Blooms once in 12 years & treasures the unknown: Kerala’s pride, ‘Neelakurinji’

December 13, 2018 Staff ReporterEntertainment, Environment, India 0

Once every 12 years, the Hills of Munnar in the southern state of Kerala in India, turn blue. People flock in great numbers to view the blooming of the Neelakurinji. Biologists and nature lovers alike mark their calendars for this great event happening now in 2018. It is easily among the most magnificent sights in the world.

From August to October every 12 years, these areas are primed for viewing this natural wonder. 1600 meters above sea level, Munnar is one of the most beautiful locations in Kerala and the world. Its tea plantations, hill ranges, plantation bungalows and a vast variety of rare flora and fauna have enthralled people for centuries.

In a way, the rare flowering marks the blooming of hope for the tourism industry which is the doldrums, following the floods earlier this year. The Hills of Munnar have adorned hues of romantic blue as Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthianus), the once in a 12-year wonder. Though the heavy Monsoons, delayed the flowering season, the meandering valleys and mist clad hills of Munnar have started to amaze one and all with its stunning purple.

The last bloom of Neelakurinji was in 2006. And after a long 12 years the flower is blooming this year and this is why Munnar has been added in the list of ‘Top Places to Visit in Asia in 2018’ by the ‘Lonely Planet.’

Neelakurinji is a rare purple-blue colored flower which only blossoms once in 12 years in the lush hills of Munnar, Kerala. The season starts in July and lasts till October. This year the blooming has started from the first week of September and is expected to extend for a few months.

For people who don’t know, Munnar is a beautiful hill station situated in the Western Ghats mountain range in Kerala. Once in a lifetime, everyone should experience the charm of Munnar, the chill of its hills, the abundant green valleys, the silvery rivers, the cascading waterfalls, fascinating plantations, and every other bit of this place.

There are 250 different types of Kurinji and 46 varieties of Neelakurinji in India, which also includes red and maroon flowers but Neelakurinji is the most famous.

The Muthuvan tribes, who are the original inhabitants of Munnar, determine their age in relation to the number of Neelakurinji blooms they have observed. The Paliyans of Tamil Nadu also use the blooming cycle of Neelakurinji flowers to calculate their age. At the time of blooming season, honey bees gather nectar from the Neelakurinji flowers and this honey is considered to be tastier and healthier than the regular honey we use.

Since these unique flowers bloom only once in every 12 years, they bring a huge number of tourists to the south Indian state. The next flowering season will be in 2030 and that is really a long wait. So if you want to witness the majestic beauty of the Neelakurinji, make your way to Munnar this year.

Munnar is also home to the endangered Nilgiri Tahr whose population is currently being conserved at the Eravikulam National Park. One can even visit the Anamudi Peak, the tallest in South India, which has some of best trekking trails in the country.

People love the view at Top Station, the highest point on the Munnar-Kodaikanal Route. Other places of interest in the area include Marayoor, Echo Point, Anayirankal and Valara Waterfalls. If kurinji is what gets you to Munnar, stay back and let this paradise on Earth take over your senses. It has never disappointed anyone who made the journey.

At record high global carbon emissions, planet earth in peril

December 8, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Health 0

Global emissions of carbon dioxide have reached the highest levels on record, scientists projected last week, in the latest evidence of the chasm between international goals for combating climate change and what countries are doing.

Between 2014 and 2016, emissions remained largely flat, leading to hopes that the world was beginning to turn a corner. Those hopes have been dashed. In 2017, global emissions grew 1.6 percent. The rise in 2018 is projected to be 2.7 percent.

The expected increase, which would bring fossil fuel and industrial emissions to a record high of 37.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, is being driven by nearly 5 percent emissions growth in China and more than 6 percent in India, researchers estimated, along with growth in many other nations throughout the world. Emissions by the United States grew 2.5 percent, while emissions by the European Union declined by just under 1 percent.

As nations are gathered for climate talks in Poland, this stark message is unambiguous: When it comes to promises to begin cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change, the world remains well off target.

“We are in trouble. We are in deep trouble with climate change,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said this week at the opening of the 24th annual U.N. climate conference, where countries will wrestle with the ambitious goals they need to meet to sharply reduce carbon emissions in coming years.

“It is hard to overstate the urgency of our situation,” he added. “Even as we witness devastating climate impacts causing havoc across the world, we are still not doing enough, nor moving fast enough, to prevent irreversible and catastrophic climate disruption.”

In October, a top U.N.-backed scientific panel found that nations have barely a decade to take “unprecedented” actions and cut their emissions in half by 2030 to prevent the worst consequences of climate change. The panel’s report found “no documented historic precedent” for the rapid changes to the infrastructure of society that would be needed to hold warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.

The day after Thanksgiving, the Trump administration released a nearly 1,700-page report co-written by hundreds of scientists finding that climate change is already causing increasing damage to the United States. That was soon followed by another report detailing the growing gap between the commitments made at earlier U.N. conferences and what is needed to steer the planet off its calamitous path.

Coupled with Wednesday’s findings, that drumbeat of daunting news has cast a considerable pall over the international climate talks in Poland, which began this week and are scheduled to run through Dec. 14.

Negotiators there face the difficult task of coming to terms with the gap between the promises they made in Paris in 2015 and what’s needed to control dangerous levels of warming — a first step, it is hoped, toward more aggressive climate action beginning in 2020. Leaders at the conference also are trying to put in place a process for how countries measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions to the rest of the world in the years ahead.

But while most of the world remains firmly committed to the notion of tackling climate change, many countries are not on pace to meet their relatively modest Paris pledges. The Trump administration has continued to roll back environmental regulations and to insist that it will exit the Paris agreement in 2020. Brazil, which has struggled to rein in deforestation, in the fall elected Jair Bolsonaro, who has pledged to roll back protections for the Amazon.

The continuing growth in global emissions is happening, researchers noted, even though renewable energy sources are growing. It’s just that they’re still far too small as energy sources.

“Solar and wind are doing great; they’re going quite well,” said Glen Peters, director of the Center for International Climate Research in Oslo and another of the Global Carbon Project authors. “But in China and India, the solar and wind are just filling new demand. You could say if you didn’t have solar or wind, emissions could be higher. But solar and wind are nowhere near big enough yet to replace fossil fuels.”

The biggest emissions story in 2018, though, appears to be China, the world’s single largest emitting country, which grew its output of planet-warming gases by nearly half a billion tons, researchers estimate. The country’s sudden, significant increase in carbon emissions could be linked to a wider slowdown in the economy, environmental analysts said.

“Under pressure of the current economic downturn, some local governments might have loosened supervision on air pollution and carbon emissions,” said Yang Fuqiang, an energy adviser to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S. environmental organization.

The United States is the globe’s second-largest emitter. Scientists have said that annual carbon dioxide emissions need to plunge almost by half by the year 2030 if the world wants to hit the most stringent — and safest — climate change target. That would be either keeping the Earth’s warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius — when it is already at 1 degrees — or only briefly “overshooting” that temperature. But emissions are far too high to limit warming to such an extent. And instead of falling dramatically, they’re still rising.

“India is providing electricity and energy to hundreds of millions of people who don’t have it yet,” Jackson said. “That’s very different than in China, where they are ramping up coal use again in part because their economic growth has been slowing. They’re greenlighting coal-based projects that have been on hold.”

In the United States, emissions in 2018 are projected to have risen 2.5 percent, driven in part by a very warm summer that led to high air conditioning use and a very cold winter in the Northeast, but also by a continued use of oil driven by low gas prices and bigger cars. U.S. emissions had been on a downturn, as coal plants are replaced by natural gas plants and renewable energy, but that momentum ground to a halt this year, at least temporarily. In Europe, cars also have been a major driver of slower-than-expected emissions reductions.

Despite the overwhelming challenges, Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, still holds high hopes for the talks in Poland.

“I’m an optimist because of human nature,” Espinosa said in an interview. She suspects the spate of ominous climate news might have prompted a tipping point, where societies begin demanding aggressive actions from their leaders to stave off the most disastrous effects of climate change.

“I think we have kind of reached the limit,” she said. “When we are facing the limit, I think we need to come up with something more creative, more ambitious, stronger and bolder.”

Climate change is a global phenomenon that requires global solutions. Fortunately, we already have platforms for multilateral action such as the United Nations and forums such as the G20.

World leaders are meeting at the Climate Conference (COP24) in Katowice, Poland, December 2-14th, to finalize the rulebook to implement the 2015 landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. In the agreement, countries committed to take action to limit global warming to well under 2°C this century. At the conference in Poland, the UN will invite people to voice their views and launch a campaign to encourage every day climate action.

Meanwhile, thanks to the media and to rapid communications, people are increasingly aware of what is happening in other parts of the world. They see how migration, trade and technology are making us more interdependent than ever before.

Although we do see a backlash against global integration in some parts of the world today, I am convinced that the sense of international solidarity will only grow in the years to come. An increasing awareness that we have a shared destiny on this fragile planet will help to strengthen inclusive multilateral action in the years to come.

200 nations gather in Poland to plan to prevent catastrophic climate change

December 8, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

With the direst warnings yet of impending environmental disaster still ringing in their ears, representatives from nearly 200 nations gathered Sunday in Poland to firm up their plan to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Representatives of almost all the countries on the planet are gathering in Katowice, Poland, for the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They will set the course for action on climate change by discussing the implementation plan for the 2015 Paris Agreement which aims to coordinate international effort to halt warming at 1.5°C.

The UN climate summit comes at a crucial juncture in mankind’s response to planetary warming. The smaller, poorer nations that will bare its devastating brunt are pushing for richer states to make good on the promises they made in the 2015 Paris agreement.

In Paris three years ago, countries committed to limit global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and to the safer cap of 1.5C if at all possible.

But with only a single degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has already seen a crescendo of deadly wildfires, heatwaves and hurricanes made more destructive by rising seas.

In a rare intervention, presidents of previous UN climate summits issued a joint statement as the talks got underway in the Polish mining city of Katowice, calling on states to take “decisive action… to tackle these urgent threats”.

“The impacts of climate change are increasingly hard to ignore,” said the statement, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. “We require deep transformations of our economies and societies.”

In Katowice, nations must agree to a rulebook palatable to all 183 states who have ratified the Paris deal. This is far from a given: the dust is still settling from US President Donald Trump’s decision to ditch the Paris accord.

G20 leaders on Saturday agreed a final communique after their summit in Buenos Aires, declaring that the Paris Agreement was “irreversible”.

But it said the US “reiterates its decision to withdraw” from the landmark accord.

Even solid progress in Katowice on the Paris goals may not be enough to prevent runaway global warming, as a series of major climate reports have outlined.

Just this week, the UN’s environment programme said the voluntary national contributions agreed in Paris would have to triple if the world was to cap global warming below 2C.

For 1.5C, they must increase fivefold. While the data are clear, a global political consensus over how to tackle climate change remains elusive.

“Katowice may show us if there will be any domino effect” following the US withdrawal, said Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a main architect of the Paris deal.

Brazil’s strongman president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, for one, has promised to follow the American lead during his campaign.

Even the most strident climate warnings — spiralling temperatures, global sea-level rises, mass crop failures — are something that many developed nations will only have to tackle in future.

But many other countries are already dealing with the droughts, higher seas and catastrophic storms climate change is exacerbating.

“A failure to act now risks pushing us beyond a point of no return with catastrophic consequences for life as we know it,” said Amjad Abdulla, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, of the UN talks.

A key issue up for debate is how the fight against climate change is funded, with developed and developing nations still world’s apart in their demands.

Poorer nations argue that rich countries, which are responsible for the vast majority of historic carbon emissions, must help others to fund climate action.

But wealthy states, led by the US, have so far resisted calls to be more transparent in how their contributions are reported — something developing nations say is vital to form ambitious green energy plans.

“Developed nations led by the US will want to ignore their historic responsibilities and will say the world has changed,” said Meena Ramam, from the Third World Network advocacy group.

“The question really is: how do you ensure that ambitious actions are done in an equitable way?”

The first COP meetings held in the 1990s led to the creation of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, which set binding emissions targets for developed countries over two “commitment periods” (2008-2012 and 2013-2020). However, the Kyoto agreement failed as the US did not ratify it and because several inconclusive conferences followed its implementation.

COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 also failed to yield any agreement on binding commitments for the second commitment period. A few major countries agreed to a short accord recognising the need to limit global temperature rises to 2°C, but there were no substantial guidelines on how to do so.

Similarly, COP19 in Warsaw four years later did not finalise any binding treaty. It only recognised “a flexible ruling” on differentiated responsibilities and loss and damage. In Warsaw, the international community failed to take essential steps for the future. Some even think that the 2013 conference cast some doubt on the capacity of the Polish government to successfully lead COP24 in 2018.

Against this backdrop, COP21 in Paris in 2015 appeared to generate the most optimistic outcome in two decades of international climate negotiations. In Paris, the world leaders agreed on a general action plan that legally binds countries to have their progress tracked by technical experts.

The countries who signed up also agreed on a “global stocktake” – a process for reviewing collective progress towards achieving the long-term goals of the agreement. However, lots of details about the Paris Agreement still have to be nailed down. This is precisely what the international community seeks to do this December in Poland.

The major objective for COP24 is to agree upon the so-called Paris “rulebook” – the details of how nations should implement the Paris Agreement and report their progress. Three major areas of political discussion will receive most attention: finance, emission targets, and the role of “big” states.

In 2015, richer countries pledged US$100 billion a year by 2020 for poorer nations to mitigate the effects of climate change. However, the climate funding is still about US$20 billion short. COP24 delegates will need to discuss in more detail on when the rest of the money will be generated before committing to the rulebook.

Perhaps even more importantly, rules for where that money comes from, and particularly whether international loans are acceptable, still have to be agreed on. Because finance is closely linked to issues of justice and fairness in the international system, it is unlikely that this discussion will lead to more generous levels of climate aid – although there is space for improvement, and some past conferences have actually provided small but significant advances on this front.

COP24 also needs to set some form of flexible yet comparable rules that will govern the Paris Agreement. One groundbreaking feature of the Paris Agreement is that all parties agreed to commit to national contributions to climate action. In other words, the agreement is based on a bottom-up process in which countries largely determine their own contributions, and then act upon them.

This COP may settle on some basic strategies for verifying climate actions, but it is very unlikely that the international community will agree on any mechanisms for delivering sanctions to states that do not meet their targets, because of the high sensitivity towards financial costs for non-abatement.

Finally, while “small” countries will have an important role to play at the negotiations as usual, there are several question marks around the large countries that need to bear a lot of the efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

It will not help that President Donald Trump, who intends to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, decided in 2017 to cancel climate funding for poor nations. The US position at COP24 will also affect China and India, which are likely to continue disagreeing with rich countries on some fundamental issues. Additionally, the domestic politics of Russia and Brazilpoint to more uncertainty for cooperation.

The urgency to reach key milestones in the Paris Agreement and deal with climate change puts a lot of high expectations on COP24. Unfortunately, many challenges stand ahead of international climate cooperation.

Approaching the negotiations with the right level of reason and determination will be critical to manage expectations and avoid any media “hysteria”, as media coverage can hurt the climate talks by shifting attention from the policy issues to unproductive discussions of whether climate change is influenced by humans.

For a credible and valid rulebook, we need frank conversations about energy transition and compensating the “losers” of climate policies, such as people working in high-emission sectors.

There might be the opportunity to do so in Katowice, an industrial hub and coal-mining city. We will see if this COP will highlight the necessary transition from fossil fuel industry to renewable solutions as the negotiations unravel.
History shows that when the human race decides to pursue a challenging goal, we can achieve great things. From ridding the world of smallpox to prohibiting slavery and other ancient abuses through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have proven that by joining together we can create a better world.
There are many success stories in all regions and all sectors that demonstrate the enormous potential of climate action. To start with, a growing number of cities and regions have adopted targets to achieve zero net emissions between 2020 and 2050. These targets are often developed in collaboration.

Just one example: Nineteen city leaders from the C40 coalition signed the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Declaration to ensure that all new buildings operate with a neutral carbon footprint by 2030.

The rise of inclusive multilateralism, where not only national governments but local and regional governments as well as a diverse array of associations and organizations work closely together, is a powerful force for climate action.

Collaboration is also taking place among actors in particular economic sectors. Earlier this year, the global transport sector, which is responsible for some 14 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, created the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance.

We also see a growing list of individual corporations adopting emissions targets. Many have signed up to a Science Based Target to ensure that they are in line with the 1.5-2°C temperature limit enshrined under the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

To date, over 700 leading businesses around the world have made strategic climate commitments through the We Mean Business coalition’s Take Action campaign.

There are so many more inspiring examples from a wide range of actors. Their efforts, more than anything else, is what gives me hope that we can achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement and minimize global climate change and its risks. Their stories should inspire all of us to contribute more energetically to climate action.

(Originally published by the SDG Media Compact which was launched by the United Nations in September 2018 in collaboration with over 30 founding media organizations)

India promises to play constructive, balanced role in UN climate summit

December 8, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, India 0

Indian Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan has said the high level of greenhouse gas emission was a major concern and reaffirmed that India would play a “positive, constructive and balanced role” in the UN climate summit.

“Our focus is on shifting to renewables,” Vardhan told reporters on the sidelines of the two-week-long UN climate negotiations, known as COP24, that saw governments and delegates from nearly 200 countries in this Polish city.

The talks officially began on Monday with the opening address of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Responding to a question on clean coal, the minister said: “We have an ambitious target of 175GW. We use super critical technology which has comparatively less emissions.

“We have also announced stringent emission standards and we are retrofitting existing coal plants with the latest technology. The ones that can’t be upgraded are being shutdown. Close to 52GW of old plants have been shutdown till date,” Vardhan said.

He added that India wanted to see the UN climate summit as a success. Ahead of India’s second Biennial update report, which was earlier scheduled to be released by Vardhan at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change or COP24 on Monday, a projection on India’s progress by US-based The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said India was “on track to achieve the majority of its Paris agreement goals”.

The Paris agreement urged each country outline, update and communicate their post-2020 climate actions, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), reflecting the country’s ambition for reducing emissions, taking into account its domestic circumstances and capabilities.

India’s progress on two of its three Paris agreement commitments were to achieve 40 per cent of electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel by 2030 and to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent by 2030 from the 2005 level.

IEEFA found that India was likely to achieve these two goals 10 years before the 2030 deadline. For the first goal, IEEFA predicted that installed non-fossil fuel capacity in India will exceed 40 per cent by the end of 2019.

And at the current rate of two per cent reduction per year in emission intensity of its GDP, India is likely to achieve 33-35 per cent of emission intensity reduction targets a decade ahead of target.

To a question on the latest assessment on NDCs, Vardhan said: “We are much ahead on delivering our NDCs. We have already achieved 21 per cent emission intensity reduction, including emissions from agriculture, whereas our NDCs exclude agricultural emissions from its scope.”

“We believe we will achieve these goals much before 2022,” he said.

“We have set a target but are not waiting for the deadline… Our aim is to achieve targets fixed by the Prime Minister at the earliest. We are conscious of the targets but are even more concerned to achieve it ahead of time.”

On the forest cover, Vardhan admitted India was slow. “But you must have seen that the forest cover increased by about one per cent. New strategy has been formulated for afforestation and we will achieve this goal as well.”

Questioning developed countries’ commitments, he said: “Our sincerity should not be treated as weakness. All the pre-2020 and other commitments made by the developed countries need to be fulfilled.”

He said India wanted to see COP24 to be successful and added that New Delhi would play a “positive, constructive and balanced role” in the summit.

Earlier, Vardhan inaugurated an India pavilion along with the Indian delegation. It will have around 20 sessions, covering issues related to sectors important for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“One World One Sun One Grid,” highlighted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during first assembly of International Solar Alliance on October 2, is the theme of India pavilion. (IANS)

‘2/3rd global population could be under stress due to water scarcity by 2025’

December 8, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

The 2011 Census says that 1.79 crore of rural and 1.41 crore of urban population is affected with high arsenic level in West Bengal. Around 1,800 million people would be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity by the year 2025, when two-thirds of the world population could be under stress, an expert said here on Tuesday.

In India, which is one of the major countries hit by the menace of arsenic contamination of groundwater, the government projects have suffered due to lack of people’s involvement, West Bengal government’s Arsenic Task Force Chairman K.J. Nath said at a workshop organised by the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (SISSO).

“During 1970s and 80s, a large number of people in the Ganga-Brahmaputra plains (West Bengal, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam) were affected by arsenic contaminated groundwater. It is acute in Bangladesh and China. The government programmes providing arsenic free water involves operational problem as people are not involved in it,” said Nath, former Director of All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health.

He pointed out that in the 1930s and 40s, surface water was the primary source of drinking water. But due to epidemic of diarrhoea and cholera, the government shifted to deep tubewells and that brought the problem of arsenic.

Permissible amount of arsenic in drinking water is 0.05 mg/l in India as per Bureau of Indian Standards.

The 2011 Census says that 1.79 crore of rural and 1.41 crore of urban population is affected with high arsenic level in West Bengal.

Turning to the global scenario, Nath said the way water defies political boundaries and classification, the crisis is also beyond the scope of any individual country or sector and cannot be dealt with in isolation.

“By 2025, 1800 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress condition,” he said.

SISSO, working to improve sanitation in the country, has taken up pilot projects in five places of West Bengal for providing treated surface water at a nominal price.

“Through our pilot projects in Madhusudankati (North 24 Parganas), Paschim Midnapur, Harisdaspur (Bongaon), we have been able to assist local NGOs and self-help groups to provide safe water by treating surface water,” SISSO Founder Bindeshwar Pathak said.

The plant in Madhusudankati provides almost 8,000 litres of water per day at Rs 1 per litre.
Pathak mentioned that there are similar projects where the plant is run by community people in Bihar and Delhi.

“We are also planning to set up a new plant in Madhusudankati and another one in Bengal that will treat groundwater and make it arsenic free. With a new technology from Denmark, there will be no problem of dealing with the disposal of the collected arsenic,” Pathak said.

State Panchayat and Rural Development, and Public Health Engineering Minister Subrata Mukherjee called for spreading more awareness.

“Around 83 blocks in West Bengal and some places in Kolkata have high arsenic level in ground water. We are working hard to provide safe water but the main issue is awareness. It is not just about arsenic but also about saving our depleting water resources,” Mukherjee said.

Indian American Budding Environmentalists win EPA’s PEYA Awards

November 25, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Several young Indian Americans made it to the list of the President’s Environmental Youth Award, awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A total of 17 winning projects from 10 regions were announced, including at least six Indian American or South Asian Americans among the group.

In Region 2, Samuel, a second grader from New Jersey, is teaching his school and community about the importance of composting through his project, “Worm Tower, Earth Power.” Samuel created a composite or worm bin with the help of his second grade teacher and sponsor, as well as his parents.

He shared the information he learned throughout the community, with his fellow classmates, with other classes in the school, and with the Bergenfield Garden Club. He will continue this composting project and ultimately distribute all the worms used in his bin to the Garden Club so that these worms can continue to have a positive effect on the environment.

For his “Electronic Recycling Initiative,” Jay M., a senior from Indiana, was a winner in the EPA’s Region 5. Jay partnered with the e-recycling organization TechRecyclers to ensure responsible handling and data destruction of materials collected during multiple community electronics drives. He advertised through local news, online publications, social media, and flyers.

The electronic drives took place between 2015-2017 involving 15-to-20 volunteers per event and diverted over 30,000 pounds from landfills.

Because of his efforts electronics recycling drives are now conducted annually. In addition to the drives, he undertook an e-waste education initiative for third and fourth grade students. He noticed detrimental effects that heavy metals in broken electronics can have on both people and the environment.

Realizing the extent of these effects, he began a research project to test the protective effects of a green algae, Chlorella vulgaris, on zebrafish exposed to multiple concentrations of methylmercury (a poisonous form of mercury in electronics).

His research received an award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. In addition, he has been a Distinguished Finalist for the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, and has written lesson plans for Kids are Scientists Too, a non-profit organization, the EPA said.

Asvini T., with her “Save the Place Where We Are Living and Save the Planet” project, and Madhalasa I., with her “Saving the Hands that Feed Us” project, were named winners in the EPA Region 6.

As a grade schooler in Texas, Asvini implemented a city-wide battery recycling initiative diverting over 25,000 batteries (weighing more than a ton) away from landfills. Asvini did her research and conducted a series of presentations about the dangers of the chemicals found in batteries.

She made a clear connection between those dangers and associated human health risks, as well as damage done to the natural environment. Soon after, she had her school, the library, and city officials involved, placing battery collection bins in her school’s classrooms, in the local library, recreation centers, and elsewhere.

Climate change: Oceans ‘soaking up more heat than estimated’

November 10, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent

The world has seriously underestimated the amount of heat soaked up by our oceans over the past 25 years, researchers say. Their study suggests that the seas have absorbed 60% more than previously thought.

They say it means the Earth is more sensitive to fossil fuel emissions than estimated.

This could make it much more difficult to keep global warming within safe levels this century.

According to the last major assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s oceans have taken up over 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases.

But this new study says that every year, for the past 25 years, we have put about 150 times the amount of energy used to generate electricity globally into the seas – 60% more than previous estimates. That’s a big problem.

Scientists base their predictions about how much the Earth is warming by adding up all the excess heat that is produced by the known amount of greenhouse gases that have been emitted by human activities.

This new calculation shows that far more heat than we thought has been going into oceans. But it also means that far more he

The researchers involved in the study believe the new finding will make it much harder to keep within the temperature rise targets set by governments in the Paris agreement. Recently the IPCC spelled out clearly the benefits to the world of keeping below the lower goal of 1.5C relative to pre-industrial levels.

This new study says that will be very difficult indeed. “It is a big concern,” said lead author Dr Laure Resplandy from Princeton University in New Jersey.

“If you look at the IPCC 1.5C, there are big challenges ahead to keep those targets, and our study suggests it’s even harder because we close the window for those lower pathways.”

The report suggests that to prevent temperatures rising above 2C, carbon emissions from human activities must be reduced by 25% more than previously estimated.

What does it mean for the oceans? As well as potentially making it more difficult to keep warming below 1.5 or even 2C this century, all that extra heat going into the oceans will prompt some significant changes in the waters.

“A warmer ocean will hold less oxygen, and that has implications for marine ecosystems,” said Dr Resplandy. “There is also sea level, if you warm the ocean more you will have more thermal expansion and therefore more sea level rise.”

Since 2007, scientists have been able to rely on a system of almost 4,000 Argo floats that record temperature and salinity in the oceans around the world.

But prior to this, the methods used to measure the heat in the ocean had many flaws and uncertainties.

Now, researchers have developed what they say is a highly precise method of detecting the temperature of the ocean by measuring the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air. This allows them to accurately measure ocean temperatures globally, dating back to 1991, when accurate data from a global network of stations became available.

The key element is the fact that as waters get warmer they release more carbon dioxide and oxygen into the air.

“When the ocean warms, the amount of these gases that the ocean is able to hold goes down,” said Dr Resplandy.

“So what we measured was the amount lost by the oceans, and then we can calculate how much warming we need to explain that change in gases.”

Will the heat ever come back out?

Yes, say the authors, but over a very long time.

“The heat stored in the ocean will eventually come back out if we start cooling the atmosphere by reducing the greenhouse effect,” said Dr Resplandy.

“The fact that the ocean holds so much heat that can be transferred back to the atmosphere makes it harder for us to keep the Earth surface temperature below a certain target in the future.

How have other scientists responded to the findings?

With some concern.

“The authors have a very strong track record and very solid reputation… which lends the story credibility,” said Prof Sybren Drijfhout at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

“The updated estimate is indeed worrying in terms of how likely it is that society can meet 1.5 and 2 degree targets as it shifts the lower bound of climate sensitivity upward.”

Others say that further work is required.

“The uncertainty in the ocean heat content change estimate is still large, even when using this new independent method, which also has uncertainties,” said Thomas Froelicher from the University of Bern, Switzerland.

“The conclusion about a potential higher climate sensitivity and potentially less allowable carbon emission to stay below 2C should stimulate further investigation.”

The study has been published in the journal Nature.

Air pollution killed highest number of under-5 children in India in 2016: WHO report

November 3, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Health 0

At least 100,000 children below five years died in 2016 due to health complications associated with high outdoor and indoor air pollution, according to the report titled ‘Air Pollution and Child Health’.

India recorded the highest number of air pollution-induced deaths of children below five years in 2016, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report that analysed the impact of toxic air on the health of children in 194 countries.

At least 100,000 children below five years died that year in the country due to health complications associated with high outdoor and indoor air pollution, according to the report titled ‘Air Pollution and Child Health’ released in Geneva on Monday.

Nigeria (98,001), Pakistan (38,252), Democratic Republic of Congo (32,647) and Ethiopia (20,330) followed India, completing the list of the worst five countries in child mortality in the study.

Death rates, or the ratio of deaths to population during a particular period, were higher in these four countries than that of India.

Of the countries surveyed, India recorded the highest premature deaths among children under five years due to outdoor air pollution in 2016 and the second highest number of deaths due to exposure from indoor air pollution — only after Nigeria.

About 98% of the children in that age group in India are exposed to PM2.5 levels that exceed WHO’s annual standard of 25 micrograms per cubic metres. PM2.5 pollutants are particulate matters that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers.

These tiny particles are so fine that they can enter the bloodstream and lodge deep into the lungs.

Half of all deaths due to acute lower respiratory infections, which include pneumonia and influenza, in children below five years is caused by exposure to high air pollution levels in low- and middle-income countries, estimates WHO.

Across the world, at least 600,000 children died from acute lower respiratory infections caused by air pollution in 2016.

India also has one of the highest morbidity and mortality rates: at least 50 deaths for every 100,000 children due to such infections.

Globally, premature birth is the only other factor that kills more children below five years than acute respiratory infections. In the African region, however, acute respiratory infections are the leading cause of death of children in that age group.

When asked about the details of the methodology for the country-wise mortality figures, WHO said the sources to assess PM2.5 exposure was scientific modelling, ground measurements (provided by the likes of the Central Pollution Control Board in India) and satellite data. The methodology to assess risks associated with PM2.5 exposure is the one used in the Global Burden of Disease, a study on health impacts from various sources.

WHO has also put together a list of health effects that children may be facing from air pollution, taking into account significant research studies published in the past 10 years and inputs from experts around the world.

Poor birth outcomes like low birth weight and a rise in pre-term births and stillbirths due to the mother’s exposure to high air pollution levels have been mentioned in past research.

WHO’s review has established that air pollution can also lead to behavioural disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; adverse metabolic outcomes such as obesity and insulin resistance; occurrence of otitis media (an inflammatory disease of the middle ear); and higher risk of retinoblastoma (cancer of retina) and leukaemia (blood cancer) in children.

The report says that there is substantial evidence that exposure to road traffic-related air pollution or diesel exhaust is associated with childhood leukaemia.

Authors of the study have listed why children are the most vulnerable to air pollution exposure and the various pathways through which air pollution affects their health — which include inhalation and ingestion of pollution particles.

As children breathe at twice the rate that adults do, they inhale larger amounts of air pollutants. Pollution particles are also moved through the respiratory system faster, allowing them to reach the lungs, the alveoli and the bloodstream more rapidly, according to the study.

Children are also more physically active than adults; so their ventilation is even greater. They are closer to the ground, where pollution concentrations are higher. Certain pollutants (small enough to penetrate the alveolar wall) inhaled by a pregnant mother can enter her bloodstream and then cross the placental barrier and reach the foetus, and, in turn, affect the baby’s growth and development.

Children are also exposed to pollutants through mother’s milk. Pollutants from industrial sources, such as pesticides, fossil fuels, chemical by-products, flame retardants, heavy metals and volatile organic compounds, can enter the mother’s circulation by inhalation or, more commonly, ingestion before being passed into breast milk, the report says. For example, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a toxic and carcinogenic compound, have been reported at high levels in breast milk samples in the Mediterranean.

WHO finds a strong correlation between poverty and exposure to air pollution. Children in low-income communities suffer disproportionately higher effects of air pollution. “Poverty causes people to rely on polluting energy sources for their basic needs, and poverty compounds the health risks associated with their use. Poverty also limits people’s capacity to improve the environment in which they raise their children,” the report says. Female children are worst affected, and more girls than boys die premature due to air pollution in India, says WHO data.

Dr SK Chhabra, head of department (pulmonary, sleep and critical care medicine) at Primus Super Speciality Hospital, is not surprised with the WHO findings. He led a study last year at the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, which found that children in Delhi have a far lower lung capacity and lung growth rate compared to children of the same age in the United States.

“We have already reported that lung growth rate among Indian children is retarded. Nutritional deficiencies, protein and vitamin D deficiencies only compound the problem. Our experience shows that children under five are more impacted by indoor air pollution because of biomass burning within the house.”

Dr Rahul Nagpal, paediatric consultant with Fortis hospital, said: “The first impact of air pollution is seen on the respiratory system. We see a lot of allergies, infections and prolonged cough and slow response to conventional medication. Otitis media is linked to respiratory disease. The nose and ear are both affected by pollution. The infections significantly go up during this season. Till now about 50% of the hospitalisation cases till now were dengue related now almost all are linked to respiratory infections.”

World’s longest sea crossing: Hong Kong-Zhuhai bridge opens

October 23, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Chinese President Xi Jinping has officially opened the world’s longest sea crossing bridge, nine years after construction first began on October 21, 2018. Including its access roads, the bridge spans 55km (34 miles) and connects Hong Kong to Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai.

The bridge cost about $20bn and should have opened in 2016. Construction has been dogged by safety issues – at least 18 workers have died on the project, officials say. Xi attended the opening ceremony of the bridge, which took place in Zhuhai, along with the leaders of Hong Kong and Macau. Limited bus services begin on Wednesday.

What’s so special about this bridge?

Designed to withstand earthquakes and typhoons, it was built using 400,000 tonnes of steel, enough to build 60 Eiffel Towers. About 30km of its total length crosses the sea of the Pearl River delta. To allow ships through, a 6.7km section in the middle dips into an undersea tunnel that runs between two artificial islands. that have been built as part of the multi-billion-dollar project. The remaining sections are link roads, viaducts and land tunnels connecting Zhuhai and Hong Kong to the main bridge.

It is part of China’s plan to create a Greater Bay Area, including Hong Kong, Macau and nine other cities in southern China. In the past, travelling between Zhuhai and Hong Kong would take up to four hours – the new bridge cuts this down to 30 minutes.

Those who want to cross the bridge must obtain special permits, allocated by a quota system. And all vehicles will pay a toll. The bridge is not served by public transport, so private shuttle buses will ply the route. There is no rail link.

Authorities initially estimated that 9,200 vehicles would cross the bridge every day. They later lowered their estimations after new transport networks were built in the region.

It has been dubbed the “bridge of death” by some local media. At least nine workers on the Hong Kong side have died and officials told BBC News Chinese that nine had died on the mainland side, too. Hundreds of workers have also been injured during the construction.

Special cameras will be on the look-out for drivers on the bridge who show signs of getting sleepy, among other checks – yawn three times and the authorities will be alerted, local media report.

To help counter potential terror attacks, there will also be “48 high-definition surveillance cameras”mounted at intervals along the bridge as well as anti-terror police patrols, the South China Morning Post reports.

And drivers will have to change which side of the road they are on at the crossing. People drive on the left in Hong Kong and Macau but the bridge is Chinese territory and special merger channels have been built to cope with this.

‘A nuclear war would be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions’

October 23, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

With Trump administration trying to pull out of the Nuclear Treaty it signed with Russia decades ago, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, on October 22, 2018, has warned of the “catastrophe of unimaginable proportions” that would be produced by nuclear war, even on a limited scale. His remarks came during the Seventy-third Session of the United Nations General Assembly First Committee Thematic discussions: Nuclear disarmament, in New York.

The Archbishop’s Full Statement is given below:

Mr. Chair,

A nuclear war would be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. Even a limited nuclear weapons use would kill untold numbers of people, cause tremendous environmental damage and famine. The Secretary-General of the United Nations recently warned: “We are one mechanical, electronic or human error away from a catastrophe that could eradicate entire cities from the map.”[1] My Delegation thus believes that the continued existence of over 14,000 nuclear weapons held by a handful of countries is one of the greatest moral challenges of our time.

The Catholic Church’s opposition to nuclear weapons has a long history. In 1943, two and a half years prior to the Trinity test in 1945, Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), alerted to the discovery of nuclear fission, voiced deep concern regarding the violent use of nuclear energy. Since then, the Holy See has been warning of the increasing dangers to humanity posed by nuclear weapons. In his 1963 Encyclical Letter Peace on Earth, a few months after the October Crisis of 1962, Pope St. John XXIII called for the banning of nuclear weapons. Subsequent Popes have consistently called for the abolition of these evil instruments of warfare that create both a false sense of security and foster distrust and disharmony.

In a landmark document in 1965, the Catholic Church declared: “The [nuclear] arms race is an utterly treacherous trap for humanity and one that injures the poor to an intolerable degree.”[2] Today, the maintenance of nuclear weapons continues to siphon off immense resources that could be devoted, inter alia, to the implementation and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.

During the Cold War, the Holy See gave limited acquiescence to the military strategy of nuclear deterrence on the strict condition that it would lead to disarmament measures. In recent years and especially in our days, however, the major powers have instead persisted in their reliance on nuclear deterrence and begun the modernization of their nuclear arsenals.

Pope Francis has made clear that this nuclear escalation is morally unacceptable: “Nuclear deterrence and the threat of mutually assured destruction cannot be the basis for an ethics of fraternity and peaceful coexistence.”[3] Speaking at an international symposium in 2017, the Pope voiced grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of nuclear weapons use and noted the risk of an accidental detonation as a result of error of any kind, and said, “the threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned.”[4]

Unfortunately, the Nuclear-Weapon States have not fully respected their legal obligation, under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to pursue in good faith negotiations towards the elimination of nuclear weapons. More than two decades ago, the International Court of Justice unanimously ruled that negotiations for nuclear disarmament must not only be pursued but concluded. The NPT will soon be fifty years old, and no comprehensive negotiations for nuclear disarmament have ever taken place. The reductions in numbers from Cold War highs are important steps in the direction of the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, but they should not be cited to mask the modernization of nuclear weapons that some Nuclear-Weapons States are undertaking.

Expressing great concern at the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapon use, a significant number of non-nuclear States and civil society groups joined efforts, under the auspices of the United Nations, to produce the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted at the UN Headquarters on 7 July 2017. The Treaty prohibits the use, threat of use, development, testing, production, manufacturing, and possession of nuclear weapons. Though some States have argued that it is a distraction from the NPT, this historic Treaty could be, on the contrary, a major step towards the elimination of all nuclear weapons.

The Holy See was one of the first States to sign and ratify the Treaty. It will enter into force when ratified by fifty States. My Delegation strongly encourages all Governments of States who adopted the Treaty to sign and ratify it.

