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"What have you done for the planet?"
Ben Verwaayen, Kripi Badonia
Last night I was fortunate to attend the Alcatel-Lucent India family day.
A magnificent event with some 4000 people. Part of the show was a dancing contest for children. An 11 year old, Kripi Badonia, really impressed me with her courage and enthusiasm. So I went to congratulate her. She asked if she could interview me for her school club.
Of course, no problem! I had done that day already many, so what could an 11 year old do on top of that?
But I was wrong. She was asking the really tough questions. She started about the Alcatel-Lucent commitment around climate change. Not difficult, we have a pretty good record and much more to come, but then she looked me straight in the eye and asked: what have YOU done for the planet?
Wow, go and answer that one…
I think we need to send Kripi to Copenhagen for the World Climate Change Conference. The world needs a result and the talent of kids like Kripi to get right to the heart of the matter is not what global conferences are known for.
The WEF is a multi stakeholders platform and that is a great part of its unique attraction. People from business, politics and academia, from NGOs and governments, they all engage in dialogue.
That gives a great blend of views and sometimes can clarify misunderstandings.
But it is of course a far cry from the directness of Kripi.
Yes, we are having great policy discussions at the summit , but what have we done lately for the planet??
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14 Responses to "What have you done for the planet?"
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Nice blog, we should ask ourselves that question more often. It made me also curious: What did you answer her?
A bold question deserves an answer, not only to the brilliant 11 year old Kripi Badonia, but also to your readers.
Great to see the blog. BTW what was your answer to Kripi?
Regards,
Bharath S
For people asking or wondering what Ben answered to Kripi, here is what he told her:
I could have told her I ride my bicycle 18 miles each way to work everyday of the year in Arizona. I live in a grid tied solar home and eat vegitarian which is 10 times less energy and 100 times less water than animal based diets.
I also give talks and teach classes so others can learn and tell us what they do. It’s hard for a CEO making millions to do a lot but every little bit helps.
More evidence are coming out showing that global Warming is not man made and was indeed a scam to pass the carbon tax.
It shouldn’t stop us to have better habits and there many things to be done regarding polution but man just has nothing to do with the global warming. It is due to the sun who was hotter and warmed the earth and that created a higher release of carbon dioxyd. Now the sun is quite inactive and the temperatures are falling already.
I’m not an expert, so I hope my Alcatel-Lucent colleagues who are in charge of energy efficiency programs, or some of our blog readers, will join this discussion, but from what I read and understood, there is a scientific consensus on climate change (in the sense of warming) and the impact of human activities as the main cause. In addition, for readers interested in the debate and to try – if possible! – to present the different sides of the story, I will reference both the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) website and the Wikipedia article on the global warming controversy.
As quoted by JFK “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” We need to ask this question to ourselves big on a bigger scale, not just the Fellow Americans, but to the Fellow Earthians. We can always start with small steps. Each and every person on our mother earth can contribute to save our planet. Let us start with a small step like, all electronic equipments consume 10% of energy in standby mode. SO PLEASE remember to power off your laptop or any other electronic instrument when not in use. And then we will be in a position to say “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
To all the global warming naysayers out there, view this interesting piece of footage from Bell Labs. Human beings have known about the greenhouse effect for years, and as one person intelligently informed.. it’s not regional temperature variations alone that you need to be concerned with.. but the rise in sea level.
Remember, three quarters of our planet is covered with water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lgzz-L7GFg&feature=related
We should give a simple answer to the girl, by introducing examples of what we do everyday to limit bad impact on the planet. It is like we do not use nylon bags, we turn off unnecessary electricity, we utilize one side printed paper to take note… Simple answer would give the girl a picture to write for her school club. And maybe the school students would read and follow.
To help I bicycle to and from work, use only LEAD lights and have a solar GRID tied home. Of course I’m in the Sunniest place on the planet too.
Hi,Interesting and valid points you raise in your iceartl. I am non-technical and participating in the initial investigations into Femto cells for Optus in Australia with AL representative in Australia Trent Pearce. I wonder if you’ve solved femto use in situations that occur in Australia where vast distances can be involved and populations are spreadout. We’re wondering about how to set up customer facing Femto service qualification aspects. Can you comment? Eg. similar to checking cust address proximity to a telephone exchange before saying ADSL is suitable we figure Femto backhaul needs to be service qualified for ability to handle data downloads.If cust experience is vital then its pointless saying yes this is good for voice calls but you are too far to send data.Thanks.
Thank you for your comment. Trent will contact you directly – best regards.