How it started
I have been going to India every single summer since I was just 6 months old. We always visit family and spend months in the summer heat playing badminton, visiting malls, and going to flea markets. I especially enjoyed playing with all my cousins for hours on the terrace of our house. Every single summer was filled with magic, a kind of fun that could never be found in the US, where I live. I cherished every single moment and hope to continue going there and having this summer fun.
However, last summer when I went, something was different. We came in August, during the monsoon season, like we normally do, and expected the usual 35 °C (95 °F), but instead the temperature was typically 40 °C, around 104 °F, on average. Not only this, but it barely rained during the time we were there, which was a shock, considering we went during the rainy season. This drastic temperature rise and lack in rain meant it was too hot to play badminton, too hot to visit malls, too hot to go to flea markets, too hot to really do anything other than sit inside the room with the AC. The only time we could actually go out was in the evenings, and the traffic and crowds made any trip miserable.
Obviously I am passionate about climate change, however, this was the first time that I was seeing such extreme changes in the weather, changes which greatly impacted our daily lives. This is when I realized that I had to do something about it. So, I founded this organization to educate the thousands of people that climate change is affecting. With easy-to-read and access information, as well as live and offline climate seminars, there are many resources that can help teach and empower those who are directly facing the consequences of the climate crisis.
Who am I?
Hey, I’m Anusha! I’m a sophomore in high school and I am really passionate about climate change. I had been hearing about it for a long time but really understood the vastness of the challenge after reading Bill Gates’ How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. Since reading the book I started engaging more deeply with the issue. So, I started doing something about it. I began writing about it in school, through a publication, ECO2, and outside of school, through the climate blog. I started teaching it in school, through an environment club dedicated to spreading awareness, GreenHM, and outside of school through the climate seminars. And I have been learning about it, through individual research, presentations, online Coursera classes, and internships, all outside of school.
The only problem is, I found that there was a about climate change, peers and adults alike. They had varying levels of knowledge, however most people only knew the basics. CO2 is going up, the glaciers are melting, the earth is getting hotter, simple facts like these. In fact, I realized that before I began researching climate change, I probably had little more knowledge than those facts as well.
But, this was my personal intuition, and I wanted hard facts on how much people knew. So, when we went on our annual one-month India trip this summer, I decided to interview people, and see how much they knew. I conducted around 30 interviews and the results were surprising. People, on average, knew even significantly less about climate change than I thought they would. There were definitely patterns on who knew more, versus less, but I found that a majority of the people fell in the latter category.
This is how I got the mission for this foundation. Climate change is a pressing problem which is happening right now, but so many people aren’t aware about, or simply choose to ignore their changing world, and all the small problems that add up into this giant catastrophe called the climate crisis. Kids and adults deserve to know about the problems that they need to solve and deserve to have the means to solve them. I want to give kids the resources that I would have wanted when I was getting into climate change.
From the relevant and curated articles to suggestions to live climate seminars and more, it’s all here. This foundation will guide, educate, inspire, and show people how to make change and fix the climate crisis. I want to make change. I want to make an impact. That’s why I’m here today, and I’m guessing that’s why you’re here too.
