Kehkashan, 12, vows to carry on Rio legacy among UAE youth

Dubai: Barely a month after arriving back from the Rio+20 Earth Summit in Brazil to represent the youth of the UAE and the region, 12-year-old Kehkashan Basu is back to ‘work’ in Dubai.

This young environmentalist is devoting her summer to pass on the lessons she learned from the thee-day conference attended by world leaders and youth in June.

While critics have described the conference as an “epic failure” in that it resulted in just a“document brimming with good intentions but low on concrete plans,” Basu thought otherwise.

“The Rio+20 conference was not totally a failure, although the youth were not happy with the text,” Basu told Gulf News, adding with much optimism: “Prior to this conference, oceans, mountains and small islands were not considered important, but now, they are considered the main focus points for achieving sustainable development.”

Basu, who was recognised as the youngest international delegate in the summit, said the problem boiled down to one thing — too much talking. More

 

The environment is no longer the luxury of the well off.

 

"Environment, in the broader sense of environmental sustainability, is no longer something you can consider an afterthought, it is no longer the luxury of the well off. In fact it is the survival of the poor, that is most directly linked to understanding environmental sustainability."