A Period of Consequences?

Global Warming - it's a burning issue right now.

I was watching An Inconvenient Truth. And I turned it off half-way through. It was too intense for me to let it pass by as just another documentary. I will finish the remainder of the movie tomorrow. And I am sure I will buy it so that I can go back to it many many more times in future. Every few minutes, this film throws up a bit of information to rattle you. The CO2 levels and consequently the global temperature going through the roof - and this roof is relative to the last 650,000 years of earth's existence. The polar ice caps are melting. In 50 years, there will be NO ICE at the poles during summer. For me personally the poles of the earth have always conjured up visions of ice as far as the eye can see, explorers on sledges and polar bears. The largest ice shelf on the earth recently broke in half. It just snapped, couldn't take it anymore. In 50 years from now, at currently increasing rates of warming, we cannot imagine what will the earth be like. Will there be any humans left to imagine?

There is increasing chatter about geoengineering as a potential solution for all our environmental problems. There is a lot of political debate going on whether humans should tamper with nature any further in the name of survival? The argument is that we have already tampered with nature by releasing greenhouse gases and CO2 that will stay for throusands of years to come. So why not take it to the next step to prevent some of the repurcussions? And how exactly do we propose to control the damage? Well the ideas range from ridiculous - setting up giant space mirrors to reflect sunlight back, since the ice won't be around to do that - to the horrendous - alteration of rainfall patterns through seeding of clouds or creation of vast artificial water bodies where none exists now. One can only imagine what the scientists will have to say if the rains went out of control or if the artificial water body upset the local ecosystem - they would say "OOPS, my bad! But this was not supposed to happen".

But then, do I have anything more than my cynicism to offer? Unfortunately, the short answer is NO. And the reason is that I don't think it is possible to go back to a non-polluting way of living on a mass scale. Progress as we have defined it over the years can come only at a price. I cannot imagine life without electricity, mass and quick transportation, telecom and global trade. It is possible to achieve this on an individual basis, but not on a global scale. So, I reluctantly agree that geoengineering might be our best bet as of now. Until further research in the name of dilligence throws up something more potent...

Are we staring at a "period of consequences" as Churchill put it so bluntly?

Jo dar gaya.... woh mar gaya!!!

Fear is such a primal emotion that it can bring out the best and the worst in us.
Fear of an enemy - it can force you into resignation even before the start of a fight
Fear of death - it can motivate you to your greatest escape
Fear of stagnation - it can lead you to the most adventurous journeys
Fear of truth - it can force you to create your own universe of lies
Fear of rejection - it can make you a second-hand individual (all you Ayn Rand fanatics will understand this)
Fear of destiny - it can rot your very core and suck all ambition out of you
Fear of loss - it can debase you to crave victory at any cost and by any means. It can bring out the animal in you

Yet, there is such a thin line between fear and belief, between fear and confidence, between fear and courage, between life and death.

Gabbar ne sach kaha tha - Jo dar gaya, woh mar gaya! :)

Of 73,44,000 seconds and 6 books

My last post is almost 3 months old as I am typing this out. In the 73,44,000 seconds that have elapsed since then, what have I achieved?

To tell you the truth, there is nothing to write about all those millions of wasted seconds. I warmed my chair at work during weekdays. Went to the gym or played squash during weeknights. Played cricket and watched movies on weekends. No travel, no new activity, no challenges, no break from the routine!

But yes, I did read a few good books during this passage of time. Anderson Cooper fascinated me with his Dispatches from the Edge. Bill Bryson humored me with his adventurous Walk in the Woods. And he is dazzling me with mundane facts in A Short History of Nearly Everything. Chris Anderson's exploration of The Long Tail was captivating to say the least. And Ashok Banker had me craving for more through the Prince of Ayodhya, the first book of his 6-volume Ramayana series. Oh, and Michael Lewis, he of the Liar's Poker fame, also had me eating out of his hands with Next, and collection of groundbreaking stories from the early days of the internet.

So, is that justice to the 3 months of supposedly wasted time? Yeah, I think so! Although I would have been happy to finish at least 2/3 more page-turners. But then page-turners are a hard breed to find.