Climate talks, over a cup of tea
The Hindu
Climate Cafes being held across Kerala for commoners to express their views
Kerala has faced a series of natural disasters over the past decade and every one has something to say about climate change, which led to the situation we are in. However, mainstream discussions are often dominated by scientists and policy makers while the opinions of commoners are rarely heard.
Well, you could now step into a Climate Cafe in your locality where you could chat about climatic conditions and the environment in general over a cup of coffee. At least a few interested ears are guaranteed.
Climate Cafe is not a novel concept. It was introduced by Rebecca Nestor from Climate Psychology Alliance in her hometown Oxford in the United Kingdom around 2018 where anyone could join and talk about climate and problems caused by climate change. Now the concept is spread across the globe and the little-hole-in-the-wall cafes are often the venues for these discussions.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.