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Showing posts from May, 2012

St. Patrick's Day? Nah !

St. Patrick's Day? Nah ! Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar 'Life ain't easy for a sociologist' thought Patrick. How does a problem that is entirely the onus of inefficient producers and profligate consumers in a third-world country turn a 'problem child' of a Sociologist in a developed, even environmentally exalted nation? Surely, we did not create solid waste....and spread it around....or hire children, barely toddlers, in to lifelong slavery? If we weren't consulted in the matter to start with, why would it be dumped upon us for resolution.....and that too in the evanescent 2 weeks of summer in the upper reaches of Quebec? Jeez, even Guantanamo criminals enjoyed more summer! But summer work is summer work, particularly when his sponsor, now visiting India with this family, had paid for 3 summer courses that he was cramming in to his resume to graduate by August and move to latitudes closer (but not too close) to those whom he envied. Glad

Trade my gasoline spill for your 'red mud' dump: A '(Vi)Pareto' Opportunity in Environmental Finance

Ganga Prasad Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar Disclaimer : As with other columns and blogs in this series, the author makes no claims to factuality, or the outcomes therefrom. The author also explicitly rejects culpability for any financial, environmental, legal or other undefined impacts that might follow from adopting this proposal. For decades, even the US, the nerve center of capitalism, evaded economics in its environmental policy-making despite evidence inefficient regulations were costly to the environment and the economy. Instead, it chose to persevere with medical risk benchmarks and technological innovation to guide its environmental programs and standards. Then came the pollution trading schemes in which firms and industries could trade their current and future emissions with each other and re-allocate production resources to jointly achieve economic and environmental goals. It was theoretically sound, practically feasible, and demonstrably a success. But, there has been