Author Archives: Rajiv Kapoor

About Rajiv Kapoor

Rajiv Kapoor was born in New Delhi. He was educated by the Jesuits at St Xavier’s, and graduated with Honors, from The University of Delhi. Rajiv Kapoor did his MBA in International Business from Penn State and is now settled in the US. He has traveled across most states of India, when he was working on modernization of Rice Mills, and understands their diverse culture and history. This book is a historical fiction, dedicated to his city of birth. His extensive research dives deep into a critical moment, in India’s long history, for his latest Historical Thriller “The Peacock Throne Wars”..

Corral beauty

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corral-j-pollock

Bluegreen Damsel fish at the Great Barrier Reef by F. Joseph Pollock a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State

The oceans are facing death as they warm up. The above award winning photo taken recently may not be true anymore. The warming of the ocean may have caused bleaching of the corral and the reef may be dying, and our scholar just has not been back, to this site to photograph, a potentially, still, white, dead, corral. There may be a plastic islands the size of our city, floating around on the Pacific. We dump enough refuge out to sea, which it finds its way killing or threatening, all kinds of life forms, in the ocean. Man has polluted these natural habitats and caused global warming and we have to improve, or we will kill our own world. Our grandchildren deserve to have the opportunity to see natural wonders like the Great Barrier Reef, and we should take appropriate action. While we still live.

Good and bad news

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productivity

The good news is that the US Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced across the economy, expanded at an inflation- and seasonally adjusted 2.9% annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. It is good that our economy is growing and credit goes to President Obama who brought us back from the brink of the Great Recession, into continued growth in employment and exports. Energy rich America is looking a lot stronger, and can afford to spend more on its infrastructure, to provide even more investments and employment.

The bad news is that Hillary Clinton’s supporters expect her to carry on progressive policies, for the US economy and trade.  She will push Federal policy makers to bring their long-term fiscal house in order, invest in infrastructure, and enact policies that make America a great place to do business. Hillary, May and Angela will make the new alliances, post Brexit and TPP. We can hope to return to a time, where higher productivity will also raise median incomes, and average salaries will rise higher. We could raise the living standards of the middle class tremendously, by just increasing hourly compensation, and steadily increasing productivity. In fact wages should grow faster than inflation for quite some time, as the economy continues to expand, driven by cheap energy.

We need to spend money to create an educated population, pools of skilled labor, have strong investments in infrastructure, and greatly increase basic R&D. To lead the emerging innovation economy, we need massive amounts of clean energy, computing power and technology. In the SMAC revolution, massive investments need to be made, and trillions to be gained from the new economy. Productivity as I describe it, is the art of making something out of nothing. It makes the middle class and the rich richer, while lifting up the poor. Electric cars, green energy, smart cities, eco living will all transform our future, at a faster rate than in recent years.

 

The relative stagnation in hourly compensation since the time of Carter is due to the new progressives, who took over from the greatest generation of leaders. American inequality has gone through the roof, in these years as the rich have just gotten richer. The top 1 % earned most of the income and the bottom 50% made a pittance in comparison. Wealth inequality grew tremendously in the past decades. Wide spread poverty in Asia, Africa and the Middle East is talked about, but the hidden poverty in America is growing. There are more people falling through the safety net, as the economy progresses and there is a resentment, that things are not as good as they appear. Clinton can reverse the “WELFARE STATE FOR THE 1%, by ending welfare for the poor, attitude,” which her husband glorified. Instead she has to spread the safety net, and start a virtuous self-sustaining period of rapid productivity and wage growth. The aim is more and better employment, and the solution is Infrastructure and alternate energy spending from the Government. The Private Sector will also expand on the back of a growing middle class as less income equality, means more demand for goods and services.

