You can call them Gorettes-disciples of Al Gore who are spreading the word on global warming with zeal and vigour. Some of them have been briefed personally by Al Gore himself and are entrusted with the task of reaching out to their local communities with the message of climate change.
One such is Anjuli Pandit, who was a student in Miami when she chanced upon the Inconvenient Truth and its director Al Gore while “looking for more information on global warming”. She then enrolled for Gore’s personalised 5-day long training programme and joined his “green army” “I am now here spreading the word about the climate project and what we can do in India and elsewhere to help,” says Anjuli, project manager, Climate Project-India.
On Friday, Climate Project-India in collaboration with Sanctuary magazine treated the students of Cumballa Hill High School to a presentation on the subject at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA). It was an impassioned pitch at the end of which even the sceptical would have been converted. With a combination of footage from the film and shots of Mumbai’s travails like the 26/7 deluge, the message was put across effectively-save the climate or perish. “We are expected to give 10 Inconvenient Truth presentations within a year,” says Pandit.
Media analyst Meenakshi Madhvani, who trained with Al Gore at Delhi in March this year, does it a bit more simply. “The reason why the global warming message is a success is that ordinary people are involved in it, who are spreading the word,” says Madhvani, who often organises the Inconvenient Truth slide show and incorporates
100 little things such as switching off lights and conserving water to help reduce the carbon foot print.
The evangelistic approach is proving to be a success, especially with school children, who are queueing up to join Gore’s green army. Sooraj Bhisnoi, a Std IX student of Poddar High School, is among the early recruits. Sooraj, who put up a skit on global warming and Santa Claus at the theatre says, “The earth has gotten warmer, I can feel it and we must do something about it.”
b_sanghamitra@dnaindia.net
