Questions from Sri Aurobindo International

Most of the people know what climate change is. They know that glaciers are melting in our country and that it will be a problem for tourism because there won't be enough snow in the future - and that's why people come to Switzerland, because of the snow.... Some ask us "what if we are wrong about climate change? Maybe it is no problem at all." We answer: " It is good that we invent now fuel-efficient cars and use renewable energy whether there is a climate change or not-

Almost every day you can read something about climate change in the news papers. Now they talk about the CO2 Act. Switzerland has responded to the warming of the earth’s atmosphere with a CO2 Act. The Act, which entered into force on 1 May 2000, forms the core of Switzerland’s climate policy by which binding targets are set for the reduction of the most important greenhouse gas, CO2. The CO2 tax on fuel plays a key role. It has been levied since 1 January 2008, along with the “climate cent on vehicle fuels”, which is used to finance projects in Switzerland and abroad. By the revision of the CO2 Act, Switzerland introduces compulsory limits for the average CO2 emission of fleets of newly registered cars. Importers and producers of cars are allowed to form pools in order to compensate heavily polluting cars with more environment-friendly ones. The limits for the average CO2 emissions of fleets are strengthened gradually from 2012 (65 per cent compliance) until 2015 when their average CO2 emissions should not exceed 130 g/km (100 per cent compliance). Fleets that do not fulfil their respective emission limit are subjected to fines. The emission limits and the time schedule correspond to the Decision of the European Council on April 6, 2009. As the present average consumption of CO2 in Switzerland is higher than in the European Union, fines in Switzerland need to be higher in order to comply with these aims. Environmental Organisations say this is not yet enough and that Switzerland should do much more about it.

a) Anger: Some people are angry, because politicians always say what we have to do to change the world but they don't do anything. They drive big cars and fly around the world.

Responsibility: There are people which feel responsible for the climate change and want to do something to reduce the global warming.

Hope: Most people aren't very hopeful for the future. They don't believe that it will getting better.

Indifference: Many people don't know what happens in the world, so they don't care about the climate. They only want to live and don't think about resolving the problem.

b) We feel uncertainty. We don't know how the future will be and if the climate is really that bad, like people say.

4) We would say:

"We can do something for our world together. If everybody in the world would care about the climate, we could really achieve something. The future of our children is in our hands, so we have to save it instead of doing nothing."

there is almost no spring anymore. We used to have cold winters and a nice mild spring. But now we have winter and then suddenly it turns very hot. I feel that we don't have spring anymore.

In winter we are a lot of time indoors. Heating is a big problem for climate change. We need better insulated houses and we need to use less fuel to heat our buildings. CFC has not much to do with climate change but with ozone layer and the destruction of ozone layer is slowing after worldwide ban on CFC release.

We like the hot summers!!!!!!!!!! that's positive!

Negative consequences are that glaciers are melting and permafrost disappears. Permafrost is very important because it is like the glue which holds our mountains together. It is dangerous if permafrost melts: mountains will break appart.

Bottles for example are now made out of PET. Swiss people are world champions in recycling. In 2008 Swiss people collected 35'825 tons of PET . This means that 80% of all the sold bottles go back to the Recycling and they make new bottles out of it. For each kilogramm PET that has been recycled we reduce 3 kilogramms of CO2. in 2007 like this we could prevent 112500tons of CO2 to be emitted. This corresponds to emissions of 27'000 cars in one year.

a) We would invent cars, planes etc. which are more eco-friendly. We also would control the traffic more, and travel more by train.

Instead of producing a lot of CO 2 with factories, we would invest more in eco-friendly things.

b) It reveals that we have to be more careful with the environment and not take everything as selv-evident. We treated the world like we wanted, and now we recieve the quittance.

a) Actually we are really satisfied with our life and wouldn't change anything. We have our friends, familiy and everything we need, so we can be happy.

b) Mostly yes. Our parents and friends give us advices, but finally it's our decision what we wan't to do in our life.

c) -

We like to go shopping, to party, to laugh and to do sports. We have quite a lot of time to do those things. We go to school, need to study but otherwise we are free to do what we want.

I would need to know what it is really for. I mean sometimes I just don't see a point in getting involved because I just want to have fun.

my friends, my family, fun

I am sorry but I just didn't realise how important it is.

we should have courageous politicians and responsible employers. We need to vote for politicians with green visions!

They should stopp talking! They should act! They should support renewable energy. They should ban big cars. They should ban Stand-by. They should think globally and act locally.

Klöntal Lake is situated 350 m above the town of Glarus and surrounded by steep rock walls. In northern direction the summit of Dejenstock is towering 1100 m above 'lake' level. Still 1000 m higher are the highest peaks of the Glärnisch massif. Lake Klöntal is like a mirror and you can see the mountains in it. It is very beautiful.

a) -

b) It is the first time in history that all the countries are affected by one big problem and they should really stick together.

We didn't know anything but now we looked it up in the internet and that's what we found out about it:

Hyderabad has a population of over 4.0 million. For us that's a lot. Just to compare it:

According to final figures published by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), Switzerland's permanent resident population increased by 108,400 persons in 2008, reaching 7,701,900 inhabitants by the end of the year. This growth, the most significant that has been observed since the 1960s, was essentially due to net migration. Population growth was more marked in urban areas (+1.6%) than in rural areas (+1.0%). At the European level, Switzerland is one of the most dynamic countries from the point of view of population growth.

So two times Hyderabad = Switzerland(-:

Glarus, our town is the smallest existing capital. it is the capital of the Kanton Glarus and it has a population of 5900 people.

About Hyderabad we also found out that you are IT specialists! And your language is URDU and Telugu. And we found out that now you are in the middle of the monsoon season.

in winter it is the heating. and our mobility. and also the things we buy. lots of those things have travelled far.

we should switch off all the things in stand-by modus, that would be really easy to do.

To be honest we don't have a lot of time. We talked to our teacher about it and she says that too. Maybe we are a bit a lazy class.

budapest has lots of tourist attractions! the banks of the Danube, synagogues, the castle quarter, the second oldest underground railway of Europe...