Cheaper products carry a hidden price tag

In a free market economy the incentive to externalize costs is so huge that the seller and the buyer get into an unapologetic understanding to get away with it.

Cheaper products are a marketing gimmick. Enticing nonetheless, deep discounts on popular brands release pent-up demand too. Less expensive means people buy more than what they really need or want. ‘Cheapness' has been an enigma. While one avoids buying anything considered 'cheap', striving for cheaper and cheaper stuff remains alluring. So much so that after a real bargain the stuff is showcased to friends and family for guessing its real 'price'. Lowest possible price paid for a quality product is exhibited as an individual's shopping prowess.    
 
'Cheapness is an illusion', says Michael Carolan, who teaches sociology at the Colorado State University, USA. The real cost of low price is alarmingly high because low price neither reflects the real cost of production nor accounts for all (environmental) factors contributing to the production process. Be it cheap food or free plastic bags and an affordable car or a smart computer, the true cost of the product is not paid by the buyer but by the society at large. 

The shopper may not pay at the time of purchase but eventually one has to, as initially externalized cost and risks of production finally get socialized. Given the egregious economy wherein the sellers and buyers do not fully pay for their good fortune, it is left for the future generations to foot the inflated bills. The cumulative cost to future generations, a UN study estimated in 2008, could be as high as US$2.2 trillion on account of environmental damages caused by some 3,000 largest publicly traded corporations in the world.

Come to think of it, cheap in itself could be terribly expensive in the long run. But in a free market economy the incentive to externalize costs is so huge that both, the seller and the buyer, get into an unapologetic understanding to get away with it. It offers a comparative advantage to both, however, at tremendous cost to those who have to pay for it now or later. Carolan questions the economics status quo, arguing that a system that socializes costs for the benefit of few can do little to actually enhance well-being for the majority.

Cheaponomics is a revelation! Drawing on a wide range of examples, Carolan unfolds the compulsive economy of cheaper goods which create a false sense of consumer celebration by making large social and income inequalities tolerable. Cheaper products reduce choice but encourage over consumption, adding to urban chaos through mass wastage. Over-consumption is at the root of present-day crises, from growing urban trash to mounting atmospheric emissions.  

Carolan concludes an engaging story with a set of practical recommendations. Governments ought to incentivize accurate pricing and enable affordability as the key to price rationalization in the market. Real cost may make goods expensive in the short term but not over the long term as these would be designed to last longer and avoid wastage. Affordability is about enabling, about capabilities and holistic well-being rather than the shallow freedom of cheap goods!

Cheaponomics
by Michael Carolan
Earthscan/Routledge, UK
Extent: 320, Price: £15.99

Blood stains on the fabric of life

Will the market become cosmos, leaving no alternative other than being sucked into its constantly expanding frontier?

There are two reasons for the garment industry in Bangladesh to flourish - cheap labor and a favorable climate that is conducive to producing unique quality of fabric. While climate is what nature has bestowed on the deltaic nation, cheap labor has been a consequence of labor exploitation at the globalized market place. Working for wages as low as Rs 10-15 per hour, some ten million impoverished men, women and children toil under inhuman conditions within some 5,000 garment factories in the ‘unlivable city’ of Dhaka to keep the country’s political economy afloat. While 10 per cent of parliamentarians are factory owners, as many as half have some financial interest in the garment industry.  

The irony is that while the leaders of the country have worked overtime to protect the industry that fetches 80 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange, they have exhibited uncanny insensitivity towards those upon whose tireless work their own well-being depends. The net result is that a vast pool of skilled and semi-skilled workforce has become victims of political apathy and economic violence. Song of the Shirt is a spine chilling account of the faceless millions who have remained trapped in the cycle of industrialization, de-industrialization and re-industrialization that the unsuspecting weavers of Bengal have gone through. Delving into historical narratives, Jeremy Seabrook brings to light Britain’s coercive trade policy which while protecting textile factories in Lancashire had reduced the weavers of Bengal to abject misery. 

The misery has persisted nonetheless; the post-independence reindustrialization has only been a caricature of peoples’ longing for sufficiency and security. Unlike the textile works of Lancashire who could retreat into their traditional past following the closure of textile mills, the workforce in Dhaka has only watery misery of floods and cyclones to fall back upon. If cheap labor appears anywhere else in the world, the work flying away will force their descent into destitution. With the trade unions having been systematically weakened, collective power to protect the workforce from economic violence doesn’t exist. 

Travelling through the cities, into the factories and across the lives of people who weave the economy of Bangladesh, Seabrook provides painful details of their shattered present and an equally uncertain future. Millions who migrate to escape the endless cycle of floods and cyclone soon find themselves captive inside the flammable buildings in the apparel capital. It is a tragic irony that in the last decade, at least 500 workers, mostly women, have been claimed by fire accidents. Those who escape water get greeted by fire! Song of the Shirt is a poignant tale of hopeless illusion and unending exploitation which sustains itself on an imagined edifice of affluence amidst overcrowding, violence and degraded living conditions. 

Written with passion and anguish, Song of the Shirt is a painstaking work that narrates the untold story of a society that has been in perpetual transition for last two hundred years.  Rich in detail, Jeremy Seabrook leaves the reader with moral predicament as well as an uncomfortable question: will the market become cosmos, leaving no alternative other than being sucked into its constantly expanding frontier? 

The Song of the Shirt 
by Jeremy Seabrook
Navayana, New Delhi
Extent: 288, Price: Rs 495
(http://navayana.org/product/the-song-of-the-shirt/)

Getting the most out of what we have!

In a world where growing knowledge confronts as much ignorance, the idea of scarcity offers clues on managing our lives better during abundance.

When an economist and a psychologist come together to undertake an intellectual endeavor, the outcome shatters many myths about everyday living. Together they manage to merge academic rigor to explain the most fundamental problems in all walks of life viewed through the science of scarcity, which the authors claim is still in the making. The lonely are lonely, dieters are plump and busy are busy because they are in the ‘scarcity trap’ and lack the capacity to organize their lives.  

Scarcity captures every mind but the authors stretch the notion of fiscal scarcity to include social scarcity and cognitive scarcity as well as scarcity of time and calories to name a few. The multiple implications of scarcity not only make us dumber but cloud our cognitive abilities to come on top. Far from making people more effective, as many would believe, scarcity leaves us with reduced fluid intelligence and more impulsive actions. Not without reason, scarcity leads us to borrow and pushes us deeper into scarcity. Using stories from daily existence and studies from diverse social settings, Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir conclude that the feeling of ‘less’ distorts our vision and judgement. 

Scarcity is loaded with fresh insights, helping the reader pull comparable moments out of one’s own experience. In a world where growing knowledge confronts as much ignorance, the idea of scarcity offers clues on managing our lives better during abundance such that there is no slackness when scarcity confronts us. Scarcity can make us wiser provided trade-off thinking is thoughtfully applied. Afterall, scarcity is largely an outcome of environmental conditions that can be managed. Scarcity should make us experts, even if in a limited manner.

