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Thursday, January 14, 2010

Biased blog at NASA



A few days back I'd visited the NASA website and found this blog, written by Adam Voiland, on their site : http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/whatonearth.blog/posts/post_1261368357808.html
It speaks about Giles, a young NASA scientist's experience in India.
I found this blog to be biased, derogatory towards India and some of the facts have been cleverly misrepresented. The blog seems to say that India is the epicentre of the problem (keep on reading to know the problem). Since the comments posted there are moderated, so my comment has not yet been posted and I don't know whether it would ever be! So I have put my response here on my blog :

Dear Adam,


I don't know how many times Giles has been to India or which parts of the country has he visited but let me tell you one thing - I live in India and I know India better, at least better than you or Giles. Giles has mentioned Kanpur to be "unbelievably hot" and "105 degrees" but as far as this time of the year i.e. December - January is concerned the maximum temperature is around 72 degrees (Fahrenheit) and minimum is around 40 degrees. If you think that's hot ...I've got nothing to say. Yes, in summer (April-May) it's about 100-105 degrees maximum but that's usual and has nothing to do with pollution or global warming. You can find about it in ancient Indian literature as well. So, I would say don't go over the top about it. Even the picture you've shown is about fog and that too is not so unusual because in India humidity levels are high, so when it's winter there's definitely a chance of fog. Well this is just pure misinformation and the blog's written in a way to please the American Government and people. I don't deny the fact that there's no pollution in India but that is restricted to a handful of industrial areas and cities (like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata) quite unlike the US. Don't believe me? Check this article on Forbes : http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/28/pollution-ozone-air-lifestyle-health-ozone-pollution.html
I don't know about tasting the air, maybe Giles had the smell of Indian spices.
Spend some of the US taxpayer's money on US as well instead of taking a dig at other countries. America claims to be the world's most powerful country but with power comes responsibility as well (like the responsibilty to cut down on emissions).
Lastly, I would like to say that there's no point pointing fingers at each other especially on topics like Global warming. If we want to save the world, we've to work together and quickly before it gets too late. It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. So people at NASA better find a solution to Global Warming. Now you know where to spend your money!

I would urge all the Indian readers of my blog to visit the NASA blog through the link I've provided above and comment on this issue.

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