Pushing carbon emissions bAcKwArDs and celebrating Earth Day

Earth Day is celebrated every year on April 22, a day where we remind ourselves that we have precious resources to protect; the ground, sky, water and everything above, between and below are reasons why we have been able to come so far in such a short period. This is a day where we remember what we are standing on - The Earth.

Earth Day was celebrated in Bangalore on April 21 2012 with much pomp, song and believe it or not pushing two-wheelers backwards by 200 college students from B.N.M Institute of Technology on a hot Saturday afternoon. Centre for Social Markets and BNM decided that its high time the present gen is reminded about issues of carbon belching, fuel drinking, noisy two-wheelers or just about anything that comes with an engine and how sustainable transport can replace the motor world.

So why two-wheelers? And why pushed backwards which takes a lot of effort? So Bangalore stands no. 1 (and not proudly) of holding the most number of two-wheelers in Bangalore - 26 lakhs. This pretty much outstrips all the rest (stats here) accounting for the increase in carbon emissions, pollution rise and high temperatures which the city has been witnessed in the last few years. Also Bangalore stands no. 3 (very proud here) of holding a young population who rather opt for bikes and scooty peps than cycles. With the number of two-wheelers + 20 somethings in the city this campaign was perfect to encourage our 'push backwards for an earth cause' campaign.

Pushing backwards was an effort to create an awareness of emissions levels caused by two-wheelers ridden by youngsters. We were telling the public become sustainable in your transport pick a cycle, walk or use public transportation, learn to curb those emissions. Learn to protect your environment for your own sake. 

We pushed for 2 kilometers in Banashakari area from the college to the main road, passed the post office, reached the BDA Complex and back to the college. Going downhill at one point threatened all the bikes plummeting into one another, but with 5 people to one engine the students controlled the entire operation beautifully. With the drum beating to various tunes, some youngsters started dancing tapori style - almost like a festival procession. And it was! A festival celebrating the earth, celebrating our home, the air, water and ground which we depend upon. 


An operation which involved top environmental organisations - Sanctuary Asia, Earth Day Network and Greenpeace who were our supporters and stood like pillars throughout the rally. Our media partner Namma Bengaluru Foundation gave us the media action in Bangalore.

The day ended with Greenpeace creating a human chain of a bicycle and a pledge taken by the 200 students promising to save 100,000 km of carbon emissions till the next Earth Day April 22, 2012.

What a perfect Earth Day celebration in Bangalore, and a milestone for me as an enthusiastic person wishing to make a difference. I will be doing much more.

Media coverage and support:

TCKTCKTCK

Sanctuary Asia

The Hindu

DNA

Bangalore Mirror

The New Indian Express

My Expectations from RIO and the Future I Want

It has been an eye-opener in all these years on the various climate conferences, COP and leader summits taken place in addressing the biggest challenge on this planet - Climate Change & Sustainable Development. Yet, there has been very little action has been taken.

The question that arises is that will RIO+20 be any different? The conference has already opened opinion poles asking individuals on what they want to be different, what does sustainability mean to them in The Future We Want 20 years from now. Social media like Facebook has played a massive role in reaching out to millions across the globe, connecting young minds who wish to make a change and aggressively asking people what they want the world to look like two decades from now.

Personally the future I want is where sustainable development is at its prime which means anchored in offices, industries, schools, institutions and residences across the world. Politics and government treat sustainable business and development as the top priority in the world, there is a complete balance over human activities and the natural environment, Strict regulations, laws, wildlife protection and natural resource capital has the tightest security. CFL/ LED light bulbs in everyone's homes are made from plastic bottles, rainwater harvesting is on every persons roof and recycling water takes place in every home, commercial establishment and industry.

I want to see a future where we learn the value of water, air and earth. Where green spaces are common in every establishment, where compressed natural gas (CNG) is the order in transportation, the waste to wealth concept is a business opportunity in cities and bio fuel is the largest petrol and oil industry. Harnessing the power of water, sun, air and the earth is the biggest development and making huge turnovers. Our coral reefs, forests, water, wildlife, mountains, ice caps and natural things exist in real life and growing.

The poor are affected by environmental and social issues the most and we cannot address the topic of sustainable development without addressing poverty which is the biggest polluter today as Indira Gandhi so rightly said. Fighting against poverty needs to be a worldwide struggle, in every continent, country, state, town and city. NGOs and government working together , people need to understand that they are responsible for their actions and taught that caring and making a difference goes a long way. Equity development is the most crucial part of sustainable development, south countries of the world need to realise this. The 'I don't care attitude' is not going to get you anywhere.

This is just a small entity of the problems out there. In a planet where Emerging Countries (like India) are still fighting over presidency and draft issues on the upcoming RIO summit and refuse to submit to the European carbon tax plans if there is no definite plan of where we are heading nationally then what about on a global front?

