Let’s cut our noses. Yes Prime Minister! October 31, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Copenhagen, Global Warming, Nature, Sustainability, Sustainable Innovation, climate change, environment.Tags: Carbon emissions, climate change, Economic development, environment, Globalization, Greenhouse gas, India, Indian economy, Indian environment, International Energy Agency, Jairam Ramesh, Monsoon, United States
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Two of my favourite subjects here – the fascinating global warming debate and India’s bollywood style negotiation script. Hopenhagen is around the corner and will make Kyoto passe. We love being underdogs because like our movies, the hero comes from behind in a good-over-evil victory lap while the crowd applauds his heroic antics.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, and I fully intend the pun.
US spews Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere when India sleeps. [Pat on back .. I'm getting good at puns]Now India wants America to pay for their long and sinful polluting behaviour. And guess what, if they don’t, we’ll have an equal right to kill the planet first so we’re even. That’s the craziest example of serving our self interests I’ve come across. It’s almost like saying that since I just found out that my neighbour has been raping my mother for 20 years, the way to punish him is by killing my own mother. (more…)
Uncapitalistic “Glacial” Innovation August 14, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship, Everything 2.0, Global Warming, Innovation, Sustainability, Sustainable Innovation, climate change.Tags: Capitalism, climate change, cost effective, Disruption, environment, Freshwater, Glacier, Global Warming, Himalayas, Ladakh, Leh, radical innovation, social responsibility, Sustainable development
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Now this is innovation,
- disrputive, passion driven and socially responsible, sustainable & non-capitalistic - not what management gurus are touting.
- Chewang Norphel, Director of the Leh Nutrition Project.
Glaciers are the sole source of fresh water for the Buddhist farmers who make up more than 70% of the population in this rugged range between Pakistan and China. But rising temperatures have seen the icy snow retreat by dozens of feet each year — to find evidence of global warming, the farmers simply have to glance up from their fields and see the rising patches of brown where, once, all was white. Knowing no alternative, they pray harder for rain and snow.
But Chewang Norphel has gone beyond prayer. The 73-year-old civil engineer has come up with a solution that won’t exactly save the ancient glaciers, but it could stave off a looming irrigation crisis.
Norphel has created artificial glaciers, frozen pools of glacier run-off perched above the farmers’ fields … [read the full article here].
Highlights:
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His innovation has been hailed as an elegantly simple and cheap [I'd substitute this word by 'cost effective']solution to a devastating problem.
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Only local materials are needed, and the villagers themselves can build and maintain them.
I’m so inspired …
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- Global warming shrinks glacier at alarming rate (telegraph.co.uk)
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What do Birth control and Literacy have to do with Climate Change August 11, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Innovation, Nature, Sustainability, Thought leadership, Wisdom of the leaders, climate change.Tags: Western Thought, Capitalism, Sustainability, political innovation, climate change, Nature, Sustainable retreat, United States, Greed, inconvenient truth, Carbon footprint, holier than thou, population, literacy, Birth control, Arrogance, religious fanaticism, religious conversion
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Now that you’ve fallen prey to my catchy title, don’t be fooled - the connections are not so remote as they appear at first glance. For those who have guessed, don’t spoil the fun.
Going by all known accounts, research information and the seemingly urgent political summits on the horizon – no points for guessing – climate change is being caused and accelerated only by one single species, humankind. So if stricter birth laws could be enforced, less human beings would be allowed to come into our planet and therefore would do less damage. (This would not hold if you included investment bankers and Nobel economists as being a part of humankind).
Here’s a sample from my proposed enactment -
“The Birth Control and Literacy for Climate Change Act, 2009″.
Article 12: Whereas the minority religions of the world seek to remove all obstacles (including, but not limited to, the outdated institution of marriage) for bringing into this world;
(a) by conscious, unconscious or accidental act of momental ecstasy, and(b) performed between two or more persons of same (Section 377 of IPC) or opposite sexes; and
(c) through physical or artifical means,
such an occurence may be permitted a maximum of 2 times in the lifetime of each of the persons involved, jointly or severally without exception.
And as for my literacy angle, it’s simple enuff … really! (more…)
Paulo Coelho’s Counterpoint to my take on Climate change August 10, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Innovation, Nature, Perception, Sustainability.Tags: activism, climate change, environment, Global Warming, Mother Earth, Nature, Opposing Views, Paulo Coelho, Sustainable retreat, Thought leadership, Western Thought
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Over the weekend, my wife was reading my last blog post [Climate Change Bollywood Ishtyle] and, at the same time, Paulo Coelho’s – The Winner Stands Alone. I suspect she may have been hoping against hope that his literary talent will rub off on me through her! And guess what, she suddenly found herself reading about his take on climate change. Synchronicity? Disbelievingly I listened as she read out the following lines that, Coelho – through one of the central characters [Hamid] – professes. His take is quite the antithesis [counterpoint] of my view. It cannot be too good for my ego to even consider such a course but there’s something in there that’s worth a closer look. I have reproduced the lines here …
- Paulo Coelho’s blog
Whenever he [Hamid] reads articles in newspapers or magazines written by politicians using Global Warming or the destruction of the environment as a platform for their electoral campaigns, he thinks:
‘How can we be so arrogant? The planet is, was and always will be stronger than us. We can’t destroy it; if we overstep the mark, the planet will simply erase us from its surface and carry on existing. Why don’t they start talking about not letting the planet destroy us?
‘Because “saving the planet” gives a sense of power, action and nobility. Whereas ” not letting the planet destroy us“ might lead to feelings of despair and impotence, and to a realisation of just how very limited our capabilities are.’
I know this sounds crazy guys, but I can’t help agreeing with him. Sorry Mr. Ego, you’ll have to eat humble pie this time!!
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Climate Change Bollywood ishtyle August 7, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Culture, Design, Everything 2.0, Globalisation, Innovation, Leadership Innovation, Nature, Politics, Sustainability, climate change, kleptocracy.Tags: An Inconvenient Truth, Brand India, Capitalism, climate change, demise of capitalism, Ethics, Greed, India, India and China, Kyoto Protocol, Materialism, Sustainable retreat, Thought leadership, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United States, Western Thought
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Let’s use the standard Hindi movie formula of circa 1980 to script our earth’s climate story. Enter Superstar US. The virtuous, street smart, Robin Hood inspired protagonist of our story, replete with his coterie of jazz dancers. And then there’s the poor guy, India. Always trying to emulate the “hero” and competing with him for the “herione’s” attention in college settings. Let’s throw in some masala – subplots, love triangles and the very popular song and dance sequences – with the extras doing their own thing while they dance in the third row.
Quick Gun Murugan
Now compare this with whatever we’ve been seeing in the Climate Change discussions. See the script accurately playing itself out? (Nobody seems to want to ask mother Earth for her point of view). Call it clairvoyance or just plain sensitivity, some of us have been seeing it coming since the mid nineties. Even we couldn’t have guessed the speed of deterioration, although fully knowing the bounty hunter tendencies of the US, we should have been able to. Easily. Shame on us!
Some simple facts from Prem Shankar Jha’s Tehelka article, An Earth On Edge.
1. Till as recently as five years ago, abrupt climate change was on the unthinkable fringe of possibilities predicted by climate scientists. In March 2009, 2,500 scientists from 80 countries assembled at the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen. The congress concluded that the findings of the IPCC were out of date. The evidence collected since its fourth report was compiled showed that global warming was ceasing to be human-induced and was becoming self-reinforcing. (more…)
