RVR
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Dear Dr Arun Shankar,
Thank you for your posting and remark. I could not immediately reply you because of ill health. Details regarding photosynthesis, evolution, disappearance of a huge variety and species of animals at the end of each era have all been dealt by me in a subsequent chapter and hence I would request you to read that chapter and I am not proposing to reply them here.
What impresses me, however, is your remark about climate change and the steps necessary to mitigate the effects of climate change.
While I do not agree with some of the major conclusions arrived at by the panel headed by Dr Pachauri, I agree that we should pay for the sins we have committed and rectify them and mitigate them to the extent possible. Instead of thinking grandiose plans of sequestration of Carbon-di-oxide, prevention of depletion of ozone layer, preventing rise of sea level etc, we have to think of some innovative simpler ideas. Silly though as it may look, I would suggest the following :-
Corruption has come to stay. As long as there are people to corrupt and to receive, nothing on earth can save corruption. The only thing that I suggest is we can convert this threat into an opportunity. Instead of giving Rs 500 or Rs 5000 to purchase a vote to win an election or to give a TV set which is sold the next day in the market, I suggest the following :-
1.At the time of election, let the political parties present each family with a solar lantern or any solar driven appliance. People might argue, that solar cells are too costly and that they will not be given as presents. I am only reminded of a story of Queen Victoria. When the first aluminium plant manufactured Aluminium, they prepared an aluminium plate and spoon and they presented to the Queen. They were so costly, much costlier than the gold plate she was using for food, that she discarded the gold plate, used the Aluminium plate, washed it herself and kept it in her personal safety locker. We now know the value of Aluminium plates!. Solar based equipment are not going to be manufactured or researched for in cold countries and we have to do it.
2.Do rain water harvesting on behalf of the voters in each house, in each street and village, properly following the filtration methods etc. Stop making tar and cement roads except as arterial roads and keep the roads within villages etc as soft macadam roads through which the rainwater can seep through.
3.There is no free lunch. The national rural employment guarantee scheme is an excellent approach, but the politicians are trying to make it as bad as any other scheme. Keep the village panchayats only in the picture to drill wells, to deepen the tanks and lakes and ponds etc so that the rain water is adequately stored. There are excellent methods followed by villagers in Rajasthan and these can be adopted universally. Make the payment to the villagers directly by crediting their salary to their bank accounts.
4.Give a clean coal gas stove to each family.
5.Start a gobar gas plant for each street or each village and arrange to distribute gobar gas to each house for cooking and lighting. Get the votes promised in return for these gestures.
6.Jatropha cultivation has not taken off at all in a large scale. Help villagers to adopt waste lands and uncultivated lands next to Railway lines etc, instead of the elephantine SEZ and help the villagers to grow Jatropha. They would require assistance for a small quantity of water for the first three years and then for the next 25 years they give seed yields on their own. This oil from Jetropha will help reduce consumption of diesel upto 10% in the country. Imagine the amount of saving and the amount of official corruption you can give to villagers either directly or through political parties.
7.Give responsibilities to each family, street or village to grow a certain number of trees every year in the neighbourhood and support them financially.
8.Help the fishermen, not to disturb the coral reefs or catch the chyitinous moluscs for eating purposes. They will help saving enoromous calcium carbonate from the atmosphere.
There may be many more such schemes and ideas emanating from many which can help convert the threat of corruption to an opportunity of general welfare to humanity.
Flooding takes place all the time. For eg. A study of the soil core from the Bombay oil field area has shown that there were terrestrial fresh water elements occurring as recent fossils. In other words, in a distance of 140 Kms, the sea has advanced with a water depth of about 80 m near the Bombay High Field. The timing roughly coincides with the period of Dwaraka Submergence. we have had instances of Cauvery Poompattinam in the east coast disappearing on one such event. Even recently four decades back, Danushkodi has disappeared. The recent Tsunami of 2004 has made parts of Nicobar and some other areas disappear. Therefore, flooding of areas and disappearance is a phenomenon which will happen from time to time irrespective of any climate panel. What is however required is we should not deliberately commit greater sins without compensating adequately for relief from them.
Regards and respects,
Ramanathan
Dr Ramanathan sir,
your ideas are excellent and most welcome.
If we start using renewable energies like wind, micro-hydel and solar, the power generation and distribution can be done locally at village levels.
In my own village, there are two rivers on both sides of the village. The flow of water in the rivers on both sides are regulated through shutters. On the downside of the shutters water is released at enormous force. During my younger days, we use to go and stand near the water release and we use find it very difficult to face the force of water. If we start putting small micro hyder power stations - say 25 KW plus, it can meet the requirement of our village.
Please see the following published report which says the potential is 15000 MW in the country.
http://www.inshp.org/THE 3rd HYDRO ...ions/India/SMALL HYDRO POTENTIAL IN INDIA.pdf
Small wind turbines of say 25 Kw or so could be installed throughout coastal areas and other areas where wind potential is good. Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has published a paper on wind energy potential which could be seen from the following weblink
Wind Energy Potential
Solar energy has huge potential but capital cost is very high. May be when the solar panel costs come down, it may be attractive.
Cobar gas plants could be installed in rural areas combining diary for self employment at rural areas. It can be used for heating, cooking etc.
Once power generation and distribution is localised, huge amount spent on transmission could be saved.
May be people could be encouraged to use LED lamps etc to save consumption at the user end.
As a country we have committed to reduce energy consumption to the extent of 20 to 25% by 2020 at Copenhagen summit.
Copenhagen Summit: India?s commitment, December 8, 2009 - French Embassy in India - Ambassade de France en Inde
It is high time all of us work towards the goals committed by the nation so that we are well ahead of other countries in controlling emissions.
All the best