Shekar Kapur
Climate, it seems, waits for no one. So it was with filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who was a Greenpeace volunteer for two days when he flew from sea level to the Himalayas and back, warning world leaders on climate change all the while. From the Rohtang Pass, Kapur beamed live to time with a UN summit. In New Delhi, Kapur was at the premiere of The Age of Stupid, the most powerful climate film of 2009. In a conversation towards the end of the trip, Kapur shares what it actually means.
What is the difference between the Shekhar Kapur before The Age of Stupid and after?
This experience of beaming live to the UN summit (from the Himalayas) was a critical experience. Greenpeace provided a platform for me to speak on that. As far as issues of the environment are concerned, I have been actively working, thinking, and writing for about 10 years. I started making my film Paani. Paani is exactly the issue that we went to the UN with. The fact that when the waters dry up, there is a great movement to the cities and the social problems move to the cities. Then, the cities themselves go to war. That is exactly it.
Are we any closer to seeing your film Paani?
Yeah. It is a tough movie to make. It is a future world, and it needs some kind of authenticity to create a future world.
Has your voice got stronger or more urgent after the trip to the Rohtang Pass to see what climate change is doing? What would you do to deal with the Indian polity on this now?
I think that my voice has certainly got stronger when I got there. It is more urgent. The platform given to me was terrific.
What do you think we should do if things do not work out in the December Copenhagen UN climate summit?
I think it is time for the individual to raise their voice. If nothing works out in Copenhagen, then it would be clear that our leaders do not have the political will or the ability to make changes. Sometimes, it is necessary to step outside politics. It has happened before, you know. Gandhiji led the country to freedom outside the political system, against the political system. It is time for us to move against the political system and to save our planet. We as individuals must raise our voices. People like me and others like me have to become the leaders that say no, this will not happen. Greenpeace is doing a great job of that.
Barack Obama made an interesting statement at the UN summit to which you beamed live from the Himalayas. He said climate is now the single biggest issue between the US and India. This could alter a lot of dynamics. What is your take on that?
I don’t think it is about a political issue or a trade issue between two countries. I don’t think we should get into that sort of a debate on this. The basics are that we have crossed the danger level. The basics are that somebody has to do something. Everybody has to do something. It is not about the problems between India and the US. I don’t care about that. What I care about is that we have to do something about the climate.
As individuals, how much should we do? For instance, at my home we don’t use machines so much. We do plenty of work with our hands.
You know what, I’ve brought my electricity consumption down drastically. My electricity bill used to be between Rs13,000 and Rs14,000 a month. Now, it is Rs2,000. I don’t use electricity unless I have to. I already use my cars only when I have to. I travel a lot, but I have cut down my international travel by 50 percent. I go online and seek other platforms available to meet people. So, I have cut down personally and I think everybody must cut down personally. But the point is that the elite of this world, and I’m not just talking of the West, the elite in India also . . . We tend to consume almost 60 percent of the resources. However, just now, reducing consumption is not going to be enough. Things have got to be done. Agriculture consumes a lot of water. It is about crop rotation. Industry consumes a lot of water. It is about changing the nature of the machines we use. There are a lot of changes that have to take place. Consumers in the UK, for instance, are saying we may have to pay more because we care for the planet. That will happen all over the world. It is true though that people who cannot afford to pay are very large in numbers. These are not the people who have polluted the planet. Those who can afford to pay must pay more for the planet. We are all part of the planet. If a poor person is not able to pay for the planet, it doesn’t mean we allow it to be destroyed. We have to compensate for that.
Movies are a powerful medium to say something. In terms of action at your end, how will your trip to the Rohtang Pass and to the screening of The Age of Stupid play out?
The problem is that as human beings, we are adept at hiding behind drama. Or behind statistics. We easily turn 10 million deaths into a statistic. We have this ability to turn everything into a statistic. However, this is not something we can convert into an emotional story of someone we can identify with.
— Vijay Simha, Editor, Greenpeace India
November 11th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Our country is the 4th in position in the world so far energy consumption is concerned.Hence if we can reduce our consumtion by 10% it will be considerably huge amount.As a by product we save our purse.
To common citizen it requires proper education in the subject and a tough practice.
World warming will come down in a cascading action.
If we save 1 kwh at our residence it will reduce to 2 kwh at power plant since our transmission and distribution efficiency is not that good.
Therefore we should preach our ideas to whomever we come across to reduce consumtion if there is any idea available to us. And also we invite our wise friends to take this responsibility on their shoulder to preach to others for creating a sucessful Green Idol Home.
November 12th, 2009 at 7:27 am
Recent visit to Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib in Garhwal was an eye opener.
