Pune Tree Watch

Participated in an education event last week-end as part of Pune Tree Watch. This rather young organisation is doing more at grassroots level than more older organisations... Since I believe that what is needed is a transformation in consciousness rather than just token steps, I do believe we were able to make a difference. Part of the message of-course was that of empowerment- that normal people without any political or money power can make a difference.

The stalls on M.G.Road in Pune were actually put up by the Pune Cantonment Board, who are rather interested in the cause. Oh- here is a picture of me during this event.

Want to join in ? you can join at http://www.punetreewatch.org OR the Yahoo! group at
punetreewatch@yahoogroups.com

Ants and men

The questions I ask here are questions I ask myself as much as I ask you - the reader.


How much different or meaningful is my life or anyones life from that of an ant or a grasshopper ? We are all born, eat, eliminate, breathe, breed and move on. Ants build anthills we build our skyscrapers. Neither is permanent, neither can exist without maintenance. For some reason,we choose to believe that our life is more meaningful- perhaps because we cannot really see their lives and perhaps because we live longer. That makes us inferior to a giant tortoise - those guys and gals can live up to nearly 200 years.

Over all though - may be also because we feel good at feeling better than another being.How much of that feeling of being better than another is part of our core self ? What we identify with as our core self ? Which comes first is it losing this part of the core self or identification with the universe ? All I know is that the toughest fight is this fight with yourself. The fight to end this need for identification with a false sense of superiority.

On this auspicious day- may the source of all auspiciousness lead us from darkness and pain to light and joy.

Om Namah Shivaya

Greening Greenpeace India-My struggle

My struggle with Greenpeace India is getting support from lot of people with similar interests- outside Greenpeace. The silence from Greenpeace India itself remains deafening. Members of other- more effective,voluntary, participative and activist organisations I am involved in are forwarding it to people they know in Greenpeace. Let us see how long GP I can actively ignore this. I am not a trouble maker. I am a troubled supporter.

Here is a copy of my letter to Greenpeace. This bounced- but I forwarded it to other GP India e-mail addresses- all to no avail..

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Dear Madam,
I just saw that you are an employee of Greenpeace India. I have been voicing concerns about the opaque functioning of Greenpeace and even more worrying for me the lack of opportunity to volunteer or information about any activities which Greenpeace India actually does.

I am surprised that as an employee of Greenpeace, you or any of your other colleagues have not bothered to address my concerns or even reply once. This is not only to my posts on the Orkut forum, but also to the e-mails I have sent. Not just that- when one of your volunteers personally attacked me on the forum, there was no response from GP India employees. Having worked for many customer facing, for profit organisations; I think this is fairly atypical behaviour.

The fact is that I have mailed you, posted on the forum etc because I am concerned, I care for the environment, for Greenpeace. The contribution I make every month( for a couple of years now) is my (small)investment in the future of the planet. I believe I can be more effective by investing my time and effort.

If you really- as an individual and as an organisation- care at all, I expect a coherent, relevant reply. Don't attack me and suggest that I am out to do you in. I don't have to pay money to you, and then do you in- it is not logical. So far I have not even got an acknowledgement that I have a legitimate concern.

I have also paid for this month. I will issue instructions to my bank and stop payment from Jan 1st in the absence of any reply/ decent, coherent, polite reply. You may have heard about the study which says a happy customer/stakeholder tells 5 people and an unhappy one tells 20 people. I am a stakeholder in this and if I tell others to stop paying as well, it will be as natural as anything. Nature has a way of eliminating inefficient processes, animals and parts of the anatomy. So if you choose not to listen to me, more people will just find out for themselves...

Just to reiterate my top concerns:

1. Greenpeace India does not seem to be doing much. For an organisation of this size what you do is insignificant. The only time you see volunteers is when they are out to ask for contributions.
2. There is no communication. Even when GPI does something, we read about it from the papers- we are only sent e-mails when you need more money.
3. There is little opportunity to volunteer- mailing people, mailing GPI, applying through web-site are all things which don't seem to have any use.
4. Smaller organisations are much more effective at the local level. GPI does not seem to be interested in any issue which does not give it lots of publicity, nor does it give its volunteers/contributors an opportunity to suggest new issues/actions which can be taken up. To be told this is done by some mysterious committee( as I was told on the forum) does not impress, but strikes one as being bureaucratic and not befitting an activist, voluntary organisation.

I am already forwarding this mail to my colleagues around the world who share similar, environmental concerns. I thought you should know- the movement- environmentalism - is bigger and stronger than Greenpeace India. I admired Greenpeace even as a child of 10- before it actually came to India. I am disappointed and saddened by the state it is in today.

Regards,

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Any Comments, suggestions ?- please let me know.

Green accounting

 If you have never heard this term before- remember you heard this here first :-). Green accounting is to help consumers and other decision makers make a decision based on true costs of any item. In other words, to buy a CFC refrigerator( for example) may be cheaper in cost terms than a non-CFC refrigerator. But the true cost of the CFC refrigerator takes into account the long term and incidental costs and hence would be much higher.

What today's consumer lacks is the ability to make an informed decision. In my own life- was it better to continue with my old A/c or buy a new one which is more energy efficient ? Remember- the energy efficiency does not take into account the energy needed to produce the new one- OR the life cycle cost- including the disposal/post disposal pollution etc.

Some decisions are simpler to make- I bought a more expensive mobile on my credit card, rather than purchasing a cheaper one in cash- to buy a more expensive one later- because 1 mobile is less polluting than 2.

The Kyoto protocol, for all its inadequacy, makes a first step towards adding the cost of some kinds of pollution through its carbon credit trading.

What do you think ? What specific actions/criteria do you consider to make a green purchasing decision ? I think it would be wonderful to bring out a booklet which can help make consumers make decisions.

You can post your suggestions here or mail me at shyam.srivatsa@gmail.com. Dont worry- I will give you credit for any idea you post- the cause is more important than individuals.

This blog post was first made by me on an IBM internal blog on 26th december 2006