Checking In

Hello all. I'm checking in from India (briefly.)

I've had a very nice trip, relaxed, ate good food, chatted with my relatives, saw some monkeys in a tree and a peacock on the street, etc.

I've also tried not to think about environmental matters too much. After all, I'm on VACATION. And after the stress of finishing off my dissertation, I need a little break.

But I can't help it.

See when I got to Bombay, I found that the city has introduced stringent water cuts. Which means that between 11pm and about 5 am almost all water is shut off. And if the city doesn't get more rain in the next couple months, the water cuts could get worse.

Meanwhile in Delhi, there are now more cars on the roads than in Bombay and Chennai combined! Thankfully, work is underway to expand the Delhi metro, but I'm not sure even the metro will do much to stymie the rise of automobiles.

India continues to change. A bus in Delhi proudly claims to be a bus from the largest CNG fleet in the world ... I actually think the buses in LA claim the same thing. There is more awareness about pollution, of environmental matters, of organics.

But at the same time people continue to buy cars. Traffic worsens. Old traditional ways of life are disappearing in favor of "modern" less sustainable methods.

India is a country on a precipice. They can choose: sustainable development or unsustainable. They can choose to make their vast population a problem, or they can choose to make it the most incredible asset by investing in said population.

They can choose to become an epicenter of technology by innovating and designing new clean technologies or they can continue with the same old carbon emitting technologies.

I don't know which way India will choose.

But I know what I hope for.

Thankful My Family Is Safe

I just got off the phone with my relatives in Bombay. My cousin works near the Oberoi hotel, and apparently missed the attack on the train station by about 15 minutes. 

I'm tired, I'm heartsick, I'm dazed by the wreckage of beautiful hotels I have stayed at, but right now, for this second I am thankful that my loved ones are okay.

Hope you and your loved ones have a safe Thanksgiving.

Think Global, Act Local ... And It's All Local

You know that book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... And It's All Small Stuff? Yeah, I never read it either, but lately I've been applying that same logic to that ubiquitous phrase "Think Global, Act Local." Think global, act local ... and it's all local. If that hadn't been hammered home enough during the global financial crisis, it was certainly hammered home on Tuesday when people from all over the world rejoiced over the election of Barack Obama. Why? Because very simply, what happens in America affects the entire world.

Every act you make now has global consequences. As Bill McKibben pointed out in his book Deep Economy, American demand for plastic shower curtains produced in China is helping to pull many Chinese young men and women out of poverty. While I might not encourage people to buy new plastic shower curtains from an environmental point of view, I cannot deny that shower curtain factories produce jobs for people who desperately need them. In The End of Poverty Jeffrey Sachs talks to some Bangladeshi women who work in sweatshops producing clothes destined, most likely, for America. Although their work environments are poor, still, the women are grateful for the work, and for the opportunities they see arising from their paid labor.

I've always been a little wary about the idea of buying locally simply because I feel it ignores this component. And when locavores don't ignore the component, such as Bill McKibben, they often seem left with no ready answer. McKibben points out that globalization has increased the prosperity of many Chinese people, and I give him credit for that. But he never resolves the issue for himself. How do we deal with the legitimate environmental concerns related to shipping products around the world, and yet still ensure better lives and more opportunity for those workers in Chinese factories? If we, as environmentalists are telling people not to buy cheap plastic goods produced in China due to the hidden negative externalities of cheap plastic, what is the engine that produces equality?

Because here's the thing. The surest way to get less cheap plastic crap on the market? Is to make that cheap plastic crap more expensive to produce. And a great way to make that cheap plastic crap more expensive is if labor becomes more expensive. That is, if people have more opportunities, and better job possibilities, then working in a shower curtain factory is suddenly not so appealing. Why are there almost zero shower curtain factories in the United States? Because people don't want those jobs. Because labor is expensive. Because most people living in America can find better work that pays MORE.

So right now our global corporations send those jobs abroad where labor is cheaper. Essentially, in my opinion, the answer isn't to boycott goods made in China, but to reduce inequality. Because, frankly, when the whole world is making say, between $15,000 and $20,000 a year? Those plastic shower curtains are going to become veeeery expensive to produce. Why don't people fix their DVD players when they break? Because it's cheaper to buy new. But those $10 DVD players, rampant consumerism, and a need to buy new, new, new are built on the backs of cheap labor. Once labor starts getting expensive, so do the DVD players.

But besides all that, here's the truth. Those Chinese workers in the factory? They are part of my community. They are human beings, and thus, my people. And they have as much right to their dreams as does the person who lives next door.

