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India

- Global Hunger Index: India slips to 107 from 101, behind all Asian countries except war-torn Afghanistan

- Alzheimer’s disease: surprising new theory about what might cause it

- Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 14, 2022)

- Delhites, all that rain does not mean you will have a smog-free Diwali. Here is why

- International E-Waste Day: Over 5 billion phones will become waste this year

- India’s green push for second-generation bioethanol

- Organic fertiliser: A must for the next green revolution

- Device made for the Moon may aid in carbon sequestration on Earth

- What role will tech play in sustainability for businesses

- Net Zero by 2070: India still has 99 coal projects in pipeline

- Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 13, 2022)

- Simply Put: Cancel all debt?

- Mozambique had no data about snakebites. Our new study filled the gap — and the results are scary

- COVID-19 pandemic impacted blood supply in Africa: WHO

- Surge in clean fuel prices may hurt Delhi’s air pollution fight

- How one social enterprise is working to make Ladakh waste-free

- Bihar agrarian crisis: Why crores in diesel subsidies may not be the answer

- Can carbon capture be new hope for mitigating CO2 emissions?

- Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 12, 2022)

- Living Planet Report 2022: Wildlife populations decline by 69% in 50 years

- This Pune stone-crusher unit shows how to do it properly

- Simply Put: Noah’s Ark 2.0

- India bears world’s highest health, economic burden due to lead poisoning: Centre

- Bullseye! NASA’s DART hits the mark, successfully alters asteroid path

- Make steel future-ready

- As world converges for an African CoP, the continent’s east bets on geothermal

- ‘Cancel all debt’: Activists disrupt IMF, World Bank annual meet

- India is patently way behind on 5G

- Skewed sex ratio worsens marriage woes for Marathwada farmers

- Southwest monsoon likely to withdraw from UP, Gujarat, MP in next 4-5 days: IMD

- These are India’s climate hotspots

- The 5 biggest threats to West Africa’s oceans — and what to do about them

- New ‘highly infectious’ Omicron strains scare China

- Simply Put: Zero Compensation

- North India rains: Crops ruined in Uttar Pradesh; over half a million affected by floods

- Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Inclement weather affecting farmers’ mental health, social standing

- Recurring rains in October call for change in monsoon definition

- Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 10, 2022)

- Bhopal victims demonstrate in Delhi ahead of Supreme Court hearing on more compensation

- Bihar man-eater shot: ‘We need to put down problem animals for wildlife conservation’

- Bihar man-eater shot: Here is when an order can be given to put down such an animal

- International Girl Child Day: Crimes against girls on the rise in India, especially eastern states

- Water, Marathwada women’s woe: No brides for farmers as families look for city matches

- Telangana’s new forest conflict panels bring Centre-state land rights relation under scanner

- Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 7, 2022)

- Flood warnings that don’t break the banks

- Sodium chromate fears drive activists to oppose planned factory in Nalgonda village

- India is many, not one; has assimilated ideas from everywhere: Upcoming report

- Polluter didn’t pay: Plachimada awaits compensation from Coca-Cola, 2 decades on

- The Nobel for Svante Pääbo is an attempt to redefine modern man

- ‘India’s cheetah plan is flawed, may become hurdle for national conservation priorities’

- In the name of development: How Nashik’s Goda Ghat juggled concretisation & de-concretisation over 2 decades

- ‘Changing climatic conditions induce vegetation changes, which shapes human evolution’

- UP Dussehra downpour: 10,000% excess rain in 3 districts of state wrecks kharif crop

- Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

- NGT’s Rs 3,800 crore fine on Telangana is the biggest one yet over waste disposal

- Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 6, 2022)

- Simply Put: Extinction, not evolution

- Our Coal, Our Right: Here is why these Chhattisgarh tribals stage a ‘coal satyagraha’ every October 2

- Depleting food grain stock ring alarms: Is India staring at a rice crisis?

- Climate change escalates suicide rates among Marathwada farmers

- War-Pandemic: World is poorer now; will double its poverty level on the target year of eradication

- 2022 Chemistry Nobel awarded for ‘click chemistry’, which has possible applications in healthcare

- Monsoon 2022: Is excess September rainfall to blame for the Danda-2 avalanche in Uttarakhand

- 2022 Physics Nobel for quantum entanglement which creates secure communication networks

- NGT stops mining in ecologically sensitive Madhav National Park in Madhya Pradesh

- Report: 200 environmental activists murdered in 2021

- District formation in Indian states is a tricky decision

- NGT questions clearances; halts mining at Shaliganga Nallah in Kashmir

- Semantics of Anthropocene: Have humans really formed a new era

- Researchers find what happens when the sun goes to sleep

- Nobel prize: Svante Pääbo’s ancient DNA discoveries offer clues as to what makes us human

- Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

- WHO warns of ‘worrying surge’ in cholera cases globally

- Food production will need 165-600 million hectares more land to meet demand by 2050

- Carbon dots: A futuristic solution for sustainably managing aquatic environment?

- Punjab is usually blamed for burning paddy stubble; here is the back story to that

- Millet might: Here is how Odisha can succeed in reviving these cereals lost to the Green Revolution

- ‘Caste and Partition in Bengal’ ignores the work of Dalit scholars; here is how

- Strong start: This Prayagraj non-profit gives poor children a chance to complete their education

Global Hunger Index: India slips to 107 from 101, behind all Asian countries except war-torn Afghanistan

Other countries in the same classification as India include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Zambia, Botswana, Sudan, Ethiopia and Mali

By Taran Deol

Published: Saturday 15 October 2022

India’s rank on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) slipped from 101 in 2021 to 107 in 2022, out of 121 countries.

The country is lagging behind its neighbours, Nepal (81), Pakistan (99), Sri Lanka (64) and Bangladesh (84). Afghanistan, with a rank of 109, is the only Asian country behind India.

India scored 29.1 on the GHI, which classifies it under the ‘serious’ category. Other countries in the same classification include Pakistan (26.1), Afghanistan (29.9), Zambia (29.3), Botswana (20), Sudan (28.8), Ethiopia (27.6) and Mali (23.2).

The GHI is calculated based on four key indicators to gauge and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels. These indicators are undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality.

Source: Global Hunger Index, 2022

“The problem of hunger is complex. The GHI includes four indicators to reflect the multidimensional nature of hunger. Together, they reflect deficiencies in calories as well as in micronutrients,” the GHI noted.

A score is calculated based on a country’s performance in these indices out of 100, where 0 is the best. India’s performance on all four indicators was poor, particularly for the prevalence of wasting in children under five years of age.

Child wasting has increased to 19.3 in 2022 from 15.1 in 2014. The proportion of undernourished in the population grew to 16.3 in 2022 from 14.8 in 2014.

India improved its performance on the other two indicators — prevalence of stunting in children under five years of age and under-five mortality. Down from 38.7 in 2014 to 35.5 in 2022 for the former and 4.6 to 3.3 for the latter in the same duration.

Source: Global Hunger Index, 2022

While India has made progress over the years, there is a long way to go, particularly in terms of improving its children’s health.

The country has improved its score from 38.8 points in 2000, considered alarming, to 29.1 in 2022, considered serious.

“India’s proportion of undernourished in the population is considered to be at a medium level and its under-five child mortality rate is considered low,” the GHI report noted.

While child stunting has seen a significant decrease — from 54.2 per cent in 1998–1999 to 35.5 per cent in 2019–2021 — it is still considered very high, the report added.

India has the highest child-wasting rate (19.3 per cent) of all countries covered in the GHI, according to the latest data. “This rate is higher than it was in 1998–1999, when it was 17.1 percent,” the report noted.

Globally, there have been tremendous setbacks in addressing the hunger problem, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts and the war in Ukraine.

The GHI terms these setbacks as a transition from a crisis to a catastrophe. The report recommended a three-pronged approach to policy-making to address the situation.

These include “putting inclusive governance and accountability at the centre of efforts to transform food systems; ensuring citizens’ participation, action and oversight; and considering the local context and scaling up resources to address pressing humanitarian needs.”

Alzheimer’s disease: surprising new theory about what might cause it

It will be important for future trials to focus on the levels of amyloid-beta 42, and whether it is beneficial to increase and restore its levels to normal values instead of targeting it for removal

By Andrea Sturchio, Kariem Ezzat, Samir EL Andaloussi

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

In 1906, Alois Alzheimer, a psychiatrist and neuroanatomist, reported “a peculiar severe disease process of the cerebral cortex” to a gathering of psychiatrists in Tübingen, Germany. The case was a 50-year-old woman who suffered from memory loss, delusions, hallucinations, aggression and confusion — all of which worsened until her untimely death five years later.

In the autopsy, Alzheimer noticed distinctive plaques on her brain. These plaques — clumps of amyloid-beta protein — are still considered to be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

However, this theory has two major problems. First, it does not explain why many subjects (even old people) have plaques in their brains in the absence of any neurological symptoms, such as memory loss. Second, clinical trials for drugs that reduce these plaques have been unsuccessful — with one recent exception, but more of that later.

When amyloid-beta protein accumulates in the form of plaques (insoluble clumps), the original soluble form of the protein, which performs important functions in the brain, is consumed and lost. Some studies have shown that reduced levels of soluble amyloid-beta — called amyloid-beta 42 — have led to patients having worse clinical outcomes.

In a recent study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, we investigated whether it’s the amount of plaques in the brain or the amount of amyloid-beta 42 remaining that is more important for Alzheimer’s disease progression.

To answer this question, we studied data on a group of people who have a rare inherited gene mutation that puts them at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The participants were from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network cohort study.

We found that the depletion of amyloid-beta 42 (the functional version of amyloid-beta) is more harmful than the amount of plaques (the insoluble clumps of amyloid beta).

Participants had an average of three years follow-up and we found that those with high levels of amyloid-beta 42 in their cerebrospinal fluid (the liquid around the brain and spinal cord) were protected and their cognition was preserved over the study period. This chimes with many studies that showed important functions of amyloid-beta 42 in memory and cognition.

It is also relevant because we studied people with the genetic mutation who develop Alzheimer’s disease, a group that is considered to provide the strongest evidence supporting the idea that amyloid-beta plaques are harmful. However, even in this group, those with higher cerebronspinal fluid (CSF) levels of amyloid-beta 42 remained cognitively normal regardless of the amount of plaques in their brains.

It is also worth mentioning that in some rare, inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease — for example, in carriers of the so-called Osaka gene mutation or Arctic mutation — people can develop dementia having low levels of amyloid-beta 42 and no detectable plaques. This suggests that plaques aren’t the cause of their dementia, but low levels of amyloid-beta 42 might be.

Lecanemab – the one recent exception

How will our findings affect drug development and clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease? Until the recent trial with lecanemab, an antibody drug that reduces plaques, all the drug trials in Alzheimer’s disease have failed.

Some drugs were designed to reduce the levels of amyloid-beta 42, based on the rationale that if levels of the normal protein are reduced, patients will accumulate fewer plaques. Unfortunately, these drugs often made the patient’s condition worse.

Lecanemab was recently reported to have a small but significant effect in reducing cognitive decline. According to previous studies, this drug increases the levels of amyloid-beta 42 in the CSF. This is, again, in line with our hypothesis, namely that the increase of the normal amyloid protein can be beneficial.

We will know more when the results of the lecanemab trial are published. At the moment, all we have is a press release from the makers of the drug.

We think that it will be important for future trials to focus on the levels of amyloid-beta 42, and whether it is beneficial to increase and restore its levels to normal values instead of targeting it for removal. This could be achieved using proteins similar to amyloid-beta 42 — so-called “protein analogues” — but that clump together less than the natural ones.

This active protein replacement approach might become a promising new avenue of treatment for Alzheimer’s and other protein aggregation diseases, such as Parkinson’s and motor neuron disease.

Andrea Sturchio, MD, PhD Student, Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet; Kariem Ezzat, Research Scientist, Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and Samir EL Andaloussi, Professor, Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 14, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

By DTE Staff

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Green crackers

Only green crackers bearing QR codes should be sold in West Bengal, directed the Calcutta High Court. A division bench of the court was responding to a public interest litigation October 11, 2022.

Only green crackers with QR codes should be sold at bazi bazar (firecracker market), proposed to be held in Kolkata from October 18, it added.

The West Bengal Pollution Control Board and the commissioner of police, Kolkata, should deploy enough personnel in the bazi bazar to ensure the implementation of the court’s directions, the order stated.

The representatives of the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute should assist the pollution control board and police, the court added.

The petitioner’s advocate said West Bengal had flagrantly disregarded earlier orders from the Supreme Court that called for a ban on selling firecrackers in the state. This has led to extreme noise and air pollution in Kolkata and other regions of the state, the petitioner added.

Effluent treatment

Roha Industrial Association’s common effluent treatment plant (CETP) in Maharashtra’s Dhatav village has been upgraded to meet the requisite standards, stated a joint committee report submitted before the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

Roha Industrial Area is a chemical zone as declared by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation. It is located in the Raigad district, 120 kilometres away from Mumbai.

Aryavart Foundation, a non-profit, had filed an application before the NGT against the violation of environmental norms by the Roha Industrial Association.

Following this, the tribunal directed the formation of a joint committee. The committee, along with the officials from the pollution control boards, inspected the site September 2. The committee informed that the up-gradation and rehabilitation of the CETP were in progress during the visit.

The CETP was operational with an equalisation tank, flash mixer, one primary clarifier and one aeration with a secondary clarifier, the report added.

Encroachment on lake

Patla Cheruvu lake has dried up due to an artificial bund constructed on the same, said an application filed by Human Rights and Consumer Protection Cell Trust before the NGT.

The lake is located in Patelguda village in the Sangareddy district of Telangana. The lake continues to face the challenges of encroachments and illegal constructions, it stated. The applicant has also included photographs substantiating their claims.

Delhites, all that rain does not mean you will have a smog-free Diwali. Here is why

Firecrackers, industries, vehicles, date of the festival and late withdrawal of the monsoon, all could cause a repeat of previous Diwalis, experts say

By Zumbish

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

It may have rained heavily in late September in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) and the rest of northwestern India. Stubble burning has also not reached its peak for this time of the year. But Delhi still won’t have a smog-free Diwali, experts told Down To Earth (DTE) October 14, 2022.

Firecrackers, industries, vehicles, the timing of the festival this year and the late withdrawal of the monsoon, all could cause a repeat of previous Diwalis that Delhi-NCR has witnessed.

One of the main reasons, according to experts is the time the festival will be celebrated this year. It is to be observed on December 4, three weeks before it did last year.

Gufran Beig, air quality and emissions expert told DTE that Diwali this year will be observed at a time when the temperature is still warmer.

“Even if firecrackers are burst at the same scale as last Diwali, there could be more dispersion. Farm activities in comparison to last year are extremely low this year.

“If the wind direction is congenial, which it is likely to be and fire counts’ instances (of burning paddy stubble) also multiply, the air quality may deteriorate for a long period of time in the last week of October, even if there are less emissions from firecrackers,” he said.

Delhi had received 46.2 millimetres (mm) of rainfall between the morning of September 22 and the morning of September 23. This is more than 10 times its normal rainfall of 4.1 mm, according to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The national capital had recorded its best reading of the air quality index (AQI) since August 2020 following the heavy rains.

The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was 44 October 10 according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board. “It was recorded as 48, 56 and 55 October 9, October 8 and October 7 respectively,” the data stated.

An AQI of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’, and 401-500 ‘severe’. Above 500 is the ‘severe-plus’ or ‘emergency’ category.

DS Pai, director of the Institute of Climate Change Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, told DTE that while it was true that there had been incessant rains for a few days, the southwest monsoon has started to withdraw. “The rainfall activity will reduce in the coming days in northwest India,” he said.

The southwest monsoon “had further withdrawn from remaining parts of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat; most parts of Madhya Pradesh and some parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra,” according to the IMD’s statement October 14.

Then there are the instances of paddy stubble burning. The total fire activities in Punjab and Haryana, in the period between October 1 and 12 were 826 according to data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Amritsar and Tarn Taran, both in Punjab, have been the biggest stubble burning hotspots in the region so far this year.

Avikal Somvanshi, senior programme manager, Air Pollution, at Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said:

Large scale burning in farms has not started yet since the rains have pushed back the timeline. So there is a chance there may be more smoke fall in general due to farm fires when large scale burning actually takes place.

He added that there was, however, no way of calculating how much smoke fall would actually take place due to farm fires.

“Last time, AQI levels around Diwali in the capital were alarming but no concentrated burning in the farms had taken place around that time period. Back then, after the festival, smog had also lasted for nine to 10 days,” Somvanshi said.

So, despite the AQI levels not being alarming and greater emissions of toxic gases from firecrackers and other pollutants including that from industries and vehicles, it may still be a bad Diwali, according to CSE experts.

Whether it will be worse than the last one remains to be seen, they added. It may be a cleaner Diwali ecologically as is being speculated considering the AQI levels seen in the run up to it but we need still need to take a lot of precautions, they said.

The government should be prepared since a lot of factors like stubble burning and bursting of firecrackers may be a spoiler, the experts noted.

The Delhi government had announced a ban on the production, sale and use of all types of firecrackers in the national capital till January 1 in September. The Supreme Court had refused to lift the ban October 10. “The matter will be heard again before the Diwali holidays,” the apex court had said.

International E-Waste Day: Over 5 billion phones will become waste this year

One of six e-products in average european household is being hoarded, finds non-profit survey

By DTE Staff

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Hoarding of small, unused, dead or broken plug-in and battery-operated products is the focus of this year’s 5th annual International E-Waste Day. One out of every six electronic products in an average European household is hoarded, a survey has found.

International E-Waste Day is held on October 14 every year as an opportunity to reflect on the impacts of e-waste. This year’s slogan is ‘Recycle it all, no matter how small!’.

Roughly 5.3 billion mobile/smartphones will drop out of use this year, according to non-profit Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum, which started the day in 2018. The electronics would reach a height of around 50,000 km if stacked flat and on top of each other. That’s an eighth of the distance to the moon.

Read more: How e-waste crisis continues to plague informal sector

WEEE Forum is an international association of 46 e-waste producer responsibility organisations.

A majority of these phones will disappear into drawers, closets, cupboards or garages, or be tossed into waste bins bound for landfills or incineration, the body said. Mobile phones/ smartphones have valuable gold, copper, silver, palladium and other recyclable components.

The forum released the results of surveys conducted to reveal why so many households and businesses fail to bring in for repair or recycling. The results were consolidated by the United Nations’ Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Sustainable Cycles Programme.

Of 8,775 European households in six countries, the average household contains 74 e-products such as phones, tablets, laptops, electric tools, hair dryers, toasters and other appliances (excluding lamps), said a WEEE Forum press statement.

Of that 74 average total e-products, 13 are being hoarded (9 of them unused but working, four broken). Portugal, Netherlands, Italy, Romania and Slovenia were surveyed, along with a separate one for the United Kingdom.

The top five hoarded small electronic products were (in order): small electronics and accessories (eg, headphones, remotes), small equipment (eg, clocks, irons), small IT equipment (eg, hard drives, routers, keyboards, mice), mobile and smartphones, small food preparation appliances (eg, toasters, grills).

Meanwhile, LED lamps ranked the top of the list of products most likely to be trashed.

Read more: Food can have toxic chemicals from recycling e-waste

“We focused this year on small e-waste items because it is very easy for them to accumulate unused and unnoticed in households or to be tossed into the ordinary garbage bin,” said Pascal Leroy, director general of the WEEE Forum.

People tend not to realise that all these seemingly insignificant items have a lot of value and, together at a global level, represent massive volumes, Leroy added in a press statement.

Small EEE items such as cell phones, electric toothbrushes, toasters and cameras produced worldwide will weigh an estimated total of 24.5 million tonnes — four times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza, claimed Magdalena Charytanowicz of the WEEE Forum.

India’s green push for second-generation bioethanol

Could diversify feedstock basket, help secure long-term sustainability with improved economics

By Rahul Jain

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Ethanol-blended petrol is regarded as one of the most acceptable alternative fuel blends for transportation; however, the use of molasses and broken grains for its production raises the question of food vs fuel. Second-generation (2G) bioethanol could help to secure long-term sustainability with improved economics for the Indian biofuel market.

Union Minister of State (Ministry of Science and Technology & Earth Sciences) Jitendra Singh September 23, 2022, announced the launch of the “Innovation Roadmap of the Mission Integrated Biorefineries” September 23, 2022.

The launch was announced at Global Clean Energy Action Forum 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Read more: Was ethanol the reason for the ban on broken rice exports

“The mission aims at greater international collaboration and the need for increased financing for energy research, development, and demonstration during the next five years through public-private investment,” the minister said at the launch.

The biorefineries aim to produce ethanol. Blended petrol with 20 per cent ethanol is also known as E20.

India aims to sell only E20 blended petrol from 2025. In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a report, Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India by 2025, to set a plan for the phase-wise rollout of E20 in the country.

About 1,016 crore litres of ethanol will be required to achieve 20 per cent blending by 2025-26, as per the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas estimation. Sugarcane-derived molasses and broken or surplus grains like rice and maise are primarily used to generate ethanol.

Presently, these two feedstocks can generate about 684 crore litres/year of ethanol collectively, which is proposed to be expanded to 1,500 crore litres by 2025.

This, in turn, will necessitate the production of about 165 lakh metric tonnes of grains and 60 lakh metric tonnes of sugar in the year 2025 for ethanol utilisation. Besides the food versus fuel debate, the move will also significantly increase the water footprint.

Sustainable options

Do we have any other sustainable options for producing ethanol? Yes, agricultural or lignocellulosic waste.

India is the second-largest producer of agricultural waste in the world after China and generates about 500 million tonnes of agricultural waste per year, of which more than half is either discarded or burned.

Read more: Lignin from agro waste helps make useful nanocomposites

Inappropriate management of this agricultural waste generates greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, endangering both people and the environment.

Second-generation (2G) bioethanol production technology has the potential to tap this agricultural waste and convert it into ethanol.

Twelve commercial plants and ten demonstration plants of 2G biorefineries (using agricultural waste as substrate) have already been proposed to be built under the Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan-Vatavaran Anukool Fasal Awashesh Nivaran) Yojana in regions with adequate biomass supply.

The scheme has sanctioned financial support of Rs 1,969.50 crores to commercialise this 2G bioethanol technology.

On World Biofuel Day August 10, Asia’s first 2G ethanol biorefinery, built by a central public sector undertaking Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, was unveiled by Modi in Panipat, Haryana.

This 2G ethanol biorefinery is spread around 35 acres and can process two lakh tonnes of agricultural waste each year to produce approximately three crore litres of ethanol.

Furthermore, it will reduce the pollution caused by stubble burning and remove around 320,000 MT of CO2 yearly, a figure comparable to removing nearly 63,000 cars from the road. By itself, this 2G biorefinery will prevent a yearly expenditure of Rs 55 to Rs 60 crore on imported oil.

“2G technology can process a variety of agricultural waste — rice straw, wheat straw, cotton stalk, corn cobs and corn stover. The commissioned plants can run throughout the year,” Shishir Joshipura, chief executive and managing director, Praj Industries, told Down To Earth.

Praj Industries is a technology licensor and EPCM partner for the Panipat project. The company is installing similar projects for central public sector undertaking Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd at Bargarh, Orissa and oil and gas refining company Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd at Bhatinda, Punjab.

Read more: India's ethanol roadmap : The targets and challenges

Both projects have a capacity of 100 kilolitres per day of bioethanol production, Joshipura claimed.

A biorefinery plant in Assam aims to produce bioethanol from bamboo. It is worth Rs 1,750 crore has been set up by public-sector oil company Numaligarh Refinery Ltd to meet and channelise ethanol blending targets in the north-eastern part of India.

More than 65 per cent of the nation’s bamboo is cultivated in eight northeastern states. Under this project, NRL will process and consume about 5-lakh metric tonnes of bamboo annually.

Assam Biorefinery Pvt Ltd, a joint venture firm, has been established to accomplish this project, along with electric services company Fortum and biorefining company Chempolis from Finland.

Organic fertiliser: A must for the next green revolution

With the right policy interventions, India can become the hub of organic fertiliser production

By AR Shukla

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

India's growth story on the path of economic reforms has transformed the country into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Despite having an enormous opportunity, India has been unable to capitalise on its strengths.

The central government has announced schemes worth crores for various sectors. Similar steps need to be undertaken for the organic fertiliser industry, as India has the potential to become the hub of organic fertiliser production in the world.

Organic fertiliser can be categorised into two segments, according to government rules: Bio-fertiliser and organic manure.

Bio-fertilisers are composed of living microorganisms attached to solid or liquid carriers and are useful for cultivable land, as these micro-organisms help in increasing the productivity of soil and / or crops.

Organic manure, on the other hand, refers to partially decomposed organic matter like digestate from a biogas plant, compost and vermicompost, which provides nutrients to the soil / crops and improves yield.

India produces more than 150,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW), based on estimated MSW generation data from the National Solid Waste Association of India and the Central Pollution Control Board.

Considering collection efficiency of 80 per cent and organic part of MSW to be 50 per cent, total organic waste generated per day in India comes to around 65,000 tonnes per day.

Even if half of this is diverted to the biogas industry, the government can leverage this by reduction in import of fossils and fertilisers.

Biogas / gobar gas plants not only produces biogas but also organic fertilisers. There is also great value in the organic fertiliser also known as digestate, which is the biogas plant's effluent.

Biogas can be utilised for heating, electricity and even vehicular purposes (after upgrading), whereas digestate can help realise the vision to have a second green revolution.

Digestate can provide organic carbon to the continuously depleting soil, apart from its standard nutrition value. In India at present, bio-fertiliser production is just over 110,000 tonnes ( carrier-based 79,000 tonnes and liquid-based 30,000 tonnes) and 34 million tonnes of organic manure, composed of farmyard manure, city compost and vermicompost, among others.

The organic manure (digestate) from a biogas plant can be applied at the rate of around 40 tonnes per hectare of cultivable land.

The penetration of organic fertilisers is low: The proportion of organic fertilisers of the overall fertiliser consumption was only 0.29 per cent for  2018-19 and 0.34 per cent for 2019-20. With promotion of biogas production, the government can reap the benefits of its bi-product — fertiliser.

The Centre has shown the intent of promoting the industry through its SATAT scheme. It has no doubt allocated 468 crores towards Central Financial Assistance in the earlier budget. But the industry needs much more support to save the future governments billions of dollars, because if all the projects applied under SATAT scheme materialise, it will help the country save $16 billion year-on-year.

Bio-compressed natural gas (bio-CNG) and solid organic manure or digestate can be produced in large quantities under the SATAT programme, under which more than 5,000 projects have been started across the country by the industry.

Thus, considering 8,000 kilogram / day of bio-CNG (one tonne of CNG can cater to 100 vehicles to run 250 kilometre per full tank of 10 kilogram at the rate of 25 kilometre / kilogram) and 27 tonnes / day of solid organic manure per plant with average plant size assumed to be 8 tonnes per day, it was estimated that 50 million tonnes per annum of solid organic manure / digestate will be generated in India once these projects are installed.

The popularity of organic farming has grown in the domestic market in recent years. The market size for Indian organic packaged food is expected to grow at a rate of 17 per cent and cross Rs 871 million by 2021.

The significant rise of this sector is linked to growing awareness about the harmful effects of synthetic fertiliser on soil, rising health concerns, expanding urban population base and an increased consumer expenditure on food goods.

Because organic manure can be improved with the use of bio fertilisers to meet nutrient requirements, both bio fertilizers and organic manure have the potential to eliminate the usage of synthetic fertilisers completely.

AR Shukla is the president of Indian Biogas Association.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

Device made for the Moon may aid in carbon sequestration on Earth

A pocket-sized device intended for use on the Moon could soon play a key role in Japan’s ambitious plans to sequester carbon dioxide

By Bill Morris

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves stripping carbon dioxide from emissions, pressurizing it into a “supercritical fluid,” then pumping it deep underground into porous rock reservoirs, where it will, in theory, remain entombed.

Potential carbon storage sites include depleted oil and gas fields and deep saline aquifers.

Although CCS technology has been around for decades, it has yet to be widely adopted. Partly, that’s because of the high cost of building sequestration plants, but it’s also due to lingering questions about how well the process actually works.

Over extended periods, even a small amount of carbon dioxide leakage can become significant, and where storage sites are under the seabed, leakage can have profound effects on marine life.

Just detecting leaks is difficult and expensive. CCS monitoring typically relies on heavy seismic equipment mounted on trucks or ships. The equipment sends powerful vibrations into Earth’s crust and analyzes the sound waves that are reflected back.

Because of the high cost, such systems can be used for only limited periods of time. “In a conventional system, monitoring is discontinuous,” said Takeshi Tsuji, an engineering professor at the University of Tokyo. “It’s difficult to acquire seismic data continuously.”

Japan’s ambition to explore the solar system, however, may have led to a breakthrough for carbon storage here on Earth.

A team from the University of Tokyo and Kyushu University, led by Tsuji, developed a lightweight system, the Portable Active Seismic Source (PASS), designed to be carried aboard Mars and Moon landers that may also detect carbon leaks at sequestration sites.

Scientists published their results in Seismological Research Letters last month.

Stacked Vibrations

The PASS, which is just 10 centimeters in length, creates vibrations by means of a spinning wheel mounted with an off-center weight.

The Portable Active Seismic Source (right) is only 10 centimeters in length, reducing the logistical challenges posed by the equipment currently used to monitor carbon sequestration sites (left). Photo: Takeshi Tsuji

Because of the device’s small size, the vibrations it produces are relatively weak, but the team uses software to “stack” hundreds of signals, amplifying the transmission enormously.

The stacked seismic signals are able to penetrate more than 800 meters belowground. CCS wells need to be this deep to keep carbon dioxide pressurized. In theory, arrays of PASS boxes can be deployed above these sites, allowing geologists to monitor carbon leakage.

“This system is very cheap,” said Tsuji, “and it generates continuously, so we will be able to monitor continuously.”

PASS boxes could help Japan reach its ambitious goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. As part of this goal, the country plans to sequester up to 240 million tons of carbon dioxide a year in hundreds of wells, mostly offshore.

Toru Sano is a geophysicist with JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration, a Japanese company with plans to incorporate CCS into its operations. He said the PASS’s small size and low cost make it ideal for long-term monitoring of sequestration sites. “We have to monitor not only the injection period,” he said, “but also after the site has closed—for maybe 10, 20, or even 50 years.”  Continuous monitoring, he said, is also important to manage public perception around the safety of carbon capture sites.

Although some critics accuse Japan of pursuing carbon storage as a way to continue extracting and burning fossil fuels while still meeting their net zero carbon goals, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change considers CCS critical to limiting global warming. According to its most recent climate change report, there are more than enough potential carbon storage sites on Earth to contain all the carbon dioxide needed to limit warming to 1.5°C, but deployment of the technology is currently far below what is needed to reach that target.

Bill Morris is Science Writer for science news magazine Eos

This article by Eos is published here as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

What role will tech play in sustainability for businesses

From sustainable energy sources to adopting alternative resources, it can help adopt economic, environmental practices

By Rajaneesh Kini

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Natural resources are depleting at an alarming rate and it has become crucial for corporations to follow sustainability models to conduct their daily operations. Technology will help with the way forward for sustainable solutions.

Global material usage will double from 92 million tonnes to 196 million tonnes and greenhouse gas emissions will increase by 43 per cent by 2060, the World Bank has estimated.

The triple bottom line, which comprises people, the planet and profit, has become a significant talking point among organisations.

Read more: Sustainability is not as new an idea as you might think—It’s more than 300 years old

The applications of sustainability are cut across industries. Manufacturing, oil and gas, shipping, agriculture, mining, consumer packaged goods and infrastructure development industries are leading the way by making significant use of digital technologies to monitor and implement sustainable solutions.

A combination of these technologies is helping reduce businesses’ carbon footprint significantly and optimising the use of natural resources.

A research report by multinational technology company Cyient, in collaboration with research firm Everest Group looked into sustainability megatrends.

The report titled Mirror into the Megatrends: Technology-Driven Disruptions that will Define the Decade mentioned some areas where technology can play a key role in enabling sustainability in businesses. Big corporations to small and mid-sized businesses can invest in tech in these areas.

Alternative energy sources:

- Natural resource conservation and shift to alternative energy sources to reduce the pressure on non-renewable energy sources

- Shift to electric mobility and vehicle-to-grid use cases

- Green micro-grids for power supply

Reduction in carbon footprint:

- The use of the internet of things (IoT) to track and optimise different transport modes and routes

- Construction of carbon-neutral offices, ports, manufacturing sites, etc

- Use of blockchain to improve traceability across the supply chain and minimise pollution and waste

- Shift to low-carbon standby power systems, including battery storage and low-carbon fuel cells, as backup power for data centres

- Green data centres

- Development of power-efficient sensors and systems

Waste management:

- Precision agriculture

- Demand forecasting and supply management to reduce wastage

- Genetic modification of crops

- Recycling of materials and products

Green manufacturing and alternate materials:

- Lower water consumption in manufacturing

- Usage of recycled products

- Sustainable packaging materials

- Circular product designs

The future outlook for businesses

Sustainability projects in the future will be driven by a balance between technology and the environment.

Advances in digital technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality, coupled with the demand for improved connectivity and real-time insights, are driving the adoption of the cloud.

This contributes to the centrality of data centres for business continuity. These data centres account for over 200 terawatt hours of electricity (about 1 per cent of global consumption).

Read more: Half the national curricula worldwide don’t mention climate change, most teachers unsure of explaining subject: UNESCO

The trade-off between technological advances and optimised use of materials and energy will be a key focus area going forward; a few prominent business organisations are already shifting their focus to green data centres and more sustainable cloud computing.

Overall, businesses should re-design their supply chains and adopt economic and environmental practices, ranging from using sustainable energy sources to adopting alternative resources.

Advanced data analytics, cobots and robots, mixed reality technologies and digital twins and threads will facilitate increased traceability and circular and green supply chains.

Technology and sustainability

Technology will have a major role to play for businesses in the adoption of sustainability.

In the mining industry, for example, data analytics is used for precision mining, electric and autonomous vehicles help reduce pollution and green mining practices such as automated drilling reduce the environmental impact of mining activities.

The real-time management of production processes based on edge analytics and robotics will likely witness increased adoption.

While business organisations today are primarily interested in collecting data and monitoring trends, the future will be about automating responses such that carbon footprint and water wastage are managed automatically on a real-time basis.

Some prominent conglomerates have incorporated a new role — a chief sustainability officer — to chart their sustainability journeys.

This decade will see more such structural changes in organisations, with environmental, social and corporate governance considerations emerging as vital parameters even for small and mid-sized businesses.

Read more: New Battery Waste Management Rules make producers accountable for recycling

Finally, the evolution of the metaverse will have an impact on sustainability too.

While popularising the metaverse will involve huge amounts of data and, consequently, an increase in computing power, advances in virtual worlds will allow for remote meetings and potentially render physical travel meaningless, thereby reducing carbon emissions.

Technology is becoming crucial for businesses in furthering their sustainability movement. Many businesses can utilise such technologies to reduce the impact on the natural world.

These technologies will definitely play a key role and evolve much better in the next decade to make the world a better place to live for future generations.

Rajaneesh Kini is the chief technology officer of Cyient Ltd, India.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

Net Zero by 2070: India still has 99 coal projects in pipeline

India has a 36% underutilised coal capacity in existing mines

By Seema Prasad

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

India is developing 99 new coal mines despite the Union government’s international pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2070, according to new research.

The upcoming projects put 165 villages and 87,630 families at risk of displacement. And 41,508 of these families belong to scheduled tribes, noted the research by the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) published October 13, 2022.

India, in its nationally determined contributions, announced a target to cut 1 billion tonne carbon emissions by 2030 and reduce carbon intensity of the economy to less than 45 per cent.

A temporary coal shortage due to high electricity demand prompted the government to start developing these coal projects. These projects have the capacity to produce 427 million tonnes of coal annually (mtpa).

Today, India’s projected annual coal shortage is at 49.3 million tonnes, three times the previous estimates of 17.7 million tonnes, according to a report by the news agency Reuters.

The demand for coal has risen to 784.6 million tonnes for the financial year ending March 2023, the same report added.

GEM report pointed out the impracticality behind expanding this move since existing mines already have wasted the unused capacity that could help meet some of the rising power demands.

India has a 36 per cent underutilised coal capacity in existing mines, equivalent to 433 mtpa. The underutilised capacity exceeds the proposed capacity of 427 mtpa, it added.

Coal Production in India

Mine Status

Proposed Mine Details

State

Operating

Proposed Projects

Projects Announced

Projects Under Exploration

Projects Permitted

Projects Under Construction

Chhattisgarh

153

48

0

35

13

0

Gujarat

10

0

0

0

0

0

Jharkhand

136

106

11

73

22

0

Madhya Pradesh

104

16

0

16

0

0

Maharashtra

55

4

0

4

0

0

Odisha

142

92

0

92

0

0

Rajasthan

7

0

0

0

0

0

Tamil Nadu

28

23

12

12

0

0

Telangana

62

0

0

0

0

0

Uttar Pradesh

40

5

0

5

0

0

West Bengal

32

7

0

3

0

4

This data is based on Global Coal Mine Tracker survey, updated July 2022. Units of measurement: Million tonnes per annum (Mtpa)

Jharkhand and Odisha alone account for 40 per cent of unused mine capacity, with the availability of 100 million tonnes.

New mines can’t solve the industry’s old problems, said Ryan Driskell Tate, project manager for GEM’s Global Coal Mine Tracker, in a press release.

“The irony of this expansion is that opening new mines today could intensify the sector’s weaknesses and inefficiencies tomorrow, especially as competition from renewables and conflicts over land use continue to emerge,” he added.

For example, 389 mtpa of the proposed capacity will be located in high-risk water zones, exacerbating water shortages. These mines require 168,041 kilolitres of water per day, the report stated.

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 13, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

By DTE Staff

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Phalguni river pollution

Sewage dumped by hotels, industries and residential areas through cess pools at selected places along the banks of the Phalguni river in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district needs a proper investigation.

This is according to the report of the joint committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT)  to look into an incident where the flow of industrial effluents in the river had resulted in a fish kill. The committee was appointed in compliance of the NGT’s April 29, 2022 order.

The report also noted that residential and commercial developments were located on either side of the river and there was no underground drainage in certain areas.

There were missing links even in sewered areas. Major and minor storm water drains were observed to be joining the river and plenty of organic load was observed at Kudroli, Sulthan Batteri, Dambel, Kulur Church and ELF Gas. Solid waste was found floating in the storm water drains which joined the river.

Upgradation of NH-200

The NGT admitted an appeal regarding violations of environmental norms during the upgradation of National Highway-200 in Odisha October 12, 2022.

The applicants had claimed that private contractors had transported minor minerals such as soil, morrum, road metals, stone, gravel, sand and stone crusher dust without any valid transit permit during the upgradation process.

The NGT said the matter required consideration and directed notice to be issued to the respondents:

Government of Odisha; Odisha State Pollution Control Board; State Environment Impact Assessment Authority Odisha; Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Integrated Regional Office, Bhubaneswar; National Highways Authority of India.

All the respondents have been directed to file their counter affidavits within three weeks.

Yamuna sand mining

The NGT directed the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority Uttar Pradesh and Tesmus Trading Pvt Ltd to file a reply within two months about a sand mining project on the Yamuna river area at Ghadiwa Majhigawan village in Khaga tehsil of Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district.

An applicant had contended that the requisite procedure for granting environmental clearance like preparation of district survey report, mining plan, environment impact assessment, environmental management plan and public hearing have not been followed.

Simply Put: Cancel all debt?

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Mozambique had no data about snakebites. Our new study filled the gap — and the results are scary

Widespread surveys are needed to further assess the full extent of snakebites in sub-Saharan Africa

By Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Every year between 20,000 and 32,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa die after being bitten by snakes. That’s more than five times the number of deaths caused by hippos, crocodiles, elephants, lions and buffalo combined.

At least, that’s what the available data suggests. But, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges, that statistics — as well as figures related to non-fatal injury and disability caused by snakebites — are incomplete. Not all snakebite victims are treated in hospitals, especially in poorer countries and communities. Some may be treated by traditional doctors. Others may die before receiving any treatment.

But without accurate data, it is difficult to see how the WHO will meet its global target of reducing death and disability from snakebites by 50 per cent by 2030. Without it, it’s difficult to prioritise which countries or regions require financial resources or antivenom, for instance.

We wanted to find a different way to quantify snakebites. So my colleagues and I from Mozambique’s Lúrio University embarked on a household survey across nine rural villages in Cabo Delgado Northern Mozambique. Before this, the only existing snakebite data for Mozambique was extrapolated from incidents in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This suggested there were 6996 snakebite cases and 319 deaths annually in Mozambique.

Our results offer a very different and extremely worrying picture. From our data we extrapolated snakebite figures for the entire area and for Mozambique as a whole. Despite being an underestimation (since we favoured a conservative approach) they increase snakebite incidence levels ten-fold and the number of deaths by 30-fold.

Urgent and widespread surveys are needed to further assess the full extent of snakebites in sub-Saharan Africa, explore regional patterns and develop mitigation plans. Obtaining this sort of data is critical: the WHO has placed snakebite in category A (the most severe or urgent) of neglected tropical diseases. Its 2030 target underscores that this is a priority area. But how can this metric be checked without accurate data?

Gathering data

We gathered data from 1037 households. We asked about snakebite incidents in people’s own homes and among their neighbours, as well as details about the species of snake, the symptoms, and what sort of treatment the victim received, if any.

There were 296 reported snakebites and most (60 per cent) were treated exclusively by traditional doctors; 15 per cent went to hospitals for treatment and 25 per cent died before reaching any doctor.

Using a conservative estimation where we assume our results to be extrapolatable for the whole of rural Mozambique, but considering snakebites in urban areas to be inexistent, we propose that every year in Cabo Delgado, at least 6124 people are victims of snakebites. Of these at least 791 result in deaths.

In Mozambique, we extrapolated that every year at least 69,261 people are victims of snakebite; at least 8950 result in death, meaning that one in eight snakebites is fatal. For comparison, 37,000 people die in Mozambique (which is home to more than 30 million people) each year because of respiratory infections and tuberculosis while 21,000 die from malaria.

Most (68 per cent) of the population live in rural areas and practice subsistence farming for a living. This means that millions of people are exposed to snakebites. The country is home to at least 14 snake species of medical importance – those whose bites can kill or lead to limb amputation. This is a fairly standard number of such snakes for the continent’s less tropical regions.

The number of medically important snakes in the country, the percentage of people living in rural areas, and the total absence of snakebite incidence data, make Mozambique a good place to focus on when trying to quantify and model snakebite data.

Who gets bitten and where

Some of our other key findings included:

- Most bites occurred on farms and during the rainy season (December to April).

- The type of snake was important when people were choosing between hospitals or traditional doctors. Those bitten by dangerous species such as the Puff Adder were usually taken to hospitals. Bites from less dangerous species like the Stiletto Snake were taken to traditional doctors.

One exception was made for victims of Black Mambas. This deadly snake has extremely fast-acting venom: its bite can kill in less than an hour. In the communities we surveyed, Black Mamba victims were usually taken to traditional doctors close to home, to avoid long trips to hospitals up to 20km away and queues at the facilities.

Figures may be higher

It is possible that our figures are too low. That’s because we took a conservative approach when extrapolating data – and because we assumed that every interviewee had 100 per cent recall, as well as assuming a 0 per cent snakebite incidence in urban areas, which make up 30 per cent of the country.

So, the figures for snakebite incidence are very likely still an underestimation of the true incidence in both Cabo Delgado and Mozambique more broadly.

Local universities should consider using our approach to engage with communities and retrieve household data. This will help researchers and health authorities to assess the full extent of snakebites in sub-Saharan Africa, explore regional patterns and develop mitigation plans.

Such mitigation might include training both traditional doctors and hospital staff in snakebite treatment; public education campaigns to encourage people to use hospitals for treating snakebites; and making antivenom widely available. It may also be useful to generate local literature to guide snake identification and share first-aid measures.

Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq, Post-doc, University of Gothenburg

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

COVID-19 pandemic impacted blood supply in Africa: WHO

There was a shortfall of 329,0289 units of blood in 2020

By Madhumita Paul

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the blood supply in Africa and erased years of progress in ensuring safe blood, according to a new report.

The donation rate before and after the pandemic was 4.9 units per 1,000 people and 5.9 units per 1,000 people, respectively, stated the World Health Organization’s (WHO) African Region Status Report on Blood Availability.

There was a shortfall of 329,0289 units of blood in 2020 in 38 countries, according to the WHO. Paid donations constituted 2.8 per cent of the total in the central and west African sub-regions. Such donations were reported in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.

The report aims to provide updated information on critical indicators of availability and access to safe blood. The survey collected responses from 39 of 47 WHO-African Region countries. Eight countries — Central African Republic, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Tanzania did not provide any information.

Some 16 countries pooled more than 80 per cent of the required blood from voluntary non-remunerated blood donations (VNRBD). But in 19 countries, VNRBD accounted for less than 50 per cent of the total requirement.

Highlights of the survey:

- Some 36 countries had blood donation policies in place and 23 countries had legislations.

- Blood requirements in 19 countries are met with government funds and 24 countries received funding from external sources. Malawi, Mauritius and Namibia are no longer sponsored by their governments. Blood requirements in these countries are funded through a cost-recovery mechanism.

- A patient’s mean cost to access a unit of blood amounts to $42 in Africa, ranging from $1.35 in Guinea to $177 in South Africa.

- Some 33 countries provided data on the preparation of blood components.

- The African region discarded 344,724 units of blood, or 10.3 per cent of the total donations, owing to transfusion-transmissible infections and improper processing.

Limited donor recruitment campaigns, cultural barriers and lack of information affects donors’ willingness to donate, the survey noted. Congo expanded its blood donations by 46 per cent over the past three years with the help of WHO. Now, the country is able to meet its average yearly requirement of 150,000 pouches.

Governments should implement WHO-recommended strategies to increase voluntary blood donations and reduce the risk of transfusion-transmissible infections in blood and blood components. Blood services should work closely with all the stakeholders to increase availability, the survey noted.

Surge in clean fuel prices may hurt Delhi’s air pollution fight

Commission for Air Quality Management had earlier directed industries to switch to clean fuel

By Shreya Verma

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Deteriorating air quality is synonymous with Delhi winters. Though there are several reasons for poor air quality in the national capital region (NCR), industries — one of the primary air pollution contributors — are finding it difficult to switch to cleaner fuels due to price hikes.

Central pollution monitoring body Commission for Air Quality Management had earlier issued orders for industries to switch to clean fuel. Emissions due to the use of polluting fuels by industries and vehicles contribute significantly to the degradation of air quality in Delhi-NCR.

CAQM shared a list of approved fuels June 23, 2022. The list came into effect for areas with existing PNG infrastructure and supply October 1, 2022. For areas without piped natural gas (PNG) supply, the list will come into effect January 1, 2023.

The commission approved petrol and diesel for vehicular fuel; hydrogen and methane for industrial and vehicular fuel; and compressed natural gas (CNG), PNG, liquefied petroleum gas and liquefied natural gas for vehicular, industrial and domestic purposes.

Electricity was approved for industrial, commercial, domestic and vehicular fuel and biofuels and refuse-derived fuel for power, cement and waste-to-energy plants.

Read more: In Delhi, deadly air pollution is never out of season

Firewood and biomass can be used for religious purposes, wood and bamboo charcoal for tandoors and grills of hotels, restaurants and banquet halls with emission channelisation and control systems. Wood and bamboo charcoal are permitted at open eateries and dhabas too.

Wood charcoal for cloth ironing and electricity, CNG, firewood and biomass briquettes can be used for crematoria. Biomass, agriculture refuse, pellets, briquettes, metallurgical coke and low-sulphur fuel, can be used for industrial purposes only beyond the jurisdiction of Delhi government.

However, the increasing rates of natural gas and biomass make implementing CAQM’s direction grim. In the table below, we can see the hike in biomass prices, which is around a 28 per cent increase over the last three years.

BIOMASS PRICE OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS

Year

Biomass Price/Kg

2020

Rs 3-5

2021

Rs 5-6

2022

Rs 5-7

COMPARING PRICES OF PNG IN DELHI-NCR

The above graph shows the steep increase in PNG prices in Haryana, which is almost doubled (42 per cent) in the last three years. In Uttar Pradesh, PNG prices are doubled (52 per cent) in the last three years. There are similar patterns of prices rising (46 per cent) in Delhi and in Rajasthan (39 per cent rise).

Non-profit Centre for Science and Environment conducted a study on “Assessment of Industrial air pollution in Delhi-NCR” in the year 2020.

The total consumption of coal by industries was around 1.4 million tonnes/year in seven districts (Alwar, Bhiwadi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Panipat and Sonipat) of NCR, the study highlighted. After this study, CAQM removed the use of coal from the approved fuel list for NCR.

Soaring fuel prices

The rising prices of biomass and PNG are hitting the industries badly and, in return, can affect their production capacity and the country's economic growth.

The government October 1, 2022 raised the prices of gas produced from old fields, which make up for about two-thirds of all gas produced in the country. It was hiked from $6.1 per million British thermal units to $8.57 per million British thermal units, according to oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

One of the biggest solutions for clean air is the transition to cleaner fuels. The transition to gas has been the key action taken by Beijing to reduce its air pollution. Changing the fuel itself led to massive air pollution benefits.

Read more: Massive exercise underway to map air pollution sources in Delhi

In fact, all industries will benefit from the transition to clean fuel as they would reduce the cost of air pollution control devices (APCD) and governments would also reduce the costs of regulation.

There are also advantages to the economy from the use of natural gas — its use will be regulated and metred and therefore, industrial production will be better accounted for.

However, today looking at the increasing price of piped natural gas, it becomes difficult for industries to shift to natural gas and meet the CAQM deadline of January 1, 2023 for the areas where PNG is not available. Due to rising PNG prices, financially weak industries may be forced to shut down.

On one side, we are putting efforts into making a clean environment by introducing and mandating the use of cleaner fuels and banning polluting fuels. On the other hand, increasing prices of cleaner fuel restrict the goal.

Governments should consider subsidising rates of cleaner fuel. CSE has advocated for a long time to bring down the costs of clean fuel in the country and try to include it under the goods and services tax.

How one social enterprise is working to make Ladakh waste-free

Ladakh has progressed a lot in recent years in developing a sound waste recovery mechanism, but there is still a lot more to be done to make Ladakh 100 per cent zero waste

By Shumzin Wangmo

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Climate change has truly reached our doorstep and is knocking at our doors. Having said that, a wide range of equally disastrous environmental issues are being taken somewhat lightly, especially in the high Himalayas. One of them is waste management.

It is no secret that Ladakh faces a huge challenge of waste management like the rest of the country. We Ladakhis often see plastic wrappers and bottles flowing in our streams and rivers, waste being burned near houses and burgeoning dumpyards on roadsides.

The threats of mismanaging waste are immense. Burning plastics can release toxic gases like furans and dioxins that are harmful to humans and animals.

Wet waste can lead to the problem of feral dogs if it is not managed properly. This, in turn, can wreak havoc on wildlife present in micro ecosystems. It is something that is ongoing nightmare in Ladakh.

Micro-plastics that enter the soil and water, also release chemicals that affect the chemistry of the two.

Waste collected from in and around Leh, the capital of Ladakh, was taken for a long time to a landfill popularly known as ‘Bomb Garh’. This landfill, which was hidden between the mountains with smoke constantly emanating from it, was and continues to be Leh’s dark secret.

More than 500 stray dogs feed on food waste at the site. Many would thus agree that Bomb Garh reveals the nasty side of an unsustainable ecosystem supported by mindless consumerism and commercialisation.

Bomb Garh still burns even as better strategies have been implemented by the municipality, like setting up a new material recovery Facility.

To the rescue

PlanetFirst Recycling, a waste management social enterprise, decided to tackle the growing problem of waste in Ladakh. PlanetFirst has set up a scrap buying and selling network connected to all satellite Solid Resource Management Centres, run by the administration of the Union Territory.

These centres are equipped with the necessary machinery that segregate and turn recovered material into compressed pellets / bales, which are then further sold to PlanetFirst for recycling and scientific disposal.

It was also found that the food leftovers from Army camps in Changthang were being dumped in the open. This attracte free-ranging dogs who started hunting local wildlife including snow leopards and black necked cranes (state bird of Ladakh) when not fed.

PlanetFirst installed an organic waste composter near the Galwan valley. The project was monitored for a year including during the the peak winters of -35 degrees Celsius. The machine performed in a desired manner during this time.

PlanetFirst also introduced the the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Devcelopment Council and the Union territory administration to the concept of Deposit Return System.

The team was able to pull in TOMRA, inventors of Reverse Vending Machine(RVM), a Norwegian company to present this unique and modern collection mechanism being followed all over Europe for efficient waste recovery.

The model involves setting up a deposit for consumers on all packaging materials. Once the packaging material is returned, the deposit collected will be returned to the consumer. This system encourages source segregation and collection of scrap from all stratas of the society.

The team has been actively involved in building various policies and plans around environment and waste management in Ladakh. The District Environment Management plan was curated by the team, along with the district waste management and district plastic waste management plan.

PlanetFirst’s active involvement in the waste management ecosystem of Ladakh has led to various bold decisions around collection and recovery of waste across the Union territory. One of its team members, Rohit Joshi has been appointed as a member of the Union territory-level plastic committee.

Ladakh stands at a crucial juncture, where the people are in a connundrum of exploiting the local resources and its flora and fauna as they aim for increased tourism or pushing for the conservation of its sensitive ecosystem.

The ambiguity around the conservation efforts stands as it is, but there are individuals and organisations fighting to bring in a fresh perspective on the balance between economic growth and land conservation.

PlanetFirst is also cognisant of the fact that protecting the environment is not the responsibility of one but of everyone. Therefore, PlanetFirst is also working towards spreading the message of ‘zero waste’ through community engagements. After all, the survival of the natural environment and species can only be possible through collective efforts.

Ladakh has progressed a lot in recent years in developing a sound waste recovery mechanism, but there is still a lot more to be done to make Ladakh 100 per cent zero waste. The biggest stakeholder remains the Indian Army, which is yet to incorporate a waste recovery mechanism.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

Bihar agrarian crisis: Why crores in diesel subsidies may not be the answer

Funds allocated in July for diesel subsidy haven't reached many farmers yet; irrigation projects needed, say locals

By Zumbish

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

The agriculture department of the Bihar government has proposed allocation of Rs 100 crore in diesel subsidy October 6, 2022 to help distressed farmers get diesel subsidy.

The plan announced in a public address by the newly appointed agriculture minister of the state, Kumar Sarvajeet, is in line with the state’s action plan to help alleviate the financial burden of the farmers in the wake of the agrarian crisis since June.

Under the plan, Rs 700 per acre of land will be transferred to farmers to buy diesel for agricultural purposes, including irrigation.

The state's farmers, however, called this move an eyewash and a stop-gap arrangement that is not enough to improve the situation.

Bihar government July 28 had decided to provide diesel subsidies for agriculture use for the next three months, as the eastern state saw dry monsoons through most of the period from June to mid-July.

The new subsidy fund will be in addition to the Rs 100 crore the government has already allocated in July for the same purpose, a department official said.

The amount, the official claimed, will be the largest the state has ever allocated during a drought year for diesel subsidy for agriculture use.

Earlier this year, pleas by local agrarian experts for declaring Bihar as a drought state this year fell on deaf ears and there was no political will shown towards this, Down To Earth (DTE) reported in August this year.

We didn’t get any rain during the sowing and transplanting season of our most crucial crops, said Umesh, a big farmer from Masaurhi in Dhanarua, South Bihar. “And after July 20, we received untimely excess rainfall, which damaged the little paddy we were able to grow.”

How can the government’s answer to this year’s severe agrarian crisis be only a diesel subsidy, he asked, adding:

If they are claiming that such a subsidy will mitigate this crisis that has massively impacted almost all the districts of the agrarian state, it only reflects their inadequacy as policymakers, planners.

“This step is nothing but a hogwash, a stopgap arrangement at best,” the farmer said.

The scale of paddy cultivation across Bihar’s 17 districts was less than 10 per cent of the normal volume, ground volunteers and farmers told DTE on August 1. The districts included Jamui, Munger, Sheikhpura, Aurangabad, Bhojpur, Buxar, Jahanabad, Kaimur, Gaya, Nalanda and Saran.

“They keep boasting about diesel subsidies all the time. But how many farmers are aware of what amount the government has allocated and then how many of us receive it is the question that should be asked,” said Ramswarup, another farmer from South Bihar’s Gaya district. The farmer said his family has suffered loss of paddy crops over three acres of land since June.

Not more than 40 per cent of the farmers in Gaya has received the diesel subsidy the last time after the decision in this regard was taken in July, Parshuram Manjhi, a farmer from the district’s Mohanpur block. “Most of the subsidy amount is siphoned off by the middlemen and corrupt officers.”

This is the ground reality not just in Mohanpur but several other parts of Bihar, Manjhi added. “When the bare minimum (diesel subsidy) they are doing for farmers is not reaching the right beneficiaries, what expectation can we have from this government that has ignored glaring signs to declare Bihar a drought state?”

The departmen denied this accusation. “Of the Rs 100 crore subsidy amount allocated for diesel subsidy for agricultural use (in July), Rs 96.3 crore has already reached farmers across the 38 districts of Bihar,” said an official who wished to remian anonymous.

Very few Bihar farmers have an alternative occupation and a majority of the rural population is dependent on agriculture, said Umrao Yadav, a big farmer from Rajgirah village in Nitish Kumar's home district Nalanda.

“Diesel subsidy can by no means be a solution. If river water can't be efficiently channelised for irrigating the fields, what coping mechanism will help?” said the farmer.

“In the end, even more of us will be forced to migrate. But that's not a solution again,” he added.

In Bihar, about 88 per cent of the population (against the national average of 67 per cent) lives in villages.

“But will a government representative do a proper survey and find out how many farmers were benefited by the subsidy? No.” said Manjhi.

The deputy-director of the state’s agriculture department, Anil Kumar, told DTE that the farmers are going to benefit from the subsidy. The department may conduct a ground-level survey of the crisis, he added but didn’t provide any further details.

Some experts DTE spoke to were also doubted the efficacy of the measure in mitigating the agrarian crisis facing the state. Pradeep Priyadarshi, national vice-president of Ekta Parishad, a non-profit that works on agriculture, said:

About 50 per cent of the famers in Bihar rely on shared farming; they are not landowners. Most of the farmers who will benefit from this subsidy will be those who own a small or big portion of land.

Diesel subsidy is a legit move if it is properly disbursed but it cannot be a solution to an agrarian crisis, said RK Malik, a cropping systems agronomist.

In a lot of areas in Bihar and eastern UP, farmers could be facilitated by the government to be equipped for early sowing, the expert opined. “The government could probably organise a programme that promotes and facilitates the use of zero tillage machines.”

Umesh cited the example of Telangana, which supplies free and quality power round-the-clock to the agriculture sector, to highlight the kind of mitigation strategy the state could have adopted.

It is a reality that most of the farmers in Bihar are compelled to get access to electricity for agricultural purposes through illegal means, he said. “The diesel subsidy is denied to many by corrupt officers merely because they would claim farmers are not using diesel for tubewells and cultivating through other means.”

Linking rivers, making a plan for building check dams, utilising the abundant river water resource in the state and ensuring that it reaches the fields are other efforts he suggested.

Can carbon capture be new hope for mitigating CO2 emissions?

NTPC Vindhyachal implements carbon capture technology

By Sowmiya Kannappan

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

The largest power plant in the country has moved towards industrial decarbonisation by implementing carbon capture technology.

NTPC Vindhyachal in Madhya Pradesh has an installed capacity of 4.67 gigawatts and is the largest greenhouse gas emitter of energy production. NTPC Ltd was formerly National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from electricity generation in India accounts for 40 per cent, even though 40 per cent of energy production is being obtained from renewable energy in India, according to the third biennial update report.

Read more: Most carbon capture & utilisation technologies may be counterproductive: Study

India also stands third among the GHG-emitting countries in the world, emitting 2,310 megatons of CO2 in 2019. All these scenarios necessitate the mitigation of GHG reduction in the country to combat the effects of climate change.

The pioneer project of a carbon capture plant installed in NTPC Vindhyachal is in line with this, which is designed to capture 20 tonnes of CO2 per day. It uses modified tertiary amine to capture CO2 from flue gas from fossil-fired power plants, with a purity of more than 99 per cent.

CO2 will eventually be integrated with hydrogen to produce 10 tonnes of methanol per day through a catalytic hydrogenation process.

Currently, there are no Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) projects in the pipeline in power plants, according to non-profit Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) discussion with companies looking into carbon capture in India.

CCUS has been a topic of discussion for over two decades, but it has not gained proper focus because of limited research, finance and policy support. This is evident from the few projects in India, which are in their nascent stage, even though carbon capture has been discussed for a long time.

In India, Jindal Steel and Power had claimed that they would envisage CO2 capture, storage and sequestration 2011. The steel, mining, and infrastructure company 2017 again mentioned they were contemplating sequestration of CO2 emissions, which is still not implemented.

Read more: Thermal power plants in Singrauli, Sonbhadra under NGT radar again

For that matter, multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd, as a part of their plans to achieve further reduction in GHG emissions, have also announced that they would capture, store and convert CO2 to useful chemicals in a sustainable manner but not with a timeline.

Oil company Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) had earlier said they would declare Net Zero operational emissions by the year 2046 for their plans to achieve two-thirds of emission reduction through energy efficiency, electrification and fuel replacement efforts.

About a third of the total emissions would be mitigated through options such as CCUS, nature-based solutions and the purchase of carbon credits, IOCL said. The carbon capture project is at the yet-to-be-implemented stage upon the completion of techno-economic feasibility.

All these big firms’ plans for capturing, storing and utilising carbon are at the initial stage, where their implementation would take longer.

Only some preliminary work is underway with pilot projects being conducted by public sector undertaking Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and IOCL at the Koyali Refinery; Dalmia Cement setting up its carbon capture cement plant in Tamil Nadu and an industrial port in Tuticorin capturing CO2 to produce baking soda and so on.

There are a number of technical and logistical barriers to CCUS adoption, according to policy think-tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

Some of them identified from literature are land acquisition, in-depth assessment of storage sites to fulfil relevant criteria such as adequacy of capacity and injectivity rates, cap rock containment capacity to prevent CO2 from escaping, etc.

There is always a threat of CO2 leakage and possible leakage points need to be scouted beforehand for necessary remediation plans to be prepared.

Read more: Carbon capture technology not on track to reduce CO2 emissions

There is also a dearth of data pertaining to geological storage sites in India, which makes it difficult to undertake exhaustive feasibility assessments for CCUS projects.

So, the Indian government should facilitate the possibilities of quicker implementation of CCUS in the country, suggested CSE. One such initiative can be designing national policy options with specific plans for climate finance mobility and providing incentives to the sectors in the form of tax concessions.

These concessions can be in exchange for investing in CCUS-related projects or being engaged in production processes employing these technologies. It can also support more research and development for carbon capture and storage technologies in India.

Also, there is no carbon capture project that is being planned in India in the near future, according to Global Status of CCS 2021 report. But other countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, United Arab Emirates, etc, have many projects under various stages of implementation.

This should be given due importance because the country’s reduction effort is far less than its actual emissions.

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 12, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

By DTE Staff

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Bhopal gas tragedy

The Union government will pursue its curative petition seeking additional compensation to the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, Attorney General R Venkataramani informed the Supreme Court.

The court was hearing the Union government’s curative petition seeking Rs 7,844 crore additional compensation from successor firms of Union Carbide October 11, 2022.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by SK Kaul ordered the Center to submit a compilation of its statements within 56 days.

“A number of NGOs seek to be added as parties to the curative petition,” the court noted.

Union Carbide’s successor, Dow Chemicals, urged the court to re-examine the curative petition.

“The very maintainability of the curative petitions will have to be examined as it came 19 years after the judgment was passed and without going through a process of review petition,” stated the company.

The court listed the matter for January 10, 2023. The tragedy’s survivors have been fighting for fair compensation and appropriate medical care for illnesses caused by the deadly gas leak.

A curative petition is the last chance a party can ask the court to reconsider a case after the court refuses to review a judgment.

The Government of India filed a curative petition in December 2010. The compensation settlement was seriously impaired and did not consider the quantum of deaths, injuries and losses, the government stated in the petition.

NGT slaps 500 crore

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a fine of Rs 500 crore on the Karnataka government for its failure to protect Chandrapura lake. The lake spans 17.27 acres in Chandapura town and 7.2 acres in Heelalige village.

The tribunal took suo moto cognisance of the matter October 10, based on a media report. The waste dumped in the lake raises several concerns, the media report stated.

It also mentioned encroachments on the buffer zone of the lake. A report was filed by the chief secretary on the same. It showed the poor state of the lake.

“Out of the total 24.27 acres, nearly two acres of the lake in Chandapura town has been encroached,” the report read.

The mushrooming of ‘red-category industries’ in the Jigani Bommasandra industrial area is a significant cause of concern, it added. Industries with a pollution index score of 60 and above are categorised under red. These industries discharge effluents into lakes, violating the government’s zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) policy.

The ZLD water management system prohibits the release of untreated water into lakes.

The fund must be utilised for the lake’s restoration within six months. The restoration should be monitored by a committee headed by the chairperson of the State Wetland Authority, the tribunal added.

Untreated sewage disposal

The NGT has slapped a fine of Rs. 7.5 crore on the Uttar Pradesh government for its failure to prevent sewage discharge into the drains near Lar town in the Deoria district. The tribunal was responding to a petition October 10.

The sewage must be appropriately treated and used for secondary purposes such as irrigation, the tribunal added. It recommended the formation of a committee to oversee the utilisation of the fund.

The committee should consist of the principal secretary for urban development, Uttar Pradesh; nominees of the pollution control boards and the district magistrate of Deoria, the tribunal stated.

Living Planet Report 2022: Wildlife populations decline by 69% in 50 years

Annual report links climate change and biodiversity loss for 1st time

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

There has been a 69 per cent decline in the wildlife populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, across the globe in the last 50 years, according to the latest Living Planet Report by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Biodiversity loss and climate crisis should be dealt with as one instead of two different issues as they are intertwined, the international wildlife conservation organisation said in the report, highlighting the link between the two issues for the first time.

The highest decline (94 per cent) was in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, the report released October 13, 2022 showed.

Africa recorded a 66 per cent fall in its wildlife populations from 1970-2018 and the Asia Pacific 55 per cent, according to the WWF report.

Freshwater species populations globally reduced by 83 per cent, confirming that the planet is experiencing a “biodiversity and climate crisis”, the organisation found. Habitat loss and barriers to migration routes were responsible for about half of the threats to monitored migratory fish species, it noted.

WWF identified six key threats to biodiversity — agriculture, hunting, logging, pollution, invasive species and climate change — to highlight ‘threat hotspots' for terrestrial vertebrates.

Marco Lambertini, director-general of WWF International, said:

We face the double emergencies of human-induced climate change and biodiversity loss, threatening the well-being of current and future generations.

“A nature-positive future needs transformative, game-changing shifts in how we produce, how we consume, how we govern and what we finance,” read the report. It is clear that unless we stop treating these emergencies as two separate issues, neither problem will be addressed effectively.

The Living Planet Index (LPI), featuring about 32,000 populations of 5,230 species across the world, showed that vertebrate wildlife populations are plummeting at a particularly staggering rate in tropical regions of the world.

Mangroves continue to be lost to aquaculture, agriculture and coastal development at a rate of 0.13 per cent per year, according to the findings. Many mangroves are also degraded by overexploitation and pollution, alongside natural stressors such as storms and coastal erosion, added the report.

Mangrove-loss represents loss of habitat for biodiversity and the loss of ecosystem services for coastal communities, it read. “In some locations, it can mean the loss of the very land where coastal communities live,” it read.

Around 137 square kilometres of the Sundarbans mangrove forest in India and Bangladesh has been eroded since 1985, reducing land and ecosystem services for many of the 10 million people who live there, the analysis showed.

"Climate change in India will impact key areas, such as water resources, agriculture, natural ecosystems, health and the food chain,” Ravi Singh, secretary-general and chief executive, WWF India, said.

He talked about the need for an all-inclusive collective approach that can put us on a more sustainable path and ensures that the costs and benefits from our actions are socially just and equitably shared.

This Pune stone-crusher unit shows how to do it properly

Mangrul village unit runs on best practices despite being surrounded by polluting ones

By Divyansh Upadhyay

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

The stone-crushing industry receives a lot of negative attention for generating a huge amount of fugitive emissions that degrade air quality and the environment. However, one unit in Pune hopes to change this by providing an exemplary example of following good practices.

Illegal stone mining in protected areas has often been in the spotlight, with several cases filed with the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court.

Most stone crushers do not follow the state board guidelines for operation. They also do not take adequate measures of installing air pollution control devices and water sprinkling and dust extraction systems, which contribute substantially to air pollution.

Read more: Mahoba mess continues: NGT seeks report on stone mining

Flouting of environmental norms by the stone-crusher units is regularly reported in the news too, with several cases are filed in the NGT. Pune has several classic examples of units flouting norms, especially in the Wagholi area, Lonikand, Bavadi village in Haveli taluka and Gevari taluka.

In 2016, the NGT had given directions to Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and Central Pollution Control Board in Uttamrao Vithalrao Bhondwe Vs state of Maharashtra and others case.

“Carry out a joint monitoring of 56 stone-crusher units in taluka Havali, district Pune and submit their report of joint inspection monitoring and cumulative impact assessment,” the NGT bench had directed.

The joint committee was also asked to “carry out ambient air quality monitoring in the nearby areas where the stone crusher units are situated and also to identify possible sources of air pollution in those localities.”

Many stone-crusher units did not adhere to the state guidelines, the study report found. MPCB had to issue a blanket ban on working stone crushers and cut down the power supply.

However, one stone-crusher unit in village Mangrul in Malwal taluka of Pune district was a guiding light for all stone crushers. The unit strictly adhered to MPCB guidelines for operating crushers and works on the best operating practices.

The cherry on the cake is that the unit ran on solar energy as well as on electricity. During closure and breakdown time, the unit returned the electricity to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

The unit has two crushers with a capacity of 200 tonnes per hour (tph) each and another with a capacity of 300 tph. It has a ready-mix concrete (RMC) plant of 120 tph in addition to this.

Currently, the RMC is for in-house purposes because they are making a storage plant to store final products in a closed space.

Adherence to MPCB norms

Despite such a huge capacity, the unit adheres to the MPCB guidelines and also takes some other good steps to save energy and reduce air pollution and fugitive emissions.

Read more: Villagers protest relocation of stone-crushers

The sitting criteria of the unit were strictly adhered to as per the guidelines. The unit was 1 kilometre away from the national highway and 500 metres away from the state highway, schools, hospitals and human habitation.

Steps taken by the unit for adhering to MPCB guidelines

Parameters

Steps taken

Conveyor belts

Covered with GI/MS sheets

Water sprinklers

Available at unloading, handling, and loading section

Screen classifiers

Fully covered with GI/MS sheets

Wetting of the road

On regular basis with sprinklers

Approach road

Metalled roads

Display Board

Available at the entrance of the unit

Boundary wall

All sides covered with 10 feet wall

Plantation

The thick foliage of the plants along the periphery

Housekeeping

Regularly on a daily basis

Operating time

7 am to 6 pm

Energy saving

Installation of two solar plants, each of 1 megawatt capacity, helps the unit conserve energy. One plant was installed in 2018 and the other in 2021. The solar plants are constructed over the stone quarry, which has been previously used by the unit.

