A 'blog' next door

'Why another blog?'

I have debated on this question over and over again, only to end up firm on my convictions of not jumping onto the blogging bandwagon. All this while that I was not writing a blog, or blogging as they say in the blogosphere, I used to pester my friends with random thoughts, to the extent of either driving them crazy with the volume of my thoughts or being completely ignored for the same reason.

Today in a session on 'Challenges in the Global Economy' by the Sloan School of Management here at MIT, Prof. Simon Johnson, a renowned faculty from that very school and the Chief Economist of IMF not so long ago, described himself as blogger first and a Professor second. Whatever may be the reason for him to make that comment, it drove home the point that I am already behind the curve on this phenomena, and its time to catch up.

Now that I have laid down the reason for this new endeavor, another rankling thought is the content of this blog. Should I just add to the mountain loads of personal information on the blogosphere, from detailing my diurnal activities as a lot of people do, to gross levels at times, or write about what my pet has done since morning? I decided to do neither, instead focus on what has become my life's passion of late. Climate Change! Now, before this name puts you off into not reading my blog anymore, and pass a word around to your progeny to follow suit, give me a chance.

I have decided that I will distill all the information that I receive at this amazing place, called MIT, and help spread the severity of the situation. Without doubt, and as more technical research claims it everyday, this is the biggest problem humanity has ever faced,probably, for it strives for its extinction. The current levels of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has reached 380 parts per million(ppm), hence the name of this blog:), and if we continue in this Business as Usual(BAU) scenario, we will end up at a concentration level in the ballpark range of 900 ppm, or in other words, cease to exist for that level of CO2 would be simply catastrophic. Hence, the problem is real, and its getting serious with each passing second. And calls for action, immediately! The size of the problem cannot be tacked by a few scientists and engineers alone, the entire world has to come together to save the situation. Anyway, we will see more on this in every subsequent post!

The motivation of doing something like this also came at a session last week at MIT, on Climate Change. Since when did I become innovative?:) That session was conducted by another renowned professor in this area, Prof. John Sterman. He drew an interesting analogy, combining two famous movements in the US history, which he claimed would be required to salvage the situation for us. And that is the amalgamation of the Manhattan Project, one that developed the atom bomb, for its technical expertise, and the Civil Rights movement, for its mass appeal and mass contribution. While he claimed we are making decent progress in the technical realm, masses are still not involved in ameliorating the situation. And he put the onus on everyone who is conducting any research in this area to help in whatever small way he/she can, to spread the word around. I shall try to come clean here!

Its hideously ironical that while all my undergrad years, I vehemently tried to enter a consulting firm, simply to get away from the academics, it was a stint in a consulting firm that sent me scampering back to academia:) And even more intriguing that I shall devote so much time and energy of my life, along with numerous other razor sharp brilliant minds, on studying a gas that had got a very trivial mention in my middle school biology books, only in the photosynthesis process. This seems to be Carbon Dioxide's attempt at redeeming itself:) And its an ugly way, indeed!

Gosh, I do love writing!:)

P.S.: Hope I am not the only person reading upto this line:)