Earth Day: TEAM Promotes Awareness Towards Saving Our Planet!

Dharamsala 22 April 2009: To mark this year's Earth Day, Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement (TEAM) organized a series of activities including publication launches, letter-writing campaigns and a door-to-door lobby to reduce the usage of Styrofoam platters.

Two hundred copies of the two books in Tibetan, "Environmental and Health Problems Related to PVC Products" and "An Introduction to Organic Farming" were released. [Please Click on Our Publication Section] A total of 192 copies of each book were distributed to organizations and individuals. The first eleven copies of our new set of twenty-two posters of Tibetan wildlife were given to nearby schools and educational institutions.

Because waste management is a huge challenge, TEAM has decided to tackle one trash 'species' at a time. TEAM sent 108 letters to Tibetan schools, monasteries, settlements and institutions all across Himachal Pradesh and visited 108 offices and homes in Dharamsala describing the damage to the environment caused by Styrofoam platters and advocating their reduction.

Even though the use of polythene bags in Himachal Pradesh has decreased, Styrofoam cups and plates are abundantly consumed. In Tibetan communities, they are generously distributed during teachings, parties and gatherings. Since there is no way of recycling polystyrene products in India, the used products end up as toxic smoke after burning in people's yards, residing in landfills for thousands of years or worst of all becoming a permanent and artificial part of the bio-cycle.

TEAM also distributed brochures describing the toxicity of drinking hot Tibetan tea in Styrofoam cups, which leach out styrene molecules, a possible human carcinogen. "Not all modern products and culture are good; but it is difficult to know what is truly bad when you blindly follow everything modern. Use and throw culture is not only environmentally unsound, it is against Buddha's teaching. In a greed-driven business world, advertising only describes the virtues of a product and drawbacks are hidden or shown only in "the small print." Furthermore, the hazards of these products are generally described in a published literature available only in English and other western languages. So we at TEAM try to describe those hazards in our own tongue", said, Tsering Yangkey, TEAM's Director.

Ugyen Tsephel, TEAM's Assistant Director, said, "It is high time that we wake up to the cause of protecting our planet and figuring out the consequences of our choices. We have received very good response today from Tibetan people of all walks of life— ministers, parliamentarians, and secretaries as well as common people. This doesn’t mean that the practices observed on Earth Day should be put onto the shelf on other days. There are a variety of small things that we can do to make a positive difference such as using energy-efficient light bulbs, carrying cloth bags, planting trees, saving water, buying recycled items, composting biodegradable wastes, buying unpackaged local products, riding public transportation, etc."

TEAM is a non-profit environmental organization with a mission to revive the ecological consciousness of the Tibetan people.

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