Green makes sense

It took me a while to figure out the title for this blog, then it came to me.

Climate change is an inevitable phenomenon today. It is already happening and will continue to occur in the future. All the signals point in the change direction with experts in Nasa, environmentalists like Al Gore, Bill McKibben etc. who constantly remind us that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is way past its upper limit and we need to act now.

So here's my case, we are living in times of constant change. Politically the world is in chaos, Occupy Wall Street has shown has that, Europe is slowly going bankrupt and the Indian rupee in dropping in value almost every week. People are being fired in the west and there is a huge amount of uncontained anger thrown at the rich and government in many parts of the world. But climate is not being addressed, if it is only in talks.

Climate change has many causes, one of course which we all highlight is man's drawback on unsustainable development. Now the other contributing factors which mind you are all interconnected; food, water sources and fuel. Every year close to 6 million hectares of land is cleared for agriculture, an average person in the west consumes 50 litres of water a day and fuel is well guzzled in millions of gallons.

Nearly half the world's population go hungry, about 3 billion especially in developing nations. Livestock has increased to 5 billion in the 21st century alone so you can imagine the amount of food and water required to sustain them. Climate variation will bring havoc to India's crop market. In most north Indian states even a 0.5 increase in temperature can ruin crops like bajra and jowar in Rajasthan. India has always been one of the biggest exporter of pulses, with temperature increase disasters like flooding, unequal rainfall, droughts will bring disaster to the much prized basmatic rice in the country. Another huge factor contributing to development issues is poverty. Almost half of the world lives on 1 US dollar a day and 1 one four children in India are underweight/ malnourished.

If India as an emerging nation uses climate change as a priority with the right policies in place, we can emerge as a shining example to the others. For example employment in the green sector of the country (solar, water, wind, biofuel) require intensive labour which is found outside urban cities. An increase in labour requirement can eradicate unemployment problems to a large extent. This will not only reduce our carbon emissions, but poverty decreases with an earning member able to provide food, shelter and health for his family. We also protect India's assets this way by introducing climate tolerant crops, organic agriculture and protecting out forest and water sources which we depend upon. With employment, education is the next step which every family desires and the dream of sending children to school and college can be met. Working with indigenous tribes, agriculturists and locals have tremendous benefits and inculcate a mutual working relationship paving the way to greater protection and trust.

The ones who suffer are the poor and undervalued, reaching out to them we stand only to gain economically and make the nation viewed with respect and strength.

So in a nutshell, green makes sense.

Gandhi on the path of Sustainable Development

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi was once asked if he expected India to rise to the economic standards of Britain and he replied, “It took Britain half the resources of the planet to achieve this prosperity. How many planets will a country like India require?” Known for his outspoken attitude on India’s industrious future, he always stressed on our rich heritage, history, bounty of mother nature and how the protection of these resources is responsible for India's future success. “From the very beginning man has taken only what he needed. Today every man’s need is his greed”, which is one of the greatest mistakes of mankind, also pointed out by our Bapu.

Attending a conference on ‘Gandhi and the Value of Sustainable development’ in Bangalore, it was motivating to witness the resurrection of Gandhi along with his pearls of wisdom which made me, think would Gandhi be happy with our country today? Is this what he envisioned? My guess is that maybe he just needed to remind us of what is happening, what he predicted-and that he was right all along.

Sustainable development in villages is one of the biggest issues today, something that modern India is yet to realise and wake up to. The employment and empowerment of the rural sector is urgent with over 60% of India’s population situated in villages. The Millennium Development Goals (UN) introduced in 2000 have been a disappointment, their extension of each deadline is not going to help and with the population of the world officially marked 7 billion, I wish them all the luck.

Gandhi was known for the use of chakra for khadi which heralded the swadeshi movement giving way for the sustainable movement in India. The ability of a sustainable livelihood of this manner gave an empowerment like no other, and led to a significant increase in employment, especially uprising of indigenous cultures most all off - Hope. He believed in manual labour and said that that mass production should be need based only. Gandhi believed in toiling for your money pointing out that, “Production should be by masses and not through mass production which leads to greed and poverty.”

Another major contributing factor which I hold the man in highest honour is the emancipation of women. Gandhi as a leader saw that women of India were largely uneducated and stuck as victims of traditions in illiteracy, child marriage and sati. He viewed women as one of the major contributors towards development and education and was noted to encourage schools and institutions for enrolling women. For a family to be educated and well-learned it comes from the mothers first. “If a woman is educated in the family, the entire family will be literate“.

Gandhi sought to resolve issues still widely persistent today – Health, education, child care, gender issues, environment sustainability and bridging the gap between the rich and poor. This mind you was introduced by the UN more than 50 years later. Gandhi’s method of resolving problems was being physically present - Going village to village door to door listening to people’s problems, understanding them and finding solutions. Something that is unthinkable with our netas today who do not think development should be in the interest of the poor and rural.

He opened the door of education, he emphasized on sustainable livelihood and environment protection and He put India on the global map.

More to come.