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Old 7th December 2009, 20:53   #1
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Save the Climate. It is Important for India and the world

Greenpeace India has take an important initiative to become warriors and save earth's climate. I am in full support of their campaign. I sincerely wish everyone else also joins in this this great effort.

Here is what you can do ....

Do you want our leaders to do something about global warming? The biggest chance we have is the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December. So far world leaders have simply not done enough.

We are the last generation that can make a difference. And our leaders are only going to act if we demand it.
YOU can help turn things around.

Our best chance to take action against global warming is coming up in December, when the nations of the world gather for a UN Climate summit in Copenhagen.

We want world leaders to be there personally – including Dr Manmohan Singh

We want them to make the right deal for the climate – one that will keep the planet as far below dangerous 2 degree warming.

And we have a checklist by which their success can be measured:
* Make sure emissions peak in 2015 and decrease as rapidly as possible towards zero after that
* Developed countries must make cuts of 40 percent on their 1990 carbon emisisons by 2020
* Developing countries must slow the growth of emissions by 15-30 percent by 2020, with support from industrialised nations
* Protect tropical forests with a special funding mechanism – forests for climate
* Replace dirty fossil fuel energy with renewable energy and energy efficiency
* Reject false solutions like nuclear energy

Want to be part of a global community ready to take action to demand action?

Click here to write to Dr. Manmohan Singh
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Old 7th December 2009, 21:38   #2
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Dear Serpente, this is a good thought. but can you tell me what manmohan singh or barrack obama can do when we decide to burn hydrocarbons and consume natural resources like there is no tomorrow?

magic?
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Old 7th December 2009, 22:22   #3
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@vivekiny2k -
That is exactly the point. We all are responsible for the emissions because we are carefree about the consequences. It is a tough ask to get everyone to take the initiative to reduce emissions but a start has to be made somewhere. I am ready to try and reduce emissions to the best of my ability. I want others also to think about it and start acting.

I know I can't completely eliminate it because after all I am a selfish human being and I like to use amenities. But i consciously try to cause as less pollution as possible. If everyone even starts trying it out it'd make a huge difference. So, we have to bring changes in our ways and try and stop consuming hydrocarbons and natural resources like there is no tomorrow. Some amount of sacrifice is required from one and all. And that is what I am urging people to do.

If one has not given it a thought, I would request you to give it a thought now.

On the whole, The developed nations cause much more emissions than a country like India. So, these developed nations have to be pressurized as well. And history is the witness to peaceful ways working for Indians.
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Old 7th December 2009, 22:29   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vivekiny2k View Post
Dear Serpente, this is a good thought. but can you tell me what manmohan singh or barrack obama can do when we decide to burn hydrocarbons and consume natural resources like there is no tomorrow?
For starters, impose stricter pollution norms for vehicles? Stricter enforcement of industrial pollution norms by state pollution control boards?

If mighty governments won't do it, who else?
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Old 7th December 2009, 22:32   #5
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The link I posted earlier is not working. Please Use this link to write to Dr. Manmohan Singh

Click here to write to Dr. Manmohan Singh
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Old 7th December 2009, 23:06   #6
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This is a country where roads can be blocked and common man/tax payer will die because the road was blocked to let a politician pass.

And we are not going to SAVE CLIMATE. We are just too late to start and secondly, no body is serious. The human race will only get serious after some serious damage is done.

There is no point in starting a thread for this as nothing positive is going to happen.

One thing, dont blame developed nations for everything.
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Old 7th December 2009, 23:35   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RX135 View Post
For starters, impose stricter pollution norms for vehicles? Stricter enforcement of industrial pollution norms by state pollution control boards?

If mighty governments won't do it, who else?
you are missing the bigger picture. it's the consumers who drive the demand for industries. for example, the govt can set standards for pollutants in each factory, but it can hardly control the number of the factories itself. that will be congress (opposite of progress LOL)

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Originally Posted by serpente View Post
@vivekiny2k -
That is exactly the point. We all are responsible for the emissions because we are carefree about the consequences. It is a tough ask to get everyone to take the initiative to reduce emissions but a start has to be made somewhere. I am ready to try and reduce emissions to the best of my ability. I want others also to think about it and start acting.
Good that you brought it up. I was irked at the majority always looking towards some higher authority (sometimes obama/bajpai, sometimes god) to solve the problems created and aggravated by ourselves every single day.
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Old 8th December 2009, 00:44   #8
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i am in tune of Jeremy Clarkson. and not to bothered about all these stuff.
Nature has its own way of balancing things.

I hate this pseudo NGOs and media dn govt. hyping this thing up.

Its like Cigarette company making the stuff first and printing a small warning on for the heck of it, and thinking they have done their duty for humans.

FOr Eg!
last year NDTV relayed 24 hours or so non-stop some campaign for similar cause. Funny that 24 hour was those hours they used most studio lights, electricity, petrol etc to relay the programme.

Last edited by SirAlec : 8th December 2009 at 00:46.
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Old 8th December 2009, 10:25   #9
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The irrelevant thing is that who is more responsible. The relevant thing for all and especially for developing countries like India is that we will all suffer, and the suffering in India will be more because the people are poorer.

