Just the other day, I was speaking to a garderener in my society. The poor fellow seemed rattled about life. Despite being in times of de-flation.. he has to pay Rs 100 for a kilo of Dal (which was Rs 40 a month back!).. He has to pay for water and His electricity bills have shot over the roof - enough to rattle the life out of a lower-middle class man in India. So basically, he is bearing the brunt of - Climate Change (No monsoons, no food, higher prices.. Shortage of electricity.. and shortage of drinking water)
He isn't bothered if the US Congress signs Sen. Kerry's Climate Change Bill. He doesn't give a damn if India asks developed nations to bear responsibility for Global Warming. He doesn't give a damn about anything political. What he wants is prices coming down. What he wants is availability of water. Even so, this is on the wish-list of almost every ordinary human.
So what do we need @Copenhagen? The proposals tabled so far - briefly - include reducing CO2 emission levels. Now whats so hilarious about this is, that most of the participating countries will pledge to reduce CO2 emission levels and thats it! What we fail to understand - keeping aside all complex stats - is that we don't have much time! What we fail to understand is that Nature will move on.. we will be the ones to suffer.. Nature has endured change countless times over its billion year life-span. It is our civilisation- as quoted in the 11th hour - that will perish.
So lets get on with this - What do we need as a unified race to come up with @Copenhagen? Keeping in mind, that one thing we're short on is Time!
We should have incentives for families/individuals practicing green-habits. Like, tax-incentives, carbon points and so on. Again, what we need to understand is that governements are not solely responsible for the world's shape right now, and are not solely responsible for fixing it either. All of us has to come together. And there needs to be something common for such a unity - incentives! Only until the common man saves money on taxes, earns carbon points or gains any such incentive, will he start living a green life. Until then, we can give great lectures, write great dossiers and so on. But the implementation at grass-root levels won't occur.
A little more elaboration on my part here.. Tax-benefits if a family uses solar power, drives an electric car, or so on. Carbon points for planting trees in the thousands. Large-scale institutes/firms should switch to using green energy and gain massive tax-benefits.
Also, aforestation is an effective way of combating climate change. But it is easier said than done. For every tree uprooted, we need to plant seven trees to bring about equilibrium. Nonetheless, even if each individual plants a single tree and maintains it, it could work well for our survival. If a family maintains a garden, it should be awarded certain carbon points. Carbon points are usually for green-works at higher magnitudes. However, we need to device another system here. Where carbon points can be considered an equivalent for money!
Unless the common man doesn't have a strong practical - not ideal - reason to join the war against climate change, why would he be a part of it?
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