eco 39 issue.p65 - Centre for Education and Documentation

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No.39-40 For Private Circulation August, 2011 THE INECC NEWSLETTER Inside editor:Reclaiming Development in the Climate Discourse 2 National Conclave on Energy 3 Have Money, will emit! 6 Electrifying Pathakota 10 Micro hydro Power in the Western Ghats of India 11 Let there be light - Magsaysay award winner 13 Centre page: Saving plastic bags 16-17 Nuclear Power Corrupts Absolutely 18 Nuclear or broke 20 2010 tied for warmest year on record 22 Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink 24 Carbon injected underground now leaking 25 A Bleak Report on the Global Food System 26 Children's Movement for Climate Justice 28 Living Religion: The Future Doesn't Hurt. Yet 29 Living Religion: Get involved or fall dead 32 Making leaf plates in Pathakota, AP, just after twlight

Transcript of eco 39 issue.p65 - Centre for Education and Documentation

No.39-40 For Private Circulation August, 2011

THE INECC NEWSLETTER

Insideeditor:Reclaiming Development in the Climate Discourse 2National Conclave on Energy 3Have Money, will emit! 6Electrifying Pathakota 10Micro hydro Power in the Western Ghats of India 11Let there be light - Magsaysay award winner 13Centre page: Saving plastic bags 16-17Nuclear Power Corrupts Absolutely 18Nuclear or broke 202010 tied for warmest year on record 22Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink 24Carbon injected underground now leaking 25A Bleak Report on the Global Food System 26Children's Movement for Climate Justice 28Living Religion: The Future Doesn't Hurt. Yet 29Living Religion: Get involved or fall dead 32

Making leaf plates in Pathakota, AP, just after twlight

The Climate Discourse has been dominated by technology, science and politics (none of these constructs mutuallyexclusive) focusing mainly on mitigation. This seems to be quite congruous to most people considering that theclimate problem is excessive anthropogenic carbon (and other GHG gas) emissions.

But the problem of climate change is symptomatic of a larger malaise, to put it mildly. While India preachesequity, (admittedly not so stridently nowadays) abroad, it drags its feet at actually doing something about it athome. To put it bluntly, India is enthralled with neo-liberal constructs, and is mindlessly pursuing the discreditedpath of growth, glitter and grandeur.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of power projects – large hydro along the Himalayan crest and inthe mainland deep in the adivasi hinterland; super-thermal projects ringing the coastal corridor; and punctuatedwith nuclear plants from Srikakulam to Jaitapur, via Kudankulam.

This dichotomy and duplicity has caused immense hardship and upheaval among poor communities, who haveborne the brunt of this onslaught, and have begun to fight back. This was the focus of a Conclave on Energy atBhubaneshwar in March 2011. Researchers, analysts, scholars, NGOs and affected people gathered to discusstheir plight and pledged solidarity towards a people’s movement on energy. It was less about power, and evenless about low carbon. It was about the ravages of the large projects that rain environmental horrors oncommunities located at the edges of these monstrosities.

The other aspect of this dichotomy is the lack of access to the formal energy sector. By the government’s ownreckoning 45% do not have access to power supplied by the (national) grid. This is not saying much, becauseapart from the metropolitan agglomerations – and not all of them, either; Bengaluru suffers frequent andextended power shutdowns – the rest of the towns have very erratic supply; as for villages, the less said thebetter. The story of the 45% itself is not a happy one.

In the face of this lack of access to energy, civil society has been engaged in exploring ways to demonstrate howit is eminently feasible to provide stable and sustainable power to the poor, and in far flung rural areas. Theseenterprising initiatives met in May 2011 in Delhi; and were ignored by the powers that be.

We bring you the core of the proceedings of these two events that need to coalesce across the country to build amomentum towards providing basic sustainable energy for the nearly 80% (the figure of 45% is a sleight ofstatistics, of the population that does not have reasonable and sustained access to the grid. And it does not haveto be the grid – that is what decentralized energy options are about. Centralised systems, even renewable based,create similar problems to conventional energy projects.

But this is not just about power – well it is about power; it’s about the power of wealth and accumulation. It isabout the surreptitious, subliminal, seductive propagation of a notion of development that has its own imperative.It is about a false dream, infinite growth and wealth and power. The food crisis that has begun to consume us,hard on the heels of the financial crisis, is a harbinger of tougher times to come – if we do not reclaim the notionof what constitutes development, and who defines what is development for themselves and their communities.

The understanding of this structural dilemma: I am unhappy with the current development model – health,education, transport, work and occupations, sport and recreation and leisure, and state and business andmedia; yet I am compelled to participate in it and in its excesses – I can do no else; else I will be a drop out,flung to the margins. This is the ambivalent state which we are in – from the dashed hopes and capitulation ofCopenhagen, the inanity of Cancun, to the vacuity of Durban?

But there is hope, eternal hope, within us; possible in each one of us – this was the message of the conclave atBhubaneshwar, this was the message of the gathering at Delhi, and this is the message of the life lived in the lapof the Buddhas in the Himalayas; the last piece in this double edition of eco-ethic.

We must, and we can take charge! We need to get involved, we need to stay involved. We need to get together,and stay the course together, in Solidarity.

editor

Reclaiming Development in the Climate Discourse

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The conclave was organized in the context ofmultiple crises in the Power sector, and consequentissues of Climate Change and welfare of themasses. More than 100 participants from variouswalks of life such as politicians, business leaders,entrepreneurs, environmental and energy experts,bureaucrats and civil society organizationsattended this event.

The focus was on two major aspects:

The drive for large projects – super-thermal, largehydro and nuclear, resulting in graveconsequences to local populations – displacement,environmental degradation and pollution. Thisviolence of Big Science and Big Technology iscompounded by the physical and cultural violenceof state authorities – Central and State, on localpopulations struggling against the manipulative,fraudulent and illegal acquisition of land andnatural resources towards building these projects.

These local populations do not derive any benefitfrom these projects – a pittance by way ofcompensation, low-class jobs, and not even thepower and irrigation facilities generated by theseprojects.

This is compounded by the fact that just on anachievable level of efficiencies in powergeneration from existing facilities, with a fractionof the cost, the supposed shortfall in powergeneration can easily be met.

The neglect of decentralised renewable energy –there is enough evidence that renewable energyworks, and provides the benefit of low pollution,low displacement and local access and control ofenergy. There is a vast body of knowledge andexperience on a variety of local, renewable energysystems working based on bio-mass, bio-energy,solar, wind, etc. This finds no place in officialpolicy and in the Climate Action Plan.

In addition, the Conclave reached out to ongoinglocal struggles, and those involved in strugglesagainst the massive plans - 29 MoUs with private

National Conclave on Energytowards a People-centred Alliance in the context of Climate Change

excerpts from the report:

and Government players, 37,000 MW to begenerated by Private players and 21,000 MW bythe Government , in all 58,000 MW – an exportoriented (outside Orissa) programme of the StateGovernment.

The participants were a mix of experts,researchers, technologists, NGOs and localcommunities.

The practical focus was on power generation andabuse. The Integrated Energy Policy came in forsharp criticism, as also the National Solar mission.Though the focus on renewable energy wouldreduce the potential carbon-footprint of thecountry, the emphasis was on provision of energyto rural households, irrespective of the reductionin potential carbon-footprint, and other benefits.

Ministers and bureaucrats attending the InauguralSession and the Public Meeting were givenfeedback in no uncertain terms that the large-scaleinvestments in mega-projects were unacceptable,and that these should be mainly used todecentralize renewable energy options.

As a result of the deliberations, the followingissues were identified as requiring urgent attentionfrom the government:

� In view of the fact that despite massiveinvestment since independence in the largesize conventional power plants such asthermal, dam based and nuclear powerplants, 40% of the population has had noaccess to electricity. This has led toimmense social and environmentaldestruction. There is an imperative toreview the very energy policy itself. Theintegrated energy policy as prepared by thePlanning Commission, which advocatesmassive increase in the installed capacityof conventional power plants by 2031-32,will not ensure equitable and sustainableenergy supply to all sections, and also isnot in the overall interest of our society.

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� The large number of coal power plantsbeing proposed in states of Orissa, and otherparts of the country will deplete our naturalresources, cause environmental degradationand impact all sections of our societyadversely. Hence a thorough review of thevery need for these proposals should beobjectively carried out in effectivedemocratic involvement of the people. Thisshould include a detailed study of therealistic energy demand for each of theseStates and the Nation. We demand amoratorium on all new large scale thermal,hydro and nuclear projects until suchreview is undertaken.

� The recent nuclear emergency in a techno-economically advanced society like Japanhas clearly established that a poor anddensely populated country like ours cannotafford to take the risk of such a nuclearaccident. Hence all the proposals foradditional nuclear power plants and allfacilities associated with nuclear powertechnology should be dropped, and theoperational safety of the existing nuclearpower plants should be independentlyreviewed with a clear objective ofmothballing them as soon as possible.

� Dam based hydro electric projects beingproposed in large numbers in the hillyregions of the country will posemultifarious problems to our society,including the accelerated death of the rivers.Such hydro power plants are not essentialfor the energy security, and hence their truerelevance to our resource constrainedcountry should be objectively reviewed andenvironmentally friendly and people centricpolicies should be adopted.

� The legitimate demand for electricity ofvarious sections of our society must bedetermined keeping in view the issues likenature’s limits, environmental degradation,global warming and equitable availabilityof electricity to all sections.

� The energy requirements of rural India mustbe given a high priority during next twofive year plans, and policies should beimplemented to meet much of theserequirements through distributed renewableenergy sources which are suitable to thelocal resources.

� A serious impediment to the all roundwelfare of our society is the lack of effectiveinclusion of public consultation in thedecision making process, which is leadingto social unrests. Therefore the approvalmechanism for large and high impactprojects should be strengthened by makingeffective public consultation and objectiveCosts and benefits analysis a mandatorypart of such an approval mechanism.

� The electricity required for meeting theimmediate deficit can be largely met byincreasing efficiency of the power sector,demand side management, reduction oftransmission and distribution losses.

� The conclave demanded complete reviewof the Integrated Energy Policy of thegovernment which presently looks at afossil fuel intensive energy production andgrowth path, and address the contradictionsin the other government policies.

The conclave also decided to follow through onits deliberations on policy analysis, documentingthe experiences on alternative and renewableenergy, and working towards regional processes:

Four groups relating to thematic domains:

People’s voices on energy

Lobbying and Campaigning on energy issues

Alternative energy sources, and

Solutions + Alternatives

Organize regional conclaves – north, south, east,north-east, deccan, drylands and the west and 6member ad-hoc steering group until the nextenergy conclave.