Business and government must combine their efforts to take steps to build a skilled workforce, ready to do tomorrow’s jobs. Massive R & D will, upgrade local suppliers, foster innovation and reinforce education. The productivity gains enable firms in the U.S. to win in the global market place, while also help in creating jobs, which lift living standards. The government and business need to work hand in hand, to more equitably distribute the fruits of productivity. We need to return to the policies which encouraged a more evenly distributed income, as seen in the chart from 1948 to 1973. Median wages and productivity rose together, to make the great middle class of US consumers, who in turn drive our economy forward.  In 2017 we will have a new president, a new vision and a growing GDP.

Happy Diwali and wishing a very prosperous and healthy year ahead, to everyone!

King of birds

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King vulture

Photograph: Olaf Oliviero Riemer of a king vulture found in SA.

When I saw this vulture I saw nature in new colors, as it is truly a wonder of evolution. Life exists in so many different hues and shades, that I am constantly amazed, at all the sight of such creatures, in our universe. Each of us satisfies some need of nature, and just as we have discovered, in the return of the wolves in Yellowstone, that even predators like vultures, play a key role in evolution. Each of us has certain characteristics and natural traits, sense organs, and cognitive capabilities, endowed by nature. We each use our sense organs, for our personal gain, and yet through nature’s laws somehow, achieve harmony on earth.  The lioness is on the hunt, and few will stand between it and its goal, yet the wildebeest flourish. The vulture will feast this week again, as he has done from time immemorial, on the carrions that nature provides. I throw open my gates, and let the king of birds in, and he feasts to his delight. I awake to a flight of nothingness, yet strangely satiated, and soar on the wings of the vulture, into the high heavens..

It Ain’t me babe

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Dylan is seated, singing and playing guitar. Seated to his right is a woman gazing upwards and singing with him.

“I’m not the one you want, babe/I’m not the one you need.” Sang the bard of our generation, and I fell into a swoon, as suddenly it meant saying goodbye to all meaningful relationships, by walking away from the window. The window of opportunity is to find our very soul, to above all be oneself, as this journey is, to first find oneself. Bob gave up writing for us people, a long time ago, and withdrew into his own, personal existence and wrote what he wanted. In the meantime, I grew old and find that the times, they are a-changing, and it is time once again to sing Lay Lady Lay, to one’s beloved.  Life became a ride on a magic carpet, following a Tambourine man, who played our song, and in the jingle jangle morning, was our only friend. From their it progressed into years of work, for a living and survival, and one forgot the rainy day woman.

52 years after Sartre’s refusal the Swedish Academy has awarded the prize to a man, who has done one better, by refusing to acknowledge their prize or their existence. One member of the Academy has called Mr. Dylan’s behavior “impolite and arrogant.” I guess that Bob has been called considerably worse, during his long and productive career. He single handed seemed to understand the soul of folk, and American music instinctively, and wrote for our generation. There has not been a more important songwriter, and I believe he influenced me even more, than Lennon and McCarthy.

“You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free,” Robert said many years ago and it is true, and I had done the same many years earlier too. He sang “Like a rolling stone” in 1965 (the original hand written words sold for $ 2 M at an auction), and he refused to go to Woodstock in 1969, even though he was close. In a tribute Salman Rushdie tweeted: “From Orpheus to Faiz, song & poetry have been closely linked. Dylan is the brilliant inheritor of the bardic tradition. Great choice.” I tend to agree that if anyone, sang the songs of my youth; and understood our views, on war, power, money, government, love or life, it was definitely Bob. In honoring him we honor the music that changed the world, in the gravely voice, that sang the words, that changed our hearts and minds.The Swedish Academy has honored a man and a poetic myth of our times

Rich land, poor leaders

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The IT industry is India’s largest organized employer, home to some 3.8 million workers. Problems of low margins in the completely commoditized, so-called enterprise applications development and maintenance business, is not good for growth. They have to re skill their labor, and not get trapped in a shrinking pie of production system’s maintenance. Their great hope is the opening up of our world, to trade and international commerce with a backbone of technology services. When information flows freely, then commercial interests flourish. With the backlash of nationalism, as in Brexit, or some of the current US rhetorics, the companies face an uncertain future. Some will remain body shoppers, using labor arbitrage as their main strength, while only a few will take up the tough challenges and opportunities, which come with a changing landscape. Technology is going to transform our lives in this century. Our future will provide opportunities, for the brave who invest in a new vision, through determination and effort.

