Global Indianstory Global Indian ExclusiveEnvironment activist Sagarika Sriram: Tackling climate change one kid at a time

Environment activist Sagarika Sriram: Tackling climate change one kid at a time

Written by: Namrata Srivastava

(December 7, 2022) A young 17-year-old took centre stage whilst top leaders from across the world gathered to discuss saving the planet from climate change at COP27 in Egypt. Addressing her audience, the young environment activist, Sagarika Sriram, pointed out the youth’s perspective on sustainability and how youngsters can have their voices heard. Stressing how awareness must be raised in schools, her closing remarks pushed for the youth around the world to be heard when it comes to their sustainable goals, ending her speech with thunderous applause from the audience.

Environment activist | Sagarika Sriram | Global Indian

Sagarika Sriram, environment activist

“Do you know about the ripple effect?” Sagarika asked me, about 10 minutes into our conversation. “The ripple effect,” she explained, “is the spreading results of a single action – like the ripples in the water. I think a single step towards saving the planet can have that effect, no matter if it is a big or small step. We need youngsters to get involved in this movement because we will be the first generation to face the horrific results of climate change. We might not have been the ones who contributed to climate change, but we certainly can be the ones to slow it down.”

Called an “inspiration to all young girls in her country and West Asia” by the U.N. Environment Programme, the Dubai-based Indian ex-pat has been able to inspire and motivate numerous kids to join the movement for a cleaner and healthier future for all. Her digital platform Kids for a Better World, which the young environment activist created in 2016 as a school project, has brought together nearly 100,000 young kids from around the globe who also want to fight climate change.

Motivated by nature

Growing up in Dubai, Sagarika learnt much more about nature from her parents. “As far as I can remember, my parents always motivated me to use and do environmentally friendly stuff. They were very cautious about using stuff that doesn’t harm the planet and that has to be a symbiotic relationship,” Sagarika shares with Global Indian, adding, “Also, I grew up with pets and that is also one factor why I am very sensitive towards environmental issues. My father and I used to have a compost garden and grow our fruits and vegetables. All these things have motivated me a lot.”

When she was around 10-years-old, Sagarika came across news of a whale being washed up onshore as a result of an oil spill. As the environmental activist dig deeper, she discovered various articles about how human activities are affecting not just other animals, but nature in general. “Our actions were causing so much harm to the environment. I started learning more about climate change, greenhouse gases, etc,” she says.

Action driven

The youngster, who was taking classes at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) for HTML, web designing, and coding, decided to take one step toward her sustainability goals. “For my final project for a web design class, I was asked to design a web page and I decided to make it about the environment. I wanted to use the skills I acquired towards something that could make a difference in people’s lives,” the environment activist says. “I designed a basic website for Kids for Better World, which now has various sections to help anyone who wants to learn about climate change. I wanted children to work together with a goal of climate consciousness and teaching people about sustainability and climate awareness.”

Sagarika has organised numerous clean-up drives over the years

The educative website offers various tidbits and fun facts about the environment and climate change to visitors. Kids can also earn points from the sustainable activities that they complete and use those points to redeem eco-friendly gifts. “The whole idea was to teach children the same way that I was taught. I was able to meet several incredible people through my work and associate my work with great organisations,” says the environment activist.

Sagarika, who has organised numerous local clean-up drives and workshops for kids, believes that young people have to stand for the cause to prevent the impact of climate change. “I want to make a real change and contribute towards helping the planet revive. I just finished my final examinations and want to take a year’s break to concentrate on the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, COP 28, which will take place in the UAE,” shares the environment activist as she signs off.

