If you are in the bay area and haven’t heard of goodguide.com, then you aren’t keeping up with the news. Goodguide.com is a tool that enables consumers to be responsible consumers! They provide ratings based on health, environmental and social impacts of a product.You can look up the product on the web or real time while shopping using their new, free iphone app (one more reason to get that iphone!)
The Ganges, one of the most sacred (and dirtiest) river in India, originates from the Tibetan Glaciers. We all, now, know that the world's glaciers are retreating because of global warming. Jim Hansen , the NASA scientist, co-authored a paper here, with other Chinese scientists, say that they have found evidence that the decline of the Tibetan glaciers is accelerated by black soot aerosols. Asia is the largest source of black soot. If the rate of decline continues, many glaciers could say bye-bye to mother earth as early as 2050!
Now, What will that mean to the billion population (in East and South Asia) who depend on this glacier for fresh water?
The rate of decline is quiet alarming in the last decade says Jim Hansen However, V.K Raina a former Deputy Director General of the Geological Survey of India, disagrees. He finds no abnormal retreat as he says to the journalist here. That is not all- his report has been endorsed by the Ministry of Environment & Forestry. The minister Jairam Rakesh , has stated that there is no conclusive evidence that global warming or black soot is causing the glaciers to melt. Yup, they seem to be getting on the global warming skeptics train. A little late though! It baffles me , as to how people in such responsible positions say such things. Even if what he said were true (which is not as we can see by Jim's Hansen's paper) - Isn't it better to error on the side of caution?
Read on the article here as it presents evidence that declining glacier is indeed anthropogenic
"When I grow up I want to be a doctor for Infant India ", says the 14 year old HIV positive . Read the story here. Ordinary people making positive impact. Putting social interest ahead of self interest. Ordinary, are they?....Perhaps NOT. Extraordinary..absolutely so!
India has experienced the worst drought in 36 years. Long before these articles starting appearing in Wall street journal and Economist, I knew from conversations with my colleagues whose family members were agrarians in India, that this year was particularly bad and that there has been a rise in farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh.
Monsoons to blame, for sure. But is that the only contributor? 1.2 billion people live on agriculture of which, 450 million depend on monsoons. If these numbers from WallStreet and Economist are right, then what about the other 750 million, who are also facing the same crisis? As mentioned in the Economist, the grim truth is 'India's
bad water management practices'.
Water wars between Karnataka and Tamil is as bitter as bitter gourd itself. Farmers are usually up in arms over the Kaveri water every year.(This might be an understatement) I'm not following that crisis this year, but I can very well imagine, having lived in Bangalore for some time. It seems like we are very much heading into a period where ' water is oil', at rocket speed.
I have been hearing about the woes of California farmers and I sympathize with them. California is in it's 12th year of drought. But when you read about farmers, close to home, I empathize. It makes my stomach churn.
It makes me think if there is something I can do to alleviate there pain.
This article in Yale e360 ,is an interesting read. It talks about safe operating zone for humans and how we have crossed them in three out nine instances
“..if we keep pushing the planet this way, we will cause sudden, irreversible damage to the systems that made human civilization possible in the first place. …..journal Nature, Rockstrom and 27 of his fellow environmental scientists argue that we have to conceive of many tipping points at once. They propose that humans must keep the planet in what they call a “safe operating space,” inside of which we can thrive. If we push past the boundaries of that space — by wiping out biodiversity, for example, or diverting too much of the world’s freshwater — we risk catastrophe”
Without GPS ..whew!!
“Unfortunately, the authors of the Nature paper maintain, we’ve already started pushing out beyond these boundaries…..“We’re sitting on top of a mesa right now, and we’re driving around, but we don’t have our lights on and we don’t even have a map,” says Jonathan Foley, a co-author of the new study and the director of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. “That’s a dangerous way to move around.”
Optimism!? Some people keep saying that. I’m no expert, but as I understand it, Chlorofluorocarbons was a mole while CO2 is this big mountain of a problem! I personally cannot understand how people can be optimistic with the success of Montreal protocol. CO2 is a whole other beast challenging international relationship management to the core! This is unlike any challenge mankind has seen before! I don’t feel optimistic at all. (We’ll see what happens in Copenhagen)
“While the paper makes for a sobering read, its authors think we should also find some cause for optimism in it. Humanity nearly crossed another threshold by destroying the ozone layer with chlorofluorocarbons. But we recognized the crisis in time and banned chlorofluorocarbons, allowing the ozone layer to slowly recover..”
In another article, Greenland ice sheet and the Antarctica are melting faster than expected, as published in Nature journal. As reported by e360, it is now clear to scientists that a self feeding phenomenon has begun
“confirm concerns among some climate scientists that the accelerating rate of ice sheet melting has become a self-feeding phenomenon — essentially, the more the ice melts, the more the water near the ice sheets causes more melting. “The question is how far will it run?” said Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey and lead author of the study”
I wonder how close this gets us to the climate change threshold?
“It’s more widespread than we previously thought” says Hamish Pritchard. My thoughts exactly!
The Newsweek article here says that a recent poll showed that conceptually, atleast, Americans are slowly becoming like Hindus.
It says ‘A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal ‘. Hindu myself, I wonder why Hindus hate Muslims!? Well, I don’t believe the ‘many paths to god’ thing (I’m sure majority of the Hindus don’t either). The way I have been thought to live my life as a Hindu is ‘It is Bhagwan Krishna…or you are automatically en-route to Narak (hell)’
In my mind, the Americans are becoming like Hindus, NOT by believing that there are many paths to god or spirituality, but by having a common enemy ‘Muslims’
The day to day practices of a Hindu and the scripture is worlds apart! Instead of saying ‘A Hindu believes’, the author should have said ‘Hindus are supposed to believe (but majority of them don’t)….”
