Diwali – Knowledge over Ignorance

This weekend we break for Diwali holiday, one of the major festivals in India. Being the festival of lights, Diwali symbolises the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. By coincidence, Sunday 31 October is the first day of the two-week long COP26 in Glasgow, UK. As this year has marked the release of the sixth IPCC Report, where all scientists and nation states have agreed on the severeness of climate change as a result of human activities, Diwali and knowledge over ignorance will hopefully be at heart of COP26.  

Countries have been busy and prepared to participate in COP26, the 26th edition of the United Nations Conference of the Parties. A major issue has been how to half green-house emissions by the year 2030 in order to stop the rise in global average temperature at 1.5 degrees Celsius. However easy the need for reducing emissions is, how to get there and who should do what is the major challenge. 

Similar to COP26, TISBMUN is hosting the Junior conference this weekend, an event for Grades 6-8 that is going on between Saturday 30 October and Sunday 31 October. In the event participating students represents a country and are divided into six committees: Disarmament and International Security Committee, Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, Commission on the Status of Women, Continuous Crisis Committee, the Star Wars Committee, and the International Press Corps. For the outside audience, the opening and closing ceremonies will be made available on TISB’s YouTube channel.  

Many TISB students are engaged in environmental and climate change issues, perhaps being the most important generation in the history of humankind. Two student-led after-school clubs, Climate Club and LEAP, are directly involved with issues related to the environment and climate change. The Climate Club aims to encourage and facilitate students to channel their interests and take steps to create real impact in school and among the wider TISB community. LEAP is an international environmental initiative with a student network spanning five countries, working with projects ranging from information and awareness campaigns, waste collection and management, and sustainable farming. 

We hope that Diwali will offer knowledge instead of ignorance to the world representatives at COP26, and that it will provide our students with a restful break, building their energy to continue their efforts to save the planet.