Iranildo de Sousa Ferreira is a 16 year old student who has been working  in the environmental area for several years. He is a student and lives in the city of Ibiapina, Ceará in Brazil. Protecting the environment is his passion. Iranildo is writing for the GLOBAL IDEAS Blog about his experience with climate change and about projects he’s working on.

The Brazilian Climate Champions have been at the “Ceara’s 1st Night Cultural Fraternity Campaign”, 27th of May 2011. The event took place in the town of Ibiapina, the main theme was “fraternity and Life on Earth.”
I started a debate about environmental and ecological issues, that involved teachers, students, the government and the society in the city of Ibiapina-Ceará.

This years “Brotherhood Campaign” to me is an invitation to reflect all the needs to carry out actions that aim at mitigation and the adaptation of climate change.  It involves the constructive actions of the brazilian population to create a sustainable society. It also set the focus on the problems caused by years of misuse of natural resources and pollution solutions.
My lecture as a Climate Champion was entitled “Climate Change – Think + Act (think globally and act locally).” I stated that the new Brazilian Forest Code (adopted by the Board of Deputies of Brazil) could exacerbate climate change. According to the increased pressure on forests, that will undermine the international commitments, that had been assumed by Brazil in 2009 at COP 15 in Copenhagen.

I also explained the Fraternity Campaigns motto “Creation groans in travail”, that i use to decribe the changes and phenomena caused by the harmful action of the people, causing pain and suffering to humanity. The event was the initiative of the Municipal Government and the Catholic Church Ibiapina, receiving support from the Department of Environmental Conservation Program Prefuturo. It reflects the urgency of individual and collective attitudes in favor of changes in the relations between man and the environment.