Thursday, September 6, 2012

The price of being green






My husband makes sure to make green choices as long as possible in our daily life. So it was no surprise when he decided to choose wind energy for our electricity supply at home a few years ago. 

A few years later he is rethinking about what he had initially thought would mean years of gain.

The reason is our most recent electricity bill and a note attached along with it. The note mentions that if we want to go totally wind energy dependent (we are 50-50 right now), then it will cost us 75 cents more per kilowatt.
It led me to think that why we are we being reprimanded for turning green. The answer lies in the latest discovery of enormous oil and gas reserves under American soil, which is having a game changing impact on the entire economy.

America is importing less oil now. The share of US petroleum consumption coming from the importers has dwindled from 52% in 2008 to 42% in 2010 ( Source:EIA).

As revolutionary as these discoveries might seem, their impact won’t hit the homes immediately for most people. Most notably, the rising oil production is a long way from making a big difference in prices for the gas. Still, the new energy boom is already creating an upheaval in a host of other sectors, producing some new unexpected losers and winners. Cheap natural gas, for instance, has been a bonanza for companies that burn tons of it, utilities and chemical giants being the big players. Nowhere has this impact of cheaper fuel been more pronounced than in the alternative energy industry, solar, wind and even nuclear power providers to name a few.

Is it worth paying a premium for electricity at home from a cleaner source? The only certainty, experts say, is that these decisions are tricky as long as the energy dice continues to roll. 


Thursday, July 19, 2012

An investment for the people, by the people


What a micro-enterprise initiative can do.
Copyrighted theriverreturns.org



Moving to America has opened my eyes to the new world in a completely different way. 

I came across such fascinating information while interning and volunteering all these months for non-profits in the city, which brought me even closer to my choice of doing good for the world. 

The other day while watching a commercial on TV,  I came to know about KIVA's initiative. What a neat idea to extend your support globally by acting locally. All at just a click of the mouse. How far can your $25 could go, this is a perfect example.  The people at KIVA  envision a world where all people, even in the most remote areas of the globe, hold the power to create opportunity for themselves and others. They believe in providing safe, affordable access to capital to those in need helps people create better lives for themselves and their families.

Then there are organizations like the Trickle Up who make a change in the life of ordinary people by providing a seed grant beginning from only $100 to develop their micro-enterprise.  This is what one of the Trickle Up's cofounder has to say about their initiative, "Everybody, no matter how poor, dreams of a better life and will fight for it, if given the opportunity." ~ Mildred Robbins Leet, Co-Founder & Board Chair Emerita. 

All these years I have been on the other side of the world doing good at ground, realizing only a little about the sweat and blood that goes into initiating and gathering all these investments to be formalized and brought into being.

Initiatives like these make the belief stronger that there are possibilities to achieve the most far fetched dream if we concentrate our efforts (and money in this case) for a worthwhile cause. 


Friday, March 2, 2012

Rural India might be 'calling' but urban India still 'flailing' for energy

A typical domestic gas geyser in Indian households
I have been meaning to write a post for a very long time but was spoiled for choice as much water has flown under the bridge in terms of development issues and news.
The recent article by Mr. George Black, OnEarth Magazine caught my attention as it’s titled ‘India Calling How the cell phone revolution can raisemillions out of poverty, promote clean energy, and help fix the climate’.
As I started reading the article it brought back all the memories flooding when I was student at the Chaudhary CharanSingh University’s Masters in Environmental Sciences and Public Health course back in 2003 in Meerut Uttar Pradesh India.
Meerut is only 75 kms north of Delhi on the Delhi Haridwar highway and is considered to be the satellite city of Delhi in the National Capital Region (NCR).
It broke my heart to realize from the article that not much has changed in terms of the clean and noiseless energy choices even after the passing of a decade since my school and university days.
I remember distinctly that we used to run all the appliances in our classrooms as well as our laboratories with the diesel empowered generators which were both noisy and polluting at the same time. It was ironical as we were studying environmental sciences at the cost of polluting the environment.
The situation became grimmer when I joined Janhit Foundation, Meerut as an Assistant Program Coordinator in 2003 after finishing my master’s course.  The electricity situation was so compelling back then that we had to wait until 2 pm in the afternoon for the electricity to come back on so as to start our official work everyday. We used to run the computers on diesel powered generator only if it was absolutely indispensable and urgent.
At home I remember distinctly that we had to install the inverters (emergency back up) when I was taking my high school exams as the power cuts were long and unannounced. It was despite the fact the inverters coasted a bomb back in the late 90s in India and the business of inverters flourished especially in the power deprived states like U.P. and Bihar.
After having lived in Delhi for more than 5 years before relocating to New York City last year, I found adjusting to only 4-5 hours of uninterrupted power supply at Meerut very annoying and discomforting during my trips back home over the weekends.  
For the sake of hot water in the winters, my parents had to get a gas geyser which runs on the domestic liquid petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders. These geysers are independent of the power supply and bring down the huge electricity bills too unlike the conventional electric water heaters in India. So it’s the geysers’ market which is on the boom right now.
I am lamenting here because I read about how the cellular phone service providers in India (such as Uninor) are joining hands to help the rural Indians, women in particular, reach their dream of a clean and unpolluted energy future.
Mr. Black’s effort of sketching a road map for rural India out of the energy crisis is definitely enlightening.
However, coming from the heart of the study area I can foresee that there is long way to go to attain that dream. Until and unless the model of the public private partnership (PPP) is brought into perspective without ignoring the nonprofits as well as the academic and research institutions’ contribution to achieve this goal, the dream remains a distant reality.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Let there be light