Today, with so many informed analysts warning against the extreme dangers posed to the world by the moves away from further progress in nuclear disarmament, and the vigorous condemnation of their possession by Pope Francis, the time for action is not only ripe but pressing. We need a worldwide dialogue, including both the nuclear and non-nuclear States and the burgeoning organizations that make up the civil society, “to ensure that nuclear weapons are banned once and for all to the benefit of our common home.”[5]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

India lost $80 billion from natural disasters in 20 years, ranks 4th in the world for economic losses: UN report

October 18, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Climate change is putting people in harm’s way. A report titled ‘Economic Losses, Poverty and Disasters 1998-2017’ compiled by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) says, climate change is costing low income countries greater burden of disasters than developed nations. India is one of them which suffered a loss of USD 79.5 billion in last 20 years.

Among the top 10 countries that reported economic losses due to disasters, India ranks fourth. The US recorded biggest losses, USD 945 billion. China, by comparison, suffered a significantly higher number of disasters than the US (577 against 482), but lower total losses (USD 492 billion).

In 1998-2017, disaster-hit countries experienced direct economic losses valued at USD 2,908 billion. Of which climate-related disasters caused USD 2,245 billion or 77% of the total.

This is up from 68% (USD 895 billion) of losses (USD 1,313 billion) reported between 1978 and 1997. Overall, reported losses from extreme weather events rose by 151% between these two 20-year periods, the report said.

The report titled ‘Economic Losses, Poverty and Disasters has evaluated total disaster-related economic losses and fatalities between 1998 and 2017. According to this report, between 1998 and 2017 climate-related and geophysical disasters killed 1.3 million people and left a further 4.4 billion injured, homeless, displaced or in need of emergency assistance.

While the majority of fatalities were due to geophysical events, mostly earthquakes and tsunamis, 91% of all disasters were caused by floods, storms, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events.

In terms of economic losses, it is the low-income countries that are paying a heavy price. Low income countries suffered a loss of USD 21 billion due to climate-related disasters. This amounted to an average of 1.8% of the GDP. This is also above the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) threshold for a major economic disaster of 0.5%.

On the other hand, high income countries reported USD 1,432 billion in climate-related disaster losses, or 65% of the global total. However, this represents only 0.41% of their GDP.

Low and lower-middle income countries also carried a disproportionate burden in terms of disaster deaths. They experienced 43% of all major recorded disasters in the past 20 years but the greatest proportion (68%) of fatalities.

Historically, the large, populous continent of Asia has borne the brunt of global disasters of all types; this remained true in the past 20 years. For geophysical disasters, Asia accounts for the majority of all recorded impacts. This includes an extraordinary 85% of all affected people, and 78% of reported economic damage, as well as 62% of all occurrences and 69% of deaths. For climate-related disasters, affected populations once again overwhelmingly lived in flood- and storm-prone Asia (86%).

Integrating disaster risk reduction into investment decisions is the most cost-effective way to reduce these risks; investing in disaster risk reduction is therefore a precondition for developing sustainably in a changing climate, the report suggested.

Kurinji Blooms in Kerala after 12 years

October 18, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Tourism 0

Set to paint the hills and valleys of Munnar a stunning purple-blue, the Neelakurinji, the flower that blankets the hills once in 12 years, has started to bloom over the pristine hills of Rajamala, and the hills and valleys across the Eravikulam National Park. In a way, the rare flowering marks the blooming of hope for the tourism industry which is the doldrums, following the floods.

Munnar, the spectacular hill station in God’s Own Country, Kerala is all geared up to embrace travellers. Getting back on her feet after the flood, Munnar is now ready to receive tourists from across the world for the incredible Neelakurinji experience.

The hills of Munnar have started to adorn hues of romantic blue as Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthianus), the once in a 12-year wonder, has begun its blooming.

Though the heavy Monsoons, delayed the flowering season, the meandering valleys and mist clad hills of Munnar have started to amaze one and all with its stunning purple.

The last time Neelakurinji adorned these hills was in the year 2006. This year the blooming has started from the first week of September and is expected to extend for a few months.

Besides this serene sea of blue, this dream destination invites you with several exciting and exclusive experiences of nature such as the Eravikulam National Park, Thekkady, Devikulam, Vattavada and a lot more.

According to R Lakshmi, wildlife warden, Eravikulam National Park, the damage from the floods is minimal and neelakurinji have started to bloom in several areas.

“Now in many parts of Kannan Devan hills, Neelakurinji plants have started to bloom after the rain has abated and the sun has come out. If the favourable weather continues, the valley will be in full bloom within ten days. The plants have started blooming in many parts of Rajamalai, Kanthalloor and Eravikulam national parks,” Lakshmi

Scientists Lay Out Paths to Solve Climate Change

October 10, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Climate scientists have understood for decades that unchecked, man-made global warming will wreak havoc on human civilization. The challenge has only grown more urgent as the scientific understanding expands and the world begins to feel the impacts.

Now, a landmark U.N. report offers both a glimmer of hope and a giant warning. Scientists and policymakers have the knowhow to address climate change and stave off some of the worst effects of the phenomenon, but political leaders are nowhere close to fully undertaking any of these steps, the report shows.

Scientists on the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) point to a global temperature rise of 1.5°C as a threshold the planet cannot cross without seeing the worst effects of climate change. Yet according to the U.N. organization’s latest report, temperatures have already risen 1°C as a result of human activity, and the planet could pass the 1.5°C threshold as early as 2030 if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate.

“We need a plan to save us,” Mary Robinson, a former U.N. Special Envoy on Climate Change and a previous president of Ireland, tells TIME. “We have a short window of time and a huge responsibility.”

To keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5°C, humans need to shift the trajectory of carbon dioxide emissions so that we either stop emitting by around 2050, or pull more carbon out of the atmosphere than we release. That’s a tall order given the extent to which we rely on fossil fuels to power our vehicles, homes and factories.

As daunting as the task may sound, the IPCC report hints at good news: scientists already have the technical wherewithal to limit temperature rise to the target 1.5°C.

“Limiting warming to 1.5° is not impossible, but will require unprecedented transitions in all aspects of society,” Hoesung Lee, chair of the IPCC, said at a press conference in Seoul Monday. “Every bit of warming matters.”

Among other things, the list of solutions includes energy efficiency, electrifying transport and pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by reforesting regions and using carbon capture technology. The rapid deployment of renewable energy will also play a key role. To keep temperatures at the target, renewable energy will need to provide at least 70% of global electricity in 2050, while coal use will essentially need to disappear.

Some of these changes are already in motion. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar power have expanded rapidly in recent years largely as a result of market forces. That growth is expected to continue in the coming decades as the price of renewable energy technologies continues to fall.

But the change isn’t coming fast enough. Reaching the target will require government action, including support for research and development, and modification of the way markets work to account for the negative effects of burning fossil fuels.

“The energy transition we need now for climate purposes needs to move much faster,” says Adnan Amin, who heads the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). “We need policy mechanisms.”

The IPCC report is intended to help spur those policies. Negotiators brokering the 2015 Paris Agreement included the 1.5°C marker as an “ideal target” following a push from developing countries that feared their nations may be lost if temperature rise exceeds that level. The IPCC was asked to study the feasibility of the 1.5°C threshold and how it might be achieved.

(Courtesy: TIME.COM)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Cochin Airport Among UN Environment Program’s Champions of Earth Award Recipients

October 2, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Tourism 0

The United Nations Environmental Program announced on September 26^th that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India-based airport Cochin International Airport are among the recipients of the UN’s Champions of the Earth Award.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is among the six world leaders who been awarded with the UN’s highest environmental honor, Champions of the Earth Award at the United Nations this week. Modi has been recognized for his leadership of the International Solar Alliance and pledge to eliminate single use plastic in India by 2022. Cochin International Airport in the southern Indian state of Kerala has been awarded for Entrepreneurial Vision.

“This years’ laureates are recognized for a combination of bold, innovative and tireless efforts to tackle some of the most urgent environmental issues of our times,” the UN Environment Program said.

The Champions of the Earth Awards, the UN’s highest environmental honor, honored six outstanding environmental changemakers, recognized for their achievements in categories including Policy Leadership, Entrepreneurial Vision, Science and Innovation, Inspiration and Action, and Lifetime Achievement.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Modi have been jointly recognized in the Policy Leadership category for their pioneering work in championing the International Solar Alliance and promoting new areas of levels of cooperation on environmental action, including Macron’s work on the Global Pact for the Environment and Modi’s unprecedented pledge to eliminate all single-use plastic in India by 2022.

Cochin International Airport has also been honored this year with the award for Entrepreneurial Vision, for its leadership in the use of sustainable energy. “Cochin is showing the world that our ever-expanding network of global movement doesn’t have to harm the environment. As the pace of society continues to increase, the world’s first fully solar-powered airport is proof positive that green business is good business,” UNEP said.

The other winners of the 2018 Champions of the Earth Awards are Joan Carling, recognized with the lifetime achievement award for her work as one of the world’s most prominent defenders of environmental and indigenous rights. Carling has been at the forefront of the conflict for land and the environment for more than 20 years.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are jointly recognized in the Science and Innovation category, for their revolutionary development of a popular, plant-based alternative to beef, and for their efforts to educate consumers about environmentally conscious alternatives.

China’s Zhejiang’s Green Rural Revival Program is awarded for Inspiration and Action for the transformation of a once heavily polluted area of rivers and streams in East China.

“In a world of uncertainty, this is certain: We will not solve the extraordinary challenges our world faces today without extraordinary talent, new thinking and bold ideas,” said Head of UN Environment Erik Solheim. “The Champions of the Earth Award and Young Champions of the Earth Prize recognize those not afraid to chart unknown waters or be the voice of the voiceless. These people are changing our world today for a better tomorrow.”

The awards will be presented during the Champions of the Earth Gala in New York City, on the sidelines of the 73rd UN General Assembly. The gala, hosted by actor and environmental activist Alec Baldwin and model, actress, producer and UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador Dia Mirza, will bring together a cross section of world leaders and influencers to celebrate momentum for change in defense of our one planet.

The Champions of the Earth award is the UN’s highest environmental recognition celebrating exceptional figures from the public and private sectors and from civil society, whose actions have had a transformative positive impact on the environment. Past laureates include: Afroz Shah, who led the world’s largest beach cleanup (2016), Rwandan President Paul Kagame (2016), former US Vice-President Al Gore (2007), Ocean Cleanup CEO Boyan Slat (2014), scientist-explorer Bertrand Piccard, and developer of Google Earth Brian McClendon (2013).

Cochin International Airport will take home the award for Entrepreneurial Vision, for its leadership in the use of sustainable energy. Cochin is showing the world that our ever-expanding network of global movement doesn’t have to harm the environment. As the pace of society continues to increase, the world’s first fully solar-powered airport is proof positive that green business is good business, the release said.

The biggest and busiest airport of Kerala state in India, and the fourth busiest airport in India in terms of international traffic, Cochin International Airport became the world’s first fully solar powered airport in 2015 – a project pioneered by managing director Vattavayalil Joseph Kurian.

“In a world of uncertainty, this is certain: We will not solve the extraordinary challenges our world faces today without extraordinary talent, new thinking and bold ideas,” said the head of UN Environment, Erik Solheim. “The Champions of the Earth Award and Young Champions of the Earth Prize recognize those not afraid to chart unknown waters or be the voice of the voiceless. These people are changing our world today for a better tomorrow.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sept. 27 expressed his gratitude to the global community for conferring upon him the UN award, and dedicated it to the countrymen and the country’s tradition of coexisting with nature.

“I would like to express my gratitude to the global community for conferring this honor upon me. This honor is not meant for an individual, but rather for the great Indian tradition, through which for centuries, we have been taught values like co-existing with nature,” Modi said in a video message. He said he was delighted that “the human race has begun to accept the importance of nature.”

Sushma Swaraj says India ready to take lead on climate action

October 2, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, India, Politics 0

The themes at the United Nations General Assembly have been varied, but what’s been the main theme at the U.N. General Assembly this year? It’s multilateralism – whether to work closely together or go it alone as nations. In speech after speech pretty much everyone has been talking about it.

While the US has been pushing to end globalism, India has declared that as a firm believer in multilateralism, it was ready to take the lead on climate action. “The world needs a roadmap for finance and technology to achieve the goals set out in the Convention and its Paris Agreement in everyone’s collective interest,” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said at a high-level meeting on climate change here on Wednesday.

As an example of India’s leadership, she cited the International Solar Alliance (ISA). Already 68 countries have signed on to the program launched with France that aims to mobilize technology and finance to lower unit costs, she said.

India looks forward to welcoming Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the first General Assembly of the ISA next week in New Delhi, she said. “Our commitment to combat climate change is rooted in our ethos, which considers Earth as Mother.”

Explaining India’s heritage, Sushma Swaraj said that ancient Indian tradition conceives the cosmos to comprise five basic elements, the panchbhutas, which are space, air, water, earth, and fire. “Trouble begins when the equilibrium (among them) is disturbed. From atmosphere to oceans our actions are leading us to unchartered territories with possibly disastrous consequences.”

For its part to fight climate change, she said India has set a target of generating 175 gigawatts of solar and wind energy by 2022 and has installed over 300 million LED bulbs saving $2 billion and 4 GW of electricity.

India is planning to reduce emission intensity of our GDP by 25 per cent over the 2005 levels by 2020 and by 33-35 per cent by 2030, she added.

At the meeting convened by Guterres on the sidelines of the General Assembly session, Sushma Swaraj was seated next to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and they were seen engaged in informal chats.

Teen Shreya Ramachandran wins 2018 Gloria Barron Prize for Environment

October 2, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Youth 0

Shreya Ramachandran, 14, of California, has been chosen to receive The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes 2018, an award that celebrates inspiring, public-spirited young people from across the U.S. and Canada. Ramachandran is the founder of The Grey Water Project.

Established in 2001 by author T. A. Barron, the Barron Prize annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders ages 8 to 18 who have made a significant positive difference to people and the environment. Fifteen top winners each receive $10,000 to support their service work or higher education.

Shreya Ramachandran founded the non-profit Grey Water Project to promote the safe reuse of grey water, along with water conservation, as a way to address drought. Her outreach includes curriculum for elementary students and a partnership with the United Nations’ Global Wastewater Initiative. The Grey Water Project, a non-profit that promotes the safe reuse of grey water and water conservation, as a way to address drought.

Shreya works tirelessly to educate others about grey water – the gently used water from household sinks, showers, and laundry – and to remove the stigma that it is unclean and unusable, the Barron Prize said.

She has learned the California Plumbing Code and conducts seminars to show others how easy it is to build “laundry to lawn” grey water systems using organic detergents such as soap nuts. Soap nuts are a natural berry shell that release soap when placed in water. They are cost effective as a laundry detergent and are readily available around the world, it added.

Ramachandran began her work with painstaking research on the environmental safety of soap nut grey water, concluding after three years that it doesn’t harm soil, plants, or aquatic life. She is now collaborating with several California water agencies to promote grey water reuse, the organization said.

She has earned numerous awards for her work, including the President’s Environmental Youth Award, and was invited to partner with the United Nations’ Global Wastewater Initiative, it added.

She is currently developing a grey water curriculum for elementary students to teach water conservation and the idea that small actions can make a huge difference. “I’ve learned that even though I am young, I can make a positive impact in my community,” said the teen. “If I want to change something, I have to go out and make that difference instead of waiting for someone to do it for me.”

Since its inception, the Barron Prize has honored nearly 450 young heroes and has won the support of Girl Scouts of the USA, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, and the National Youth Leadership Council, among other organizations. The Barron Prize welcomes applications from young people residing in the U.S. and Canada. The online application system for 2019 opens January 7th and the deadline for entries is April 15^th. For more information, please visit www.barronprize.org.

In addition, T. A. Barron is running a year-long #SparkGoodness social media campaign to recognize everyday acts of goodness. Through October, anyone sharing their good deeds and acts of positivity at www.sparkgoodness.com is eligible to win one of several monthly prizes. At the end of 2018, a Grand Prize winner will be selected from all the winning entries throughout the year.

“Taming the Sun:” Varun Sivaram leads efforts to cleaner, greener, innovative technology

September 27, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Science & Technology 0

Solar energy could one day supply most of the world’s energy needs, but its current upsurge is in danger of ebbing, increasing the risk of catastrophic climate change. While solar energy is currently the world’s cheapest and fastest-growing power source, if its growth falters, “few clean energy alternatives to fossil fuels are on track to compensate,” argues Varun Sivaram in Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet (MIT Press).

Solar energy, once a niche application for a limited market, has become the cheapest and fastest-growing power source on earth. What’s more, its potential is nearly limitless—every hour the sun beams down more energy than the world uses in a year.

But in Taming the Sun, energy expert Varun Sivaram warns that the world is not yet equipped to harness erratic sunshine to meet most of its energy needs. And if solar’s current surge peters out, prospects for replacing fossil fuels and averting catastrophic climate change will dim.

His book details, how solar could spark a clean-energy transition through transformative innovation—creative financing, revolutionary technologies, and flexible energy systems.

Innovation can brighten those prospects, Sivaram explains, drawing on firsthand experience and original research spanning science, business, and government. Financial innovation is already enticing deep-pocketed investors to fund solar projects around the world, from the sunniest deserts to the poorest villages. Technological innovation could replace today’s solar panels with coatings as cheap as paint and employ artificial photosynthesis to store intermittent sunshine as convenient fuels. And systemic innovation could add flexibility to the world’s power grids and other energy systems so they can dependably channel the sun’s unreliable energy.

Unleashing all this innovation will require visionary public policy: funding researchers developing next-generation solar technologies, refashioning energy systems and economic markets, and putting together a diverse clean energy portfolio. Although solar can’t power the planet by itself, it can be the centerpiece of a global clean energy revolution.

The Economist wrote of the book: “The book is not gloomy. It lays out the history, promise, and pitfalls of solar technology with an easy-going lack of wonkishness. But it offers a sobering message that may be as prescient—and as readable—as Robert Shiller’s Irrational Exuberance was before the dotcom and housing crises of the 2000s.”

“Fueling solar’s continued rise will take three kinds of innovation: financial innovation to recruit massive levels of investment in deploying solar energy; technological innovation to harness the sun’s energy more cheaply and store it to use around the clock; and systemic innovation to redesign systems like the power grid to handle the surges and slumps of solar energy.”

Sivaram calls on U.S. policymakers to once again lead on energy innovation. Under President Barack Obama, the United States spearheaded a commitment by all major global economies to double funding for energy research and development (R&D). But the Donald J. Trump administration has backtracked on that pledge, which would have increased federal energy R&D funding from $6.4 to $12.8 billion, and instead proposed a $2.5 billion funding cut. China, on the other hand, has committed to surpassing U.S. funding levels by the end of the decade.

Sivaram leads the energy and climate program at the Council on Foreign Relations, is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University teaching “clean energy innovation” and is the strategic adviser to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office. Previously, he advised Hillary Clinton’s campaign on energy policy, worked at McKinsey & Co. and with two solar start-ups. A Rhodes scholar, Sivaram completed his Ph.D. at Oxford University and is on the advisory boards for Stanford’s energy and environment institutes.

U.N. Chief Warns of a Dangerous Tipping Point on Climate Change

September 17, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Warning of the risks of “runaway” global warming, the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, on Monday called on global leaders to rein in climate change faster.

“If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change,” Mr. Guterres said at United Nations headquarters in New York.

“Climate change is the defining issue of our time, and we are at a defining moment,” he said. “Scientists have been telling us for decades. Over and over again. Far too many leaders have refused to listen.”

His remarks came with countries around the world far short of meeting the goals they set for themselves under the 2015 Paris accord to reduce the emissions that have warmed the planet over the last century. The next round of climate negotiations is scheduled for this year in Poland.

One of the big tests at those talks, which start Dec. 3 in Katowice, will be whether countries, especially industrialized countries that produce a large share of global emissions, will set higher targets for reducing their emissions.

“The time has come for our leaders to show they care about the people whose fate they hold in their hands,” Mr. Guterres said, without taking questions from reporters. “We need to rapidly shift away from our dependence on fossil fuels.”

Guterres’s speech came days before a high-level climate meeting in San Francisco, spearheaded by Gov. Jerry Brown of California, meant to demonstrate what businesses and local leaders have done to tackle climate change.

The United Nations chief seems to be taking a page from Mr. Brown’s playbook. He, too, is looking beyond national leaders to make a difference. He has invited heads of industry and city government leaders to his September 2019 climate change forum in an apparent effort to increase pressure on national governments.

The Paris Agreement aims to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels in order to avoid what scientists call the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.

But few countries are even close to meeting the targets they set under the Paris pact. And an assessment by the United Nations found that country targets so far would achieve only one-third of the global target.

Mr. Guterres sought to make the case that a shift away from fossil fuels like oil and coal would create jobs and bolster economies. Rebutting critics who argue that such a shift would be costly, he called that idea “hogwash.”

He cited the steps private companies are taking to wean themselves away from polluting fossil fuels — including a hat tip to the insurance company Allianz, which has promised to stop insuring coal fired power plants — though he said such actions are plainly insufficient.

“These are all important strides,” Mr. Guterres said. “But they are not enough. The transition to a cleaner, greener future needs to speed up.”

He warned that governments were not meeting their Paris Agreement commitments and goaded world leaders to step up.

“What we still lack, even after the Paris Agreement, is leadership and the ambition to do what is needed,” he said.

Mr. Guterres did not mention any countries or any heads of state by name. But looming large over his remarks was the leader of world’s most powerful country: President Trump, who has dismissed climate science, rolled back environmental regulations and vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord.

Sewa International sets up Hotline to help Hurricane Florence victims

September 17, 2018 Staff ReporterCommunity, Environment 0

As Hurricane Florence has hit the East Coast of the United States, Sewa International, an Indian American nonprofit with extensive experience in disaster rescue, and relief and rehabilitation, has set up a hot-line – (413) 648-SEWA (7392) – to assist Indian Americans, and U.S. residents in general, in advance of Hurricane Florence approaching the East Coast.

Much before Hurricane Florence made landfall on Thursday, September 13th, the governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia had issued mandatory evacuation orders affecting more than one million residents in the coastal areas. The Carolinas have not seen a category 3 hurricane in 22 years.

The three affected states have a large Indian American population, some of whom would be facing their first major hurricane ever, according to press release.

Sewa International’s director of Disaster Relief, Swadesh Katoch, said: “Stores have already run out of essential supplies like water, bread, and bananas. Generators, storm radios, and sand bags are also difficult to find. Most gas stations in the coastal areas are running out of gas, and those who still have gas are jacking up the price.”

Katoch said that last year’s response to Hurricanes Harvey and Maria taught his team how to better respond to future events. He is rolling out a full disaster preparedness plan – including a remote operations center, teams on the ground in all major cities, and lining up logistics to haul in supplies after the storm, if needed.

Kiran Krishna, chapter president of Sewa Raleigh, and Venugopal Reddy, chapter president of Sewa Charlotte, are networking with government officials to keep the Indian American community informed and prepared.

Sewa International has been using social media to post regular alerts and updates about the hurricane. Local Sewa teams in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland are working with local temples and Indian organizations to keep the community together and be prepared to help each other. Sewa teams in Atlanta and Boston are organizing to host evacuees, the release said.

“We are especially concerned about the vulnerable population, such as people who are home-bound, sick, or have very young children. We are circulating WhatsApp messages with helpful information on how to prepare and tide over Hurricane Florence and its aftermath. While our hot-line number is available all the time, the best way to stay updated with us is to like our Facebook page – Sewa International,” said Prof. Sreenath, president of Sewa International.

“We are urging people in the optional evacuation areas to not wait for the last minute. If you think you may have to evacuate, leave now,” said Krishna.

Sewa International has helped in 23 disasters in the U.S. and abroad. Last year during Hurricane Harvey, its volunteers helped rescue nearly 700 people, and have served thousands of affected families since then.

Sewa raised $2 million for Harvey recovery, the release said, including a grant of $400,000 from the Houston Mayor’s fund, and a $500,000 grant from the American Red Cross. Sewa continues to rebuild houses and provide case management to affected families more than one year after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas, it added.

Techies Who Raised $1.5 Million for Kerala Flood Relief From Social Media, Invited By Kerala CM

September 3, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Social Media 0

Three Indian Americans from Chicago, Illinois have raised a remarkable $1.5 million in five days to aid the over one million victims of the devastating floods in Kerala, which have claimed 400 lives.

Arun Nellamattom, Ajomon Poothurail, and Abin Kulathilkarottu – all natives of the flood-ravaged state – created a Facebook fundraising page on August 15, Kerala Flood Relief Fund from USA: https://bit.ly/2BCqAeJ. Within five days, they were able to raise $1.3 Million and transferred the amount to the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund.

On seeing Indian Americans’ warm response to the campaign, Kerala CM’s office approached Arun Nellamattom and Ajomon Poothurail to continue the fundraising effort. As of Aug. 23, the site had raised $1.5 million, from 30,000 donations, ranging in amounts from $20 to over $250. All donations are being channeled through the Care and Share Foundation, a 501 (c) 3-approved charity, which allows donors to receive a tax credit.

Now, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has personally invited Arun Nellamattom and Ajomon Poothurail to visit Kerala and receive gratitude in person. Receiving news of the amount donated by them, a letter came to them from M Sivasankar IAS, secretary to Kerala Chief Minister, inviting Arun and Ajomon to a meeting with the CM.

“It is my pleasure to invite you to come down to Kerala and meet the Hon. Chief Minister and receive our State’s gratitude in person,” the letter says. It adds: “During your visit to Kerala, we would like to arrange an interaction session with you for our start-up community to share your experience.” The letter further makes note of the fundraiser campaign being closed on Facebook, and prompts them to keep it open since ‘the need of resources for rebuilding the state is very high’.

The social activists note that more than $4 billion will be needed to rehabilitate the state known as “God’s Own Country.” Vijayan has invited all three to visit the state and receive gratitude in person.

“We have made history! We did not have any barriers such as political, religious, or anything that apart human in this campaign. We all are able to reaffirm the trust in humanity. This would not have happen without each and every one of you,” wrote Abraham Kulathilkarottu, who is also affiliated with the campaign.

There are numerous local organizations that are raising funds to support the state of Kerala that has been devastated by the fury of the floods. Another Indian American NGO, Sewa International, has raised over $10,000 for the flood relief operations in the state, with the aim of raising $100,000 overall. Sewa International, which led Indian American efforts during Hurricane Harvey in Houston last year, will channel funds through its India partner, Deseeya Seva Bharati Keralam, it said. Over 5,000 volunteers are creating food packets and cooking kits and opening free kitchens and medical camps, according to Quint. Several U.S-based Malayalee organizations have repurposed planned Onam celebrations into fundraisers for flood relief.

Currently, donations for the Kerala flood relief amount to nearly INR 800 crore. The state is planning to seek INR 3000 crore loan from the World Bank for rebuilding the infrastructure and rehabilitating the homeless. More than $4 billion is required to restore Kerala to what it was before the floods occurred.

Evidently, Kerala tourism suffered a huge setback in the wake of the floods. With the infrastructure in shambles at popular tourist places including Munnar and Alappuzha, the state tourism industry has incurred a whopping loss of INR 2100 crore. An estimated INR 100 crore is required to repair the tourism properties owned and managed by Kerala government. Many planned trips to Kerala for vacations in August and September have been canceled or postponed.

Arun Nella, who co-founded a startup apart from running other businesses in Chicago, got the idea, speaking to a group of friends. “The support given by five of them is what made the fundraiser happen,” says Arun, over a call. Joining him in the fundraiser was Ajomon, another businessman based in Chicago.

Arun reveals that the fundraiser had to be closed because it was started as a personal fundraiser and he had to check the taxes and other formalities. “Fundraiser campaign on Facebook is fairly new. It is allowed in select countries and Facebook lets it happen through crowd-funding. It assigns a team to work with us. And many people reached out to contribute; I reckon at least 30,000 people. Mostly from the US – the fundraiser itself is called Kerala Flood Relief Fund from USA,” Arun says.

The contributions mostly came from US Malayalis, but there were also NRIs from other parts of the country and even a small number of foreigners donating for the cause.

Arun had personally invited 200 people but through the campaign more than 1 lakh invitations went out. When he closed the campaign on Monday, there were a lot of people reaching out to him, saying they too want to contribute and to reopen it.

“I have an advisor called Dr Narendrakumar, who called from New York and asked me if we could reopen the campaign. I said we would need a good reason for it like a letter from the CM’s office. And the next morning there came this letter. By then the team from Facebook too said we could reopen it since it was going so well,” Arun adds.

His own place in Kottayam too had been slightly affected by the floods, but luckily Arun’s immediate family was not at home. “My parents are with me on a holiday now. My wife and kids too are here. I should mention family support because I have been fully engaged in this work the past few days and they were very understanding.”

Ajomon too hails from Kottayam. “Initially, when the fundraiser was started, we were not sure how people would view it. Would they think it is a scam? It seemed a better idea if it didn’t go in one person’s name,” Arun says. That’s when Ajomon joined.

Since it is now clear the funds are being raised to help a state recover from a disaster, the money won’t be taxed and even the fee FB takes to run such a campaign has been waived. “We hope to come to Kerala next week, as soon as everything is clear, and pass on the amount directly to the CM,” Arun says. Both the techies took a flight to Kerala from Chicago O’Hare International Airport on August 27.

Kerala floods: NASA’s before and after satellite images show scale of devastation

August 29, 2018 Staff ReporterCommunity, Environment 0

With the Kerala floods making news across the globe, US space agency NASA has released “before and after” photographs depicting the extent to which the natural calamity has affected the landscape of the southern state.

While the “before” image was taken by the Landsat 8 satellite’s operational land imager on February 6, the “after” one was clicked by the multispectral instrument on the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite last Wednesday. The changes in the scenario, as expected, is stark.

The second image shows several rivers through the region spilled over their banks, and water from the Karuvannur river running through 40 villages to wash away a 2.2-km stretch of land connecting two national highways. It also gives a glimpse of the Periyar river, which breached its banks — displacing thousands in the process.

The images have been rendered in false-color, making flood water appear dark blue. Vegetation is depicted in bright green.

The space agency had earlier released satellite measurements of Kerala rainfall to demonstrate the crucial role played by the Western Ghats in triggering the climatic developments over south Karnataka and Kerala. “Although the extreme Himalayan topography is much more well-known, the Western Ghats is a contributing factor to the heavy rains along the southwest coast of India,” a statement from the Goddard Space Flight Centre read.

NASA researchers have also maintained that opening the dams in a systematic manner would have contained the deluge that caused largescale loss to life and property in Kerala.

While the death toll in the second spell of monsoon since August 8 has crossed 300, as many as 4,62,456 displaced people continue to languish in 1,435 camps across the state. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan recently estimated the financial loss incurred by Kerala in the whereabouts of Rs 20,000 crore.

Fiji, Rising Sea Levels Threaten Main Island – Archbishop Warns “Our Island is Disappearing’

August 29, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Parts of Fiji’s main island are on course to disappear because of rising sea levels, according to the country’s archbishop, who warns it is now “a matter of survival” to help people affected by climate change.

Describing an ecological crisis threatening to engulf Viti Levu, Fiji’s largest island, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva, described widespread environmental destruction – with trees cut down and rivers polluted.

Speaking in an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, he said: “We can see it with our own eyes – the ocean levels are increasing each year, so the island [of Viti Levu] is disappearing.”

Regarding the island’s population, estimated at 600,000, he highlighted the need for action to relocate people away from the rising sea waters.

“It is about our homes. Many of them will be underwater in 50 years’ time.”

Referring to the rising tides, he said: “It’s not just a random event. On the contrary, in the coming years, people living in 34 coastal villages in Fiji face upheavals that will force them to relocate their homes, due to the rise in sea level.”

The archbishop added: “Pacific Islanders are suffering from the impacts of climate change. Climate change is a matter of survival.”

Archbishop Chong went on to highlight the impact of damage done to the environment.

He said: “Our islands are being devastated, our rivers polluted, our trees cut down. The result is that the fish are disappearing from our shores.”

The archbishop said that, in response to the ecological crisis, his priorities were “a question of respect for God and his creation and alleviating the pain of those who suffer”.

Highlighting the impact of climate change, he said: “How am I going to tell my people that they have to learn to live with this?”

He added: “My people are weeping. Who will dry their tears?”

Archbishop Chong explained that authorities have scheduled entire village populations to be moved from along the coast to areas inland, including hills and mountain regions.

He said: “Fiji’s government has identified these villages as susceptible to the effects of the changes in the next five to 10 years.

“One village in the province of Bua has already been relocated to Yadua and there are plans to move the village of Tavea soon.”

The archbishop’s comments come after the third anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, which addresses climate change issues and calls for an “ecological conversion”.

The archbishop was speaking after attending a conference in Rome related to the anniversary of the encyclical.

Archbishop Chong said: “Ecological conversion doesn’t happen in isolation. The conversion also has to be something internal in the heart of each individual.”

He added: “Creation is a gift but at the same time [it is] a responsibility that God has given us to take care of.”

Aid to the Church in Need is supporting the Church’s work in Fiji, including support for the Nazareth Prayer Centre in Suva Archdiocese.

Taj Mahal Threatened

August 7, 2018 Ajay GhoshCulture/Religion, Environment, Tourism 0

India’s iconic Taj Mahal has been threatened in recent months by insect poo – environmentalists say that bugs from the polluted Yamuna river nearby are invading the monument, leaving greenish-black patches of waste on its pristine white marble walls. Over the years, the 17th Century monument has been threatened by pollution, unabashed construction, a crematorium and even bombs.

India’s Supreme Court has criticised the government for what it calls a “failure” to protect the Taj Mahal. The court said both the federal and state government had shown “lethargy” in taking steps to tackle the monument’s deteriorating condition.

The court’s comments came in response to a petition citing concerns about the impact of pollution on the 17th Century monument. The Taj Mahal is one of the world’s leading tourist attractions. It draws as many as 70,000 people every day.

In May this year, the court had already instructed the government to seek foreign help to fix the “worrying change in color” of the marble structure. The court had said then, that the famous tomb, built from white marble and other materials, had turned yellow and was now turning brown and green.

An invasion of the insect called Chironomus Calligraphus (Geoldichironomus) is turning the Taj Mahal green, says environmental activist DK Joshi. Joshi has filed a petition in the National Green Tribunal – a special tribunal set up by the government to deal with environmental disputes – saying that the “explosive breeding” of the pests in the polluted Yamuna river is marring the beauty of the monument.

“Fifty-two drains are pouring waste directly into the river and just behind the monument, Yamuna has become so stagnant that fish that earlier kept insect populations in check are dying. This allows pests to proliferate in the river,” Mr Joshi told the BBC by phone from the northern city of Agra where the Taj is located.

The stains the bugs leave on the marble are washable and workers from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have been trying to scrub the walls clean, but Mr Joshi says frequent scrubbing can take the sheen off the marble. He says the problem has a simple solution – just clean up the Yamuna.

To restore the monument’s beauty, the ASI has been applying “mud packs” on its walls to draw out the pollutants.

Pollution, construction and insect dung are said to be among the causes. The government told the court that a special committee had been set up to suggest measures to prevent pollution in and around the monument.

It has already shut down thousands of factories near the monument, but activists say the white marble is still losing lustre. Sewage in the Yamuna River, which runs alongside the monument, also attracts insects which excrete waste on to its walls, staining them.

Built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth, Taj Mahal is often described as one of the wonders of the world. It is also India’s biggest tourist attraction, visited by heads of states, celebrities and millions of Indian and foreign tourists every year. But pollution from the industries in Agra and a nearby oil refinery have seen the white marble yellowing over the years.

Best Times to See the Longest Total Lunar Eclipse of the 21st Century

July 25, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Science & Technology 0

Less than a year after the 2017 solar eclipse created a path of totality across the United States, the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century will be visible across much of the world on Friday, July 27.

Sometimes called a blood moon, a total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves directly between the sun and the moon. Earth’s shadow moves over the moon, blocking the sunlight that ordinarily reflects off its surface and giving it a reddish glow.

Stargazers around the world—with the exception of North America—will be able to catch at least a partial glimpse of the July 2018 lunar eclipse during the nearly four hours it will be visible in the sky. However, the totality will only last for one hour and 43 minutes of that time, just shy of the longest possible totality length of one hour and 47 minutes.

“Totality is the moment that the moon is passing through the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow,” Dr. Jackie Flaherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, tells TIME. “I think most people can relate to what it’s like to hang back in a shadow. On sunny days many of us head for the shade, maybe a tree or a building or even another person. Believe it or not, giant celestial bodies like the Earth and the moon also cast shadows out in space. The sun is the flashlight and the planets are rigid bodies that can block the beaming sun rays. So during totality, those of us on Earth are watching the moon fall in to our shade.”

Different phases of the lunar eclipse will be visible across much of Asia, Africa, Europe, South America and Australia at various points in time on July 27. However, only people in certain areas will be able to view the eclipse from start to finish.

Here’s when totality will begin in the regions where the entire eclipse will be visible.

Central and Eastern Africa

The entire eclipse will be visible in Central and Eastern Africa, with totality beginning in major cities like Cairo and Nairobi at 9:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. local time, respectively.

Eastern Europe

The total eclipse will start in Eastern European hubs like Bucharest and Moscow at 10:30 p.m. local time.

The Middle East

Limassol and Dubai will offer some of the best views of the full eclipse beginning at 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m local time.

Central and Southeast Asia

Stargazers in New Delhi should look to the sky at 1 a.m. local time for totality while those in Bangkok can catch the lunar phenomenon at 2:30 a.m.

Western Australia

In Perth, the total eclipse will become visible around 3:30 a.m. local time.

For more detailed information on exactly when you can view the July 2018 lunar eclipse, plug your location into NASA’s Lunar Eclipse Explorer.

Climate change will hit living standards of 600 million Indians: World Bank

July 3, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Health 0

Unchecked climate change will dent India’s GDP by 2.8 per cent and depress the living standards of nearly half the population by 2050, with people living in the severe “hotspot” districts of central India, particularly Vidarbha, staring at the prospect of an over 10 per cent dip in economic consumption.

These are the findings of a first-of-its-kind World Bank study that quantifies the economic impacts of rising temperatures and changes in rainfall in different parts of the country due to global warming.

The study, South Asia’s Hotspots, released on Thursday, projects a 2 per cent fall in the country’s GDP — in terms of per capita consumption expenditures — even if the 2015 Paris Agreement goals of containing global warming to 2 degrees C is achieved.

A 2.8 per cent drop in GDP, as projected in the business-as-usual scenario, will cost India $1.1 trillion by 2050. The loss in the severe hotspot districts, with an average 9.8 per cent drop in consumption, will amount to over $400 billion, the study says. What is a climate hotspot?
It’s a location where gradual changes in average temperature and rainfall patterns will have negative impacts on living standards in future

The report finds that inland regions are at far higher risk of economic losses due to rising temperatures than coastal or hilly areas, with the maximum impact likely to be felt in central and north India. Among states, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are projected to witness over 9 per cent dip in living standards by 2050 in the “carbon-intensive” or business-as-usual scenario.

The Vidarbha region, a ground-zero of farm distress in the country, is projected to be in the centre of climate-related misery as well. Seven of the 10 major “hotspot” districts mentioned in the report, are in Vidarbha. In each of these districts, unchecked climate change could led to over 11 per cent dip in living standards by 2050.

“Temperature rise is a slow-moving disaster that’s not talked about much,” said economist Muthukumara Mani, the lead author of the study. “A lot of focus of climate change studies is on extreme events so people tend to ignore these gradual changes happening for the last 50-60 years.”

