Yesterday at the World Sustainable Development Summit in Delhi, someone talked about revolution. We are in need of a revolution, he said.
But who shall be the rebels?
Us who are here in Delhi?
Someone referred to Gandhi, saying that we need to “be the change that we want to see.”
How many of us here in the conference hall came to the Raj Hotel with sustainable transportation? In an electric car? On a bicycle?
How many of us have started to “be the change,” and not just talk about the need for it?
Someone called for “a clear vision”.
Who has it? Anyone here?
Who will provide it?
With 1,000 brilliant minds gathered in Delhi… – why is it so hard?
Could we be bolder?
Can we be more ambitious?
Someone yesterday said, frustrated: “We must stop carbon emission today!”
But that particular wish was only articulated once the whole day, by one single person, one individual voice.
Why is it not roaring out from the conference hall?
Can we not allow ourselves to raise our voices?
[Note: During the whole conference, only two speakers – Lord John Prescott from the United Kingdom, and Bittu Sehgal from India – did so. They raised their voices, and did that brilliantly, I think.]
If you click on their names you can watch the videos of their presentations and see if you agree.
Can we not ask scientist, engineers, developers to forget about copyright concerns when it comes to this matter of stopping the carbon-emissions?
Can we not create ONE huge website for humanity that has the ambition to gather all good forces online, highlights the best ideas, gives each of us at an individual level, as well as companies and local governments, tools to reduce emission?
Where is Google, Facebook, Apple, and all the other Internet entrepreneurs and pioneers in all this?
Aren’t they, the CEOs of these huge money-making machines, concerned with the future of their own children?
Why is no one here talking about what we could do to REMOVE CO2 from the atmosphere?
Why is no one talking about creating a consumer label which would enable consumers to ‘vote’, and favourise those companies which do things right, because they are able to select those products which are produced in the environmentally correct and co2-neutral way?
The global wind mill industry created such a label a year ago, WindMade™, an initiative leading to the first global consumer label identifying products and companies made with wind energy. But, unfortunately, as far as I know, it hasn’t really taken off – and why only wind-energy? From a consumer perspective we need a label which takes a CO2-neutral-perspective, not just a wind-perspective.
[Note: I found out later that such initiatives actually exist. For instance, the Carbon Disclosure Project]
Lastly, but maybe most important:
Who will be that spokesperson for humanity who can bring a clear vision forward?
Who will be that ‘Decarbonising Messias’ of 2013?
Pachauri? Mandela? Dalai Lama?
Al Gore?
Peter Gabriel?
Or someone, as was mentioned at the conference, do we need someone who’s more young and “sexy”? Or rebelious?
Hm…
There are just my thoughts after Day 1 at DSDS 2013, the World Sustainable Development Summit in Delhi. Will be back with more.
Yours,
Mik
Below are some photos which you are free to use. You can click on them to see a larger version, and if you need high resolution versions of them for print, contact me.