The cost of installing the solar plant was around Rs 6 crore and the plant generates around 1.5 million units every year.

Maintenance of solar panels in the area surrounded by the crusher units and quarries is a challenging task, as huge amounts of dust got accumulated on the solar panels and hampered energy generation. However, unit combats this with regular washing and wiping.

Washing of solar panels. Photo: Divyansh Upadhyay

Some of the steps taken by the unit to follow best practices are:

- Cleaning of solar panels

- Covered conveyor belts

- Regular wetting of roads

- Display board outside the industry

- Thick foliage of plants along unit's periphery

- Sprinklers along the roadside

The above-mentioned case study should be highlighted and propagated to wider audiences. Global good operating practices should be documented as well.

Read more: Quarrying suspended in Navi Mumbai’s Parsik Hill as authorities review mining lease

Such holistic documents will help the sector, maximize explicit knowledge and will enable other industries to benefit from exchanging experiences with one another. The documentation should help develop and implement solutions adaptable to similar problems in different situations and contexts.

Exposure visits should be conducted for regulators and industry professionals, accompanied by training programmes, to showcase the ongoing good practices prevailing in different industries.

By adapting to good practices, the stone-crusher industry can enhance their feasibility and profitability and can set an exemplary example in front of other industries.

Simply Put: Noah’s Ark 2.0

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

India bears world’s highest health, economic burden due to lead poisoning: Centre

Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh have highest average blood lead levels, a CSIR and Niti Aayog report has shown

By Taran Deol

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

A 2020 report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and non-profit Pure Earth had found India to be home to a major chunk of the 800 million children poisoned by lead globally. Now, a central report has found that India bears the world’s highest health and economic burden due to lead poisoning.

The report, prepared jointly by government think tank Niti Aayog and the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), was published in July this year. A meeting was organised by Pure Earth and The Energy and Resource Institute in the national capital October 11, 2022 to discuss the findings of the report.

Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh had the highest average blood lead levels (BLL) among Indian states, according to the report. These states account for 40 per cent of India’s population that is plagued with this poor health indicator.

Some 23 states have an average BLL that goes beyond five microgram per decilitre (μg / dl) — the standard used to gauge poisoning. The statistics are worrying on a national level with the average for the country being 4.9 μg / dl for children less than two years old.

India accounted for 275,561,163 of the 800 million children suffering from lead poisoning globally according to the 2020 Unicef report. This number meant that half of India’s children were poisoned by lead.

The Unicef report also noted that lead poisoning shaved off an estimated five per cent of Indian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to lower economic productivity and reduced lifetime earnings. It also caused 230,000 premature deaths in India.

CSIR and Niti Ayog assessed 89 data sets from 36 studies carried out between 1970 and 2014 to corroborate the findings of the Unicef report.

Deaths due to lead poisoning have continued to rise in India even though lead use in petrol — a key source — was phased out by 2000 in the country. This indicates other sources.

The government report includes battery recycling, occupational sources such as lead mining, smelting, welding, soldering and automobile repatriating. Other inconspicuous sources include adulterated spices, cosmetics and traditional medicines.

“There is a desperate need for policy changes at the national and state levels given the severe health implications including, but not limited to, the central nervous, hematopoietic, hepatic and renal systems. But there seems to be little interest here,” Rajiv Kumar, former vice chairperson of the Niti Aayog, said.

“While the statistics clearly show we’re in trouble, not much has moved in terms of policy making,” he said of his time at the Niti Aayog till April this year.

“What’s certain is the need for a state-level approach to this problem. We need to devise implementable strategies on a state level, through regional bureaucracy, local press and vernacular language to have a tangible impact,” he added.

The CSIR and Niti Aayog report details the way forward to reduce negative impacts of lead poisoning. It lists national and state-level steps.

These include identifying at-risk populations through BLL monitoring, investigating sources of elevated BLLs and healthcare workforce training to sensitise them to monitor, detect and treat lead poisoning.

A fourth step is to undertake targeted research and intervention studies to identify potential newer sources which policy makers and the scientific community can address head on.

Bullseye! NASA’s DART hits the mark, successfully alters asteroid path

Spacecraft hit Dimorphos, shortened space rock's orbit time by 32 minutes

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

A spacecraft intentionally crashed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) into an asteroid successfully deflected the orbit of the 160-metre space rock.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally crashed a refrigerator-sized spacecraft into Dimorphos, a small moon orbiting the near-Earth asteroid called Didymos September 26, 2022.

The mission was to evaluate whether the impact could deflect this near-earth object from its orbit, potentially paving the way for a technology that could help protect Earth from future hazardous asteroid collisions.

Before the impact, Dimorphos took 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit Didymos. The time has now been reduced to 11 hours and 23 minutes, NASA announced.

Read more: In a world first, NASA’s DART mission is about to smash into an asteroid. What will we learn?

“For the first time, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary body,” Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s Planetary Science Division, said at a press briefing October 11, 2022.

Scientists used ground-based telescopes to confirm that the spacecraft shortened Dimorphos’ orbit time by 32 minutes, according to the space agency.

NASA had earlier used models to estimate the impact would result in a change “between a few minutes and several tens of minutes”.

“The result of the 32-minute change is consistent with our estimates beforehand, but clearly at the upper end of that range,” Glaze said.

The mission was expected to be a huge success if it shortened the orbit by 10 minutes, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the press briefing.

Experts will continue studying the aftermath of the impact. NASA said it was analysing the “ejecta” comprising asteroidal rock hurled into space post-impact.

The recoil from the blast, it added, substantially enhanced the spacecraft’s push against Dimorphos.

To gain more insights, the experts will gather more information on the asteroid’s physical properties, such as the characteristics of its surface and whether it is strong or weak.

“DART has given us some fascinating data about both asteroid properties and the effectiveness of a kinetic impactor [sending a spacecraft to defect an asteroid] as a planetary defense technology,” said Nancy Chabot, the DART coordination lead from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

With new data, astronomers can better assess how effective a mission like DART is in helping protect Earth from a potential future asteroid collision, Glaze said.

Read more: Always look up: Earth’s top 7 asteroid defences

Previously, Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope located in Cerro Pachón in Chile captured the vast plume of dust and debris from the asteroid’s surface after the impact.

The dust trail has been pushed away by the Sun’s radiation pressure, a press note read.

Hubble and James Webb telescopes observed the impact location before and after the impact. Images from James Webb showed plumes of material streaming away from the centre of the collision.

This powerful telescope will also be used to provide details of the asteroid’s composition. Hubble’s images captured the ejecta, which looked like rays stretching from the asteroid’s body.

The brightness of Didymos in the aftermath increased by three times, staying stead for eight hours, images from the telescope showed.

Make steel future-ready

We can emit even less than what we do today; it needs planning, technology & funds

By Sunita Narain

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

As our fractious and dysfunctional world gets ready to go to the 27th meeting of the parties to the climate convention (COP27) and as extreme weather events spiral out of control and take down lives and properties, it is clear that we need to act urgently.

It is equally clear that this “action” is not happening, certainly not at the scale or pace needed. But more on this another time.

This time I want to discuss the option for decarbonising India’s iron and steel sector. My colleagues at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) say it is possible to bring down carbon dioxide (CO_2) emissions drastically by 2030 while tripling India’s output of steel; we can emit even less than what we do today. But it will need planning, technology and funds.

The fact is countries like India need to grow and develop, and this at a time when the world is running out of carbon budget to stay below the guardrail of 1.5 degree Celsius temperature rise. So, this growth can, and must, be low in carbon.

How do we ensure the double benefits of reduced emissions and growth?

Our report Decarbonising India: Iron and steel sector shows it is possible. Globally, the iron and steel sector is a major contributor to emissions — some 7 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions.

In India, the sector’s share is 5 per cent, as per the latest inventory available for 2016. India is second in terms of global production of iron and steel. But India’s production pales in comparison with the first producer.

China produces 10 times more than India; in 2019, it produced 1,050 million tonnes of crude steel, against India’s 100 million tonnes. Therefore, India will need to increase its production — there is a huge unmet infrastructure demand in the country.

Our per capita steel consumption, even in 2030, when official estimates forecast expansion to 300 million tonnes capacity and production to 255 million tonnes, will be only 160 kg per capita.

In contrast, global per capita consumption of steel today is 229 kg. Our need to increase production is a no-brainer.

The only question is what needs to be done to reduce emissions of CO_2 in this sector? What must India do? What can the world do to ensure this transition?

The emission story of iron and steel is like that of most other industries. The fuel — coal, gas or clean electricity — that fires its furnaces is what then adds to emissions, but with one crucial difference. The manufacturing process is a determinant of the amount of CO_2 the industrial unit will produce.

When iron is produced using a blast furnace and then steel through a basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route, CO_2-producing coal is needed as a reducing agent to turn the ore into metal. This makes the sector hard to decarbonise; roughly half of India’s iron and steel is produced through this route.

The other way to manufacture iron is direct reduced iron (DRI), or sponge iron, where iron ore is not liquefied but iron is extracted using reducing agents, coal or gas, and then to produce steel through electric-arc or induction furnace. This production process is easier to decarbonise, as coal can be replaced by natural gas. Also in this process steel scrap can replace iron ore completely.

In BF-BOF the use of steel scrap is limited to roughly 30 per cent. However, in India, iron and steel manufactured using DRI is far more polluting because it is coal-based. Since sponge iron plants operate largely as the small and medium sector there is no impetus to improve their emission profile.

This is where the opportunity lies; the government should work on a package deal that involves cleaner fuel like gas and improves the circularity of the recycled steel business by promoting optimum usage of steel scrap as a raw material.

The CSE roadmap focusses on the strategies for both manufacturing routes. In the case of BF-BOF, our low-carbon trajectory improves on the voluntary emission targets of top players by recommending the use of natural-gas injection or hydrogen to reduce coal and to increase the amount of recycled steel in production to its optimum of 30 per cent.

In addition, this industry would have to implement carbon capture and utilisation, as coal-based emissions would have to be abated. These high-end technology interventions will need international finance, which should be secured by setting tough emission targets for 2030 — from 2.2 tonnes of CO_2 for every tonne of iron and steel, to less than 1.5 tonnes, which is the global best.

Three established companies, Tata Steel, SAIL and JSW (Jindal), which account for 45 per cent of the country’s production in 2020-21, contributed 41-51 per cent of CO_2 emissions — and this makes the financial infusion also possible for manufacture of low-carbon steel.

The bottom line is it is possible to bend the CO_2 curve even for a sector like iron and steel. Countries like India can develop while drastically reducing their emissions. The only question is if the rich world will accept the imperative of climate justice and provide the funds for the technology transformation necessary for a future-ready industry.

This is what COP27 — the 27th conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — should discuss.

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As world converges for an African CoP, the continent’s east bets on geothermal

Ethiopia, Kenya are actively making efforts to generate geothermal power; but experts have concerns

By Mekonnen Teshome

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

The Tulu Moye Geothermal Plant in Ethiopia. Photo: Mekonnen Teshome

CoP27, the world’s biggest climate meet begins in Africa November 6, 2022. But, a part of the continent with the least emissions, is already doing its bit to stem the climate crisis using a renewable source of energy it is endowed with: geothermal.

Geothermal energy occurs as heat in the earth’s crust and is present in areas where tectonism and volcanism have brought magma closer to the surface.

“It is commonly utilised for generating electricity,” Tadesse Shewakena Weldemelak, geologist and director, Drilling & Pumping Test Directorate at the Ethiopian Water Well Drilling Enterprise, told this reporter.

East African countries like Ethiopia and Kenya are now actively working to generate power through geothermal energy. This comes as the demand for geothermal energy has increased in the last few years.

This month, the Tulu Moye Geothermal Operations, the first independent power project in Ethiopia established in December 2017, announced that it has spudded (initial drilling) a well.

This project, with an estimated total capacity of 150 megawatt (MW), will be developed in two phases (50 MW in Phase 1 and 100 MW in Phase 2).

It will have an investment of $800 million. The project is located at a site with an estimated geothermal energy capacity of over 1 gigawatt (GW).

Electricity generated in the Tulu Moye geothermal power plant will be sold to Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) as it has signed a Power Purchase and Implementation agreement with EEP and the Government of Ethiopia.

The Marriott Drilling Group is the second contractor engaged for this geothermal project in Ethiopia after the drilling contract was signed with KenGen in 2019. KenGen is a government enterprise in Kenya charged with the production of electricity for the country.

The Great Rift

Eastern Africa is endowed with huge geothermal energy potential, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

“Geothermal resources are widely available in the East African Rift System (EARS) and may play a key role in improving the low energy access rate in the region,” the agency had said in a 2020 report, Geothermal Development in Eastern Africa.

The EARS is part of the Great Rift Valley that runs from Lebanon in the north to Mozambique in the south.

IRENA also stated in the report that geothermal energy could help governments in the region meet multiple United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the climate objectives set under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populated country after Nigeria, is showing promise in laying the groundwork for geothermal power generation in the region.

There are at least 120 hydrothermal sites in the Ethiopian portion of the EARS according to the Geological Survey of Ethiopia.

Of these, 24 could be suitable for power generation and direct use. These include Abaya, Corbetti, Abiata, Aluto, Butajira, Tulu Moye, Gedemsa, Boku, Boseti, Kone, Fantale, Dofan, Arabi, Meteka, Teo, Danab, Damali, Tendaho, Boina and Dallol.

“The EARS is a part of the globe that is very rich in geothermal energy,” Weldemelak said.

Ethiopia has geothermal energy potential to generate up to 10,000 MW power. The government plans to generate up to 1,000 MW by 2030, up from 800 MW currently, Habtamu Abatneh license administration manager from the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Geothermal Works, told this reporter.

Takele Uma, Ethiopia’s minister for mines, petroleum and natural gas, recently visited the geothermal mining projects in the Rift Valley region. He reaffirmed the government’s support to those who are engaged in geothermal projects.

Efforts are also on to make use of geothermal in the rest of east Africa. The African Union has established the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF) to fund, facilitate, and accelerate geothermal development in eleven partner countries in the EARS region.

The initiative also aims to realise SDG7 —  “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”, African Agenda 2063 in the energy sector as well as Global Climate Change “Net-Zero Pathways”.

Shortcomings and concerns

However, a lot remains to be done despite the promise in geothermal energy shown by countries like Ethiopia.

Enku Mulugeta, a volcanologist and geologist, urged fast-track measures to ease licensing and administrative procedures for potential investors and supporting them in transparent technical public services in order to improve the investment atmosphere in the region.

He added that effective and reliable financial resources needed to be available to incentivise those who were interested in getting involved in mining, with proper risk mitigation instruments for geothermal projects.

Enku said people did not have a clear understanding of what geothermal energy was all about and therefore, awareness creation was vital to ensure a supportive environment.

“Government bodies, local communities as well as other critical institutions need to know about this essential renewable energy resource and its benefits and support investors in the area,” he added.

Others pointed to environmental impacts.

Megento Lika Tebarek, a lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Addis Ababa University said geothermal development involved huge discharge of water and gasses which in turn resulted in impacting land use around the mining development site.

He added that the drilling activities of geothermal projects also caused temperature changes in groundwater and rocks. “In spite of what we are told about geothermal mining projects, they have risks related to subsidence and induced seismicity,” Megento said.

He also pointed out that geothermal mining could be associated with landslides, which have some time serious environmental consequences.

“Regarding the environmental impact of geothermal institutions, various global research institutions including the US Energy Information Administration report that emissions such as mercury, boron, and arsenic by geothermal mining objects may result in local and regional environmental consequences.

“They sometimes, could even alter vegetation and wildlife habitat due to the shock they inflict on plant and animal species diversity,” he added.

‘Cancel all debt’: Activists disrupt IMF, World Bank annual meet

Call for reparations as solution for stabilising global economy during debt restructuring panel

By Nandita Banerji

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group annual meeting was disrupted October 11, 2022 by two activists from a women-led peace group. CodePink demonstrators interrupted the debt restructuring panel and demanded cancelling all debt.

The boards of governors of the IMF and World Bank Group normally meet once a year to discuss the work of their respective institutions. The annual meeting is taking place in Washington, District of Columbia, from October 10-16, 2022.

Government debt levels, rising interest rates and the risks of a systemic sovereign debt crisis were topics to be discussed for the panel titled ‘IMF Seminar: Debt Restructuring: Why Too Little and Too Late’.

Read more: Why African countries are reluctant to take up COVID-19 debt relief

CodePink activists Olivia DiNucci and Nancy Mancias disrupted the panel with a banner asking the institutions to “cancel all debts.” The women shouted, “cancel all debt, reparations now,” even as security personnel escorted them out of the venue.

A press statement quoted Mancias:

The IMF and World Bank are loan sharks trapping countries into debt. We need localisation and ecological sustainability for the people, planet, and peace. We are calling on the IMF and World Bank to end its debt-trap monetary practices, which are causing countries to sink further down into economic crises.

The solution to stabilising the global economy is not going to be found in debt restructuring but rather in debt cancellation, the group claimed.

The path to economic sovereignty for the Global South is not through the predatory loans offered by the IMF/World Bank, CodePink further said. It is through reparations of all wealth and resources that have been stolen from countries through colonisation, illegal invasions, occupations and extraction of oil, gas, and coal, it said.

United Nations Development Programme, a UN agency, called for debt relief for 54 countries on the same day as the protest, October 11, 2022. Without action, poverty will rise and desperately needed investments in climate adaptation and mitigation will not happen, the agency warned.

A UNDP paper — Avoiding ‘Too Little Too Late’ on International Debt Relief — highlighted the ripple effects of government responses to the recent economic crisis and the potential impacts.

Read more: Somalia drought: FAO asks for $131 million to aid relief efforts

The 54 countries with severe debt problems include 28 of the top 50 most climate-vulnerable nations in the world, the body said.

Although they are home to more than half of the world’s poorest people, they represent little more than three per cent of the global economy, it added.

Down To Earth had earlier reported that almost 60 per cent of Africa’s low-income countries are in debt distress or at high risk of it. These places have record levels of private as well as public debt.

India is patently way behind on 5G

Policy blocks and poor vision have held up 5G in India, while China’s breakthroughs are helping to set global standards

By Latha Jishnu

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

On October 1 India launched 5G services. It was a low-key affair even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi was launching it. Natural perhaps since it came after 70-odd countries had deployed it in close to 2,000 cities since 2019 when South Korea kicked off the new era of connectivity.

Attempts to get 5G going in India have been botched by muddled policies. The biggest bottleneck was the high reserve prices for airwave sales.

The 700 megahertz band, which is needed for 5G technology was priced so high that it did not receive any bids in the March auction and even in the recent auction, only one company, market leader Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, has been able to cough up the asking price despite a scaling down of rates by the government.

Telecom companies are bleeding after the cut-throat tariff war unleashed by Reliance Jio. Most operators have gone bankrupt and quit or have gone in for mergers.

Then, of course, there is the problem of poor infrastructure; India simply does not have adequate fibre network.

What is 5G and why are countries racing to have it? 5G is the fifth generation mobile network, the latest global wireless standard which is not just about multi-gigabit speeds.

It offers a new kind of network that can connect virtually everyone and everything together from mobiles and other devices to objects and machines. The massive network capacity it can usher in means there will be more reliability and almost no gap time between the time data is sent and received.

All this is not possible with 4G, which is the highest-speed network available in the country. And while the Modi government was sorting out the policy tangles here, a clutch of global companies, mostly Chinese, have captured the intellectual property rights on 5G and even 6G, which is still a decade away.

There is a tough battle out there for supremacy in the new era networks and India has not made even a nick on the global patents landscape.

Why do intellectual property rights (IPR) on the new generation networks matter? Experts say the next industrial revolution will see increasing technological convergence as connectivity is integrated into mechanical products, such as automobiles which appears to be the industry that is most talked about in this context.

Right now, the connectivity modules in cars may not be significant but those who are looking ahead believe that the connected vehicles of the future will transform the way we look at transportation as a whole.

Gradually, 5G technology will also have an impact across industry verticals which use smart technology and also encompass everything from smart homes to smart medical devices. That’s the future that is being outlined for us by tech wizards.

What this implies is that industries where connectivity matters will be relying hugely on standardised and patented standards. Standard essential patents, or SEPS, are those protecting an industry’s core technology, “the standard that the entire industry must use in order to continue to innovate in meaningful ways. Standard essential patents are, in fact, essential to the standard.”

Whoever holds 5G SEPS would be sitting on a gold mine because they can demand lucrative royalties for licensing them. The Chinese appear to have the largest number of patents related to 5G and 6G. Analysis conducted by different IP and market experts such as IPlytics, Cyber Creative Institute and Statista show that China is way ahead in this regard.

Its flag-bearer is Huawei which holds the largest number of 5G patents. In every segment, the Chinese multinational dominates the IP landscape, most significantly in standard-setting which is done in open, consensus-based, standards-development organisations.

The 5G standard is specified in international meetings where companies submit technical contributions which all members discuss and then cast their votes on. It turns out that Huawei followed by Ericsson of Sweden and Finland’s Nokia are the leading standards developers accounting for more than 55 per cent of all approved and agreed 5G contributions.

A day after 5G was launched, Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw claimed that Indian developers had many of the technologies required for development of 6G and that the country would be a leader in the next generation network for which they hold patents.

Politicians are known to be casual in making such claims but since the assertion was made at the India Mobile Congress one should perhaps take it seriously. Apparently, IIT-Hyderabad, which is heading India’s 6G project, has been granted some of the patents that will help set 6G standards.

If that is the case it is, indeed, cause for celebration. Perhaps the institute will reveal more details of its breakthroughs in due course. Perhaps India will surpass China’s record in the coming years even if it seems a tough challenge at the moment.

The latest research by Tokyo-based research company Cyber Creative Institute shows that Chinese companies and universities account for the biggest chunk of 6G patent applications — not patents granted on which there is little information — globally. The Japanese institute analysed around 20,000 patent applications for nine core 6G technologies, including communications, quantum technology, base stations and artificial intelligence before releasing its findings.

The Chinese, it noted, had stayed ahead despite the sanctions imposed on Huawei Technologies by the United States in 2019 by mobilising its state-run companies and universities to work on 6G technologies.

Crucially, it made 6G a priority under its Made in China 2025 project. The result is that China tops the 6G list with 40.3 per cent of the global patent filings while the US follows with 35.2 per cent and Japan with 9.9 per cent. As we understand from the experts, countries with a higher number of patent claims have a bigger say in setting industry standards.

Some of China’s achievements are dramatic. A Nikkei report said the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China had successfully launched the world’s first 6G satellite in November 2021, noting that the US ban had in no way stalled the ability of Chinese companies to build next-generation base stations or make cutting-edge smartphones as the Americans had hoped.

More impressive is the role China is playing in taking 5G networks to other regions. It is providing financial and technical help to build such networks in Africa and West Asia.

Perhaps, India, too, will be doing all this in the coming decades.

Skewed sex ratio worsens marriage woes for Marathwada farmers

May encourage child marriages, worries expert

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

Fewer women in Marathwada want to marry farmers in the region, looking for a more “comfortable life”, which has easy access to water and better infrastructure. But a severely skewed sex ratio in these villages is not making things easier for wannabe grooms.

Climate impact, increased cost of production and reduced agricultural income in Marathwada and Ahmednagar villages have drastically impacted the economic status of farmers. This has resulted in their social standing taking a hit as well, with hundreds of bachelors reporting no brides for them.

Read more: Water, Marathwada women’s woe: No brides for farmers as families look for city matches

Young women and their families are looking for prospects in urban areas or grooms with stable jobs, reported Down To Earth earlier. This ground report from Beed, Gevrai, Ambejogai and surrounding areas revealed a shortage of young women to marry.

“There are about 100 bachelors in the village who are at least 28 years old and crossed marriageable age according to the rural standards,” said Kiran Patange, a farmer from Ambesawali village of Ambejogai taluka. “There are hardly any matches for them.”

For the 100-odd bachelors, there are hardly 24 women in the village of marriageable age. “There are not enough young women to marry,” Patange said.

The situation is not restricted to one village.

In Rajewadi village, about 12 kilometres from Ambajogai, there no women of marriageable age. There are about 60 men who are waiting for a prospective bride, but there are none in the village,” Deepak Khade, a farmer.

Read more: Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Inclement weather affecting farmers’ mental health, social standing

The current situation is bringing rapid change in social dynamics of women in villages, said Arundhati Patil, co-ordinator at Marathwada Navnirmal Lokayat, an Ambajogai based organisation working towards the cause of farmers.

“The vast disparity in these villages is mainly because of the skewed sex ratio of the district found in the 2011 census,” she said.

Maharashtra’s Beed district recorded the lowest child sex ratio of 807 in the 2011 census, according to National Health Mission — the lowest in the state. The child sex ratio is the number of females per thousand males under the age group of 0-6 years.

Patil said the impact of the disturbed child ratio is now reflected in villages. “The situation has started to break the traditional barriers in society. People have started considering child marriages and looking for prospective brides at ages 13-14 years of age,” she added.

Shortage of women also means the demand for dowry has been eliminated for these matches.

Read more: Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

“The skewed sex ratio is likely to sharpen the crisis where it becomes difficult for men to find a place in the marriage market,” said Mary John, former professor at Centre for Women’s Development Studies.

The generation that has grown in the past 20 years is likely facing issues because of sex selection. “The effective shortage only worsens with the ongoing non-desirability of these men,” she added.

Contrasting features can also be observed as it is also likely that families prefer to marry off their daughters at early ages, thereby encouraging child marriages, John said.

“The marriage strategy in society is complicated and it is difficult to understand what dynamics are preferred at a particular time and the situation,” she said.

Southwest monsoon likely to withdraw from UP, Gujarat, MP in next 4-5 days: IMD

Heavy rainfall spells will continue over Tamil Nadu and Rayalaseema for the next five days

By DTE Staff

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

The southwest monsoon is likely to withdraw from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in the next four-five days, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The IMD’s announcement comes at a time when heavy rains have thrown life in various regions of Uttar Pradesh completely out of gear. Farmers in India’s largest state are facing significant losses as their crops have been devastated by incessant rains since October 5, 2022.

“Conditions are very likely to become favourable for withdrawal of southwest monsoon from some more parts of northwest and central India during next four-five days,” the weather agency said in its forecast issued October 12, 2022.

Some 67 of the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh recorded excess rainfall since October 1, according to IMD. Some 580,000 people in 650 villages across 16 districts have been affected by floods, according to the UP Relief Commissioner, Prabhu Narain Singh.

Grey stands for ‘No Data’, Red for ‘Deficient’, Blue for ‘Large Excess’, Green for ‘Normal’, Yellow for ‘Large Deficient’ and Light Blue for ‘Excess’

Schools in several cities, including Lucknow, Noida, Gaziabad, Kanpur and Agra, are still closed. More than 18 people have died in different rain-related incidents across the state, according to media reports.

Rivers like the Ghaghra, Sharda and Rapti, major tributaries of the Ganga, are in spate. The districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh — Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur and Azamgarh — are the most affected.

In the rest of the country, heavy rainfall spells will continue over Tamil Nadu and the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh for the next five days and interior Karnataka in the next two days, the forecast added.

IMD attributed these projected rainfalls to cyclonic circulations prevailing over parts of Kerala and the Bay of Bengal. The amount of rain in Uttar Pradesh this month has been 500 per cent above average, according to the Mint daily.

The damage to major summer crops like rice, soyabeans, cotton, pulses and vegetables is likely to fuel food inflation in the country.

Increased food costs might push the Reserve Bank of India to increase interest rates again and prompt government to impose new limits on the export of food products like rice, wheat and sugar.

In northwest India, the rainy season typically ends by mid-September. It should be over for the entire country by mid-October.

These are India’s climate hotspots

India is home to 72% of the 750 million people exposed to climate change hazards in South Asia

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

The 5 biggest threats to West Africa’s oceans — and what to do about them

Ocean produces over half of world’s oxygen, absorbs 50 times more carbon dioxide than atmosphere

By Aderonke Omolara Lawal-Are

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

The natural resources that form ocean ecosystems can play a significant role in the socio-economic growth and development of nations.

West Africa has a variety of marine and coastal ecosystems, found within the Atlantic Ocean. This is one of the most diverse and economically important fishing zones in the world and provides an income for many through fishing, shipping, logistics and mining.

But unregulated and unsustainable exploitation has degraded the ecosystems severely. Threats have come from land based sources of pollution, insecurity and piracy, illegal and harmful fishing practices and climate change.

These multiple stressors have had a negative impact on the ecological integrity and health of West Africa. They are causing an alarming decline in fishery resources, loss of coral reefs and seashells, coastal erosion, ocean acidity and rising sea levels.

For over 20 years I have worked as a marine biologist, conducting numerous studies on the Nigerian coastal waters. In this period, I have seen the impact of natural processes and human development.

It is vital that scientists like myself highlight the biggest challenges that West African nations must focus on to save the ocean.

The ocean produces over half of the world’s oxygen and absorbs 50 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere. Its health is key to survival.

1. Plastic waste

Millions of tonnes of plastic leak from land-based sources into the oceans yearly.

The pollution of marine ecosystems in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Guinea by plastic and associated contaminants has adverse effects.

In a recent study, we showed how ingesting plastic fragments affects crabs. We explored the implications for food safety as well as the growth and productivity of marine resources.

We saw that ingesting plastic caused reduced food intake, delayed growth, cell damage and abnormal behaviour in aquatic organisms.

There is an urgent need to effectively manage plastic waste, replace single-use plastics and introduce plastic-free alternatives in West Africa.

2. Oil spillage and oily waste

Exploration and exploitation of petroleum resources in oil-rich countries like Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria is another big threat. It has led to leakage of crude oil and petroleum products and discharge of untreated waste and chemical into marine ecosystems. These substances are a major source of potentially toxic heavy metals in the ocean.

In a recent study, we reported high concentrations of heavy metals in tissues of edible aquatic snails (gastropod). This has implications for the health of human consumers if there is eventual bioaccumulation and biomagnification.

Sabotage, bunkering (loading ships with oil) and equipment failure are also risks.

The regular use of chemicals in cleaning operations at ports can introduce certain trace elements which ecosystems can’t deal with.

Monitoring and prevention of these risks must be improved.

Ocean pollution is killing fishes. Source: Gettyimages

3. Illegal fishing

The extensive theft of local fish by foreign trawlers has left communities poorer.

The unregulated and continuous exploitation of local fisheries has resulted in overfishing of over 50 per cent of fisheries stock. Reports show that once abundant fish species like blue fin tuna are increasingly endangered. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs West African nations’ economies up to $2.3 billion annually.

Illegal fishing is quickly becoming a regional crisis. Governments should strictly enforce appropriate sanctions.

Conservationists advocate creating expansive marine reserves to protect the biodiversity of the oceans.

4. Ocean acidity

Ocean acidity or ocean acidification is a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended time. It is caused by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO₂), a greenhouse gas emitted by human activities. The ocean’s average pH is now around 8.1, which is basic (or alkaline). But as the ocean continues to absorb more carbon dioxide, the pH decreases and the ocean becomes more acidic.

This has contributed to the loss of corals on a global scale as their calcium skeletons are weakened by more acidic water. This also erodes and affects the formation of shells of shellfish.

It has thus brought changes in relative species dominance, potentially leading to ecosystem shifts in coastal waters of West Africa.

Every West African country must adopt simple measures to reduce greenhouse gases.

5. Bioinvasion

Invasive species of plants, animals and microbes are among the greatest threats to the world’s oceans. Shipping and maritime activities are responsible for most accidental species translocation globally. Over 80 per cent of the volume of international trade is transported by sea. The percentage is even higher for developing countries, including Nigeria, which has a coastline of about 852km.

Ship ballast water (held in ships for stability) is a principal vector. It aids the spread of toxic phytoplankton and occurrence of algal blooms that produce toxins harmful to aquatic animals.

Invasive species often adapt to new areas quickly as they can tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions, grow very fast, are often bigger, carnivorous and reproduce faster than endemic species.

The spread of the invasive South American water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, for instance, is damaging transport links in Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos. It forms a thick mat that impedes navigation and halts fishing.

What to do about it

There are moves under way to tackle these threats. Four protocols have been adopted by 22 parties to the Abidjan Convention:

- the Grand Bassam Protocol, which aims to combat pollution from activities on land

- the Pointe-Noire Protocol, for integrated coastal zone management

- the Calabar Protocol, for sustainable mangrove management

- the Malabo Protocol on environmental norms and standards related to offshore oil and gas activities.

Through awareness campaigns, ordinary people can learn 10 simple things they can do anywhere and anytime to help save the oceans.

Coastal states in the West African sub-region where the maritime sector is critical to the economy should lead the transformation for a more resilient and sustainable ocean through the blue economy.

The blue economy promotes economic growth, social inclusion and preservation of livelihoods, while sustaining the environment.

Aderonke Omolara Lawal-Are, Professor of Marine Sciences, University of Lagos

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

New ‘highly infectious’ Omicron strains scare China

BF.7 variant was first detected in the northwestern region of China and has spread fast to the southern side

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

On October 4, 2022, new Omicron sub-variants BF.7 and BA.5.1.7 were detected in Yantai and Shaoguan cities in South China. The detection was amid the latest Covid outbreak in the country. According to reports by Global Times, It's the first time the BA.5.1.7 subvariant has been detected on the Chinese mainland.

BF.7 variant was first detected in the northwestern region of China and has spread fast to the southern side. Both the sub-variants are said to be highly infectious with greater transmissibility. China reported 1,878 cases on October 9, the highest since August 20.

This was due to the week-long National Day holiday which saw cases spread among returning travellers. These cases have been attributed to the new Omicron sub-variants. According to media reports, the two variants have enhanced immunity evasion ability in comparison to their parental strain.

Not just China, the BF.7 subvariant is spreading fast in Belgium, Germany, France and the UK. Meanwhile, BA.5.1.7 has been discovered in more than 100 countries. The World Health Organization has also warned against the BF.7 COVID subvariant as they expect it to become a new dominant variant.

China has enforced strict zero-Covid measures to curb the transmission of COVID. Parts of Wujiang and Zhenjiang districts in Shaoguan have been imposed with strict restrictions till October 24.

The residents are asked to submit negative nucleic acid testing within 48 hours of leaving the city. China is also imposing border restrictions, mass testing, vast quarantines, and stringent lockdowns. But despite all this, the new variant is spreading in different parts of the country.

Simply Put: Zero Compensation

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

North India rains: Crops ruined in Uttar Pradesh; over half a million affected by floods

Rains in India’s largest state have ruined crops such as paddy; sugarcane; mustard; potatoes and other vegetables

By Vivek Mishra

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Farmers in Uttar Pradesh have been hit by a double whammy this kharif season. The state was headed towards drought in July. Now, continuous rain since October 5, 2022 has damaged crops which had been thirsty in three months ago.

The rains have ruined crops such as paddy; sugarcane; mustard; potatoes and other vegetables in large parts of the state. “The quality of the standing paddy crop will deteriorate. It won’t be suitable for harvesting. Apart from potatoes and other vegetables, new crops like mustard and sugarcane will hardly be sown now.

“Wheat sowing is getting delayed. This will hurt farmers further,” Sethpal Singh, a farmer from Nandifirozpur village, nine km from Saharanpur district headquarters, told Down To Earth.

He added that nobody was taking calls at the office of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

Singh said farmers had been affected due to heavy rains twice in the last two months. First there was continuous rain from September 15-20, followed by the rain that started from October 5.

“I had planted vegetables like radish, bottle gourd, ridge gourd and cauliflower in about 2 hectares of land. They have been damaged. There has been a loss of Rs 2 to 3 lakh,” Singh said. Radish, which was selling Rs 45 per kilogram, is now being sold at Rs 22 per kg.

Anil Yadav, a farmer based in Risia, Bahraich district, said, “It did not rain when it was needed. Now, it has rained such that my entire field has been destroyed.” Jokhan from Shravasti district told DTE that water collected in his fields was still to drain out. “The ears of paddy have been completely spoiled,” he said.

The rain has also ruined the farmers’ plans to plant potatoes and mustard this season.

Some 96 per cent of paddy was sown till August 20, according to state government data. But the possibility of lower crop yields had already been predicted due to drought.

It rained all over India’s largest state in these past few days. Almost the entire state has received (and continues to receive) excess rainfall, with the exception of seven districts, according to data released by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) October 10.

Rivers like Ghaghra, Sharda and Rapti, the major tributaries of the Ganga, are in spate. The districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh — Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur and Azamgarh — are the most-affected.

The Chief Minister’s Office issued an order October 10 to expedite relief work. However, the water is so high that it is very difficult to survey fields. Avinash Pandey, a Lekhpal (revenue official) and resident of Bhinga in Shravasti said the loss of life and property due to floods was being looked into first.

Each of the three districts — Pratapgarh, Prayagraj and Santarvidasnagar — recorded 10,000 per cent more rainfall than normal October 9, according to IMD data. Some 580,000 people in 650 villages across 16 districts have been affected due to floods, according to the UP Relief Commissioner, Prabhu Narain Singh.

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Inclement weather affecting farmers’ mental health, social standing

Market does not support the farmers even if they manage to harvest the crops

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Climate change is affecting the mental health and social standing of farmers in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region. Farmers reeling from severe stress due to unpredictable weather, are facing various social and economic issues.

The years of floods, drought and other extreme weather events have pushed farmers to the brink of poverty, stripping them of their livelihood opportunities and forcing them to sell their lands.

Nature plays a spoilsport despite all the efforts and heavy investments put into growing crops. The crops need heavy amounts of insecticides and pesticides even if they withstand unseasonal weather changes, Bapurao Kurumkar, a farmer from Beed district told Down To Earth.

The expense of pesticides is a major contributor to production costs. Such expenses do not allow them to escape the vicious cycle of poverty. We don’t get any support from the government, he added.

The market does not support the farmers even if they manage to harvest the crops, said Manoj Shinde, another farmer from Kalegaon. “If the production is bumper, the rates drop and if the production is poor, the rates shoot, but the markets buy at a lower price,” he said.

Such volatility in the market does enable us to recuperate from the losses or recover investments, he added.

Stigma and depression

But the constant unpredictability of the weather has meant that farmers no longer want their daughters to marry a farmer but prefer matches working in urban areas. The situation has left thousands of farmers in villages unmarried.

Almost every village in Marathwada and Ahmednagar districts has many farmers beyond their preferred marriage age waiting to get married, DTE’s ground report revealed.

Women prefer men from urban areas with stable incomes that will help them have a comfortable life, said Kurumkar. “But there is little we can do to deal with the situation. There is no way to convince women or their families as I cannot deliver a comfortable life as a farmer,” he added.

Women, however, feel that little can be done about the situation. “Men in the village do not communicate their financial issues and their state of mind while undergoing economic struggles,” said Preeti Gade from Pachegaon village in Gevrai taluka.

Also, there is not much that women can do to support such men. It is important for women to seek financial stability over choosing the mental health of fellow villagers, she added.

Gade said women can only support them on the farm. “But if there are no farm activities, what will women do in the fields,” she said.

Farmers with daughters have started making sure they seek education and move out of villages to overcome the situation, she added.

The 26-year-old added that getting higher education gives them an edge to migrate to cities, seek jobs and protect themselves from the battling crisis in the village.

Farmers remaining unmarried until 30 or 35 is also becoming a new norm, said Arundhati Patil, co-ordinator at Marathwada Navnirmal Lokayat, an Ambajogai-based organisation working for the betterment of farmers.

They have accepted bachelorhood as a way of life and normalised it, she added. But that does not mean they do not suffer.

Unmarried farmers live a life of isolation. They avoid attending social gatherings as many would inquire about marriage, which would only add to the pain, said Shinde. “I have stopped attending such events,” he said.

“The farmers who remain unmarried live a life of stigma attached to them despite having no fault. They remain aloof, avoid socialising and attending social gatherings,” said.

“Farmers cannot decide prices of their products despite being the grower and authority over operations,” she said. Reduced income, non-availability of labour, low mechanisation and poor return on investment add to their frustration.

“Suicides have not stopped, but they do not receive major attention from the government agencies as it used to during the mid 2010s,” she said.

Patil said her organisation has interacted extensively with farmers and closely studied changing social dynamics for many years.

“There is no official data or reasons documented about the state of mental health of these farmers, but interactions have revealed that such frustrations are one of the major driving factors for farmer suicides,” she added.

She said farmers are spending less time on the farm as there is no major activity due to the poor agricultural state. “Many farmers now prefer taking jobs as labourers or daily wagers to survive and fall prey to addictions.”

The cropping patterns have changed and the extreme and unpredictable weather makes it even worse. Farmers are falling into depression and farming now seems to be a burden for them,” Patil told DTE.

Recurring rains in October call for change in monsoon definition

In the first 10 days of October, 10 states received large excess rainfall while eight had excess rainfall

By Akshit Sangomla

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Northwest India has been witnessing widespread heavy rainfall in the last few days, even after India's national weather agency announced that the southwest monsoon has retreated from most of the region. The ongoing spell of rainfall, however, was perceived by experts and general population to have been caused by weather systems associated with southwest monsoons.

If the trend of such unseasonal heavy rainfall holds in the future, then it may call for changes in the definition of monsoon period in India which currently is from June to September.

The monsoon has already withdrawn completely from Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan, according to the latest information provided by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

It has also withdrawn from most of Gujarat and some parts of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. This phase of withdrawal happened on October 3, 2022, according to IMD, and has stayed the same ever since.

Some parts of central, south, northeast and eastern India have also received more rainfall than normal in the first 10 days of October.

The monsoon has not officially retreated from these regions but the volume of rainfall is unusual when the monsoon winds are getting ready to leave the subcontinent.

During October 1-7, eight states across the country received large excess rainfall (more than 60 per cent excess) and four received excess rainfall (20 to 59 per cent excess).

As many as 213 districts (30 per cent) received large excess rainfall in the period, while 75 (11 per cent) received excess rainfall. India as a whole received 33 per cent more rainfall than normal for the period.

By October 10, the rains spread to many other states, especially in northwest India, where many monsoon type weather systems became active along with a western disturbance.

Western disturbances are extra tropical storms that originate in the Mediterranean region and bring winter rainfall to northwest and some parts of northeast India.

There were multiple cyclonic circulations that traversed large parts of the country and many low-pressure troughs over long distances, some of which are still active.

One of the reasons for the formation of these weather systems can be the continuing La Niña phenomenon in its third year and the warming of the Arctic region.

In the first 10 days of October, 10 states received large excess rainfall while eight had excess rainfall.

The number of districts with large excess rainfall increased to 292 (41 per cent) during the period, while the number of districts with excess rainfall increased to 90 (13 per cent).

The country as a whole received 67 per cent more rainfall from October 1-10.

Some states in northwest India, which were reeling under severe deficits, witnessed a complete reversal in a matter of days. For instance, Delhi had a rainfall deficit of 94 per cent on October 7 (measured from October 1-7). This changed to an excess of 684 per cent on October 9 and to 706 per cent on October 10.

Haryana’s deficit of 81 per cent on October 7 swung to an excess of 555 per cent on October 9 and to 602 per cent on October 10.

Uttar Pradesh is the only state in northwest India which received consistent heavy rainfall throughout October.

Rajasthan’s deficit of 58 per cent on October 7 changed to an excess of 435 per cent on October 9 and to 443 per cent on October 10. The monsoon withdrew completely from all these three states by October 3.

The rainfall happening right now will not be categorised as monsoon rainfall by IMD because the weather agency stops recording monsoon data on September 30.

Any rainfall after this date is counted as ‘post-monsoon rainfall’, even though the rainfall is mainly happening due to weather systems that form during the monsoon season. This is happening for the third year in a row.

A similar rainfall stretch into October had also happened in 2021 and the year before that. This calls for an assessment of the definition of monsoon period in India, which is currently from June to September and the inclusion of October rains happening now within that definition.

“The definition of the monsoon may have to change if the trend continues,” Raghu Murtugudde, a climate scientist at University of Maryland and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay told Down To Earth.

“It is not a good idea to simply go by a calendar date anyway but that’s historical baggage which has to be dropped now,” he added.

Climate models would better reproduce the changes happening to the monsoon season over India if the initial conditions of El Niño, La Niña, Atlantic Niño and the Arctic warming are accounted for as accurately as possible.

The short (1-3 days), medium (3-10 days) and extended range (2-4 weeks) forecasts for the monsoon season have to be reliable to deal with these climatic phenomena, according to Murtugudde.

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 10, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

By DTE Staff

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Bhalswa landfill: Delhi's action plan to prevent fires

The Delhi government presented a report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) October 10, 2022 on the status of waste management at the Bhalswa dumpsite, where a massive fire broke out this April.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been undertaking biomining and bioremediation of legacy waste at the landfill, the report stated. It is similar to the model implemented by the Indore Municipal Corporation.

A plan has been prepared to install CCTV cameras all around the landfill to avoid unauthorised access, the state wrote. An area has been earmarked for dumping of fresh garbage, since fires generally occur in these sites.

At present, 18 trommel machines are processing legacy waste at the site. Till September 29, 2022, 2.6 million tonnes of legacy waste has been processed, according to the report.

An integrated tender has been floated for biomining and disposal of 3 million tonnes of legacy waste from Bhalswa dumpsite. The bid was opened on September 23, 2022.

As soon as the proposed waste-to-energy plant at Narela-Bawana starts to function, fresh municipal solid waste will be stopped from dumping at Bhalswa dumpsite, the state government mentioned in the report.

Rejuvenating Chandapura lake

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has engaged RV College of Engineering, Bangalore to conduct an environmental audit of all industries in the catchment area of Chandapura lake, KSPCB told NGT.

The KSPCB has not accorded permission to any industry having captive effluent treatment plant to discharge its effluents into the common effluent treatment plant (CETP), it mentioned.

Samples will be collected from drains leading to Chandapura lake for the forensic analysis and tracing pollutant studies.

As a permanent solution to keep the lake contamination-free, the detailed project report for implementation of the underground drainage system of Hebbagodi City Municipal Council of around Rs 153 crore and for Bommasandra Town Municipal Council of around Rs 109 crore have been submitted to the government for consideration.

This action plan for the rejuvenation of Chandrapura lake was part of the KSPCB report in response to an NGT order dated March 29, 2022.

Bank guarantee sought from Shah Sponge Iron & Power

The Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) directed Shah Sponge Iron and Power Ltd in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand to submit a bank guarantee of Rs 25 lakh for non-compliances in their operations.

The petitioner Jairam Hansda had said that the company is causing water pollution, air pollution and also adversely affecting the biodiversity of the area and health of nearby residents.

NGT directed the constitution of a joint committee, which inspected the unit April 18, 2022. The non-compliances reported by the joint committee during the inspection were:

- Exceedance of SOx, NOx, however PM value was found within the prescribed limit.

- Leakages from the kiln feeding and discharge to the cooler

- Leakages from the kiln emergency cap

- Sufficient green belt not developed as per the Central Pollution Control Board norms

Bhopal victims demonstrate in Delhi ahead of Supreme Court hearing on more compensation

Delhi police and CRPF dispersed the group of women survivors and forced them to leave

By Zumbish,

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Some 50 women survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy carried out a demonstration in front of Nirman Bhavan in New Delhi, a day ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on a curative petition seeking enhancement of compensation to the victims.

“The India government may withdraw from the petition,” the survivors expressed their apprehensions.

A Constitution Bench of the court had given Solicitor General Tushar Mehta time till October 11 to get instructions from the Centre on whether it wants to “press” its curative petition seeking enhancement of compensation to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, over and above the $470 million already paid by Union Carbide.

DTE visited Nirman Bhawan and spoke to the gas tragedy survivors and the leaders representing their cause.

“We had filed a petition in 2010 that the survivors and families of the Bhopal gas tragedy should get appropriate compensation,” said Nasreen, a survivor who had lost three family members in the aftermath of the tragedy that unfolded on December 2-3,1984.

The last time each family who has lost family members and whose generations have suffered severe health hazards due to the gas leakage received compensation was about 12 years ago, she added.

It was as less as Rs 25,000 per family and the petition was to seek additional compensation. In 2011, the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, promised Rs 5 lakh compensation for each victim’s family, she said.

But the promises were forgotten. Today, after 12 years, the petition will be heard in court. We are demanding Rs 6 lakh compensation for each family, she added.

“We are here at Nirman Vihar to appeal to the concerned ministry to take a step in our favour, as we are apprehensive about what will take place tomorrow,” she said.

A compensation is the least we can get after the hell that unleashed on us ever since the day of tragedy. We hope the Centre takes a step in our favour, said Nasreen.

The chemical leak in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, was the worst industrial accident in history.

About 45 tonnes of the dangerous gas methyl isocyanate escaped from an insecticide plant owned by the Indian subsidiary of the American firm Union Carbide Corporation,according to Britannica.

The gas drifted over the densely populated neighbourhoods around the plant, killing thousands of people immediately and creating a panic as tens of thousands of others attempted to flee Bhopal.

The final death toll was estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000. Some half a million survivors suffered respiratory problems, eye irritation or blindness and other maladies resulting from exposure to the toxic gas.

Twelve years ago, the whole of India was in uproar at the injustice caused to Bhopal survivors by the Government of India, Union Carbide and Dow Chemical,” said Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, an organisation working for the cause of victims.

“The government recognised that compensation granted to Bhopal survivors was grossly inadequate, so filed a petition in the Supreme Court to ‘cure’ it, but in all the years since, no government has lifted one finger to support this petition,” she said.

An hour after the demonstration started, Delhi police and CRPF dispersed the group of women survivors and forced them to leave.

Setting a beautiful example of communal harmony in present-day India, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, located in central Delhi, has been setting an example by providing shelter to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy — of whom almost everyone is a Muslim.

Salma Khan, who had lost her brother and parents in the disaster, was shivering when she recounted the disaster.

She and her five sisters were the only family members left alive in the family. She says the compensation will help bring the family on track. “Life has been no less than a nightmare since the day of tragedy,” she said.

She prays it never becomes anyone else’s reality like it was for her family.

“I suffer from anxiety till date, the tragedy had unfolded right in front of my eyes 38 years ago,” said an old lady who survived the tragedy.

Leaders from the organisations representing the cause of the gas tragedy survivors met officials of the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers at Nirman Bhawan after the demonstration.

“UPA government had filed the present curative petition after it realised that Union Carbide and its current owner, Dow Chemical, had not adequately compensated the Bhopal disaster,” said Rachna Dhingra, a leader of the demonstration.

The 1989 civil settlement instead constituted a “gross and irremediable injustice” perpetrated upon the survivors, she added.

“We do not forget that among the most prominent voices clamouring twelve years ago for the UPA government to remedy this injustice before the Supreme court, were authorised spokespersons for the Bharatiya Janta Party,” she added.

The present government’s failure to pursue the curative petition is most likely to be perceived as a betrayal of the commitments made through the Bhopal Act and the responsibilities bestowed by the constitution, she added.

We urge the government to act and act immediately, she said.

“We urge you to ensure that the government of India discharges its statutory and constitutional duty towards the victims of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal by continuing to prosecute the curative petition to the best of its ability and resources,” stated Bhopal survivors’ organisations, who are co-petitioners in the curative petition, in their letter to the ministry.

Dhingra called for understanding the gravity and urgency of the situation, affecting thousands of India’s most vulnerable citizens.

The leaders could not meet the minister of chemical and fertilisers, Manshukh L Mandaviya. However, the ministry officials assured them that the government of India would continue to pursue the curative petition for additional compensation for the gas tragedy victims’ families.

Peedit Mahila Purush Sangarsh Morcha and Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogi Sangarsh Morcha were among the organisations present.

Bihar man-eater shot: ‘We need to put down problem animals for wildlife conservation’

Shafath Ali Khan, who was engaged by the Maharashtra government in the operation to eliminate Avni in 2018, released a book this year to narrate his version of events

By Rajat Ghai

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Shafath Ali Khan (left) with his son Asghar Ali Khan during a 2018 workshop at Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, to train forest department personnel on the use of tranquiliser guns. Asghar fired the shot that killed the tigress Avni in a human-dominated landscape some 50 kilometres from Tipeshwar wildlife sanctuary the same year

Shafath Ali Khan has been in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve of Bihar for the past few days. He was invited by the Bihar government to be part of an operation to “rescue”  a tiger that had terrorised villages near the Reserve and had killed nine people. On October 8, the tiger was shot dead in a sugarcane field.

Hunting tigers, leopards and elephants that have been declared to be man-eaters or rogues is not new for Khan, member of a noble family from Hyderabad. He was 19 years old when he first got an official assignment in 1976 to shoot a rogue elephant that had killed 12 people.

Since then, various governments have approached him to hunt problem animals — man-eating tigers, or wild boars that routinely damage crops.

Khan was in the spotlight in 2018 when Maharashtra assigned him the task of tracking tigress T1, or Avni, after she had killed 10 people (she eventually killed 13) in Yavatmal district. Khan’s team shot the animal dead on November 2, 2018, after pursuing it for over a month.

Avni received intense media scrutiny in India and abroad. Animal rights groups “engaged in slander”, says Khan, painting him a ruthless killer. This year, Khan released a book, Avni: Inside the Hunt for India’s Deadliest Man-eater, to narrate his version of events and to highlight the unprofessional way man-eaters are dealt with in India, he tells Down To Earth. Excerpts:

Rajat Ghai: Who decides if, or when,an animal is to be killed?

Shafath Ali Khan: Section 11 (1) (b) of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, says that if any animal is dangerous to human beings or to standing crops, the chief wildlife warden may, by order in writing, cause such animal to be hunted. This is the law of the land.

But the 2019 National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines contradict it. They state that even if a tiger is a man-eater, outsiders should not be called.

Now, whom is the chief wildlife warden going to call? His staff cannot shoot a sparrow, forget a tiger. None of them have an appropriate weapon even as defined by NTCA. There is no medical college in the country which has a tranquilising gun.

A veterinarian who comes out from the college does not know how to shoot. How is he going to tranquilise a tiger? My non-profit, Wildlife Tranqui Force, has taught  doctors from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra on this.

We have also conducted workshops in various other parts of the country teaching personnel how to handle a weapon, even how to walk in the forest. This is traditional knowledge and cannot be gleaned from the internet or from reading a book.

RG: How did you get involved in the operation to hunt Avni?

SAK: When all options are exhausted, the department invites us. When Avni could not be captured or tranquilised, it led to large-scale riots and burning of forest department vehicles. Several panchayats passed a resolution that the forest department was incompetent and their staff should not be allowed into their jurisdiction.

So, the police or the forest department could not enter the areas where Avni and her cubs were terrorising people.

This was the time the government wanted someone from outside who had the experience and the expertise to handle the situation. It was extremely tense for us since we had the national and international media, the confused forest department and no NTCA guidelines on a man-eating tigress with cubs.

The chief wildlife warden, AK Misra, wrote several letters to NTCA asking what was to be done. They said do what you feel is best. So, the administration had no option but to invite us. Those 45 days were especially tense for me and my team.

RG: Why do you call Avni India’s deadliest man-eater?

SAK: There are several reasons to that. One is that she was extremely elusive. There were 12 failed attempts to tranquilise her. Second, she continued to terrorise 26 villages spread over 150 sq km for two-and-a-half years. No other man-eater post Independence had done this.

Third, no operation had cost the exchequer as much as Operation T1 did — about Rs 10 crore, as per my estimate — because of its prolonged nature.

RG: Do you think terms like “crafty” and “cunning” in your book demonise wildlife?

SAK: There are two ways of looking at it. One is a normal tiger or elephant, which we all love and want to exist. We work to protect them.

The other side of the picture is a man-eater tiger or a rogue elephant. A serial killer. What I am dealing with in the book is the second category. I have lived in tiny huts with those affected by such animals. I have felt the terror that they experience, witnessed 73 mutilated human bodies so far in my career.

I have collected limbs, heads, put them in gunny bags and brought them for post-mortem because the forest department could not go there. The locals were angry and the man-eater was still near where the body was lying.

In several instances, we did not have orders to shoot but to tranquilise. But I had to retrieve the body. I had carried my weapon. With all my experience, I would not go into a man-eater’s territory unless I have my heavy rifle with me because having seen those bodies and having seen a tiger kill can be very unnerving. So, these words are coming from me only as far as man-eaters are concerned.

If you ask me, “crafty” and “cunning” are very mild words; I would not hesitate to use the term “terrorist” for a serial killer like Avni, as she had terrorised an entire district.

The motive of my book is to save the tiger, not “a tiger”. It is such man-eater tigers and the gory bodies that they leave behind in the era of WhatsApp that make an entire area anti wildlife. This is against the spirit of conservation.

RG: Do forest departments need dedicated hunters?

SAK: Yes. There is a desperate need to have professionals. In Africa, there are courses for professional hunters. They are taught how to track an animal, handle a heavy rifle and the psychology of a dangerous animal.

This is because a rescue operation can go either way. I have highlighted in my book as to how India’s veterinary doctors have become targets of misguided operations.

Ganesh Kumar, a member of the Indian Forest Service and a veterinarian, a rare combination, lost both his hands when a tiger chewed them in a rescue operation in 2011.

Prashanta Boro, a veterinarian at Gauhati Rescue Centre, was out rescuing a tiger with a police team in 2009. The tiger was in a bamboo grove feeding on a 19-year-old girl. As he fired the dart, the tiger roared and the police team behind Boro opened fire.

One bullet hit Boro in the chest and came out bruising him. The other hit him in the right arm, tearing his muscles. Eight-nine years later, Boro can hardly lift a cup of tea.

The police are not trained in this. The forest department is not trained to handle a stressed animal. Neither is the army. These are unprofessional ways of dealing with a man-eater.

The army, police and forest departments do not have a weapon suitable to kill a tiger. Weapons used by the army and police are designed for injuring a human being.

The bullets used by the forces are pointed and solid which are supposed to injure, so that on a war front, if one soldier is injured, there are four others to take him to hospital. Those rifles are not designed for killing.

A hunting rifle, on the other hand, fires a soft-nosed bullet which has got lead in front. It is a heavier and more powerful weapon. The bullet stops in the animal, creating a tremendous hydrostatic shock and instant death.

The hunting rifles that I use such as .458 Winchester Magnum or a .470 Nitro are not available with the forces. These are weapons my grandfather used. They are becoming extinct.

So, tomorrow if there is a man-eater, no one has the weapon, the expertise or traditional knowledge of tracking a tiger. An operation may go on for two years and cost the exchequer Rs 10 crore of taxpayers’ money.

RG: What is the future of human-wildlife conflict in India?

SAK: It is very alarming and dangerous because when a tiger or elephant is out of its protected area, it is face-to-face with angry and hungry people; hungry because the elephant has ruined their crops.

Take also the nilgai and wild boar menace in India. Today, wild boar are ruining crops outside forests in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. We all like wildlife and want it to flourish but not at the cost of the blood, toil, tears and sweat of a farmer.

I would estimate that there are about 10 lakh nilgai outside Protected Areas in the plains of north India. There is no estimate of wild boar ravaging fields across India. What are we going to do with them? How many animals can we shoot to cull? This problem should have been addressed 30 years ago.

What is the environment ministry doing? Veterinary teams from Bihar have not been able to take out a 100 nilgai and wild boar that are within the walls of the Darbhanga airport. What are you going to do with free-ranging animals? I do not have an answer what is going to happen five years from now.

Bihar man-eater shot: Here is when an order can be given to put down such an animal

If a tiger / leopard begins to seek out, stalk and wait for human beings and has, after killing a person, eaten the dead body, it is established beyond doubt that the animal has turned into a man-eater

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Tiger T-104 was put down by the forest department of Bihar in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in West Champaran district of the state according to protocol laid down by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for man-eater tigers.

The tiger in question was a three-year-old male, who had killed 10 people in the district. It was shot dead in a sugarcane field October 8, 2022 on the orders of the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW) of Bihar.

Four years ago, Avni or T1, the man-eating tigress of Yavatmal district in Maharashtra, had been similarly eliminated after she mauled 13 people to death.

The elimination of the tiger has raised eyebrows since the animal is listed under Schedule 1 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (WLPA). But the NTCA has laid down Standing Operating Procedures (SoP) for declaring tigers and leopards as ‘man-eaters’, if they pose threats to human lives.

The SOP laid down in 2007 states that there should be proper differentiation between man-killing and man-eating as the former might occur accidently, while the latter is intentional:

There are several circumstances under which human beings are attacked accidently by tigers and leopards and may die as a result, but these cases are to be considered only as accidental killings.

It gives examples like men / women wandering into an area where a tigress is sheltering her cubs or grass cutters or wood collectors approaching a sleeping tiger.

It further mentions that a tiger may mistake a human for an animal if they are in a bent position. In all cases, if the tiger doesn’t eat the human and only kills him/her, it should be regarded as accidental killing and the big cat in question should not be called a man-eater. But the mere fact that a tiger has eaten the dead body is not enough to call it a man-eater.

“If a tiger / leopard begins to seek out, stalk and wait for human beings and has, after killing a person, eaten the dead body, it is established beyond doubt that the animal has turned into a man-eater,” the SOP says.

It adds that in the first case, it may be difficult to establish that the tiger is a man-eater, but the second case of human kill is evidence enough to decide that it is, in fact, a man-eater.

The SOP bestows the power for the decision of elimination of a tiger on the Chief Wildlife Warden of the state in case the tiger has become dangerous to human life or if it is disabled or diseased beyond recovery. The CWW has to give the reasons for giving the permission to hunt such a tiger in writing.

“The situation had become very dangerous and the safety of the people near the tiger reserve was in jeopardy. The tiger had become a man-eater since we observed that it did not kill cattle, even when there was easy prey available, but opted to kill humans.

“It dragged the body of a man into the forest September 21 and killed a 12-year-old girl October 5. These were among a few of his victims,” Prabhat Kr Gupta, CWW of Bihar, said.

“I was in regular touch with NTCA and finally gave the orders for eliminating T-104 according to Section 11(A) of WLPA,” he added.

The SOP laid down by NTCA says that the hunting of a man-eater tiger should only take place if all efforts to tranquilise and capture it have failed.

“It is reiterated, all efforts should be made for live trapping of the aberrant animal, either through trap cages or using chemical immobilisation, before deciding on its elimination,” the SOP reads.

The SOP dictates that only ‘experienced and senior forest officers should be authorised’ to hunt down the tiger in question and no permits should be given to shikaris and other such persons who put pressure on the forest department to get the permission to hunt down the animal.

The elimination should be done by departmental personnel having the desired proficiency, while providing the firearm with the appropriate bore size.

International Girl Child Day: Crimes against girls on the rise in India, especially eastern states

Strenghening community-based child protection systems imperative

By Trina Chakrabarti

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

As the country gears up to celebrate International Girl Child Day on October 11, 2022, it is important to look at some figures on how protected the girl children in India are.

The recently published National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report on the status of crimes against children posted a grim scenario, especially in the eastern states.

There were 9,523 cases of crimes against children recorded in West Bengal in 2021, as per the findings released by NCRB last year. This means that around 26 incidents of crime against children were recorded each day, according to an analysis by Child Rights and You (CRY), a non-governmental organisation that works on child health and protection.

Another shocker: 98.6 per cent of the victims were girls!

In neighbouring Odisha, there were 7,899 cases of crimes against children, which points to a daily average of 21 every day.  All the victims were girls, the analysis showed.

During 2017-2021, crimes against children in West Bengal have increased by 45.4 per cent, although the latest findings reveal a climb-down of 7 per cent from the number of cases in 2020.

Odisha cuts a sorry figure in this category: Over the last half decade (2017-2021), crime against children in the state increased by 148 per cent, which is the highest recorded growth rate in the country in the period.

Both West Bengal and Odisha feature in the list of top five states — Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh being the others — that together account for close to half of the total crimes committed against children (47. 1 per cent) across the country. A dubious distinction that raises alarm bells, and calls for immediate action.

While these are official figures, in a country as large as ours, many cases of crimes against children often go unrecorded, especially in remote areas. Hence, the actual number may be much higher than those reported.

West Bengal and Odisha recorded alarming numbers of cases of kidnapping and abduction of children (sections 363, 363A, 364, 364A, 365, 366, 366A, 367, 368, 369, 370 and 370A of the Indian Penal Code), according to the CRY analysis.

Around 6,408 such cases have been recorded in West Bengal, which accounted for 67.3 per cent of the all the cases of crimes against children recorded in the state.

Across the border, Odisha reported 5,195 cases in 2021, constituting 27.4 per cent of the total number of cases from here and a 3.7 per cent increase from the official count of 2020.

Bihar and Assam also have thrown up worrisome statistics. In Bihar, 3,964 cases were reported in 2021, which made up for more than half (57.5 per cent) of the total number of incidents of crimes against children in the state and a 3.8 per cent rise from the official figure last year.

Assam also saw a spike in kidnapping and abduction cases — from 2,312 in 2020 to 2759 in 2021.

The numbers are a grim pointer to the increasing vulnerability of children, especially in the post-pandemic era, despite the slew of initiatives to strengthen child protection in the states.

Sexual offences on the rise

CRY analysed the cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, looking at the various age-groups. There is a rising trend in the incidence of crime with the age of victims, except for a couple of exceptions.

Of the total 9,523 cases of crimes against children in West Bengal, 2,607 were registered under POCSO. The rate of increase from last year is 1.5 per cent.

Odisha recorded 2,498 cases under POCSO, which constitutes 31.6 per cent of the total number of crimes against children in the state this year.

In all five states from the East where CRY has analysed data – West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam – around 99 per cent of the victims (across all age categories in 2021) were girls.

In Bihar and Odisha, all are girls. In Jharkhand, the share of affected girls was 99.6 per cent, in Assam 99.9 per cent and West Bengal 98.6.

The numbers lay bare the vulnerability of the girl child in our country, despite the general discourse on empowerment and thrust on education. Also, they point to the possibility that in a patriarchal society, the incidence of crimes against boys is going largely unrecorded and unreported.

Urgent measures are needed to strengthen the country’s child protection system and to make the police, judicial and legal systems more proactive.

These offences have a low conviction rate and a high pendency rate, the expert noted. Boosting community-based child protection mechanisms, such as village-level child protection committees can play a critical role.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: No brides for farmers as families look for city matches

Access to water, better infra drive marriage prospects as women yearn for more 'comfortable' lives

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Floods, droughts, floods again — Marathwada farmers have suffered at the hands of extreme weather events for decades. Their economic standings have taken a beating too, which has led to a unique problem: The chances of men from the affected villages getting married has started to thin.

Years of droughts and erratic rains have heavily impacted agricultural income, leading to several social issues like the lack of brides. Even farmers don’t want their daughters to marry other farmers and look for matches in urban areas or grooms with stable jobs.

Maharashtra suffered 79 droughts during 2010-2020 — way more than the 11 it faced during 1970-1980, according to non-profit Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). A report mentioned extreme weather events in Marathwada, including districts like Nanded, Jalna, Latur, Aurangabad and Osmanabad.

Read more: Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

Parts of western Maharashtra, including Kolhapur, Pune and Sangli districts, were affected too.

These areas have also shown extreme flood events in the past three years, according to India Meteorological Department data. The region has received normal or above-normal rainfall that damaged crops and led to floods.

In 2022 alone, the incessant rains in July, August and September damaged over 4 million hectares of agricultural land. In the past 50 years, the flood frequency has increased by almost eight times in India, said another CEEW report released in 2020.

Such extreme weather events increased uncertainties related to agriculture and rural livelihoods, it added. Years of these uncertainties are now reflected in the social fabric of these farmers.

The fundamental cause behind the issues is water. Access to the critical resource is a daily struggle for women in rural India, said Archana Gade, a villager from Gevrai.

“Villagers depend on borewells during monsoon. Government water schemes are not reliable, as we get water once a week or even a fortnight at times,” she told Down To Earth.

Women walk for at least 2 kilometres during summers to nearby wells and other groundwater resources, taking up two-three hours. “My family requires at least 50 litres of water daily, requiring at least five trips. It delays household chores and reduces the time I can spend on the farm,” Gade said.

“I can spend only around 2.5 hours tending to crops,” she further said, adding that festivals and guest visits demand add to the ordeal.

This reduced time means less income. “The production on my cotton farm has reduced from about five quintals per acre to around three,” she said.

All farmer families in her village, with around 900 people, face similar issues. Gade does not want her daughter to suffer the same problems as her.

Indu Gade, another villager with two daughters, said she has been struggling to access water since she got married around 17 years ago. “Earlier, women walked to the river about four kilometres away, taking away crucial time for farm work,” she said.

Her family spends around a lakh per acre on seeds, fertilisers and spraying of insecticides and pesticides. Droughts and excess rains ruined the standing crop, pushing her family into debt. “So far, we have not been able to repay Rs 5 lakh in loans. No private bank is lending us anymore,” Indu narrated.

Read more: Nearly 600 farmer suicides in 8 months: Is Marathwada facing agri-distress

Indu does not wish a life of such hardship and debt for her own daughters. “Agriculture has become a gamble where the investment cost is high and the outcome is poor,” she added.

A groom earning Rs 10,000-15,000 per month in a city seems a better prospect. “Cities have water, electricity and better infrastructure. It is worth selling off some land to pay a dowry for prospects from cities,” Indu said, adding that she is willing to educate her 17-year-old daughter to support her future husband.

The daily struggles have affected their physical health, causing knee pains and spine issues, the women said.

In Gevrai alone, there are at least 100 men above 30 years, far beyond marriageable age in the context of rural criteria.

About 40 km away in Ambesawali village, 32-year-old Ganesh Bande has been unsuccessfully looking for a bride for the last three years.

Bande and his two brothers jointly grow cotton on 3.5 acres. “The frequent droughts and heavy rains have reduced the farm income by 50 per cent and doubled the input cost,” he said. The farmer also drives an autorickshaw to sustain himself and complained that women do not want to compromise on a comfortable lifestyle.

Hanumant Gundegar has five sisters, four of whom are married. “My sisters live in terrible conditions. I am looking for a city groom for my fifth sister, so at least she has a comfortable life,” Gundegar said, adding that he knew of the sufferings of farmers firsthand.

The death of prospects is not limited to the poorer farmers. Shivaji Shinde in Jamgaon, Ahmednagar, owns 16 acres of farmland. His three sons have all “crossed the marriageable age”.

“The village is perennially reeling under drought, which becomes a major reason for low income. Farmers cannot take more than one crop a year. The farm pond scheme from the government only helps to survive the Kharif crop,” he said.

Limited income and severe droughts have severely deteriorated Shinde’s economic conditions. “Prospects for my sons demand men to have a job and an additional business or a farm income. These demands are unmatchable as the farmer’s sons are not very educated and their sole focus is farming. Low education rates do not enable them to get a job opportunity,” he said.

He added that there are about 600 men in the village who are about 28 years of age and unmarried. “The situation is widespread and it is no longer a taboo,” he said.

The demands of jobs and farmland secure the lives of the brides financially, said Gade.

Read more: DTE tracks trafficking: Droughts, migrating parents leave Marathwada girls vulnerable

“The COVID-19 lockdown demonstrated that men who had migrated from village to cities were forced to return and rely on farming for survival. So, apart from a stable job, agricultural land becomes important for security,” she added.

Young male farmers were stuck in a vicious circle of poverty, said Shinde. “These men cannot earn a good income from agricultural activities, but at the same time, are unqualified to seek a job in cities,” he explained.