Sudarshan Chhotray, report on the Conclave, March 26-27, 2011

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While significant work is being done onalternatives at the grassroots (on a low carbonperspective) most of these remain as isolatedventures. Therefore there is a need, firstly, to sharesuch experiences that already exist amongst theparticipants; and secondly, to delve deeper intosome of the core issues of concern towardsfacilitating the transition to a low carbon energydevelopment pathway.

Contextualising India’s Low carbon pathwaywithin the carbon space debate, PrabirPurkayastha, of the Delhi Science Forumdescribed the problem framework from theperspective of a finite carbon budget and theequity perspective. If we have to develop, we havethe right to argue for allocation of energy use; butthe right to energy is not to be equated with theright to emit, to pollute. He stressed that Indiahowever needs to cut its” elite emissions” andsimultaneously provide means of clean, usable,convenient energy for 50% of its population. Hereiterated that a long term solution to tackling theclimate crisis is embarking on the low carbon path.

Mr.Srinivas Krishnaswamy of VasudhaFoundation said that in an internationalcomparison made in terms of policies, one wouldsee that India has almost all the policies; but sadlythe numbers don’t tell the story. Incongruenciesin policies leave us wondering about the vision ofthe government towards ensuring access to energyfor all.

Madhuresh Kumar of National Alliance ofPeoples’ Movements dwelt on the strugglesagainst coal , nuclear and large hydro; heexpressed his concern over the segregation ofagitation/struggles and movements in a fight forsocial change. He also voiced his concernstowards dwindling support by academia,professionals and youth in social movements inthe country which he said was very crucial forsuccessful social change. He wrapped upreflecting that old slogans continue to be relevanteven to this day indicating that the development

An INECC Consultation on the Low Energy Carbon Pathsome insights from:

paradigm issue still remains unresolved and thereis hence an urgency to define an alternateparadigm to development.

During the session on learning from grassrootsenergy initiatives, Siddharth D’Souza of Layashared his experiences on DEOs (decentralizedenergy options) and the development of a clusterapproach to choices of technologies – single typerenewable energy technologies are often notsufficient.

T.Pradeep, Samuha, worked the consultationthrough on two carbon-based models forsustainable development - the CDM/GoldStandard cooking stove project, and the Carbon-Neutral Village, a novel conception of a carboncycle within a village.

Wastepickers- Swatch averred that their serviceswere positively contributing to conservingemissions. It recommended that waster pickers beintegrated into the solid waste management chainand also in the international frameworks. Thepressing concern was the inappropriateness ofthermal technology to burn the waste as is beingpracticed in most of the regions in our country,and that recycling is a better way of handlingwaste.

Ms. Usha Saxena of Greenpeace described theprogramme to facilitate people in understandingthe potential for renewable and in putting theirdemand for “electricity for all” in the thenforthcoming Bihar elections. That campaignhelped in getting the attention of the Bihar ChiefMinister who has promised to work towards a mixof 20 percent renewable energy in Bihar’s totalelectricity generation in the coming years.

Ms. Priyadarshini Karve,ARTI shared with thegroup a number of implementable rural renewabletechnologies based on the principle of energyefficiency. She showed some very interesting waysof enhancing agricultural productivity.

Putting all that was discussed from the policy

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perspective, Navroz Dubash, Centre for PolicyStudies reflected that climate change discourseneeds to be looked upon from 2 aspects-co benefitsand governance. The logic of co benefits –development, equity, and distribution; - and theneed of the climate issue to be addressed frommultilevel governance systems - local/ regional /national and international. National policiesshould not undermine local efforts. But there isneed for a framework which encompasses cobenefits accrued. Reflecting on the barrier to‘scaling up’ of small relevant projects, he said thatthe sum of all bottom up measures might be notbe sufficient, and we should develop a way ofaggregating these cases and leverage for change.The lobal system need to empower the nationalsystem. That would be a way to go ahead.

Two novel initiatives were the Low carbonfarming coalition, and Afforestation/Reforestation, both as part of a concerted effortfor pro-poor CDMs. Whilst there are questionsabout CDMs per se, as long as they are on thetable, local communities need to be able to accessthem.

Sanjay Khatua of DHARA presented a holisticview of the forests from a grassroots perspective.He shared his observations in the way forestswere being perceived by the forest dependentcommunities. He identified specific changes inthe way of life triggered by climate change amongthe forest communities. Some among these werechanges in the cropping pattern, the concept of “buffer land” coming in, change in the constructionof houses from kutcha to pukka houses, increasein the number of children going to school (with aview indicating that they can no longer bedependent on a forest based livelihood). The otherinsights that were shared were the change inoccupation - youth being no more interested inrelating to their forests. None of the villages wereprotecting forests in the area understudy in thePathakota panchayat. In some of the areas a sizableamount of forests have been revived by the govtbut the basic issues of NTFP collection, lack ofbiodiversity is not addressed under the revivedplots. Reflecting on the way forward he said that

it is very important to arrest the decay that is takingplace and to ensure co benefits in areas where thereare protected forests. Co-benefits with respect tohaving perennial streams for generating electricity,irrigation using gravity flow, and catchment areadevelopment, and simultaneously facilitatingcapacity building among the vulnerable forestdwellers is necessary.

Towards an Alternative Perspective on SustainableUse of a City’s ‘Resources in the Context ofClimate Change” was an insightful cameo fromDunu Roy. It hinged on the perception of“imagined cities” vis a vis the reality of ourcities. He shared facts from a study in Delhi whichlooked at urban spaces available, water availabilityand supply, electricity (how much is needed andby whom); waste generated by different sectionsand their disposal with possible alternatives viaragpickes, travel (who travel by what mode vis avis their level of emissions). He expressed alarmover how the imagination was driving ourcountry’s development pathway. He wrapped upsaying that we constantly need to ask ourselveswhat is the reality against what we are imagining.Hence, the need is to understand our cities ownneeds and design accordingly instead of runningbehind an elusive idea of an “imaginative city”.

Three groups - Plan for CoP 17, Towards Scalingup DEOs and Policy Issues provide some idea onthe way forward with all these insights andsuggestions.

On the final day, Siddhartha- Fireflies shared hisunderstanding of Climate change in the contextof values and attitudes – where is the Hope?Questioning the hope for a safe world in an era ofclimate change, he reflected, that we are been bornwith a utopian vision to create a “modern society”.However now we are not sure whether the modelwe have used will work any longer. In this contextit is important that we reflect on the notion of“nishkama karma” viz the vision to formulate amiddle path which focuses on “ lived ethics” and“well being” even though we may or may notreceive the fruits of one’s action!

Aditya Ghosh - CSE (Center for Science and

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E n v i r o n m e n t )focused on the issueof climate change andsustainability. He saidthat the notion ofsustainability isundergoing atransition. This isbecause sustainabledevelopment does notincorporate people’s‘aspirations’. Thisaspect has been a keyfactor in driving theclimate changephenomenon as wehave not reallyaddressed questionslike what and how much do people ‘want’.Redefining sustainable development in an era ofclimate change would need to consider the choiceof the amount of power people would need.Simply fixing the climate problem with offsetsand technologies will never prove to besustainable.

Girish Sant – Prayas Energy Group looked at Pro-people energy policy and climate considerations.This touched upon the link between Electricityand Development; HDI Vs Electricityconsumption & policy aspects. He shared that inthe next 10 years, power demand is likely todouble (addition of 150,000 MW). It is crucial tocurb inefficient use (reduce 50,000 MW in tenyears) - efficiency has least cost and large potential(more than combined addition from Nuclear,Hydro, and Gas), but gets disproportionally lowattention.

Reflecting on the principles for new energyparadigm for large power projects, he pointed outthat these should be constructed only withminimal environmental impacts; grid supply tothe rich should be limited, renewable obligationfor the utilities should also be used for de-centralized generation. A Rights based approachwill not only benefit the poor but will also helpreduce GHG emissions.

Putting the deliberations of all the three days intoperspective, Mr. Walter Mendoza wrapped up theconsultation saying that the developmentparadigm still remains a big challenge; the processhas been an extremely rewarding experience forone and all; although energy was the primary focusof the consultation, a host of other relevant issueswere also deliberated upon; and our immensegrassroots experience needs to be put in aframework for influencing policy at the nationaland global level:

� How to democratize the space for themarginalized?

� How do we deal with corporations / dowe have an alternative?

� How do we scale up?

� How to reach out to relevant technologyand finance etc?

We have gone through a whole gamut of grassrootspracticalities to abstract formulations; theconsultation has given us deep insights and shownthe way forward in taking ahead the work the weare engaged in. We are overwhelmed, not inconfusion, but in an exploration with renewed zealand enthusiasm.

Ajita Tiwari Padhi, report on “Empowering the Leapfrog ofThe Marginalised” during May 5-7, 2011, at YWCA, New Delhi.

eco-ethic 7

Everybody knows Antilia-

It is the name of a twenty-sevenfloor personal home in SouthMumbai belonging to businessman Mukesh Ambani, the bil-lionaire Chairmanof Industries. There will be 600full-time staff to maintain theresidence, which was reportedin the Indian Media to be themost expensive home in theworld. It has been described asthe “Taj Mahal of 21st centuryIndia”.

Have Money, will emit!

Image left : http://www.hindustantimes.com/Images/2009/3/ambani_house.jpg

Image right: http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1885/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1885-10141.jpg

Lets get down to figures:

The structure was designed by U.S. architects usingprinciples of Vaastu Shastra to maximize “positive energy”.No two floor plans are alike, and the materials used in eachlevel vary widely.

The home will include:

� 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of living space.

� Parking space for 168 cars.

� A one-floor vehicle maintenance facility.

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� Nine elevators in the lobby.

� Three helipads and an airtraffic control facility.

� Health spa, yoga studio, smalltheatre with a seating capacityfor 50 on the eighthfloor, multiple swimmingpools, three floors of hanginggardens, and a ballroom.

� An ice room infused with man-made snow flurries.

What others have to say?

“It’s a stupendous show of wealth; it’s kind of positioning business tycoons as thenew maharajah of India.”

- Hamish McDonald, author of Ambani & Sons: A History of the Business

Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has described Antilia as an example of rich Indians’ lack ofempathy for the poor. Tata also said: “The person who lives in there should be concerned aboutwhat he sees around him and [asking] can he make a difference. If he is not, then it’s sad becausethis country needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigatingthe hardship that people have.”

Some Indians are proud of the “ostentatious house,” while others see it as “shameful in a nationwhere many children go hungry.” Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, opined that “such wealth can be inconceivable” not only in Mumbai, “home to someof Asia’s worst slums,” but also in a nation with 42 percent of the world’s underweight childrenyounger than five.[8] Recently Ratan Tata said that “It’s sad Mukesh Ambani lives in suchopulence”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antilia_(building)

Most absurd of all, the house will have a staff of 600 (sic) to do the maintenance activities. Thatgives a ratio of 1:100 for people living in the house and those who are paid to take care of it.