RIO+20 needs to look at each country, draw an accountability of whats done, involve women - they are the biggest change agents in agriculture and rich indigenous knowledge, social enterprise, equity + poverty = human sustainable development. There must be a pattern where both men and women understand this cycle.

Join the dots and start an action plan before generations after us start questioning why we dint do what we should when there was time.

I want more and expect more from RIO this year.

The Tiger's Day

On a bright sunny morning on February 3 2012 in Bangalore, amidst green surroundings, children corners and an unusual sense of solitude in the middle of a bustling city, more than 650 children assembled at Bal Bhavan in Cubbon Park for a day of celebration and fun - Celebrating the tiger.

Kids for Tigers together with Sanctuary Asia and Aircel held the

annual Tiger Fest of the year; over 30 schools and hundreds of eager children looking forward to a fun-filled day away from classrooms and school routine - To spread the message of tiger conservation and saving the national animal. Cubbon Park famously known as one of the few 'lungs' of a bustling metropolitan city, where despite climbing pollution levels and an expanding population is one of the quick green getaways.

The event was in the entertainment area surrounded by joyrides, lots of trees and shrubs and endearing statues of wild animals giving an aimless stroller a double take just to make sure. Walking around my childhood memories suddenly came rushing back of all the birthday parties, Sunday outings and endless amounts of bhutta (corn on a cob), cotton candy and popcorn we used to gorge on.

The enthusiasm of school children displaying their work was wonderful. From small skits on stage including colourful costumes of tigers/poachers/hunters, to face painting on the lawns and stalls filled with dazzling wildlife art, posters, games etc, it was a fantastic day. The knowledge and resource coming from schools was impressive, the kids had taken a lot of effort to showcase their work in the best way possible.

Each school put up scroll hangings which displayed mother nature's fury against the apathy of man, the woes of the tiger and educational snippets. All material displayed was used from recycled material, no thermocol and plastic allowed. Music from junk where plastic bottles, shoe boxes, extra wood parts were magically turned into guitars, drum sets, even the sound of crunching paper explained as music by a student was remarkable. Faces were painted not only to mimic tigers, but peacocks, butterflies, the birds and the bee's were not left out either!

The purpose of the event was to showcase each person's support and fight against poaching the big cat, how the tiger is responsible for maintaining the ecosystem and most of all the strength of children in showing their support for the cause.

My Take on the Gender Issue

Looking at the social side of development in India, it is obvious that India is one of the last nations in the world on a socially progressive level. 2011 was the year of highest mortality among girl children with 914 girls born out of 1000 boys. In a country which prays and worships goddesses for centuries but kills their own girl child why is this act still present? The saddening and disturbing fact that India is still a country in the 21st century which condemn girls and majority look at the female sex as a burden, inspite of education, wide media coverage, information and advertising.

One of the primary reasons for this development to continue is the availability of sex determination clinics which are still illegally present in the country especially in cities, towns spreading to villages and other remote locations where the practice never used to exist. Female foeticide is easier, simpler the offenders get away with this since few laws are against abortion which is still a controversial issue. Another reason for this beastly act is dowry (which sounds more like death) and increasingly prevalent among the rich in today's times. In the past 10 years 20 millions girls have been killed, 50,000 illegal abortions continue every month and despite sex determination being a crime, the business of sex determination clinics exist throughout the country and remain packed with customers happily ready killing their unborn children.

Many parts of India are already feeling the impact of this issue, villages filled with men and boys and not a single woman to be seen. Families unable to find girls have started sounding out the alert. These areas overrun by men leads to violence, gangs, rapes, bride-trafficking added by an unhealthy amount of testosterone and illiteracy. The movie Matrubhomi was a disconcerting movie that represented the reality of this truth. Also the issue of sex selection occurs highest in rich states of Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana where wealthy families exist and encourage this practice. So its the rich that practice and leads to the spread of this disease.

The social system of killing girls in India is highly contradictory where our culture and religion make the common man worship the female goddess and purge his society of girl children.

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.

Fossil Fool

You are a fossil fool

Taking on all earth’s fuel

Eating up our planet in and out

Leaving too much about

Ever wondered what will happen when there is nothing else?

Ever wondered when there will be nothing left?

Just famine hunger and pain

Millions live in poverty, millions more live near the sea

The poor are worst hit, you will see

When temperatures rise and trees fall

When water levels rise, there will be no food at all

Then you will see

You are a fossil fool

Learn from the past

Learn from the future

Reality is that you can’t afford to be fooled for long

Use the sun, wind, water that Gaia has given us

And renew once more

Do not forget that there is still hope and life

We are more than 6 billion in number today

By working as one things can be turned around

Let us be united as one