Pollution, Climate Change Discussed in Skype Call with Students in India

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Photo Courtesy of Ravleen Kaur

Sixteen-year-old students in India Skype call with students in history teacher Rene Shuler’s NSL class.

Connor Philips, Online Copy Editor

Students from history teacher Rene Shuler’s NSL (national, state and local government) class held a Skype call with teachers and 16-year-old students from Apeejay School in India to discuss climate change and environmental topics concerning both the U.S. and India.

Shuler coordinated this international call because she wanted her class to discuss topics related to the course such as climate change, the spread of industrialization and the spread of it interacting with other countries to provide more perspective.

“We talked about the rise of industrialization and the impact that man has made on to the environment and we looked at imperialism and the spread of it for resources,” Schuler said. “We see how other countries have mass exportation and that affects the environment.”

India has been passing laws and regulations to combat pollution and environmental damage, but has struggled to keep up with the mountains of garbage accumulating in parts of the country. About 80 billion pounds of trash have accumulated at four official dumping sites in the country’s metropolitan area of Delhi which includes the capital New Delhi, according to a June 10 article in the New York Times.

Students from Shuler’s class said they enjoyed engaging in a dialogue about these topics and bringing them to life, instead of just reading about them.

“It was mostly about green energy and some politics,” sophomore Ayman Laassri said.