Demonetisation and COVID-19 maimed farmers’ economy, said Hanumant Chate, youth secretary of Shetkari Sanghatna, a farmer’s body. “Demonetisation put away farmers’ money in banks and heavy charges incurred in lieu of services. COVID-19 stripped them of the buffer cash and safety provisions,” he said.

Farmers’ situation is at an all-time low, Chate said. “There needs to be a revision of government policies to boost the agrarian sector directly,” he added.

This story is a part of a series that aims to bring out the impact of drought and water issues in changing the social fabric in Marathwada.

Telangana’s new forest conflict panels bring Centre-state land rights relation under scanner

FRA empowers Gram Sabhas and the committees headed by the sub collectors and the district collectors to determine and recognise the forest rights of the claimants

By Palla Trinadha Rao

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

The Telangana government’s recently constituted coordination committees to settle forest land conflicts have come under the scanner. These committees parallel statutory committees provided under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA).

The Telangana high court is to decide on the issue. The state government, vide an order dated  September 11, 2022, undermined the role of Gram Sabhas and other statutory committees formed under the FRA.

The committees are constituted by officials of different departments, members of parliament and legislative assemblies.

FRA empowers Gram Sabhas and committees headed by the sub-collectors and the district collectors to determine and recognise the forest rights of the claimants.

The committees must be constituted by the officials of tribal development department, the elected representatives of panchayath raj institutions and the officials from the revenue and forest departments.

These statutory committees are empowered to determine and recognise the forest rights ensured under the Act. Gram Sabhas has a specific role in managing and conserving the forests. The newly constituted coordination committees undermine this role.

The Telangana government is delaying the implementation of FRA, which aims to undo historical injustice done to tribals and other traditional forest dwellers.

The Telangana government has stated until recently that the forest land claims would be resolved if the Centre extends the cut-off date stipulated in the FRA. The Act provided December 13, 2005, as the cut-off date to identify eligible forest land claimants.

Around 5,087 claims of non-tribals were rejected as they could not provide the required evidence to support their forest land occupancy for three generations or 75 years. The proposed legislation would help them to claim their rights, according to sources.

FRA does not, however, mandate occupancy of forest land for 75 years. Only their residence in the area and dependence on forest count towards the 75-year criteria. They need not prove their occupancy before the cut-off date.

The Telangana government had written a letter to the Centre, seeking an extension in the cut-off date to make more tribals eligible. It has also requested amendments to the FRA by relaxing conditions for non-tribals.

The minister for tribal affairs rejected the amendment proposed by the state government in March 2022. The minister observed that it might lead to claims from the non-tribals who came to forests much later.

It will be detrimental to the interests of tribals and the states are required to prevent tribal land alienation in the Schedule V areas, he added.

The government has recognised individual forest land rights for the 97,434 tribal families over 0.310 million acres as of July 2022. Over 0.2 million tribal land claims are pending before Gram Sabhas.

Telangana’s tribal welfare minister further requested the Government of India in July 2022 to extend the cut-off date to resolve the Podu land claims of tribals in the state to enhance their livelihoods. Podu means cultivation of forest land on hill slopes. It is also known as slash and burn cultivation

If the cut-off date is relaxed, it will benefit nearly 33,503 tribal families to secure forest land titles over 0.120 million acres in Telangana.

Suppose the Telangana Government is committed to ensuring forest land titles to the tribals. In that case, it can secure the notification from the Governor under para 5 (1) of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and extend the cut-off date.

The Governor is empowered to modify the provisions of the State or Central legislations under the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution and apply the same to the Schedule Areas to protect the interest of tribals.

However, the state government is looking for solutions from the Centre or by constituting committees without exploring the possibilities in existing laws and constitutional provisions.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 7, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

By DTE Staff

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Penalise contract carriage operators flouting safety norms: Kerala high court

Strict action must be taken against operators of contract carriages and other transport vehicles flouting safety standards and the drivers’ licence should be revoked, directed the Kerala high court October 6, 2022. The certificate of fitness granted to such transport vehicles should also be cancelled by the prescribed authority, the court said.

The matter was taken up following reports of major road accidents in the state involving such vehicles, with people suffering serious injuries.

The assistant solicitor-general of India was asked to address arguments on behalf of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on the issue.

The HC was also shown YouTube videos of motor accidents involving contract carriages and use of contract carriages fitted with unauthorised LED / laser / neon lights.

Justices Anil K Narendran and PG Ajithkumar of the HC said that despite the court's order on January 10, 2022, the enforcement officers under the Transport Commissioner and the police officers are not taking earnest efforts to ensure strict enforcement of the provisions under the Motor Vehicles Act.

The special government pleader asked for time to get instructions from the transport commissioner on the accident in Anchumoorthy Mangalam in Thrissur district involving a contract carriage carrying students from Mar Baselios School, Mulanthuruthy.

Action may also be taken against vloggers and others uploading videos on YouTube and other online platforms promoting the use of motor vehicles. The deputy solicitor-general of India has requested for time to get instructions on the same from the secretary, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Kochi Water Metro Project important

The Kochi Water Metro Project is an essential means of transportation for the residents of island communities around Kochi, especially during floods when other modes of transportation are non-operational, the general manager, Water Transport, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd said in a report to the National Green Tribunal.

Kochi Metro was assigned the task of executing the urban water transport project on behalf of the government of Kerala, the report stated. It envisages to connect 38 jetties and provide inter-model connectivity between jetties, bus terminals and metro networks across 78 kilometres.

The clearance / no-objection required for construction of boat terminals including High Court and Mattancherry terminals of Kochi Water Metro Project have been obtained from Kochi Municipal Corporation, Kerala State Wetland Authority and Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority.

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had given its final clearance for the project October 1, 2019.

Furnish information on schemes for elderly welfare: SC to states

The Supreme Court of India directed the states and Union Territories to furnish information on their existing schemes for the welfare of the elderly. These relate to pension for the elderly, old age homes in each district and geriatric care.

The information has to be submitted to the advocate-on-record of the Union of India. After collecting information from all the respective states and the Union Territories within a period of two months, a revised status report should be filed a month thereafter by the Union of India, the apex court directed.

The revised report of the states must also disclose the present status of implementation of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, the SC order added.

Flood warnings that don’t break the banks

Global number of weather disasters has increased by five times over the last 50 years

By Linda Speight

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Affordable and accurate, flood warnings have advanced to be a great tool to prevent disaster. But that’s proving to be only half the battle.

Globally, only extreme storms like hurricanes cause more damage than floods. Over the last 50 years, the global number of weather disasters has increased by five times, but thanks to improved early warnings and disaster management, the number of deaths from such events has decreased almost three-fold.

Flood warning systems are a cost-efficient way to prevent floods from destroying lives and livelihoods.

While warnings don’t prevent flooding, they give advance notice of an impending flood to allow communities to prepare: bringing in extra emergency personnel, establishing temporary flood defences, securing clean drinking water, moving valuables or — for the most extreme events — evacuating.

Getting the jump on an incoming flood also allows for the mobilisation of resources to accelerate the clean-up after a flood, reaching people in need sooner and reducing the impact.

Flood warnings are one part of a larger flood forecasting system. Warnings are used to communicate the flood forecast to individuals, businesses, and emergency responders.

The best flood warnings don’t just provide information on the river level (which is often meaningless to users), they combine this information with an explanation of the potential impacts, for example: “River levels will rise rapidly causing widespread flooding. Damage to roads and property is expected.”

A flood forecasting system only becomes useful when the flood warning leads to effective action. The aim of flood forecasting systems is to provide as much lead-time as possible. The difficulty is that the longer the lead-time, the more uncertain the forecast can be.

The accuracy of weather forecasts is continually improving. Today, the forecast for six days ahead is as good as the forecast for five days ahead from 10 years ago. Flood forecasting models cover all of the major rivers in the world.

However, forecasting the most extreme events, such as the intense rainfall in Zhengzhou, China in 2021, or the rapid intensification of Typhoon Nuro in the Philippines, remains a challenge.

In these situations, creative solutions are emerging that seek to help decision-makers understand the inherent uncertainty or use new methods like machine learning to improve lead-time.

Increasingly, the effectiveness of flood forecasting systems is constrained by poor communication rather than forecast skill. Scientists were shocked that more than 200 people died in the western European floods of 2021.

While the forecasts for this event were considered “quite good”, when surveyed, 35 percent of people in one of the affected regions in Germany said they had not been warned. In other cases, the flood warnings were received but they did not convey the severity of the impending event.

Communicating extreme events is difficult. An individual’s response to flood warnings is often influenced by their previous experience. Without having seen a river in full flood, it is very difficult to comprehend the destructive power of water or appreciate the urgency of preparation.

This communication challenge requires new and imaginative thinking and ongoing work. Some of the innovative graphics and clear communication for Hurricane Ian in Florida shows that progress is being made.

Uncertainty remains a challenge for decision-makers. Actions have costs and no one wants to take them unnecessarily. Flood forecasters need to strike a balance between uncertainty and lead-time.

The best way to achieve this balance is to design flood forecasting systems in collaboration with decision-makers to tailor warnings to their needs. Scientists often forget that decision makers have to balance multiple and often competing considerations around economic, political and societal pressures.

But even a reliable and well-communicated flood warning is useless if the recipient does not have the ability to take action. Lead-time is important, but more critically, large parts of society lack the resources to take action.

Studies of major events, such the devastating monsoon flooding in Pakistan in 2022, or the repeated tropical cyclones that hit Madagascar earlier in the year, highlight that alongside the effects of climate change, many people are unable to bounce back from extreme events.

The Red Cross Climate Centre is pioneering the use of forecasts to release funding in advance of floods occurring. This means that vulnerable communities can be supported financially to evacuate, or immediate needs such as clean water and sanitation supplies can be provided. The increasing use of flood forecasts is also helping humanitarian organisations to target their resources to the areas most at risk.

The climate is changing. Extreme weather is occurring more frequently and there is an urgent need to increase flood resilience. To live successfully in a changing climate, all aspects of society need to be ready to adapt when warnings are issued.

Warning systems fail when they are not believed or trusted, something that was evident in the response to the forecast summer 2022 heatwave in the UK. Warnings are not issued lightly, they are based on the best possible forecasting science and understanding of the impacts on people and infrastructure.

They are issued in advance of events and aim to provide enough time to take preventative action before impacts occur. They should not be ignored.

Linda Speight is a hydrometeorologist at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford whose research seeks to develop early warning systems to improve disaster risk management, particularly for flooding. She is interested in global flood forecasting, surface water flood forecasting, ensemble forecasts, impact-based forecasts, risk communication, decision making and climate resilience.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.

Sodium chromate fears drive activists to oppose planned factory in Nalgonda village

Hazardous nature of the chromate ore processing residue is not mentioned in the draft EIA report

By Arya Rohini

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

A section of environmentalists have flagged irregularities in the draft Environmental Impact Assessment report for a proposed chemical plant in Telangana’s Nalgonda district.

An electric utility provider, Krishna Godavari Power Utilities ltd, has proposed a sodium saccharin unit in Nalgonda’s Wadapally village. Farmers and environmentalists have strongly objected to the proposal.

“The project uses outdated technology to produce sodium dichromate from chromite ore, while disguising itself as a sodium saccharin unit,” K Babu Rao, a retired chief scientist from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, told Down To Earth.

Sodium dichromate is a hazardous chemical. It is corrosive to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract. Exposure to the substance may cause affect kidney and liver, according to a joint brochure issued by the World Health Organization and International Labour Organization.

“The substance may result in kidney impairment. This substance is carcinogenic to humans,” the brochure added.

Villagers in Dameracherla Mandal had already suffered the effect of sodium chromate pollution. They had to wage years of battle before ending the operations of Deccan Chromates Ltd (DCL) in 2014.

The company abandoned 100,000 tonnes of chromite ore processing residue, which continuously leached hexavalent chromium through a stream joining the Krishna.

“The villagers lost several cattle, goats and sheep from drinking contaminated water,” N Harinder, Nalgonda district president of Human Rights Forum, a voluntary rights organisation, told DTE.

Even a brief exposure to the substance can damage tissues.

“A few years back, we visited a former Deccan Chromate employee to study the implications of sodium chromate exposure. His nasal septum has ruptured despite barely working there for a few weeks,” said Rao.

The WHO brochure also says about its impact on the nasal septum.

“Repeated or prolonged inhalation may cause nasal ulceration. This may result in perforation of the nasal septum,” it read.

DCL has affected the lives and livelihoods of fishermen in the region.

They frequently lament fewer catches due to dangerous substances being swept up from DCL’s untreated landfills, said Harinder.

The WHO brochure has also warned about its long-term impact on aquatic ecosystems.

“The substance is very toxic to aquatic organisms. It may cause long-term effects on the marine environment. It is strongly advised not to let the chemicals enter the environment,” the advisory read.

The proposed project is nearly seven times larger than that of DCL and is located near the Krishna-Musi confluence.

The industry will affect three villages — Wadapally, Irki Gudem in the Nalgonda district and Pondgula in the Guntur district. These plants will damage the rivers, said Harinder.

More than a crore people in Andhra and Telangana rely on Krishna waters for drinking. Hence, the ramifications of the current project are terrifying, he added.

Krishna Godavari Power Utilities ltd proposes setting up a unit, producing 12,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) of sodium saccharin and its bi-products, stated the documents submitted by the company before the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)

“The bi-products are — sodium dichromate (50,000 TPA), basic chromium sulphate (100,000 TPA) and white sodium sulphate (15,000 TPA),” the document added.

The EIA report blindly repeated the same without questioning the scientific abnormalities in the documents, said Rao.

“Sodium dichromate is not a by-product of sodium saccharin. It is a hexavalent chromium compound that oxidises O-Toluene Sulphonamide to saccharin,” he said.

Sodium saccharin is an organic compound used mainly in pharmaceutical industries.

“They called it a sodium saccharin company to silence public outrage. The villagers will not let another sodium chromate company in the region since they are aware of its hazardous nature,” he added.

The hazardous nature of the chromite ore processing residue is not mentioned in the draft EIA report.

The report diluted its hazardous nature with a statement, “approximately 200 TPD of solid waste will be created during operation of the planned ferro-alloy plant and will be disposed of correctly.”

Some 200 TPD of Chrome ore processing residue will be sent to an approved hazardous waste management facility in Hyderabad, the company said in its report to the MoE&FCC.

For KGP, the disposal cost amounts to Rs 4 lakh Rs per day as the company generates 200 tonnes of waste daily. DCL had left some 100,000 tonnes of hazardous wastes in the 10 acres of land owned by the company. They have not disposed of it to date despite producing nearly a tenth (22-30 TPA) of that of the proposed plant, said Rao.

The expert argued that terms of reference (ToR) were issued hastily without proper scrutiny.

“It is highly unjust to force a public hearing on people based on false EIA. MoE&FCC should cancel the ToR issued in error and ask for a fresh EIA for sodium dichromate, basic chromium sulphate and sodium saccharin,” he said.

The project area is evenly distributed among Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. However, the committee has used baseline data from just one site, Pondugala village, in Andhra. Public hearings must also be held in both states in case of inter-state projects.

“Public hearings must be held in Andhra as well. But no such notification has yet been made,” said Harinder. Telangana’s public hearing scheduled for October 10 has been postponed indefinitely for unspecified reasons.

India is many, not one; has assimilated ideas from everywhere: Upcoming report

Experts on genetics, archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and history will prepare a 600-page report on 12,000 years of India’s past through a different lens

By Rajat Ghai

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

India is the sum total of many peoples genetically, historically and liguistically. We are not one ‘pure race’ and have assimilated progressive ideas from all over the world. That is the main finding of a forthcoming report on the idea of India itself.

Eighty-eight scholars from a number of disciplines are compiling the report to present a ‘different view’ of India. They belong to disciplines like genetics, archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and history.

Scholar and linguist Ganesh Narayan Devy was in the national capital to announce the release of the 600-page report on the past 12,000 years of Indian ‘civilisation and histories’. The announcement was made October 9, 2022 at the India International Centre.

Eminent personalities like Ashok Vajpeyi, Zoya Hasan, Sitaram Yechuri, Narayani Gupta and Ashis Nandy addressed the event.

Tony Joseph, the author of the book Early Indians: The story of Our Ancestors and where we Came From, has contributed to the report. “His findings are that there is no pure race in India. All of us are mixtures of many migrations from the father’s side,” Devy told Down To Earth October 8.

The report also concludes that Indian history’s Islamic and British Periods are not the ‘darkness’ they are made out to be. The period described as ‘Muslim rule’ was not entirely Muslim. The idea that Muslim rulers caused only damage is wrong, it notes.

Another finding of the report was that to say that colonialism made Indians intellectually bankrupt was only a partial and not a full view of colonialism.

“Without glorifying Empire, we need to say that we assimilated progressive ideas from all over the world,” Devy said. He cited the examples of Babasaheb Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel, who were all educated in Britain and the United States.

Devy also pointed out that it was at the end of colonial rule that India emerged as a parliamentary democracy from the hotch-potch of feudal princely states that it was once.

Yet another finding dealt with Sanskrit.

“Sanskrit, which had taken shape in the southern steppes, started arriving in India in 1600 Before Common Era. Then it flourished into Vedic poetry from 1400 BCE and continued to grow for the next 700 years in its oldest form called Indic,” Devy said.

The 7th Century BCE saw the emergence of Buddhism and Jainism and their teachings and liturgy were in languages other than Sanskrit — Pali and Prakrit.

“On the basis of this chronology, one can definitely say that some other tongues existed in India before Sanskrit. When Sanskrit developed, it did not spread all over India but only the Gangetic Plain,” Devy said.

He said events that were historically important for the Indian people did not take place only around the Gangetic Plain. They were also taking place in the south, the North East, the Aravallis, the Vindhyas, etc.

‘A different view of India’

The report will be an analysis of findings in existing scholarship through a different lens.

“It will cover a very large temporal span, beginning with the arrival of Homo sapiens in South Asia and ending with the onset of the third millennium,” according to a note prepared by the organisers of the event.

The report will discuss continuities as well as discontinuities in India’s past and present overviews of population migrations, emergence of social organisations, evolution of the state, development of philosophies and metaphysics.

It will also focus on the diversity of languages, major social movements, impact of colonialism on Indian ideas and culture, the freedom struggle and the making of India since Independence.

“The report, a work in progress, will bring alive India’s past over 12,000 years as a union of traditions, transformations and the people,” the note added.

India since the Holocene: The  past Twelve Thousand Years of Environment, People, Life, Thought, Expression, Formations, Movements, Traditions and Transformations will be published in English, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi and Bangla once it is finished.

Polluter didn’t pay: Plachimada awaits compensation from Coca-Cola, 2 decades on

The Coca-Cola plant that caused over-exploitation of groundwater, toxic contamination of soil, groundwater, loss of agriculture and health in Plachimada shut down 18 years ago

By Zumbish

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Coca-Cola Co, the multi-American beverages giant with presence across the globe, has been in news for its sponsorship of the upcoming 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Even as it draws flak for littering the world with its bottles and cans, in India, there is another concern: The company is yet to shell out compensate those affected by its Plachimada plant in Kerala.

People from the area told DTE that they wanted the Union government to make sure the company paid the compensation.

The Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd (HCBPL), Coca-Cola’s Indian subsidiary, had set up a plant that manufactured soft drinks in Plachimada village of Palakkad district in 2000.

The plant was closed in 2004 following protests by local Adivasi residents who said it had caused the village land to become barren, contaminated its water and violated rules and acts. The plant remained closed till May 2021.

The Plachimada Struggle Solidarity Committee confirmed to DTE that no penalty had been imposed on Coca-Cola till date. Isa bin Abdulkareem, general convenor of the Committee, said:

We demand that the Coca-Cola Company be prosecuted for the extraction and over-exploitation of water in Plachimada. It should pay the compensation amount to Plachimada villagers immediately.

“We have organised a Satyagraha to get compensation from Coca-Cola. The government should take urgent steps to make sure the company provides us the said compensation. Our protest has been going on for 20 years,” Sakthivel, a protester from Plachimada, told DTE.

Georgekutty Kadaclacka, who had come from Kottayam district to join the Satyagraha October 8 said: “What the company did to the people of Plachimada cannot be reversed. However, the compensation should not be denied anymore.”

Why no compensation?

The Kerala Assembly had unanimously passed the Plachimada Coca-Cola Victims’ Relief and Compensation Claims Special Tribunal Bill February 24, 2011. This step was taken to adjudicate disputes relating to compensation of Rs 216.25 crore.

That amount was to be paid by the company for over-exploitation of groundwater, toxic contamination of soil, groundwater and water bodies, loss of agriculture and causing health problems in Plachimada.

HCCB is said to have violated the following Acts because of its actions sat Plachimada:

1. Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974

2. The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

3. The Factories Act, 1948

4. Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989

5. The SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

6. Indian Penal Code

7. Land Utilization Order, 1967

8. The Kerala Ground Water (Control & Regulation) Act, 2002 Indian Easement Act, 1882

9. Indian Easement Act, 1882

The Bill sought the establishment of a tribunal to try all disputes for compensation and secure it from Coca Cola company. But it never saw the light of day.

The state governor had reserved the Bill for Presidential consideration in 2011. In March of the same year, it was forwarded to the Government of India and remained with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for months.

The Centre had then argued that environmental compensations came under the purview of the NGT and a state government did not have powers to form a separate tribunal to deal with them.

In November 2015, the governor of Kerala was informed that the then-President Pranab Mukherjee “had been pleased to withhold his assent from the Bill”.

The Nobel for Svante Pääbo is an attempt to redefine modern man

DNA can be a bridge to true social relationships; if we have an awareness of the common sources of our origin, then a sense of unity will arise among societies

By Vir Singh

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Understanding the value of our existence and reaching the roots of our evolution has been an intriguing subject for human beings. We cannot have a deep knowledge about our existence and evolution without going back to prehistory.

We have now been able to reach the roots of our origins by ‘digging’ into millions of years of history. Swedish scientist Svante Pääbo has won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research on human evolution.

Pääbo, a 67-year-old geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, has revealed the secrets of Neanderthal DNA, helping us understand what makes humans unique.

Knowledge of Neanderthal DNA provides important insights into our immune system, including the weakening of our immunity to diseases such as COVID-19.

This research has put in place an entirely new scientific discipline, that of paleogenomics. With the genomes of many Neanderthals and Denisovans available, it is now possible to identify specific human genes.

The techniques developed under Pääbo’s leadership provided researchers the basis for comparing the genomes of Neanderthals with those of modern humans and other hominins such as Denisovans.

The Neanderthal, Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans that lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago.

The cause of Neanderthals’ disappearance is highly debated, with a wide range of changes in climate to unknown diseases being blamed for their extinction.

It is not clear when Neanderthals’ battle for survival diverged from that of modern humans. Several studies have estimated various intervals from 315,000 to 800,000 years ago.

The date of divergence of Neanderthals from their ancestor Homo heidelbergensis is also not clear. The oldest possible Neanderthal bones date back to 430,000 years ago, but the classification remains uncertain.

Neanderthals are known from many fossils. The species was first located in 1856 in the Neander Valley of present-day Germany, identified from fossils that were 130,000 years old.

In the early 20th century, European researchers portrayed Neanderthals as primitive, foolish and cruel. Knowledge and perceptions about them have changed markedly in the scientific community since then.

We can fully understand relationships between species only by analysing DNA. But the challenge was that Neanderthals and modern humans diverged as a single species about 315,000 to 800,000 years ago.

How can the relationship (or inter-relationship) of the two species be pieced together across so many years? But Pääbo and his team overcame this challenge with their techniques.

Pääbo had to develop methods to analyse DNA that had been damaged by thousands of years of exposure to many elements in nature and had been contaminated with sequences from microorganisms and modern humans.

He and his colleagues then put these techniques to work in the sequence of the Neanderthal genome. This genetic analysis revealed that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred and that Neanderthals form 1-4 per cent of the genomes of European or modern humans.

“Pääbo and his team also surprisingly found that there was gene flow from Neanderthals to Homo sapiens, indicating that they had children together during the period of co-existence,” Anna Wedell, chair of the Nobel Committee, said.

This transfer of genes between hominin species affects the response of modern humans’ immune system to infections such as the novel coronavirus. People outside Africa have 1-2 per cent of Neanderthal genes. Neanderthals were never in Africa. So no direct contribution from them is known among people in sub-Saharan Africa.

Wedell called this “a sensational discovery”, showing that Neanderthals and Denisovans were related groups that diverged from each other millions of years ago. Denisovan genes have been found in up to six per cent of modern humans in Asia and Southeast Asia, indicating that interbreeding took place there as well.

Wedell said, “After moving out of Africa and mixing with Denisovans, Homo sapiens picked up sequences that improved their chances of survival in the new environment.” For example, Tibetans share a gene with Denisovans that has helped them adapt to life at higher altitudes.

David Reich, a population geneticist at Harvard, who has worked closely with Pääbo on the Neanderthal genome sequence, said Pääbo’s Nobel win was a remarkable recognition of the maturing of this field.

He also wondered what would have happened if Neanderthals lived for 40,000 more years. Then perhaps today’s world would have been completely (or much) different. There probably would have been differences in the intellectual level and behaviour of people.

Wedell highlighted some of the social aspects emanating from the Nobel laureate’s research: “Will we see even worse racism against Neanderthals, because they were different from us in some ways? Or do we see ourselves in the living world? We will see the place in a different way when we have other forms of human beings who are like us but still different.”

The central theme of the 2022 Nobel Prize is an attempt to redefine modern man. DNA can be a bridge to true social relationships. If we have an awareness of the common sources of our origin, then a sense of unity will arise among societies.

Vir Singh is Emeritus Professor, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

‘India’s cheetah plan is flawed, may become hurdle for national conservation priorities’

Cheetah reintroduction plan is unscientific and pushes other conservation plans on the back burner

By Ravi Chellam

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

The action plan for the introduction of African cheetahs in India is inadequate in its scientific foundation and wildly overstates the potential contribution for conservation.

It is, in fact, a major distraction and may even be an obstacle to many national conservation priorities.

Free-ranging wild cheetahs exist in very low population densities (approximately 1 per 100 sq km in the best of habitats) and have disproportionately large home ranges (more than 750 sq km). To thrive, cheetahs need extensive suitable habitat, adequate prey and very limited anthropogenic disturbance.

Currently India does not have sites that meet these requirements. The decision to bring cheetahs from Africa without ensuring the availability of the required habitats is akin to putting the cart before the horse.

African cheetahs are not even mentioned in our National Wildlife Action Plan (2017-2031), but they are being prioritised over many endangered species such as the Great Indian Bustard and Asiatic lion.

In April 2013, the Supreme Court had ordered that lions from Gir, Gujarat, should be translocated to Kuno within six months. This is still to be implemented. The decision to introduce cheetahs in Kuno will further delay the translocation of lions by at least 15 more years.

The Action Plan says India will bring at least 50 cheetahs over the next decade. Under their best-case scenario, it is expected that an established population of 21 cheetahs will be there at the end of 15 years.

Such a small cheetah population is not going to be enough to play any significant ecological role or its much touted role as a flagship across India for conserving grasslands and open forest ecosystems.

Currently, there is no example where cheetah introduction has been successful in an unfenced area. This raises legitimate questions about the quality of the Action Plan.

Ravi Chellam is a wildlife biologist and coordinator of the Biodiversity Collaborative, Bengaluru

This was first published in the 1-15 October, 2022 edition of Down To Earth

In the name of development: How Nashik’s Goda Ghat juggled concretisation & de-concretisation over 2 decades

Recurring urban floods exposed how thoughtless development projects have renedered the area vulnerable

By Ritika Rajput

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

The July 2022 floods at Goda Ghat, Nashik exposed the impacts of trying to tame the Godavari river in the name of riverfront development.

In the last three decades, Goda Ghat has gone through a lot of interventions, particularly concretisation that resulted in recurring and devastating floods in 2008, 2016, 2019 and 2022.

Goda Ghat got shaped and re-shaped in the last two decades by state interventions, particularly through urban-missions and schemes. These include the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart City Mission (SCM) as well as the Kumbh Melas.

Timeline of major interventions at Goda Ghat

The 1992 Kumbh mela was a watershed moment for the Godavari in Nashik. This is when concretisation commenced in and along Goda Ghat to mend the potholes and slippery nature of the basalt bedrock.

A decade later, ahead of the 2003 Kumbh Mela, a massive re-concretisation of the banks took place for beautification and to prevent drowning. This extensive concretisation not only destroyed the riverine ecology but also blocked 17 kunds (structures to store water) with four natural springs.

It resulted in reduced width of the river, changing its natural hydraulic flow. This caused lateral erosions and flooding in the surrounding areas.

The Godavari riverfront development initiative was brought under JNNURM, with stormwater drainage as important components of the city development plan. The project was politically motivated in the line of the Sabarmati riverfront development.

The Rs 60 crore first phase of the Godavari riverfront development included construction of a concrete walkway (2.5 kilometres). However, this colossal project did not succeed because of the concretisation-driven massive flooding incident in 2008 — considered one of the worst floods in the city.

The mission and scheme of infrastructural development also failed to bring significant relief to the city. The city, for instance, spent approximately Rs 400 crores to install 300 kilometres of drainage under JNNURM and construction of sewerage treatment plants under AMRUT.

But none of the projects turned out to be beneficial for the city. It is because no separated stormwater and sewerage drainage were installed and the planners overlooked the natural surface geomorphology of the city. This resulted in worse incidents of waterlogging and sporadic flooding.

Interestingly, the sewerage infrastructure in the core city is discharging within 500 metres of the sacred Ram Kund and has been polluting the poised ghat.

In 2013, the riverfront development was handed over to the Reliance India Foundation because of fund constraints. The company began to develop a nearly 500 m stretch of the Goda Park in 2014.

Re-concretisation and redevelopment of the ghat was carried out once again on the eve of the 2015 Kumbh Mela. The repercussions of the concretisation were evident in the 2016 pre-monsoon droughts, when the river dried up and exposed the concrete riverbed.

Later, in the monsoon period, the city also experienced destructive floods. Local experts claimed that, along with heavy rains, the concretisation of the riverbed and confluence of the major sewerage system around the Goda Ghat were the main reasons.

‘Smart’ riverfront development

The consequences of unsustainable infrastructure development practices inevitably pushed environmentally conscious citizens to the Bombay High Court for the rejuvenation of the river.

Nashik was also selected under SCM and the riverfront infrastructure development featured as the identity of the city in the SCM proposal. The project was envisioned as an opportunity to generate revenue.

It specifically proposed to redevelop the Godavari riverfront with promenade, boating and beautification of the Goda Ghat to attract more tourists.

The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), however, was directed by the court to prioritise the de-concretisation of the river. NMC assigned the responsibility to the newly formed Nashik Municipal Smart City Development Corporation Limited (NMSCDCL).

NMSCDCL de-concretised only four out of 17 kunds between Dutondya Maruti to Gadge Maharaj Bridge, for fulfilling the court mandate.

Besides this ‘symbolic’ de-concretisation, in the ambitious Goda Park project (on the other side of the Ahilyabai Holkar Bridge), both horizontal and vertical concretisation is going on.

As one of the residents of Nashik puts it, “Call it smart or stupid, they are just concretising it.”

Indubitably, these interventions represent the techno-managerial unsustainable patchwork which is not apt for the health of the river and will further aggravate the future flooding events.

Rather than injecting funds for short-term patchworks, there is a need to develop flood-resilient long-term strategy with the stakeholder engagements. The central schemes such as JNNURM, AMRUT and SCM have failed to address the complexities of disasters.

These missions and schemes have also failed to acknowledge the diversities of Indian cities and provided a universal template of urban development.

Hence, the disaster-resilient city-specific infrastructure is yet to be part of the discourse. Therefore, there is an urgent requirement to integrate disaster management and climate change with long-term planning for resilient urban futures.

In a nutshell, the installation of precarious infrastructure along the ghat and the booming real-estate along the river require critical attention for rectification.

The future of the Godavari in Nashik needs to count on the interaction of riverine ecology, religious identity, shifting land-use and unimagined impact of climate change.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

‘Changing climatic conditions induce vegetation changes, which shapes human evolution’

DTE speaks with professor Rajeev Patnaik to understand the relationship of evolution with climate

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Climate has played a crucial role in shaping evolution ever since life on Earth began in the ocean about 3.5 billion years ago. Microbes were the earliest forms of life, paving the way for roughly 8.7 million species today.

Down To Earth speaks with Rajeev Patnaik, professor at the department of geology from Panjab University, to understand how climate influences human evolution and if humans could evolve into a new species.

Rohini Krishnamurthy: What role has climate change played in shaping human evolution?

Rajeev Patnaik: Changes in water availability, rainfall, temperature and humidity, either globally or locally, can shape evolution.

The origin and evolution of humans show many climatic changes over millions of years. Six million years ago, human ancestors separated from a branch consisting of chimpanzees and gorillas.

This new branch became known as hominin, which includes humans, extinct subspecies and our immediate ancestors that could walk upright. This change corresponded to climatic changes.

This change corresponded to climatic changes. We have evolved from unicellular organisms thanks to climatic conditions. If conditions had not changed, perhaps we would have only seen microbes in the ocean.

If you look at life as a tree, the branches kept changing until humans reached a particular branch. The bacteria that did not change perhaps lived in a constant environment, so they stayed the same.

If there are gradual changes in a population and a part of it lives in a region witnessing environmental changes, it gives rise to new species.

There are two kinds of changes: Genetic and phenotypic [observable, physical changes]. Even now, genetic changes keep happening automatically. But they don’t necessarily translate to changes in the human body or physical appearance.

Physical changes occur if there is a change in our diet or locomotion. For example, if a species ingests tough food, it will develop a heavy jaw. If it evolves to consume softer food, a heavy jaw is useless and it recedes.

Simply put, if the climate does not change, humans or any living being will not evolve. When climatic conditions change, they induce vegetation changes, which have shaped human evolution.

RK: Could you name one dramatic change in humans shaped by climate?

RP: The most dramatic change was brain size capacity. That happened with our genus, Homo. The brain size of our ancestors belonging to the genus Australopithecus, Paranthropus or Ardipithicines were ape-like. They lived in climatic conditions that did not require a big brain. Their diet and lifestyle did not need that either.

Approximately two million years, there were dramatic climatic changes. The conditions were not conducive to human survival. Hunter-gatherers had to move around, change their diet, communicate and develop strategies to hunt prey.

They needed to build tools to survive. So humans began to use their brains more, which would have affected their organ size. The brain capacity almost doubled from Australopithecus.

Within our genus, Homo habilis still had lower brain capacity. But the brain capacity of Homo Erectus and Homo heidelbergensis dramatically increased. We have seen this in our fossil record.

RK: What about present-day changes in response to climate change?

RP: In the present day, we see genetic changes. These changes allow people living in high-altitude regions or colder climates to live in extreme conditions. For example, the Eskimos have evolved to thrive in colder conditions for thousands of years.

Tibetans also have a higher capacity to retain oxygen because they live at higher altitudes with low oxygen levels.

It takes time for genetic changes to translate to changes that can be seen physically. Fossil records tell us that physical changes typically take 500,000 years to appear. Modern humans evolved somewhere around 300,000- 500,000 years ago.

Around this time, we became distinct from Homo heidelbergensis. And it took almost a million years for heidelbergensis to separate from Homo erectus.

Likewise, Homo neanderthalensis took hundreds of thousands of years to split from heidelbergensis. So physical changes occur gradually if climatic changes are also slow.

Drastic changes can also occur, but climatic fluctuations occur at a rate of hundreds of thousands of years. By that standard, it would take 100,000 years for changes to show physically.

The human body is complex and it takes millions of years for changes to occur. In contrast, insects evolve faster, where changes in size or colour can be recorded in short periods.

RK: Do you expect a new human species to arise in the future?

RP: New species can arise in the current period if a population become isolated. For example, if Inuit become isolated from civilisation and do not interact or interbreed, they may become physically distinct from the rest of the population.

Usually, we see changes that begin with variation in a population, followed by races and sub-species. Finally, we have new species.

In the past, we have some examples. Denisovans (who lived until 30,000 years ago from Siberia to Southeast Asia), were adapted to high altitude and low-oxygen conditions. This population gave rise to people living in high-altitude regions such as Tibet.

RK: Europe, which is a cold continent, is increasingly becoming hot and dry. What does it mean to the people living there if these events become recurrent?

RP: We will see genetic changes in Europeans if hot and dry conditions become recurrent. Around 13-14 million years ago, Europe was warm and humid. Roughly 16-18 varieties of Apes lived there.

And then the climate changed, transforming Europe into a cooler place. All apes disappeared from the continent. Later, it became inhabited by Neanderthals, who adapted to colder climates. Much later, Homo sapiens came in. They were smart enough to adapt to changing situations.

The climate governs every species. Homo sapiens migrated to greener pastures. Other human species died out because they could not adapt. Every species evolves in its niche.

And if that niche becomes inhabitable due to climate change, the species will perish or migrate. Homo sapiens had all the resources to migrate long distances and adapt to changing conditions.

If the climate in Europe continues to remain warm and humid, we may see changes in pigmentation or skin colour. Our ancestors came from Africa. Their pigmentation was brownish.

Gradually, when people migrated to cooler conditions, people evolved lighter complexion. Cooler conditions, too, can bring about changes such as a higher accumulation of fat and changes in metabolism, and increased body hair.

If Europeans interbreed with others, we might not see apparent changes, but if they stay isolated, we may see changes.

RK: How does the ongoing climate crisis impact human survival?

RP: Modern humans have interfered with the climate. We are to be blamed for so many drastic changes. But thanks to technology and modern medicine, humans have learned to survive. Even if something untoward were to happen due to climate fluctuations, there is every possibility that we would work around it.

Humans may not go extinct. If we look at the past, we see Australopithecus thrived for millions of years. Elephants have survived for around 2.5-3 million years.

Modern humans have been around only a few hundred thousand years. So, unless something dramatic happens, we won’t die out. But if tomorrow, we have an asteroid impact or humans kill each other, nothing can save us.

UP Dussehra downpour: 10,000% excess rain in 3 districts of state wrecks kharif crop

No initiative has been taken so far in the government and districts regarding the survey for compensation to farmers

By Vivek Mishra

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

CORRECTION: The story has been updated October 10 to correct Shravasti district’s rainfall figure to 7,267 per cent above normal from 72.67 per cent as was published October 7.

Uttar Pradesh, which was hit by drought till August, has been flooded with water due to sudden heavy rains at a time when the southwest monsoon is well into its retreat. Three districts of India’s largest state recorded 10,000 per cent more rainfall than normal in just 24 hours October 5, 2022.

The sudden torrential rains have wreaked havoc, inundating fields of paddy, sugarcane, maize and banana, which were otherwise craving water.

No government order has been issued by the government for compensating farmers. Lekhpals (or Patwaris), in charge of revenue, are yet to fan out and survey fields to assess damage.

The sub-district magistrates are being informed by the village chiefs, but an estimate of the damage will be possible only after the water recedes from the fields.

Gonda, Pratapgarh, Chitrakoot, Shravasti, Ayodhya, Barabanki and Basti districts recorded an extraordinary amount of rainfall within 24 hours. Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a warning of heavy rains in Uttar Pradesh till October 8.

Shravasti recorded 176.8 millimetres (mm) rainfall against the normal of 2.4 mm, according to the district-wise rainfall data released by the IMD October 6. The district thus recorded 7,267 per cent more rainfall than normal.

Jokhan, a 52-year-old farmer from Patna Khargaura village in Shravasti district, told Down to Earth that he had planted an early-growing variety of paddy on five of his seven bighas of land. One hectare is equal to 3.87 bighas in Uttar Pradesh.

“The paddy was ripe. But this rain has ruined everything,” Jokhan said. He added that he did not even have farm insurance. He would get relief only if the government stepped in.

Pravendra Kumar, the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Shravasti told DTE that a government order last year had said a compensation of Rs 4,200-4,800 per hectare would be given for crop loss of more than 33 per cent in a field.

But this time, no such government order has come yet. “The survey work has also not been given the go-ahead by the district magistrate yet. When the magistrate seeks such data, it will be given to him / her,” he added.

Mamta Pandey, the chief of Patna Khargaura village, said there are 283.2 hecatres of farmland in her village, of which paddy is sown on 202 hectares.

The total population of the village is 6,000, of which 98 per cent are farmers and only 10 people have kisan insurance cards. She added that a request had been made to the SDM for the survey as there had been heavy crop loss.

The situation is also bad in Gonda, an area that received 222.8 mm, or 10,000 per cent more rainfall than the normal of 3.4 mm October 6.

Atul Kumar Singh, a 71-year-old farmer from Ferozepur village in Mankapur, Gonda, said he had never experienced so much rainfall in his entire lifetime.

He said this rain meant that farmers would no longer be able to plant potato and mustard, the crops planted between paddy and wheat. Farming can no longer be done on the strength of wheat alone.

“Not just the weather but the periodic cycle of crops is also shifting. Therefore, farmers will now have to diversify their fields. They will have to venture into the cultivation of vegetables like pointed gourd or banana. Only then can this loss be reduced,” headed.

Bahraich district recorded 75.6 mm rainfall which was 2,061 per cent more than the normal 3.5 mm October 6, 2022.

Anubhav Chaudhary, a farmer from Newada village in Ramgaon, Bahraich, said the sugarcane crop got hit twice in his fields.

The stalks first fell due to heavy September rains on 3.23 hectares of land. He had to spend up to Rs 40,000 to tie them using labour. They have again fallen this time. There is no compensation either.

The state government was planning to declare drought in the entire state before the Dussehra rains.

The Office of the Relief Commissioner of the Revenue Department had submitted a document to Chief Minister Adityanath August 20.

It stated that in 2020, the state had received 520.1 mm of normal rainfall through August 20. In 2021, 504.1 mm rainfall was recorded through August 20, while in 2022, only 284 mm rainfall had been recorded through August 20.

As of August 20, 9.60 million hectares have been sown in Uttar Pradesh. The target for paddy was 5,900,000 hectares. By August 20, 96 per cent ie 5,716,000 hectares of area was sown. Also, there were coarse cereals and pulses.

The drought strategy was being chalked out because of the apprehension that sudden heavy rainfall would damage the crop. In the meeting held August 20, it was also revealed that 95 tehsils of the state did not have rain measuring machines.

The Uttar Pradesh government had also announced the installation of 5 Doppler radars but no action has been taken so far.

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

Simultaneous droughts and floods have become an increasing concern and the instances have escalated in the past five decades

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Years of weather vagaries such as drought and extreme rainfall, combined with poor quality agricultural products and policies of the state government have pushed Marathwada farmers towards poverty.

Down To Earth visited farmers from Marathwada and Ahmednagar in Maharashtra to note how the cumulative effect of frequent crop losses altered their lives.

The farmers in the central part of the state told DTE how they have started to feel the brunt of climate change in their daily lives.

Also read: Climate change escalates suicide rates among Marathwada farmers

Simultaneous droughts and floods have become an increasing concern and the instances have escalated in the past five decades, according to a report published by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water in 2020.

Drought events in the state, especially in drought-prone regions of Aurangabad, Latur, Jalna, Nanded, Osmanabad of Marathwada and Pune and Nashik, rose to 14 in 1980-89 from 11 in 1970-79, the report stated.

The events scaled to 17 in 1990-99 and 23 between 2000 and 2010. Some 79 cases were reported between 2010 and 2019.

Also read: Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

Farmers claim that poor income from agriculture has deteriorated their quality of life and increased suffering.

“I sowed cotton and soyabeans this Kharif season on my five acres of land. But the weather pattern affected its growth and health,” said Sharad Shinde, a 25-year-old farmer from Mankhurwadi village near Beed in Marathwada.

After the first few spells of rain in June, the monsoon took a break for almost a month, said Shinde.

“The crop growth stunted. It received better rains in July and August. But the rains in September did more damage than good,” he said.

Crops do not require much water in the final stages and it rained heavily for a week in September, he added.

“The crops rotted and I lost over 50 per cent of my standing plantation, which I was waiting to harvest by the first week of October,” he said.

There are millions of farmers who share Shinde’s plight. Over 4.5 million farmers in Marathwada alone have faced the brunt of weather extremities through September 2022, according to official figures.

Forty-year-old Mahadev Trimbak from Beed district said his expenditure on input cost had increased three-fold over the last few years. The cost of fertilisers, pesticides and seeds have manifolded in the past decade.

“I spend at least Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 per acre as production cost against Rs 10,000 per acre a few years ago,” he said. At the same time, income has reduced as the crops do not fetch the deserved prices in the market. The selling prices have not increased at par with inflation, he explained.

Trimbak said his income had been reduced by at least 50 per cent. “If the weather does not bless us, it is a total loss ensuring that we never recuperate from the losses or have the ability repay the loans,” he told DTE.

Seeds, insecticides and pesticides in the market are often duplicated or of poor quality, affecting the yield and output further, he said.

It may be noted that drought and extreme rainfall have been taking a heavy toll on farmers’ income.

Reduced income, crop losses and irreparable economic damages due to the inability to repay loans have worsened over the past few years.

“I wanted to save money and buy a two-wheeler for my commute. But the repeated losses have not allowed me to do so,” said Vishal Alat, a farmer from Shrigonda in Ahmednagar.

Farmers across villages — Ambesavali, Dhekanmoha, Kalegaon, Mankhurwadi, Ghatsawali in Beed, Ambajogai and Jamgaon, Arangaon, Shrigonda and Jamkhed in Ahmednagar — shared similar sentiments about deteriorating social and economic status.

Kakasaheb Rode, a chairperson of the village committee and a farmer in Shrigonda, said the farmers have started selling their lands and possessions to survive.

Farming does not provide any income and farmers have been running in losses for at least the past five years. “I sold a part of my land for my daughter’s wedding and now have only three acres left. I cannot afford selling the meagre assets I own to survive,” he said.

Rode added that daily expenses are to be met and he has been living on credit. “I owe money to friends and relatives and now they have also reached their limits in providing financial assistance,” he said.

Mahesh Gade from Limpangaon village near Beed said he sold his four-wheeler to survive the COVID-19 lockdown and sustain the losses incurred due to poor crop production.

Like Gade, farmers in the village have started selling possessions. “Many friends and relatives in the village wanted their wives to undergo knee operations as years of toiling in the field have deteriorated their health. But we couldn’t afford the operation costs to tune of Rs 4.5 lakh,” Gade told DTE.

“The inflation has increased the production costs. The farmers’ economic situation has been shattered by the unfavourable weather and ongoing yield losses,” said Anil Ghanavat, national president of Swatantra Bharat Party and former president of Shetkari Sanghatna. Both organisations work for the cause of farmers.

The government should intervene and revise policies to uplift the farmers and help them escape the vicious cycle of poverty, said Ghanavat.

NGT’s Rs 3,800 crore fine on Telangana is the biggest one yet over waste disposal

West Bengal government was fined Rs 3,000 crore in September 2022

By Vivek Mishra

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in a recent order slapped a compensation of Rs 3,800 crore on the Telangana government for its failure in the management of solid waste and sewage.

This is the biggest fine ever imposed by the NGT for waste disposal. The West Bengal government was fined Rs 3,000 crore September 2022 for non-compliance with orders relating to the disposal of sewage and solid waste.

Read more: Most Indian villages do not have any waste management infrastructure: Study

A bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel imposed the environmental penalty on the Telangana government October 1, 2022.

The amount of the penalty was decided on the basis of an earlier judgment by the Supreme Court September 2, 2014 in Almitra Patel case and February 22, 2017 Paryavaran Suraksha vs. Union of India case.

The tribunal also followed the ‘polluter pays’ principle under Section 20 of the NGT Act, the order said. It referred to its September 1, 2022 order in the West Bengal case regarding the amount of the penalty imposed.

The compensation for untreated liquid waste was determined to be Rs 2 crore per million litres per day (MLD) and Rs 300 per tonne for unprocessed legacy waste. Thus, the bench imposed Rs 3,648 crore on Telangana for untreated 1,824 MLD sewage.

It also fined the state government Rs 177 crore for non-treatment of 5.9 million tonnes of legacy waste by 141 urban local bodies — totalling the penalty to Rs 3,800 crore.

The bench calculated 5.9 million tonnes of legacy waste on the basis of disposal of 2,446 tonnes per day waste of 114 municipal bodies. It also noted that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had dumped 1.2 million tonnes of legacy waste at the Jawaharnagar dump site, which is against the norms of the Central Pollution Control Board.

Read more: NGT order on Korba: Can it improve fly ash disposal, utilisation in India

The Telangana government did not take NGT directions ‘seriously’ and there was no ‘adequate compliance’ even after three years, the bench said. The government had not fixed any accountability, collected any fines or carried out any performance audits, it added.

The state government was directed to deposit the fine amount in two different accounts within the next two months. The Chief Secretary of the state will use the penalty amount to restore the damage to the environment, the tribunal directed.

The state was also directed to file a progress report with the NGT every six months. The Chief Secretary will take restoration steps at the earliest, the NGT said.

Telangana’s Chief Secretary submitted a progress report on sewage and solid waste management to the NGT September 28, 2022. There wasn’t much progress in the disposal of sewage and solid waste, the tribunal observed.

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 6, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

By DTE Staff

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Punjab groundwater contamination

Action was being taken against contamination of groundwater in Aloarakh village of Bhawanigarh block in Sangrur district, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) said in its report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The NGT had taken cognizance of an application filed by HC Arora. The application had called out the failure of the state authorities to take remedial measures against contamination of groundwater in Aloarakh.

The chief secretary of Punjab had constituted a monitoring committee to comply with the NGT order, March 31, 2022.

The PPCB report mentioned that display boards had been installed by a team consisting of the PPCB assistant environmental engineer and Naib Tehsildar, Bhawanigarh, in English as well as Punjabi.

They had the text ‘Water not fit for drinking’ at five tubewells around the site, which had been found to be contaminated by the Joint Committee constituted by the NGT.

The PPCB had written a letter June 6, 2022 to the member secretary, Central Pollution Control Board requesting advice on whether the site was notified as a contaminated site and whether the PPCB could proceed to implement the remediation plan as suggested by the Joint Committee and directed by the NGT.

Panna environmental compensation

An amount of Rs 99 lakh has been imposed as environmental compensation on the Nagar Palika Parishad (municipality), Panna for non-compliance of Municipal Solid Waste Rules 2016, the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board said in its report to the NGT.

The compensation has been imposed for the period January-June 2022.

The matter related to the discharge of untreated sewage effluent into the Kilkila river by the Panna municipality. This had degraded the water quality of the river and hadadversely affected agricultural land and public health.

Khampur stormwater drain

A stormwater drain in Khampur village, Delhi had been desilted and garbage and construction and demolition waste dumped in it had been cleared by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), a report filed by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), said.

Prem Prakash Prajapati, president of Senior Citizen Forum for Environment, had filed a petition before the NGT. It said a stormwater drain had been removed by the  contractor of the NHAI at the time of widening National Highway 44 near the village.

This had been done without making an alternate arrangement for the domestic wastewater and  septic tank water of Khampur.

As a result of removal of the drain, the entire wastewater of the village had accumulated in the area excavated during the project. It had contaminated groundwater, raising a stink and posing serious health risks to local residents, besides damaging the environment.

The report of August 17, 2022 was uploaded to the NGT site, October 4, 2022

Simply Put: Extinction, not evolution

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Our Coal, Our Right: Here is why these Chhattisgarh tribals stage a ‘coal satyagraha’ every October 2

Tribals from four blocks collect and auction coal on Gandhi Jayanti annually, in defiance of government rules

By Anil Ashwani Sharma

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

It has been 92 years since Mahatma Gandhi conducted the Salt Satyagraha at Dandi in Gujarat. But the spirit of that agitation has remained alive in a remote corner of India. Since 2011, tribals in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district stage a ‘coal satyagraha’ every October 2.

On October 2, 2022, thousands of tribals from 56 Gram Panchayats dug one tagara (a metal container) with coal in their respective areas and came to Urwa Pelma village under the Gram Panchayat of Tamnar development block.

They raised slogans such as Hamar Koyla, Hamar Haq (Our coal, our right) at the Tamnar development block headquarters. Everyone, from children to the elderly, had a lump of coal in their hands. They then proceeded to auction the coal.

The 56 Gram Panchayats to which the tribals belong, are spread across the Tamnar, Gharghoda, Dharamjaigarh, Pusaur blocks of Raigarh district.

Residents of Korwa, Raigarh, Ambikapur districts of Chhattisgarh as well as representatives from Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu participated in the satyagraha.

‘Our Land, Our Resources’

The ‘coal satyagraha’ started in 2011 in order to put pressure on the administration to not give coal blocks to big industrialists for mining.

The public hearing on the Gare coal mine was being held January 5, 2008 in the forest near Gare and Khamharia villages when the police resorted to a baton charge. After this, the villagers filed a petition in the Chhattisgarh High Court against the public hearing. Apart from this, the NGT also ruled in favour of the villagers.

The villagers decided in their meeting September 25, 2022 that if coal was necessary for the development of the country, why shouldn’t they form a company and extract coal themselves? The villagers then formed the Gare Tap Utpada Producer Company Limited.

Harihar Patel, one of the founders of the coal satyagraha, said: “We formed a company to extract coal on our own on the basis of ‘Our Land, Our Resources’. We were also able to reach an agreement on 700 acres of land in Gare and Saraitola villages.”

“After this, the villagers started to extract coal from their land. A lot of pressure was put by the police and the administration to stop us. We said we were extracting coal from our land and that nobody could stop us,” Patel added.

Kaushalya Chauhan, 38, a resident of Urwa village, said she had participated in the coal satyagraha four-five times in the past. “The villagers have become more aware due to this satyagraha. We have understood the importance of our water, forest and land. We will never give our land to the government,” she said.

Rajesh Tripathi of Janchetana Manch said the tribals do not want development due to which their lands and fields are no longer theirs.

“While fighting such a long battle, the tribals have understood that Chhattisgarh falls in the Fifth Schedule. The Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996 is in force and any mining activity will be illegal without the permission of the Gram Sabha. Companies are ready to pay Rs 8 lakh and 6 lakh as compensation but the villagers do not want to take compensation in lieu of giving up their land,” he said.

Last year, Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikey had suggested to the state government to give a share of royalty to Scheduled Tribes if it acquired their land for mineral extraction.

In a letter to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, she referred to the provisions of the Fifth Schedule and said arrangements should be made so that tribals continue to get monthly or annual rent instead of getting compensation as a one-time payment.

This rent can be linked to the wholesale price index, so that it keeps increasing along with inflation from time to time.

Depleting food grain stock ring alarms: Is India staring at a rice crisis?

Over 44 million tonnes of grains in stock compared to 78.6 million tonnes last year; Wheat dangerously close to buffer limit

By Raju Sajwan

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

India may face a rice shortage following a similar wheat crisis earlier this year. Depleting stocks of wheat and paddy has raised concerns about the Kharif paddy procurement despite constant reassurances by the government.

The central stockpile has 44.1 million tonnes of food grains September 30, 2022 — 20.9 million tonnes of rice and 23.2 million tonnes of wheat, according to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

The stock was 49.28 million tonnes before September 1, 2022, with 27.95 million tonnes of rice and 24.82 million tonnes of wheat.

The depleting food grain stock has raised concerns, despite continuous reassurances by the central government of enough stock available to meet India’s food grain demands.

The numbers show grain stock is depleting at a worrying rate. There were 55.16 million tonnes of food grains in store January 2022. The Centre had 78.61 million tonnes of grains on September 1, 2021 in comparison, with 26.83 million tonnes rice and 51.78 million tonnes of wheat.

Read more: Staple spikes: Has an abnormal Kharif 2022 caused rice prices to rise

The procurement target was incomplete for the Rabi season 2021-22, which affected the wheat stock. There is similar confusion over paddy production during the Kharif season, which indicates a shortage of rice.

The production of rice may decline by 6.05 per cent compared to last year, according to the first estimate of food grain production released by the directorate of economics and statistics under the Union agriculture ministry.

A deficit of 6.77 million tonnes of rice is expected in 2022-23, according to the estimates.

However, the estimates were calculated before heavy rains in the last week of September. There was a lot of damage to finished paddy crop due to heavy rains in north India September 22-23.

Rain particularly affected crops in Punjab-Haryana, which is a major contributor to the government stock.

Challenges in procurement

The government began procuring paddy in Punjab-Haryana October 1, 2022. However, farmers are still waiting for paddy to dry from the rainwater.

Read more: First Advance Estimate 2022-23: Rice output to fall 6%, total foodgrain output 4%

“Farmers are not sure of reactions by mandi (market) workers when we bring soaked grains,” said Jogendra, a farmer of Ballabhgarh, Haryana. Government agencies do not buy paddy if there is more moisture than the prescribed amount in the grains.

Paddy procurement can become a big challenge for central and state governments in such a situation, just like wheat. The wheat procurement target for Rabi season 2022-23 was 44.4 million tonnes, but the government could only buy 18.79 million tonnes.

There were two reasons behind the wheat shortage: A decrease in wheat production due to severe unseasonal heat in March-April and the global food crisis due to the Ukraine-Russia war.

Wheat prices had shot up globally following the war and private traders directly bought wheat from farmers to take advantage of the hike. The government later banned its export.

The pattern is repeated with paddy. Rice prices have been driven up as the war and the global food crisis continue.

The retail price of rice has increased by 8.39 per cent as compared to last year, showed data from the central government. Wholesale prices have gone up by 8.85 per cent. Bringing down rice prices during the festive season is the real challenge for the Centre.

Private traders have started contacting farmers to buy rice directly as demand for it is increasing. A rice trader from Hodal, located on the Uttar Pradesh-Haryana border, on condition of anonymity, said he has started procuring paddy at a price higher than the minimum support price (MSP).

The MSP for normal paddy is Rs 2,040 per quintal this year and grade A paddy is Rs 2,060 per quintal. Procurement of rice by private traders is driving up shortage concerns even more.

Buffer stock regulations require 10.25 million tonnes of rice and 20.58 million tonnes of wheat in store. Wheat stock is now dangerously close to the buffer limit.

Read more: India bans broken rice export; 20% duty on other grades

As its procurement has stopped, there is no possibility of increasing wheat stock. However, the government is also supposed to distribute wheat under the National Food Security Act.

The scheme to provide free ration to about 798.5 million families under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana has been extended till December 2022. The government has to distribute 11.96 million tonnes of food grains (2.1 million tonnes of wheat and 9.86 million tonnes of rice) from October 2022 through December 2022.

This means that the quantity of wheat in the stock will come down to 18.47 million tonnes as on January 1, 2022, while as per the buffer rules, 13.8 million tonnes of wheat is required in store.

The Centre has increased the quantity of rice distributed in the public distribution system to maintain the wheat buffer numbers.

Food Corporation of India’s stock will comfortably exceed the buffer norms even after meeting the stock requirement under NFSA and other welfare schemes, claimed the food ministry.

Around 11.3 million tonnes of wheat and 23.6 million tonnes of rice will be in stock by April 1, 2023, against buffer norms of 7.5 million tonnes of wheat and 13.6 million tonnes rice after meeting all the requirements, the Centre estimated.

Around 51.8 million tonnes of rice will be procured in the Kharif market, according to the food ministry. Last year, 50.9 million tonnes of rice was procured.

Given the slowdown in production and active purchase of rice by private traders, whether the procurement target will be met remains to be seen.

Read more: Kharif sowing period almost over, but huge deficit for paddy and pulses

The government also seems concerned about procurement. Secretary for the Union food ministry Sundhashu Pandey has been on a tour of Tamil Nadu for the past four days. TN is the only state where rice production has been good this year. Around 0.2 million tonnes of rice has been procured from the state till now.

India consumed 109.5 million tonnes of rice in the year 2021-2022, according to a report by federal agency United States Department of Agriculture in June 2022. This means there may be a shortage of around 4.5 million tonnes of rice this year.

This is likely the reason the export of broken rice was banned. India tops the world in terms of rice exports and in 2021-22, India exported 212.3 million tonnes of rice.

Climate change escalates suicide rates among Marathwada farmers

Farmer suicides have increased significantly and doubled in some regions where weather extremities incurred heavy losses

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Farmer suicides in the Nanded district of Maharashtra’s Marathwada more than doubled since incessant rains caused severe crop damage in the region.

The suicide cases in Nanded jumped to 26 in August from eight in July, according to official estimates.

The total number of farmer suicides reported from the district in 2022 stood at 93 through August. And the officials have deemed 63 of these eligible for compensation of Rs one lakh.

There were 119 cases in the district in 2021 instead of 77 in 2020. And 65 of these farmers’ families received compensation.

Also watch: One agricultural labourer died by suicide every two hours in 2021

So far, 661 farmers from the Marathwada region alone have ended their lives. Some 485 of these have received compensation from the state government.

The maximum number of cases was reported in August, accounting for 114, followed by 108 in June, 101 in March and 83 in July.

Devastating losses due to extreme weather combined with heavy loan debts have pushed the farmers to take such extreme steps.

“Many farmers have been affected in the village and surrounding areas. Agricultural lands of about 20 per cent farmers have been washed away entirely,” said Pavan Karevad, head of the village Siranjani in Nanded.

Some of the farmers had resown the seeds after the first rains in July lashed their crops, he added.

Also read: Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

Some 3,652,872 hectares of land have been severely affected due to the extreme rains in July, August and September, according to the figures from the divisional commissionerate, Aurangabad.

Agricultural losses coupled with damages incurred due to extreme weather have worsened the situation, according to farmers.

“My five acres of land got washed away along with the soybean and cotton. There is no possibility that I can resow the plantation or prepare the soil,” said Kiran Gade, a farmer from Himayatnagar in Nanded.

The entire soil has been eroded and it would be difficult to restore the fertility and the farmland for the upcoming season, he added.

Gade had invested over Rs 80,000 on his crop. “I had high hopes from the crops that would be harvested soon as last year. But the production was not as desired,” he added.

Such a situation makes it far worse to recuperate from the losses, he said. “It would take a few years to restore the land. Moreover, the government policies do not cover the heavy damages caused by the weather events,” he added.

I will be entitled to a sum of Rs 13,200 per hectare as assistance from the state government despite the land loss, he said.

“The amount received will not be enough even to cover the losses, compelling to take additional loans,” he added.

There is no provision to cover the wide-scale losses, said a senior official from Maharashtra’s agriculture department.

At present, the farmers are eligible to receive monetary compensation only if more than 33 per cent of their crop is damaged.

“The same compensation applies for farmers who have faced total loss of their agricultural land,” he added.

But such limited help and worsening conditions are also one of the reasons pushing farmers towards committing suicide.

Raju Gotamvad, a farmer from Parva village of Nanded, committed suicide July 14, according to the government records. He lost 2.5 acres of his soybean farm during the rains in 2021, resulting in heavy losses.

“Gotamvad had taken a loan at the rate of 4 per cent interest from a private lender. The interest escalated with the losses. Moreover, this year, he planted soybean on 1.5 acres and cotton on the remaining,” said Dnyaneshwar Mane, a villager.

The rains in June helped germinate the seeds, but the growth remained stunted as the rains did not occur for over a month. When the rains returned, they were more than required that the crops rotted, he said.

“Realising that this crop would also fail, Gotamvad ended his life. He knew he could not repay the Rs 2 lakh that he sought as a loan,” Mane added.

Climate change is altering seasonal patterns and pushing developmental trajectories beyond thresholds, Abinash Mohanty, a climate change expert and reviewer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report, told DTE.

“The monsoon of 2022 is a testament to how erratic, incessant and longer dry days are the new norms. They impact lives and livelihoods — especially across climate-dependent sectors like agriculture,” he added.

Climate change will make extreme events harsher and graver. Depressions are turning into cyclones and incessant and erratic rainfalls result in high-impact flood events, Mohanty added.

It is imperative to mainstream climate adaptations through systemic and financial re-orientation to climate-proof the livelihoods of small and marginalised farmers. Key decision-makers should re-orient climate actions, fund it and fight to mitigate the impacts, he said.

War-Pandemic: World is poorer now; will double its poverty level on the target year of eradication

Poverty is getting concentrated and chronic in sub-Saharan Africa and rural areas

By Richard Mahapatra

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

The world has beaten a desperate retreat in its war to get rid of extreme poverty, a good eight years before the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 target year of 2030. Now, there is no certainty on when the world will meet this goal of limiting extreme poverty to just three per cent of total population.

Instead, the World Bank’s latest Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Courses report says that in certain places like sub-Saharan Africa and rural areas in most poor and developing countries, eradicating poverty is nearly impossible in the current situation.

The Bank’s latest report is the first comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine on global poverty. This comes at a time when for five consecutive years before the pandemic, the global poverty reduction rate had been slowing down.

The pandemic came as a once-in-a-life-time economic shock. But the war, by raising energy and food prices, has further worsened the situation. The poor became poorer and were hoping for a post-pandemic recovery when the war struck.

The rising food and energy prices and the onslaught of the climate emergency — extreme weather events impacting agriculture and also disasters wiping out assets and incomes — have not just made recovery impossible but also pushed the poor to chronic levels of poverty.

The result: the largest setback in the fight against global poverty since World War II. “These setbacks have altered the trajectory of poverty reduction in large and lasting ways, sending the world even further off course on the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030,” says the report.

In 2020, the pandemic pushed 70 million more people into poverty. As a result, some 719 million people lived below the international extreme poverty line of $2.15 per day or a poverty rate of 9.3 per cent in comparison to 8.4 per cent in 2019.

The world is recovering from the pandemic but the impacts of the war would result in pushing 685 million people below the extreme poverty line by the end of 2022.

The report estimates that “7 per cent of the world’s population — roughly 574 million people — will still struggle in extreme poverty in 2030.” This is more than double the SDG1 rate of three per cent.

Inequality has been widening as a result of the pandemic, a reversal in trend in many decades. Like the recovery from the pandemic, the dip in poverty has been uneven. The developing and poor countries have added the maximum new poor and the poverty level among the poor have further deepened in these countries.

“The poorest people bore the steepest costs of the pandemic: income losses averaged four per cent for the poorest 40 per cent, double the losses of the wealthiest 20 per cent of the income distribution,” the report said.

This is a situation that the Bank forecasts as worrying.

“The policymakers now confront a tougher environment: Extreme poverty is concentrated in parts of the world where it will be hardest to eradicate — in sub-Saharan Africa, in conflict-affected areas, and in rural areas,” it says.

For instance, sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest poverty rate at 35 per cent and it accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s extreme poor population. To reach the SDG1 level by 2030, each country here needs an annual economic growth of nine per cent for the next eight years.

This sounds impossible currently given that most of the countries in the region recorded below two per cent growth even before the pandemic.

2022 Chemistry Nobel awarded for ‘click chemistry’, which has possible applications in healthcare

Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless worked on click chemistry, or linking chemicals together, and biorthogonal reactions, that apply such chemistry to living cells

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Wednesday 05 October 2022

Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless were awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry October 5 for their work on click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions.

Click chemistry deals with linking chemicals together, while bioorthogonal reactions take click chemistry to living cells. The three scientists’ work is being explored for possible applications in cancer treatment, diagnostics and delivery of drugs.

“This year’s Prize in Chemistry deals with not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple. Functional molecules can be built even by taking a straightforward route,” Johan Åqvist, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry was quoted as saying in a press statement.

In 2000, Sharpless from Scripps Research, United States, introduced the world to click chemistry.

This concept essentially clicks or links two building blocks together in a very efficient way, Olof Ramstrom, professor at the Center for Pathogen Research & Training (CPRT) and member, Nobel Committee for Chemistry 2022, said during the announcement.

“You will get a good amount of product in a reasonably short time,” the expert added.

Sharpless is a two-time Nobel laureate. He was awarded for the first time in 2001 for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions.

Artificially linking carbon atoms has challenged chemists by creating numerous unwanted side reactions and material loss.

Click chemistry was proposed to make reactions fuss-free. But for a chemical reaction to qualify as click chemistry, it must occur in the presence of oxygen and water, which is cheap and environmentally friendly.

In the years that followed, Meldal from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, demonstrated a chemical reaction that found applications in pharmaceuticals and creating other materials. Sharpless also independently presented this reaction shortly.

The “crown jewel of click chemistry” is the copper catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition. It is a reaction between azide (a structure with three nitrogen atoms in a row) and an alkyne (molecules that contain a triple bond between two carbon atoms).

“These two building blocks are not terribly reactive by themselves. If you mix them, they will react very sluggishly with one another,” Ramstrom said, adding that they often produce a mixture of products.

Meldal’s and Shapeless’ labs showed that adding copper dramatically speeds up the reaction. It gave rise to a useful product called triazole. It has numerous applications, from pharmaceuticals and dyes to agricultural chemicals, according to the Nobel Committee.

Since then, chemists have been able to link two different molecules relatively easily by introducing an azide in one molecule and an alkyne in the other and adding some copper ions.

“Although other reactions have been identified and discovered, this particular reaction [copper catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition] has almost become synonymous with the click reaction concept and is often called the click reaction,” Ramstrom said.

Living cells

The other application was living cells. But there was a problem: copper is toxic to living beings. This means experts had to look for alternate means.

Around the time of click chemistry, Bertozzi from Stanford University, United States, proposed bioorthogonal reactions. These reactions allow click chemistry within living cells without needing a metal. They also don’t interfere with other chemical reactions happening within the cell.

The team demonstrated bioorthogonal reactions by twisting the shape of alkyne, allowing it to become more reactive. This was tested in cells cultured in the lab and also mice.

These bioorthogonal reactions helped Bertozzi and her colleagues map complex sugar structures lining cells called glycans.

“Her studies have led to the insight that some glycans appear to protect tumours from the body’s immune system, as they make the immune cells shut down,” read a note from the Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy.

Bertozzi and her colleagues developed a new type of biological pharmaceutical to block glycan’s protective function.

They combined an antibody that targets glycans with enzymes that break down the glycans. This potential anti-cancer drug is now being tested in clinical trials on people with advanced cancer, according to the Committee.

Additionally, bioorthogonal reactions can help researchers understand how biomolecules interact in cells and study diseases.

“These very important accomplishments from our Nobel laureates have made an enormous impact on chemistry and science in general,” Ramstrom highlighted.

Monsoon 2022: Is excess September rainfall to blame for the Danda-2 avalanche in Uttarakhand

Unusually high precipitation in the last few weeks of September led to heavy snowfall in Uttarakhand’s upper reaches, triggering avalanches, say experts

By Varsha Singh

Published: Wednesday 05 October 2022

Climate change may have had a role in causing the avalanche on the Danda-2 peak in Uttarakhand October 4, 2022. Experts this reporter spoke to, pointed towards the heavy rain in the state last month.

Heavy rains lashed India in the last few weeks of September. Lower altitudes in Uttarakhand reported intense downpours while higher elevations witnessed heavy snowfall. This, say scientists, could have had a hand in the Danda incident.

Manish Mehta, a scientist at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun, said: “The occurrence of an avalanche indicates that more snow has deposited on a mountain peak than it can support. This excess snow slides down the slope of the mountain, causing an avalanche.”

He called the Danda incident a ‘powder avalanche’ where fine, loose snow slides down a mountain.

The Danda-2 peak is situated in the Draupadi ka Danda area at a height of 5,006 metres above sea level in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district.

The avalanche took place October 4 morning. A group of 29 trainee mountaineers and seven experts were descending at the same time and were trapped in the avalanche, according to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), Uttarkashi.

The Uttarakhand police said in a statement at 6 pm October 4 that 17 of the group may be safe. Four bodies have been recovered so far.

A team from NIM, the district administration, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police are engaged in rescue efforts. But bad weather is hampering the search for survivors.

