Mr. Anantha(m): I've been a vegetarian
all my life.
I love vegetarian food.
And I see no reason
why the world
can't be vegetarian.
And I also see quite clearly
that if the world were
to be vegetarian,
it would do the planet
a lot of good.
HOST:
Welcome,
sensitive viewers,
to Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Greenpeace International,
a global organization
dedicated to protecting
the air, water, and sky
has offices in over
40 countries spanning
Europe, Asia, the Pacific
and the Americas.
The group's primary goals
are to halt climate change,
safeguard our oceans
and forests, rid the world
of toxic chemicals
and stop the use
of genetically modified
organisms in agriculture.
This week we'll travel
to Bangalore, India
to meet the charismatic,
vegetarian Guruswamy
Ananthapadmanabhan,
or Ananth for short,
who since 2008 has been
program director for
Greenpeace International.
Mr. Ananth is
an electrical engineer
by training, and also
founder and former
executive director
of Greenpeace India.
Mr. Anantha(m):
It's my responsibility
to make sure that all
the offices of Greenpeace
across the world
work together
in a strategically
coordinated manner
to achieve the best results
for the environment,
for the goals we set out.
So that's my, broadly my job.
HOST:
Our Supreme Master
Television correspondent
spoke with Mr. Ananth
about Greenpeace
International's activities,
including its work in India.
We'll begin by learning
about some of the
notable achievements of
this caring organization.
Mr. Anantha(m):
Most refrigerators
in the world, at one time,
used to have ozone-depleting
substances in them.
Today, all of them
are ozone-free.
Several, companies today
also make refrigerators
that are ozone- friendly,
but not climate-friendly.
They've replaced
the CFC's
(chlorofluorocarbons)
with HFC's
(hydrochlorofluorocarbons).
So but Twenty years ago
Greenpeace developed
something called
"Green Freeze,"
a refrigerant that is both
climate and ozone-friendly.
And we're very happy
to say that today, except
for one or two companies,
most of the companies
in the world
produce Green Freeze.
That's one of the big
changes that we've made.
The Antarctic
protected area,
that's a contribution that
came from Greenpeace.
Stopping ocean dumping
basically,
that's another big thing
that Greenpeace did.
In the last three years,
there's been a moratorium
on expansion
of soya cultivation
in the Amazon,
again something
that Greenpeace did.
We got a declaration
that palm oil from
unsustainable sources
would not be bought
by the big companies,
again a contribution
of Greenpeace.
Here in India we basically
have brought in several
(pieces of) legislations
to deal with toxic wastes.
Our aim in India here,
top aim, would be
the government
moves away from coal
as the backbone
of the energy economy.
For more details on
Greenpeace International,
please visit
www.Greenpeace.org
