Climate Change Engagement

Climate change took center stage at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) annual Community Engagement Day on Wednesday, 18 May 2011 at the J Arthur Smith Hall. The engagement Day was themed Green Climate Change, in light of the continuous unprecedented weather conditions that are affecting the world.

DUT Vice Chancellor Professor Ahmed Bewe took the time to talk too student about the importance of Africa Day. “It is important that we spend the day reflecting on what it means to be an African and to do something to show that we are a vital part of the continent we need to start doing something about caring for the African environment.

The guest speakers included Jenny Duvenage, media and research manager at the Wildlife Environmental Alliance of South Africa (WESSA). WESSA is a non-government organisation (NGO) that has been proactively engaged to ensure environmental sustainability for current and future South African generations. The organisation focuses on the sustainable and equitable management of natural resource base by building society’s environmental sensitivity and competence. The organisation engages with communities and individuals to move to more sustainable action. Duvenage says WESSAs main focus has been rural areas have been their main focus and they have yielded more results. “In areas like Inanda we have included the society in everything we do, we have been in the area for five years now and we have seen a lot of change. We have been teaching people how to care for the environment so that it will take care of them. People can now identify and terminate what we call alien plants, one of the biggest threats to the environment and plant environmentally y friendly trees”, said Devenage.

Durban green corridor manager Gabriella Peppas also reiterated the importance of caring for the environment.  The NGO promotes its project through responsive conversation action, innovative educational intervention and human capacity development that empowers to make sustainable lifestyle and environmental management choices.She termed climate change asa human crisis. She said, “We do not have an environmental crisis we have a human crisis. People need to start caring for the environment now or else the future generation will suffer. ” She focused on the underlining issues that threaten our planet, mainly human behavior. We as individuals can make a big difference if we change our behavior. We need to make global and not sole priorities, said Peppas.”

To further discuss matters of climate change, Durban will host Cop 17 in November. The climate change conference will start on the 28^th of November and end on the 9^th of December 2011. World leaders are expected to gather at the ICC to find a way forward and a solution after the conference, Cop16 that was held in Canada did not produce any results.