India Chapter

We aim to focus on addressing a lack of environmental education by teaching our students about the personal impacts of the challenges we face and how they relate to the topics we teach-- European history (taught by US members), geology, environmental science, and chemistry.

Our European history course follows the AP European History curriculum that students in the US have learned from. But we focus a lot on discussing European influence in India, how British traders transformed into conquerors and colonialists. We also learn about Indian independence and the factors that led up to that. Understanding European influence, and especially the British, is important to understanding India’s current economic development and its culture. This in turn helps us understand India’s current environmental challenges.

Urbanization by itself isn’t a huge problem, because it tends to mean our individual carbon footprints decrease due to more walking and more use of public transport. But, in the case of many Indian cities, a lack of green space in these urban centers means that when it rains, sewers tend to get overwhelmed, and there’s not that much greenery to help soak up the water. That’s a case when urbanization becomes a problem. So, that’s what we decided to focus on. We’re currently running fundraisers to begin community gardens in the New Delhi area in collaboration with local college students and environmental club members. Make sure to check-in to see progress!