The six lucky ones are the man himself, his wife, his 3 children and his mother Kokilaben. Thefamily will be moving in from their old home ‘Sea Wind’ which was a 14 floor building at CuffeParade.

“In fairness, Mukesh bought the property in 2002. So he has not spent anywhere close to the $1billion people are now valuing the property at. And it is not just him; plenty of other rich tycoonshave indulged in their residences.

Two people who immediately come to mind are Mittal & Gates. UK-based steel tycoon LakshmiMittal (he is still an Indian citizen though) bought the most expensive house in London last year,paying £60m for a place in Kensington Palace Gardens.”

1- http://aavaas.com/2007/11/04/mukesh-ambanis-new-house-anthill/

This hut is home to 6 people

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/kozlenak/kozlenak0812/kozlenak081200008/4070083-village-hut—traditional-ukrainian-village-hut.jpg

eco-ethic 9

Pathakota is one of the most interior villages inthe agency (scheduled) region of East GodavariDistrict, Andhra Pradesh, India. The village hasabout 80 households and is the panchayat headquarters for about 19 other villages. It is inhabitedby Konda Reddys and Valmiki s.

Until the 80s and mid 90s the village and thepanchayat were regularly frequented by extremistsforces (Naxalites). In those days you trekked anentire day or struggled with a 2 wheeler to get tothe village. A 4 wheel drive jeep could reach thisvillage only in summer. Through the monsoonmonths of June, July, August and early Septemberthe panchayat remains more or less cut off fromthe outside, even today.

From the start of the millennium the situation haschanged dramatically. A tar road has beenconstructed 6 kilometers short of the village. Therest is metalled with small rivulets in between thatcan be difficult to cross during the rainy season.A market day (Wednesday) has been designatedin the village and traders bring their wares fromas far as Rajamundry, Vijaywada, Jagampeta. Inexchange for CD Players, pen drives, mobiles,untrained medical services, coca-cola, copperutensils, clothes etc at inflated cost, they provideaccess to precious natural resources, non-timberforest produce, grains and fresh organic fruits andvegetables at meagre prices.

In 1988 a group of IAS officers were detained bynaxalites for a fewdays. Since then thepolice have slatedthe region to be ahigh security riskregion. In the past 23years not onegovernment officialat the IAS level hasvisited this region.In the meantime,with roadaccessibility to some

Electrifying Pathakota

extent the government sanctioned electricitysupply to the entire panchayat.

Electricity supply to a region like this means lightin what can be very dark nights. Access to basiclight transforms the social fabric of a communityby creating space for family and communityinteraction during the evenings. Children benefitfrom light by being able to enhance the timeoffered for reading and writing school work. Theadults could also do a bit of value addedprocessing of NTFP.

One woman resident at the place I was stayingmentioned “I used to come home hurriedly justbefore twilight. I used the fading light to do mycooking chores. It was always a race against time.Eventually it got dark and I found it difficult toorganize the dishes, clothes, house articles etc.Today with light, I can relax. I come home laterin the evening and complete all my chorespeacefully. I even have time to chat with my familyand friends. It is nice to be able to see their faces”.

After years of petitioning at various levels finallythe government laid down the infrastructure tosupply electricity in January 2010. The poles andtransformers were installed in all the villages inPathakota Panchayat accept one villageSinganakota. This is because the village wassituated on a forested hill. Along the way to thisvillage the poles are still lying horizontally on theground; the intent to supply power seems to be

there, and mayhappen in the future.

The first few monthsof grid electricitywas not perfect. Thevoltage remainedinconsistent. Onlyincandescent bulbsworked with faintlight. By June 2010the first rains stormhit the region.

Siblings study under hydel lights

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Electricity supply was promptly terminated till thefollowing August. Meanwhile, a new substationwas installed in Maredumilli. For the time beingthe low voltage issue was resolved.

From August of 2010 till the first week of May2011 all was seemingly well. Besides ad-hocpower cuts that is a normal trend everywhere inthe country (especially rural regions) theelectricity situation in Pathakota Panchayat wasstable.

Suddenly in 2011 May, a minor thunder stormresulted in an indefinite power cut. Through June,and now July, the region is again in the dark. Savefor the village of Pathakota.

This is because in 2009, with the generous supportof the people of Germany, EED (a donor agency)in partnership with LAYA constructed a MicroHydro a kilometre away from the village. Thissmall hydro station produces only 6 kilowatts ofelectricity. This is enough to light two bulbs (CFL)for about 70 households. The communitycontributes about Rs 30/- a month (fixed rate) toensure a bit of capital to maintain the hydromachinery. During the construction theycontributed their labour force during the civilworks needed to facilitate the completion of theproject. Another village Rachimetta also receiveselectricity from this project. This initiativeprovides electricity throughout the day and night.As long as water flows through the streamelectricity is available.

The other villages in the panchayat are not asfortunate. They have received Solar Lanterns fromLAYA at a subsidized cost. Solar lanterns cannotreplace free flowing electricity; although it doesprovide better light than kerosene lanterns andburning wood.

In the meantime, the government seems to onlyperceive reaching out to these villages from thegrid supply system.

Decentralized Energy Options (DEO) as a conceptstill remains a well-meaning aspiration. Thearguments against DEOs, has been its prohibitivecosts, inefficiency and high suggestedmaintenance. This is while the establishment ishappy to pour in resources through subsidies,inefficient distribution of power and systems thatcannot possibly maintain consistent power to theseremote regions.

In the interest of the environment, climate changeand sustainable use of resources however we seefrom our experience that DEOs are fact cheaper,far more efficient and can easily be maintainedand sustained with community support andcontribution.

As we keep stating, the community doesn’t needmegawatts but consistent, reliable watts to fulfiltheir basic needs.

Pathakota is a case in point!

Siddharth Dsouza, Decentralised Energy Cell, Laya

The Water Wheels of Time:Micro hydro Power in the Western Ghats of India

The seeds of innovation - Farmer madepico-hydro systems

"My son insisted on light at home and Iexperimented based on a picture of a water wheelin his text book", Krishna Rao, a farmer in thefamous Coorg coffee estate district, in the WesternGhats of Karnataka told me. He was speaking ofa micro-hydro system he had built himself - alocally made turbine connected to a second-handelectricity generator, which he pulled out of hisvehicle.

I heard this story in the mid 1990's when I wasstill a student of Mechanical engineering. Duringthis time I travelled the breadth of the incrediblybiodiverse Ghats, encountering an amazing arrayof farmer - built pico-hydro systems that chargedbatteries for lighting. These travels were the mosttransformational time of my life; They taught methe meaning of "small is beautiful".

At that time, the electricity grid had not yetreached these hills completely, and even where ithad reached, it was very unreliable. The systems

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farmers had built were run-of-the-stream systems(no dams, no impounding), snuggly retrofittinginto their irrigation networks. With these systems,farmers could control allocation of water forirrigation or energy - they managed their energydemand along with the flow of streams and theirirrigation needs.

The importance of these innovations instilled inme, along with many in Civil Society the desireto champion the cause of pico-hydro. But thechallenges that all renewable energy practitionersface were aplenty. How would it be financed andby whom? While technology was not new, howwould it be adapted to a local context? How wouldit be owned, operated & maintained? Mobilizingpeople and achieving financial sustainability - ofboth the systems and the efforts to build them -was the challenge of the day.

A model micro-hydro community system:Pathanpara Kerala

In 1996 two engineer activists, Anil and Samueltook it upon themselves to demonstrate "people'senergy", in the context of a movement against aproposed nuclear power plant in the region. Theyconvinced the local church in a small village calledPathanpara (Kannur District), in the WesternGhats of Kerala. Under its leadership the villagebuilt a 5 KW micro-hydro system that wouldbecome an exceptional model of a community-based micro-hydro system.

The project met and overcame the numerouschallenges renewable energy practitioners face inrural India; It secured financing from the villagethrough cash or kind; It formed a village electricitycommittee (VEC), elected at regular periods,which set tariffs on a no-profit no-loss basis; Andit empowered the VEC to operate, maintain,manage and regulate energy use.

This system, built in 1996, provided reliableelectricity to around 100 households in the village.Even though the grid arrived in the village in 2002,it has failed to provide electricity to all households.Today, the micro hydro system continues toprovide electricity to 50 households. What's more,the VEC achieved demand management (criticalwhen the supply was limited to 5 KW and had to

be shared equitably) through social regulationrather than sophisticated technical means. TheVEC also realized the importance of protectingthe stream, which the micro-hydro system wasbuilt on, and has worked to maintainenvironmental protection. Ultimately, this systemand its governance, remain a model for futureefforts.

The role of government agencies and policySince the mid-1990s, the grid has extended tosome areas in the Ghats - but its inclusiveness andits reliability remain questionable with manylocations still completely cut-off from the grid.What's worse, until the Electricity Act of 2003efforts to deliver decentralized renewable energyto the people through systems like those atPathanpara were technically illegal. Capitalsubsidies that defray the upfront investment costsof such systems were put in place around the sametime (2003), by the Ministry of New andRenewable Energy (MNRE), which openedpossibilities for replication. However, accessingthe subsidy and deploying this money still poseschallenges and delays for practitioners to varyingdegrees in different states.

Small scale, micro and pico systems, that arepeople owned & managed need supportive policyenvironments. While the 2003 act hasundoubtedly helped practitioners, much more canbe done in public policy that can help replicatethese pioneering efforts. Considering the energysecurity, access to energy and most importantly,local inclusive economic growth implications ofsuch systems government policy in this area mustbe a priority.

Evolution of civil society: Acknowledging theneed for a Business-like approach

Meanwhile, civil society has evolved its approachas an increasing realization swept the communitythat unless the delivery of these systems addressedissues of post installation maintenance services,along with the need for financial sustainability,the systems would not be sustainable in the longterm. Therefore, efforts morphed into morebusiness or business-like entities, which tried tostrike the right balance between products &

12 eco-ethic

customization and the pricing of delivery andmaintenance.

One of those to have mastered this balance isPrakruti Hydro Labs (PHL). PHL pioneerednecessary technological adaptations and deliverychain issues. PHL has established a dealernetwork for its 1 KW micro-hydro product thatidentify sites & customers, install & commissionthe systems, provide post-installation services -and, most importantly bundle two types offinancial services with all of these. First, theyprovide an interface with the MNRE to integrateaccess to subsidies for consumers. The subsidyis released after completion of the installation butcan be delayed up to a year. Therefore, the dealernetwork has worked with local farmer cooperativebanks to enable a bridge loan to cover capitalneeds during the subsidy release cycle.

