Teach 'em young

In an interesting role reversal, children are now educating parents on how to save energy and make the UAE an eco-friendly country. Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary tracks the Heroes of the UAE.

You may have known them all along but may have chosen to ignore them the many hair-raising facts about our energy extravagant lifestyle that is. For instance, did you know that the UAE has the highest carbon footprint of 11.9 hectares per person in the world? This is according to the World Global Footprint organisation, an international body that is monitoring the carbon emissions of each country. What does it mean in terms of our real understanding? It means that each person is using up that much land in terms of the energy he requires from earth. And at the rate we are going, we will require roughly about one and half times more of planet earth to sustain us. In most of the developing world, the average carbon footprint is around two hectares per person!

Also, did you know that the UAE has been classified by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to be the fifth highest in the list of per capita energy consumption each person in this country on an average consumes 10,354 kgoe (kilograms in oil energy) per year while in a country like Bangladesh, the kgoe per person is only 300.

So what is required of us in this day and age to make the climate-change express switch to the slow track?

Small but effective gestures on our part to save energy can go a long way and this was proved by the Earth Hour which many sincerely followed on March 29. On that day, during that one hour, in Dubai alone, around 146,000 kilowatt of electricity was saved and the emirate posted a cut of 88,000 kg in carbon emissions.

If that one-hour could so do much, it is anybody's guess what adopting a progressive energy-spending attitude could mean for the country.

Add to it a more inspiring incentive the exhortation of a little boy or girl to save the planet. When children remind adults of their responsibilities, it is a moment of awakening. Tapping into the vein of this truth is Heroes of the UAE, a unique energy-saving campaign by the Emirates Wildlife Society in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund (EWS-WWF). Barely two months old, it has already managed to raise a significant awareness on energy conservation across the UAE. The campaign features school children in various personas advising parents to be economical in their energy spending.

While launching the campaign on February 14 this year, Mohammad Al Bowardi, Chairman of EWS said, "We are on the brink of a global 'ecological credit crunch', whereby we are using natural resources faster than our planet can supply them.

In the UAE, not only are we at risk of using more energy than we can supply, but by burning so many fossil fuels, we are contributing to climate change. Unabated, this will have a huge impact on the lifestyles, coastal landscapes and natural heritage of future generations. We have to act now to stop this from happening after all, a sustainable UAE is every child's right.' Friday decided to review the response to this two-month-old campaign.

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Wafic Moghrabi of Class 5J at the Emirates International School, Meadows, Dubai, is a bubbly youngster whom you could probably bump into at a mall and not give a second thought. But when you see his photograph staring at you from a newspaper advertisement, it's an encounter of a different kind. Dressed in a bright costume, he is Captain Air Con, who is advising you to stop control your energy consumption at home by taking a few simple precautions.

Like Wafic, many children from various emirates have joined hands with the (EWS-WWF) 'Heroes of the UAE' to propel the campaign into collective consciousness.

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Tanzeed Alam, manager, Climate Control and Change, EWS-WWF, throws more light on the raison d' etre of the campaign: " 'Heroes of the UAE', is a national campaign urging everyone living and working in the UAE to reduce his energy consumption," he says. "In doing so, its helps shrink the UAE's ecological footprint as well as give it a definitive edge in the global efforts to tackle climate change.

"Aimed at people of all ages and from all backgrounds, the campaign emphasises that by following simple energy-saving tips, we can all be heroes and make a positive contribution in combating climate change and safeguard the environment for our children's future.

"Moreover we can also save money by taking these actions."

EWS-WWF has issued energy saving tips that are very simple to follow and when successfully implemented can actually help a household save up to Dh2,500 a year. Energy saved from these households can power over 350 apartments annually.

For people who have been tone-deaf to the voice that cautions against needless energy consumption or fail to see how small steps can actually make a big difference, Alam reiterates that the real benefits are only due to human efforts.

No amount of theorising or lecturing or scaring people about ecological crises just turning at the street corner will do the trick.

From the simple act of turning off the tap while shaving to more complex approaches by organisations and governments to saving resources, it is the physical act by every human being which will make the difference.