Meanwhile in the burgeoning youth population of India, IT jobs are required for a 100 million workers in this century, to satisfy the needs of a growing generation. The current Indian IT companies will have to transform themselves, in the SMAC world; as technology becomes available, to ordinary people. Billions of people need digital communication for news, banking, healthcare, education, social media and everything that modernization and the Internet of Things will bring. The companies have a source of major anxiety in India’s engineering colleges, many of which churn out vast numbers of semi-employable graduates. We have a glut of young, half educated men and women, ready for on the job training, while the developed world has a shrinking youth. This is at a time when IT hiring is going flat and many companies are downsizing, due to the remnants of the Great Recession. Investment is STEM education is the best investment, instead of more fighter planes and war machines.

The challenge is, will India take its education responsibility seriously, and invest in its future to improve the quality of its graduates. Huge investments in Research and Development need to be spent, at its numerous universities, to bring them up to world standards. The University Grants Commission is a spent force, with no leadership or transforming vision of 2020, or the century that is upon us. Precious little has been achieved in the large public sector universities, and most of the development has come from individual entrepreneurs or organizations, who have opened private colleges. The investments in education, pays off many times over, in the life of its graduates, as they become more productive and economically better off. Women and men need the opportunity to become their best in science and engineering, to find economic opportunity to join the middle class. To waste this opportunity, India will become another Pakistan with their war mongering, as its youth is ill educated and largely unemployable in the new skill industries. Their war should not be outside their borders, but they must make the tough choices within, to employ their resource to improve, and provide better life skills to its vast multitudes.

We may find ourselves fighting the wrong war soon, if saner heads don’t prevail. All resources belong to the people, and should only be used by them, for their own betterment. Too long has an army corps been over invested in Jihad and Mujahideen and now needs to fade away, as its glory days are gone? The time of the people has come, and democracy and the people’s business has shifted to development of education, health, finance, smart cities and logistics. Billions will be invested to improve the lives of millions in its rural and economically backward populations. This opportunity is now and the politicians on both sides of the border should realize that a better future awaits, if they do the right things, it can well become a South Asian century. They must work together to increase their productivity and economy, as the Indo Gangetic plain remains a rich land, with poor leaders. Our succeeding generations deserve a better future.

Know your Atman

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Above all else we are temporal and spatial beings, meaning that we live in a time and a space. All our perceptions of the world around us are based on this time and space, at this moment. All things that we see in this time and space, have their own reality, and we perceive them through our sense organs. We are also intuitive beings, and perceive things around us; as if they have an existence, beyond current space and time. We can only know about the things around us, based on our intuitive ability. The more we grow our intuitive ability, to see our space and time relationships, by moving beyond them, into a new reality. The more we will learn about the world around us. First we must come to know our own Atman, before we can grow our intuitive knowledge through Om.

Copernicus forever changed our perceptions about the planets and the space around us. ‘Copernicus revolutionized astronomy by taking the position of the observer into account.’ From then onwards we noticed the movement of the stars, in relation to the viewer’s perception. Our whole universe changed, as we gazed at the heavens, as space slowly emerged; as eternal and endless, as our knowledge grew. Time also is eternal, and we are fooled into thinking, that Time and Space are our only reality. In fact they too, like the stars above, are transcendental, and we have to seek knowledge beyond them. The things we observe are independent of them, and in fact we are in a world of ‘Maya’, or a not properly perceived transitory world. As the knower is not knowledgeable, he\she cannot understand all that he\she is experiencing, at a given place\time. As we cannot know completely, until all our capabilities are enhanced, the knower limits his knowledge, based on his intuitive capability and reason. Our attachment to this gross world, limits our world of reason and knowledge and we stray from our Atman.