Follow Sagarika Sriram on LinkedIn and Instagram
Follow Kids for a Better World on Facebook and Instagram

Name*

Email*

Name*

Email*

0 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Published on 07, Dec 2022

Share with

ALSO READ

Praggnanandhaa: The prince of chess and Arjuna awardee 2022

(November 29, 2022) 17-year-old chess grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who has conquered the world in the war of checkmates, has been conferred the Arjuna award 2022. In 2016, Praggnanandhaa (meaning 'delight of the intellect') became the youngest international master in history, at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days. The coveted ‘Grandmaster’ title that he earned later at the age of 12 made him the fifth youngest person ever to do so. Fondly called 'Pragg', the grandmaster defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen three times in a row in 2022, thus becoming a household name. The last of the three defeats was at FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, an international chess championship held in August. South India is overjoyed to see their young prince on the list of Arjuna Awardees, which was announced earlier this month. It has been 14 years since a chess player from Tamil Nadu has been conferred the coveted Award, the country’s second highest sporting honour. The courteous and down-to-earth champion told Global Indian in an interview: I started playing tournaments when I was very young but there is lots more to achieve. [caption id="attachment_24787" align="aligncenter" width="947"] Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa[/caption] Setting the benchmark  Praggnanandhaa earned

="noopener">Global Indian in an interview:

I started playing tournaments when I was very young but there is lots more to achieve.

[caption id="attachment_24787" align="aligncenter" width="947"] Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa[/caption]

Setting the benchmark 

Praggnanandhaa earned the title of FIDE Master at the age of 7, winning the World Youth Chess Championship Under-8 title in 2013. The champ went on to win the under-10 title in 2015. 

In 2016, becoming a grandmaster required winning three ‘norms’. Praggnanandhaa achieved his first norm at the World Junior Chess Championship in 2017, finishing fourth with eight points. He gained his second norm at the Heraklion Fischer Memorial GM Norm tournament in Greece in April 2018. In June 2018 he achieved his third and final norm at the Gredine Open in Urtijëi, Italy at the age of just 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days. 

[embed]https://twitter.com/sachin_rt/status/1495759508177571843?s=20&t=Cq4k2SIwGYWX5UKnNmasJg[/embed]

The discipline of champions

Always a call or text away is the iconic Viswanathan Anand, India’s first chess grandmaster and a five-time world chess champion. The prodigy is associated with Anand’s WestBridge Anand Chess Academy.

Talking about Anand, Praggnanandhaa told Global Indian:

If I have a doubt, all I have to do is message him. It’s a very big opportunity for me to get guidance from him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvXgXqfyV1k

Praggnanandhaa's first coach was S Thyagarajan, who has trained his sister as well. “GM RB Ramesh became my coach after that,” he said.

Life and the chessboard…

Pragg is not the only genius in the family. By the time he was three-and-a-half, he would hang around watching his sister, female grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu play. Although chess was never a 'plan' per se, it seemed only natural that he would be drawn to the game.

Talking about his love for the game Pragg said:

It came to me naturally and became a part of my life.

The brother-sister grandmaster duo love discussing chess moves but their practice sessions remain separate.

[caption id="attachment_24781" align="aligncenter" width="1021"] Praggnanandha with his mother and female grandmaster sister, Vaishali Rameshbabu[/caption]

Always by his side, especially as he travels for tournaments, is Praggnanandhaa’s mother, Nagalakshmi. His father, Rameshbabu, a banker at the Tamil Nadu State Apex Co-operative Bank, takes care of all the details involved in managing the household’s two grandmasters. The class 12 commerce student at Velammal in Chennai gets support from his school as well.

My school supports me immensely and allows me to take leave to play tournaments and practice.

It hardly needs to be said that Praggnanandhaa rarely misses practice. “The duration might vary based on tournament schedules and exam timetables but I always manage to give it my time.”

Impressive journey...

Praggnanandhaa began traveling abroad for tournaments at the tender age of seven. "I have lost count," he says, pausing to think about it. "I have probably visited 30 countries." No matter where he goes, his focus remains unwavering, concentrating on one thing only – the game that he is there to play. There is hardly time for trivialities like sightseeing.

