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Sagar Dhara

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Culture/Cognition

Ecologise Foundation course in Energy and Energetics of Nature and Human Society

9th February 2018

Most courses on energy deal with it in an instrumentalist manner, as if it were another substance that humans can tap and use for their benefit. Platform for Sustainability and Equity and Ecologise are pleased to announce an online course that places energy at the centre of all transformations— abiotic, biotic and in human society….

Ecologise Events

Ecologise Hyderabad: Energy Workshop Report

5th August 2016

Soujanya Mantravadi writes: The workshop was attended by 32 participants. Organised by three members of the Ecologise group and five resource people, the programme was intended to send out a strong message that the energy aspects of the city is goes beyond electricity. The workshop witnessed elaborate and edifying discussions between the participants and speakers….

ALTERNATIVES

How viable (and sustainable) are solar PV systems? A debate

15th June 2016

Post the Paris climate agreement, the world looks to solar energy more than ever to reduce carbon emissions and counter climate change, with multi-billion dollar solar programmes announced by just about every major country. But just how efficient, and environmentally sustainable is the celebrated solar photovoltaic technology? Here’s what some leading voices have to say….

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

The IMF’s “shocking” estimate of fossil fuel costs: There’s more to the story

4th June 2015

Sajai Jose Credit: CGP Grey/Flickr, CC-BY 2.0 Recently, when an International Monetary Fund research paper revealed that the actual cost of fossil fuel usage for 2015 was a staggering US$ 5.3 trillion (approx. 340 lakh crore rupees), it made headlines worldwide, though it went largely unreported in India. What accounts for the bulk of this figure are the hidden…

RECOMMENDED

More video interviews by Mansoor Khan

26th May 2015

Here are some more additions to Mansoor Khan’s ongoing series of video interviews with experts in various fields from ecology to energy to economics. The interviews take off from the themes covered in Mansoor’s book, The Third Curve: The End of Growth. As We Know It!. View more videos at: The Third Curve YouTube channel Claude Alvarez…

Ecologise Events

Living in a World with Limited Resources – Sirsi, Feb 21

2nd February 2015

Date: 21 Feb 2015 , Time: 3.00pm-6.00pm Venue: A.V Hall, Don Bosco High School, Sirsi Speakers: Mansoor Khan and Sagar Dhara Growth is considered to be the fundamental characteristic of any healthy economic system. This growth is fuelled by the easy availability of fossil fuel, which is a limited natural resource formed over millions of years. We have now reached a stage where half…

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…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Upcoming events in Hyderabad

15th January 2015

DISCUSSION – JAN 17 “The shape of post carbon society and the hazy road to get there” Time and date: 6.30 pm, Sat, 17 Jan 2015 Place: Cerana Foundation office, D-101 Highrise Apartments, Lower Tank Bund Road (next to Courtyard Marriott Hotel), Hyderabad. Tel: 2753 6128. Message from the organiser (Sagar Dhara): Some of our friends were in…

Bookshelf

Video: The Third Curve interviews by Mansoor Khan

20th December 2014

Author and filmmaker Mansoor Khan has been doing a series of short video interviews with experts in various fields from ecology to energy to economics. The interviews take off from the themes covered in his book, The Third Curve: The End of Growth. As We Know It!. Some of the prominent names interviewed so far are…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Two Talks with Bill McKibben – 7th November, Hyderabad

3rd November 2014

Bill McKibben, American environmentalist, author and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming, heads 350.org, which recently organised the People’s Climate March in New York, attended by an estimated 400,000 people. McKibben is the winner of the 2013 Gandhi Prize, Right Livelihood Award or the Alternative Nobel, and the Thomas Merton Prize….

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…

Development/Growth

Is the NDA government’s “Good days ahead” promise old wine in a new bottle?

15th August 2014

Sagar Dhara (Note: An edited version of this article appeared in The Hindu, dated August 8, 2014, under the title ‘Building smart cities without energy’. Also read: Devinder Sharma’s article: How About Smart Villages, Mr Modi?) Recent pronouncements by the NDA ministers, when read together, provide insights into the NDA government’s ‘Acche din ayenge’ (good days ahead)…

Conflict/Dispossession

News update

4th August 2014

Amid Global Turmoil, Oil Prices Surprisingly Stable From Forbes Magazine The world has entered a zone of maximum upheaval. From the Atlas Mountains of North Africa to the Hindu Kush, in Afghanistan, the Middle East is in flames. The destruction of a Malaysian airline over Ukraine, almost certainly shot down by Russian-backed separatist rebels, threatens…

ENERGY

Letter: One Year of Peak Oil India

6th June 2014

T. Vijayendra, a Founder-Member of POI, writes to the group reminiscing on its formation and offering pointers towards the future It is just about a year since the informal group called Peak Oil India was formed (on June 7, 2013) and we decided to have a website. The website has been active for quite some…