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Submitted by Live Earth on 7 October, 2008 - 20:47
- India didn't cause the climate crisis, but its population will bear some of the most damaging effects of global warming: flooding and drought.
- In Calcutta and Bangladesh, 60 million people are at risk of one day becoming refugees due to rising sea levels.
- A renowned Chinese scientist estimates that almost two-thirds of the country's glaciers could melt by 2050, bringing ecological catastrophe for the 300 million people downstream.
- On July 26, 2005 thirty seven inches of rain fell on Mumbai in 24 hours, more than any other Indian city has ever suffered from in recorded history.
- The IPCC has predicted that between 20-30% of all species on Earth could become extinct by the end of the century because of climate change and habitat loss.
- In India 60 million people would become climate refugees if Greenland's ice melts.
- Because of 60% of India's population depends on agriculture, the impact of climate change will be felt more heavily in India when growing patterns are affected.
- More and more corporate leaders are pledging to fight the climate crisis, reaping huge social and financial rewards by promoting green building standards and enacting comprehensive environmental policies.
- Because we are a newly developing economy, the majority of our cities and buildings are still waiting to be built, and we have the opportunity to leapfrog and promote best practices.
- 400 million people in India lack access to electricity. Light a Billion Lives will provide solar lanterns to replace kerosene lamps and provide income to local micro-businesses. Donate now and light up a child's life.
- India can generate its electricity through renewable and clean sources. The Climate Project India is working to create a 10-year plan to support a renewable energy future for India. Help create a renewable energy future for India.
- Indian PM Manmohan Singh released his National Climate Change Action Plan in June 2008. It identified solar energy and increased energy efficiency as the two most important planks of India's continued growth.
- The average tree planted will sequester over a 1 ton of carbon in its lifetime.
- States like Rajasthan have some of the highest potential for solar power generation in the world.
- India’s per person carbon emission rates are so low because over 400 million of us don’t have access to any form of electricity.
- Donate to Light a Billion Lives and support solar energy for villages without power.
- Become a Friend of Live Earth India. Host a party or an event in your community or business. Get your friends and family together on December 7th to watch the show and commit to making changes to help solve the climate crisis. See http://liveearth.org/friends
- Make Contact. Join a Non-Government Organization and find out what you can do to make a difference in your local community.
- Plant a tree. Support organisations like Isha Foundation, Art of Living Foundation, and UNEP who are working to plant the trees needed to naturally decrease the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Make sure that the tree planting programs you support look to plant indigenous trees.
- Pass It On. Forward your friends a Live Earth text message or email and inspire them to join the movement to combat the climate crisis.
- Renewable energy. Industry leaders in every field throughout the India are starting to talk about renewable energy initiatives to meet energy needs. Get your company to take on initiatives in the same line.
- Be Heard. Use your vote to show our government that we care about the environment.
- Stick to old habits. Carry cloth bags to the market or shops for all your purchases instead of getting new plastic bags. It takes lakhs of liters of oil every year to produce plastic bags required for one Indian city.
- Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is. Support companies with good environmental records and socially conscious products.
- Take the train! Continue taking the local train and buses to get to work. Leave before or after rush hour so that the ride is more pleasant.
- Eat veg! The international meat industry generates roughly 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
- Take your lunch in a tiffin. Use tiffin boxes to bring your lunch from home to work or school. Avoid disposable carryout containers.
- Power Down. Globally, we waste at least $50 Billion a year on devices, equipment, and lights that are turned on when they shouldn’t be. Turn off whatever you’re not using and improve the health of our climate.
- Save energy! Turn off your lights and fans and unplug appliances when not in use to consume less power.
- A Brighter Idea. Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) last up to 10 times longer than traditional bulbs and use only a fraction of the energy, saving you 60% of your energy bill. Replace all your incandescent light bulbs to CFLs!
- Speak Up. Talk to your friends and neighbors about your concerns and interests in the environment; you may be surprised to learn you’re not alone.
- Change The Score. Challenge your favorite cricket team to adopt greener policies and turn its resources toward encouraging others to do the same.
- Watch a film. Organize a screening of The Inconvenient Truth movie with your friends.
- Write to your favorite Bollywood actor, restaurant owner, hotel owner, movie theatre, or band and ask them to go green with you. Offer them some tips as to how it could be possible.
- Write to your local MP and ministers in the government about why the environment is a priority for you and your vote.
- Write Out Loud. Petition for change in your local governments; Ask your Municipal Commissioner to make improving public transport a priority.
- Signal Your ‘Hood. Encourage your city to install LED traffic lights, which consume 80% less energy than traditional lights.
- Socialize It. Form a climate-focused social network and sponsor local competitions for green reform. Join the India Youth Climate Network.
- Cause and Affect. Start a recycling club in your school. For example, in Convent of Jesus and Mary in Mussoori they collect all the garbage once a week and segment it into different categories to ensure as much of the waste is recycled as possible.
- Cover Your Tracks. By purchasing digital music online you can help conserve the oil consumed in transporting CDs to and from the store.
- Use traditional "kullah" earthen cups for tea when you travel by rail, instead of plastic.
- Share the ride! Carpool to office with friends and colleagues who live around you.
- Delhi has taken big strides to improve their public transportation with the metro. Show support by using it often and demanding similar initiatives in other cities. Demand that the train in Mumbai be expanded and kept clean so that it is easy to use.
- If you are going to use a car buy a car with high fuel efficiency and consider a small one that is practical to get around
- Beat the traffic! Try to live close to work, to reduce your commute and auto emissions.
- When driving, avoid going anywhere during rush hour. Leave an hour before commuter traffic and come back an hour earlier or after.
- Turn it off. Office electronics such as computers, printers, and wireless routers draw electricity even when turned off. Turn all your appliances off from the wall when you are not using them.
