Critique

Critique I

It is regrettable that India is not basing its climate policy on sound scientific and economic analysis.

                                              Prof.N.H.Ravindranath,
                                             Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Critique- II

It is regrettable that India is not basing its climate policy on sound scientific and economic analysis.

                                              Prof.N.H.Ravindranath,
                                             Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

India is going to be most affected by climate change… and much more vulnerable that China, Europe,  and the United States.

                                       Erik Solheim
                                     Minister for Environment and International Relations, Norway

Damodar River

Rising in the Chota Nagpur Hills, the Damodar river flows in its540 km. course through the mining belt of Jharkhand. It then receives effluents from chemical and metallurgical factories between Bokaro and Sindri, including the Bokaro steel  plant, a thermal power station , and the Sindhri fertilizer unit. The lower Damodar valley from Asansol to Durgapur is one of the most highly industrialized regions in India. Seventy major industries and 250 coal mines are spread around Asansol alone. In terms of oxygen depletion , eight industrial units in Durgapur dump wastes that are equivalent to the sewage from a city of one million population.

Edward Goldsmith, The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams,1984, page 217

 Catchment of a river

The problem of controlling floods by structural means has undoubtedly been compounded by the widespread deforestation that has occurred almost everywhere in the Third World since the Second World War.Such deforestation appears to be an inevitable concomitant of “development” – largely because it is by cutting down forests and exporting timber that Third World countries earn the foreign exchange to develop. But cutting down forests does more than increase the nation’s cash: it also dramatically increases the risk of flooding.

When the catchment of a river is heavily forested, the elaborate root system of the trees acts as a vast sponge; it soaks up rainfall, releasing it only very slowly  to the river below. Once a catchment area has been deforested, however, the runoff (as a portion of rainfall) is vastly increased. A recent UNESCO study found that, when forested, the watershed of one selected river released not more than 1 to 3 percent of the total rainfall; by contrast, once the area was deforested, between 97 and 99 percent was released to the river. During periods of heavy rainfall, therefore, the volume of water carried by rivers in deforested areas can be massive. Inevitably, the pressure put on existing embankments is tremendous – which increases both the need for repairs and maintenance after each rainy season and the possibility that the embankments will simply collapse.

Edward Goldsmith, The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams, 1984, page 125 

Future impacts of global warming and climate change in the near future in India

Within 2-5 years a worsening environmental situation worldwide will find its worst impacts in Southeast and South Asia. Enhanced thermal temperatures and precipitation will be added to by accelerating wind and ocean forces. These will affect the hydrological cycle resulting in more rainfall in shorter periods which will not improve the groundwater recharge due to deforestation and rapid soil erosion; there will also be a decrease in the overall number of rainy days with hot dry days between rains  spoiling the crops; due to Brown Clouds and global warming  there will be a faster melting of glaciers increasing flood dangers of Himalayan-fed rivers in the short-term  before the glaciers dry up and bring drought; there will be an increase in flash-floods, droughts, land-slides, loss of groundwater. Eighty-five percent of India’s groundwater is for rural agriculture and fifty percent of groundwater is for urban-industrial purposes. In the event of a worsening groundwater situation due to sporadic monsoons and enhanced run-off, and evaporation of stored water during higher summer temperatures,  the main brunt will be borne by the subsistence farmers dependant upon monsoons,  while at the most urbanites may suffer loss of electricity due to drying up of hydroelectricity producing dams, putting the strain on coal as an immediate alternative energy source.

The picture for India’s environmental well-being in the foreseeable near future is very bleak. There is going to be massive-people-government conflict in breaking new ground for coal, and human rights violations will rise dramatically in the urban search for rural coal lying under agricultural fields up to  now enjoyed by the farmers. Unfortunately the coal-fields mainly lie along river valleys inhabited by the tribals who are India’s poorest peoples, and who will be forcibly removed by the government comprised mainly of elites desperate to get at the coal. These are the politics of industrial development and violation of human rights in a poor, Third World country like India.

Critique- III

The connection between global warming-induced climate change and Human Rights
From: Ulrik Halsteen <uhalsteen@ohchr.org> Date: Jun 29, 2009

Many thanks for your message. I would like to inform you that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other human rights bodies and mechanisms of the United Nations have expressed similar concerns to those raised in your message. Notably, the Human Rights Council expressed concern about the human rights implications of climate change in resolutions in 2008 (res. 7/23) and 2009 (res. 10/4) and on 15 June 2009 the Council held a panel discussion on this issue. Equally, OHCHR earlier this year prepared a report on the relationship between climate change and human rights and the High Commissioner (A/HRC/10/61) and senior OHCHR staff have raised awareness about this concern in a number of public statements.

