குளோபல் வார்மிங் - நான் என்ன செய்ய முடியும்?

குளோபல் வார்மிங் - நான் என்ன செய்ய முடியும்?

சிறிது நாட்களுக்கு முன் The Day After Tomorrow படம் பார்த்த போது கொஞ்சம் பீதியாகத்தான் இருந்தது. சரி மனித இனத்தின் முடிவு இப்படித்தான் இருக்கும் போலிருக்கிறது. என்ன, நாம் நினைப்பதைவிட மிகச் சீக்கிரமாக இம்முடிவு ஏற்பட சாத்தியக்கூறுகள் உள்ளது. உலக நாடுகளும், உலக தலைவர்களும், ஐ.நா சபையும் ஒன்று சேர்ந்து யோசித்து இந்த குளோபல் வார்மிங் பிரச்சனையை சமாளிக்க வேண்டும். தனி மனிதனாய் நாம் என்ன செய்ய முடியும் என்று தான் இது நாள் வரை நான் எண்ணிக் கொண்டு இருந்தேன்.

ஆனால் இணையத்தில் இது குறித்து தேடும் போது கிடைத்த தகவல்கள் என்னை ஆச்சரியத்தில் ஆழ்த்தின. அதிக அளவு கரியமில வாயுவை(CO2 ) காற்று மண்டலத்தில் கலப்பதே இந்த குளோபல் வார்மிங்கிக்கான காரணம் என்பது நாம் அறிந்ததே. மின்சாரம் மற்றும் எரிபொருள் உபயோகத்தை முடிந்த வரை கட்டுப்படுத்தினால் காற்று மண்டலத்தில் கலக்கும் கரியமில வாயுவின் அளவையும் கட்டுப்படுத்தலாம். எனவே நீங்கள் மின்சாரம் மற்றும் எரிபொருள் உபயோகத்தை முடிந்த வரை சிக்கனப்படுத்தினாலே குளோபல் வார்மிங்கை தடுக்க உம்மால் இயன்றதை செய்து விட்டீர்கள் என்று அர்த்தம்.

1. வேலை முடிந்ததும் கணினியை அணைப்பது.
2. 10 நிமிடத்திற்கு மேல் கணினி செயல்படாமல் இருந்தால், கணினி திரை தானாகவே அணைவது போல் கணினியில் settings செய்தல்.
3. நடந்து செல்ல முடிந்தால், எரிபொருள் வாகனங்களைத் தவிர்ப்பது
4. துணி துவைக்கும் இயந்திரத்தில் வெந்நீர் ப்யன்படுத்துவதை தவிர்ப்பது
5. தேவையற்ற இடங்களில் மின்விளக்குகளை அணைத்தல்.
6. கதவு மற்றும் சன்னலை திறந்து வைத்து இயற்கை வெளிச்சம் பெறுவது
7. Incandescent light bulbs பதிலாக Compact fluorescent light bulbs பயன்படுத்துதல்.
8. நம் வாகனத்தில் சக்கரங்களின் காற்றழுத்தத்தை சரியான அளவில் வைத்திருத்தல்.
9. நம் வாகனத்தை சரியான வேகத்தில் ஓட்டுதல்
10. நம் வாகனத்திற்கு Emission Test செய்து சரிபார்த்தல்

இது போல் ஒரு தனிமனிதனால் குளோபல் வார்மிங்கை த்டுக்க என்னவெல்லாம் செய்யலாமெனெ சில இணையதளங்களில் மிகத்தெளிவாக குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்கள், அதற்கான சுட்டி

http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/page.cfm?tagID=135
http://www.worldwildlife.org/climate/involved/individuals.cfm

இத்தளத்தில் குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ள, உலகளவில் குளோபல் வார்மிங்கை எதிர் கொள்வதற்கு எடுக்கப்பட்டு வரும் விஷயங்கள் நம்பிக்கையூட்டுவனவாக உள்ளன. Greenhouse gases ( விலங்கு கழிவுகளில் இருந்து தயாரிக்கப்படும் வாயு ), Green Power (காற்று மின்சாரம், சூரியமின்சாரம்) , எத்தனால் என்று பல மாற்று எரிசக்திகள் குளோபல் வார்மிங்கை கட்டுபடுத்த உபயோகப்படுத்தப்பட போகிறது