The graph of technological progress, as evolution has proved so far, can only move upwards but that is precisely the cause and the source of misguided comfort for the global society. Sitting in the lap of lifestyle luxury as it were, we today find it difficult to wrap our minds around the thought of another day, another time where a resource crunch might make us decide to use just one bucket of water for our daily bath. But this sparing use of natural resources is, even as you are reading this, being put into practise by millions of people in certain countries. In fact, through the centuries, humanity's lifestyle habits have been unarguably dictated by what was available and roundly chastised by nature for its indiscriminate use of natural resources.

If we wish that our children also enjoy a similar, and maybe even a better standard of resource comforts, we need to do something today.

"The UAE has the highest per capita Ecological Footprint in the world, meaning that residents here consume far more natural resources than their equivalents in other countries," says Alam. "The largest component of our Footprint arises from carbon dioxide emissions, mostly related to energy consumption. The UAE is also the fifth largest per capita consumer of energy in the world seven times the global average. Clearly there is room for improvement and we can make a good start by acting to reduce wastage of energy and to use it more efficiently.

"The country is also facing a rising demand for energy. It is due to all these reasons that we launched the 'Heroes of the UAE' campaign."

Alam thinks that despite education and awareness in the society, a more systematic campaign was required as people were inactive and not motivated enough to make any significant lifestyle changes. The campaign was designed to propel them out of their current 'mind zone' and motivate them into making a difference.

"At the launch, it was acknowledged that even people who are aware of the consumption problem do not take any action. The question was: how can you actually mobilise and engage people (to take ecological issues seriously)?

"Changing the behaviour of a nation is challenging and will take time. We aim to do this by:

- Raising awareness of the environmental and energy problem the world and the UAE faces.

- Relating these issues to personal lifestyles of UAE residents.

- Providing people with simple actions that they can take to respond to these issues.

- Demonstrate to people that they are part of an emerging community movement that is more environmentally conscious and that it is taking action that is having a positive effect.

Thanks to the UAE carbon calculator that has been developed for the first time, people can calculate their household carbon footprint and then make pledges to carry out simple actions that will help them save energy, money and reduce their carbon footprint.

EWS-WWF has been encouraged by the response this campaign has received and they hope to take this awareness to the next level by involving more interaction from people and a more spirited effort from people to take concrete energy saving steps.

Although it takes a long time for any message to be steadily drummed into people's minds, the EWS-WWF is very heartened by the response the campaign has generated.

"To date we have had very positive feedback and response from the wider public, businesses, government and media," says Alam. "We expect this to continue as behavioural change is a long-term endeavour, and as the campaign develops, we expect to engage more people through a variety of ways.

"Almost 1,500 pledges of support have been registered online from individuals who have pledged a long-term commitment to reduce their energy consumption. Over 13,000 people have visited the website, with people staying for over five minutes per visit, which indicates they are learning about the issues and how to live more sustainable lifestyles. "We have also delivered lectures and workshops about climate change and the heroes campaign to numerous communities including the Chalhoub group, Nokia, the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi, Zayed University, American University of Sharjah, the Abu Dhabi Books Fair and smaller community groups in Abu Dhabi. We continue to receive requests from varied organisations and corporates, asking us to address their employees."

In addition, the EWS-WWF has been responding to enquiries from individuals wanting to volunteer in support of the campaign as well as from businesses offering their support and technical expertise.

They have also engaged directly with the public through an outreach programme where 20 staff and volunteers from their organisation handed out 15,000 specially made 'Heroes of the UAE' wristbands at the Coldplay Concert on March 28 to coincide with Earth Hour 2009.

"As it is crucial that action to tackle climate change needs to be sustained beyond the 60 minutes of Earth Hour, we explained this to concert goers, urging them to go online and pledge their support for heroes of the UAE. There was also a booth at the concert where pledges were collected from people. The overall reaction from people was very supportive."

The heightened awareness and appetite of people to consume more information on how to make a difference (as well as their response to this year's Earth Hour) is hand in hand with the 'Heroes Campaign'. This holding of hands is "a testimony of our impact. We are encouraged that people are showing an increasing level of awareness of environmental issues and are willing to take action through simple changes in lifestyle."

The public engagement side is only the first phase of this campaign. In the coming months, the campaign will evolve to specifically target schools, businesses and the government. Affirmative action needs to be taken at all levels of society if a perceptible difference has to be made. This is such an obvious truth but obvious truths are what need to be upheld.

History will tell you this in its sleep.