Prakruti Hydro labs and its dealer network are nowpartnering with Small Scale SustainableInfrastructure Development Fund (S3IDF,www.s3idf.org) to try and mobilize more localbank money for this program. Together we areworking to expand the program and create theconditions necessary for scaling up these efforts.

The Way Forward

Micro hydro systems still hold tremendousuntapped potential. For instance, systems < 1KWcan potentially serve basic electricity needs foreven landless laborers while larger scale systemscan enable value-added local economic activitysuch as agri-produce or agri-waste. Larger scale

systems are particularly exciting because they caneventually be connected to the grid. Such linkagesnot only make these projects more bankable, theyhold the potential to drive more local and inclusiveeconomic development. However, this requires aninnovative approach to rural electrification thatinvolves local governance and possibilities ofentrepreneurially run local ESCOs (Energyservice companies) rather than a sole focus onlarge scale centralized power plants and gridextension.

While practitioners will continue to lay thefoundations for such an approach, it is critical thatgood governance incorporates the importance ofthese possibilities. A capital subsidy to encouragethese systems is a starting point, but good publicpolicy must promote an enabling eco-system forthe sector to develop and achieve maturity. Thismeans other forms of assistance - technicalfinancial and economic - must be mobilized. Italso requires capacity building for local peoplewho can be gainfully employed in this sector.

It is important that the nation's decision makerssee that its own people have demonstratedsolutions to their problems, and in so doing analternative vision for their development and theirfuture; A vision that potentially holds answers toour burning problems of social equity and theenvironmental crisis. If we desire inclusive andbenign development, I believe that this is not achoice but an imperative.

Avinash Krishnamurthy, COO, Small Scale SustainableInfrastructure Development Fund,

Sierra Club India Environment Post 6-20-11

Let there be light

Walk into the IIT Kharagpur campus and in hugeletters you find at the entrance: “To serve thenation”. Every day, during Dr. Harish Hande’sstudent years, as he walked into the campus, thesewords troubled him. “Which nation?” he oftenwondered. “Our hostel fee was Rs. 10, and theannual fee was Rs. 25, and each student had threecomputers! Our education was completelysubsidised by the government. Indian tax payerswere funding our education, but at the end of it,most IITians go abroad to study further or on work.

I used to feel verydisturbed by this…,” recalls the 43-year-old Harish, theBangalorean who isamong the twoIndians who havewon the MagsaysayAward for RightLivelihood, 2011.

Magsaysay Award winner Harish Hande.

eco-ethic 13

Recalling his schooling and growing up years atthe Rourkela Steel Plant Township where hisfather worked, Harish says: “I got the best ofeducation. It was nothing like the elitist upmarketInternational schools of today, yet top notch.Everyone, from the peon’s children to themanager’s kids went there, but the pressure toexcel was very much there.” Harish says how evenduring a game of cricket, the wicket keeper andthe batsman were often talking about how to solvea math problem. “If you don’t make it to the IITyou are useless, that’s how it was. Invariably, mostof us did.” Much like his classmates, Harish wentto Massachusetts to do his Master’s and Ph.D. inEnergy Engineering, and here he met RichardHansen from Dominican Republic who haddeveloped a sustainable energy model in andaround his village, way back in 1984 itself. “I wasvery moved by what he had done. I decided that ifI could in some way give back all that I hadreceived from my country, it would be by changingthe lives of the poor.”

Harish went straight to Anuradhapura in SriLanka, and lived in those villages for nearly sixmonths working on a feasible sustainable energymodel. “I wasn’t sure if I would be accepted inthe villages of India. I was educated, upper classand hence an outsider. Not knowing the languagein Sri Lanka worked to my advantage, it was easierto integrate.” After the initial work, Harish livedand toured rural Karnataka for one and a halfyears, and by 1995, he got SELCO, a socialventure to eradicate poverty by promotingsustainable technologies in rural India, registered.Headquartered in Bangalore, SELCO today has24 branches in Karnataka and one in Gujarat. Theyhave installed solar lighting units in more than1,20,000 households in rural Karnataka.

It was not easy, there were many things involved.If 600 million people have to come out of poverty,“enterprises have to look at social, environmentaland financial sustainability, all at the same level.It cannot be one over the other,” Harish explains.Also, the needs of the poor are not uniform. Therequirement of a street vendor was far differentfrom that of a farmer or a tailor. So after the hectic

research and field work, different models oflighting systems were worked out. “But what isthe use of all this without setting up an after salesservice unit? Crossing this hurdle, the nextquestion before us was affordability. Their incomewas so meagre, how would they afford this?”Harish approached rural financial institutions andconvinced them after endless visits that they hadto provide loan to the poor to light up their homes.“Banks were not willing to give loans becausesolar lighting was not related to incomegeneration, whereas education was. It took me along time to convince them that they were related,”remembers Harish. “But we have such wonderfulrural institutions like Malaprabha Bank, KaveriKalpataru Bank, Tungabhadra Grameena Bankand of course our nationalised banks. They havestood by us and shared our conviction, withoutwhich we could not have done this.”

It took a while for Harish and his team to convincehouseholds to have solar lights. For instance,Arvind Rai in Dakshina Kannada refused despiteseveral visits. Finally, the system was installedon a day he was not at home. “Even after 52 to 53years of Independence they had not seen a bulb,and I can’t tell you how empowering this was forthem.” The response that began to flow ingradually was encouraging. It changed the livesof the people, and now there was impetus onparents to get their children educated – they couldcome back home and study. Harish is full of storiesand the most recent one is of Aishwarya whotopped SSLC in 2010. “She called me soon as herresults were out, and even wrote a letter. I feelvery touched by these experiences. What valuewill you attach to all this in terms of money?”asks Harish.

Alternate energy systems invariably turn out tobe expensive. “Not really. It depends on what yourusage is. If you are going to use it for 24 hours,then it is expensive. But say a panipuri vendoruses solar light, it will cost him Rs. 6 a day,whereas kerosene costs Rs. 15 per day.Customising our units for each consumer was ourgoal and we have achieved it.”

In the name of development we are creating

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employees out of the poor, says Harish. “Otherthan agriculture is there any other model wherewe pump money into the rural economy?” He issad and angry that we have no business modelsfor rural India that makes poor asset creators.“Only then can we reduce the financial divide.The sustainability of the world depends on themodified business models that look at the poor asasset creators. We have to bring in this paradigmshift.”

The hope lies in rural and semi-urban youth, says

Harish. They are brilliantly innovative and arewilling to take on challenges unlike middle-class,urban people who want to be “safe” and lack thewill to take on any challenge. “The governmentmust stop pumping money into IITs and IISc-s andmust invest in rural innovation. They must set uplabs and give rural youngsters the necessaryexpertise. For me, the future lies there,” saysHarish. The nation lies in rural India.

Deepa Ganesh, The Hindu, Metro Plus, August 25, 2011http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus article2396624.ece

Bonn climate talks end with no agreement on key areasProgress made on technical issues, but non government groups criticise slow and convoluted pace ofnegotiations.

Two weeks of tense global climate talks wrapped up, with countries insisting they had made progress ontechnical issues but accepting they were still nowhere near agreement in the three key areas of finance,greenhouse gas emission cuts and the future of the Kyoto protocol.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN climate secretariat, defended the UN againstcharges by non-governmental groups that the talks were painfully slow and convoluted, saying theeconomic crisis in Europe and elsewhere was making it harder to make progress.

"Climate [change talks] are the most important negotiations the world has ever seen, but governments,business and civil society cannot solve it [climate] in one meeting. Countries are being very creative,exploring all options," she said at the close of the conference in Bonn.

Figueres warned that there could a gap between commitment periods for the Kyoto Protocol, the onlyglobal treaty legally binding rich countries to cut emissions - the first phase of which ends in 2012."Governments can double their efforts and come forward with middle ground solutions and optionswhich are acceptable to all sides," she said.

The EU, which was challenged to lead negotiations by committing itself to a second round of Kyoto, saiddeveloping countries had to prove they had met all agreements made in Copenhagen and Cancún lastyear.

"We are ready for an international deal ... but we need everyone aboard. A second commitment periodon its own is not going to cut it. We need to see more progress [in other areas]," said Jozsef Feiler, EUspokesperson. Non-governmental groups said they were deeply frustrated at the snail pace ofnegotiations and whole days lost while countries debated the agenda of the talks.

Bolivia, which was isolated at the end of the Cancún talks when it insisted on deeper emission cuts, saidit was worried at the lack of ambition. "There have been some small advances in technical issues, but noadvance at all in the key issue of pledges for emission reductions. If there are no new pledges [soon],we face a very difficult situation," said Pablo Solon, ambassador to the UN in New York.

"The developed countries are not moving. The problem we face is that we are on a path to [warming of]4-5C. That is the reality. That worries us very much. The problem is the lack of ambition," he said,Quamrul Chowdhury, a negotiator with the G77 group of developing countries, said that the talks werelike the end of a long cricket test match with both sides playing for a draw. "No-one wants to loseanything at this stage."

"Europe should use its power to secure a second commitment period of Kyoto, even if only as a stop-gapbefore the creation of an entirely new global deal," said Mohamed Adow, senior adviser on global

advocacy for Christian Aid.John Vidal, environment editor, guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 June 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/17/climate-talks-end-no-agreement

eco-ethic 15

16 eco-ethic

eco-ethic 17

Power corrupts; nuclear power corruptsabsolutely. The industry developed as a by-productof nuclear weapons research. Its deployment wasused to shield the production of weapons frompublic view. Though the two industries have nowbeen forced apart, in most parts of the world thenuclear operators remain secretive, unaccountableand far too close to government.

Last week the Guardian revealed that the Britishgovernment connived with corporations to playdown the impact of the disaster at Fukushima(1).Comments from the nuclear companies, a businessdepartment official suggested, should beincorporated into ministers’ briefings andgovernment statements.

It is through such collusion that accidents happen.The latest report by the International AtomicEnergy Agency shows that Tepco, the firm thatran the stricken plant at Fukushima, had under-estimated the danger of tsunamis, had not plannedproperly for multiple plant failures and had beenallowed to get away with it by a regulator thatfailed to review its protective measures(2).Nuclear operators worldwide have beenrepeatedly exposed as a bunch of arm-twisting,corner-cutting scumbags.

In this respect they are, of course, distinguishedfrom the rest of the energy industry, which is runby collectives of self-abnegating monks whoseonly purpose is to spread a little happiness. Howthey ended up sharing the names and addressesof some of the nuclear companies is a mysterythat defies explanation. The front-page story inFriday’s Guardian quoted “former governmentenvironmental adviser”

Tom Burke saying the following about the

government’s relationship with the nuclearcompanies. “They are too close to industry,concealing problems, rather than revealing anddealing with them.”(3) What the article did nottell us is that Burke currently works for Rio Tinto,one of the world’s biggest coal-miningcorporations(4). It has, of course, always refrainedfrom colluding with governments.