Avalanches also occurred in the Kedarnath Valley September 22, September 26 and October 2. One of them happened just five kilometres away from the Kedarnath temple at the Chorabari glacier.

DP Dobhal, a retired glaciologist at the Wadia Institute pointed to the heavy rains in September, something that Mehta too had noted.

“There has been greater amount of snowfall in the higher reaches of the state this monsoon. When the slope of a peak increases to more than an angle of 40-50 degrees and the snow deposited on that slope is more than 2-2.5 feet, an avalanche occurs because of weight and gravity,” he said.

The southwest monsoon usually starts to retreat from Uttarakhand in the first week of September. This year though, it rained in the last week of the month which was 20-59 per cent above the average.

The rainfall for the state during the entire month was 267.6 per cent above the average figure of 182.4 millimetres. The state otherwise recorded normal rainfall from June 1-September 30.

This is also not the first time that avalanches in Uttarakhand have happened at this time of the year. Four naval personnel were caught in an avalanche October 1 last year on the Trishul peak near the Nanda Devi Sanctuary.

The scientists from the Wadia Institute are probing other possible reasons as to why the avalanches could have occurred.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rains in the state October 5-8. There is a Yellow Alert in place October 5, Orange Alert October 6 and Red Alert October 7. Rivers may swell and there is also a chance of landslides.

2022 Physics Nobel for quantum entanglement which creates secure communication networks

Alain Aspect, John F Clauser and Anton Zeilinger’s work will enable quantum computers to carry out computations impossible currently

By Akshit Sangomla

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

The Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences conferred the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2022 on Alain Aspect, John F Clauser and Anton Zeilinger October 4. The three physicists were awarded for their pioneering and groundbreaking work in quantum information science.

The Committee noted in a press statement that the award was “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”.

Quantum mechanics is the physics of sub atomic particles. Its main characteristic that makes quantum information science possible is known as ‘quantum entanglement’.

The work of the three laureates provided a deeper understanding of quantum entanglement. It paved the way for quantum information science, quantum computing and quantum cryptography, according to Thors Hans Hansson, an expert on quantum entanglement and a member of the Nobel Committee for physics

Quantum cryptography has created avenues for the most secure communication networks, already demonstrated by scientists around the world. Quantum computers, in the near future, would be able to carry out complex computations not possible for the most powerful present day supercomputers at breakneck speeds.

Einstein, Bohr and Schrodinger

Whatever happens to one particle, also happens to the other if both are quantum entangled. This is the case even if both particles are at distance.

The idea for quantum entanglement dates back to the very foundations of quantum mechanics which began with Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr and Erwin Schrodinger. The Nobel Committee stated that this year’s prize was also in honour of these pioneers.

Einstein famously called entanglement “spooky action at a distance”. It may have also brought about his oft quoted statement, “I at any rate am convinced that God does not play dice”.

He meant that a good theory should be able to make precise predictions and not dabble in probabilities, which is one of the primary characteristics of quantum mechanics.

Schrodinger, on the other hand, thought there was more to entanglement. He said: “Entanglement is not ‘one’ but rather ‘the’ characteristic trait of quantum mechanics.”

In 1935, Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen came up with a thought experiment. The experiment concluded that there was hidden information in the form of variables within quantum entangled particles.

This data informed them about what results to display in an experiment. This somehow meant nature, especially what made up quantum particles, was a trickster.

There were no instruments available at the time to implement the thought experiment in the real world and know more about the hidden variables.

The idea of quantum entanglement remained more of a philosophical question rather than a question of physics for many years after this, according to Thors Hans Hansson, an expert on quantum entanglement and a member of the Nobel Committee for physics.

Zeilinger, over a phone call with the Committee, also stated that when he had entered the field it was more philosophy than physics. Yet, he was supported by his then supervisor.

This changed in the 1960s when John Stewart Bell developed a mathematical inequality. This stated that if a large number of measurements of the hidden variables were conducted, the correlation between the results could not exceed a certain value.

This in turn meant that no local hidden variable theory could reproduce all the results of quantum mechanics.

But quantum mechanics also predicts that a certain kind of experiment can violate Bell’s inequality. This results in a stronger correlation than would otherwise be possible.

Such an experiment was first demonstrated by Clauser in 1974. “When he took the measurements, they supported quantum mechanics by clearly violating a Bell inequality. This means that quantum mechanics cannot be replaced by a theory that uses hidden variables,” the Nobel press statement said.

There were still some problems with Clauser’s experiment which were then worked upon by Aspect.

He developed an experiment wherein he switched off the measurement settings of the instruments after the entangled pair of particles had left their source. Therefore, the initial settings of the experiment could not influence the result.

Later, Zeilinger started using entangled quantum states with advanced tools and instruments. His group was able to demonstrate quantum teleportation which aids in moving quantum information from one entangled particle to the other at a faraway distance for the first time.

Zeilinger also clarified that while physical teleportation was still in the realm of science fiction, quantum teleportation could ferry all the information of a mass, any mass, of entangled particles to another mass of entangled particles in the future.

Once the information was transferred, new mass would have the same characteristics as the original mass. “Information defines individuality rather than matter,” he stated.

Zeilinger also said that the prize is an encouragement to young scientists to take up the field and that there are a lot of fundamental questions about quantum entanglement that still remain to be answered.

NGT stops mining in ecologically sensitive Madhav National Park in Madhya Pradesh

Tribunal-appointed panel found advertisements published for leasing out mining sites; recommends geological study to find reasons behind excess iron in groundwater

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has called for halting mining in the ecologically sensitive zone (ESZ) of Madhav National Park in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh.

NGT’s Madhya Pradesh bench, headed by Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi, restrained MP’s mining department and district collector of Shivpuri from granting a lease for mining operations in the area. The order was given September 21, 2022.

The tribunal was hearing a petition by advocate Abhay Jain of Zenith Society for Socio-Legal Empowerment, a non-governmental organisation that provides legal services.

Jain filed a plea against the continued mining in the ESZ. Advertisements were published for leasing out mining sites by Shivpuri district’s mining department, he alleged.

Read more: NGT questions clearances; halts mining at Shaliganga Nallah in Kashmir

The central government notified the ESZ of the park, spread over 277.2 square kilometres, Jain submitted to NGT. It covers 100 metres on the notified urban and ‘Abadi’ (inhabited) area side and two kilometres on the rest of the area from the boundary of the Madhav National Park, he said.

“Annexure II of the ESZ notification contains a list of villages falling within ESZ and Majhera is one of those villages,” Jain wrote in his petition.

Majhera village was called the village of widows owing to the high death rate of male members on account of silicosis and tuberculosis caused by stone mining in the area, Jain pointed out.

The village was home to 25 families of Sahariya tribe — a community of a particularly vulnerable tribal group — residing within a kilometre range of the mining area. The tribe was prone to adverse effects of mining, Jain wrote in the plea.

The NGT had constituted a panel in July to submit a factual and action-taken report within two months over the issue. The joint committee submitted its report on September 13, 2022.

The committee comprised the state Pollution Control Board; regional office of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change at Bhopal; director for Madhav National Park; director, department of mines and minerals, MP government; commissioner, Gwalior and collector, Shivpuri.

Advertisements were published for leasing out mining sites that fall within a two-kilometre range from the ESZ of the park, the joint panel found. It raised the question of the permissibility of the mining in the said sites.

Mining had previously taken place at the sites and there was overburden in the area, the NGT said on the basis of the panel report. In mining, overburden  is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation.

Pits were created due to mining activity and rainwater had accumulated in the same, the committee found.

The bench ordered the mining and geology department of the state and collector, Shivpuri, to restrain from granting any mining lease and executing any mining lease deed in respect of the survey numbers in question and also in the areas falling within ESZ.

“The district magistrate and the superintendent of police, Shivpuri, are also directed to take appropriate steps to ensure that no illegal mining takes place in the survey numbers in question,” read the order.

Closing of the mining activities, appropriate actions for reclamation of the mined area and implementation of the mining closure plan have not been taken by the mining department, the NGT noted.

The mining and geology department of the state will undertake the required actions for reclamation of land and implementation of the mine closure plan within two months’ time and submit the report with photographs within three months, the bench said.

Read more: 60 years after they were last seen, tigers to come back to Madhya Pradesh’s Madhav National Park

“The expenses for such remedial action may be initially borne by the state of Madhya Pradesh, but the same may be recovered from the defaulting project proponents in accordance with the ‘polluter pays principle’ by following due process of law,” read the order.

The joint committee recommended that a geological study may be conducted by the Central Ground Water Board through a reputed Institution to find out the reasons for excess iron in the groundwater in the area, stated the order.

The State Ground Water Board is to engage experts from any of the reputed institutions in MP to find out the reasons for excess iron in groundwater in the area, the bench directed.

The report must be sent to NGT and to the concerned authorities and public health engineering department of the state to take appropriate remedial action, it added.

Report: 200 environmental activists murdered in 2021

Fourteen Indians among the 200; Over 1,700 green activists killed globally from 2012-2021

By DTE Staff

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

Over 1,700 environmental activists were killed between 2012 and 2021, according to an international non-profit report. In 2021, 200 activists died, almost four deaths per week, according to a Global Witness report.

In Cambodia, Chut Wutty, an environmental investigator and activist, was murdered while trying to halt an illegal logging operation. In the western Mexico state of Jalisco, José Santos Isaac Chávez was killed after running for local office opposing a long-running mine.

In April 2021, Sandra Liliana Peña Chocué, an Indigenous governor in southwest Colombia, who had fought for the eradication of coca crops in Caldono, was killed near her home by armed men. Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing the added threat of oil and gas extraction.

One of the eight rangers of the park, Joannah Stutchbury was shot outside her home in Kenya. In June this year, journalist Dom Phillips, who wrote extensively for the Guardian and the Observer, and Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on uncontacted tribes, were murdered in the Javari valley in Brazil’s Amazon after going missing.

The report titled ‘Decade of Defiance’ stated 1,733 environmental activists were killed in the last 10 years. In 2020, 227 such deaths were reported. This is the highest number of killings in a year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Out of the 200 deaths last year, 14 were Indians. This includes three people of the tribal community — Kawasi Waga, Uika Pandu, and Korsa. The three were allegedly shot dead by security forces during a protest against a security force camp in Silger village in Chhattisgarh.

In Assam, 32-year-old Moynal Haque and 12-year-old Sheikh Farid were shot dead by armed police during the eviction-related violence in Dhalpur village.

Father Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest from Jharkhand, was among 16 renowned activists, academics and lawyers who were charged under a draconian anti-terror law in what came to be known as the Bhima Koregaon case. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease while in custody and died there.

Vrinda Grover, a Supreme Court lawyer, said Swamy’s death was “designed to happen”. Other casualties include RTI activists Vipin Agarwal, T Sridhar and Venkatesh S.

Mexico recorded the highest number of killings, with 54 killings in 2021. Over 40 per cent of those killed were indigenous people. Whilst Brazil and India both saw a rise in lethal attacks from 20 to 26 and from four to 14, respectively, both Colombia and the Philippines saw a drop in killings. Yet overall, they remain two of the countries with the highest numbers of killings in the world since 2012.

Over three-quarters of the attacks recorded took place in Latin America. In Brazil, Peru and Venezuela, 78 per cent of attacks took place in the Amazon.

Global Witness documented 10 killings in Africa. Where a sector could be identified, just over a quarter of lethal attacks were reportedly linked to resource exploitation — logging, mining and large-scale agribusiness — and hydroelectric dams and other infrastructure.

These defenders are putting themselves in danger by confronting a viewpoint that sees nature as something not to be cherished and protected, but to be conquered and subdued, according to activist and author Vandana Shiva.

This is a viewpoint with its roots in the western industrial revolutions of the 19th century or even further back in the scientific theory of the western so-called ‘enlightenment’. It matters that this viewpoint originated in the West.

As this report shows, nearly all of the murdered environmental and land defenders are from the Global South, and yet it is not the Global South that reaps the supposed economic ‘rewards’ of all this violence. This viewpoint has brought us to the brink of collapse.

With this report, Global Witness aims to urge governments to enforce laws that protect activists while also laying out blueprints for accountability in companies throughout their global operations and have zero tolerance for attacks on land defenders.

“Activists and communities play a crucial role as the first line of defence against ecological collapse, as well as being frontrunners in the campaign to prevent it,” Global Witness CEO Mike Davis said in the report.

It is high time governments step up, identify their fault lines, execute their responsibilities and do a better job of defending their defenders for the ongoing decade. The future of our species, and our planet, depends on it.

District formation in Indian states is a tricky decision

Formation of districts leads to infra development, employment generation; But brings in operational costs too

By Swapnil Soni

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

The development of cities and towns at the grassroots level is critical for the development of a country. Creation of districts plays a critical role in governance; however, the cost to the exchequer and needs of locals need to be considered as well.

India has come a long way on the path of social and economic development since Independence, thanks to policies and administration for the upliftment of citizens in every nook and cranny.

Policymakers and governments intend to pass on the policy benefits to each citizen in every corner of the country. This requires governance and administration in local regions, including cities, towns and villages.

Read more: Evaluating collaborative governance in Panchayat plantation programme in Odisha

The Constitution of India has a provision to make panchayats, talukas and districts across states of India with the core objective of decentralisation and inclusive growth.

A district enjoys multiple benefits in terms of endowments from the government for local administration and development. In the quasi-federal system of India, the authority of district formation lies with the respective states.

District formation can either be done through an executive order or by passing a law in the state assembly. Many states prefer the executive route by simply issuing a notification in the official gazette.

Typically, bigger states have a larger number of districts as compared to smaller states. Over time, the number of districts has been increasing in India. Today, India has about more than 700 districts across states.

This is due to the increasing population and the need for better administration and development requirements.

District formation comes with many advantages for the state. It helps in better administration and governance. It ensures that citizens’ voices are heard on time and the welfare schemes’ benefit reaches the country’s remotest corners.

The formation of districts leads to the development of infrastructure, including transportation, telecommunication, water, sanitation, health, education and power facilities.

A good infrastructure attracts potential investors and investments. New businesses and industries emerge and existing ones expand. This generates employment opportunities for the citizens in and around the district.

Healthy employment means a healthy income for citizens that further translates into investments. This investment again goes back to industries to generate more employment, more income and thus better growth.

This virtuous cycle of investment and growth continues, which is the ultimate objective of government. In sum, formation of a district in a state brings mutual benefit for both citizens and government.

We can cite the examples of the new districts Bhatapara-Baloda Bazar and Sarguja in Chhattisgarh that witnessed better roads, water, education, health and power facilities after getting the district status.

Read more: Polavaram — displaced and nowhere to go: Local governance ignored as Gram Panchayats await restructuring

Similarly, new districts in other states such as Mulugu and Narayanpet in Telangana, Khunti in Jharkhand, Alipurduar in West Bengal and Tenkasi, Tirupattur, Ranipet, Chengalpet and Kallakurichi in Tamil Nadu experienced a sense of development however at a varying level.

The question that arises is what limits a state to declare each place a district. The answer lies in the cost associated with the formation of a district. A district requires installing administrative offices and deploying officers and public servants.

This adds to the burden on the government exchequer. In fact, some state governments have come up with the idea of district formation by combining many towns of potential distances to optimise the operational cost and satisfy citizens’ demands.

However, such plans cause social unrest and hue and cry among the citizens of the towns. This can lead to economic loss and decay of public trust in the administration and government of the states.

The most recent example of multi-town district formation is Chhattisgarh state, which came up with three new districts — Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki; Sarangarh-Bilaigarh and Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai.

During the formation of these districts, the state government announced a gift of funds for development, promising to offer new opportunities for upliftment in health, education, and connectivity.

However, disputes and challenges surfaced on the ground for fund allocation to the component towns that together form a district. For instance, Mohla getting a higher priority than Manpur and Ambagarh Chowki is a self-igniting issue among the latter’s citizens.

Read more: Moving mountains: Here is how India’s upland regions can be sustainably developed

In sum, any political change regarding the formation of a district in a state comes with its own advantages and challenges. Thus, the government and policymakers must mull over the decision and perform a cost-benefit analysis before district formation.

It is also essential to consult the local people who are the end beneficiaries of the decision to understand their aspirations and win their confidence.

This will potentially mitigate the issues and conflicts between people and government and thereby satisfy the people’s needs at large, which is essential for inclusive growth of state and nation.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

NGT questions clearances; halts mining at Shaliganga Nallah in Kashmir

The Shaliganga Nallah in Budgam is a feeding channel for the Hokersar Wetland Reserve, an internationally declared Ramsar site and home to migratory birds

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

A National Green Tribunal (NGT) bench headed by Justice Sudhir Agarwal September 28, 2022 ordered mining operations at the Shaliganga Nallah in Budgam district of the Kashmir Valley to halt, calling into question the environmental clearances (EC) given for the operations.

The NGT order came in response to a plea by activist Raja Muzaffar Bhat. It challenged the validity of the ECs given to three mining blocks in the area earlier this year.

The NGT impugned (called into question) the ECs and restrained all mining activities in the area by construction company NKC Projects Pvt Ltd. “Impugned ECs dated 19.04.2022 are hereby set aside. PP/respondent 4 is restrained from carrying on any mining activities pursuant to impugned EC,” the order read.

NKC Projects Pvt Ltd, the project proponent, had proposed that it be allowed to mine 1.81 hectares (ha) in Block 1, 1.29 ha in Block 2 and 2.90 ha in Block 4.

It was given clearance for the same May 19, 2022 by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, Jammu & Kashmir, which was challenged by Bhat.

The order stated that according to the appellant, “All the three proposals were rejected by the (administration-appointed) Jammu and Kashmir Expert Appraisal Committee (JKEAC) on the ground that the area for which ECs were applied, are already overexploited; depleted to a large extent due to heavy illegal mining.”

“Shaliganga Nallah is a feeding channel for the Hokersar wetland and mining activity may be detrimental to natural flow and quality of water flowing into Hokersar; irrigation kuhls are also present within the mining site,” it added.

Kuhls are traditional, community-managed irrigation systems in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

The JKEAC had examined the mining blocks on the latest Google Image of October 2021. It found that minerals had been depleted to a large extent due to heavy illegal mining. Hardly any material was available for exploitation without endangering the environmental setting of the Nallah.

Heavy illegal mining activity was observed in and around the mining blocks in October 2021, which needed appropriate action by competent authorities.

The mining may be detrimental to the water flowing into Hokersar Wetland Reserve which is an internationally declared Ramsar site and home to migratory birds. A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

Bhat wrote in the appeal that the ECs were granted without taking into account the grounds on which the previous proposals of the project proponent had been rejected.

He cited that the ECs violated Rule no. 4 of the Jammu and Kashmir Minor Mineral Concession, Storage, Transportation of Minerals, and Prevention of Illegal Mining Rules, 2016.

This prohibits any minor mineral concession being granted within a distance of 25 metres of any embankment. He further cited the fact that the ECs were given without the District Survey Report being prepared without proper guidelines.

The appellant pointed out that the project proponent had also undertaken certain activities during mining that were ‘strictly prohibited’ under the ECs.

Semantics of Anthropocene: Have humans really formed a new era

The Earth will hardly notice when we humans are gone, just as it hardly knew we were here

By Matthew Adams

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

We are living through a period of extraordinary environmental breakdown, a period which is increasingly being referred to as ‘the Anthropocene’. As the term becomes more and more pervasive, I want to explain why, as a psychologist and a committed environmentalist, I think it is a highly problematic way of framing our predicament.

Originally proposed by atmospheric scientists and then geologists, the Anthropocene has come to the fore as a powerful if perplexing way of talking about our current era. This is a period in which, for the first time in its history, the Earth is being deeply transformed by one species — humans.

The word Anthropocene refers to the idea that the Earth’s geological record has been transformed by humanity: Anthropos is Greek for human and -cene is a substantial geological time period within the current 65 million year old Cenozoic era.

It is remarkable how quickly this idea has become ubiquitous. It is now the subject not just of academic texts and conferences, but of art, fiction, magazines, travelogues, poetry, even an opera.

While I agree that this is an important and timely provocation, I want to pause here for a moment, and consider whether the Anthropocene narrative really does capture our predicament and our prospects.

There is already plenty of criticism of the Anthropocene idea. Alternative terms like Capitalocene (which attempts to highlight the detrimental forces of capitalism), and Plantationocene (which emphasises the role of colonialism, the plantation system and slave labour) have been offered as a way of doubling down on the elements of human history responsible for environmental crises, rather than lumping all humans, and their responsibility, together.

But I want to concentrate on the idea of time itself.

Deep time

‘Deep time’ is the concept of geological time that is used “to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred throughout Earth’s history”. That’s a 4.54 billion-year history.

We struggle to grasp the huge scale of a sense of time that is so, well, deep. There are numerous analogies for helping us comprehend this enormity, like the 24-hour clock — that humans have only been on the planet for 19 seconds of it.

I like the one below, as you can visualise it simply enough by holding out your arm. If the Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago at the shoulder, animals of any kind appear within the palm, and more familiar (to us) life forms originate at the first knuckle.

Movement along the fingers represent the periods that followed, incorporating, for example, the Jurassic. And humans? The 11,700-year-old Holocene marks the start of a global spread of Homo sapiens — “a microscopic sliver at the tip of a fingernail”.

The beginning of the proposed Anthropocene, whether we go with a starting point of a mooted 400 years, 70 or somewhere in between, is a tiny speck within this sliver.

So, have Homo sapiens created a new geological era? In simple terms, there is something of a case here — there’s plenty of evidence for human impact in the geological record, from signatures of human-induced climate change, atomic testing, and much more.

But a fuller appreciation of deep time should actually make us wary of the Anthropocene label; maybe even shift our image of ourselves and what it means to inhabit the Earth at this time. Here’s why.

Mass extinction

About 66 million years ago, a mass extinction event took place, wiping out around three quarters of all species. This was most likely the result of an enormous asteroid impact — a conclusion reached after the discovery of a thin but distinct layer of sediment in the geologic record from this time, containing elements abundant in asteroids.

Mass extinction offered an opportunity for the rise of mammals as dominant life forms — ushering in the Cenozoic ("new life") era. This thin layer of comet dust in the rock record represents a brief but vital transition between much thicker preceding and subsequent layers.

But no one refers to what followed the mass extinction event as the ‘Cometocene’! That just wouldn’t make sense — the impact was a one-off event, significant in the context of deep time only in that it ushered in new foundations for life that then stretched out for millions of years into the far future.

What if the same could be said of our influence? What if, even with the well-documented effects of an Anthropocene still accumulating, we are talking about human impacts as a mere blip in the context of deep time?

This is likely true. The spread of industrialism has aggressively and rapidly extracted and used up a finite supply of resources. The fact of finiteness, coupled with unprecedented environmental breakdown, fundamentally circumscribes the long-term viability of any possible era of human dominance.

This is what the American writer John Michael Greer claims when he says that all forms of industrial civilisation combined, in the context of geological time, are unremarkably short-lived and “self-terminating”— simply a transition between eras.

This is why he considers the Holocene-Neocene transition, H-N transition for short, as a more accurate term, with Neocene being a placeholder name for whatever emerges next. Our geological legacy will probably be like the comet dust — “a slightly odd transition layer a quarter of an inch thick”.

As a remarkably adaptive species, humans may find ecological niches to survive and flourish in this far future, but we will not be dominant.

A new psychology

This does not mean we are heading towards some kind of one-off cataclysm — another extinction event. It means we are already living through one.

But rather than being remembered as something grandiloquent and portentous, like the Anthropocene, it is more likely that some far future species would think of us as what historian Stephen Kern calls “a parenthesis of infinitesimal brevity”.

In the context of deep time, the Earth will continue to meander on without us, and it will hardly notice we’re gone, just as it hardly knew we were here. This sojourn into deep time is not intended to be depressing or defeatist, certainly not to rule out hope, or to avoid acknowledgement of the damage humans can do.

I think its psychological relevance is to offer a reminder of life itself as something to approach with reverence and awe; our species as interdependent and interconnected, not somehow apart; and to chip away at any residual hubris in the idea of the Anthropocene.

Locating humanity in an even deeper story can seem scary. But it might also be liberating. For countless cultures around the world of course, this is nothing new —many indigenous world views embrace nature, have a reverence for it and a deep sense of time and place.

While being historically displaced from those places by the forces of colonialism and industrialism, these voices are often neglected. The history of our far future, if we have one, will be one where we learn to recognise interdependence with nature, with other species.

In the end, it is about what it means to be human. As the late environmental philosopher Val Plumwood warned: “We will go onwards in a different mode of humanity, or not at all.”

Matthew Adams is principal lecturer in psychology, University of Brighton, UK

This was first published in the State of the Environment 2021 published by Down To Earth and Centrefor Science and Environment, New Delhi

Researchers find what happens when the sun goes to sleep

Magnetic activity stays low during grand solar minima phases, which can last decades to centuries

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

The sun often appears to be sleeping for decades to centuries. However, it does not rest even during these phases of prolonged slumber, a new study has found.

The sun’s magnetic activity does not shut down during the inactive phases, contrary to previous notions, researchers wrote in their study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters.

In the last 10,000 years, the sun has gone to sleep or entered the grand solar minima phase at least 23 times, the scientists found.

Read more: Cold comfort: The sun is cooling; doesn't mean there'll be no global warming

During the grand solar minima, the sun’s activity stays low, lasting decades to centuries. Very few sunspots appear on the surface and the sun’s overall brightness decreases, the researchers said.

Sunspots are strong magnetic regions on the sun known to produce solar storms. These storms can damage satellites, disrupt electric grids on Earth and harm astronauts. They are dominant during the solar maxima when the star is at its most active stage.

The last grand solar minimum occurred in Maunder Minimum (1645–1710). Temperatures across much of the Northern Hemisphere dropped when the sun entered this phase, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

“Grand minima phase can influence the global climate,” Chitradeep Saha, a PhD scholar at the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research, Kolkata and one of the study’s authors, told Down To Earth.

It is not currently possible to directly observe the sun’s poles and interiors. So, we do not understand what happens in the sun’s interior during grand minimum phases. “Many people thought the magnetic activity went off in this period,” Saha added.

So, Saha and his colleagues simulated the sun’s solar magnetic cycle in the last 10,000 years. They used data on cosmogenic isotopes, which form when cosmic rays interact with atmospheric molecules on Earth.

Cosmic particles do not accumulate in the Earth’s atmosphere during the sun’s active phase due to extremely fast solar wind, Saha explained.

But when the activity is low, he added, solar wind speed is low, allowing more cosmic particles to deposit on ice cores and tree rings.

Simulation using this data allowed the researchers to explore the “unseen” interior dynamics of the sun.

The simulation showed magnetic activity within the outermost zone of the sun, which stretches from 200,000 km right up to the visible surface or also called convection zone.

Read more: In a galaxy far, far away... the story of black holes in pics

It persists in the form of weak cycles in the convection zone. They are incapable of producing sunspots, the researchers said.

Their simulation also showed that meridional circulation — the motion of the plasma extending from the equator to the poles in the solar convection zone — continues to operate despite the sun’s inactivity.

“The meridional plasma flow threading the solar convection zone continues to function like a clock during grand solar minima,” the researchers wrote in the study.

Saha and his colleagues are examining whether grand solar minima follow a particular pattern.

In 2019, the sun entered its 25 solar cycle. Its activity is expected to peak in July 2025. “There is no possibility of another grand minimum in the near future,” Saha explained.

Nobel prize: Svante Pääbo’s ancient DNA discoveries offer clues as to what makes us human

Pääbo sequenced genomes of our extinct relatives Neanderthals and Denisovans; These discoveries resulted in novel insights into human evolution

By Love Dalén, Anders Götherström

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for 2022 has been awarded to Svante Pääbo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution”.

In other words, Pääbo has been awarded the prestigious prize for having sequenced the genomes of our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans and for the fact that these discoveries have resulted in novel insights into human evolution.

Pääbo is widely regarded as having pioneered the field of ancient DNA, a research area dedicated to the recovery and analysis of DNA from historic and prehistoric remains.

Although Pääbo did his PhD in medical science at Uppsala University in Sweden in the early 1980s, he also studied Egyptology when he was at Uppsala. It was a logical next step that he took tools from molecular biology, garnered from his expertise in medical science, to better understand human prehistory.

Extracting DNA from ancient bones

Beginning in the 1980s, Pääbo studied ancient DNA in material ranging from mummified humans to extinct ground sloths. This work was technically challenging because ancient DNA is significantly degraded and can be contaminated.

In the decade that followed, he developed a series of methods and guidelines to recover and interpret authentic DNA and to minimise the risk of contamination from modern sources, especially from contemporary humans.

In the early 1990s, there was significant excitement in the field about the possibility of recovering DNA from dinosaurs. However, based on his knowledge on how DNA degrades over time, Pääbo remained sceptical that DNA could survive such a long time. He was later proven right.

For many of his colleagues, it was clear that Pääbo’s goal was always to recover Neanderthal DNA. But he took his time and carefully developed the methods for recovering and authenticating ancient DNA until these methods were mature enough to accomplish this objective.

Finally, in 1997, Pääbo and his colleagues published the first Neanderthal DNA sequences. In 2010 this was followed by the entire Neanderthal genome (that is, all the genetic information stored in the DNA of one Neanderthal).

Only a few years later, the group also published the genome from a previously unknown type of human, the Denisovans, distantly related to Neanderthals. This sequencing was based on a 40,000-year-old fragment of bone discovered in the Denisova cave in Siberia.

Pääbo’s discoveries show us that gene sequences from our extinct relatives influence the physiology of modern-day humans. Photo: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock

By virtue of being able to compare these with human genomes, one of the most important findings of Pääbo’s work has been that many modern humans carry a small proportion of DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Modern humans picked up these snippets of DNA through hybridisation, when modern and archaic humans mixed, as modern humans expanded across Eurasia during the last ice age.

For example, particular Neanderthal genes affect how our immune system reacts to infections, including COVID-19. The Denisovan version of a gene called EPAS1, meanwhile, helps people survive at high altitudes. It’s common among modern-day Tibetans.

At the same time, in comparing the genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans with those of modern humans, Pääbo and his colleagues have been able to highlight genetic mutations that are not shared. A large proportion of these are connected to how the brain develops.

By revealing genetic differences that distinguish living humans from our extinct ancestors, Pääbo’s influential discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.

Love Dalén, Professor in Evolutionary Genetics, Centre for Palaeogenetics, Stockholm University and Anders Götherström, Professor in Molecular Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

Incessant rains through the month of August and September have affected 4.48 million farmers this season

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Farmers in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region suffered yet another severe blow due to incessant rains during August and September. This comes after the farmers had incurred severe losses worth crores of rupees during July, 2022.

Over 4.48 million farmers have suffered severe crop damage and this may increase over the coming months, according to the divisional commissionerate, Aurangabad.

Some 3,652,872 hectares (ha) of land have been affected due to the unexpected rains, of which 35,34,371 ha are rain-fed. Around 68,391 ha come under irrigation and 5,0,109 ha fall under horticulture.

A distressed farmer on his farmland. Photo: Aishwarya Iyer

The total sowing area in the Aurangabad, Beed and Latur districts was reported to be about 2,067,896 hectares this season, according to official estimates.

The division received rains in the last three weeks of September, making it over 100 per cent above normal. Aurangabad district received 165 per cent, 113 per cent and 130 per cent of rainfall between September 1 and 21, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Beed received 122 and 116 per cent rainfall for the weeks September 7-14 and September 14-21 respectively. Latur, Jalna and Parbhani, Osmanabad and Hingoli districts also received excess rainfall resulting in large-scale crop damages.

Also read: Excessive July rains destroyed 800,000 hectares of crops in Maharashtra

Bapurao Kurumkar, a marginal farmer from the Beed district, said all his crops were damaged in the rains.

“September is the month when crops start bearing fruit and harvest begins. But just when I was about to harvest tur (pigeon pea) and soyabean, the rains caused severe damage,” he told DTE.

Kurumkar said his cotton plantation was also under threat. “I have planted all the crops in three acres (1.21 ha) of land and I fear that all the crops will be lost,” he said.

The cotton starts bearing pods and the October heat would have facilitated it. But with excess rains, the pods have been damaged, he added.

Farmers have started taking precautions to avoid any infestation as well.

Also read: Nearly 600 farmer suicides in 8 months: Is Marathwada facing agri-distress

“The unexpected rains make cotton crops vulnerable to infestation. I have sprayed insecticides and pesticides for the fifth time this season. However, the exercise has increased the input cost by three times,” said Dastagir Pathan, another farmer from Beed district.

The cost of spraying pesticides through the season has increased to Rs 60,000 due to incessant rains, said Dastagir, who co-owns six-acre (2.42 ha) with his two brothers.

“If I sell cotton, I am likely to earn the same amount of money. Given the heavy expenses, there will be no profits to sustain. Our fight is only to save the crops from extreme weather,” he added.

Other farmers  from Marathwada told DTE they feared the remaining crops would also suffer damage if the rains continued.

The effect of the La Nina weather phenomenon will continue until year-end, resulting in more rains, including in the Indian subcontinent, stated the World Meteorological Organization, in its recent report.

The district administration officials have already started field inspections to assess crop damages. However, only limited relief has been disbursed by the state government

The divisional commissionerate has estimated damages to the tune of Rs 376,223 for farmers who have suffered more than 33 per cent of crop loss, making them eligible for crop damage compensation from the state government.

Funds worth Rs 1,688 crore have already been received from the state government, said Sunil Kendrekar, the divisional commissioner. “More funds will be requested as the reports of damages are updated and losses and measured,” he added.

WHO warns of ‘worrying surge’ in cholera cases globally

As many as 26 countries recorded cholera cases this year, with seven deaths in Haiti so far

By Taran Deol

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Several countries across the world are in the grips of a cholera outbreak, with at least seven deaths recorded in Haiti for the first time in three years.

On September 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a “worrying surge” in cases, with 26 countries reporting outbreaks this year. Typically, less than 20 countries record cholera cases annually.

The health crisis in Haiti was compounded by a gang blockade following a fuel price hike last month, resulting in a shortage of clean drinking water and fuel for medical facilities.

The health ministry of the Caribbean country confirmed a case in the Port-au-Prince area and suspected more in the capital-adjacent town of Cite Soleil.

“Lives are being lost in Haiti because hospitals are unable to access fuel,” Ulrika Richardson, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti, said in a September 26, 2022 press release. She added:

If this situation continues, life-saving services risk coming to a standstill, including for pregnant women, newborns and children, as well as for persons suffering trauma and other life-threatening conditions.

“After years of declining numbers, we are seeing a worrying upsurge of cholera outbreaks around the globe over the past year,” Philippe Barboza, the WHO's team lead on cholera and epidemic diarrheal diseases, said in a press conference in Geneva.

Poverty, conflict and climate change are the key triggers for a cholera outbreak. “Extreme climate events like floods, cyclones and droughts further reduce access to clean water and create an ideal environment for cholera to thrive,” he said.

With climate change intensifying, such outbreaks are expected to increase in the coming future, he also warned.

“Not only do we have more outbreaks, but the outbreaks themselves are larger and more deadly,” Barboza added. Compared to the preceding five years, the fatality rate nearly tripled in 2021.

However, the global health body does not have a figure on the exact number of deaths or cases, primarily because there is no standard surveillance system in affected countries. While the outbreak is worrying, the disease is easily treatable and preventable.

Timely and proper administration of oral rehydration and intravenous fluids can keep the fatality below 1 per cent, the WHO noted. In the absence of these steps, cholera can become fatal within hours.

In India, the disease is endemic. Cholera cases in Maharashtra surpassed the 2021 figures, resulting in 261 cases and at least six deaths till July this year.

In 2019, the state reported 223 cases, followed by a drop in 2020 due to the pandemic-induced lockdown and 176 cases in 2021.

As for the fatalities, statistics for this year are the highest for the state in a decade.

In 2011-2012, a dozen people had died of cholera. In July, the Puducherry health department declared a health emergency in the Karaikal district after 14 patients were admitted and 46 were getting treated in the district's community health centres and public health centres.

As per Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, “emergency stockpiles of vaccines against cholera, ebola, meningococcal meningitis and yellow fever, supported by Gavi, were accessed 25 times by 14 countries seeking to shield at-risk communities and curtail outbreaks threatening to flare into wildfire epidemics.”

However, these steps remain out of reach for many countries. WHO maintains an emergency stockpile of vaccines, but only a few million doses are available for use till the year-end due to a manufacturing issue, according to Barboza.

“So it's very clear that we do not have enough vaccines to respond to both acute outbreaks and even less to be able to implement preventive vaccination campaigns that could be a way to reduce the risk for many countries,” he said.

Food production will need 165-600 million hectares more land to meet demand by 2050

Need to halt deforestation while ensuring food security, says report by FAO

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Food demand to support the global population will be 50 per cent more in 2050 compared with 2012, according to a recent United Nations report. Production will need 165 to 600 million more hectares of land for crop and livestock production, much of which is currently covered by forests and other critical ecosystems.

Food and Agriculture Organization released the report at FAO-Global Landscapes Forum digital forum Transforming agrifood systems with forests September 30, 2022.

The yield increases alone would be insufficient to meet demand and must be paired with other interventions, the report said. These include restoration of degraded land, forest protection and improved governance to ensure an increase in food security without drastically diminishing forest cover.

Read more: Food insecurity to worsen for millions in Sri Lanka due to poor harvest, price rise, economic crisis

From 2000-2018, almost 90 per cent of deforestation globally was attributable to agricultural expansion. This negatively impacts associated ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity, the report stated.

“We must build sustainable global agrifood systems based on the synergies between agriculture and forests that provide a win-win outcome for both sectors,” said Tiina Vähänen, deputy director of FAO’s forestry division.

The role of governments is central to bringing about this transformation, the report said. Governments need to create conditions for farmers to change their practices to maximise production while minimising the impact on forests and biodiversity, it explained.

It also talks about the progress made to curb deforestation put in place by the international community, governments and private sector.

“Moving to a more sustainable approach to food production will increase agricultural production in coming years while also helping to meet the globally agreed 2030 target for ending deforestation,” added Vähänen.

The paper summarises approaches for governments to decouple deforestation from agricultural commodities that are associated with deforestation and forest degradation, such as beef, soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, rubber and others, stated a press release shared by FAO.

“The report recommends that governments pay special attention to smallholder farmers, who produce roughly 35 per cent of the world’s food, but often live in poverty and cannot afford the costs or interruptions to income incurred through changing the way they work,” it added.

The world has lost 420 million hectares of forests in the last two decades, as per FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2022 released earlier this year.

It is vital to slow the rate of deforestation — standing at 8.8 million ha per year from 2010-2018. It stood at 11 million ha per year from 2000-2010.

The report also talked about how, when properly integrated, grazing can play a vital role in restoring degraded land with trees, halting desertification and improving wildfire prevention in drylands.

Drylands are home to about 25 per cent of the global population, contain 50 per cent of the world’s livestock, 27 per cent of the world’s forests and are where about 60 per cent of the world’s food production takes place, stated the report.

Read more: Food affordability improved over last 50 years; but what about nutrition

The benefits of silvopastrolism — which combines animal grazing and trees — and its potential to create alternate livelihoods was also highlighted. It can also help enhance local communities’ food security and income by preventing land degradation.

The traditional knowledge should be shared and updated for ‘peer-to-peer learning and training’, it recommended.

Woody plants in drylands provide animal feed, timber and fruit as well as help to increase biodiversity and regulate soil and water cycles, the report explained. At the same time, grazing livestock helps control vegetation, reduce the risk of wildfires, accelerate nutrient cycles and improve soil fertility.

“Landscape planners and decision-makers should consider livestock as part of the solution and carefully restore open tree cover — when tree cover is between 30 and 70 per cent — as part of an integrated landscape approach using agroforestry to promote healthy ecosystems,” recommended the report.

Carbon dots: A futuristic solution for sustainably managing aquatic environment?

The inexpensive nanomaterial is becoming more popular in applications like sensing and bioimaging

By Priya Varghese, Kundan Kumar, Saurav Kumar, S P Shukla, Akaknshya Das, Debiprasad Kantal

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Modern technology like nanomaterials or carbon dots (CD) might be the solution to environmental issues like water pollution.

The urban development of modern society has resulted in the introduction of harmful and toxic pollutants into waterbodies, disturbing the integrity of the aquatic environment. Novel technological developments like nanotechnology provide innovative solutions for sustainable and efficient environmental cleanup.

Nanotechnology is a field of research and innovation concerned with building ‘things’ — generally, materials and devices — on the scale of atoms and molecules. A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre: ten times the diameter of a hydrogen atom.

The attractive properties of carbon nanomaterials have been an extensively studied area as they push the limits and capabilities of technology.

CDs are one of the youngest members of the carbon nanomaterial family. They were discovered in 2004 and have an average diameter of less than 10 nanometres.

Read more: How advances in nanotechnology may help in targeted cancer treatment

The nanomaterials have garnered the attention of researchers mainly due to their convenient availability from both organic and inorganic materials. In addition, CDs have the potential to be used instead of quantum dots, which are more toxic and less biocompatible.

The technology is produced from various raw materials leading to their wide range of beneficial physicochemical characteristics. These are many surface functional groups, extremely small sizes, large surface areas, excellent water dispersibility and superior ability in charge transport.

The surface functional groups in CDs contribute rich oxygen-containing moiety on their surface and are favourable for water solubility and further functionalisation for various applications.

CDs possess remarkable optical properties, which differ peculiarly based on the precursor used for synthesis.

The dots show continuous and broad absorption spectra, intense fluorescent activity, excellent photostability and highly tunable photoluminescence.

Since they are good electron donors and acceptors, they are becoming more popular as candidates in applications like sensing and bioimaging. Moreover, CDs are inexpensive, highly biocompatible, and environment-friendly.

Green synthesis of CDs

Generally, the synthesis of carbon dots can be categorised into “top-down” and “bottom-up” methods. The top-down approach converts large carbon structures into quantum-sized carbon dots by laser ablation, arc discharge, and chemical or electrochemical oxidation.

In the bottom-up method, CDs are produced from carbonising small molecule precursors by pyrolysis, carbonisation, hydrothermal processes or microwave-assisted synthesis.

Numerous studies are going on for the green synthesis of carbon dots with high efficiency.

CDs have been produced from water hyacinth waste, which showed green fluorescence under UV light. They were also proven to be a fluorescent sensor to detect pretilachlor herbicide causing trouble in aquatic bodies.

This study paved the way for an efficient method to control the water hyacinth menace in aquatic bodies apart from pollutant detection.

In 2016, a study put forward green synthesis of fluorescent carbon dots from eutrophic algal blooms, which can be used as a biomarker for bioimaging. This was a completely green and rapid approach to CD synthesis and an alternate way to handle algal blooms in the recovery process of eutrophication.

CDs for managing aquatic environment

The fascinating properties of carbon dots have enabled them to be used in various environmental applications.

- Pollutant sensing

- Contaminant adsorption

- Water treatment

- Pollutant degradation

- Antimicrobial

CDs provide an excellent possibility for fluorescence and colourimetric environmental pollutants detection. They are widely used as a fluorescent nanoprobe for pollutant detection because of their high fluorescence emission.

Read more: Extremely tiny gold nanorattle may help detect serotonin levels instantly

They also enable the detection of pollutants with colour change by the colourimetric method.

The technology can provide many surface adsorption sites due to their small size and large specific surface area. Nitrogen-doped CDs were formed for the adsorption of ions like Cd2+ and Pb2+ from wastewater (Sabet et al, 2019).

CDs can also be useful for water treatment as they are promising nano-fillers in fabricating thin-film nanocomposite membranes where they can form chemical bonds with other compounds.

Studies on CDs in combination with thin-film nanocomposite membranes reported increased surface hydrophilicity, solute selectivity, and improved anti-fouling performance.

The technology can also be useful for pollutant degradation by providing a cutting-edge approach for next-generation photocatalysis. Photocatalysis includes reactions that take place by utilising light and a semiconductor.

Organic pollutants in polluted water can act as electron and hole transferring agents, while carbon dots act as photosensitiser.

The efficiency of methylene blue and rhodamine B degradation is improved in the presence of pollutants with a photosensitiser (CD), a study by scientists S Bhunia and colleagues found. Recently, thio-urea and citric acid-based carbon dots were used for the degradation of harmful dyes.

Antimicrobial mechanisms of CDs mainly include physical/mechanical destruction, oxidative stress, photocatalytic effect and inhibition of bacterial metabolism. CDs in contact with the bacteria cell under visible or natural light could efficiently generate reactive oxygen species. This can damage deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA), causing bacteria death.

Recent advancements

Aquaculture farms use CDs for water quality management. Prawn-shell-derived N-doped carbon nanodots as fluorophores were used in a study for selective and sensitive determination of nitrogen dioxide in water.

CDs obtained from grass carp successfully detected mercury ions in lake water, demonstrating its potential for diverse applications (Liua et al, 2019).

Zhang et al, 2021 demonstrated a highly selective sensing strategy for ammonia detection based on nitrogen and sulphur co-doped CDs in a wide linear range of 2.0–80.0 millimoles per litre.

Further, metal sensing-CDs loaded with titanium dioxide-nanocomposite were applied in aquaculture for photocatalytic bacterial deactivation. This is the first report using nanocomposite to disinfect V harveyi-mediated acute-hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (Alexpandi et al, 2020).

CDs have already demonstrated their promising potential for environmental applications in preliminary studies as new carbon-based nanomaterials. However, more efforts should be focused on synthesising new CDs with high quantum yield and specific surface groups to prepare CDs-based sensors with improved sensitivity and accuracy.

Read more: New nanotechnology-based drug delivered via nose shows promise

The efficiency of pollutant degradation can be increased by optimising the material design through advanced characterisation techniques. Similarly, further study on synthetic raw materials, conditions, methods, and adsorption mechanisms is necessary to produce CDs-based absorbents with superior adsorption capability.

Future research should devote to the standardised synthesis and purification processes to obtain CDs with homogeneity, high purity, and high selectivity.

Although many difficulties and challenges are faced on the way to development, CDs are expected to bring about more exciting opportunities for environmental applications.

CDs will be an inevitable part of the scientific toolbox for environmental science and engineering in the future eith the development and integration with other nanotechnology.

Views expressed are the authors' own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

Punjab is usually blamed for burning paddy stubble; here is the back story to that

Paddy farming in Punjab was started to meet the food grain requirements of the country for which the state has been forced to pay a huge price

By Gian Singh

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Paddy harvesting will begin in many parts of Punjab around October 15, 2022 and will be completed in most of the state by the end of the month. The burning of paddy stubble after harvesting the crop in Punjab and the resultant air pollution has been making headlines in the media for quite some time now.

Smoke, unburnt smoke particles and carbon dioxide gas make up most of this air pollution. The pollution caused by the burning of stubble has been creating many problems for humans and non-humans alike in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

Political parties and farmer organisations keep giving statements about who should take responsibility for this problem and its solution. The National Green Tribunal is also giving instructions in this regard.

It is necessary to look at the historical aspect of paddy farming in Punjab to understand the causes of this problem and suggest solutions.

Crop combinations were suitable for all types of life before the introduction of paddy in the state on a large scale. This is because these combinations were varied and adaptable to Punjab’s agro-climatic conditions.

The Planning Commission was formed after Indian independence in 1950 and from 1951, the First Five Year Plan was introduced. Food grains had been a problem since the country’s independence.

Hence, in the First Five Year Plan (1951-56), the main priority was given to the development of the agricultural sector. As a result, this problem could be controlled to a large extent.

During the Second Five Year Plan (1956-61), the main priority was given to the development of the industrial sector. Consequently, the food grains problem in the country resurfaced.

The drought during 1964-66 made the shortage of food grains very serious. The central government had imported food grains in huge quantities under the PL 480 scheme from the United States, which cost India a lot.

The central government then decided to introduce the ‘New Agriculture Technology’ in India to solve the problem of food grain scarcity. This technology was a package of high-yielding variety seeds, assured irrigation, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, machinery and modern methods of farming.

The central government decided to introduce this technology on priority in Punjab after discussions at various levels regarding its implementation.

This decision was made taking into consideration the farmers, agricultural labourers, rural artisans and rich natural resources of Punjab. The state’s fertile soil, quality and level of groundwater and agro-climatic conditions were much better than those of other states.

In Punjab, the ‘New Agriculture Technology’ kicked off with the cultivation of wheat. Due to the excellent contribution of wheat to the Central Pool of Food Grains, the central government imposed the paddy crop on Punjab from 1973 through the Minimum Support Prices policy.

The favourable minimum support price and production and procurement certainties were the main reasons for adopting paddy farming in Punjab. Before the introduction of this technology, basmati paddy was being planted in the Shiwalik foothills of the state. From 1973, paddy farming began in almost all the areas of Punjab where maize and cotton were the main crops.

Bearing the cross?

The plantation of paddy, along with the sowing of wheat in Punjab has filled the Central Pool of Food Grains. But it has created many serious problems for Punjab, which will get even more serious in the future.

Before the large-scale plantation of paddy in Punjab, the groundwater level in the state was very good. Today, in more than three-fourths of Punjab’s community development blocks, the groundwater level has gone down to a dangerous level.

Researchers Surender Singh and Harvinder Singh conducted a research study Ground Water Development in Punjab.

The study showed that the groundwater level had dropped to dangerous levels in those community development blocks of the state where wheat-paddy farming dominate the cropping pattern.

The pond irrigation system is mostly used for paddy farming in Punjab. During 1960-61, the number of tubewells in Punjab was 7,445. This is around 1.5 million today. Monoblock motors stopped working due to the lowering of the groundwater table, which forced the farmers to get submersible motors.

The cost of these motors is high and the bores required for them have to be deepened again and again. Such a phenomenon is becoming a reason for further increasing the debt faced by farmers.

The Punjab government is giving free electricity to the farmers for irrigation, the economic burden of which is falling on the state treasury.

Farmers are forced to use their own or rented generators when their irrigation needs are not met with the free electricity provided by the Punjab government. This is one of the reasons for the increase in their production cost.

Maize and cotton were sown during the kharif season in Punjab before the large-scale plantation of paddy in the state. These crops provided employment to farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans.

This employment has reduced significantly with the introduction of paddy. This change in the cropping pattern is one of the reasons responsible for increasing debt on small farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans.

Paddy farming in Punjab was started to meet the food grain requirements of the country for which Punjab has been forced to pay a huge price. Farmers in Punjab are forced to set fire to the paddy stubble and they are the first to bear the brunt of the resulting pollution and many other aspects.

There can be no doubt about that this type of pollution is very harmful to all living beings. Methane is produced mainly due to the prevalence of pond irrigation for the paddy crop in Punjab. Burning of paddy stubble releases carbon dioxide gas, smoke and unburnt smoke particles into the air and pollutes the environment.

There are short- and long-term possible solutions to problems arising from paddy stubble burning in Punjab. As a short-term solution, the central government should give adequate compensation to the farmers of Punjab for disposing paddy stubble. The Punjab government should come forward to contribute its due in this regard.

Doing so will bring some relief to the farmers. It is also somewhat natural that there will be some increase in the days of employment of the agricultural labourers. The central and state governments should provide financial assistance to the industrial units which use paddy stubble as fuel.

The central and state governments should come forward on research projects to generate electricity from paddy stubble. However, it is not possible to solve all the problems related to paddy crop through short-term solutions.

This problem can be solved by long-term measures. The paddy crop is suitable for areas that have plenty of water for irrigation. Planting only paddy throughout the year in such areas will ensure its stubble is automatically added to the soil, which will also increase the fertility of that soil.

Minimum Support Prices of competing crops to paddy should be given to the farmers of Punjab according to the agro-climatic conditions of the kharif season. Farmers will then get rid of the paddy crop. While doing this, it is very important to keep in mind that the income of the farmers does not fall.

Gian Singh is former professor, Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

Millet might: Here is how Odisha can succeed in reviving these cereals lost to the Green Revolution

Odisha’s mission to bring millets back to its fields and plates needs greater marketing support and promotion beyond tribal areas

By Anamika Yadav

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Supply creates its own demand. This theory, believed to have been proposed by the early 19th century French economist Jean-Baptiste Say, may sound like a foolhardy view to the modern ear, but this is how India lost the diversity of its food basket to the Green Revolution.

In the 1960s, as the country was struggling to feed itself, the focus was to rapidly increase the production of two crops — wheat and rice. This shaped an Indian diet where rice and wheat became the staple food, eventually reducing the demand for other traditional cereal grains like millets.

Assessments in recent decades show that while the Green Revolution has not helped address the nutritional security of India, it has turned the country into the world’s biggest extractor of groundwater. Heavy reliance on chemical inputs has degraded soil, polluted water sources and is harming farmers’ health.

Fifty years later, as Odisha tries to improve nutritional security and promote sustainable agricultural practices, Say’s law has come in handy.

In 2017, the state launched the Odisha Millet Mission (OMM), which aims to bring millets back to its fields and food plates by encouraging farmers to grow the crops that traditionally formed a substantial part of the diet and crop system in tribal areas.

This highly varied group of small-seeded cereal crops not only require less water, farm inputs and are more resilient to climate vulnerability, but rich in nutrients like calcium, iron and protein.

Better for the food plate

The Green Revolution has largely focused on production and consumption of wheat and paddy. However, in terms of nutritional value, millets will prove to be more beneficial

00 Highest amount of the respective nutrient among the given food crops

Food crops ▶

◀ Nutrients

Finger Millet

Little Millet

Sorghum

Pearl Millet

Foxtail millet

Kodo Millet

Barnyard millet

Paddy

Wheat

Calcium (g)

344

17

25

42

31

35

22

33

30

Phosphorous (g)

283

220

222

240

290

188

280

160

306

Iron (mg)

3.9

9.3

5.4

11

2.8

1.7

18.6

1.8

3.5

Thaimin (mg)

0.41

0.3

0.38

0.42

0.59

0.15

0.33

0.41

0.36

Niacine (mg)

1.1

3.2

4.3

2.8

3.2

2

4.2

4.3

5.1

Protein (g)

7.3

7.7

10.4

11.8

12.3

8.3

6.2

6.8

11.8

Carbohydrates (g)

72

67

70.7

67

60.2

65.9

65.5

78.2

71.2

Fat (g)

1.3

4.7

3.1

4.8

4.3

1.4

4.8

0.5

1.5

Fibre (g)

3.6

7.6

2

2.3

6.7

5.2

13.6

1

2

Energy (kcal)

336

329

329

363

351

353

300

362

358

Note: Approximate value of major nutrients per 100 g of the edible portion Source: National Institute of Nutrition, Telangana, and scientific studies

OMM provides farmers incentives of up to Rs 9,500 per ha over a three-year period to shift to millet cultivation.

This includes free seeds and organic fertilisers. Public-policy think tanks Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN) headquartered in Hyderabad and the Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCDS) based in Bhubaneswar, which have partnered with the state government for the mission, conduct regular training programmes for farmers to improve productivity and lower input costs.

To complete the supply chain, the government has created an assured market for the produce. Hiranjan Mohanta, joint director of agriculture for Odisha, says that since 2019, the state has been offering minimum support price of Rs 3,377 per 100 kg of ragi, more than the Rs 1,940 per 100 kg for paddy. It has benchmarked prices for little millet and foxtail millet and developed an automated portal for procurement.

Over the past five years, Odisha has recorded a 14-fold increase in millet production, from 3,333 hectares (ha) in 2017-18 to 53,230 ha in 2021-22. Even the average yield has improved by 28 per cent because of sustainable agricultural practices and quality seeds.

In 2018, NCDS conducted a survey of households growing millets under the mission, and found that the value of their produce per ha doubled from Rs 9,477 to Rs 20,701 and income per ha increased from Rs 3,957 to Rs 12,486.

To ensure that the millets reach the food plates, the government conducts regular campaigns and rallies to make people aware of the benefits of millets and to remove the notion that they are poor people’s food, says Dinesh Balam, associate director, WASSAN.

The government has also made it part of the public distribution system (PDS) and provides 1 kg of ragi per ration card holder, which can increase to 2 kg in areas with high ragi procurement. In Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts, a ragi laddu mix is distributed by anganwadi centres for consumption by young children.

OMM has earned accolades for its agro-ecological initiatives from various national and international agencies, including UN. In 2021, NITI Aayog, think tank of the Union government, said it will facilitate OMM’s learnings in other states.

To assess the impact of the mission on the ground, researchers with Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment travelled this May to various districts of the state. They found that while there has been an increase in overall production and consumption of millets in the state, the crops have not yet regained their earlier glory.

Shoots of growth

In the first five years of implementation, Odisha Millet Mission has increased production and consumption of millets to some extent. However, to scale up, it must recognise its shortcomings

MEASURES TO BOOST PRODUCTION

MEASURES TO BOOST CONSUMPTION

Incentives of Rs 9,500 per hectare over a three-year period

Campaigns, training and food festivals to promote millets

Capacity-building through training on millet production, application of biological inputs and sowing techniques

Setting up of mobile vans or trucks, cafés, kiosks and

outlets to sell millet-based foods

Procurement of ragi at higher minimum support price than  that of paddy

Creation of “Millet Shakti” brand to sell products like cookies, savoury snacks, vermicelli and processed millets

Facilitation of market linkages by farmer-producer organisations

Under the public distribution system, one ration card holder gets 1-2 kg of ragi, depending on the procurement. Ragi laddu mix is provided by anganwadi centres in two districts

IMPACTS

SHORTCOMINGS

19 of 30 districts covered, comprising 142 blocks, 1,722 gram panchayats, 16,989 villages, and 129,222 farmers

Nine districts have less than 5 per cent of farmers’ coverage. Only 1.54 per cent of total net sown area covered

Value of produce per hectare in households increased from Rs 9,477 per ha to R20,701; income from R3,957 to R12,486

Focus has largely been on production and procurement of ragi rather than all kinds of millets

Increased income for women’s self help groups involved in processing and sale of millet products

Numbers of sales outlets are still low. Scale of Millet Shakti and public distribution is extremely limited

Share of farmer households consuming millets in the winter has increased to 98.5 per cent, in the rainy season to

72.6 per cent and in summer to 89.9 per cent.

Only 500 kg of millets are procured at assured prices. Farmers resort to the open market to sell produce they do not or cannot consume at low prices of R10-12 per kg

Much to be desired

OMM promotes production and consumption of seven millets. But so far, focus has been on ragi, which has accounted for 86 per cent of the total area under millets, according to data on the OMM website. In contrast, little millet, foxtail millet, sorghum, pearl millet, kodo millet and barnyard millet cover less than 13 per cent of the area.

Explaining the mission’s focus on ragi, Kalpana Pradhan, scheme officer of the mission, says, “We are looking for high-yielding seeds for non-ragi millets. Farmers are urged to plant some non-ragi millets.”

In 2020-21, the state government procured slightly more than 20 million kg of ragi. However, this accounts for only 27 per cent of the total ragi produced, as OMM procures only 500 kg of ragi per ha and leaves the rest for farmers to consume.

This practice has prompted farmers to consume more millets in all seasons, shows a mid-term evaluation by NCDS in 2019-20. But given that average yield is 1,500 kg per ha, much of the produce does not get procured and farmers are forced to sell it at distressed rate. Damroodhar Jani, from Ranga Paru village in Kandhamal district says, “We get Rs 10-12 per kg in the open market.”

OMM officials also admit that despite ragi being distributed in PDS and as a mix through anganwadi centres in two districts, its consumption has not picked up in a significant manner.

OMM also sells millet products, such as cookies, savoury snacks, vermicelli and processed millets, under a brand called “Millet Shakti” through food trucks, cafés, kiosks and other outlets.

“Women self-help groups (SHGs) have been kept at the centre of the programme. They do not just pay a major role in manufacturing biological inputs to improve millet yields and undertake processing of the produce, but also operate the millet-based cafés and outlets,” says Kalpana.

The full potential of SHGs, though, has not yet been realised. So far, only three women’s SHGs manufacture and process Millet Shakti products, which limits the volume available, income generated, and consumption.

OMM also leverages farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) to provide better marketing linkages.

Until now, OMM has tapped into existing FPOs to sell processed millets in the open market or aggregate produce for Tribal Development Co-operative Corporation of Odisha Limited; if a block does not have an FPO, an SHG or community group is registered as one.

Currently, there are 76 FPOs under OMM. But some of them are engaged only in minor processing and aggregation, without plans of scaling up market linkages. Encouraging FPOs with better incentives and benefit-sharing will help them compete in the market, says Sanghamitra Pradhan, scheme officer from Gajapati district.

FPOs also have their limitations, says M Muthu Kumar, OMM director. “To make farmers self-sustainable regardless of OMM, it is critical that we create a parallel market for millets. We are in discussions to get private firms such as Reliance Group involved,” he adds.

For the next five years, Odisha has set targets like revival of millet foods in urban and rural areas, covering 1,000-2,000 ha and 4,000 households in each block under improved agricultural practices, and supporting 142 FPOs for marketing and exports. To meet them, it must recognise its shortcomings.

The programme’s coverage has increased from 14 districts in 2017 to 19 districts now. But data is available only for 15 districts, nine of which have less than 5 per cent of farmers under OMM, covering 1.54 per cent of the total net sown area.

There is no information on the exact production of millets other than ragi. Understanding these trends will help develop better strategies for production, marketing support and consumption. For instance, the government can expand distribution of millets in more districts and include it in midday meals offered in schools to provide a major consumption boost.

Umi Daniel, director of migration and education at development non-profit Action Education (previously known as Aide et Action)-South Asia, who is based in Bhubaneswar, says, “Millets have been grown and consumed by indigenous people for a long time. The decline of the crops was not just due to the Green Revolution, but also because non-tribal people did not accept them.”

“The government is once again aggressively marketing millets in tribal areas, which may stereotype them as tribal or poor people’s food and drive young tribal people away,” he adds.

(This is fourth in a series of six articles on how better market access to non-chemical produce is key to success of regenerative agriculture)

This was first published in the 16-30 September, 2022 edition of Down To Earth

‘Caste and Partition in Bengal’ ignores the work of Dalit scholars; here is how

A person reading Caste and Partition in Bengal: The Story of Dalit Refugees, 1946-1961 would think that Dalits have never done a caste analysis of partition, which is absolutely untrue

By Akshat Jain

Published: Wednesday 05 October 2022

In A staggering display of literary gymnastics, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury have managed to write a book ostensibly to address the “discursive absence of the caste question and the Dalit from the long history of Partition in Bengal”, using virtually no theoretical contribution from Dalit intellectuals.

This is not to say that the book does not quote Dalits. It does have interviews, speeches, newspaper articles, stories and references to empirical studies conducted by them.

The authors talk about the history of the anti-caste struggle in British India without so much as mentioning G Aloysius, a scholar-in-residence at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, whose 1997 book Nationalism Without a Nation in India is of direct relevance to the subject matter of this book, in that it painstakingly delineates, among other things, how partition was a compact between upper caste Hindus and Muslims against the interests of the lower castes in both religions.

BR Ambedkar is used only as a historical figure, as a politician who made speeches and conducted movements, and not once as an academic or intellectual.

To say that Ambedkar sought to politicise the structural violence of untouchability, they have quoted and referenced Anupama Rao, a professor of history at Barnard College, Columbia University. They did not even deign to quote Ambedkar’s academic work directly.

Another egregious oversight by Bandyopadhyay and Basu Ray Chaudhury is their treatment of the caste question as a Dalit problem.

Why is the book titled Caste and Partition in Bengal if it is just, as the subtitle says, The story of Dalit Refugees?

If one goes into the book expecting to read a caste analysis of partition, one will be sorely disappointed.

The book is merely an opinion piece about the misery of Dalit refugees which makes the “ground-breaking” argument that Dalits were not passive actors during partition but had their own complex relationship with it. Have Dalits not said this themselves a million times in countless stories, articles, autobiographies, speeches and, yes, theoretical treatises?

The authors’ lack of engagement with Dalit scholarship shows everywhere in the book and makes it about as relevant to read today as a two-week-old newspaper. Let me give an example to illustrate what I mean.

The authors correctly point out that protests in refugee camps in West Bengal began autonomously under Dalit leadership but were appropriated by mainstream upper caste-led political parties, both from the left and the right.

As the leadership passed from Dalits living in camps to upper castes living outside the camps, the authors tell us, the caste angle of the resistance movements was neutralised, and the “violent” and “radical” tendencies of the movement were controlled in favour of moderate and non-violent satyagraha type of protests.

The parties did this to preserve the status quo in Bengal in which upper castes ruled everything, from business to bureaucracy to legislature. So far, so good.

The problem is that the authors present this trajectory of events as if it was unique in post-British Bengal. If the authors had read Dalit scholarship (even just Ambedkar and Aloysius), they would have known that this was precisely the method adopted by upper castes everywhere, both in British India and post-British India.

In fact, this is precisely what MK Gandhi also did as he appropriated and finally suppressed autonomous peasant movements in order to preserve the power of upper caste landlords. The book could have benefitted from these connections.

Due to the authors’ complete misunderstanding of what caste analysis actually is (it is much more than recounting horrifying stories of Dalit lives while devoting some token sections to how they heroically coped with it all), they fail to ask even the most basic questions that have to arise when reading an account like this.

They say that the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha wanted partition while Dalits and Muslims did not, but the Congress fudged the narrative post facto to blame Dalits and Muslims for partition.

They fail to ask why the Congress succeeded in doing so — a question that would actually require a caste analysis of the Congress and of the entire discursive machinery (journalists, writers, academics) needed to achieve such a massive rewriting of such recent history.

Not only does the book manage to add absolutely nothing to our understanding of partition, it actually obfuscates matters further.

The authors also paint a narrative in which Muslims come across as the people who kick-start the cycle of violence and counter-violence which leads to the refugee crisis in West Bengal, which is far from the truth.

Additionally, a person reading this book would think that Dalits have never done a caste analysis of partition, which is also absolutely untrue.

This was first published in the 16-30 September, 2022 edition of Down To Earth

Strong start: This Prayagraj non-profit gives poor children a chance to complete their education

Shuruaat—ek jyoti shiksha ki provides underprivileged children with free tuition and access to sanitary pads

By Saumya Jyotsna

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Till five years ago, Aanchal Kumari was not sure if she could complete her elementary education. This year, after scoring 87 per cent in the class 10 examination of the Uttar Pradesh Board, she has chosen to pursue science in class 11, and hopes to become a doctor one day.

Kumari, who lives in the Alopibagh township in Prayagraj district, attributes this turnaround to all the blood, sweat and tears of the teachers with non-profit Shuruaat—ek jyoti shiksha ki who have been visiting her colony for the past five years and teaching children for free.

“My father, a vegetable vendor, splurges almost his entire earnings on alcohol. The family environment has been so grim that my schooling was never prioritised. This changed with Shuruaat,” she said.

Based in Prayagraj, Shuruaat promotes education among underprivileged children and those living in low-income settlements by providing free tuition classes, stationery and notebooks.

“Over the past six years, we have taught more than 150 students of different age groups. Some of our early batches have even enrolled at government engineering colleges,” said Abhishek Shukla, founder, Shuruaat.

This year, six of its students, including Kumari, have secured first division in the board examiniations. The non-profit also facilitates enrolment of its students at government schools.

“We have recently opened a play school in Prayagraj to teach younger children at a monthly fee of Rs 1,” said Shukla, who has obtained a postgraduate degree in social work.

Shukla launched Shuruaat in 2016. “The idea came to me when I saw a seven-year-old girl begging at a railway crossing. She told me that her mother had passed away and she had to care for her younger brother by herself. I visited her slum and found many others like her,” he said.

After the incident, Shukla started teaching four to five children for free in Harinagar Basti slum area in Prayagraj. “Over time, more students started coming to us and many people volunteered to join me. We now have three centres in Prayagraj and the neighbouring Bhadohi district,” he said.

As the non-profit expanded its reach, the teacher-volunteers, who are college students themselves, noticed that the number of young girls was on the decline and realised that menstruation and a lack of access to proper sanitary products were causing the low turnout.

“The girls told us that one small packet of sanitary pads costs Rs 30, which is expensive for families who earn Rs 500-Rs 1,000 every 15 days,” Shukla said. Hence in January 2021, Shuruaat launched two pad banks, one at its play school in Prayagraj and the other at its centre in Bhadohi city.

So far, 900 girls have opened an ‘account’ with the banks, which provides free sanitary pads to them. The volunteers follow up with the beneficiaries each month to ensure that they have access to sanitary pads.

“The pads are collected through donation drives we conduct every few months. If there is a shortage, we buy more ourselves,” Shukla said. He said the initiative is helping many girls return to school and fulfil their aspirations.

This was first published in the 16-30 September, 2022 edition of Down To Earth

World

- Eating right, for the environment: WWF’s diet chart to help curb climate change, biodiversity loss

- Heavy metal out there: Researchers detect barium in atmospheres of 2 exoplanets

- IN PHOTOS: Species unlisted by CITES being traded more than recognised ones, says study

- Ocean currents protect Galápagos Islands from global warming; but are they safe forever?

- Nigeria floods: Expert insights into why they’re so devastating and what to do about them

- Hazards in waiting: Half the world still without early warning systems, flags UN report

- Africa needs $25 billion per year for universal access to clean energy: IEA

- Male birth control options are in development, but a number of barriers still stand in the way

- Indian researchers spot rare supermassive black hole, opens new avenues for star formation research

- We have produced a new guide to decolonise language in conservation

- Net-zero emission means doubling energy supply from renewables

- Hidden Hunger: Every second child globally deficient in micronutrients, finds report

- COVID-19: Is SARS-CoV-2 evolving differently after omicron

- Climate crisis: Expect more extreme heatwaves in near future

- Legacy Waste: Did mustard gas from World Wars dumped in Baltic cause Nord Stream explosions

- Nord Stream spews high levels of methane, likely to affect marine life

- Insects today damage plants more despite dwindling numbers: Study

- Climate finance: Donors give less than they claim; and not for mitigation to needy countries

- Simply Put: Death of Irony

- Not enough women in World Health Assembly: Some countries may need a century for gender parity

- World Mental Health Day: WHO-FIFA installs friendship benches to promote mental-health awareness

- A million-year-old marine DNA can reveal how climate change will affect Antarctica

- 2022 Economics Nobel awarded to trio for improving ability to avoid financial crises

- Climate change triggered droughts in Northern Hemisphere: Study

- Almost 60% of Africa’s low-income countries in debt distress: UNCTAD

- Why every degree counts now

- Nigeria’s missing virus hunters: University decline robs country of virologists

- Vultures mostly forage outside protected areas; conservation efforts should be focused there, urges study

- Irony just died: Coca-Cola, among biggest global polluters, to sponsor CoP27

- Climate tipping points could lock in unstoppable changes to the planet — how close are they?

- ‘Sea monsters’ were real millions of years ago. New fossils tell about their rise and fall

- Sustainable forestry paramount for biodiversity conservation: FAO

- Lack of indigenous people’s participation big barrier to mainstreaming of biodiversity: FAO

- Ice flow in Antarctica changes with season, can impact sea-level rise estimates

- Graduates in forest education ill-equipped to handle sector’s emerging demands: Report

- FAO report forecasts spike in wood-based substitutes to non-renewables; expects 1 million new jobs

- Vegetarians more likely to be depressed than meat-eaters – possible reasons

- WHO sounds alarm on India-made cough syrups linked to children’s death in The Gambia

- Afghanistan under Taliban: A decade’s progress eroded in a year, says UN

- Indigenous communities must be at the centre of sustainable agrifood systems: FAO director-general

- WHO approval to South Africa’s vaccine regulatory body

- Inflation can kill Africa human development, World Bank warns

- How climate change is wreaking havoc on communities in Niger Delta

- No evidence of microplastics in emperor penguins, says study

- Fresh twist in Moon’s genesis; lunar body likely formed within hours after collision

- Climate risk index shows threats to 90% of the world’s marine species

- Africa in space: continent has a lot to gain, but proper plans must be put in place

- Australia to make efforts at saving koalas, 108 other ‘priority species’ over next 10 years

- Climate change may aid spread of Lassa fever from west to east Africa by 2070: Report

- Human activities are eating into reindeer grazing land in Europe

- Nord Stream leaks: Where will Europe get its gas from now?

- Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo gets Medicine Nobel for his contributions to paleogenomics

- Mexico braces for flash floods, landslides as Hurricane Orlene barrels in

- Bitcoin mining unsustainable; climate damages comparable to beef, natural gas, crude oil: Study

- James Webb Telescope captures clearest view of Neptune’s rings after 3 decades

- Brazil to go in for second round of voting after Lula fails to win outright

Eating right, for the environment: WWF’s diet chart to help curb climate change, biodiversity loss

Ahead of World Food Day, WWF outlines sustainable diet plan that's healthy for humans & environment alike

By DTE Staff

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Cutting down on meat consumption can reduce global greenhouse gas emissions is well known. But global non-profit World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says much more is needed to slow climate change and biodiversity loss.

Ahead of World Food Day (October 16), WWF outlined a sustainable diet plan that can help address a host of environmental challenges while also providing health benefits.

“Our global food system is one of the primary drivers of biodiversity loss, with agriculture alone being the identified threat to 22,500 of the 41,000 species at risk of extinction,” the intergovernmental wildlife conservation body said.

But emissions burden from the world’s food production is also massive: A quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food, WWF observed.

Wasting less food, looking out for eco-labels and following a more diverse diet can go a long way, the organisation suggested.

It encouraged the following consumption patterns:

Plant-heavy diet: Growing plants requires less water and land and emits lower volumes of greenhouse gases than meat, dairy and egg production. Incorporating more fruits, vegetables and wholegrains in our diet can reduce the impact our food system has on the environment.

Diversify the platter: “Seventy-five percent of the global food supply comes from only 12 plant and five animal species,” WWF noted. The global dependence on a small range of food threatens the diversity of species in agriculture, weakens our food systems and is also not the most nutritious.

Cut food waste: Planning meals, shopping smart and more efficient storage of food items can help reduce food waste, the wildlife organisation said. “Nearly 570 million tonnes of the global food waste occurs at the household level.”

Proteins beyond meat: Around 60 per cent of the greenhouse gas emission from agriculture is due to animal farming, according to WWF. Consuming more mushrooms, peas, beans and nuts to meet our protein requirements can help reduce this burden, it said.

Pay attention to logos: Being aware of and choosing food packages based on eco-labels can go a long way, WWF suggested. The organisation listed out some logos one can look for while grocery shopping. These include: Organic, Rainforest Alliance (for sustainable agriculture), Fairtrade (protecting farmers and workers in developing countries), Freedom Food (animal welfare), MSC and ASC (Marine stewardship council and Aquaculture Stewardship Council, for seafood) and RSPO (Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil).

Fat, sugar, salt best avoided: Cultivation of sugarcane and sugar beet causes soil erosion and is often associated with intensive use of water and pesticides, said WWF. Simple lifestyle choices such as choosing water over sugary drinks and saving cakes, sweets, chocolates, cured meat, fries and crisps for special occasions can make a significant difference. “New sugar plantations are replacing natural habitats, leading to biodiversity decline,” the non-profit added.

The advantages of such a global shift towards the above diet are plenty, WWF observed. These include combating climate change and food insecurity, reducing biodiversity loss, improving human health, significantly reducing premature mortality and helping decrease the risks of future pandemics, it added.

Heavy metal out there: Researchers detect barium in atmospheres of 2 exoplanets

Discovery of barium is surprising because heavy elements like barium are expected to quickly fall into the lower layers of the atmosphere

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Scientists have detected barium in the upper atmosphere of two giant exoplanets for the first time, noted a new study. Barium, two and half times heavier than iron, is the heaviest-ever detected element.

These exoplanets are two ultra-hot Jupiters — WASP-76b and WASP-121b — which orbit their host stars WASP 76 and WASP 121, according to the study published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics September 6, 2022.

The former is about 640 light-years away from the Earth and the latter around 900 light-years away.

Ultra-hot Jupiters are a class of hot gaseous planets that matches the size of Jupiter. But they have short orbital periods, unlike Jupiter.

Both WASP-76b and WASP-121b complete one orbit in two days. Surface temperatures in these bodies reach as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius. These bodies have unique features owing to their high temperatures. For instance, WASP-76b experiences iron rain, the scientists said.

Scientists from Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Italy and Germany detected barium using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope located in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile.

The scientists confirmed the presence of hydrogen, lithium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, vanadium, chromium, manganese and iron in the atmosphere of the WASP-76 b, in addition to barium.

In WASP 121b, they confirmed the presence of lithium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, vanadium, chromium, manganese, iron and nickel.

Additionally, the team found elements such as cobalt and strontium. They also found indications of titanium in the exoplanet.

“Besides finding the expected elements, we found some other elements that we did not anticipate at all,” Tomás Azevedo Silva from the University of Porto, Portugal, told Down To Earth.

The presence of heavy elements at high altitudes in the atmospheres of ultra-hot Jupiters indicates that some unique atmospheric dynamics are at play.

This discovery of barium is surprising because heavy elements like barium are expected to quickly fall into the lower layers of the atmosphere, given these exoplanets have high gravity, co-author Olivier Demangeon said in a statement.

Barium salts are used in fireworks to generate green lights.

Silva said he does not understand why a heavy element like barium exists in the upper layers of the atmosphere. “It is puzzling and counterintuitive,” he added.

Astronomers will surely try to answer this mystery in the near future, he said. The researchers hope that their study encourages more researchers to explain the presence of these elements in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

“It may reveal some new dynamics inside the atmospheres or give us insights into the composition of these distant planets,” he added. Silva and his team will model these extreme atmospheres to better understand their structure, composition and dynamics.

IN PHOTOS: Species unlisted by CITES being traded more than recognised ones, says study

Species unlisted in CITES were imported 3.6 times more into the US than listed ones

By Rajat Ghai

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Ocean currents protect Galápagos Islands from global warming; but are they safe forever?

Flora and fauna of the Galápagos could assist reseed failing ecosystems and maintain the region’s fisheries

By Arya Rohini

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Cold ocean currents have sheltered the Galápagos Islands from global warming, according to a recent study.

The islands are protected from an otherwise warming Pacific Ocean by a cold, eastward equatorial ocean current. And this current has been gaining strength for decades, noted the study published in the journal PLOS Climate September 7, 2022.

The temperatures in waters along the west coast of the Galápagos have dropped by 0.5 degrees Celsius since the early 1990s, the researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder observed.

“There’s a tug of war between global warming and the cold ocean current. Right now, the ocean current is winning — it’s getting cooler year after year,” said Kris Karnauskas, the lead author of the study, in a press release.

This phenomenon is a cause for cautious optimism for the second-largest marine reserve in the world. The island is a biodiverse ecosystem — home to several endangered species. It is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Flora and fauna of the Galápagos could assist reseed failing ecosystems and maintain the region’s fisheries.

Corals do not bleach and die in these waters off the west coast of Ecuador. So, the marine food chain does not suffer, unlike in the warm waters nearby.

“As the Galápagos so far has been relatively unaffected by climate change, it’s worth looking at the Galápagos as a potential site to really try to put some climate change mitigation efforts into,” said Karnauskas.

But, the island group is certainly in need of greater protection from overfishing as well as the pressures of growing eco-tourism.

“The human pressures on this area and the mechanism that keeps it alive are at odds. It’s a major resource that should be protected,” said Karnauskas

Geographical advantage

From space, the Galápagos may appear to be a collection of minuscule specks in the eastern Pacific Ocean. However, it is their precise position on the equator that makes them significant.

The equatorial undercurrent in the Pacific Ocean is bound to the equator by the force of the planet’s rotation. Under the ocean’s surface, a swift circulation of cold, nutrient-rich water flows from west to east.

Some of this water is forced to the surface when it reaches the Galápagos Islands. The nutrient-rich water triggers photosynthesis and leads to an explosion of food for a wide variety of animals.

The cold ocean current creates a cooler, more stable environment for coral reefs and marine life and birds that often live much closer to the poles. It is described by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention as a “living museum and showcase of evolution.” Galápagos is home to the critically endangered — Galápagos penguin, Galápagos fur seal and Galápagos sea lion.

El Niño poses a threat to the island group. It shuts down the cold current every couple of years, causing penguin populations to collapse. El Niño is a climate pattern that causes unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

“The worry is if in the future there are changes in this current, it could be really devastating for the ecosystem,” said Karnauskas.

This haven may fade if the oceans continue to warm as they have been.

“Are the Galápagos Islands safe forever? Not quite,” said Karnauskas.

Nigeria floods: Expert insights into why they’re so devastating and what to do about them

Over 1.4 million people have been displaced, 500 died, thousands injured in floods in Nigeria

By Moina Spooner, Wale Fatade

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Nigeria is experiencing its worst flooding in over a decade. Over 1.4 million people have been displaced, 500 have been reported dead and thousands have been injured.

Flooding isn’t a new challenge in Nigeria — it’s one of the country’s most prevalent natural disasters. During the rainy seasons, from March to July and mid August to mid October in the south, and July to October in the north, major rivers often burst their banks. Dams burst too. This causes flooding in numerous Nigerian states, among them Delta, Kogi, Anambra, Bayelsa, Adamawa and Niger.

Various experts have written for The Conversation Africa on Nigeria’s flooding challenge and steps needed to alleviate their worst effects.

Here we share three insightful reads.

Environment researcher Adaku Jane Echendu explains that – unlike some natural disasters – floods due to rainfall can be controlled with proper planning and infrastructure.

She reveals that the main drivers of Nigeria’s include poor, or non-existent, drainage systems, poor waste management, unregulated urban expansion and the lax implementation of laws.

Read more: Nigeria has a flooding challenge: here’s why and what can be done

Floods can be particularly devastating in Nigeria’s cities, causing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. In a study of Lagos and Port Harcourt, disaster risk reduction and resilience specialist Olasunkanmi Habeeb Okunola found that a variety of factors make cities vulnerable. These include institutional failures, inadequate infrastructure and a lack of disaster education.

Okunola outlines what cities must do to better cope with the risk of floods. Key to this is the need for government, non-governmental agencies, community-based organisations and residents to join forces and prepare for floods, reducing their impact.

Read more: What Nigerian cities can do to cope better with flood risk

Flooding may seem to be an inevitable reality for Nigeria. But, argues water management expert Nelson Odume, risks can be minimised in a variety of ways. The most significant of these is coordinated spatial planning. This involves bringing urban planners and environmental practitioners together to organise the distribution of people and activities in a space.

He outlines the steps Nigeria needs to take to deal with flooding. These include installing gauging stations, developing suitable models for hydrological predictions, and collecting data that will enable accurate flood forecasting.

Read more: Why Nigeria is not prepared to deal with flooding

Moina Spooner, Assistant Editor, The Conversation and Wale Fatade, Commissioning Editor: Nigeria, The Conversation.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Hazards in waiting: Half the world still without early warning systems, flags UN report

Africa, South America, Arab countries, the Caribbean reported low coverage, UNDRR-WMO report finds

By Seema Prasad

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Half the countries in the world have no early warning systems to help prepare against natural disasters, according to a new survey. The survey found low coverage of multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) in Africa, South America and countries in the Arab and Caribbean regions.

The United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released the report October 13, 2022 on the occasion of International Day of Disaster Risk Reduction.

The analysis was made with data from the Sendai Framework Monitor (SFM), an online tool where member countries report their progress on the targets outlined in The Sendai Framework (2015-2030). The framework is a global blueprint for disaster risk reduction and prevention.

Of the seven targets in the framework, Target G aims to “substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030”. The framework also has 38 indicators to measure progress on risks and losses.

Read more: Ground report: Climate disasters in Bihar, UP make children more vulnerable to trafficking

The number of countries that have MHEWS vary from region to region. However, on average, at least 40 per cent of countries in every region reported that they operate a MHEWS.

Specifically, less than 50 per cent of Least Developing Countries (LDC) and only 33 per cent of Small Island Developing Countries (SIDS) were equipped with MHEWS.

The report titled the Global Status of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems — Target G recommended:

Special assistance is needed for LDC, SIDS and Africa. More investments are needed throughout the MHEWS value cycle, with emphasis on reaching the 'last mile'.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told the media that the international weather monitoring organisation is spearheading a UN initiative on Early Warnings for All in the next five years.

One limitation of the survey highlighted by the authors of the report was that several countries may have a working MHEWS, but they may not have officially reported it to SFM. They urged these governments to scale up reporting for better analysis.

Evaluation

There are four items on the UNDRR checklist to ensure that an early warning system is up to the mark:

1. Risk knowledge;

2. Technical monitoring and warning service;

3. Communication and dissemination of warnings;

4. Community response capability

Considerable progress has been made in all four areas, but “to advance the MHEWS across all the countries, considerable investments are still needed in all its interrelated elements”, the report noted.

Most of the WMO member countries, for instance, reported not having evaluated their  MHEWS performance. Only a third of WMO members said they have conducted a systematic evaluation.

Read more: World will face at least 560 climate disasters every year by 2030, warns UN

It is crucial to rate the effectiveness of the system, according to the report. “National capacities in assessing MHEWS effectiveness, especially in LDCs and SIDS, need to be enhanced".

To that end, the UNDRR launched an open-access platform called the Risk Information Exchange to connect countries with global and regional initiatives by aggregating disaster risk information.

Internet Access

The Common Alerting Protocol is a standard process for disseminating alerts on impending disasters. Around 48 per cent of countries said they followed the protocol, which involves emergency messaging on internet, broadcast and cellular services, according to the findings of the survey.

A third of the world’s population still does not have a stable internet connection, another study showed. In Africa, 18 per cent of the population lacks access to mobile broadband networks.

Among the people living in least developed and landlocked developing countries, 17 per cent lack access to mobile internet, the report said. This prevented community outreach for early warning systems.

Africa needs $25 billion per year for universal access to clean energy: IEA

As much as $22 billion per year is needed for electricity connections alone

By Madhumita Paul

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Achieving full access to modern energy in Africa by 2030 will require investing $25 billion per year, according to a new report.

The required amount is around a quarter of the current total energy investment in the continent, according to the International Energy Association (IEA) report presented at a conference in Kampala, Uganda October 7, 2022.

Energy consumption in the Greater Horn of Africa — defined in the report as Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda has grown by 3 per cent per year over the last decade.

These eight countries constitute the members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, one of Africa’s regional economic communities.

About 40 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa lives in the Greater Horn of Africa. In 2020, half of them or 150 million people were without access to electricity.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed more than 20 African countries into debt distress and reversed progress on expanding access to electricity.

Energy infrastructure in the Greater Horn of Africa has struggled to keep pace with a fast-growing population, according to the report titled Clean energy transitions in the Greater Horn of Africa.

Stronger deployment of energy efficiency and renewable technologies is needed to overcome this hurdle, the authors of the report mentioned.

As much as $22 billion per year is needed for electricity connections alone as capital spending on grids (mainly distribution networks), generating plants and off-grid solutions, they noted.

Clean cooking requires just under $3 billion per year of investment in clean cook-stoves and other end-use equipment.

Current investment falls far short of these levels: In 2019, it amounted to just 13 per cent of the average requirement for 2022-2030 in the case of electricity and 6 per cent for clean cooking, said the report.

In 2019, over $3 billion was spent on access to electricity and clean cooking.

The report stated:

Inefficient bureaucracy, a lack of clear energy sector planning and limited technical expertise all contribute to significant cross-cutting risks for investors, although the severity of these risks varies drastically across regions.

Attracting more energy investment requires better leveraging of limited sources of concessional public financing to attract more private capital, the analysts observed.

Attracting private capital is crucial to reaching these investment levels, particularly to harness all available sources of financing and to switch from relying heavily on public sources, they added.

“Governments therefore need to maximise the catalytic potential of public finance, while not crowding out private capital,” the report read.

New sources of finance specific to clean energy, such as climate finance, carbon credits, renewable energy certificates and sustainable or diaspora bonds, can help.

Male birth control options are in development, but a number of barriers still stand in the way

There has not been a new form of male birth control since no-scalpel vasectomy in 1980s

By Christina Chung-Lun Wang

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

In the wake of the reversal of Roe v Wade, developing more contraception options for everyone becomes even more important.

Women and people who can become pregnant have a number of effective birth control methods available, including oral pills, patches, injections, implants, vaginal rings, IUDs and sterilization.

But for men and people who produce sperm, options have been limited. Two options, withdrawal and condoms, both have high failure rates. Withdrawal has a failure rate of about 20 per cent. Condoms have a failure rate of only 2 per cent when used correctly, but that rate rises to 13 per cent based on how people typically use them.

Vasectomies have a failure rate of less than 1 per cent, but they require minimally invasive surgery and are seen as a permanent method of contraception. Neither vasectomies nor withdrawal protect against sexually transmitted infections.

There has not been a new form of male birth control since the introduction of the “no-scalpel vasectomy” in the 1980s. I, along with my team, have been developing male contraception methods since the 1970s.

I believe that new safe, reversible and affordable contraception options can help men participate and share contraceptive responsibilities with their partners and reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies.

Taking responsibility for family planning

A 2017 survey of 1,500 men ages 18 to 44 found that over 80 per cent wanted to prevent their partner from getting pregnant and felt that they had shared or sole responsibility for birth control.

Men who are dissatisfied with condoms are more likely to either use withdrawal as a form of birth control or never use contraception. Of those dissatisfied with condoms, however, 87 per cent percent are interested in new methods for male contraception.

This translates to an estimated 17 million men in the US who are looking for new methods of contraception to prevent unintended pregnancies.

Similarly, a 2002 survey of over 9,000 men in nine countries over four continents found that over 55 per cent would be willing to use a new method of male birth control.

Importantly, a 2000 survey across three continents found that 98 per cent of women would trust their partner to use a male birth control method.

The onus of birth control has largely fallen on women and people who can become pregnant. Photo: Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Barriers to male contraception

Strong interest in a new male contraceptive raises the question of why there haven’t been any new male birth control methods since the ‘80s.

Male contraception development has primarily been supported by governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the World Health Organization working with academic medical centers.

However, these agencies frequently do not have a drug development infrastructure comparable to pharmaceutical companies, with programs typically run by only a handful of personnel assisted by clinical research organizations. Limited financial resources further slow down development.

Lack of interest from pharmaceutical companies may also play a role in deterring male contraception development and there are a number of possible reasons the drug industry shies away from male birth control. One reason includes weighing the cost of development with uncertainties about the potential market.

Other reasons include uncertainties about who would dispense these drugs and unclear regulatory requirements for male contraceptive methods to receive FDA approval. Companies may also be concerned about liability if pregnancy occurs.

New methods currently in development

Researchers are currently looking into several different methods of male contraception.

Hormonal methods are usually taken as a gel applied to the skin, injection to the muscle or oral pill. These methods typically contain testosterone and a progestin. The progestin suppresses two pituitary hormones that control the testes, the organs that produce sperm.

While the testes require high concentrations of testosterone to make sperm, testosterone is typically included in hormonal methods to ensure that there is an adequate level of the hormone for other bodily functions.

Counterintuitively, taking testosterone may also help suppress sperm production, because increasing circulating testosterone levels above a certain level suppresses the same two pituitary hormones. The addition of a progestin further enhances the suppression of sperm production.

The hormonal contraceptive candidate furthest along in development is currently in an ongoing second stage clinical study that has recruited over 400 couples across four continents. I served as the principal investigator of this trial at the Lundquist Institute.

The results of the study, sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Population Council, have so far been promising with minimal side effects and the couples have found the gel acceptable to use.

My team and I are also developing drugs that function like both testosterone and progestin, but in a single compound. These drugs are currently undergoing early testing in people as a daily oral pill or a long-acting injection.

Scientists have been trying to develop male birth control pills for decades.

Nonhormonal methods typically involve drugs that specifically target sperm-producing organs to decrease sperm concentration or function.

Nonhormonal drugs show efficacy in animal models, but preclinical toxicology results are needed before clinical studies to demonstrate safety, tolerability and efficacy in people can begin. A few of these methods are working toward first-stage clinical trials.

Another nonhormonal method involves reversibly blocking the vas deferens, an organ that transports sperm for ejaculation. Studies sponsored by the Male Contraceptive Initiative and Parsemus Foundation are testing hydrogels, a type of polymer that retains water, that block sperm from traveling through the vas deferens.

People are ready for new contraceptive methods. I believe that collaboration across academic, government, nonprofit and pharmaceutical sectors can help deliver new birth control methods that are safe, reversible, acceptable and accessible to all.

Christina Chung-Lun Wang, Physician/Investigator at Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Indian researchers spot rare supermassive black hole, opens new avenues for star formation research

Researchers speculate that jets fired by supermassive black holes will likely suppress future star formation

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

A rare supermassive black hole has been spotted by a team of Indian researchers, according to a recent study.

The monster black hole is about one billion light years away from the Earth, noted the study published in the Royal Astronomical Society’s monthly notices.

The black hole in question was captured, spewing a jet of radiation and particles in one direction, unlike others that fire jets in opposite directions.

“But strangely for this galaxy, only one side of the jet is seen. This is bizarre,” said Ananda Hota, the lead author of the study from the University of Mumbai.

Supermassive black holes create powerful jets of radiation and particles. They are located at the centre of galaxies.

Hota and his team first spotted this unusual black hole in 2013. In the subsequent years, they observed the strange object using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, located near Pune. They also sought the assistance of other international radio and optical telescopes.

The supermassive black hole occupies the centre of the RAD 12 galaxy, which is elliptical or egg-shaped. RAD 12 is in the process of merging with another galaxy, RAD 12b, in the next one billion years.

RAD 12b, which is also elliptical, is bigger and brighter than RAD 12. The jet is bigger than its host, RAD 12. It resembles a 440 thousand light-years-long mushroom, the study estimated.

The jet bounces back after hitting RAD 12b — like a fountain, said Hota.

“We are yet to know the implications of this jet’s collission with a neighbouring galaxy,” the expert added.

The researchers said this was the first time a jet hit a bigger galaxy. This explains why it bounces back and forms a mushroom bubble.

This discovery may help scientists study why star formation does not occur in elliptical galaxies. Star formation requires extremely cooled gas, usually forged in a cloud of interstellar gas and dust. Temperatures in these regions range from -253.15°C-263.15°C, according to the University of Oregon.

Theoretically, jets remove cold gas and suppress star formation, explained Hota. Researchers speculate that jets fired by supermassive black holes will likely suppress future star formation.

The interaction between RAD 12 and RAD 12b does not show signs of young star formation either, said the findings of the study.

Usually, jet collision scatters gas and produces ionised gas. “We want to further understand how the gas is scattered and whether any cold gases are formed during the collission,” Hota said.

We have produced a new guide to decolonise language in conservation

We at Survival want to make people stop and think about why we use the words we do when writing or talking about environmental issues

By Fiore Longo, Lola Ramon

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

The mainstream conservation model today is the same as it’s been since colonial times: ‘Fortress Conservation’ – the creation of militarised Protected Areas accessible mainly to the wealthy on the lands of indigenous peoples. Such peoples’ lands and lives are being destroyed by this approach, but it’s where most of the Western funding for nature protection is going.

Why? Because the myths that sustain this model of conservation are reproduced in school texts, media, wildlife documentaries, non-profit adverts, and so on. The images we’ve seen since our childhood about ‘nature’, and the words we use to describe it, shape our way of thinking, our policies, and our actions.

We tend to assume these words and images are the reality, as if they were neutral, objective or ‘scientific’. But they’re not. Conservation has a dark history, and it’s rooted in racism, colonialism, white supremacy, social injustice, land theft, ‘extractivism’ and violence.

Today, the main conservation organisations (like WWF and WCS) not only haven’t questioned this past, but perpetuate it. Conservation is an industry, a business, often ‘partnering with’ (ie taking money from) big polluting companies, and turning nature into something to consume, mostly by the wealthy.

This is part of a process of commodification of nature in which it is ‘valued’, traded and can be profited from. But our ‘nature’ is other people’s homes. It is the basis of their way of life, the place of their ancestors, the provider of most things that sustain them.

It’s essential to think about the words and concepts we use when writing or talking about environmental issues, because the violence and land grabs faced by millions of indigenous and other local people in the name of conservation stem in large part from these concepts.

That’s why Survival International, the organisation that supports tribal and indigenous peoples, has produced a new Guide to decolonise language in conservation. It confronts many familiar terms, and explains the hidden histories behind others. Here are a few examples:

What’s the difference between ‘bushmeat’ and ‘game’?

‘Bushmeat’, the meat of wild animals, is both a main source of protein for, and central to the identity of, many people around the world. The use of the word in conservation has a particularly racist tone.

For example, when hunted meat is served in restaurants in Europe it’s called ‘game’ and is considered prestigious. But when consumed by Africans or Asians it’s usually referred to as ‘bushmeat’, a word that invariably carries negative connotations and implies that its capture involved ‘poaching’.

Many Africans risk fines, beatings, imprisonment or worse if they hunt wild animals to feed their families. This racist and negative connotation is extended to the term ‘wet markets’, used in reference to the sale and consumption of meat from wild species in southeast Asia and China. This term is never used to describe the consumption or sale of meat from wild species in the West.

Why do we think of ‘wilderness’ as a ‘natural’ landscape empty of people, when in fact almost all such places have been inhabited, shaped and managed by people for millennia?

It’s often wrongly claimed that indigenous lands are ‘wildernesses’. The world’s most famous natural environments like Yellowstone, the Amazon and the Serengeti are the ancestral homelands of millions of indigenous people who have shaped them, been dependent on them, nurtured and protected them, for millennia.

The whole idea of ‘wilderness’, in the sense of a pristine nature, untouched by humans, is a colonial myth — lands were portrayed as empty, so they could be taken. This is akin to the legal fiction of Terra Nullius, which British invaders used to justify the colonisation of Australia, on the false grounds that the land was empty of people.

The idea of ‘wilderness’ has its roots in the US in the late 19th century, whereby the agency of Native Americans in creating diverse landscapes over millennia was expunged, to be replaced with the idea that ‘nature’ (and God) had formed these lands which white colonists were now charged with protecting.

This Western idea is racist and attempts to hide the role of indigenous peoples in nurturing and stewarding their own territories, the most biodiverse regions of the world.

‘Wilderness’ portrays the land only as ‘nature’, rather than a lived and managed landscape in which people play a fundamental part. Conservationists often describe forests as pristine so they can carry on with the creation of Protected Areas without the consent of local people, claiming nobody is living there.

Why do all national parks in the UK, and many in Europe, have people living in them, but in Africa and much of Asia it’s not allowed?

Not all Protected Areas are the same. A Protected Area in Kenya is very different from one in France.

In Europe, for example, no national park could be established without taking into account local people’s needs, usually through extensive consultation and political processes, and with legal redress and compensation where problems arise.

There are typically very few restrictions on entering or living in such Protected Areas. Usually, their governance and management involve engagement with community interests at a strategic level.

In Africa and Asia, however, almost no parks have ever involved proper consultation with communities (see ‘consultation’). Protected Areas of this type are usually managed by government agencies and Western conservation non-profits.

Communities rarely have any role in governing them. The parks are typically run on a ‘Fortress Conservation’ model: local and Indigenous people are abused, persecuted and evicted using force, coercion or bribery.

These kinds of parks almost always exclude or restrict human activities, including everything Indigenous people do to feed their families, like hunting, growing crops, gathering, and fishing.

National parks in Europe must typically bring some benefit to local inhabitants, whereas in Africa and Asia, such parks are intended to protect against local and indigenous people.

We at Survival want to make people stop and think about why we use the words we do when writing or talking about environmental issues.

Too many Indigenous people are still being persecuted by a conservation model that’s changed very little from its colonial past – from the countless Adivasis evicted from their forests when they’re turned into tiger reserves, to the Maasai in Tanzania thrown off their land to make way for game reserves and trophy hunting.

We must not continue to treat the original custodians of the land as a ‘nuisance’ to be ‘dealt with’, instead of as experts in local biodiversity and key partners in conservation.

It’s time for a new approach that has tribal peoples and their rights at its heart. After all, they were expert conservationists long before the word ‘conservation’ was invented.

Fiore Longo is the Director of the French chapter of Survival International

Lola Ramon is an activist and investigator with Survival International

Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

Net-zero emission means doubling energy supply from renewables

World currently depends on 25 per cent of low-emission sources for its energy requirements

By Seema Prasad

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

Energy supply from low-emission renewable energy sources such as nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric power plants should double by 2030 for the world to reach its net-zero emission target by 2050, according to a new report.

Only 25 members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) maintain a specialised observation network for energy-related services, stated the WMO State of Climate Services report released October 11, 2022.

Only 18 members provide observational and simulated data derived from other public, private and academic sources, it added.

The WMO report has been released every year since 2019. This time, it focussed solely on energy since the sector accounts for nearly three-quarters of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The world currently depends on 25 per cent of low-emission sources for its energy requirements. Doubling it, as indicated by the report, will increase it to 50 per cent by 2030.

In order to make this happen, the annual investment in the global energy system has to triple to $5 trillion from $2 trillion, said a research by the Climate Policy Initiative.

“We urgently need to respond to the growing impact of climate change on energy systems if we are to maintain energy security while accelerating the transition to net-zero emission targets,” said Fatih Birol, International Energy Agency’s executive director.

This requires long-term planning and bold policy action to spur investment, which in turn needs to be underpinned by comprehensive and reliable weather and climate data, he added.

“Now is the time to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy future. Anything short of radical and immediate action will ultimately eliminate the chance of staying on the 1.5°C path,” said Francesco La Camera, International Renewable Energy Agency’s director-general.

The intertwined energy and climate crises have dramatically exposed the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of an economic system heavily reliant on fossil fuels, he added.

He said advancing the transition to renewables is a strategic choice to bring affordable energy, jobs, economic growth and a resilient environment to the people and communities on the ground.

“Only 2 per cent of clean energy investment in the last two decades was made in Africa. Bringing access to modern energy for all Africans calls for an investment of $ 25 billion annually, which is around 1 per cent of global energy investment today,” the WMO stated.

NDCs and energy sector

Energy security was not a top priority for countries. Only 40 per cent of nationally determined contributions to mitigate climate change prioritised adaptation, the report stated.

“Climate adaptation-focused investments in the energy sector remain very low, at just over $300 million,” the report read.

Total renewable energy pledges in all Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to mitigate climate change accounted for 3.7 terawatts (TW) of energy. However, only 56 per cent of NDCs quantified renewable power targets.

“The pathway to reach the Paris Agreement’s long-term global goal on mitigating global warming requires 7.1 TW of clean energy capacity to be installed by 2030,” the report read. This represents a 70 per cent gap in the amount of emission reduction needed by 2030.

Climate Services

The World Meteorological Organization provides climate services such as educating stakeholders on climate science and early warning systems. The report found that less than 50 per cent of the WMO members offer climate services to the energy sector.

The transition to clean energy can only be done through improving risk assessments due to climate change, as renewable energy services vary according to local weather.

The report quoted the example of the heatwave in Bueno Aires that caused power outages in January 2022 and the rain that damaged power lines in the Far East of the Russian Federation. Thousands of people suffered without electricity during these events.

“Risk assessments addressing planning and early warning of adverse events affecting energy supply and demand can help populations to anticipate, absorb, accommodate and recover from adverse impacts,” the report stated.

Some examples

- Beijing’s power grid, partly sourced from renewables, was interrupted due to rainstorms, floods and hail. Meteorological disasters have caused 50 per cent of distribution network failures. Energy service team with the China Meteorological Administration and the Beijing Branch of the state grid developed an early warning system during a meteorological disaster.

- Réseau de Transport d’Électricité, the electricity generation agency of France, used energy conversion models with climate information to project long-term climatic disruptions. The agency calculated electricity demand and energy generation using it.

- Tajik Hydromet is equipped with hydrometeorological data analytics for climate-resilient hydropower operations in Tajikistan.

- In Europe, a sector-specific private company, Vortex, reduced errors in wind energy production by 3-4 per cent, saving millions of euros annually.

“Time is not on our side and our climate is changing before our eyes. We need a complete transformation of the global energy system,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas.

Hidden Hunger: Every second child globally deficient in micronutrients, finds report

56% preschool aged children, 69% non-pregnant women of reproductive age lack in iron, zinc & vit A

By Taran Deol

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Micronutrient deficiencies, also colloquially called hidden hunger, could be a much bigger issue globally than previously thought. Every other child of preschool age and two out of three women of reproductive age across the world are plagued by hidden hunger, a new study published in The Lancet has claimed.

Deficiencies of micronutrients like vitamins and minerals can result in a compromised immune system, hinder a child’s growth and development and affect human potential. However, our understanding of the global prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies is decades old and primarily based on anaemia prevalence.

Read more: Child malnutrition in India: A systemic failure

The Lancet study assessed 24 data sets — of which 18 provided data on both non-pregnant women of reproductive age and preschool-aged children and four focused on just the latter — from 22 countries between 2003 and 2019. It analysed three key micronutrients; iron, zinc, and vitamin A.

At least one of the three micronutrients was globally deficient in 372 million preschool-aged children — 56 per cent — and 1.2 billion non-pregnant women of reproductive age — 69 per cent.

Geographically, south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific housed three-quarters of these children, while 57 per cent of these women were from east Asia and the Pacific or south Asia. “However, estimates are uncertain due to the scarcity of population-based micronutrient deficiency data,” the study noted.

Non-profit Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) conducted the study under United States’ independent agency USAID Advancing Nutrition project. A team of global micronutrient experts supported it.

Low and low-middle-income countries have a prevalence of deficiencies, propelled by monotonous diets lacking a diversity of nutrient-rich foods and a high reliance on a large share of calories from rice, wheat, maize or similar staple foods.

Surprisingly, there was a high prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies even in high-income countries. This may be due to “diets high in processed but micronutrient poor foods, rather than reliance on a single staple as in many lower-income countries,” the report noted.

Read more: Fewer kids under 3 breastfed within an hour of birth, finds NFHS-5

Health impacts of these deficiencies range from increased susceptibility to infections, congenital disabilities, blindness, reduced growth, cognitive impairment, decreased school performance and work productivity and even death.

“Diets that don’t provide the right levels of vitamins and minerals can compromise your immune system, impair your cognition and school performance, decrease your work productivity and may contribute to risks of non-communicable diseases such as heart problems,” Lynnette Neufeld was quoted by a GAIN press release October 11, 2022.

Neufeld is the director of Food and Nutrition Division at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Neufeld said:

This is a widespread problem, impacting individuals, families and communities everywhere in the world, although particularly in lower-income countries.

Solutions are available to this decades-old problem. The key is to ensure a robust food supply, particularly rich in micronutrients such as animal-source foods, dark green leafy vegetables and beans, lentils or peas.

But these solutions have been made difficult to implement because of a host of reasons. Long-term impacts of climate change, the lasting damage to supply chains caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine and the imminent economic downturn as some of them are some of them, said Saskia Osendarp, executive director of global platform Micronutrient Forum.

Read more: Acute malnutrition worsened among children: NFHS-5

“Food fortification can help make up the difference when healthy diets are unaffordable or accessible. Health programmes can provide supplements to those with extra needs, such as pregnant women and malnourished children,” Osendarp added, according to the statement.

Other means to address these gaps include prioritising productivity and diversity of a variety of nutritious crops and livestock, developing crops that are more nutritious and drought-resilient (“biofortification”), reducing trade and transportation costs and improving markets, the study noted.

Like any poor health indicator for children, this, too, will have ramifications for the future.

“Our failure to nourish the youngest will undermine public health and haunt us socially, economically, environmentally and politically down the generations. All corners of society, led by governments, need to tackle the burden of hidden hunger, via all the channels available,” GAIN’s Executive Director Lawrence Haddad said.

COVID-19: Is SARS-CoV-2 evolving differently after omicron

Cases are expected to rise with the advent of winter

By Taran Deol

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

More than 300 sub-variants of omicron are currently being tracked by the World Health Organization to gauge what new turn the pandemic may take. Cases are expected to rise with the advent of autumn and winter. But it remains uncertain which variant would be the driving force.

The age of omicron has already seen its lineages — BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4/BA.5 — cause distinct waves. But currently, five offsprings which have acquired growth advantages are collectively driving up cases in the world. The front-runners are BQ.1.1, BA.2.3.20, BQ.1, XBB and BA.2.75.2. Even among these, there are geographic heterogeneities.

The XBB recombinant is dominating in Asia, an analysis by Tom Wenseleers — an evolutionary biologist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium — showed.

This may soon become the case for Europe, where BQ.1.1 has secured the top place for now. It appears BQ.1.1 is also behind the COVID-19 cases in North America, Wenseleers’ analysis revealed.

The nomenclature of the omicron sub-lineages is getting difficult to keep up with. But there are some similarities. They have begun accumulating the same mutations to evade immunity.

“Although these derivative sub-variants appear to diverge along the evolutionary course, the mutations they carry on the receptor-binding domain converge on the same sites,” an October preprint published in bioRxiv argued.

This phenomenon is called ‘convergent evolution’. The mutations that helped the virus evade certain antibodies are found repeatedly by the virus in various lineages.

The sub-variants are divergent in terms of their ancestry but convergent in terms of the mutations, Anurag Agarwal, dean of the biosciences department at Ashoka University, explained.

“For SARS-CoV-2, we haven’t seen rapid within-clade evolution before,” Ryan Gregory, an evolutionary biologist and professor at the University of Guelp’s Biodiversity Institute of Ontario in Canada, told Down To Earth.

There are multiple immune-escaping variants, all increasing at the same time. And this is happening even during summer — flu is seasonal by contrast, he added.

Why it is different this time

How the SARS-CoV-2 virus is evolving now is unlike what we had seen up until last Thanksgiving when the fifth variant of concern was detected in South Africa.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, there was no pre-existing immunity so there was relatively limited pressure on the virus to change,” Marc Johnson, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine, told DTE.

The Wuhan strain will be the trunk if we try to illustrate a family tree of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It slowly branched into the alpha variant on one side, followed by the emergence of new branches — beta, gamma, lambda and mu.

Delta emerged from an entirely different side of the tree, replacing everything we had seen up until now. Omicron did the same when it was spotted last November.

“They share a more distant common ancestor, but each one was not derived from the one that caused a wave before it,” Gregory explained. Now, it is the omicron canopy that continues to expand.

While several changes occur in a virus’ genome, they cannot evolve indefinitely. Most genetic errors are neutral mutations and they do not help the virus. Many mutations are harmful to the virus and those are not seen in the variants circulating because they don’t survive.

Only a small fraction of mutations provide some growth advantage and those are the ones we predominantly see in the variants of concern.

“Convergent evolution occurs when species occupy similar ecological niches and adapt in similar ways in response to similar selective pressures,” Science Direct noted.

The ecological niche describes how a species interacts within an ecosystem.

But after so much immunity, derived from both infection and vaccination, the space for selecting new variants is shrinking for the virus, virologist Shahid Jameel said. It’s possible SARS-CoV-2 has finally saturated its mutation space, he added.

Researchers have often used the convergent evolution phenomenon as a proxy to understand the “visible manifestation of the power of natural selection,” a 2019 study published in The Royal Society stated.

An often-cited example to better understand convergent evolution is the similarities between birds, bats and insects. All of them belong to different groups of animals but have had similar evolutionary paths that gave them wings to fly.

But what determines which lineage of omicron will dominate in which geographic region? This can be explained by what Jameel calls the ‘bottleneck effect’. “It’s simply a matter of introduction — only certain things go through the bottleneck,” he said.

The cloud of sub-variants we see now are by no means identical despite having similar sets of mutations, Gregory argued.

Some could have other properties that give them an advantage in certain host populations but not others. Luck could determine which ones take off and which don’t in different regions, he added in the same vein as Jameel.

While no new distinct variants are erupting, there are slight new changes here and there in the existing variants. This is essentially a function of broader pre-existing immunity. This immunity forces the virus to adapt rapidly, resulting in recurring mutations that allow it to be immune evasive. This virus behaviour can be termed ‘antigenic drift’ — a term traditionally used to describe small changes in the surface of the influenza virus.

Experts are still cautious about predicting where the pandemic is headed. Currently, some 1,700 people are still dying daily due to COVID-19, a seven-day-rolling average calculated by Our World in Data revealed.

The arrival of the omicron sub-lineages has worrying implications. Vaccines continue to protect against severe disease and death, aided by timely booster shots. But, monoclonal antibody therapies are slowly being rendered ineffective as the virus evolves.

Most recently, the United States of America’s Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about Evushield on 3 October for failing to neutralise certain variants. It is the only pre-exposure prophylaxis treatment authorised under Emergency Use Authorisation.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis is the use of medications to prevent the spread of disease in people who have not yet been exposed to a virus.

But Johnson believes there is no reason to think the virus will become deadlier since there is no advantage for the virus to kill its host.

Predicting pathogenicity is much more complex than predicting immune escape just by looking at the mutations, Gregory underlined.

“I mainly expect to see continued immune evading changes that adapt to changes in our immunity,” Johnson said.

We cannot rule out another divergent evolution in the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome. But even then, the end effect will remain the same. With a very high caseload, as is the case with COVID-19, even things that are less likely can come true, because it’s less likely per case. “Omicron itself was an unlikely emergence in terms of its multiple mutations”, Agarwal remarked.

Older variants may persist in an immunocompromised individual even when they are no longer in circulation. They may undergo evolution within a single host.

It may be tempting to conclude that convergence means the virus will become stuck in a blind alley and won’t be able to evolve in another direction in the future, said Gregory.

“To this, I always refer back to Orgel’s Second Rule: Evolution is cleverer than you are,” Gregory said.

Climate crisis: Expect more extreme heatwaves in near future

India witnessed a concurrent increase in meteorological droughts and heatwaves in various parts of the country over the last 60 years

By Seema Prasad

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Extreme heatwave events are predicted to occur more frequently in the near future, according to a recent report.

Extreme heat risks will increase significantly as the global mean temperature increases to 1.5°C by the 2030s, noted the report titled Extreme Heat: Preparing for the heatwaves of the future.

The report was published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, a worldwide humanitarian aid organisation October 10, 2022.

The global mean temperature was close to 1°C  between 2017 and 2019. However, the global mean temperature was at 1.2°C in 2016 and 2020, according to data on the global surface temperature compiled by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration between 2016 and 2021.

“From the humanitarian perspective, a critical point is a non-linear relationship between global increases in mean temperatures and increases in the frequency and severity of extreme events,” the report read.

Extreme heat is the only climate hazard where this effect is so pronounced, it added.

The report warned of compound events that may occur in succession or simultaneously. Such events could have detrimental effects on human health and communities.

India witnessed a concurrent increase in meteorological droughts and heatwaves in various parts of the country over the last 60 years, said the researchers.

The significant increase would present “communities unaccustomed to such events with an unprecedented challenge to adapt.”

The analysis also said compound ‘tropical storm-heat’, an event where a storm follows extreme heat, could occur more frequently in the future.

“Hot extremes” have become recurrent and more severe over the earth’s land since the 1950s, according to the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Humans may not be able to adapt

No one is protected from the rising global mean temperatures, according to the researchers. Even those who are acclimatised to tropical areas may suffer, they added.

“Acclimatisation also takes time to develop and it wanes in the absence of prolonged heat exposure,” the report said.

This means that it offers less protection against abrupt and unusual changes in temperature and humidity that are made much more likely by climate change, the report added.

“Some coastal subtropical locations may have already exceeded human body’s safe temperature limit for very brief periods,” according to the researchers.

Data gaps

In dire circumstances, children’s dehydration due to heat can result in mortality if its combined with diarrhoea.

Schools in India reduce teaching hours during extreme temperatures. This can impact education, according to the researchers.

Nevertheless, national disaster data recorded by countries often don’t consider heat waves as a cause of health issues.

The immediate cause of death, such as diabetes or heat strokes, is reported as the reason for hospital admission or death in places like Sub-Saharan Africa despite evidence showing an increase in heatwaves.

This causes a misrepresentation of the data, according to researchers. They believe that heat waves must be linked to health outcomes more conclusively.

Thermal inequality

The world’s poorest countries have been experiencing more hot days and nights over the past three decades, according to a literature review on the subject.

Suppose the world’s temperature increases beyond 1.5°C. In that case, the most tangible impact will be felt in the tropical regions, which are home to poverty-stricken populations, stated a study quoted by the researchers.

Loss of working hours

Refugees, migrants, industrial workers and construction and agricultural labourers risk losing working hours and income with prolonged exposure to heat.

If global warming reaches 1.5°C, southern Asia and western Africa may lose 5.3 per cent and 4.8 per cent of working hours, respectively, according to projections by the International Labor Organization for 2030.

In contrast, the loss of working hours is less than 1 per cent across Europe.

Countries should develop national heat action plans, the authors suggested. They insisted on investing in forecasting systems, social protection schemes, community-led warning systems and designated cooling systems to survive the impending heat.

Legacy Waste: Did mustard gas from World Wars dumped in Baltic cause Nord Stream explosions

The recent Nord Stream explosions in the Baltic took place northeast of Bornholm, a major dumping ground for German chemicals and explosives including mustard gas

By Rajat Ghai

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Could deadly legacy waste like mustard gas used in the two World Wars and dumped in the Baltic Sea have caused the explosions during the recent Nord Stream methane leak? An article on the website of a French non-profit has hinted that this could be a possibility.

The Nord Stream pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic sprang a leak September 26, 2022 after explosions rocked the area.

A huge plume of methane, a strong greenhouse gas, subsequently spread across northern Europe before dissipating. The United Nations Environment Programme called the leak the biggest emission of methane yet.

The article uploaded October 6 on the website of Robin Des Bois, a non-profit that works for “the protection of Man and the Environment” pointed to Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic.

“According to Sweden and Denmark, the ruptures of the underwater gas pipelines were caused by explosions equal to several hundred kilograms of TNT, the equivalent of several conventional aerial bombs used during the last World War,” the piece read.

It added that the explosions took place to the northeast of Bornholm. The island and the sea around it was the site where an estimated 30,000-35,000 tonnes of chemical weapons from World War I and II were dumped from August 1945 to July 1965.

These chemicals were unused by Germany. Alongside, raw materials and additives used for making them were also dumped under the supervision of British and Soviet authorities in post-World War II Germany. Later, the German Democratic Republic or East Germany carried out the dumping.

These chemicals and raw materials include vesicants, irritants, lachrymogens, vomitants, sternutatories, lung agents, toxics, neurotoxics and blood agents.

Deadly and infamous products developed by German chemists such as tabun, mustard gas, phosgene and Zyklon B were also among those dumped at the site.

“At least 300 tonnes of large conventional explosive bombs were also dumped off Bornholm,” the article said.

Burns in the Baltic

The article noted that the waters around Bornholm were not more than 70-100 metres deep. At this depth, corrosion, erosion and underwater swell can easily cause the chemicals to shift and decompose.

The dominant chemical warfare agent dumped in the Baltic near Bornholm was mustard gas, according to Robin Des Bois.

“During the pre-laying works for Nord Stream 1 in the Danish Exclusive Economic Zone, four KC 250 mustard gas bombs were discovered between seven metres and 17 metres from the projected route. They were inspected prior to laying in autumn-winter 2010,” the article noted.

The non-profit said the bombs were in an advanced state of corrosion: “Mustard gas lumps were visible. It was estimated that each munition contained 20 kg, ie 20 per cent of the initial content of each bomb.”

For each munition, a 15 kg charge of TNT was visible and appeared to be intact.

But inexplicably, the Danish authorities allowed the bombs to remain where they were as they did not consider them to be a threat to the pipeline. “They were inspected again in January 2011, after the pipeline was laid. No further damage was reportedly observed,” the article said.

But mustard gas has burned people in the area. HELCOM (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission) has noted these incidents in a report.

The document, titled Chemical Munitions Dumped in the Baltic Sea. Report of the ad hoc Expert Group to Update and Review the Existing Information on Dumped Chemical Munitions in the Baltic Sea, was published in 2013.

“Between 1994 and 2012, HELCOM reports that around 4 tonnes of mustard gas lumps were brought to the surface by fishing gear in the Bornholm area. They were mostly dumped at sea in spots designated by the Danish authorities,” according to Robin Des Bois.

At least 25 Polish fishermen were burnt by mustard gas residues caught in nets in the Bornholm area between 1968 and 1984.

Some 102 children from a summer camp were burnt on a beach in Darlowo, Poland, opposite Bornholm, in July 1955, after recovering a leaking barrel containing mustard gas from the beach.

Some 196 tonnes of fish contaminated in Danish fishermen’s nets with mustard gas particles were withdrawn from the market and destroyed between 1968 and 1984.

The chemicals have severely affected marine life around Bornholm, according to the report.

Nord Stream spews high levels of methane, likely to affect marine life

Dissolved methane transforms back into a gaseous form when it reaches the surface

By Arya Rohini

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Methane levels near Russia’s ruptured Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system were 1,000 times higher than normal, according to a new research.

The methane gas leak under the Baltic Sea was discovered 26 September 2022. Since then, it has continued to leak into the water, according to the University of Gothenburg’s scientific investigation team.

“In the water samples, we could see that the methane levels were up to 1,000 times higher than normal. The distribution pattern of the methane from the leak was difficult to explain,”  said Katarina Abrahamsson, a marine chemist at the University of Gothenburg and coordinator for the expedition, in a press note.

The research vessel Skagerak returned to Gothenburg after a five-day expedition. The hurriedly planned mission to the Nord Stream leaks in the Baltic Sea is over and the researchers are happy with their work.

The researchers needed to get to the location as soon as possible to quantify the impacts of this significant discharge and gather crucial data.

“In less than 48 hours, we got the researchers and equipment we wanted onboard,” said Abrahamsson. The team collected some 100–200 water samples over 54 hours. They couldn’t measure the whole discharge as the vessel was not permitted beyond Swedish waters.

Methane gas, dissolved in water, transforms back into a gaseous form when it reaches the surface and is emitted into the atmosphere. The ocean currents and the duration of the leakage determine its persistence in the Baltic Sea.

The impact of these high methane levels on marine life is obscure. For instance, there are bacterias in the water that proliferates by oxidising methane gas.

“I have filtered water samples during the expedition to see if there’s any growth of these types of bacteria at elevated methane levels in the water,” said Carina Bunse, a marine biologist at the University of Gothenburg.

If these methane-eating bacterias expand at the expense of other plankton species, it might impact the local food chain. But we are unable to predict the outcome. Conclusions can be drawn only after conducting a DNA analysis of the components in the water samples, said Bunse.

Insects today damage plants more despite dwindling numbers: Study

Human influence may have a role to play, say scientists

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Human activities are likely making modern insects more voracious than their ancient counterparts, according to a new study.

Researchers arrived at this by comparing insect damage on modern plants (post 1995) with fossilised leaves from the Late Cretaceous period (nearly 67 million years ago) through the Pleistocene (2.06 million years ago).

“The difference in total damage frequency in modern plants is more than double of the fossil record,” Lauren Azevedo-Schmidt, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maine, told Down To Earth.

The increase in damage was more likely caused by all groups of herbivorous insects and not just one group, the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed.

Azevedo-Schmidt and her colleagues studied leaf damage by examining patterns left behind by insects on leaves after they were eaten.

The patterns vary as different insect groups have specific mouthparts. For example, Azevedo-Schmidt said that an insect with a powerful mandible or jaw, like a grasshopper, can eat leaf tissue and veins.

An aphid, on the other hand, makes only a tiny hole with its needle-like mouth, she explained.

“These patterns vary in size and shape and are preserved on fossils and modern leaf tissues,” the expert said.

The researchers observed a sharp increase in damage frequencies in modern leaves.

Among the fossil leaves, the youngest dates back to 2.06 million years ago. This predates early human migration from Africa roughly 1.75 million years ago.

As data on the more recent Pleistocene (1.8 million-10,000 years ago) and Holocene (11,650 years before the present) were not part of the study, the researchers could not map out exactly when levels of damage to leaves increased.

Based on data on modern leaves, the researchers speculate that humans may have influenced the insects’ ability to cause damage within modern forests.

“The most human impact occurred after the Industrial Revolution,” the researchers wrote in the study.

Further, preserved plant samples from the early 2000s were 23 per cent more likely to have insect damage than specimens collected in the early 1900s, the paper noted.

This pattern can be linked to climate warming, the researchers speculated.

But, they added, other factors such as urbanisation and the introduction of invasive species could have also played a part.

This increase in insect-driven plant damage is occurring despite reports of insect decline, the study pointed out.

A 2019 analysis showed that 40 per cent of insect species were faced with extinction threats.

Habitat loss, pesticides, agrochemical pollutants, climate change and invasive species were cited as possible reasons for the decline.

Azevedo-Schmidt is unsure of how climate change drives both declines in insect abundance and an increase in insect appetite.

She pointed towards two theories that could explain this dichotomy.

“Insect damage comes down to food consumption and insects needing to eat enough to get the nutrients they need,” Azevedo-Schmidt explained.

The warming climate and increasing carbon dioxide levels reduce the levels of an essential nutrient  — nitrogen.

“Because of this, insects need to eat more leaf material to get the same amount of nitrogen that they would have received in a cooler world,” she explained.

Alternatively, climate change could create conditions ripe for a specific group of insects to thrive.

“These same insects could be making more of the same type of feeding damage,” she said. Future studies, she added, can provide concrete answers.

Climate finance: Donors give less than they claim; and not for mitigation to needy countries

Mitigation finance primarily went to middle-income countries such as Brazil, India, Mexico and Indonesia

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Donor countries overstated their contributions to climate change mitigation by roughly 40 per cent, a new study estimated.

This finding points to challenges in achieving the promises made at the Paris Agreement to mitigate climate change, the study published in Nature Climate Change underscored.

In 2009, developed nations pledged to provide climate finance of $100 billion annually by 2020 to less wealthy countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change. But the donor countries are yet to achieve the target.

Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing — drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing — that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions.

The contributions were $83.3 billion in 2020, up from $80.4 billion in 2019, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates.

Countries self-report their expenditure. There isn’t any mechanism in place to independently verify the flow of finance, Florian Elgi, from the Energy and Technology Policy Group, told Down to Earth.

“We wanted to look at whether the responsibilities were being honoured in the finance flows,” he added.

Elgi and his colleagues used a machine learning algorithm to scan 2.7 million official development assistance (ODA) projects between 2000 and 2019.

ODA is financial aid aiming to promote economic development and welfare in developing countries. Donors tag their ODA projects based on whether it targets biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation or desertification.

Elgi and his team focused on bilateral finance between donor and recipient parties, as this represents the most significant chunk of the financial flow.

Funds can also be made available through regional and multilateral channels, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In bilateral flow, donor countries have much control over the flow. “Developed nations will always be able to decide on what they spend their money on,” Elgi explained.

The algorithm is trained to decide whether it is climate finance or not.

For example, a donor spends $100 on a sanitation project in Angola and tags the fundamental objective as climate mitigation or adaptation, explained Elgi. And the algorithm not classifying the project under climate finance is an example of over-reporting, he added.

In some cases, contributors don’t tag a project like solar plants with climate benefits as climate finance. This is under-reporting, the researcher explained.

“The quality of the reporting is quite poor and there is much more over-reporting than under-reporting,” Elgi pointed out.

Donors prioritise mitigation

The algorithm identified the financial flows from 32 donor countries to 141 countries across continents, the study stated.

The researchers identified 32,370 projects, representing $30.3 billion in bilateral climate finance after the Paris Agreement (2016– 2019). The $100 billion target came to the centre stage of the international climate discussions during this time, according to the study.

Germany, France, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan were the top contributors. India, Morocco, Mexico, Vietnam and Indonesia were the top recipients, noted the study.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland prioritise adaptation finance. The researchers calculated that about 82 per cent of the finance was categorised as grants.

But France, Germany and Japan invested more in mitigation. About 54 per cent of the funding was categorised as loans, they added.

Mitigation finance primarily went to middle-income countries such as Brazil, India, Mexico and Indonesia. Egypt and Morocco, with high potential for renewable energy, also attracted significant mitigation finance.

Countries most vulnerable to climate change received relatively more adaptation finance, the study noted.

“Public organisations should step up the game because private finance will work for the mitigation projects in middle-income countries, but probably not for low-income countries,” Elgi explained.

Elgi called for independent and transparent mechanisms to track climate finance.

Climate finance needs to be scaled up. “Estimated total climate finance flows remain well below the estimated need to invest in low-emission, climate-resilient development,” UNFCCC stated in its Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance Flows report.

Simply Put: Death of Irony

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Not enough women in World Health Assembly: Some countries may need a century for gender parity

Southeast Asia inching closer to the 50%; No WHA had more than 30% women chief delegates, finds study

By Taran Deol

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Delegations of World Health Assembly (WHA) do not have enough represention despite women making up 70-75 per cent of the healthcare workforce. Several countries may take a century on an estimate to reach equal representation, according to a study.

The ratio is skewed in favour of men when looking at leadership roles or higher-wage healthcare occupations, an October study published in journal BMJ Global Health found. Bangladesh, Iran, Central African Republic, Kuwait and Afghanistan could take a 100 years to achieve 50% representation of women.

The paper analysed statistics from 10,944 WHA delegations and 75,815 delegation members over the 74 years since the body’s inception in 1948. Men ominated 89.2 per cent of the delegation while no WHA had more than 30 per cent of women chief delegates, it found.

Read more: It will take 3 centuries to close gender gap completely, warns UN

The paper said:

Despite commitments to gender equality in leadership, women remain gravely under-represented in global health governance. An intersectional approach to representation in global health governance, which prioritises equity in participation beyond gender, can enable transformative policymaking that fosters transparent, accountable and just health systems.

Geographies and socio-economic conditions play a major role in gender parity, the study said. In the last decade, the American and the European regions achieved gender parity, while the growth in the African region has remained stagnant at 25-30 per cent for the past two decades.

Eastern Mediterranean Region has recorded significant improvements but is just about touching 25 per cent of women representation, while southeast Asia is inching closer to the 50 per cent mark.

“This is likely the result of different prolonged and multifaceted context-specific social, cultural and institutional factors that inhibit meaningful, equitable participation within different countries,” the paper argued.

In fact, the historical analysis shows southeast Asia had the best gender parity in 1950, still at an abysmal less than 25 per cent, and has since trickled down to the fourth position, trailing very closely behind the Western Pacific.

The trend is mirrored when analysing the data based on income groups — with lower-middle income countries having better women representation than high-income and upper-middle income countries when the WHA was first established.

Percentage of women in World Health Assembly delegations. Source: BMJ Global Health

Estimates based on gender parity between 2010-2019 revealed countries in the eastern Mediterranean region will take nearly 80 years to reach gender parity in WHA delegation. In comparison, African and southeast Asian countries will take some 30 years to achieve the same goal.

Western Pacific nations will take shy of two decades to achieve 50 per cent women representation. Bangladesh, Iran, the Central African Republic, Kuwait and Afghanistan are among the countries which will take 100 years to achieve gender parity.

The Beijing Platform Action Plan, adopted in 1995, played a critical role in ensuring gender equality by including ‘Women in power and decision-making’ in its 12 focus areas where urgency is required. The goal was to achieve 30 per cent of women’s representation in decision-making roles.

Read more: Women in workforce: Low participation majorly due to gender discrimination, says new Oxfam report

The following years showed improvement on this front, with Gro Harlem Brundtland becoming the first woman director-general of WHO in 1998.

Policy implications of these findings have two key facets — what must the WHO do and what must Member States do. The former argues for the global health body strengthening its strategies to ensure gender parity. For instance, introducing gender quotas.

Beyond that, “policies on inclusive leadership should consider more than representation in numbers, but consider the entire enabling environment for the inclusion of diverse voices and perspectives using an intersectional approach to global health decision-making and policy,” the paper emphasised.

The paper outlines the key responsibilities of member states, including introducing structural and systemic interventions.

For instance, “leadership grants, formal policies to safeguard women in the workplace and peer-training and mentorship opportunities could facilitate the meaningful participation in decision-making and leadership roles.”

World Mental Health Day: WHO-FIFA installs friendship benches to promote mental-health awareness

Project focuses on sports’ role in promoting mental well-being

By Arya Rohini

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

A novel project featuring specially designed public benches to highlight the importance of mental health was unveiled October 10, 2022.

The project focuses on sports’ role in promoting mental well-being. The announcement of the joint project by the World Health Organization and Qatar’s ministry of public health coincides with World Mental Health Day.

Some 32 friendship benches are installed in prominent locations in Doha. These benches represent the 32 countries participating in the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

The preview of the England bench at a worldwide health event served as a symbolic opening to the bench programme.

The bench was unveiled by English athlete Sir Mo Farah, who holds the record for most male track distance runners with 10 Olympic and World Championship gold medals. A wider unveiling of the benches followed this.

“The friendship benches project is a powerful reminder of the importance of how health, from mental to physical health, is precious and common to all people and nations,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.

The ground-breaking Friendship Benches project was first initiated in Zimbabwe with the support of WHO.

“FIFA is proud to partner with the World Health Organization, and Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health to put football at the service of society and to leave a lasting legacy in Qatar for residents and visitors,” said FIFA president, Gianni Infantino.

The initiative supports each partner organisation’s shared objectives and initiatives, including the FIFA-WHO #REACHOUT campaign and the “Are You OK?” project of the ministry of public health of Qatar.

The final locations of each of the 32 benches will be announced shortly. Once installed, information will be shared on how Qatar residents and visitors can visit their national benches and others in a show of support for mental health promotion.

A million-year-old marine DNA can reveal how climate change will affect Antarctica

New form of analysis helps scientists study long-term responses of ocean ecosystems

By Nandita Banerji

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Scientists have dug up fragments of deoxyribonucleic acid, also known as DNA, in the Scotia Sea, north of the Antarctic continent. The DNA is a million years old and makes it possible to study the responses of ocean ecosystems to climate change.

A study, conducted by researchers from University of Tasmania and University of Bonn discovered ancient sedimentary DNA (sedaDNA).

SedaDNA analysis is a new technique that helps decipher ‘who’ has lived in the ocean in the past and ‘when’. It can help study long-term responses of ocean ecosystems to climate change, as demonstrated by the study Ancient marine sediment DNA reveals diatom transition in Antarctica.

Read more: Ice flow in Antarctica changes with season, can impact sea-level rise estimates

The study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, can also help assess current and future changes in marine life around Antarctica.

Antarctica is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change on Earth, so studying the frozen continent’s past and present responses to environmental and climate change is therefore critical and urgent.

Antarctica is arguably the most susceptible polar region to climate, evidenced in the fact that west Antarctica is one of the fastest-warming regions globally, the study said.

Understanding how southern Ocean organisms respond to climate variability, including throughout past climate shifts, is thus of key importance to predict how the Antarctic marine ecosystem will evolve in the near future, the study added.

An international team studied sediments acquired during the International Ocean Discovery Program, an international, multi-drilling platform research program. The samples were collected in 2019 expedition 382, called Iceberg Alley and Subantarctic Ice and Ocean Dynamics.

Investigation of characteristic age-related damage patterns in the recovered DNA fragments revealed they were as old as a million years.

“This comprises by far the oldest authenticated marine sedaDNA to date,” said Linda Armbrecht, the lead investigator from the University of Tasmania, Australia.

Amongst the detected organisms were diatoms as key primary producers whose DNA was detected back to half a million years.

Diatoms were consistently abundant during warm climatic periods, showed data collected by the researchers. The last such change in the food web of the Scotia Sea occurred about 14,500 years ago.

Read more: Increasing human footprint cutting Antarctica wilderness: Study

“This is an interesting and important change that is associated with a word-wide and rapid increase in sea levels and massive loss of ice in Antarctica due to natural warming,” said Michael Weber, second author of the study from the University of Bonn.

The warming apparently caused an increase in ocean productivity around Antarctica.

The study demonstrates that marine sedaDNA analyses can be expanded to hundreds of thousands of years, opening the pathway to the study of ecosystem-wide marine shifts and changes to paleo-productivity throughout many ice-age cycles.

These periods of natural climate change can also give insight into the current and future human-induced climate warming and how the ecosystem might respond to it.

2022 Economics Nobel awarded to trio for improving ability to avoid financial crises

Banks, by acting as intermediaries that accept deposits from many savers, can allow depositors to access their money when they wish, while also offering long-term loans to borrowers

By DTE Staff

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

The Nobel Prize for Economics 2022 has been awarded to Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig. Their work significantly improved the world’s understanding of the role of banks in the economy, particularly during financial crises.

An important finding in their research is why avoiding bank collapses is vital, a statement by the official website of the Novel Prize said.

The statement noted:

For the economy to function, savings must be channelled to investments. However, there is a conflict here: savers want instant access to their money in case of unexpected outlays, while businesses and homeowners need to know they will not be forced to repay their loans prematurely.

Diamond and Dybvig offered a solution to this tangle. Banks, by acting as intermediaries that accept deposits from many savers, can allow depositors to access their money when they wish, while also offering long-term loans to borrowers.

Their analysis also showed how the combination of these two activities makes banks vulnerable to rumours about their imminent collapse.

“If a large number of savers simultaneously run to the bank to withdraw their money, the rumour may become a self-fulfilling prophecy — a bank run occurs and the bank collapses,” the statement said.

Such a scenario can be prevented if the government provides deposit insurance and acts as a lender of last resort to banks.

Diamond also showed how banks, as intermediaries between many savers and borrowers, are better suited to assessing borrowers’ creditworthiness and ensuring that loans are used for good investments.

Ben Bernanke analysed the Great Depression of the 1930s, the worst economic crisis in modern history. Among other things, he showed how bank runs were a decisive factor in the crisis becoming so deep and prolonged.

When the banks collapsed, valuable information about borrowers was lost and could not be recreated quickly. Society’s ability to channel savings to productive investments was thus severely diminished.

“The laureates’ insights have improved our ability to avoid both serious crises and expensive bailouts,” Tore Ellingsen, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, was quoted as saying.

Climate change triggered droughts in Northern Hemisphere: Study

Conditions in the Northern Hemisphere would only have been anticipated once every 400 years if humans had not warmed the Earth

By Arya Rohini

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Agricultural drought conditions in the Northern Hemisphere are at least 20 times more likely due to human-induced climate change, according to a new study.

The agricultural drought, prevailing across the hemisphere, had impacted crop production and pushed food prices, noted the study published by the World Weather Attribution group October 7, 2022.

Agricultural drought results in adverse plant responses, ranging from reduced crop and forage yields to total crop or forage failure.

Global warming has caused aridity, particularly in France, Germany and other central European countries. Fire risks, poor harvests and compromised food security in these regions can be attributed to human-induced climate change.

Conditions in the Northern Hemisphere would only have been anticipated once every 400 years if humans had not warmed the Earth. Climate change has altered the likelihood and intensity of low soil moisture across the world, it noted.

The 2022 Northern Hemisphere summer triggered water shortages, large fires, high food prices and significant crop losses.

Researchers examined soil moisture levels in the Northern Hemisphere for June, July and August. They concentrated on western and central Europe, which had much lower crop production due to severe drought.

In west-central Europe, human-induced climate change increased the likelihood of agricultural and ecological drought by around three to four times.

The results cannot be directly compared due to the differing sizes of the regions, but this does not imply that Europe has been less affected by climate change than other parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Mainland China also endured unusually high temperatures and dryness.

“With further global warming, we can expect stronger and more frequent summer droughts in the future,” said Dominik Schumacher, first author of the study, in a statement.

We need to phase-out the burning of fossil fuels for stabilising climate conditions and avoiding a further worsening of such drought events, said Sonia Seneviratne, the lead author of the study, in a media statement.

Almost 60% of Africa’s low-income countries in debt distress: UNCTAD

Ghana and Tunisia are in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for emergency loans

By Madhumita Paul

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Almost 60 per cent of Africa’s low-income countries are in debt distress or at high risk of it, a new report warned.

These places have record levels of private as well as public debt, according to the report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The intergovernmental organisation laid out a strategy of increased cooperation among developing countries which could help shift the global economy in the right direction.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profoundly negative impact on Africa’s sovereign debt situation.

As of February 2022, 23 African countries were either in debt distress or at risk of it.

At the end of 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank considered 16 low-income African countries to be at high risk of debt distress, the analysis noted.

Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Príncipe, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe were already in debt distress, it added.

Ghana and Tunisia are in talks with IMF for emergency loans, according to Trade and Development Report 2022 published October 3, 2022.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that 33 African countries need external assistance for food, while acute food insecurity is likely to worsen in the next months in 18 of these economies.

Rebeca Grynspan UNCTAD’s Secretary General said:

Soaring fertiliser prices owing to the war in Ukraine threaten to reduce food production and deepen the food crisis, with smallholder farmers likely to be worst hit.

The situation is especially dire in parts of East and West Africa due to shortfalls in agricultural production, multiple seasons of drought conditions and persisting conflicts.

Ripples of global slowdown

The global economic growth will slow to 2.5 per cent in 2022 and 2.2 per cent in 2023, the report showed.

Middle-income countries in Latin America, as well as low-income countries in Africa, will register some of the sharpest slowdowns this year, the report said.

Climate shocks are heightening the risk of economic instability in indebted developing countries.

Leading central banks are raising interest rates sharply, threatening to cut off growth altogether and making sustenance harder for heavily indebted firms, households and governments.

A global slowdown could potentially inflict worse damage on African countries than the financial crisis in 2008 and the COVID-19 shock in 2020, warned UNCTAD.

Africa’s economic activity is expected to expand by a moderate 2.7 per cent in 2022 and 2.4 per cent in 2023, according to the UNCTAD report. This is after a rebound of 5.1 per cent in 2021.

This reflects several new challenges, including high international food and fuel prices, financial shocks owing to the stronger-than-anticipated tightening of monetary policy in advanced economies and acute risks of food insecurity in many parts of the region.

As a result, an additional 58 million Africans will be pushed into extreme poverty in 2022, the authors noted in the analysis.

Impact on larger African economies

Growth prospects in Africa have deteriorated across the board, the analysts observed. This is partly reflected in the growth trajectory of its three largest economies, Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa, which altogether account for roughly 60 per cent of Africa’s gross domestic product, they added.

Nigeria’s economy grew 3.1 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022, compared with 4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021. But in 2022, it is expected to grow 2.9 per cent as a result of weak oil output caused by technical and security hurdles in a context of underinvestment, the report found.

In Egypt, economic activity continued to expand relatively quickly in early 2022, driven by tourism, non-petroleum manufacturing and trade. Yet, the country made a request to the IMF for a new programme in March 2022 when it came under new financial pressures.

For the rest of the year, economic activity is expected to soften owing to the negative spillover of the war in Ukraine, leading to an annual growth forecast of 4 per cent, the analysts noted.

In South Africa, growth in the first quarter of 2022 surprised on the upside, although a severe slowdown is expected in the second quarter, with flooding in the southeast of the country.

UNCTAD called for governments to include tighter commodity market regulation as part of their policy mix to curb price spikes that are hitting consumers in the developing world hard.

