Today morning as I woke up and looked out of the window I saw a stream of smoke being puffed out of an industrial Chimney.I shut the room air conditioner and then I went to my refrigerator to drink some cold water.And then I realized its World Environment Day, June 5 ,2009.All of a sudden I felt guilty and I began pondering about the smoke from those chimneys,the CFC's from the refrigerator and the air conditioner.
There may not be a chimney outside your home,you may not be guilty either but I am sure in one way or the other you would be contributing to the green house gases being emitted from various appliances in your home, the fuel guzzling cars you drive, the computer desktops and lights which you keep on while going out for lunch at your office.All this is leading to grave climatic changes.
About 3,00,000 people more than the death toll for an Indian Ocean Tsunami die annually due to climate change as per a news artcile by Economic Times.
But as of today we have had the hottest years of all time in the past 13 years in 2007.Snow is melting ever so quickly and water levels in our oceans and seas rising by 1 inch every year, articulately showcased by Al Gores Documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.
Governments across the world are taking the onus on themselves to make strategic changes and action plans.
Today on the account of World Environment Day ,the re-elected Indian Government in India has just announced the implementation of National Action Plan on Climate Change.
These comprises a 8 prong climate mission change:
1.Enhancing contributions of solar energy in the total energy mix.
2.Introducing Energy steps
3.Promoting Sustainable Habitats like the Sunderbans and mangroves.
4.Saving Himalayan Glaciers.
5.Water Resource Management.6.protecting mountain eco-systems.
7.Improving eco-system services.
8.Making agriculture more resilient and adaptible to climate change.
I don't know 10 years or 15 years down the line how quantifiable these efforts would be.But like always I am pointing fingers at the government and not looking at my own efforts.What if you me and the government all did their bit in a small way.I am sure these small efforts would con-join togethr one day and would result in that big change that the world deserves ,our planet deserves,you and me and our generations to come deserve.
Why think now.
There are power cuts in most Indian cities including the capital Delhi barring a few places in Mumbai.Lets not get to the thousands of small villages and lights for whom the day is not 24 hours but still about 14 hours.
Our fresh water reserves are being constantly depleted.The Oil war is going to be the next big thing and the only thing in the coming decades.On the upside the investments in energy business are increasing many fold.The Toyata Prius and Honda Insight the latest breed of Hybrid cars are the best selling cars in China since the last two months.
No wonder under the codename of Project I BMW is getting into electric cars.
On the Upside
More and more companies are tieing up with global initiatives like www.google.org so as to install smart grids and have these smart meters installed within their company premises.Reliance (ADAG) was one of the few Indian cos to so.These smart meters will relay all the electricity related information over the internet,by sms and provide information about energy consumption and faulty appliances.I suppose this will be one huge development in the next few decades.
Despite the recession, companies are still setting aside a large chunk of their IT spending for green technology projects, as per a new study Two out of three of the companies surveyed by Deloitte—large enterprises with revenues of $500m plus—said they have at least five per cent of their IT budget earmarked for green IT projects.I strongly believe part of it is a marketing gimmick , and part of it green IT,the main reason being recession as these would reduce operating cost and improve their net margins.
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