Using a series of emails to discredit the whole global warming issue as a hoax is not going to solve anything.
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Old 8th December 2009, 11:23   #10
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Maybe this is off topic, maybe its not. But my comment:

I saw a wonderful documentary called "Earth - The Power of the Planet". In the last episode, the narrator tells something that profoundly changed my viewpoint.

We all talk about saving earth, saving the planet. But does the earth really needs to be saved?

Our planet has seen so many disasters, entire planet was engulfed in fire, then engulfed in ice, then water. Yet it exists as we see today. Every time such a natural disaster has happened, a paradigm change has happened in nature but for the better. New species evolved. New forests grew.

Point is, though earth will be troubled and affected by all the pollution, it will overcome it. But it may take a million years. For us that is a huge time span. But in a larger perspective encompassing the universe, it is just a small bip in the earths time line.

Earth will be just fine. It is not the earth that needs to be saved. Us. The human civilization needs to be saved. WE will be affected by the pollution and all that.

We may cut all the trees in the world, but new forests will grow in a few thousand years. All rivers may dry up, but natural cycle will cause new rivers to flow, again it may take thousands of years. For us humans, this kind of timescale is not easy to comprehend. But we can be assured that Earth will be fine. The last scene in the documentary showed the narrator standing on top of a Mayan pyramid. He explains how the Mayan civilization, however great, or advanced it was, eventually, it perished. Now the area where once the Mayans lived has changed completely. Civilizations come and go. But Earth is here to stay.

So we need to ensure we act responsibly if we wish to exist for a few more hundred or thousand years.
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Old 8th December 2009, 11:47   #11
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Global warming is a serious threat to everybody on this planet and everybody has a duty to minimise it. Our efforts of handling global warming will determine how we are going to live in our old age and what kind of world we are going to leave for our children. So all those who are concerned with these 2 factors should do their own bit to fight the problem.

This problem has been created by the entire population of the world so everybody will have to fight it rather than expecting only our leaders to pass some resolutions.

We can start doing our bit by simply:-

1. Reducing and stopping wasteful energy useage (whether of fuel or electricity) where ever possible. There are endless things to do under this classification. I write below some points, which I can think of, members may please add other points to this list.

- Switch off electric lights & appliances when not in use.
- Shift to more energy efficient lights and gadgets.
- Cut down on decorative lighting and un necessary air conditioning.
- Make new buildings as Green buildings and convert old ones (where ever possible to energy efficient buildings)
- Create less garbage.
- Conserve and plant more trees. Have more greenry.
- Start water harvesting and water conservation.
- Install solar water heaters and discard central water heating.
- Start using reuseable things and boycott 'use once and discard' products.
- Switch off your engine where ever possible, use less a/c, drive at moderate speeds, Use more public transport and your legs.
- Cut down on air travel as it consumes maximum fuel on per mile per person basis. Railways are most efficient on this parameter.
- Reduce population by limiting your children to ONE.

This is what our sarkar can do
- Eliminate road blocks except in case of emergency. All sarkari babus who create road blocks to fill their pockets, force vehicle users to burn fuel unnecessarily.
- Stop sanction of centrally air conditioned energy guzzlers like malls, plazas etc.,
- Define minimum Green Building standards and all new building must meet those standards.
- stop 24 hour TV broad casting, limit it to 18 hours at most.

This is a very short list, I could think of in a short time but these are not painful to implement. Situation may change for better, if everybody of us start doing something to stop environment degradation. Nothing will happen if we just expect others to do something.

Last edited by akj53 : 8th December 2009 at 11:48.
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Old 8th December 2009, 11:58   #12
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@ashwinsid - very interesting point of view!! but thats so typical of us humans, saying we need to save the earth when all we are doing is saving our very own self centered backsides!!
as far as the earth is concerned we are a dispensable lot.
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Old 8th December 2009, 13:03   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ashwinsid View Post
We all talk about saving earth, saving the planet. But does the earth really needs to be saved?

Our planet has seen so many disasters, entire planet was engulfed in fire, then engulfed in ice, then water. Yet it exists as we see today. Every time such a natural disaster has happened, a paradigm change has happened in nature but for the better. New species evolved. New forests grew.

Point is, though earth will be troubled and affected by all the pollution, it will overcome it. But it may take a million years. For us that is a huge time span. But in a larger perspective encompassing the universe, it is just a small bip in the earths time line.

Earth will be just fine. It is not the earth that needs to be saved. Us. The human civilization needs to be saved. WE will be affected by the pollution and all that.

We may cut all the trees in the world, but new forests will grow in a few thousand years. All rivers may dry up, but natural cycle will cause new rivers to flow, again it may take thousands of years. For us humans, this kind of timescale is not easy to comprehend. But we can be assured that Earth will be fine. The last scene in the documentary showed the narrator standing on top of a Mayan pyramid. He explains how the Mayan civilization, however great, or advanced it was, eventually, it perished. Now the area where once the Mayans lived has changed completely. Civilizations come and go. But Earth is here to stay.