இத்தளத்தில் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ள பல குறிப்புகளை நடைமுறைப்படுத்த நம்மால் இயலும். இதை செயல்படுத்துவதின் மூலம் நீங்கள் பணத்தையும் சேமிக்கலாம். உங்கள் கொள்ளுபேரன் விளையாட இவ்வுலகத்தையும் காப்பாற்றி வைக்கலாம். எல்லாம் மிக எளிய விடயங்கள். இதில் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ள விடயங்களை செயல்படுத்த அரசாங்கத்தின் தயவு தேவையில்லை, அரசியல்வாதிகளின் பரிந்துரை தேவையில்லை. இதற்குபின்னும் நான் ஏன் இதையெல்லாம் செய்ய வேண்டுமென்று தோன்றினால் ஒரேஒரு தடவை The Day After Tomorrow படம் பார்க்கவும்.

India workers use cell phones to dial in prosperity

India workers use cell phones to dial in prosperity
Explosion in number of subscribers fuels economic boon and productivity for many who had previously struggled to make a living
By Kevin Sullivan
WASHINGTON POST
PALLIPURAM, India - Babu Rajan pointed off the starboard bow and shouted: "There! There!"

In choppy, gray seas four miles from shore near India's tropical southern tip, Rajan spotted the tinselly sparkle of a school of sardines. He ordered his three dozen crewmen to quickly drop their 5-ton net overboard.

Within five minutes, the cell phone hanging around his neck rang.

"Hallo!" he shouted, struggling to hear over the big diesel engines of his 74-foot boat, Andavan. "Medium sized! Medium sized!" he said, estimating the haul for a wholesale agent calling from port, who had heard by cell phone from other skippers that Rajan had just set his nets.

Minutes later Rajan's phone rang again -- another agent at a different port. Then one of Rajan's regular customers called: Is it a good catch? When will you be here?

"It's good! But let me finish here!" Rajan shouted, sweating as he helped to haul in the huge red net.

He hung up and laughed: "When I have a big catch, the phone rings 60 or 70 times before I get to port."

The cell phone is bringing new economic clout, profit and productivity to Rajan and millions of other poor laborers in India, the world's fastest-growing cell phone market.

At the beginning of 2000, India had 1.6 million cell phone subscribers; today there are 125 million -- three times the number of land lines in the country. With 6 million new cell phone subscribers each month, industry analysts predict that in four years nearly half of India's 1.1 billion people will be connected by cell phone.

That explosive growth has meant greater access to markets, information about prices and new customers for tens of millions of Indian farmers and fishers.

A convenience taken for granted in wealthy nations, the cell phone is putting cash in the pockets of people for whom a dollar is a good day's wage. And it has made market-savvy entrepreneurs out of sheep herders, rickshaw drivers and even the acrobatic men who climb up palm trees to harvest coconuts here in Kerala state.

"This has changed the entire dynamics of communications and how they organize their lives," said C.K. Prahalad, an India-born business professor at the University of Michigan, who has written extensively about how commerce -- and cell phones -- are used to combat poverty.

"One element of poverty is the lack of information," Prahalad said. "The cell phone gives poor people as much information as the middleman."

For less than a penny a minute -- the world's cheapest cell phone call rates -- farmers in remote areas can check prices for their produce. They call around to local markets to find the best deal. They also track global trends using cell phone-based Internet services that show the price of pumpkins or bananas in London or Chicago.

Indian farmers use camera-phones to snap pictures of crop pests, then send the photos by cell phone to biologists who can identify the bug and suggest ways to combat it. In cities, painters, carpenters and plumbers who once begged for work door-to-door say they now have all the work they can handle because customers can reach them instantly by cell phone.

T.V. Ramachandran, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, a private industry group, said construction of new cell towers is expanding most rapidly in rural areas, and India's coverage area has tripled in the past year. He said cell phone growth is driven by the young -- more than half the population is younger than 25 -- and, increasingly, by people in neglected rural areas.

In a country where the World Bank calculates that nearly 80 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, Ramachandran said cell phones have become the "poor man's phone."