Don’t we all become experts when it comes to managing scarce space in our suitcases before undertaking a journey? Mullainathan and Shafir wonder why can’t this expertise help the poor know the value of a dollar, the busy the value of an hour, and dieters the value of a calorie? In a way, the idea of scarcity offers good news because it can help us organize our lives better and design efficient systems around us. Because, like poverty scarcity is unlikely to go away as abundance and scarcity co-exist in an unholy alliance.  The trouble with scarcity is that it not only captures the mind but perpetuates itself.    

Scarcity is a real page turner, overflowing with fresh insights and simple suggestions to transform the way we live and manage ourselves. If you think traffic on the road is clogged in a scarcity trap and that there is no way out, you may need to put on your ‘scarcity cap’ to wriggle out of it. The authors argue that should all the cars were to go at the same speed, not only will the traffic flow be smooth but more cars can be accommodated on the road as well. It is the variation in speed of cars that causes congestion, as drivers vie for limited space (a reflection of scarcity) on the road. 

Scarcity is often associated with dire consequences but not when it comes to Mullainathan and Shafir who consider it as a perfect trigger to enhance our abilities to make better choices. Scarcity is a must read, brilliant and engaging.   

Scarcity: The True Cost of Not Having Enough
by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir
Penguin, UK
Extent: 288, Price: £9.99  

Tales from the uncivilized world

The writings on offer are not those we have often grown up with but those which can make us feel grown-ups.

If you believe that we, as a civilization, are at a juncture from where the future looks certainly bleak, this title-less book is for you. If you are close to being convinced that tainted vision of the world is loaded with untrustworthy subjectivity, the writings in the book can surely stir your latent imagination. And, lastly, if you are not overtly averse to Ralph W Emerson’s words that ‘the end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization', the uncivilized writings – and poetry – in this volume will surely make you sit up, think and take note of. Dark Mountain (written as DaRk) stretches beyond what Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon called `bounded rationality' - the limited capacity of the human mind to comprehend objectivity. 

It is an enormously rewarding read but not an easy one. While some sections are easy to comprehend, others sections could be strenuous. Partly because you suddenly find yourself entering a world which you never thought it existed and partly because we are conditioned to reject what lies beyond our cognitive world. The way one looks at it, Dark Mountain could either be a book of despair or a testimony of hope. Undoubtedly, however, it could easily be the first step towards ‘unlearning’ – a rediscovery of ‘self’ which is not the ‘self’ that modern economics has taught us we have. 

Launched in 2009, this is the fourth book from the project that grew out of a feeling that contemporary literature and art were failing to respond honestly or adequately to the scale of our entwined ecological, economic and social crises. A growing group of writers, artists and thinkers contribute to each volume. The stories they offer are not those we have often grown up with but those which can make us feel grown-ups. 'If you are seeing the people by what they don’t have, then you are not seeing them'. The thrust of the argument is to see beyond, as there is a world waiting to be explored, perceived and understood. 

Dark Mountain questions our faith in progress and our unending belief in being control of literally everything. There is little sign of this myth crumbing any time soon, though. Yet, there is a need to acknowledge that we are living through uncertain times and that we alone have to deal with the consequences. Dark Mountain is a unique undertaking that nobody knows where it will lead to. Yet, it may be worth being part of this process of un-civilization.  

DaRk Mountain Book 4
by Dark Mountain Project, UK
Extent: 320, Price: £15.99

(Readers can help themselves learn more about the project by visiting http://dark-mountain.net/)

It is the shape that really matters!

There is nothing absurd or off-limits in the world of science.

The title of this book might sound like an oddity, scandalizing reader on the impropriety of the question. Could it not have been one of those questions left unsaid and unexplored? Not for evolutionary psychologist Jesse Bering though, who considers nothing absurd or off-limits in the world of science. Impolite it might sound, the salacious query led to incredible evolutionary insights that surprisingly began to attract scientific attention only recently. Dangling precariously outside the human body, human phallus is considered a highly specialized tool manufactured by nature over hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution. 

Taking readers on a bold and captivating journey, Bering seeks answers to some of the most taboo questions: Why is it pretty big in comparison to the privates of other apes? Why does it have a distinct mushroom-capped glans? Why are the unattractive testicles uneven in size? Quoting extensively from published research by Gordon Gallup and others, the author concludes that size not only helps stretch its reach inside the female body but together with the bulbous glans it performs what in the field of evolutionary psychology is called ‘reverse engineering’. 

Considered to be a by-product of adaptation that gives humans a competitive edge in terms of their reproductive success, reverse engineering performs a special removal service by expunging any foreign sperms lying in there. The penis may have evolved its shape to lessen the chances of one becoming the unwitting surrogate father to another man’s kid. It might shock those who consider our species as being blissfully monogamous, but some degree of fooling around has been there ever since. 
   
Drawing from his published essays in Scientific American and Slate magazines, Bering presents a selection of astounding oddities of human sexuality that can enliven any drink party. From examining male reproductive anatomy to exploring dirty brain science and from intriguing sexual fetishes to the Gayer science and more, the book offers as much hard science as entertaining speculation within the framework of evolutionary psychology. Despite some of its outrageous conclusions, the book is worth an exhilarating ride. 

Himself a gay, Bering considers this ‘condition’ to be one of the reasons why the brain of a gay person is as slow as molasses when it comes to finding a way around. Never ask a gay man for directions. How to distinguish a gay person from a straight man? Evidence suggests that gay people produce different armpit odors from straight people and that these scents are detectable. If nothing more, Bering has been successful in arousing curiosity around some of those aspects of everyday existence that rarely merit popular imagination. 

I am confused whether or not to recommend this delightfully readable book. All I can say is: Ball’s in your court!

Why is the Penis shaped like that?
by Jesse Bering
Transworld Books, UK
Extent: 350, Price: £8.99 

Just the right amount of wrong

Las Vegas, the Sin City, has altered perceptions: gambling substitutes for income, night is interchangeable with day and, the scale of excess refutes the idea of scarcity

It is a poignant tale of greed, chicanery, betrayal and manipulation which created an edifice of affluence in the middle of a desert. The public-private plunder had the sanction of the State for robbing the natives of their rich cultural inheritance. It was a misfortune that the natives were sitting atop the biggest coal reserves of the time that the political-industrial complex had aimed to wrest. 