All the big energy companies – whether theyinvest in coal, oil, gas, nuclear, wind or solarpower – manipulate politicians, bully regulatorsand bamboozle the public. Their overweeningpower causes many kinds of harm; among themis the damage it has done to the case for nucleartechnology. Strip away the interests and thearguments are strong.

Let’s begin with safety. The best evidence for thesafety and resilience of nuclear power plants canbe found at Fukushima. Not at Fukushima Dai-ichi, the power station where the meltdowns andexplosions took place, but at Fukushima Dai-ni,the plant next door. You’ve never heard of it?

There’s a good reason for that. It was run by thesame slovenly company. It was hit by the sameearthquake and the same tsunami. But it survived.Like every other nuclear plant struck by the wave,it went into automatic cold shutdown(5). With theexception of a nuclear missile attack, it withstoodthe sternest of all possible tests.

What we see here is the difference between 1970sand 1980s safety features. The first Dai-ichireactor was licensed in 1971. The first Dai-nireactor was licensed in 1982. Today’s technologiesare safer still. The pebblebed reactors now beingtested by China, for example, shut themselvesdown if they begin to overheat as an inherent

Nuclear Power Corrupts Absolutely

Sensible arguments for nuclear power have been obscured by the justifiable distrust bred bycorporate spin and collusion. There is no contradiction between favouring the machines andopposing the machinations.

18 eco-ethic

property of the physics they exploit(6). Using aplant built 40 years ago to argue against 21st-century power stations is like using theHindenburg disaster to contend that modern airtravel is unsafe.

Even the Dai-ichi meltdown, the same energyagency report tells us, has caused no medical harm.While the evacuation it necessitated is profoundlytraumatic and disruptive, “to date no confirmedhealth effects have been detected in any personas a result of radiation exposure” from theaccident(7). Compare this to the 100,000 deathscaused by air pollution from coal plants every year,and you begin to see that we’ve been fretting aboutthe wrong risks(8).

Compare it to the damage and death that climatechange will cause, and you find that our responseis so disproportionate as to constitute a form ofmadness. It’s a straightforward pay-off. Germany’spromise to ditch nuclear power will produce anextra 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide ayear(9).

In June Angela Merkel announced a possibledoubling of the capacity of the coal and gas plantsGermany will build in the next 10 years(10).Already Germany has been burning brown coal,one of the most polluting fuels on earth, to makeup the shortfall(11). The renewable technologieswhich should have replaced fossil fuels willinstead replace nuclear power.

This is the point at which anti-nuclear activistsreach for one of four arguments. The first is thatwe should concentrate on reducing energydemand. Dead right we should – regardless ofwhich technology we favour. But even with amassive cut in overall demand, getting the carbonout of transport and heating means increasingelectricity supply.

The Centre for Alternative Technology’s radicaland optimistic plan for decarbonising Britainenvisages a 55% cut in energy consumption by

2030 – and a near-doubling in electricitysupply(12). Contest this by all means, but you’llhave to explain what it got wrong.

The second is that it takes 10-15 years to buildnew nuclear plants. This, they argue, is too long.It is. So is the 10-15 years it takes to roll out amajor renewables programme. The third is thaturanium supplies will run out. They will, one day.The Committee on Climate Change estimates thatthey’re good for 50 years(13).

Long before then, we should have switched tofourth generation technologies, which would runon the waste produced by current nucleargenerators. This leads us to the fourth objection:that nuclear waste cannot be disposed of safely.

Even if we assume that we’ll want to get rid ofthem, rather than use them as a valuable fuel, theclaim that it’s unsafe to put fissile materialsunderground is inexplicable. Isn’t that where theycame from?

Why is it less safe to leave uranium severalthousand metres below the surface, encased inlead, backfilled with bentonite and capped withconcrete than it is to leave it, as nature did,scattered around the planet, just beneath thesurface?

And is it plausible that a future civilisation wouldpossess the technology to extract our waste fromthose astonishing depths, but not to figure out thatit might be harmful?

All these arguments have been obscured by thejustifiable distrust bred by industry spin andcollusion. There is no contradiction betweenfavouring the machines and opposing themachinations. A new generation of nuclear powerstations should be built only with unprecedentedscrutiny and transparency – and the same appliesto all our energy options. Corporate power? Nothanks.

George Monbiot, http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?277552

eco-ethic 19

ARE Indian diplomats, known for theirnegotiating skills and sense of timing, losing touchwith reality? Going by the proposal Indiannegotiators tabled at the just-concluded Bonnintersessional climate talks for including nuclearpower as a “green” technology under the CleanDevelopment Mechanism (CDM), it appears thatthey are either losing touch or are forced to adoptpositions that attract disrespect and ridicule.

The CDM, part of the Kyoto Protocol under theUnited Nations Framework Convention onClimate Change, allocates carbon credits totechnologies and processes (for instance,reafforestation, industrial-gas destruction) that,theoretically, avert/reduce greenhouse gasemissions in developing countries. These creditsare sold profitably to developed-countrygovernments or corporations, which can use themas a substitute for reducing domestic emissions,as they are obliged to do under the Protocol. TheKyoto Protocol is the world’s sole legally bindingagreement. But its early implementation phase,called First Commitment Period, runs out nextyear.

Many developed countries are loath to negotiatea second period. The Protocol is on life support.Apart from failing to recognise this, India’sproposal was singularly ill-timed. It coincidedwith the still-continuing Fukushima disasterentering its fourth month, a serious worsening ofthe global nuclear industry’s crisis, and a hugeshift in public opinion against nuclear power. Nowonder the proposal earned India the “Fossil ofthe Day” award given by the Climate ActionNetwork of non-governmental organisations togovernments that make outlandish or anti-greenproposals.

The precise magnitude of the health andenvironmental damage from the radiation releasefrom Fukushima is yet to be estimated. But it isindisputably the global nuclear industry’s greatestaccident, far greater than Chernobyl. At

Nuclear or broke

India’s obsession with nuclear power is proving extremely damaging. It is time to switch toand participate in the renewables revolution.

Chernobyl, only one reactor underwent a coremeltdown. At Fukushima, three reactors did, andthe spent fuel of a total of four reactors (containingeven higher quantities of dangerous radionuclides)was exposed. This was equivalent to an estimated20 Chernobyl-sized cores. The quantities ofiodine-131 and caesium-137, just two dangerousisotopes, released from Fukushima are estimatedto be of the same order as those released fromChernobyl. The releases of these and a host ofother radionuclides continue uncontrolled.

Experts are still struggling to reconstruct the chainof mishaps beginning March 11. Each new orupdated evaluation suggests that the disaster isfar, far worse than earlier thought. Data releasedby the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO),the station operator, show that the fuel rods in thethree reactors started to melt down within hoursof the earthquake at 2-46 p.m. By 8 p.m, anuncontrolled meltdown had begun at Reactor 1.Fuel slumped to the bottom of the pressure-vessel.By 9 p.m, temperatures had reached 2,800°Celsius, the fuel rods’ melting point.

The company admits a meltdown also happenedat Reactors 2 and 3. Among the early culpritsidentified in the scientific analysis were hydrogenexplosions of March 12 and 14, which seriouslydamaged the cores and reactor structures.

These are the very events which Department ofAtomic Energy (DAE) Secretary SrikumarBanerjee and Nuclear Power CorporationChairman S.K. Jain dismissed as “purely chemicalreactions” not signifying a nuclear emergency oreven an “event”. Fukushima has precipitated theclosure of as many as 37 of Japan’s 54 nuclearreactors, six of them probably for good. Yet morereactors are likely to be shut down for mandatoryannual maintenance, and local authorities areunlikely to permit their early restarting. Japan isreviewing its energy policy and will almostcertainly phase out nuclear power.

20 eco-ethic

Germany, Switzerland and Italy are opting out.Italy’s referendum showed that 95 per cent ofpeople opposeed atomic power. Even in France,nuclear power’s most ardent advocate, 62 per centof people recently polled wanted a nuclear phase-out, and 15 per cent immediate decommissioning.France, for all its advocacy, has only one reactorunder construction; it is in deep trouble. The near-bankrupt nuclear company Areva’s CEO, AnneLauvergeon (“Atomic Anne”), has just beensacked, not least because of the fiasco involvingthe European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) inFinland and the exorbitant costs and multiplefailures of Areva’s ventures in Europe, Africa andJapan.

With this, says The Economist, “the future ofFrance’s nuclear-energy industry just becamemore uncertain”. Yet, India is planning to instalsix EPRs at Jaitapur. Both the United States andthe European Union, which is doing a nine-monthreview of nuclear reactor safety, including “stresstests”, will probably halt the practice of upratingand extending the lifetimes of reactors. In the U.S.,no new reactor has been ordered since 1973. Andthe European nuclear industry has not yet fullyrecovered from the Chernobyl shock.

Global financial institutions evaluatingFukushima’s impact believe it will lead to theimmediate shutdown of old reactors, suspensionof new plant approvals, review of reactors inseismically active zones, higher safety and othercosts, and re-evaluation of energy policies in allnuclear countries. An HSBC analysis concludes:“Overall, we expect a number of impacts fromthe public and political backlash against nuclear,which means the focus shifts to renewables.”Standard and Poor’s nuclear and clean energyindices are moving divergently. The Swissinvestment bank UBS says Fukushima casts doubton “whether even an advanced economy canmaster nuclear safety. … We believe theFukushima accident was the most serious ever forthe credibility of nuclear power.” It will be amiracle if nuclear power survives in the developedworld.

Before Fukushima, only China and India among

developing countries had plans to expand nucleargeneration substantially. But China has sinceimposed a moratorium on further nuclear activity.It has become the world’s biggest renewableenergy investor. It has 45 gigawatts in wind power,compared with just 10 GW in nuclear. It plans togenerate 100 GW in wind and 10 GW in solar-photovoltaics and is already the world leader insolar-thermal.

India alone is playing the boy on the burning deckas far as nuclear power goes.

This would carry a fig leaf of credibility if India’snuclear programme were indigenous, big andsuccessful. Alas, it is not.

All its reactors are based on imported designs.Despite annually sinking thousands of crores intothe nuclear programme for six decades, India getsonly 2.7 per cent of its electricity from nuclearreactors. Its economic, environmental and safetycosts are high and rising. The DAE hasmismanaged its projects and failed to keep costsunder check. Its last 10 reactors were 300 per centover budget. Its frequent revisions of nucleargeneration targets have rendered its energyplanning meaningless. Yet, so insistent is theManmohan Singh government on forciblyinstigating a “nuclear renaissance” that it is readyto violate its own legislation to hand outsweetheart deals to foreign nuclear companies.

