SN Tripathi Memorial Lectures (2011)…

'Global Climate Crisis Is Real...'
Shri V N Garg


Is It a right decision?

But the point is that solar or wind energy if produced at commercial scale will be very costly so, as government we need to give the right market signals or interventions:

Tax those projects that have high C0 emission. Thermal plants are those kind of projects Help overcoming political obstacles.Americans may consume hundred times more energy than the Indians do but they want to have equal parameters when it comes to taking steps about globalwarming. That is the politics about it.


These may be difficult questions but as they say charity begins at home.One has to be an active agile partner in this political process that ultimately eludes global dimensions. If Shri Chandi Prasad Bhatt can initiate Chipko Andolan and create change in entire Uttarakhand, why not we? We are extracting natural resources in order to make our life more and more comfortable and ultimately at the cost of our future generation.

At personal level, there are three most important things as follows:

1. We must save energy. Consume less of every thing that goes into building any material as it requires energy. Become conservative society instead of consumptive society.
2. Plant trees but protect & maintain them
3. Use Public Transport
Why the climate crisis Is an Inconvenient truth? The truth that the globe is warming is inconvenient because it makes us think to change our life and behavior and even our thinking in a manner that is not convenient to us.

For example it is told that the rail is more energy efficient compared to aviation but will anyone who can afford air travel decides today that he/she will travel by train instead of air? It is inconvenient in many other ways also.

Take the case of paper mills. Paper mills are one most energy inefficient mills in the world. Shall these be closed? We use paper tissues usually now in place of hand kerchiefs simply because of convenience. Do we know that paper industries are surviving more on tissues than writing papers but if we devise a policy resulting into the closure of paper mills, it will be highly inconvenient -what about the workers employed in the mills? What about the capitalinvested and loans given by the financial institutions? And we decide that let the paper mills continue working and devise those technologies which will consume less water and energy but when will those technologies be devised and what will happen to the paper mills till then? These are the questions that surface the inconvenient truth about it.