- Turn the temperature up! For every one degree Celsius cooler you set the temperature, your power consumption will increase by 10%.
- Come Together. Get your building society and neighborhood involved in greening the area. Ask for light bulbs to be switched, trash to be properly recycled, and indigenous trees to be planted where possible.
- Pre-Party Rules. Birthday parties, weddings and festivals leave behind tons of plastic and styrofoam trash from disposable plates and cutlery. Next time you throw a party, ensure that food is served on reusable plates.
- Strip Down. Even turned off, electronics such as TVs and DVRs still draw electricity. Use a power strip to turn off your toys when you’re done.
- It's Eco-logical. If a million people each replaced just 1 incandescent bulb with a Compact Fluorescent (CFL), we could eliminate more than 200,000 tons of CO2 emissions. That outlet's energy bill would also reduce by up to 66%.
- Stick to old habits! Using a bucket for your bath instead of taking a shower saves liters of water!
- Use the Bucket. Soak and wash your dishes in a bucket instead of using running water to save on water consumption.
- Cook with the sun! Solar steam cooker systems, like those developed by Deepak Gadhia at Tirupati temple, cook up to 3 lakh meals a day with no carbon dioxide being pumped into our atmosphere. Find out how your temple, ashram, work office, or canteen can look into these type of systems for their energy needs.
- Turn the temperature up! Get your office to turn the air-conditioning up by 1 degree this month. Next month ask them to increase it by another degree. Keep going until you get to at least 22
- Dig This. Plant a tree near your home. When it grows you will save on cooling costs. Find out how from Isha Foundation http://www.ishafoundation.org/ProjectGreenHands
- Change a light bulb. Ask your building society to change the building and hall lights to LEDs and CFLs.
- Green Your Campus. Encourage your school and the campuses in your area to pursue green building policies.
- Don’t stop at yourself, encourage others around you to get involved in eco friendly practices.
- Talk to your family about why conserving and reducing consumption is important.
- Animal numbers are a great indicator of whether or not we are taking care of our planet. Deforestation hurts tiger populations and other wildlife, and contributes to global warming. Lobby for better adherence to the Forestry laws in India.
- Get into Nature. Petition to Mumbai Municipality to take care of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. This land is being encroached upon by squatters and development.
- Plan ahead and combine all your errands into one trip to reduce emissions.
- Aim Lower. Calculate your carbon footprint at www.liveearth.org and aim to reduce your individual output.
- Find and report ways to reduce waste and inefficiencies in your job, whether you work in a restaurant, factory, farm, or office.
- Create innovative décor from recycled materials for weddings and special occasions instead of high-energy consuming materials. Keep these decorations for the next party or donate them to a group that will use them again.
- For the next festival you celebrate, avoid adding emissions to the air with firecrackers.
- If there is a garden near your building, ask that the groundkeeper only water during the early morning or evening to avoid extra water needed to compensate evaporation.
- When painting your home, use natural Indian paints and stick to lighter colors so that they reflect natural light coming in.
- Recycle! Recycling just 2 glass bottles conserves enough energy to boil water for 5 cups of coffee.
- Recycle! Every ton of recycled glass conserves over 1.5 cubic meters of landfill space.
- Recycle! Using recycled materials to make new glass requires 40% less energy than making it from scratch.
- Recycle! Recycle a single aluminum can and conserve 96% of the energy used to produce another from scratch.
- Recycle! Recycle a single aluminum can and save enough energy to run a 100-Watt bulb for 20 hours.
- Recycle! You can make 20 new cans from recycled material with the same energy it takes to make 1 from scratch.
- Roll With It. If you use toilet paper, make sure it is the recycled non-bleached type rather than the imported ones.
- Know The Drill. 1.5 million barrels of oil are used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles every year. Think before you drink.
- Invest in Stalks. Consider bamboo when landscaping a home or garden; bamboo stores more CO2 and generates 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees.
- Haste Makes Waste. Throwing toxic chemicals in the garbage or down the drain poisons our planet. Find out places near you that dispose of hazardous waste appropriately.
- Ask for an upgrade. Convince your landlord to make energy-saving upgrades to your apartment or home. Such improvements can raise their property value and lower your bills.
- Steam rather than boil vegetables to save 25% of water needed.
- Discover new parts of your region rather than take holidays far from home.
- Because warmer temperatures lead to changed levels of evaporation, rain cycles have become erratic all over the world.
- As oceans begin to get warmer, storms brewing over them increase in intensity leading to the stronger cyclones and hurricanes.
- The Himalayan glaciers are melting at a rate of up to 10-15 meters per year.
- Himalayan cities at altitudes which used to be above the mosquito line are now swarming with them. Malaria is now found at higher elevations.
- In India, 20% of our warming results from greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation. 28,000 sq km of forests disappear annually in South and Southeast Asia
- In India, almost 80% of trees which are cut down are used for cooking fuel.
- The increase of super cyclone intensity in the Bay of Bengal the last few years was unprecedented.
- Last year there were more than 10,000 community events around the world in support of Live Earth.
- Raising air conditioning temperatures by six degrees can save 10% on cooling costs
- In most parts of India, the amount of rains that fall during monsoons are more than substantial to last the year if we implement rainwater harvesting.
- A return flight from NYC-LON is 1.2 tonnes per passenger, more than the average Indian emits in a year.
- All of Southeast Asia makes up 12.2% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
- Delhi has had a 71% increase in four-wheeler emissions and a 61% increase in two-wheeler emissions in the last five years alone.
- Currently India is ranked 4th globally in wind power capacity.
- The contribution of India to global carbon dioxide emissions is only around 4 percent, while it has 17 percent of the world's population