At stake is the Civil Liability for Nuclear DamagesAct, passed last year after a bitter, prolongeddebate, during which the government discrediteditself by repeatedly trying to doctor theParliamentary Standing Committee’s draft. Thelaw was originally drafted to meet the nuclearindustry’s demand that only the operator of nuclearfacilities be held liable for accidents.

But the government, under public pressure, madesuppliers, too, liable in case of faulty equipmentor design. It is now trying to bypass the Act inrespect of Russian-designed Koodankulamreactors to allow a “cost mark-up” to coveradditional insurance costs (The Hindu, June 9).This despicable violation of the very spirit of theAct shows total disdain for Parliament. It must be

eco-ethic 21

2010 tied for warmest year on record

So says the U.N. weather agency, providing furtherevidence on Thursday that the planet is slowlybut surely heating up.

Average temperatures globally last year were 0.53Celsius higher than the 1961-90 mean that is usedfor comparison purposes, according to WorldMeteorological Organisation.

That's a bit lower than what the U.S. NationalClimatic Data Center announced earlier thismonth, but the World Meteorological Organisationalso uses figures based on data collected byBritain's Meteorological Office and NASA.

"The 2010 data confirm the Earth's significantlong-term warming trend," said Michel Jarraud,WMO's top official. He added that the ten warmestyears after records began in 1854 have all occurredsince 1998.

The average worldwide temperature for the 20thcentury was 13.88 degrees Celsius.

Climate worries

But rising global temperatures over the lastThe warmest year on record is a three-way tie- 2010, 2005 and 1998.

strongly opposed.

The government confronts yet another unpleasantmoment as it moves heaven and earth to beadmitted to four plurilateral export-controlregimes, which it long termed “cartels” run by“nuclear Ayatollahs”, including the NuclearSuppliers Group (NSG), the Missile TechnologyControl Regime (MTCR), the WassenaarAgreement and the Australia group.

This is happening just when the NSG is movingto ban enrichment and reprocessing technology(ENR) transfer to countries that have not signedthe Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Indiaclaims this breaches the “clean waiver” and “fullcooperation” assurances it got in 2008, withoutENR exclusion. Assurances aside, it is totallyunrealistic to think ENR can be transferred to anycountry today, regardless of NPT membership.The U.S. made it clear that it would not sell this

to India. India’s exertions on this issue, then, areabout symbolic recognition as a “responsible”nuclear weapons-state – a contradiction in terms.

On nuclear matters, India has always placed anirrational premium on symbols and demandedequal treatment within a regime it long describedas “Atomic Apartheid”. However, a moreimportant, substantial and worthy battle must befought – working for total global nucleardisarmament. India would gain immensely inglobal prestige and credibility if it invested in theliability legislation a small fraction of the energiesit put into the U.S.-India nuclear deal and indeceiving the public. Equally handsome gains areto be made by participating in and leading theRenewables (Energy) Revolution that is nowunder way. Both entail abandoning our nuclearobsession.

Praful Bidwai http://www.frontline.in/stories/20110715281409400.htm

22 eco-ethic

century are causing climate experts to worry. Mostatmospheric scientists attribute the change tocarbon dioxide and gases released into the air bygasoline-burning engines and other industrialprocesses. The gases tend to trap heat in theatmosphere like a greenhouse.

The Geneva-based global weather agency notedthat last year's extreme weather - notably the heatwave in Russia and monsoon flooding in Pakistan- has continued into the new year. It also cited theheavy floods in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Brazil

and Australia as examples.

The year 2010 also was the wettest on record,according to the Global Historical ClimatologyNetwork. But since rain and snowfall patternsvaried greatly around the world, scientists saymore research is needed to establish a link betweenthe warmer temperatures with the unusualmoisture.AP: GENEVA, January 20, 2011; S & T " Energy & Environment;

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article1106051.ece?homepage=true

The changing face of La Nina

‘The Little Girl’ — La Nina — has had an outsized impact across globe since manifestingitself in mid-2010. La Nina and its equally rumbustious sibling, El Nino, come about whenthe waters of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean along the equator become unusuallycold or warm. These changes in the Pacific produce swings in atmospheric pressure, winds,temperature, and rainfall that have a global impact. These coupled with changes in theocean and atmosphere are collectively called the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO).For India, an El Nino is often a cause for concern because of its adverse impact on thesouth-west monsoon; this happened in 2009. A La Nina, on the other hand, is oftenbeneficial for the monsoon, especially in the latter half. The La Nina that appeared in thePacific in 2010 probably helped last year’s south-west monsoon end on a favourable note.But then, it also contributed to the deluge in Australia, which resulted in one of thatcountry’s worst natural disasters with large parts of the north-east under water. Itwreaked similar havoc in south-eastern Brazil and played a part in the heavy rains andconsequent flooding that have affected Sri Lanka.

It is becoming increasingly clear that global warming is contributing to the impact thatENSO has. The Indian Ocean is warming rapidly. There are already indications that thiswarming along with the growing temperature of the western Pacific is influencing theeffect of a La Nina. A paper, ominously titled ‘The Perfect Ocean for Drought,’ which waspublished in the journal Science in 2003, linked the prolonged droughts from 1998 to2002 that afflicted the United States, southern Europe, and south-west Asia to thewarmth of these ocean waters during a protracted La Nina. Such heightened oceantemperatures may well have played a crucial part in weather-related events in recentmonths. While the La Nina that developed in mid-2010 lent a helping hand to the south-west monsoon, the warmth of the tropical Indian Ocean may have prevented a moreequitable distribution of rainfall — eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and muchof West Bengal received far too little of it. The warming of the Indian Ocean and westernPacific probably provided the extra moisture and energy for the exceptionally heavyrains that Australia and Sri Lanka experienced. It could be one reason why in India thenorth-east monsoon, which is usually retarded by a La Nina, has this time seen a surfeitof rain. The writing on the wall is clear enough: global warming will worsen the swings ofclimate variability brought about by factors like ENSO, making extreme weather eventssuch as droughts and floods more frequent. The world needs to pay heed.

Opinion - Editorials 17/01/2011 http://www.thehindu.com/2011/01/17/stories/2011011757751200.htm ©

eco-ethic 23

Economic recession has failed to curb risingemissions, undermining hope of keeping globalwarming to safe levels

Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a recordamount last year, to the highest carbon output inhistory, putting hopes of holding global warmingto safe levels all but out of reach, according tounpublished estimates from the InternationalEnergy Agency.

The shock rise means the goal of preventing atemperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius -which scientists say is the threshold for potentially"dangerous climate change" - is likely to be just"a nice Utopia", according to Fatih Birol, chiefeconomist of the IEA. It also shows the mostserious global recession for 80 years has had onlya minimal effect on emissions, contrary to somepredictions.

Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbondioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly fromburning fossil fuel - a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009,according to estimates from the IEA regarded asthe gold standard for emissions data.

"I am very worried. This is the worst news onemissions," Birol told the Guardian. "It isbecoming extremely challenging to remain below2 degrees. The prospect is getting bleaker. That iswhat the numbers say."

Professor Lord Stern of the London School ofEconomics, the author of the influential SternReport into the economics of climate change forthe Treasury in 2006, warned that if the patterncontinued, the results would be dire. "Thesefigures indicate that [emissions] are now close tobeing back on a 'business as usual' path. Accordingto the [Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange's] projections, such a path ... would meanaround a 50% chance of a rise in global averagetemperature of more than 4C by 2100," he said.

"Such warming would disrupt the lives andlivelihoods of hundreds of millions of peopleacross the planet, leading to widespread mass

Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink

migration and conflict. That is a risk any saneperson would seek to drastically reduce."

Birol said disaster could yet be averted, ifgovernments heed the warning. "If we have bold,decisive and urgent action, very soon, we still havea chance of succeeding," he said.

The IEA has calculated that if the world is toescape the most damaging effects of globalwarming, annual energy-related emissions shouldbe no more than 32Gt by 2020. If this year'semissions rise by as much as they did in 2010,that limit will be exceeded nine years ahead ofschedule, making it all but impossible to holdwarming to a manageable degree.

Emissions from energy fell slightly between 2008and 2009, from 29.3Gt to 29Gt, due to the financialcrisis. A small rise was predicted for 2010 aseconomies recovered, but the scale of the increasehas shocked the IEA. "I was expecting a rebound,but not such a strong one," said Birol, who iswidely regarded as one of the world's foremostexperts on emissions.

Most of the rise - about three-quarters - has comefrom developing countries, as rapidly emergingeconomies have weathered the financial crisis andthe recession that has gripped most of thedeveloped world.

But he added that, while the emissions data wasbad enough news, there were other factors thatmade it even less likely that the world would meetits greenhouse gas targets.

� About 80% of the power stations likely to bein use in 2020 are either already built or underconstruction, the IEA found. Most of these arefossil fuel power stations unlikely to be takenout of service early, so they will continue topour out carbon - possibly into the mid-century.The emissions from these stations amount toabout 11.2Gt, out of a total of 13.7Gt from theelectricity sector. These "locked-in" emissionsmean savings must be found elsewhere.

"It means the room for manoeuvre is shrinking,"

24 eco-ethic

warned Birol.

� Another factor that suggests emissions willcontinue their climb is the crisis in the nuclearpower industry. Following the tsunami damageat Fukushima, Japan and Germany have calleda halt to their reactor programmes, and othercountries are reconsidering nuclear power.

"People may not like nuclear, but it is one of themajor technologies for generating electricitywithout carbon dioxide," said Birol. The gap leftby scaling back the world's nuclear ambitions isunlikely to be filled entirely by renewable energy,meaning an increased reliance on fossil fuels.

Carbon injected underground now leaking

A Saskatchewan farm couple whose land lies overthe world's largest carbon capture and storageproject says greenhouse gases that were supposedto have been injected permanently undergroundare leaking out, killing animals and sendinggroundwater foaming to the surface like shaken-up soda pop.

Cameron and Jane Kerr, who own nine quarter-sections of land above the Weyburn oilfield ineastern Saskatchewan, released a consultant'sreport Tuesday that claims to link highconcentrations of carbon dioxide in their soil tothe 8,000 tonnes of the gas injected undergroundevery day by energy giant Cenovus in its attemptto enhance oil recovery and fight climate change.

"We knew, obviously, there was somethingwrong," said Jane Kerr. Cameron Kerr, 64, saidhe has farmed in the area all his life and neverhad any problems until 2003, when he agreed todig a gravel quarry.

