Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Insurance Companies backing the destruction of this planet's environment

The insurance industry plays a major role in the creation of climate chaos and the rising disasters that are being experienced by the communities they are supposed to protect. That is why it is ironic when insurance companies recently gathered in San Francisco for a conference and they called it `Risk World’. They have actually been taking a lot of risk with the well-being of this world. Big insurers know that their role in the climate crisis has not gone unnoticed. It is about time that the world has held insurance companies responsible for the damage that they have been causing to the climate situation. Let them be reminded about the ashes of all those homes and cities that were destroyed by wildfires in California and Colorado. Some of these companies blow their trumpets saying that they care about communities and that they are being stewards of this planet. Their actions are actually going the other way. They would rather insure fossil fuels than protect the climatic chaos. They have to start learning how to avoid fossil fuels instead of abandoning communities. They say they are in the business of risk management; then, let them start by insuring this planet’s future. Some companies are in the business of gaining profit from the destruction of climate. It is about time that they take climate action to keep the temperatures from rising to below 1.5ºC and protect community health. Insurers have to stop risking this world in the name of profit and greed. As of now, eighteen insurers have ruled out their backing the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline. The clock is ticking. We have roughly about a decade to end the fossil fuel expansion drives. So, plans for new oil pipelines like Trans Mountain are a reckless threat to humanity. The very idea of insurance companies covering this dangerous project is so absurd — the companies that are to cover damages in the case of disasters are actually supporting the world’s worst unfolding disaster — in real time. The Trans Mountain pipeline stretches seven hundred miles across Western Canada and the current plan would triple the pipeline’s oil capacity. Tar sands are one of the most destructive fossil fuels on the planet: they release thrice as much greenhouse gas pollution levels as conventional oil. It is critical that construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline is halted in its tracks. A powerful coalition has to be built of communities that would challenge the business corporate power behind these pipelines. The Canadian government has taken a wise decision to stop using further funds from the public domain for this over budgeted pipeline project. Yet, there are corporate that would muster loan guarantee up to ten billion Canadian dollars. Despite the massive threat to clean drinking water and a healthy climate, construction of this destructive pipeline expansion project is still planned to move forward.

Friday, December 22, 2023

Banks are contributing to the deterioration of this planet’s climate

Big banks do not realise that they are contributing heavily to the crashing of the earth’s climate by financing the worst fossil fuel criminals. Life on earth is in peril. The biggest solution to preserve life on this planet is by curbing or restricting fossil fuels’ usage. Humanity could survive a very big threat this way. Yet, time is running out faster than we would like to think. We need to act fast and act with prudence. It is the big banks that are not helping by financing organisations that do not believe in keeping fossil fuels in the ground and stopping the spread of poison on this planet. The world’s leading bankers have to learn better money habits and avoid the funding of organisations that are hell bent on destroying the earth’s climate. Since the past seven years, bankers such as Bank of America have funded over two hundred billion dollars in financing of fossil fuels. Who is the main beneficiary? Exxon Mobil who cares two hoots about the survival of our climate and our ozone layers. Companies like these are doing their most in hurting our climate and our communities. Another example is the financing of Formosa Plastics’ twelve-billion dollar petrochemical complex which is sure to double the toxic emissions in one of the highest regions of cancer rates in the United States of America. Bank executives could re-strategise and decide on ditching fossil fuels and climate-destroying agents like Formosa Plastics and Exxon Mobil. Bank of America tries to educate its target audience by promoting its `better money habits’ on social media channels while, in reality, it is helping finance destructive industries. We have to be committed to the future of our climate and our ozone layers by ending expansion of fossil fuel usage and withdrawing support for the petrochemical complexes.

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

What would the earth do without the Mountains?

