The Copenhagen climate summit and its end result of producing no legally binding treaty to curb carbon emissions to mitigate global warming is a stark reminder of our consistent arrogance towards nature and growing hunger for nothing but economic progress. It was sad to see delegates make a mockery of the intensity of the problem called global warming by their petty fights about the developed countries v the developing countries. The need of the hour is a change in our outlook. All our activities today are modelled on economic auditing; focusing solely on bringing down costs. A wonderful solution to this problem would be to replace economic auditing with energy auditing and life cycle analysis. Energy auditing is the process of evaluating the energy flow in a system (as in a building) and striving to cut down energy consumption without affecting outputs negatively. Life cycle analysis a.k.a. cradle-to-grave analysis is the method of evaluating the amount of energy that has gone into making a product at each stage of its making and considering the environmental impacts of the product. These methods not only cut down energy consumption but also make the manufacture of the product a sustainable process.
There is growing interest in a technology called Carbon Capture and Storage, which many hail to be a magical solution to capture carbon dioxide from fossil fuel plants and store it underground, thus mitigating global warming. In this case, it is to be noted that CCS technologies require a lot of energy to implement and run -- up to 40 percent of a power station's capacity. Additionally, if we transport that captured CO2 by truck or ship, those vehicles will require fuel. And, the burning of fossil fuels is what got us into this predicament in the first place. Using LCA and energy audit here, the best solution is to cut down our emissions instead of complicating the situation. Now this is easier said than done.
Akin to the aforementioned use of LCA to figure out that it’s much simpler to curb our emissions than build complex technologies like CCS which enforce unnecessary risks and put extra pressure on the environment, our lives can be restructured to cut down unnecessary sophistications which serve no great purpose but only pile up on carbon emissions. Turning down the brightness levels in our laptops, switching off lights in our rooms while leaving, replacing incandescent bulbs with energy efficient CFLs, using the public transport, saving water, buying locally grown foods, using greener technologies; all of these steps which may seem trivial can make a difference when the entire world changes its outlook and starts to be more benevolent to the planet.
The Indus valley civilisation is a classic example of energy auditing. Their architecture consisted of granaries, warehouses and homes with open courtyards; all of which were built for a specific purpose. This is in stark contrast to today’s world when we place personal luxury above the greater good, building skyscrapers all over the world. This is in no means a way of advocating a return to the old ways of living. But somewhere between personal comfort and environmental impact, a balance has to be struck. If it is struck, the world will be a better place. Thus the best solution to any environmental problem is to try to act in sync with nature.
