Samarajiva on Montage: How mobile phones can save Elephant pass?


Posted on September 8, 2008  /  0 Comments

Rohan Samarajiva, Executive Director, LIRNEasia argues mobiles (and other ICT tools) play a definite role in the climate change – or rather preventing it. That will decide whether the future generations will see Elephant Pass or not. Irrespective of the outcome of the war, it might be six foot under water soon unless global warming is stopped.

Extracts:

I will not get into the debate about who should cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, conceding that what little Sri Lanka does will not affect the outcome decisively. Instead, I will simply look at one small area that will help us to reduce our carbon footprint (a good thing to do in any case) and also improve the quality of our lives. Even if it makes no measurable impact on climate change and the waters will still rise, the actions that I propose will improve the quality of our lives in the time that we have before retreating to the hills.

Making the economy sustainable in the context of climate change is a large task. However, the near ubiquity of telephones in Sri Lanka offers us one easy place to start on reducing the harmful effects on the environment. If government and non-government actors make a concerted attempt to provide information and related services that will reduce the need for transport of humans and goods not only will the earth benefit from reduced greenhouse gas emissions, the quality of life of the citizens will improve. It is good to talk about Kyoto, but better to do practical things that will yield results in the short term.

(The complete article appears in the latest issue of ‘Montage’-now available at all leading bookshops.)

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