One of the greatest and most extraordinary features of our planet Earth is the mountain. It has always retained its majesty, regardless of the number of times man has climbed it. God spoke to man on a mountain. The highest range above land is in the Himalayas in the form of Mount Everest and the deepest under an ocean is found in the Pacific Mariana Trench. `Himalaya’ in Sanskrit means `the house of snow’. The Indian sub-continent collided with the mainland of Eurasia and forced the Himalayas up at the point of impact. This was a major continental drift. The sea-beds and the land masses of this world are on huge tectonic plates which are in constant motion over the surface of this oval globe. The Atlantic Ocean is also growing wider at the rate of about a cople of centimetres or three-quarters of an inch, every year. Mountains are formed by the crust of the Earth breaking up into large blocks. Some blocks get to move up while others sink downwards. The Jura Mountains between France and Switzerland were formed by a process of folding just like the crust of the Earth being compressed laterally as a pile of blankets will do when pushed from either side. Rain and wind, cold and heat have weathered these huge rocks and broken them up to smoothen up their contours so that their jagged rock would be rounded off as hills. The craggier and sharper shapes of mountains suggest that they are newer ones. Volcanic action is a process by which matter from within the Earth is forced up to the surface, by heat. Most geologists have classified a mountain as a landform that rises at least a thousand feet or more above its surrounding areas. A mountain range is a series or chain of mountains that are close together. Mountains are quite useful for the well-being of humans as they are a storehouse of water. Many rivers have their source in the glaciers in the mountains. Reservoirs are made and the water is harnessed for the use of people. Volcanoes have played a significant part in the formation of the seas as they have brought water to the surface from deep within the earth and aided in releasing oxygen. You can see this in all rocks and it makes up nearly half their weight. The formation of a volcano begins when the rock melts within the earth, as far down as hundred miles. The melted rock is called magma. It releases gas when it melts and the mix of this magma and gas slowly rises towards the surface. The magma finds a weaker spot in the surface and it bursts out. The main volcanic ranges in this world are concentrated between New Zealand and Indonesia in the Pacific Ocean to Japan and to Alaska. It is known as the `ring of fire’. Almost sixty-two per cent of the active volcanoes in this world are along the plate margins of the Pacific Ocean. Mountains are the water towers of the world. They provide almost sixty percent of all freshwater resources for our planet. At least, half of the world's population depends on the mountain ecosystem services to survive; not only for water but also for food and clean energy. Why do mountains matter in the scheme of things on earth? Major cities such as Rio de Janeiro, New York, Nairobi and Tokyo rely almost exclusively on freshwater from mountains. Mountains are beneficial to man in a variety of ways. For example, mountains retain water. Water from the mountains is also used for cultivation and hydroelectric power generation. In the mountains, paragliding, hang gliding, river rafting and skiing are all popular activities. Mountains provide water for agriculture, food, hydroelectricity, shelter and fresh water. As temperatures decrease with altitude, mountains affect the distribution of snow and ice cover through ecosystems. For example, the slow release of water from snow melting from mountains can provide freshwater throughout the year as it flows into streams and recharges aquifers. Mountains attract around twenty percent of global tourism and they host nearly one-quarter of all terrestrial biodiversity. They are home to many of the foods that come to our tables, such as rice, potatoes, tomatoes and barley. Available records indicate that glaciers in mountain ranges around the world are retreating and disappearing due to climate change. At least six-hundred glaciers have disappeared completely over the past decades; affecting water supplies relied on by billions living downstream. For example, in Pakistan, water originating from the Hindu Kush Himalayas provides eighty percent of irrigation for the Indus Basin, where food is grown for one hundred and eighty million people. Climate change is triggering disasters through avalanches, mud and rock slides which tumble downstream, stripping bare forests, flooding communities and populations. Infectious diseases such as malaria will spread at higher altitudes in the tropics as a result of rising temperatures and climate change, affecting millions of people living in the mountains.

Saturday, September 2, 2023

Lee Child Bad Luck and Trouble: A Review

This is a great narrative laced with revenge as Jack Reacher wants an eye for an eye. The plot is about seven of his friends who were once military cops. Reacher had once formed an elite unit with them. He receives a message through a coded bank transaction from one of those called Neagley which is a SOS as one of them is found dead in mysterious circumstances. It is later learnt when they start exploring that three more are dead. It is assumed that were all murdered but by people unknown to the remaining four. Reacher wants payback as it was their motto during the paramilitary unit regime that `people did not mess with special investigators’. Even though their strength has waned during the years that have passed, their philosophy has not perished. It is later learnt that all four of them were killed after being tied at their ankles and wrists and thrown out of a helicopter. Reacher and Company start investigating from California to Las Vegas in Nevada. They make mistakes and start correcting them as they edge close to the answers to their questions. Through this journey, Reacher rekindles an old affair with one of his flames from that unit. With their uncanny skills of exploring, the outline of a conspiracy starts to take shape. They have to make a choice – either to save friends or avenge dead friends or risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Reacher does not give up, even in a world of bad luck and trouble, as he turns the tables on his foes.

