For the past 15 years, The Princeton Environmental Film Festival has been showcasing films related to environmental topics. In this episode I interview Susan Conlon on how they bring filmmakers, thinkers, viewers together to  focus on understanding and improving the environment.

In this episode, I give my views on the recent book by Bill Gates: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. I discuss the spiritual journey Senator Al Gore takes us on, in his book: Earth in the Balance. I end the episode  with a recital of a short Hymn of Peace!

In this episode I chat with Don Young, who has been in the asset management business his entire career. He shares his perspectives on sustainability, and explains how investors from different parts of the world have stepped up their inquiries on how their money is deployed in the ESG space. He also explains how it is important to have an ESG perspective in credit analysis, without sacrificing credit quality or returns. 

This is a poem to draw attention to the problem of smoke pollution caused by agricultural waste burning. Growing up on the Indian plains, I remember that the skies were clear and the nightime always offered lovely views of the heavenly skies. As cities sprawled and developed closer to farmland, things changed. In New Delhi - the (ex) city beautiful, pollution from automobiles, combined with smoke from agrowaste burning, combines to provide a choking smog hanging over the city all winter long. 

A few years back, I  stayed at a 14th century ex-Maharajah's Hill Fort in the Princely state of Alwar, and observed agro burning from a vantage point.

My poem - Hill Fort Kesroli - laments the tramsformation of the skies from blue to  black, from starlit to smoky, from clear to opaque.

Please send me your comments at [email protected]

Suraj Bhatia

Episode 21-4

My conversation with Lindsay Drogin, banker with New York Green Bank. How the bank entertains proposals from everyday "sustainable projects".

Is a Federal Green Bank in the works? 

The episode focuses on providing an easy to understand explanation of the Greenhouse Effect, its implications and the importance of maintaining a balance in the earth's temperature.

I interview Jay Gorawara, a pure Chemical Engineer with over 30 patents. I get his views on what it was like living in SIberia, and I ask him to explain the chemistry behind the formation of acid rain in the midwest. He explains his views on progress vs. climate change and pollution 

Contact Suraj: [email protected]

This episode is a preview of the breadth of topics to be discussed in this podcast. Suggestions and feedback are welcome, as we continue this journey together.