned his reason for launching the petition also.
I started this campaign to put pressure on the government because if we keep silent right now then it’s going to affect our survival in the future.
Aman’s petition has been backed by several celebrities and he aims to get as much visibility on this as possible. The recent Chennai water crisis is also one of the reasons for inititaing this petition. With the four main reservoirs dried up in the city, the NITI Aayog report that 21 cities will run out of the water by 2020 is the horror that we are moving towards.
Not only the South, but the North is also going through a severe heat wave with 36 people dying and the capital facing its hottest recorded temperature, i.e. 48 degrees Celsius.
Seeing the amount of devastation, an Instagram influencer has also launched a petition asking the government to declare climate emergency which has gotten about 300,000 signatures.
But the constant efforts by the people asking the government to recognize that the country is in major trouble hasn’t worked out yet. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has still not responded.
