Ananth Naag

Are we aware of climate change?  What it changes? And are we really doing anything?..

hmm..lets not say.. All is well .. Not all is well!

You can see the hectic parlaying happening across the world before the Copenhagen Climate Summit and the lot of protests going on everywhere, special programs on the impacts of climate change (though not many bring out any direct relation to our lives!) ..so all of it says that ..Not all is well and that if we don’t do anything soon it may all be very bad indeed.

The basic premise of all these climate change talks for us to understand is that the global temperatures are raising and causing what is called “global warming”. The temperatures have increased much faster over the last few decades due to faster industrialization and increase in consumption of various products  across the world.

So, the question maybe whats the big deal?? A few degrees hotter, maybe better for countries in the north..isn’t it? Wrong!! The increase in heat is causing changes to weather patterns, increase in sea levels (so some small islands are drowning!) and overall uncertain weather conditions. These lead to impact on food production with farmers, not knowing when it would rain and wouldn’t rain..

Not only that..another important thing for us to understand is that all major cities in the world, since the beginning of civilizations have been built beside rivers or seas all the way from New York, London to Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai and many other world famous cities. There would be a scenario of flooding and drowning of these great cities across the world in future if the sea levels increase or due to natural disasters like the Tsunamis caused due to un-forcastable events arising due to Global Warming!

So, there is a clear and present danger to all our countries and civilizations in the not so long term, maybe a few decades. (The impact is already felt by a lot of smaller Island countries!..Its only that we have been busy consuming all the new products from around the world and forgot to take a note of these )

So, I hope it is very clear what Climate change and Global Warming can do..and to all of us!

So, the next important focus then is for countries to take measures to decrease the global warming, one of teh main reasons for which is the CO2 emission (and other Green House Gas emissions..which heat up the world!)  from industries. The US has historically been the worst polluters of the world, recently overtaken by China with all the boom in industries there and India ranks 4 I believe. So, the hectic parlaying is interms of Growth of countries Vs. Pollution and Global Warming. Secondly, an issue which the devoloping countries strongly put forward is the subsidizing and sharing of technology to reduce these dangerous gas emissions, which the industrilized world, is not able to give up without much profits!

Now, what can each of us do to help ourselves and our futures generations (our immediate kids and their kids..):

1) Make our environments greener – Have more trees and help with any causes to grow more trees.

2) Lessen Air travel – Air Travel generates a lot more green house gasses and Global warming than trains or other means of transport..so go for train/bus journeys or reduce unnecessary travel.

3) Lessen Automobile Pollution – Share Cars (Car Pooling)  while going out for shopping/office etc. Use public transport like underground/Tubes when possible. Ensure there is more than one while taking a car out

4) Reduce Unnecessary Consumption – Don’t buy stuff you don’t need and just put in your wardrobe/refrigerator! (Factories cause pollution, spend electricity and generating electricity causes pollution of all kinds!)

5) Save Electricity and Water – Switch of lights, fans and otehr electric equipment when not used. Don’t waste water. (Generating electricty and purification and sourcing of water etc..all create pollution in one way or teh other)

6) Imbibe all the good learning to your children and people around/known – After reading this I am sure you’ll take some steps in the right direction.. please also guide others with the same and help them learn the cost of global warming and climate change!!

Thank you guys..

Hey that’s a superb score after the exiting finish on the first match of the tournament. 354 runs in 50 overs is pretty well done. I watched till around 240+ runs at our pantry when we were 4 down and around 36th over. I had a doubt on the score we could make. But I guess we’ve got a wonderful score and are on our way to win this match for sure…  Any other opinions??

Ah, just learnt Dhoni put in a very impressive 124 runs off 107 balls! This boy has got some guts..mate! Good luck at Nagpur it seems..

And finally as expected we won! With such a huge total it is very difficult for any opposition team to sail through easily..but winning with 99 runs was good..

Would google be your neighbourhood 3G/WIMAX Internet service provider?

This could really be true, as per some reports on some top tech and news reports. Google may bid in the upcoming auction for 3G and WIMAX spectrum in India in joint venture with a local venture, as per the telecom regulation here. The regulation allows for up to 74% ownership of such a venture by a foreign firm.

The reason here is again that India has a very low per capita penetration of internet usage and when the new users hop on to the web using their mobile phones or PCs or laptops, google could leverage its already big clout by offering more services other than the ISP business.

Also, according to a report by ASSOCHAM, by 2014 WiMAX subscribers would outnumber 3G subscribers. It is expected to touch 60 million users compared to 20 million for 3G. So, to access the WIMAX space, Google is probably using the 3G license auction as a route.

Whatever the case, its going to be more that more services and google applications would be being available to the end customers in India, including the rural areas which could come as a bane.