The prestine beauty of entire grahwal region is threatened by recding glaciers, dwindling forests and landslides induced by heavy construction in the unstable mountains. Hardly anybody seems aware of these dangers.
One positive sign was splendid work carried out by Eco Development Commitee – an NGO, who strive to make Valley of Flowers PLASTIC FREE. The plastic bottles/ bags etc are coillected in Bins kept by EDC. EDC packs the collected materail in gunny bags and at the end of the season they bring it down to Govindghat. the material is used for recycling – they use it in the base layer for all repair work of roads.
The overall operation is sustained thru sale of plastic and sale of CDs on valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib.
This awareness and action is missing in rest of the region.
GreenPeace should help such NGOs to spread their message.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I am a software engineer by profession but study a lot about environment and love nature. At my knowledge, government is doing its best to protect the nature. Even recently, they proposed a “National Institute for Research on Climate and Environment” in Bangalore. Indian scientists are world class scientists and I read many of their research papers.
We can classify the population as:
1) Government
2) Scientists
3) Nature lover
4) Industrialists
5) Normal people
In the above case, the first three categories are fighting to protect the nature, but the last two categories are making it worst.
Government can control Industrialists by making some good laws which will the nature and increase the production or cut the cost.
Normal People (NP) is the biggest problem as it is the largest population of India. NP never think of their responsibilites in any kind and always weeken the Nation. We need to change ourselves, our colleagues, our relatives and our socities. It is the habit of NP to ignore the things and changing once habit is a difficult task, but we need to educate everyone and remind them time to time, to act.
I think, if every Indian starts acting, then India will lead the whole world in a different way.
I used cycle as a means of transport, never use plastic bags, optimize every resource usage and educate people by giving presentations on “Global Warming and its consequences.
Be a resposible INDIAN!!!
November 18th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I am still confident if the staement made on 11th November is propagated throught the country by a suitable forum , ideas can be propagated at differant group of people of our country a effective result can be visible within dawn of next year. Few points can be mentioned as:
1) Use Covered Utensil over Gas burner. Do not allow steam to go away from cooking utensil.Mind it every escape of water vapour from 1gm of water causing 580 calories.
2) When Pressure cooker blows whistle it is enormous energy escape.i.e. do not allow whistle to continue ,reduce heat immidiately by simming and keep the utensil un cocked till it cools down,the heat already existing in system will cook the food even heating is dis continued.
3) Do not keep the refrigerator in kitchen.As it works on higher ambient temperature causing more consumtion.
4)Do not use dirty lamps in the house, as it produces lesser light and increase the temperature of the room.
5)Use tinted glass in window to reduce heating by solar rays and in turn increases load on Air conditioner if used.
6)In a multistoried building water pumped and stored in the roof then lower floor residants are using unnecessary head of water which is not required.Make some rational system to have differant type of water system so that unnecessary water heads for lower floor people is avoided.
7)Those fortunate peoples who are with good terrace or roof shall use solar cells. It may be expensive , but in longer time it is effective .
Like this there are many it can be discussed in open forum and I am sure our learned and wise readers will make the result.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
The current economic monetary system is outmoded and primitive, otherwise wouldn’t be destroying our planet and sentencing all life to death. We must bring back the economic system of Engineer C. H. Douglas who was able to build a bridge in India without standard money. We must let go of the ponzi schemes that Stock Exchanges are; they are nothing more than Casinos for the corporate cartels that own the wealth of the entire planet. We should go back to small business where everyone will offer a service to the community. For this to be accomplished centralized government has to be eliminated for now they are just working for the international bankers of Wall Street. They have become a parasitical system that uses war and economic recessions to bankrupt companies so that they can consolidate more control and power in the hands of a few. Right now the world is owned by fourteen families. While the majority of people are only concerned with surviving – which this system intentionally originated by creating scarcity – these super elite under the cloack of secrecy accumulated an obscene amount of wealth. This is why poverty will never have a solution. We are being deceived through our governments, the Media, the economic and educational institutions as Harold W. Rosenthal, the Administrative Assistant of Senator Javits, of New York, explained in his public interview in 1976. Through keeping the masses in ignorance and keeping them from finding the truth they have inflitrated our infrastructure like a parasitical tapeworm, getting sustenance from you through your taxes and labour while they were spreading through the body of societies all over the world.
Only through creativity and cooperation will we be able to stamp out the destructive greed of the bankers. Create non-polluting businesses like some are doing in innovating ways such as a village in India, in which they collected Elephant dung to produce high-end paper and design as well creative greeting cards; and another from coconut fibbers: http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2005-winner.php . A myriad of options is open for us.