There should also be more public investment in economic and social infrastructure to boost employment, raise productivity, improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Why every degree counts now

A series of interactive infographics to explore the 21st Century's toughest development challenge: The planet's changing climate

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Nigeria’s missing virus hunters: University decline robs country of virologists

Nigeria should create an enabling environment for scientists to function effectively and maximally

By Oyewale Tomori

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Nigeria’s university system witnessed its golden era between the 1950s and 1980s. It produced globally celebrated academics and virologists. But the story has changed. Under funding of the university system, inadequate support for research and lack of commitment to the development of science and technology by the government are robbing the nation of quality academics. Virologists are among them. Renowned virologist, Oyewale Tomori, who graduated in the 1970s, sets out how it was then, why the country is where it is now and what it can do to restore its lost glory in science and technology education.

What’s the history of training virologists in Nigeria?

Although modern virology began with the discovery between 1915 and 1917 of bacteriophages (that is, viruses that infect bacteria), virology only became a discipline on its own in the last 50 years.

The discipline can be divided into the biology of viruses (molecular biology and biochemistry) and viral diseases (physiology, epidemiology and clinical aspects of viral diseases). One branch deals with the study of the nature and properties of the virus, while the second is focused on the diseases caused by viruses and the interplay of the factors (human, animal, virus and the environment) that result in the emergence and reemergence of viral diseases.

Today, a thorough study of virology encompasses the One Health concept. This takes into account the interactions between humans and animals and the environment.

The first set of Nigerian virologists was trained outside the country. Local training of virologists started in the early 1970s, at the University of Ibadan. It was the sole training centre for virologists until the late 1990s.

Today, there are about 200 virologists in Nigeria. Is this number enough?

Answering the question isn’t the same as measuring, for example, the ideal “doctor to patient” ratio. This is because virologists are researchers, so the headline number isn’t the main issue. Rather it’s whether those trained as virologists are functioning effectively and maximally.

Suffice to say that Nigeria needs more virologists given the size of the country, and the number of endemic viral infections prevalent in it. Annually, the country reports severe outbreaks of virus diseases, such as Lassa Fever, yellow fever and measles.

You need virolgists to be ahead of the emergence of viral disease outbreaks.

But the high cost of equipment and reagents, as well as other facilities for conducting virus studies have limited the output of trained virologists by the Nigerian university system.

Currently, the country has more virologists specialising as molecular virologists, rather than experts on the epidemiology and clinical aspects of viral diseases. And poor collaboration between laboratory scientists, epidemiologists and clinicians has robbed Nigeria of getting the needed balance between molecular virologists and those studying viral diseases. There is a disconnect between the study of viruses and the diseases they cause. We have expert virologists with little knowledge of how to control the diseases caused by viruses.

Virologists who will be relevant and contribute to improving the health of the society, must use their knowledge and expertise to prevent and control viral disease, otherwise they become a precious ornament of little use to someone dying of a viral disease.

Nigeria, a disease ridden society, has no place for virologists who discover a virus but can’t decipher what it does. Or are unable to use their knowledge to mitigate the devastation of a viral disease outbreak.

What’s different now in the training of virologists?

When I trained as a virologist at the University of Ibadan in South West Nigeria, the training was comprehensive. It involved both broad-based field work as well as laboratory investigation.

In the past, in addition to employing available techniques (antigen-antibody studies and animal experimentation) to identify and classify viruses, a detailed epidemiological study of the diseases caused by the virus was also carried out.

This was a One Health concept that considered the pathogen, the person, the animal, and the environment in the study of viruses and the diseases they cause. This provided information needed for the control and prevention of the disease.

Today, the focus is principally on studying and dissecting the virus, using more modern and highly sophisticated techniques, like genomic sequencing.

A host of hurdles stand in the way of building a bigger cohort of virologists in Nigeria.

Firstly, the lack of modern facilities in laboratories and the poor state of basic infrastructure and other resources (such as electricity and reagents) are working against research development. You cannot run genetic sequencing or even sterilise your equipment using a candle as your source of power.

Secondly, budgetary allocation to education is generally poor – at all levels, including the secondary school system.

Thirdly, and unfortunately, the Nigerian government is not committed to funding research. Financial support for science and research remains pathetic. This has led to the deterioration in the quantity and quality of trained virologists at Nigeria’s universities. The oases of excellence in the Nigerian desert of research landscape are largely funded by grants from external bodies and agencies.

But for how long are you going to depend on external grants to fund your research and development? It is like Africa whining and crying for equity when, for example, COVID-19 vaccines were not available for our populations. You do not beg for equity, you fight for it. You use your resources responsibly to contribute to equity, and not just be a consumer of the crumbs of equity.

On top of this, we have corruption and examination malpractices undermining the very foundation of integrity and probity, the pillars on which science and research stand. Consequently, our university system is neither able to retain responsible academics, nor attract the right kind of prospective students imbued with responsibility.

Add to these hurdles the lack of interest of many students in science and technological education.

What’s missing?

Sustained funding, infrastructure, facilities (regular power supply), and national government support for and sustained commitment to research.

There is a general national disdain for science and technology. There is also a national failure to fully recognise that science and technology are needed for the socio-economic transformation of Nigeria.

The government should invest in science, technology, research and development.

How has this affected Nigeria’s ability to produce cutting-edge research?

Adversely.

We are a nation consuming other countries’ returns on investment in science, research and technology. Rather than investing in research and contributing to global development through science and research, we have resorted to begging for the crumbs of equity.

We are only ready to consume other people’s returns on investments on science and research.

What needs to be done?

Go back to basics. Invest in research, science and technology.

Nigeria should create an enabling environment for scientists to function effectively and maximally. The nation should commit to using research outcomes in science and technology as the medium for transforming our society to a developed nation. If Nigeria refuses to fund research especially in science and technology, we will remain at the blunt-edge, rather than the cutting-edge of research, science and technology. We will not have the body of knowledge that can help us to address the nation’s health and other challenges.

Oyewale Tomori, Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Science

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Vultures mostly forage outside protected areas; conservation efforts should be focused there, urges study

New UK study tracked 26 African white-backed vultures fitted with GPS tags for four years over southern Tanzania

By Rajat Ghai

Published: Saturday 08 October 2022

Vultures mostly forage outside Protected Areas (PAs). If threats such as poison-laced carcasses are removed from these places, the decline in vulture populations can be stemmed, a study by the University of York in the UK has noted.

The research also found that the birds travelled long distances, with one bird visiting eight countries in southern Africa — Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Namibia.

The researchers had captured 26 African white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) at five locations across southern Tanzania. These were fitted with GPS tags to track their movements. The birds were monitored between 2015 and 2019 using the tracking data from the tags.

“African white-backed vultures are most likely to forage early in the day outside National Parks, specifically in Game Reserves and Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), but avoid areas with high livestock numbers to feed,” the study said.

A statement on the University of York website dated October 3, 2022 noted:

The study revealed that although vultures spend most of their time in protected areas (64.2 per cent) and stationary (75.5 per cent), when foraging they prefer to use areas outside National Parks, specifically in Game Reserves and Wildlife Management Areas.

The researchers also found that vultures avoided areas with high livestock density when feeding. This, they said, suggested that vultures did not use cattle as a main food source and avoided areas with high human habitation.

“Vultures in India also forage mostly out of protected areas. They travel long distances every day while foraging for food,” Rinkita Gurav, manager, Raptor Conservation Programme, WWF-India, told Down To Earth.

She, however, said the second finding of the study regarding cattle not being the main food source of vultures did not hold true for India.

“The drastic crash in vulture populations in India was due to the use of diclofenac in veterinary treatment, mainly on cattle. So clearly, vultures fed on livestock. India being an agrarian country, the livestock population has only increased over the years,” Gurav said.

The researchers also noted the importance of mapping vulture foraging sites:

Our findings that vultures are most likely to forage in game reserves and WMAs emphasise the importance of these areas for anti-poisoning and conflict management efforts and demonstrate the applications of our analysis results.

“Understanding their habitat use, and even more importantly their behaviour while in certain habitats, like outside of protected areas, is thus critical for their conservation,” Corinne Kendall, from North Carolina Zoo and one of the co-authors of the paper, was quoted as saying in the university statement.

Gurav agreed. “Identification and removal of threats near the nesting and roosting sites, making food and water available to them is what needs to be done,” she said.

Combining models for animal tracking: Defining behavioural states to understand space use for conservation was published in the Journal of biogeography September 27, 2022.

Irony just died: Coca-Cola, among biggest global polluters, to sponsor CoP27

Activists and commentators have called Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the world’s biggest climate summit a ‘greenwashing exercise’

By Akshit Sangomla

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties 27’s (CoP 27) Egyptian presidency September 29, 2022 named Coca-Cola Company — one of the biggest plastic polluters in the world — as the official provider and supporter of the year’s biggest climate change conference.

CoP27 is to be held at Sharm El-Sheikh on Egypt’s Red Sea coast from November 6-18. Countries under the UNFCCC will negotiate on mitigation, adaptation and financing aspects of action on climate change at the summit.

Coca-Cola would be partnering with Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the event. While the financial aspect of the deal is not known as yet, CoP26 in Glasgow was sponsored by eight companies and the deal was worth $280 million.

No other private company apart from Coca-Cola has been announced as sponsor, provider or supporter for CoP27. There were some big polluters among the companies last year as well, like Unilever and Sainsbury.

Coca-Cola, as part of the statement from the CoP27 presidency, claimed that climate was a key area of focus for the company as it “works towards its 2030 Science Based Target of an absolute 25 per cent emissions reduction and its ambition to be net zero carbon globally by 2050”.

Also, Coca-Cola in Europe and Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, its bottling partner in Egypt, want to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040.

“Through the CoP 27 partnership, the Coca-Cola system aims to continue exploring opportunities to build climate resilience across its business, supply chain and communities, while engaging with other private sector actors, NGOs, and governments to support collective action against climate change,” the company said.

Activists and commentators have called this a greenwashing exercise.

“It is baffling that Coca-Cola — the world’s biggest plastic polluter in all global Break Free From Plastic brand audits, including Kenya and Uganda — will sponsor this year’s UNFCCC Conference of Parties in Egypt,” John Hocevar, director of Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaign, said in a statement to the media.

In Uganda, Coca-Cola is responsible for 20 per cent of all plastic pollution, according to a brand audit report by non-profits Break Free from Plastic and EndPlasticPollution.

One of the major impacts of the plastic pollution is on the rivers of the country. The report found that the rivers Mpanga and Rwizi are the worst-affected and even Lake Victoria, one Africa’s Great Lakes, is filling up with plastic.

Coca-Cola has been polluting rivers, oceans and land globally with 120 billion single-use plastic bottles, thus risking the health of humans, animals and plants. The conglomerate is also significantly responsible for the climate crisis as 99 per cent of the plastic is produced from fossil fuels.

In 2021, Coca-Cola’s GHG emissions were 5.17 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents, according to non-profit Global Data. This was eight per cent higher than in 2020. Sixty per cent of the emissions came from onsite generation and purchase of electricity while 31 per cent came from fossil fuels and refrigerants.

“They have yet to even acknowledge that this is a problem or explain how they will meet their climate goals without ending their plastic addiction,” Hocevar said.

Such problematic private company sponsorship is not happening for the first time.

“Unfortunately, past and current CoPs have attracted sponsorships from companies who are part of the problem as their activities are directly and significantly contributing to climate change and merely seeking greenwashing opportunities,” Gaby Flores, main media lead for Greenpeace’s CoP campaigns, told Down To Earth.

She further explained that there have always been objections to these kinds of partnerships but civil society calls to regulate (such as the ‘Kick Polluters Out’ campaign led by umbrella coalition, the Climate Action Network) have not yet been successful.

“Any sponsorship from an environmental polluter is a serious threat to the negotiations at all stages and undermines the very objective of the event it seeks to sponsor,” Flores said.

The main problems are of historic polluters being held accountable and their access to events and decision makers at the CoP.

For instance, “climate justice discussions must hold those who had lied and continued with their business-as-usual destruction accountable and it is that much more difficult to do so when the misleading backers to the fossil fuel industry are represented,” said Flores.

Historical accountability, climate justice, reparations for loss and damage are going to be the most contentious themes on negotiations at the CoP 27 this year.

“Being a sponsor also gives the backers privileged access to both events and decision-makers, access where they can portray themselves as holders of solutions, when this is simply not true,” she added.

Greenpeace also claimed that Coca-Cola should increase their reuse and refill target of 25 per cent to 50 per cent by 2030 and in fact, it should be ambitious about completely phasing out its single-use plastic.

“Greenpeace will continue campaigning on its current position and support coalition efforts to kick polluters out of the UNFCCC, including eliminating corporate sponsorship of the event,” said Flores.

Bringing down plastic production and ending single-use plastic is in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to below 1.5 degree Celsius.

“If Coca-Cola really wants to solve the plastic and climate crisis, it needs to turn off its plastics tap. Ending Coca-Cola’s addiction to single-use plastic is an important part of moving away from fossil fuels, protecting communities and combating climate change,” Hocevar said.

Climate tipping points could lock in unstoppable changes to the planet — how close are they?

Small patches of the Amazon and northern forests might tip and transition to a savannah-like state first, bypassing a more catastrophic dieback across the whole forest

By David Armstrong McKay

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Continued greenhouse gas emissions risk triggering climate tipping points. These are self-sustaining shifts in the climate system that would lock-in devastating changes, like sea-level rise, even if all emissions ended.

The first major assessment in 2008 identified nine parts of the climate system that are sensitive to tipping, including ice sheets, ocean currents and major forests. Since then, huge advances in climate modelling and a flood of new observations and records of ancient climate change have given scientists a far better picture of these tipping elements. Extra ones have also been proposed, like permafrost around the Arctic (permanently frozen ground that could unleash more carbon if thawed).

Estimates of the warming levels at which these elements could tip have fallen since 2008. The collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet was once thought to be a risk when warming reached 3°C-5°C above Earth’s pre-industrial average temperature. Now it’s thought to be possible at current warming levels.

In our new assessment of the past 15 years of research, myself and colleagues found that we can’t rule out five tipping points being triggered right now when global warming stands at roughly 1.2°C. Four of these five become more likely as global warming exceeds 1.5°C.

These are sobering conclusions. Not all of the news coverage captured the nuance of our study, though. So here’s what our findings actually mean.

Uncertain thresholds

We synthesised the results of more than 200 studies to estimate warming thresholds for each tipping element. The best estimate was either one that multiple studies converged on or which a study judged to be particularly reliable reported.

For example, records of when ice sheets had retreated in the past and modelling studies indicate the Greenland ice sheet is likely to collapse beyond 1.5°C. We also estimated the minimum and maximum thresholds at which collapse is possible: model estimates for Greenland range between 0.8°C and 3.0°C.

Greenland’s ice sheet is showing signs of destabilising at current warming levels. David Dennis/Shutterstock

Within this range, tipping becomes more likely as warming increases. We defined tipping as possible (but not yet likely) when warming is above the minimum but below the best estimate, and likely above the best estimate. We also judged how confident we are with each estimate. For example, we are more confident in our estimates for Greenland’s ice sheet collapse than those for abrupt permafrost thaw.

This uncertainty means that we do not expect four climate tipping points to be triggered the first year global temperatures reach 1.5°C (which climate scientists suggest is possible in the next five years), or even when temperatures averaged over several years reach 1.5°C sometime in the next couple of decades. Instead, every fraction of a degree makes tipping more likely, but we can’t be sure exactly when tipping becomes inevitable.

This is especially true for the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets. While our assessment suggests their collapse becomes likely beyond 1.5°C, ice sheets are so massive that they change very slowly. Collapse would take thousands of years, and the processes driving it require warming to remain beyond the threshold for several decades. If warming returned below the threshold before tipping kicked in, it may be possible for ice sheets to temporarily overshoot their thresholds without collapsing.

For some other tipping points, change is likely to be more dispersed. We estimate that both tropical coral reef death and abrupt permafrost thaw are possible at the current warming level. But thresholds vary between reefs and patches of permafrost. Both are already happening in some places, but in our assessment, these changes become much more widespread at a similar time beyond 1.5°C.

Elsewhere, small patches of the Amazon and northern forests might tip and transition to a savannah-like state first, bypassing a more catastrophic dieback across the whole forest. Model results that are yet to be published suggest that Amazon tipping might occur in several regions at varying warming levels rather than as one big event.

The Amazon may not collapse from forest to grassland all at once. Paralaxis/Shutterstock

There may also be no well-defined threshold for some tipping elements. Ancient climate records suggest ocean currents in the North Atlantic can dramatically flip from being strong, as they are now, to weak as a result of both warming and melting freshwater from Greenland disrupting circulation. Recent modelling suggests that the threshold for the collapse of Atlantic circulation depends on how fast warming increases alongside other hard-to-measure factors, making it highly uncertain.

Into the danger zone

There are signs that some tipping points are already approaching. Degradation and drought have caused parts of the Amazon to become less resilient to disturbances like fire and emit more carbon than they absorb.

The front edge of some retreating west Antarctic glaciers are only kilometres away from the unstoppable retreat. Early warning signals in climate monitoring data (such as bigger and longer swings in how much glaciers melt each year) suggest that parts of the Greenland ice sheet and Atlantic circulation are also destabilising.

These signals can’t tell us exactly how close we are to tipping points, only that destabilisation is underway and a tipping point may be approaching. The most we can be sure of is that every fraction of further warming will destabilise these tipping elements more and make the initiation of self-sustaining changes more likely.

This strengthens the case for ambitious emissions cuts in line with the Paris agreement’s aim of halting warming at 1.5°C. This would reduce the chances of triggering multiple climate tipping points – even if we can’t rule out some being reached soon.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

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David Armstrong McKay, Researcher in Earth System Resilience, Stockholm University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

‘Sea monsters’ were real millions of years ago. New fossils tell about their rise and fall

The mosasaur evolution may also have started with a catastrophe

By Nicholas R Longrich

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Sixty six million years ago, sea monsters really existed. They were mosasaurs, huge marine lizards that lived at the same time as the last dinosaurs. Growing up to 12 metres long, mosasaurs looked like a Komodo dragon with flippers and a shark-like tail. They were also wildly diverse, evolving dozens of species that filled different niches. Some ate fish and squid, some ate shellfish or ammonites.

Now we’ve found a new mosasaur preying on large marine animals, including other mosasaurs.

The mosasaur Thalassotitan attacks a smaller mosasaur species, Halisaurus. Art by Andrey Atuchin.

The new species, Thalassotitan atrox, was dug up in the Oulad Abdoun Basin of Khouribga Province, an hour outside Casablanca in Morocco.

At the end of the Cretaceous period, sea levels were high, flooding much of Africa. Ocean currents, driven by the trade winds, pulled nutrient-rich bottom waters to the surface, creating a thriving marine ecosystem. The seas were full of fish, attracting predators — the mosasaurs. They brought their own predators, the giant Thalassotitan. Nine metres long and with a massive, 1.3 metre-long head, it was the deadliest animal in the sea.

Thalassotitan size.

Most mosasaurs had long jaws and small teeth to catch fish. But Thalassotitan was built very differently. It had a short, wide snout and strong jaws, shaped like those of a killer whale. The back of the skull was wide to attach large jaw muscles, giving it a powerful bite. The anatomy tells us this mosasaur was adapted to attack and tear apart large animals.

The massive, conical teeth resemble the teeth of orcas. And the tips of those teeth are chipped, broken and ground down. This heavy wear — not found in fish-eating mosasaurs — suggests Thalassotitan damaged its teeth biting into the bones of marine reptiles like plesiosaurs, sea turtles and other mosasaurs.

Thalassotitan skull.

At the same site we’ve found what look like the fossilised remains of its victims. The rocks producing Thalassotitan skulls and skeletons are full of partially digested bones from mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. The teeth of these animals, including those of half-metre skull from a long-necked plesiosaur, have been partially eaten away by acid. That suggests they were killed, eaten and digested by a large predator, which then spat up the bones. We can’t prove Thalassotitan ate them, but it fits the profile of the killer, and nothing else does, making it the prime suspect.

Remains of a small mosasaur, Halisaurus, showing teeth eaten away by acids.

Thalassotitan, sitting at the top of the food chain, also tells a lot about ancient marine food chains, and how they evolved in the Cretaceous.

Evolution of a killer

The discovery of Thalassotitan tells us about marine ecosystems just before the asteroid hit 66 million years ago, ending the age of the dinosaurs.

Thalassotitan was just one of a dozen mosasaur species living in the waters off of Morocco. Mosasaurs made up a fraction of all the thousands of species living in the oceans, but the fact that predators were so diverse implies that lower levels of the food chain were diverse too, for the oceans to be able to feed them all. This means that the marine ecosystem wasn’t in decline before the asteroid hit.

Instead, mosasaurs and other animals – plesiosaurs, giant sea turtles, ammonites, countless species of fish, molluscs, sea urchins, crustaceans – flourished, then died out suddenly when the 10-kilometre wide Chicxulub asteroid slammed into the earth, launching dust and soot into the air, and blocking out the sun. Mosasaur extinction wasn’t the predictable result of gradual environmental changes. It was the unpredictable result of a sudden catastrophe. Like a lightning strike from a clear blue sky, their end was swift, final, unpredictable.

An asteroid approaching Earth. NASA

But mosasaur evolution may also have started with a catastrophe. Curiously, the evolution of the giant carnivorous mosasaurs resembles that of another family of predators – the Tyrannosauridae. The giant T. rex evolved on land at about the same time that mosasaurs became top predators in the seas. Is that a coincidence? Maybe not.

The tyrannosaur Tarbosaurus, from Mongolia. Nick Longrich

Both mosasaurs and tyrannosaurs start to diversify and become larger at the same time, around 90 million years ago, in the Turonian stage of the Cretaceous. This followed major extinctions on land and in the sea around 94 million years ago, at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary.

These extinctions are associated with extreme global warming – a “supergreenhouse” climate – driven by volcanoes releasing C02 into the atmosphere. In the aftermath, giant predatory plesiosaurs disappeared from the seas and giant allosaurid predators were wiped out on land. With predator niches left vacant, mosasaurs and tyrannosaurs moved into the top predator niche. Although they were wiped out by a mass extinction, Thalassotitan and T. rex only evolved in the first place because of a mass extinction.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall

Top predators are fascinating because they’re big, dangerous animals. But their size and position at the top of the food chain also make them vulnerable. You have fewer animals as you move up the food chain. It takes many small fish to feed a big fish, many big fish to feed a small mosasaur, and many small mosasaurs to feed one giant mosasaur. That means top predators are rare. And apex predators need lots of food, so they’re in trouble if the food supply is disrupted.

If the environment deteriorates, dangerous predators can quickly become endangered species.

It’s this sensitivity to environmental change that makes predators like Thalassotitan so interesting for studying extinction. They suggest being a top predator is a risky evolutionary strategy. Over short timescales, evolution drives the evolution of larger and larger predators. Their size means they can compete for and take down prey. But over long timescales, specialisation for the apex predator niche increases vulnerability to disasters. Eventually, a mass extinction wipes the top predators out, and the cycle starts again.

Nicholas R. Longrich, Senior Lecturer in Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Bath

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sustainable forestry paramount for biodiversity conservation: FAO

Report finds weak governance, law enforcement biggest stumbling blocks

By Madhumita Paul

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Forests that are managed primarily for economic benefits are critical for biodiversity conservation, a United Nations report said.

Mainstreaming biodiversity in such ‘production forests’ is paramount, said Mainstreaming biodiversity in forestry by the UN body Food and Agriculture Organization.

Embedding biodiversity considerations into policies, strategies and practices of key public and private actors to promote the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources is called ‘mainstreaming biodiversity’.

Weak governance and law enforcement are the biggest stumbling blocks behind biodiversity conservation in protected areas, the report found.

Read more: FAO report forecasts spike in wood-based substitutes to non-renewables; expects 1 million new jobs

The role of forests in maintaining biodiversity is explicitly recognised by the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030. In 2019, FAO adopted the Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors.

Forests cover 31 per cent of the world’s land surface, store an estimated 296 gigatonnes of carbon and are home to most of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, a press release shared by FAO stated.

FAO’s forestry statutory body, Committee on Forestry (COFO), had asked FAO to review biodiversity mainstreaming in forestry in its 25th session in 2020. It had asked the UN body to share good practices on solutions that balance conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity.

The report was released October 6, 2022, at the 8th World Forest Week on the sidelines of the 26th session of COFO taking place in Rome, Italy, from October 3-7, 2022.

It was produced through a partnership between FAO and the non-profit Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the lead centre of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. CGIAR is a global partnership that unites international organisations engaged in research about food security.

The world’s forests provide habitats for about 80 per cent of amphibian species, 75 per cent of bird species and 68 per cent of mammal species. In addition, about 60 per cent of all vascular plants occur in tropical forests.

Read more: Saving a disappearing forest with the feather of a bird: Cameroon’s unique conservation story

But forests and their biodiversity continue to be lost at an alarming rate, the report said.

Deforestation is the greatest driver of the loss of valuable biodiversity, with around 10 million hectares lost to deforestation each year, mainly for agricultural expansion. Other threats include over-harvesting of timber, invasive species, climate change, desertification and forest fires.

The report recommended various measures and actions that governments and development partners can take to facilitate the mainstreaming of biodiversity in forest management:

- Halting and reversing deforestation

- Combating illegal and unregulated forest activities

- Recognising the forest tenure of Indigenous Peoples and local communities

- Preventing the conversion of natural forests into monospecific forest plantations

- Ensuring the sustainable management of harvested species

- Managing and controlling invasive and overabundant species

- Leveraging global momentum on restoration to enhance biodiversity conservation

- Adopting a multisectoral perspective

- Providing economic incentives

- Facilitating market-based instruments

- Investing in knowledge and capacity development

Mainstreaming biodiversity in forestry involves prioritising forest policies, plans, programmes, projects and investments that have a positive impact on biodiversity at the ecosystem, species and genetic levels.

Biodiversity mainstreaming in the forest sector requires integrated multi-stakeholder approaches that cross-sectoral boundaries.

Deputy Director of FAO’s Forestry Division Tiina Vahanen said:

We hope that the wealth of information and suggestions included in this study will inspire relevant actors in the forest sector to further strengthen the management of forests for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

The report assessed tools and methods of ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is integrated into forest policy, strategy and management.

Read more: Stuck in semantics: How confusions over forest land definitions keep benefits away from forest dwellers

Through a series of case studies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Finland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a case from Scotland), the report explored lessons learnt and identified good practices.

These country case studies showed that, on the one hand, much progress has been made towards mainstreaming biodiversity in production forest management. On the other hand, biodiversity continues to decline globally.

According to the report, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the involvement of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and the private sector in biodiversity management should be a priority and laws, policies and national strategies for biodiversity conservation should take into account forests other than protected areas.

The study found that in Ethiopia, there are some important gaps, such as a lack of documentation on species that should be protected and inadequate definitions of institutional mandates and instruments for cross-sectoral collaboration.

Lack of indigenous people’s participation big barrier to mainstreaming of biodiversity: FAO

Some 15 per cent of global forests are managed as community resources by indigenous peoples and local communities

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

The lack of participation of indigenous and local communities in conservation is one of the major barriers to mainstreaming biodiversity, according to a new report.

Interests of local communities are not considered while framing national forest policy and in the development of forest management plans, added Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Forestry report launched at the 26th Session of the Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) Committee on Forestry October 7, 2022.

The report defined mainstreaming biodiversity as the “process of embedding biodiversity considerations into policies, strategies and practices of key public and private actors to promote conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.”

Also read: Graduates in forest education ill-equipped to handle sector’s emerging demands

An estimated 15 per cent of global forests are managed as community resources by indigenous peoples and local communities, according to Sustainable Use of Wildlife report released in July.

“The conservation of the world’s biodiversity is utterly dependent on how we interact with and use the world’s forests,” said Tiina Vähänen, deputy director of FAO’s forestry division.

Indigenous people manage over 38 million square kilometres of land in 87 countries, coinciding with 40 per cent of conserved terrestrial areas with high biodiversity value.

The analysis also found that deforestation is one of the most critical drivers of the loss of forest biodiversity, with approximately 10 million hectares of forest being cleared for ‘other land uses’ every year. Agriculture is the primary driver of forest conversion.

Illegal timber harvesting, which accounts for 15-30 per cent of global timber production and 50-90 per cent of forest harvesting in many tropical countries, directly impacts forest biodiversity.

It also undermines efforts towards sustainable forest management, stated the report.

Mainstreaming biodiversity in forestry involves prioritising forest policies, plans, programmes, projects and investments that positively impact biodiversity at the ecosystem, species and genetic levels.

“It is about integrating biodiversity concerns into everyday forest management practice and finding optimal outcomes across multiple objectives, including productive economic benefits, maintaining or enhancing ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation,” stated the report.

National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans and Nationally Determined Contributions to mitigate climate change provide the basis for developing sectoral policies. They offer an opportunity to mainstream biodiversity in climate policies in mitigating and adapting to climate change, the analysis observed.

Ice flow in Antarctica changes with season, can impact sea-level rise estimates

Meltwater reaching base of glaciers or thinning out of ice shelves likely causes

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Antarctica’s ice moves faster in the summer, according to a new study. This means that the continent’s contribution to global sea-level rise is likely being miscalculated.

In summers, the ice flow from glaciers feeding into George VI, the second largest ice shelf in Antarctica, speeds up by 15 per cent, the study published in the journal Cryosphere found.

Ice shelves are floating slabs of ice extending from glaciers.

“Current estimates of ice mass loss assume that Antarctic land ice flows at the same rate throughout the year,” Karla Boxall from Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute and the study’s first author told Down To Earth.

Boxall and her colleagues used data collected from Sentinel-1 radar satellites to monitor the continent throughout the year, the researchers said.

They zoomed in on the George VI ice shelf, which covers an area of roughly 23,500 square kilometres. Its thickness ranges from 100-600 metres, the paper read.

Map: Frazer Christie

Their analysis revealed that during the Antarctic summer from December-January, ice flow velocity increased by 0.06 ± 0.005 metre per day, representing a roughly 15 per cent increase in speed.

Boxall and the team are unsure of the reason behind the seasonal variation. But they speculate that meltwater from the upper surface of the glaciers could be reaching their base through crevices and acting as lubricant.

This is already occurring in the Arctic and the Alps, the researchers said.

Alternatively, they theorise that warm ocean water could be melting the ice shelf from below, causing it to thin out. This, the paper said, allows upstream glaciers to move faster.

The seasonal cycles can be due to either mechanism or a mixture of the two, Frazer Christie from Scott Polar Research Institute highlighted.

Conducting detailed ocean and surface measurements can help them understand the reasons behind seasonal changes in ice flow, the researchers said.

These results suggest that other vulnerable glaciers in Antarctica such as Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers are likely experiencing seasonal changes too, the authors of the study speculated.

Wrong estimates

Annual volume of ice loss is the basis for estimating Antarctica’s contribution to sea-level rise. But seasonal changes in ice flow mean scientists could be underestimating or overestimating the continent’s contribution to sea-level rise, the paper noted.

“Some estimates of mass loss to the ocean are calculated from the change in [ice] flow between two points in time,” Boxall explained.

If the two points are during winter, she added, the mass loss over the year will be underestimated.

In this case, experts ignore the summertime ice speed-up and the resulting mass loss, Boxall said.

But if estimates are conducted during summer, experts overestimate annual mass loss as they ignore the relatively slow flow during the remaining months.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet covers an area of almost 14 million square kilometres and contains 30 million cubic kilometres of ice, according to the British Antarctic Survey.

The ice sheet holds around 90 per cent of the world’s surface freshwater. This is equivalent to a 70-metre rise in global sea level, the polar research institute stated.

Graduates in forest education ill-equipped to handle sector’s emerging demands: Report

African forest education needs transformation as it is currently based on traditional European education, which focuses more on industrial wood production

By Susan Chacko

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Graduates in forest education and training programmes are all too frequently ill-equipped to handle the demands of the sector’s changing workplace, according to a new report.

A concerted global response to address these gaps is yet to emerge, highlighted the report released at the Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) 26th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO 26).

Knowledgeable and well-trained forest sector workers, entrepreneurs, practitioners, researchers, professionals and policymakers are essential for the future of forests, it added.

The report titled ‘Global Assessment of Forest Education’ examined the status of forest education around the globe and identified much-needed actions.

There is an urgent need to rekindle interest in forest education and tap into emerging opportunities offered by modern digital information and communication technologies, the report stated.

We should provide better opportunities for outdoor learning and work experience. We need to get the students out into the field, it added.

This needs to be accompanied by greater appreciation and use of indigenous and traditional forest-related knowledge education systems.

“We hope this report will initiate future actions to strengthen forest education to benefit forests and trees and contribute to the well-being of forest-dependent people, global society and the planet,” said Gerardo Segura Warnholtz, senior forestry officer, FAO.

COFO 26 will focus on the contributions of forests to the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals. It expressed concerns about the scarcity and underfunding of forest-related education during the past 20 years.

High-quality and widely available forest education is essential for climate action, ecological restoration, biodiversity conservation, sustainable economic development, green cities and human health.

The report identified locally relevant inclusive solutions to forest education that consider — the digital divide, language barriers and gender and racial disparities.

Rural and forestry jobs often have a poor reputation. Efforts to improve forest education should go hand in hand with more comprehensive efforts to educate society informally.

The report looked at forest education in six regions — Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and Near East and North Africa.

Availability of forest education resources and learning materials are absent or available to only a limited extent in many primary schools.

Further, the lack of awareness among primary school students on nature or environmental studies has contributed to low interest in forest education.

Students in secondary schools receive little or no exposure to forests, which makes them less enthusiastic about pursuing further studies in forestry.

African forest education needs transformation as it is currently based on traditional European education, which focuses more on industrial wood production.

In Asia and the Pacific, children at primary and secondary schools have limited exposure to forests, forest-related education and the kinds of jobs the forest sector can offer. In many countries in the region, formal post-school forest education has its roots in colonial forest management and research.

FAO report forecasts spike in wood-based substitutes to non-renewables; expects 1 million new jobs

Fuelwood will remain main sources of energy for households in developing economies through 2050

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Demand for wood products like mass timber and man-made cellulose fibre used as substitutes for non-renewable materials may increase by up to 272 million cubic metres by 2050, according to a new report.

In developing countries, it will lead to the creation of around 1 million jobs, the research paper released October 5, 2022 noted.

“The global threats to climate, biodiversity and a healthy environment are mainly caused by the excessive use of non-renewable materials. This has led to political interventions to accelerate the decarbonisation of economies and to introduce a circular bioeconomy,” said the report released at the 26th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization Committee on Forestry in Rome.

It aims to identify the potential supply gaps and needs in forest industries in roundwood production, investments and employment.

Consumption of primary processed wood products — sawnwood, veneer / plywood, particle / fibreboard and wood pulp — is expected increase to 3.1 billion cubic metre (bcm) by 2050 from 2.2 bcm in 2020, according to The global forest sector outlook 2050: Assessing future demand and sources of timber for a sustainable economy.

The predictions were calculated using the Global Forest Products Model, where projections depend on the historical patterns of wood products production and trade.

It further predicted that industrial roundwood (IRW) is prone to uncertainties arising from climate change-driven policy interventions in naturally regenerated production forests as well as the productivity and expansion of planted forests.

Future demands for IRW may be met by a combination of planted forests especially from the Global South and naturally regenerated temperate as well as boreal forests, the analysts noted.

In 2020, naturally regenerated temperate and boreal forests provided about 44 per cent of global IRW production, according to the report. Planted forests contributed around 46 per cent to the global IRW supply in 2020, but their actual productivity is low in the global average, it added.

An additional 33 million hectares of ‘highly productive plantation forest’ will be needed to meet the increasing IRW demand up to 2050, if the area of naturally regenerated forests remains the same, the authors observed.

A total of $40 billion (Rs 3.3 lakh crore) per annum in investment will be required to maintain and expand IRW production by 2050, according to the report. Another $25 billion per annum will be needed for modernisation and in establishing industries.

Fuelwood popular choice

The report further observed that wood energy consumption by 2050 will be shaped by the traditional use of fuelwood in regions of sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia as well as the projected role of modern biomass to generate renewable energy.

The global consumption of fuelwood from forests in 2050 can range from 2.1-2.7 bcm, compared to 1.9 bcm in 2020 — an 11-42 per cent rise.

In 2020, around 2.3 billion people relied on wood-fuel as their primary source of energy for cooking and heating, the report stated. These will remain the main sources of energy for households in emerging economies till 2050.

“Ensuring access to sustainable wood fuel to private consumers who rely on this source due to economic reasons is a public responsibility comparable to supplying electricity or water,” said Thais Linhares-Juvenal, team leader of sustainable forestry, value chains, innovation and investment in the forestry division of Food and Agriculture Organization.

Meeting additional fuelwood requirements in sub-Saharan Africa would require a mix of agroforestry and energy woodlots, with a total area of 21-31 million hectares, stated the report. Additional IRW and fuelwood could be sourced from agroforestry systems and tree crop plantations.

There are 45 million ha agroforestry and 7 million ha rubber plantations across the globe, which can be further increased during agricultural expansion for food production.

Vegetarians more likely to be depressed than meat-eaters – possible reasons

The vegetarian social experience may contribute to depression; depression may cause an increased likelihood of becoming vegetarian; or both vegetarianism and depression may be caused by exposure to violent meat industry imagery

By Chris Bryant

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Vegetarians have around twice as many depressive episodes as meat-eaters, according to a new study.

The study, based on survey data from Brazil, chimes with earlier research that found higher rates of depression among those who forgo meat. However, the new study suggests that this link exists independent of nutritional intake.

It may seem straightforward to look at a link between a diet and specific health problems and assume that the former is causing the latter via some form of nutritional deficiency.

Yet the new analysis, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, took into account a wide range of nutritional factors, including total calorie intake, protein intake, micronutrient intake, and the level of food processing. This suggests that the higher rates of depression among vegetarians are not caused by the nutritional content of their diet.

So what might explain the link between vegetarianism and depression? Is there some non-nutritional mechanism that makes the former cause the latter? Or is the relationship down to something else entirely?

First, it is possible that being depressed causes people to be more likely to become vegetarian rather than the other way around. The symptoms of depression can include rumination on negative thoughts, as well as feelings of guilt.

Assuming that depressed and non-depressed people are equally likely to encounter the upsetting truth of slaughterhouses and factory farming, it is possible that depressed people are more likely to ruminate on those thoughts, and more likely to feel guilty for their part in creating the demand.

The depressed vegetarian, in this case, is not necessarily wrong to think this way. While depression is sometimes characterised as having unrealistically negative perceptions, there is evidence to suggest that people with mild to moderate depression have more realistic judgments about the outcome of uncertain events and more realistic perceptions of their own role and abilities.

In this case, there really is cruel treatment of animals in meat production. And this really is caused by consumer demand for cheap meat.

Second, it is possible that adhering to a vegetarian diet causes depression for reasons other than nutrition. Even if there is no “happy nutrient” lacking in a vegetarian diet, it could be the case that forgoing meat causes depression through other means.

For example, adopting a vegetarian diet might affect one’s relationship with others and involvement in social activities, and sometimes may be associated with teasing or other forms of social ostracism.

Notably, the new study is based on survey data collected in Brazil, a country famous for its meat-heavy diet. Some survey data has pointed to a sharp increase in vegetarianism in Brazil in recent years, going from 8 per cent in 2012 to 16 per cent in 2018. However, the recent paper surveyed over 14,000 Brazilians and found just 82 vegetarians — scarcely more than half a per cent.

One has to wonder if the same link between vegetarianism and depression would be observed in India or other countries where vegetarianism is more of a social norm. More importantly, as the rate of vegetarianism increases in the UK and other developed countries, will we see the relationship disappear over time?

Finally, it is possible that neither vegetarianism nor depression cause the other, but both are associated with some third factor. This could be any number of characteristics or experiences that are associated with both vegetarianism and depression.

For example, women are more likely than men to be vegetarian, and to experience depression. However, the Brazilian study took sex into account, ruling out this particular third variable.

Not examined

One variable that was not examined, but is plausibly linked to both vegetarianism and depression, is exposure to violent images of the meat industry. Preventing cruelty to animals is the most commonly cited reason vegetarians give for avoiding meat.

Documentaries like Dominion and Earthlings that depict the cruelty in the meat industry cannot readily be described as feelgood films. One can easily imagine that a person who consumes this kind of media would become both vegetarian and, especially when most people choose to look the other way, depressed.

There are several possible reasons for the link between vegetarianism and depression. This new study suggests that vegetarian nutrition is not the cause of depression.

Instead, the vegetarian social experience may contribute to depression, depression may cause an increased likelihood of becoming vegetarian, or both vegetarianism and depression may be caused by a third variable, such as exposure to violent meat industry imagery.

Chris Bryant, Honorary Research Associate, Department of Psychology, University of Bath

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

WHO sounds alarm on India-made cough syrups linked to children’s death in The Gambia

Consuming the products leads to ‘active kidney injuries’ in children, said WHO director-general

By Taran Deol

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

The World Health Organization (WHO) sounded the alarm on four substandard India-made products typically used to treat cough symptoms in The Gambia.

This could be linked to the death of 66 children in the West African country. Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals ltd manufactured the four products — Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup.

The products contained “unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants,” the global health body observed in an alert issued October 5, 2022.

The union government has reportedly initiated an investigation into the four products after it was informed about the issue by the WHO September 29. Samples of the cough syrups are expected to be tested in the next two days.

“Exact one to one causal relation of death has not yet been provided by WHO,” news channel NDTV reported, citing health ministry sources.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued an official statement in response to the WHO’s alert October 6.

“The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation took up the matter immediately with Haryana State Regulatory Authority, under whose jurisdiction the drug manufacturing unit of Maiden Pharmaceutical ltd, is located,” the statement read.

A detailed investigation was launched to ascertain the facts or details in the matter in collaboration with State Drugs Controller, Haryana, it added.

According to the tentative results received by WHO, out of the 23 samples of the products under reference which were tested, four were contaminated as they contained Diethylene Glycol or Ethylene Glycol, it stated.

Protocol mandates that the receiving country must test any drugs exported from India. It remains unclear whether The Gambia undertook this step, the NDTV report noted. Calls to the manufacturer by Down To Earth went unanswered till the time of publishing.

Currently, the contaminated products have been found to be in use in The Gambia, but their distribution through informal markets to other countries cannot be ruled out.

Consuming the products leads to ‘active kidney injuries’ in children, said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a press conference.

The global health body has advised all batches of the products need to be examined by the National Regulatory Authorities before they can be declared safe for use. The WHO said it is conducting enquiries with the company and the regulatory authorities in India.

“WHO requests increased surveillance and diligence within the supply chains of countries and regions likely to be affected by these products,” the global body added.

Increased surveillance of the informal/unregulated market is also advised, it said. There is no supply of drugs manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceuticals ltd in India, according to the All Indian Origin Chemists and Distributors.

However, this is not the first time India-made cough syrups have been scrutinised.

Some 13 children died in Himachal Pradesh (HP) in 2020 after drinking adulterated cough syrup. Before this, another 12 children died in a village in Jammu after consuming a diethylene-glycol-laden tonic. Both of these were manufactured by HP-based Digital Vision.

This gives us a glimpse into India’s weak drug regulation policy — Digital Vision’s products have failed to clear quality standards at least 19 times since 2009 — which has also allowed cough syrup abuse to thrive in India.

Abuse of codeine-containing cough syrups (CCS) — an opiate-based analgesic primarily used to treat pain, coughing, and diarrhoea — in India has been documented since before the turn of the century.

“The combination of an opioid and a sympathomimetic agent in the CCS may cause a special, distinct (euphoric) effect. This effect, along with the low price, easy availability and ‘pure’ preparation of CCS, may be responsible for the rapidly rising popularity of the CCS as drugs of abuse in India,” a 1997 study conducted by Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh found.

India has 7.7 million people with opioid use disorders, of whom 2.5 million use pharmaceutical opioids, stated a 2019 report by the ministry of social justice and AIIMS.

Some 83,000 bottles of codeine-based cough syrups were seized in India in the six months through March, stated an exclusive Reuters, a news agency, report released in 2015. The following year, cough syrups were featured on a long list of “irrational” fixed-dose combination drugs to be banned.

Some 950,000 bottles of codeine-based cough syrups and 9.50 kg of codeine phosphate were seized by the Narcotics Control Bureau from across India in 2020, daily Mint reported.

Parliamentarians raised concerns about rising cough syrup misuse in August this year. They pushed for a ban on three different preparations of codeine — codeine with chlorpheniramine, codeine with chlorpheniramine along with menthol and pholcodine along with promethazine.

The Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya had asked the DCGI to “conduct a review and submit a recommendation” in March.

Consumption of these preparations — which includes syrups such as Tossex, Ascoril C, Codistar, Planokuf, and Tedykoff — was reportedly the highest in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka — internal government findings revealed.

Afghanistan under Taliban: A decade’s progress eroded in a year, says UN

Cascading crises, almost 700,000 jobs vanished, finds report

By Zumbish

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Afghanistan is gripped by a “cascading crisis”, including a crippled economy, a year after the takeover by the Taliban, stated a new report by a United Nations body. Humanitarian aid alone cannot address this crisis.

The United Nations Development Program released a new report on Afghanistan’s economic situation October 5, 2022.

The cost of a basket of essentials needed to avoid food poverty has, meanwhile, risen 35 per cent, the report revealed. This has forced poorer households to go deeper into debt or sell off assets just to survive.

“Nearly 700,000 jobs have vanished, further threatening a population reeling from impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, drought and war in Ukraine,” stated UNDP.

Read more: Taliban take-over of Afghanistan: India should be a first responder in the humanitarian crisis

The Afghan people have been relentlessly subjected to extremely difficult circumstances, said the report One Year in Review: Afghanistan Since August 2021. They have survived numerous challenges in the last 40 years and shown enormous resilience, it said.

“Yet the last 12 months have brought cascading crises: A humanitarian emergency, massive economic contraction, and the crippling of its banking and financial systems,” the report added.

These crises are in addition to denying access to secondary education to girls and the restrictions on women’s mobility and participation in the economy, UNDP further said.

Restricting women from working can result in an economic loss of up to $1 billion — or up to five per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the analysis forecast.

“The rights of women and girls are critical for the future of Afghanistan,” raised UNDP Asia-Pacific Director Kanni Wignaraja. “It starts with education and continues with equal opportunities when it comes to employment and pay.”

The report said:

With GDP in steady decline since 2008, Afghanistan had come to rely on international aid to sustain its economy, which accounted for a staggering 75 per cent of total government spending and nearly 40 per cent of GDP at the time of transition.

However, foreign donors largely suspended aid after the transition, UNDP noted.

The report that paints a bleak fiscal picture of the country, dating back to more than a decade before the Taliban ascendency, also brought forth that it has reversed in only 12 months.

Read more: Most number of people in need of aid in Ethiopia, Yemen, DRC & Afghanistan in 2021

Without support from outside, Afghanistan must now rely on limited domestic revenue from agriculture and coal exports, it raised.

“Authorities have sought to address revenue shortfalls by cracking down on corruption in key revenue streams, such as customs, and by reaching out to the private sector and foreign investors.”

“Two decades of heavy dependence on international aid and imports, a lack of industrialisation and competitiveness, and limited mobility and connectivity among regions, among other factors, have hindered Afghanistan’s forward momentum,” it further said.

“Afghans are running out of time and resources. Afghanistan needs support from the international community to bring back to life local markets and small businesses, which are the backbone of Afghanistan’s economy.”

The Taliban captured Kabul August 15, 2021 and seized control of the country.

Indigenous communities must be at the centre of sustainable agrifood systems: FAO director-general

Four-day event will also be accompanied by release of two reports on global forest sector and mainstreaming biodiversity

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Indigenous people must be at the centre of efforts towards sustainable agrifood systems, of which forests and trees are an integral part, stated the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu.

He was addressing the 26th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO), which began at the FAO’s headquarters in Rome October 3, 2022.

The four-day event has been organised to provide a platform for exchange and dialogue among participants and provide suggestions for FAO’s work in forestry.

Two reports — The Global Forest Sector Outlook 2050: Assessing Future Demand and Sources of Timber for a Sustainable Economy and Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Forestry — will be released in the session.

Qu stressed the importance of smallholders, local communities and indigenous Peoples, who own or manage nearly 1 billion hectares of the world’s forest and farm land.

He also emphasised the importance of using forests and trees sustainably and building green value chains.

“Wood and bushes are a precious renewable resource and an important source of carbon-neutral and even carbon-positive materials. Wild-harvested forest foods improve food security and nutrition of people living nearby and beyond,” Qu said.

Forests cover 31 per cent of the world’s land surface, store an estimated 296 gigatonnes of carbon and are home to most of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, a press release shared by FAO stated.

They are a source of fibre, fuel, food and fodder, providing livelihoods for millions of people, including many of the world’s poorest.

Forests help mitigate and adapt to climate change and improve soil, air and water quality. If sustainably managed, forests are also a source of renewable raw materials.

It’s time to halt deforestation, plant more trees, make the Earth greener and restore its productive capacities, Qu added. There are only seven more years to reach the 2030 Agenda and the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals, he reminded.

“Now, we need to implement, scale-up and accelerate action and above all, we need political will and a package of solutions,” he said.

The impacts of the climate crisis and humanitarian emergencies are being felt more than ever around the world. He pointed out the increased frequency and intensity of droughts, floods, fires and storms worldwide.

The world witnessed overlapping crises from the global pandemic, economic downturns and food, feed, fuel and fertiliser price increases, he added. On the other hand, hunger continues to rise, reflecting growing inequalities, said the press release shared by FAO.

“Deforestation and land degradation, together with biodiversity loss, are devastating our ecosystems. This must change and stop,” he said, emphasising the importance of forests.

Halting deforestation, cutting out greenhouse gas emissions by 14 per cent and safeguarding more than half the Earth’s biodiversity were vital in tackling the climate crisis, he added.

“Some 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land can be restored. Increasing tree cover could raise economic sustainability, which is essential to boost productivity to meet growing demands,” he said.

WHO approval to South Africa’s vaccine regulatory body

South African Health Products Regulatory Authority ranked at maturity level 3 out of 4 classification levels

By Swathi Parwathi

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

South Africa’s vaccine regulatory system received the World Health Organization approval September 5, 2022.

South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) is the national regulatory authority to ensure medical products’ safety, quality and efficacy.

WHO ranked the regulatory system at maturity level 3 (ML3) — the third of four levels in its global classification system for national medical products regulatory authorities.

The designation ML3 confirms a stable, well-functioning and integrated regulatory system is in place. Quality medical supplies are an important aspect of a good healthcare system.

The highest level, ML4, is achieved by a regulatory system operating at an advanced level of performance and with continuous improvement.

“This achievement affirms South Africa’s trailblazing endeavour in health research,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.

In 2019, SAHPRA participated in the self-benchmarking of its regulatory system and functions. It further enhanced this self-benchmarking in 2021 with WHO assistance, said a press release by the global health body.

Read more: Why we must celebrate India’s indigenous HPV vaccine

WHO completed its benchmarking of SAHPRA in November 2021. The regulatory body was required to address several gaps with regard to vaccine regulation as recommended by a team of 19 international experts from 10 countries.

It made major progress in several areas, including staffing, quality management and regulatory presence at ports of entry between November 2021 and August 2022.

“SAHPRA will continue to be an agile and responsive African health products regulator,” said Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela, SAHPRA chief executive officer.

It is the fourth national regulatory authority to get the ML3 approval for vaccines in the WHO African Region. SAHPRA is also the fifth to achieve this status in the African continent, besides Egypt, which earned ML3 for vaccines earlier in 2022.

The shift to ML3 will significantly contribute to WHO work to help low- and middle-income countries to build capacity for producing mRNA vaccines.

Inflation can kill Africa human development, World Bank warns

Most poverty-struck rural households in Africa spend between 57 and 59 per cent of their income on food

By Kiran Pandey

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Africa’s economic growth has been crippled by the combined effects of skyrocketing inflation, Ukraine war, massive debts and climate change, according to the World Bank.

This will have long-lasting consequences, possibly reversing decades of progress in poverty alleviation, warned the report published in october this year.

Food and fuel inflation is exacerbating food insecurity, especially among the vulnerable in the continent.

This might have spiked the already on-the-rise headline inflation in Sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank highlighted in its latest biannual analysis Africa’s Pulse.

Headline inflation is a measure of the total inflation within an economy. It takes the prices of volatile commodities such as food and fuel into account.

Also read: High water stress to displace up to 700 million Africans by 2030

Ukraine war, in the backdrop of an economy recovering from post-pandemic ailments, has aggravated the situation. Some 29 of 33 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa had inflation rates over 5 per cent. While, 17 countries had double-digit inflation as of July 2022.

This comes at a time when debt in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to stay at 58.6 per cent of GDP in 2022. Eight out of 38 countries eligible for International Development Association’s (IDA) support in the region are in debt distress and 14 are at high risk.

Eligibility for IDA’s support depends on a country’s relative poverty.

The projected inflation trends could slow down the already hampered efforts to reduce poverty. This can impact Africa’s progress in reaching the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals for ending extreme poverty by 2030.

Also read: Climate shocks to drive 13.5 million people in Africa’s Sahel into poverty by 2050

Food inflation is a threat to long-term human development in the continent, the report read.

Record high international food and fuel prices — especially during the first quarter of 2022 — triggered a global crisis. It can lead to an increase in extreme poverty, worsening hunger and malnutrition, warned the report.

Elevated food prices are detrimental as a vast majority of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa allocates over 40 per cent of total spending to food.

Most poverty-struck rural households spend between 57 and 59 per cent of their income on food.

Food insecurity

More than one in five people in Africa suffer from hunger. An estimated 140 million people faced acute food insecurity in 2022, compared to 120 million people in 2021, according to the Global Report on Food Crises.

Food insecurity increased by 17 per cent between 2021 and 2022, the report added.

In East Africa alone, an estimated 55 million people is acutely food insecure — up from 41 million in 2021. This implies a 34 per cent increase in food insecure people.

Food security crises are becoming more frequent and more acute in the subcontinent, flagged the World Bank.

In east and southern Africa, severe food crisis episodes occurred every 2.5 years in the 2000s, as opposed to one in every decade previously. Food security is estimated to decline by 5-20 per cent on average with each significant episode of flooding or drought.

The situation will deteriorate if no actions are implemented to reverse this trend. The prevalence of undernourishment may reach 29.4 per cent (411.8 million people) by 2030.

Some 209.3 million undernourished people will be from the west and central Africa, followed by east Africa with 191.6 million.

This calls for urgent action from policymakers to restore macro-economic stability and support the poorest households while reorienting their food and agriculture spending to achieve future resilience, said Andrew Dabalen, World Bank chief economist for Africa.

The report suggested short- and long-term measures to boost food and nutrition security. It called for strengthening food systems by improving the efficiency of existing resources.

Social safety initiatives like targeted cash or in-kind transfers during periods of heightened food insecurity can protect the most vulnerable people.

It suggested reorienting the government funds for nutrition-sensitive social protection programs, irrigation works, climate change adaptation and research and development.

How climate change is wreaking havoc on communities in Niger Delta

Locals vulnerable to recurring floods in Africa's largest oil producer; a non-profit is mapping these communities for early warning of flood risk

By Ekpali Saint

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

The communities living in the oil-rich Niger Delta have been devastated by recurring floods. The lack of efforts to safeguard these communities or help them adapt to the conditions brought on by climate change has left them vulnerable and helpless.

The region is home to about 30 million people and is located on the Atlantic coast of southern Nigeria. It cuts across nine coastal states and hosts the largest mangrove forest ecosystem in Africa.

Bayelsa is one of six states in the oil-rich region of Africa’s largest oil producer, according to news outlet Al Jazeera. But many people live in abject poverty despite years of oil exploration — and face environmental degradation, too.

The state is 90 per cent water and has the longest coastline in the region, so residents often face the effects of human and natural activity, the Al Jazeera report said.

Lucky Ekalimo of Ayakoro community in Bayelsa has been farming since 2010. He has witnessed floods every year; however, the floods now last longer and are more ruinous.

“This year, the floods destroyed all my crops,” said Ekalimo, who grows cassava and plantains, among other food crops.

The 36-year-old is also the community development chairman of Ayakoro. He has been severely affected by the floods this time and said earlier he would have bountiful harvests and generated huge profits.

“These days, the floods in our community last about five months, beginning from June. I have lost so much to the floods and it has affected my livelihood. Even meeting my family’s daily needs has been difficult,” said Ekalimo, who is a father of three.

Flooding now threatens lives in his community. “You can’t stop flooding,” he said. “So we appeal to the government to do something [and] empower the affected people.”

The resultant effects of climate change exacerbate flooding in Nigeria, but poor drainage and waste management system contribute to the environmental problem, according to experts.

Lack of shoreline protection in coastal communities could increase the risk of erosion and flood disasters, said Bayelsa-based environmentalist Philip Godfrey.

“Several communities in Bayelsa state are coastal areas,” Godfrey told Down To Earth. “But the government is not serious about shoreline protection [projects].”

“The entire community [Ayakoro] is flooded. Some people are relocating to other places. Some people are still living inside their houses and they use stones and planks to elevate their belongings,” Ekalimo said.

Early warning system

A non-profit is, however, trying to help these communities with early warning information about floods.

Gaps in the availability and communication of early warning information about floods at the community level often increase its impact, said Taiwo Ogunwumi, president and founder of Geohazard Risk Mapping Initiative (GRMI).

GRMI is a non-profit that uses geographical information system software to provide flood maps at the community level in Nigeria.

When communities are mapped, the results are shared with relevant agencies such as the NEMA for a quick response and across social media platforms for people to access easily.

So far, GRMI has mapped 25 communities across different states in Nigeria.

Ogunwumi also said GRMI developed an interactive web map where people can search for their house addresses and confirm their risk for flooding.

“Our maps indicate the level of susceptibility to flood and provide a statistical estimation of the number of farmlands that might be affected by flood,” Ogunwumi said. “The aim is to help farmers be better prepared to adapt to the yearly flooding that affects crop production.”

Around the world, floods accounted for about 47 per cent of all weather-related disasters from 1995-2015, reported online newspaper The Cable.

Floods affected more than two billion people worldwide from 1998-2017, according to World Health Organization and in India, over 1,500 people, on an average, have lost their lives to floods each year from 2011-2020.

In Nigeria, thousands of people, especially those residing in coastal areas, are severely affected by floods every year. The country witnessed the worst flooding in more than 40 years in 2012.

The floods affected 27 out of Nigeria’s 36 states and killed 363 people and displaced two million people, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the government agency for disaster management in the country.

Since this year, floods have killed over 300 people and thousands of people have been displaced, according to news outlet Abcnews.

No evidence of microplastics in emperor penguins, says study

The future of emperor penguins remains uncertain despite positive findings about its ecology

By Swathi Parwathi

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

A study conducted by the University of Basel in Switzerland and the Alfred-Wegener Institute in Germany has found no evidence of microplastics in the stomachs of emperor penguins. The study is an important assessment of environmental pollution at the South Pole.

Researchers analysed the gizzard contents of 41 chicks found dead in the colony in Atka Bay, a remote area on the north-eastern edge of the Ekström Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

“We had already conducted studies of water samples there and discovered microplastics, albeit in low concentrations,” Clara Leistenschneider, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Basel, was quoted as saying in a statement.

They visually identified 85 potential plastic particles up to half a millimetre in size under the microscope and used spectral analysis to determine these particles’ properties.

The researchers did not find any synthetic polymers in gizzards, as they report in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

The future of emperor penguins remains uncertain despite positive findings. The rise in tourism and commercial fishing will lead to an increase of microplastic presence in the Southern Ocean.

“Plastic and microplastic pollution at the poles is a huge problem. And it is only going to get even more complex. The international community will have to come around and agree to a permanent solution on plastic pollution in the oceans,” M Ravichandran, secretary, Union Ministry of Earth Sciences told Down To Earth.

A study published October 9, 2019, in the journal Biological Conservation by an international team of researchers had suggested that the species’ status be changed to ‘vulnerable’ from ‘near threatened’ in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

The emperor penguin is a species that needs a special environment to breed and enhance its numbers. The birds need sea ice during the time that they incubate their eggs and while they raise their chicks.

They also need stable sea ice after they complete breeding during the time when they undertake their annual moult, a period during which they cannot enter the water as their feathers are no longer water-proof.

The Alfred-Wegener Institute plans to monitor the Atka Bay emperor penguin colony regularly to track the process of contamination over the long term.

(with inputs from Rajat Ghai)

Fresh twist in Moon’s genesis; lunar body likely formed within hours after collision

Moon’s composition is similar to Earth and not Mars or other objects in the solar system

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

The Moon may have formed hours after Theia, a Mars-like object, violently collided with the young Earth, according to a new study.

Previous theories on the Moon’s genesis say the satellite was formed months or years after the collision. And the gradual solidification of molten Theia debris gave rise to the Moon.

“The origin of the Moon is one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in our solar system. There are several good ideas, but not yet any conclusive answers,” Jacob Kegerreis, a postdoctoral researcher at National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Center, told DTE.

He is the lead author of the study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters October 4, 2022.

Previous theories did a pretty good job explaining the Moon’s properties, but they do not entirely add up, the researchers argued.

The lunar body was expected to be more like Theia. But rock samples from it, thanks to the Apollo Mission, painted a contradictory picture.

Moon’s composition is similar to Earth and not Mars or other objects in the solar system.

“In terms of composition, the Earth and moon are almost twins, their compositions differing by at most few parts in a million,” Alessandra Mastrobuono-Battisti, an astrophysicist at the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, told online portal Space.com.

This contradiction casts a long shadow on the giant-impact (Theia impact) model, the expert added.

Kegerreis and his colleagues experimented with hundreds of high-resolution simulations to best explain the Earth-Moon system. They altered the angle and speed of the collision and the masses and spins of the two colliding bodies.

Their simulation showed that the materials from Earth and Theia launched directly into our planet’s orbit after the impact, creating the Moon. And the materials ejected from the young Earth were deposited on the Moon’s outer regions. This explains why the compositions of the two bodies are similar.

“It was extra exciting that the new results could include a tantalisingly Moon-like satellite in orbit,” Kegerreis said in a statement. Previous theories show the Earth’s natural satellite formed in a circular and equatorial (not-tilted) orbit, according to researchers.

But the Moon’s current orbit is tilted and wide. The new study shows the “possibility of forming an eccentric (non-circular) orbit and a significantly inclined one (titled away from the Earth’s equator),” Kegerreis added.

Moon’s origin can also tell us about its internal structure. “The detailed interior of the Moon is not very well understood today, let alone how it was in the past,” the expert highlighted.

Most previous ideas for lunar formation speculate that it was very hot and completely molten in its initial days, he explained. The Moon was probably less molten than the standard models, Kegerreis’ theory explained.

Future missions to the Moon could provide more conclusive answers, the researchers said.

“Even more samples from the surface of the Moon could be extremely helpful for making new and more confident discoveries about its composition and evolution,” the expert said.

Missions and studies can help researchers understand the actual history of these bodies. It can also answer whether the Earth-Moon system is unique, he added.

Climate risk index shows threats to 90% of the world’s marine species

Urgent need to understand how climate change affects marine life to develop adaptation approaches

By Daniel G Boyce

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Climate change impacts marine life through a bewildering web of complex pathways.

Warming oceans and climate extremes are driving species into deeper, more northern and cooler locations, altering their behaviour and reconfiguring marine ecosystems in radical and unprecedented ways.

While some impacts can be beneficial, many are harmful, making it difficult to understand the overall effects of climate on individual species and ecosystems. Despite these challenges, we urgently need to understand how changing climate conditions affect marine life to plan and develop adaptation approaches to steward it effectively under climate change.

In our new study, my co-authors and I developed the Climate Risk Index for Biodiversity, which captures the climate risk for nearly 25,000 marine species and their ecosystems. This new index lays the groundwork for supporting climate-smart approaches to managing and conserving marine life.

A climate report card

We used a data-driven statistical approach to create a “climate report card” for each species and ecosystem that tells us which ones will win or lose under climate change.

This approach enabled us to study a broad spectrum of life forms, from microscopic plankton to large predators and whales, across all marine ecosystems from the tropics to the poles.

The climate report card assessed species ranging from plankton to whales on 12 specific climate risk factors. Photo: Shutterstock

Just as a report card grades students on subjects such as math and science, we assessed each species on 12 specific climate risk factors depending on two different future scenarios — one with lower emissions and one with higher emissions.

The climate risk factors express how the innate characteristics of a species — their body size and temperature tolerance — intersect with past, present and future ocean conditions at all locations where they are found.

The resulting risk scale ranges from negligible (lowest) to critical (highest) and represents both the severity of harmful climate impacts on species and their likelihood of occurring.

Divergent climate futures

Our study focuses on two possible shared socioeconomic pathway scenarios of how future society — and the greenhouse gas emissions it produces — could transpire. The results paint two wildly divergent pictures for marine life and people.

In the high emissions scenario, the global average ocean temperature will increase by three to five degrees Celcius by 2100. Under this scenario, almost 90 per cent of the 25,000 species we assessed were at a “high” or “critical” climate risk. The average species was at risk across 85 per cent of its geographic range.

The risk is highest in the subtropical and tropical ecosystems that tend to be biodiversity hotspots and in nearshore ecosystems that support 96 per cent of the global fish catch.

The proportion of marine species at high or critical climate risk under high emissions by 2100. Darkest red shading denotes the highest risk areas, and darkest blue the lowest. Source: Daniel G Boyce

Top predators like sharks and tunas were at significantly higher risk than species further down the food chain, like forage fishes. Such predators can have massive effects on ecosystem structure and functioning.

Our findings also suggest severe ripple effects for people who most rely on the ocean. Under high emissions, climate risks for fished species such as cod and lobsters were consistently greater within the territories of low-income nations, where people depend more on fisheries to meet their nutritional needs.

This represents yet another example of climate inequality wherein low-income countries that have contributed the least to climate change, and are more aggressively reducing their emissions, are experiencing its worst impacts while having the lowest capacity to adapt to them.

Our study stresses that we are at a critical fork in the road and that choosing a more sustainable path that prioritizes climate mitigation will lead to clear benefits for ocean life and people.

Under a low emissions scenario, average ocean temperatures are expected to increase by one to two degrees Celsius by 2100, as per the two degrees Celsius global warming limit in the Paris Agreement.

Under this future, we found a reduced climate risk for virtually all marine life (98.2 per cent). The disproportionate risk for ecosystem structure, biodiversity, fisheries and low-income nations are greatly reduced or eliminated.

Averting harmful climate risks

Our approaches to fisheries management, protected area planning and biodiversity conservation originated in a world with a relatively stable climate. But climate change is rewriting the rule books and threatening to undermine the effectiveness of these traditional approaches.

Cutting emissions is the most direct approach to reducing climate risks. Yet, even with strong mitigation, our study suggests that climate change will continue to affect marine life.

In addition to reducing emissions, we must find ways to adapt to a warming climate to protect marine life and those who depend on it. Source: AP Photo/Jae C Hong, File

In addition to reducing emissions, it is imperative that we simultaneously find ways to adapt to a warming climate to protect our oceans.

We must incorporate new methods and adaptation strategies, develop capacity in under-resourced parts of the world and carefully weigh the pros and cons of adaptation measures.

Our study provides a new tool and index to help inform decision-makers when navigating these complex issues. It can assist with developing strategies to manage and conserve marine life under climate change, monitor changing climate risk and gauge progress towards risk reduction.

While our study paints a potentially grim future under high emissions, it also highlights how our oceans and marine life could benefit from climate change mitigation and adaptation and stresses the urgency with which we must work towards this goal.

Daniel G Boyce, Research Scientist, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Adjunct Professor, Dalhousie University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Africa in space: continent has a lot to gain, but proper plans must be put in place

African countries need to be more deliberate in developing space capabilities; quite a lot of strategic foresight is needed in Africa

By Etim Offiong

Published: Wednesday 05 October 2022

Every year in October nearly 100 countries organise activities to mark World Space Week. The theme this year is space and sustainability. In this interview, Adejuwon Soyinka, West Africa regional editor at The Conversation Africa, asks Etim Offiong about how far Africa has come in the space age and what benefits the continent stands to gain from its investment in space technology.

Russia’s Sputnik kicked off the space age in 1957. But Africa didn’t join until 1999. Why?

Sputnik happened partly due to the cold war rivalry between the US and the former Soviet Union. During this period, most African countries were still under colonial rule. Only Ghana had gained independence, earlier that year.

Through the colonial systems and structures put in place then, African countries had no control over their natural and human resources. The colonies were made to focus on the labour, raw materials and agricultural crops that were needed by their colonial masters.

They could not pay attention to research and development, particularly in nuclear physics, space and the oceans. Educational systems were also designed to meet the needs of colonial masters. Outer space was, therefore, of little concern to Africa.

Free nations on the other hand could channel their resources into space exploration.

Despite the restrictions and challenges in their home countries, African scientists still made efforts to study and do research in their areas of interest. These were mostly done abroad through scholarships and fellowships. Some of these scientists were interested in understanding phenomena surrounding the Earth and Sun.

At about this time (1957-8), the International Geophysical Year provided an opportunity for international research on the science and impact of the Sun-Earth system. The US also placed tracking stations in Nigeria and South Africa to support US space missions.

In that sense, one may say that Africa participated in early space activities. But the activities were not designed to benefit African countries.

How far would you say Africa has come in the space age?

As African countries started gaining independence, they could, to some extent, control their human and financial resources. The speech made by Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah at the launch of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 highlighted how Africa’s development and prosperity needed science and technology.

But a major leap in space activities started around 1998, with the establishment by the United Nations of Regional Centres for Space Science and Technology Education in developing countries.

Two centres were established in Africa: one in Morocco for the French-speaking African countries, and the other in Nigeria for the English-speaking African countries.

At about this time, South Africa was developing what would become Africa’s first indigenously built satellite — Sunsat — which was launched in 1999.

From these early steps, more African nations started developing an interest in space. Those that were already aware of the benefits of space technology in development started seeking means to procure satellites and acquire space-related knowledge.

In addition to national initiatives, there are several externally funded space-related programmes and projects in Africa which have created an inflow of funds, knowledge and infrastructure into the continent.

Furthermore, the African Space Policy and Strategy was adopted in 2016. Some African countries have also developed national space policies and strategies.

So, Africa has made some gains, but it could be better.

How has Africa benefited from investment in space technology?

There is potential to apply space technology in various areas, including agriculture, transport, urban planning, environmental management, disaster management and natural resource management.

The UN-affiliated regional centres in Morocco and Nigeria have trained several hundred Africans in these areas.

In addition, some African countries have procured small satellites, mostly through the help of academic or commercial institutions abroad.

Unfortunately, there has been little or no technology transfer. Similarly, the technology and knowledge from externally funded programmes have yet to be properly internalised, codified and diffused.

Some African countries have commenced academic programmes in areas such as astronomy, remote sensing, space weather, satellite communication, satellite geodesy, satellite meteorology and space law.

The challenge is that there are few jobs for the graduates. Africa eventually loses them to countries where their knowledge and skills are better used. Africa, therefore, needs to be strategic in its engagements and programmes.

What do African countries need to do to get better at this?

In my view, it begins with a national space policy and strategy. A national policy states where a country wants to go, the national space strategy states how it will get there. The policy states the vision, overarching goals and guiding principles; the strategy translates these into actions and programmes.

Space policies and strategies are important because they enable predictable positive outcomes for a country, region, or organisation. They lead, guide and guard all stakeholders — government, industry, academia and civil society — towards attaining corporate interests, goals and priorities.

Due to the unique nature of the space domain (scientific, commercial, military and geostrategic interests), developing a space policy and strategy is not as simple as other public policies.