Thursday, August 31, 2023

The Teaching Essence of the Bhagavad Gita

The Teaching Essence of the Bhagavad Gita Brahmavidyāyāṁ Yogaśāstre Srīkṛṣṇārjunasaṁvāde These words arise at the end of each chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Those who do not know Sanskrit might not have even detected this. Those who know Sanskrit just take it for granted and circumvent it as something that needs to be recited at the end of each chapter, whatever the reason may be. But there is no unnecessary word in the Bhagavad Gita. There is nothing that can be circumvented or considered as preparatory, just to be buffed over; even if there is an illustrious apostrophe—śrībhagavān-uvāca—that also has a meaning in itself. What does the Bhagavad Gita teach? It teaches three things: Brahmavidyāyāṁ Yogaśāstre Srīkṛṣṇārjunasaṁvāde. It is repeatedly drummed into our ears. The commentaries on the Gita say that it teaches karma yoga, raja yoga, bhakti yoga and jnana yoga, a synthesis of yoga, the art of living; and what not! But the Gita itself tells us what it teaches by a colophon (a publisher’s emblem on the title page of a book) which is in three words only: Brahmavidyāyāṁ Yogaśāstre Srīkṛṣṇārjunasaṁvāde. Actually, these three words mean theory, practice, and realisation. There is theoretical physics, practical physics and there is the technological realisation of it. Theoretical physics is the advanced conceptualisation of the deep structure of physical reality, in whatever form. Then, with this insight gained through a methodological study of the constituents of matter, it becomes more acquiescent and one can handle it more easily. An unknown object is fearful. The more we know it and the more we become intimate with it, the easier it is for us to handle it, for any given purpose. Brahma-vidya is the science of the Absolute—the system of thinking which is made possible to understand by itself at any time, telling us about the total structure of things. To conceive the absolute is to, at once, take into consideration, in our processes of thought, all things connected with the object of thought—not only the inner constituents of the object as such, but also the relations that the object bears to other objects. The reality of a particular thing is not only in itself; it is also in that which determines it, restricts it, influences it, conditions it, defines it and makes it what it is. Every individual is an entity by itself. But this ‘being an entity by itself' is not so simple a matter as it appears on the surface. As humans, we appear to be totally secluded and we stand by ourselves, unrelated to external things. We can be in our own rooms and unconnected to things. But, we are not unconnected to things. The physical atmosphere, the social atmosphere and the psychological atmosphere establish us. So, even if we are alone in our rooms, we do not forget that our individuality is habituated by the presence of these social laws, of government and of the thoughts of people, in general. Hence, our individuality is only a fantasy and total individuality by itself is not a possibility. There is a relation of ‘A' to ‘B'. If we say that an object is red in colour, it is not a self-governing perception of the redness of that object. It is, at the same time, a characteristic that we draw between the redness and other colours which are not red. If there was only redness everywhere, we would not be able to observe the redness of things. There is a merit in the characteristic of a particular object which is red. That distinction lies in the fact that it is not about what is not red. The negative influence is exerted on this object. Our not being animals is a conditioning factor even if we are human beings. The existence that is outside us is not actually outside us. It just influences us. We have to check out into the structural pattern of the object in its relation to atmospheric conditions outside, which establishes it in quality as well as in quantity, so that to think in an absolute fashion would be to recognise the total structure of the universe even in an atom or to see the whole government in a single official. We can summon the entire government, if necessary, though no official can be called the government. In a similar manner, any object can draw sustenance from everything in the universe. Brahma-vidya is the art and the science of educating oneself in the manner of correctly perceiving the world, including one's own self, in the totality of relations, so that no partial vision of things can be regarded as an authorisation to the concept of the Absolute. Mostly, our perceptions are partial. They are limited to certain conditions. It is a condition related to a marketplace, a railway station, an airport, an office or a house. These are the things that limit our thoughts but we do not rise above the outward nature of these conditions. The human mind is restricted in terms of being sensor receptive. It is basically external in its nature and total perception is neither external nor internal. It is a blend of both the external and the internal, so that we are in the middle, between our perceiving capacity and the object that is being perceived. In a total perception of things, we are not within ourselves; we have transcended ourselves, nor are we in the object; we have transcended the object. We are in the middle as the blend—a blending consciousness which brings about a harmony between the seer and the seen or between any two faces of reality. In all situations, there are two aspects: the cause or the causative factor and the effect upon which the cause has an impact. It is very difficult for us to see the relation between cause and effect. Mostly, we see the cause as one thing and the effect as another. Brahma-vidya is a complicated subject. It is not just repeating of some words of the Upanishads or the Brahma Sutras or even the Gita. It is the entry of the consciousness into the very importance of the teaching, which is suggested in many of the verses of the Bhagavad Gita itself. मत्तः परतरं नान्यत् किञ्चिदस्ति (७.