In California, it's hip to talk about clean fuel and recycling. Driving a Prius is "in". People who litter can expect dirty looks along with steep fines. We're all about the environment.
Given that I've lived my whole life in such a setting, I did not expect to come to India and feel like this country is a step ahead of the US in terms of converting to eco-friendly fuel. Almost all buses, and many other vehicles, sport the CNG logo, indicating that they run on certified natural gas. As I mentioned on my entry a couple weeks ago on Sawai Madhopur (tiger land), many village homes get their fule from biodigesters and similar methods-much more environmentally sound than what we have in the US. Remember how the Prakratik Society urges villagers to plant trees to offset wood-burning? Do we have that kind of accountability? What's the deal?
The deal is, environmentally, India might actually have an advantage over the US and countries like it. It's easier to go from having no buses at all (in some areas of India) to CNG buses. It's way more efficient to install biodigesters in villages that had not previous power source, rather than tear up old infrastructure and install new, incompatible systems.
So in the developed countries, or at least in most parts of them, our modern way of thinking-green is cool-still needs to be translated into action. Fewer SUVs. More public transportation. Cleaner burning fuel and more hybrid vehicles. More planting of trees and smaller carbon footprints for each transnational corporation, factory, family, and individual.
It's a tall order. Buses crammed with 100+ people may fly here in India, but people in the US don't want to deal with public transportation if they can afford not to (and most can). It's tough to go backwards, socioeconomically, once you've had the luxury of your own personal vehicle (and a sports utility one at that), your own power source, your own unlimited resources so long as you can foot the bill.
Not that India doesn't have its own hands full, environment wise. Pollution here is horrible. The rising middle class is suddenly able to afford cars, which is reflected in increased smog, toxic air (and rampant respiratory diseases), and unfailingly clogged, chaotic roads. But all I'm saying is that India is taking practical steps forward. Maybe it's not enough, maybe it's just a drop in the ocean, but it's a tangible effort.
Developed countries may be able to get away with doing nothing. They have lower population sizes, the ability to afford carbon credits, if they are ever implemented, and the ability to pay for skyrocketing fuel prices. It's even been said that global warming won't hit the richer countries so hard as the poor ones. Even if countries start to convert to biofuel, poor countries will face disadvantages because precious land (thousands and thousands of hectares in one state of India alone, as specified by Indian Oil) will be converted from food crop use to fuel crop use. Creative solutions, like using only crops that can be used for both food and fuel (ie corn, sugar cane) may need to be implemented. Even more complex is the fact that crop prices have already started to rise in response to the growing demand for biofuel raw materials. This will have negative consequences in countries dealing with suffering subsistence farmers and rising national food insecurity.
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Your thoughts echo precisely what Thomas Malthus was saying back in the industrial revolution. You are well-read, my friend, so I won't debase your intelligence with a recap . . . no wait, I can't resist . . . he states that our consumption will increase geometrically, while our resources will only increase arithmetically, so a natural outstripping will occur . . . ok, pretty obvious. But he then goes on to use this argument to counter any efforts for charity, since raising the lot of the poor, and providing them the economic clout to consume and dispose as we do, would outstrip the earth at such an exponential rate, that in fact it would be self-defeating, a true threat to our hallowed middle class existence. So we should keep our lead-laden (or oil-laden, whatever) foot on their heads to protect our lot. I read this in 9th grade, and 12 years later, I am still grappling with this . . .
I have always thought that real progress happens in the funny dance of two steps forward, one step back. I completely concur, that this step backwards will be difficult for the first-world, over-fed, well-indulged society that we inhabit, almost prohibitively so, it seems. Charity is not true charity unless self-sacrifice is in the picture. I don't think you can truly help someone until there is some cost to yourself . . . what we're willing to give up for a greener planet is a question no one is willing to answer.
Very insightfull and interesting -- you know, I suspect another advantage in India is that not only are they starting from scratch and thus bypassing issues surrounding existing infrastucture (like here in the US), but perhaps they are bypassing some of the difficulties surrounding pre-existing political/economic interest groups.
I imagine it's alot easier to introduce clean energy technologies when they don't represent a cut into exist power companies' profits....
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