Sagar Dhara, Author at Ecologise

CLIMATE CRISIS

Climate crisis: Is there a Savitri to save the world from catastrophe?

5th January 2020

The legend of Savitri and Satyavan in the Mahabharata, is a love story. Savitri, a beautiful princess, marries Satyavan, a penniless woodcutter, despite the Sage Narada warning her that Satyavan, a dead man walking, would die in one year. Now, the story of Savitri and Satyavan is being played out in real life in the ongoing climate change saga….

ALTERNATIVES

Indian environmental movements: Why they failed or succeeded, and the challenges ahead

24th February 2019

Many of these battles were fought not because people understood how these projects affected the environment but because they saw the loss of their land and livelihoods as the loss of security and dignity. As a woman adivasi farmer succinctly put it, “I wish to be a farmer, and not a housemaid in someone’s home.”…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Global capitalism is facing three tipping points

5th April 2016

In this article, Sagar Dhara examines Capitalism’s crucial tipping points: The first, the impending energy and natural resource crisis, related to the sourcing of raw materials. The second, inequality, related to the production of goods and services. The third, global warming, which is related to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in excess of the earth’s sink capacity….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Why technology cannot adequately address climate change

11th January 2016

The developed world’s average per capita emissions are now a little more than twice the corresponding level in developing countries. But the emissions gap between rich and poor individuals, regardless of nation, has increased. And rich countries and individuals, as always, can rely on their wealth to protect them from many effects of global warming….

Miguel Villagran/Getty Images

CLIMATE CRISIS

How viable is renewable energy?

28th December 2015

Both solar and wind energy depend on rare earth elements that will likely become scarce in 20 years or so. China accounted for 95 percent of the world’s rare-earth production, raising fears that it might exert monopolistic control. Meanwhile, renewable energy technologies that could function without rare earths, particularly photovoltaic technologies, aren’t close to deployment….

CLIMATE CRISIS

From Hopelesshagen to Flop21: the shenanigans of climate change negotiations

11th December 2015

Even if all emission pledges are fully implemented, temperature rise by 2100 will exceed 2oC, and may be in the range 3-4oC. The additional carbon space of 1,000 GtCO2 will fill by 2040, just 5 years later than had emissions continued in a business-as-usual manner. Clearly, the pledges are too little and have come too late….

CLIMATE CRISIS

The climate challenge is deeper than technology

24th October 2015

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: DEVELOPMENT AND DISARMAMENT ROUNDTABLE Technology’s role in a climate solution If the world is to avoid “severe, widespread, and irreversible [climate] impacts,” carbon emissions must decrease quickly—and achieving such cuts, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, depends in part on the availability of “key technologies.” But arguments abound against…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Sagar Dhara: Response to Alan Rusbridger

15th June 2015

Pot calling the kettle black will not mitigate global warming, eco-socialism can Sagar Dhara (This article was originally published on Frontierweekly.com on 2 June, 2015) In a recent interview published in The Hindu, Alan Rusbridger, the former editor-in-chief of the Guardian, expressed the fear that India “is going to burn a vast amount of dirty coal in very inefficient ways, and…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Sagar Dhara: Keep the Climate, Change the Economy

1st February 2015

Contrasting outcomes of recent global warming meetings Sagar Dhara Two recent meetings on global warming, one scientific and the other political, are of great public interest as they have a bearing on human society’s future course to become a sustainable global community. The meetings contrasted each other in the clarity of their outcomes. The first…

Development/Growth

Sagar Dhara: A.P. needs smart governance more than a smart capital

9th October 2014

Sagar Dhara (Note: An edited version of this article appeared in The Hindu, dated October 9, 2014, under the title ‘Including people in governance‘) The soul of India lives in its villages, Gandhiji said 100 years ago. London governed India’s soul then, which it perceived as unjust and so revolted. Delhi and the state capitals now govern…

ALTERNATIVES

Roadmap for Sustainability, Equity and Peace

12th December 2013

Note: Paper to be presented by Sagar Dhara, one of the founder-members of Peak Oil India Group, at the XXXVII Indian Social Science Congress, Aligarh Muslim University, 27-31 December, 2013 What is our share of energy in nature? How should we distribute it? Search for a roadmap to a sustainable, equitable and peaceful human society Sagar Dhara1 To…

Ecologise Events

What is our share of energy in nature? How should we distribute it?

Note: Sagar Dhara, one of the founder-members of the Peak Oil India group, will coordinate the session on energy at this upcoming conference at Aligarh Muslim University. Brainstorming session What is our share of energy in nature? How should we distribute it? Search for a roadmap to a sustainable, equitable and peaceful human society 27-28 Dec 2013,…