To emphasise this, Praggnanandhaa said:

My favourite place? Any place where the tournament went well becomes a good destination for me.

At 17, Praggnanandhaa has seen more of the world than most people will in a lifetime but is an undoubted homebody. He loves being home in India and whenever he has the time, likes to watch Tamil films. The typical boy-next-door in every other way, Praggnanandha loves Indian food more than any other cuisine and plays with one mission - To make his country proud.

Follow Praggnanandhaa on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Reading Time: 5 mins

Lavanya Natarajan: A new hope in the fight against methane emissions

(May 14, 2023) "Normally, I feel like we tend to only attribute global warming to just fossil fuel burning, and a lot of times we tend to dismiss issues that we can't see. One of these issues is methane which comes from landfills," says Florida-based Lavanya Natarajan, who is on a mission to decrease methane emission from landfills through her discovery. An affordable and wireless device that she developed in the recent past helped her earn a spot in the top 40 finalists of Regeneron Talent Search 2023. Her device brings a breath of fresh air to the ongoing fight against climate change, and represents the spirit of young scientific minds determined to find practical solutions to the world's most pressing issues. For someone who has been doing science fair projects since the third grade, Lavanya was always looking to find solutions to problems. Always intrigued by the environment, she learnt about climate change at a young age and realised that fossil fuel wasn't the only contributor to the climate crisis. Digging deep, she found that methane gas found in landfills was equally harmful, and was inspired to develop a solution to mitigate the environmental harm caused by landfills. She

ed by landfills. She set her mind to tackling the methane issue, an often overlooked yet potent greenhouse gas that significantly contributes to global warming.

[caption id="attachment_29997" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Lavanya Natarajan[/caption]

Methane gas, while not as prevalent as carbon dioxide, is far more destructive in the short term due to its ability to trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. Over 20 years, methane is 84 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide. Landfills are a major source of methane emissions as organic waste decays under anaerobic conditions, making them a critical target in climate change mitigation efforts.

Lavanya's device aims to address this issue head-on. "A large portion of these methane emissions escape from landfills and they fuel climate change. What I did was develop an IoT system to measure, manage, predict, and mitigate these methane emissions and other landfill metrics in real-time," she said in an interview.

[caption id="attachment_29998" align="aligncenter" width="721"] 2023 Regeneron STS[/caption]

The device, which took three months to build, remotely monitors a landfill's greenhouse gases and measures other parameters like temperature, pressure, altitude and humidity. The information is then sent to an Arduino microcontroller that stores the data and can wirelessly send everything to a dashboard Natarajan created that can be accessed anywhere. According to the Society for Science website, ideally, methane is pumped out of landfills when concentrations get high, but measuring it is cumbersome, so pumping gets delayed, which means that much of the methane escapes. This new device should make it easier to pump out the methane appropriately. She tested her device first in the lab that she set up in her family's garage and later in an actual landfill.

By providing an affordable and efficient solution to the methane problem, Natarajan's device has the potential to revolutionize waste management practices around the globe. While more affluent countries have the resources to implement methane capture and conversion systems, these are often out of reach for developing nations. The simplicity and cost-effectiveness of Natarajan's device could make it a feasible solution for these countries, opening the door to a more inclusive and equitable approach to global climate action.

Lavanya, who is a senior at Viera High School, also teaches coding and mentors kids on how to solve Rubik’s cubes. The global recognition she received at the Regeneron Talent Search 2023 speaks volumes about the significance of her work. At a time when the world grapples with the existential threat of climate change, the need for innovative and accessible solutions like Lavanya's cannot be overstated.

Her story is a testament to the power of young minds and their capacity to drive change. Her journey, from witnessing the environmental struggles of her hometown to becoming a beacon of hope in the fight against climate change, is an inspiration to us all. It serves as a powerful reminder that no matter where we come from, we all have a role to play in preserving our planet for future generations. "By capturing the methane, we can actually use it for power. And overall, I feel like this can help the greenhouse gas effect and it can also reduce the overall temperature by 1.5°C by 2030, which is something they’re doing in the Paris Environmental Agreement," says the teenager who loves singing and playing traditional Indian music.