Projected to the outside world as an epic struggle over land between two Indian tribes, it has instead been a divide-and-conquer game played in disguise by the powerful and the corrupt. Judith Nies narrates the shocking facts behind the making of Las Vegas, the gambling capital, where the dark markets of America intersect with the upper world markets of ‘free-market capitalism’. Set in the late 19th Century, the phenomenon of usurping rights of indigenous people by giant corporations has continued ever since. In what was termed ‘low-intensity conflict’, thousand of tribes were driven away at gunpoint to labor camps, their sheep slaughtered and their children jailed. 

Unreal City is a chilling account of the tribes’ struggle and the right amount of wrong by the government to edge out the so-called impoverished societies for the subsequent creation of Las Vegas, the Sin City, which has only altered perceptions: gambling substitutes for income, night is interchangeable with day and, the scale of excess refutes the idea of scarcity. But it is the scarcity that is haunting the city that gets 39 million fun-loving visitors each year. Having sucked it’s deep aquifers and with shrinking Lake Mead (created by the Hoover Dam) on the Colorado river not able to meet the city’s allocation, a multi-billion dollar water pipeline has been planned to tap a mountain aquifer 250 miles away to not only keep fifty golf courses green but to keep the showers and flushes running in fourteen of the largest hotels in the city. There is nothing ‘real’ about the city. 

Award-winning author Judith Nies questions the wisdom behind the incredible cost of sustaining an unreal city. Located in the middle of the Mohave Desert, a water-guzzling city with just four inches of annual rainfall can only suck the nearby rivers and far-off aquifers dry. Shockingly, the new pipeline to feed the Sin City will be the only project in the world that lifts water twenty-nine hundred feet.  Curiously, the city residents don’t seem anxious (like most urbanites elsewhere in the world) about where they get their water from, but support the political-business nexus that controls infrastructure. At the end, it is the business that flourishes at the cost of problems which only continue to amplify. No wonder, company like Bechtel, which started with two mules and a slip grader in 1898, is now one the largest multinational corporations.

Written with passion and precision, Unreal City is a painstaking work that narrates the undertold story of (mindless) development albeit euphemism for deceit, betrayal, corruption and despoliation. Apparently written for the North American audience, the first of the three sections of Unreal City may remain somewhat of a geographical puzzle for readers elsewhere. Rich in detail, Judith Nies painstaking narrative raises uncomfortable question which are often considered ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘anti-national’. 

The Unreal City 
by Judith Nies
Nation Books, New York
Extent: 292, Price: US$25.99 

How not to manage rivers

The great challenge for this generation is to figure out a way to reverse the downward corkscrew of our rivers before we reach a point where there is nothing left to save.

Dictatorships are loathed the world over for the fatalities it commits on people but rarely have democracies been reprimanded for desiccating the living rivers. Within the rubric of peoples’ republics, it is the people who have been distanced from the rivers they have grown up with. Isn’t it a fact that an acclaimed republic, the USA, has led the world in inflicting grievous damage on its rivers, with hardly any river reaching the sea?

It indeed is! In its two centuries of experience in manhandling rivers, the U.S Army Corps of Engineer has dammed, diverted and dried up nearly all its rivers. It never occurred to this elite force that moving water could also be a resource; pouring concrete to impound or divert flows has been euphemism for water development instead.  With an attitude termed ‘water hubris’ guiding river management, some 3.3 million small and big dams have converted free-flowing rivers into a series of interconnected reservoirs in the U.S. None of these projects have lived up to the promise of being self-sustaining though; annual maintenance expenditure alone has tossed the cost-benefit calculus haywire. 

Political currency of dam building and river engineering sustains itself; water projects are viewed as instruments of power, prestige and political gamesmanship. To get a sense of how water hubris has been nurtured, Daniel McCool, Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah provides bio-sketches of two leading agencies: the U.S Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S Bureau of Reclamation. Through their relentless pursuit to ‘curb the sinful rivers’, these two agencies could turn water hubris mentality into a moral right for the society, almost in religious terms, to conquer rivers. No wonder, calls for new water projects are always accompanied by dire projections of an impending ‘water crises’. That the actual crisis is that of water management gets subsumed under the din. Discomforting similarity can be found in the current river/water policy scenario in India.   

Including other ecological concerns, the collapse of the Teton Dam on the World Environment Day in 1976 may have been the tipping point for a change that is currently sweeping America. From a 27 km long reservoir, 80 billion gallons of water swept through the 305 feet high earth-filled dam killing about a dozen people in Rexburg, Idaho. Ironically, the Machhu Dam disintegration in Gujarat in 1979, which killed as many as 25,000, hasn’t had any impact on the prevailing water hubris in India. Apathetic attitude is indeed appalling!

The Teton dam has long perished but it has been officially recognized that there are 15,237 dams in the US with high hazard potential. Under the ire of public outrage as many as 890 of these dams have been dismantled till date; water hubris is slowly giving way to new water ethics in the U.S. Inspiring account of citizen’s triumph against the institutionalized annihilation of rivers is worth emulating. 

Profiling such individuals as ‘instigators’, McCool confirms that not only has status quo been challenged but that rivers are returning to their free-flowing condition by their efforts in the U.S. River instigators are working their way through a maze of corrupt system lathered with special-interest money in turning river restoration into something of a cottage industry. There are as many as 2,500 non-profit river groups partnering with the agencies which were earlier building dams in restoring rivers to their pristine status. The process is transformative!

River Republic is an authoritative exposé on political economy of river tempering; lucrative principles of such an economy appeal to vested interests everywhere. However, McCool stresses that the great challenge for this generation is to figure out a way to reverse the downward corkscrew of our rivers before we reach a point where there is nothing left to save. 

Personal anecdotes and insightful analysis make it an important book. A must-read for all those who are seeking answers that help keep rivers flow freely. River Republic has essential lessons for entrenched water bureaucracy. 

River Republic: The Fall and Rise of American Rivers
by Daniel McCool
Columbia University Press, USA
Extent: 408, Price: US$ 26

This review has also appeared on Anthem EnviroExperts Review, coordinated by Prof. Larry Susskind of MIT  

‘We’ in favour of ‘I’

Our tendency to admire the rich instead of the virtuous is at the core of the corruption of our moral sentiments.

We live in the times when the object of each moment is first to record oneself  as having been there and second to broadcast the result to as much of the rest of the world as possible. With the smartphone at our service people click away with the lens pointed at themselves and post the visuals on social networking sites, imagining that all their other friends would be fascinated by what they had for breakfast or how they spent their weekends. Holding a mirror onto us, the University of Cambridge philosopher Simon Blackburn reflects that the real picture could be quite the opposite, akin to what David Hume would say: ‘A man will be mortified, if you tell him he has a stinking breath; though it is evidently no annoyance to himself.’

The arrogant belief that one is oneself the center of other people’s concerns and interest has become an all pervasive feature of the social world. This kind of narcissist’s self-esteem that is over-dependent on the opinion of others makes a person so fragile that it quickly resorts to anger, aggression, despair or paranoia when that praise falls into short supply. Taking liberal inputs from the work of Kant, Aristotle, Rousseau and Milton, who pop in and out of the pages, Blackburn explores self-love in its diverse manifestations. 

