India is a country faced with many problems but is global warming the most important? I hardly think it is. It would be criminal to pump billions of dollars into fighting global warming when the same can be used to feed the poor in this country. The unfortunate truth about global warming is that most people, including some scientists do not understand it . Today, environmental hardliners use global warming to explain any and all climate anomalies. Just as the "Inconvenient Truth" advocates global warming, also Michael Crichton's novel "State Of Fear" attacks it and presents supporting evidence for the same. This book not only shows how little we know about global warming, but also highlights how badly we have handled environmental issues in the past......
RE:how important is global warming
by Ram Sharma on Jun 05, 2007 10:43 AM
with increasing population and enrgy consumption, global warming is definitely the biggest problem of the day. WE MUST FOLLOW ONE CHILD NORM LIKE CHINA TO CONTROLPOPULATION GROWTH. I WOULD EVEN LIKE TO FIND WAYS OF REDUCING POPULATION. WE WERE 33 CRORES IN 1947, AFTER 60 YEARS WE R 105 CRORES.
RE:RE:how important is global warming
by Shahryar Pax on Jun 18, 2007 12:01 AM
Excerpt from The Skeptical Environmentalist Replies: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000001E0-157B-1CD4-B4A8809EC588EEDF&pageNumber=1&catID=2 The Kyoto Protocol will do very little good%u2014it will postpone warming for six years in 2100. Yet the cost will be $150 billion to $350 billion annually. Because global warming will primarily hurt Third World countries, we have to ask if Kyoto is the best way to help them. The answer is no. For the cost of Kyoto in just 2010, we could once and for all solve the single biggest problem on earth: We could give clean drinking water and sanitation to every single human being on the planet. This would save two million lives and avoid half a billion severe illnesses every year. And for every following year we could then do something equally good.
RE:how important is global warming
by ganesh on Jun 05, 2007 10:23 AM
why don't we cut down subsidies? why don't we cut down defence expenses? why don't we look into corruption problem? this cab save lot of money. im not saying we shud not care for poor and hungry ppl. global warming is equally imp as india will be the country to face the worst consequences of global warming in south asia.
The kind of development coming up in our cities is just horrible....I have seen many corporate offices and industries in Delhi and around it with no greenery....These buildings are just huge pieces of concrete and glasses, with lots of ACs working to cool the inside temperature....These kind of measures are short living and can't be the answer to the summer warming....In fact, in this case the government buildings are quite good....
God knows how biodiesel is going to help and what effect would it have on food security and environment. Everywhere towns and cities are expanding at the cost of agricultural land, forest land, wetland, open spaces...whether forests do/do not contribute to/alleviate climate change- as opposing experts argue, let us leave it on them-we can see that these do provide shade, help in controlling soil erosion and run-off control besides providing a variety of resources. Now also we export rather compete to match others in mineral exploration and ore export. We follow west, but not there good ones. In our cities we don%u2019t care about trees and open spaces. Our bus stands and stations are place for homeless, they don%u2019t have other place. If they sit at other places, simply they may die as no one would have time to visit them. Wastes are simply dumped here and there. Many people keep inside of their houses clean. Outside is the concern of government. Just dump outside of one%u2019s boundary. So matter is of public education, change of mentality along with finding way for meeting the basic needs of the poor. So that their needs are fulfilled in sustainable manner along with controlling grid/showiness of rich.
God knows how biodiesel is going to help and what effect would it have on food security and environment. Everywhere towns and cities are expanding at the cost of agricultural land, forest land, wetland, open spaces...whether forests do/do not contribute to/alleviate climate change- as opposing experts argue, let us leave it on them-we can see that these do provide shade, help in controlling soil erosion and run-off control besides providing a variety of resources. Now also we export rather compete to match others in mineral exploration and ore export. We follow west, but not there good ones. In our cities we don%u2019t care about trees and open spaces. Our bus stands and stations are place for homeless, they don%u2019t have other place. If they sit at other places, simply they may die as no one would have time to visit them. Wastes are simply dumped here and there. Many people keep inside of their houses clean. Outside is the concern of government. Just dump outside of one%u2019s boundary. So matter is of public education, change of mentality along with finding way for meeting the basic needs of the poor. So that their needs are fulfilled in sustainable manner along with controlling grid/showiness of rich.
So many meetings are held, but now also i see poor people in my remote place called Bolangir in Orissa collecting wood from forests having no other alternative than attacking nature, forests being cleared unsustainably, people boastfully talk of reaching ladder of resource consumption so as to become developed- e.g., they say, consumption of electricity/energy should increase to match US/UK, steel/paper consumption per capita should increase, meat consumption per capita should increase, phone connection should increase, vehicle availability per thousand population should increase etc etc.. It is said rapid industrialisation would solve the problem of unemployment and poverty, if that is the case, why are there unemployment in developed country at all. If somebody opposes ill-planned and unsustainable (environment point of view, not monetary), he is called a traitor tying to stop the development of this country/the area. Why production cost is cheaper here, one reason may be that of non-inclusion of environment cost. Company is not bothered about safe disposal of waste generated and waste product obtained after consumer used it. We purchase what is a waste in developed countries and there they need a lot of money to dispose. Many times EIA%u2019s are just a formality. Water table is going down and down, water availability is getting more difficult. Land, water and air is getting polluted. God knows how biodiesel is going to help and what effect would it have on food security a
So many meetings are held, but now also i see poor people in my remote place called Bolangir in Orissa collecting wood from forests having no other alternative than attacking nature, forests being cleared unsustainably, people boastfully talk of reaching ladder of resource consumption so as to become developed- e.g., they say, consumption of electricity/energy should increase to match US/UK, steel/paper consumption per capita should increase, meat consumption per capita should increase, phone connection should increase, vehicle availability per thousand population should increase etc etc.. It is said rapid industrialisation would solve the problem of unemployment and poverty, if that is the case, why are there unemployment in developed country at all. If somebody opposes ill-planned and unsustainable (environment point of view, not monetary), he is called a traitor tying to stop the development of this country/the area. Why production cost is cheaper here, one reason may be that of non-inclusion of environment cost. Company is not bothered about safe disposal of waste generated and waste product obtained after consumer used it. We purchase what is a waste in developed countries and there they need a lot of money to dispose. Many times EIA%u2019s are just a formality. Water table is going down and down, water availability is getting more difficult. Land, water and air is getting polluted. God knows how biodiesel is going to help and what effect would it have on food security a
RE:climate change and India
by Amit Ketkar on Jun 05, 2007 04:39 AM
Saroj, Very good comments. The problem in India is blindly following the western model. That too at ones own convenience. We make tall buildings, but no roads, sewers etc.. We want to grow economically, but we forget the most basic tenet of civilization, the upliftment of all. Sustainability is the key to all development, but in India we don't pay much attention to that. For that matter the west is also learning that you cannot replenish natural resources... We in India have a better understanding of nature, we should go back to our roots and keep our development sustainable and in accord with Nature..
RE:Economic boom
by Amit Ketkar on Jun 05, 2007 04:39 AM
There is no doubt in my mind that blind use of man made chemicals is causing environmental problems. The production, and use leads to global warming and other problems.