On the flip side, space policy and strategy operate within an international legal regime. There are treaties, principles, norms and guidelines for space activities.

This is where the African Space Leadership Institute comes in — to develop Africa’s capabilities in space policy, strategy, law and governance. The institute was also established to provide advice and insight on issues in the African national and continental space landscape. All these would be within the frameworks of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the UN SDGs.

African countries need to be more deliberate in developing space capabilities. A party can only benefit from bilateral or international cooperation if it brings something to the table, knows what it wants to get from the cooperation and negotiates well.

So, quite a lot of strategic foresight is needed in Africa.

Etim Offiong, Scientific Officer, Obafemi Awolowo University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Australia to make efforts at saving koalas, 108 other ‘priority species’ over next 10 years

Canberra launches new federal action plan for threatened species conservation and recovery

By Rajat Ghai

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

The koala and the Olive Ridley turtle are part of a list of 110 ‘priority species’ that the Australian government will try to save from extinction over the next 10 years, the country’s environment minister announced October 4, 2022.

The 2022-2032 Threatened Species Action Plan: Towards Zero Extinctions lists 22 types of birds, 21 types of mammals, nine fish species, six types of frogs, 11 invertebrates, 11 reptiles and 30 types of plants as priority species.

It also includes 20 ‘priority places’ the ecological conditions of which the government will try to improve in the next decade.

“The plan sets out strong targets for threatened species conservation and recovery over the next 10 years. These are the strongest targets any government has ever set — including preventing any new extinctions and protecting and conserving at least 30 per cent of Australia’s land mass,” Tanya Plibersek, Australia’s minister for the environment and water tweeted.

She added that focussing on the 20 priority places and 110 priority species would also deliver flow-on benefits to other threatened plants and animals in the same habitats.

“We know the previous government ignored difficult problems, and accepted the decline and destruction of our environment as inevitable. We won’t. After a decade of neglect, the need for action has never been greater — we’ll keep fighting to protect our native plants and animals,” Plibersek said.

Species and places

The 110 priority species “were selected using a multi-criteria decision analysis process, using scores against the Action Plan’s 6 prioritisation principles”.

These principles are risk of extinction, multiple benefits, feasibility and effectiveness, importance to people, uniqueness and representativeness, according to the document.

“The priority species list includes plants and animals found across Australia in a range of environments, from the arid deserts to rainforests, forests to grasslands, and inland waters to the sea,” the report noted.

The 21 mammals also include the Australian Sea-lion, the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, the Quokka and the Kangaroo Island Echidna.

Kangaroo Island, just off the coast of the state of South Australia, is the country’s third-largest island. It had witnessed raging fires during the 2019-20 Australian Bushfire Season, known locally as ‘Black Summer’.

Many species of plants and animals found on the island that were found nowhere else, had perished in the inferno.

Kangaroo Island is among the six islands that are in the list of 20 ‘priority places’.

The list also includes 14 places on mainland Australia including some of its most iconic landscapes like the Greater Blue Mountains in New South Wales, the Australian Alps, spread over New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory and Kakadu and West Arnhem in the Northern Territory.

“The Action Plan’s objective is to improve the condition of priority places by 2032, benefiting both threatened and non-threatened species and ecological communities,” the document read.

Climate change may aid spread of Lassa fever from west to east Africa by 2070: Report

The number of people at risk of exposure to Lassa fever in Africa would increase by 600%, according to new study

By Rajat Ghai

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Climate change will aid the spread of Lassa fever, a zoonotic disease endemic to parts of west Africa, to the central and eastern parts of the continent in the next 50 years, a recently published study has found.

A team of scientists from the Scripps Research Institute in the United States and the University of Brussels in Belgium projected that there would be a 600 per cent jump in the number of people exposed to the virus that causes Lassa fever.

The number of people at risk of exposure would rise to 453 million by 2050 and 700 million by 2070, up from about 92 million in 2022.

Lassa fever is caused by the Lassa virus, a member of the Arenaviridae family. Humans usually become infected through direct contact or exposure to the excreta of infected Natal multimammate rat (Mastomys natalensis) rats.

An estimated 80 per cent of infections are mild or asymptomatic. But the remaining 20 per cent can cause haemorrhaging from the mouth and gut, low blood pressure and potential permanent hearing loss.

The fatality rate for hospitalised patients is generally high and can reach 80 per cent at times. There is currently no vaccine approved to prevent the disease. Lassa fever is currently reported mostly from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, all of which are in west Africa.

The scientists analysed environmental data on Lassa virus outbreaks over the decades. This showed that temperature, rainfall and the presence of pastureland areas were key factors that contributed to the transmission of the Lassa virus.

They combined an ‘ecological niche’ model with projections of climate and land use changes in Africa over the next several decades, along with the known range of the Natal multimammate rat.

Africa is at the frontline of the global climate emergency.

Up to 118 million extremely poor people or those living on less than $1.90 per day will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat in Africa by 2030, according to State of the Climate in Africa 2020 report.

Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to contribute more than half of the increase in the global human population anticipated through 2050, according to World Population Prospects 2022 released in July this year.

The scientists found that several regions would likely become ecologically suitable for viral spread in central Africa, including in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and also in Uganda, east Africa.

They also found that if the virus was successfully introduced and propagated in a new ecologically suitable area, its growth would be limited over the first decades.

The study Predicting the evolution of the Lassa virus endemic area and population at risk over the next decades was published September 27, 2022 in the journal Nature Communications

Human activities are eating into reindeer grazing land in Europe

Multiple stresses affect 60% of Fennoscandia region; High risk of vegetation and landscape change in the future, finds study

By Nandita Banerji

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Grazing land for reindeer in Europe’s northern Fennoscandia is under threat from several growing land-use pressures, a study has found. Expansion of human activities towards the north has put 60 per cent of the region at risk to multiple stresses and 85 per cent is exposed to at least one pressure.

Northern Fennoscandia consists of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland. The study, Mapping cumulative pressures on the grazing lands of northern Fennoscandia, was published in journal Scientific Reports September 30, 2022.

Read more: Yak and reindeer herders meet on top of the world

The researchers from Stockholm University and Umeå University used an integrated large-scale GIS analysis over the three countries. About 40 per cent of Fennoscandia is assigned as reindeer grazing land.

There's a high risk of vegetation and landscape change in the future, leading to a concentration of grazing in less disturbed areas and encroachment of trees and shrubs in disturbed ones, according to the study.

In Sweden and Norway, reindeer husbandry and grazing are seen as a means of preserving the mountain landscape in its current state and are formulated as a national environmental goal.

Map of the potential grazing values in summer pastures of northern Fennoscandia. Source: Nature

These grazing areas face land-use pressures from tourism, road and railway networks, forestry, industrial and wind energy facilities, together with predator presence and climate change, according to the analysis.

However, just four per cent of the grazing area studied was found undisturbed without any permanent presence of predators nor co-occurring land uses. These were small and scattered areas of land throughout the Scandinavian mountain range up to the northern tip of Norway and to a small patch in northeast Finland.

“With the rising human presence taking place on multiple fronts, the resilience of northern pastoralism is under threat,” said Marianne Stoessel, first author of the study and PhD student at Stockholm University.

The researchers have, for the first time, managed to get an overview of land use pressures over the entire area, said Stoessel. “This was not easy, as the different land-uses act at different scales and can be very dynamic, so can be the predators, and the effects of climate change on grazing,” she said.

Read more: Global Eco Watch: Reindeer may have been domesticated 2,000 years ago

Multiple land uses were primarily present in grazing land with low grazing value, for around 74 per cent of the area. But it was also present in almost half of the grazing ground with potentially high (49 per cent) and medium grazing values (45 per cent).

Human land-uses were concentrated into a stretch reaching from central-eastern Sweden up to central Finland and present all along the coast of Norway.

Grazing is a key process for maintaining plant biodiversity, even in the mountains, said study co-author Regina Lindborg of Stockholm University. “It was important for us to study the extent of these cumulative pressures with having the summer pastures in mind, where grazing takes place,” said Lindborg.

Nord Stream leaks: Where will Europe get its gas from now?

The next two winters are going to be very challenging for all of Europe’s gas consumers

By Michael Bradshaw

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Accusations continue to fly about the cause of major leaks from the two Nord Stream pipelines transporting gas through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Europe.

Until this latest development, Russia had maintained that western sanctions were behind disruptions to supply from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, as maintenance and repair of essential equipment could not proceed. The German company Siemens that supplied the equipment maintains that this isn’t the case. Politicians across Europe have accused Russia of blackmail and of weaponising the supply of natural gas.

Whatever the truth, most of Europe will now have to face winter 2022, and likely beyond, without any Russian pipeline gas. The EU is determined to end its reliance on Russian gas as soon as possible, a process that might be accelerated by current events.

The next two winters are going to be very challenging for all of Europe’s gas consumers: Households, businesses and industry. But moves are in play that will fundamentally change the continent’s position in global gas markets.

In the past, Europe played a balancing role: A place where liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes were sent, normally in the summer months, when demand was low in Asia. As such, LNG was marginal in European gas security relative to Russian pipeline gas.

If, by 2027, Europe no longer imports Russian gas of any kind, then it will have to compete with Asia as a centre of demand. How long it will take for the LNG market to increase supply to meet Europe’s new demand is unclear, but the global market will rebalance as a result.

A bleak winter ahead?

Russia supplied around 40% of all the gas consumed in the EU in 2021. Germany is especially reliant on this supply of cheap gas. Gas only generates about 15% of the country’s electricity but many rely on it for heating and it is vital to heavy industries such as petrochemicals that use a lot of energy.

Drastic measures are now necessary to secure alternative supplies, reduce gas demand and prepare for the possibility of shortages this winter. The EU’s Save Gas for a Safe Winter programme aims to reduce overall gas demand by 15% across the bloc this winter by asking people to turn down thermostats in homes and offices, for example. Further measures are expected in the coming days.

The good news for supply to Europe is that its other sources of pipeline gas – Norway, North Africa and Azerbaijan – are all flowing normally. Winter storage is over 80% full, which is well ahead of the EU’s deadline to hit this milestone by the end of October. Europe’s ability to get through the winter without a gas supply crisis will depend in large part on the weather: not just how cold it is, but also how sunny and windy, as gas backs up renewable power generation in many countries.

Otherwise, Europe needs to attract flexible LNG cargoes to Europe (that is, supplies that are not tied into long-term contracts which dominate in Asia). EU member states and members of the European Economic Area are expected to import 41 billion cubic metres more LNG than in 2021, covering 67% of the expected drop in Russian imports.

This remarkable progress was aided by China’s LNG demand falling almost 25% this year compared to last due to its zero-COVID policy and the slowdown in its economy. Nevertheless, this still leaves a significant supply gap and there are warning signs of growing competition from other parts of Asia for winter LNG supplies.

A cold winter would be calamitous for households already struggling to afford heating. Anton Kudelin/Shutterstock

All hands on deck

To ensure this gas can be imported, however, Europe needs better LNG infrastructure (the terminals that unload LNG from ships, store it and then convert it to a gas that is injected into pipelines that carry it to consumers). It is currently running beyond full capacity due to congestion everywhere: gas is held up by full pipelines, which causes short-term fluctuations in local gas prices.

Global LNG shipping capacity is also stretched, and rates for hiring an LNG tanker to ship gas to Europe are topping US$100,000 (£90,173) a day – a 60% rise in the last month.

All around Europe’s coasts new LNG import terminal projects are being planned. One industry analysis suggests that the EU total import capacity could increase by 42% by 2025. But it takes time to build these permanent LNG terminals. In the meantime, Europe has been busy leasing floating regasification and storage units – large ships that are moored and unload the LNG from specialist carriers and convert it into gas for pipelines.

The same industry analysis suggests that Europe’s import capacity will grow faster than additional LNG supplies, resulting in increased competition and a tight market for the next few years. Certainly, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been on a whistlestop tour of LNG-exporting countries like the United Arab Emirates to fill his new terminals.

Fortunately, by 2026-27, there will be a wave of new LNG supply to fill these terminals as production expands in Qatar and new projects come onstream in the US. The current crisis is also prompting new investments, particularly in the US, and the industry is even talking about a danger of oversupply by the end of the decade.

But the EU doesn’t just want to pivot away from Russian gas, it is seeking to drive down gas demand by accelerating its deployment of renewable power, improving the energy efficiency of its building stock, electrifying domestic heating and finding alternatives to gas use in industry, such as hydrogen. This means that Europe’s LNG needs may well peak by the end of the decade, contributing to global oversupply.

The natural gas industry hopes that Asia will then pick up the slack, but that is by no means certain. Europe’s response to the current gas crisis may mean that by 2030 it is consuming far less gas than might otherwise have been the case and that it is further down the road to meeting its climate change targets, as well as improving its energy security.

Michael Bradshaw, Professor of Global Energy, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo gets Medicine Nobel for his contributions to paleogenomics

Pääbo sequenced of the entire genome of Neanderthals; he also discovered the previously unknown hominin, Denisova

By DTE Staff

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Svante Pääbo, a Swedish geneticist, was conferred the Nobel Prize in medicine for 2022, the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet announced October 3, 2022 in a statement. Pääbo was awarded for his pioneering contributions to the field of paleogenomics, the branch of science based on the reconstruction and analysis of genomic information in extinct species.

Pääbo’s achievements include the sequencing of the entire genome of Neanderthal, an ancient group of humans. He also made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova.

“Importantly, Pääbo also found that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens following the migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago,” the Nobel statement said.

This research has modern uses.

For instance, the Denisovan version of the gene EPAS1 confers an advantage for survival at high altitude and is common among present-day Tibetans. Other examples are Neanderthal genes that affect our immune response to different types of infections.

A new discipline

The entire human genome was sequenced by the end of the 1990s. “However, studies of the relationship between present-day humans and the extinct Neanderthals would require the sequencing of genomic DNA recovered from archaic specimens,” the statement said.

Pääbo first started to develop methods to study deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from Neanderthals as a postdoctoral student with Allan Wilson, a pioneer in the field of evolutionary biology.

He continued his work on archaic DNA in 1990, when he was recruited to University of Munich as a professor.

He then made a breakthrough. Pääbo managed to sequence a region of mitochondrial DNA from a 40,000-year-old piece of bone with his refined methods.

The mitochondrial genome is small and contains only a fraction of the genetic information in the cell, but it is present in thousands of copies, increasing the chance of success.

Humanity had, for the first time, access to a sequence from an extinct relative due to Pääbo’s work. Comparisons with contemporary humans and chimpanzees demonstrated that Neanderthals were genetically distinct.

Pääbo then took on the enormous challenge of sequencing the Neanderthal nuclear genome. He could publish the first Neanderthal genome sequence in 2010 at the new Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany.

Comparative analyses demonstrated that the most recent common ancestor of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens lived around 800,000 years ago.

In 2008, a 40,000-year-old fragment from a finger bone was discovered in the Denisova cave in the southern part of Siberia. The bone contained exceptionally well-preserved DNA, which Pääbo’s team sequenced.

This turned out to be a previously unknown hominin, which was given the name Denisova.

“Pääbo’s discoveries have generated new understanding of our evolutionary history,” the statement said.

At the time when Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa, at least two extinct hominin populations inhabited Eurasia. Neanderthals lived in western Eurasia, whereas Denisovans populated the eastern parts of the continent.

During the expansion of Homo sapiens outside Africa and their migration east, they not only encountered and interbred with Neanderthals, but also with Denisovans.

“Through his groundbreaking research, Svante Pääbo established an entirely new scientific discipline, paleogenomics,” the statement said.

Mexico braces for flash floods, landslides as Hurricane Orlene barrels in

Orlene is expected to pass Mexico’s Islas Marias islands before its landfall on the coast of mainland Mexico

By Arya Rohini

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Hurricane Orlene, a hazardous Category 3 storm, is likely to bring torrential rainfall to Mexico’s southwest coast, the United States’ National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned October 2, 2022.

Hurricane Orlene barreled towards the country’s Pacific coast between the tourist destinations of Mazatlan and San Blas, prompting authorities to establish shelters.

Category 3 storms are hurricanes with wind speeds of 178-208 kilometres per hour.

Orlene, with maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour, is expected to pass Mexico’s Islas Marias islands before its landfall on the coast of mainland Mexico October 3, 2022.

“Weakening is expected during the next day. However, Orlene is forecasted to be a strong hurricane when it passes near or over Islas Marias and remain a hurricane when it reaches southwestern Mexico,” the NHC noted.

The Mexican mainland’s coast from San Blas to Mazatlán and the Las Islas Marias is under a hurricane warning. A hurricane watch is in place from Playa Perula to San Blas and from Mazatlán to Bahia Tempehuaya on the coast of mainland Mexico, including Puerto Vallarta.

Flash flooding and potential landslides could result from torrential rainfall in places with mountainous terrain, the NHC added.

In certain areas, it may bring rains that could cause flooding up to 25 centimetres. Puerto Vallarta shut down its port to all boat and ship activity as coastal flooding is also expected.

Orlene could result in “mudslides, rising river and stream levels, and flooding in low-lying areas,” according to Mexico’s National Water Commission.

They categorised Orlene as a minor storm with hurricane-force winds of around 20 km and a tropical storm force of 95 kilometres.

The eastern Pacific has formed 15 named storms so far this year. The Pacific hurricane season starts on May 15 and lasts through November 30, according to the NHC.

Orlene was one of five named storms that developed last month. Tropical Storm Kay landed on the Baja California peninsula in early September and attained hurricane status. Orlene was upgraded from tropical storm to hurricane October 1, 2022.

Climate change has made hurricanes more powerful and wetter over the past forty years. Increased storm surges are a result of rising sea levels.

Bitcoin mining unsustainable; climate damages comparable to beef, natural gas, crude oil: Study

In 2021, the total global damages of all coins mined exceed $3.7 billion

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Bitcoin mining caused climate damages amounting to $12 billion during 2016-2021, a new study estimated.

Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from electricity production for Bitcoin mining rose 126 times to 113 tonnes in that period, according to the paper published in the Scientific Reports.

In 2021, the total global damages of all coins mined exceed $3.7 billion.

Mining Bitcoin is comparable to making energy-intensive products such as beef, natural gas and crude oil, the research showed.

“We find no evidence that Bitcoin mining is becoming more sustainable over time,” said Benjamin A Jones, associate professor at the University of New Mexico, in a statement.

Rather, it is becoming dirtier and more damaging to the climate over time, he highlighted, adding the cryptocurrency’s environmental footprint is moving in the wrong direction.

Miners worldwide compete to authenticate transactions between parties using energy-guzzling supercomputers. The first person to finish the job is rewarded with a Bitcoin.

Roughly 707 kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity is consumed per transaction, according to Columbia Climate School.

The tremendous amount of electricity being used for mining or production of Bitcoin is mostly from fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, said Jones. “This is causing huge amounts of air pollution and carbon emissions, which is negatively impacting our global climate and our health.”

In this study, researchers calculated climate damages from Bitcoin mining. Next, they estimated climate damages from various sectors such as electricity, agriculture, meat, crude oil, vehicles and precious metals.

In 2020 alone, Bitcoin mining consumed 75.4 terawatt-hours of electricity (TWh), surpassing Austria’s 69.9 TWh that year, the analysis showed.

Bitcoin climate damages exceeded the price of the coins sold for more than one-third of the days in 2020, it added. From 2016-2021, climate damages for Bitcoin averaged 35 per cent of its market value, showed the study.

This share for Bitcoin was slightly less than 46 per cent for natural gas and 41 per cent for gasoline.

Climate damage for Bitcoin as a market value is more than that of beef production (33 per cent) and gold mining (4 per cent), the findings stated.

China’s punch

Determining the energy source powering Bitcoin mining operations is challenging due to a lack of data.

The share of renewable energy — solar, wind, hydropower — ranges from 25 per cent of mining’s total electricity to as high as 73 per cent.

China, once a global Bitcoin mining hotspot, was likely using significant amounts of renewable hydropower, the researchers speculated.

But the country banned all cryptocurrency mining in 2021. “This appears to have drastically altered the global share of renewables used by Bitcoin miners, resulting in increased use of fossil fuels,” they wrote in their study.

Further, Jones and his team considered a hypothetical scenario where 63 per cent of electricity came directly from renewables and nuclear energy.

Their analysis showed that climate damages in this scenario averaged 23 per cent of the coin’s price from 2016-2021.

“Even if Bitcoin miners obtained the majority of their electricity from renewables and directly carbon-free sources, there are still large and growing climate damages,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

The policy challenge in mitigating climate change is creating governance mechanisms for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the authors recognised.

James Webb Telescope captures clearest view of Neptune’s rings after 3 decades

Webb images vividly display Neptune’s fainter dust bands in addition to many brilliant, narrow rings

By DTE Staff

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Brazil to go in for second round of voting after Lula fails to win outright

Incumbent Jair Bolsonaro is widely expected to win the second round on October 30

By Rajat Ghai

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Former president of Brazil and challenger Luis Inacio Lula da Silva failed to win an outright victory in the first round of the presidential elections in Latin America’s largest country October 2, 2022.

Lula secured 48 per cent of the vote, of which over 98 per cent had been counted at the time of writing. This was short of the over 50 per cent figure needed to claim outright victory, The Guardian reported.

Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent president and Lula’s far-right rival, secured 44 per cent of the vote.

Brazil’s electoral authority confirmed that Brazilians would head to a second round of voting October 30 to decide who the country’s president would be. “Lula and Bolsonaro will contest the 2nd round of Brazil’s presidential elections,” it tweeted.

Bolsonaro is widely expected to win the second round. “Lula’s second-round victory is now less likely. Bolsonaro will arrive with a lot of strength for re-election,” Carlos Melo, a political scientist at the Insper business school, told news agency Reuters.

“Bolsonaro will have a real shot at winning the runoff, and in that case we are in deep trouble,” Filipe Campante, Bloomberg distinguished associate professor (SAIS & Economics), Johns Hopkins University, United States, tweeted.

Read Brazil polls: Lula can win but 2023 to be difficult for country, say experts

The Amazon

Carbon Brief, a UK-based website covering the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy, had noted in the run-up to the election:

A loss for Jair Bolsonaro in the upcoming Brazilian presidential election could lead to Amazon deforestation in his nation falling by 89 per cent over the next decade.

It had added that a Lula win could prevent 75,960 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest loss by 2030, “an area roughly the size of Panama”. This was because Lula had pledged to address illegal deforestation in the Amazon, in line with his previous presidency from 2003-2010, the website added.

It noted that deforestation had increased under Bolsonaro from 2018-2021.

“Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased since he took power, wiping out 34,018 sq km of rainforest, an area larger than Belgium, in his first three years,” Carbon Brief said.

A report in September had stated that a quarter of the Amazon was at point of no return due to high rates of deforestation and degradation. However, it added that the remaining 74 per cent (629 million hectares in priority areas) of the Amazon was still standing and required immediate protection.

More than 75 per cent of the Amazon rainforest has been likely heading towards a tipping point since the early 2000s, according to a study in March this year.

It may be losing its ability to bounce back from extreme events such as drought or fire, threatening to become a dry savanna-like ecosystem.

“If Bolsonaro was to secure another four years in government, this would be a disaster in ecological terms, since his policies mean the destruction of key ecosystems, lots of greenhouse gas emissions and violence against environmentalists and indigenous peoples,” Brazilian eco-socialist Sabrina Fernandes had told Down To Earth (DTE) in the run-up to the election.

Agriculture

- Organic fertiliser: A must for the next green revolution

- Bihar agrarian crisis: Why crores in diesel subsidies may not be the answer

- Skewed sex ratio worsens marriage woes for Marathwada farmers

- Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Inclement weather affecting farmers’ mental health, social standing

- Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

- Depleting food grain stock ring alarms: Is India staring at a rice crisis?

- Climate change escalates suicide rates among Marathwada farmers

- Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

- Food production will need 165-600 million hectares more land to meet demand by 2050

- Punjab is usually blamed for burning paddy stubble; here is the back story to that

- Millet might: Here is how Odisha can succeed in reviving these cereals lost to the Green Revolution

Organic fertiliser: A must for the next green revolution

With the right policy interventions, India can become the hub of organic fertiliser production

By AR Shukla

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

India's growth story on the path of economic reforms has transformed the country into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Despite having an enormous opportunity, India has been unable to capitalise on its strengths.

The central government has announced schemes worth crores for various sectors. Similar steps need to be undertaken for the organic fertiliser industry, as India has the potential to become the hub of organic fertiliser production in the world.

Organic fertiliser can be categorised into two segments, according to government rules: Bio-fertiliser and organic manure.

Bio-fertilisers are composed of living microorganisms attached to solid or liquid carriers and are useful for cultivable land, as these micro-organisms help in increasing the productivity of soil and / or crops.

Organic manure, on the other hand, refers to partially decomposed organic matter like digestate from a biogas plant, compost and vermicompost, which provides nutrients to the soil / crops and improves yield.

India produces more than 150,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW), based on estimated MSW generation data from the National Solid Waste Association of India and the Central Pollution Control Board.

Considering collection efficiency of 80 per cent and organic part of MSW to be 50 per cent, total organic waste generated per day in India comes to around 65,000 tonnes per day.

Even if half of this is diverted to the biogas industry, the government can leverage this by reduction in import of fossils and fertilisers.

Biogas / gobar gas plants not only produces biogas but also organic fertilisers. There is also great value in the organic fertiliser also known as digestate, which is the biogas plant's effluent.

Biogas can be utilised for heating, electricity and even vehicular purposes (after upgrading), whereas digestate can help realise the vision to have a second green revolution.

Digestate can provide organic carbon to the continuously depleting soil, apart from its standard nutrition value. In India at present, bio-fertiliser production is just over 110,000 tonnes ( carrier-based 79,000 tonnes and liquid-based 30,000 tonnes) and 34 million tonnes of organic manure, composed of farmyard manure, city compost and vermicompost, among others.

The organic manure (digestate) from a biogas plant can be applied at the rate of around 40 tonnes per hectare of cultivable land.

The penetration of organic fertilisers is low: The proportion of organic fertilisers of the overall fertiliser consumption was only 0.29 per cent for  2018-19 and 0.34 per cent for 2019-20. With promotion of biogas production, the government can reap the benefits of its bi-product — fertiliser.

The Centre has shown the intent of promoting the industry through its SATAT scheme. It has no doubt allocated 468 crores towards Central Financial Assistance in the earlier budget. But the industry needs much more support to save the future governments billions of dollars, because if all the projects applied under SATAT scheme materialise, it will help the country save $16 billion year-on-year.

Bio-compressed natural gas (bio-CNG) and solid organic manure or digestate can be produced in large quantities under the SATAT programme, under which more than 5,000 projects have been started across the country by the industry.

Thus, considering 8,000 kilogram / day of bio-CNG (one tonne of CNG can cater to 100 vehicles to run 250 kilometre per full tank of 10 kilogram at the rate of 25 kilometre / kilogram) and 27 tonnes / day of solid organic manure per plant with average plant size assumed to be 8 tonnes per day, it was estimated that 50 million tonnes per annum of solid organic manure / digestate will be generated in India once these projects are installed.

The popularity of organic farming has grown in the domestic market in recent years. The market size for Indian organic packaged food is expected to grow at a rate of 17 per cent and cross Rs 871 million by 2021.

The significant rise of this sector is linked to growing awareness about the harmful effects of synthetic fertiliser on soil, rising health concerns, expanding urban population base and an increased consumer expenditure on food goods.

Because organic manure can be improved with the use of bio fertilisers to meet nutrient requirements, both bio fertilizers and organic manure have the potential to eliminate the usage of synthetic fertilisers completely.

AR Shukla is the president of Indian Biogas Association.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

Bihar agrarian crisis: Why crores in diesel subsidies may not be the answer

Funds allocated in July for diesel subsidy haven't reached many farmers yet; irrigation projects needed, say locals

By Zumbish

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

The agriculture department of the Bihar government has proposed allocation of Rs 100 crore in diesel subsidy October 6, 2022 to help distressed farmers get diesel subsidy.

The plan announced in a public address by the newly appointed agriculture minister of the state, Kumar Sarvajeet, is in line with the state’s action plan to help alleviate the financial burden of the farmers in the wake of the agrarian crisis since June.

Under the plan, Rs 700 per acre of land will be transferred to farmers to buy diesel for agricultural purposes, including irrigation.

The state's farmers, however, called this move an eyewash and a stop-gap arrangement that is not enough to improve the situation.

Bihar government July 28 had decided to provide diesel subsidies for agriculture use for the next three months, as the eastern state saw dry monsoons through most of the period from June to mid-July.

The new subsidy fund will be in addition to the Rs 100 crore the government has already allocated in July for the same purpose, a department official said.

The amount, the official claimed, will be the largest the state has ever allocated during a drought year for diesel subsidy for agriculture use.

Earlier this year, pleas by local agrarian experts for declaring Bihar as a drought state this year fell on deaf ears and there was no political will shown towards this, Down To Earth (DTE) reported in August this year.

We didn’t get any rain during the sowing and transplanting season of our most crucial crops, said Umesh, a big farmer from Masaurhi in Dhanarua, South Bihar. “And after July 20, we received untimely excess rainfall, which damaged the little paddy we were able to grow.”

How can the government’s answer to this year’s severe agrarian crisis be only a diesel subsidy, he asked, adding:

If they are claiming that such a subsidy will mitigate this crisis that has massively impacted almost all the districts of the agrarian state, it only reflects their inadequacy as policymakers, planners.

“This step is nothing but a hogwash, a stopgap arrangement at best,” the farmer said.

The scale of paddy cultivation across Bihar’s 17 districts was less than 10 per cent of the normal volume, ground volunteers and farmers told DTE on August 1. The districts included Jamui, Munger, Sheikhpura, Aurangabad, Bhojpur, Buxar, Jahanabad, Kaimur, Gaya, Nalanda and Saran.

“They keep boasting about diesel subsidies all the time. But how many farmers are aware of what amount the government has allocated and then how many of us receive it is the question that should be asked,” said Ramswarup, another farmer from South Bihar’s Gaya district. The farmer said his family has suffered loss of paddy crops over three acres of land since June.

Not more than 40 per cent of the farmers in Gaya has received the diesel subsidy the last time after the decision in this regard was taken in July, Parshuram Manjhi, a farmer from the district’s Mohanpur block. “Most of the subsidy amount is siphoned off by the middlemen and corrupt officers.”

This is the ground reality not just in Mohanpur but several other parts of Bihar, Manjhi added. “When the bare minimum (diesel subsidy) they are doing for farmers is not reaching the right beneficiaries, what expectation can we have from this government that has ignored glaring signs to declare Bihar a drought state?”

The departmen denied this accusation. “Of the Rs 100 crore subsidy amount allocated for diesel subsidy for agricultural use (in July), Rs 96.3 crore has already reached farmers across the 38 districts of Bihar,” said an official who wished to remian anonymous.

Very few Bihar farmers have an alternative occupation and a majority of the rural population is dependent on agriculture, said Umrao Yadav, a big farmer from Rajgirah village in Nitish Kumar's home district Nalanda.

“Diesel subsidy can by no means be a solution. If river water can't be efficiently channelised for irrigating the fields, what coping mechanism will help?” said the farmer.

“In the end, even more of us will be forced to migrate. But that's not a solution again,” he added.

In Bihar, about 88 per cent of the population (against the national average of 67 per cent) lives in villages.

“But will a government representative do a proper survey and find out how many farmers were benefited by the subsidy? No.” said Manjhi.

The deputy-director of the state’s agriculture department, Anil Kumar, told DTE that the farmers are going to benefit from the subsidy. The department may conduct a ground-level survey of the crisis, he added but didn’t provide any further details.

Some experts DTE spoke to were also doubted the efficacy of the measure in mitigating the agrarian crisis facing the state. Pradeep Priyadarshi, national vice-president of Ekta Parishad, a non-profit that works on agriculture, said:

About 50 per cent of the famers in Bihar rely on shared farming; they are not landowners. Most of the farmers who will benefit from this subsidy will be those who own a small or big portion of land.

Diesel subsidy is a legit move if it is properly disbursed but it cannot be a solution to an agrarian crisis, said RK Malik, a cropping systems agronomist.

In a lot of areas in Bihar and eastern UP, farmers could be facilitated by the government to be equipped for early sowing, the expert opined. “The government could probably organise a programme that promotes and facilitates the use of zero tillage machines.”

Umesh cited the example of Telangana, which supplies free and quality power round-the-clock to the agriculture sector, to highlight the kind of mitigation strategy the state could have adopted.

It is a reality that most of the farmers in Bihar are compelled to get access to electricity for agricultural purposes through illegal means, he said. “The diesel subsidy is denied to many by corrupt officers merely because they would claim farmers are not using diesel for tubewells and cultivating through other means.”

Linking rivers, making a plan for building check dams, utilising the abundant river water resource in the state and ensuring that it reaches the fields are other efforts he suggested.

Skewed sex ratio worsens marriage woes for Marathwada farmers

May encourage child marriages, worries expert

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

Fewer women in Marathwada want to marry farmers in the region, looking for a more “comfortable life”, which has easy access to water and better infrastructure. But a severely skewed sex ratio in these villages is not making things easier for wannabe grooms.

Climate impact, increased cost of production and reduced agricultural income in Marathwada and Ahmednagar villages have drastically impacted the economic status of farmers. This has resulted in their social standing taking a hit as well, with hundreds of bachelors reporting no brides for them.

Read more: Water, Marathwada women’s woe: No brides for farmers as families look for city matches

Young women and their families are looking for prospects in urban areas or grooms with stable jobs, reported Down To Earth earlier. This ground report from Beed, Gevrai, Ambejogai and surrounding areas revealed a shortage of young women to marry.

“There are about 100 bachelors in the village who are at least 28 years old and crossed marriageable age according to the rural standards,” said Kiran Patange, a farmer from Ambesawali village of Ambejogai taluka. “There are hardly any matches for them.”

For the 100-odd bachelors, there are hardly 24 women in the village of marriageable age. “There are not enough young women to marry,” Patange said.

The situation is not restricted to one village.

In Rajewadi village, about 12 kilometres from Ambajogai, there no women of marriageable age. There are about 60 men who are waiting for a prospective bride, but there are none in the village,” Deepak Khade, a farmer.

Read more: Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Inclement weather affecting farmers’ mental health, social standing

The current situation is bringing rapid change in social dynamics of women in villages, said Arundhati Patil, co-ordinator at Marathwada Navnirmal Lokayat, an Ambajogai based organisation working towards the cause of farmers.

“The vast disparity in these villages is mainly because of the skewed sex ratio of the district found in the 2011 census,” she said.

Maharashtra’s Beed district recorded the lowest child sex ratio of 807 in the 2011 census, according to National Health Mission — the lowest in the state. The child sex ratio is the number of females per thousand males under the age group of 0-6 years.

Patil said the impact of the disturbed child ratio is now reflected in villages. “The situation has started to break the traditional barriers in society. People have started considering child marriages and looking for prospective brides at ages 13-14 years of age,” she added.

Shortage of women also means the demand for dowry has been eliminated for these matches.

Read more: Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

“The skewed sex ratio is likely to sharpen the crisis where it becomes difficult for men to find a place in the marriage market,” said Mary John, former professor at Centre for Women’s Development Studies.

The generation that has grown in the past 20 years is likely facing issues because of sex selection. “The effective shortage only worsens with the ongoing non-desirability of these men,” she added.

Contrasting features can also be observed as it is also likely that families prefer to marry off their daughters at early ages, thereby encouraging child marriages, John said.

“The marriage strategy in society is complicated and it is difficult to understand what dynamics are preferred at a particular time and the situation,” she said.

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Inclement weather affecting farmers’ mental health, social standing

Market does not support the farmers even if they manage to harvest the crops

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Climate change is affecting the mental health and social standing of farmers in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region. Farmers reeling from severe stress due to unpredictable weather, are facing various social and economic issues.

The years of floods, drought and other extreme weather events have pushed farmers to the brink of poverty, stripping them of their livelihood opportunities and forcing them to sell their lands.

Nature plays a spoilsport despite all the efforts and heavy investments put into growing crops. The crops need heavy amounts of insecticides and pesticides even if they withstand unseasonal weather changes, Bapurao Kurumkar, a farmer from Beed district told Down To Earth.

The expense of pesticides is a major contributor to production costs. Such expenses do not allow them to escape the vicious cycle of poverty. We don’t get any support from the government, he added.

The market does not support the farmers even if they manage to harvest the crops, said Manoj Shinde, another farmer from Kalegaon. “If the production is bumper, the rates drop and if the production is poor, the rates shoot, but the markets buy at a lower price,” he said.

Such volatility in the market does enable us to recuperate from the losses or recover investments, he added.

Stigma and depression

But the constant unpredictability of the weather has meant that farmers no longer want their daughters to marry a farmer but prefer matches working in urban areas. The situation has left thousands of farmers in villages unmarried.

Almost every village in Marathwada and Ahmednagar districts has many farmers beyond their preferred marriage age waiting to get married, DTE’s ground report revealed.

Women prefer men from urban areas with stable incomes that will help them have a comfortable life, said Kurumkar. “But there is little we can do to deal with the situation. There is no way to convince women or their families as I cannot deliver a comfortable life as a farmer,” he added.

Women, however, feel that little can be done about the situation. “Men in the village do not communicate their financial issues and their state of mind while undergoing economic struggles,” said Preeti Gade from Pachegaon village in Gevrai taluka.

Also, there is not much that women can do to support such men. It is important for women to seek financial stability over choosing the mental health of fellow villagers, she added.

Gade said women can only support them on the farm. “But if there are no farm activities, what will women do in the fields,” she said.

Farmers with daughters have started making sure they seek education and move out of villages to overcome the situation, she added.

The 26-year-old added that getting higher education gives them an edge to migrate to cities, seek jobs and protect themselves from the battling crisis in the village.

Farmers remaining unmarried until 30 or 35 is also becoming a new norm, said Arundhati Patil, co-ordinator at Marathwada Navnirmal Lokayat, an Ambajogai-based organisation working for the betterment of farmers.

They have accepted bachelorhood as a way of life and normalised it, she added. But that does not mean they do not suffer.

Unmarried farmers live a life of isolation. They avoid attending social gatherings as many would inquire about marriage, which would only add to the pain, said Shinde. “I have stopped attending such events,” he said.

“The farmers who remain unmarried live a life of stigma attached to them despite having no fault. They remain aloof, avoid socialising and attending social gatherings,” said.

“Farmers cannot decide prices of their products despite being the grower and authority over operations,” she said. Reduced income, non-availability of labour, low mechanisation and poor return on investment add to their frustration.

“Suicides have not stopped, but they do not receive major attention from the government agencies as it used to during the mid 2010s,” she said.

Patil said her organisation has interacted extensively with farmers and closely studied changing social dynamics for many years.

“There is no official data or reasons documented about the state of mental health of these farmers, but interactions have revealed that such frustrations are one of the major driving factors for farmer suicides,” she added.

She said farmers are spending less time on the farm as there is no major activity due to the poor agricultural state. “Many farmers now prefer taking jobs as labourers or daily wagers to survive and fall prey to addictions.”

The cropping patterns have changed and the extreme and unpredictable weather makes it even worse. Farmers are falling into depression and farming now seems to be a burden for them,” Patil told DTE.

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

Simultaneous droughts and floods have become an increasing concern and the instances have escalated in the past five decades

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Years of weather vagaries such as drought and extreme rainfall, combined with poor quality agricultural products and policies of the state government have pushed Marathwada farmers towards poverty.

Down To Earth visited farmers from Marathwada and Ahmednagar in Maharashtra to note how the cumulative effect of frequent crop losses altered their lives.

The farmers in the central part of the state told DTE how they have started to feel the brunt of climate change in their daily lives.

Also read: Climate change escalates suicide rates among Marathwada farmers

Simultaneous droughts and floods have become an increasing concern and the instances have escalated in the past five decades, according to a report published by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water in 2020.

Drought events in the state, especially in drought-prone regions of Aurangabad, Latur, Jalna, Nanded, Osmanabad of Marathwada and Pune and Nashik, rose to 14 in 1980-89 from 11 in 1970-79, the report stated.

The events scaled to 17 in 1990-99 and 23 between 2000 and 2010. Some 79 cases were reported between 2010 and 2019.

Also read: Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

Farmers claim that poor income from agriculture has deteriorated their quality of life and increased suffering.

“I sowed cotton and soyabeans this Kharif season on my five acres of land. But the weather pattern affected its growth and health,” said Sharad Shinde, a 25-year-old farmer from Mankhurwadi village near Beed in Marathwada.

After the first few spells of rain in June, the monsoon took a break for almost a month, said Shinde.

“The crop growth stunted. It received better rains in July and August. But the rains in September did more damage than good,” he said.

Crops do not require much water in the final stages and it rained heavily for a week in September, he added.

“The crops rotted and I lost over 50 per cent of my standing plantation, which I was waiting to harvest by the first week of October,” he said.

There are millions of farmers who share Shinde’s plight. Over 4.5 million farmers in Marathwada alone have faced the brunt of weather extremities through September 2022, according to official figures.

Forty-year-old Mahadev Trimbak from Beed district said his expenditure on input cost had increased three-fold over the last few years. The cost of fertilisers, pesticides and seeds have manifolded in the past decade.

“I spend at least Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 per acre as production cost against Rs 10,000 per acre a few years ago,” he said. At the same time, income has reduced as the crops do not fetch the deserved prices in the market. The selling prices have not increased at par with inflation, he explained.

Trimbak said his income had been reduced by at least 50 per cent. “If the weather does not bless us, it is a total loss ensuring that we never recuperate from the losses or have the ability repay the loans,” he told DTE.

Seeds, insecticides and pesticides in the market are often duplicated or of poor quality, affecting the yield and output further, he said.

It may be noted that drought and extreme rainfall have been taking a heavy toll on farmers’ income.

Reduced income, crop losses and irreparable economic damages due to the inability to repay loans have worsened over the past few years.

“I wanted to save money and buy a two-wheeler for my commute. But the repeated losses have not allowed me to do so,” said Vishal Alat, a farmer from Shrigonda in Ahmednagar.

Farmers across villages — Ambesavali, Dhekanmoha, Kalegaon, Mankhurwadi, Ghatsawali in Beed, Ambajogai and Jamgaon, Arangaon, Shrigonda and Jamkhed in Ahmednagar — shared similar sentiments about deteriorating social and economic status.

Kakasaheb Rode, a chairperson of the village committee and a farmer in Shrigonda, said the farmers have started selling their lands and possessions to survive.

Farming does not provide any income and farmers have been running in losses for at least the past five years. “I sold a part of my land for my daughter’s wedding and now have only three acres left. I cannot afford selling the meagre assets I own to survive,” he said.

Rode added that daily expenses are to be met and he has been living on credit. “I owe money to friends and relatives and now they have also reached their limits in providing financial assistance,” he said.

Mahesh Gade from Limpangaon village near Beed said he sold his four-wheeler to survive the COVID-19 lockdown and sustain the losses incurred due to poor crop production.

Like Gade, farmers in the village have started selling possessions. “Many friends and relatives in the village wanted their wives to undergo knee operations as years of toiling in the field have deteriorated their health. But we couldn’t afford the operation costs to tune of Rs 4.5 lakh,” Gade told DTE.

“The inflation has increased the production costs. The farmers’ economic situation has been shattered by the unfavourable weather and ongoing yield losses,” said Anil Ghanavat, national president of Swatantra Bharat Party and former president of Shetkari Sanghatna. Both organisations work for the cause of farmers.

The government should intervene and revise policies to uplift the farmers and help them escape the vicious cycle of poverty, said Ghanavat.

Depleting food grain stock ring alarms: Is India staring at a rice crisis?

Over 44 million tonnes of grains in stock compared to 78.6 million tonnes last year; Wheat dangerously close to buffer limit

By Raju Sajwan

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

India may face a rice shortage following a similar wheat crisis earlier this year. Depleting stocks of wheat and paddy has raised concerns about the Kharif paddy procurement despite constant reassurances by the government.

The central stockpile has 44.1 million tonnes of food grains September 30, 2022 — 20.9 million tonnes of rice and 23.2 million tonnes of wheat, according to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

The stock was 49.28 million tonnes before September 1, 2022, with 27.95 million tonnes of rice and 24.82 million tonnes of wheat.

The depleting food grain stock has raised concerns, despite continuous reassurances by the central government of enough stock available to meet India’s food grain demands.

The numbers show grain stock is depleting at a worrying rate. There were 55.16 million tonnes of food grains in store January 2022. The Centre had 78.61 million tonnes of grains on September 1, 2021 in comparison, with 26.83 million tonnes rice and 51.78 million tonnes of wheat.

Read more: Staple spikes: Has an abnormal Kharif 2022 caused rice prices to rise

The procurement target was incomplete for the Rabi season 2021-22, which affected the wheat stock. There is similar confusion over paddy production during the Kharif season, which indicates a shortage of rice.

The production of rice may decline by 6.05 per cent compared to last year, according to the first estimate of food grain production released by the directorate of economics and statistics under the Union agriculture ministry.

A deficit of 6.77 million tonnes of rice is expected in 2022-23, according to the estimates.

However, the estimates were calculated before heavy rains in the last week of September. There was a lot of damage to finished paddy crop due to heavy rains in north India September 22-23.

Rain particularly affected crops in Punjab-Haryana, which is a major contributor to the government stock.

Challenges in procurement

The government began procuring paddy in Punjab-Haryana October 1, 2022. However, farmers are still waiting for paddy to dry from the rainwater.

Read more: First Advance Estimate 2022-23: Rice output to fall 6%, total foodgrain output 4%

“Farmers are not sure of reactions by mandi (market) workers when we bring soaked grains,” said Jogendra, a farmer of Ballabhgarh, Haryana. Government agencies do not buy paddy if there is more moisture than the prescribed amount in the grains.

Paddy procurement can become a big challenge for central and state governments in such a situation, just like wheat. The wheat procurement target for Rabi season 2022-23 was 44.4 million tonnes, but the government could only buy 18.79 million tonnes.

There were two reasons behind the wheat shortage: A decrease in wheat production due to severe unseasonal heat in March-April and the global food crisis due to the Ukraine-Russia war.

Wheat prices had shot up globally following the war and private traders directly bought wheat from farmers to take advantage of the hike. The government later banned its export.

The pattern is repeated with paddy. Rice prices have been driven up as the war and the global food crisis continue.

The retail price of rice has increased by 8.39 per cent as compared to last year, showed data from the central government. Wholesale prices have gone up by 8.85 per cent. Bringing down rice prices during the festive season is the real challenge for the Centre.

Private traders have started contacting farmers to buy rice directly as demand for it is increasing. A rice trader from Hodal, located on the Uttar Pradesh-Haryana border, on condition of anonymity, said he has started procuring paddy at a price higher than the minimum support price (MSP).

The MSP for normal paddy is Rs 2,040 per quintal this year and grade A paddy is Rs 2,060 per quintal. Procurement of rice by private traders is driving up shortage concerns even more.

Buffer stock regulations require 10.25 million tonnes of rice and 20.58 million tonnes of wheat in store. Wheat stock is now dangerously close to the buffer limit.

Read more: India bans broken rice export; 20% duty on other grades

As its procurement has stopped, there is no possibility of increasing wheat stock. However, the government is also supposed to distribute wheat under the National Food Security Act.

The scheme to provide free ration to about 798.5 million families under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana has been extended till December 2022. The government has to distribute 11.96 million tonnes of food grains (2.1 million tonnes of wheat and 9.86 million tonnes of rice) from October 2022 through December 2022.

This means that the quantity of wheat in the stock will come down to 18.47 million tonnes as on January 1, 2022, while as per the buffer rules, 13.8 million tonnes of wheat is required in store.

The Centre has increased the quantity of rice distributed in the public distribution system to maintain the wheat buffer numbers.

Food Corporation of India’s stock will comfortably exceed the buffer norms even after meeting the stock requirement under NFSA and other welfare schemes, claimed the food ministry.

Around 11.3 million tonnes of wheat and 23.6 million tonnes of rice will be in stock by April 1, 2023, against buffer norms of 7.5 million tonnes of wheat and 13.6 million tonnes rice after meeting all the requirements, the Centre estimated.

Around 51.8 million tonnes of rice will be procured in the Kharif market, according to the food ministry. Last year, 50.9 million tonnes of rice was procured.

Given the slowdown in production and active purchase of rice by private traders, whether the procurement target will be met remains to be seen.

Read more: Kharif sowing period almost over, but huge deficit for paddy and pulses

The government also seems concerned about procurement. Secretary for the Union food ministry Sundhashu Pandey has been on a tour of Tamil Nadu for the past four days. TN is the only state where rice production has been good this year. Around 0.2 million tonnes of rice has been procured from the state till now.

India consumed 109.5 million tonnes of rice in the year 2021-2022, according to a report by federal agency United States Department of Agriculture in June 2022. This means there may be a shortage of around 4.5 million tonnes of rice this year.

This is likely the reason the export of broken rice was banned. India tops the world in terms of rice exports and in 2021-22, India exported 212.3 million tonnes of rice.

Climate change escalates suicide rates among Marathwada farmers

Farmer suicides have increased significantly and doubled in some regions where weather extremities incurred heavy losses

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Farmer suicides in the Nanded district of Maharashtra’s Marathwada more than doubled since incessant rains caused severe crop damage in the region.

The suicide cases in Nanded jumped to 26 in August from eight in July, according to official estimates.

The total number of farmer suicides reported from the district in 2022 stood at 93 through August. And the officials have deemed 63 of these eligible for compensation of Rs one lakh.

There were 119 cases in the district in 2021 instead of 77 in 2020. And 65 of these farmers’ families received compensation.

Also watch: One agricultural labourer died by suicide every two hours in 2021

So far, 661 farmers from the Marathwada region alone have ended their lives. Some 485 of these have received compensation from the state government.

The maximum number of cases was reported in August, accounting for 114, followed by 108 in June, 101 in March and 83 in July.

Devastating losses due to extreme weather combined with heavy loan debts have pushed the farmers to take such extreme steps.

“Many farmers have been affected in the village and surrounding areas. Agricultural lands of about 20 per cent farmers have been washed away entirely,” said Pavan Karevad, head of the village Siranjani in Nanded.

Some of the farmers had resown the seeds after the first rains in July lashed their crops, he added.

Also read: Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

Some 3,652,872 hectares of land have been severely affected due to the extreme rains in July, August and September, according to the figures from the divisional commissionerate, Aurangabad.

Agricultural losses coupled with damages incurred due to extreme weather have worsened the situation, according to farmers.

“My five acres of land got washed away along with the soybean and cotton. There is no possibility that I can resow the plantation or prepare the soil,” said Kiran Gade, a farmer from Himayatnagar in Nanded.

The entire soil has been eroded and it would be difficult to restore the fertility and the farmland for the upcoming season, he added.

Gade had invested over Rs 80,000 on his crop. “I had high hopes from the crops that would be harvested soon as last year. But the production was not as desired,” he added.

Such a situation makes it far worse to recuperate from the losses, he said. “It would take a few years to restore the land. Moreover, the government policies do not cover the heavy damages caused by the weather events,” he added.

I will be entitled to a sum of Rs 13,200 per hectare as assistance from the state government despite the land loss, he said.

“The amount received will not be enough even to cover the losses, compelling to take additional loans,” he added.

There is no provision to cover the wide-scale losses, said a senior official from Maharashtra’s agriculture department.

At present, the farmers are eligible to receive monetary compensation only if more than 33 per cent of their crop is damaged.

“The same compensation applies for farmers who have faced total loss of their agricultural land,” he added.

But such limited help and worsening conditions are also one of the reasons pushing farmers towards committing suicide.

Raju Gotamvad, a farmer from Parva village of Nanded, committed suicide July 14, according to the government records. He lost 2.5 acres of his soybean farm during the rains in 2021, resulting in heavy losses.

“Gotamvad had taken a loan at the rate of 4 per cent interest from a private lender. The interest escalated with the losses. Moreover, this year, he planted soybean on 1.5 acres and cotton on the remaining,” said Dnyaneshwar Mane, a villager.

The rains in June helped germinate the seeds, but the growth remained stunted as the rains did not occur for over a month. When the rains returned, they were more than required that the crops rotted, he said.

“Realising that this crop would also fail, Gotamvad ended his life. He knew he could not repay the Rs 2 lakh that he sought as a loan,” Mane added.

Climate change is altering seasonal patterns and pushing developmental trajectories beyond thresholds, Abinash Mohanty, a climate change expert and reviewer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report, told DTE.

“The monsoon of 2022 is a testament to how erratic, incessant and longer dry days are the new norms. They impact lives and livelihoods — especially across climate-dependent sectors like agriculture,” he added.

Climate change will make extreme events harsher and graver. Depressions are turning into cyclones and incessant and erratic rainfalls result in high-impact flood events, Mohanty added.

It is imperative to mainstream climate adaptations through systemic and financial re-orientation to climate-proof the livelihoods of small and marginalised farmers. Key decision-makers should re-orient climate actions, fund it and fight to mitigate the impacts, he said.

Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

Incessant rains through the month of August and September have affected 4.48 million farmers this season

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Farmers in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region suffered yet another severe blow due to incessant rains during August and September. This comes after the farmers had incurred severe losses worth crores of rupees during July, 2022.

Over 4.48 million farmers have suffered severe crop damage and this may increase over the coming months, according to the divisional commissionerate, Aurangabad.

Some 3,652,872 hectares (ha) of land have been affected due to the unexpected rains, of which 35,34,371 ha are rain-fed. Around 68,391 ha come under irrigation and 5,0,109 ha fall under horticulture.

A distressed farmer on his farmland. Photo: Aishwarya Iyer

The total sowing area in the Aurangabad, Beed and Latur districts was reported to be about 2,067,896 hectares this season, according to official estimates.

The division received rains in the last three weeks of September, making it over 100 per cent above normal. Aurangabad district received 165 per cent, 113 per cent and 130 per cent of rainfall between September 1 and 21, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Beed received 122 and 116 per cent rainfall for the weeks September 7-14 and September 14-21 respectively. Latur, Jalna and Parbhani, Osmanabad and Hingoli districts also received excess rainfall resulting in large-scale crop damages.

Also read: Excessive July rains destroyed 800,000 hectares of crops in Maharashtra

Bapurao Kurumkar, a marginal farmer from the Beed district, said all his crops were damaged in the rains.

“September is the month when crops start bearing fruit and harvest begins. But just when I was about to harvest tur (pigeon pea) and soyabean, the rains caused severe damage,” he told DTE.

Kurumkar said his cotton plantation was also under threat. “I have planted all the crops in three acres (1.21 ha) of land and I fear that all the crops will be lost,” he said.

The cotton starts bearing pods and the October heat would have facilitated it. But with excess rains, the pods have been damaged, he added.

Farmers have started taking precautions to avoid any infestation as well.

Also read: Nearly 600 farmer suicides in 8 months: Is Marathwada facing agri-distress

“The unexpected rains make cotton crops vulnerable to infestation. I have sprayed insecticides and pesticides for the fifth time this season. However, the exercise has increased the input cost by three times,” said Dastagir Pathan, another farmer from Beed district.

The cost of spraying pesticides through the season has increased to Rs 60,000 due to incessant rains, said Dastagir, who co-owns six-acre (2.42 ha) with his two brothers.

“If I sell cotton, I am likely to earn the same amount of money. Given the heavy expenses, there will be no profits to sustain. Our fight is only to save the crops from extreme weather,” he added.

Other farmers  from Marathwada told DTE they feared the remaining crops would also suffer damage if the rains continued.

The effect of the La Nina weather phenomenon will continue until year-end, resulting in more rains, including in the Indian subcontinent, stated the World Meteorological Organization, in its recent report.

The district administration officials have already started field inspections to assess crop damages. However, only limited relief has been disbursed by the state government

The divisional commissionerate has estimated damages to the tune of Rs 376,223 for farmers who have suffered more than 33 per cent of crop loss, making them eligible for crop damage compensation from the state government.

Funds worth Rs 1,688 crore have already been received from the state government, said Sunil Kendrekar, the divisional commissioner. “More funds will be requested as the reports of damages are updated and losses and measured,” he added.

Food production will need 165-600 million hectares more land to meet demand by 2050

Need to halt deforestation while ensuring food security, says report by FAO

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Food demand to support the global population will be 50 per cent more in 2050 compared with 2012, according to a recent United Nations report. Production will need 165 to 600 million more hectares of land for crop and livestock production, much of which is currently covered by forests and other critical ecosystems.

Food and Agriculture Organization released the report at FAO-Global Landscapes Forum digital forum Transforming agrifood systems with forests September 30, 2022.

The yield increases alone would be insufficient to meet demand and must be paired with other interventions, the report said. These include restoration of degraded land, forest protection and improved governance to ensure an increase in food security without drastically diminishing forest cover.

Read more: Food insecurity to worsen for millions in Sri Lanka due to poor harvest, price rise, economic crisis

From 2000-2018, almost 90 per cent of deforestation globally was attributable to agricultural expansion. This negatively impacts associated ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity, the report stated.

“We must build sustainable global agrifood systems based on the synergies between agriculture and forests that provide a win-win outcome for both sectors,” said Tiina Vähänen, deputy director of FAO’s forestry division.

The role of governments is central to bringing about this transformation, the report said. Governments need to create conditions for farmers to change their practices to maximise production while minimising the impact on forests and biodiversity, it explained.

It also talks about the progress made to curb deforestation put in place by the international community, governments and private sector.

“Moving to a more sustainable approach to food production will increase agricultural production in coming years while also helping to meet the globally agreed 2030 target for ending deforestation,” added Vähänen.

The paper summarises approaches for governments to decouple deforestation from agricultural commodities that are associated with deforestation and forest degradation, such as beef, soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, rubber and others, stated a press release shared by FAO.

“The report recommends that governments pay special attention to smallholder farmers, who produce roughly 35 per cent of the world’s food, but often live in poverty and cannot afford the costs or interruptions to income incurred through changing the way they work,” it added.

The world has lost 420 million hectares of forests in the last two decades, as per FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2022 released earlier this year.

It is vital to slow the rate of deforestation — standing at 8.8 million ha per year from 2010-2018. It stood at 11 million ha per year from 2000-2010.

The report also talked about how, when properly integrated, grazing can play a vital role in restoring degraded land with trees, halting desertification and improving wildfire prevention in drylands.

Drylands are home to about 25 per cent of the global population, contain 50 per cent of the world’s livestock, 27 per cent of the world’s forests and are where about 60 per cent of the world’s food production takes place, stated the report.

Read more: Food affordability improved over last 50 years; but what about nutrition

The benefits of silvopastrolism — which combines animal grazing and trees — and its potential to create alternate livelihoods was also highlighted. It can also help enhance local communities’ food security and income by preventing land degradation.

The traditional knowledge should be shared and updated for ‘peer-to-peer learning and training’, it recommended.

Woody plants in drylands provide animal feed, timber and fruit as well as help to increase biodiversity and regulate soil and water cycles, the report explained. At the same time, grazing livestock helps control vegetation, reduce the risk of wildfires, accelerate nutrient cycles and improve soil fertility.

“Landscape planners and decision-makers should consider livestock as part of the solution and carefully restore open tree cover — when tree cover is between 30 and 70 per cent — as part of an integrated landscape approach using agroforestry to promote healthy ecosystems,” recommended the report.

Punjab is usually blamed for burning paddy stubble; here is the back story to that

Paddy farming in Punjab was started to meet the food grain requirements of the country for which the state has been forced to pay a huge price

By Gian Singh

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Paddy harvesting will begin in many parts of Punjab around October 15, 2022 and will be completed in most of the state by the end of the month. The burning of paddy stubble after harvesting the crop in Punjab and the resultant air pollution has been making headlines in the media for quite some time now.

Smoke, unburnt smoke particles and carbon dioxide gas make up most of this air pollution. The pollution caused by the burning of stubble has been creating many problems for humans and non-humans alike in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

Political parties and farmer organisations keep giving statements about who should take responsibility for this problem and its solution. The National Green Tribunal is also giving instructions in this regard.

It is necessary to look at the historical aspect of paddy farming in Punjab to understand the causes of this problem and suggest solutions.

Crop combinations were suitable for all types of life before the introduction of paddy in the state on a large scale. This is because these combinations were varied and adaptable to Punjab’s agro-climatic conditions.

The Planning Commission was formed after Indian independence in 1950 and from 1951, the First Five Year Plan was introduced. Food grains had been a problem since the country’s independence.

Hence, in the First Five Year Plan (1951-56), the main priority was given to the development of the agricultural sector. As a result, this problem could be controlled to a large extent.

During the Second Five Year Plan (1956-61), the main priority was given to the development of the industrial sector. Consequently, the food grains problem in the country resurfaced.

The drought during 1964-66 made the shortage of food grains very serious. The central government had imported food grains in huge quantities under the PL 480 scheme from the United States, which cost India a lot.

The central government then decided to introduce the ‘New Agriculture Technology’ in India to solve the problem of food grain scarcity. This technology was a package of high-yielding variety seeds, assured irrigation, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, machinery and modern methods of farming.

The central government decided to introduce this technology on priority in Punjab after discussions at various levels regarding its implementation.

This decision was made taking into consideration the farmers, agricultural labourers, rural artisans and rich natural resources of Punjab. The state’s fertile soil, quality and level of groundwater and agro-climatic conditions were much better than those of other states.

In Punjab, the ‘New Agriculture Technology’ kicked off with the cultivation of wheat. Due to the excellent contribution of wheat to the Central Pool of Food Grains, the central government imposed the paddy crop on Punjab from 1973 through the Minimum Support Prices policy.

The favourable minimum support price and production and procurement certainties were the main reasons for adopting paddy farming in Punjab. Before the introduction of this technology, basmati paddy was being planted in the Shiwalik foothills of the state. From 1973, paddy farming began in almost all the areas of Punjab where maize and cotton were the main crops.

Bearing the cross?

The plantation of paddy, along with the sowing of wheat in Punjab has filled the Central Pool of Food Grains. But it has created many serious problems for Punjab, which will get even more serious in the future.

Before the large-scale plantation of paddy in Punjab, the groundwater level in the state was very good. Today, in more than three-fourths of Punjab’s community development blocks, the groundwater level has gone down to a dangerous level.

Researchers Surender Singh and Harvinder Singh conducted a research study Ground Water Development in Punjab.

The study showed that the groundwater level had dropped to dangerous levels in those community development blocks of the state where wheat-paddy farming dominate the cropping pattern.

The pond irrigation system is mostly used for paddy farming in Punjab. During 1960-61, the number of tubewells in Punjab was 7,445. This is around 1.5 million today. Monoblock motors stopped working due to the lowering of the groundwater table, which forced the farmers to get submersible motors.

The cost of these motors is high and the bores required for them have to be deepened again and again. Such a phenomenon is becoming a reason for further increasing the debt faced by farmers.

The Punjab government is giving free electricity to the farmers for irrigation, the economic burden of which is falling on the state treasury.

Farmers are forced to use their own or rented generators when their irrigation needs are not met with the free electricity provided by the Punjab government. This is one of the reasons for the increase in their production cost.

Maize and cotton were sown during the kharif season in Punjab before the large-scale plantation of paddy in the state. These crops provided employment to farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans.

This employment has reduced significantly with the introduction of paddy. This change in the cropping pattern is one of the reasons responsible for increasing debt on small farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans.

Paddy farming in Punjab was started to meet the food grain requirements of the country for which Punjab has been forced to pay a huge price. Farmers in Punjab are forced to set fire to the paddy stubble and they are the first to bear the brunt of the resulting pollution and many other aspects.

There can be no doubt about that this type of pollution is very harmful to all living beings. Methane is produced mainly due to the prevalence of pond irrigation for the paddy crop in Punjab. Burning of paddy stubble releases carbon dioxide gas, smoke and unburnt smoke particles into the air and pollutes the environment.

There are short- and long-term possible solutions to problems arising from paddy stubble burning in Punjab. As a short-term solution, the central government should give adequate compensation to the farmers of Punjab for disposing paddy stubble. The Punjab government should come forward to contribute its due in this regard.

Doing so will bring some relief to the farmers. It is also somewhat natural that there will be some increase in the days of employment of the agricultural labourers. The central and state governments should provide financial assistance to the industrial units which use paddy stubble as fuel.

The central and state governments should come forward on research projects to generate electricity from paddy stubble. However, it is not possible to solve all the problems related to paddy crop through short-term solutions.

This problem can be solved by long-term measures. The paddy crop is suitable for areas that have plenty of water for irrigation. Planting only paddy throughout the year in such areas will ensure its stubble is automatically added to the soil, which will also increase the fertility of that soil.

Minimum Support Prices of competing crops to paddy should be given to the farmers of Punjab according to the agro-climatic conditions of the kharif season. Farmers will then get rid of the paddy crop. While doing this, it is very important to keep in mind that the income of the farmers does not fall.

Gian Singh is former professor, Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

Millet might: Here is how Odisha can succeed in reviving these cereals lost to the Green Revolution

Odisha’s mission to bring millets back to its fields and plates needs greater marketing support and promotion beyond tribal areas

By Anamika Yadav

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Supply creates its own demand. This theory, believed to have been proposed by the early 19th century French economist Jean-Baptiste Say, may sound like a foolhardy view to the modern ear, but this is how India lost the diversity of its food basket to the Green Revolution.

In the 1960s, as the country was struggling to feed itself, the focus was to rapidly increase the production of two crops — wheat and rice. This shaped an Indian diet where rice and wheat became the staple food, eventually reducing the demand for other traditional cereal grains like millets.

Assessments in recent decades show that while the Green Revolution has not helped address the nutritional security of India, it has turned the country into the world’s biggest extractor of groundwater. Heavy reliance on chemical inputs has degraded soil, polluted water sources and is harming farmers’ health.

Fifty years later, as Odisha tries to improve nutritional security and promote sustainable agricultural practices, Say’s law has come in handy.

In 2017, the state launched the Odisha Millet Mission (OMM), which aims to bring millets back to its fields and food plates by encouraging farmers to grow the crops that traditionally formed a substantial part of the diet and crop system in tribal areas.

This highly varied group of small-seeded cereal crops not only require less water, farm inputs and are more resilient to climate vulnerability, but rich in nutrients like calcium, iron and protein.

Better for the food plate

The Green Revolution has largely focused on production and consumption of wheat and paddy. However, in terms of nutritional value, millets will prove to be more beneficial

00 Highest amount of the respective nutrient among the given food crops

Food crops ▶

◀ Nutrients

Finger Millet

Little Millet

Sorghum

Pearl Millet

Foxtail millet

Kodo Millet

Barnyard millet

Paddy

Wheat

Calcium (g)

344

17

25

42

31

35

22

33

30

Phosphorous (g)

283

220

222

240

290

188

280

160

306

Iron (mg)

3.9

9.3

5.4

11

2.8

1.7

18.6

1.8

3.5

Thaimin (mg)

0.41

0.3

0.38

0.42

0.59

0.15

0.33

0.41

0.36

Niacine (mg)

1.1

3.2

4.3

2.8

3.2

2

4.2

4.3

5.1

Protein (g)

7.3

7.7

10.4

11.8

12.3

8.3

6.2

6.8

11.8

Carbohydrates (g)

72

67

70.7

67

60.2

65.9

65.5

78.2

71.2

Fat (g)

1.3

4.7

3.1

4.8

4.3

1.4

4.8

0.5

1.5

Fibre (g)

3.6

7.6

2

2.3

6.7

5.2

13.6

1

2

Energy (kcal)

336

329

329

363

351

353

300

362

358

Note: Approximate value of major nutrients per 100 g of the edible portion Source: National Institute of Nutrition, Telangana, and scientific studies

OMM provides farmers incentives of up to Rs 9,500 per ha over a three-year period to shift to millet cultivation.

This includes free seeds and organic fertilisers. Public-policy think tanks Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN) headquartered in Hyderabad and the Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCDS) based in Bhubaneswar, which have partnered with the state government for the mission, conduct regular training programmes for farmers to improve productivity and lower input costs.

To complete the supply chain, the government has created an assured market for the produce. Hiranjan Mohanta, joint director of agriculture for Odisha, says that since 2019, the state has been offering minimum support price of Rs 3,377 per 100 kg of ragi, more than the Rs 1,940 per 100 kg for paddy. It has benchmarked prices for little millet and foxtail millet and developed an automated portal for procurement.

Over the past five years, Odisha has recorded a 14-fold increase in millet production, from 3,333 hectares (ha) in 2017-18 to 53,230 ha in 2021-22. Even the average yield has improved by 28 per cent because of sustainable agricultural practices and quality seeds.

In 2018, NCDS conducted a survey of households growing millets under the mission, and found that the value of their produce per ha doubled from Rs 9,477 to Rs 20,701 and income per ha increased from Rs 3,957 to Rs 12,486.

To ensure that the millets reach the food plates, the government conducts regular campaigns and rallies to make people aware of the benefits of millets and to remove the notion that they are poor people’s food, says Dinesh Balam, associate director, WASSAN.

The government has also made it part of the public distribution system (PDS) and provides 1 kg of ragi per ration card holder, which can increase to 2 kg in areas with high ragi procurement. In Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts, a ragi laddu mix is distributed by anganwadi centres for consumption by young children.

OMM has earned accolades for its agro-ecological initiatives from various national and international agencies, including UN. In 2021, NITI Aayog, think tank of the Union government, said it will facilitate OMM’s learnings in other states.

To assess the impact of the mission on the ground, researchers with Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment travelled this May to various districts of the state. They found that while there has been an increase in overall production and consumption of millets in the state, the crops have not yet regained their earlier glory.

Shoots of growth

In the first five years of implementation, Odisha Millet Mission has increased production and consumption of millets to some extent. However, to scale up, it must recognise its shortcomings

MEASURES TO BOOST PRODUCTION

MEASURES TO BOOST CONSUMPTION

Incentives of Rs 9,500 per hectare over a three-year period

Campaigns, training and food festivals to promote millets

Capacity-building through training on millet production, application of biological inputs and sowing techniques

Setting up of mobile vans or trucks, cafés, kiosks and

outlets to sell millet-based foods

Procurement of ragi at higher minimum support price than  that of paddy

Creation of “Millet Shakti” brand to sell products like cookies, savoury snacks, vermicelli and processed millets

Facilitation of market linkages by farmer-producer organisations

Under the public distribution system, one ration card holder gets 1-2 kg of ragi, depending on the procurement. Ragi laddu mix is provided by anganwadi centres in two districts

IMPACTS

SHORTCOMINGS

19 of 30 districts covered, comprising 142 blocks, 1,722 gram panchayats, 16,989 villages, and 129,222 farmers

Nine districts have less than 5 per cent of farmers’ coverage. Only 1.54 per cent of total net sown area covered

Value of produce per hectare in households increased from Rs 9,477 per ha to R20,701; income from R3,957 to R12,486

Focus has largely been on production and procurement of ragi rather than all kinds of millets

Increased income for women’s self help groups involved in processing and sale of millet products

Numbers of sales outlets are still low. Scale of Millet Shakti and public distribution is extremely limited

Share of farmer households consuming millets in the winter has increased to 98.5 per cent, in the rainy season to

72.6 per cent and in summer to 89.9 per cent.

Only 500 kg of millets are procured at assured prices. Farmers resort to the open market to sell produce they do not or cannot consume at low prices of R10-12 per kg

Much to be desired

OMM promotes production and consumption of seven millets. But so far, focus has been on ragi, which has accounted for 86 per cent of the total area under millets, according to data on the OMM website. In contrast, little millet, foxtail millet, sorghum, pearl millet, kodo millet and barnyard millet cover less than 13 per cent of the area.