Rajan said the dealers who buy his wares don't necessarily like the new balance of power, but they are paying better prices to him and thousands of other fishers who work this lush stretch of coastline. "They are forced to give us more money because there is competition," said Rajan, who estimated that his income has at least tripled to an average of $150 a month since 2000, when cell phones began booming in India. He said he is providing for his family in ways that his fisherman father never could, including a house with electricity and a television.

"When I was a kid we never had enough money for clothes and books, so we never really went to school," said Rajan, 50. "Now everything is different."

At 5:30, Rajan's cell phone rang for the first of dozens of times that day. Rajan pulled it out of his breast pocket, where he keeps it at the end of a red cord around his neck in a plastic protective case. The captain of another boat cutting through the dark sea, visible only by its red and green running lights, was calling to plot strategy.

The skippers agreed that they would steam about 14 miles offshore, where Rajan's crew had landed almost $2,000 worth of sardines two days earlier, a great catch. In a flurry of calls, Rajan and other skippers were all clearly worried because yesterday had been a disaster. After 12 hours at sea under a broiling sun, nobody had caught enough sardines to make a decent lunch for a cat.

"I can't imagine life without my phone," said Rajan, who has curly hair, a graying beard and a body hardened by work. Before cell phones, he said, he couldn't communicate with other boat captains. Few of them could afford expensive marine radios, so if someone hit a massive school of sardines, there was no way to alert friends on other boats.

And if the boat broke down, as they frequently do, Rajan said he would have to wait at sea and hope that help happened along. Now he can call his mechanic, who also carries a cell phone, to ask for emergency service. And if the crew has a family emergency on shore, the news arrives instantly -- as it did a week ago when a crewman's father-in-law died suddenly.

"We should have had this power a long time ago," Rajan said as a pink-orange sunrise peeked through the clouds.

After nine hours at sea, at 1:44 p.m., Rajan was ready to give up for the day. The wind was kicking up a choppy sea, making it hard to spot the ripples and sparkles made by schools of sardines. Then, from his perch high in the bow, he spotted them about 50 yards off the bow. He jumped up and down and shouted to the crew members, who scrambled to their places.

By 3 p.m., the open boat was loaded with fish and the Andavan turned toward port, an hour away. Standing on the deck soaked with sweat, Rajan started returning phone calls. He dialed the number of the wholesale agent at his home port, who offered about $13 for each 110-pound box of fish -- about 12 cents a pound.

Rajan agreed to the deal. He said if his load had been bigger and it had been earlier in the day, he would have called around to check prices at other ports. But he said for a smallish load late in the day, the first price offered was fair. And he said the dealer was forced to offer a decent price, knowing that Rajan could still go elsewhere. As insurance, Rajan returned the call of the other dealer who had called him, just to keep good relations for another day.

Rajan said that without his phone, his catch might have gone to waste. Because he called ahead to the port, buyers there knew that he was coming, what kind of fish he had and the size of his catch. In the past, Rajan said, he would sometimes arrive at port late in the day only to find that all the buyers had gone home, unaware that another boat was coming. His catch would go unsold and he and his crew would go unpaid.

"Even if it takes us one or two hours to get there, they will still be waiting for us," Rajan said, smoking a cigarette on the Andavan's deck. "It was never like that before."

Right to information act India's magic wand against corruption

Right to information act India's magic wand against corruption
Siddharth Srivastava, New Delhi

Lost in the din of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal and reservations for backward classes in higher educational institutions, has been a change that will likely overhaul the relationship between the government and the people of India forever.

In the few months of existence, the Right to Information (RTI) Act has already engendered mass movements in the country that is bringing the lethargic, often corrupt bureaucracy to its knees and changing power equations completely. Some say, the RTI, more than the nuclear pact, will perhaps be the one rule of law that the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi combine will be remembered most in history, though the duo may not have actually realized the difference it can make to the lives of the common man.

From issues related to ration cards, passports, driving licenses, civic problems, government aid money for poverty alleviation to flood relief, notices are being filed across the country, with government officials, for a change, at the receiving end. If they do not reply satisfactorily within a month, their salaries are liable to be cut, as per the new law. Many have already faced the worst.

