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Abdul Kalam
2015-06-30
Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, an eminent scientist and engineer
who has also served as the 11th president of India from the period 2002 to
2007 is a man of vision. Dr. Kalam is always been richly equipped with ideas
aimed at the development of the country. He firmly believes that India
needs to play a more assertive role in international relations. Making his
presence as the keynote speaker at the International Symposium on Energy
Challenges in the Knowledge Economy held in Sri Lanka on June 26, Dr.
Kalam expressed his ideas on concepts such as Carbon neutral cities and
most importantly the SAARC Energy Independence Platform: Livable Planet
Earth.
Excerpts are as follows: I am delighted to participate and address at the
International Symposium on Energy Challenges in the Knowledge Economy,
here in the beautiful city of Colombo. I am happy to know that this
Symposium is organised by the Ministry of Power and Energy. Sri Lanka
which envisages organising the scientific knowledge base for plan
implementation and will provide the forum for Sri Lankan, invited foreign
experts in the field to discuss, debate and share futuristic knowledge
relevant to the challenges that the nation is facing in the evolving
economy.
This is in line with the mega trend of our times, where steady supply of
energy is being replaced by a new paradigm which recognises two
Sea Waves
I come from an island in Rameswaram, in the southern part of India and not
far from here. I was born in Rameswaram, studied there and lived with full
connectivity during the last seventy eight years. I was asking myself what
my island has taught me? It was a great experience of sea travel, great
experience of climbing over sandy hills, sailing in my brothers thoni (fishing
boat) and bringing boats full of seasonal tiny fishes. Buyers from many
parts of India and Sri Lanka used to queue to obtain fresh fish on the seashore. Also I have seen a real life experience of how my father built a
passenger sail boat of forty passenger capacity, part by part, with two
expert carpenters (experienced boat builders). When this boat was
launched on a Full Moon Day, it brought great joy to our joint family.
When I visited Iceland, which was well known for volcanoes and
earthquakes, I could see that the islanders have learnt and evolved a
lifestyle to live happily and meet the challenges whenever they occurred.
This volcanic island is blessed with hot springs. The steam from hot springs
is converted into electricity and the hot water is supplied for heating houses
and buildings, through an integrated pipe-line network. The technology has
been developed to make their lives adequately safe through the research
efforts, for forecasting eruptions of volcanoes and occurrences of
earthquakes well before they occur.
Leading to Energy Independence
As you are aware, there is a continuous depletion of fossil-material-derived
oil, gas and coal reserves as predicted by World Energy Forum. Also, there
is a continuous fluctuation of cost of crude oil. In fact, presence of oil in a
nation and business of the oil is becoming the liability to the oil nation
instead of prosperity, for the reasons of changing geo-political dimensions.
It led to many wars which the world is witnessing so far. This changing
scenario has made me to think of Energy Independence. Inequality in the
per capita consumption of power, leads to unsustainable development.
Hence for every nation, it is imperative to achieve Energy Independence.
The world consumes more than 91 million barrels of petroleum per day.
Collectively as a world, we are not only paying for the cost of fuel, but also
paying for the continuous environmental degradation. The solution to these
problems is achieving energy independence by framing an integrated policy
and action for climate change mitigation and energy.
Let me share some thoughts about the global energy independence vision
by 2030, which is just 15 years away.