Building one windmill every five minutes for the next 25 years! Adding a swimming pool size of algae biofuels every second for the next 25 years! Seems like an intimidating task and I am not sure yet, what will drive people to achieve such targets. Fear and greed supposedly drive the world. The world war effort was probably driven by the former while another massive effort like industrialization was driven primarily by the latter. The climate change issue unfortunately does not considerably create both of those factors (yet).

I am doubtful whether fear will ever play a role in finding solutions for climate change. The Himalayan rivers might slowly decrease in volume over a few decades but that would just mean that people will migrate from one area to another. A few decades is enough time for demographic changes to happen and if not for statisticians, we would barely notice the changes. Almost all the consequences of climate change, be it increase in the number of diseases, melting of summer ice in polar regions or rise in sea levels happen over a few decades and some of them over a century or two. At the best, we would find solutions that cure the symptoms; probably walls to protect our seaside cities.

So, we remain with the other major driver of human behavior which is greed. How do we make it work  in such a way that the climate change challenge will be solved? What kind of incentives do we provide to people and governments so that they start working toward a solution for climate change? Many of the incentives currently devised to solve climate change such as subsidies, carbon credits, tax breaks and so on haven’t always worked satisfactorily.

Then, what would be an incentive? Technology might be one. A radical new low cost solar panel might possibly become so attractive that everyone automatically wants to make money out of it and as a result, man-made emissions might be reduced. A new economic instrument might be another one; Corporations, stock markets were all invented at some point of time and something radical might be born yet again. God and religion have served as pollution control measures in many parts of the world but I doubt whether they could be used in this new world where science is the real religion. Anything that might save us from the consequences of man-made climate change is probably not yet invented.

Does that mean that we wait for a miracle to happen? I don’t think so. I believe instead in probabilities. Increase the number of college courses and thereby people who specialize in technology related to renewable energy and you increase the possibility of an outcome. Increase funding for research in climate change and you increase the possibility of an outcome. Introduce primary school students to climate change and increase the possibility of an outcome. Short term incentives like subsidies and tax-breaks would not solve a problem such as this. Only a long term investment in education would probably solve this issue.

The movie shows from an eagle’s eye, how humans have changed the face of Earth. You don’t have to pay money to watch it. It just costs some time. The movie was distributed free of cost worldwide on June 5th, 2009. Life on Earth is the greatest suvivor of all time. It has survived asteroids, ice ages and it will survive man. The question is whether man can survive in a raging planet.

Can we really do something about it? You have to ask for yourselves. I think we can. And there is no point waiting for someone to initiate. If you want to take action, take action today.

PS: If you want to download the movie, download it via a torrent.

1. I visited an industry called Kennametal to have a look at the rainwater harvesting and energy efficiency measures they have implemented  over the past 5-6 years. To summarize, I could say: Every drop of rain which falls inside the campus is made to flow into the water table, every possible energy wastage is stopped or in the process of it and the company is saving crores of money every year with the effort. The site visit was attended by many entrepreneurs and people with interest in cleantech. I read a quote sometime back which said “Entrepreneurs do more than anyone thinks possible with less than anyone thinks possible”. Here was a great opportunity in energy efficiency sector and here were all these entrepreneurs. Think of the effect. Think of the effect 20 years from now!
2. Although I always loved planting trees, I never used to get into the grassroot level. Recently, Aditya, a SJCE student and volunteer at Vivekananda youth forum convinced me to start tree planting in a different way; No laborers or money involved but instead we do the task ourselves. We dig the pits ourselves, ask the homes around to provide us with decomposable waste, plant the trees, provide thorn protection and water it. Every day, we make it a point to talk to at least two neighbours. I was never so convinced about this kind of grassroot level work until now. The effect has been tremendous. With just 10 days of work, neighbours have started to show interest in the activity. Some of them even want to involve themselves  in the activities. Such concepts of grassroot level work can never be believed unless you do it. Also, the possibilities of such work and the happiness it gives!
3. I typically have a starting problem in whatever I do. I sometimes used to hesitate to write mails. A few days back, Anil was insisting on me to write a mail to a stranger with some requirement. The same day, I also read a blog by Rashmi Bansal on a concept called 10-10-10. According to the concept, you could take any task and break its outcome on 3 levels. 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years. So applying it in my case, writing that mail would cause me a bad feeling for the next 10 minutes (mainly because I was reluctant to write to strangers), would create a good working relationship in the next 10 months (because the person whom I was to write had the same business interest as me) and in 10 years, it may possibly be the best decision I ever made (because, some outcomes can never be predicted). So, I wrote the mail. And yes, first 10 minutes were not good. But I didn’t need 10 months for the good things to show up. 10 days was enough!

If at least one person gets the real emotion in my mind, my purpose  of writing this is served. Also, do read about Ayyappa Masagi, a grassroot worker in rainwater harvesting who was responsible for the rainwater harvesting methods employed at Kennametal: http://www.waterliteracy.org/about%20us.htm

Links in this post:

Enlen.in – Kennametal energy efficiency programme

Sapgreen.com – grassroot work

Ayyappa Masagi – rainwater harvesting expert

10-10-10 concept

Why not introduce environment science as a part of main curriculum at schools. At least 1 or 2 hours of this class per week would go a long way in improving the state of our planet. This subject could include theoretical and most importantly practical lessons in rainwater harvesting, biogas generation, energy efficiency etc. Just like every school has a lab, every school could have a tree nursery. Each student could be made responsible for one sapling, from seed to tree in an year. How many crores of trees could be planted in a year!! Also,  with renewable energy technologies being taught in practical form, think of the innovation that would result when the children grow up; assuming at least a few would be inspired.

Also, from my past year’s experience at Sapgreen, I have seen that children in cities lack respect for saplings or trees. I have seen them vandalize saplings I had planted; for no reason. I can’t blame the children for such acts as I have seen that the reason for this behaviour in most cases was ignorance. If the same children had learnt the process of growing a seed into a tree practically, I am sure they would be much more caring for other trees too.

Its just a matter of government policy. One small change in the rule book could change a whole lot of things for the world. For the time being though, I am trying to get one school to make this activity part of its curriculum.

Some things I learnt from the proceedings:

• Loudness works only to a particular level. People who are loud also tend to lose their patience pretty  soon. Slowly, they lose attention and interest. The ones who wait with patience and the ones with real issues to talk always get a hearing in a democratic system.
• You can’t make an illogical man understand your point with reasoning. However, the same man will agree with you provided he doesn’t have enough people to back him.
• On the other hand, if a logical man has a particular point and he knows that he is right, he becomes stronger if he faces more opposition.
• Politicians typically try to please an audience. One of them who was present at the meeting today was initially of the view that trees should be cut. Later she understood that she didn’t have support  and immediately switched sides. We should know to make use of this behaviour of politicians.
• Democracy has its flaws. People with vested interests make use of goons to fake citizen representation so that their agenda succeeds. The only way to counter this is by more citizen representation. Concerned citizens always outnumber those with vested interests. If more such citizens participate in public issues, democracy succeeds.

I know, I have not been able to convey everything that I experienced there. I think it cannot be conveyed by writing. You should attend one of these public meetings to know how it feels.