Have you ever heard of the UN International Peace Day celebrated on September 21st? According to the UN web-site, Peace Day 2019 is devoted to Climate Change. One might think that environment has nothing to do with peace, but in fact it does.
XXI century wars are no longer limited by traditional ones. Longterm disparate micro-wars and conflicts bear more localized nature, albeit not less disastrous. Given the intensive scale of globalization processes, these conflicts result in even higher number of victims. On top of that, local ecosystems are being significantly hurt. Therefore, a number of scholars seek effective measures to mitigate a damage to communities. The School of “Society, Technologies and Ecology” in joint efforts with UN Information Office hosted a panel discussion devoted to the celebration of the International Peace Day and make an effort to get involved in this overarching dialogue.
The event started with a minute of commemoration in the memory of victims of all wars and conflicts. This initiative took place in every corner of the world. Right after the opening remarks by dean, Mr. Ewan Simpson, an adviser to Sustainable Kazakhstan Research Institute, Mr. Brendan Duprey opened the flow of discussions with comprehensive presentation about the SDGs, elaborated with data about climate change and its impact on world security. The United Nations Information Office representative, Mr. Vlastimil Samek continued a reflection on the sustainable development and gave a keynote address enriched with specific examples from Kazakhstan. Narxoz university experts in the field, such as Ms. Alina Borodina, Mr. Dmitriy Kim and Mrs. Gaukhar Nursha, also gave their summaries. An interdisciplinarity of this discussion let all participants to look at climate change from different angles: coping with drinking water challenge, air pollution in Almaty and the most relevant to Narxoz University – the role of youth in solving global issues. As Mr. Samek put it: “One has to think globally, act locally.”
It worths to mention, that earlier Narxoz students were invited to participate in the “Climate Action 4 Peace” essay contest to celebrate the Peace Day. In their essays they vocalized their take on all above matters. More than 20 applicants who tried their luck in the contest received valuable prizes today. Let us congratulate following students who did an outstanding job in this contest:
1st place — Vadim Melyakov
2nd place — Kyamran Mirzoyev, Katrin Wrulich
3d place — Arailym Zhetkerbayeva, Yerkebulan Turganbay and Zarina Laiykova