Darshan Blog

English bishops Richard Chartres and James Jones joined with the Christian charity Tearfund to push cutting back on carbon emissions during Lent as the most effective way to protect communities already affected by climate changes. So far, the charity has received 300,000 requests for the list of suggested actions, which range from the creative (”Ask your city council for more recycling options”) to the spiritual (”Reflect on ways to love our neighbors”).

Many feel that we need to redefine the seven deadly sins to reflect the modern age today. Some of the things being suggested as ‘new deadly sins’ are : Genetic Modification, polluting environment, causing social injustice, being obscenely wealthy, causing poverty, taking drugs etc. Private faith already speaks to public duty, as Mohandas Gandhi suggested with his version of the seven deadly sins: “Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, science without humanity, knowledge without character, politics without principle, commerce without morality and worship without sacrifice.” The responsibility rests with the individual, but that includes the duty to take care of others as well as your own soul.

Saving the environment is critical to the humanity, with grim predications being that the the icebergs in Artic Ocean, which were predicted to melt 50 years from now, may melt as early as 2013. 

Source: Newsweek

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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who has railed against the United States and accused the country of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.

Obama’s pastor, Reverend Wright made some contraversial remarks about racisim in the past, which now has created a stir in the Presidential Elections.

He said Wright’s controversial statements first came to his attention at the beginning of his presidential campaign last year, and he condemned them. Because of his long and deep ties to the 6,000-member congregation church, Obama said he decided not to leave.

Although, for any sermon in a context, the audience is going to react in a different ways, but this issue has been blown out of proportion in the ongoing Presidential Elections. It is yet another example, of  how this election is derailing off course from main issues.

All these rifts in the Democrats, make Sen. John McCain only stronger. He is out there in Iraq, meeting leaders as part of his Presidential campaign.

We only hope that the Democrats get rid of this negative attacks on each other and focus on the issues facing the country.

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John Hess, CEO of Hess Corp., has become an advocate for energy conservation and investment in alternative fuels. NEWSWEEK’S Fareed Zakaria spoke to him about the new world of $100-a-barrel oil, and the likelihood of an energy crisis.

According to Mr.Hess, there is in total, 3 trillion barrels of oil in the world. To date, a total of 1 trillion barrels of oil have been produced, and it’s conventionally understood that we have 2 trillion barrels left in the ground. About 2.5 million barrels of oil a day is consumed today.  About 50 percent of oil demand is for transportation, and auto ownership in the developing countries is growing swiftly, especially in India and China. Goldman Sachs estimates that by 2050, they could have 1.1 billion cars on the road, up from just 20 million three years ago. That’s an overwhelming increase in the need for automotive fuel. The IEA [International Energy Agency] predicts global demand to average 98.5 million barrels a day in 2015; it’s hard to see how we can meet that level of production. To have sustainable economic growth 10 years from now, both consumers and producers need to start acting now.

Even after the recent price increases, gasoline is still two times less than the cost of Evian water, and 10 times less than a Starbucks latte. Though we spend a lot of money on gasoline, less than 20% of fuel energy is converted to useful energy. There is a need to increase more hybrid car ownership in order to save the oil for many years to come.

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