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Showing posts with the label Environment

The Parking, Recycling, Scrap revolution for India is overdue

  Photo by Documerica on Unsplash They built a new 4-lane road near my house - a spanking new concretized stretch now exists in place of a dusty swamp which the locals negotiated on foot until recently. But its state is more like the Hindi idiom - गाँव बसा नहीं, लुटेरे आ गए (meaning: Robbery committed even before the Village could set up). Buses, trucks, and tempos park on one side, making it a single lane road. Most of these vehicles are parked all day - not just during the day or during the night. Why do these vehicles park on new roads all the time? For some, like taxis waiting time is much higher than driving time - certain cabbies can make enough in one trip across the city to earn a day's living (and they are often lazy not to make more!). Few other cars belong to residents who use public transport for daily commute, but need a car for occasional usage, and while they can afford to buy a car, they don't have parking space in their building. Further, India is far behind o...

Greta Thunberg may be a fraud - but is that the point?

If you are writing off Greta Thunberg as a case of poster girl for environmentalists-with-vested-interest and believe that her doomsday predictions are just shenanigans - you are missing the point entirely. Here's a teenager who's situation is compounded by Asperger's syndrome and Selective Mutism - speaking out aloud to a community of world leaders. Her scenarios are obviously blown out of proportion - weren't yours when you were adolescent? The point isn't whether or not her predictions are true - the point is we adults care so much less than we should. Mankind will not go extinct - and while some species might, its not going to be a mass extinction either. If it indeed does happen, while millions of poorer humans may perish, most of us using social media, (presumed to be) living in developed cities / towns will survive. Temperature going up by 2° will inflate your Air Conditioning bill and may be add to 'work from home' days when its either snow...