You will find more information on these on the "human rights and climate change" page on the OHCHR website at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/climatechange/index.htm

With kind regards,
Ulrik Halsteen

_____________________________________________

Ulrik Halsteen
Human Rights and Economic and Social Issues Unit
Research and Right to Development Division
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR-UNOG)
48, Avenue Giuseppe Motta (Office 1-09)
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Geneva, Switzerland
 

Critique- IV

India’s Low Carbon Footprint: A Fallacy

Whose carbon footprint is low in India’s low(est) carbon footprint ? This has to be seen in the context of the two India’s, the Other India, the rural poor who constitute 80 percent of the nation, and the Elite Industrialized Urban India for whom the carbon is used to give them electricity, or the energy which has been equated in Indian elitist minds with “standard or quality of life”. In fact if we look at it from this perspective then India’s carbon footprint is not so small at all, but pretty big. The rural India from where the minerals, hydel and forest resources have been drawn for the past sixty-two years have created barren wastelands in some of our most forested and richly agricultural places and have displaced an estimated sixty million Indigenous Peoples and Peasants. No count is taken of this. The picture today with the deregulation of coal and the mineral being put up to auction without the hassles of environmental or other clearance is about to create a renewed havoc across Middle India which has been the traditional heartland of mineral exploitation for the energy required by city folks for all its conveniences and consumables, and of course electricity. “The poor who gave India its dollar- a- day- low carbon- footprint” have to now see another mining onslaught in a few month as the new Bill passes Parliament. They will be forcibly displaced to let new mines come in so that India can increase emissions  for so called “national interests”, which are in fact urban -elitist interests. The displaced poor will end up on two dollars a day in Delhi or Bombay and their children will be on the railway station platforms across India. This shameful state of affairs is being further countenanced by such attitudes as Yvo de Boer’s recent statement that

“Indian officials have said that India is not prepared to take on caps that would impair efforts to eradicate poverty by providing affordable energy. They are right to say so. It would be wrong  for the industrialized world to oblige India to reduce its emissions when it already has one of the lowest levels of emissions on a  per capita basis.”

He is clearly talking through his hat, and with this type of thinking we can see Copenhagen as a failure already. If countries are allowed to increase emissions on such shortsighted reasoning there will be no hope of controlling emissions. Meanwhile, India’s poor will receive a double whammy as they wait for the disaster that is awaiting us all which will level the playing field for rich and poor alike.

To reiterate briefly what I have already said for emphasis, India cannot demand rights to raise emissions on the credit earned from the rural poor and at the same time exploit these same societies on whose low carbon footprint the government is riding and shamelessly allowing a new generation of politicians and businessmen the opportunity to forcibly extract more mineral resources and  create even more emissions.  “”

Critique- V

GLOBAL WARMING NOTES : Trying to understand Global Warming, its causes and effects   - 
AN APPEAL

                             “Must all this beauty die so soon
                              Scorched in the bright blaze of the dying sun ?
                              Where will our spirits go to be reborn?”                                                              01^st August 2009

My friends,

This is a personal appeal. Whenever I have spoken to educated persons about global warming they have replied, “Yes, we know about it. It is environmental imbalance.” They were right but their knowledge about the subject or its implications for the future of the human race were Zero. This is not only sad, but tragic. I have put together a few pieces of information culled from The Ecologist’s 1999 issue on the climate crisis and other sources which will open a discussion on the subject. I urge you to read it and copy it to your friends. If you find any corrections let me know. I want to get this letter to at least fifty thousand people on the internet, and we may improve and modify it on the way.

Agents of Global Warming:

CARBON DIOXIDE, which is directly related to temperature rise measured for 2-500 million years through Antarctic ice cores

METHANE  has more than doubled from 700ppm to 1720 ppm ( 1999) Methane is over twentyone times worse than Carbon Dioxide),

NITROUS OXIDE primarily caused through modern fertilizers is 200 times worse than carbon dioxide  and has increased from pre-industrial levels of 275ppm to 310ppm (1999) It lasts for 120 years in the atmosphere

SULPHUR OXIDE

FREONS

HYDROCARBONS

FOREST DESTRUCTION leading to loss of carbon absorption

DESERTIFICATION leading to atmospheric change

INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS

RUNAWAY WARMING due to combination of factors

Effects of Global Warming

 The most obvious effect of global warming is climate change, which is a reaction in the chemistry of the atmosphere in a unique relationship with the seas and earth formations, and the life forms of the planets such as forests. More violent weather events, severe storms , floods, droughts, dust storms, salt water intrusion of groundwater, failing crops, dying forests, inundation of low-lying islands and coastal regions due to sea-rise, spread of epidemic diseases locally,(malaria, dengue fever, schistosomiases,   and pandemics ( swine-flu, etc) due to drier climate;  a result of excessive carbon dioxide in atmosphere.

