MONEY IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO THE SOCIETY

I received the following as a forward from one of  the several group mails that I subscribe to. . I find it incredible. I suppose the tourism ministry's tag line 'Incredible India' is to be seen as to how we in Indian society - particularly the rich - waste resources, just because we can afford or in many cases by appropriating them by foul means!!

"MONEY IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO  THE SOCIETY".                      

Germany is a highly industrialized country. It produces top brands like Benz, BMW, Siemens etc. The nuclear reactor pump is made in a small town in this country.

In such a country, many will think that its people lead a luxurious life. At least that was my impression before my study trip.     

When I arrived at Hamburg, my colleagues, who works in Hamburg, arranged a welcome party for me in a restaurant. As we walked into the restaurant, we noticed that a lot of tables were empty. There was a table where a young couple was having their meal. There were only two dishes and two cans of beer on the table. I wondered if such a simple meal could be romantic and  whether the girl will leave this stingy guy.                              

                                                                           
There were a few old ladies on another table. When a dish is served, the waiter would distribute the food for them and they would finish every bit of the food in plates.                                             
                                                                           
We did not pay much attention to them, as we were looking forward to the dishes we ordered. As we were hungry, our local colleague ordered more food for us.                                                                                                                                    
As the restaurant was quiet, the food came quite fast. Since there were other activities arranged for us, we did not spend much time dining. When we left, there was still about one third of unconsumed food on the table.
                                                                           
When we were leaving the restaurant, we heard someone calling us. We noticed the old ladies in the restaurant were talking about us to the restaurant owner. When they spoke to us in English, we understood that they were unhappy about us wasting so much food. We immediately felt that they were really being too busybody.      

"We paid for our food, it is none of your business how much food we left behind", my colleague told the old ladies.                            

The old ladies were furious. One of them immediately took her hand phone out and made a call to someone. After a while, a man in uniform claiming to be an officer from the Social Security organisation arrived. Upon knowing what the dispute was, he issued us a 50Mark fine. We all kept quiet. The local colleague took out a 50Mark note and repeatedly apologized to the officer.    

                               
The officer told us in a stern voice,"ORDER WHAT YOU CAN CONSUME, MONEY IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO THE SOCIETY. THERE ARE MANY OTHERS IN THE WORLD WHO ARE FACING SHORTAGE OF RESOURCES. YOU HAVE  NO REASON TOWASTE RESOURCES”.                 

                                                                           
Our faces turned red. We all agreed with him in our hearts. The mindset of people of this rich country put all of us to shame. WE REALLY NEED TO REFLECT ON THIS. We are from a country which is not very rich in resources. To save face, we order large quantity and also waste food when we give others a treat. THIS LESSON TAUGHT US A LESSON TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT CHANGING OUR BAD HABITS.     

                                            My colleague photo copied the fine ticket and gave a copy to each of us as a souvenir. All of us kept it and pasted on our wall to remind us that we  shall never be wasteful".

Renewable Energy - A laymperson's overview

http://bit.ly/baLBl7

The above is a link to a paper I presented at a seminar in early '80s. Seemed relevant still for getting an overview of the so called non-conventional energy scene.

Ramakrishnan

BIXIs - Bicycles for Energy saving and Health

Photo by Harihara Subramanian.V
During my visit to Montreal, Canada I was fascinated to see the BIXIS - bikes which are available on hire for tourists and residents. Bixi is derived from Bike and Taxi. The Bixi stands are more common in the Old Montreal and tourist spots. Swipe your credit card or annual pass, unlock the bike and pedal away. You can leave your BIXI in any other stand.
Click here for more on BIXI

Incentives for Hybrid vehicles

This community (Watters Crossing, Allen, Texas) offers free parking for Hybrid vehicles. A small incentive but a good gesture.

From Blogger Pictures

Green: Good or Gold?

The question is at the center of all energy conservation policies, actions, and discussions. Is "being green" a matter of "being good" or of "minting gold"?

In an ideal world, this would be not be an "either/or" situation. Conservation, responsible energy use, and turning to renewable sources would be good individual behavior and sensible public policy. Plus these individual acts and policy actions would save or make money. We would mint gold while being good.

In reality, this is not so -- at least not yet, as of 2006.

Some people are green because they think it is the right thing to do. Others are green because it saves them lots of money or, better yet, makes them lots of money. Of course, there are few examples of the former, and fewer still of the latter.

But what about those in power? Those who hold levers of government power can promote responsible and lucrative green behaviors.

