Thursday, April 22, 2010

Green Economy: The World Ain't Enough?

What went wrong with the Homo-Sapiens in the last couple of centuries that we decided to ruin What we live on?


Our mother Earth agreed to give us all we wanted and there was no complacence, we wanted EVEN-MORE.
In our quest for happiness we've left our desired-road far behind and are now traversing the one that has equal and opposite polarity as its destination.


The time to rethink is not too-late even now. We cannot reverse what we've done but can refrain from repetitions.

The term "GREEN ECONOMY" reflects something somewhat similar. It tends to imbibe and inculcate us with morals that we can't always get wealthier and happier at the same time.

Remember, it's never-ever-ever too late to start( but don't wait until you CAN'T-EVEN-TRY).

Here's What Can Be Done::

1.)Fundamental Changes In Behavior:

A recent debate shows just how inefficient the index 'GDP' is for measuring the HUMAN WELFARE.
For the point to sink in, consider this ::

A rise in GDP means a rise in production, a rise in production means a rise in industrial activities and hence the destruction of the natural resources.

Consider the "Easterlin-Paradox":

* "countries do not become happier as they grow wealthier"

This just might be the change in behavior, re figuring-out an index that measures HUMAN WELFARE.

2.) Government Responsibilities:

* The governments might consider ratcheting-up expenditure on agriculture and Eco-friendly organizations and getting harsh on organizations high on carbon emissions.
* Carbon-emission capture plants might prove to be more than useful. It's already being pondered over in USA and other countries might adopt that too.
* Poaching and deforestation should be done away with as soon as possible.

3.) Can Global Economy prosper while reducing society's overall impact on environment?

That's the hardest part, I'd say.

Economic progress is directly proportional to the environmental damage( at least for now), and fulfilling our desires and earning our livelihood without affecting the environment negatively is next to impossible.

* Can the employees( all of'em) suddenly choose to abandon leather shoes?
* Can the whole world suddenly go Vegan( or at least vegetarian)?
* Can the airways be stopped to stop carbon emissions?
* Can the Ozone layer be refilled?

But, next to impossible ain't really impossible. We need to remain a bit optimistic.


* Investment on R&D in the field of devising mechanisms that might lead to staving-off carbon emissions might be useful.
* Develop airplanes that are Eco-friendly.
* Use so called 'Vegan-Shoes'.
* Practice afforestation/reforestation.
* Ratchet-up investments on developments of carbon-emission capture plants.

4.) industry sectors that can act as catalysts in transitioning to the green economy:


* Solar energy power plants.
* Wind energy power plants.
* R&D industries concerned with development of concepts that might help.
* Agricultural industries( save for those concerned with Tractor-Developments).
* Hoarding sector.
* Cold-Storage sector.

These are some of the various measures that can be adopted. But what really matters is:

"Practice what you preach."

Monday, April 19, 2010

Is The World N-Safe?





USA witnessed the largest ever conglomeration of countries from around the globe ever since the one during the formation of the United Nations. And the element that formed its basis was something ever-more dreadful than what you can imagine.

The world leaders have always voiced their opinion about the loose nuclear materials like the ‘Highly Enriched Uranium’ and the plutonium falling into the hands of sinister terrorist organisations, but a real action has been almost tardy.



After a significant signing of the US-Russian arms reduction treaty, that’ll serve as a great exemplar in discouraging the nations mulling over N-armament, this was another ‘paying-off’ assortment.

A latest Harvard report articulates stern concern over the safety of the nuclear materials around the globe, the most vulnerable being the stocks in Pakistan. Pakistan, globally notorious because of the ‘Abdul Qadeer Khan’ scandal, has exacerbated its reputation on the grounds that it plays host to the Terrorist organisations’ headquarters.

The malevolent LeT and the militant Al-Qaeda have both their headquarters in Pakistan and any remarkable attempt for their disbanding is yet out of sight. Leaders agonize over the uncanny measures and risible missions by Pakistani army regarding staving-off such Islamist-militant groups.

Also notable were the reactions from France. Sarkozy says he can’t abort nuclear weapons until he’s certain of others doing it too. And he can’t be blamed for that. Who’d like to be weaker when the roof is always ready to cave in, huh?

Though a response from Israel was somewhat lax. Israel refused to attend the summit due to possibilities of its own nuclear programmes’ issues being brought forward. It could have stayed and voiced its opinion.


But on the whole, the summit was a success and has already started to pay-off. Obama does have a reason to smile.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

It was an epoch of reform

So then, what important did we have in the last 10 days?

Well, pretty much, buddies. A whole new deluge of ground-breaking agreements and policies from around the world waded their ways through the hoops.

And here’s a glimpse of the most important ones:

1.) Obama’s Health-care reform:
Widely touted as the ‘OBAMA-CARE’, this bill has eventually been passed by the US parliament after remaining in the blue for almost a year. And guess what, Obama is all smiles, beaming, laughing his fat arse out.

For those who don’t already know, Obama’s Democratic Party had lost its 3/5th majority some months back and that had marked the beginning of Obama-Woes. Number of democrats had been reduced to 59 (Pity! Just 1 short of Obama’s majority number, and that was all to preclude Obama’s regime from being filibuster-proof.)

Obama then adopted other measures for passing the bill that were hailed as controversial by the Republicans, who seemed to forget though that they had also used them.

Whatever be the scenarios now, it seems that, at least now, most of the US citizens are against this massive overhaul. Concerns also do the rounds now about the bill’s pro or con effects on the US economy.

2.) Greek bail-out package confirmed:
However much might Papandreou have been blamed for his austerity measures by his own countrymen, at least the European Commission now has a soft side for him. I ain’t sayin’ that, the Greek bail-out package is.

After much ado about ‘something’, Euro-Members finally accepted the proposal to raise funds for a ‘desperately-needed’ Greek bail-out, albeit with Mrs. Angela’s lambasting and provisos.

As per ‘her’ norms, Greece would be allowed a bail-out package only after it’s been confirmed that its markets cannot do so on their own. And even more. The majority of the funding would come through the IMF to keep a prying eye on the effective deployment of the financial aid.

Interest rates would also be high to ensure a hasty retrieval of the money out of Greece. Germany was however against this very concept of bailing Greece out and had to bear the criticism of the rest of the members for being so harsh.

It’s noteworthy, here, that some analysts believe German surpluses are one of the responsible factors for Greek deficits.

3.) America-Russia strategic arms reduction treaty in Prague:
The two world-powers will be signing this widely lauded treaty to reduce their arsenal. This would be a landmark achievement and both the nations think that this would set a fine exemplar for other nations bent on armament.

Also remarkable was the USA’s approval to change the site of the installation of the European Missile Shield project. This has ended its face-off with Russia at least pro-tem.