I've been reading a lot about how the federal lightbulb efficiency standards that went into effect almost two months ago, on January 01, can not only lower our electricity bills but also help create jobs for the Americans in the longer run. 

Manufacturers and wholesalers will have to meet new standards that are forcing them to improve the efficiency of incandescent bulbs or replace them with newer technologies. What does this mean for us? Lower electricity bills and savings every month.


Comparative analysis of the light bulbs

As for the jobs we can look at the bulb manufacturing sector to start with. 
Since the summer of 2000, our country has lost a startling 32 percent of its manufacturing base. Ohio has been particularly hard hit, losing 282,000 manufacturing positions. Energy-efficient light bulbs, though, are bringing manufacturing jobs back. Not all 282,000 of them, by any means. But they’re an important start.  
To read more on the stats of the jobs created please click here

There are international nonprofits (The Climate Group and others) also who are helping the municipalities in the developing countries to switch to more energy efficient bulbs for street lighting and other purposes, for instance in the municipal/urban local bodies' office buildings. These projects have been undertaken as a part of the larger HSBC Climate Partnership (HCP) funded by HSBC Global.
To read more on these initiatives please click here.

Thomas Alva Edison’s brilliant invention, the incandescent light bulb, will have to shape up or ship out but the ship out won't get any complaints from the consumers or the job seekers in the same field.

This article has been adopted from the original article posted by the NRDC, Kiplinger's and TCG under HCP.
To continue reading, please click on the links above



Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Volunteering: The Return on Giving

Field assignment being undertaken for the best practices in farming
A few ways in which volunteering can enhance your career as a development professional:
As a recent graduate in environmental sciences in India in the year 2003, my choices seemed to be limited in terms of employment.
Everyone around me was suggesting going for further degree for specializing in a specific area of environment and so on.
Turning a deaf ear to their suggestions, I returned to the nonprofit organization in Meerut, U.P. India where I'd volunteered during my university days. The rest as they say is history.
Having recently relocated from India once again I've turned to the virtues of volunteering at the UNICEF USA while trying to find my bearings in the United States.
My dedicated volunteering during the final year of my master's course in environmental sciences formed the basis of my first employment in the local nonprofit in Meerut. I hope to have the same results from the volunteering at the UNICEF USA.
Regardless of where the volunteers stand in their own career paths, they are attracted to the international development agencies such as the UN, The World Bank and a few others like the Bankers Without Borders. This is because these organizations offer the rare opportunity to the volunteers for making a difference by volunteering their professional skills with organizations who are committed to improving the lives of the poor. They donate every possible skill and service ranging from the grassroots efforts for the uplifting of the poor and poverty alleviation to business modeling, monitoring and evaluation and policy level recommendations.

While all the volunteers’ motivations are fairly selfless globally, they are more than often personally rewarded for their generosity.
Here are a few ways that volunteering services pro bono has helped me advance my careers in development:

1. Get some cred – If you are a recent college graduate, an unpaid internship with a noteworthy nonprofit may be just the credential you need to help your resume shift to the top of the pile for that next paid gig. Even for more established professionals, volunteer activities are no longer seen as something to place next to your hobbies on your resume. The New York Times, for instance, recently highlighted LinkedIn’s new feature where you can prominently list volunteer experience. Its a known fact that most B schools universally prefer the prospective students who have undertaken some volunteer assignments during their studies and spare time.  I landed my very first and most enriching job as a virtue of volunteering. I continue to volunteer with an endeavor to build and expand my professional network and earn the credentials in the new world as much as possible.