So what am I saying? Am I saying that we should all start buying produce from South Africa because it enhances South Africa economy, that we should all start buying plastic shower curtains by the dozen from China?

No. But what I'm saying, is we need to start framing things differently. Buy local food, by all means, but buy your sugar fair trade, and your chocolate fair or equitrade. And next time you're dying for a banana, then get yourself a damn banana, just get it fair trade. Buy goods at your local mom and pop green store, but if the shoes you buy happen to be ethically and sustainably produced in China, treat that as a WIN, as opposed to a loss. Take the money you save by forgoing the plastic shower curtain, and lend it to someone in the developing world at Kiva.org. And the next time you have to talk to IT support in India, instead of griping about how you can't understand the accent, take a moment to remember that these IT jobs have enormously benefitted India, have pulled thousands and thousands into the middle class, and that the environmental negatives for phone support are fairly small.

We must stop viewing the world in terms of us versus them. There's only us. Think global, act local, but remember it's all local. So by all means, buy products from your farmers' markets, support the seamstress who lives next door. But remember, that the choices we make directly impact people all over the world, and not just our neighborhood. Remember, we are all human beings. We are all entitled to dignity, to food, to health care, to work, to education. We are all entitled to dream big.

*This is my post for the November APLS carnival. There is STILL time to get your submissions in. Write your post about buying local and email it to aplscarnival (at) gmail (dot) com.*

Another Perspective On Clean Coal

The subject of clean coal has come up quite a bit recently, on a couple blogs that I love and respect.

I considered shutting up, because what I am about to say is certainly not going to make me popular, but keeping quiet is really not my style.

Ok, ready? Primed to send me hate mail? Okay, here it is:

I support clean coal.

I know, I know, HOW COULD I!! But let me explain.

Coal is cheaper, and more abundant in many parts of the world, than oil. And as oil supplies continue to be depleted, I believe, pragmatically, that there is no way in heck that you are going to get people to take coal entirely off the table. And that is why any president of the United States HAS to support clean coal. Can you imagine what would happen at a climate change summit, if our president announced he didn't support clean coal? I'll tell you what. India (10% of the world's coal reserves) and China (12% of the world's coal reserves) would walk out. They'd call us eco-imperialists, and could you blame them? Here we go, use up a huge amount of oil reserves, WAY WAY WAY MORE than our fair share, and when oil becomes super expensive, we turn to India and China, and say, "Oh, that vast natural resource of yours? Yeah, don't use that."

You could argue that you can win an election without West Virginia, but there ain't no way you're winning climate change without India and China. And since India and China aren't giving up coal, we have to deal with coal as a pragmatic reality.

So let me explain what I mean by clean coal. When I say I support clean coal, I mean, I support carbon capture and storage. Read the Wikipedia article for more detail, but basically CCS aims to sequester and store carbon, rather than release the carbon in the atmosphere. Now CCS isn't an immediately viable solution. But just because it isn't immediately viable, does not mean that the government shouldn't invest in CCS in the hopes of making it viable within the next 25-40 years. Put it this way: If we know that India and China are going to continue to use coal indefinitely, would you rather have a government that sticks its head under the sand all, "Lalala, I can't HEAR you!" or would you rather have a government that tries to find a pragmatic solution, and thus invests in the R&D that India and China can't afford?

Now is clean coal the only solution? Or even the primary solution? Of course not. Our primary solutions need to be wind, solar, hydro, and simple energy reduction. But given that leading climate scientists believe that the carbon concentration in the atmosphere has to be brought down to 350 ppm, we simply cannot take ANYTHING off the table. Joe Romm says it more eloquently than me:

That’s why I believe it is utterly immoral not to aggressively pursue the development of any plausible low-carbon or zero-carbon technology that has the potential for large scale (several hundred gigawatt) deployment. And serious analysis, like McKinsey’s, says that coal with CCS could be economical by 2030. Moreover, a CCS power plant that runs on coal blended with cellulosic biomass is one of the most plausible carbon-negative forms of electricity you can imagine. So we must pursue the development of coal with CCS, which is what Obama and Biden and virtually every other energy/climate policymaker and analyst mean when they use the term.

And that's why I support CCS or clean coal. Now, look, I am not denying that coal extraction is a terrible, awful business and Crunchy and Erin are right to call attention to it. I'm not super thrilled to be supporting coal, I have to admit. But to me, this isn't about what I like and don't like. This is about what is pragmatic, what is politically feasible, and what is perhaps physically necessary. Enviros are never going to get anywhere by bullying people (or two billion people, as the case may be) around, and imposing our moral code upon others. Moreover, if CCS ever does allow us to produce carbon-negative electricity-and I admit, that we're not close to there right now- but if CCS DOES produce carbon-negative electricity? Then perhaps the process of coal extraction would be justified.

