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Few months ago, I posted in my Tamil blog about how human beings have been indiscriminately exploiting and misusing the natural resources in the past fifty years or so, how such indiscriminate activities have contributed to things like global warming, climate change, environmental pollution, etc., how it is affecting us today and how, if we as individuals can make small changes to our lifestyle and outlook, can significantly contribute towards improving the situation.

One person who commented on the post couldn’t accept the fact that global warming is caused by human activities. He said,

What about the other side of the coin? Earth is about 3 billion years old and just 50 years of human action could change the world climate - total farce. Don’t get me wrong, if this the only way we reduce carbon emissions, the change is more than welcome but the premise is still debatable.

Here is my reply to the comment:

Let’s be clear about one thing here. It’s not that just 50 years of human action is affecting 3 billion year old Earth. All the climate change caused by human action doesn’t affect in a significant way the Earth operates. But this climate change caused by our activities does affect in a significant way our life on Earth. Am I making myself clear? It’s like a mosquito sitting on your hand and sucking your blood. It’s not of much significance to you. It takes less than a second for you strike a blow, finish the life of the mosquito and carry on with your work. But you getting rid of the mosquito is very significant from the mosquito’s point of view. It’s a question of life and death for the mosquito. In much the same way, we are sucking away earth’s resources resources in an indiscriminate manner and polluting the environment, the result of which is climate change and this climate change has become a life and death issue for us human beings, but it doesn’t mean a thing to Earth.

Debates have happened over this issue in the past, but now it’s been proved and widely accepted that climate change is caused very much by human activities. So, there is no point in further specluation. It’s time for action. And it’s utter foolishness to say that we have to ’save the Earth’. But we definitely have to take action and save our own lives on this planet.

Isha Gramotsavam is a rural festival organized by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev inspired Isha Foundation every year as part of their Rural Rejuvenation program. This year, Chennai played host to the big event on Sunday, September 23rd. I was lucky to be there and experience this unique event. The festival is marked by sports events, ‘rural olympics’ as it is called, there was also cultural events, rural food festival (some of the dishes really tasty ) stalls showcasing rural handicrafts, etc., … overall, it’s a beautiful celebration of the spirit of rural Tamilnadu. The day ended with Mahasatsang with Sadhguru and some soul stirring music. This is the first time I’m participating in an Isha event, and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. For those who couldn’t make it to the show, the Gramotsavam website has photos and videos of the day (don’t miss the last two videos). And this page has links to articles and blog posts about the event.

There was also a function to kick start Isha Foundation’s massive tree planting project for this year, this novel initiative, called Project GreenHands aims at planting an estimated 25 million trees by the end of this year in the state. A record 8,52,587 saplings were planted as part of the project last year. Visit the Project GreenHands website for more information on why this is such a significant project.

Australia will be the first country to ban energy hungry yellow incandescent bulbs and replace them with energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) in the next three years. According to Australian environment minister, this move would cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tonnes by 2012. A similar idea to promote energy efficient bulbs was proposed in the US state of California last month. Cuba launched a campaign two years ago to replace incandescent bulbs in the country with energy saving lamps and Venezuela has been replacing the bulbs and installing photovoltaic systems for the past few months.

Why fluorescent?

Incandescent bulbs waste about 95% of the power consumed as heat emission and convert only 5% as light energy, while fluorescent lamps convert 20% of the power consumed as light. Incandescent bulbs typically have a lifetime of 500 to 2000 hours while CFLs can last upto 8000 hours. CFLs use about a quarter of the power of incandescent bulbs. For example, a 15 watt CFL produces the same amount of light as a 60 watt incandescent bulb. We have been replacing incandescent bulbs in my house with CFLs for the past year, and the results are impressive — it has cut electricity bills upto 30%. More importantly, using fluorescent lamps and CFLs would mean 70% cut in emission of green house gases (CO₂) and thus, environmental friendly.

On the flip side, CFLs contain traces of mercury and can be a cause of pollution when disposed in large quantities. One solution is recycling, but for now at least, advantages of CFLs outweigh the disadvantages. Looking forward into the future, one potentially more efficient alternative could be LED based lamps (solid-state lighting).

Related links

• Complact fluorescent lamp
• Australia to change ligntbulbs to curb warming
• Plan to ban standard light bulbs in California
• Venezuela installs solar panels
• Why ban bulbs?
• City tries to cut energy bills with LEDs

Update: Greenpeace India has urged the Indian Government to ban incandescent light bulbs and advocate use of energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps.