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Group 3
The 10th Commonwealth Study Conference:
16-27 March 2007
Report on Group
3, by Andrew Linfoot
Group 4
The 10th
Commonwealth Study Conference: 16-27 March 2007
Report on Group 4,
by
Sarosh Batliwalla
From Group 3 and 4 Can you study Sustainable
Tourism while flying to, and around, India?
This
March, part of the Indian Commonwealth Study Conference was looking at
sustainable tourism group in West Bengal, Kolkata and Orissa. The group that
did this trip knew one of the major impacts of tourism is greenhouse gas
from air travel. We also know that climate change will create significant
problems for people in our study area.
Greenhouse gas emissions, and the associated climate change impacts, will
mean:
Calcutta
suffers more frequent flooding
Low
lying farmland is lost and people are dispossessed of their livelihoods and
land
The loss
of some of the Sunderbans, a world heritage mangrove forest in the Ganges
river delta and home of the Bengal Tiger
Economic
and social costs impacting the poorest people first
Air
flights produce a significant amount of Greenhouse Gases. To attend, and
participate at the conference, our group of 14 created the equivalent of 110
tonnes of carbon dioxide in two weeks. Over 99% of these emissions are a
result of our Indian and international flights. As a comparison, the average
person in Australia creates 24 tonnes each year.
To be
sustainable, tourism has to mitigate the impact of travel. Group IV is
therefore planning to voluntarily spend AU $654 to offset our carbon by part
sponsoring a solar technician to be trained at Bunker Roy's Barefoot
College. This directly cuts carbon emissions by introducing solar
photovoltaic electricity and solar cooking to villages. And it delivers
benefits to people who are most likely to be hurt by the impacts of climate
change.
Please
join this initiative. If you would like your conference to be carbon
neutral, email
simon.divecha@greenmode.com.au. All we need to know is
your group's number, and how many hours you spent in the air flying to
India. We can then calculate how much carbon dioxide you produced and how
much the offset will cost. For most people from Australia this will be about
AU $45.
Please
email now - some of group 3 and the Australian alumni are already
participating. As well as these people and group 4, the recent Future Summit
in Melbourne (attended by Bunker Roy and 480 other people including Simon)
will be asking all its participants to make the Summit carbon neutral by
sponsoring solar technicians.
by Simon Divecha on the carbon neutral approach to their group's
energy use.
New Zealand feedback
Hamiora Bowkett, who was in Study Tour 9 in CSC
2007 and visited Southern India/Kerala, was impressed with the experience.
Without a doubt the most worthwhile and invigorating experience I have ever
had in my adult life to date. Notwithstanding the opportunity to travel to
an intriguing and spectacular country, in what other forum could one
experience in a short two-and-a-half weeks, the full breadth of the human
condition - in all its frustrating, inspiring, and downright quirky glory
(and that was just my Study Group).
A full-on experience from start-to-finish including a number of assaults on
the senses and not a small dose of homesickness from time-to-time! Made even
more interesting by the Indian take on logistics and administration..... A
fantastic opportunity I am very grateful for and as an alumnus a cause I
hope to be able to keep contributing to over the course of my career.
(By the way, the Kingfisher just doesn't taste the same in NZ as it did in
Delhi.....).
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