An optimistic outlook on Climate Change, post Covid ..

Climate Change is a phenomenon all of are well informed and are aware of the damage and risks it can cause to the flora and fauna of the world. Our industrial growth from the start of the Industrial revolution of 1700s to the present day has benefitted humanity in umpteen ways, helping raise the standards of living, health, etc of humans, at the same time it has caused untold hardships to the many flora and fauna inhabiting planet earth. Humans by now have excellent control on the resources of the world and how to harness it for the betterment of humanity, but it has also brought us to the brink of disaster given the high frequency of extreme climatic events that have been happening around the world.

While browsing through material on climate change to take for my class of second semester Operations students at Alliance School of Business, Bangalore, I came across an interesting article by Dr Vivek Murthy, present Surgeon General of US and his wife Alice Chen, published in Harvard Business Review of Sept. '19, titled Should we be more optimistic about fighting climate change ?, (click here). Dr, Vivek came up from humble beginnings from Karnataka, the state where I am staying now and which is the IT and Digital capital of India.

The article made interesting reading.  

Dr Vivek makes the startling statement that climate change is the greatest public health challenge facing communities around the world.

Though the article was written before the Covid virus struck the world and put it in limbo for almost 12 months, the push for using sustainable products was existent then.

World over we see a shift in lighting applications from filament based bulbs to CFL bulbs and finally to Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs which has brought down energy consumption by as much as 90% and also reduces the total cost of usage as the life of LED bulbs are significantly much higher than Filament bulbs. The cost and performance comparison given in the fig to the right by the Earth Project (www.earthproject.com) is in itself very eye opening. As we all know usage of LED bulbs is not only good for the earth, but it also good on your purse.

The 2017 launched Project Gigaton from Walmart to take off greenhouse gas emissions from the value chains of the world has been having remarkable success and is a great reminder for organisations around the world to look after mother earth. 

The Terraton initiative from Boston, US pays farmers for being environment friendly by capturing Carbon in the soil by switching to regenerative farming practices.

The Covid scare has frightened people from artificially prepared and packaged fast food food to more natural food, including fruits and vegetables. They are more aware of the quality of the food they consume. This is promoting healthy lifestyle and helping the farmers of the country to earn more by means of organic farming.

Though climate change is staring at us on our faces, it is not a bad future we are facing, though extreme natural events have increased. The improved awareness and numerous environment projects taken up like Project Gigaton etc are bound to make the earth a better place to inhabit for future generations to come, let us strive for that.

George.