The effects of temperature rise could be substantial, with implications for agricultural productivity, health, migration and other factors, says the report. By 2050, annual average temperatures in India are estimated to increase 1-2 degrees C under the climate-sensitive scenario (where action is taken to curb emissions) and 1.5-3 degrees C under the carbon-intensive scenario. The study analysed climate data in combination with household surveys to arrive at how changes in average weather are likely to affect living standards. It found that nearly 600 million people in India today live at places that will become moderate or severe hotspots by 2050 under the unchecked climate-change scenario.

“Our methodology has been extensively peer-reviewed, both inside and outside the World Bank. We are very confident of the robustness of the analysis,” Mani said.

The study has drawn up hotspot maps of India, 2050, based on both the carbon-intensive and climate-sensitive scenarios. The carbon-intensive scenario shows far more severe hotspots, places likely to see an over 8 per cent dip in living standards, underlining the huge economic losses India stands to avoid if the world takes action on GHGs.

“Our work points the way for policymakers. They can choose to invest in areas that are more impacted by warming and make best use of their resources for climate change,” explained Mani.

Pope Francis to Oil Executives: Time for Clean Alternatives

June 12, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Pope Francis spoke June 9, 2018, to some 40 participants in the Symposium for Directors of the main companies in the oil and natural gas sector, and of other energy-related businesses. If any of those attending had not read Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’: On the Care for Our Common Home, they likely will be reading a copy on the plane ride home.

They got the executive summary for oil companies in the Pope’s June 9 address: we’re all in this together and we need to clean up our act. The world needs more energy and we have to do it in a way that protects the environment and all people.

“It is not right to sate that ‘thirst’ by adding to other people’s physical thirst for water, their poverty or their social exclusion,” the Pope said. “The need for greater and more readily available supplies of energy to operate machinery cannot be met at the cost of polluting the air we breathe. The need to expand spaces for human activities cannot be met in ways that would seriously endanger our own existence or that of other living species on earth.

“It is a “false notion that an infinite quantity of energy and resources are available, that it is possible to renew them quickly, and that the negative effects of the exploitation of the natural order can be easily absorbed” (Laudato Si’, 106).”

The Holy Father said the “energy question” has become one of the “principle challenges, in theory, and in practice, facing the international community”. And he urged swift action in the transition away from fossil fuels to more environmentally friendly fuels.

“The way we meet this challenge will determine our overall quality of life and the real possibility either of resolving conflicts in different areas of our world or, on account of grave environmental imbalances and lack of access to energy, providing them with new fuel to destroy social stability and human lives,” according to Pope Francis. “There is no time to lose: We received the earth as a garden-home from the Creator; let us not pass it on to future generations as a wilderness (cf. Laudato Si’, 160).”

The Pontiff said, political decisions, social responsibility on the part of the business community and criteria governing investments – all these must be guided by the pursuit of the long-term common good and concrete solidarity between generations. There should be no room for opportunistic and cynical efforts to gain small partial results in the short run while shifting equally significant costs and damages to future generations.

There are also ethical reasons for moving towards global energy transition with a sense of urgency. As we know, everyone is affected by the climate crisis. Yet the effects of climate change are not evenly distributed. It is the poor who suffer most from the ravages of global warming, with increasing disruption in the agricultural sector, water insecurity, and exposure to severe weather events. Many of those who can least afford it are already being forced to leave their homes and migrate to other places that may or may not prove welcoming. Many more will need to do so in the future. The transition to accessible and clean energy is a duty that we owe towards millions of our brothers and sisters around the world, poorer countries and generations yet to come.

An interdependent world is calling us to devise and implement a long-term common project that invests today in order to build for tomorrow. Air and water do not obey different laws according to the countries they traverse; pollutants do not act differently depending on geographical locations: they follow the same rules everywhere. Environmental and energy problems now have a global impact and extent. Consequently, they call for global responses, to be sought with patience and dialogue and to be pursued rationally and perseveringly.

The Pope spoke to the group in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. The symposium was sponsored by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and by the Notre Dame University- Mendoza College of Business, in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States of America.

From Madhuri Dixit to Dia Mirza, Bollywood Stars on World Environment Day: Let’s Do Our Bit

June 6, 2018 Staff ReporterEntertainment, Environment 0

Bollywood celebrities like Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Dia Mirza and Jackie Shroff have urged people to save planet Earth on World Environment Day on Tuesday, June 5.

A bevy of celebrities urged to save the planet by planting more trees and banning plastic.

Here’s what they have tweeted:

Sonakshi Sinha: “It’s World Environment Day! Let’s do our bit to protect this beautiful planet and make it a better place to live in for all that walk upon it.”

Jackie Shroff: “Everyday is a World Environment Day.”

Madhuri Dixit-Nene: “We often feel what difference will our individual choices make, without realizing that real change always starts with small baby steps. On this World Environment Day, let’s take responsibility for our actions which cause any form of pollution. Together lets beat plastic pollution.”

Dia Mirza: “We truly are better than this! Come on world! Let’s do our but to fix this! Because only we can. Each one of us. Beat plastic pollution. World Environment Day.”

Adah Sharma: “Enough of plastic smiles, plastic noses, plastic b**bs, plastic kisses, plastic joys, plastic dreams, plastic people, plastic bags. Let’s get real and say no to plastic! World Environment Day.”

Pooja Batra: “World Environment Day. Plant trees. Ban plastic.”

Sonu Sood: “It’s so important for every individual to work together for the betterment of our future generations. Make this planet greener, plant trees and ban plastic. Join hands with those who are working towards it. World Environment Day.”

Dia Mirza ows at Environment Summit in San Francisco

May 2, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Actress-activist Dia Mirza, the UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador for India, flew to San Francisco earlier this week to participate in an all-women panel discussion on the environment at the Steve Jobs Theatre.

Mirza brainstormed on stage with three distinguished women — Vien Troung (CEO of Green For All Organization), Alexandra Cousteau (globally recognised for her work on water-related issues) and Lisa Jackson (Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiative).

Mirza said: “Thankfully, my world is expanding and I am getting to do, meet and be a part of incredible change. On Friday (April 27), I was in San Francisco participating in an all-women panel environmental discussion at the Steve Jobs Theatre. It was an immensely rewarding experience.”

Back home, Dia Mirza who was formerly a beauty pageant winner is distressed by Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb’s comments on beauty queens.

“What can one say of a man who claims Internet existed in ancient India? He seems to have a resource of information that the rest of us are not privy to,” she sighed.

Deb had reportedly said in Agartala that international beauty contests were a farce as the results were all predetermined. He also said he failed to understand the “process of judgement” of the crowning of the Miss World contest in 1997, in which Diana Hayden was crowned. Earlier, Deb was widely trolled for saying that Internet existed during Mahabharata era.

Nature’s ‘alarming’ decline threatens food, water, energy: UN study

April 3, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Human activities are causing an alarming decline in the variety of plant and animal life on Earth and jeopardising food, clean water and energy supplies, a UN-backed study of biodiversity said on Friday.

Climate change will become a steadily bigger threat to biodiversity by 2050, adding to damage from pollution and forest clearance to make way for agriculture, according to more than 550 experts in a set of reports approved by 129 governments.

“Biodiversity, the essential variety of life-forms on earth, continues to decline in every region of the world,” the authors wrote after talks in Colombia. “This alarming trend endangers the quality of life of people everywhere.”

Four regional reports covered the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Europe and Central Asia – all areas of the planet except the poles and the high seas.

For the Americas, the report estimated that the value of nature to people – such as crops, wood, water purification or tourism – was at least $24.3 trillion a year, equivalent to the region’s gross domestic product from Alaska to Argentina.

Almost two-thirds of those natural contributions were in decline in the Americas, it said. Robert Watson, chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), said biodiversity was not only about saving rare butterflies, trees, birds or rhinos.

While that was important, he told Reuters a key message was: “Please stop thinking of biodiversity just as an environmental issue. It’s way more important than that”.

Among other economic estimates, the Africa report said the absorption of greenhouse gases by a hectare (2.5 acres) of forest in Central Africa was worth $14,000 a year.

Unless governments take strong action to limit greenhouse gas emissions, “climate change may be the biggest threat to biodiversity” by mid-century, Watson said.

He said US delegates had not challenged findings about man-made climate change, although US President Donald Trump doubts mainstream scientific opinion and plans to pull out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

For pollution, eight of 10 rivers around the world with most plastic waste were in Asia. On current trends, overfishing meant there could be no exploitable fish stocks in the Asia-Pacific region by mid-century.

Around the world, ever more animals and plants were under threat from human activities, ranging from elephants in Africa to rare mosses and snails in Europe, the study said.

“By 2100, climate change could … result in the loss of more than half of African bird and mammal species,” said Emma Archer of South Africa, the co-chair of the African assessment.

Rising human populations in many developing nations would require new policies, both to protect nature and to meet UN goals of eradicating poverty and hunger by 2030.

In Europe and Central Asia, wetlands have declined by half since 1970, threatening many species. Forest cover had risen by 22.9 percent in China and other nations in northeast Asia between 1990 and 2015. Parks and other protected areas were expanding in many regions, including the Americas and Asia-Pacific. And populations of animals such as the Iberian lynx, Amur tiger and far eastern leopard were coming back from the brink of extinction thanks to conservation.

Pramilla Malick to run again for New York State Senate Seat

March 20, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Environmental activist Pramilla Malick plans to run again for the state Senate seat held by John Bonacic, the Mount Hope Republican and 20-year incumbent she challenged in 2016.

Malick, a Minisink resident, has helped lead opposition to the nearly completed Competitive Power Ventures plant in Wawayanda, a project that took center stage in the recent, high-profile corruption trial for a former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Malick has spoken at rallies outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan during the case, in which former aide Joe Percoco was accused of taking bribes to help CPV.

Malick, a Democrat from Minisink, earned her way onto the ticket in 2016 through a write-in primary in 2016 but was defeated by more than 20 points by Republican incumbent John Bonacic. Malick said people are “rightfully disgusted” with the way government is being run, according to reports.

“We are dealing with some really heavy issues – some life and death issues; this is going to be a pretty serious, high stakes race, I believe. We are fighting for the survival of our county at this point,” she said in multiple reports.

The candidate, according to her campaign website, www.pramilla.com, said she is campaigning with a platform of issues including the environment, ethics, education, energy and employment.

After failing in the 2016 election, Malick did not completely fall into obscurity. In the summer of 2017, she was among a group of protesters who were arrested and faced jail time when protesting a natural gas power plant being built in Wawayanda. She was released after spending four days behind bars.

A mother of four, Malick has spent much of her career working with technology companies helping people gain skills and industry certifications required for meaningful careers in the IT industry, her campaign page said.

Environmental activist Pramilla Malick plans to run again for the state Senate seat held by John Bonacic, the Mount Hope Republican and 20-year incumbent she challenged in 2016.

Scientists issue a grim new warning on Climate Change: ‘We Are Not Prepared’

February 24, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Science & Technology 0

New research shows that countries around the world are falling short of greenhouse gas goals in the Paris climate deal, and the consequences will likely be unprecedented extreme weather.

Published in the journal Science Advances this week, the study found that the likelihood of extreme heat, dryness and precipitation will increase across as much of 90% of North America, Europe and East Asia if countries do not accelerate their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are not prepared for today’s climate, let alone for another degree of global warming,” says study author Noah Diffenbaugh, a Stanford University professor of earth system science.

The 2015 Paris Agreement, which President Donald Trump has promised to exit when the U.S. is eligible to do so, aims to keep temperature rise below 3.6°Fahrenheit by 2100 with an ideal target of 2.7° Fahrenheit. Though the differences seem minor, the study shows the difference between those targets would lead to dramatic increases in the likelihood of record warm or wet days, according to the study.

The Earth’s Future Will Not Come from Heaven

February 17, 2018 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Science & Technology, Social Media 0

Most readers will find it difficult to accept what I am going to express here. Even though it is based on the best scientific minds that have been studying the universe, the situation of planet Earth and her eventual collapse, or qualitative leap to another level of reality, for almost a century, it has not penetrated into either the collective consciousness or the major academic centers. The old atomic, mechanistic and deterministic paradigm that arose in the XVI century with Newton, Francis Bacon and Kepler, continues in force, as if Einstein, Hubble, Planck, Heisenberg, Reeves, Hawking, Prigogine, Wilson, Swimme, Lovelock, Capra or so many others who have elaborated a new vision of the Universe and of the Earth had never existed.

For starters, I would quote Christian de Duve, 1974 Biology Nobel Laureate, who wrote one of the best books about the history of life: Vital Dust: life as a Cosmic imperative, (Polvo vital: la vida como imperativo cósmico, editorial Norma, 1999): «Biological evolution moves with an accelerated rhythm towards grave instability. Our time reminds us of the important ruptures in evolution, marked by massive extinctions» (p. 355). This time it will not come from a massive meteor that eliminated almost all life, as in past eras, but from the human being itself, that not only can be suicidal and homicidal, but also ecocidal, biocidal and even geocidal. The human being can put an end to most life on our planet, leaving only the underground microorganisms; bacteria, fungi and viruses, that number in the quadrillions of quadrillions.

Given this threat, the result of the death machine created by the irrationality of modernity, the term «anthropocentric» was introduced to refer to the present as a new geological era, in which the great threat of devastation comes from humanity itself (anthropos). The human being has intervened and continues to intervene in the rhythms of nature and the Earth in a profound manner that affects the very ecological basis that supports us.

According to biologists Wilson and Ehrlich, between 70 to 100 thousand species of living beings will disappear annually, due to the hostile relationship the human being maintains with nature. The consequence is clear: the extreme events we are witnessing irrefutably show that the Earth has lost her equilibrium. Only the ignorant, such as Donald Trump, deny the empirical evidence.

To the contrary, the well known cosmologist, Brian Swimme, who coordinates a dozen scientists in California who study the history of the Universe, struggles to offer a saving path out. We should note in passing that cosmologist Swimme and cultural anthropologist Thomas Berry, published a history of the universe, based on the best scientific data, from the big bang to the present, (The Universe Story, San Francisco, Harper 1992), which is known as the most brilliant work realized to date. (The translation to Portuguese has been done, but the Brazilian editors were too foolish, and until today it has not been published. The Spanish translation has been devalued because the book devotes too much space to the concrete situation of the United States). The authors created the concept, «the Ecozoic era», or «the ecocene», a fourth biologic era that would follow the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic and our Neozoic.

The Ecozoic starts with a vision of the universe as cosmogenic. Permanence is not its hallmark, but evolution, expansion and auto-creation of ever more complex «emergences», thus allowing for the birth of new galaxies, new stars and forms of life on Earth, including our conscious and spiritual life.

The authors are not afraid of the word «spiritual» because they understand that the spirit is part of the Universe itself, always present, which in an advanced phase of evolution has become self aware, seeing ourselves as part of the Whole.

This Ecozoic era represents a restoration of the planet through a relationship of caring, respect and reverence, towards the magnificent gift of the living Earth. The economy should not seek accumulation, but what is enough for everyone, so that the Earth may replace her nutrients. The future of the Earth does not come from heaven, but from the decisions we take to remain in consonance with the rhythms of nature and the Universe. I quote Swimme:

The future will be decided either by those who are committed to the Technozoic –a future of increasing exploitation of the Earth as a resource, all for the benefit of humans– or by those committed to the Ecozoic, a new mode of relating with the Earth, where the well being of the Earth and the entire community of terrestrial life is the principal interest (p. 502)

If the Ecozoic does not triumph, we will probably experience a catastrophe, this time produced by the Earth herself, to liberate herself from one of her creatures, that violently occupied everything, threatening all other species, species that, because they have the same origins and the same genetic building blocks, are her brothers and sisters, which is not acknowledged, resulting in their abuse, and even murder.

We must deserve our survival on this planet. But that depends on having an amicable relationship with nature and life; and on a profound transformation of our forms of living. Swimme adds: «We will be unable to live without the special intuition (insight) that women have had in all phases of human existence» (p. 501).

This is the crossroads of our time: either to change or to disappear. But, who believes it? We will continue to raise high our voices.

________________________________________________

Leonardo Boff is a Brazilian theologian, ecologist, writer and university professor exponent of the Liberation Theology. He is a former friar, member of the Franciscan Order, respected for his advocacy of social causes and environmental issues. Boff is a founding member of the Earthcharter Commission.

Trump Regime on the Verge of Okaying Two New Warheads That Could Make Nuclear War More Likely

February 17, 2018 Staff ReporterCommunity, Environment, U.S. 0

As has been reported since last summer, the Trump regime seeks to build two new nuclear weapons, one of which—a low-yield warhead for submarine-launched ballistic missiles—could make nuclear war more likely, say critics. The other warhead would be developed to be carried by submarine-launched cruise missiles, which haven’t been equipped with nukes since 2010.

Developing and building these new nukes are elements included in the not-yet-finalized 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. The last NPR was released in 2010. If approved by President Trump, a move which is expected later this month, it would mark a significant change from the Obama era when the emphasis on nukes as part of U.S. strategy was reduced.

That white dot shows the Hiroshima blast, and the red surrounding it is the explosive power of the W78 workhorse bomb that is currently fitted on 149 of the 399 land-based U.S. ICBMS. The Union of Concerned Scientists that created the image note that the W78 has a yield of at least 335 kilotons; Hiroshima was 14-15kt. In addition to the ICBMs, the U.S. has hundreds of missiles equipped with the W76 warhead at 100 kilotons, and the W88 at 475kt (31 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb).

Advocates of installing the lower-yield warhead on the submarine-launched Trident ballistic missile say it is a good thing specifically because it would mean the warhead would be more usable. Currently they complain, there is reluctance to actually launch any nuclear-tipped missiles because their yields make them so incredibly destructive. In other words, having a lower-yield weapon at hand would make it easier to “push the button.”

The draft NPR has trickled into the news since September when Bryan Bender first wrote about it at Politico. On Thursday, Ashley Feinberg took up the matter at The Huffington Post, posting a lengthy analysis of what the Pentagon calls a “pre-decisional” draft of the NPR along with a complete copy of it. On Monday, Michael R. Gordon at The Wall Street Journal reported from behind a paywall on the subject:

Supporters of the Pentagon’s plan say it is time for the U.S. to update its nuclear forces to deal with changing threats some three decades after the end of the Cold War. Critics worry that the Pentagon’s search for more flexible nuclear options could lower the threshold for their use.

The majority of the Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals are held in “active reserve” and would take considerable time to bring back to operational status. But together, they have about 3,500 nuclear warheads actively deployed and ready for action in minutes.

One of those many critics told Bender:

“If the U.S. moves now to develop a new nuclear weapon, it will send exactly the wrong signal at a time when international efforts to discourage the spread of nuclear weapons are under severe challenge,” said Steven Andreasen, a State Department official in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush who served as the director of arms control on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. “If the world’s greatest conventional and nuclear military power decides it cannot defend itself without new nuclear weapons, we will undermine our ability to prevent other nations from developing or enhancing their own nuclear capabilities and we will further deepen the divisions between the U.S. and other responsible countries

The Journal again:

A major concern for the Pentagon is a new Russian ground-launched cruise missile that American officials say violates the treaty banning intermediate-range missiles based on land, which was signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, leader of the then-Soviet Union. Russia’s decision to develop and deploy that system is described by the review as part of a Russian doctrine that calls for threatening the limited use of nuclear weapons, or perhaps even carrying out a limited nuclear strike, to end a conventional war on terms favorable to the Kremlin.

By developing a new American “low yield” system, the Pentagon review argues the U.S. will have more credible options to respond to Russian threats without using more powerful strategic nuclear weapons, which the Kremlin may calculate Washington would be reluctant to use for fear of unleashing an all-out nuclear war. Because the new weapons it is proposing would be based at sea, the U.S. wouldn’t need the permission of other nations to deploy them and their deployment wouldn’t violate existing arms-control agreements.

It’s not hard to imagine that if the U.S. develops the new low-yield warhead, so will the Russians, and possibly the Chinese. If the U.S. were to launch one or a handful of such nukes against a Russian hard target—say a ballistic missile submarine base—a Kremlin response in kind could be expected. And once the little nukes start flying, nothing would stop the big ones from soon following. Next thing you know, the world’s survivors are acting out the script from The Road in real life.

The 890 nuclear warheads currently deployed on U.S. submarines each have a yield of 7 to 31 times more power than the one dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Exactly what “low-yield” would mean is not yet defined. Trident missiles currently carry the city-busting W76 warhead at 100 kilotons (seven times more powerful than the 4-15 kiloton Hiroshima bomb) or the W88 at 475kt (31 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb). The new nuke would likely be in the 1kt-2kt range.

Although the actual toll will never be known for certain, the Hiroshima bomb killed around 80,000 people in a flash and at least another 100,000 from wounds and radiation-related sicknesses over the next 60 years. The fatalities from the bomb that took out Nagasaki were about half as many.

The horror of this alone gives pause to anyone except for the Dr. Strangeloves among us. However, decision-makers might be more willing to launch a nuke that yields, say, 10 percent of the Hiroshima bomb for use against a hard target such as, for instance, a deep underground weapons-manufacturing site in North Korea.

In other words, advocacy for building new mini-nukes is accompanied by a doctrinal shift that makes a mini-nuclear war “thinkable.” The main trouble with such thinking? Once such a war starts, keeping it mini by confining it to the delivery of a few small nukes—or solely to the nation that’s been hit with them—may well be impossible. Delivering two or three of these to North Korea might very well spur the Chinese to respond with some bombs from their own nuclear arsenal. Nuclear calculus is a dicey game.

The idea of building low-yield nukes is hardly new. Before the major global reduction of nuclear warheads that began in the late 1960s, the U.S. had thousands of such mini-nukes in its inventory—artillery shells, landmines, depth charges, torpedoes, short-range ballistic missiles, even a kind of bazooka.

It still has many nukes in the form of gravity bombs meant to be dropped from airplanes and warheads atop submarine-launched ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles that can be instantly configured for low yields. Of a total active deployment of 1,740 bombs and warheads, the United States has several hundred with in-flight “dial-up” capabilities. This allows for variable yields as low as 0.3 kilotons of TNT (1/50th the yield of the Hiroshima bomb) and as high as 340 kilotons.

At few months ago, James Doyle at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wrote: In December [2016], the Defense Science Board—an independent group of experts and former officials that provides advice to the Defense Department—submitted a report advising the Pentagon to invest in low-yield nuclear weapons that could provide “a rapid, tailored nuclear option for limited use.” This recommendation struck a familiar note.

In 2003, the board issued a study entitled “Future Strategic Strike Forces” that suggested building small nuclear weapons with “great precision, deep penetration, [and] greatly reduced” yield and radioactivity. The board’s call led to investments in new warhead designs such as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator—a warhead designed to destroy deeply buried or hardened targets including underground military command centers—and the Reliable Replacement Warhead. Both programs were cancelled in 2008, after millions of dollars had been spent.

Despite the board’s renewed interest in smaller nuclear weapons, and in weapons tailored for limited uses or specific effects, any effort to develop these weapons would encounter the same problem that earlier such efforts have encountered: It is impossible to determine if introducing weapons with these characteristics into the US stockpile, and planning for their use in certain scenarios, would strengthen deterrence or make nuclear war by miscalculation more likely. Building “mini” or tailored nuclear weapons might well lower the threshold to nuclear war; risking that outcome would only make sense if it were absolutely clear that introducing these weapons would remedy some dangerous weakness in deterrence.

Fortunately, no such weakness exists. Any nation using nuclear weapons against the United States or its allies risks a devastating response whose negative consequences would far outweigh any gains delivered by crossing the nuclear threshold.

One key aspect of mini-nukes is their potential for use as first-strike weapons in internationally prohibited “preventive wars” that the Bush Doctrine posited. For instance, striking suspected or actual nuclear facilities in Iran or chemical weapons operations in Libya was one of the rationales for promoting development of low-yield nukes in the early 2000s. Such attacks might not develop into all-out war when directed against non-nuclear nations. But there are no guarantees and the potential for guessing wrong in this matter is enormous.

Doyle continues:

Just as in the early 2000s, current proponents of mini-nukes or of vague “limited nuclear options” offer no convincing evidence that new weapons in this category are needed—or more importantly, that they would make nuclear use less likely. Instead, potential nuclear adversaries are likely to see the acquisition of additional weapons in this category as an indication that US opposition to nuclear use has decreased and that Washington may be the first to cross the nuclear threshold. Such an outcome would undermine global stability and increase the risk of nuclear war. Defense resources are better spent on strengthening US conventional forces.

And here’s Bender again: “It is difficult to imagine the circumstances under which we would need a military option in between our formidable conventional capabilities and our current low-yield nuclear weapons capabilities,” added Alexandra Bell, a former State Department arms control official. “Lawmakers should be very wary of any attempt to reduce the threshold for nuclear use. There is no such thing as a minor nuclear war.”

There is a much-ignored part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—Article VI:

Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.

That should be item No. 1 on the minds of the drafters of the latest Nuclear Posture Review, not the development and building of more nuclear weapons.

Ronald Reagan didn’t have the right idea about a lot of things. But he was right in pursuing “a world free of nuclear weapons,” which he considered to be “totally irrational, totally inhumane, good for nothing but killing, possibly destructive of life on earth and civilization.” He and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev put that vision on a path to reality with their disarmament negotiations. Barack Obama also wanted a world with zero nuclear weapons. Less than three months into his first term of office, he said in Prague:

Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped, cannot be checked — that we are destined to live in a world where more nations and more people possess the ultimate tools of destruction. Such fatalism is a deadly adversary, for if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then in some way we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.

Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st century. And as nuclear power — as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it.

So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. I’m not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly — perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change. We have to insist, “Yes, we can.”

It’s true that most of the specific moves President Obama outlined in Prague toward global zero for nukes haven’t borne any fruit. But that doesn’t make his or President Reagan’s push in the no-nukes direction pollyanna-ish or in any other way wrongheaded. The last thing the man now in the White House should be doing is endorsing the building of more nuclear weapons based on the views of people who think deploying and using some small nukes would be valuable to U.S. security. But if it adds to his fantasies about raining fire and fury on North Korea, he no doubt will adopt this recommendation to the detriment of us all.

Dia Mirza is UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador for India

December 6, 2017 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Former Miss Asia-Pacific, actor, producer, entrepreneur and environmentalist, Dia Mirza, was appointed as UN Environment’s Goodwill Ambassador for India on Nov. 29. A long-standing supporter of environmental conservation, Mirza will take up the role to add more weight to her work on raising awareness of and seeking solutions to environmental issues that the entire world, and India in particular, face.

“I feel honored and inspired by this opportunity to work with UN Environment to protect the environment and promote sustainable development,” said Mirza. “Environmental issues will be the defining challenge of this era, and I am committed to helping the UN as a Goodwill Ambassador to do everything I can to provide a better future. Together, we will continue working towards conservation of nature, tackling climate change and inspiring people to live more sustainably.”

Dia Mirza is a committed voice for change and has contributed her efforts in the field of social change, conservation and environment. She has been to the face of many pivotal environmental campaigns across India and has worked towards the conservation of wildlife.

As a Goodwill Ambassador, Mirza will work with the United Nations to further spread the message on priority areas including clean air, clean seas, wildlife protection and climate change.

“I am delighted to have Dia join UN Environment as a Goodwill Ambassador,” said UN Environment head, Erik Solheim. “India faces many challenges, in particular, the air pollution that is choking many of its cities. Dia’s influence can help to turn the situation around and create a healthy future for Indians and their environment.”

UN Environment is running many global campaigns, which are having a huge impact by reaching millions of people to change behavior. “I am deeply humbled and motivated to serve nature in my new role as UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador for India. Committed to protect, secure and strengthen the rich treasures that nature provides us all! https://t.co/C4ECs2AGn8 @UNEP @UNinIndia @ErikSolheim” Dia Mirza tweeted on November 30, 2017.

Dia Mirza has joined other accomplished and dedicated past and present UN Goodwill Ambassadors, including UN Environment’s Li Binging, Gisele Bündchen, and Don Cheadle as also Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie, Katy Perry and Emma Watson.

India loses billions to air pollution: UN

November 30, 2017 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

India had the highest share of welfare costs (or a loss of income from labour), of about $220 billion (about ₹1.4 trillion), in South and South-East Asia — of a combined total of $380 billion from mortality due to air pollution, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The global mortality costs from outdoor air pollution are projected to rise to about $25 trillion by 2060 in the absence of more stringent measures. At regional and national scale, China’s welfare costs from mortality were the highest at nearly $1 trillion followed by the Organisation for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) countries with a combined total of $730 billion, the report added quoting a 2016 projection by the OECD.

Although certain forms of pollution have been reduced as “technologies and management strategies have advanced,” approximately 19 million premature deaths are estimated to occur annually as a result of the way societies use natural resources and impact the environment to support production and consumption, it notes.

“If consumption and production patterns continue as they are, the linear economic model of ‘take-make-dispose’ will seriously burden an already-polluted planet, affecting current and future generations,” the report’s foreword concludes.

To curb pollution in various forms, the UNEP called for strong high-level political commitment and engagement of the local government, civil society and other stakeholders. “Pollution is a universal challenge [but] the good news is that we already know what we need to do to prevent and reduce it,” UNEP Executive Director Erik Solheim said in a statement, stressing that “now the responsibility is on governments, businesses, cities and local authorities, civil society and individuals around the world to commit to act to beat pollution in all its forms.”

To achieve high level political commitment in key economic sectors, there is a need to go beyond the environmental ministries and include other relevant ministries such as finance, agriculture, industry, urban, transport, energy and health.

There is also a need to engage the local government, civil society organisations, business leaders, industries, trade unions and citizens at large. Reporting on the progress that comes from acting on pollution – whether through voluntary measures or formal laws – is a crucial step in this transition.

The report, ‘Towards a pollution-free planet’, was launched during the first Conference of Parties for the Minamata Convention, which addresses mercury issues, and ahead of the annual U.N. Environment Assembly, to be held in early December.

India leading emerging nations in race for universal energy access

October 26, 2017 Staff ReporterBusiness, Environment, Finance/Economy 0

India is on course to achieving universal access to electricity and clean cooking facilities by the early 2020s, a decade ahead of other developing countries, the International Energy Agency has said, indicating global recognition for the Narendra Modi government’s energy programme.

“Developing countries in Asia are making significant progress. Many countries in the region are well on track to reach universal energy access by 2030, while India is on course to reach that goal by the early 2020s,” the International Energy Agency has said in its latest report, ‘Energy Access Outlook: from Poverty to Prosperity’.

“Just look at India, which has provided electricity access to half a billion people since 2000. The government’s tremendous efforts over the last several years have put it on track to achieving one of the biggest success stories ever in electrification,” an IEA statement on Wednesday quoted its executive director Fatih Birol as saying.

According to Birol, the process of providing access to clean and affordable energy is being accelerated by the “convergence of political will and cost reductions”. Globally, this has brought universal energy access by 2030 within reach.

“The cost-effective strategy for providing universal access to electricity and clean-cooking facilities in developing countries is compatible with meeting global climate goals and prevents millions of premature deaths each year. It would also benefit women the most, as it would free up billions of hours currently lost to gathering fuelwood,” says the report.

In the Indian context, the report’s positive results towards universal energy access are a reflection of the bristling pace set by the Modi government to electrify all villages and rural households through the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana and providing free connections to poor households through the Subhagya scheme announced recently, besides bringing clean cooking fuel to poor homes through the Ujjwala scheme.

These schemes, clearly targeted at improving the lives of India’s poor, are at the core of the Modi government’s development plank. Together, they also form a key element of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s political outreach plan by lighting up homes and rid poor women from the scourge of smoky ‘chulhas’

So far 14,670 villages, or 80% of the unelectrified villages, have been electrified in the two years since the electrification drive was launched. Only 2,791 inhabited villages, marking 15% of the target, remain to be electrified. With the rapid progress in village electrification, the government earlier this month announced the Saubhagya scheme envisaging free connections to poor households. The Ujjwala scheme too has reached over 3 crore poor homes since it was launched in May 2016 against a target of 5 crore homes set for 2019.

Trump and the Truth about Climate Change

July 11, 2017 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Economics Laureate | Project Syndicate – TRANSCEND Media Service

Tell Donald Trump: The Paris Climate Deal Is Very Good for America – Trump argues the treaty is unfair to the US but it is America that continues to impose an unfair burden on others.

Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, the United States took another major step toward establishing itself as a rogue state on June 1, when it withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. For years, Trump has indulged the strange conspiracy theory that, as he put it in 2012, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” But this was not the reason Trump advanced for withdrawing the US from the Paris accord. Rather, the agreement, he alleged, was bad for the US and implicitly unfair to it.

While fairness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, Trump’s claim is difficult to justify. On the contrary, the Paris accord is very good for America, and it is the US that continues to impose an unfair burden on others.

Historically, the US has added disproportionately to the rising concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and among large countries it remains the biggest per capita emitter of carbon dioxide by far – more than twice China’s rate and nearly 2.5 times more than Europe in 2013 (the latest year for which the World Bank has reported complete data). With its high income, the US is in a far better position to adapt to the challenges of climate change than poor countries like India and China, let alone a low-income country in Africa.

In fact, the major flaw in Trump’s reasoning is that combating climate change would strengthen the US, not weaken it. Trump is looking toward the past – a past that, ironically, was not that great. His promise to restore coal-mining jobs (which now number 51,000, less than 0.04% of the country’s nonfarm employment) overlooks the harsh conditions and health risks endemic in that industry, not to mention the technological advances that would continue to reduce employment in the industry even if coal production were revived.

In fact, far more jobs are being created in solar panel installation than are being lost in coal. More generally, moving to a green economy would increase US income today and economic growth in the future. In this, as in so many things, Trump is hopelessly mired in the past.

Just a few weeks before Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, the global High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices, which I co-chaired with Nicholas Stern, highlighted the potential of a green transition. The Commission’s report, released at the end of May, argues that reducing CO₂ emissions could result in an even stronger economy.

The logic is straightforward. A key problem holding back the global economy today is deficient aggregate demand. At the same time, many countries’ governments face revenue shortfalls. But we can address both issues simultaneously and reduce emissions by imposing a charge (a tax) for CO₂emissions.

It is always better to tax bad things than good things. By taxing CO₂, firms and households would have an incentive to retrofit for the world of the future. The tax would also provide firms with incentives to innovate in ways that reduce energy usage and emissions – giving them a dynamic competitive advantage.

The Commission analyzed the level of carbon price that would be required to achieve the goals set forth in the Paris climate agreement – a far higher price than in most of Europe today, but still manageable. The commissioners pointed out that the appropriate price may differ across countries. In particular, they noted, a better regulatory system – one that restrains coal-fired power generation, for example – reduces the burden that must be placed on the tax system.

Interestingly, one of the world’s best-performing economies, Sweden, has already adopted a carbon tax at a rate substantially higher than that discussed in our report. And the Swedes have simultaneously sustained their strong growth without US-level emissions.

America under Trump has gone from being a world leader to an object of derision. In the aftermath of Trump’s withdrawal of the US from the Paris accord, a large sign was hung over Rome’s city hall: “The Planet First.” Likewise, France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron, poked fun at Trump’s campaign slogan, declaring “Make Our Planet Great Again.”

But the consequences of Trump’s actions are no laughing matter. If the US continues to emit as it has, it will continue to impose enormous costs on the rest of the world, including on much poorer countries. Those who are being harmed by America’s recklessness are justifiably angry.

Fortunately, large parts of the US, including the most economically dynamic regions, have shown that Trump is, if not irrelevant, at least less relevant than he would like to believe. Large numbers of states and corporations have announced that they will proceed with their commitments – and perhaps go even further, offsetting the failures of other parts of the US.

In the meantime, the world must protect itself against rogue states. Climate change poses an existential threat to the planet that is no less dire than that posed by North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. In both cases, the world cannot escape the inevitable question: what is to be done about countries that refuse to do their part in preserving our planet?

Recycling Pencils and Water are Projects winning PEYA Awards

June 22, 2017 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Aryan and Om Mulgaokar, now living in Ridgewood, N.J., are among the national winners of the 2017 PEYAs announced in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1971, the awards program recognizes young people for their outstanding efforts to protect the nation’s air, water, land and ecology. Nebraska-based 6th grader Aryan Mulgaokar and his brother, kindergartener Om, have been awarded for their project, “REVIVE Go Green — Reuse and Recycling of Pencils.”

Every year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gives special recognition and a presidential plaque to the President’s Environmental Youth Award regional winners. This year, among the many winners whose outstanding environmental projects have been recognized, there are at least four Indian American students.

The national award is presented each year to K-12 students who demonstrate the initiative, creativity, and problem-solving skills needed to address environmental problems and find sustainable solutions.

After realizing how many of their partially used pencils were left over each year, the Indian American brothers decided to implement a project to promote environmental awareness and a habit of reusing and recycling school supplies, like pencils. The students named their project “REVIVE Go Green” to reflect the completion of the life cycle of a pencil, when composted pencils can be used to grow or revive new trees.

Though the brothers won the PEYA regional award for EPA Region 7, they recently moved to New Jersey, where they plan on expanding the project to their new school district.

“Today, we are pleased to honor these impressive young leaders, who demonstrate the impact that a few individuals can make to protect our environment,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “These students are empowering their peers, educating their communities, and demonstrating the STEM skills needed for this country to thrive in the global economy.”

The brothers are being recognized for their recycling project at Aldrich Elementary in the Millard School District in Omaha. The project focused on recycling used pencils, partnering with the school, classmates, and a local landscaping nursery, Mulhall’s Nursery, to collect discarded and broken pencils and either sharpen them for reuse or recycle them (as shavings) for use in the nursery’s compost.

Aryan stated, “What caught my attention was that two boxes of pencils appeared on the school supply list every year. I realized that so many pencils get thrown out in the trash every year at homes nationwide and trees are cut down for them. I knew I could find a solution to this problem.”

The brothers encouraged their elementary and middle-school classmates to volunteer their time to collect damaged pencils. At the end of the school year, more than 4,000 pencils were returned to the school stockroom for reuse during the next school term, a cost savings of approximately $850. The brothers also started a student group and engaged many throughout the two schools to participate and learn more about how to recycle.

Thirteen-year-old Shreya Ramachandran, of Fremont, Calif., will receive the honor for her study of grey water use in water conservation. Having seen firsthand the effects of drought in California and in India, high-schooler Ramachandran formed “The Grey Water Project” to encourage people to conserve and reuse water. Over three years of research into water conservation, the Indian American student has particularly focused on the possibility of reusing grey water, which is lightly used water, especially from laundry.

Arya Bairat, an Indian American student from Connecticut, is also part of a group of 9th graders who have won the regional award for EPA Region 1 with their project, “Synthesis of Low Cost, Biodegradable Masks/Bags Using Novel Material Combinations: A Sustainability Project.”

The PEYA program promotes awareness of our nation’s natural resources and encourages positive community involvement. It celebrates student leadership in service projects to protect the environment and build a livable, sustainable global community. Fourteen projects are being recognized this year, from 12 states (Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, California, and Washington).

