Can someone help me to undersand ......

There are many things that I don't understand in spite of my best efforts...here are two such examples.
Yesterday I was in a seminar on Green Production and Consumption. One of the speakers questioned the "greenness" of giving plants in plastics pots as mementos....his contention was that the plants ought to have been given in fired-clay (terracota ??) pots rather than in plastics, as plastics are injurious to environment. I am tired of such arguments, not based on any LCA...the plastic in question is recyclable and its life as a pot is quite long (at least 5 years), whereas the fired-clay pot had consumed quite a lot of energy in terms of the firing process, obviously letting out quite a lot of gaseous emissions in the open and has a short life, say about two years/three years. It can also break in case of impact or stress. It appears that the life-cycle environmental impact of the fired-clay pot is much higher than the plastics pot. People say that plastics are not biodegaradable; so are the mud pots, fired-mud pots etc. Children are taught that plastics are not good for environment....can anyone live in this world without plastics now? Everything from the umbrella you hold over your head to the sole of your shoe is made of plastics. I am not able to understand this mindless campaign against plastics, which is often carried out by "uneducated" activists.
Another thing I cannot understand with my best efforts is the greenness of the battery powered car. Common sense tells me that the direct use of primary energy souce (e.g. petrol) leads to high efficiency; instead of petrol if I use a battery, it means that I use a secondary energy, i.e. electricity, store it and then use it for running the car..how can this be an efficient car ? If one considers the transmission and distribution losses (which are very high in countries like India, to the extent of about 40 %) of electricity, I cannot imagine how a battery powered car is considered a green car (if the battery is a lead-acid battery, then issues of lead weigh against the car being called green)..Of course if the battery is charged by solar or wind power, the car indeed can be considered as green. I would be happy to learn from anyone the argument for battery powered car as a green car.

The Skeptical Environmentalist.....

This is a copy of my post in Elsmar Cove Blogs today (21 June 2008).

The Skeptical Environmentalist....
Posted 21st June 2008 at 01:57 AM by Dr. L. Ramakrishnan

At last I could finish studying "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg. My first reaction to this book - "amazing".

Throghout the "reading" of the book, I felt that some of my experiences as a Research Scientist (methods, selective use of data, discussions, conclusions etc.) are being confirmed again and again and Prof. Lomborg has done a great job bringing these out without being rude and crude. His thesis is simple: "Environental issues do exist; many times the (potential) effects of these issues get exaggerated. Our resources to address global issues are limited. We have to prioritize the spending of resources based on the short term and long term benefits to the world". For example, you decide if you would like to save a Polar bear by spending billions of dollars on Climate Change research or save 100s of polar bears by simply banning hunting of Polar bears. Or would you spend trillions of dollars on reducing GHG emissions to reduced global warming by a fraction of a degree in fifty years or spend a few million dollars in conducting research on solar cells to make them economically attractive so that they can eventually replace the carbon based energy solutions. Prof. Lomborg's analysis is "fantastic" to say the least.

I have been an "environmentalist" for more than twenty two years; I often thought of some of the claims of my colleagues as "dogmatic". Now I have someone who, through scientific analysis of data, proves that my thoughts were valid. I think Prof. Lomborg provides us a way of balancing our concern for real issues with those emotionally loaded rhetorics.

What are, then, the real issues ? I would refer you to Prof. Lomborg's "Copenhagen Consensus", identifying top ten priority issues that the world has to address (http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Default.aspx?ID=788).

I am quite happy to see someone thinking differently, not joining the popular bandwagon; "thinking differently" is Environmental Management about. While praising the effort of Prof. Lomborg, we cannot forget thousands who struggled to bring "environment" to the discussion table and the world agenda.

Finally what is the effect of "Skeptical Environmentalist" on me; I am now an "informed" environmentalist...hope I am right!!!

Options ....

Today I had a lot of time...free time.... and started again on one of my pet themes....what to do after retirment.... two things that deserve to be discussed through this blog are (a) Senior Citizen Apartment and (b) Reverse Mortgage.

I have been toying with the idea of shifting to a Senior Citizen Apartment after retirement; I have seen the information on "Classic Kudumbam" near Chennai. This appears to be an interesting proposition. You pay about Rs.10 lakhs for a Studio Apartment and a monthly amount of Rs.5600 (with escalation clause) for food and other expenses per person (i.e. Rs.11200 for Sheila and me)..... we then need not worry about servant maid.... security... driver...grocery.... vegetables etc. We can live relaxed... in a timeframe suitbale for us... We may have some extra expenditure for medicine, hospital, transport, electricity, clothing and other personal expenses....we can manage them admirably with the savings we have.... I thougt that it is a good option, given the headache I have with the Society affairs. Such facilities are available in Pune too (Golden Nest... of Vascon and Athashree by Paranjape Builders)... I think we should look at these options seriously... especially if we decide to stay at our home only for a few months in a year. The reviews about Classic Kudumbam are great. LIC Housing Finance is coming out with a scheme is Pune for Senior Citizens through their LIC Care Homes.... they already have a scheme operating in Bangaluru... another option to see. What it means is that we can live happily with about Rs.15000 per month, if we invest about Rs.1000000 now..... I love this option.

Chandra spoke to me about the Reverse Mortgage last week... that Mani is thinking of taking Reverse Mortgage for the house, 76, Venkatesa Nagar. I think it is a good option.... this allows the owner of a flat or a house to mortgage the property with a financial institution (like PNB) and get either a bulk amount or monthly payments regularly till the death of the person and his/her spouse. That means the family occupies the flat/house till their death; they also get money based on the value of the house till their death....the amount being revisited at intervels to adjust to the new value of the property (i.e. there is an inflation correction to the amount received). I think this process can give enough money to have a comfortable life... enough to pay for the Society, car, driver etc. Why not try this? This is available only for Senior Citizens. Let me wait and watch.

I think the time has come to decide on such things as security in the future... and the above trigger off further discussion.

What is your view on the above ?

Blogs for MBAs and future MBAs

Maya complained that I have not been blogging for sometime; but I had shown her my new blogs in the Elsmar Cove site. My blogs are bores ...I have some blogs for MBAs and would be MBAs....Look at these:
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/index_dl.php
I look forward to your comments... also see if you can locate my posting in the green areas (http://hbrgreen.org/?cm_mmc=npv-_-sitead-_-JAN-2008-_-hbrgreen).
Love
Appa