Life and Spirituality

http://publicdomainarchive.com/category/landscapes/ M other Earth has a varied topography across the globe from fertile plains, arid lands, deserts, hills and mountains. Some parts are covered with snow while others are grasslands and forests. On this dwells a huge variety of life ranging from tiny bacteria to humans with Mother Earth providing food and sustenance for all. A huge role is played by forests in keeping the planet healthy. While forests provide food and shelter for many wild animals and birds, they are also a source of energy and building materials for humans. Over the last century and a half, as human population has grown exponentially, humans have caused huge damage to forests. Some have been cleared for agriculture and others to utilize wood for construction and industrial activity without replacing with new trees. While both fossil fuel emissions and deforestation contributes to climate change, it is the belief of this author, as explained in sev

A Custard Apple Tree W hile many forests on the planet have been removed over the last century for various human needs, many now realize that it was a mistake. Forests are an essential cover of Mother Earth, support life, help to stabilize climate extremes and absorb excess carbon year after year. Their fallen leaves help to improve fertility of soils. Aside from all this, forests are beautiful and while food feeds the body, forests feed the soul. The need is being felt acutely now to restore as much forest cover on the planet as possible and such efforts are underway in many parts of the world that have governments and citizens who are environmentally conscious and socially responsible. It may be pointed out that nature on its own replants forests on barren land that have some moisture over time if they are not disrupted by humans or much grazing. However because the natural process is a slow one and climate change needs more urgent, human effort is needed. Whil

C limate changes and global warming do appear to be taking place due to man-made causes but hitherto it is possible that the cause of it all may have been incorrectly identified by a majority of experts. Statistical correlations can mislead and it appears that the assigned cause - carbon dioxide emissions - may be less relevant to the issue at hand than has been presumed. While a minority had expressed dissent from the start, they were not heeded, perhaps because of socio-political and psychological reasons that fall outside the realm of scientific reasoning. It seems, humans believe more readily what they wish to believe. The simple and straightforward cause to climate changes aside from natural cycles may be a a reduction of forest and tree cover on the planet over the last century rather than minute increases, in percentage terms, of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Far larger quantities of another greenhouse gas - water vapor- have been present in the atm

Photo from Nainital with inspiring text A few days ago when I received news that another college mate of mine ( a year junior to me) Avinash Chander had risen to the highest position in a most prestigious government organization of India ( the Defence Research and Development Organization), my mind went back to the professional career of some of my friends as well as mine. From amongst my friends those who joined an organization, national or international, corporate or governmental it was those who had stuck to a single organization who rose eventually to either very senior positions in these organizations or to their very top becoming famous not just in the countries they worked in but also around the world. We were all graduates of one of the prestigious schools of India, the IIT at Delhi.   I too have headed some organizations towards the end of my professional career but these are not very large ones. The main reason is that I have not stuck to any one organization, pr