Climate Change
3000-mile bus ride to raise awareness
A group of environmental filmmakers have set to embark on a countrywide bus ride across 64 districts to educate the rural people about climate change.
They would travel some 3000 miles explaining the undertones of climate change to the rural people in simple words and help them relate to it with personal experiences.
“The idea is to raise awareness about climate changes in all 64 districts with the jazzy title ‘3000 Miles to Go’,” said Rosemary Arnott, director, British Council.
British Council, Standard Chartered Bank, and Wild Eye (an organisation of wildlife and environment film producers) jointly launched the programme at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the city yesterday. Tanjilur Rahman, director of the 3000 Miles to Go initiative, said the bus ride may begin by the middle of October.
Rahman said, “Everyone seems to be talking about what needs to be done for climate changes, but nobody’s actually explaining what exactly it is”.
The point was demonstrated in a short film screened at the programme where a number of city people were asked about climate change. Many of them stared blankly at the camera trying to find the words to explain the phenomenon before finally giving up.
“Even many educated people, not only in Bangladesh but across the globe, are not fully aware of the magnitude of devastation we are heading towards on account of climate changes”, said State Minister For Environment and Forests, Dr Hasan Mahmud. “What is about to come to the rest of the world is already here in Bangladesh”, he said.
Noted environmentalist Dr Atiqur Rahman said farmers and rural people across the country know that something is wrong with the climate. But they cannot quite point a finger to the reason behind it. “So communicating the right message and giving the right tools is necessary to create awareness,” he said.
-With The Daily Star input