७); अहं आत्म गुडाकेश सर्वभूताशयस्थितः (१०.२०); पश्य मे पार्थ रूपाणी शतशोऽथ सहस्रशः (११.५); दिव्यं दादामि ते चक्षुः पश्य मे योगं ऐश्वरं (11.8); ज्ञेयं यत् तत् प्रवाक्ष्यामि यज ज्ञानत्वमृतं अश्नुते, अनादिमत परं ब्रह्म न सत् तन नसाद उच्यते (१३.१२); सर्वतः- पाणिपादं तत् सर्वतोऽक्षीशिरोमुखं, सर्वतःश्रुतिमल लोके सर्वम् आवृत्य तिष्ठति (१३.१३): The Total has eyes everywhere, has feet everywhere, has hands everywhere because it is neither a subject nor an object. In the total perception of things, we are not ourselves nor are we other than what we are. We are something beyond both what we are and what is other than what we are. This is the final import and learning from Brahma-vidya aspect of the Bhagavad Gita. Theoretical physics has to lead to applied physics. What is the purpose of simply knowing things? Knowledge has to be applied in practical life. Similarly, this Brahma-vidya which is the knowledge of the integrality of things has to be put into daily implementation in our activities and gestures, in our biases and prejudices, in our desires, attractions and in our repulsions. In every situation, this Brahma-vidya has to be there. We cannot be whole only at some time and a fraction at some other time. Will we be whole persons in our office and only a percentage in our houses? We are whole everywhere but if we behave in different ways at different times and convert ourselves into fractions of human personality; we are not living a wholesome life. It is not a holistic approach to life. Brahma-vidya is to be applied in the Yoga Shastra. It is the daily application of our consciousness, our mind and our attitude to anything in the world in terms of the lesson that we have learnt through Brahma-vidya. What is the purpose of this practice of yoga in terms of the wisdom that we gain through Brahma-vidya? It is Kṛṣṇārjunasaṁvāda: the conversation of the soul with God. Kṛṣṇārjunasaṁvāda is the conversation of the soul with the Absolute. The soul speaks to the Absolute. Arjuna's imagining the mighty Krishna is symbolic of the soul imagining the Cosmic Being in its daily life. Who can meet the Absolute? Who can talk with God, unless we are burnt and blazing in the purity of our spirit as God Himself is? Unless we have transcended the limitations of flesh and bone and the limitations of the psyche which are conditioned socially and politically; unless we are able to lift our consciousness above these limitations, how will we converse with God? Who can dare approach God when there is no communicating medium between ourselves and God? The wavelength of our individuality and the wavelength of God are in such contrast that there is no mingling of these two factors. The radio station of God is sending messages. We are unable to receive any message from God because our receiving sets here have a very weak wavelength and we cannot receive those messages. The Yoga Shastra or the practice of yoga is nothing but the tuning of the wavelength of our receiving sets to the wavelength of the message that comes from God's broadcasting station. This is Yoga Shastra and the purpose of this is to contact God directly. There is no use of thinking about God, praying to God, feeling God and imagining that one day we will realise God. It is necessary to confront Him every day, if it is true that He is present in every atom. In every atom, He is vibrating just like the sun is vibrating in the solar system. If that is the case, He is to be contacted. God is here and now and not an afterwards or a somewhere or someone. He is without these limitations of concept of space and time. Contact with God is contact with timelessness and with eternity. Such is the importance of the final teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, where the soul converses with God in its realisation of the perfection that it has to achieve finally through the Yoga Shastra. This is the practice of the discipline necessary in this world in the light of the knowledge of Brahma-vidya, which is the theoretical education that we receive of how the world is made. First, we have to know; then, we have to do and then we have to realise. A similar reference is made in the Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. It is not enough if we merely see and know, but we have to enter into it. It is necessary for us to enter into God in our daily lives. The entry into God's existence every day is the living of the divine life and we should not fear that this is a very hard thing. Who can enter into God every day? Where is God? Is He in some unimaginable infinity? It is nothing of the kind. Sarvataḥ pāṇipādaṁ tat sarvatokṣiśiromukham, sarvataḥ śrutimal loke sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati (13.13); mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti (7.7): Outside God, nothing exists. If that is the case, what is the distance between us and God? Distance is abolished. It is a distance-less and timeless contact. That is possible for us, provided that we open the gates of our personality, open the windows to the sunshine of the Supreme Being that is illuminating us perpetually and melt our egos, which affirm that “I also exist together with God”. The biblical fall of Satan is nothing but the story of the affirmation of the ego in the presence of God: “If you are there, I am also there.” The devotee says, “God, Thou art, but I am also there to contemplate about you.” That devotee should not be there at all. Let that devotee melt and then God possesses him. The ocean enters into the rivers and the world melts into the consciousness which is both now and here. The Bhagavad Gita is a Brahma-vidya (knowledge), a Yoga Shastra and Srīkṛṣṇārjunasaṁvāda. It is a theoretical understanding of the structure of the cosmos, the practice of yoga and the daily contact with God in our practical affairs - which is true divine life.

