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.

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.

Part I

I am very concerned about climate change as it has progressed in recent years from mere conjecture to suspicion, and finally to reality – backed by real data. Now we know for sure that around the world, year after year, decade after decade, the world’s temperature is rising.

In 2010 I was selected to be a British Council Climate Champion by the selection process of the Climate Generation Programme in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a Climate Champion, I’m doing several actions in my city, my state and country to increase public awareness about climate change. My aim is to change habits and encourage mitigation and adaptation. I initiated and am involved with the Brazilian Government’s first Young Brazilian delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference where I will exercise the role of president.

To legitimize the performance of my actions and my work as a Climate Champion got great support from the people at the British Council in Brazil, with whom I keep in touch through the Project Manager, Ana Paula Bessa, who accompanies and guides me in the execution of my actions.

When we work on the issue of climate change, we must remember that climate change will affect all living beings on our planet, and so we can minimize the effects, not only by using clean energy technologies but we need something much bigger – we need everyone’s help. We must act now and start from our homes, our schools, our institutions. We will prove that the human beings are not what they say but what they do.

We have won! Again!
GLOBAL IDEAS reporter Vanessa Fischer, who you can see in the picture above, received the AIDB World Award today for “Science and Environment.” The trophy was awarded by the Asia-Pacific Europe Partnership Committee in Hanoi. Vanessas report “Energy-efficient refrigerators in Brazil” was called the “Best Programme Protecting Ozone Layer and Combating Climate Change.” As you can imagine, we all are over the moon about that award. 🙂

E-waste, or electronic waste, is a major pollutant and poses a big threat to our environment. Things like computers, cell phones and tv's often end up in big landfills, and they can contain harmful contaminants that put us and the environment at risk. It's not just electronics–fridges, too, can release harmful gases into the atmosphere when they're thrown away.

 

But a new recycling program in Brazil's favelas has come up with a good–and green–solution. Old fridges that have been traded out for new ones are disposed of at a state-of-the-art recycling facility–and the entire process is done without releasing damaging pollutants into the atmosphere.

 

Take a look and let us know what you think!