That gravel was for a road to a plant owned byEnCana now Cenovus which had begun threeyears earlier to inject massive amounts of carbondioxide underground to force more oil out of theaging field. Cenovus has injected more than 13million tonnes of the gas underground. The projecthas become a global hotspot for research intocarbon capture and storage, a technology thatmany consider one of the best hopes for keeping

greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

By 2005, Cameron Kerr had begun noticingproblems in a pair of ponds which had formed atthe bottom of the quarry. They developed algaeblooms, clots of foam and several colours of scumred, yellow and silver-blue. Sometimes, the pondsbubbled. Small animals cats, rabbits, goats wereregularly found dead a few metres away.

Then there were the explosions.

"At night we could hear this sort of bang like acannon going off," said Jane Kerr, 58. "We'd goout and check the gravel pit and, in the walls, it(had) blown a hole in the side and there would beall this foaming coming out of this hole."

"Just like you shook up a bottle of Coke and hadyour finger over it and let it spray," added herhusband.

The water, said Jane Kerr, came out of the groundcarbonated.

"It would fizz and foam."

Alarmed, the couple left their farm and moved toRegina.

"It was getting too dangerous to live there,"Cameron Kerr said.

In 2006, Cameron Kerr said, the province's NewDemocrat government agreed to conduct a year-

� Added to that, the United Nations-lednegotiations on a new global treaty on climatechange have stalled. "The significance ofclimate change in international policy debatesis much less pronounced than it was a few yearsago," said Birol.

Forthcoming research led by Sir David will showthe west has only managed to reduce emissionsby relying on imports from countries such asChina.

Fiona Harvey, Environment correspondent, guardian.co.uk,http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/29/

carbon-emissions-nuclearpower

eco-ethic 25

long study to find out what was going on. Thatgovernment fell to the Saskatchewan Party in thesubsequent election and the year-long study wasnever done.

Cameron Kerr said provincial inspectors didconduct a one-time check of air quality on a day,he added, with 50-kilometre winds. Then the Kerrssold some of their cattle and paid a privateconsultant for a study.

Paul Lafleur of Petro-Find Geochem found carbondioxide concentrations in the soil last summer thataveraged about 23,000 parts per million severaltimes those typically found in field soils.Concentrations peaked at 110,607 parts permillion.

As well, Lafleur used the mix of carbon isotopeshe found in the gas to trace its source.

"The ... source of the high concentrations of CO2in the soils of the Kerr property is clearly theanthropogenic CO2 injected into the Weyburnreservoir," he wrote.

"The survey also demonstrates that the overlyingthick cap rock of anhydrite over the Weyburnreservoir is not an impermeable barrier to the

upward movement of light hydrocarbons and CO2as is generally thought."

Lafleur suggests the carbon dioxide could leakinto area homes. The gas is not poisonous, but itcan cause asphyxiation in heavy concentrations,which is what Cameron thinks happened to theanimals around his ponds.

The suggestion that the Weyburn capture andstorage project might be leaking could haveimplications far beyond one rural neighbourhood.

The Alberta government has committed $2 billionto similar pilot projects in Alberta. The UnitedStates has committed $3.4 billion for carboncapture and storage.

Norway has been injecting carbon dioxide intothe sea floor since 1996. There are carbon captureand storage tests planned in Australia, Germany,Poland, the United Kingdom, China and Japan.

"I would like to see it stopped," Jane Kerr said. "Idon't think it's doing what it's supposed to do."

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press,http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/greenpage/environment/

carbon-injected-underground-now-leaking-saskatchewan-farmers-study-says-113276449.html

A Bleak Report on the Global Food Systemexcerpt

The global food system faces almostinsurmountable problems in feeding what will

probably be more than 9 billion people by2050, with competition for land, water andenergy intensifying at a time when climatechange and land degradation will play anominous role, according to a new report bythe Organization for Economic Cooperationand Development.

The 221-page report, titled Foresight. TheFuture of Food and Farming and written bythe Government Office for Science in theUnited Kingdom. Released on Jan. 25 andproduced by about 400 leading experts andstakeholders from about 35 low-, middle andhigh-income countries across the world, it

makes for bleak reading.

Already, despite the fact that birth rates are fallingdramatically in many parts of the world, thereappears little chance that they will fall enough to

The world faces unprecedented strains on foodproduction by the middle of the century.

26 eco-ethic

have a real effect on the numbers of people on theplanet in the next four decades, and it is likelythat an increasing number of them will be hungry,and that the Millennium Development Goals setfor 2015 are highly unlikely to be met. Already925 million people - 13.2 percent of the population- experience hunger today, with another billionpeople malnourished. Together, they account for27.5 percent of the global population. At the sametime, as Asia Sentinel reported on Sept.23, 2009,another billion people are substantiallyoverconsuming, leaving themselves open to Type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

While these nearly 2 billion people are eithermalnourished or starving, the entry into the middleclass of hundreds of millions of people in India,China and other newly prospering countries meansthey are increasingly likely to add proteins suchas grain-fed meat to their diet. These food itemsrequire considerably more resources to producethan others. Different studies have predicted thatper capita consumption of meat4 will rise from32 kilograms today to 52 kg by the middle of thecentury.

"Much of the responsibility for these three billionpeople having suboptimal diets lies within theglobal food system," the report states. "Manysystems of food production are unsustainable.Without change, the global food system willcontinue to degrade the environment andcompromise the world's capacity to produce foodin the future, as well as contributing to climatechange and the destruction of biodiversity."

Although the report carefully treads away fromassigning blame for the situation, a long series ofbad decisions as well as unwillingness to makehard choices by the world's governments goes totell why the food system is endangered.

The continuing refusal of major states like theUnited States - which is not alone -- to deal withthe problem of climate change is a major issue.

Industrialized farming like that practiced in theUnited States relies heavily on fossil fuel-derivedenergy for synthesis of nitrogen fertilizers andpesticides. In addition, food production systems

frequently emit significant quantities ofgreenhouse gases and release other pollutants thataccumulate in the environment.

"In view of the current failings in the food systemand the considerable challenges ahead, this Reportargues for decisive action that needs to take placenow," the authors write, saying that the responseof the current actors "will affect the quality oflife of everyone now living, and will have majorrepercussions for future generations."

The world's policymakers must consider the globalfood system "from production to place," theauthors note. The food system, they say, is hardlya single, designed entity but rather a partly self-organized collection of interacting parts. The foodsystems of different countries are now linked atall levels, from trade in raw materials through toprocessed products.

In terms of both nutrition and providinglivelihoods, especially for the poor - about a billionpeople rely on fish as their main source of animalprotein. Many vulnerable communities obtain asignificant amount of food from the wild ('wildfoods'), which increases resilience to food shocks.However, long-line fishing trawlers, which candrop nets for miles, are rapidly depleting the globalfishery, making it problematical how long the seascan sustain the global population. The reportargues for vastly increased aquaculture.

"On the production side, competition for land,water and energy will intensify, while the effectsof climate change will become increasinglyapparent. The need to reduce greenhouse gasemissions and adapt to a changing climate willbecome imperative." While the United States isthe biggest greenhouse gas producer, the votersreturned a US House of Representatives to officemade up of a majority who think climate changeis some sort of scientific plot, and there is all butno chance they will act.

"Over this period globalization will continue,exposing the food system to novel economic andpolitical pressures," the report states, any one ofwhich presents substantial challenges to foodsecurity," the authors note. "Together they

eco-ethic 27

constitute a major threat that requires a strategicreappraisal of how the world is fed."

The five key challenges are to balance futuredemand and supply sustainably - to ensure thatfood supplies are affordable; ensure that there isadequate stability in food supplies - and protectingthe most vulnerable from the volatility that doesoccur; achieving global access to food and endinghunger and recognizing .that "that producingenough food in the world so that everyone canpotentially be fed is not the same thing as ensuringfood security for all"; managing the contributionof the food system to the mitigation of climatechange; and maintaining biodiversity andecosystem services while feeding the world."

"Without change, the global food system willcontinue to degrade the environment andcompromise the world's capacity to produce food

in the future," the authors write.

"Achieving much closer coordination with all ofthese wider areas is a major challenge for policy-makers."

The sad fact is, however, that given local politicalexigencies, the current state of the industrial foodsystem in the United States and Europe, the failureto agree on freeing up trade in agriculturalproducts, the lack of agreement over climatechange and a host of other issues make it highlyunlikely that the world's governments can pulltogether to agree on economic development andglobal sustainability. It wouldn't be wise for theworld to get its hopes up. But the world's policymakers would do well to read this report.

John Berthelsen, Tuesday, 25 January 2011http://www.asiasentinel.com/

index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2940&itemid=189

Children have the absolute right to live in a decentenvironment with all that implies - attendingschool, enjoying good health, living and growingin safety, protection against any form of disasters,assured food security, protection from all formsof abuse, etc. Child rights as it is guaranteed inthe United Nation's convention can only beachieved when the larger society address the issueof climate crisis and ensure justice aroundequitable use of natural resources and protectionof environment. When protected water, pure airto breath and food security is at stake how can thebasic rights be assured? Hence RCPDS, a childfocussed development NGO jointly with itsInternational partner organisation, Kindernothilfe,with wholehearted commitment to protection ofchild rights initiated a small working committeewhich deal with child safety, food security andsoverginity, disaster preparedness, goodgovernance, climate change mitigation andappropriate lobby and advocacy.

As a consequence, the small working groupgradually emerged as active movement on groundto address the issue of climate justice as part ofchild focussed community development processand child rights approach.

Children's Movement for Climate Justice - CMCJ

CMCJ started in the year 2008 with 300 pluschildren from Palar Panchayat which is officialinstitutional base/framework for adolescentchildren to express, learn, practice, scale upthrough peer pressure and experiment varioussocial and rights based issues aimed at goodgovernance. CMCJ aims to create more equitableand just use of Natural Resources to reassurewhich will have impact on Universal Child Rightsfor children and create a demand driven processof climate justice that need to be rendered by allstakeholders concerned. Since this has emergedfrom the Palar Panchayat, which is a democraticgood governance platform for children themovement reiterate the need for social political,economic and legal systems to enable therealization of children's' rights at all levels.

Children Movement for Climate justice - CMCJwithin its overall goal endorses that revival oftraditional knowledge on agriculture sector andenvironment protection is key to food sovereigntyand security of the marginalized.

The vulnerability and experience of children, whoare members of CMCJ in our semi arid milletzone, based on the participatory assessment study

28 eco-ethic

done across Tamilnadu, reiterate the need forchildren getting exposed to traditional agriculturalpractices as part of their life styles and livelihoods.As members of Children Movement for ClimateJustice, our families and communities, Childrencommit themselves to reduce the risk andvulnerability as rigorous as possible by learningthe less carbon path to food production. TheChildren led ecological learning project-MANVASANAI is an open hands on experienceopportunity for anyone who share thiscommitment.