For more information on CCS, read Joe Romm's excellent articles here and here.

Onwards and Upwards

Last week, I spent the week in the villages of India, in one of the poorest parts of the world, in fact. There's much to write about, but I need a little time to process I think. It was a fantastic week, but lord did I get tired of the cows everywhere!

Yesterday, I arrived in Delhi. Where there are thankfully fewer cows, and unfortunately infinitely more cars.

There is also a subway slowly being expanded, so perhaps next time I come to Delhi, I'll be able to ride it! And the auto-rickshaws proudly bear the label "CNG Fuel."

This has been an eye-opening trip. So much of India has changed in the past five years since I came last. Fancy, clean, air-conditioned stores have been erected all over the cities. Cell phones are ubiquitous in the cities and even the villages. Organic cotton baby clothes are sold in the department stores, and organic rice and tea are sold in stores catering to a more health-conscious public. Soda bottles, which used to be refillable glass bottles, are moving to plastic. And the washing machine, which I never really thought would take off in India due to cheap washer women, is now everywhere. (No dryers though. People still line-dry their clothes.)

India is poised to make many of the mistakes we in the first world have made. But it's not inevitable. Even now, Indians still tend to be more conservationist than most Westerners. Frequent power outages make Indians more concerned about electricity. Lights are shut when you leave the room, as are fans. Out of habit, most of my Indian relatives stick with the bucket baths instead of the showers. My cousin exclaimed, "I can't get used to these tissues they have at the office. I prefer my handkerchief."

All this could change easily. But if Indians are careful, they might be able to learn from our mistakes. They might be able to keep their cell phones and their handkerchiefs too.

A Bucket

What do you know? A bucket of water is all you need to wash yourself properly, shave, wash your hair, and then wash your underwear. When I think of the buckets and buckets of water that I use to shower, I'm a little amazed at the waste.

But I have to admit. I do miss showers terribly.

Traffic Sucks

I apologize for the lame post titles lately. I blame the jet lag and the dial up connection.



But traffic does indeed suck. Every time we step outside, my nerves end up rubbed raw by the horror that is Bombay traffic.



And as we drive, I keep wondering, have we brought the worst sides of industrialization to India, instead of the best?



Several months ago, Siddhartha Shome published a piece in Breakthrough regarding Tata's plan to start producing $2,500 cars. Shome supported the plan and suggested that Western environmentalists are hypocritical for extolling Priuses in the United States while chastising Tata for producing a cheap car that gets more miles to the gallon than the Prius.

At the time, I agreed with Shome. Who are Western environmentalists to get on their soap boxes and tell Indians that you shouldn't drive cars that are way more environmentally friendly than 99% of cars in the United States? Wouldn't it be great if Indians started driving more of these ecologically friendly Tata Nanos and gave up their 30-year old gas guzzling polluters?

But once in Bombay, I realized the truth. In India, a 30-year old gas guzzling polluter is never going to be sent to the scrap yard. It will be driven and driven and driven until it dies. Then it will be fixed and driven another 10 years until it dies again. At which point it will be fixed and driven until it literally disintegrates.

So the Tata Nano isn't a replacement for a vehicle already on the road. It's an additional car on the road. And there's the rub.

Because if this were just about the environment, I'd feel uncomfortable telling India, "You don't all get to have cars."

But this is not about the environment. This is about quality of life.

And the truth is, the quality of life is getting worse and worse with every new car that ends up on the roads. The traffic is so bad that merely going outside has become a giant headache.

Forget rush hour. Any hour of the day, the traffic is maddening.

Bombay doesn't need more cars. What it does need is a better public transit system. At present, the train system is a relic from the British Colonial days. And the trains are so crowded, that people are cramped together, and practically falling off the trains. It's so bad that my relatives refused to even take me on a train.

"Why isn't there a proper subway system?" I asked.

"Not enough money."

Of course.

The problem is, a lot of corporations stand to gain from putting more Indians behind the drivers seat. Residents of Bombay may lose out, but Ford, Tata, Honda, and Toyota all win. So there is a keen interest in foreign investment in cars for India.

By contrast, companies don't stand to gain by developing a public transit system. In fact, the better the public transit system, the more car companies lose out.

I think the solution must be, then, to find a way to semi-privatize the public transit system here in Bombay. Because the government doesn't have the money to improve things. If there is a way to create an incentive for corporations to invest their money in public transit, then the system will be updated. Without private investment, I'm not sure the system will ever be improved.

