Mercurial unision?

Obama's administration has come out in favor of a new international treaty to control mercury pollution. With the US on board, China and India followed suit, and they paved the way for over 140 countries to agree to negotiate a legal binding treaty that could reduce mercury pollution around the world.

The agreement was announced at a high profile UN meeting in Nairobi. The agreement marked an end to a 7 year effort to formally address the mercury issue. Negotiations had largely been stalled because the Bush Administration had blocked them. Achim Steiner, the Director of the UN's Environmental Program, said the US's move helped turn the tide.

With mercury pollution still on the rise, this agreement came at a crucial time. Mercury is a dangerous toxin that can cause neurological damage when exposed to children. Obviously, this spells more bad news for coal burning thermal plants that are worst generators of mercury. Hopefully the technology that will need to be implemented will be forthcoming at affordable costs to the developing world.

Just goes to show how much can be achieved if the rich north leads by example. Hopefully like the Montreal protocol which was effective in alleviating the ozone hole problem, this one too will have its success story to show in a few years.

Meanwhile, the much awaited $787 billion stimulus bill announced by Obama apportions $8 billion in high speed rail system and modernizing and revitalizing railroads. This is being seen as a move that will relieve congestion, conserve energy, prevent pollution and improve accessibility.

Indian Railways is the largest rail network in Asia and the world’s second largest under a single management. Covering over 1 lakh kilometers, it runs some 11,000 trains everyday. Now what prevents improving accessibility and speed on some of these tracks? (Forget any stimulus in our desi budget. At least we can pick some useful tips.)

For instance, in the case of the new Bangalore international airport, with so many crores poured into underpasses and Volvo buses, how come the fact that a railway line going all the way very close to the airport, was not made use of? Kuala Lumpur has a very efficient rail network connecting the 70 odd kms between the airport and the city.

But there is a cultural side to our preferences to commute. How many prefer to car pool or take a bus to work. Very few, as revealed by a survey. And this is not as much about convenience as it is about status! Will high speed trains and a metro mean fewer cars on the roads? Not really, believe many who say that those traveling by bus may shift to the metro, not the car commuters.

How does one change attitudes? Any answers? Will recession do it?