Hot, Flat, Crowded

Just finished this book by Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the NY Times. Although 'global warming', 'Go Green' are buzz words nowadays, this book gives a chilling account of the extent to which the environment is being damaged by runaway consumerism. However, the book is not fatalistic and presents solutions as well. The book is a must read for every city dweller in India and the US.

The basic premise: As traditional international barriers of trade and business are leveled ("World has become flat"), people in developing countries (India, China, Brazil etc), with their higher incomes, have begun to pick up the US addiction of consumerism, like ducks take to water. The combination of increasing population ("crowded") with increasing US-style consumerism have resulted in unmanageable demands of energy. The exploitation of nature to obtain this energy, combined with the pollutants thrown up in every step of the process are producing irreversible changes in our ecology ("hot").

While the book has many insights, the most telling message is that it is time for action now. Climate change has definitely become the Elephant in the room that everyone refuses to notice. The way to do this:

1. Change personal lifestyles to become carbon neutral or carbon negative. This means avoiding plastic, switching to sustainable and renewable energy sources and reducing ones energy footprint

2. Engage with your community to prevent the local ecology from being destroyed and to maintain species diversity. In the author's words, we need a million Noahs now, each building small arks to help the plant and animal kingdoms to survive the coming storm

3. Work with the government to change the systems of energy creation and consumption through legislation and planning. For instance a tax concession for reducing your carbon footprint can be a powerful incentive for everyone to switch to solar energy.

Open Question to Singampalli Kids: One of the things that the author points out: that every generation has a crisis to act upon, the opportunity to show leadership in mitigating that crisis. And future generations will judge the current one on how fast\slowly, how effectively they reacted to that crisis. For example, every youth in the US who voted for Obama would have looked at thier parents and said: "What the heck were you doing acting so slow on an obvious wrong such as racial discrimination or segregation?"

This is your/our crisis, the response to which we will be measured a few years later. So, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, my question to you: Can you break your traditional blog silence and tell me what you feel about this. Do you find something wrong with the way the world is changing? Do you find it disturbing that the Chinese River Dolphin that teemed in the thousands in China's rivers just a few years ago is completely extinct now? That respiratory diseases are alarmingly high among children nowadays? That it takes 10 minutes for an elderly man to cross the street in Bangalore/Hyderabad, during which he has to endure a cacophony of noise and smoke? That garbage is being dumped in villages outside the Indian cities as the Municipalities can't seem to deal with the volumes of waste? Is it OK for us in India to pick up on tissues to wipe our hands after a hand-wash given that we used to carry a hankie just a few years ago for just the same purpose?

What do you kids think about all this? What do you think has to be done? What do you advise us to do?

Speak up! (Other family members can state their opinions too...)