Blogs

How emissions-intensive are our industries ?

In January this year, India had declared that it would voluntarily reduce emissions intensity of the GDP by 20-25 per cent by 2020 in comparison to the 2005 level. Will it be able to do so and what is the technology-emission reduction road map for India? A report by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which was released here today, finds while industry can meet the 2020 target under even business as usual scenario, its options beyond this are few, difficult and very expensive. ...
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Monday,26 April, 2010 | Hits: 332

What the radiation leak in Delhi means

The Department of Atomic Energy is easily the worst-functioning department of the Indian government, says Praful Bidwai. Three weeks after a scrap dealer from Mayapuri in Delhi was hospitalised with acute radiation sickness caused by exposure to cobalt-60, the authorities finally traced the source of the radioisotope to a laboratory in the chemistry department of Delhi University. Meanwhile, one of the 11 people who were seriously exposed to the source died. And the condition of another two is reportedly grave, with platelet counts way below normal and falling. Doctors can do little to help the victims except give them repeated transfusions.That highlights the poignancy of the suffering of poor and innocent scrap-workers on account of utterly irresponsible conduct on the part of several agencies, including Delhi University, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and the Government of India . ...
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Thursday,06 May, 2010 | Hits: 282

The world, according to Tom Friedman

"Power to the people" will not be ushered in by the microchip or hydrogen battery, but by a redistribution of wealth. Darryl D'Monte fears the celebrated New York Times columnist may be misplacing his faith. In many ways, Tom Friedman stole the thunder at the Delhi Summit on Sustainable Development (Feb 5-7), which The Energy & Resources Institute, headed by Dr R K Pachauri, organises every year. His virtuoso performance, shorn of all the acronyms and jargon which cloud protracted international debates on global warming, where he strode the stage with a cordless mike, dressed - typically for a hardened journalist - in shirtsleeves in an unusually warm winter, took the audience by storm (no apologies for all the climate metaphors). ...
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Saturday,13 February, 2010 | Hits: 204

The dark side of cloud computing: soaring carbon emissions

Experts warn the electricity consumption and carbon footprint of cloud computing will more than double from 2007 levels by 2020 While the ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano expanded for a relatively short time over Europe and then slowly disappeared, another cloud, this one unseen, is rising steadily over the entire world. ...
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Thursday,29 April, 2010 | Hits: 185

Schizophrenia of agricultural policy

Any discussion of GM crops must take place within the larger framework of the indispensable need to promote biodiversity and set up agricultural policies linked to this need, writes Sujatha Byravan. The last few weeks have indeed been colourful if not schizophrenic with regard to agricultural policy in India - a moratorium on Bt-brinjal, a steep rise in food prices, an international conference hailing biodiversity as pivotal to food security, and a proposed Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. on agriculture cooperation and food security; the last item was kept under wraps and later announced as a fait accompli. ...
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Friday,26 March, 2010 | Hits: 155

Prince of Wales calls for environmentally-friendly stately homes

The Prince of Wales has called for a major environmentally-friendly refurbishment of Britain's historic buildings to "avert the climate crisis". In a new guide aimed at the owners of run down mansions and estates, he said it was a "tragedy" to see such buildings abandoned, derelict or destroyed. Not only because of the loss of heritage but because of the "terrible waste of resources" as the country struggles to become more energy efficient. The Prince is to fit solar panels on his home in London, Clarence House, and already uses ground source heat pumps and other forms of renewable energy on his wider estate. He said historic buildings should be leading the way in the fight against climate change by insulating roofs, harvesting rainwater and even generating their own energy. ...
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Saturday,24 April, 2010 | Hits: 160

Once-Hidden EU Report Reveals Damage From Biodiesel

Biofuels such as biodiesel from soy beans can create up to four times more climate-warming emissions than standard diesel or petrol, according to an EU document released under freedom of information laws. The European Union has set itself a goal of obtaining 10 percent of its road fuels from renewable sources, mostly biofuels, by the end of this decade, but it is now worrying about the unintended environmental impacts. ...
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Wednesday,21 April, 2010 | Hits: 165

Food security not by food alone

In India where millions of people live on the margins of subsistence, guaranteed access to food is vital However, food security is a function of much more than a scheme to distribute food to different sections of society Politics alone can take into account the interconnections between the various determinants of food security says T K Arun POLITICS runs the risk of being reduced to the art of the passable — it has to be approved by the legislature, by the omniscient television anchors, by sulking editorial writers forced to cede ground to the TV anchors, and, most crucially, by Sonia Gandhi. The food security Bill was drafted for Ms Gandhi’s favour and has been shafted by her displeasure. Food security, hostage, in any case, to the attention deficit of our minister for food and sugar and cricket and Maharashtra politicking, is now all gummed up in a wrangle over how many people should be covered, how many should be left out and how many times the empowered group of ministers should defer their meeting on the subject. What all this bustle over the bill misses out is the simple fact that food security is not achieved primarily by distribution of food. The rural employment guarantee scheme is about food security — it offers 100 days of employment so that people do not go hungry in those spells when regular work, primarily related to raising crops, is not available. The entire Bharat Nirman programme, the rural roads programme, the urban renewal mission, the skills mission, the grand national highway building schemes, all generate jobs and incomes and thus enhance food security. ...
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Thursday,29 April, 2010 | Hits: 158

Food security in India

Food security has been a major developmental objective in India since the beginning of planning. India achieved self-sufficiency in food grains in the 1970’s and has sustained it since then. But the achievement of food grain security at the national level did not percolate down to households and the level of chronic food insecurity is still high. Over 225 million Indians remain chronically under nourished. In 2000-01, about half of the rural children below five years of age suffered from malnutrition and 40% of adults suffered from chronic energy deficiency. Such a high level of wasting away of human resources should be a cause for concern. ...
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Thursday,29 April, 2010 | Hits: 372

Food for all? Not through the NFSA.

The National Food Security Act proposes to lower ration prices, but also reduce the quantity of grain that is given to each family. Devinder Sharma suggests a Zero Hunger programme instead. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the first time unfurled the national flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi, he promised to turn the infamous Kalahandi hunger belt in western Orissa into a food bowl. If only Vajpayee had made a serious attempt to wipe out hunger from Kalahandi, and follow it up with a nationwide programme to feed the hungry millions, the BJP wouldn't have been in a pitiable condition it now finds itself in. ...
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Friday,23 April, 2010 | Hits: 153