Som: Greenpeace has launched a no-incandescent bulb movement in India. How feasible is it in India when CFLs cost more than incandescent bulbs?
Mike Pandey: The government is already working out a way to make these bulbs available at a cheaper cost. The important issue will be proper disposal of CFLs as they contain mercury.
Vikram: Why should we put down our emissions considering India is just a small player in the global-warming debate?
Mike Pandey: India is a responsible state and member of the global community, and the environment is common to all of us. India is a small player at the moment but is going to be among the largest contributor in the coming years.
Vinay: Will planting trees, say about 300,000-400,000, help to achieve something? Will it earn us earn some carbon credit? We are a group of students in Nepal and want to understand this.
Mike Pandey: It’s a great idea! Return to nature what we plundered, but it is important to plant indigenous trees and create an ecosystem instead of just creating green cover.
Shubham: I use ACs; I use a lot of fuel commuting; I also travel frequently by airplanes. Am I the reason why the earth is heating up? I do not think there is any way I can do without these essentials. Yet I find it hard to believe I am the villain in the climate change debate. What is a practical way of reducing GHGs?
Mike Pandey: We are all contributing in some way or the other. It’s when we overdo that we tip the balance. We have to find ways of reducing our carbon footprint. The time is now to act even if it means turning your AC to 25 degrees C. You could think of using an electric car for example, remember every little bit counts.
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Mohan: If we find an alternate fuel wouldn’t it cause global economic meltdown, as oil will become useless? Don’t you think there is very little we can achieve when the governments of developed and developing nations are mum on the environmental crisis?
Mike Pandey: The fuels of the future will be plasma. The ray of hope a few weeks ago was that America has finally conceded that climate change is a reality.
Radhika: If we have only eight years to doomsday then what is the most important resource we need to conserve?
Mike Pandey: Start with water and the environment, and the rest will fall in place
Dorothy Denis: Don’t you think that the issues of environment, nature conservation and global warming be addressed more strongly in every sphere of our daily lives? I mean, don’t you think that instead of just persuading everyone to do their little bit, it is time for more forceful action with appropriate strict laws?
Mike Pandey: Climate change education has to be taken on a war footing. It has to be the priority. Environment has been incorporated as part of the curriculum in schools but needs to be more visual to deliver the full impact of what we are doing to the planet
Gaurav Verma: Environmental experts predict there is just 8 years left to save the Earth. I was just curious to know how they predicted the time and what can we do as to stop global warming?
Mike Pandey: Scientists have used various studies and analysed glacial meltdowns and studied the amount of CO2 emission and absorption globally. We need to adapt and change our life styles in order to ease the pressure. France has already started using bicycles on a large scale. Simple things like not leaving electrics on stand by and keeping ACs at 25 degrees is a start.
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Vishal Naidu: People cry about Green House gases especially CO2 as the real cause for global warming. The truth is that the total concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is just 0.054%, a very minuscule amount. So please stop being the moral brigade in the name if environment and Mother Earth. I wonder about the remarkable similarities between the saffron moral brigade of India and this emerging green moral brigade of the world.
Mike Pandey: Fossil fuel is the major cause of CO2 and as demands for energy grow more coal is being used to generate electricity, add to that billions of litres of diesel and petrol. The Earth has always experienced ice ages and global warming but hectic and rapid industrialisation in the last 100 years that has tipped the balance. It’s happening even faster than most scientists expected. On an average one household produces nearly 20 tonnes of CO2 every year. It all adds up somewhere. Also man has destroyed and is continuing to plunder the Earth’s natural carbon sinks.
Santosh: Assuming for the moment that global warming is real and happening, what do you feel will be it's most major effects on India's vegetation?
Mike Pandey: Global warming is a reality. In a country like India increased temperatures could lead to crop migration. The temperature will certainly affect tropical forests. In cold places like Alaska a new fungus has already destroyed 30 million trees. Scientists believe this is due to the rising temperature
Amit Mahapatra: How do you respond to the trade-off between growth and environment in economies like India, where finding jobs for the millions of jobless at the cost of environmental degradation has become an accepted norm of life.
Mike Pandey: There is an urgent need to improve the standard of living and quality of life of our people, but instead of rampant and mindless development there is a need for controlled eco friendly and sustainable development, but not at the cost of the environment.
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