Follow Lavanya Natarajan on LinkedIn

Reading Time: 4 min

Rishabh Seen – The pioneer of sitar-metal

(January 22, 2023) In 2007, the year Rishabh Seen first heard the Foo Fighters and t their frontman, Dave Grohl, he knew his life had changed forever. "It was one of those moments where you just know that you're experiencing something that will change you," he said in an interview later. Until that point, Rishabh Seen, who belonged to an illustrious family of Hindustani musicians, had devoted himself to the classical tradition on the sitar. Steeped in tradition [caption id="attachment_26814" align="aligncenter" width="941"] Rishabh Seen[/caption] Rishabh's childhood in Jalandhar was spent immersed in music. His grandfather, Ustad Lachhman Singh Seen, is an acclaimed tabla maestro and music scholar, with his works preserved in the national archives. Rishabh's father, Manu Kumar Seen, is an accomplished sitarist. Growing up in this environment, Rishabh began vocal training at the age of six and his sitar practice started four years later. Despite the family's deep devotion to classical traditions, his father helped him understand the world of possibilities the sitar afforded him. Still, his knowledge of what lay outside classical music remained limited and Dave Grohl came as an inspiration. "It changed my entire vision about life and music in general," Rishabh said. "I discovered

im.

Still, his knowledge of what lay outside classical music remained limited and Dave Grohl came as an inspiration. "It changed my entire vision about life and music in general," Rishabh said. "I discovered that progressive metal was based on instrument-driven songs and that is the point where Indian classical and metal meet." His enthusiasm compounded when he realised there wasn't anybody out there who seemed to have had the idea of sitar-metal, or even a band led by any instrument other than a guitar, keyboard or drums.

Dave Grohl and a journey of discovery

Rishabh's own journey of discovery continued, and he went from the Foo Fighters to Slipknot and Nirvana. "It was around 2011, when I just played a metal song on the speakers. My dad, wondering what on earth was happening, came by to check on me. What was surprising was that he really enjoyed what he was listening to," he said in an interview. Technically speaking, too, the two forms of music are very different. Hindustani classical music involves playing one scale or raaga in a 45-minute concert. With metal, a single song can contain several scales.

At first, the young Global Indian's efforts were not well received. Metal was seen as dark and hairy, while the sitar receives reverence. His fortunes turned in 2015 when he released his first cover of Animals As Leaders' 'Tempting Time'. In no time, the song garnered lakhs of views. That was also the year he founded his band, Mute The Saint. They produced covers of artists like Animals as Leaders, Steven Wilson and Meshuggah and were a success. While the two genres might stand as polar opposites, to the trained and untrained year alike, Rishabh saw only common ground, a similarity "in terms of evoking an inner revolution and spreading peace."

In 2016, Mute the Saint released a self-titled album and two years later, the second, which contained a bunch of covers of Coldplay and Foo Fighters. Rishabh has performed with singer Arijit Singh and solo headlines sitar metal shows.

Reading Time: 5 mins

Licypriya Kangujam: 11-year-old activist seeking climate action

(April 21, 2023) At COP27 in Egypt, 11-year-old Indian climate activist Licypriya Kangujam had an iconic moment when she determinedly questioned UK's climate minister Zac Goldsmith about the climate activists who were detained in the United Kingdom following protests against environment policies. This sudden confrontation made headlines, and Licypriya was praised for standing up to world leaders and asking pertinent questions. She might be just 11 but Licypriya has been raising her voice against the climate crisis since she was six. Hailing from Manipur, she saw the devastating effects of cyclones like Fani and Titli in Bhubaneswar at a young age, and this prompted her to take up climate activism. In few years, she has become one of the leading faces in the world of child climate activists, and the girl is not ready to stop anytime soon. [caption id="attachment_29429" align="aligncenter" width="680"] Licypriya Kangujam[/caption] Born in the carbon-negative state of Manipur, Licypriya's relocation to Bhubaneswar triggered her interest in climate change at a young age after she witnessed the destruction caused by two devastating cyclones Titli in 2018 and Fani in 2019, when they hit the eastern coastal region. "Many people lost their lives. Many children lost their parents and