Additional projects include a wide variety of activities that range from developing a biodegradable plastic using local agricultural waste product; designing an efficient, environmentally-friendly mosquito trap using solar power and compost by-product; saving approximately 2,000 tadpoles and raising adult frogs and toads; repurposing more than 25,000 books; organizing recycling programs to benefit disaster victims and underserved community members; and promoting bee health.

With abandoning Trump climate pact, world rallies around Paris deal

June 7, 2017 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

President Donald Trump has announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change. The move creates uncertainty around not only global climate change cooperation, but also U.S. leadership on the international stage, as countries including China, Russia, and India have signaled their intention to stay the course with their commitments.

Trump announced the US was leaving for economic reasons, saying the deal would cost American jobs. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US would still curb emissions. The Paris agreement commits the US and 194 other countries to keeping rising global temperatures “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels and “endeavour to limit” them even more, to 1.5C. The UN World Meteorological Organization said that, in the worst scenario, the US pullout could add 0.3C to global temperatures by the end of the century.

The United States, with its love of big cars, big houses and blasting air-conditioners, has contributed more than any other country to the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is scorching the planet. “In cumulative terms, we certainly own this problem more than anybody else does,” said David G. Victor, a longtime scholar of climate politics at the University of California, San Diego. Many argue that this obligates the United States to take ambitious action to slow global warming.

Trump characterised the Paris agreement as a deal that aimed to hobble, disadvantage and impoverish the US. He said it would cost the US $3tn (£2.3tn) in lost GDP and 6.5 million jobs – while rival economies like China and India were treated more favourably.

Trump indicated he was open to another climate deal “on terms that are fair to the United States” but the leaders of France, Germany and Italy quickly issued a joint statement rejecting any renegotiation. The Democratic governors of New York, California and Washington states all quickly vowed to respect the terms of the Paris deal.

In the past five months, he has already demolished the moderate attempts made by Obama to tackle greenhouse gas emissions in the US through a series of orders. So much so that US commitments under the Paris deal were already dead in the water. President Trump rescinded Obama Administration’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). His “America First Energy Plan” promised to do away with “burdensome regulations on our energy industry” and reviving America’s coal industry. His executive order on “energy independence” initiated the process of “suspending, revising, and rescinding” a number of existing policies, including the Clean Power Plan. Several other federal policies aimed at controlling emissions are under review.

Just doing away with the CAP, which was to improve energy efficiency and reduce methane emissions by 40-45%, especially from the fracking industry, will add about 1,000 million tons of greenhouse gases (measured in carbondioxide equivalent terms). The Clean Power Plan, which was to reduce power sector emissions by 32%, was blocked by the American Supreme Court and is now under review by the Trump administration.

Its scrapping will lead to an addition of 200 million tons of gases by 2025. Emission standards for cars and light trucks are under review, the moratorium on federal coal leases has been lifted, methane reporting requirements have been withdrawn and the Social Cost of Carbon, an accounting arrangement to build in costs of emissions, has been rescinded.

The US had committed at Paris to reduce emissions by 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025. Obama’s policies would have reduced emissions by 10%, the rest was still a work in progress. But all that is history now. With Trump’s anti-environmental, ultra nationalist stance, the downward trend of emissions of the last decade will be reversed, although efforts by States and cities may keep the momentum going.

In a survey of registered voters taken just weeks after the 2016 election, 69 percent said that the United States should participate in the agreement. This figure included 86 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of Independents, and 51 percent of Republicans. By a margin of 40 to 34 percent, even a plurality of self-described conservative Republicans backed the agreement. The administration has argued that the Paris Agreement is “unfair” because large polluting countries such as India and China are not required to do anything until 2030. The voters don’t buy this argument.

Two-thirds of them—79 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Independents, and 51 percent of Republicans—say that the United States should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions regardless of what other countries do.

President Trump’s advisers may have suggested that withdrawing from the Paris climate accord would be a popular move. Howvere, as per experts, this could become yet another self-inflicted wound, because vast majorities of Americans want to remain in the Paris accord, including many of Trump’s own supporters.

Nearly 150 countries have ratified the Paris climate agreement, representing over 80 percent of global emissions. Nicaragua and Syria are among the only countries that have not signed the agreement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed strong support for the Paris Agreement, and globalization in general, in his keynote address in Davos this January. European Council President Donald Tusk said after meeting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that the two powers took their responsibilities seriously. “Today, China and Europe have demonstrated solidarity with future generations and responsibility for the whole planet,” he told reporters at a joint news conference.

France’s President Macron calls on the world to “make our planet great again. The fight against climate change and all the research, innovation and technological progress it will bring will continue with or without the United States,” he added. A spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Hua Chunying, said China was ready to take a leading role in the fight against climate change. “In the future, China will continue to tackle climate change in all ways, will proactively participate in the multilateral process of tackling climate change and resolutely uphold the global climate management process,” she said.

Indian Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said: “As far as the Paris accord is concerned… our government is committed, irrespective of the stand of anyone, anywhere in the world.” The group of the world’s 48 least developed countries accused Trump of showing disregard for millions of lives.

“Paris or no Paris, our commitment to preserving the climate is for the sake of future generations,” Prime Minister Modi said at St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

The Prime Minister said India had been working to protect the environment even before 190 countries had agreed to sign the Paris deal in 2015. “I have in simple way stated the dream of ‘new India’. I quoted from 5000-year-old Vedas to say humans have a right to milk the nature but have no right to exploit it,” PM Modi said.

Scientists have warned the poorest countries across the globe will be the hardest hit by climate change as they lack capacity to cope with extreme weather events.

China and the US, the world’s first and second biggest polluters, respectively, are together responsible for some 40 per cent of the world’s emissions. India accounts for 4.1 percent of global emissions and is the third largest carbon-emitting country. Climate change, clearly, is real. It’s already doing damage around the world. Scientists and the leaders of virtually every country in the world take climate change seriously. There is only one major exception: the Republican Party in the United States.

Amnesty International USA’s Executive Director Margaret Huang called the decision an “assault on a range of human rights.” “By refusing to join other nations in taking necessary steps to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change, the President is effectively saying: ‘Let them drown, burn, and starve,’” she continued.

The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement is a huge foreign policy blunder that will reverberate through our relationships with our allies. During the negotiation process, the United States pushed to make the agreement flexible to bring all countries on board and to keep them in the fold even if their situations and priorities changed. This flexibility means that our withdrawal would be completely unnecessary—the administration could have remained party to the agreement while still pursuing its policy goals.

Abdicating U.S. responsibility in climate change mitigation and the coming clean energy transition is likely to make other international negotiations more challenging, particularly with respect to trade. The withdrawal also opens up a geopolitical space in climate leadership that may or may not be filled. The United States was a crucial force in bringing the Paris Agreement to fruition, especially in bringing China into the fold.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have increased significantly in recent years from 317 parts per million in 1960 to more than 400 parts per million in 2016, levels that have not been observed for over 10 million years. This has lead to a rise in global average temperature of over 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above its 1960 level, and it is only projected to increase further without curbing fossil fuel use and thus emissions.

Countries in the G7, European Union, and Asia have already stepped up to reaffirm their commitments to the Paris agreement in response to the U.S.’ wavering stance. An upcoming EU-China Summit in Brussels is expected to result in a detailed action plan to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) as laid out in the climate deal.

“Small Island States cannot afford to be dismayed or feel down about any of this, we have to move on for the sake of our countries [and] for humanity in general and for all countries,” Juneau concluded. Climate change is already contributing to extreme environmental events including rapidly melting ice caps, more frequent and devastating storms, and prolonged droughts which have and will continue to impact hundreds of millions of peoples’ human rights around the world.

Anand Varma named National Geographic ‘Emerging Explorer’

June 4, 2017 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Indian American photographer Anand Varma from Atlanta is named ‘Emerging Explorer’ by National Geographic. One of the achievers in the Atlanta Indian community, he is one of the 14 individuals from different walks of life, who

National Geographic selected as Emerging Explorers of the year 2017.
National Geographic’s list of Emerging Explorers recognizes exceptional talent of aspiring artists, storytellers, scientists, innovators and conservationists from across the world, who act as agents of change for betterment of the world through their work of art, technology, engineering, education, or innovation.

Varma is a science photographer who works to tell the story behind the science of everything from primate behavior and hummingbird biomechanics to amphibian disease and forest ecology, according to National Geographic.
On his website, www.varmaphoto.com, the native of Atlanta, Ga., explained how he picked up his father’s old camera and “found that I could use it to feed my curiosity about the natural world— and to share my adventures and discoveries with others.”

He has assisted with 13 articles published in National Geographic since 2006. In 2010, he was honored with a Young Explorer Grant from the National Geographic Society. “These bold people with transformative ideas are taking National Geographic’s mission further and improving the world as they go,” National Geographic said in a news release.

Being a first-generation Indian American, Anand grew up in Atlanta exploring the charms of woods and admiring the vivacity of streams unlike other children. His curiosity about the world of nature knew no bounds when he found his dad’s old camera in his teens. It set him on an adventure spree to discover joys and wonders in the natural world.
Anand Varma’s interest in photography is not limited to exploring the wonders of nature and telling their stories. A graduate in interactive biology from the University of California, Berkeley, he also helps biologists communicate their research through photographs. His photographs depict the science behind an array of things from amphibian diseases to mangrove forests.

His tryst with National Geographic dates back to 2006 since when he has assisted several personalities with 13 articles published in National Geographic. The title ‘Emerging Explorer’ is not his first recognition from National Geographic. He received a Young Explorer Grant from the National Geographic Society in 2010.

To help this group of trailblazers expand the impact they are making in the areas of science, storytelling, education, technology and conservation around the world, National Geographic awards each of them $10,000 for research and exploration, it said. With the help of National Geographic Society, this group of 14 will explore new frontiers and find innovative ways to remedy some of the greatest challenges facing our planet.

UN Secretary-General’s climate remarks at NYU Stern

June 2, 2017 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Profiles 0

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
–
“CLIMATE ACTION: MOBILIZING THE WORLD”

New York, 30 May 2017

President Hamilton, [Andrew Hamilton, President, NYU]

Dean Henry, [Peter Henry, Dean, NYU Stern School of Business]

Professor Whelan, [Ms. Tensie Whelan, NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business]

Dear friends,

I would like to thank everyone at New York University, and especially the Stern School of Business, for your warm

welcome and your role in making today’s gathering possible.

Let me also thank all of you for being here to discuss the crucial challenge of climate change and how we must address it.

I can think of no better audience – this wonderful mix of scholars and scientists, students and activists, investors and entrepreneurs – the people who, together, are making climate action real.

And I can think of no better place to have this conversation than here at NYU and the Stern School, where you are dedicated to cultivating solutions and a new generation of leaders.

This notion of inter-generational responsibility is very much on my mind.

My grandfather was born in 1875. He could not have imagined the world we live in today.

Now I have three grand-daughters of my own – the oldest is eight. I cannot imagine the world they will inhabit decades from now, when they will be my age.

But not knowing is no excuse for not acting to ensure that we do not undermine their future.

I want my grandchildren to inherit a healthy world, free of conflict and suffering — and a healthy planet, rooted in low-carbon sustainable solutions.

That is my wish for everyone, everywhere. To get there, we have our work cut out for us.

Allow me to be blunt. The world is in a mess.

Countries and communities everywhere are facing pressures that are being exacerbated by megatrends – like population growth, rapid and many times chaotic urbanization, food insecurity, water scarcity, massive movements of population and migration… the list can go on and on.

But one overriding megatrend is far and away at the top of that list – climate change.

Climate change is a direct threat in itself and a multiplier of many other threats — from poverty to displacement to conflict.

The effects of climate change are already being felt around the world.

They are dangerous and they are accelerating.

And so my argument today is that it is absolutely essential that the world implements the Paris Agreement – and that we fulfil that duty with increased ambition.

The reason is three-fold:

Climate change is undeniable. Climate action is unstoppable. And climate solutions provide opportunities that are unmatchable.

Let’s start with the reality of climate change today.

The science is beyond doubt.

The world’s top scientists have been shouting it from the rooftops.

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has put it and I quote: “Human influence on the climate system is clear. The more we disrupt our climate, the more we risk severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts.”

Dear friends,

If anything, that disruption is happening even faster than expected.

Last year was once again the hottest on record. The past decade has also been the hottest on record.

Every geo-physical system on which we depend is being affected, from mountains to oceans, from icecaps to forests, and across all the arable lands that provide our food.

Sea ice is at a historic low; sea levels are at a historic high, threatening the existence of low-lying island nations and cities.

The seas are also being affected by warmer temperatures, rapid acidification and coral bleaching, endangering the marine food chain on which so many livelihoods and economies depend.

On land, glaciers are retreating almost everywhere – a risk to the breadbaskets of the world as rivers fed by glaciers run dry.

Soon the famous snows of Kilimanjaro will exist only in stories.

Here in the United States, only 26 of Glacier National Park’s glaciers remain. When it was made a Park in 1910, there were around 150. I hope you will never have to rename it “no-Glacier National Park”!

Further north, we see an unfolding crisis of epic proportions.

The ice caps in the Arctic Ocean are shrinking dramatically. Some even predict that the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free by the summer of 2020.

That would be catastrophic for Arctic wildlife. It would be a death-blow to the ways of life of indigenous peoples. And it would be a disaster for the world.

Why?

Because ice reflects sunlight. Dark water much less. That means warming will accelerate.

Frozen tundra will thaw earlier and freeze later, releasing vast amounts of methane into the atmosphere.

Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

This will mean more ice melting from the Greenland ice cap.

It could alter the Gulf Stream and affect food production, water security and weather patterns from Canada to India.

We are already seeing massive floods, more extreme tornadoes, failed monsoons and fiercer hurricanes and typhoons.

But slow-motion disasters are also speeding up.

Areas where drought once struck every decade are now seeing cycles of five or even two years between droughts. Moreover, dry spells are lasting longer, from California to the Sahel.

Dear friends,

The moral imperative for action is clear.

The people hit first and worst by climate change are the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalized.

Women and girls will suffer as they are always the most disproportionately affected by disasters.

The nations that will face the most profound consequences are the least responsible for climate change and the least equipped to deal with it.

Droughts and floods around the world mean poverty will worsen, famines will spread and people will die.

As regions become unliveable, more and more people will be forced to move from degraded lands to cities and to other nations.

We see this already across North Africa and the Middle East.

That is why there is also a compelling security case for climate action.

Around the world, military strategists view climate change as a threat to global peace and security.

We are all aware of the political turmoil and societal tensions that have been generated by the mass movement of refugees.

Imagine how many people are poised to become climate-displaced when their lands become unliveable.

Last year, more than 24 million people in 118 countries and territories were displaced by natural disasters.

That is three times as many as were displaced by conflict.

Climate change is also a menace to jobs, to property and to business.

With wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events becoming more common, the economic costs are soaring.

The insurance industry raised the alarm long ago. They have been joined by many others across the business community.

They know that the time has come for transformation.

Dear friends,

Climate action is gathering momentum not just because it is a necessity but also because it presents an opportunity – to forge a peaceful and sustainable future on a healthy planet.

This is why governments adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015, with a pledge to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees.

I applaud the immense efforts of my predecessor, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who brought the essential stakeholders to the table and helped forge this landmark Agreement.

It is worth taking a moment to step back and reflect on the unity that was forged in Paris.

It was a remarkable moment in the history of humankind.

The world came together for the first time to address this global challenge collectively. And it did so at a time of division in so many other areas.

There has been nothing like it in terms of enabling the global community to work on an issue together that none of us can solve on our own.

Today, it is increasingly understood that implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goes hand-in-hand with limiting global temperature rise and increasing climate resilience.

As of today, 147 Parties representing more than 82 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions have ratified the Paris Agreement.

Every month, more countries are translating their Paris pledges into national climate action plans.

Yes, not everyone will move at the same pace or with equal vigour.

But if any government doubts the global will and need for this accord, that is reason for all others to unite even stronger and stay the course.

It is reason to build ever broader coalitions – with civil society and business, with cities and states, with academia and community leaders.

Indeed, all around the world, cities, regions, states and territories are setting their own ambitious targets.

Thousands of private corporations, including major oil and gas companies, are taking their own action.

They know that green business is good business.

It is not just the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do.

Some may seek to portray the response to climate change as a fundamental threat to the economy. Yet what we are witnessing in these early years of a systemic response is the opposite.

We are seeing new industries. New markets. Healthier environments. More jobs. Less dependency on global supply chains of fossil fuels.

The real danger is not the threat to one’s economy that comes from acting. It is, instead, the risk to one’s economy by failing to act.

The message is simple: The sustainability train has left the station. Get on board or get left behind.

Those who fail to bet on the green economy will be living in a grey future.

On the other hand, those who embrace green technologies will set the gold standard for economic leadership in the 21st century.

Last year, solar power grew 50 per cent, with China and the United States in the lead.

Around the world, over half of the new power generation capacity now comes from renewables. In Europe, the figure is more than 90 per cent.

The falling cost of renewables is one of the most encouraging stories on the planet today.

In the United States and China, new renewable energy jobs now outstrip those created in the oil and gas industries.

China aims to increase its renewable energy by about 40 per cent by 2020.

Major oil producers are also seeing the future and diversifying their economies. Even Saudi Arabia announced plans to install 700 megawatts of solar and wind power.

And industry experts predict India’s solar capacity will double this year to 18 gigawatts.

Boosting energy efficiency is also crucial – for reducing climate risk and for increasing profits.

The International Energy Agency has indicated that investing in energy efficiency could increase global economic output by $18 trillion dollars — more than the outputs of the United States, Canada and Mexico combined.

Future spending on energy infrastructure alone could total some $37 trillion dollars.

Now if that is the case, it is crucial for such massive investments to be sustainable and climate-friendly; otherwise, we will lock ourselves into bad practices for decades to come.

Given the facts about youth unemployment, air pollution and climate change, surely it is common sense to put our investments where they will generate the most savings, create the most jobs, deliver the biggest health dividends and have the most impact against global warming.

Surely that is why nearly two dozen of the world’s most successful business leaders, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists plan to invest in a fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures, led by Bill Gates, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with clean energy technology.

It is why green bonds are starting to come in many different shades as the size of the market for securities designed to benefit the environment is on track to double again – from $93 billion dollars in 2016, to $206 [billion dollars] this year.

It is why 60 per cent of the world’s 500 largest asset owners are taking steps to recognize the financial risks associated with climate change.

And it is why more than 7,000 cities in the newly launched Global Covenant of Mayors have agreed to report their emissions and climate progress according to a standard set of tools that are more rigorous than those currently used by many countries.

Here I want to salute my Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He is showing great leadership in mobilizing mayors and cities to build the resilient and dynamic cities of the future.

Dear friends,

Science is speaking to us very clearly about what is happening. Innovation is showing us very clearly what can be done.

If we want to protect forests and life on land, safeguard our oceans, create massive economic opportunities, prevent even more massive losses and improve the health and well-being of people and the planet, we have one simple option staring us in the face:

Climate action.

Today, I call on all leaders of government, business and civil society to back the most ambitious action on climate change for the benefit of this generation and generations to come.

[As] Secretary-General, I am committed to mobilize the world to meet this challenge.

I will do so in at least five concrete ways.

First, I will intensify high-level political engagement to raise the bar on climate action.

The Paris pledges are historic but still do not go nearly far enough to limit temperature rise to well below 2 degrees and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees.

Commitments so far could still see temperatures rise by 3 degrees or more.

So we must do our utmost to increase ambition and action until we can bend the emissions curve and slow down global warming.

Most immediately, I will also press for ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Next week’s Ocean Conference at United Nations Headquarters is yet another opportunity to build momentum.

Second, I will rally the full capacity of the United Nations development system behind climate action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially at the country-level. Because that is where true change will be achieved.

As we support Member States, I will continue to emphasize the urgency of empowering the world’s women and girls. There can be no successful response to a changing climate without also changing mind-sets about the key role of women in tackling climate change and building the future we want.

Third, I will use the convening power of the United Nations to work with Governments and all major actors, such as the coal, oil and gas industries, to accelerate the necessary energy transition.

Eighty per cent of the world’s energy still comes from fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal. We cannot phase out fossil fuels overnight. We have to engage the energy industry and governments to use fossil fuels as cleanly, sparingly and responsibly as possible, while transforming our energy systems.

I will work with all actors to promote a global energy transition, the greening of investments in infrastructure and transport, and progress on carbon pricing.

More and more politicians, policy makers and business actors are calling for a carbon price as the green economy’s missing link.

Putting a price on carbon at a global scale could unleash innovation and provide the incentives that industries and consumers need to make sustainable choices.

Fourth, I will work with countries to mobilize national and international resources to support mitigation, adaptation, resilience and the implementation of their national climate action plans.

And I will focus on strengthening resilience of the small island states against the existential threat that climate change poses to them.

I will encourage developed countries to fulfil the pledges they have made to support developing countries – including for the Green Climate Fund.

As a matter of global solidarity, the international community must also help developing countries increase their capacity to generate their own resources and to gain access to capital markets. The international financial institutions have a key role to play to help deliver innovative financing that matches the enormous needs.

And fifth, I will encourage new and strengthened partnerships for implementing the Paris Agreement through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation. We need to harness the enormous potential of these partnerships.

In all these areas, I will use every possible opportunity to persuade, prod and push for progress. I will count on the vital forces of civil society to do the same.

Looking further ahead, I also intend to convene a dedicated climate summit in 2019 to make sure we reach the critical first review of Paris implementation with the strong wind of a green economy at our backs.

Let me also stress that my door is open to all who wish to discuss the way forward, even those who might hold divergent perspectives.

The climate conversation should cease to be a shouting match.

Yet, there will continue to be strong differences about how to achieve our climate goals.

Yet it is also clear that the journey from Paris is well under way. The support across all sectors of society is profound. The transition in the real economy is a fact.

There will be bumps along the path; that is understandable in a family of over 190 nations.

But with everyone’s participation, the world can bring the Paris Agreement fully to life.

I look forward to continuing to engage all countries in forging a truly shared vision of the way ahead that leaves no one behind.

Dear friends,

Let me conclude where I began — with all of you and with the power of people to make a difference.

Climate change is an unprecedented and growing threat.

The arguments for action are clear.

So are the immense opportunities for peace and prosperity if we act quickly and decisively.

All of us – governments, businesses, consumers – will have to make changes. More than that, we will have to “be” the change.

This may not be easy at times. But for the sake of today’s and future generations, it is the path we must pursue.

This is my message to all the world’s leaders.

Students, scientists and others such as you across the world helped to put the climate challenge on the table.

If we work together as a global community, we can emerge stronger, safer and more prosperous for our shared future and the future of all of our grandchildren like my three granddaughters.

Thank you very much.

Vanita Gupta named President, CEO of Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

March 30, 2017 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Profiles 0

Vanita Gupta, a longtime civil rights litigator and advocate, is the first woman to run the nation’s largest civil and human rights coalition at a time when advocates fear the Trump administration will roll back voting access and criminal justice reform. Gupta has been chosen as the new president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an umbrella organization founded 67 years ago that represents 200 national groups.

Gupta, 42, an Indian American lawyer, had headed the Justice Department’s civil rights division, under Obama administration. Gupta is the first child of immigrants to head the organization, which has been run for nearly 20 years by civil rights leader Wade Henderson. Gupta will take the reins of the Leadership Conference on June 1.

“This organization is perfectly situated to address the current assault on civil rights that we are seeing today,” Gupta said. “I think it’s unfortunate that we’re in such a polarized time and these issues appear to be politicized when fundamentally they are about the character of the country and what the country stands for.”

Three years ago, President Barack Obama appointed Gupta, who was the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, to serve as the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. She became known for her aggressive work prosecuting hate crimes and human trafficking, promoting disability rights, protecting the rights of LGBTQ individuals and fighting for voter access.

During her tenure, Gupta oversaw federal investigations of the Baltimore, Chicago and Ferguson, Mo., police departments; a discrimination lawsuit against North Carolina for reversing an ordinance that extended rights to people who are gay or transgender, and the successful appeals of Texas and North Carolina voter ID cases — all issues that provoked a fiery debate among Republican opponents of the measures.

“I was honored to have been at the helm of the civil rights division at a time where civil rights issues were front and center,” Gupta said. “Now, we are quite swiftly in a new day at a time of great division on these issues.”

In his first month as attorney general, Jeff Sessions has taken steps to undo the Justice Department’s policy toward transgender students in public schools, reversed the department’s position on a Texas voting rights law found unconstitutional by several courts, changed the administration’s policy on the use of private prisons and said he will be much tougher on crime by increasing the prosecution of drug and gun offenses. Sessions has also tied a recent increase in violent crime to a lack of respect for police officers and vowed that his department would be more supportive of law enforcement.

Her work on criminal justice reform has won the respect of liberals such as former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and conservatives including Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, and David Keene, a former president of the National Rifle Association, who has praised Gupta’s “collaborative approach.” She is the mother of two sons, and her husband is the legal director of the D.C. Legal Aid Society.

The Leadership Conference was founded in 1950 by Roy Wilkins of the NAACP and has coordinated advocates to lobby on behalf of every major civil rights law. Gupta will head the conference and the conference education fund.

“When Wade announced his decision, we set out to find an exceptional individual, someone with a passion for advocacy, a record of achievement, a strategic vision and the skills to lead our organizations, our dynamic coalition and this nation to a more just and inclusive future,” said Judith Lichtman, chair of the Leadership Conference board. “Vanita is that individual.”

Gupta is the younger of two daughters of Indian parents who immigrated to the United States in the late 1960s. She grew up in Philadelphia, graduated from Yale University and New York University Law School and has devoted her career to civil rights issues.

Any country could become target of ‘nuclear attack’, warns UN atomic Watchdog

December 16, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

“Nuclear terrorists” can strike anywhere, the head of the UN atomic watchdog warned on Monday at the start of a week-long ministerial conference on preventing misuse of radioactive materials and attacks on facilities.

“Ensuring effective nuclear security is important for all countries, including those which possess little or no nuclear or other radioactive material,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said.

“Terrorists and criminals will try to exploit any vulnerability in the global nuclear security system. Any country, in any part of the world, could find itself used as a transit point. And any country could become the target of an attack,” he said in Vienna.

Countries all over the world have stepped up their investment in nuclear security with support from the IAEA, and have been working to reinforce staffing levels with more than 10,000 police, border guards and other specialists trained in the past six years, Amano said.

The IAEA has given countries over 3,000 instruments for detecting nuclear material and this year provided radiation detection equipment and other assistance to Brazil during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

This year, the IAEA also hosted the International Conference on Computer Security in a Nuclear World looking at the growing issue of cybersecurity as the reliance on digital systems within nuclear facilities grows.

Nations fast-track to enforce Paris Climate Accord

November 22, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Countries fast-tracked the political and practical aims of the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement and accelerated global climate action at the 2016 UN climate change conference that concluded in the early hours of Saturday morning in Marrakech.

The 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP 22, hosted by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, saw nearly 500 heads of state or government and ministers attend. By the end of the two-week climate summit, more than 100 countries, representing over 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, had formally joined the Paris Agreement.

On November 15, Marrakech also hosted the first official meeting of Parties to the Paris Agreement, its top governing body, following the accord’s early entry into force on November 4, less than a year after it was adopted last December.

The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The November 8 election of climate denier Donald Trump as president of the United States sent shock waves through the gathering, but it did not deter participants from moving forward in a spirit of determination.

The United States, Canada, Germany and Mexico announced ambitious climate strategies out to 2050, reflecting the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement to achieve climate neutrality and a low-emission world in the second half of this century.

Over 190 governments agreed to the Marrakech Action Proclamation, which sends a strong message of global unity on climate change.

Outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates, “I have never missed any of the 10 COP meetings during last 10 years. I leave you with the strong hope that we will have the courage, tenacity and wisdom to live up to our responsibility to future generations by protecting our only home: this beautiful planet Earth.”

“I have made climate change a priority since my first days in office,” said Ban. “Over the past 10 years, I have seen great progress in our common journey toward a low-emission, climate resilient future. We have proved the power of multilateral cooperation.”

Ban called the Paris Agreement is “a successful, new model for meeting some of humanity’s greatest challenges.”

A crucial outcome of the Marrakesh meeting was to move forward on writing the rule book, or operational manual, of the Paris Agreement that calls for a significant boost of transparency of action, including for measuring and accounting emissions reductions, the provision of climate finance, and technology development and transfer.

It includes work to design the adaptation communications, the primary vehicle under the Paris Agreement to share individual adaptation efforts and support needs.

Countries pressed forward on this and set a fast track date of 2018 for completion. Countries have already built the foundation for this by peer assessing each other’s actions to cut emissions through a transparent process that began in 2014.

Shortly before the meeting’s end, the 47-nation Climate Vulnerable Forum made a bold commitment to move towards 100 percent renewable energy between 2030 and 2050. Their declaration strengthens the call to limit global temperature rise to as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.

Multi-billion and multi-million dollar packages of support for clean technologies; building capacity to report on climate action plans; and initiatives for boosting water and food security in developing countries were among the many new initiatives launched in Marrakech.

The Global Environment Facility, GEF, a multilateral funding facility, announced the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency backed by 11 developed country donors providing US$50 million worth of funding.

Countries pledged more than $81 million to the Adaptation Fund, surpassing its target for the year. Countries pledged over $23 million to the Climate Technology Centre and Network, CTCN, which supports developing countries with climate technology development and transfer.

The Green Climate Fund announced the approval of the first two proposals for the formulation of National Adaptation Plans – Liberia for $2.2 million and Nepal for $2.9 million. Another 20 countries are expected to have their proposals approved soon with up to $3 million each. Overall, the GCF is on track to approve $2.5 billion worth of projects.

During COP 22, governments learned that in 2016 more than 30 projects for cutting emissions with technology transfer objectives were approved by the GEF, with $188.7 million in GEF funding and $5.9 billion in co-financing.

Businesses, investors, cities and local governments issued new climate change commitments, adding to the thousands announced in the run-up to the Paris climate conference.

A club of subnational governments, the Under2 Coalition, who have committed to reduce their emissions by at least 80 percent by 2020, announced their membership has grown to 165.

The combined GDP of these 165 member governments is close to $26 trillion – a third of the global economy – and cover a population of around one billion people living in North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, said, “The landmark Paris Agreement set the course and the destination for global climate action. Here in Marrakesh, governments underlined that this shift is now urgent, irreversible and unstoppable.”

This new era of implementation and action for climate and for sustainable development was captured in the Marrakech Action Proclamation. “I would like to pay tribute to the Government of Morocco and the President of the Conference, Salaheddine Mezouar, for their remarkable success. COP 22 has been what it needed to be, a COP of action that has accelerated progress under the Paris Agreement across finance, new initiatives, ambition and solidarity between nations and across Continents,” Espinosa said.

Mezouar, Morocco’s environment minister, who presided over the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, or COP 22, said, “The Kingdom of Morocco is fully engaged in the success of this COP and will energetically carry out its role as President. At the outcome of the last 15 days, our vision has been consolidated and we are working to make concrete progress and to carry out breakthrough actions from now until the end of 2017.”

“It will be necessary to respect the commitment of $100 billion dollars from now until 2020. Faced with the magnitude of what is required for dealing with the impacts of climate change, turning billions into trillions is indispensable. 2017 must be the year of large scale projects, of mobilizing finance, and accessing financial facilities that will be necessary for adaptation,” Mezouar explained.

Espinosa said, “During COP 22, the strength, the support for and the robustness of the Paris Agreement was furthered underlined, with nine more ratifications received at the UN in New York and the promise of many more to come. Nations reaffirmed that the agreement is in their national interests and a key catalyst to a better, more prosperous future for their citizens.”

COP 22 took first steps in making the platform concerning local communities and indigenous peoples operational. This marks a new era of addressing the concerns and needs of indigenous peoples in the climate process. Once operational, the platform will allow for an exchange of experiences and sharing of best practices on mitigation and adaptation and ultimately lead to more climate actions.

The UN Environment Programme announced a new global program, the Global Peatlands Initiative, which aims to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and save thousands of lives by protecting peatlands, the world’s largest terrestrial organic soil carbon stock.

The initiative will mobilize governments, international organizations and academia in a targeted effort to protect peatlands, which contain almost 100 times more carbon than tropical forests.

The Government of Indonesia announced it is implementing a moratorium on clearing intact peatland. The action builds on Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s announcement at last year’s Forest Action Day in Paris, to end new and review existing peat concessions.

Nineteen African Capital Markets Authorities and Exchanges, accounting for 26 African countries, signed and endorsed the Marrakech Pledge for Fostering Green Capital Markets in Africa.

The Solar Impulse Foundation launched the World Alliance for Clean Technologies as a legacy to the first ever solar flight around the world. Its goal is to federate the main actors in the field of clean technologies to create synergies, give advice to governments, and promote profitable solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental and health challenges.

At the close, Fiji was announced as the incoming President of the 2017 UN climate conference, COP23, which will be hosted by the UNFCCC in Bonn.

2016 ‘very likely’ hottest year on record: UN

November 19, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

The year 2016+ will “very likely” be the hottest on record, the UN said today, warning of calamitous consequences if the march of global warming cannot be halted. Average temperatures for the year were set to hit about 1.2 Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels – meaning that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record were this century, said the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

The new record means the world is already more than halfway to the upper limit of 2 C of warming overall, 1.5 C if possible, which UN nations had agreed upon to stave off worst- case-scenario climate change. “Another year. Another record. The high temperatures we saw in 2015 are set to be beaten in 2016,” WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

The El Nino weather phenomenon had boosted temperatures in the early months of the year, but even after its effects dissipated, the mercury stayed high. In parts of Arctic Russia, temperatures were 6 C to 7 C higher than the long-term average, the statement said. Other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions in Russia, Alaska and northwest Canada were at least 3 C above average.

“We are used to measuring temperature records in fractions of a degree, and so this is different,” said Taalas. The WMO report was published as UN climate talks entered their second week in Marrakesh – the first since last year’s huddle in the French capital concluded with the climate-rescue Paris Agreement.

The Moroccan followup is meant to agree on rules for executing the plans and goals outlined in the pact, which envisions reining in global warming by cutting back on greenhouse-gas emitting coal, oil and gas for energy. Earlier today, the annual Global Carbon Budget report said carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels have been nearly flat for three years in a row – a “great help” but not enough to stave off dangerous climate change. Both analyses warned that concentrations of planet- warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continued to rise, reaching 400 parts per million in 2015 and likely to exceed that record in 2016.

Climate Doomsday – Another Step Closer

November 1, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

By Baher Kamal: Credit: UNEP

Almost inadvertently, humankind is getting closer everyday to the point of no-return towards what could be called the ‘climate doomsday’. Now, globally averaged concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has surged again to new records in 2016… and will not dip below pre-2015 levels for many generations.

The warning comes from the United Nations weather agency–the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and further confirms the alarm of climate experts and world specialised organisations.

On the one hand, the WMO secretary-general, Petteri Taalas said that 2015 ushered in a new era of optimism and climate action with the Paris climate change agreement. “But it will also make history as marking a new era of climate change reality with record high greenhouse gas concentrations.”

“Without tackling carbon dioxide emissions, we cannot tackle climate change and keep temperature increases to below 2 degrees Celcius above the pre-industrial era… It is therefore of the utmost importance that the Paris Agreement does indeed enter into force well ahead of schedule on 4 November and that we fast-track its implementation,” Taalas on 24 October 2016 stressed.

The weather agency had warned earlier this year that the Earth is already one degree Celsius hotter than at the start of the 20th century, halfway to the critical two-degree threshold, and that national climate change plans adopted so far may not be enough to avoid a three-degree temperature rise.

CO2 levels had previously reached the 400 parts per million barrier for certain months of the year and in certain locations “but never before on a global average basis for the entire year.” According to WMO, the growth spurt in carbon dioxide was fuelled by the El Niño event, which started in 2015 and had a strong impact well into 2016.

The ozone layer: protecting our atmosphere for generations to come

November 1, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Credit: UNEP

“The 400 parts per million threshold is of great symbolic importance,” said the previous WMO secretary-general Michel Jarraud in 2014. “It should serve as yet another wakeup call about the constantly rising levels of greenhouse gases which are driving climate change and acidifying our oceans.”

This triggered droughts in tropical regions and reduced the capacity of “sinks” like forests, vegetation and the oceans to absorb CO2.

These sinks currently absorb about half of CO2 emissions but there is a risk that they may become saturated, which would increase the fraction of emitted carbon dioxide which stays in the atmosphere, according to the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

Carbon Dioxide Remains For Thousands of Years. The danger is clear: for thousands of year’s carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere, trapping heat and causing the earth to warm further. The lifespan of carbon dioxide in the oceans is even longer. It is also the single most important greenhouse gas emitted by human activities.

According to the WMO it is responsible for 85 per cent of the warming effect on our climate over the past decade. On the other hand, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) says that the droughts and floods beating down on communities in many parts of the world are linked to the current El Niño, which was expected to affect up 60 million people already by last July.
“In some areas, including in North Eastern Brazil, Somali, Ethiopia, Kenya and Namibia, the El Niño effects are coming on the back of years of severe and recurrent droughts. It is impossible for households that rely on the land for food and farm labour to recover, especially when the land is degraded,” says in this regards the UNCCD executive secretary, Monique Barbut.

What’s more, Barbut adds, these conditions do not just devastate families and destabilise communities. When they are not attended to urgently, they can become a push factor for migration, and end with gross human rights abuses and long-term security threats.

“We have seen this before – in Darfur following four decades of droughts and desertification and, more recently, in Syria, following the long drought of 2007-2010.”

t is “tragic to see a society breaking down when we can reduce the vulnerability of communities through simple and affordable acts such as restoring the degraded lands they live on, and helping countries to set up better systems for drought early warning and to prepare for and manage drought and floods,” according to Barbut.

For its part, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) alerted that the rapid change in the world’s climate is translating into more extreme and frequent weather events, heat waves, droughts and sea-level rise.

he impacts of climate change on agriculture and the implications for food security are already alarming – they are the subjects of this report, according to FAO director general José Graziano da Silva.

A major finding is that there is an urgent need to support smallholders in adapting to climate change. Farmers, pastoralists, fisher-folk and community foresters depend on activities that are intimately and inextricably linked to climate – and these groups are also the most vulnerable to climate change.

“They will require far greater access to technologies, markets, information and credit for investment to adjust their production systems and practices to climate change.”

Unless action is taken now to make agriculture more sustainable, productive and resilient, climate change impacts will seriously compromise food production in countries and regions that are already highly food-insecure, Graziano da Silva alerts.

“Through its impacts on agriculture, livelihoods and infrastructure, climate change threatens all dimensions of food security. It will expose both urban and rural poor to higher and more volatile food prices.”

According to FAO’s director general, it will also affect food availability by reducing the productivity of crops, livestock and fisheries, and hinder access to food by disrupting the livelihoods of millions of rural people who depend on agriculture for their incomes.

The FAO report–The State of Food and Agriculture 2016, describes ways of adapting smallholder production to climate change and making the livelihoods of rural populations more resilient.

India promises to tackle climate change issues

October 27, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Paris agreement will help Indians learn to care for nature and start using natural resources like water more efficiently. India’s ratification of the Paris climate agreement may help reduce the impact of climate change and is a positive move for the nation’s sustainable growth, according to environmentalists.