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Big Corporate Companies are failing our Forests

A giant corporate such as Procter & Gamble is literally failing our forests. It is neither helping nor safeguarding the forests nor is it protecting human rights in the past few years. The decision makers in this company are doing nothing to stop the destruction of forests and human lives; all for their short-term profits. It is time they raised an alarm and woke their conscience to put their policies as well as their money where their sustainable brands claim to be. There is a solution for this wake-up call. The calendars can be jammed. It can be done by sending thousands of calendar invites for events that are not likely to happen; this is a way of making companies such as Procter & Gamble and its leaders understand that they cannot be let off the hook until they decide to alter their policies and act humane. The company has been criticized widely for its use of palm oil and palm kernel oil suppliers who are responsible for the deforestation of many tropical rainforests. In these cases, extraction of resources is responsible for releasing the carbon which is stored in the forests and ecosystems into the atmosphere, disturbing the ozone layer and creating a greenhouse gas effect.

Saturday, July 29, 2023

Certain Banks are pouring Gasoline on the Climate Fire

Receipts are showing the numbers that in the past six years, close to sixty banks have contributed almost five trillion dollars into fossil fuel and such kind of financing is surely wrecking the ozone layer and the climate with greenhouse gas effects while violating indigenous rights and, above all, fueling forest fires all around the world. There is no doubt that banks have been literally pouring gasoline on the climate fire. If you want a specific example, Chase Manhattan is a primary one. They have poured money into Exxon by financing them and the figure is almost fifteen billion dollars. They have funded TC Energy with another twenty-three billion dollars. They have stuffed another five billion dollars down the throat of Gazprom of Russia. More than twenty-one months ago, all world leaders assembled for the United Nations’ Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Their main idea was to accelerate action on climate change deterioration. By March 2022, it has come to light that though several banks have made big commitments merely on paper, they went on and contributed seven hundred and forty two billion dollars into fossil fuels alone. Banks like Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase increased their financing for fossil fuel in the past year. This does not sound like an action from banks that care about the health of the planet’s climate. Whatever the case may be, time is running out to take meaningful action to slow down this climate change crisis as it has already been escalated by such irresponsible bankers who are only concerned about bringing in profits from fossil fuels being bankrolled, deforestation and abuse of human rights.