This brilliant book is about what we should make of ourselves for which the author takes a measure of ‘pride, self-esteem, vanity, arrogance, shame, humility, embarrassment, resentment and indignation’ in light of its implications on ‘integrity, sincerity and authenticity’. Mirror, Mirror offers a lively philosophical commentary on good and bad forms of self-esteem, helping the reader take a grip on the flip side of ‘selfie’ as connected to the tragic commodification of social life. Blackburn’s measured analysis does not draw any conclusion though, because the complexity in itself is highly instructive. After all, living is a process and not a product.  

For the self-esteem industry - fashion, cosmetics and plastic surgery - life is as good as a product. Applying carefully selected images, L’Oreal’s brilliantly successful marketing slogan ‘because you are worth it’ is both provocative and persuasive. Blackburn is personally irritated by the vacuous diktat and laments that it holds good for self-obsessed fragile personalities. While condemning the iniquities of the beauty industry, the author contends that it only leaves self-hood destitute. Even if one day the mirror on the wall tells us that we are the fairest of all, still we remain uneasy, for at any moment it may reveal someone else to have overtaken us. 

Blackburn’s grasp on the subject is impeccable and his lucid narrative is loaded with nuggets of wisdom: ‘Human relationships become structured around envy and spite from below, arrogance and contempt from above. It is our take on our own relative situation that bothers us, even to the point where it poisons our life’. The book provides enough resources for self-correction, a search for true self based on a hard process of analysis, discovery and purification. Unless we are idiots sky-high in our self-hood, thinking a way out of it is a clear possibility. 

Our tendency to admire the rich instead of the virtuous is at the core of the corruption of our moral sentiments. Unless we pull ourselves out of such moral elation, self-hood will continue to cast its shadow on us. It is a work of philosophy, beautifully executed.

Mirror, Mirror
by Simon Blackburn
Princeton University Press, UK
Extent: 209, Price: $ 24.95

On the verge of…..

There is every reason to believe that if humans had not arrived on the scene, several extinct species like the wild horses and the woolly rhinos would be there still. Yet, humans ought to be given credit for pulling some of the species like the Panamanian golden frog, the great auk and the Sumatran rhino from the verge of extinction.

But extinction as an idea rarely registers in popular perception. It may have occurred in prehistoric times, most would say, but it is inconceivable that extinction could be as much a present-day phenomenon, with humans playing a catalytic role in it. Yet, estimates indicate that a quarter of all mammals, a fifth of all reptiles and a sixth of all birds are headed toward oblivion.  In fact, signs of extinction could just be found in our own backyard. Isn’t the lowly house sparrow seen less frequently now? 

Mass extinctions seemed to take place at regular intervals of roughly twenty-six million years but by loading undesirable gases and chemicals into the biosphere human civilization has indeed triggered early extinction of some 20 to 50 per cent of all living organisms and plants on this planet. Reporting from the frontlines of collision between human civilization and ecosystems, Elizabeth Kolbert warns that mankind is in the midst of what biologists call the Sixth Extinction and it is solely humanity’s own doing.  Bringing field reports from the Andes, the Amazon and the Great Barrier Reef and presenting accounts of species preservation in many zoological parks, Kolbert contends that pace of extinction far exceeds efforts in conservation. The signs are indeed ominous!

Biological oceanographer Ulf Riebesell adds to it by arguing that the time for the sixth extinction is indeed imminent. Each time during the previous five mass extinctions, the overall biodiversity was at its lowest and there is enough evidence that that situation of reduction in biodiversity is fast approaching. Immensely readable, The Sixth Extinction is a painful investigation of the most terrifying extinction in the history of mankind. 

It is narrative journalism at its best, diligently researched reportage presented with precision and flair. Kolbert has an eye for an image, an ear for an anecdote and affection for the worst. The species Kolbert chose to write about are myriad and varied. It is an intelligent work that celebrates creation and warns of the horror of extinction that is not too far away.  The historical retelling is an imaginative take based on files, documents, letters and research papers. The author goes to great lengths to tell us that this is a book of extinction, in which distinct locations have been used to create settings. Kolbert has used facts-dipped-narrative to good effect, making the backdrop, the time and pace of the incidents palpable.  The details are truly bedeviling which make it a must read book on the uncertain future of the mankind! 

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
by Elizabeth Kolbert
Bloomsbury, UK
Extent: 319, Price: Rs 399 

Freaks like to have fun

You too can have fun if you think like a freak. For a vast majority the idea of fun connotes that you aren't serious. In reality, however, there is no correlation between appearing to be serious and actually being good at what you do. A freak is what an ordinary is not and is therefore looked down upon by the ordinary, the vast majority.  

Barry Marshall was indeed a freak. Not convinced that ulcers in the stomach are caused by stress or spicy foods, this Australian doctor set out toward finding the root cause of illness rather than simply swatting away symptoms. The US$ 8 billion ulcer industry was not too pleased with what Marshall was up to. By infecting himself with ulcer, perhaps the only person to have done so, Barry Marshall was helped by his colleague Robin Warren in uncovering the bacterial cause of ulcer. For reliving ulcer patients from a lifetime of doctors’ visit and unrestricted consumption of expensive Zantac, both were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005. 

Not all freak activities could land you with a Nobel but being freak will surely make you do more of what you love to do. You will think about it before you go to sleep and as soon as you wake up, without carrying undue heaviness on your mind. A freak sees things from a literally new angle, often ends up gaining an edge in solving a problem. It is this relentless curiosity of an eight-year old in you that the world may not like, calling you a crank and even avoiding you, something that a freak should get accustomed to. 

Thinking a new angle can fetch you a fortune! A lean and thin Japanese, studying economics, could double the world record of eating maximum hot digs and bun (HDB) in 12 minutes. Before he entered the Coney Island contest, the record stood at little over 25 HDB and one could imagine 27 or even 28 HDB to be the new record. But the 23-year old Takeru Kobayashi ate 50 HDB, more than four hot dogs and buns per minutes for 12 straight minutes. In achieving such a rare feat, Kobayashi had thought about the problem from a new angle. Avoiding the obvious question:  How do I eat more hot dogs? Kobayashi had posed a different question: How do I make hot dogs easier to eat? Only be redefining the problem was he able to discover a new set of solutions.    

Clearly, both Levitt and Dubner continued to have fun ever since they published their first two books – Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics. The first two books simply used data to tell stories, throwing light on parts of society that often lay in shadow. Those who have read the previous books may find the latest a bit less exciting, as it is somewhat prescriptive. Though not a self-help book, this book in the series tries to offer some advice that may occasionally be useful. It seems the journalist Dubner had more say than economist Levitt in this book, ‘economics’ has disappeared in favor of ‘freak’ from the title, encouraging the reader to think a bit differently, a bit harder and a bit more freely.    

