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Recession is not that bad afterall.
Isn’t it great the recession has set in? What a absurd question is that? That’s what most of us shall think, won’t we?
People are losing jobs, as businesses are going bust. The worst affected are the industrialized nations viz the US, China, India, Japan, Germany, Brazil etcetera to name a few. Most of the governments are worried about their plummeting national economies. Some have already announced bailout packages by injecting billion of dollars into their respective economies, as this downturn is behave like a tornado, sweeping up and engulfing whatever is coming on the way. People are uncertain about their future. Many big companies have already closed down their operations & production units, as the demands are low. Many of us, looking into the present scenario are trying to save our earnings for the rainy day, and hence the spending is taking a backseat and resulting in a demand & supply situation change. This holds true if we look at it from a micro view point.
If we look at the bottom line, the underlying cause of all this is lucid, isn’t it? Greed, is basically the root cause of all this.
It all started with the sub-prime crisis in the US, and gradually resulted in the bubble to burst, causing a devastating spiraling effect, mowing down whatever came on the way. But as they say, whatever happens happens for the good, and that’s quite applicable here.
Now, taking a macro view of the things and thus looking at the bigger picture, there is almost certainly a great thing about this global downturn. And that’s related to "Global Warming". The logic is very simple- as big manufacturing plants close down, lesser are the levels of gaseous emissions and thus we may see a cut down in the overall detrimental effect of our environment. We don’t know exactly how much positive effect is this recession going to make in arresting the global warming and dimming, but it is quite likely to have a significant impact on the whole. There were numerous conferences and conventions held in this decade to discuss and find solutions to decrease the rapid changes in climate conditions from time to time, but they seldom yielded concrete results, as no single nation wanted to take a significant step in curtailing production, as they knew, it would negatively affect the economy as it would mean lesser revenues in terms of taxes and hence a reduced filling up of the state coffers. Few developed countries and developing countries did take certain steps related to enforcing emission norms in terms of industrial wastes, gaseous emissions, hydrocarbons and particulate matter suspended in the atmosphere. But looking into the alarming situation of the climate change and the attention it requires, these actions were miniscule.
Let us go back to history –The Great Depression of the 20th century (1929 – 1939) resulted in closure of factories, mills and mines and the American economy was in serious trouble. It all started with a dramatic crash of the stock market on a “Black Thursday” the 24th October, 1929. Unemployment rose to almost 25%. Metal prices plunged down to almost 40%. One of the main requirements of the metal industry is coal, which helps them to go on, but with the burgeoning crisis during this period, the coal prices also took a significant dip due to a drop in demand. And as we all know, coal is a major source of CO2 emission, it significantly contributes to air pollution including suspended particulate matter. Stringent norms regarding pollution check which are accepted and implemented globally today were almost unheard of during this era. To name a few US, Germany, France, Great Britain, Austria, Japan etcetera gradually could not remain unscathed. And this resulted in a drop in pollution levels.
Today the scenario has changed significantly, as the number of industrialized nations have grown. There is a manifold increase in the number of companies, and manufacturing units in comparison to yesteryears in each country. Looking at today’s global scenario we may thus say that the GDP of most nations has increased compared to the GDP of the "Great Depression" era. All this has led to increased levels of pollution which in turn is affecting the climate. The temperatures are constantly on the rise and thus huge glaciers and solid ice islands are giving away in both south and north poles. This is a serious threat, because the speed with which the ice is melting and the water levels rising today is way faster than predicted earlier by the environmental scientists. We can all feel the climate change in India as the winters are no longer cooler as it used to be almost 15 years back. Similarly in the past few years the snowfall has increased and prolonged in parts of Japan & Korea than before. Some of the islands in the eastern parts of India like the “Sunder bans” have submerged due to increased water levels. Changes w.r.t. marine life is also visible as warming has resulted in migration of some marine species to other parts of the globe, has caused extinction and also caused evolution of new species. Most of the coral reefs are also dying.
Not only this, even the air around us is considerably warmer and there is much more suspended particulate matter much beyond the stipulated norms. This has resulted in increased smog in winters thus the delay in flights, increased chest diseases. And to top it all this is causing "Global Dimming". The suspended particulate matter forms a blanket around our atmosphere and hence act as a barrier to sunlight. This in turn does not allow the water to evaporate and escape properly and therefore results in irregular rainfall and diminished visibility. Is all of this not a serious problem and threat?
I feel research on effects of recession on climate levels need to be carried out with utmost urgency that will not only give us a better approach and insight to successfully reversing the detoriating trends and help us devise better environmental control measure, but also help us save this planet. After all what is the use of money if everything comes to an end? So, from macro view point I would say, the recession is doing us more good than bad. What do you say?