The growth in this consciousness is required for mankind to prosper. We have pondered on these questions for millennia in India, and the Upanishads and the scriptures of ancient Hinduism paint a far different reality. Thousands of year’s ago the students sat at their master’s feet, and explored the meaning of our existence. Human existence is unique and the quest for our reality in a dream\sleep\awake state troubled the sages greatly. We exist in a fourth state (atman) they realized, and it is this conscious being, who is observing the one, in the dream\sleep\awake state. We have to grow our consciousness to improve our intuitive understanding of reality. Reason and knowledge point to a knower who is evolving into a conscious being, and therein lies our future. We have to learn to learn again, and become that knower (atman), who transcends the past, present and future (Om). .

It is only when objects around us become part of our knowledge, that existence happens. Only when we are conscious, does consciousness and reality exist, in its base form. Yet we are limited in this existence, as we know so little, and we all share so much hope, for us to grow. Humanity has built a great need, for knowing more about our existence. Our reality is questioned and we still must maintain our hope, in our future, if we are rational beings. Idealists also use time to their advantage, saying things will get better over time. We can enjoy the present and live life to its fullest, as all constraints have been removed. We are free to become a knower, and be happy, and seek Nirvana. The fourth state (atman) is neither born or dies, and it is neither the dream nor the reality, nor the deep sleep. We are all that, and these objects we see, are not real. When we come to know that reality, we are already transcended beyond it.. Awaking all our intuition is why we have this life, and those who rise from its shadows become the knower (brahman). Live now and be aware of our universe and existence (atman), and we will become free to explore beyond our temporal and spatial world (brahman).

We are told [in Mandukya Upanishad] how, “the syllable Om is verily all that exists. Under it is included all the past, the present and the future, as well as that which transcends time. Verily all this is Brahman. The Atman is Brahman. This Atman is four-footed. The first foot is the Vaisvanara, who enjoys gross things, in the state of wakefulness. The second foot is the Taijasa, who enjoys exquisite things in the state of dream. The third is the Prajna who enjoys bliss in the state of deep sleep. The fourth is Atman, who is alone without a second, calm, holy and tranquil”. R D Ranade

Poverty rate is falling?

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We bid farewell to Obama with the happy news that 3.5 million Americans from every demographic group benefited from a stronger economy, and an expanding job market in 2015. Poverty levels is a State phenomenon and Mississippi leads with 22% living below the poverty line, followed by some more red states with Trump supporters. Tiny NH has the lowest rate of 8.2% and the worse states are still in their teens, despite the growth of the last seven years in employment. Income inequality is not only an economic problem, but it is also a social and political problem. America has to grow its way out of its problems and for that it needs good policies and budgets. The middle class should grow to lift more people out of poverty, in the new welfare state (post the first Clinton as a lot of the safety net is gone).

Blacks and Hispanics who account for more than 45 percent of those below the poverty line of $24,300 for a family of four in most states — experienced the largest improvement in 2015. Unfortunately over 24% Blacks still live below the official poverty line and over 21% for Hispanics and while it is a low of 9.1% for whites, they have benefited greatly last year from the reduction in poverty; due to economic development, and low gas prices. About 43 million Americans, more than 14 million of them children, are still officially classified as poor and have no safety net in the richest nation on earth.

2.9 million more jobs were created from 2014 to 2015, helping millions of unemployed people cross over into the ranks of regular wage earners. Millions worry about their family’s financial security on a daily basis providing support to such candidates as Donald Trump. If Republican policies are so much better than the democrats then Mr. Trump will lead the Red states finally out of their poverty, in his speeches. I fear in reality, he will perpetuate the disaster of future inequality, with his policies and actions like lower taxes for the wealthy.