Some officials have complained of being victimized, but there is no sympathy for them, as it is the large number of the masses who have had to kowtow to dictates and non-performance for so long.

The legislation gives Indians the power to ask officials about almost anything, except issues of national security, cabinet papers and information protected by the courts. For a nominal fee, officials have to deliver reports on the progress of applications for voter's ID card, water and electricity connections.

As this correspondent has noted, there are only two opinions about the Act that came into force last winter. A senior government official said that he has never felt as harassed in replying to queries, while the head of a resident's welfare association said that the RTI is the biggest boon.

The concerned residents have ensured that a local road, that on paper was supposed to be functioning very well, is fixed, via a RTI appeal. Arvind Kejriwal, who founded Parivartan (Change), one of the organizations that fought for the law, is among this year's winners of the Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for his RTI grassroots campaign.

"This law has instilled a fear among the officials," Manish Sisodia, a campaigner with Parivartan as been quoted. "In a democracy, we say the common man is the master but it is rarely so. RTI gives them this power - to open any file, any document and any door. It's proving to be a very effective tool to fight corruption, though corruption can never go from India."

Predictably, elements in the higher echelons of the bureaucracy have been seeking a dilution in the Act and almost succeeded in convincing their political masters of the need to exclude file nothings, a move that would have substantially turned the tables in favor of the government servant (referred colloquially and sometimes pejoratively as babus).

The original Act covers a wide range of information defined as "any material in any form including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advises, press releases, circulars, orders, log-books, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force." Obviously, the babus were not happy and wanted more protection.

Following a furor, the government has retracted the move that was cleared by the cabinet, at least for now. The government has more or less given up the idea of bringing the RTI (amendment) Bill that seeks to keep file nothings out of the purview of the Act this monsoon session of Parliament, reportedly at the instance of Sonia. "As far as the amendment to the RTI Act is concerned, officially we are not saying that we are dropping the cabinet decision on file nothings, but it may well be that the amendment is not brought at all," a senior union minister has been quoted.

RTI activists who conducted a referendum reported 98.7 per cent of people, including those in Delhi, voted against the proposed amendments. Armed with the new law, about 700 pressure groups and charities have jointly launched a nationwide drive to make people aware of their rights in early July. About 1,500 volunteers set up information center camps at key government offices in 47 cities, resulting in over 14,000 RTI applications being filed. Ironically, several of the petitioners include government servants questioning service conditions such as transfers, suspensions or promotions.

Four RTI activists, including Kejriwal, have said: "We urge the government to leave the RTI Act 2005 as it is for a few years. This is a historic legislation and this government deserves to be congratulated for this. Let some people within the bureaucracy not be allowed to undo the good work of the government."

The Central Information Commission (CIC) that monitors the RTI has also been involved in its own battle on the issue with the government, speaking against the proposed amendment.

This correspondent too has filed a petition under the RTI seeking status of refund of security deposit (US$350) for a telephone connection, the service provided by a government owned firm. The phone has been disconnected for four years now, with no sign of the money. A reply should be due soon.

It may be recalled that India ranks among the most corrupt nations in the world. Studies by the Berlin-based Transparency International and other indices such as the Corruption Perception Index have consistently ranked India as one of the worst as far as corrupt practices go. As per Transparency, India has secured a lowly spot at number 88 (out of 159 countries surveyed) of the most corrupt places on the planet, along with unlikely companion countries such as Gabon, Mali, Moldova, Tanzania and Iran.

Earlier this year, the World Bank (WB) decided to hold back over $ 1 billion meant for health programs in the county due to allegations of fraud and corruption. India, keen to project itself as an economic powerhouse, thus joined the ranks of countries such as Bangladesh, Chad, Congo, Kenya and Argentina against whom similar action has been taken.

There have been various attempts to put a figure to the dimension of corruption: Government loss of $50 billion due to tax evasion; $10 billion due to delay in projects due to bureaucratic red tape; corruption costs the Indian taxpayer nearly $7 billion a year. Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi famously said that for every rupee spent by the government for development less than a tenth of the amount actually reaches the beneficiary and this too is an exaggerated figure.

The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached at srivastava_siddharth@hotmail.com.