You are cordially invited to a Public Lecture:
“LEARNING FROM THE ENVIRONMENTALISM OF THE POOR TO BUILD OUR COMMON FUTURE” presented by
Ms Sunita Narain
Director, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi
When: Wednesday, 17th September 2008, 1.15pm
Where: Charles Pearson Theatre, Ground Floor, ERC Building, University of Melbourne
Cost: Free
Registration: RSVP essential by sending an email with “Sunita Narain” in the subject line to events at asialink.unimelb.edu.au
Ms Sunita Narain was named “India’s Most Influential Environmental Activist” by Time Magazine in 2007. She heads The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) which monitors air pollution levels around India, studies the effects of climate change and campaigns on how to lead greener lives.
Sunita and the CSE led the successful campaign to compel all public vehicles in Delhi to switch to clean compressed natural gas, the first city in the world to take such an initiative. But it is her criticism of international soft drink makers Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which has spurred some Indian states to ban the sales of Coke and Pepsi in 2006 due to allegedly high levels of pesticide that has won Ms. Narain most attention.
Ms Narain travels the country advocating that natural resources, particularly water, must be protected to benefit the poor. She was awarded the 2005 Stockholm Water Prize for CSE’s work promoting decentralized water management through rainwater harvesting. Also in 2005, the Indian Government awarded her the Padma Shri medal.
This event is presented by Asialink and the Australia India Council with the support of the Australia South Asia Research Center, Australia National University
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Here is Sunita on ABC after the lecture http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2008/2365808.htm
Her UniMElb talk will appear on the AsiaLink website and on 3CR Radio.
Here are my opening remarks:
Opening Chair’s remarks by Simon Batterbury, at public address by Sunita Narain, University of Melbourne, 17 Sept 2008.
SUNITA NARAIN
Sunita Narain has worked at the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi from 1982. She is currently its Director. CSE is the publisher of the fortnightly magazine, Down To Earth. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/
Sunita is a leading thinker on environment and development issues and has led many public campaigns for environmental sustainability in India. It is not her first visit to Australia (that was in the late 1980s!) and we are lucky to host her as part of a short Australian tour after an absence of 20 years.
Ms Narain is the author of 11 major works, many with the late Anil Agarwal, and numerous papers, magazine editorials, and reports. She began her work contributing to the State of India’s Environment reports, and then travelled across the country to understand people’s management of forests and natural resources.
Towards Green Villages (1989) advocating local participatory democracy as the key to sustainable development. A 1997 book on water harvesting (Dying Wisdom) does a great job in demonstrating to the world the dynamism of Indian environmental expertise. The 2001 edited book, Making Water Everybody’s Business: the practice and policy of water harvesting [by Anil Agarwal, Sunita Narain and Indira Khurana] reiterates this. Natural resources, particularly water, must be protected to benefit the poor.
Moving to the international world of climate policy. ‘Global Warming in an Unequal World: A case of environmental colonialism’ was published in 1991. I remember picking this up from IIED in London, and using it for teaching the basics of this issue in 1993, well before such literature became widely available. Since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, she has worked on a number of projects concerning the justice of climate change policy, and equity and entitlements in climate negotiations. The INjustice of current negotiation rounds and the actions of the big emitters is her focus. Sunita sits on a high level Swedish panel devoted to raising issues of climate change and its impact on poor people prior to the Copenhagen COP (2010).
She is a tireless campaigner. She argued in a 2002 article (http://www.india-seminar.com/2002/516/516%20sunita%20narain.htm) that India’s environmental movement was not led by green groups, as in the West and as in Australia, but by a pro-poor, grassroots human-centered environmental lobby with protests against natural resources relied upon for daily subsistence, and thus targetting deforestation, construction of dams, destruction of wildlife, and growing pollution. I think this movement is also joined by the CSE, and together they, and Indians, have been trying to “tame the politicians and bureaucrats”, by instilling lasting regulation and environmental action in government and state agencies, that now faced with rising levels of environmental pollution.
It seems evidence-based environmental reform is a hard task in India. However CSE is behind the successful campaign to compel all public vehicles in the highly polluted city of Delhi to switch to clean compressed natural gas, the first city in the world to do so. She has taken on Coca-Cola and PepsiCo on 2 occasions for having high levels of pesticides in soft drinks, and campaigned for government regulation of the industry, as it already does for bottled water. The pesticide industry has attacked her through lawsuits and protests.
Sunita was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize (2005) for promoting effective water management along with improved human rights. She won the 2005: Padma Shri medal, and was named “India’s Most Influential Environmental Activist” by Time Magazine in 2007.
This event is presented by Asialink and the Australia India Council with the support of the Australia South Asia Research Center, Australia National University.
Grateful thanks to all.
Welcome again.