By ratifying the agreement, which was formulated in Paris last December, India has agreed to reduce carbon emissions believed to cause climate change. The nation also plans to produce at least 40 percent of its electricity from non-fossil resources by 2030.

India’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Syed Akbaruddin submitted the instrument of ratification at the organization’s headquarters in New York on Oct. 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, father of the Indian nation.

The agreement has so far been ratified by 62 countries, including India, and will come into force when 55 countries that produce at least 55 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions ratify it.

Progress on the agreement goals will be evaluated every five years. The first evaluation will be in 2023.

“It is a very positive step forward. We are the third largest country after U.S. and China to ratify it. It is a challenge for us to be careful and make our progress sustainable,” said Jesuit Father Robert Athickal, founder of Tarumitra (friends of trees), a nationwide organization of some 200,000 students promoting ecological sensitivity.

The priest said that no country has a choice of not doing something positive when it comes to the environment. “If we do not ratify, we will suffer. We know that we are exploiting the Earth,” he said.

Father V.J. Thomas, director of Jhansi Diocese’s social service wing, said the agreement would help increase awareness about climate change. “The farmers will also learn to care for nature and will start using natural resources like water more efficiently,” the priest said.

His diocese covers the drought-hit region in Uttar Pradesh. Father Thomas introduced a program there to help farmers return to more sustainable agriculture. Caritas India said the move would improve governmental and non-governmental efforts to address climate issues.

“Caritas India had already realized the importance of addressing issues related to climate change and these include preventive measures and also mitigating the impacts of natural disasters that are now occurring more frequently due to climate change,” Rajesh Upadhyay, Caritas India’s head of partner support services, told ucanews.com.

He said that the organization has already implemented projects in various Indian states to promote natural and organic farming to reduce dependence on energy-intensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides. “We have supported rain water harvesting structures in drought-prone areas and promoted eco-friendly programs in areas prone to floods, drought and landslides,” he said.

Hope as IUCN Environmental Congress Opens

September 5, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Described as the world’s largest ever to focus on the environment has opened to warnings that our planet is at a “tipping point” but also with expressions of hope that governments, civil society and big business are learning to work together.

The 10-day IUCN World Conservation Congress hosted by the United States in Hawaii has brought together 9,500 participants from 192 countries and communities, IUCN Director-General Inger Andersen told reporters.

“The world must move from random acts of kindness to strategic conservation.” — Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of the Interior “Ambitions for this conference are very high…It is the largest environmental gathering ever,” she said after the Sep. 1 opening ceremony.

The Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature was founded in 1948 by British biologist Julian Huxley, and brings together its members – including governments, NGOs, scientists and the business community – in a congress every four years where motions and resolutions are put to a vote. Although they might not carry the weight of international law, the findings of the IUCN have gone on to form the basis of legislation in member states and international bodies.

Focused on the theme of “Planet at a crossroads”, speakers at the opening ceremony held in a Honolulu sports arena reminded participants that the main goal was to come up with concrete proposals and measures to help implement the two historic international agreements forged last year – the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

IUCN president Zhang Xinsheng, a senior Chinese politician and former senior UN official, set the tone of collaboration by praising U.S. President Barack Obama for establishing the world’s largest nature sanctuary – more than half a million square miles – in the waters and islands of the northwest Hawaiian archipelago. “President Obama has set a high bar,” Zhang said. This congress, he added, was not just about “avoiding tragedy” but working together.

His comments followed remarks made by Obama at a meeting of Pacific leaders in Honolulu on Wednesday night, raising expectations that China and the US may soon announce they intend to formally join the Paris Agreement. China opens a meeting of the G20 industrialised nations on Friday.

Erik Solheim, head of the UN Environment Programme, noted the warnings that mankind is destroying its only home but went on to dwell on the progress being made. Brazil, he said, had dramatically reduced its rate of deforestation while Costa Rica had doubled its tree cover. As for Obama and his marine reserve, Solheim simply said, “How much we will miss this president when he leaves office.”

Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of Interior, suggested that the Papahanaumokuakea example could be followed by similar initiatives for the territories of indigenous people’s on the U.S. mainland. “The world must move from random acts of kindness to strategic conservation,” she added, noting research showing that a “football field” of natural areas disappears every two minutes in the U.S.
“Around 100 motions are expected to be adopted by this unique global environmental parliament of governments and NGOs, which will then become IUCN Resolutions or Recommendations calling third parties to take action,” the IUCN said.

The world’s super-polluters – the United States and China – have formally joined the Paris Agreement on climate change in a symbolic show of unity. At a ceremony in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, where China is hosting a summit of G20 industrialised nations, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping handed their documents of ratification to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The joint move by the U.S. and China, which account for nearly 40 percent of global carbon emissions, paves the way for the Paris Agreement forged last December to enter into force, most likely by the end of the year. For the agreement to enter into effect and start to be implemented, at least 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions need to formally join.

The UN Secretary General praised Obama for his “inspiring” leadership. He said Obama and Xi had both been “far-sighted, bold and ambitious”. Under the Paris Agreement, countries are required to set national targets for reducing or reining in their greenhouse gas emissions. Those targets aren’t legally binding, but countries must report on their progress and update their targets every five years. India is home for 1/5th of world population. Yet they have been denied peaceful use of atomic energy. India”s entery into NSG is linked to endeavors in protecting climate, India complained.

The White House has attributed the accelerated pace to an unlikely partnership between Washington and Beijing. To build momentum for a deal, they set a 2030 deadline for China’s emissions to stop rising and announced their “shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity.” The US has pledged to cut its emissions by at least 26 per cent over the next 15 years, compared to 2005 levels.

Amitav Ghosh ponders the ‘Unthinkable’

July 27, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

For Amitav Ghosh, an acclaimed Indian novelist and essayist, the future of humankind as global warming impact events spread worldwide looks grim. So grim that the 60-year-old pamphleteer has titled his new book of three climate-related essays “The Great Derangement.”

The way we humans are dealing with, or not dealing with, climate change appears to be deranged. What will future generations in say, 2116 or 2216, think of those of us in 2016?

Ghosh, a cosmopolitan, globe-trotting public intellectual, is worried. So worried that his hair has turned brilliantly white, while his eyes burn with a probing yet affable intensity.

There’s a reason his book has been subtitled “Climate Change and the Unthinkable,” and it’s not a pretty picture. Looking at how novelists and literary circles, geopolitics and academics are reacting to climate change now in the early part of the 21st century, Ghosh has written a brilliant and fearless “wake up call” on global warming that he hopes will reach world leaders and politicians.

Himself an acclaimed novelist, Ghosh looks at how poets and storytellers are putting climate themes into their published works, from Margaret Atwood to Kim Stanley Robinson. He even gives a shout out to the rising new genre of “cli-fi” (short for climate fiction) while also looking at Indian literary and cinema greats like Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray.

In the realm of geopolitics, Ghosh looks at last year’s global climate “agreement” signed in Paris and calls foul. Read the fine print, he says. Connect the dots, he says. Are we deranged, he asks? There’s much to contemplate in this “made in India” alarm-bell warning flare to the world, but it’s written in an easy-to-digest style.

East or West, we are all in this together now. For a longtime Indian climate activist living in New Zealand, Ghosh’s distinctive approach of speaking truth to power packs a punch.

“Coming from a leading Indian author who is widely-read in the West, this book will likely have a major impact in shining a spotlight on global warming issues before a much wider audience,” he told the media in a recent email. “In addition, a book such as this has the potential to bring together the stories of global warming and climate change from a combination of Indian, South Asian and Western perspectives. So it’s invaluable in bridging the gap among nations and why I think the essays need a global audience beyond the India edition.”

Originally commissioned by the University of Chicago Press, the essays will be published in a U.S. edition in September with a slightly different cover for Western readers. Until then, the book is in India’s hands this summer and is getting plaudits left and right in dozens of the country’s newspapers and magazines. Ghosh, in his 60s with a handsome shock of white hair gracing a usually smiling face, is married to the American writer Deborah Baker. The couple have two grown children and live part of the year in New York and part of the year in India.

With “The Great Derangement,” Ghosh has shown himself to be an international climate activist of the literary kind, fearless in attacking both “the powers that be” in his own country and the “business as usual” mantra of the West.

In India, where climate denialists don’t actually exist, Ghosh’s book has been received with high praise. However, in America and Britain, where denialists are legion and have spit on the truth with unbridled, deranged venom for years, it might be a different story.

Someone might even write a ‘cli-fi’ novel one day about this “great derangement.” It could be explosive.

The Earth and the People Are Not Inputs to Your Capitalist System

July 6, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Vandana Shiva interviewed by Ethemcan Turhan – TRANSCEND Media Service

There is this fear of intellectual freedom because the old paradigm must be maintained to continue that project of colonising the earth, colonising people’s minds. The minute people are able to think for themselves, that project is over.

Vandana Shiva is one of the leading thinkers today who advocates food sovereignty, Earth citizenship, climate justice and ecological stewardship. She has been an influential figure in the global justice movement as well as a prolific author on ecofeminism who consistently stressed the importance of gender in socio-ecological change.

Shiva was in Istanbul in late January 2016 to deliver the annual human rights lecture in memory of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist assassinated in 2007. We caught up with her and conducted this hour-long interview, thanks to the organisers of her talk at Boğaziçi University.

Understanding peace in a time of multiple crises

It is all related: making peace with Earth, making peace with each other and making peace with ourselves. This is really about the interlinked crisis of ecology, the planet and the disintegration of society.

Ethemcan Turhan: Today we live amidst overlapping, multiple crisis. Political, economic and socio-ecological crises. You have come to Istanbul to deliver the annual Hrant Dink Memorial Lecture titled “Making peace with the Earth and with each other”. So let’s start with a question about that. What does “peace” mean in a time of multiple crises?

Vandana Shiva: First it means ending the war and the war is first in the mind because it is the mental frameworks, the paradigms that define us at war with the world. Conquering nature is defined as progress. It also creates real grounds for conflicts between people by creating scarcity because the measures are manipulated. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most manipulated figure in the world yet it has become the most powerful number that rules everything. Those who are powerful, of course, want it to be used widely. Yet it fails on the real scarcities of water, soil fertility, food… I mean remember Arab Spring: I remember the image of fruit vendor, bread protestor who were presented as anti-regime saying “No they weren’t asking for bread”. First you create an economy with speculation that has taken basic food from the people then the same big powers also manipulate and say it wasn’t about bread but it was about the regime.

The Earth and the People Are Not Inputs to Your Capitalist System

Then about making peace with ourselves: We are after all part of the world, as chief Seattle wrote “We are the web of life”. We are not separate, we are not outside, we are not the masters of the universe. That’s why I am very critical of some Western thinkers including some Nobel Prize winners who are talking about the Anthropocene as “man managing the planet” and engineering the planet. This is the continuation of the hallucination that has caused the problem in the first place. So when we do not see that we are part of the Earth, our basic knowledge makes us think we can put more and more cars on the road and that this act is unrelated to the health of our lungs. We can chop down more and more trees and cover up more gardens and eventually have intense flooding in cities. These are all parts of having failed to understand our true identities as Earth citizens.

So it is all related: making peace with Earth, making peace with each other and making peace with ourselves. This is really about the interlinked crisis of ecology, the planet and the disintegration of society. I think we are living through periods and this one is about disintegration of the entire civilisation. Syria is an example but also look at large parts of Africa. While I was coming here at the airport in India there were about 2000 Indian peacekeepers flying to the Congo. Why do they fly to Congo? Look at the forest, look at the exploitation of the Congo. There you see the triggering of all the interconnected conflicts.

Anthropocene or Capitolocene?

The new Anthropocene is really a bunch of stupid men beginning with the Gates Foundation who say: “Oh we know what’s good for the Earth! She’s stupid, you’re stupid, they’re stupid and I’m the smart one”.

Ethemcan Turhan: You have mentioned the term Anthropocene. In a recent commentary in Boston Review, you also argue that you consciously avoid the term Anthropocene. Some authors like Jason W. Moore also name the current epoch we live in as ‘Capitolocene’ where geo-bio-physical planetary processes are irrevocably shaped by the capital accumulation. Anthropocene, for its discontents, conveniently and deliberately obscures issues of class, power, global and national inequality, and injustices between peoples and places. What is your take on this?

Vandana Shiva: The problem with using the term Anthropocene is that it does not just put men separate and above. It really puts men above women and reinforces all of the colonisations that fuel this deep divide. The western paradigm started to talk of nature in a different way from the societies across the world and you end up with the thinking from the mechanical reductionist philosophies, like those of Francis Bacon and others. I find it fascinating that they told us not only that nature is dead, but that other cultures were dead too.

This is due to the idea of terra nullius. In fact, I think in this idea of ‘empty earth’ is the seed of the Anthropocene. They bulldoze an ancient 1500 year-old garden in Istanbul because it is considered empty. They also go to historic parts of India and bulldoze farmlands and appropriate land for real estate. We had to fight against a law in India where the government was allowing land to be appropriated from any peasant at any time for builders. We do have a law that says peasants have rights but you know what? Building is the secret joy; real estate has big players. So this whole idea of defining emptiness such as “the earth is empty, there’s no capacity in other cultures” unfolds.

I don’t think it is even a system any more, that’s where I differ with my lovely friends who think that what we still have is a capitalist world order. I call it a mafia order. It’s a bunch of five men. There are no rules of the game anymore.

Recently, I have been writing a book on pulses since this is the year of pulses. What are we left with? Soybean? All our pulses are turned into soybean. It’s in everything you eat. You can’t escape soybeans if they are in processed food. So this idea of emptiness is very much part of it and in the past 250 years the convergence of the fossil fuel age, the rise of industrialism and all that added up to this ‘emptiness’. Fossil fuels gave rise to an industrial mindset that led to the rise of capitalism and deepening of patriarchy as capitalist patriarchy. They are really one undivided whole; they are not really separate. So the new Anthropocene is really a bunch of stupid men beginning with the Gates Foundation who say: “Oh we know what’s good for the Earth! She’s stupid, you’re stupid, they’re stupid and I’m the smart one”.

There is an overuse of the term ‘smart’ in such discourses. The big thing in Paris was ‘climate-smart agriculture’ and we are showing how stupid it is. It is really a stupid idea because it is continuing to push the same idea that caused 50% of the climate crisis and is making our food system deeply vulnerable. So I don’t think it is even a system any more, that’s where I differ with my lovely friends who think that what we still have is a capitalist world order. I call it a mafia order. It’s a bunch of five men. There are no rules of the game anymore.

The old Europe with its social welfare and welfare state system at least had some rules. Yes, there was capital accumulation in it but there was also welfare in it. But now there are no rules for capital accumulation. This is partly because globalisation created a system with a zero responsibility and climate change is such a case where you have outsourcing of all the pollution and it is so convenient for the polluters. You keep growing while you put the climate bill on others to pay. This is like Wild West cowboys. It’s pre-capitalist. It’s primitive accumulation.

Maldevelopment: past and present prospects

The problem is legal deregulation that WTO rules require and criminalisation of environmental activism. So it’s a deeper challenge today because powers are more organised.

Ethemcan Turhan: I think there is something very important in how you describe all this. You are one of the key figures to write on the gendered dimension of ecology. So I want to go back to your book Staying Alive (Zed Books, 1988), where you talk about maldevelopment and call for an ecological-feminist political project. That was 1988, now we are in 2016. Almost 30 years on, how do you see the prospects of such a project? Do you see such an alliance between contemporary movements of environmental justice, degrowth and others? What similarities and differences do you see between those and the anti-globalisation movement of 1990s and early 2000s?

Vandana Shiva: Between 1988 and 2016, when I was writing Staying Alive, I was writing it out of a lived experience being involved in Chipko movement. It is the product of being involved in a movement where women were fighting large dams. Back then, we had big players but they look like nobody in today’s world of power because they were nationally rooted. We did not have a globalised economy so there was a national system and within that national system of course there was brutality. Of course people were being arrested but at the end of the day, there wasn’t a single movement that I was part of up to 1995 that we didn’t win. There was still this little shallow fragile democracy, it was brittle and favoured the powerful, but it could still be shaken. Its processes were still up for use. We created all the environmental laws in that period. Starting from 1981 Forest Law in India, which came out of Chipko movement, all the laws for water, air pollution etc. followed.

The difference between then and now is that today being an environmental activist is belonging to one of the most marked communities and this is not just the case nationally but also globally. All you have to do is to read The Economist. And what The Economist says is happening in Russia, India and probably in Turkey, in Africa. Environmental activists in Africa are being thrown into jail. Why? Because between 1980 and today, once you had the World Trade Organisation (WTO), you had globalisation, you had de-regulation and therefore the right to destroy the environment was enshrined into laws. We were starting to write laws for environmental protection at that time.

Globally now there is a systemic attempt to deregulate. The climate treaty is part of that experience. In 1992, we had the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Third World was leading. My country, India, played a big role. I was advising the Ministry of Environment at that time. Now look, 21 Conference of the Parties (COPs) later they are still struggling. But more than that, the problem is legal deregulation that WTO rules require and criminalisation of environmental activism. So it’s a deeper challenge today because powers are more organised. Back then, I discovered the World Bank as part of my environmental work. I asked “Why would we be planting eucalpytus?” and I found World Bank funding behind it. We organised globally and really put them on the defensive. Five big projects they were funding were all stopped.

You have this strange asymmetry today that corporations are globally organised; they are everywhere. They control every government and governments are doing the same thing everywhere. Yet every opportunity is used to prevent citizens from connecting up. You know a Greenpeace activist was offloaded from an Indian plane because she was invited to give evidence in the British Parliament on a particular coal project that was destroying a very important forest zone. So this is our challenge, our new challenge. You have organised corporate power and they’d like to keep us fragmented and we need to find new ways to stay as one community. That’s why for me the idea of Earth Citizenship is a very important political idea.

“Your GDP is a mismeasure”

What they basically tell us is “hand over control of your lives to us”. It is then up to us to say “Sorry, we’re not here to allow you to make your next buck. We’re here to live a good life”.

Ethemcan Turhan: Within this shift where both corporate and political power is consolidating, we also see a new vision of environmentalism. The new “green economy” where capital harvests nature for profit. This is a new understanding. Even The Economist is now smart and green. Market-based solutions like carbon trading, payment for ecosystem services and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) abound. These and other ‘solutions’ including bioenergy and carbon capture and storage (BECCS) came out of the Paris climate change meetings in December 2015. Social movements call them ‘false solutions’. How do we fight these false solutions?

Vandana Shiva: One thing is very clear: none of our activities can be in silos anymore. When things were comfortable in the 1970s, you could be specialised and just protect the whales or be specialised in dealing with climate or solar energy. Yet there is the old predatory economy, which was always based on stealing nature from communities, enclosing the commons and pretending that it had created whatever wealth was created. According to it, wealth was not created by the people or by nature. Capital was the creative force behind wealth. The new thing with the green economy is both with new technologies (like biotechnology) and new tools of gameplaying in the financial world; anything can be commodified in interesting ways. Those are two new factors added to the old predatory idea.

Then the first job we have is to speak the truth about it. For example, take REDD+. When we talk about it, we need to say that its proponents want to own the photosynthesis process of plants. Such a language gets more people involved, which is the first thing we should do. In the process of doing it, we need to generate a deep awareness and deep love. I think it is people’s love for the Earth that is going to be the political force bigger than all manipulative systems.

The other aspect is that at the end of the day, we know that creating organic/local food communities is a much richer way to live. So when Monsanto merges with Gates Foundation and they then merge with Syngenta, they are eventually all merging to become a one group of players. What they basically tell us is “hand over control of your lives to us”. It is then up to us to say “Sorry, we’re not here to allow you to make your next buck. We’re here to live a good life”.

Ecological responsibility and duty combined with celebration of life and well-being (and all that came out ofLatin America and Bhutan) is what we should seek. When I wrote about maldevelopment or ideas of progress in the past and even degrowth, it has been a theoretical discourse. We said: “Your GDP is a mismeasure”. I think today living differently is the biggest political opposition. That’s where the opposition will come from.

Diversity and decentralisation

I believe diversity and decentralisation are alternatives to globalisation by corporations trying to privatise, commodify, financialise every aspect of our life on this planet.

Ethemcan Turhan: I would like to fast forward from Staying Alive (Zed Books, 1988) to Soil, Not Oil (Zed Books, 2009). In the latter, when you refer to ‘living differently’ you identify two key issues: diversity and decentralisation. But what do these two terms refer to under a planetary emergency? How can we decentralise the economy? Is this politically possible and feasible?

Vandana Shiva: Let me begin with the second one. It is necessary. This very short period in which countries and communities survived with centralised economy, they are all rendered disposable. All you have to do is to look at southern Europe. Beginning with 2010, half of the youth are unemployed. Look at Greece, pensions are taken away. Anything that could be taken to make money was taken away. How are the Greeks surviving today? By building local communities! Because whatever was created out of the European welfare system has been chopped. Today so many young people, who are unemployed, returned to their villages and they are creating local economies.

So there are three things we need to join in this post-growth and post-collapse landscape: I just came back from a beautiful reserve in northeast India where they are trying to build a huge dam. Yet the local people are resisting. They have everything. At every meeting, these people dance. There is so much joy and abundance. Since they are full of diversity, their meals are also so diverse. So you got what I would call ‘pre-development communities’ on whom this horrible globalised development model hasn’t reached and they are the ones now being enclosed since that is where the new possibilities lie. The second point is that we think collapse has not yet happened but we can see ahead and say “enough, this is not a liveable world”. So your objective conditions do not force you to find an alternative but your solidarity with others (whether be it with the oceans, other communities or living beings) push you to find an alternative. And the third point is those who are brought to collapse.

All three above have the same aspirations. We have the potential to create an economy. You can call it local, decentralised anything. Diversity is vital here because it is only through mutual links that such an economy can flourish. I will give you a simple metaphor, because it helps me to understand better. You have a monoculture of maize and you keep putting huge amounts of chemical fertilizers all in the name of feeding the world. Yet only 10% goes for humans while all the rest goes for biofuels and animal feeding.

This is another aspect of the “green economy”, which is devastating for the planet. Diversity allows you to step back from violation of the planetary boundaries because the planetary nitrogen boundary is being broken by synthetic fertilizers. All you have to do is to bring beans back into cultivation. Not soybean but hundreds of thousands of varieties of beans can be brought back. That is the issue everywhere and that is why I believe diversity and decentralisation are alternatives to globalisation by corporations trying to privatise, commodify, financialise every aspect of our life on this planet.

Climate justice

For me at the end of the day, it is about democracy. Are you saying that coal is good for the person who doesn’t have electricity? Let that person who doesn’t have electricity tell you what kind of development they want. Only then we can have true climate justice.

Ethemcan Turhan: From there probably we can move to COP21 Paris (December 2015). It was a big, shiny, celebrated agreement in the diplomatic arena. It even has reference to Mother Earth and climate justice in its non-binding preamble. But again, Indian Prime Minister Modi recently tweeted saying “Paris agreement has no winners or losers. Climate justice has won and we all work together towards a greener future.” The question is: Do we all understand the same thing from climate justice?

Vandana Shiva: Oh we got climate justice in there right? (laughing). For Modi, it’s basically coal. Climate justice in this perspective is simply mining more coal, burning more coal. That’s justice. “You burned coal, now we want to burn coal then we are equal”. And for the real people from movements of climate justice, whether be it indigenous people of Amazon righting REDD+ or be it small farmers/pastoralists of Africa fighting against land grabs in the name of having carbon sinks, climate justice is justice for the Earth. It says don’t cross the limits. It means justice for people, therefore their rights, their rights to land, water, their right to stable climate, biodiversity and knowledge are protected. In that way, very clearly, there are very big differences on what climate justice really means.

Ethemcan Turhan: I would like to continue talking about the relevance of the Indian example also considering the rampant developmentalism in Turkey. At COP21, Prime Minister Modi announced International Solar Alliance with French president Hollande, putting an ambitious target of solar power by 2020. Yet India is also expanding hugely in coal, which puts communities at risk locally and globally. When you ask policy makers, they say “There are 240 million people only in India that have no access to electricity”. So how can one tackle this developmentalist rhetoric?

Vandana Shiva: Not at an abstract level. Not at the level of a number generated automatically to say we have more people who will get electricity. I will give two examples: After Fukushima, local movements’ struggle against nuclear became very intense. Everywhere in India people were fighting nuclear power. They were fighting because it first means land grab. Those people didn’t know what these plants meant for nuclear safety. But once Fukushima was on everyone’s screens, everyone saw that a nuclear plant can have an accident and they said we don’t want one here. I remember a public hearing with the local community where this one woman got up. I never forgot what she said:

“They came and built a dam and said you will get electricity. We still have our lanterns. Then they dug up a coal mine and said you will get electricity. They displaced us second time over and we still don’t have electricity. Now they are coming to say that they’ll build a nuclear power plant so that we can have electricity. We don’t trust them. We’re fine with our lanterns”.

This maldevelopment model is also an inequitable model that is based on deep exclusion. It uses the poor to justify concentration and control over natural resources. But the poor are only there to be used as excuses. They are then forgotten and exploited even more of the little they have. This is the ecological imperative in India: To fight against taking away of that little bit of water, little bit of land, little bit of seed in the name of some progress that will make the rich richer.

The second example is from a part of India, Jharkhand, the tribal state. The authorities say tribals need to develop, so we need coal mining and they will get electricity. Tribals have not allowed a single coal mine to start. For me at the end of the day, it is about democracy. Are you saying that coal is good for the person who doesn’t have electricity? Let that person who doesn’t have electricity tell you what kind of development they want. Only then we can have true climate justice.

Terra viva: new agriculture, new circular economy, new democracy

I would say representative democracy transformed from being of the people, for the people, by the people to of the corporate world, for the corporate world, by the corporate world.

Ethemcan Turhan: That brings us to such notion of democracy, Earth democracy in your words. Recently you co-authored a declaration called Terra Viva, which calls for a new agriculture, a new circular economy and a new democracy. Can you elaborate on how these things work together?

Vandana Shiva: So we wrote Terra Viva with a group of people coming from different backgrounds and different experiences including the former secretary-general of the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD), urban planners, rural sociologists and others. It was the year of soil and we wanted to understand the state of soil globally. That is how all our understanding on Syria, Nigeria and Boko Haram came through. The new agriculture is about an agriculture that works with the Earth, it works with nature because the old agriculture is an agriculture of war.

The instruments and mentality of old agriculture came out of war system and caused huge damage. As much as maldevelopment uses the poor to justify the need to maldevelop, old agriculture uses the poor to say “we need to take more land and food from them and take away their seeds in order to feed them”. So what we need is a new agriculture. Our responses have been fragmented; as citizens we have not been able to generate the power we actually have. If you take the people who fight for bees, people who fight for animals, people who fight for land rights, people who fight for food rights, their fights are not being integrated. This is what we aim to do with Terra Viva.

The second point is the new economy. You can come to a poor country and say “you need to take all the wrong steps” but you can’t say that to an unemployed Greek or Italian youth today. You cannot simply say“you need more of this austerity programme” built into structural adjustment. So you need a new economy and the new economy cannot be the extractive economy. It should be circular economy of giving back. Giving back to Earth because it is the only way you close the broken cycles. Our farmers are dying and the agribusiness is getting richer. 1% is my calculation of what producers get from the price consumers pay for food. So the new economy becomes an imperative.

All we have to do is to say: “I know what real food is, what you’re selling is fake food. I know what real democracy is, yours is a fake democracy”.

Then comes the new democracy because the old representative democracy is as good as dead. First, because since globalisation states are not captive to globalised corporate power, they became what I call ‘corporate states’. They only remember citizens for votes and now even those votes are being bought by corporate money. We have seen that in the USA where it was legally allowed for corporations to buy elections: look at the Koch brothers, look at the amount of money candidate must raise. That’s why Bernie Sanders is such a breath of fresh air.

I don’t know what your last elections in Turkey were like but in India the last elections were media-run elections and for that you need lots of money. It isn’t how close you are to the people. I would say representative democracy transformed from being of the people, for the people, by the people to of the corporate world, for the corporate world, by the corporate world. Which is why you see these concrete jungles grow since urban planning is no more about urban planning in a democratic way. It is not in the hands of municipalities. A builder can totally rewrite the rules and all a builder needs to do is to finance your next elections. So you need a new democracy and that should be participatory.

We are at a point where the alternatives need to grow from ground up, very often we had this thinking globalised policy is causing problems so let’s change the rules of WTO. I have lots of friends who spent all of their time going to WTO meetings. At a certain point, I said no. Instead of going to WTO meetings, let’s set up seed banks, set up seed commons and let’s change the rules. Let’s live by other rules and make it such big movements. Today I can say very happily that ten countries managed to roll back laws criminalising seed saving. In a crazy way, this market-mafia rule wants to make us so stupid. They want to tell us how soil works, how climate works, how society works… All we have to do is to say: “I know what real food is, what you’re selling is fake food. I know what real democracy is, yours is a fake democracy”. So it is really the real lived experience versus fake propaganda of economics, of politics, of agriculture.

Ethemcan Turhan: I am approaching the end of my questions but I still have a question about grassroots organising. We live in an increasingly urbanised world, and at the same time we have this massive industrial infrastructure. So in a new economy, new agriculture, new democracy that’s defined in Terra Viva, what do we do with the leftover of the existing industrial infrastructure as well as their associated massive urban zones?

Vandana Shiva: The first thing is to not let the existing industrial infrastructure fall into disrepair where it is and destroy other people’s lives to replicate an old industrial structure elsewhere. I have been to Eastern Europe where entire towns are laying abandoned, entire places. So you want to make steel? Make it there rather than taking over the land of Indian tribals. Just because globalisation allowed outsourcing what you are witnessing today is a period of deindustrialisation of the Global North and outsourcing of heavy and polluting industry to the Global South. And I think this is totally unfair at every level.

The second issue is taking externalities into account. The only reason the fossil economy can take over is that it manipulated the definitions of efficiency, production, labor, capital and land. As we have written at the end ofTerra Viva, the two most important things are the Earth and the people. And they are not inputs to your capitalist system, sorry sir! They are ends in themselves. Therefore we need to shift these manipulated definitions around.

I sometimes become so surprised about how much we can take an old definition and slave ourselves to it. GDP? 60 years old, not even that old. And everyone says “growth must happen, industrialisation is a must”. So what we do is to take externalities seriously and speak the truth. I once had a debate with one of our most eminent software people where they told me “Oh we have created high growth for India, agriculture is dragging us down so we must reduce the denominator”. Productivity is output/input. The only input is labor and in agriculture that means farmers. So when they say we must reduce the denominator, they refer to farmers. But that denominator is an equal citizen of this land and it is not in your hands to say how many of them you can write off. It is in their hands to decide how they want to farm and what they want to farm. It is in their hands to fight for a just farming system so that the small farmers are not displaced.

A lot of it really is to get out of the colonisation of the mind, which makes so much of the destruction seem inevitable. Once you are free from that, you can start defining things in a different way and what seems impossible in the old paradigm becomes so easy in the new one.

On real life solutions

Ethemcan Turhan: Last two questions are about real life solutions, alternatives. So there is the Navdanya movement, Earth University and other initiatives that you have set up. What role do you see for social movements to build real life alternatives within or outside of the state? The second question is about the role of academia. What role do you see for academia particularly at a time when academic freedoms are increasingly under attack, not least so here in Turkey. This is also the case in countries where universities are increasingly being neoliberalised. So what is your take on these two issues?

Vandana Shiva: At the end of the day, we are in the middle of a war paradigm. There is this fear of intellectual freedom because the old paradigm must be maintained to continue that project of colonising the earth, colonising people’s minds. The minute people are able to think for themselves, that project is over. Assault on academic freedom is built into the kind of economy we live in. It must create immunity for itself and it must reduce into dumbness even though it calls itself ‘smart’. It must unravel into a deeper level of unknowing. Those who played in Wall Street in 2008 had no idea what they were doing. Those who were supposed to regulate them had no idea what was going on and it all came out. So we are literally handing over fate of the planet to casino players for betting on everything.

The real life alternatives, in such a context, means that wherever we see an enclosure, we need to open it up with courage, creativity and solidarity. Those are three things we need most. The big difference between the movements of post-war years and now is that movements then could be very specialised. The labour movement only fought for labour rights, the environmental movement was just an environmental movement, there hasn’t been a strong farmers movement but there were little initiatives. These were never connected to each other.

We also can’t afford to think of academic freedom as only a university exercise. It is only when a university professor and her students connect to real communities through participatory research, new knowledge emerges. And it is a bit like micro-rhizome, you know? I think it is a model for political organisation, whether it is for intellectual freedoms or political freedoms because eventually it is those bonds that you create which quietly build resilience. One tree can be starved but nutrients from others can feed it. The system has become too smart to assault linear challenges. It is only solidarity that matters and we have to be the micro-rhizome of the future.

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Ethemcan Turhan is a Mercator-IPC fellow at Istanbul Policy Center, Sabancı University (Turkey).

TRANSCEND Member Prof. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecofeminist, philosopher, activist, and author of more than 20 books and 500 papers. She is the founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and has campaigned for biodiversity, conservation and farmers’ rights, winning the Right Livelihood Award [Alternative Nobel Prize] in 1993. She is executive director of the Navdanya Trust.

Ramesh Raliya and Pratim Biswas invent non-polluting fertilizer

June 15, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Science & Technology 0

Ramesh Raliya and Pratim Biswas, the two Indian American scientists at Washington University in St Louis have found a sustainable way to boost agricultural production in keeping with the increasing global population, during their research on the use of nanoparticle technology in agriculture. Pratim Biswas at Washington University in St Louis is a professor of environmental engineering science and Ramesh Raliya is a research scientist.

The eco-friendly alternative to conventional phosphorus-rich fertilizers is expected to usher in a new age of organic farming, discovered by the two Indian scientists has been described as historic with far reaching consequences to the way plants are going to be grown in the coming decades.

Both in the School of Engineering and Applied Science discovered that the use of zinc oxide nanoparticles in farming would not only improve the growth of food crops but also save water bodies from the polluting effects of phosphorus deposits.

Published in Washington University’s Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, the research by Ramesh Raliya and Pratim Biswas is the first study to highlight drawbacks of using conventional fertilizers in farming and benefits of using zinc oxide nanoparticles in fertilization of plants. Professor Pratim Biswas at Washington University in St Louis says that 45% of the worldwide use of phosphorus for farming is reported in India and China.

Obama administration allows US companies to go forward in implementing civil nuclear deal with India

May 25, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Politics 0

Recognizing that the India-US relationship draws its strength and dynamism from shared values, the breadth and diversity of the engagement and growing links between the people of the two countries, leaders of both countries have placed promotion of closer ties between the people, private collaborations and public-private partnerships at the center of the Strategic Dialogue.

The United States and India have engaged in comprehensive regional consultations that touches on nearly every region of the world. The United States and India have a shared vision for peace, stability and prosperity in Asia, the Indian Ocean region and the Pacific region and are committed to work together, and with others in the region, for the evolution of an open, balanced and inclusive architecture.

Going along with this new direction, the Obama administration has announced that in its assessment, India has made significant progress in implementing the civil nuclear deal in the last 18 months, that it is now up to individual companies to take decisions in terms of risks and opportunities.

Indian American community had come together to campaign on US-India Nuclear deal. Numerous community organizations have played a major role in organizing town hall meetings with US lawmakers to make it happen, after the Clinton administration had placed restrictions on India after the South Asian had tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

“One of the areas we have been able to have significant breakthroughs is the civil nuclear cooperation. We have seen in the past year-and-a-half significant progress with respect to India establishing its liabilities law which are compliant with international convention on supplementary compensation,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on South Asia. India, she said, has now ratified it and is now a member of the international Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage.

“India has established an insurance pool,” she said in response to a question from Congressman Brad Sherman who wanted to have an update on the civil nuclear deal. “I think, each individual company at this point has to make its own commercial decisions in terms of risks and in terms of opportunity. I think we are starting to see companies making those decisions,” Biswal said. “It is at this point largely a commercial decision. We stand ready through the US Government, through our financing bodies to support,” the senior State Department official said. It is believed that Westinghouse Electric and Nuclear Power Co-operation India Ltd are in advance stage of talks for building six nuclear reactors in Gujarat.

Building on the progress in cooperation on counter-terrorism and related homeland security issues, the United States and India committed to implementation of a detailed action plan intended to share best practices, facilitate the exchange of operational approaches, and promote the development of concrete capacity building programs to secure our respective countries. Recognizing the growing threats and challenges in cyberspace, they welcomed the second round of Cyber Consultations held on June 4, led by their respective national security councils, during which the US and India exchanged views and best practices on a broad range of cyber issues in the interest of advancing security and the effective and timely sharing of digital evidence and information to support counter-terrorism and law enforcement.

China, Pakistan join hands to block India’s entry into Nuclear Suppliers Group

May 21, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Politics 0

China and Pakistan are closely coordinating moves to block India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), media reports say. Beijing is using Pakistan’s non-starter position with the NSG to block India’s application in the name of parity, stating that it would either support NSG entry for both India and Pakistan, or none of them.

Talking about the China – Pakistan grand strategy to stall India’s admission into the NSG , well placed US sources who work with the NSG said that from all counts it does appear that China and Pakistan are coordinating closely to stop the Indian entry. The sources pointed to the fact that when India sought an information session with the NSG Participating Governments (PGs) at the recent NSG Consultative Group meeting on April 25 and 26, where it would have made a formal presentation to the NSG Group in support of its membership, Pakistan requested for a similar discussion slot with the NSG PGs.

Sources said that even though Pakistan was fully aware that its request would be rejected, it made its application at the cue of China, in order for Beijing to look even-handed when it sought the rejection of both requests on grounds of parity.

Providing an insight into the China-Pakistan plan to stall India, sources say that Pakistan is now going to write to all the NSG PGs about its wish to join the group. This is being done in anticipation of an application by India for NSG membership at the forthcoming plenary session of the group in June.

The Pakistani application, added sources, is “just a decoy” for China to reject both applications on grounds of parity. China knows that Pakistan does not stand a chance at the NSG, and most of the states will reject Islamabad’s application.

By taking the lead in rejecting the Pakistani application along with that of India, China would like to project its position as “neutral” when in reality it is “working in tandem with Pakistan to stall India’s application “.

US sources are disappointed with the Chinese tactics of “using Pakistan’s non credentials with the NSG to settle scores with India”. Informed sources say that this strategy is not a secret and during Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain’s visit to China in November 2015, China revealed its hand when it told President Hussain that if India is allowed to get NSG membership, China would ensure that Pakistan also joins the group. The Chinese government told President Hussain that “if India is allowed to join the NSG and Pakistan is deprived of NSG membership, Beijing will veto the move and block the Indian entry”.

Sources maintain that true to its word, China is following a plan that will enable it to use Pakistan’s non-acceptance at the NSG to block India’s acceptance. “It is both or none” is the Chinese plan to derail the Indian application, say sources. Chinese officials at the NSG level have been using the Pakistan card to stop India’s entry into it while appearing to be even handed in China’s relations with India.