So we need to ensure we act responsibly if we wish to exist for a few more hundred or thousand years.
Dude I strongly disagree with you. The if you look at the Earth as a tiny little ball of dirt rotating pointlessly, then yes the Earth will survive even after humans become extinct. But is that all? I don't think so. Yes the planet will survive but our world will not!!!

The earth as we know it is being steadily destroyed by human excesses and greed. So many wonderful species of flora and fauna are being pushed into extinction even as we speak. Let me give you an example of our very own national animal, the magnificent Panthera Tigris or Tiger! Our tigers are on the brink of extinction because of poaching and habitat destruction. Yes there may be new species after a few million years but do you think that there will there be another Tiger? Probably Not!! Nature does not resurrect extinct species. The world as we know it will never be the same again!!!

What gives us the right to stake our claim over everything and just methodically eliminate other species who also have a right to live and share the planet? As if that's not enough we nonchalantly say things like "The earth will take care of itself"! All of us are responsible for what's happening to the Earth today. In my opinion people who make such films are probably funded by those corporations that have invested billions of dollars in thier oil rigs all over the world. They don't want you and me to adopt alternative clean sources of energy 'cos if we do then they go bust!
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Old 8th December 2009, 13:59   #14
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More the luxury, more the wastage

The Earth was a much cleaner and clearer place before all the Industrialization started.

My mom has a saying in Gujrati, "Gaadi joi ne pug thakya." (Meaning the legs tire when you see a car. Otherwise, if there was no car, you could've very well walked that much distance.)

So in the end, the more luxury we see, the more wastage we tend to do. I am not against making use of luxuries, but they can very well be avoided at times when they are unnecessarily used.

Last edited by serpente : 8th December 2009 at 14:01. Reason: typo error
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Old 8th December 2009, 15:19   #15
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Wolfheart , after reading your post, I feel you are indirectly coming to the same point as I mentioned.

You say even if Tigers come back after million years, we wont be there and other similar things. That means we need the tigers for us?

Anyways, let me list a few points:

1. I am not one of those who thinks global warming is a scam.

2. The documentary I spoke about, EARTH - The Power of The Planet is not some oil company sponsored stuff. It is hosted by Dr Iain Stewart. Do google his name. It is by far one of the most easily understandable scientific documentaries I have seen. He clearly shows how we are destroying our home in this universe. And please, nonchalant is a strong word to say. Kindly do check Dr Iain Stewart's credentials. Or even better, do try to watch that documentary. Really good.

3. But what he says is whatever happens due to global warming, the earth will be fine. Human civilization will be wiped out. So Yes, global warming is happening. Yes, it is affecting lot of things. Yes, it may eventually lead to disaster. But, our civilization will be affected permanently. Earth will rebuild itself. We cant. So in order to save our civilization, we need to ensure we safeguard the environment.

4. If tigers become extinct, then maybe even after a million years, they may not come back in the same exact way. The animals will evolve in a way that they can adapt to the surroundings. In that documentary, they show how, elephants who were stuck in a large piece of land in the mediterranean for hundreds of years, evolved in such a way that after many generations, the size of elephants were significantly small, just one feet tall and few hundred kgs. Why? Because the island was small so to adjust large number of elephants, nature made them smaller over many generations. Same way, lot of other things.

Point is, we are speaking as if Earth is at trouble. NO. We HUMANS are in trouble. Animals are in trouble. Plants are in trouble. Many might argue that Humans, Plants, Animals are what makes planet earth. I will not agree. We are inhabitants of planet earth. And earth is a celestial body. It has been here for billions of years and there is no indication that it will change soon. Life has been around here since 3.5 billion years (bacteria are a form of life too). We humans are here from a few thousand years. Indus, Maya and many such civilizations flourished and vanished from the face of the earth. Bacteria remain. Dinosaurs flourished and vanished. Mammoths flourished and vanished. Yet bacteria remained. Millions of species existed and became extinct. New species are discovered by humans. Unknown to us many more new species could be evolving. Every few years, mankind is amazed by new discoveries about our planet and its climate. When it was born, earth was a molten ball of iron, it was a liquid glob for millions of years, then when it cooled, it was a barren rock. Then there were volcanic eruptions covering the whole planet with carbon di oxide. Then there were chemical rains. There after many million years and several natural reactions later, it had an atmosphere. It had clouds, water, wind. Then there was life. Then some meteor hits and everything is in chaos. All over fire again. More carbon di oxide. Then entire planet is engulfed by ice. Total cold. No life. Then again volcanic eruptions. Again more carbon di oxide.

This can go on. Earth has withstood monumental disasters. It is strong. We are not. LIFE is not. Even a minute change somewhere can eventually lead to major catastrophes. So it is in our hands to take care of ourselves. I urge everyone to watch that documentary. It is both wonderful and scary. Wonderful because of the way it explains how our planet functions, so much beautiful things. Scary because it shows how we have affected it and also about a lot of damage we have done and we dont know about. So please watch.
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