Now is your chance for controlling climate crisis -By Himangi from AMU

MBA, this course includes a lot of presentations, I understood this when I first started pin it's pursuit. So, it was my first presentation, based on different types of biases that influence our mind on a daily basis. One of the biases among them was “The Confirmation Bias". It suggests that humans always search for evidence that conforms to their own theory. I explained this bias with an example of climatic change. News related to controlling climate crisis was first introduced in the 18th century but people didn't agree to its effects then. Even in the 21st century, after having evidentiary signs of its affects there are people denying it which confirms that Confirmation bias exists.

I got a round of applause on it but then there was nothing to take action on. No discussions, no curiosity, no query. I realized that there are 3 kinds of people when we talk about climatic change.

1.) Who do not believe this concept.

2.) Who believe it but are doing nothing for it.

3.) Who believe it and are also taking steps to tackle it.

Now, most of the people in my surroundings lay in the second category. The biggest question that I asked myself was that - "How am I going to do my bit in controlling climate crisis?" and that's where the real battle started. So after brainstorming I made mental notes of things that I can do to minimize my carbon footprints as well as to persuade others to do the same.

First of all, the simplest yet most effective things popped into my mind like utilizing water in a more efficient way and traveling by foot or bicycle or by public transport as much as I can. Now as David Suzuki said - "In a world of more than seven billion people, each of us is a drop in the bucket. But with enough drops, we can fill any bucket." Here the later part of convincing others came into being. But before convincing others, one should collect and organise our thoughts, for instance:

• Be the Campus Ambassador for climate change, i.e. go from class to class on your campus to make people aware about the small changes that they can do in their daily lives, so that they can also act as a drop filling the bucket.

• Youth is called the future of the planet, a generation who is changing the world with its different opinion. We are the ones who can change the political arena. Now there are two ways through which we can do it. First, by being a representative and second, by electing representatives who consider viable preferences. Second option can only work when we know what we want. So, youth should be aware enough to let the topic of climate change their preferences. This point leads us to our third recommendation.

• Spreading awareness is the easiest yet the most difficult task in the digital world. There is much more that can be done by putting out content socially but there is no parameter that can tell us that that content is changing people. So, yes it is difficult to know the scale of difference we are making but something is better than nothing. Putting out content on different platforms is the key factor in controlling climate crisis.

• Go Green - the most hyped and repeated slogan now-a-days. But going green would need people changing their lifestyles. The aim behind going green can be achieved by people shifting to organic products and people growing their own food. Students can also try to convince their own universities and colleges to grow their own food. Each step matters!

• Using the water coming out from water purifiers in different ways is also an efficient way to utilize it.

• Last but not the least. People can shift from non-renewable energy sources to renewable energy sources. Using solar panels is a great example. Approaching the concerned authorities in your universities to adapt solar energy can work wonders to tackle climate change.

I hope these suggestions motivate you to take some time from your hectic routines and do something for the environment.

This article was submitted as an entry to Become an Author 2.0 with Dare2Compete.