The global report on climate change by Future Earth namely, ‘Our Future on Earth, 2020’ was released in the presence of an august panel of experts and a diverse audience consisting of students, teachers, practitioners, and professionals at the Faculty Hall, Indian Institute of Science on the 13 February 2020. The launch also saw the presence of multiple media houses and representatives from different universities, colleges, and institutions across Bangalore. This launch was a globally distributed effort by the future earth communities and global hubs around the world to simultaneously launch the report between 13 to 21 February 2020. The purpose of this parallel launch event around the world was planned in order to reduce the carbon footprint, convening this as a global statement about our future and to halt global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. The report states the current state of our planet and the future our global society. A two-hour program was designed by the Future Earth South Asia Office as an Awareness Program to discuss the issues raised in the report.

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Left to Right: Prof. Dr. Chandrashekar Shetty, Prof. S. K. Satheesh, Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Prof. J. Srinivasan.
Prof. J Srinivasan addressing the audience during the Report Launch event.

The event saw presence of the chief guest and guest of honour Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Padma Vibhushan, former Secretary, Department of Space, and former Chair, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), former Member of Parliament, former Member of Planning Commission, and the chair, Governing Council, Future Earth South Asia; Prof. S. K. Satheesh, Chair, Divecha Centre for Climate Change and Director, Future Earth South Asia, Indian Institute of Science; Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Director of National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc and Distinguished Scientist and former Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India and member of Belmont Forum; Prof. Dr. Chandrashekar Shetty, Vice Chancellor, Adichunchanagiri University, former Founding Vice Chancellor, Sri Devraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research; Dr. Vijaykumar Gogi (IFS), Principal Secretary to Government of Karnataka, Forest, Ecology, and Environment, Government of Karnataka; Prof. J. Srinivasan, Distinguished Scientist, Divecha Centre for Climate Change. Students from St Joseph’s College, Mount Camel College, Adichunchanagiri College and graduate and postgraduate scholars from Indian Institute of Science, National Institute of Advanced Studies, and other professionals were present aside from a considerable media representation covering national and regional media houses.

Prof. S. K. Satheesh delivered the welcome address and talked about the main activities of the Centre. Prof. J. Srinivasan gave a brief talk on the findings in the report. Dr. Vijayakumar Gogi gave a talk on sustainability and challenges faced by the ecological environment with respect to climate change. Prof. Dr. Chandrashekhar Shetty spoke about health sciences and education, and their intersection with the SDGs. Dr. Shailesh Nayak raised the question of human systems and the future of the planet and highlighted two critical factors: social system such as governments, industries, etc., and human systems focusing on human activities and human behavior affecting the planet, to better understand current global environmental changes. The individual talks by all invited guests were followed by the official release of the report, after which Dr. Kasturirangan addressed the audience.

The rest of the program focused on the status of our environment with deliberations on Climate Change, Water Crisis, Food and Agriculture Security and the possibility of a transition towards a Renewable Energy society. The program was concluded by Dr. Smriti Basnett, Ms. Anupama Nair, Dr. Rohini Mattoo and Mrs. Anasuya Gangopadhyay giving individual talks on findings from the report on Future Earth such as climate change, water, energy, food, and agriculture.

Dr. K. Kasturirangan addressing students and attendees at the event.