2. Explore new directions – Whether you recently lost your job, retired, or aren’t completely satisfied with your current job, volunteering your skills allows you to test just how transferable your skills actually are. A short-term volunteer assignment during my university days gave me the sense of the types of positions within development organizations that were best suited and helped me to understand the different organizational cultures that I encountered in my future assignments and how truly different they were from my current work experience. I used to get increasing requests from my colleagues and friends in India to help them get a volunteer position at the nonprofits where I was working.

3. Build a relevant work portfolio – This was not so relevant for me in the founding years of my career as it is to me today. Now increasingly when I apply to new jobs they demand for the work experience in the social media management. Thanks to my recent volunteering assignment at the UNICEF USA, I am getting to polish not only my social media skills but also my writing ability on a daily basis through the power of sites such as the wordpress, blogger, twitter, LinkedIn and so on.

4. Prove your leadership moxy – A recent Forbes article argues that more companies should encourage their employees to pursue volunteer work early in their careers not simply as a retention or corporate social responsibility strategy, but because it exposes employees to scenarios that test their ability to lead under tough circumstances with limited resources and no direct authority. I've personally experiences this during my days at WWF India. The employees from our corporate donors who participated in the internal volunteer program were far more energetic and enthusiastic in taking initiatives than the nonparticipating ones.

5. Experience new markets – This is an excellent opportunity in terms of exploring the global prospects and expand your horizon while volunteering. More and more international organizations connect volunteers who are willing to donate their time and energy towards the underprivileged people. I have seen this happen throughout the course of my career in India. Volunteers came to all the nonprofits, of which I was a part of, from far and wide with various backgrounds.

6. Expand your network – In the age of social media, our networks are more important than ever. Skills-based volunteer assignments gives us the opportunity to develop deep connections with the organization and people we volunteer with. Research cites that one of the primary reasons individuals continue to volunteer with the same organizations year after year is because of the relationships they form with staff and other volunteers. Besides just think about all the trainings, workshops and seminars within the organization and their network that we get to attend/participate only by knowing people and networking at the place where we volunteer. Who knows - the people you meet while volunteering could lead you to your next job, paying client, or even your future spouse ;)

7. The inside advantage – It is an unspoken but known truth: Volunteering can often give you an inside track to a paid job at the organization for which you volunteer. Remember, we’ll only be competing just to secure a volunteer opportunity. Our expectation should not be to convert your volunteer assignment to a paid position – it doesn’t work that way. But, assuming you are qualified for a future vacancy at the organization, your inside knowledge, proven work ethic, and the commitment you have demonstrated to the mission by volunteering your skills and time could be just that edge you need to outshine your competition. I can very well relate this point to myself precisely as I didn't get an opportunity to volunteer at the environmental nonprofits and groups in the New York City as I have desired. Right now I am facing the hurdle for getting my foot in the door in these desired work places. Had I been lucky, I would have got a volunteer assignment inside the leading organizations in the city and who knows I would have been employed full time by now .

8. Do not loose hope: I would like to add this point as last but not the least. Of all the seasoned professionals that I've got in touch within the NY city to explore the possibility of full time opportunities, they have appreciated and encouraged my effort of volunteering since the day I landed in this country last year.
I continue to volunteer with the same zeal and dedication that I had in the founding years of my career.

If you truly believe in the power of retribution then you must volunteer sometime in your life as blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.

  This article has been adopted from the recent article posted at the devex.com. To read the full article on devex, please click here

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tarsand pipeline Or potable water's worst nightmare?

The Congressional Republicans are not letting the tarsand pipeline to die.
Only two weeks after President Obama stood his ground and killed the permit for this environmental nightmare, Republicans on Capitol Hill are now threatening to hold key legislation hostage unless Big Oil gets to run a river of the world’s dirtiest oil through our nation’s heartland. Source NRDC
What these politicians fail to see is that all Americans deserve clean water.
It’s so disappointing to see People magazine covering one of the leading threats to our rivers and clean water supplies – fracking.
people magazine fracking story Living with Fracking | People Magazine
The natural gas drilling technique known as fracking is a hot topic, highlighted by President Obama in the State of the Union address.
This write up reminded me of the article I read in the Reader's Digest last year "How Safe is Our Water Really?" The water that we consider to be the purest and cleanest was actually found to contain traits of  dissolved organic components and even rocket fuel?!?!?At the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) researchers were alarmed by the threat to the river water quality, so they came up with the 'World's 10 top rivers at risk report'. What's worthwhile to note here is that none of the American Rivers were listed in this report.
Unfortunately, in the wake of recent developments regarding the fracking, the same list will have to be populated once again.
Seeing this the researchers at the American River noted the threats that fracking poses to our drinking water supplies and the health of our rivers and streams.
For the past two years, they've highlighted natural gas drilling as the leading threat to America’s Most Endangered Rivers®.
The February 6 issue of People introduces us to a family in Pennsylvania whose tap water catches on fire, drawing links to fracking and exploring the controversy.
We used to have rivers of fire: Its True
“Back in the 1970s, contamination came out of the end of a pipe. You could see it—we actually had the Cuyahoga River on fire. We’ve made progress on that, but now we have to worry about what happens when it rains. Water runs over city streets, suburban lawns treated with fertilizer and pesticides, and agricultural lands that may also have been treated or have animal feeding operations, and into our rivers and streams. Runoff is now thought by most folks to be the biggest source of water pollution.” — Lisa Jackson

