Chennai-based climate champion heads for the Arctic

Chennai( Aug 29,2008 ): City-based school student Shruti K Neelakantan, who was crowned the British Council’s Indian climate champion on February 14, is heading for the Arctic as part of the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition 2008.

The expedition, a brainchild of British artist David Buckland, is an international project aimed at increasing awareness about climate change. It brings together top scientists and artists from the US and the UK and 28 students from around the globe on a voyage of the Arctic.

From the Arctic, the students "will each complete art and science projects and talk live to their schools, communicating the global impact of climate change to their local communities".

Shruti, a Class XII Commerce Student at the Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School, Chennai, is one of two Indian students to figure in the expedition team, the other being Dhruv Sengar, another Class XII student, from Lucknow.

An “absolute chocoholic with a keen interest in the environment”, Shruti told Sify.com about how she earned her dream ticket.

“It all began with an essay competition on Climate Change, causes and solutions. It was my Geography teacher Ms Meenakshi who convinced me to send in an entry.

"After that I got selected for the interview stage, and then we had to prepare a nine-minute video on global warming. Our team made a presentation based on the toon series Captain Planet. It was on the dangers facing the environment and what we can do to solve them,” she said.

Since her selection, Shruti has been to New Delhi twice and met Dr RK Pachauri, the Chairman of the Nobel-Prize winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

A keen volunteer of the environmental group Exnora International, the commerce student hopes to do her bit towards increasing awareness about climate change among students and “through radio programmes and through CRY (Child Relief and You) cards” once she is back.

But, for now, her focus is fully on the trip to the Arctic.

She leaves for Toronto on August 30, and will undergo an orientation programme there from September 1 to September 7.

On September 7, she is set to board the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, a Russian research vessel, in Reykjavik, Iceland and begin a voyage that will see her skirt the southern tip of Greenland before she disembarks at Iqualuit, Boffin Island, Canada on September 20.

The excitement in her voice is palpable when she talks about what lies ahead: “We will get to see the glaciers melting and get a glimpse of the life in the arctic. It will also be great to interact with other students.”

And what does she hope to bring back at the end of it all?

“Something simple to do, something that will radically increase awareness about climate change and global warming here in India,” Shruti says.