People are losing jobs, as businesses are going bust. The worst affected are the industrialized nations viz the US, China, India, Japan, Germany, Brazil etcetera to name a few. Most of the governments are worried about their plummeting national economies. Some have already announced bailout packages by injecting billion of dollars into their respective economies, as this downturn is behave like a tornado, sweeping up and engulfing whatever is coming on the way. People are uncertain about their future. Many big companies have already closed down their operations & production units, as the demands are low. Many of us, looking into the present scenario are trying to save our earnings for the rainy day, and hence the spending is taking a backseat and resulting in a demand & supply situation change. This holds true if we look at it from a micro view point.
If we look at the bottom line, the underlying cause of all this is lucid, isn’t it? Greed, is basically the root cause of all this.
It all started with the sub-prime crisis in the US, and gradually resulted in the bubble to burst, causing a devastating spiraling effect, mowing down whatever came on the way. But as they say, whatever happens happens for the good, and that’s quite applicable here.
Now, taking a macro view of the things and thus looking at the bigger picture, there is almost certainly a great thing about this global downturn. And that’s related to "Global Warming". The logic is very simple- as big manufacturing plants close down, lesser are the levels of gaseous emissions and thus we may see a cut down in the overall detrimental effect of our environment. We don’t know exactly how much positive effect is this recession going to make in arresting the global warming and dimming, but it is quite likely to have a significant impact on the whole. There were numerous conferences and conventions held in this decade to discuss and find solutions to decrease the rapid changes in climate conditions from time to time, but they seldom yielded concrete results, as no single nation wanted to take a significant step in curtailing production, as they knew, it would negatively affect the economy as it would mean lesser revenues in terms of taxes and hence a reduced filling up of the state coffers. Few developed countries and developing countries did take certain steps related to enforcing emission norms in terms of industrial wastes, gaseous emissions, hydrocarbons and particulate matter suspended in the atmosphere. But looking into the alarming situation of the climate change and the attention it requires, these actions were miniscule.
Let us go back to history –The Great Depression of the 20th century (1929 – 1939) resulted in closure of factories, mills and mines and the American economy was in serious trouble. It all started with a dramatic crash of the stock market on a “Black Thursday” the 24th October, 1929. Unemployment rose to almost 25%. Metal prices plunged down to almost 40%. One of the main requirements of the metal industry is coal, which helps them to go on, but with the burgeoning crisis during this period, the coal prices also took a significant dip due to a drop in demand. And as we all know, coal is a major source of CO2 emission, it significantly contributes to air pollution including suspended particulate matter. Stringent norms regarding pollution check which are accepted and implemented globally today were almost unheard of during this era. To name a few US, Germany, France, Great Britain, Austria, Japan etcetera gradually could not remain unscathed. And this resulted in a drop in pollution levels.
Today the scenario has changed significantly, as the number of industrialized nations have grown. There is a manifold increase in the number of companies, and manufacturing units in comparison to yesteryears in each country. Looking at today’s global scenario we may thus say that the GDP of most nations has increased compared to the GDP of the "Great Depression" era. All this has led to increased levels of pollution which in turn is affecting the climate. The temperatures are constantly on the rise and thus huge glaciers and solid ice islands are giving away in both south and north poles. This is a serious threat, because the speed with which the ice is melting and the water levels rising today is way faster than predicted earlier by the environmental scientists. We can all feel the climate change in India as the winters are no longer cooler as it used to be almost 15 years back. Similarly in the past few years the snowfall has increased and prolonged in parts of Japan & Korea than before. Some of the islands in the eastern parts of India like the “Sunder bans” have submerged due to increased water levels. Changes w.r.t. marine life is also visible as warming has resulted in migration of some marine species to other parts of the globe, has caused extinction and also caused evolution of new species. Most of the coral reefs are also dying.
Not only this, even the air around us is considerably warmer and there is much more suspended particulate matter much beyond the stipulated norms. This has resulted in increased smog in winters thus the delay in flights, increased chest diseases. And to top it all this is causing "Global Dimming". The suspended particulate matter forms a blanket around our atmosphere and hence act as a barrier to sunlight. This in turn does not allow the water to evaporate and escape properly and therefore results in irregular rainfall and diminished visibility. Is all of this not a serious problem and threat?
I feel research on effects of recession on climate levels need to be carried out with utmost urgency that will not only give us a better approach and insight to successfully reversing the detoriating trends and help us devise better environmental control measure, but also help us save this planet. After all what is the use of money if everything comes to an end? So, from macro view point I would say, the recession is doing us more good than bad. What do you say?
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