she witnessed the destruction caused by two devastating cyclones Titli in 2018 and Fani in 2019, when they hit the eastern coastal region. "Many people lost their lives. Many children lost their parents and many people became homeless," she said during a TedTalk, adding that she couldn't sleep or eat for days. This emotion was exacerbated when she moved to Delhi a year later, as her life was completely "messed up" owing to the air pollution and heat wave crisis. All these incidents prompted her to become a child climate activist.

But it was as young as five, that she first heard the terms 'climate change' and 'natural disasters' while accompanying her dad to raise funds for the Nepal earthquake 2015 victims that made her concerned about the environment. However, she refers to the United Nations Disaster Conference in Mongolia in July 2018 as a "life-changing event" as it made her start her own organisation The Child Movement at the age of six, to call on world leaders to take immediate climate action to save the planet. Over the years, it has become a people's movement for climate justice in India and abroad. "I travelled to over 32 countries as a part of my movement and spoke in more than 400 institutions on climate change," she said.

In February 2019, she protested outside the Parliament in the capital demanding three things - to pass the climate change law in the parliament as soon as possible, to make climate education compulsory in every school in India, and to ensure plantations of minimum of 10 trees by every student in India. Her efforts yielded result as Gujarat and Rajasthan have made climate change a compulsory subject in the school education curriculum, thus making India the second country after Italy to do so. "Climate education is very important if we really would like to fight the climate crisis. Adults are not doing enough already, and I don’t have much faith in them to come to the frontline and save our planet and future. The last hope is children. If we include climate education in schools, then we can fight climate change from the grassroots," she told the Harvard International Review.

The sixth grader at Ryan International School also encourages youngsters to plant more trees through her initiative Monday for Mother Nature that will help India become green in the next five-ten years. " India has over 350 million students. If they all plant a minimum of 10 trees every year, then we will plant 3.5 billion trees," she added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjKAZRXwRvI

Licypriya, who urged the world leaders to act on climate change at COP 25 in Spain, made headlines during the COP27 in Egypt when she confronted UK climate minister on the release of climate activists who are in prison because of protesting against oil and gas licenses across the UK. In an interview with WION, Licypriya said, "Instead of answering my question, he ran away but I followed him for a couple of minutes and repeatedly asked him the same question. Later he told me that he had no idea about it and that he can't do anything.”

However, this Global Indian is unfazed by these snubs, and continues to raise her voice asking for world leader to act. The girl, who likes to swim, paint and watch her favourite cartoon, Doraemon, in her free time, never misses a chance to accept invitations to speak at schools and conferences about climate change. Though she is only 11, she thinks age is just a number. "Many people told me that I’m too young to get involved in such activism, but … I strongly believe that children can lead the change. We need to keep speaking up about the climate crisis and … to hold lawmakers accountable for their political decisions," she told Washington Post.

