The Economics of Going Green

~Atul Saraff, VII Semester


  When I look at the picture I see the inevitable. The wise man Murphy once said - if something can go wrong, chances are it most probably will. What he didn't mention, however, was that more often than not, we are the ones responsible for it.  


 Ask someone not to think of an elephant, and you can be quite sure that that is exactly what they are thinking of. Now imagine that thinking of the elephant is taking away the green (from the environment and from your wallet alike), And now, also imagine there are other people who are trying to convince you that thinking of the said elephant is a bad thing - (cause of the lesser green and all). And while doing so they are taking away more green (from both the above mentioned locations) than they think they are saving. Now name this elephant GLOBAL WARMING, and what do we get?-The carbon economy.

  The picture shows a future which is desperately trying to preserve the remaining environment. A London that is partially submerged covered with windmills and solar panels, yet devoid of people. It gives a very ‘abandoned Earth’ kind of feeling. Is this the future? Although Al Gore would like us to believe so, the simple truth is probably not.

  A week ago I was to meet a friend of mine. Waiting at the Double Road gate of Lal Bagh botanical garden, I saw a group of student in some form of procession. It was the most bewildering form of expression I had ever seen. They were marching down the centre of the street blocking all the traffic, wearing colourful t-shirts with their slogans on them and each of them held up a poster stuck to a wooden stick. In front of this long procession was a mobile DG unit leading a mobile platform hooked up with loudspeakers. The preacher was yelling out the slogan to his faithful followers and they repeated in unison. While this was all quite irritating, the straw that broke the camel’s back was their water supply - 3 mini tempos brought in water by the gallon and they filled them in paper cups and distributed them to everyone. However once the cup had served its purpose it was seen convenient to discard them on the road side.

  All the trees that went into those posters, prints and cups, the plants that gave way for the shirts which won’t serve for more than that single march, the oil they burnt to make their voices heard, and not to mention the oil that was wasted thanks to the traffic jam they created, the littering everywhere, the polluted environment.... What cause could possibly justify such a heavy price? A student march to ‘SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT’!

  Turns out a closer look at the t shirts reveals they say “Stop Pollution! “ The green march was organized by the students of JAIN INTERNATIONAL YOUTH ORGANISATION (JIYO). Although I am sure their intentions were right (as they always are), the net impact of their actions are what I am more concerned about. - The economics of going green. How much nature are we destroying in trying to save it? As our energy efficient design teacher put it, ‘Human existence does inevitable change the ecosystem around us.’ Al Gore has allegedly spent over 250 million to spread awareness on the adverse impact of climate change*. The true positive impacts of his efforts, though immeasurable** can make one think of various other means to achieve the same end goal, at a lower price. A group of great minds at INTELLECTUAL VENTURES- Washington have devised a way to reverse all the years of global warming at half of Mr. Al Gore’s budget. Is this truly possible? - Yes, (most probably) and their method to do so, ethical? - Well, I’ll leave that to people who are more morally responsible to decide.

  But the true question that comes to mind when I look at the picture is - Can we prevent this from happening? The global warming part - (although some people say isn’t really such a bad thing***) - Yes! Sure, why not? But can we avoid our own paranoia and consistent tendency to interfere with the way the world works? Well, in this case it’s us and not nature that behaves as the mother****. People say geo-engineering is the next level. The next biggest ethical question, one that is unfortunately being asked a little too late, for we have already been engineering our planet (consciously and unconsciously) for a long time now is, ‘Will the newly established religion of ‘Save our Earth’ catch on?’ Yes! But will it help its devotees meet their one true god? Well, I guess some questions will never been answered. It’s all a matter of faith.

  If the world does submerge, may the Lord provide us with speed boats!



*Source (no, I didn't really do research for this!) - Superfreakonomics, sequel to Freakonomics, by Steven D Levitt and Stephen Dubner.


**Not intended as a compliment - as in logically cannot be calculated.


*** Sid the sloth from the Ice Age 1 was quoted, “You know what we could use a little more of? GLOBAL WARMING! Just ask the species that died out in the last ice ages. Warmer is nicer!’


****No matter how illiterate a mother might be on the matter, her knowledge and insight must always be considered profound, and her word final! For it is all, after all, for your own good! And no, mother**** was not intended as an insult!