Environmental refugees as the result of sea-rise and desertification will reach highest figures soonest. Higher temperatures will be experienced at the poles, (5C) leading to ice-melt and consequent sea-rise,  northern steppes 2.5C), while temperate- equatorial regions will receive highest mean temperature-rise despite seeming to be lower(1.5C)

The overall rise in Greenhouse Gas concentrations will be seeing rise from pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm ( part per million ) to 365ppm in 1999, and 385ppm in 2009 at the rate of  20 ppm annually or 1.5 ppm a year. It is to be remembered that carbon dioxide remains 200 years in the atmosphere . Industrial society has been putting 40 billion tones (including animal sourced CO2)a year of carbon dioxide a year into the atmosphere of which only half is absorbed by the earth and the rest remains in the atmosphere. The quadrupling of the human population has also been responsible of increase in carbon dioxide emissions.

Temperature Rise

The present level of atmospheric carbon dioxide being about 385 ppm indicates a relative earth surface temperature rise of 1.4C moving towards 2C. After 400ppm temperature is expected to rise to 5C where it will remain for 200 years. This will mean a die-back of plant living systems in earth and sea leading to a massive carbon dioxide emission from dying life on the planet which will drastically alter the earth’s temperature beyond the ability to support life as there will not be green cover left to absorb carbon, and there is not expected to be an opportunity to save the planet thereafter. That is why the 21^st century has been called “the final century”. It is expected that 50 percent of species will be lost in the present century. The sea without of ice will become a further source of carbon dioxide as sea life and algae die back.

Sea-rise

Warming at the poles being higher the Arctic and Antarctic will be higher and melting of the West Atlantic shelf (3.5 million cubic kilometers) will raise the sea  six metres initially affecting five million square kilometers of the world’s coastline or 3 percent of the landmass of the planet, and 30 percent of its croplands. If the rest of the Antarctic’s approximately seven million cubic kilometers melts  sea levels are expected to rapidly rise  by  250 feet. Melting of the Arctic and Greenland’s permafrost will be an added source of methane gases trapped in the peat. The sea-rise is expected at six metres. The planet’s coastlines measure roughly a million kilometers

Never before in the history of the human race has it faced the challenges of life ceasing to exist within a single century. Everything that man has done, the civilizations he has built, the beauty he has created with his hands and mind, the slow warp of his evolution from the caves and forests to the magnificent temples like Angkor Wat in Cambodia,  and the European palaces and museums like Versailles and Louvre, today we see the emerging prelude to the destruction of all that loveliness and its symbols of hope for mankind on  our planet dying before our eyes. Through our heedless consumption of the earth’s natural resources we seem to have created a disease, a sickness in the planet which is our only home itself. We are facing that threat today. The cause of the crisis has been identified as industrial emissions, primarily carbon dioxide, which has a unique ability to trap the sun’s heat. The human race has been aware of these facts for the past forty-five years, indeed it was known to science immediately after the industrial revolution started 200 years ago. Mankind has done nothing to stop the degrading situation and now Nature has struck back. Scientists like James Lovelock say nothing can be done to stop the situation as limits have been passed. Reason calls for mankind to realize it must amend its ways but the system we have created allows the leaders of the world to plan our destiny. They are unrelenting and will not give up their ways and exhibit the tyranny and the greed that has always marked the masters of mankind. Perhaps a revolution will emerge as has happened before in times of extreme danger.

As William Pitt the Younger, England’s youngest Prime Minister said in the House of Commons on 18^th March 1783 “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” If that will which marked the securing of humanity from its tormentors rises again this generation may not be what has already been called “the last generation”. For man has found in his all too brief existence on this beautiful planet the  belief in Hope, and Hope with right action must now lead us forward, for without Hope there is nothing.

As I have searched for an answer to the immense disregard for the question of global warming I have found the answer in the unbelievable ignorance about global warming in the average educated person. No doubt its importance has been glossed over in school teaching of the subject and the media (in India at least) seems to have been gagged unlike in America. There is absolutely no comprehension in the mind of the average English-speaking person of the enormities of what global warming represents; and since it is a largely scientific subject and for that English would seem essential, non-English speakers know nothing of the subject. We are like a large company of passengers on a burning train without a driver rushing to the edge of a cliff. For this reason I request you to try and inform your friends and discuss the subject so that an awareness might begin to spread which will no doubt have its effects upon our selfish ( and ignorant) leaders, and bring more light and thought on the subject.

                I will look forward to hearing from you,

                                                               Bulu Imam

Please note that this is part of information literature connected to an international campaign against new opencast coal mines to be made in Jharkhand. For further information on the campaign go to our website:  www.karanpuracampaign.com; and sign-on petition is at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Karanpura/. For further information and support email me at Bulu Imam, Director, Sanskriti Research Center, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand (India) rch_buluimam@bsnl.in . I will support any request for information or propagating information (i.e. in schools, etc.). Thank you for your interest.