The humankind in order to achieve this has to not fall in the trap of selfishness and not compete with one another but instead cooperate in harmony and balance; respect and treat others with dignity and the same with our planet. Every single individual has the responsibility to care for our planet since our planet generously gives us sustenance.
Mankind will have to address the issue of overpopulation as well. One has to ask what will happen when the natural resources are no longer there to support a population of seven billion people growing exponentially in ten or twenty years time? Severe hardship will be in store for us all if we do not learn to evolve beyond our material physical body. Family planning obviously is very important but raising the social status of women and empowering them with a solid education where spiritual growth will be an integral part. Everyone must grow spiritually in connection with planet Earth. I am not referring to religions for these were invented by mankind to divide and control people. Everything in Nature is sacred and therefore all life is sacred and must not be abused and plundered. This is a priority to implement NOW for our planet is dying from the pillaging and pollution of the corporatists. It is up to the people who make up 97% of the population to stop the destruction of the other 3% of corporatists. The corporatists can be defeated if you stop buying their products. As consumers we have trememdous power but discipline will be an asset in order not to fall into the temptation of doing business or buying goods from unethical companies. If people now put pressure on single people to get married and have kids so they can put pressure on people to behave ethically and defend Mother Earth. Our physical lives are totally dependent on the health of this planet. What will you do to show your love for our beautiful world? As the American Natives knew from long ago: Whatever we do to the web of life we do it to ourselves”. We are ONE with planet Earth, LOVE Her, treat Her with DIGNITY, in doing so you treat yourself with love and dignity.
November 26th, 2009 at 8:12 am
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December 3rd, 2009 at 11:21 am
France is very eager to impose – Carbon Tax – and also wants it as a punishment for the nations disregarding climate change by insisting EU in the form of imposing a tax on imports from countries like India.This makes energy sources expensive.
We,representing the poor countries of G77,should oppose this without fear because if EU can survive without our exports,we also can survive without their imports.We should understand that if we do not sell our goods on their unfair terms,the availabilty of such goods in EU will come down and then you can imagine their uncomfort over that and those governments will be forced to abandon this bluff with which,they want to make poor countries surrender to their unfair solutions for climate change.
Denmark wants to present a draft at Copenhagen which is going to force the nations to cap their emissions at the peaking level in the year of 2025.These developed nations are so sure that these poor G77 nations peaking level emissions in a period of 15 years will be much lower than the developed world emissions.To answer this, Bismac is presenting our own draft at Copenhagen.We also should tell that if our draft is not accepted ,we will stop all our voluntary efforts in clean alternative energy and increase our peaking at the specified 2025.
We also should stress the emissions should be calculated on the basis of ton/person formula rather than nation basis.This is because that climate change is viewed in the perspective of human race.The climate does not have any boundary or nationhood.
Here,we also should remember that this clean energy business will give trillions of dollars to the developed nations,the abusers of climate, either in the form of technology or equipment.We also should remember that we are accustomed to the vagaries of nature and poverty and thus be more able to tolerate the climate change.We should make it clear to them that we are not as bothered as them about climate change.I will give an example here;the visitors from the rich countries drink only mineral water in India and if they drink ordinary water,they will immediately fall sick either by diarrhea or respiratory infections.95% persons drink the same ordinary drinking water but our bodies are strong enough not to fall sick.So,we should call the bluff of these people and stick to our draft and the developed world has to bend because they feel that their lives are more valuable and indispensable.
Apart the things included in our Bismac draft,i believe the following should be the way we should present our demands at COPENHAGEN and our sloagan should be ;
Pay For Emissions !
AMERICA AND OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES MUST PRACTICE EMISSION CONTROL TO THE SPIRIT OF EVERY LETTER. AMERICA WANTS TO REDUCE ITS EMISSIONS TO 4TONS/PERSON BY 2050. IF THEY WANT TO TALK WITH ANY COUNTRY ABOUT EMISSIONS AND REDUCTIONS, THEY HAVE TO TAKE AN ACTIVE INITIATION IN BRINGING ALL THE COUNTRIES TO THE TABLE.THE SOLUTION SHOULD BE LIKE THIS.
1) EMISSIONS PER PERSON IS TO BE LIMITED TO FIVE TONS/PERSON ACROSS ALL THE COUNTRIES.
2) A FUND UNDER THE CONTROL OF UN BE FORMED.
3) A COST FACTOR BE DECIDED FOR THE AMOUNT OF EMISSION EXCEEDING THE LIMIT ALLOWED ;X-DOLLARS/TON PER PERSON.