Yet, it would be hard to imagine if anyone will aim the penalty kick at the center even when it has been statistically proven that the goal keepers jump toward the kicker’s left corner 57 per cent of the time, and to the right only 41. But sometimes in life going straight up the middle might be the boldest move. Who knows! The authors contend that the only way to have fun is to let go the conventional wisdoms that torment us; let go the artificial limits that hold us back; and let go the fear of admitting what we don’t know. Think Like A Freak makes interesting, absorbing, engaging, and somewhat reflective reading. 

Think like a Freak
by Stevan D.Levitt and Stephen J.Dubner
Allen Lane, UK/India
Extent: 268, Price: Rs. 499

The Limits to Extraction

The Club of Rome had shot into fame with its first authoritative report The Limits to Growth, released in 1972 The seminal report on the future of mankind had not only triggered a hot debate but degenerated in all-out smear campaign.. The public perception on the report was nothing more than a series of wrong predictions made by a group of deluded scientists. So much so, subsequent reports by this global think tank did not merit much attention.

Extracted is the latest report from the elite club. Had The Limits to Growth attained popularity, the title of this report could easily have been The Limits to Extraction. However, the nature of the report has remained much the same. Digging out the history of mining, from the prehistoric days to the modern age, the report suggests that mankind has almost extracted almost the entire (cheap) mineral resources alongside plundering of the earth’s ecosystems and displacement of millions in the process. It is one of the biggest global industries but the gradual depletion of low-cost minerals, including fossil fuels, is fast becoming a major limitation to economic growth. As high grade ores are extracted first, it will become much more expensive to produce most mineral commodities in future. Given the growing demand for precious metals and rare earths, a resource war is likely to emerge among countries that hold monopoly over mineral deposits.

Since everything we use cannot be grown, the same must be mined. Therefore, the political economy of mining makes it an important growth engine for most countries. China has 97 per cent of all active rare earths, including exclusive deposits of molybdenum. South Africa holds 82 per cent of global platinum. China leads countries like Chile, Australia and Argentina in global copper output. Tibet has become the new mining destination for China. Under a new regime, India intends to go full throttle to extract its mineral deposits. 

Extracted is written by a team of experts, headed by Italian scientist Ugo Bardi. The report says that deposits of many high-grade ores are running low: copper, zinc, nickel, gold, silver and others are expected to reach their productive peak within less than two decades. Not only will it affect our lifestyles but agriculture production could decline as well. By the time the world wakes up to the impact of mining, plundering of earth ecosystem would have caused lasting impact by contributing to the climate change. 

The solution, says Bardi, is to replace costly minerals with cheaper ones; recycle as much as possible, and generate energy through renewable energy sources such as sun, wind, and water. It is not far when the mining machines and the drilling rigs will disappear without corresponding decline in the demand for minerals. 

Written for the consumptive generation, Ugo Bardi has dedicated the book to his son, who is a geologist. 

Extracted
by Ugo Bardi
Chelsea Green Publishing, USA
Extent: 273, Price: US$ 24.95

A shorter version of this review has also appeared on Anthem EnviroExperts Review, coordinated by Prof. Larry Susskind of MIT  

Making sense of one's surroundings

In a predominantly growth-obsessed market-driven consumerist culture, the environment as a subject has remained at the margins of popular perception – arcane to some and obscure to others. Environment no longer registers! Even if it does, it is often from the perspective of highly polarized environment-development debates. That environment sustains all life forms rarely merit a majority concern. 

Why is modern living distanced from the environment? Could near absence of inter-generational transfer of empathy towards environment be the prime reason! Stories, both oral and written, have ceased to be the channel for transferring the subtleties of our inter-dependence on nature and myriad other life forms. Stark monetization of human existence has further reduced environment into a set of by-products and services that can be traded. No surprise therefore that environment has been pushed to the margins of social consciousness with the riches of nature being squandered for petty gains.     

Through his collection of refreshing short stories, noted Kannada writer K P Purnachandra Tejasvi connects the civilized with the wild, evoking sentience towards what is often considered ‘given’. Set amidst the forest adjoining his village Mudigere in Chickamaglur district, each of the fifteen stories are encounters in the wild, capturing the innate intelligence of various animals in interacting with humans. The strange behavior of the jungle fowl; the mythical existence of snakes; the defense mechanism of the mud tortoise; and the amazing commonsense of the simians provide compelling insights on the virtues of co-existence. 

Considered as one of the finest prose writers, Tejasvi’s stories are neither obtrusive nor preachy. Full of wit and humor, he delightfully transforms real-life incidents in the forest into stories which have environment as the central character. The storyteller doesn’t lay undue emphasis on environment, leaving it to the reader’s imagination to create possibilities in his or her own depths. These are not just stories but experiences in the wild, making the reader aware about environment even without realizing it. The stories neither compete nor negotiate an existing situation, but create an enduring relationship between the reader and the human/non-human characters. 

There is unmistakable hint of richness lurking in each of the stories in The Story of My Environment. Tejasvi has an exceptional sensitivity towards environment which together with his comic genius helps transform this collection into a work of art. As a tribute to Tejasvi’s brilliance, this collection of short stories is 'highly recommended' for readers of all age groups!

The Story of My Environment
by K P Puranachandra Tejasvi
Pustakaprakashana, Mysore
Extent: 192, Price: Rs 140

The days of the jackals!

Are the rich, educated people as clever as jackals? Dressed in the garb of development, with the laws to their side, don’t they devour fields and forests to create a new social class – of the disposed and displaced? Forced to bear it with gritted teeth and suppressed whimpers, the injury of displacement has left permanent scars on the souls of millions! In this award-winning novel, Vishwas Patil lends voice to the pain and anguish of the people of Jambhli, who have been ousted to make way for the construction of a large dam.   

Close to reality, the saga of resistance conjures up multiple images of people who refuse to surrender their ancestral land to the juggernaut of development. Rooted to their cultural inheritance, they question the veracity of forced relocation which in no way can compensate the sweat that they had poured into their lands. Caught in the rehabilitation trap, the Jambhlikars find themselves battling petty politicians on one hand and apathetic officials on the other. Patil’s accomplished prose and fine sensibility captures their unending ordeal. 

Utterly relevant to our time, the heart-rending narrative exposes the system that acts like a ghost, riding on poor’s neck and pushing them deeper and deeper into the quicksand till they perish. Since the dams get choked with silt much before the oustees are resettled, the plight of the displaced rarely persists long in popular perception. Who will mourn someone who dies everyday! Full of rage and disbelief, A dirge for the dammed is a painful saga of the new ‘class’ of people exiled from their homelands. 

