BENGALURU: Climate change is staring at us and there is ‘no planet B’. This is the theme of the 8th edition of the Parikrma Festival of Science 2022 (PFoS), a three-day science festival on climate change. Organised by Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation Parikrma Humanity Foundation, the annual science festival focuses on creating a space for discussions on science and society among the student community.
The primary purpose of the festival is to support a multi-disciplinary and critically engaging learning process for students. According to Shukla Bose, CEO of the foundation, over 325 students from 35 schools across different cities and also overseas, have registered for the virtual science festival beginning March 3.
“Educating children on climate change is critical and this can happen not from textbooks but by bringing in experts from this field who will share their perspectives. We have got distinguished speakers from across the environment spectrum who will be having an interactive session with the students for the next three days,” says Bose. The foundation also cites that in the year 2021, natural disasters across the globe led to insured losses of over $100 billion and ten climate-related events cost $170.3 billion. India alone witnessed two of such 10 most financially devastating climate events in 2021. Therefore this year’s festival aims to delegate each student group to represent a particular country and come up with a long term plan to mitigate climate change. This will be conducted in the form of a mock COP 27 (Conference of the Parties) Climate Summit on March 5 to engage student groups in dialogues and explore the science and sociopolitics of climate change. The country that comes up with the most innovative step to mitigate climate change and universally accepted pledge will be recognised during the event.
Some of the speakers for the festival include Dr Harini Nagendra, director of the research centre at Azim Premji University, who will talk about ‘Biodiversity, climate change and cities’; Dr Chitralekha Massey, OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) regional representative, United Nations, will speak about ‘Climate Change in the Sustainable Development Goals of UN’; and Grammy winner Ricky Kej will address ‘viewing climate change crisis through music’.
“In many ways, a lot begins from the mountains which will later impact the ground level. This will be addressed through a session called ‘Changing Climate in the High Mountains’ by climate experts,” says Bose. For more details about PFoS 2022, visit the Parikrma Foundation website.