4)THIS SHOULD BE PAID TO THE ACCOUNT OF CARBON CREDITS AND THUS INCREASING THE VALUE OF CARBON CREDITS AND IT HELPS AS AN INITIATIVE TO GO FOR CLEAN ENERGY, AFFORESTATION(this will be a big employment generator),AND CONSERVATION(by optimum utilisation, less wastages).
It should be the responsibility of UN to survey the world for the production of clean energy like solar and hydro power and build these projects across the world by using the money collected from the offending nations emitting huge emissions after fixing the emission cap at 5 tons/person/year.Copenhagen to negotiate for financial and technological aids from developed countries and let multilateral institutions build these solar,wind and hydro power in any country where sun, wind and water are available in plenty by an international survey and dedicate this power for local use,there by reducing the use of fossil fuels for energy.This reduction of dependence on fossil fuels any where in the world would benefit the whole world – Planet Earth.This solves the problem of unaffordability of poor nations to use expensive clean energy. Unless India,China,and other G77 countries take the lead and pressurise the offending nations to pay a price for the emissions above the cap internationlly enforced which should not be dictated by US AND OTHER RICH COUNTRIES – the culprits of the huge emissions. West would be trying to use all its diplomatic methods with a sweet cajole and harsh threat to bring the world to accept their idea of caps to suit their lifestyles.
December 5th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Hello Friends, 05/12/2009
Jai Hind
Our organization YFF has undertaken a project: Pushpanjali Prawaha ‘The flow of devotional flowers’ the new method for disposal of flowers and other puja waste in the year 2010 in Delhi. We have devised a special “PATRA” which will be placed in public places for the immediate disposal of these flowers. These will subsequently be disposed by our volunteers at an appropriate place. This will help tremendously in the reduction of pollution in The Yamuna river.
To clean as much as possible of the poly bags and flowers from repeating error of putting flowers and poly bags again unto the river. We are also organizing Door to Door campaigning to educate uniform people in addition to touching almost 2 lace school children to help in our endeavor.
We have devised a 3 Point Programme to help clean YAMUNA RIVER in DELHI.
A) To stop people from throwing the Ceremonial flowers / Poly bags etc in YAMUNA River.
B) All things being currently thrown in YAMUNA to be collected & a recycling process to be initiated.
C) To organize children currently engaged in coin collecting & rag picking and give them employment & education.
Our organization has devised a plan under which each councilor (Parshad) will be requested to install two “ PUSHPANJALI PRAWAHA PATRA” at common venues which would facilitate the disposal of the flowers & Prayer Samagri etc.
The gap of the Prawaha from where the flowers will be inserted is at an angle of 23 degrees, like a letter box which will allow only flexible items inside.
Since Delhi is preparing for 2010 Commonwealth Games, we also want to achieve the aforesaid goal in a very short time i.e. in Seven months. If help to make Yamuna river pollution free of flowers and poly bags is granted, we shall leave no stone unturned to complete the work within the stipulated time to the satisfaction of all concerned. We hope that you will make your contribution for this noble cause.
We would be highly obliged if you could kindly help us in organizing this and give us a meeting time where we could explain our Programme in detail.
Please Help Me Sir
With kind regards,
Yours
GOPI DUTT
Our NGO – Youth Fraternity Foundation aims to serve the nation in various ways. You must be aware of the pollution being caused due to the disposal of used flowers and other worship materials in our Holy River Yamuna , and carried by all the rivers of India. Our organization, YFF, has undertaken a project to clean the rivers of INDIA starting with The YAMUNA,which will be starting from Delhi .
THE ORGANIZATION HAS PREPARED ITS OWN “ TASK-FORCE ” ENGAGING HUNDREDS OF YOUTH WHO HAVE VOLUNTEERED TO WORK IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE CITY ON EVERY ALTERNATIVE DAY AND MAKE PEOPLE AWARE OF THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF PLASTIC BAGS ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND ALSO TO COLLECT FLOWERS AND OTHER ARTICLES LEFT AFTER POOJA AND OR THROWN INTO THE YAMUNA.
yff.india@gmail.com
yffindia.blogspot.com
December 12th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
i request shekar to read what Zerzan is talking about Domestication of resources. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-primitivism
December 20th, 2009 at 8:25 am
i agree with Mr.Shekhar Kapoor.
our political system is not trust worthy and most of the politicians are highly incompetent to understand issues faced by common people/situations. dont expect anything from them.
we must force government at all levels to have sustainable growth, have good environmental laws and machinery to implement them (at present people to implement are highly corrupted] and quick& effective judiciary so that the law breakers can get punished.
all our rivers are highly polluted and every local political leader must give us guarantee that he/she personally ensures that all our water bodies will get clean within time limit of maximum one year.