Divided into seven parts, the novel braids together several lives and desires. If there is Khairmode Guruji who is in relentless pursuit of justice then there is Haibati whose unending search for alternative employment reflects system’s hostility towards the displaced. Between these two lead characters are many others whose frustrating struggle sustains narrative tension in flawlessly elegant prose. The politics of rehabilitation, which forms a major part of the plot, is explored with a thoroughness befitting an investigative journalist, and yet retaining all the elements of a primarily fictional work. 

With an innate desire to bring the hidden dimensions of development to light, Patil spends inordinate amount of energy elucidating the details of every intrigue. The sub-stories of men and women whose lives have been destroyed by the project evoke strong empathy, mocking at those who hold notion of ‘public interest’ supreme in the quest for development. Poor don’t have ten doors open for them; they have to squeeze their lives through the only door. Development shuts the only door! 

It is heart-rending story, translated to perfection by Keerti Ramachandran, that is a must read for all those who have some stake in ‘development’.
  
A Dirge for the Dammed 
by Vishwas Patil 
Hachette India, New Delhi 
Extent: 471, Price: Rs. 450

Relentless, and therefore a changemaker!

How often it has been said that some of the most difficult problems have simple solutions! But what about solutions which evolve first but are tagged to problems later?  Such solutions come from ordinary people doing extraordinary things – often solving problems which they don’t directly encounter. Ten such extraordinary people, who fit into the genre of social entrepreneurs, come alive in The Rise of the Reluctant Innovator, offering enlightening account of their personal journeys into the world of amazing possibilities. 

Himself a successful innovator, having applied mobile technology for social change in the developing world, Ken Banks considers ‘reluctance’ to be the defining character for an innovator to be and invites readers to question his stand! Couldn’t ‘accidental’ or ‘serendipitous’ be a better choice? In fact, observations indicate that innovations often originate without conscious thought, presumably in the hidden layers of the mind, and emerge intuitively. If one were to rephrase the words of sculptor Eric Gill, ‘innovator is not a special kind of person; every person is a special kind of innovator’. Given the right environment, an innovative idea will take shape against prevailing odds. 

The fact that an innovator doesn’t have to adhere to any stereotypes makes him or her less vulnerable from being ‘reluctant’. No surprise therefore that most innovators are average guys off the street; it's often their simple, homespun down-to-earth thinking that saves the day. Take the case of obstetrician Laura Stachel whose innovative idea delivered a solar-based solution to enhance survival prospects in power-starved Nigeria. On the other hand, Erik Hersman created technology hub which allows users to share breaking news through text messages in Kenya. Each of the ten stories captures the twists and twirls of bringing their innovations to scale.   

Back to the usage of the term ‘reluctant’, I suspect if innovator Brij Kothari, featured in the book, portrays any reluctance in pursuing his idea of ‘same language sub-titling’ as an educational innovation. Despite slow progress on policy front, Kothari has not been reluctant to persist with his idea. I would imagine a ‘reluctant innovator’ to be one who reflects a period of doubt before foraying into the subject. Finding purpose is often toughest part of the process; once clear, right kind of passion takes care of hurdles and pitfalls. Each case in this edited volume presents relentlessness (not reluctance) as the common thread in making big the innovative idea. 

For those who are itching to do ‘something’, this book is as much a source of inspiration as a guide to change the world. Less related to the innovators featured in the book, the idea of the term ‘reluctant innovator’ may click with those discerning readers who may have doubts about taking a plunge into the world of ‘social entrepreneurs’. Though majority of cases in the book relate to the health sector, the book is a welcome addition to the growing volume of literature on social entrepreneurs. 

The Rise of the Reluctant Innovator 
by Ken Banks 
London Publishing Partnership, UK 
Extent: 212, Price: £12.99

Requiem for an urban drain!

What was river Thames to London in 1858 is the river Yamuna to Delhi now. The only difference being that the Indian Parliament is not close enough for its curtains to be soaked in lime to stop the stink emanating from the waste-laden river from disrupting the proceedings, as had happened in London then. Could its distance from the seat of power be the reason for gross neglect of the river which, for most part of the year, qualifies to be no more than an open drain? 

Neither is there a policy in India to ensure continuous freshwater flow in perennial rivers nor a law to protect a flowing river from being used as an open drain. Net result is that far from harnessing its ecological munificence, the glacier-fed river of immense cultural significance is being allowed to be wasted away in the capital. Official apathy notwithstanding, a motley group of ecologists have drawn together a ‘manifesto’, a declaration on plight of the river and views on its preservation. Published to commemorate an Indo-German outreach project on river Yamuna in India and Elbe in Germany, the bilingual manifesto offers a multi-disciplinary perspective on everything one would have liked to know about the river.  

It is quite unlikely; however, if the veritable decline of the river will be reversed anytime soon. Neither has there been a public outcry against its continuous deterioration nor a political resolve to bring the river back to life. Even a child knows that for a river to flow it should have an adequate amount of freshwater all the year round. And unless the city stops pouring untreated sewage into it, the river will continue to remain an open drain. Penned down by two river experts, Himanshu Thakkar and Manoj Mishra, the manifesto offers suggestions that can be worked to create a way forward.  It stops short of recommending ‘tough’ measures, though. 

Had Charles Dickens been alive, he wouldn't have been shy in describing Yamuna as ‘a dark, stinking sludge, and the scene of petty crimes.’....Link 

Yamuna Manifesto
by Ravi Agarwal and Till Krause (Eds)
Toxics Link/SANDRP, New Delhi
Extent: 122, Price: Not Indicated

Mind the roof top

If current geological estimations are any indication, there are 80 million tonnes of copper, 2,000 tonnes of gold and 30 million tonnes of lead and zinc ex tractable from the Tibetan plateau. The cumulative value of recoverable metals is worth US$ 420 billion. To imagine that the Chinese would have ripped apart the rooftop to the world in search of the embedded fortune is far from true because, as things stand, the region is cold, its air is perilously thin, its people are unwelcoming and it is poor in infrastructure. 

But all this is to going to change as China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, ending in 2015, calls for massive investment in copper, gold, silver, chromium and molybdenum mining in the region. With an aim to achieve 30 per cent self-sufficiency in copper production by the end of the plan period, a state-driven agglomeration of the entire Chinese copper industry will be sufficiently capitalized to finance major expansions in Tibet, which is fast becoming China’s new copper production base. The Tibetan plateau - almost one-sixtieth of the entire global landscape – will be the object for intensive and potentially devastating mining and extraction projects in the years ahead. The signs are ominous!

Without doubt, Gabriel Lafitte has profound knowledge about the landscape, its people and their cultural resistance to the winds of change aimed at destroying the inner strengths of the Tibetans, cultivated in solitude in the mountains. Given the ecological fragility of the region, mining activities in the watersheds of major rivers, most of which are transboundary, will have serious impact on hundreds of millions of people downstream in South and South East Asia. China’s track record on environmental concerns evokes little confidence, though. 

