For better or convenient

A quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw states, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Ever since the industrial revolution, cheap, abundant fossil fuels, first coal and then oil, have fuelled humanity's need for bigger, faster and shinier. We have read enough articles about how Americans, with just 5% of the world population consume 25% of the world's energy. Now however, China and India are on track to becoming the largest consumers of energy in the next few decades.

Indians and Chinese who have lived in the United States and brought back new habits with them when they returned home have ignited and fuelled at least part of this new desire for more power in these nations. For those who have not sampled the US lifestyle first hand, western entertainment media and the rapid proliferation of the internet have showed them what they have been missing.

Our parents' generation used to walk to the grocery store, but we take the car or motorcycle. They managed to go through life without an air-conditioner; we have one in every room. They did not expect 24 hour power supply; we do, and we will install lead acid batteries where they made do with candles.

I have always wondered if there is a mechanism to dispose of the batteries after their service life or do they go to the landfill where they pour their chemicals into the earth. As Indians we have admirable levels of reduce, reuse, recycle in our genes. Though the 'reduce' is fast becoming suspect, we still use the PET bottles our soft drinks come in, to carry our water. We recycle all our newspapers and will probably continue to do so as long as there is a market for yesterday's newspaper. I know of families that also save their milk pouches and sell them to a recycler.

The direction we are moving in though is still of concern and here is the primary issue. As we start to do well economically and start to live better, 'better' usually implies more convenience or more status in our personal lives.

For society and the environment, on the other hand, 'more convenient' or 'high status' is usually at loggerheads with 'better'.