Follow Licypriya Kangujam on Twitter

Reading Time: 4 min

Young innovator Sahithi Pingali is working on inventing a better tomorrow

(October 21, 2022) While her classmates were busy finishing up studying their syllabus for class XII, Sahithi Pingali was working day and night on her research paper, ‘An Innovative Crowdsourcing Approach to Monitoring Freshwater Bodies’, which she had to present at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) - 2017. After months of extensive research on various lakes of Bengaluru, where she lived, the young innovator presented the paper to a committee of five members and was awarded second prize, and three special awards in the Earth and Environment Sciences category. [caption id="attachment_23292" align="aligncenter" width="582"] Sahithi Pingali[/caption] However, that was not it. The now 20-year-old Sahithi also received an unexpected award for her incredible research. The committee decided to give a minor planet somewhere in the Milky Way the name 'Pingali Sahithi'. Currently studying at the prestigious Stanford University in the USA, the self-taught coder is the founder of WaterInsights - which is an innovative award-winning citizen science project for freshwater monitoring. People can use WaterInsights' testing kit to monitor the water in their school, home, or neighborhood creek. "To me at least, the sheer gravity of the environmental problems we face is something I can’t ignore. I’ve lived

ntly studying at the prestigious Stanford University in the USA, the self-taught coder is the founder of WaterInsights - which is an innovative award-winning citizen science project for freshwater monitoring. People can use WaterInsights' testing kit to monitor the water in their school, home, or neighborhood creek. "To me at least, the sheer gravity of the environmental problems we face is something I can’t ignore. I’ve lived in the scenic suburbs of the US, and later in the city of Bengaluru. I think the contrast between those two settings made me extra aware of these problems — our cities are dying, sucked dry, and choked with pollution. So, I researched the various factors that contribute to the pollution of our water bodies through surveys, sessions with experts, and interviewing people who live and work around the lakes," the young innovator had once told Deccan Chronicle during an interview.

The eco-warrior

With her roots in Andhra Pradesh, Sahithi lived in New York for the first eight years of her life. The family moved back to Bengaluru in the early 2000s, and that is when she started working toward improving the water quality of the lakes in Bengaluru. When she was just 15, the innovator crowdsourced funds to conduct a study on ten of the most polluted lakes in Bengaluru. However, her first project didn't succeed without hiccups. While she was looking for a facility to conduct her research, she approached several professors at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to let her access their laboratories. Although most of her initial emails went unanswered, she received a condescending response from one of the professors, which read, "You’re simply not old enough for such lab work. I’d rather recommend you a list of books to read.”

Far from being discouraged, Sahithi wrote to several other labs, and went on to do internships at various prestigious institutions including the Ecological Sciences Center at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment group at Arizona State University, Tempe.

[caption id="attachment_23294" align="aligncenter" width="740"] Sahithi receiving Young Achiever Award for Academics[/caption]

However, books and research are not the only avenues that interest this bright girl. “I’m a Bharatnatyam dancer and I play the veena. I also love to read and write. In my reading, I always make sure to have variety. I alternate between fiction and non-fiction, depending on what I’m in the mood to read. I think there’s never much trouble in making time for the things you love doing,” she had said in her interview with Deccan Chronicle.

Inspiring citizens

Soon after her research paper ‘An Innovative Crowdsourcing Approach to Monitoring Freshwater Bodies’ won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the innovator didn't waste any time in developing a user-friendly platform to make her technology available to the common people. "I was inspired by the way that citizens would step up to take responsibility for the lakes that they lived near and work to revive and protect them. However, I was also frustrated by a few things – how most of the action came from a very small number of people," she told Discover Magazine during a recent interaction, adding, "I wanted to help more people understand water pollution issues and get involved in taking hands-on action. I also wanted to make it much easier for citizen activists to generate data about local water bodies so they didn’t have to wait for the limited pool of experts to carry out testing. So, we made it possible for any citizen to monitor the water in their home or local environment, and then gather that data in a dynamically updated Water Health Map of the World."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gpuijdhfhw

The Stanford student is currently doing the first beta test of the samples she received from the Bengaluru citizens. The innovator is also working on creating an educational curriculum for students who want to fight for the environment. "We’re going to use the results and feedback from this test to make our system as accurate and user-friendly as possible. Then, we’re going to make test kits available for any citizen scientist to order online. We’re also working to create an educational curriculum to go with the kits so that students across the world can do this as a classroom activity," she said.

Follow Sahithi Pingali on LinkedIn

Reading Time: 6 mins