Well informed sources also point to comments made by Pakistan’s former permanent representative to the United Nations Zamir Akram who virtually admitted the grand China – Pakistan plan to stall India’s entry into the NSG when, he said, that India will not make it to the NSG despite US support since China was committed to both India and Pakistan joining the NSG at the same time, and would block any move for a unilateral admission of India. He added that chances of India gaining entry into the NSG are virtually nil. The former senior Pakistani official also made it known that Islamabad has “friends at the NSG” who won’t let India enter the group.

US sources have seen through China’s game of “either both or none” in the NSG. They say that India’s non-proliferation credentials can never be compared with Pakistan’s, as Pakistan has a history of “selling Nuclear technology to rogue states like Libya”. They point to the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Dr A.Q. Khan, and his global nuclear trade.

Added to this history, is the fear in the West that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, especially the tactical version that it is now in the process of developing, can easily find their way into the hands of terrorists, as Pakistan’s nuclear command is extremely vulnerable to penetration by Islamic hardliners.

Well-placed sources say that China is aware of this situation, and is mindful of the fact that Pakistan can never be considered for membership in any global nuclear club, but that won’t stop China from using Pakistan as a “parity token to stop India which is fast emerging as China’s competitor at a global level”.

By rejecting the applications of both Pakistan and India, China is telling New Delhi and the NSG governments that it is “neutral”, when in fact it is working with Pakistan to reject India’s application in the hope that there won’t be an Indian reaction.

US sources say China’s grand plan is to “eat its cake and have it too”, that is reject the Indian application to the NSG on the pretext of “neutrality” between India and Pakistan and then hope that the “neutrality” card will stop any Indian commercial blowback on China.

Giving further insight into the plan, US sources say that China “would be naive to expect that there won’t be an Indian reaction, and especially a commercial one, as China is mindful that India is fully qualified to join the NSG, and by playing the ‘Pakistan parity card’, China is only hurting its own interests with an upcoming economic power, India.”

India confirms it will file 16 solar cases against US under WTO dispute

May 21, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

India will file 16 cases against the US for violating World Trade Organization (WTO ) treaties as certain programs of the United States in the renewable energy sector are “inconsistent” with global norms, the India’s Upper House of Parliament was informed last week by Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Commerce and Industry Minister.

She said that India believes that certain renewable energy programs of the US at the sub-federal level are inconsistent with WTO provisions, particularly with respect to the obligation under GATT (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade) 1994, Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and/or TRIMS (Trade-Related Investment Measures) Agreement.

In a separate reply, she said India has appealed before the WTO appellate body on the findings and recommendations of the dispute settlement panel. To promote domestic manufacturing of solar cells and modules, which is one of the components of the National Solar Mission, India set domestic content requirement for a few of the programs under the mission.

In a separate reply, the minister said India continues to be placed on the priority watch list under the US Special 301 on account of US assessment of Indian intellectual property rights (IPR) protection being inadequate.

“The Special 301 report issued by the US under their Trade Act of 1974 is a unilateral measure to create pressure on countries to enhance IPR protection beyond the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement,” she added. She made a point that the report which is an “extra territorial application” of the domestic law of a country is inconsistent with established norms of WTO. Last month, releasing its annual 301 Report, the US has said it will continue to put India and China on its priority watch list for IPR.

5¢ Fee on Plastic Bags Approved by New York City Council

May 17, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

The ubiquitous, easily torn, often doubled-up plastic bags from the grocery store — hoarded by dog owners, despised by the environmentally concerned and occasionally caught in trees — will soon cost at least a nickel in New York City. The City Council voted 28 to 20 on Thursday, May 6th to require certain retailers to collect a fee on each carryout bag, paper or plastic, with some exceptions. Mayor Bill de Blasio has expressed support for the measure.

Passage of the bill came after two years of debate and at least one other attempt by the city’s elected officials to charge a fee or tax on disposable bags. The legislation, modeled on similar laws in California and Washington, D.C., encountered an unusual amount of resistance and resulted in what council members said was one of the closest votes in years, on par with the extension of term limits passed during the tenure of Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg.

The vehemence of the opposition could perhaps be traced to plastic bags’ daily presence in the lives of New Yorkers, who often shop for groceries spontaneously and then lug the crinkly bags home to be reused as trash-can liners or to pick up after pets. As with previous measures adopted by the 51-member Council to prohibit smoking in bars and to include calorie information on restaurant menus, the impact of the bag bill, which would take effect in October, is likely to be immediate for millions of people.

That many will be unhappy about paying for bags that have always been free is the point.

“The fee is irritating, which is precisely why it works,” said Councilman Brad Lander, a Brooklyn Democrat and, with Councilwoman Margaret Chin, a Manhattan Democrat, a main sponsor of the legislation. “We don’t want to pay it so we’ll bring bags instead. So the fact that it’s irritating irritates a lot of people.” In New York City, the Sanitation Department has said it collects roughly 10 billion single-use plastic bags a year.

India Among 175 Countries That Sign Landmark Climate Deal At United Nations

April 28, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

UNITED NATIONS: While there is so much uncertainty, misunderstanding, differences of opinions, ideologies, and tensions around the world between the nations, there was one solemn moment today that brought nearly all the nations and almost the entire humanity together for a common goal: to preserve the Earth for future generations.

The Climate Summit at the world headquarters of the United Nations was symbolic of the urgency felt by the entire world to address the rapidly changing climate, and to recognize the need to stop the degradation of the resources and the Earth itself we have been blessed to have.

Leaders from at least 175 countries signed the Paris Agreement on climate change on Friday, April 22, 2016 as the landmark deal took a key step forward, potentially entering into force years ahead of schedule. “We are in a race against time,” U.N. secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the gathering. “The era of consumption without consequences is over.”

As many as 175 countries, including India, China and the US, signed the Paris Agreement on climate change at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday, to coincide with ‘International Mother Earth Day’. This was the first day of the signing ceremony of the historic global deal. That such a large number of countries signed the agreement in a single day is significant. The previous record for the most countries to sign an international agreement on one day was set in 1982, when 119 countries signed the ‘Law of the Sea Convention’.

The Paris Agreement, the world’s response to hotter temperatures, rising seas and other impacts of climate change, was reached in December as a major breakthrough in U.N. climate negotiations, which for years were slowed by disputes between rich and poor countries over who should do what. Under the agreement, countries set their own targets for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The targets are not legally binding, but countries must update them every five years. The agreement aims to take multiple measures to save the world from disastrous consequences of climate change and was adopted by 195 countries in Paris

The agreement will be open for signature for one year – till April 21, 2017. However, merely signing the agreement will not make it operational. The United Nations says 15 countries, several of them small island states under threat from rising seas, did that on April 22nd by depositing their instruments of ratification. The agreement will enter into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions have formally joined it. Many now expect the climate agreement to enter into force long before the original deadline of 2020. Some say it could happen this year. After signing, countries must formally approve the Paris Agreement through their domestic procedures.

India’s Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar signed the agreement on behalf of India. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and some heads of state and government, including French President Francois Hollande addressed the gathering. Also on the list of speakers was Mahindra Group chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra, as a representative of the business and corporate world.

India has maintained that the burden of fighting climate change cannot be put on the shoulders of the poor after decades of industrial development by the rich nations. It has announced plans to quadruple its renewable power capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022 as part of the government’s plan to supply electricity to every household. However, India has so far not indicated when it would ratify it.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, holding his young granddaughter, joined dozens of world leaders for a signing ceremony that set a record for international diplomacy: Never have so many countries signed an agreement on the first available day. States that don’t sign Friday have a year to do so.

The United States has said it intends to join the agreement this year. The world is watching anxiously: Analysts say that if the agreement enters into force before President Barack Obama leaves office in January, it would be more complicated for his successor to withdraw from the deal because it would take four years to do so under the agreement’s rules. The United States put the deal into economic terms. “The power of this agreement is what it is going to do to unleash the private sector,” Kerry told the gathering, noting that this year is again shaping up to be the hottest year on record.

“The world must work together to ensure that the goals of the Paris Agreement are realized. US commitment to leadership in this arena has helped start a process that must last beyond your presidency,” a group of 145 US lawmakers said in a letter to US President Barack Obama.

China, the world’s top carbon emitter, announced it will “finalize domestic procedures” to ratify the Paris Agreement before the G-20 summit in China in September. Ban immediately welcomed the pledge. Maros Sefcovic, the energy chief for another top emitter, the 28-nation European Union, has said the EU wants to be in the “first wave” of ratifying countries.

French President Francois Hollande, the first to sign the agreement, said Friday he will ask parliament to ratify it by this summer. France’s environment minister is in charge of global climate negotiations. “There is no turning back now,” Hollande told the gathering. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced that his country would ratify the agreement this year.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe brought applause when he declared, “Life itself is at stake in this combat. We have the power to win it.” Countries that had not yet indicated they would sign the agreement Friday include some of the world’s largest oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Nigeria and Kazakhstan, the World Resources Institute said.

Scientific analyses show the initial set of targets that countries pledged before Paris don’t match the agreement’s long-term goal to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), compared with pre-industrial times. Global average temperatures have already climbed by almost 1 degree Celsius. Last year was the hottest on record. The latest analysis by the Climate Interactive research group shows the Paris pledges put the world on track for 3.5 degrees Celsius of warming. A separate analysis by Climate Action Tracker, a European group, projected warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius. Either way, scientists say the consequences could be catastrophic in some places, wiping out crops, flooding coastal areas and melting Arctic sea ice.

According to reports, as the Paris Agreement moves forward, there is some good news. Global energy emissions, the biggest source of man-made greenhouse gases, were flat last year even though the global economy grew, according to the International Energy Agency. Still, fossil fuels are used much more widely than renewable sources like wind and solar power.

Under Article 21 of the Agreement, the Paris accord will enter into force on the 30th day after the date on which at least 55 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) deposit their “instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession” with the depositary at UN headquarters.

The Paris deal is the most ambitious climate change agreement in history. It established a long term, durable global framework to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions where 195 countries will work together to put the world on a path to keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius. These countries had also agreed to pursue efforts to limit the increase in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Gayatri Mantra launched 25th “Earth Day” celebrations in Nevada

April 28, 2016 Staff ReporterCulture/Religion, Environment 0

Multi-faith invocation opened 25th “Earth Day” celebrations in Nevada on April 24, which started with Gayatri Mantra, considered the most sacred mantra of Hinduism. Religious statesman Rajan Zed directed this special multi-faith invocation; which included Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Baha’i, Pagan and Native American prayers focused on healthier environment and respecting the nature of the planet we live on.

This annual all-day free event in Reno’s about 40-acres Idlewild Park reportedly attracted thousands of people from all over the region in Nevada and nearby California. Dozens of non-profit groups participated in this event, which included few hundred exhibits, various workshops, interactive activities, stages with live entertainment, arts and crafts, food and drinks, games and prizes. Various themed areas formed part of the celebrations. Philosophy behind the “Earth Day” celebrations includes respect-protect-explore-engage in the Nature of the planet. Organizers included Anastacia Sullivan and Heather Howell.

Religious leaders who prayed included Rigoberto Ruano Mireles (Roman Catholic), Sumayya U. Beekun (Muslim), Rajan Zed (Hindu), Shelley L. Fisher (Buddhist), Daniel R. Sanchez (Jewish), Omar A. Palmer (Seventh-day Adventist), Donald W. Watts and Ryan J. Earl (Mormons), Roya Galata (Baha’i), Harriet Kathryn Stewart (Pagan) and Justin R. Zuniga (Native American).

Quoting ancient scriptures, Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism and who recited Gayatri Mantra, pointed out: “We may believe in different religions, yet we share the same home—our Earth. We must learn to happily progress or miserably perish together. For man can live individually but can only survive collectively”.

175 Countries Sign Landmark Climate Deal At United Nations

April 23, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

UNITED NATIONS: While there is so much uncertainty, misunderstanding, differences of opinions, ideologies, and tensions around the world between the nations, there was one solemn moment today that brought nearly all the nations and almost the entire humanity together for a common goal: to preserve the Earth for future generations.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holds his granddaughter as he signs the Paris Agreement on climate change, Friday, April 22, 2016 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Human Activity Makes Terrestrial Biosphere Contribute to Climate Change

April 6, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Methane and nitrous oxide emissions that result from human activity make the terrestrial biosphere a net contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study published in Nature.

The findings reverse the commonly held view among climate scientists that the terrestrial biosphere, a term used to refer to all land-based ecosystems on the planet, slows climate change by acting as a carbon dioxide sink, or a reservoir that absorbs carbon dioxide and temporarily takes it out of circulation.

Instead, the methane and nitrous oxide released from the terrestrial biosphere is roughly two times larger than the cooling effect of the biospheric carbon dioxide sink, said Chaoqun Lu, an ISU assistant professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology and co-author of the study.

“Without human activity, the terrestrial biosphere would be neutral,” Lu said. “But we found that the terrestrial biosphere emits enough greenhouse gases to become a net contributor to global climate change.”

Put another way, what was once thought to be a helpful pit stop for carbon dioxide to accumulate harmlessly without contributing to global warming actually isn’t as helpful as scientists had hoped. On balance, the climate warming capacity of the terrestrial biosphere’s emissions surpasses its ability to slow climate change by sequestering carbon.

Lu said human activity connected to agriculture, waste management and other practices has transformed the terrestrial biosphere. Those changes lead to emissions of greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide.

Lu said human-caused fluxes of greenhouse gases in southern Asia, a region including China and India, led to larger net climate warming effects compared to other regions of the globe. Rice cultivation and livestock production likely drove much of those emissions, she said. Fertilizers account for another manmade contributor, according to the paper.

The study, published in the journal Nature this week, is the first to look at the net human-induced balance of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide from the terrestrial biosphere on a global scale. Lu was one of 23 scientists at 16 institutions to contribute to the international project. Hanqin Tian, director of Auburn University’s International Center for Climate and Global Change Research, is the lead author of the paper.

Nuclear Weapons: Greatest Threat To Global Security

April 6, 2016 Staff ReporterCommunity, Environment 0

More than 50 world leaders attend Nuclear Security Summit 2016, commit to pledged to boost communal efforts to secure nuclear materials

“Of all the threats to global security and peace, the most dangerous is the proliferation and potential use of nuclear weapons,” wrote President Barack Obama in an article he wrote for The Washington Post. Obama inaugurated the first Nuclear Security Summit nearly six years ago, after a landmark speech in Prague in 2009 laying out the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.

More than 50 world leaders along with international organizations like the United Nations and INTERPOL attended the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit 2016 of Obama’s presidency, March 31st – April 1st in Washington, DC, focusing on efforts to lock down vulnerable atomic materials to prevent nuclear terrorism, which he had called “one of the greatest threats to global security” in the 21st century. In his address, Obama said, the world faced a persistent and evolving threat of nuclear terrorism despite progress in reducing such risks. But he insisted: “We cannot be complacent.

These biannual nuclear summits, aimed at locking down fissile material worldwide that could be used for doomsday weapons, were proposed by President Obama back in 2009, barely two months into his presidency. “We must insure that terrorists never acquire a nuclear weapon,” he declared, calling such a scenario “the most immediate and extreme threat to global security.” In that same April 2009 speech, Obama challenged the world’s keepers of some 2,000 tons of highly enriched uranium and plutonium to “secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years.”

Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, proliferation of nuclear weapons has increased tremendously. During the Cold War, much of the debate centered on the U.S.-Soviet nuclear balance. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nuclear weapons have continued to be a major preoccupation of America, with more nations acquiring the nuclear weapons and many more trying to build nuclear arsenals. But, the most dangerous threat has been from the terrorist and rogue groups that have been stealing and making all out efforts to get hold of enriched uranium, a component that is used to build nuclear weapons.

Deadly bomb attacks in Brussels last month have fueled concern that Islamic State could eventually target nuclear plants, steal material and develop radioactive “dirty bombs”. Obama said the required 102 countries had now ratified an amendment to a nuclear security treaty that would tighten protections against nuclear theft and smuggling.

President Barack Obama urged world leaders on April 1st to do more to safeguard vulnerable nuclear facilities to prevent “madmen” from groups like Islamic State from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon or a radioactive “dirty bomb.” There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they would certainly use it to kill as many innocent people as possible,” he said. “It would change our world.”

Nine countries together possess more than 15,000 nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia maintain roughly 1,800 of their nuclear weapons on high-alert status – ready to be launched within minutes of a warning. Most are many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. A single nuclear warhead, if detonated on a large city, could kill millions of people, with the effects persisting for decades

Southern Asia is home to three nuclear powers—China, India, and Pakistan—that continue to expand and modernize their arms programs. Such nuclear competition is dangerous given mounting mistrust and a dearth of diplomatic measures in place to reduce risk of confrontation. China is seeking to soon achieve a nuclear triad (land, air, and sea-based nuclear delivery capabilities). Analysts estimate that China’s inventory is close to two hundred and fifty warheads. North Korea’s quest to acquire nuclear weapons has been never ending.

Experts estimate that Pakistan has 110 to 130 warheads and two types of delivery vehicles (PDF): aircraft and surface-to-surface missiles. Pakistan’s chronic political instability, spotty nonproliferation record, and ongoing threats posed by militant forces have focused special concern on the safety of its nuclear materials.

India possesses a developed strategic nuclear program and currently fields nuclear-capable aircraft and ballistic missiles controlled by a civilian command structure, theNuclear Command Authority. New Delhi has an estimated stockpile of 110 to 120 warheads and is expanding its military nuclear capabilities. In 2011, New Delhi spent approximately $4.9 billion (PDF) on nuclear weapons, up from $4.1 billion the previous year, according to Global Zero, a nongovernmental disarmament movement.

The United States and India negotiated a landmark civil nuclear deal beginning in 2005, which was later signed into U.S. law in 2008. Washington saw the deal as a practical way to overcome barriers to cooperation and also because it believed “it would be better to have India inside the international nonproliferation tent than outside,” says CFR’s Alyssa Ayres.

World leaders and international organizations pledged to boost communal efforts to secure nuclear materials. But there won’t be any more global summits on the issue in the near future. The leaders said in a joint communique at the summit’s close that the broad goal of the summit process has been to address the threat of nuclear terrorism by minimizing and securing weapons-usable nuclear materials, enhancing international cooperation to prevent the illicit acquisition of nuclear material by non-state actors such as terrorist groups and smugglers, and taking steps to strengthen the global nuclear security system.

The world leaders acknowledged that there’s more work to prevent nuclear terrorism and promote disarmament, which requires further international cooperation President Barack Obama says there’s a persistent and evolving threat of terrorists conducting a nuclear attack.

While addressing the Summit leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India pledged to accord a high national priority to nuclear security through strong institutional framework, independent regulatory agency and trained and specialized manpower, while developing and deploying technology to deter and defend against nuclear terrorism, by making efforts to stop nuclear smuggling and strengthen the national detection architecture for nuclear and radioactive material.

While gains have been made, arms-control advocates say the diplomatic process – which Obama conceived and championed – has lost momentum and could slow further once he leaves the White House in January, next year. Moscow, which holds the world’s largest nuclear weapons stockpiles, ended virtually all its nuclear cooperation with the U.S. more than two years ago as part of the political fallout from tensions over Ukraine.

The failure of the nuclear powers to disarm has heightened the risk that other countries will acquire nuclear weapons. The only guarantee against the spread and use of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them without delay. Although the leaders of some nuclear-armed nations have expressed their vision for a nuclear-weapon-free world, they have failed to develop any detailed plans to eliminate their arsenals and are modernizing them.

According to analysts, nuclear safeguards like those that have emerged from previous Nuclear Security Summits are playing an increasingly important role in protecting the world from security threats. White House Deputy National Security Advisor Benjamin Rhodes all but declares that goal accomplished, pointing to the achievements of the previous three summits. “Because of these efforts, it is harder than ever before for terrorists or bad actors to acquire nuclear materials,” Rhodes told reporters in a conference call prior to this week’s summit. “That, of course, makes all of our people more secure.”

According to Sharon Squassoni, a non-proliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington defense think tank, the job isn’t finished, warning that the political pressure to get it done is waning. “We know what to do,” she says. “The question is, do we have enough willpower and money and attention to do it.”

India Could Be A Global Change Agent For Renewable Energy: U.S.

March 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

WASHINGTON: With India setting an ambitious target of generating 175 gigawatts (Gw) of clean energy by 2022, a top US official said that India has the potential to be “a change agent” for the rest of the world in the renewable sector though the transformation process is going to be tough.

“India could really be a change agent for the rest of the world in the renewable energy sector if they get it right. So we have a vested interest in helping them get that right,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Transformation Melanie Nakagawa said.

And as India embarks on the $1 trillion project to build its infrastructure from road to ports, she said it is a great opportunity for the world, “to showcase” India as a country that gets the sustainability future right. But at the same time, she acknowledged that it is going to be tough.

“I think that there’s a story to be written there as they get closer to it but it’s going to be tough.I mean it’s going to take not just the political will, but it’s going to take the reforms and the policies needed to actually see this possible future happen,” she said.

Noting that Indian government needs $100 billion in investment including $70 billion of debt financing to meet their 175 gigawatt target by 2022, the US official said those numbers can’t be met with public finance alone. And necessary reforms are needed to attract private investment.

“India’s commitments on the 175 gigawatt renewable energy target by 2022, their commitments on solar, their commitments also in the finance infrastructure space, this all makes it a really impressive political will, signal and political will,” Nakagawa said.

India has set itself an ambitious target of generating 175 gigawatt of power by 2022 from renewable sources that includes 100 Gw from solar, 60 Gw from wind, 10 Gw from biomass and 5 Gw from small hydroelectric project.

India and the US are working closely together in this field. The US-India Clean Energy Finance Task Force which was established in September 2015 has had three meetings so far.

This is a government-to-government task force focused on clean energy investment and finance.It’s complimented by a private sector led task force called a Clean Energy Finance Forum, the which is led by Uday Kemkha and SunEdison.

The task force, she said, has proposed three recommendations for how the US can work with India on getting to scale clean energy projects. The three proposals on the table include standardizing power purchase agreements; first loss facility and looking at the idea of warehousing and securitization for renewable energy projects.

“This is all about reducing project risk in the renewable energy space; different ways you can reduce project risk,” the US official said. The first loss facility helps get at reducing that risk, she observed. The idea of warehousing and securitization of renewable energy project assets is sort of bundling smaller scale projects into a larger project.

“This is a government-to-government dialogue on a pretty technical issue, but one that is really fundamental to how you would actually see scalable investment happen in India in the renewable energy space. Because these are some of the most systemic and problematic barriers to the larger scale investments that are needed to hit the renewable energy targets,” she said.

According to Nakagawa, the Task Force is discussing just the enabling environment from a finance perspective. “What we’re looking at is the specific window of project based investment for the renewable energy sector and what are the impediments to that,” she said.

U.S. Trade Body Seeks Clean Technology Collaboration With India

March 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Science & Technology 0

WASHINGTON: The U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) led a mission on exploring avenues for joint collaboration and investment in clean technology across three Indian cities — New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

The trade body comprised of 350 top-tier U.S. and Indian companies advancing U.S.-India commercial ties led talks to grow bilateral cooperation in innovation, protecting the environment and meeting the country’s ambitious clean energy targets.

The delegation included USIBC members working in the US-India energy corridor, presenting a board range of opportunity in the renewable energy space such as GE, AES, 8minutenergy, First Solar, Applied Materials, CH2M among others, it said last week.

The Indian government has augmented its solar target fivefold to 100 GW and wind target to 60 GW by 2022, representing a $125 billion investment opportunity, USIBC noted. The objective of the meetings was to create sustained engagement on national and state-level policies and regulatory frameworks, such as the National Solar Mission and state solar policies, and thereby, ensure a level playing field for all participants, it said.

There has been considerable progress in transmission, but the problem of congestion remains, both at the interstate and intra-state levels, USIBC said. Through its meetings with senior Government of India officials, the delegation explored avenues for joint collaboration and technical exchanges in areas such as energy storage and transmission infrastructure, wind and solar power generation, energy efficiency technology and services.

It also articulated how investors can work in stride with both state and central governments to meet the country’s ambitious clean energy targets of installing 175 GW by 2022. “The strong focus on renewable energy will help increasing access to energy for all Indian citizens as part of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s ambitious reform agenda,” USIBC president Mukesh Aghi said.

“There is also an urgent need for long-term financial solutions in the clean energy economy. American enterprise is eager to help in all ways possible,” he said. The delegation engaged with senior Government of India leaders to develop an action plan for a regulatory and infrastructure environment that will further foster innovation, attract investment, create jobs and fulfil initiatives such as Make in India, Innovate in India,” Aghi said. The delegation met among others officials in key central ministries and Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh Chief Ministers Anandiben Patel and N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Indian-American Starrer ‘The Jungle Book’ To Open In April

February 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Disney’s “The Jungle Book”, starring 12-year-old Indian-American Neel Sethi as Mowgli, has a special treat in store for Indian fans of the timeless tale. The film will come out in the Indian theaters on April 8, a week before it releases in the US.

“We are thrilled to confirm that Disney’s all-new live-action epic, ‘The Jungle Book’, will be out in Indian theatres a week prior to the US release. We have a few more surprises in store for ‘The Jungle Book’ fans in India,” Amrita Pandey — vice president, Studios, Disney India, said in a statement.

Directed by “Iron Man” fame Jon Favreau, and featuring voices by iconic actors like Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba and Christopher Walken, “The Jungle Book” is an all-new live-action epic adventure about Mowgli, a man-cub raised in the jungle by a family of wolves.

Mowgli embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery when he is forced to abandon the only home he has ever known. It is based on the adventure stories penned by Rudyard Kipling and inspired by Disney’s animated adaptation.

The movie blends live-action with photorealistic CGI animals and environments, using high-end technology and storytelling techniques to immerse audiences. “Tales of ‘The Jungle Book’ have been an intrinsic part of most of our growing up years. Adventurous stories of Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Kaa and Shere Khan are so beloved by the Indian audience,” Pandey added.

India’s Solar Import Rules Discriminate Against U.S., Rules World Trade Organization

February 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

WASHINGTON – In a setback to India, a World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel has ruled in favor of the U.S. in its challenge to India’s alleged discrimination against U.S. solar exports.

The panel agreed with the U.S. that India’s “localization” rules discriminated against imported solar cells and modules under India’s National Solar Mission, according to an official news release citing U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. The USTR initiated the dispute.

India’s domestic content requirements, it agreed, discriminate against U.S. solar cells and modules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-manufactured cells and modules rather than U.S. or other imported solar technology, in breach of international trade rules.

The panel also rejected India’s defensive arguments and determined that India’s local content requirements are inconsistent with the national treatment obligations in Article 2.1 of the Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures (TRIMs Agreement) and Article III:4 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994.

The USTR said it initiated this dispute in February, 2013 because it considered that India’s domestic content requirements are inconsistent with WTO rules which prohibit discrimination against imported products.

The U.S., it said, has consistently made the case that India can achieve its clean energy goals faster and more cost-effectively by allowing solar technologies to be imported from the US and other solar producers.

“The WTO panel agreed with the United States that India’s ‘localization’ measures discriminate against US manufacturers and are against WTO rules,” Froman said.

The US and India “are strong supporters of the multilateral, rules-based trading system and take our WTO obligations seriously,” he said.

“This is an important outcome, not just as it applies to this case, but for the message it sends to other countries considering discriminatory ‘localization’ policies.”

“The United States strongly supports the rapid deployment of solar energy around the world, including in India,” Froman said.

“But discriminatory policies in the clean energy space in fact undermine our efforts to promote clean energy by requiring the use of more expensive and less efficient equipment, raising the cost of generating clean energy and making it more difficult for clean energy sources to be competitive,” he said.

Creating a 25,000 foot ‘Vertical University’ in Nepal

February 15, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

In the years between 1990 and 2005, Nepal lost 4,500 square miles of forest — 25 percent of the country’s overall forest cover — through a combination of haphazard urbanization, a lack of sustainable economic alternatives, inadequate support to organic farmers, and the adverse impacts of climate change. This change has worsened Nepal’s natural springs systems and, in turn, the livelihoods of the country’s farmers.

Asia 21 Young Leader Rajeev Goyal first started working in Nepal more than a decade ago as a Peace Corps volunteer in 2001. An activist, lawyer, and rural-development worker, Goyal started monitoring Nepal’s environmental issues early on and, over the next decade, frequently found himself in the country working on a variety of projects.

In 2013, Goyal teamed up with the Canadian architect and planner Priyanka Bista and a local teacher and conservationist named Kumar Bishwakarma to create the Koshi Tappu Kanchenjunga Biodiversity Education Livelihood Terra-Studio (KTK-BELT), an organization seeking to educate people about conservation and Himalayan biodiversity while creating ecologically-sensitive livelihood opportunities.

Goyal and KTK-BELT have now undertaken a massive project to build a “vertical university” from Koshi Tappu, Nepal’s largest aquatic bird reserve, to Mount Kanchenjunga, the third tallest peak in the world. We reached out to Goyal via email to find out what a vertical university is and how it will conserve Nepal’s environment and biodiversity.

Can you describe what a “vertical university” is?

The idea of the vertical university is actually quite simple. It is to create a sort of “living classroom” in the form of an 25,000 foot continuous vertical forest corridor stretching from Koshi Tappu (220 feet), Nepal’s largest aquatic bird sanctuary, to Mt. Kanchenjunga (28,169 feet), the world’s third tallest peak, as a vessel to teach and conserve the 6,600 flowering plant species, 800 bird species and 180 mammals that are found in eastern Nepal. In a mountainous country like Nepal, where there is exceptional biological, climatic, and cultural diversity from the tropical plains to the alpine Himalayas, conventional education paradigms where students sit in a stationary classroom, divorced from their surroundings, make little sense.

The “professors” of the vertical university may not have a Ph.D. and in fact may never have set foot in school, but as indigenous farmers, they possess intricate, intergenerational knowledge about local fauna and flora which is critical for Nepal’s youth to attain. The vertical university will deepen place-based skills in sustainable technology, craft, and medicinal plants, and seeks to conserve and activate local knowledge while also creating sustainable livelihood opportunities. It does this through establishing “learning grounds,” which are micro-conservation hubs — the “classrooms” of the university throughout different locations across the landscape.

The objective is that one day, a Nepali student could walk from Koshi Tappu to Kanchenjunga, across 118 different forest types, and learn from local farmers about the deep physical and biological diversity of the landscape through place-based education. The objective is not to radically alter the existing government curriculum, which is actually quite comprehensive, but to enrich it with pragmatic, sensory learning opportunities that integrate hundreds of villages across a vertical gradient.

In the last few decades, deforestation, loss of natural habitats and the impacts of urbanization have affected many nations around the world. Why did you choose to focus your attention on Nepal?

Deforestation, degradation of biological diversity, and loss of the “wild” are challenges not unique to Nepal, but rather imperil all of Asia. The predominant trend is that forests are being converted into monocultures to grow palm oil or other bio-fuels and cash crops. Old growth forest, wetlands, and other fragile ecosystems which took millennia to evolve and mature are being hacked down and converted into monocultures or urbanized settlements without a second thought. Those that stand the most to lose, in terms of ecosystem services, livelihood opportunities, and educational possibilities, are rural youth, and yet no one is really asking what the role of government schools should be in conserving these resources.

Land use conversion and habitat degradation in Indonesia and Malaysia may actually be occurring at an even quicker and more destructive pace than in Nepal. China has less than one percent of its original forest cover under protected status. Many of these “forests” are simply wood lots for commercial purposes. Cambodia has experienced huge amounts of deforestation in the Cardamom Mountains. The challenges are everywhere. I have chosen to work in Nepal because, having been a Peace Corps volunteer here and worked on various types of projects for a number of years, this is the context that I know and have monitored and where I feel I can help. I have met extraordinary people in Nepal such as Kumar Bishwakarma, a local teacher and conservationist, who helped safeguard 100 acres of biodiversity-rich land to build the first prototype of the vertical university in Yangshila, Morang, within the Siwalik foothills of eastern Nepal. As a post-disaster and post-conflict country facing increasing threats from climate change disasters, it’s also the ideal place to pilot the university.

Another reason our team is so focused here is that Nepal is experiencing an environmental emergency. Between 1990 and 2005, Nepal lost over 4,500 square miles of forest, or 25 percent of its total forest cover in just 15 years. The annual rate of deforestation continues to be 1.7 percent, which means that if nothing is done the forests will continue to decline by one-quarter every 15 years or so until it is gone. Eastern Nepal is one of the world’s 34 biodiversity “hotspots” which has more endemic and rare species that most places on earth, including many that are listed on the IUCN Red List as under critical threat. New species continue to be discovered in the Himalayas each year. With much of the attention focused on the April 2015 earthquake, it is easy to overlook that there is a silent crisis occurring with the nation’s habitats and biological diversity.

Nepal is a paradoxical country. Everywhere there are shortages of energy, water, fuel, and supplies. Yet few places in the world are endowed with more natural resources, physical diversity, and diversity of culture and languages. It’s also a country where schools and education are deeply valued. Putting all of this together, we feel it is the perfect melting pot to realize an idea like this.

Your organization, KTK-BELT, has launched a very ambitious project in Nepal to conserve and teach people about biodiversity. Can you describe the project and the steps you are taking to to achieve this? What have been some of your greatest challenges so far?

KTK-BELT, which I helped co-found with Priyanka Bista, an architect from Canada, works very closely with local communities to help establish learning grounds at the village level, as conservation associations to safeguard threatened habitats. We establish these land plots at different elevations, in different micro-habitats, which in the aggregate help restore habitat connectivity. The learning grounds are plots organized around principles of agro-forestry and permaculture design, where trees cannot be cut down and only organic inputs are permissible.

Currently, we are working in a Village Development Council (VDC) called Yangshila, where we have established 28 learning grounds. Each plot responds to a different conservation need. For example, a plot in a tropical village called Rangcha is focused on the conservation of tropical fruit diversity. In Dahar, a bird-rich area with more than 100 species including the Great Indian Hornbill and Himalayan Vulture, the plot will be designed to deepen this bird diversity. In another plot in Chiuri Bhanjhyang, the aim is to conserve wild ornamental plants.

Bista, who oversees the design and planning arm of the project, is training rural youth in biodiversity mapping, sustainable design, construction methods, and other skills, so that each learning ground is designed by local youth and indigenous farmers and bridges traditional knowledge and modern attributes. This work is challenging because it requires training and capacity building and takes a great deal of time and exposure to change mindsets.

One challenge has been acquiring funding and capital, but we’re starting to get broader support. Recently we turned to crowd funding to share our idea with a global audience and launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $100,000 before February 24. The idea of the vertical university is also starting to acquire endorsements from the global conservation community, and we recently were awarded the UIAA Mountain Protection Prize in Seoul. If we had major new resources, we could expand the BELT all over eastern Nepal, as we now feel we understand the process and how to go about it.

What are the goals of this vertical university in Nepal?

The goal is ultimately to change perceptions and shift attitudes. We want to make people see that environmental conservation, livelihood, and education are not mutually exclusive, but that each can fortify the other to achieve a much deeper level of sustainability through harnessing diversity. The word “diversity” is overused in our world and often utilized in the context of race, socioeconomic standing, or nationality, but there is a deeper level of diversity, which is the basis of our culture, imagination, and art. We hope that the vertical university will speak for itself and that when people walk in this landscape and see the transitions as they move further up along the BELT, they will realize that any development strategy should emanate from and actually further this mega-diversity.

What can other nations with growing environmental concerns learn from KTK-Belt? Can the methods you’re implementing in Nepal be replicated or adapted elsewhere?

In some ways, a vertical university in a place like Myanmar, for example, where there are snow-capped mountains and a 1,200-mile tropical coastline, could be even more dramatic and more fitting. Bhutan has expressed interest in the idea of creating a “golden walk” themed around birds and bird habitat and modeled on the vertical university concept. We can easily see this being adapted to any country in Asia, including archipelago nations like the Philippines, where the BELT could be oceanic and underwater. The threats, opportunities, issues and challenges are similar across different contexts. The core idea behind the vertical university — the notion of embracing diversity and place-based education — would be relevant throughout Asia.

Our dream is that one day there would be a continuous forest corridor cutting across many countries, going up and down mountains, linking wetlands and rivers. An inspiration for this project was actually the “Re-Wilding Europe” project in the Netherlands, which sought to create a land trust to revive lost species, and which will cut through different countries in Europe. An Asia vertical university could be comprised of thousands of learning grounds, each doing its bit at a local level to conserve species, as well as sub-species agro-biodiversity.

At the same time, having worked on our prototype in Nepal for several years now, it is very hard work and there is no substitute for spending vast amounts of time to map and understand indigenous knowledge. Local people, including women, elders and youth, must be involved at each step so that it has depth and local people feel ownership of it.

Of all the environmental issues that the world is facing, which one, in your opinion, most requires our attention?

That’s an easy question! The disruption of large, intact, undisturbed, wild habitat, whether it be terrestrial or marine.

Raj Parikh of New Jersey Invents Geothermal Snowmelt System

February 1, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Science & Technology 0

Tired of snow and the pain and efforts you need to endure while getting the snow of your way. Now, an Indian American home owner’s new invention can help make this process easier and smoother. Raj Parikh has invented a snowmelt system that helps melt snow an inch and half per hour, reported www.nj.com here on January 28.

Raj Parikh, who has lived in his Paramus, New Jersey, house since 1980, has radically redesigned it in accordance with nature, calling it the “Zenesis House,” and hardly had to do any shoveling in last week’s snow blizzard that hit the East Coast. The house has no furnace, no air conditioner and no hot water heater but has the ability to melt the snow right off the driveway,.

Using the powers of nature to fight the snow, the Parikh family developed a geothermal snowmelt system that warms water to about 100 degrees using solar collectors and geothermal pumps. That water is piped underneath the driveway and walkways.

The Parikhs use the sun and the ground to heat and cool the house as well. During the winter, the house intakes air warmed by the sun and carries it 12 feet underground to be heated by the ground before piping it inside. The incoming air is also heated by exhaust air coming from the kitchen and bathroom. To cool the house, the air takes the same route; only it skips the solar collectors.

Heated driveways are widely available, but they usually burn gas or oil, Raj’s son Asit was quoted as saying. “They’re burning fuel,” he said. “There’s no combustion in this system. It’s just the earth and the sun.” The house also has systems to collect rainwater and the very snow it melts during winter storms.

“By capturing the sun’s warmth during the day, and by utilizing 2 ground-source (geothermal) heat pumps and our proprietary heat exchange system, our snowmelt system keeps the driveway shoveled— even on blizzard day,” Asit wrote on Facebook, expressing his happiness over the success of the system.

2015 Was Hottest Year in Historical Record, Scientists Say

January 27, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

New York, NY; January 24, 2016: Scientists reported last week that 2015 was the hottest year in the historical record by far, breaking a mark set only the year before — a burst of heat that has continued into the new year and is roiling weather patterns all over the world. In the contiguous United States, the year was the second-warmest on record, punctuated by a December that was both the hottest and the wettest since record-keeping began. One result has been a wave of unusual winter floods coursing down the Mississippi River watershed.

On Jan. 7, NOAA reported that 2015 was the second-warmest year on record, after 2012, for the lower 48 United States. That land mass covers less than 2 percent of the surface of the Earth, so it is not unusual to have a slight divergence between United States temperatures and those of the planet as a whole. The end of the year was especially remarkable in the United States, with virtually every state east of the Mississippi River having a record warm December, often accompanied by heavy rains.