In this experiment children learn various basicconcepts of a eco friendly agriculture such as soiland water conservation, moisture retention,recharging of ground water through effectivewater harvesting measures, use of herbal plants,reviving traditional minor millets and their rolein family nutrition support system. Ultimately theeffort is aimed at giving hands on experience tochildren not only on food security but also on foodsovergnity. This learning centre is visited bymany schools around Tiruchuli as well from otherparts of the country. Apart from this memberfarming children make visits to other NGO

supported fields to give orientation on climatechange, mitigation possibilities and food security.

There is a great urgency, beyond the craze foreconomic growth, urbanization, science andtechnology, for our generation get exposure andbetter understand from where do we get our foodand how do we preserve the production rightsaccessible to the least ones.

This learning venture reiterate the belief thatundermining sovereignty based food security isdigging one's own grave. Thus members of CMCJfurther commit themselves and the movement toeducate and empower each one of us as well ourimmediate families and communities to adapt totraditional knowledge based science advancementto ensure food security and to mitigate thechanging climate.

Soon we would like to grow our movement to thecoverage level of two third children in Tamilnaduto join hands in CMCJ to make an impact on theenvironment and food security. We hope morethat 50000 children will directly involve throughtheir respective palar panchayat institutions.

Dr John Devavaram, Director RCPDS, Madurai

Everybody talks about detachment. If we want to be detached from life, the best thing is to fall dead.Then we will be completely detached. Isn’t it so? If we get detached from life, that means death. If wetalk of detachment, we are talking of avoiding life. Because of all this sort of talk there are a lot ofhalf-alive people on this planet. Detachment is a crime against life. That’s why I am saying the bestway to avoid life is to fall dead.

Why do we want to exist here and yet avoid life? We have come here to live and to experience life. Ourlife should happen in the most exuberant way possible. We talk of detachment because somewherethere is fear of getting involved with life. We must understand that fear should not be about involve-ment but about entanglement. We talk of detachment because we do not know the distinction betweeninvolvement and entanglement. Life can be known only by involvement. If we are not involved, itdoesn’t mean anything even if we are in heaven.

We must be actively and consciously involved with everything around us, with every moment of ourlife. Then there will be no question of entanglement.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a prominent spiritual leader, is a visionary, humanitarian, an author, poetand internationally-renowned speaker. He can be contacted at www.ishafoundation.org

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/op-ed/get-involved-or-fall-dead-854

Get involved or fall deadLiving Religion

eco-ethic 29

When, in the earlymorning, I sit in thelittle meadow in frontof my hermitage on aquiet hilltop, twohours’ drive fromKatmandu in Nepal,my eyes take inhundreds of miles oflofty Himalayan peaksglowing in the risingsun. The serenity of thescenery blendsnaturally andseamlessly with thepeace within. It is along way indeed fromthe frantic city life Ionce lived.

But the peace I know is no escape from the world below — or the science I once studied. I work withthe toughest problems of the real world in the 30 clinics and schools that Karuna-Shechen, thefoundation I created with a few dedicated friends and benefactors, runs in Tibet, Nepal and India.And now, after 40 years among these majestic mountains, I have become acutely aware of the ravagesof climate change in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau. From where I sit in my little meadow,it is especially sad to witness the Himalayan peaks becoming grayer and grayer as glaciers melt andsnows recede.

The debate about climate change is mostly conducted by people who live in cities, where everythingis artificial. They don’t actually experience the changes that are taking place in the real world. Thevast majority of Tibetans, Nepalese and Bhutanese who live on both sides of the Himalayas havenever heard of global warming, as they have little or no access to the news media. Yet they all say thatthe ice is not forming as thickly as before on lakes and rivers, that winter temperatures are gettingwarmer and the spring blossoms are coming earlier. What they may not know is that these are symptomsof far greater dangers.

In the beautiful kingdom of Bhutan, where I spent nine years, recent investigations by the onlyglaciologist in the country, Kharma Thoeb, have shown that a natural moraine dam that separatestwo glacial lakes in the Lunana area is today only 31 meters deep, in comparison to 74 meters in2003. If this wall gives way, some 53 million cubic meters of water will rush down the valley ofPunakha and Wangdi, causing immense damage and loss of life. Altogether there are 400 glaciallakes in Nepal and Bhutan that may break their natural dams and flood populated areas lower in thevalleys. If these floods occur, the glaciers will increasingly shrink. This will cause drought, since thestreams and rivers will not be fed by melting snow.

Chinese climatologists have called the Himalayan glaciers and other major mountains located in the

The Future Doesn't Hurt. YetLiving Religion

30 eco-ethic

Tibetan plateau the “third pole” of our ailing planet. There are 40,000 large and small glaciers onthe Tibetan plateau and this area is melting at a rate three to four times faster than the North andSouth Poles. The melting is particularly accelerated in the Himalayas by the pollution that settles onthe snow and darkens the glaciers, making them more absorbent to light.

According to international development agencies, about half of the populations of China, Myanmar,Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Pakistan depend on the watershed from the rivers ofthe Tibetan plateau for their agriculture, general water supply, and, therefore, survival. Theconsequences of the drying up of these great rivers will be catastrophic.

When I was 20, I was hired as a researcher in the cellular genetics lab of François Jacob, who hadjust been awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine. There, I worked for six years toward my doctorate.Life was far from dull, but something essential was missing.

Everything changed in Darjeeling in northern India in 1967, when I met several remarkable humanbeings who, for me, exemplified what a fulfilled human life can be. These Tibetan masters, all ofwhom had just fled the Communist invasion of Tibet, radiated inner goodness, serenity and compassion.Returning from this first journey, I became aware that I’d found a reality that could inspire my wholelife and give it direction and meaning. In 1972, I decided to move to Darjeeling, in the shadow of theHimalayas, to study with the great Tibetan masters Kangyur Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

In India and then in Bhutan, I lived a beautiful and simple life. I came to understand that while somepeople may be naturally happier than others, their happiness is still vulnerable and incomplete; thatachieving durable happiness as a way of being requires sustained effort in training the mind anddeveloping qualities like inner peace, mindfulness and altruistic love.

Then one day in 1979, shortly after our monastery in Nepal had been equipped with a phone line,someone called me from France to ask if I would like to engage in a dialogue with my father, thephilosopher Jean-François Revel. I said “of course,” but thought that I would never hear from theperson again, as I did not believe that my father, a renowned agnostic, would ever want to dialoguewith a Buddhist monk, even one who was his son. But to my surprise, he readily accepted and wespent a wonderful 10 days in Nepal, discussing many issues about the meaning of life. That was theend of my quiet, anonymous life and the beginning of a different way of interacting with the world.The book that followed, The Monk and the Philosopher, became a bestseller in France and wastranslated into 21 languages.

It dawned on me that much more money than I had ever envisioned having would be coming my way.Since I could not see myself acquiring an estate in France or somewhere else, it seemed to me that themost natural thing to do would be to donate all the proceedings and rights of that and subsequentbooks to helping others. The foundation I created for that purpose is now called Karuna-Shechen,and it implements and maintains humanitarian and educational projects throughout Asia.

Humanitarian projects have since become a central focus of my life and, with a few dedicated volunteerfriends and generous benefactors, and under the inspiration of the abbot of my monastery, RabjamRinpoche, we have built and run clinics and schools in Tibet, Nepal and India where we treat about100,000 patients a year and provide education to nearly 10,000 children. We have managed to do thisspending barely 4 percent of our budget on overhead expenses.

My life has definitely become more hectic, but I have also discovered over the years that trying totransform oneself to better transform the world brings lasting fulfillment and, above all, the

eco-ethic 31

Published by the Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change (INECC), c/o. Laya, 501 Kurupam Castle, East Point Colony,Visakhapatnam - 530 017. Ph : 0891-2548071, 2735332 ; Fax : 0891-2784341, e-mail : [email protected] Editor : Walter Mendoza.

Advisory Team: William Stanley, Dominic D'Souza, Allwyn D'Silva, R. Sreedhar, Nafisa Goga D'Souza. Artwork : From the Internet

irreplaceable boon of altruism and compassion.

Imagine a ship that is sinking and needs all the available power to run the pumps to drain out therising waters. The first class passengers refuse to cooperate because they feel hot and want to use theair-conditioner and other electrical appliances. The second-class passengers spend all their timetrying to be upgraded to first-class status. The boat sinks and the passengers all drown. That is wherethe present approach to climate change is leading.

Whether people realize it or not, their actions can have disastrous effects — as the environmentalchanges in the Himalayas, the Arctic circle and many other places are showing us. The unbridledconsumerism of our planet’s richest 5 percent is the greatest contributor to the climate change thatwill bring the greatest suffering to the most destitute 25 percent, who will face the worst consequences.According to the U.S. Department of Energy, on average an Afghan produces 0.02 tons of CO

2 per

year, a Nepalese and a Tanzanian 0.1, a Briton 10 tons, an American 19 and a Qatari 51 tons, whichis 2,500 times more than an Afghan.

Unchecked consumerism operates on the premise that others are only instruments to be used and thatthe environment is a commodity. This attitude fosters unhappiness, selfishness and contempt uponother living beings and upon our environment. People are rarely motivated to change on behalf ofsomething for their future and that of the next generation. They imagine, “Well, we’ll deal with thatwhen it comes.” They resist the idea of giving up what they enjoy just for the sake of avoiding disastrouslong-term effects. The future doesn’t hurt — yet.

An altruistic society is one in which we do not care only for ourselves and our close relatives, but forthe quality of life of all present members of society, while being mindfully concerned as well by thefate of coming generations.

In particular, we need to make significant progress concerning the way we treat animals, as objects ofconsumption and industrial products, not as living beings who strive for well-being and want to avoidsuffering. Every year, more than 150 billion land animals are killed in the world for human consumption,as well as some 1.5 trillion sea animals. In rich countries, 99 percent of these land animals are raisedand killed in industrial farms and live only a fraction of their life expectancy. In addition, accordingto United Nations and FAO reports on climate change, livestock production is responsible for agreater proportion of emissions (18 percent) of greenhouse gases than the entire global transportationsector. One solution may be to eat less meat! As the Dalai Lama has often pointed out, interdependenceis a central Buddhist idea that leads to a profound understanding of the nature of reality and to anawareness of global responsibility.

Since all beings are interrelated and all, without exception, want to avoid suffering and achievehappiness, this understanding becomes the basis for altruism and compassion. This in turn naturallyleads to the attitude and practice of nonviolence toward human beings and animals — and toward theenvironment.

Matthieu Ricard was a scientist in cell genetics 40 years ago when he decided to live in the Himalayas and become a Buddhist monk.He is a photographer and the author of several books, including“Happiness: How to Cultivate Life’s Most Important Skill.”

He lives in Nepal and has been involved in more than 100 humanitarian projects.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/opinion/global/24iht-june24-ihtmag-ricard-30.html?ref=global

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