The benefits of the growing economy finally translates to higher income and jobs for the High School dropouts, High Schoolers and part college lowest rungs amongst wage earners are finally seeing change. The new jobs being created are helping the poorest and millions more have Healthcare under the new Accountable Care act, for the first time in their life. Majority of these benefits have gone to lift old people and young under 18 across the country out of dire poverty. We have to continue to make progress in helping these working poor, to live an honorable life. We are on the right track and everyone deserves their dignity..

Grown up debate

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Image result for election cartoons 2016

On Monday we will hear the candidates for the Republican and Democratic parties face off in a critical debate. The country is ready for a Macho billionaire TV star personality, as he takes on the ex Senator from NY and the Secretary of State of the opposing party, in a head to head, eye to eye confrontation. Millions supporting each candidate will tune in and each one will have their own perception, of what they will see and hear coming out from the idiot tube. Expectations are high that these debates could be the turning point in this election, on who will be the next leader of the free world. There is a chasm of division between the two party favorites in ideology, policy, administrative capabilities, beliefs and perception. The wonder of it all is, that each of these viewers will hear or see, what he likes about his\her candidate, and ignore the other arguments. It are the undecided voters who are the prize outcome for each party, and as their messages are so different, we will have very different results.

We have a set of viewers who see a nationalist, strong, defender of white Christian values, who will Make America Great again. The young boy who was sent off to an academy and the treatment he received there, made him forever a fighter in his own right. Discipline was thrust on a young Donald as he was sent away from his protective mother, to the school where he was on his own. His privileged upbringing in one of the most lucrative real estate markets in our world of New York City, have made him a billionaire. Having gone through multiple bankruptcies of his Casino Empire in Atlantic City he has ridden the revival of NYC, into a thriving licensing business worldwide.  From Fifth Avenue he has reestablished his reputation, and now has turned his desire for supremacy, into a bid for the presidency of the United States. He has demolished his many opponents in the previous debates and is now ready to crush, the opposition candidate in a winner takes all during the upcoming debates.

Madame Secretary to us mere mortals has tweeted that “Girls” will rule the world. Western civilization is going to have Clinton, May, Merkel leading the top European powers and facing up to the Middle East, China and Russia. America’s leading trade partners Canada and Mexico are worried about continuing our mutually beneficial NAFTA relationships. Angela has already been leading Germany and Europe through some tough times and keeping the economy and social justice growing. If Hillary becomes the first female President, she will have strong confident women to reach out to, across the ocean. Her deep knowledge of policy, global conditions and established relationships with world leaders, will serve her well, in getting the new administration quickly up to speed.

For the bulk of the dissatisfied white men seeking economic and racial security, Mr. Trump offers a vision of a different world, where their America will rule supreme again. He will use the words and the gestures that they understand, and they will cheer him on. For the young millennials with Bernie out and Obama leaving, a new leader is hard to find and which way they go, is uncertain. If they become disenchanted with politics and withdraw and if the blacks and other minorities do not come out to vote, then Trump will be our next president. It is getting harder for Hillary to raise the enthusiasm levels in her larger base, and get the excitement flowing, which will drive the ordinary people to come out in droves, and vote for her.

The fate of the senate and the house depends on the wow factor. How well do these two candidates wow their audience and what tone will the debates take. If either of them can make the common people engaged to come out to vote, it will change the composition of congress. Republicans are pouring money into the Senate and Congress races to keep their majority. Democrats do not have their best candidate and are struggling to get a simple message across, which will cause millions to vote for them, in difficult races. The house is divided and it should change to become more efficient, but this election sadly has no such leader, who can bring it all together. We are in for Partisan policies and Gerry meandering will carry the day in the end, as seats secured by years of careful redistricting, will yield the desired but stagnant results.