Scientists started predicting a global temperature record months ago, in part because an El Niño weather pattern, one of the largest in a century, is releasing an immense amount of heat from the Pacific Ocean into the atmosphere. But the bulk of the record-setting heat, they say, is a consequence of the long-term planetary warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases.

“The whole system is warming up, relentlessly,” said Gerald A. Meehl, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. It will take a few more years to know for certain, but the back-to-back records of 2014 and 2015 may have put the world back onto a trajectory of rapid global warming, after a period of relatively slow warming dating to the last powerful El Niño, in 1998.

Politicians attempting to claim that greenhouse gases are not a problem seized on that slow period to argue that “global warming stopped in 1998,” with these claims and similar statements reappearing recently on the Republican presidential campaign trail.

Statistical analysis suggested all along that the claims were false, and that the slowdown was, at most, a minor blip in an inexorable trend, perhaps caused by a temporary increase in the absorption of heat by the Pacific Ocean.

“Is there any evidence for a pause in the long-term global warming rate?” said Gavin A. Schmidt, head of NASA’s climate-science unit, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in Manhattan. “The answer is no. That was true before last year, but it’s much more obvious now.”

Michael E. Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, calculated that if the global climate were not warming, the odds of setting two back-to-back record years would be remote, about one chance in every 1,500 pairs of years. Given the reality that the planet is warming, the odds become far higher, about one chance in 10, according to Dr. Mann’s calculations.

Two American government agencies — NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — compile separate analyses of the global temperature, based upon thousands of measurements from weather stations, ships and ocean buoys scattered around the world. Meteorological agencies in Britain and Japan do so, as well. The agencies follow slightly different methods to cope with problems in the data, but obtain similar results.

The American agencies released figures on Wednesday showing that 2015 was the warmest year in a global record that began, in their data, in 1880. British scientists released figures showing 2015 as the warmest in a record dating to 1850. The Japan Meteorological Agency had already released preliminary results showing 2015 as the warmest year in a record beginning in 1891.

A warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor, and an intensification of rainstorms was one of the fundamental predictions made by climate scientists decades ago as a consequence of human emissions. That prediction has come to pass, with the rains growing more intense across every region of the United States, but especially so in the East.

Some additional measurements, of shorter duration, are available for the ocean depths and the atmosphere above the surface, both generally showing an inexorable long-term warming trend.

Most satellite measurements of the lower and middle layers of the atmosphere show 2015 to have been the third- or fourth-warmest year in a 37-year record, and scientists said it was slightly surprising that the huge El Niño had not produced a greater warming there. They added that this could yet happen in 2016.

When temperatures are averaged at a global scale, the differences between years are usually measured in fractions of a degree. In the NOAA data set, 2015 was 0.29 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than 2014, the largest jump ever over a previous record. NASA calculated a slightly smaller figure, but still described it as an unusual one-year increase.

The intense warmth of 2015 contributed to a heat wave in India last spring that turns out to have been the second-worst in that country’s history, killing an estimated 2,500 people. The long-term global warming trend has exacted a severe toll from extreme heat, with eight of the world’s 10 deadliest heat waves occurring since 1997.

Only rough estimates of heat deaths are available, but according to figures from the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, in Brussels, the toll over the past two decades is approaching 140,000 people, with most of those deaths occurring during a European heat wave in 2003 and a Russian heat wave in 2010.

The strong El Niño has continued into 2016, raising the possibility that this year will, yet again, set a global temperature record. The El Niño pattern is also disturbing the circulation of the atmosphere, contributing to worldwide weather extremes that include a drought in southern Africa, threatening the food supply of millions.

Record Snow Storm Paralyzes Life In New York

January 27, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

New York, NY; January 24, 2016: A killer snowstorm paralyzed the East Coast on January 23th effectively shutting down New York City and the nation’s capital, while dumping as much as 3 feet of snow in other areas.

New York City recorded its second-largest snowfall since 1869, with Central Park receiving 26.8 inches by midnight — 0.1 inch shy of tying the record 26.9 inches set in 2006, the National Weather Service said. Baltimore got a record 25.5 inches, breaking a daily record set in 1935, and a measurement of 22.3 inches of snow was taken in Washington, D.C. at midnight.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo closed all roads in New York City and Long Island at 2:30 p.m. Saturday as well as tunnels and bridges going to New Jersey. Above-ground sections of the subway and New York City buses stopped running.

The travel ban was lifted at 7 a.m. Sunday, Cuomo said. “We have made very good progress in cleaning the roads,” Cuomo said in a conference call with reporters. While unusual, Cuomo said the shutdown was necessary because “the storm was fast and furious, and we believe that safety is paramount.”

This weekend’s massive winter storm is now the second largest in New York City’s history. Central Park’s weather station recorded 26.8 inches of snow so far for this storm. The storm secured the third slot earlier in the night, surpassing the blizzard of 1888. The record for the top slot is 26.9 inches of snow, which is from February 2006 — so it’s just 1/10 off from breaking the record. “This is a storm of a lifetime,” said Meteorologist Jeff Smith.

There were three shoveling-related deaths in New York City, officials said. Two people also died while apparently using snow blowers on Long Island Saturday, police said. New York City Police said they had responded to 312 car accidents and 343 disabled vehicles across the city.

With travel prohibited, major landmarks and attractions quickly closed their doors. All Broadway matinee and evening performances were canceled, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art shuttered early.

The winter storm resulted in a travel ban across the city and on Long Island, the shutdown of MTA buses and the closure of above-ground subway lines throughout the city. The travel was lifted early Sunday morning, while mass transit was slowly resuming. Three people — one on Staten Island and two in Queens — died while shoveling snow in the city. Staten Island had the most snow in the city, piling up 31.3 inches of snow!

Blizzard strikes East Coast, shuts down travel

January 24, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Washington, DC; January 24, 2016: A massive winter storm clobbered the East Coast on Saturday, January 23, 2016, dumping more than three feet of snow in parts of West Virginia and Maryland, tying up traffic on highways, grounding thousands of flights and shutting down travel in the nation’s largest city.

From the Carolinas to New York, tens of thousands were without power Saturday night as a result of the storm, which was finally heading out to the Atlantic. Except for some isolated flurries, snowfall in most of the major cities will likely finish early Sunday morning, CNN Meteorologist Sean Morris said.

40 inches of snow was recorded in Glengary, West Virginia; 39 inches fell in Philomont, Virginia; and Redhouse, Maryland, received 38 inches. In Central Park in New York City 25.1 inches of snow fell making it the third-largest snowfall on record. More than 28 inches of snow at Dulles International Airport, the second-largest snowfall recorded there. Baltimore’s BWI notched 29.2 inches.

At least 14 people dead (six in North Carolina, three in Virginia, one in Kentucky, three in New York City and one in Maryland).11 states declared states of emergency: Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia. Washington, D.C., has declared a “snow emergency.” 8,569 flights canceled for Saturday and Sunday, according to FlightAware.com. More than 74,000 people without power.

East Coast In USA Braces For Snowstorm

January 20, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Experts are forecasting a potentially major snowstorm that could blanket the Northeast in snow over the weekend for the first time this season. “It now looks increasingly likely a significant winter storm will take shape starting Thursday and lasting through the weekend,” the Weather Channel says.

Most forecasters, though, aren’t ready to sound the major warning sirens for how much snow could potentially fall.

The National Weather Service, which issued a hazardous weather outlook for snowstorms in the Northeast this weekend, said only that the Northeast could get an “inch or greater of liquid equivalent,” meaning “many inches of snow.”

Weather Underground said at least 12.

The Weather Channel was calling for 5 to 8 inches of snow through the weekend in New York City but 22 inches of snow in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Some experts, though, went with the dire, hunker-down forecast. The so-called Euro Model, for example, called for more than 20 inches of snow in parts of Massachusetts.

The upshot: Nobody really knows just yet how much snow is coming.

“Uncertainties remain with the exact track of the storm and how long it will last,” the Weather Channel said. “It’s looking unlikely that a winter storm will fail to develop at all, but for many locations it’s far from certain what kind of impact this system will have.”

While it’s been bitter cold the last few days in the Northeast — as anyone who’s stepped outside knows all too well — warm temperatures have been the norm for most of the winter so far, and major snowfall has been notably absent.

That looks like it will change this weekend.

A low-pressure system is expected to develop over the Midwest and the South and combining with “upper-level energy” moving in from the Rockies, the Weather Channel said.

The system will gain strength, move Eastward and take aim at coastal cities, the Weather Channel predicts. The full moon this weekend could increase the impact of coastal flooding, the channel said.

“The potential exists for many, many inches of snow,” Accuweather’s Bernie Rayno said in a video forecast.

Here’s a timeline of what was being forecast Tuesday afternoon by the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center:

Thursday, January 21: Snow and rain will fall in the Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi valleys, moving towards the Atlantic.

Friday, January 22: Parts of the Ohio Valley, Central Appalachians and the Mid-Atlantic will see “heavy snow,” and the system Friday night will turn to the Northeast.

Saturday, January 23: “Heavy snow” and “high winds” will hit the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

The snowfall would mark the beginning of the unofficial “snow season,” especially in major cities along the East Coast that have so far been deprived of significant winter weather.

In New York City, for example, snowfall was recorded Saturday in Central Park, the sixth-latest first snow on record for the area, according to the channel.

Washington D.C., Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are also all below average in snowfall so far this year as of January 18, the channel said.

CoP 21: The Start of a Long Journey

January 20, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

NEW DELHI, Jan 14 2016 – The agreement reached in December, 2015 at the 21st Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a major step forward in dealing with the challenge of climate change. The very fact that almost every country in the world signed off on this agreement is a major achievement, credit for which must go in substantial measure to the Government of France and its leadership. However, in scientific terms, while this agreement certainly brings all the Parties together in moving ahead, in itself the commitments that have been made under the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) are quite inadequate for limiting temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century relative to pre-industrial levels.

Any agreement on climate change has to take into account the scientific assessment of the impacts that the world may face and the risks that it would have to bear if adequate efforts are not made to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Scientific assessment is also necessary on the level of mitigation that would limit risks from consequential impacts to acceptable levels. The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has come up with a clear assessment of where the world is going if it moves along business as usual. The AR5 clearly states that without additional mitigation efforts beyond those in place today, and even with adaptation, warming by the end of the 21st Century will lead to high to very high risk of severe, widespread and irreversible impacts globally. Adaptation and mitigation are complementary strategies for reducing and managing the risks of climate change. Correspondingly, substantial emissions reductions over the next few decades can reduce climate risks in the 21st Century and beyond, increase prospects for effective adaptation, reduce the costs and challenges of mitigation in the longer term and contribute to climate-resilient pathways for sustainable development.

Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, is the Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and Former Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2002-2015 — Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri

In the AR5, five Reasons For Concern (RFCs) aggregate climate change risks and illustrate the implications of warming and of adaptation limits for people, economies and ecosystems across sectors and regions. The five RFCs are associated with: (1) Unique and threatened systems, (2) Extreme weather events, (3) Distribution of impacts, (4) Global aggregate impacts, and (5) Large scale singular events. These RFCs grow directly in proportion to the extent of warming projected for different scenarios.

Substantial cuts in GHG emissions over the next few decades can substantially reduce risks of climate change by limiting warming in the second half of the 21st century and beyond. Cumulative emissions of CO2 largely determine global mean surface warming by the late 21st century and beyond. Limiting risks across RFCs would imply a limit for cumulative emissions of CO2. Such a limit would require that global net emissions of CO2 eventually decrease to zero and would constrain annual emissions over the next few decades. But some risks from climate damages are unavoidable, even with mitigation and adaptation. This results from the fact that there is inertia in the system whereby the increased concentration of GHGs in the earth’s atmosphere will create impacts which are now inevitable.

The Paris agreement is an extremely significant step taken by the global community, but to deal effectively with the challenge ahead, a much higher level of ambition would be required by all the countries of the world than is currently embodied in the INDCs. A review of the INDCs is due to take place only in 2018 and 2023. This may be too late, because a higher level of ambition will need to be demonstrated urgently, if the world is to reduce emissions significantly before 2030. Delaying additional mitigation to 2030 will substantially increase the challenges associated with limited warming over the 21st century to below 2 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels. And, if the global community is serious about evaluating the impacts of climate change within a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, then stringent mitigation actions will have to be taken much earlier than 2030. If early action is not taken, then a much more rapid scale up of low carbon energy over the period 2030 to 2050 would become necessary with a larger reliance on carbon dioxide removal in the long term and higher transitional and long term economic impacts.

In essence, Paris has to be seen as the beginning of a journey. If the world is to minimize the risks from the impacts of climate change adequately, then the public in each country must demand a far more ambitious set of mitigation measures than embedded in the Paris agreement. That clearly is the challenge that the world is facing, and the global community must take in hand urgently the task of informing the public on the scientific facts related to climate change as a follow up to Paris. Then only would we get adequate action for risks being limited to acceptable levels.

World Bank Approves $1.5 Billion Loan to Support ‘Clean India’ Campaign

December 30, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Finance/Economy 0

The World Bank reported that it has approved a $1.5 billion loan to India for its ambitious “Clean India” campaign to support the government’s efforts to ensure all citizens in rural areas have access to improved sanitation and end the practice of open defecation by 2019. The loan, disbursed over a five-year period, will be used for the Swachh Bharat Mission Support Operation Project.

As per World Bank statistics, of the 2.4 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation globally, more than 750 million live in India, with 80 percent living in rural areas. More than 500 million of the rural population in India continues to defecate in the open, suffering from preventable deaths, illness, stunting, harassment and economic losses.

“One in every ten deaths in India is linked to poor sanitation. And studies show that low-income households bear the maximum brunt of poor sanitation,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank country director for India. “This project, aimed at strengthening the implementation of the Swachh Bharat initiative of the government, will result in significant health benefits for the poor and vulnerable, especially those living in rural areas.

“Incentivizing good performance by states and the focus on behavioral changes are two important components of this project,” Ruhl added. The bank said the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation will play the overseeing and coordinating role for the program and support the participating states.

Funds will also be used to develop the capacity of MDWS in program management, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation. “India has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in pursuing the ambitious SBM campaign and embracing the focus on behavior to complement the construction of toilets,” said Annette Dixon, World Bank vice president for the South Asia Region.

The World Bank will also provide a parallel $25 million technical assistance to build the capacity of select state governments in implementing community-led behavioral change programs targeting social norms to help ensure widespread usage of toilets by rural households.

Climate Change Seen as Top Global Threat

December 30, 2015 Staff ReporterEnvironment, Social Media 0

As the world leaders were gathering in for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris this December, many publics around the world name global climate change as a top threat, according to a new Pew Research Center survey measuring perceptions of international challenges. This is particularly true in Latin America and Africa, where majorities in most countries say they are very concerned about this issue. But as the Islamic militant group ISIS maintains its hold in Iraq and Syria and intensifies its grisly public executions, Europeans and Middle Easterners most frequently cite ISIS as their main concern among international issues.

Global economic instability also figures prominently as the top concern in a number of countries, and it is the second biggest concern in half of the countries surveyed. In contrast, concerns about Iran’s nuclear program as well as cyberattacks on governments, banks or corporations are limited to a few nations. Israelis and Americans are among the most concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, while South Koreans and Americans have the greatest concern about cyberattacks relative to other publics. And apprehension about tensions between Russia and its neighbors, or territorial disputes between China and surrounding countries, largely remain regional concerns.

These are among the findings of a new Pew Research Center survey, conducted in 40 countries among 45,435 respondents from March 25 to May 27, 2015. The report focuses on those who say they are “very concerned” about each issue.

Across the nations surveyed, the level of concern about different international issues varies considerably by region and country, and in some places multiple issues vie for the top spot.

Publics in 19 of 40 nations surveyed cite climate change as their biggest worry, making it the most widespread concern of any issue included in the survey. A median of 61% of Latin Americans say they are very concerned about climate change, the highest share of any region. And more than half in every Latin American nation surveyed report substantial concerns about climate change. In Peru and Brazil, where years of declining deforestation rates have slowly started to climb, fully three-quarters express anxiety about climate change.

Sub-Saharan Africans also voice substantial concerns about climate change. A median of 59% say they are very concerned, including about half or more in all countries surveyed. Climate change is particularly worrying in Burkina Faso (79%), Uganda (74%) and Ghana (71%), while South Africans (47%) and Tanzanians (49%) are the least concerned.

Both regions are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, as is Asia, where a median of 41% voice great concern about the issue. Indians (73%) and Filipinos (72%) are particularly worried, but climate change captures the top spot in half of the Asian countries surveyed.

Concern about climate change is relatively low in Europe. While a median of 42% report being very concerned, global climate change is not one of the top two threats in any European country surveyed. Anxiety about this issue is highest in Spain (59%), but just 14% in Poland say the same. In a number of European nations, concern about climate change is more pronounced for those on the left of the political spectrum. Ideological differences are particularly large in the United Kingdom, where about half of those on the left (49%) express serious concerns, compared with 30% of those on the right. Those to the left of the political center are also considerably more concerned about global climate change in Italy, France and Spain.

Global climate change ranks substantially lower as a comparative global threat for Americans, with 42% saying they are very concerned about the issue. The only global issue that is even less worrying to Americans: territorial disputes between China and its neighbors (30%). Much like in Europe, perceptions in the U.S. about the threat of climate change depend on ideology. About six-in-ten Democrats (62%) are very concerned about climate change, while just 20% of

Publics in 14 countries express the greatest concern about ISIS, the militant group seeking to create an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria. In Europe, a median of 70% express serious concerns about the threat posed by the growing organization. Apprehension is greatest in Spain (77%), but anxiety about ISIS is high throughout the continent. Even in Poland, where just 29% voice serious worries, fear of ISIS is second only to worries about tensions between Russia and its neighbors.

As ISIS continues to control territory in Iraq and Syria, concern in neighboring countries is high. More than eight-in-ten in Lebanese (84%) are very concerned about ISIS. Fear is especially high among Muslims in Lebanon, Syria’s western neighbor: 90% of Sunnis and 87% of Shia say they are very concerned, compared with 76% of Christians. More than half in Jordan (62%) and the Palestinian territories (54%) also express substantial worries about ISIS. Compared with other international issues, concern about ISIS also ranks highly in Israel and Turkey, which has seen a flood of refugees across its southern border as violence escalates.

A majority of Americans (68%) and Canadians (58%) are also very concerned about the looming threat of the Islamic State. In both countries, anxiety about ISIS is the top concern of the issues included in the survey. Concern is similarly high in a number of Asian nations, including South Korea (75%), Japan (72%), Australia (69%) and Indonesia (65%). Publics in all four countries cite ISIS as their top concern. Relatively few in Africa and Latin America voice serious concern about the threat of ISIS. Only in Tanzania do roughly half (51%) report substantial concerns, the highest of any country in either region.

While concerns about climate change and ISIS take the top spots in an overwhelming majority of the countries surveyed, the most frequent secondary concern around the world is the instability of the global economy. A top concern in five countries, including Russia, the economy is the second highest concern in 20 countries.

Economic instability is among the top threats in Latin America, where a median of 54% express serious concerns. Six-in-ten in Brazil and Venezuela say they are very concerned about economic issues, the highest in Latin America. Both nations have seen little to no growth in the past year, and their economic woes are expected to deepen in 2015. Economic worries are similarly troubling for countries in Africa. Ghanaians (67%), Ugandans (62%) and Senegalese (59%) are most concerned about the economy, but economic instability is considered one of the top two concerns in every country surveyed in Africa.

Russia and Ukraine, which are facing contracting economies in 2015, consider economic instability a major threat. In Russia, 43% say they are very concerned about the economy, the highest-ranking concern of any issue tested there. About a third of Ukrainians (35%) agree; economic worries are second only to their concerns about tensions with Russia.

The economy is somewhat less concerning in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Still, a third or more in each region say they are very concerned about global economic instability, and the issue still ranks as the second-highest threat in seven countries, including some of the world’s largest economies – China, France, India and Italy all rate economic issues as one of their top two concerns.

Israelis are the only public surveyed to rate Iran as their top concern among the international issues tested. More than half of Israelis (53%) have substantial concerns about the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program. Israeli Jews (59%) are far more likely than Israeli Arabs (23%) to express anxiety.

Americans also see Iran’s nuclear program as a major issue. Roughly six-in-ten (62%) say they are very concerned, making Iran the second-highest-ranked threat of those included in the poll. While a median of 42% of Europeans express strong concern about Iran, only in the UK is it considered one of the top two dangers. Relatively few in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East say they are very concerned about Iran’s nuclear program.

Worldwide, the threat of cyberattacks on governments, banking or corporations does not resonate as a top tier worry, though there are pockets of anxiety. In particular, worries about the systematic hacking of computer networks are highest in the U.S. (59%) and South Korea (55%), both of which experienced high profile cyberattacks in recent years. Fewer than half in every other country surveyed express serious concerns about the threat of cyberattacks.

Earth’s Recent History May Predict Global Temperatures

December 22, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Climate change over the last 150 years may estimate future global temperatures, a NASA study has found. According to a new NASA study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, to quantify climate change, researchers need to know the Transient Climate Response (TCR) and Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS) of Earth.

TCR is characteristic of short-term predictions, up to a century out, while ECS looks centuries further into the future, when the entire climate system has reached equilibrium and temperatures have stabilised. As part of that calculation that depended on the measurements of important climate drivers, such as carbon dioxide, the researchers have relied on simplifying assumptions when accounting for the temperature impacts of climate drivers other than carbon dioxide, such as tiny particles in the atmosphere known as aerosols.

But the assumptions made to account for these drivers are too simplistic and result in incorrect estimates of TCR and ECS, said Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist and director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, who is also a co-author of the study.

“The problem with that approach is that it falls way short of capturing the individual regional impacts of each of those variables,” he said. Earlier NASA calculated the temperature impact of each of variables like greenhouse gases, natural and manmade aerosols, ozone concentrations, and land use changes based on historical observations from 1850 to 2005 using a massive ensemble of computer simulations.

However, earlier studies did not account for what amounts to a net cooling effect for parts of the northern hemisphere and the predictions for TCR and ECS were lower than they should have been. “If you’ve got a systematic underestimate of what the greenhouse gas-driven change would be, then you’re systematically underestimating what’s going to happen in the future when greenhouse gases are by far the dominant climate driver,” Schmidt said.

Historic ‘Paris Agreement’ to Address Climate Change

December 21, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries reached an agreement Saturday, December 12^th this year on what they say signifies the most important international pact to address climate change since the issue first emerged as a political priority, decades ago. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who headed up the United Nations conference, commonly known as COP 21, said the final deal successfully resolved points of contention that had taken negotiations into overtime and called the agreement “the best possible text.”

“We have come to a defining moment on a long journey that dates back decades,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon before passage of the agreement. “The document with which you have just presented us is historic. It promises to set the world on a new path to a low emissions, climate-resilient future.”

The deal, known as the Paris Agreement, represents remarkable compromise after years of negotiations in which developing countries wrangled with their developed counterparts and failed to come to agreement on several key occasions. Supporters say the agreement will help define the energy landscape for the remainder of the century and signal to markets the beginning of the end of more than one hundred years of dependence on fossil fuels for economic growth

The historic agreement, containing a strong long-term goal to reduce carbon emissions, provisions explaining how developing countries will receive financing for their efforts to adapt to climate change, and a transparency system to ensure that countries meet their promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were among those key goals. The agreement includes a long-term goal of holding global temperature rise “well below” 2°C (3.6°F) by 2100 and recognizes a maximum temperature rise of below 1.5°C (2.7°F) as an ideal goal. The 2°C target is needed to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change, according to climate scientists, but it would not be enough to save many of the world’s most vulnerable countries. Those nations, largely small Pacific Island countries, launched a large-scale push for the more aggressive 1.5°C target to be included in the agreement. The draft text also calls for “global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible” and for the continued reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of this century as science allows.

Measures to finance efforts to fight climate change in the developing world had also been a key sticking point in negations. The agreement renews a commitment by developed countries to send $100 billion a year beginning in 2020 to developing countries to support their efforts to fight climate change. The deal describes the sum as a “floor,” which may presumably be increased.

The notion that developed and developing countries should have different responsibilities has been a key principle of climate negotiations since countries first gathered in a large-scale conference to address global warming in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. A gathering that year divided countries into two groupings based on their development status and required vastly different efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from each group.

But as officially “developing” nations like China grew rapidly—with accompanying carbon emissions—the U.S. and other developed countries have not asked to do away with the notion of different responsibilities entirely, but they have called for a less stringent system that takes into account economic growth and other factors that affect their capabilities. Such a system would take into account the evolving capabilities of developing countries.

When the two weeks long Paris Climate talks began, India came to the table walking a tightrope. While wanting to show to the world that the world’s fourth-biggest carbon emitter was ready to play a constructive role in international climate negotiations, India needed to show citizens back home that addressing climate change would not detract from development goals—particularly the need to bring power to the quarter of the population that goes without it.

India needed to sign onto whatever deal negotiators reach in Paris for the agreement to have legitimacy, given its importance in the global economy and its sheer size. India, the country of 1.2 billion people to continue to rise in the rankings of top emitters as its economy grows and as a greater share of its population gains access to electricity. “India is sometimes the man in the middle,” said Anjali ‪Jaiswal, director of the India Initiative at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “India’s role here at the [conference] is often bridging the many nations across the world and also bridging development with climate action.” In the end, India has emerged as a key player in shaping the agreement, leaving observers to hope that it will not play the same role slowing negotiations at the last minute that other key developing countries have played in past conferences.

India’s position has made it a key player in the effort come to an agreement. The U.S. in particular has lobbied hard with Secretary of State John Kerry holding at least two bilateral meetings with Javadekar and Obama speaking by phone with Modi.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly said that the country needs to address climate change, not because of pressure from Western countries but because of the potential damage warming could cause worldwide and in India especially. The country set an ambitious goal of receiving 40% of its power from renewable resources by 2030 and in recent weeks launched a solar power alliance aimed at growing solar power production in the developing world. The country also recently set a target to develop 100 GW of solar power capacity by 2022, a huge ramp up from current capacity.

Modi defended a principle that developed countries should have more stringent responsibilities than their developing counterparts—a concept known as “differentiation”—and suggested that the principle should be a bedrock part of nearly every provision of the agreement. “Climate justice demands that, with the little carbon space we still have, developing countries should have enough room to grow,” he said at a speech at the beginning of the Paris summit.

Part of what underlies India’s position on differentiation is the belief that the efforts taken by the country so far outweighs its contribution to climate change. India’s per-capita carbon emissions add up to just 1.7 metric tons, 10 times less than America’s per-capita emissions. Prakash Javadekar, India’s environment minister, told the media in an interview that his country had done four times their fair share to address climate change, based on past carbon emissions, while the developed countries have done far less. “The developed world has done much less than their fair share,” said Javadekar. “Everyone must at least do what their fair share demands. Then it will be a collective action. Then it will be more robust.”

Why Europe Will Soon Be Cold?

December 10, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

What is the climate waiting for Russia and Europe in 15-20 years? Will be there weather abnormalities in the coming decades? Will some areas experience more severe winter, while the others will have hot summer? It all depends on how much the climate will be affected by the dynamics of the possible onset of minimum solar magnetic activity. The Sun’s behaviour in future cycles is the main theme of a publication on the forecast and explanation of the minima of solar activity. The paper was prepared with contributions from Elena Popova from the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics (Lomonosov Moscow State University) and was published in Scientific Reports.

Scientists have studied the evolution of the solar magnetic field and the number of sunspots on the Sun’s surface. The amplitude and the spatial configuration of the magnetic field of our star are changing over the years. Every 11 years the number of sunspots decreases sharply. Every 90 years this reduction (when it coincides with the 11-year cycle) reduces the number of spots by about a half. A 300-400 year lows reduce their numbers almost to zero. Best known minimum is the Maunder minimum, which lasted roughly from 1645 to 1715. During this period, there were about 50 sunspots instead of the usual 40 000-50 000.

Analysis of solar radiation showed that its highs and lows almost coincide with the maxima and minima in the number of spots. By studying changes in the number of sunspots, analyzing the content of isotopes like carbon-14, beryllium-10, and others, in glaciers and trees, the researchers concluded that the solar magnetic activity has a cyclic structure.

A group of scientists – Valentina Tarasova (Northumbria University, England, Space Research Institute, Ukraine), Elena Popova (SINP, MSU), Simon John Shepherd (University of Bradford, England) and Sergei Zharkov (University of Hull, England) – analyzed three solar activity cycles from 1976 to 2009, using the so-called “principal component analysis”, which allows reveal waves of solar magnetic field with the biggest contribution in the observational data. As a result of a new method of analysis, it was found that the magnetic waves in the Sun are generated in pairs, and the main pair is responsible for changes in the dipole field, which is observed when solar activity is changing. Also scientists have managed to obtain analytical formulas describing the evolution of both waves.

Using empirically found two waves of the magnetic field, Elena Popova hypothesized that the minima of solar magnetic activity can be caused by the process of the beating of these two waves. Each wave is generated at different depths in the Sun and the waves have similar frequencies. As a result of ascent of the magnetic field on the surface the waves begin to interact which ends in beating of amplitude of the resulting magnetic field. This leads to a significant decline in the amplitude of the magnetic field for several decades. Comparison of the results of the model was carried out both with an array of observed magnetic field data for cycles 21-23, and with the observed data of solar activity over 1000 years. On this scale the model calculations of Popova were very close to the characteristics of solar magnetic activity.

By highlighting the indicative period of the beats (which is about a few centuries), scientists have reconstructed solar activity since ancient times (starting from the year 1200) and predicted it until the year 3200. The given chart shows that solar activity decreases dramatically about every 350 years. And upcoming decrease in solar activity begins nowadays.

“Studies have shown that over the last 400 000 years there were 5 global warming and 4 ice ages. What caused them? How much can solar activity affect the weather and climate change? This question is still not solved and is extremely relevant and interesting challenge for the various researchers around the world. There are a number of theories that suggest very different degrees of influence of solar activity on weather and climate. In addition to solar activity, climatologists offer other factors that may affect the dynamics of Earth’s climate system.

Such a system is a very complex nonlinear system, and further use of numerical simulation and analysis of paleodata can help in the investigation”, says Elena Popova. “If in the near future there would be a minimum of solar activity, it would give an opportunity to see what happens with the climate dynamics and test existing theories about the influence of solar activity.

Actually, even if we start from the simple knowledge of the cyclicality of the Sun, it can be said that it’s already time for hundred-year-minima – the previous one has happened in the beginning of XX century. Of course, it is necessary to take into account the effect of other factors and processes in the atmosphere; however, the challenges have always intrigued scientists”

5 Facts You Need to Know About the Paris Climate Summit

December 10, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

We live in a G-Zero world, one with a lack of true global leadership. Just consider climate change—the 250 million people set to be displaced by unchecked warming in the next few decades alone will make Syria’s humanitarian crisis look like a blip. And yet the hopes for a unified global response are slim. Still, negotiators at the UN climate change conference in Paris seem likely to find ways to move the needle even in a leadership vacuum. Here’s what you need to know.

The world is now more than halfway toward exceeding the 2 degree Celsius threshold scientists have warned could make global warming catastrophic and irreversible. The World Health Organization estimates that climate change is already responsible for 141,000 deaths annually—by 2050, that number is projected to rise to 250,000. The World Bank expects global warming to push 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030.

As ocean temperatures rise and glaciers melt, weather-related disasters will grow in both frequency and severity. In the last two decades, floods have hit 2.3 billion people, mostly in Asia. Droughts have affected more than 1 billion people, primarily in Africa. Heat waves have killed nearly 148,000 people, the majority of them in Europe. Wildfires have affected 108,000 people and have cost more than $11 billion dollars in damages to the U.S. No part of the world is immune.

Those are terrifying numbers—terrifying enough to bring the world’s leaders to the negotiating table multiple times before, but not quite bad enough to get them to agree on anything substantial. The push to address climate change at a global level began in the 1990s with the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels. But without ratification by the U.S., among other problems, Kyoto was dead on arrival. The next serious attempt was the Copenhagen conference in 2009, this time with developing powers China, India, Brazil and South Africa taking lead roles. But talks went nowhere substantial.

It turns out that while plenty of countries want to fix climate change, they don’t want to be legally bound to do so. The Paris conference tries to fix this problem by having each country make its own national pledge rather than sign up to a collectively enforced goal. The current pledges, if fulfilled, would reduce the growth rate of the world’s carbon footprint from 8 percent a year to 5 percent. To have a 50-50 shot at keeping the global temperature below the 2 degree Celsius mark, CO2 levels must stop growing by 2020 and then be halved by 2050. We’re not remotely on track.

But the world has to start somewhere. China overtook the U.S. as the world’s lead carbon polluter in total volume in 2007 and has held the title ever since. In 2013, China churned out 28 percent of the world’s CO2. But where other countries are actively trying to ratchet back their emissions below current levels, China has simply pledged to reach its peak CO2 emissions by “around 2030,” which is when experts predict that China’s emissions would naturally peak anyway thanks to economic and demographic changes. China is also pledging to reduce emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, essentially becoming much more carbon efficient. According to Bloomberg, though, that goal is actually less ambitious just continuing business as usual.

Of course, it makes sense for China to offer such weak pledges. Beijing is busy trying to transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a consumer-oriented one, which will impact economic growth. Meanwhile, China’s growing middle class is demanding basics like clean air and water. It’s easy to see why: air pollution kills 1.4 million Chinese people each year. Beijing needs to show that it’s making progress toward delivering the quality lives it’s promised, without comprising the economic growth that underpins them. It’s a tough needle to thread.

Right behind China comes America, responsible for 14 percent of global CO2 emissions. But on a per capita basis, the U.S. emits far more. Each American produces 17 metric tons of CO2 each year on average, compared to 6 tons for the average Chinese. For the Paris meetings, America has promised to cut its carbon emissions between 26 and 28 percent by 2025 compared to its 2005 baseline. That’s pretty impressive when you consider that a full 25 percent of Americans still don’t believe there’s solid evidence for global warming. Only 42 percent of Americans say they are very concerned about global warming. The only international issue that’s less worrying for Americans is territorial disputes between China and its neighbors, which polls at 30 percent.

And then there’s the matter of a Republican-controlled Congress. Within hours of Barack Obama’s arrival in Paris, Congress passed resolutions gutting EPA rules designed to limit carbon emissions. It’s tough to project solidarity with the world on climate change when you can’t even muster it in your own country.

Europe, which is responsible for 10 percent of global man-made CO2 emissions, has taken a more proactive approach to climate change. European leaders have signed a climate change pact among themselves to cut the E.U.’s greenhouse gases 40 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, mirroring their proposal in Paris. If things break right, Germany may even be able to reduce its own CO2 emissions 40 percent by 2020, 10 years ahead of schedule.
But cracks among the 28-member union are beginning to show. Poland’s new government is pushing back against the pact that was signed by the previous government, arguing that the country’s coal-dependent economy will suffer disproportionately.

Of course, between terrorism, tensions with Russia and a refugee crisis, spats over climate are the least of Europe’s worries at the moment. And that’s the crux of the issue. There’s always a clear and present danger that supersedes climate change concerns. The goal in Paris is not to solve global warming, but to help the world keep its eyes on the prize. Let’s hope these next two weeks can achieve that much.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Meets With President Obama in Paris

December 8, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Politics 0

President Obama met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India to discuss their efforts to put in place a lasting framework to address global climate change. The two leaders discussed the urgent threat posed by climate change and reaffirmed their commitment to a successful agreement in Paris.

According to a White House Press Release, the two leaders agreed that the Paris agreement must drive serious and ambitious action by all nations to curb carbon pollution, while at the same time protecting the ability of countries such as India to pursue their priorities of development, growth, and poverty eradication.

The President and Prime Minister committed their teams to work closely to achieve these objectives. Additionally, the President welcomed Prime Minister Modi’s initiatives to increase renewable energy deployment in India, his leadership to form a solar alliance, and our partnership to launch Mission Innovation, a ground-breaking new initiative that will accelerate the pace at which we can develop and deploy affordable clean energy technology to populations around the world.

In addition to the climate agenda, the two leaders discussed additional steps to deepen their countries’ strategic partnership on bilateral, regional, and global issues.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Meets With President Obama in Paris — Prime Minister Narendra Modi with President Obama

Meanwhile, the White House heaped high praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he has a clear understanding of the India-U.S. relationship and a clear vision for where he wants to take his country. President Barack Obama “certainly does respect Prime Minister Modi and has appreciation for his skills and abilities as a politician,” the White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters here Wednesday when asked about the relationship between the two leaders.

“He also is somebody who is given the very difficult challenge of sitting atop the world’s largest democracy — that’s not easy work, and the President of the United States has special insight into how difficult it is.”

Obama has found “Modi to be somebody who is honest and direct,” he said. He is “somebody who has good command of the facts; somebody who has a clear understanding of the issues that confront his country and our relationship,” Earnest said. “He is also somebody that has a clear vision for where he wants to take his country. And that makes him not just an effective politician but an effective Prime Minister.”

Earnest noted that Obama “has had the opportunity to consult with Prime Minister Modi on a number of occasions. And I think that isn’t just a testament to their good working relationship — it actually is a testament to the important issues that are at stake between our two countries.”

“And the ability of the leaders of our two countries to work through those issues and to advance our shared interests is a good thing — it’s a good thing for the world, it’s also a good thing for the citizens of our two countries,” Earnest said.

Asked if Obama had invited Modi for a seventh meeting early next year at the White House, the spokesman said he was not “aware of any meetings that are on the agenda at this point, but I certainly wouldn’t rule out another visit by Prime Minister Modi before the end of next year.”

People worldwide support a global emissions agreement

December 8, 2015 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

As world leaders gather and debate in Paris this week to fashion a global climate change accord, their citizens are sending them two different but not necessarily contradictory messages.
People in both rich and poor nations broadly favor their government signing an international agreement limiting greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of coal, natural gas and petroleum. But the degree of concern about climate change varies markedly from country to country.

A new Pew Research Center survey finds there is a global consensus that climate change is a significant challenge. Globally, a median of 78% of people surveyed across 40 nations say they support their country signing an international agreement limiting greenhouse gas emissions. But a global median of just 54% consider climate change to be a very serious problem (a median of 85% say it is at least somewhat serious).

Nowhere is this differential between concern about the climate and support for action more striking than in China, the nation responsible for the greatest annual release of CO2 into the atmosphere. About seven-in-ten Chinese (71%) support an international treaty to curtail emissions, yet just 18% of the public expresses intense concern about climate conditions – a 53-percentage-point differential. These results suggest the Chinese government has general public support for its recent initiatives to deal with global warming even though the Chinese people are not intensely concerned about global warming.

The same pattern holds true for a number of other major carbon-emitting countries. This action-versus-concern gap is 38 percentage points in Japan and 32 points in Russia. In the U.S., just 45% think climate change is a very serious problem, but 69% back government action to curb emissions – a 24-point difference.

The differences between a relatively low perception of the climate challenge and public willingness to do something about it are even greater in other nations, of which some are big CO2 emitters and others are not. Israel (56 points) and Ukraine (48 points) are countries that are not among the top 20 CO2 emitters. But Poland (44 points) and South Korea (41 points) are. Perhaps when it comes to climate change, people around the world are opting for the well-known principle: “Better safe than sorry.”

