The role of higher education in awareness of climate changes, a case study of north-eastern states

North-East has considerable expertise and experiences in climate science through collaborative research between independent research institutes and their external partners. The key step forward will be how to unite this expertise with the expertise of North-East universities to eventually build a bottom-up regional community of connected educators, researchers, students, practitioners, policymakers and local groups for climate change adaptation. To upgrade the public awareness, there is a need to increase public sensitivity to the environment, development problems, involvement in their solution, and a sense of personal responsibility, greater motivation and commitment towards sustainable development. Many environmental problems are caused by the absence of awareness like the unwise use of resources, all sorts of pollution, imbalance between population growth and available resources, the spread of diseases, and the destruction of land and its abuse. The main objective is to promote broad public awareness as an essential part of education efforts to strengthen attitudes, values and actions, which are compatible with sustainable development. Mass media offers some activities in this area but without any organized plan. The press is doing very little to promote public awareness as shown by various studies. Mosques, Churches, Clubs, industry, unions etc…..are doing little in fostering awareness among the public.