The economic and political leadership of the rest of the world look up at America, as a beacon of hope for better things to come in the future. Unfortunately neither candidate has a visionary approach to the economy, or to social change. One is expected to largely carry on the current policies and bring on more of the same, leading to stability and steady but underwhelming growth. The other is an unknown and more rhetoric, than capability of actual implementation. So one will competently implement progressive policies, while the other will bombastically issue dictates, which others will have to struggle to meet. Either way we are in for a ride, as there is an element of surprise in either house, as we know the Presidency changes the one who enters the White House. America will continue to prosper and its people will develop new models for future happiness.

Our best hope is that we have a clear winner. That way the populace can decide who they will get, and start the adjustment process of being governed by their chosen leader. Good bad or ugly, this is our choice at the end of the day. Life is complicated enough, that we need some time to ensure, we are progressing towards a better tomorrow. Each candidate has his\her faults and strengths and there are more grey areas, than black and white, in politics. Our pursuit of happiness lies in how we traverse these grey areas. Are we more inclusive, individualistic, freedom loving, compassionate and caring towards others that are less fortunate than us, will be the defining goals? We live in an abundant universe and can we continue to reach for the stars, or will be bound down by the stripes to go down a lesser road?   Our fate hangs by a thread in these debates, and we must engage to demand a better future, or become permanent second class citizens of tomorrow.

My only question to Mr. Trump is “Would the boy you were be proud of the man you are?” -Laurence J. Peter, educator and author (16 Sep 1919-1990)

Last photo shoot

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Last picture shoot

Came across this photo of the Beatles during a random search and realized what a great journey their life must have been, up to that point in their lives. They had seen so much together and experienced so much success and celebration, by this time in their lives. An end of an era was coming and all our lives were changed, by this group of musicians, in some way or form. They wrote and sang the anthems of a global generation and their poetry and music lives on in our memories and hearts. John, Paul, George and Ringo lived our dreams for us and sang our words and played our music, and many moments of our lives were lived, listening to them on the radio, in our homes or with friends in public venues celebrating life.

Even today my internet password is a song from them and the ultimate tribute I paid was when I danced the father daughter dance at my daughter’s wedding, to the Beatles singing “In my life,” and I have loved her and them more.  It was a magical time when the British invasion was successful in the US and a culture of Rock and Roll, Blues and Jazz all came together into a new era of love and peace. We the fans loved them and hated their lifestyle and wondered how happy they must be in their success, and wondered why our lives were so ordinary. They inspired us to find our own dreams of love and happiness. Drugs, counter culture, revolution, peace , love, compassion, charity became new symbols that we proudly carried into our hearts and homes. There are so many details of our lives being intertwined with theirs, that I could write a book but will restrain myself.

Their albums were legendary and I listened and learnt from each one of them, and they became the tunes and words that made me happy, or made me cry. I strove with them for their desires, and lived my life with their morals. In a world of few heroes they represented a new breed of ordinary guys, who were capable of attaining the greatest heights. Knighted they stood tall in their love of life, and we learned much from them, on how to live it ourselves. We left our homes and entered a new world and in our moments of despair they consoled us, or cudgeled us into the next step. I see them in this photo as the fools on the hill, who saw the world turn around. My world still turns around with them, when I am down, I reach out to Alexa and ask her to play…

