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revolution followed by a green post-industrial scenario or achieving the same by leapfrogging past polluting and inefficient technologies.'' He gave the example of a small village named Mohri that has only 25 houses belonging to shepherds. The village has no electricity. Pope said the residents had found their way around with kerosene lamps until recently, but their homes were now illuminated by solar-powered lamps. Again, a government official in the city of Madurai produced out-of-the-box thinking by using plastic bags for building roads in order to make them water-proof and hence last longer.

The Sierra Club has announced a $1,00,000 award for environmental success by civil societies in India. As Pope explained, "The basic premise is that the government is not the enemy. The point is to engage various civil societies like NGOs, cooperatives, and businesses as well as the government in dialogue.''

Major disruptions, due to climate change, are likely to be felt hardest in poor nations, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where millions more could go hungry because of damage to farming and water supplies. However, global warming is not universally a bad thing. With a predicted rise of 3 degrees Celsius in temperatures, global farm potential might increase, at least in the short term. Crops might grow better in nations far from the tropics such as Canada, Russia, New Zealand or Scandinavia. However, global warming could hit developed nations in other ways. The Mediterranean region might become arid. In the US, rising seas and storm surges could severely affect transportation along the Gulf, Atlantic and Northern coasts.

Although the Kyoto protocol was a major step forward in monitoring climate; and formulating measures to slow down global warming, it does not go far enough. For example, four of the world's top emitters of greenhouse gasses are the United States, China, Russia and India. Of these, only Russia is bound by the provisions of the Kyoto protocol. Most disturbing is a recent UNEP report that estimates that 90% of the rise in global temperatures in the past couple of decades can be attributed to human activity. The destiny of our planet is literally in our own hands.

People in countries like the United States and Canada who have come through an unusually severe winter, which is still not quite over, might wonder, if our planet is supposed to be getting warmer, how come they are freezing their butts off. They may have a point. The weather this winter truly

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