New Innovation to tackle Carbon "Black"Mail: "Green is Free!!"

[I use the phrase "developed world" to indicate a certain group of countries but it does not imply my subscription to the notion of them being so!]

Green is now more than the color of envy, it is the color of Environment,color of conflict twixt so called developed and developing world; color of future labels on Walmart stuff and of course Shrek!!

The idea of forcing commitments from India on green house reduction is a two edged sword for developed world (Why? Maybe later blog on that one). We have been harping on "lowest per capita carbon (and energy/resources etc)" in the world which is possibly true as well. I dont see any other region where Raddi / Kabadi trade is a legitimate way of earning livlihood. A whole strata of society survives as rag pickers from garbage dumps (no I am not proud of this fact). The problem is we don't effectively document and showcase our own strangely unique characteristics till someone comes along and does the job for us.It would then suddenly turn into a cool thing to do like case-study on Mumbai Dabbawalas and B-Schools would tag along for their own PR. Additionally, we thrive on destroying our ancient heritage in the name of progres. Countless old monuments were demolished in Delhi to make way for builder flats, shops and other concrete junk (more on that in later blog I guess).

However, I see the trend shifting. Since many "developed" nations would transition to greener technologies, thereby increasing the cost of production; manufacturing would move to other countries leading to equitable distribution of industrialization benefits. Just that "developed" nations managed to develop themselves and pollute the world before the concept of Green became a buzz word and now they want to deny others an opportunity under the guise of being morally correct. Maybe there is a bit of genuine concern as well. At least perpetual underdogs like me are rooting for some more green initiatives to emerge out of this.

The underlying assumption in all our arguments has been that employing Greener and natural means of doing something increases its costs. This may not be necessarily true. We need to look for ways where it is both Green and cheap. Earlier, same view was held for Quality and Costs by the automobile manufacturers till Toyota came along and shattered the Myth. Green needs another Toyota to come and prove us wrong.

As goes an old joke, while some spent millions developing a "zero gravity pen" that could be used by Astronauts in Space, Cosmonauts used a pencil instead!!