Butterfly wings and Louisiana

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Fig 1: Global map
NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies shows anomalies in current temperature data from our historical data, and if you are feeling hot under your collar, it is truly the hottest July in history. We have also just gone through the hottest months of Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun for any living human being. 2016 is shaping up to be the hottest year on record, since we started recording world temperatures. So I did a little more research and discovered that as a corollary to rise in our temperatures, many other effects take place. One of them states that for a one degree rise in atmospheric temperature, our skies are able to retain 7% more moisture.
Since atmospheric temperature does not vary much over decades, we have had steady seasonal patterns. Now I would say that all bets are off, as increase of 1 to 2 degrees would make a quantum jump, in the power of future storms, that deviate from normal rain patterns. We are about to learn the true meaning of the term “when it rains, it pours,” as witnessed in almost a half meter of rain; in Louisiana recently over a week, which is more than the annual rain of most of tropical India. Flood prone areas are likely to get more floods as a result. Mass destruction and storm surges will happen, as water can be very destructive, just like any of nature’s great forces, when unleashed on an unprecedented scale.
The effect of the polar ice melting, compounded by the lack of huge mass of snow cover means less reflection of the sun’s rays back into space, causing even more warming in a vicious cycle. The addition of huge amounts of fresh water will dilute the salty oceans leading to unintended consequences. Majority of our earth is the oceans, and when unchecked the rise in water temperatures or fall in them, will have dramatic consequences to our weather systems. The rise in oceans will cause the drowning of many low lying nations amongst other things.
The many raging forest fires will get worse as weather patterns change, and huge forest swaths become dry tinder, ready to burn at the first lightning strike. We are seeing the burning fires in California and will see these in other areas, if weather pattern become erratic due to the rise in world temperatures. Also as waterways dry up due to lower snowfall and rain, agriculture and human survival will become increasingly at stake. We need nature to grow our food and sustain us in its natural cycles, and if we disrupt them our food supplies will dwindle, and the differences between the have and have nots will become stark. The rich will need giant tankers to ferry their drinking water, much like they ferry oil today, as fresh water sources dry up, in the megacities of the future.
So next time when you are out with your loved one, be careful and do not call her or him hot, as he may be sweating from this heat already, and not be in an amorous mood. My advise is to be and act cool instead.Will we be confined to artificial domes of air conditioned metros, and the world as we know it, become a dream? Double and triple rainbows will start to appear on our rainy horizon, and the rivers and streams will become torrents of flows in some areas, and dry up in others. The flora and fauna will change, as evolution will kick in, and the plants and creatures we have today, may not be there tomorrow. Everything changes over time and we will have to change with the times.
My first recommendation is that we get rid of the politicians and leaders, who do not see the change coming, and are not ready to take action. The second recommendation is that we research and study the facts, and not dance around them hoping that they will go away naturally. Our oversized carbon diet, has caused our earth to change, and greening gasses like methane and carbon dioxide levels have risen, and we can use scientific methods to reduce them. Industrial, transportation, lifestyle changes will have to be enforced, not to harm, but to protect ourselves. Just like we moved from wood burning to coal, and then to oil, we now need to move to solar, wind, tidal, biomass, nuclear or any other new renewable sources of energy.
The entrenched interest need to be broken and new interests created. Ingenuity and newer methods of production and consumption are called for, and the sooner we start on this new road, the better off we will be. It has taken us centuries of modernization, to reach the state we are at today. We need to spend the next few centuries correcting our past mistakes, and moving towards a brighter future. I am not angry, and do not blame anybody, that we have come to this sorry pass, as we have done what we needed to survive, and prosper as a species. I am just sad at the state of things, and feel helpless that the problems is far more complex, than our current understanding of our earth and how it functions. It is with profound uneasiness that I write this, as there are no easy solutions, or glib sentences I can write to gloss things over.
We are at an impasse in human survival and the actions we take today, will define our future generations. We have an accord to reduce the rise in temperatures to less than 2 degrees, and now only our will to act is lacking. First we have to look into ourselves and understand and accept the reality, and only then can we act on it. To our earth mother I can only say, you are a hot one now, but I will find a way to help cool you down. Do not unfriend me now, as we will make all out efforts to sustain a long relationship between us yet. What I give to you, I know you return to me many times over, I sow a seed and you grow a tree, I have a child and you make it a human adult. We are one mother, and there is nothing more I can say, as you are my cocoon and I am your caterpillar. My children and grandchildren’s life is at stake, and I have become deathly serious in my old age; as I hope to laugh and play with them, for many more years!.