Wednesday 10 March 2010

What Price Global Warming?

"There is no conclusive scientific evidence to link global warming with what is happening in the Himalayan glaciers." -Jairam Ramesh

"It is an extremely arrogant statement." -RK Pachauri on Jairam Ramesh

"If the Minister for Environment is popular, he's not doing his job." -Jairam Ramesh, taken wholly out of context

Exxon Mobil has supposedly spent a fortune on disproving that it exists... Leading teams of scientists have questioned its veracity...and good people in high places have to refuse to admit to it, as Al Gore would have it, because if they did, then the moral imperative to do something about it would be so great, it would no longer be feasible to ignore it. However, this blog is not about that all conquering global question...What is the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken?...nor is it about that other, slightly less discussed but infinitely more significant question, Does global warming exist? No...this blog is about why we, and a LOT of other people would be significantly richer by assuming that it does not exist. Until the oceans drown our entire population of course. But that's just coincidental..and unsubstantiated...meaning that we are wholly unsure of the depth of sea level and the rate of vada pao in 2020.

Yes, people have the most cogent of reasons to ignore the threat of global warming as it is, money. It started with the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, a much maligned and much delayed joke for a protocol, that wasn't immediately signed by many nations... India included. The US has never ratified the protocol either. And the reason for this would be that it's all well and good to be a nature lover and Greenpeace and shit...but the loss due to implementation would be anywhere from 1.2% to 4.5% of GDP. Holy crap!! That would be more than the primary education budget of India...was what most politicians would have thought, and the matter was conveniently swept under the rug.

Even now, after the disaster that was Copenhagen, when the Honorable Minister for Environment talks about a strong negotiating position on climate change issues he is talking about the 100 billion dollars supposed to be handed out to developing nations in order to help them cut their carbon emissions. A beneficiary of the carbon credits system, albeit rather serendipitously was Lakshmi Mittal of course, whose Luxembourg based steel industry Arcelor consumed very little of the carbon credits assigned to it. A billion pounds was the amout that they stood to make in a few years time as incentive for not polluting the environment...as much as they could have done... And this sort of incentive would be greatly appreciated by one of the richest men in the world controlling the largest steel company in the world, no doubt.

Face it...the only greenery that affects us in any significant way is to be found in our wallets. The only reason we choose to mire in tautology a fact as significant as global warming is because we just don't want to compromise on that extra percentage of growth that would let us sit back and marvel at the rise and rise of the Indian Economy...instead of the rise and rise of the Indian Ocean.

1 comment:

  1. nice post, i am n complete agreement.

    also, there's the very real possibility of another laloo-rabri, or a madhu koda and wife scenario coming up again. in essence, a completely unworthy candidate probably has a very, VERY good chance of getting his way, simply because he's married. yes, to a woman. no ?

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