Spoiling Tibet is a timely warning to the world on China’s hunger for mineral wealth of Tibet, and the unscrupulous manner in which this wealth will get extracted. In the Chinese growth agenda the political economy of mining plays a major role, one that will silence the feeble voices of resistance by increasing the non-Tibetan population in the region through mass tourism. But given its global implications, should the world permit unilateral desecration of the roof top!...Link

Spoiling Tibet 
by Gabriel Lafitte 
Zed Books, UK 
Extent: 204, Price: $29.95

This book review has also appeared on Anthen EnviroExperts Reviews, moderated by Prof. Larry Susskind of MIT.

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder

As the boat plies upstream through the glittering splendor of the marble cliffs, the tranquility of river Narmada reflects the changing moods of nature at the picturesque Bhedaghat. The river and the rocks rival each other in beauty, yet try to come closer at ‘Bandrakudni’ – where a monkey could perhaps jump across the river – and challenge each other at the majestic Dhuandhar waterfalls.  For the ordinary mortals, that is all about the holy river.   

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, though. Narmada river is a living museum of art, more than what remains adorned in its archaeological past. If Bandarkudni reflects her modesty and self-restraint, the thunder at the Dhuandhar symbolizes its splendor and exuberance. All along its 1,312 kilometers journey from its origin at Amarkantak until it empties into the Gulf of Khambat, the river leaves its artistic impressions as it cuts through mighty rocks, tugs along dense forests and passes human dwellings. Much of it has been captured by Amritlal Vegad, who completed his circumambulation of the river at the ripe age of 70 by foot, however, undertaken in parts over a 22 year period. His irresistible story-telling style blends geography with astronomy, art with the environment, and literature with philosophy    

“On the banks of the Narmada I saw both the supreme grandeur of nature and the simple beauty of humanity’, reminiscences Vegad. While over the millennia innumerable devotees have undertaken the hardship of religious parikrama of the river which is traditionally completed in 3 years, 3 months and 13 days, much of their travails and triumphs has been perceptibly captured by the author in what he calls ‘a cultural parikrama’. Trained as an artist under the watchful eyes of the legendary Nandlal Bose at the Santiniketan, Vegad draws attention to the finer details of the journey with interesting reflections on encounters with the ‘self’. The writing vividly captures the simplicity and devotion of those who live by the Narmada, and the hardships of those who undertake its parikrama.  

Through his stubbornness to walk along the banks of the river, Vegad demonstrates his flame of determination – proving that only by overcoming trouble can the spirit be lifted to a higher level. Writes Vegad, ‘I learnt an important lesson on this journey: if our mind and reason try to stand in the way of realizing our dreams, as indeed they sometimes do, we must not hesitate to dodge out of the way….there is so much more to cold reason and logic’. River of Joy is a narrative on grit and determination, as much on appreciation of art and aesthetics.

Translated from Hindi by Marietta Maddrell, a British national who has not only adopted the Indian way of life but has renamed herself ‘Mira’, the translation captures the original spirit of the writer. With the holy river facing unprecedented damming for water diversion, it is quite unlikely if the tradition of river circumambulation would last long....Link

Narmada: River of Joy
by Amritlal Vegad
Banyan Tree, Indore
Extent: 220 pages, Price:  Rs 300

The glass is not half empty

Marked by mass wastage and competing demands, water is presumed to be the precursor of a probable 'third world war'. Situations with respect to water sharing amidst several countries is perilously close to what Mark Twain had remarked, 'whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over'. It seems the universal fluid that will shape humanity's future is soaked on blood.

Not deterred by threatening climate clouds that may accelerate glacial melting and transform water flows in major river basins, Terje Tvedt portrays an optimistic picture on humanity's water future after traveling through some of the most amazing locations across five continents. With professional background in geography, history and political science, the author offers multiple perspectives for the reader to choose from. While Tvedt is forthright in saying that 'howsoever grandiose attempts to manage water may be, water does not allow itself to be completely controlled', he is equally candid in concluding that 'qualified technological optimism is the only optimism that endures'.

Placing his immensely readable narrative on water in three distinct sections, the author views the impact of 'water blindness' across countries; examines implications of 'water control' in contested river basins; and presents power of science and technology to usher in a bright 'water future'. Tvedt avoids taking an ideological position on whether the glass is half full or half empty, instead leaves it for the reader to make an objective assessment on the impending water crises. Howsoever the world might respond to the imminent crises, water fundamentally binds together the past and the future in expressing a deep continuity of our whole evolution as a species.

Despite the fact that Tvedt's original writing in Norwegian was published in 2007, the English translation by Richard Daly published in 2014 is refreshingly original. More than a travelogue it is an authoritative treatise on water that makes a compelling reading. It is one book that I intend keeping on my bedside; to use it as a ready reckoner on exotic places should an opportunity arise for this reviewer to undertake similar travels. If I am sounding envious of Terje Tvedt so be it. At least, I am learning about global responses to water issues in the process....Linkhttp://www.d-sector.com/Book-details.asp?id=92

A Journey in the Future of Water
by Terje Tvedt
I.B.Tauris, UK
Extent: 262, Price: £14.99

An extended version of this review has also appeared on Anthem EnviroExperts Review, coordinated by Prof. Larry Susskind of MIT   

Keeping count of the water footprints

Free water allocation resolves temporal scarcity but at the cost of inducing lasting crises. Such populist measures stretch existing supply alongside stressing perennial water sources. Since water bills are measured in currency and not in volume of water consumed, each new allocation only adds to amplifying the demand-supply gap. Though access to water is a human right that every state is obliged to protect, the challenge lies in concurrent reduction in ‘the water footprint of a growing consumer society’ to strike a balance.

The water footprint of a commodity is the total volume of freshwater used – that is consumed or polluted – to produce the commodity, measured over the entire production chain. Simply put, it means that 8,000 liters of water produces a pair of jeans and a can of aerated drink consumes between 168 to 309 liters of water in its production process. Created by Arjen Hoekstra, a professor of water management at the University of Twente, Netherlands, the concept has meticulously worked out the water footprint of most commodities under varying conditions.

It is quite unlikely, however, if anyone will shun his or her consumptive needs to free freshwater, locked up in products, for fellow citizens living in un-served urban shanties. And there are valid reasons for such a behavior. Since consumers are not aware of any connection between water scarcity in a society and the water footprints of its citizen, they are unlikely to hold themselves responsible for the plight of those who lack access to water within their locality or beyond. No surprise, therefore, that freshwater allocation remains an exercise in politics.

