Carbon Ideologies -Novelist and War Correspondent on Climate Change

Carbon Ideologies -Novelist and War Correspondent on Climate Change

by Rajendra ShendeNo Comments
“Are we prepared to endure lives with less comfort?”: says a plausible candidate for the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature-William T. Vollmann “For a long time I was a climate change denier,” says author, journalist, and war correspondent William T. Vollmann. “I didn’t want to be stressed out by something that might someday affect people after I’m dead.” And yet for Vollmann — a brilliant, idiosyncratic writer whom some have described as a plausible candidate for the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature — the reality of climate change has become a personal obsession. Last week, he released the first volume of a sprawling, two-volume polemic called Carbon Ideologies. Titled No Immediate Danger, it explores in more than 600 pages how our society is bound to the ideology of energy consumption. Addressed to humans living in a “hot dark future,” the book is highly technical, chock-full of tables, studies, and hundreds of Vollmann’s own photos. Vollmann travelled the globe for...
Read More
Jane Hawking, Wife of Stephen Hawking tells her own “Theory of Everything”

Jane Hawking, Wife of Stephen Hawking tells her own “Theory of Everything”

by Rajendra ShendeNo Comments
  Jane Hawking, who was divorced from Stephen in 1995 and whose book, Travelling to Infinity: My life with Stephen was adapted by Anthony McCarten to form the core of the movie.Here she talks about her relationship with Stephen Hawking. IT IS 1963, and we’re at a student party in Oxford. A young man approaches a young woman. “I’m a cosmologist,” he says. “What’s that?” “It’s religion for intelligent atheists.” You will have seen him on The Simpsons and Star Trek but you’ve never seen him like this. Stephen Hawking, the world’s most famous living scientist, as a young, able-bodied, ambitious student, chatting someone up. This is the beginning of The Theory of Everything, the story of Hawking’s exceptional life framed by the blossoming – and eventual withering – of romance with his first wife, then Jane Wilde. Straight away we are tipped off to the broad tone that the movie will take on their relationship: one of his godless cosmology, and of her more conventional Christianity. But how true to life is it? And...
Read More
Obama’s Oven Fresh Views on India -Read the Interview

Obama’s Oven Fresh Views on India -Read the Interview

by Rajendra ShendeNo Comments
Connecting the disconnected. So that they give back to those who are left behind.  Hence NGOs, who connect to the people should be seen not as a threat, but a partner, and play a role in addressing  the planet’s challenges. Former U.S. President Barack Obama’s advisor Ben Rhodes speaks to The Hindu Former US President Barack Obama is in Delhi to address a townhall of “youth leaders”. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Obama’s Chief International Advisor Ben Rhodes says it is important to spread democratic values, as well as raise the importance of NGOs, religious tolerance and LGBT issues. What is the purpose of President Obama’s townhall in Delhi? In the world today, a lot of young people feel disconnected from the forces that are shaping their lives. We see that leads to young people not becoming active citizens. Active citizenship doesn’t just mean running for office or going into politics, it means starting organisations that promote change or solve a problem, pursuing social good with...
Read More
Will China lead solar revolution and India be contended just with virtual-win at Doklam? Candid Interview

Will China lead solar revolution and India be contended just with virtual-win at Doklam? Candid Interview

by Rajendra ShendeNo Comments
As the USA gets cold on global warming, a new contender has emerged to lead the action on climate change.Could China, another of the world’s top CO2 emitters, vision the opportunity?Interview with China analyst Sam Geall of Chatham House Q: What are the biggest incentives and drivers for China to take the lead on climate change? Sam Geall: There are big economic drivers for China to move towards a low carbon transition. They’re already reaping the benefits of long- term innovation policy, meaning they have firms positioned in strategic areas like renewable energy, which are now starting to lead in investments, increasing innovation and in patents. And as a result we’ve seen things like a huge cost deflation in solar and wind energy, largely thanks to the scale of manufacturing in China. So there are huge commercial opportunities as firms start to move into these increasingly profitable and dynamic sectors. At the same time, there are strong political drivers: China wants to position...
Read More
What Al Gore thought on Trump’s breakaway announcement

What Al Gore thought on Trump’s breakaway announcement

by Rajendra ShendeNo Comments
New York Times  spoke with Mr. Gore about what went through his mind when Mr. Trump made announcement of divorce  from Paris Climate Agreement. In 1997, Al Gore, then the vice president of the United States, helped forge the first climate change treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, promising the rest of the world that the United States would lead the fight against global warming. That promise was broken when President George W. Bush later announced that the United States would abandon the treaty. In 2015, President Barack Obama made the same promise when he helped forge the Paris climate accord — a promise that was broken when President Trump announced in June that he would withdraw the United States from the deal. In a TimesTalks conversation in New York on Tuesday, I spoke with Mr. Gore about what went through his mind when Mr. Trump made his Paris announcement. Watch to find out how the Nobel Prize-winning climate change activist sees the landscape of policy unfolding in the 21st century, as the...
Read More
We Need USA that is Engaged-New UNSG to American TV.No word from him on Climate Change

We Need USA that is Engaged-New UNSG to American TV.No word from him on Climate Change

by Rajendra ShendeNo Comments
In his first ever USA  TV interview since becoming secretary-general of the UN António Guterres talks on everything that USA needs to get engaged except Climate Change!In his first American television interview since becoming secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres discusses why the world needs a United States that is engaged in issues of security, development and human rights, plus opportunities for reforming the U.N., the importance of protecting refugees, the struggle to end the bloodshed in Syria and more.But not a word about Climate Change! Watch and read : http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/u-n-secretary-general-guterres-world-needs-u-s-engaged/ JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to my interview with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He took office on January 1, after a decade as head of the U.N.’s Refugee Agency. I sat down with him this afternoon for his first American television interview since becoming secretary-general. We spoke at the World Bank here in Washington, where he is attending the annual meeting of the bank and International Monetary Fund. Mr. Secretary-General, thank you for talking with...
Read More
1234