NCERT (National council for education research and Training) came up with the National Curriculum framework (NCF) (The Framework PDF posted on the website in English, just has Table of contents!) in 2005. This student centered NCF framework which advocated new pedagogic methods has recognized the importance of ‘Quality’ teachers & makes suggestions on Teacher education & training. Recognition of importance of teachers is a step forward and NCF needs to do little more than making mere suggestions, say critics. NCF will NOT be a success until the teacher education and skill development is enabled. Read the ‘Few Chapters Short’ which talks about this
Looks like Aziz Premji has stepped in to fill the gap. The first private university’s focus is Teacher education and Training. The government in principle has given clearance say the article here
Finally, here it goes. This is the article I worked on in January/February for Sierra club’s yodeler. I attended the public meetings, collaborated with Jeff miller from Alameda Creek Alliance and Lech Naumovich of California Native Plant Society. It was a very good experience and a peek into how these organizations work! Some really dedicated individuals making a difference at the grass roots level.
What is the value of Human life?
Priceless!
Well, not in the real world!
Cost Benefit analysis (CBA) has become an essential analysis framework for setting environmental standards and regulations. It requires a dollar value be assigned to human life. The value of a life is usually the price that others put, on an individual’s life. For Eg, I would pay my entire income to save my own life or of my husband or my son. The practice of putting dollar value on life has been practiced in courts. Value of life estimates helps the juries to award compensations in death and injury cases.
Read this investigative article here on OMB watch from Associated Press (AP), on how EPA puts a price on human life and how it has shrunk.
Under the Clinton administration, human life was valued at $6.1 million/life, while Bush administration came up with a figure of $3.7 million for an individual younger than 70 yrs and $2.3 million for individuals older than 70 [Obtained From here]. Smaller the monetary value of human life, lesser is the chances of environmental protection.
Time ran an interesting article valuing human lives internationally at $50,000. Read the complete article here
‘This value is routinely calculated by several agencies, each putting its own dollar figure on the worth of life -- not any particular person's life, just that of a generic American. The figure is then used to judge whether potentially lifesaving policy measures are really worth the cost.’
What do you think is the value of human life?
Many of us here in the silicon valley, home of innovation and the tech industry, have little to no knowledge of the human risk the sexy gadgets like cell phones , PDAs, TVs, Computers, Printers etc pose. These gadgets do make our life much easier and convenient and are big part of our day to day activities. They are needed, absolutely needed, to keep pace with the rat race we have introduced our selves into.
I have numerous obsolete electronics in my garage – cell phones, cameras, batteries, printer, scanner, computer, speakers, entertainment set, and TVs, the list goes on. These occupy quiet a bit of space in my garage. How do I dispose these? I have known from the brochures of the local waste management, left at my front door - never to dispose these with the rest of the household waste, not even in the recycle bin. Why, I ask myself. Well, they contain hazardous materials (hazmat). In my mind, I think, Hazmat….in my house….sounds dangerous….why would I have hazmat in my house…you must be kiddin, right! I'm paying to get hazmat in my house….don't they have laws about it!?
If a nice hot cup of coffee says 'Caution – coffee is HOT', wouldn't they say on the electronics 'Caution – contains Hazmat' I turned the computer upside down to see if it said anything like that, in really small print. Nope, didn't find it (Surprise! Surprise!).
Many questions started popping in my head and I set to find out what is in these sexy gadgets, that we all tote about, think is cool to own, and cannot live without.
Searches on Google quickly lead to the realization that this is a bigger beast than I thought. Computers, stereos, TVs, printers , scanners, cell phones , PDA, electrical appliances like Fridge, Toaster, Telephone, washer dryer, air conditioners, fluorescent lamp bulbs all come under the 'E-waste' umbrella. Apparently 'E-waste' is emerging global environmental problem which could pose a serious risk to human health.
There was a time, when the electrical and electronic equipments were repaired and re-used. But now we are in, what I would like to call 'The disposable Era' where once the appliance malfunctions, we buy a new one. You don't call a technician if your toaster broke, you just get a new one. This is true for most electrical equipments. In the case of electronic gadgets I would like to say, we are in 'The upgrade era'. We are constantly upgrading our gadgets, even though the previous one functions just fine.
"Every year, 20 to 50 million tonnes of electrical and electronic equipment waste ("e-waste") are generated world-wide, which could bring serious risks to human health and the environment " (UNEP,2005)
Since there was so much to blog on the topic of e-waste, I decided to break it into parts and this is part 1.
More later!
'
Peter Singer,
He says
'Take the death of this small boy this morning, for example. The boy died of measles. We all know he could have been cured at the hospital. But the parents had no money and so the boy died a slow and painful death, not of measles but out of poverty'
People in developing and underdeveloped countries die of conditions that don't exist in the developed world. We have to make the people in the country real, put face on them.'
Go to lifeyoucansave.com and find out how much percentage of your income should you donate to make a difference. While you are there, take a pledge!
Although hard cash is good, donations don't have to always be hard cash. Some of the everyday decisions and conscious choices have impact on state of affairs. Shop ethically i.e buying organic – maybe pricey – consider that your contribution towards protecting mother earth. More you support the organic movement the less negative impact on the environment. Buy in the local farmers market. Buy fair trade, where possible. Recycle and Reuse.
It's time we reconsider our consumption, our values and think about the people in need!
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