Since consumers do not care about the origin or the fate of products, market gets a message that water is not a relevant factor in producing for the masses and therefore ends up flouting weak regulations. On the other hand, people do broadly believe in water conservation but their actual behavior is often in contrast. This creates a negative spiral, because one of the reasons that consumer behavior does not correspond to the initial positive attitude of most people is the feeling that most products do not save water anyway.

With water being a free input, economics do not factor in scarcity of freshwater resources in computing cost of the end-product. No wonder, cheap stuff from China has a high demand without any regard to the fact that the rivers in China are heavily polluted.

An ordinary consumer can hardly relate to water crises in China vis-a-vis import of cheap products. Since one-fifth of all freshwater appropriated in the world is consumed in the production of export commodities, the idea of water crises being a ‘local’ matter is a gross misconception.

On their own, companies are unlikely to get into the act of reducing the water footprints of their products. In fact, there is hardly any company in the world incorporating water stewardship into its business model. Most companies still restrict their operational water footprint but leave aside the supply-chain water footprint. 
Supply-chain water footprint is critical and is many times greater than the operational water footprint. For instance, aerated drink has more than 95 per cent of its water footprint in its supply-chain of raw water, processing systems and transport. 

Companies have the apprehension that consumers may not pay higher price for products which have reduced supply-chain water footprint. In reality, however, if consumers can afford to buy organic products at a premium there is no reason to assume otherwise. “Governments can and should play a key role by providing incentives to consumers to buy such products and to companies to provide them,” opines Prof Hoekstra. This can be done through lowering of value-added tax for such products alongside a meaningful certification scheme. 

Given the fact that the growth in sales of fair-trade and organic products has been on the rise, good water stewardship is not yet part of the existing labels on products on the supermarket shelves. It would make sense if consumers start demanding greater transparency about the underlying water footprint of products, so that one is better informed about the hidden water resources use and associated impacts. Several consumers in the west already shun meat after realizing that a kilogram of beef consumes no less than 15,000 liters of water. 

While consumers can play their part in reducing consumption of products with big footprint, the onus is on companies that wave ‘green’ flag of sustainability to reduce the water footprint of its products. In a rush to facilitate economic growth, the governments have lost sight of promoting efficient use of freshwater resources. In doing so, they are doing more harm than good. No wonder, a majority of rivers in the country are anything but sewers and most groundwater aquifers are dead for all practical purposes.  

The idea of corporate social responsibility would need to be reinvented. No longer should it be enough for companies to invest just two per cent of its profit on social causes, reduction in the water footprint ought to be a mandatory precondition for companies to earn a ‘responsible water footprint’ tag....Link  

The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society
by Arjen Hoekstra
Routledge/Earthscan, UK
Extent: 204 pages; Price: US$ 40

(First published in daily Deccan Herald, Feb 5, 2014)

Questioning the idea of a conscious planet

Quite at a tangent to the dominant discourse on reducing pollution load on the environment to make it hospitable for life-forms at the United Nations conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm in 1972, James Lovelock had proposed Gaia Hypothesis the same year wherein he had argued that the planet was regulated by and for the life forms occurring on the planet. In simple terms it meant that the planet has a 'consciousness'.

Four decades later, Toby Tyrrell, a professor of Earth System Science at the University of Southampton puts the hypothesis through some serious tests. For Tyrrell it is hard to accept Lovelock's assertion that the planet adjusts itself to the needs of the living organisms. Citing the manner in which the magnetic termites engineer its mounds to minimise exposure to sunlight, the author contends that organisms instead adapt to the environment. Else, the planet would have moderated the negative impact of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere.

As it is now understood, the Earth's atmosphere is not a biological construct but is determined mainly by geological forces and astronomical processes. What begs an answer is the compelling question: why despite modifications of the Earth over the geological timescale the planet has continued to remain hospitable to living species? The interplay of biotic and abiotic systems is more complex than what has been understood thus far. By raising fundamental questions on Gaia hypothesis, Tyrrell seeks to develop a deeper understanding on how our environment works and how far it can be negotiated against human-induced changes during the coming decades.

One third of this well argued book consists of end notes, many of which are as readable as the main text. By questioning the arguments for and against the Gaia hypothesis, Tyrrell has done a great service to enriching the ongoing discourse on making our planet hospitable for all life forms, now and in the future. The author, however, draws a thoughtful but challenging conclusion: ‘Ensuring that the global environment remains propitious for life is up to us, and there is no Gaian safety net to come to the rescue if we mismanage it'....Link

On Gaia 
by Toby Tyrrell 
Princeton University Press, Princeton 
Extent: 311, Price: $35

Trust no one.....if you may!

History has never been as readable - intriguing, engrossing and gripping! By weaving fact and fiction together, Alex Rutherford has brought the historical characters of the bygone era to life in his Empire of the Moghul series. The Serpent’s Tooth is the fifth novel in the series, devoted to the reign of Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan who ruled over a colossally wealthy empire of 100 million souls in the early seventeen century.

One can feel the presence of Shah Jahan as he swings his legendary sword alamgir in the battlefield; as he conducts court from rubies and turquoises studded silver throne; and as he spends romantic moments with his beautiful wife Mumtaz. Rutherford shows historical characters not just as names in dull history textbooks, but as people with emotions and passions, loves and jealousies, dreams and insecurities not too different from any one of us.

Like his ancestors, Shah Jahan had to follow the savage ‘throne or coffin’ tradition to gain his throne. It goes without saying that through the Moghul history, brother had fought brother and sons their fathers for the throne, and Shah Jahan has been no exception. Shah Jahan had fought his brothers and half-brothers to the throne, his sons were no less ruthless and murderous towards each other. Caught in the crossfire, Shah Jahan had spent last few years of his life imprisoned in the historic Agra Fort. As he sat alone in the darkness he had wondered why there had been so much death and destruction within his family. What had the Moghuls done to deserve it? God had allowed them unbounded power and wealth but denied them the peace and harmony that even the humblest family had a right to expect. His name meaning ‘Ruler of the World’ had mocked him.

Rutherford not only handles historical text with care but adds value to the narrative from his travels through some of the important landmarks of then Moghul Empire. The end product is a totally absorbing narrative, an amazing page turner. The characters are authentic and the actions are real, as one gets a ringside view of the shifting sands of politics, the tragic consequences of deceit, and the horrifying view of raw savagery. Rutherford makes the reader relive every moment, at time as an onlooker and at other moment as a courtier. The beauty of the story lies in the writing.

In his impeccable style, Rutherford transports the reader into another world. So much so that this reviewer could not hold himself back from reading the previous four volumes in the series. The Empire of the Moghul has been full of colour and beauty, joys and tears, love and deceit set against the backdrop of a glorious period in Indian history.
    
If you haven’t read Alex Rutherford; your lessons in history shall remain incomplete....Link

Empire of the Moghul: The Serpent’s Tooth
by Alex Rutherford        
Hachette, New Delhi
Extent: 421, Price: Rs.599