Even if that's not the solution, it's clear that something has to be done. And fast. And that more cars aren't going to make anyone happy. Except for the CEOs of Tata, Honda and the like.

On Being Affluent

Rich. Poor. Middle-class. Wealthy. Broke.

These words are relative terms. A rich person is defined as rich because he has more money than everyone else. Likewise, a poor person is considered poor if they have much less money than the average person. Without anything to compare to, the words are rendered meaningless.

In our celebrity-obsessed society, it is too easy, then, to watch TV, and think, well, my life isn't like Paris Hilton's so I must not be affluent. If I am poorer than Brad Pitt, then I must be poor.

It is too easy to look at what you DON'T have.

Today, I spent fifteen minutes gazing out the window at some children playing cricket in a narrow strip a few feet from the railroad tracks. While in America, your child might be part of a Little League team that boasts regular after school practices and games with coaches in proper parks, these children were playing on their own, in the dirt. Every so often, the ball would get hit onto the tracks, and a child would scramble onto the traps, pawing through the litter to find his ball. Meanwhile, I would stand at the window, hoping that the child would find the ball in plenty of time before another train came whizzing along.

And as I'm watching them play, I couldn't help wondering, why aren't these children in school? But, then again, I already knew the answer, didn't I?

This is the life of India's poor. Children who lack the opportunity to go to school playing cricket dangerously close to the railroad tracks.

And I'll tell you the truth. When I see these children, and others like them, I get angry. These are children that the world has failed. No child should be forced to beg for food. No child should have to sleep on the street inches away from crazy drivers . And no child should lack the opportunity to go to school. And yet, there are so many children still in this world who are lacking such basic needs.

So it frustrates me when middle-class Americans claim that they're not affluent. That they might own a home, that they have an education, that they've been to college, even, but that they're not affluent.

Because affluence is a relative term. And yes, if you're only comparing yourself to other Americans, you might be right.

But this is an increasingly global world. And we're not going to get anywhere if we only compare ourselves to the lucky denizens of a smattering of first world countries.

Instead, we must open our eyes to the way a majority of the world lives. We must look at these children of India living in the slums by the railroad tracks, not as an exotic species in a National Geographic magazine, but as our children. As our community.

Being in India, I am always reminded of how much I have. I might have only made the median income in California, but I am so much wealthier than my paper assets. I have a first class education, health care, independence, and countless opportunities. I was raised to believe that I could accomplish whatever I set out to achieve. If that's not affluence, I don't know what is.

It is beyond time for us to extend that dream to every child in every corner of the world. The child playing cricket is just as deserving of education and opportunity as a child growing up in Fremont, California or Pleasantville, New York.

We must fight to give all children something to reach for.

And that starts with recognizing what we have. What we were given.

Affluence.

*Get your posts in for the APLS Carnival by September 10th to be included in this month's carnival.

India

It's hard for me to express all my thoughts about this country, my motherland, in words. Especially when I'm on a dial up connection! But I'll give it a shot.

This is a weird country, yo.

Heh. Do you like how I started off with such depth and insight?

I'm here in Bombay during the celebration of the elephant god, Ganesh. During this time, giant forms of Ganesh are erected, and then they are taken to the ocean to be immersed in water.

This year, my aunt tells me, the Ganeshes have gone eco-friendly. Because previously the Ganeshes weren't melting properly in the water and they were causing problems, so this year, the Ganeshes are all made from soil and paper.

And so the Ganeshes go eco-friendly while meanwhile the traffic has reached new heights of unbearableness.

As I was walking down the streets, I saw a shop advertising organic rice. Now normally this would be a woo-hoo moment with me, but this time, my first thought was, "I wonder how much that rice COSTS! And who buys it? And who can afford it?!"

Is organic rice yet another new and trendy luxury of India's wealthy? While meanwhile the cost of food is rising and more and more people are having trouble feeding their family?

I last came here five years ago. In that time, India has changed tremendously. Everyone, from the business man to the taxi driver, seems to have a cell phone. New fancy shopping malls, apartment complexes, and five star hotels have been erected. The dilapidated stalls on the street now sell sim cards and blue tooth headsets.

And yet too much seems unchanged. Too many children still sleep on the street. Too many women must beg for money to support their family. Too many people go hungry.

And I can't help wonder, "Is this the best we can do?" Is the twenty-first century a time where we accept the rising economic disparity between the haves and the have-nots with nonchalance because, well what can you do?

I don't know what to do. But what I do know is that nonchalance is unacceptable. Because when you stop caring, you stop trying to make things better.

And things must get better in India. Because too many people are being left behind.