Indian-Origin Engineer Discovers New Green Power Source

December 4, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Science & Technology 0

Even as the world is looking for ways to save energy and protect the world from the ongoing ecological degradation, an Indian-origin engineer and his team from Concordia University have created a technology to harness the electrical energy from blue-green algae.

“By trapping the electrons released by blue-green algae during photosynthesis and respiration, we can harness the electrical energy they produce naturally,” said engineering professor Muthukumaran Packirisamy who did his MS in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Both photosynthesis and respiration, which take place in plants cells, involve electron transfer chains. Also known as cyanobacteria, blue-green algae are the most prosperous microorganisms on earth. “By taking advantage of a process that is constantly occurring all over the world, we have created a new and scalable technology that could lead to cheaper ways of generating carbon-free energy,” said Packirisamy who is member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The invention, however, is still in its early stages. “We have a lot of work to do in terms of scaling the power cell to make the project commercial,” he said. Currently, the photosynthetic power cell exists on a small scale and consists of an anode, cathode and proton exchange membrane.

The cyanobacteria or blue green algae are placed in the anode chamber. As they undergo photosynthesis, the cyanobacteria release electrons to the electrode surface. An external load is connected to the device to extract the electrons and harness power. Packirisamy hopes that the micro-photosynthetic power cells will soon be used in various applications, such as powering cell phones and computers. “And maybe one day, they will power the world,” he added in a paper published in the journal Technology.

Government Clears $1 Billion Project to Train 5 Million People with World Bank Support

December 4, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Science & Technology 0

The government of India has approved a project entailing World Bank assistance worth $1 billion to provide skill training to over 5 million people. Skill Training for Employability Leveraging Public Private Partnership (STEPPP) project was cleared by the Department of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) said in a release.

“The project will see a World Bank assistance of $1 billion and is expected to provide skill training to over 5 million people in addition to strengthening the skill training infrastructure in underserved geographies and sectors”, the release said.

Welcoming the partnership with the World Bank, Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy highlighted the importance for an integrated approach towards Skill India. “The target for skill development in India is huge and requires a partnered effort by the centre, states, industry, PSUs, and trainers. The association with the World Bank is of strategic importance to achieve the Prime Minister’s vision to make India the skill capital of the world”, said Rudy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) on July 15 this year. The skill training project aims to implement the mandate of the NSDM through its core sub-missions, among other objectives. The STEPPP project will be implemented in mission mode through World Bank support and is aligned with the overall objectives of the NSDM.

Pope Francis Warns Against Special Interests Derailing Climate Talks

December 4, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Pope Francis has warned that it would be “catastrophic” for world leaders to let special interest groups get in the way of a global agreement to curb fossil fuel emissions on the eve of make-or-break climate change talks in Paris.

Francis issued the pointed warning in a speech to the U.N.’s regional office here on Thursday after celebrating his first public Mass on the continent: A joyous, rain-soaked ceremony before 300,000 faithful that saw the Argentine pope being serenaded by ululating Swahili singers, swaying nuns, Maasai tribesmen and dancing children dressed in the colors of Kenya’s flag.

rancis has made ecological concerns a hallmark of his nearly 3-year-old papacy, issuing a landmark encyclical earlier this year that paired the need to care for the environment with the need to care for humanity’s most vulnerable.

Francis argues the two are interconnected since the poor often suffer the most from the effects of global warming, and are largely excluded from today’s fossil-fuel based global economy that is heating up the planet.

On Thursday last week, Francis repeated that message but took particular aim at those who reject the science behind global warming. In the United States, that accounts for several Republican presidential candidates and lawmakers, who have opposed steps President Barack Obama has taken on his own to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“It would be sad, and dare I say even catastrophic, were special interests to prevail over the common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect their own plans and interests,” Francis said.

Francis’ environmental entreaty followed a call for inter-religious dialogue and cooperation to guard against “barbarous” Islamist extremist attacks that have struck the country.

Children bear brunt of climate change: UNICEF

December 4, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

A UNICEF report has pointed out that “of those living in high drought severity areas, 50 million are in countries where more than half the population lives in poverty”. More than half a billion children live in areas with extremely high flood occurrence and 160 million in high drought zones, leaving them exposed to the impacts of climate change, UNICEF has said.

Of the 530 million children in the flood-prone zones, some 300 million live in countries where more than half the population lives in poverty — on less than $3.10 a day, Xinhua cited the UNICEF report last week.

The report pointed out that “of those living in high drought severity areas, 50 million are in countries where more than half the population lives in poverty”.

“The sheer numbers underline the urgency of acting now,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said. “Today’s children are the least responsible for climate change, but they, and their children, are the ones who will live with its consequences. And, as is so often the case, disadvantaged communities face the gravest threat,” he said.

Climate change means more droughts, floods, heatwaves and other severe weather conditions.
These events can cause death and devastation, and can also contribute to the increased spread of major killers of children, such as malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea, according to the report.

The vast majority of the children living in areas at extremely high risk of floods are in Asia, and the majority of those in areas at risk of drought are in Africa, said the report.

In the ongoing 21st UN climate change conference, known as COP21, world leaders gathering in Paris from November 30 to December 11 will seek to reach agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which is critical to limiting potentially catastrophic rises in temperature.

“We know what has to be done to prevent the devastation climate change can inflict. Failing to act would be unconscionable,” said Lake. “We owe it to our children — and to the planet — to make the right decisions at COP21.

Kumar Barve Emphasizes Need For All To Work Together For Clean Energy

December 4, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

“Political leaders, faith leaders and scientists from around the nation and the world need to come together to combat climate disruption,” Kumar Barve, Chairman of the Maryland House Environment and Transportation Committee, said, ahead of the crucial Paris climate summit,. “We must work globally for strong carbon reductions goals in the near term and toward total carbon neutrality for future generations,” he said.

Kumar Barve was the first Indian American elected to serve in a state legislature in United States history. He has represented a Montgomery County district in the Maryland House of Delegates since 1990. He is now running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland’s 8th Congressional district which encompasses parts of Montgomery, Frederick and Carroll Counties.

Barve has been in legislative leadership for much of his career, serving as House Majority Leader from 2003-2014 and now as Chairman of the House Environment and Transportation Committee. His committee has oversight of the environment, land use, state ethics and transportation policy.

As Majority Leader, Barve was the floor leader for the Democratic Party and a senior member of the fiscal leadership in the House. He helped guide policies that resulted in balanced budgets and the maintenance of the state’s Triple-A bond rating.

Kumar Barve Emphasizes Need For All To Work Together For Clean Energy — Kumar Barve

Barve, who represents Rockville and Gaithersburg in the House of Delegates, told two basic stories, one as an immigrant and the other as “a liberal accountant,” reflecting his private-sector career as chief financial officer for an environmental cleanup company and two decades in Annapolis. As head of the Environment and Transportation Committee, he shepherded a moratorium on fracking to approval.

Several Hindu organizations have joined Barve and issued a joint climate change declaration, calling for a complete transition to clean energy as rapidly as possible. “A transition towards using 100 percent clean energy is desperately needed as rapidly as is possible in every nation,” the declaration, signed by over 60 Hindu organizations and spiritual leaders, including head of Art of Living Foundation Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, said.

The ‘Hindu Declaration on Climate Change’ was authored by the Bhumi Project and the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, with support from the Hindu American Foundation. Making the transition to clean energy provides the only basis for sustainable, continued human development and is the best hope for billions of people without electricity or clean cooking facilities to live better lives and reduce poverty, the declaration said.

“Such action must be scientifically credible and historically fair, based on deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through a transition away from polluting technologies, especially away from fossil fuels,” it said. “We must consider the effects of our actions not just on ourselves and those humans around us, but also on all beings. We have a dharmic duty for each of us to do our part in ensuring that we have a functioning, abundant, and bountiful planet,” the declaration said.

Issued in Boston, ahead of the Paris Summit on Climate Change beginning Nov. 30, the declaration said strong, meaningful action must be taken, at both the international and national level to prevent climate change.

India Warms Up to Climate Action

December 4, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

In October 2015, India unveiled a comprehensive strategy to curb its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reduce its vulnerability to a changing climate. Climate advocacy groups hailed the document—which in the parlance of international climate negotiations is known as India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC)—because it signaled a historic shift in India’s stance on climate action. Altogether, 185 countries have now submitted INDCs, accounting for nearly 90 percent of global GHG emissions and raising hopes for a successful accord at the UN climate talks being held in Paris at the end of 2015.

Varun Sivaram, Douglas Dillon Fellow, and Annushka Shivnani in an essay quoting some analysts caution that such optimism is unfounded. The pessimist’s take is that India, the world’s third-largest GHG emitter behind China and the United States, has committed to little more than business as usual. Despite ambitious commitments, for example to rapidly deploy renewable energy sources, India’s emissions are set to more than double by 2030 as the country burns more coal to fuel a growing economy. Left unchecked, India’s annual GHG emissions could be the highest in the world by 2050, both Varun Sivaram and Annushka Shivnani say.

“It is still too early to tell which story—the optimist’s or the pessimist’s—is right,” Sivaram and Shivani write. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi, now in his second year in office, has clearly signaled a break from India’s prior hardline stance against taking responsibility for mitigating climate change, recognizing that India itself could suffer acutely from its effects. But he has also stressed that India’s ability to act on climate is constrained by its needs as a developing country seeking to industrialize and expand affordable energy access.”

They have appealed to the developed countries like the United States to welcome India’s progress in submitting an INDC and seek ways to help it ratchet up its efforts. “For their part, Indian policymakers must understand that renewables like solar and wind are not a silver bullet for climate policy, and that it will take a broader portfolio of reforms to successfully transition to a low-carbon economy,” Sivaram and Shivani say.

According to them, India’s climate policy is beset by an apparent paradox. India is starting from a relatively low point: today, its per capita emissions are only one-third the global average. As its economy expands by more than 7 percent a year, India’s emissions will quickly grow and soon approach the global per capita average. Because carbon emissions from developed countries have historically increased as their economies industrialized, international pressure on India to cap and ultimately reduce total emissions can appear to Indian policymakers as a threat to its pursuit of affordable energy, and thus its economic development.

This dynamic explains India’s historical resistance to reducing its own GHG emissions, especially on a unilateral basis. When it ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty mandating that developed countries reduce their GHG emissions, India embraced the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities,” arguing that developed countries should bear most of the burden of combating climate change. And the Modi administration continues to stress that more than 400 million citizens are underserved by, or lack access to, the electricity grid. As the government contends in the INDC, increasing per capita energy consumption is crucial “to provide a dignified life to its population and meet their rightful aspirations.”

In its INDC, India outlines a suite of actions related to curbing the growth of its emissions (known as climate change “mitigation”) and to preparing for the likely effects of climate change (or “adaptation”). The Modi administration has called its commitment “ambitious but achievable,” but it cautions that the price tag of the entire INDC—including public and private sector investment—could be $2.5 trillion by 2030, far exceeding the resources of India’s government and domestic investors. As a result, India contends that successfully achieving its goals will require financial assistance and technology transfer from developed countries.

The vast majority—80 percent—of the projected expenses arise from the plan’s mitigation commitments. To curb India’s GHG emission growth, the Modi administration has committed to reduce its emissions intensity by 33–35 percent below 2005 levels—principally through deploying renewable energy and also by improving the energy efficiency of its industrial sector. The INDC also sets a target for a carbon dioxide “sink,” or capture through additional forest and tree cover.

According to the authors, India is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which include extreme heat, prolonged drought, and changing rainfall patterns that could disrupt agriculture, spread disease, and lead to climate refugees. In response, the INDC outlines a series of investments to prepare for disasters and improve the resilience of agriculture, water resources, glacier and coastal regions, and human health systems.

“India’s INDC submission is, properly understood, just a starting point for future progress,” Sivaram and Shivani say. “India will need a broad portfolio of new energy technologies to transition to a low-carbon economy. The Modi administration is right to insist that India cannot accomplish a low-carbon transition alone, especially given the urgency of improving energy access and maintaining breakneck economic growth. International actors can support India’s transition in several ways.”

The submission of an INDC is a major step forward for both India and global climate efforts, but these difficult decisions await beyond this year’s Paris conference. Achieving effective climate policy in India is a global challenge—and one that, if surmounted, could bring global benefits. India’s initial commitment to the climate talks should raise hopes that more progress, domestic and international, is on the horizon.

India is the fourth most vacation-deprived nation globally

December 4, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

India is the fourth most vacation-deprived nation globally, with 65 percent saying they feel very or somewhat vacation-deprived, according to a survey. About 65 percent of Indians feel they feel very or somewhat vacation-deprived, and 20 per cent said they are very vacation-deprived, full service online travel site Expedia’s ’2015 Vacation Deprivation’ survey has revealed.

UAE topped the list of most vacation-deprived countries in 2015 (76 percent), followed by Malaysia (73 percent) and Singapore (71 percent). If they had more vacation days, most Indians (67 percent) would travel to new places (rather than favourite or usual ones), it revealed.

The annual 2015 Vacation Deprivation survey is about vacation habits across multiple countries and continents. It was conducted on behalf of Expedia by Northstar, a globally—integrated strategic insights consulting firm.

This survey was conducted online from October 6—22, 2015 across 26 countries of North America, Europe, South America and Asia Pacific among 9,273 employed adults aged 18 years and older. Globally, Indians are the most likely (61 percent) to associate vacationing a great deal with their overall happiness, followed by Thailand (56 percent) and UAE (55 percent), the survey revealed.

“Vacations play a critical role in creating a work—life balance as it reenergises people to be more focused at work (53 per cent Indians agree). According to the survey, 54 per cent of Indians would prefer more vacation days over a pay rise, the highest globally. About 61 per cent associate vacations a great deal with their overall happiness,” Expedia India’s Manmeet Ahluwalia said.

The survey found that vacations continue to outrank happiness derived from finding money, getting a tax refund, celebrating a birthday and even being told they look younger than they are.

Ahluwalia said, 94 percent are ready to make sacrifices for just an extra day of vacation. “The deprivation Indians are feeling may stem from the fact that 68 per cent of Indians have cancelled or postponed their vacation due to work commitments,” he added.

The interesting fact, he said, is that while Indians are receiving on an average one additional vacation day this year (from 20 days last year to 21 days this year) and are more likely to say their bosses are supportive of them availing their vacation time than they were last year, they continue to avail fewer days than they receive (an average of 16 days this year and last year).

“This clearly shows that Indians are addicted to their work so much that they often choose to work even when they have earned their time off,” he added. Despite not availing all the vacation days they receive, 73 percent Indians feel they deserve more vacation than they currently get, and that they should receive on an average 15 extra days, according to the survey.

Further, the survey noted that vacations are considered important to travellers’ relationships with their significant others. This is particularly true in India (71 percent strongly agree), Brazil (66 percent) and Mexico (65 percent).

What Winter Will Be Like Where You Live

October 29, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Weather across the U.S. this past year has been one for the record books, from an historic drought in California to extreme snow in New England region. Now, as October nears its end, TIME looked at what the forecasts show for the coming winter. The forecast brings both welcome and unwelcome news. New Englanders and Mid-Atlantic residents, for instance, should be happy that they’ll avoid some of the icy cold that froze the region last winter. Californians are likely to receive heavy rain but not enough to resolve the state’s drought.

Across the country, El Niño is driving much of this year’s weather patterns. The climate phenomenon raises temperatures across the globe and changes the way air circulates. In the U.S., this typically means heavy rain in the south and lower temperatures across much of the country.

81 companies sign pledge on climate change: US

October 26, 2015 Ajay GhoshBusiness, Environment 0

The White House said that a total of 81 companies have signed a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of the country’s efforts to combat climate change. Among the companies signing the American Business Act on Climate Pledge are Coca-Cola, Apple, Intel, IBM and Walmart, Xinhua reported.

The White House said in a statement last week that these companies have operations in all 50 US states, employing more than nine million people and representing more than $3 trillion in annual revenue, with a combined market capitalisation of over $5 trillion.

While voicing expectation for a strong outcome from the upcoming UN climate talks in Paris in December, the companies agree to reduce their emissions, increase low-carbon investments, deploy more clean energy, in addition to other actions.

The White House launched the American Business Act on Climate Pledge in July, with 13 US companies such as Microsoft committing a total of $140 billion in new low-carbon investments and more than 1,600 megawatts of new renewable energy at that time.

An independent consortium of long-term investors, created in a White House clean energy investment summit in June, on Monday, also announced its first round of investments totalling $1.2 billion through an “aligned intermediary”, which will be formally launched and branded in mid-2016.

US cancels plans to allow Arctic oil drilling

October 26, 2015 Ajay GhoshBusiness, Environment 0

The US government has cancelled plans to allow oil drilling along the Arctic coasts of Alaska for the next two years, the interior department announced. The decision signifies the elimination of offshore lease sales for oil drilling rights in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and comes less than a month after the Shell oil company decided to suspend its exploration for crude and natural gas on the Alaska coast, EFE reported on Saturday.

On September 28, the Anglo-Dutch oil company announced the suspension of its plans in Alaska due to some “disappointing” results from an important oil well in the sea off Chukotka, that unfortunately coincided with a time when the price of crude was at its lowest in recent years.

“Shell will now cease further exploration activity in offshore Alaska for the foreseeable future,” the oil company said at the time. “This decision reflects both the Burger J well result, the high costs associated with the project, and the challenging and unpredictable federal regulatory environment in offshore Alaska.”

“In light of Shell’s announcement, the amount of acreage already under lease and current market conditions, it does not make sense to prepare for lease sales in the Arctic in the next year and a half,” interior secretary Sally Jewell said.

The Barack Obama administration also decided to refuse the requests of Shell and Norway’s Statoil to move to a later date the lease contracts in the Arctic they obtained from the government of George W. Bush.

The two offshore lease sales that the US had planned for the next two years were the one in 2016 for drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea and the other in 2017 for the Beaufort Sea. Despite the hold on bidding during the next two years, the interior department still has plans for possible lease sales for drilling rights in the Arctic for the years 2020 and 2022. The final decision in those two cases will be up to the US president elected in 2016. Meanwhile, environmentalists have opposed all plans to drill for oil in the Arctic, warning that such operations could harm polar bears and seals.

Study Ranks U.S. Cities Based on the Urban Heat Island Effect on Temperatures

September 30, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Athens, Ga. – Inner cities as well as suburbs show distinctly warmer temperatures—known as the urban heat island effect—than rural areas as a result of land use and human activities, which can affect rainfall, air quality and public health. A University of Georgia study using a new method for calculating urban heat island intensities clarifies the conflict on whether urban density or sprawl amplify these effects more. It also provides a ranking of the top urban heat island cities among the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas.

The urban heat island effect describes how the spatial configuration of cities, the materials in them (such as asphalt), lack of vegetation and waste heat can modify temperature. The study, published in the journal Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, identifies Salt Lake City, Miami and Louisville as the top three urban heat island cities in the U.S.

Urban morphology—the patterns of a city’s physical configuration and the process of its development—has long been associated with the formation of urban heat islands. By examining the UHI intensities of 50 cities with various urban morphologies, the researchers evaluated the degree to which city configuration influences the UHI effect.

“The overall goal of our study was to clarify which urban form—sprawl or more-dense development—is most appropriate for UHI mitigation,” said the study’s lead author Neil Debbage, doctoral student in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ department of geography.

The study establishes a method for estimating UHI intensities using PRISM—Parameter-elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes Model—climate data, an analytical model that creates gridded estimates by incorporating climatic variables (temperature and precipitation), expert knowledge of climatic events (rain shadows, temperature inversions and coastal regimes) and digital elevation.

The use of spatially gridded temperature data, rather than urban versus rural point comparisons, represents a new method for calculating a city’s canopy heat island intensity. The results identify the spatial contiguity of developed areas as a significant factor influencing the magnitude of the heat island effect.

“Not just whether cities have high-density development, but how the built infrastructure is connected—and disconnected by green spaces—has a great impact on heat island intensity,” said study co-author Marshall Shepherd, the UGA Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences.

“We found that more contiguous sprawling and dense urban development both enhanced UHI intensities. In other words, it does not appear to be a simplistic either-or situation regarding sprawl or density,” Debbage said.

The researchers hope the results can help influence local governments and city planners in the formulation of effective codes and policies to mitigate the urban heat island effect.

“It’s crucial to work toward a better understanding of the complex processes at the intersection of urbanization, climate and human health,” Shepherd said. “Current and future cities will be modified or designed with weather and climate in mind, and research at UGA will play a key role.

The study on “The Urban Heat Island Effect and City Contiguity” is available at www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0198971515300089.

Humankind Has Halved the Number of Trees on the Planet

September 14, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Trees ‘store huge amounts of carbon, are essential for the cycling of nutrients, for water and air quality, and for countless human services’. The good news: there are over 3 trillion trees covering the Earth—that’s far higher than the 4 billion estimated just two years ago, a team of international researchers has found . But here’s the bad news: there were far more trees—46 percent more—before human civilization got hold, with an estimated 15 billion trees being lost own each year, with just 5 billion replanted.

“Trees are among the most prominent and critical organisms on Earth, yet we are only recently beginning to comprehend their global extent and distribution,” said Thomas Crowther, a Yale Climate & Energy Institute post-doctoral fellow at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and lead author of the study, in a press statement.

The statement also described the findings as “the most comprehensive assessment of tree populations ever produced,” and the researchers say that, as forests function as carbon sinks, their new map provides important information for climate change models.

The total number they tallied, adding up to about 422 trees per person, suprised even Crowther. “They store huge amounts of carbon, are essential for the cycling of nutrients, for water and air quality, and for countless human services,” he stated. “Yet you ask people to estimate, within an order of magnitude, how many trees there are and they don’t know where to begin. I don’t know what I would have guessed, but I was certainly surprised to find that we were talking about trillions.”

Using data from forest inventories, satellite imagery, and computer technology, they assessed over global 400,000 forest plots, defining “tree” as any plant with woody stems larger than 10 centimeters in diameter at breast level. The tropics have the largest area of trees, housing 43 percent of the over 3 trillion, while the boreal forests in the sub-arctic regions house the largest densities of trees. Tropical regions are also facing the greatest rates of deforestation, yet no region has been spared this negative human effect, they write.

Along with deforestation, humans are causing the dramatic tree loss through land-use changes and forest management. The researchers write: “the scale and consistency of this negative human effect across all forested biomes highlights how historical land use decisions have shaped natural ecosystems on a global scale.”

“We’ve nearly halved the number of trees on the planet, and we’ve seen the impacts on climate and human health as a result,” Crowther adds in his statement. “This study highlights how much more effort is needed if we are to restore healthy forests worldwide.” The journal Nature, where the study was published, has this video to accompany the new findings

CRY America’s 12th Walk for Child Rights and help bring children’s dreams to life

September 13, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

CRY, Child Rights and You America Inc. (CRY America), a 501(c)(3) non- profit that works towards ensuring children their basic rights to live, learn, grow and play is hosting the 12th annual CRY Walk for Child Rights across 20 cities. The CRY Walk is an opportunity for people to demonstrate that the responsibility for changing children’s lives lies with us all.

Walkers and runners across New York, New Jersey, Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, Houston, among other cities are invited to participate in 5k non-competitive walks, competitive runs and activities for children. It is a space for the entire family to have a fun outing together and simultaneously help build a better world for children. CRY Walk 2015 commenced on August 23 at Riverside Park, New York and concludes on November 8 at Santa Monica Beach, LA.

CRY Walk 2015 is sponsored by Star TV, TV Asia, Air India, Stratus, Vapor Source, Shani International, India Abroad and Mera Sangeet. We thank all our event sponsors, media sponsors and donors for their generous support. Our special thanks goes out to our volunteers, fundraisers and team leaders across 20 cities for organizing this event in aid of underprivileged children.

Speaking about the event, Shefali Sunderlal, President, CRY America said, “We know that children dream big and all they need are the right opportunities to realize their dreams. By participating in the CRY Walk, you help raise awareness on children’s issues and precious funds that ensure children’s dreams come true.”

CRY America has thus far ensured that 600,558 children living across 2,726 villages and slums have access to education, healthcare and are protected from violations through support to 70 Projects in India and the USA. “This impact has been possible because of the support we have received from 20,885 donors and 2,000 volunteers. Your support will allow us to ensure many more children are educated, healthy and protected from child labor, child marriage, malnutrition and discrimination”, Sunderlal concluded.

CRY, Child Rights and You America Inc. (CRY America) is a 501c3 non profit that is driven by its vision of a just world in which all children have equal opportunities to develop to their full potential and realize their dreams. With the support of over 20,885 donors and 2,000 volunteers, CRY America has impacted the lives of 600,558 children living across 2,726 villages and slums through support to 70 Projects in India and USA.

For more information about CRY America or CRY Walk 2015, visit www.america.cry.org, email support@cryamerica.org or call (617)959-1273.

Mark Ruffalo Goes Green, Supports Bihar’s Solar Energy Project

September 13, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

Mark Ruffalo, “The Hulk” star from New York has called himself “100% Bihar” in a recent Twitter post expressing his support for the Indian state’s clean energy project. Bihar is aiming to become the first state to run completely on solar energy and a lot of folk from the Hindi film industry like Manoj Bajpayee, Swara Bhaskar, Shilpa Rao, Prakash Jha and Sanjay Mishra have already shown their support for the project by joining the “I am 100% Bihar” campaign.

This came as a part of a celebrity-endorsed campaign which is aiming to make Bihar a state run entirely from clean energy. Others like Sanjai Mishra, Swara Bhaskar and Manoj Bajpai also feature in a video for the campaign: The plan gained impetus from an accomplishment earlier this month, when Dharnai in Jehanabad district of Bihar, became the first Indian state to be fully solar powered. Though the task of making Bihar 100% green is completely achievable, there are many obstructions. Getting land is one major concern as farmers won’t just give up their land. Regulatory changes as well as infrastructure issues have slowed down growth.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had launched a project in 2011 with an aim to generate 20,000 mega watt solar energy for sustaining power requirement of the country. Narendra Modi took that forward and has raised the bar to 1 lakh MW, which, though ambitious, is achievable if obstacles are overcome. 2400 villagers will get electricity in houses as well as 30 kw to run water pumps, thanks to efforts of Centre for Environment and Energy Development and Greenpeace, which faced trouble from authorities earlier this year.

Ruffalo, who portrays the green Hulk on silver screen, is going green in his real life too. The Hollywood star recently took to Twitter to show his support to Bihar government’s endeavor to run on clean energy.

NRI Leaders In New York Interact With E. P. Menon

August 31, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Social Media 0

New York: Indo-American organization leaders in New York met E.P. Menon, the visionary and pioneer of world peace mission, in a gathering in Santoor Indian Restaurant in Glen Oaks, New York. The reception and dinner honoring Mr. E. P. Menon was attended by several members of Global Organizations of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO-NY), World Malayalee Council, National Federation of Indian Americans Associations (NFIA), Malayalee Hindu Mandalam, Sree Narayana World Council, Indian National Overseas Congress Kerala Chapter, Kerala Samajam of Greater New York and friends of Mr. Menon from New York City.

The leaders of organizations shared his vision and path he chose to serve humanity, congratulated him, and wished further success in his mission. The speakers shared their concerns and Mr. Menon explained several solutions to face them. Menon explained unrest persist around the world, United Nations failing to recognize the changing world. Future strategies of the UN must be reviewed and make its service useful to the humanity around the world. The countries around the world need to reset its strategies to face the future and protect the universe.

The threat of the nuclear arms has not yet been contained in the world said Dr Sreedhar Kavil, Chairman, Global Advisory Board, World Malayalee Council (WMC). However much we democratize the world, the structural conflicts among world leaders can any time trigger a nuclear disaster, Dr. Kavil explained.

What was declared most recently by Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan is very significant in this contest. He said nuclear arms are not meant for a marriage party. It is for a purpose. Dr Sreedhar Kavil applauded the service, dedication and simple life of Mr. E.P. Menon and said he is a role model to young and all.

Lal K. Motwani, Ex-Chairman of NFIA, Anand Ahuja Esq, and President of GOPIO-NY congratulated Mr. E.P. Menon and presented him NFIA & GOPIO anniversary books with information on Indo-American cultural and social events and programs to unite Pravasi Indians in the United State.

Menon presented “Foot Prints on Friendly Roads” , the story of the Global peace march written by him to Mr. Lal K Motwani as a token of appreciation to Lal for his 30 plus years of service to Indian American community in the United State.

For more than half a century Mr. E P Menon, an everlasting crusader of peace, nuclear disarmament and social justice has persistently worked for a fearless, prosperous world. Occasionally he travels to many destinations in the world to meet with young talents and share his vision and mission to protect all of us from manly-created disasters. Menon is one among very few who still around as from the era of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vinoba Bave, Jayaprakash Narayan, Thakkar Bapa and K Kelappan (Kerala Gandhi).

His first mission around the world on foot caught the attention of the world leaders and public where ever he and fellow traveler Sathish Kumar went in 1962-64. Kumar and Menon along with many supporting democratic fearless fellow walkers crossed many countries and travelled 8000 miles on foot and boat from New Delhi to Kabul, Tehran, Moscow, Warsaw, Bonn, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, London, Washington DC, California, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Colombo, Bombay and back to New Delhi.

The then U.N Secretary General U. Thant wrote: “ I am happy to hear all about your magnificent work for world peace. Wish you the best of luck”. Vinoba Bave inspired them and said, “Have absolute faith in humanity you will succeed. All best wishes”.

The dedication and work of E.P. Menon and Sathish Kumar in the 1960’s turned the world leaders to rethink their mad race for nuclear arms. Since then through continued negotiations and deals by world leaders, world super powers reduced their nuclear weaponry and end producing new nuclear arms? The modern world owes to and credit Mr. E.P. Menon and Mr. Sathish Kumar for pioneering to reduce/end nuclear arms and establish world peace through popular support.

Fifty three years ago in 1962, two young men in their twenties set out from Mahatma Gandhi Samadhi in New Delhi to conquer the iron minds of world leaders and gather the support of the suffering world. They had no passport, no visa and no money in their pockets; and they achieved what they determined for in the name of peace and humanity. Until now, it is a world record in serving the humanity with no penny in the pocket. Even today, Mr. Menon lives with no means and follows his masters (Vinoba Bave) advice; “Go with no money, people will support your mission”, and he did that throughout his life to serve and protect you and me; Menon a silent warier with no weapons and protector of unknown.

Menon arrived at the venue accompanied by Mr. David Goldman, Singer, songwriter and music producer and many members of the global community from Manhattan. Mrs. Leela Maret, (FOKANA) welcomed Mr. E.P. Menon and David Goldman with bouquet.

Aravindakshan introduced Menon to the audience and explained since he met him forty eight years ago in April 1967 at the home of Survodaya Leader Sri K Kelappan, (popularly known as Kerala Gandhi) tried to follow his path in life and Mr. Menon is one of his role models. Organizers and organizations can lean from Menon how to manage and provide relentless service to the community, said Aravindakshan.

Anand Ahuja Esq – President GOPIO-NY , Dr. Unnikrishnan Thampi – President MAHIMA, Dr. Rohini B. Ramanathan-Secretary GOPIO-NY , K. G. Janardhanan, and S. K. Sreekumar – SNW Council, Varughese Thekkekara- WMC USA Vice Chairman, David Goldman, Susie Daniel, Pat La Mariana, Mimi Gussow, Mrs. Katy Casey, Jayachandran Ramakrishnan (President, INOC, Kerala Chapter) and Dr. Jose Kanatt (Kerala Samajam of Greater New York) were among few who made congratulatory remarks and applauded the service of Mr. Menon. Anand Ahuja Esq, President of GOPIO-NY made vote of thanks.

E.P. Menon (epmbangalore@gmail.com) is also the Executive Trustee of the India Development Foundation, an NGO in Bangalore, India that provides help and service to the needy while actively involving to defying unrest around the world.

70 Years After Hiroshima

August 31, 2015 Ajay GhoshEditorial, Environment 0

70 years ago, on August 6th, 1945 the city of Hiroshima in Japan was destroyed with an atomic bomb. In a few minutes, thousands of people lost their lives in the attack. Three days later the city of Nagasaki, also in Japan met the same fate. The Second World War ended six days later. Our world changed forever.

Within a single flash of light, Hiroshima, a city with a population of 360,000 — largely non-combatant women, children and elderly became a place of desolation, with heaps of skeletons and blackened corpses everywhere. As of now, over 250,000 victims have perished in Hiroshima from the effects of the blast, heat and radiation. 70 years later, people are still dying from the delayed effects of one atomic bomb, considered crude by today’s standard for mass destruction.

According to the Red Cross, nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of atomic bomb survivor deaths in the Hiroshima Red Cross hospital until March 2014 were caused by cancers. The most deadly cancers were lung (20 per cent), stomach (18 per cent), liver (14 per cent), leukaemia (eight per cent), intestinal (seven per cent) and malignant lymphoma (six per cent). Over this period, more than half of all deaths at the Nagasaki Red Cross hospital (56 per cent) were due to cancer.

As many believed, Hiroshima was targeted because of its strategic significance as a military headquarters, a major trading port and one of the main supply depots for the Japanese army. It was also largely untouched by previous bombings. However, the Stop the War Coalition points out that over 95 per cent of the combined casualties of the two cities were civilian. As the first country to use nuclear weapons against civilian populations, the US was in direct violation of internationally agreed principles of war, writes Professor Rodrigue Tremblay for the Global Research Centre. “Thus, August 1945 is a most dangerous and ominous precedent that marked a new dismal beginning in the history of humanity, a big moral step backward.”

After the first bomb fell, co-pilot Captain Robert Lewis said: “My God, what have we done? How many did we kill?” The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki also changed the course of history by launching the global race for nuclear proliferation. Today, there are more than 16,000 nuclear weapons around the globe with landmines, biological and chemical weapons threatening the very existence of humanity.

Currently, just nine countries are known to possess nuclear weapons: the US, the UK, France, Israel, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea. The recently completed negotiations with Iran are only the latest attempt to keep the list at nine, says author and historian James Kunetka. “But realistically, the fight to halt the further spread of weapons will no doubt continue far into the future.”

These nine nations believe strongly in nuclear deterrence, arguing that by possessing a range of weapons, foreign states will refrain from attacking due to the fear of retaliation and “mutually assured destruction”. “In a world in which a rogue state like North Korea, a dysfunctional state like Pakistan and an increasingly bellicose state like Russia all possess the bomb, what major power is going to lead the way and unilaterally disarm?,” asks The Guardian‘s Andrew Anthony.

American journalist Eric Schlosser, says,”The problem with nuclear deterrence is that it requires secular rational thought on both sides of the equation,” he said adding that there are now groups like Islamic State with ideologies that glorify and celebrate the slaughter of civilians as well as militants who are not fearful of death. “That makes this technology even more dangerous.”

Most experts agree that nuclear weapons are more dangerous now than at any point in our history. The risks are too many and too huge. “Geopolitical saber rattling, human error, computer failure, complex systems failure, increasing radioactive contamination in the environment and its toll on public and environmental health, as well as the global famine and climate chaos that would ensue should a limited use of nuclear weapons occur by accident or design. Yet few people truly grasp the meaning of living in the nuclear age.”

The death of innocents that has been the driving force for millions of people around the world continues to inspire the struggle against the ultimate evil of nuclear weapons. In a speech at a Washington DC university President Obama said the agreement is publically supported by every country in the world, except for Israel. Obama described it as the “strongest non-proliferation agreement ever negotiated”. President John F Kennedy in 1963, spoke at the same Washington DC area university in support of diplomacy with the Soviet Union.

The Iran deal is considered a signature achievement of Obama’s foreign policy legacy. The nuclear deal calls for Iran to reduce its enrichment in exchange for the releasing of millions of dollars in frozen assets. Unfortunately, today, 70 years after the world witnessed the most horrific event in human history, humanity continues to live with the daily threat of nuclear weapons.

It’s time for action to establish a legally binding framework to ban nuclear weapons as a first step in their total abolition. Every peace loving citizen of the world must urge and work to join the growing global movement. And let us make the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the appropriate milestone to achieve our goal: to abolish nuclear weapons, and safeguard the future of our one shared planet earth. It’s time to rid the globe of the most destructive weapons of all and make sure there’s never another humanitarian tragedy like Hiroshima.’

You may send in your comments to the Editor at: ajayghosh1@aol.com

Sunita Viswanath Honored As ‘Champion of Change’

August 2, 2015 Ajay GhoshEnvironment, Women 0

Sunita Viswanath was among 12 faith leaders who was honored as “Champion of Change” on July 20 for their continuous efforts towards climate change. Viswanath, who has worked in women’s and human rights organisations for almost three decades, “is being honored for her work to encourage Hindus in protecting environment and communities from the effects of climate change,” the White House said in a statement.

Viswanath is co-founder and active board member of the 14-year old women’s human rights organisation Women for Afghan Women (WAW).

“Sunita is also co-founder and board member of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, living and building a Hinduism that prioritises social justice, and upholding the Hindu principles of ekatva (oneness), ahimsa (non-violence) and sadhana (faith in action).”

Through our grassroots green project, Project Prithvi, we mobilize Hindus, especially the youth, to live out the principle of ahimsa by taking care of the environment. We have adopted a beach in Jamaica Bay, New York, where Hindus worship almost every day. Devotees place their offerings into the bay, but the offerings wash up on shore and become entangled with all the other litter lining the beach – beer bottles, Styrofoam containers, used condoms. It is deeply painful to see our religious offerings, broken idols, trays of flowers and fruits, fabrics that had adorned the deities, washed up on the beach as garbage. We reach out to local Hindu temples, and we enlist priests to help us advocate to devotees that it is important to worship in more environmentally friendly ways. We mobilize temple-goers to come to the beach with us on a monthly basis, and together we clean up the beach. At every beach cleanup, devotees tell us how hurt they are to see broken idols of Ganesha and Lakshmi lying face down in the dirt. Rivers and oceans are considered sacred by Hindus, as are trees, all life forms, and the Earth herself.

“I have always been secure in my identity as a Hindu,” she told the media. “Growing up, I thought a lot about faith and religion, but I also had a very strong sense of social justice, what was fair. I imbibed profound lessons of love and justice from my religious upbringing, from the stories we were told, the prayers we learned, the texts we read. I went on as an adult to devote my life to advancing social justice causes, particularly women’s human rights. If Hinduism cares deeply about all people and all living beings, then there must be an active, vocal Hindu movement for social justice and human rights today.”

A central component of Sadhana is Project Prithvi, which is an environmental initiative.

As part of Project Prithvi, Sadhana is involved with cleaning up a beach in Jamaica Bay, Queens which is a place of worship for Hindus.

Sadhana has officially adopted this beach, conducts regular clean-ups, and also does outreach through Hindu temples to advocate that Hindus worship in environmentally conscious ways, said the interfaithcenter.org. Viswanath was a 2011 recipient of the “Feminist Majority Foundation’s Global Women’s Rights Award” for her work with WAW.

She lives in Brooklyn in New York with her husband Stephan Shaw and their three sons — Gautama, Akash and Satya.

TheUNN Corporation

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