Editor's Note

Counting the Benefits of More Greenery

It is not easy to do so. It's certainly not profitable. Nevertheless, the call to save the environment is a wild card that pops up every so often. The last Nobel Peace Prize went towards the environmental concerns and there have been others in the past as well. Our cover story is also a about a man who cares deeply about the planet. The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the green we get to see when we look around us to soothe our eyes, or the shade we get on a hot day- everything is affected by the number of trees around. Kartik Pramanik is a man who has devoted his life to planting trees, because he feels compelled to do so. He's planted hundreds of thousands of seedlings in his life, and keeps on doing so at 65. Let's face it- there is no big direct cash payoff to planting a seedling. Most of them don't even survive for very long.

Of course, like Kartik, it is possible to find individuals who are totally devoted to pursuits like this. However, convincing others and making a case for this sort of thing is a totally different story. People want facts and figures. They often want results, or to be able to put a price on each of the benefits. But measuring the benefits of, say, a “better ecosystem” or “greener environment” is notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to calculate, particularly in monetary terms. So as it turns out, often the only tool these crusaders have, crusaders both big and small, is a strong emotional appeal, and a lot of rhetoric.

Abak Hussain
From the Insight Desk

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