By: Chandu Visweswariah Words matter. I once received a letter from the Carter Center in which former President Jimmy Carter urged me to donate money so that he could “wage peace” all over the world. I remember thinking at the time that the wording was clever. It indicated to me that President Carter was proposing a proactive and vigorous effort…
By: Chandu Visweswariah Did he who made the Lamb make thee? In the old days, humans threatened animal species by rapaciously hunting them for meat, skin, fur and ivory. Now we have found more efficient ways of wiping out not just individual creatures but entire species. The unthinkable has happened! The last living members of 34 different species died without…
By: Chandu Visweswariah In 1982, I registered for a class called “Communications Circuits” on the leafy campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chennai, India. The instructor was Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala (picture on the left and bio here and here). Fast forward almost 40 years since then, and Prof. Jhunjhunwala (who I’ll call Prof. J. in the rest…
By: Chandu Visweswariah Calling all meat eaters! Would your meat cravings ever be satisfied by plant-based substitutes (like ‘Beyond Burgers’ or ‘Impossible Burgers’)? How about meat that is grown in the laboratory by a process called cellular agriculture? Never, you say? Maybe not so fast… These meat substitutes go by the unappetizing name of Precision Fermentation and Cellular Agriculture (PFCA…
By: Chandu Visweswariah The recent United Nations IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 6th Assessment Report has set off a frenzy of “after-market analysis” in the environmental community to help the public make sense of the scientific jargon in the report. There is no ambiguity that we must reduce emissions to a level that can be absorbed by natural systems;…
By Chandu Visweswariah “There is no time for delay and no room for excuses, the report is a code red for humanity.”— UN Secretary General António Guterres “Now is the critical decade for keeping the 1.5-degree target within reach.”— Jane Lubchenco, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy The United Nations released the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)…
By: Chandu Visweswariah “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to…
By: Chandu Visweswariah Congratulations to all residents of the Croton Harmon School District in New York! In the recent May 18 budget vote, you chose electric buses overwhelmingly over fossil fuel buses. The three electric bus propositions collectively received a 73.7% approval. For those who recall, we also had a Proposition 1 for two fossil fuel buses, and the three…
By: Chandu Visweswariah No. 46 outdid himself on Earth Day 51! The publication of Rachel Carlson’s book “Silent Spring” in 1962 led to the first Earth Day in 1970. Just last week, we celebrated Earth Day number 51. In our household, Earth Day has always had special significance because our first date with my wife was on Earth Day 1990….
By: Chandu Visweswariah [Editor’s note: Proposition numbers were updated in keeping with updated Bond Proposition numbering on 4/13/2021 and funding details were updated on 5/3/2021.] The Croton School District (Westchester County, New York) is placing the following transportation bond propositions on the May 18, 2021 ballot: Proposition 1: Authorization to borrow money for 2 diesel buses and one “impractical” charger…