Given the nexus of political interests that influence government policies, however, very few governments are able to promote green behaviors. In some cases, they are able to curb some un-green behaviors -- of people and corporations. In most cases, governments just end up doing nothing -- either hiding under some silly notion of "the market" taking care of problems or wringing their hands in helplessness in the face of conflicting interests.

It would be wonderful if we, the netizens, begin to create an impressive catalog of actions that are green, good for the soul and the planet, and increase the gold nuggets in our pockets or in national or philanthropic coffers.

It may turn out that creativity, rather than coercion, is a more powerful tool for sensible energy and environment oriented behaviors and policies.

Nik Dholakia
Rhode Island, USA

An Inconvenient Truth - A Wake-up Call

Just came back from the powerful documentary about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth", by Al Gore.

It is factual, it is clear in terms of its scientific evidence, it is simply told, it is scary, it is alarming, it is disturbing.

USA has had 10 warmest years on record in the past 14 years, and a rising string of hurricane and tornado disasters. Europe has had deadly heatwaves and floods. Japan has been battered by an unprecedented spate of typhoons. Africa is facing rising levels of droughts and famines.

India is mentioned as a somewhat minor contributor to but a major victim of global warming. Possible consequences for India include major droughts, crop failures, water shortages, massive flooding of some coastal areas, and sharp increases in disease and pestilence. The specter of the Himalayan glaciers -- the lifeline of Ganges and other rivers -- drying out and of vast swaths of coastal India submerging under rising waters from melting polar ice caps is outright scary.

China is still a minor contributor to global warming, but its contribution is growing. The impact of rising flood levels, depicted in this film, on Beijing and Shanghai region is enough to make anyone shake off their inertia.

Many of these things have already happened in Niger, Ethiopia, Sudan... it is not fantasy, it is reality... the jaws of catastrophe are closing very fast.

Of course, the big culprits are the emissions from U.S.

Let us hope millions and millions watch this film, and take action to force the politicians to abide by Kyoto accord and do several other things to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to conserve energy.

Please go see this movie.

Please tell everyone on the planet that you can reach to go see this film.

Please get a copy and show it to classes and community centers, wherever you are.

The road to catastrophe is already very far traveled -- things must start happening NOW to reverse the reckless course of unchecked emissions. Otherwise, in 50 years, our kids and grand kids will live in a world plagued by constant disasters.

Given the warming that has already taken place, elevated levels of droughts, tornado, hurricanes, cyclones, flood disasters, and tropical pestilence are almost guaranteed to occur -- the only question is can we take actions to slow the pace of such disasters.

Less likely in the near future, but more scary, is the sudden climatic shift to a long ice age. Such a seismic climate shift could occur in just 10 years -- totally ruining civilization as we know it. Can we prevent it? Probably not. But we can push it back by centuries or even millennia -- long enough into the future for humankind to prepare for it.

Nik Dholakia
Rhode Island, USA
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Pipeline Politics

I am no expert on either petroleum resources or on geopolitics.

Because of an interest in international business and globalization, however, I have from time to time looked into the geopolitics of major pipelines. Here are some things that have made an impression:

• Even in the thick of the Cold War, major pipelines bringing Russian (then Soviet) natural gas to Western Europe got built and functioned pretty well.
• In early 2006, some of these pipelines became very contentious. With rising prices and a very cold winter in parts of Eurasia, the accusations flew with vengeance: Russia is witholding gas from Ukraine, Ukraine is tapping gas in excess of its allowance and starving Italy of its quota, and so on.
• Follwing the American-led invasion of Iraq, oil and gas pipelines have been favorite insurgent targets. Supply chains in that petroleum rich nation remain severly disrupted.
• Militant attacks in Nigeria -- including attacks on pipelines -- forces Royal Dutch Shell to close key producing fields in that country.
• In January 2006, militant groups attacked and disrupted a pipeline in India's northeast.
  

The lessons I take from these are the following:

• Pipelines work under hostile conditions if the conditions represent the checkmate-stalemate positions of cold (not hot) war.
• Pipelines are highly vulnerable targets subject to attacks by insurgents and militant groups.
• In times of energy crunch (such as the Eurasian deep freeze of 2006), agreements on supply schedules may be violated.

Given these, is the ambitious project of building a pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan, crossing some highly volatile regions of Pakistan, a good idea? This question is especially important since the project cost is in the US $15 to 20 billion range. For that price tag, a country the size of India can easily create a massive program to wean a substantial part of India's economy from petroleum-based energy to biofuels and other alternative forms of energy.

It just seems a wise move to spend mega-dollars on something that will have lasting benefits, rather than on a project subject to intense geopolitical risks.

Nik Dholakia
University of Rhode Island
USA