Really glad that the Sri Lankan Cricket Team brought the smog issue up. The people of Delhi breathe poison does not mean that visitors can be bullied into breathing it, for all the pull of the BCCI in the ICC. May be we should take Environmental Quality issues more seriously.

Environmentalists and Social Development Professionals are interlocutors of conversations between science, economics and law. The challenge would be in reframing the conversation towards solution building. Environmentalists are often perceived as advocacy and research professionals who raise issues, bring them in to the limelight but are limited upto suggesting alternatives. The disconnect with the market is evident with the chasm in the language used by the two communities of practitioners; the environmentalists and the business community. The focus on the bottom line and the long term focus on conservation clash.

The consulting community also tries to bridge the gap, but are often facilitators in the regulatory sphere; rendering services to the project owners. The challenge is however to be conversant with a lingo which understands ecosystem issues and the costs with the regulatory drivers. It’s time for Environmentalists to move beyond being rubble rousers and give practical solutions to industry and policy makers regarding the environmental issues of the day.