IDCA observes Earth Day

DARIEN, IL: The monthly forum of IDCA on April 25 was dedicated to observe Earth Day at the Indian Prairie Public Library in Darien, IL. Dr. Prakasam Tata, President of IDCA, informed the audience about the objective of having regular forums, i.e., to inform people about important topics that impact the lives of the poor, and how one can help in accelerating development of the poor.

Prof. John Paul Kusz, Associate Director, Center for Sustainable Enterprise of the Stuart School of business, IIT, Chicago, Prabhakar Nair, Program Manager, Universal Oil Products, Des Plaines, IL, Dr. Hari Lamba, Engineer and Author of the book, "Rethinking Progress," and Porus Dadabhoy, Vice President of IDCA were the featured speakers.  Prof. Kusz presented a talk on, "Innovations, with, for and by People".

He emphasized that when it comes to benefits, those to the planet should come first, those that help people at large should come next, and the profits to individuals should come third in line. He emphasized that unless our planet is able to sustain life, other aspects of living are moot.

Nair, of UOP, presented his talk on, "Bio-Fuels: Unlocking the Potential". He emphasized that we ought to be looking at alternative and renewable sources of energy because humans are using fossil fuels at a rate much faster than their rates of formation.

From the current stage of making bio-fuels from food crops, he felt that this activity should proceed to the making of these fuels from non-food crops, and in the future, transition to making these from algae, that may need very little land, but would need water.

He felt that in India, there was good potential for meeting a good percentage of the automotive needs for diesel and gasoline from bio-fuels, through bio-diesel and bio-ethanol. Dr. Lamba spoke on the overall aspects of global warming and strategies of developing alternative energy resources.  He also spoke about the  recently initiated Solar Lights Project  of  IDCA and India Development Service, a member of IDCA's coalition, for rural India.

He also provided an update on this project, by describing his visit to the project site and villages in Madhya Pradesh and how Deendayal Research Institute, Chitrakoot and IDCA will  jointly implement this project. He also informed about how synergy is being created with the Rotary Club of Naperville to implement another solar lamps project in a different location.

The solar lamp projects  aim to replace kerosene lamps villages, which do not have electricity. He advocated strongly that people should support The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (the Waxman-Markey Bill), that is in Congress as it pushes the whole area of alternative energy strategies. Dadabhoy provided some valuable and interesting information on low cost solar cooker designs that have become available recently and  how they should help even more in terms of people's cooking needs, in saving wood and reducing pollution.