My only thought right now is that if we do not act fast  to prevent all these projects from execution without a conscious, then the fracking shall prove to be a timebomb for not only to the most vulnerable ecosystems in Alaska but also to our potable water supply in the near future.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

SOPA and PIPA=Killing of Tarsand Pipeline?

As soon as I logged onto the home page of my blogging sites yesterday, all I was able to see was censored, censored and censored. The google's logo was eclipsed and so was the wikipedia's home page which was blacked out for yesterday.
It was frustrating until I started receiving the news about the historical decision of our President to have rejected a permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline -- a project that promised riches for the oil giants and an environmental disaster for the rest of us.
His decision represents a victory of historic proportions for the environmental groups and hundreds of thousands of committed activists like you and me who have waged an uphill, years-long fight against one of the most nightmarish fossil fuel projects of our time. To read more on the project please click here.
Getting ahead of my story, how could the news have been conveyed to us had the SOPA and PIPA been in place?
I could not have log on to the websites for information and historical background of the project and the repercussion that it’s going to have on us and our environment as a whole.
The battle is still not over as the Tar Oil companies won't let it die. There shall be further debate in the congress and elsewhere for the continuation of the project so as to reap the benefits of exploiting the natural resource and damaging the environment in the worst possible manner.
I am sure there are states in this country which receive sunlight on an average of more than 250 days a year. Why can't the federal agencies and private player look into that prospect so as to tap the only non polluting energy source in the world i.e. sunlight?
I just hope the government sees the light sooner than later and become pragmatic in both deciding about imposing the SOPA and PIPA as well as the energy resources’ choices.

Sagacity is a virtue

The flip side of the "Aidscape" (Public Private Partnership (PPP), USAID) (applications in a developing country):
What can a PPP model in a developed country like the US have common with the same model in a developing nation like India? Plenty! In fact if observed closely, they make two sides of the same coin.
After having created a stir by his announcement in Oct last year Mr. Raj Shah, Administrator USAID has revealed two sea change insights; first involves a surge of new actors over the past 30 years pouring resources into developing countries. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs), cooperatives, faith-based organizations, foundations, corporations, and financial institutions now transfer an enormous chunk of resources to developing countries. Official U.S. development assistance today is dwarfed by these private sector investments in emerging and developing market economies.
The second sea change is a much more recent development: a tightening fiscal environment. The ongoing budget battle looks like it may end in serious cuts to foreign assistance spending that could gravely undermine U.S. global engagement.
What repercussion will this have on the developing countries?
Consider these two scenarios:
More Cooperative Aid:
If the US government decides to involve the private players from the conceptualization to the final evaluation of the project this would result in more flexibity in terms of the aid provided to the developing countries. This shall also result in tapping the interest of the private players which is often left out otherwise in the planning process. The interests and priorities of the private players might result in more avenues for the developing countries in terms of knowledge and resources exchange.
More Flexible Aid:
The opportunities in the private sector are random and spontaneous moving swiftly as opposed to the bureaucratic arrangements in the government. The government functioning is far too rigid and complicated which in turns elongates the implementation of the policies and aid that has been planned. To incorporate on-the-fly provision for the budget shall make it appropriate for the aid to reach the targeted countries early and in a comprehensive manner.
Having said this  in order to fully capitalize on the new “aidscape”, U.S. development agencies must update their partnering mentality. This shall mean adapting to their new role as conveners of partnerships, not as leaders, and reworking the partnering process so it’s able to quickly adapt to a rapidly changing 21st century development landscape.
This shall definitely lead to the inroads of more comprehensive development in this century and for a win-win situation for the aidscape and the benefiting countries. 
 This post has been adopted from the original article by Will McKitterick in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, USAID Tags: , .
To read the original article please click here.