Explaining the mission’s focus on ragi, Kalpana Pradhan, scheme officer of the mission, says, “We are looking for high-yielding seeds for non-ragi millets. Farmers are urged to plant some non-ragi millets.”

In 2020-21, the state government procured slightly more than 20 million kg of ragi. However, this accounts for only 27 per cent of the total ragi produced, as OMM procures only 500 kg of ragi per ha and leaves the rest for farmers to consume.

This practice has prompted farmers to consume more millets in all seasons, shows a mid-term evaluation by NCDS in 2019-20. But given that average yield is 1,500 kg per ha, much of the produce does not get procured and farmers are forced to sell it at distressed rate. Damroodhar Jani, from Ranga Paru village in Kandhamal district says, “We get Rs 10-12 per kg in the open market.”

OMM officials also admit that despite ragi being distributed in PDS and as a mix through anganwadi centres in two districts, its consumption has not picked up in a significant manner.

OMM also sells millet products, such as cookies, savoury snacks, vermicelli and processed millets, under a brand called “Millet Shakti” through food trucks, cafés, kiosks and other outlets.

“Women self-help groups (SHGs) have been kept at the centre of the programme. They do not just pay a major role in manufacturing biological inputs to improve millet yields and undertake processing of the produce, but also operate the millet-based cafés and outlets,” says Kalpana.

The full potential of SHGs, though, has not yet been realised. So far, only three women’s SHGs manufacture and process Millet Shakti products, which limits the volume available, income generated, and consumption.

OMM also leverages farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) to provide better marketing linkages.

Until now, OMM has tapped into existing FPOs to sell processed millets in the open market or aggregate produce for Tribal Development Co-operative Corporation of Odisha Limited; if a block does not have an FPO, an SHG or community group is registered as one.

Currently, there are 76 FPOs under OMM. But some of them are engaged only in minor processing and aggregation, without plans of scaling up market linkages. Encouraging FPOs with better incentives and benefit-sharing will help them compete in the market, says Sanghamitra Pradhan, scheme officer from Gajapati district.

FPOs also have their limitations, says M Muthu Kumar, OMM director. “To make farmers self-sustainable regardless of OMM, it is critical that we create a parallel market for millets. We are in discussions to get private firms such as Reliance Group involved,” he adds.

For the next five years, Odisha has set targets like revival of millet foods in urban and rural areas, covering 1,000-2,000 ha and 4,000 households in each block under improved agricultural practices, and supporting 142 FPOs for marketing and exports. To meet them, it must recognise its shortcomings.

The programme’s coverage has increased from 14 districts in 2017 to 19 districts now. But data is available only for 15 districts, nine of which have less than 5 per cent of farmers under OMM, covering 1.54 per cent of the total net sown area.

There is no information on the exact production of millets other than ragi. Understanding these trends will help develop better strategies for production, marketing support and consumption. For instance, the government can expand distribution of millets in more districts and include it in midday meals offered in schools to provide a major consumption boost.

Umi Daniel, director of migration and education at development non-profit Action Education (previously known as Aide et Action)-South Asia, who is based in Bhubaneswar, says, “Millets have been grown and consumed by indigenous people for a long time. The decline of the crops was not just due to the Green Revolution, but also because non-tribal people did not accept them.”

“The government is once again aggressively marketing millets in tribal areas, which may stereotype them as tribal or poor people’s food and drive young tribal people away,” he adds.

(This is fourth in a series of six articles on how better market access to non-chemical produce is key to success of regenerative agriculture)

This was first published in the 16-30 September, 2022 edition of Down To Earth

Climate Change

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- Can carbon capture be new hope for mitigating CO2 emissions?

- Simply Put: Noah’s Ark 2.0

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- Why every degree counts now

- Irony just died: Coca-Cola, among biggest global polluters, to sponsor CoP27

- Climate tipping points could lock in unstoppable changes to the planet — how close are they?

- ‘Changing climatic conditions induce vegetation changes, which shapes human evolution’

- UP Dussehra downpour: 10,000% excess rain in 3 districts of state wrecks kharif crop

- Ice flow in Antarctica changes with season, can impact sea-level rise estimates

- Climate risk index shows threats to 90% of the world’s marine species

- Monsoon 2022: Is excess September rainfall to blame for the Danda-2 avalanche in Uttarakhand

- Human activities are eating into reindeer grazing land in Europe

Device made for the Moon may aid in carbon sequestration on Earth

A pocket-sized device intended for use on the Moon could soon play a key role in Japan’s ambitious plans to sequester carbon dioxide

By Bill Morris

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves stripping carbon dioxide from emissions, pressurizing it into a “supercritical fluid,” then pumping it deep underground into porous rock reservoirs, where it will, in theory, remain entombed.

Potential carbon storage sites include depleted oil and gas fields and deep saline aquifers.

Although CCS technology has been around for decades, it has yet to be widely adopted. Partly, that’s because of the high cost of building sequestration plants, but it’s also due to lingering questions about how well the process actually works.

Over extended periods, even a small amount of carbon dioxide leakage can become significant, and where storage sites are under the seabed, leakage can have profound effects on marine life.

Just detecting leaks is difficult and expensive. CCS monitoring typically relies on heavy seismic equipment mounted on trucks or ships. The equipment sends powerful vibrations into Earth’s crust and analyzes the sound waves that are reflected back.

Because of the high cost, such systems can be used for only limited periods of time. “In a conventional system, monitoring is discontinuous,” said Takeshi Tsuji, an engineering professor at the University of Tokyo. “It’s difficult to acquire seismic data continuously.”

Japan’s ambition to explore the solar system, however, may have led to a breakthrough for carbon storage here on Earth.

A team from the University of Tokyo and Kyushu University, led by Tsuji, developed a lightweight system, the Portable Active Seismic Source (PASS), designed to be carried aboard Mars and Moon landers that may also detect carbon leaks at sequestration sites.

Scientists published their results in Seismological Research Letters last month.

Stacked Vibrations

The PASS, which is just 10 centimeters in length, creates vibrations by means of a spinning wheel mounted with an off-center weight.

The Portable Active Seismic Source (right) is only 10 centimeters in length, reducing the logistical challenges posed by the equipment currently used to monitor carbon sequestration sites (left). Photo: Takeshi Tsuji

Because of the device’s small size, the vibrations it produces are relatively weak, but the team uses software to “stack” hundreds of signals, amplifying the transmission enormously.

The stacked seismic signals are able to penetrate more than 800 meters belowground. CCS wells need to be this deep to keep carbon dioxide pressurized. In theory, arrays of PASS boxes can be deployed above these sites, allowing geologists to monitor carbon leakage.

“This system is very cheap,” said Tsuji, “and it generates continuously, so we will be able to monitor continuously.”

PASS boxes could help Japan reach its ambitious goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. As part of this goal, the country plans to sequester up to 240 million tons of carbon dioxide a year in hundreds of wells, mostly offshore.

Toru Sano is a geophysicist with JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration, a Japanese company with plans to incorporate CCS into its operations. He said the PASS’s small size and low cost make it ideal for long-term monitoring of sequestration sites. “We have to monitor not only the injection period,” he said, “but also after the site has closed—for maybe 10, 20, or even 50 years.”  Continuous monitoring, he said, is also important to manage public perception around the safety of carbon capture sites.

Although some critics accuse Japan of pursuing carbon storage as a way to continue extracting and burning fossil fuels while still meeting their net zero carbon goals, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change considers CCS critical to limiting global warming. According to its most recent climate change report, there are more than enough potential carbon storage sites on Earth to contain all the carbon dioxide needed to limit warming to 1.5°C, but deployment of the technology is currently far below what is needed to reach that target.

Bill Morris is Science Writer for science news magazine Eos

This article by Eos is published here as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

Can carbon capture be new hope for mitigating CO2 emissions?

NTPC Vindhyachal implements carbon capture technology

By Sowmiya Kannappan

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

The largest power plant in the country has moved towards industrial decarbonisation by implementing carbon capture technology.

NTPC Vindhyachal in Madhya Pradesh has an installed capacity of 4.67 gigawatts and is the largest greenhouse gas emitter of energy production. NTPC Ltd was formerly National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from electricity generation in India accounts for 40 per cent, even though 40 per cent of energy production is being obtained from renewable energy in India, according to the third biennial update report.

Read more: Most carbon capture & utilisation technologies may be counterproductive: Study

India also stands third among the GHG-emitting countries in the world, emitting 2,310 megatons of CO2 in 2019. All these scenarios necessitate the mitigation of GHG reduction in the country to combat the effects of climate change.

The pioneer project of a carbon capture plant installed in NTPC Vindhyachal is in line with this, which is designed to capture 20 tonnes of CO2 per day. It uses modified tertiary amine to capture CO2 from flue gas from fossil-fired power plants, with a purity of more than 99 per cent.

CO2 will eventually be integrated with hydrogen to produce 10 tonnes of methanol per day through a catalytic hydrogenation process.

Currently, there are no Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) projects in the pipeline in power plants, according to non-profit Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) discussion with companies looking into carbon capture in India.

CCUS has been a topic of discussion for over two decades, but it has not gained proper focus because of limited research, finance and policy support. This is evident from the few projects in India, which are in their nascent stage, even though carbon capture has been discussed for a long time.

In India, Jindal Steel and Power had claimed that they would envisage CO2 capture, storage and sequestration 2011. The steel, mining, and infrastructure company 2017 again mentioned they were contemplating sequestration of CO2 emissions, which is still not implemented.

Read more: Thermal power plants in Singrauli, Sonbhadra under NGT radar again

For that matter, multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd, as a part of their plans to achieve further reduction in GHG emissions, have also announced that they would capture, store and convert CO2 to useful chemicals in a sustainable manner but not with a timeline.

Oil company Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) had earlier said they would declare Net Zero operational emissions by the year 2046 for their plans to achieve two-thirds of emission reduction through energy efficiency, electrification and fuel replacement efforts.

About a third of the total emissions would be mitigated through options such as CCUS, nature-based solutions and the purchase of carbon credits, IOCL said. The carbon capture project is at the yet-to-be-implemented stage upon the completion of techno-economic feasibility.

All these big firms’ plans for capturing, storing and utilising carbon are at the initial stage, where their implementation would take longer.

Only some preliminary work is underway with pilot projects being conducted by public sector undertaking Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and IOCL at the Koyali Refinery; Dalmia Cement setting up its carbon capture cement plant in Tamil Nadu and an industrial port in Tuticorin capturing CO2 to produce baking soda and so on.

There are a number of technical and logistical barriers to CCUS adoption, according to policy think-tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

Some of them identified from literature are land acquisition, in-depth assessment of storage sites to fulfil relevant criteria such as adequacy of capacity and injectivity rates, cap rock containment capacity to prevent CO2 from escaping, etc.

There is always a threat of CO2 leakage and possible leakage points need to be scouted beforehand for necessary remediation plans to be prepared.

Read more: Carbon capture technology not on track to reduce CO2 emissions

There is also a dearth of data pertaining to geological storage sites in India, which makes it difficult to undertake exhaustive feasibility assessments for CCUS projects.

So, the Indian government should facilitate the possibilities of quicker implementation of CCUS in the country, suggested CSE. One such initiative can be designing national policy options with specific plans for climate finance mobility and providing incentives to the sectors in the form of tax concessions.

These concessions can be in exchange for investing in CCUS-related projects or being engaged in production processes employing these technologies. It can also support more research and development for carbon capture and storage technologies in India.

Also, there is no carbon capture project that is being planned in India in the near future, according to Global Status of CCS 2021 report. But other countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, United Arab Emirates, etc, have many projects under various stages of implementation.

This should be given due importance because the country’s reduction effort is far less than its actual emissions.

Simply Put: Noah’s Ark 2.0

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

Make steel future-ready

We can emit even less than what we do today; it needs planning, technology & funds

By Sunita Narain

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

As our fractious and dysfunctional world gets ready to go to the 27th meeting of the parties to the climate convention (COP27) and as extreme weather events spiral out of control and take down lives and properties, it is clear that we need to act urgently.

It is equally clear that this “action” is not happening, certainly not at the scale or pace needed. But more on this another time.

This time I want to discuss the option for decarbonising India’s iron and steel sector. My colleagues at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) say it is possible to bring down carbon dioxide (CO_2) emissions drastically by 2030 while tripling India’s output of steel; we can emit even less than what we do today. But it will need planning, technology and funds.

The fact is countries like India need to grow and develop, and this at a time when the world is running out of carbon budget to stay below the guardrail of 1.5 degree Celsius temperature rise. So, this growth can, and must, be low in carbon.

How do we ensure the double benefits of reduced emissions and growth?

Our report Decarbonising India: Iron and steel sector shows it is possible. Globally, the iron and steel sector is a major contributor to emissions — some 7 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions.

In India, the sector’s share is 5 per cent, as per the latest inventory available for 2016. India is second in terms of global production of iron and steel. But India’s production pales in comparison with the first producer.

China produces 10 times more than India; in 2019, it produced 1,050 million tonnes of crude steel, against India’s 100 million tonnes. Therefore, India will need to increase its production — there is a huge unmet infrastructure demand in the country.

Our per capita steel consumption, even in 2030, when official estimates forecast expansion to 300 million tonnes capacity and production to 255 million tonnes, will be only 160 kg per capita.

In contrast, global per capita consumption of steel today is 229 kg. Our need to increase production is a no-brainer.

The only question is what needs to be done to reduce emissions of CO_2 in this sector? What must India do? What can the world do to ensure this transition?

The emission story of iron and steel is like that of most other industries. The fuel — coal, gas or clean electricity — that fires its furnaces is what then adds to emissions, but with one crucial difference. The manufacturing process is a determinant of the amount of CO_2 the industrial unit will produce.

When iron is produced using a blast furnace and then steel through a basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route, CO_2-producing coal is needed as a reducing agent to turn the ore into metal. This makes the sector hard to decarbonise; roughly half of India’s iron and steel is produced through this route.

The other way to manufacture iron is direct reduced iron (DRI), or sponge iron, where iron ore is not liquefied but iron is extracted using reducing agents, coal or gas, and then to produce steel through electric-arc or induction furnace. This production process is easier to decarbonise, as coal can be replaced by natural gas. Also in this process steel scrap can replace iron ore completely.

In BF-BOF the use of steel scrap is limited to roughly 30 per cent. However, in India, iron and steel manufactured using DRI is far more polluting because it is coal-based. Since sponge iron plants operate largely as the small and medium sector there is no impetus to improve their emission profile.

This is where the opportunity lies; the government should work on a package deal that involves cleaner fuel like gas and improves the circularity of the recycled steel business by promoting optimum usage of steel scrap as a raw material.

The CSE roadmap focusses on the strategies for both manufacturing routes. In the case of BF-BOF, our low-carbon trajectory improves on the voluntary emission targets of top players by recommending the use of natural-gas injection or hydrogen to reduce coal and to increase the amount of recycled steel in production to its optimum of 30 per cent.

In addition, this industry would have to implement carbon capture and utilisation, as coal-based emissions would have to be abated. These high-end technology interventions will need international finance, which should be secured by setting tough emission targets for 2030 — from 2.2 tonnes of CO_2 for every tonne of iron and steel, to less than 1.5 tonnes, which is the global best.

Three established companies, Tata Steel, SAIL and JSW (Jindal), which account for 45 per cent of the country’s production in 2020-21, contributed 41-51 per cent of CO_2 emissions — and this makes the financial infusion also possible for manufacture of low-carbon steel.

The bottom line is it is possible to bend the CO_2 curve even for a sector like iron and steel. Countries like India can develop while drastically reducing their emissions. The only question is if the rich world will accept the imperative of climate justice and provide the funds for the technology transformation necessary for a future-ready industry.

This is what COP27 — the 27th conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — should discuss.

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These are India’s climate hotspots

India is home to 72% of the 750 million people exposed to climate change hazards in South Asia

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

Climate crisis: Expect more extreme heatwaves in near future

India witnessed a concurrent increase in meteorological droughts and heatwaves in various parts of the country over the last 60 years

By Seema Prasad

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Extreme heatwave events are predicted to occur more frequently in the near future, according to a recent report.

Extreme heat risks will increase significantly as the global mean temperature increases to 1.5°C by the 2030s, noted the report titled Extreme Heat: Preparing for the heatwaves of the future.

The report was published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, a worldwide humanitarian aid organisation October 10, 2022.

The global mean temperature was close to 1°C  between 2017 and 2019. However, the global mean temperature was at 1.2°C in 2016 and 2020, according to data on the global surface temperature compiled by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration between 2016 and 2021.

“From the humanitarian perspective, a critical point is a non-linear relationship between global increases in mean temperatures and increases in the frequency and severity of extreme events,” the report read.

Extreme heat is the only climate hazard where this effect is so pronounced, it added.

The report warned of compound events that may occur in succession or simultaneously. Such events could have detrimental effects on human health and communities.

India witnessed a concurrent increase in meteorological droughts and heatwaves in various parts of the country over the last 60 years, said the researchers.

The significant increase would present “communities unaccustomed to such events with an unprecedented challenge to adapt.”

The analysis also said compound ‘tropical storm-heat’, an event where a storm follows extreme heat, could occur more frequently in the future.

“Hot extremes” have become recurrent and more severe over the earth’s land since the 1950s, according to the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Humans may not be able to adapt

No one is protected from the rising global mean temperatures, according to the researchers. Even those who are acclimatised to tropical areas may suffer, they added.

“Acclimatisation also takes time to develop and it wanes in the absence of prolonged heat exposure,” the report said.

This means that it offers less protection against abrupt and unusual changes in temperature and humidity that are made much more likely by climate change, the report added.

“Some coastal subtropical locations may have already exceeded human body’s safe temperature limit for very brief periods,” according to the researchers.

Data gaps

In dire circumstances, children’s dehydration due to heat can result in mortality if its combined with diarrhoea.

Schools in India reduce teaching hours during extreme temperatures. This can impact education, according to the researchers.

Nevertheless, national disaster data recorded by countries often don’t consider heat waves as a cause of health issues.

The immediate cause of death, such as diabetes or heat strokes, is reported as the reason for hospital admission or death in places like Sub-Saharan Africa despite evidence showing an increase in heatwaves.

This causes a misrepresentation of the data, according to researchers. They believe that heat waves must be linked to health outcomes more conclusively.

Thermal inequality

The world’s poorest countries have been experiencing more hot days and nights over the past three decades, according to a literature review on the subject.

Suppose the world’s temperature increases beyond 1.5°C. In that case, the most tangible impact will be felt in the tropical regions, which are home to poverty-stricken populations, stated a study quoted by the researchers.

Loss of working hours

Refugees, migrants, industrial workers and construction and agricultural labourers risk losing working hours and income with prolonged exposure to heat.

If global warming reaches 1.5°C, southern Asia and western Africa may lose 5.3 per cent and 4.8 per cent of working hours, respectively, according to projections by the International Labor Organization for 2030.

In contrast, the loss of working hours is less than 1 per cent across Europe.

Countries should develop national heat action plans, the authors suggested. They insisted on investing in forecasting systems, social protection schemes, community-led warning systems and designated cooling systems to survive the impending heat.

North India rains: Crops ruined in Uttar Pradesh; over half a million affected by floods

Rains in India’s largest state have ruined crops such as paddy; sugarcane; mustard; potatoes and other vegetables

By Vivek Mishra

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Farmers in Uttar Pradesh have been hit by a double whammy this kharif season. The state was headed towards drought in July. Now, continuous rain since October 5, 2022 has damaged crops which had been thirsty in three months ago.

The rains have ruined crops such as paddy; sugarcane; mustard; potatoes and other vegetables in large parts of the state. “The quality of the standing paddy crop will deteriorate. It won’t be suitable for harvesting. Apart from potatoes and other vegetables, new crops like mustard and sugarcane will hardly be sown now.

“Wheat sowing is getting delayed. This will hurt farmers further,” Sethpal Singh, a farmer from Nandifirozpur village, nine km from Saharanpur district headquarters, told Down To Earth.

He added that nobody was taking calls at the office of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

Singh said farmers had been affected due to heavy rains twice in the last two months. First there was continuous rain from September 15-20, followed by the rain that started from October 5.

“I had planted vegetables like radish, bottle gourd, ridge gourd and cauliflower in about 2 hectares of land. They have been damaged. There has been a loss of Rs 2 to 3 lakh,” Singh said. Radish, which was selling Rs 45 per kilogram, is now being sold at Rs 22 per kg.

Anil Yadav, a farmer based in Risia, Bahraich district, said, “It did not rain when it was needed. Now, it has rained such that my entire field has been destroyed.” Jokhan from Shravasti district told DTE that water collected in his fields was still to drain out. “The ears of paddy have been completely spoiled,” he said.

The rain has also ruined the farmers’ plans to plant potatoes and mustard this season.

Some 96 per cent of paddy was sown till August 20, according to state government data. But the possibility of lower crop yields had already been predicted due to drought.

It rained all over India’s largest state in these past few days. Almost the entire state has received (and continues to receive) excess rainfall, with the exception of seven districts, according to data released by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) October 10.

Rivers like Ghaghra, Sharda and Rapti, the major tributaries of the Ganga, are in spate. The districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh — Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur and Azamgarh — are the most-affected.

The Chief Minister’s Office issued an order October 10 to expedite relief work. However, the water is so high that it is very difficult to survey fields. Avinash Pandey, a Lekhpal (revenue official) and resident of Bhinga in Shravasti said the loss of life and property due to floods was being looked into first.

Each of the three districts — Pratapgarh, Prayagraj and Santarvidasnagar — recorded 10,000 per cent more rainfall than normal October 9, according to IMD data. Some 580,000 people in 650 villages across 16 districts have been affected due to floods, according to the UP Relief Commissioner, Prabhu Narain Singh.

Recurring rains in October call for change in monsoon definition

In the first 10 days of October, 10 states received large excess rainfall while eight had excess rainfall

By Akshit Sangomla

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Northwest India has been witnessing widespread heavy rainfall in the last few days, even after India's national weather agency announced that the southwest monsoon has retreated from most of the region. The ongoing spell of rainfall, however, was perceived by experts and general population to have been caused by weather systems associated with southwest monsoons.

If the trend of such unseasonal heavy rainfall holds in the future, then it may call for changes in the definition of monsoon period in India which currently is from June to September.

The monsoon has already withdrawn completely from Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan, according to the latest information provided by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

It has also withdrawn from most of Gujarat and some parts of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. This phase of withdrawal happened on October 3, 2022, according to IMD, and has stayed the same ever since.

Some parts of central, south, northeast and eastern India have also received more rainfall than normal in the first 10 days of October.

The monsoon has not officially retreated from these regions but the volume of rainfall is unusual when the monsoon winds are getting ready to leave the subcontinent.

During October 1-7, eight states across the country received large excess rainfall (more than 60 per cent excess) and four received excess rainfall (20 to 59 per cent excess).

As many as 213 districts (30 per cent) received large excess rainfall in the period, while 75 (11 per cent) received excess rainfall. India as a whole received 33 per cent more rainfall than normal for the period.

By October 10, the rains spread to many other states, especially in northwest India, where many monsoon type weather systems became active along with a western disturbance.

Western disturbances are extra tropical storms that originate in the Mediterranean region and bring winter rainfall to northwest and some parts of northeast India.

There were multiple cyclonic circulations that traversed large parts of the country and many low-pressure troughs over long distances, some of which are still active.

One of the reasons for the formation of these weather systems can be the continuing La Niña phenomenon in its third year and the warming of the Arctic region.

In the first 10 days of October, 10 states received large excess rainfall while eight had excess rainfall.

The number of districts with large excess rainfall increased to 292 (41 per cent) during the period, while the number of districts with excess rainfall increased to 90 (13 per cent).

The country as a whole received 67 per cent more rainfall from October 1-10.

Some states in northwest India, which were reeling under severe deficits, witnessed a complete reversal in a matter of days. For instance, Delhi had a rainfall deficit of 94 per cent on October 7 (measured from October 1-7). This changed to an excess of 684 per cent on October 9 and to 706 per cent on October 10.

Haryana’s deficit of 81 per cent on October 7 swung to an excess of 555 per cent on October 9 and to 602 per cent on October 10.

Uttar Pradesh is the only state in northwest India which received consistent heavy rainfall throughout October.

Rajasthan’s deficit of 58 per cent on October 7 changed to an excess of 435 per cent on October 9 and to 443 per cent on October 10. The monsoon withdrew completely from all these three states by October 3.

The rainfall happening right now will not be categorised as monsoon rainfall by IMD because the weather agency stops recording monsoon data on September 30.

Any rainfall after this date is counted as ‘post-monsoon rainfall’, even though the rainfall is mainly happening due to weather systems that form during the monsoon season. This is happening for the third year in a row.

A similar rainfall stretch into October had also happened in 2021 and the year before that. This calls for an assessment of the definition of monsoon period in India, which is currently from June to September and the inclusion of October rains happening now within that definition.

“The definition of the monsoon may have to change if the trend continues,” Raghu Murtugudde, a climate scientist at University of Maryland and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay told Down To Earth.

“It is not a good idea to simply go by a calendar date anyway but that’s historical baggage which has to be dropped now,” he added.

Climate models would better reproduce the changes happening to the monsoon season over India if the initial conditions of El Niño, La Niña, Atlantic Niño and the Arctic warming are accounted for as accurately as possible.

The short (1-3 days), medium (3-10 days) and extended range (2-4 weeks) forecasts for the monsoon season have to be reliable to deal with these climatic phenomena, according to Murtugudde.

Climate finance: Donors give less than they claim; and not for mitigation to needy countries

Mitigation finance primarily went to middle-income countries such as Brazil, India, Mexico and Indonesia

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Donor countries overstated their contributions to climate change mitigation by roughly 40 per cent, a new study estimated.

This finding points to challenges in achieving the promises made at the Paris Agreement to mitigate climate change, the study published in Nature Climate Change underscored.

In 2009, developed nations pledged to provide climate finance of $100 billion annually by 2020 to less wealthy countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change. But the donor countries are yet to achieve the target.

Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing — drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing — that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions.

The contributions were $83.3 billion in 2020, up from $80.4 billion in 2019, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates.

Countries self-report their expenditure. There isn’t any mechanism in place to independently verify the flow of finance, Florian Elgi, from the Energy and Technology Policy Group, told Down to Earth.

“We wanted to look at whether the responsibilities were being honoured in the finance flows,” he added.

Elgi and his colleagues used a machine learning algorithm to scan 2.7 million official development assistance (ODA) projects between 2000 and 2019.

ODA is financial aid aiming to promote economic development and welfare in developing countries. Donors tag their ODA projects based on whether it targets biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation or desertification.

Elgi and his team focused on bilateral finance between donor and recipient parties, as this represents the most significant chunk of the financial flow.

Funds can also be made available through regional and multilateral channels, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In bilateral flow, donor countries have much control over the flow. “Developed nations will always be able to decide on what they spend their money on,” Elgi explained.

The algorithm is trained to decide whether it is climate finance or not.

For example, a donor spends $100 on a sanitation project in Angola and tags the fundamental objective as climate mitigation or adaptation, explained Elgi. And the algorithm not classifying the project under climate finance is an example of over-reporting, he added.

In some cases, contributors don’t tag a project like solar plants with climate benefits as climate finance. This is under-reporting, the researcher explained.

“The quality of the reporting is quite poor and there is much more over-reporting than under-reporting,” Elgi pointed out.

Donors prioritise mitigation

The algorithm identified the financial flows from 32 donor countries to 141 countries across continents, the study stated.

The researchers identified 32,370 projects, representing $30.3 billion in bilateral climate finance after the Paris Agreement (2016– 2019). The $100 billion target came to the centre stage of the international climate discussions during this time, according to the study.

Germany, France, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan were the top contributors. India, Morocco, Mexico, Vietnam and Indonesia were the top recipients, noted the study.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland prioritise adaptation finance. The researchers calculated that about 82 per cent of the finance was categorised as grants.

But France, Germany and Japan invested more in mitigation. About 54 per cent of the funding was categorised as loans, they added.

Mitigation finance primarily went to middle-income countries such as Brazil, India, Mexico and Indonesia. Egypt and Morocco, with high potential for renewable energy, also attracted significant mitigation finance.

Countries most vulnerable to climate change received relatively more adaptation finance, the study noted.

“Public organisations should step up the game because private finance will work for the mitigation projects in middle-income countries, but probably not for low-income countries,” Elgi explained.

Elgi called for independent and transparent mechanisms to track climate finance.

Climate finance needs to be scaled up. “Estimated total climate finance flows remain well below the estimated need to invest in low-emission, climate-resilient development,” UNFCCC stated in its Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance Flows report.

Simply Put: Death of Irony

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

A million-year-old marine DNA can reveal how climate change will affect Antarctica

New form of analysis helps scientists study long-term responses of ocean ecosystems

By Nandita Banerji

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Scientists have dug up fragments of deoxyribonucleic acid, also known as DNA, in the Scotia Sea, north of the Antarctic continent. The DNA is a million years old and makes it possible to study the responses of ocean ecosystems to climate change.

A study, conducted by researchers from University of Tasmania and University of Bonn discovered ancient sedimentary DNA (sedaDNA).

SedaDNA analysis is a new technique that helps decipher ‘who’ has lived in the ocean in the past and ‘when’. It can help study long-term responses of ocean ecosystems to climate change, as demonstrated by the study Ancient marine sediment DNA reveals diatom transition in Antarctica.

Read more: Ice flow in Antarctica changes with season, can impact sea-level rise estimates

The study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, can also help assess current and future changes in marine life around Antarctica.

Antarctica is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change on Earth, so studying the frozen continent’s past and present responses to environmental and climate change is therefore critical and urgent.

Antarctica is arguably the most susceptible polar region to climate, evidenced in the fact that west Antarctica is one of the fastest-warming regions globally, the study said.

Understanding how southern Ocean organisms respond to climate variability, including throughout past climate shifts, is thus of key importance to predict how the Antarctic marine ecosystem will evolve in the near future, the study added.

An international team studied sediments acquired during the International Ocean Discovery Program, an international, multi-drilling platform research program. The samples were collected in 2019 expedition 382, called Iceberg Alley and Subantarctic Ice and Ocean Dynamics.

Investigation of characteristic age-related damage patterns in the recovered DNA fragments revealed they were as old as a million years.

“This comprises by far the oldest authenticated marine sedaDNA to date,” said Linda Armbrecht, the lead investigator from the University of Tasmania, Australia.

Amongst the detected organisms were diatoms as key primary producers whose DNA was detected back to half a million years.

Diatoms were consistently abundant during warm climatic periods, showed data collected by the researchers. The last such change in the food web of the Scotia Sea occurred about 14,500 years ago.

Read more: Increasing human footprint cutting Antarctica wilderness: Study

“This is an interesting and important change that is associated with a word-wide and rapid increase in sea levels and massive loss of ice in Antarctica due to natural warming,” said Michael Weber, second author of the study from the University of Bonn.

The warming apparently caused an increase in ocean productivity around Antarctica.

The study demonstrates that marine sedaDNA analyses can be expanded to hundreds of thousands of years, opening the pathway to the study of ecosystem-wide marine shifts and changes to paleo-productivity throughout many ice-age cycles.

These periods of natural climate change can also give insight into the current and future human-induced climate warming and how the ecosystem might respond to it.

Climate change triggered droughts in Northern Hemisphere: Study

Conditions in the Northern Hemisphere would only have been anticipated once every 400 years if humans had not warmed the Earth

By Arya Rohini

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Agricultural drought conditions in the Northern Hemisphere are at least 20 times more likely due to human-induced climate change, according to a new study.

The agricultural drought, prevailing across the hemisphere, had impacted crop production and pushed food prices, noted the study published by the World Weather Attribution group October 7, 2022.

Agricultural drought results in adverse plant responses, ranging from reduced crop and forage yields to total crop or forage failure.

Global warming has caused aridity, particularly in France, Germany and other central European countries. Fire risks, poor harvests and compromised food security in these regions can be attributed to human-induced climate change.

Conditions in the Northern Hemisphere would only have been anticipated once every 400 years if humans had not warmed the Earth. Climate change has altered the likelihood and intensity of low soil moisture across the world, it noted.

The 2022 Northern Hemisphere summer triggered water shortages, large fires, high food prices and significant crop losses.

Researchers examined soil moisture levels in the Northern Hemisphere for June, July and August. They concentrated on western and central Europe, which had much lower crop production due to severe drought.

In west-central Europe, human-induced climate change increased the likelihood of agricultural and ecological drought by around three to four times.

The results cannot be directly compared due to the differing sizes of the regions, but this does not imply that Europe has been less affected by climate change than other parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Mainland China also endured unusually high temperatures and dryness.

“With further global warming, we can expect stronger and more frequent summer droughts in the future,” said Dominik Schumacher, first author of the study, in a statement.

We need to phase-out the burning of fossil fuels for stabilising climate conditions and avoiding a further worsening of such drought events, said Sonia Seneviratne, the lead author of the study, in a media statement.

Why every degree counts now

A series of interactive infographics to explore the 21st Century's toughest development challenge: The planet's changing climate

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Irony just died: Coca-Cola, among biggest global polluters, to sponsor CoP27

Activists and commentators have called Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the world’s biggest climate summit a ‘greenwashing exercise’

By Akshit Sangomla

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties 27’s (CoP 27) Egyptian presidency September 29, 2022 named Coca-Cola Company — one of the biggest plastic polluters in the world — as the official provider and supporter of the year’s biggest climate change conference.

CoP27 is to be held at Sharm El-Sheikh on Egypt’s Red Sea coast from November 6-18. Countries under the UNFCCC will negotiate on mitigation, adaptation and financing aspects of action on climate change at the summit.

Coca-Cola would be partnering with Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the event. While the financial aspect of the deal is not known as yet, CoP26 in Glasgow was sponsored by eight companies and the deal was worth $280 million.

No other private company apart from Coca-Cola has been announced as sponsor, provider or supporter for CoP27. There were some big polluters among the companies last year as well, like Unilever and Sainsbury.

Coca-Cola, as part of the statement from the CoP27 presidency, claimed that climate was a key area of focus for the company as it “works towards its 2030 Science Based Target of an absolute 25 per cent emissions reduction and its ambition to be net zero carbon globally by 2050”.

Also, Coca-Cola in Europe and Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, its bottling partner in Egypt, want to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040.

“Through the CoP 27 partnership, the Coca-Cola system aims to continue exploring opportunities to build climate resilience across its business, supply chain and communities, while engaging with other private sector actors, NGOs, and governments to support collective action against climate change,” the company said.

Activists and commentators have called this a greenwashing exercise.

“It is baffling that Coca-Cola — the world’s biggest plastic polluter in all global Break Free From Plastic brand audits, including Kenya and Uganda — will sponsor this year’s UNFCCC Conference of Parties in Egypt,” John Hocevar, director of Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaign, said in a statement to the media.

In Uganda, Coca-Cola is responsible for 20 per cent of all plastic pollution, according to a brand audit report by non-profits Break Free from Plastic and EndPlasticPollution.

One of the major impacts of the plastic pollution is on the rivers of the country. The report found that the rivers Mpanga and Rwizi are the worst-affected and even Lake Victoria, one Africa’s Great Lakes, is filling up with plastic.

Coca-Cola has been polluting rivers, oceans and land globally with 120 billion single-use plastic bottles, thus risking the health of humans, animals and plants. The conglomerate is also significantly responsible for the climate crisis as 99 per cent of the plastic is produced from fossil fuels.

In 2021, Coca-Cola’s GHG emissions were 5.17 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents, according to non-profit Global Data. This was eight per cent higher than in 2020. Sixty per cent of the emissions came from onsite generation and purchase of electricity while 31 per cent came from fossil fuels and refrigerants.

“They have yet to even acknowledge that this is a problem or explain how they will meet their climate goals without ending their plastic addiction,” Hocevar said.

Such problematic private company sponsorship is not happening for the first time.

“Unfortunately, past and current CoPs have attracted sponsorships from companies who are part of the problem as their activities are directly and significantly contributing to climate change and merely seeking greenwashing opportunities,” Gaby Flores, main media lead for Greenpeace’s CoP campaigns, told Down To Earth.

She further explained that there have always been objections to these kinds of partnerships but civil society calls to regulate (such as the ‘Kick Polluters Out’ campaign led by umbrella coalition, the Climate Action Network) have not yet been successful.

“Any sponsorship from an environmental polluter is a serious threat to the negotiations at all stages and undermines the very objective of the event it seeks to sponsor,” Flores said.

The main problems are of historic polluters being held accountable and their access to events and decision makers at the CoP.

For instance, “climate justice discussions must hold those who had lied and continued with their business-as-usual destruction accountable and it is that much more difficult to do so when the misleading backers to the fossil fuel industry are represented,” said Flores.

Historical accountability, climate justice, reparations for loss and damage are going to be the most contentious themes on negotiations at the CoP 27 this year.

“Being a sponsor also gives the backers privileged access to both events and decision-makers, access where they can portray themselves as holders of solutions, when this is simply not true,” she added.

Greenpeace also claimed that Coca-Cola should increase their reuse and refill target of 25 per cent to 50 per cent by 2030 and in fact, it should be ambitious about completely phasing out its single-use plastic.

“Greenpeace will continue campaigning on its current position and support coalition efforts to kick polluters out of the UNFCCC, including eliminating corporate sponsorship of the event,” said Flores.

Bringing down plastic production and ending single-use plastic is in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to below 1.5 degree Celsius.

“If Coca-Cola really wants to solve the plastic and climate crisis, it needs to turn off its plastics tap. Ending Coca-Cola’s addiction to single-use plastic is an important part of moving away from fossil fuels, protecting communities and combating climate change,” Hocevar said.

Climate tipping points could lock in unstoppable changes to the planet — how close are they?

Small patches of the Amazon and northern forests might tip and transition to a savannah-like state first, bypassing a more catastrophic dieback across the whole forest

By David Armstrong McKay

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Continued greenhouse gas emissions risk triggering climate tipping points. These are self-sustaining shifts in the climate system that would lock-in devastating changes, like sea-level rise, even if all emissions ended.

The first major assessment in 2008 identified nine parts of the climate system that are sensitive to tipping, including ice sheets, ocean currents and major forests. Since then, huge advances in climate modelling and a flood of new observations and records of ancient climate change have given scientists a far better picture of these tipping elements. Extra ones have also been proposed, like permafrost around the Arctic (permanently frozen ground that could unleash more carbon if thawed).

Estimates of the warming levels at which these elements could tip have fallen since 2008. The collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet was once thought to be a risk when warming reached 3°C-5°C above Earth’s pre-industrial average temperature. Now it’s thought to be possible at current warming levels.

In our new assessment of the past 15 years of research, myself and colleagues found that we can’t rule out five tipping points being triggered right now when global warming stands at roughly 1.2°C. Four of these five become more likely as global warming exceeds 1.5°C.

These are sobering conclusions. Not all of the news coverage captured the nuance of our study, though. So here’s what our findings actually mean.

Uncertain thresholds

We synthesised the results of more than 200 studies to estimate warming thresholds for each tipping element. The best estimate was either one that multiple studies converged on or which a study judged to be particularly reliable reported.

For example, records of when ice sheets had retreated in the past and modelling studies indicate the Greenland ice sheet is likely to collapse beyond 1.5°C. We also estimated the minimum and maximum thresholds at which collapse is possible: model estimates for Greenland range between 0.8°C and 3.0°C.

Greenland’s ice sheet is showing signs of destabilising at current warming levels. David Dennis/Shutterstock

Within this range, tipping becomes more likely as warming increases. We defined tipping as possible (but not yet likely) when warming is above the minimum but below the best estimate, and likely above the best estimate. We also judged how confident we are with each estimate. For example, we are more confident in our estimates for Greenland’s ice sheet collapse than those for abrupt permafrost thaw.

This uncertainty means that we do not expect four climate tipping points to be triggered the first year global temperatures reach 1.5°C (which climate scientists suggest is possible in the next five years), or even when temperatures averaged over several years reach 1.5°C sometime in the next couple of decades. Instead, every fraction of a degree makes tipping more likely, but we can’t be sure exactly when tipping becomes inevitable.

This is especially true for the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets. While our assessment suggests their collapse becomes likely beyond 1.5°C, ice sheets are so massive that they change very slowly. Collapse would take thousands of years, and the processes driving it require warming to remain beyond the threshold for several decades. If warming returned below the threshold before tipping kicked in, it may be possible for ice sheets to temporarily overshoot their thresholds without collapsing.

For some other tipping points, change is likely to be more dispersed. We estimate that both tropical coral reef death and abrupt permafrost thaw are possible at the current warming level. But thresholds vary between reefs and patches of permafrost. Both are already happening in some places, but in our assessment, these changes become much more widespread at a similar time beyond 1.5°C.

Elsewhere, small patches of the Amazon and northern forests might tip and transition to a savannah-like state first, bypassing a more catastrophic dieback across the whole forest. Model results that are yet to be published suggest that Amazon tipping might occur in several regions at varying warming levels rather than as one big event.

The Amazon may not collapse from forest to grassland all at once. Paralaxis/Shutterstock

There may also be no well-defined threshold for some tipping elements. Ancient climate records suggest ocean currents in the North Atlantic can dramatically flip from being strong, as they are now, to weak as a result of both warming and melting freshwater from Greenland disrupting circulation. Recent modelling suggests that the threshold for the collapse of Atlantic circulation depends on how fast warming increases alongside other hard-to-measure factors, making it highly uncertain.

Into the danger zone

There are signs that some tipping points are already approaching. Degradation and drought have caused parts of the Amazon to become less resilient to disturbances like fire and emit more carbon than they absorb.

The front edge of some retreating west Antarctic glaciers are only kilometres away from the unstoppable retreat. Early warning signals in climate monitoring data (such as bigger and longer swings in how much glaciers melt each year) suggest that parts of the Greenland ice sheet and Atlantic circulation are also destabilising.

These signals can’t tell us exactly how close we are to tipping points, only that destabilisation is underway and a tipping point may be approaching. The most we can be sure of is that every fraction of further warming will destabilise these tipping elements more and make the initiation of self-sustaining changes more likely.

This strengthens the case for ambitious emissions cuts in line with the Paris agreement’s aim of halting warming at 1.5°C. This would reduce the chances of triggering multiple climate tipping points – even if we can’t rule out some being reached soon.

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David Armstrong McKay, Researcher in Earth System Resilience, Stockholm University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

‘Changing climatic conditions induce vegetation changes, which shapes human evolution’

DTE speaks with professor Rajeev Patnaik to understand the relationship of evolution with climate

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Climate has played a crucial role in shaping evolution ever since life on Earth began in the ocean about 3.5 billion years ago. Microbes were the earliest forms of life, paving the way for roughly 8.7 million species today.

Down To Earth speaks with Rajeev Patnaik, professor at the department of geology from Panjab University, to understand how climate influences human evolution and if humans could evolve into a new species.

Rohini Krishnamurthy: What role has climate change played in shaping human evolution?

Rajeev Patnaik: Changes in water availability, rainfall, temperature and humidity, either globally or locally, can shape evolution.

The origin and evolution of humans show many climatic changes over millions of years. Six million years ago, human ancestors separated from a branch consisting of chimpanzees and gorillas.

This new branch became known as hominin, which includes humans, extinct subspecies and our immediate ancestors that could walk upright. This change corresponded to climatic changes.

This change corresponded to climatic changes. We have evolved from unicellular organisms thanks to climatic conditions. If conditions had not changed, perhaps we would have only seen microbes in the ocean.

If you look at life as a tree, the branches kept changing until humans reached a particular branch. The bacteria that did not change perhaps lived in a constant environment, so they stayed the same.

If there are gradual changes in a population and a part of it lives in a region witnessing environmental changes, it gives rise to new species.

There are two kinds of changes: Genetic and phenotypic [observable, physical changes]. Even now, genetic changes keep happening automatically. But they don’t necessarily translate to changes in the human body or physical appearance.

Physical changes occur if there is a change in our diet or locomotion. For example, if a species ingests tough food, it will develop a heavy jaw. If it evolves to consume softer food, a heavy jaw is useless and it recedes.

Simply put, if the climate does not change, humans or any living being will not evolve. When climatic conditions change, they induce vegetation changes, which have shaped human evolution.

RK: Could you name one dramatic change in humans shaped by climate?

RP: The most dramatic change was brain size capacity. That happened with our genus, Homo. The brain size of our ancestors belonging to the genus Australopithecus, Paranthropus or Ardipithicines were ape-like. They lived in climatic conditions that did not require a big brain. Their diet and lifestyle did not need that either.

Approximately two million years, there were dramatic climatic changes. The conditions were not conducive to human survival. Hunter-gatherers had to move around, change their diet, communicate and develop strategies to hunt prey.

They needed to build tools to survive. So humans began to use their brains more, which would have affected their organ size. The brain capacity almost doubled from Australopithecus.

Within our genus, Homo habilis still had lower brain capacity. But the brain capacity of Homo Erectus and Homo heidelbergensis dramatically increased. We have seen this in our fossil record.

RK: What about present-day changes in response to climate change?

RP: In the present day, we see genetic changes. These changes allow people living in high-altitude regions or colder climates to live in extreme conditions. For example, the Eskimos have evolved to thrive in colder conditions for thousands of years.

Tibetans also have a higher capacity to retain oxygen because they live at higher altitudes with low oxygen levels.

It takes time for genetic changes to translate to changes that can be seen physically. Fossil records tell us that physical changes typically take 500,000 years to appear. Modern humans evolved somewhere around 300,000- 500,000 years ago.

Around this time, we became distinct from Homo heidelbergensis. And it took almost a million years for heidelbergensis to separate from Homo erectus.

Likewise, Homo neanderthalensis took hundreds of thousands of years to split from heidelbergensis. So physical changes occur gradually if climatic changes are also slow.

Drastic changes can also occur, but climatic fluctuations occur at a rate of hundreds of thousands of years. By that standard, it would take 100,000 years for changes to show physically.

The human body is complex and it takes millions of years for changes to occur. In contrast, insects evolve faster, where changes in size or colour can be recorded in short periods.

RK: Do you expect a new human species to arise in the future?

RP: New species can arise in the current period if a population become isolated. For example, if Inuit become isolated from civilisation and do not interact or interbreed, they may become physically distinct from the rest of the population.

Usually, we see changes that begin with variation in a population, followed by races and sub-species. Finally, we have new species.

In the past, we have some examples. Denisovans (who lived until 30,000 years ago from Siberia to Southeast Asia), were adapted to high altitude and low-oxygen conditions. This population gave rise to people living in high-altitude regions such as Tibet.

RK: Europe, which is a cold continent, is increasingly becoming hot and dry. What does it mean to the people living there if these events become recurrent?

RP: We will see genetic changes in Europeans if hot and dry conditions become recurrent. Around 13-14 million years ago, Europe was warm and humid. Roughly 16-18 varieties of Apes lived there.

And then the climate changed, transforming Europe into a cooler place. All apes disappeared from the continent. Later, it became inhabited by Neanderthals, who adapted to colder climates. Much later, Homo sapiens came in. They were smart enough to adapt to changing situations.

The climate governs every species. Homo sapiens migrated to greener pastures. Other human species died out because they could not adapt. Every species evolves in its niche.

And if that niche becomes inhabitable due to climate change, the species will perish or migrate. Homo sapiens had all the resources to migrate long distances and adapt to changing conditions.

If the climate in Europe continues to remain warm and humid, we may see changes in pigmentation or skin colour. Our ancestors came from Africa. Their pigmentation was brownish.

Gradually, when people migrated to cooler conditions, people evolved lighter complexion. Cooler conditions, too, can bring about changes such as a higher accumulation of fat and changes in metabolism, and increased body hair.

If Europeans interbreed with others, we might not see apparent changes, but if they stay isolated, we may see changes.

RK: How does the ongoing climate crisis impact human survival?

RP: Modern humans have interfered with the climate. We are to be blamed for so many drastic changes. But thanks to technology and modern medicine, humans have learned to survive. Even if something untoward were to happen due to climate fluctuations, there is every possibility that we would work around it.

Humans may not go extinct. If we look at the past, we see Australopithecus thrived for millions of years. Elephants have survived for around 2.5-3 million years.

Modern humans have been around only a few hundred thousand years. So, unless something dramatic happens, we won’t die out. But if tomorrow, we have an asteroid impact or humans kill each other, nothing can save us.

UP Dussehra downpour: 10,000% excess rain in 3 districts of state wrecks kharif crop

No initiative has been taken so far in the government and districts regarding the survey for compensation to farmers

By Vivek Mishra

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

CORRECTION: The story has been updated October 10 to correct Shravasti district’s rainfall figure to 7,267 per cent above normal from 72.67 per cent as was published October 7.

Uttar Pradesh, which was hit by drought till August, has been flooded with water due to sudden heavy rains at a time when the southwest monsoon is well into its retreat. Three districts of India’s largest state recorded 10,000 per cent more rainfall than normal in just 24 hours October 5, 2022.

The sudden torrential rains have wreaked havoc, inundating fields of paddy, sugarcane, maize and banana, which were otherwise craving water.

No government order has been issued by the government for compensating farmers. Lekhpals (or Patwaris), in charge of revenue, are yet to fan out and survey fields to assess damage.

The sub-district magistrates are being informed by the village chiefs, but an estimate of the damage will be possible only after the water recedes from the fields.

Gonda, Pratapgarh, Chitrakoot, Shravasti, Ayodhya, Barabanki and Basti districts recorded an extraordinary amount of rainfall within 24 hours. Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a warning of heavy rains in Uttar Pradesh till October 8.

Shravasti recorded 176.8 millimetres (mm) rainfall against the normal of 2.4 mm, according to the district-wise rainfall data released by the IMD October 6. The district thus recorded 7,267 per cent more rainfall than normal.

Jokhan, a 52-year-old farmer from Patna Khargaura village in Shravasti district, told Down to Earth that he had planted an early-growing variety of paddy on five of his seven bighas of land. One hectare is equal to 3.87 bighas in Uttar Pradesh.

“The paddy was ripe. But this rain has ruined everything,” Jokhan said. He added that he did not even have farm insurance. He would get relief only if the government stepped in.

Pravendra Kumar, the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Shravasti told DTE that a government order last year had said a compensation of Rs 4,200-4,800 per hectare would be given for crop loss of more than 33 per cent in a field.

But this time, no such government order has come yet. “The survey work has also not been given the go-ahead by the district magistrate yet. When the magistrate seeks such data, it will be given to him / her,” he added.

Mamta Pandey, the chief of Patna Khargaura village, said there are 283.2 hecatres of farmland in her village, of which paddy is sown on 202 hectares.

The total population of the village is 6,000, of which 98 per cent are farmers and only 10 people have kisan insurance cards. She added that a request had been made to the SDM for the survey as there had been heavy crop loss.

The situation is also bad in Gonda, an area that received 222.8 mm, or 10,000 per cent more rainfall than the normal of 3.4 mm October 6.

Atul Kumar Singh, a 71-year-old farmer from Ferozepur village in Mankapur, Gonda, said he had never experienced so much rainfall in his entire lifetime.

He said this rain meant that farmers would no longer be able to plant potato and mustard, the crops planted between paddy and wheat. Farming can no longer be done on the strength of wheat alone.

“Not just the weather but the periodic cycle of crops is also shifting. Therefore, farmers will now have to diversify their fields. They will have to venture into the cultivation of vegetables like pointed gourd or banana. Only then can this loss be reduced,” headed.

Bahraich district recorded 75.6 mm rainfall which was 2,061 per cent more than the normal 3.5 mm October 6, 2022.

Anubhav Chaudhary, a farmer from Newada village in Ramgaon, Bahraich, said the sugarcane crop got hit twice in his fields.

The stalks first fell due to heavy September rains on 3.23 hectares of land. He had to spend up to Rs 40,000 to tie them using labour. They have again fallen this time. There is no compensation either.

The state government was planning to declare drought in the entire state before the Dussehra rains.

The Office of the Relief Commissioner of the Revenue Department had submitted a document to Chief Minister Adityanath August 20.

It stated that in 2020, the state had received 520.1 mm of normal rainfall through August 20. In 2021, 504.1 mm rainfall was recorded through August 20, while in 2022, only 284 mm rainfall had been recorded through August 20.

As of August 20, 9.60 million hectares have been sown in Uttar Pradesh. The target for paddy was 5,900,000 hectares. By August 20, 96 per cent ie 5,716,000 hectares of area was sown. Also, there were coarse cereals and pulses.

The drought strategy was being chalked out because of the apprehension that sudden heavy rainfall would damage the crop. In the meeting held August 20, it was also revealed that 95 tehsils of the state did not have rain measuring machines.

The Uttar Pradesh government had also announced the installation of 5 Doppler radars but no action has been taken so far.

Ice flow in Antarctica changes with season, can impact sea-level rise estimates

Meltwater reaching base of glaciers or thinning out of ice shelves likely causes

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

Antarctica’s ice moves faster in the summer, according to a new study. This means that the continent’s contribution to global sea-level rise is likely being miscalculated.

In summers, the ice flow from glaciers feeding into George VI, the second largest ice shelf in Antarctica, speeds up by 15 per cent, the study published in the journal Cryosphere found.

Ice shelves are floating slabs of ice extending from glaciers.

“Current estimates of ice mass loss assume that Antarctic land ice flows at the same rate throughout the year,” Karla Boxall from Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute and the study’s first author told Down To Earth.

Boxall and her colleagues used data collected from Sentinel-1 radar satellites to monitor the continent throughout the year, the researchers said.

They zoomed in on the George VI ice shelf, which covers an area of roughly 23,500 square kilometres. Its thickness ranges from 100-600 metres, the paper read.

Map: Frazer Christie

Their analysis revealed that during the Antarctic summer from December-January, ice flow velocity increased by 0.06 ± 0.005 metre per day, representing a roughly 15 per cent increase in speed.

Boxall and the team are unsure of the reason behind the seasonal variation. But they speculate that meltwater from the upper surface of the glaciers could be reaching their base through crevices and acting as lubricant.

This is already occurring in the Arctic and the Alps, the researchers said.

Alternatively, they theorise that warm ocean water could be melting the ice shelf from below, causing it to thin out. This, the paper said, allows upstream glaciers to move faster.

The seasonal cycles can be due to either mechanism or a mixture of the two, Frazer Christie from Scott Polar Research Institute highlighted.

Conducting detailed ocean and surface measurements can help them understand the reasons behind seasonal changes in ice flow, the researchers said.

These results suggest that other vulnerable glaciers in Antarctica such as Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers are likely experiencing seasonal changes too, the authors of the study speculated.

Wrong estimates

Annual volume of ice loss is the basis for estimating Antarctica’s contribution to sea-level rise. But seasonal changes in ice flow mean scientists could be underestimating or overestimating the continent’s contribution to sea-level rise, the paper noted.

“Some estimates of mass loss to the ocean are calculated from the change in [ice] flow between two points in time,” Boxall explained.

If the two points are during winter, she added, the mass loss over the year will be underestimated.

In this case, experts ignore the summertime ice speed-up and the resulting mass loss, Boxall said.

But if estimates are conducted during summer, experts overestimate annual mass loss as they ignore the relatively slow flow during the remaining months.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet covers an area of almost 14 million square kilometres and contains 30 million cubic kilometres of ice, according to the British Antarctic Survey.

The ice sheet holds around 90 per cent of the world’s surface freshwater. This is equivalent to a 70-metre rise in global sea level, the polar research institute stated.

Climate risk index shows threats to 90% of the world’s marine species

Urgent need to understand how climate change affects marine life to develop adaptation approaches

By Daniel G Boyce

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Climate change impacts marine life through a bewildering web of complex pathways.

Warming oceans and climate extremes are driving species into deeper, more northern and cooler locations, altering their behaviour and reconfiguring marine ecosystems in radical and unprecedented ways.

While some impacts can be beneficial, many are harmful, making it difficult to understand the overall effects of climate on individual species and ecosystems. Despite these challenges, we urgently need to understand how changing climate conditions affect marine life to plan and develop adaptation approaches to steward it effectively under climate change.

In our new study, my co-authors and I developed the Climate Risk Index for Biodiversity, which captures the climate risk for nearly 25,000 marine species and their ecosystems. This new index lays the groundwork for supporting climate-smart approaches to managing and conserving marine life.

A climate report card

We used a data-driven statistical approach to create a “climate report card” for each species and ecosystem that tells us which ones will win or lose under climate change.

This approach enabled us to study a broad spectrum of life forms, from microscopic plankton to large predators and whales, across all marine ecosystems from the tropics to the poles.

The climate report card assessed species ranging from plankton to whales on 12 specific climate risk factors. Photo: Shutterstock

Just as a report card grades students on subjects such as math and science, we assessed each species on 12 specific climate risk factors depending on two different future scenarios — one with lower emissions and one with higher emissions.

The climate risk factors express how the innate characteristics of a species — their body size and temperature tolerance — intersect with past, present and future ocean conditions at all locations where they are found.

The resulting risk scale ranges from negligible (lowest) to critical (highest) and represents both the severity of harmful climate impacts on species and their likelihood of occurring.

Divergent climate futures

Our study focuses on two possible shared socioeconomic pathway scenarios of how future society — and the greenhouse gas emissions it produces — could transpire. The results paint two wildly divergent pictures for marine life and people.

In the high emissions scenario, the global average ocean temperature will increase by three to five degrees Celcius by 2100. Under this scenario, almost 90 per cent of the 25,000 species we assessed were at a “high” or “critical” climate risk. The average species was at risk across 85 per cent of its geographic range.

The risk is highest in the subtropical and tropical ecosystems that tend to be biodiversity hotspots and in nearshore ecosystems that support 96 per cent of the global fish catch.

The proportion of marine species at high or critical climate risk under high emissions by 2100. Darkest red shading denotes the highest risk areas, and darkest blue the lowest. Source: Daniel G Boyce

Top predators like sharks and tunas were at significantly higher risk than species further down the food chain, like forage fishes. Such predators can have massive effects on ecosystem structure and functioning.

Our findings also suggest severe ripple effects for people who most rely on the ocean. Under high emissions, climate risks for fished species such as cod and lobsters were consistently greater within the territories of low-income nations, where people depend more on fisheries to meet their nutritional needs.

This represents yet another example of climate inequality wherein low-income countries that have contributed the least to climate change, and are more aggressively reducing their emissions, are experiencing its worst impacts while having the lowest capacity to adapt to them.

Our study stresses that we are at a critical fork in the road and that choosing a more sustainable path that prioritizes climate mitigation will lead to clear benefits for ocean life and people.

Under a low emissions scenario, average ocean temperatures are expected to increase by one to two degrees Celsius by 2100, as per the two degrees Celsius global warming limit in the Paris Agreement.

Under this future, we found a reduced climate risk for virtually all marine life (98.2 per cent). The disproportionate risk for ecosystem structure, biodiversity, fisheries and low-income nations are greatly reduced or eliminated.

Averting harmful climate risks

Our approaches to fisheries management, protected area planning and biodiversity conservation originated in a world with a relatively stable climate. But climate change is rewriting the rule books and threatening to undermine the effectiveness of these traditional approaches.

Cutting emissions is the most direct approach to reducing climate risks. Yet, even with strong mitigation, our study suggests that climate change will continue to affect marine life.

In addition to reducing emissions, we must find ways to adapt to a warming climate to protect marine life and those who depend on it. Source: AP Photo/Jae C Hong, File

In addition to reducing emissions, it is imperative that we simultaneously find ways to adapt to a warming climate to protect our oceans.

We must incorporate new methods and adaptation strategies, develop capacity in under-resourced parts of the world and carefully weigh the pros and cons of adaptation measures.

Our study provides a new tool and index to help inform decision-makers when navigating these complex issues. It can assist with developing strategies to manage and conserve marine life under climate change, monitor changing climate risk and gauge progress towards risk reduction.

While our study paints a potentially grim future under high emissions, it also highlights how our oceans and marine life could benefit from climate change mitigation and adaptation and stresses the urgency with which we must work towards this goal.

Daniel G Boyce, Research Scientist, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Adjunct Professor, Dalhousie University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Monsoon 2022: Is excess September rainfall to blame for the Danda-2 avalanche in Uttarakhand

Unusually high precipitation in the last few weeks of September led to heavy snowfall in Uttarakhand’s upper reaches, triggering avalanches, say experts

By Varsha Singh

Published: Wednesday 05 October 2022

Climate change may have had a role in causing the avalanche on the Danda-2 peak in Uttarakhand October 4, 2022. Experts this reporter spoke to, pointed towards the heavy rain in the state last month.

Heavy rains lashed India in the last few weeks of September. Lower altitudes in Uttarakhand reported intense downpours while higher elevations witnessed heavy snowfall. This, say scientists, could have had a hand in the Danda incident.

Manish Mehta, a scientist at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun, said: “The occurrence of an avalanche indicates that more snow has deposited on a mountain peak than it can support. This excess snow slides down the slope of the mountain, causing an avalanche.”

He called the Danda incident a ‘powder avalanche’ where fine, loose snow slides down a mountain.

The Danda-2 peak is situated in the Draupadi ka Danda area at a height of 5,006 metres above sea level in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district.

The avalanche took place October 4 morning. A group of 29 trainee mountaineers and seven experts were descending at the same time and were trapped in the avalanche, according to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), Uttarkashi.

The Uttarakhand police said in a statement at 6 pm October 4 that 17 of the group may be safe. Four bodies have been recovered so far.

A team from NIM, the district administration, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police are engaged in rescue efforts. But bad weather is hampering the search for survivors.

Avalanches also occurred in the Kedarnath Valley September 22, September 26 and October 2. One of them happened just five kilometres away from the Kedarnath temple at the Chorabari glacier.

DP Dobhal, a retired glaciologist at the Wadia Institute pointed to the heavy rains in September, something that Mehta too had noted.

“There has been greater amount of snowfall in the higher reaches of the state this monsoon. When the slope of a peak increases to more than an angle of 40-50 degrees and the snow deposited on that slope is more than 2-2.5 feet, an avalanche occurs because of weight and gravity,” he said.

The southwest monsoon usually starts to retreat from Uttarakhand in the first week of September. This year though, it rained in the last week of the month which was 20-59 per cent above the average.

The rainfall for the state during the entire month was 267.6 per cent above the average figure of 182.4 millimetres. The state otherwise recorded normal rainfall from June 1-September 30.

This is also not the first time that avalanches in Uttarakhand have happened at this time of the year. Four naval personnel were caught in an avalanche October 1 last year on the Trishul peak near the Nanda Devi Sanctuary.

The scientists from the Wadia Institute are probing other possible reasons as to why the avalanches could have occurred.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rains in the state October 5-8. There is a Yellow Alert in place October 5, Orange Alert October 6 and Red Alert October 7. Rivers may swell and there is also a chance of landslides.

Human activities are eating into reindeer grazing land in Europe

Multiple stresses affect 60% of Fennoscandia region; High risk of vegetation and landscape change in the future, finds study

By Nandita Banerji

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Grazing land for reindeer in Europe’s northern Fennoscandia is under threat from several growing land-use pressures, a study has found. Expansion of human activities towards the north has put 60 per cent of the region at risk to multiple stresses and 85 per cent is exposed to at least one pressure.

Northern Fennoscandia consists of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland. The study, Mapping cumulative pressures on the grazing lands of northern Fennoscandia, was published in journal Scientific Reports September 30, 2022.

Read more: Yak and reindeer herders meet on top of the world

The researchers from Stockholm University and Umeå University used an integrated large-scale GIS analysis over the three countries. About 40 per cent of Fennoscandia is assigned as reindeer grazing land.

There's a high risk of vegetation and landscape change in the future, leading to a concentration of grazing in less disturbed areas and encroachment of trees and shrubs in disturbed ones, according to the study.

In Sweden and Norway, reindeer husbandry and grazing are seen as a means of preserving the mountain landscape in its current state and are formulated as a national environmental goal.

Map of the potential grazing values in summer pastures of northern Fennoscandia. Source: Nature

These grazing areas face land-use pressures from tourism, road and railway networks, forestry, industrial and wind energy facilities, together with predator presence and climate change, according to the analysis.

However, just four per cent of the grazing area studied was found undisturbed without any permanent presence of predators nor co-occurring land uses. These were small and scattered areas of land throughout the Scandinavian mountain range up to the northern tip of Norway and to a small patch in northeast Finland.

“With the rising human presence taking place on multiple fronts, the resilience of northern pastoralism is under threat,” said Marianne Stoessel, first author of the study and PhD student at Stockholm University.

The researchers have, for the first time, managed to get an overview of land use pressures over the entire area, said Stoessel. “This was not easy, as the different land-uses act at different scales and can be very dynamic, so can be the predators, and the effects of climate change on grazing,” she said.

Read more: Global Eco Watch: Reindeer may have been domesticated 2,000 years ago

Multiple land uses were primarily present in grazing land with low grazing value, for around 74 per cent of the area. But it was also present in almost half of the grazing ground with potentially high (49 per cent) and medium grazing values (45 per cent).

Human land-uses were concentrated into a stretch reaching from central-eastern Sweden up to central Finland and present all along the coast of Norway.

Grazing is a key process for maintaining plant biodiversity, even in the mountains, said study co-author Regina Lindborg of Stockholm University. “It was important for us to study the extent of these cumulative pressures with having the summer pastures in mind, where grazing takes place,” said Lindborg.

Renewable Energy

- Africa needs $25 billion per year for universal access to clean energy: IEA

- Net-zero emission means doubling energy supply from renewables

- Bitcoin mining unsustainable; climate damages comparable to beef, natural gas, crude oil: Study

Africa needs $25 billion per year for universal access to clean energy: IEA

As much as $22 billion per year is needed for electricity connections alone

By Madhumita Paul

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Achieving full access to modern energy in Africa by 2030 will require investing $25 billion per year, according to a new report.

The required amount is around a quarter of the current total energy investment in the continent, according to the International Energy Association (IEA) report presented at a conference in Kampala, Uganda October 7, 2022.

Energy consumption in the Greater Horn of Africa — defined in the report as Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda has grown by 3 per cent per year over the last decade.

These eight countries constitute the members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, one of Africa’s regional economic communities.

About 40 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa lives in the Greater Horn of Africa. In 2020, half of them or 150 million people were without access to electricity.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed more than 20 African countries into debt distress and reversed progress on expanding access to electricity.

Energy infrastructure in the Greater Horn of Africa has struggled to keep pace with a fast-growing population, according to the report titled Clean energy transitions in the Greater Horn of Africa.

Stronger deployment of energy efficiency and renewable technologies is needed to overcome this hurdle, the authors of the report mentioned.

As much as $22 billion per year is needed for electricity connections alone as capital spending on grids (mainly distribution networks), generating plants and off-grid solutions, they noted.

Clean cooking requires just under $3 billion per year of investment in clean cook-stoves and other end-use equipment.

Current investment falls far short of these levels: In 2019, it amounted to just 13 per cent of the average requirement for 2022-2030 in the case of electricity and 6 per cent for clean cooking, said the report.

In 2019, over $3 billion was spent on access to electricity and clean cooking.

The report stated:

Inefficient bureaucracy, a lack of clear energy sector planning and limited technical expertise all contribute to significant cross-cutting risks for investors, although the severity of these risks varies drastically across regions.

Attracting more energy investment requires better leveraging of limited sources of concessional public financing to attract more private capital, the analysts observed.

Attracting private capital is crucial to reaching these investment levels, particularly to harness all available sources of financing and to switch from relying heavily on public sources, they added.

“Governments therefore need to maximise the catalytic potential of public finance, while not crowding out private capital,” the report read.

New sources of finance specific to clean energy, such as climate finance, carbon credits, renewable energy certificates and sustainable or diaspora bonds, can help.

Net-zero emission means doubling energy supply from renewables

World currently depends on 25 per cent of low-emission sources for its energy requirements

By Seema Prasad

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

Energy supply from low-emission renewable energy sources such as nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric power plants should double by 2030 for the world to reach its net-zero emission target by 2050, according to a new report.

Only 25 members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) maintain a specialised observation network for energy-related services, stated the WMO State of Climate Services report released October 11, 2022.

Only 18 members provide observational and simulated data derived from other public, private and academic sources, it added.

The WMO report has been released every year since 2019. This time, it focussed solely on energy since the sector accounts for nearly three-quarters of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The world currently depends on 25 per cent of low-emission sources for its energy requirements. Doubling it, as indicated by the report, will increase it to 50 per cent by 2030.

In order to make this happen, the annual investment in the global energy system has to triple to $5 trillion from $2 trillion, said a research by the Climate Policy Initiative.

“We urgently need to respond to the growing impact of climate change on energy systems if we are to maintain energy security while accelerating the transition to net-zero emission targets,” said Fatih Birol, International Energy Agency’s executive director.

This requires long-term planning and bold policy action to spur investment, which in turn needs to be underpinned by comprehensive and reliable weather and climate data, he added.

“Now is the time to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy future. Anything short of radical and immediate action will ultimately eliminate the chance of staying on the 1.5°C path,” said Francesco La Camera, International Renewable Energy Agency’s director-general.

The intertwined energy and climate crises have dramatically exposed the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of an economic system heavily reliant on fossil fuels, he added.

He said advancing the transition to renewables is a strategic choice to bring affordable energy, jobs, economic growth and a resilient environment to the people and communities on the ground.

“Only 2 per cent of clean energy investment in the last two decades was made in Africa. Bringing access to modern energy for all Africans calls for an investment of $ 25 billion annually, which is around 1 per cent of global energy investment today,” the WMO stated.

NDCs and energy sector

Energy security was not a top priority for countries. Only 40 per cent of nationally determined contributions to mitigate climate change prioritised adaptation, the report stated.

“Climate adaptation-focused investments in the energy sector remain very low, at just over $300 million,” the report read.

Total renewable energy pledges in all Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to mitigate climate change accounted for 3.7 terawatts (TW) of energy. However, only 56 per cent of NDCs quantified renewable power targets.

“The pathway to reach the Paris Agreement’s long-term global goal on mitigating global warming requires 7.1 TW of clean energy capacity to be installed by 2030,” the report read. This represents a 70 per cent gap in the amount of emission reduction needed by 2030.

Climate Services

The World Meteorological Organization provides climate services such as educating stakeholders on climate science and early warning systems. The report found that less than 50 per cent of the WMO members offer climate services to the energy sector.

The transition to clean energy can only be done through improving risk assessments due to climate change, as renewable energy services vary according to local weather.

The report quoted the example of the heatwave in Bueno Aires that caused power outages in January 2022 and the rain that damaged power lines in the Far East of the Russian Federation. Thousands of people suffered without electricity during these events.

“Risk assessments addressing planning and early warning of adverse events affecting energy supply and demand can help populations to anticipate, absorb, accommodate and recover from adverse impacts,” the report stated.

Some examples

- Beijing’s power grid, partly sourced from renewables, was interrupted due to rainstorms, floods and hail. Meteorological disasters have caused 50 per cent of distribution network failures. Energy service team with the China Meteorological Administration and the Beijing Branch of the state grid developed an early warning system during a meteorological disaster.

- Réseau de Transport d’Électricité, the electricity generation agency of France, used energy conversion models with climate information to project long-term climatic disruptions. The agency calculated electricity demand and energy generation using it.

- Tajik Hydromet is equipped with hydrometeorological data analytics for climate-resilient hydropower operations in Tajikistan.

- In Europe, a sector-specific private company, Vortex, reduced errors in wind energy production by 3-4 per cent, saving millions of euros annually.

“Time is not on our side and our climate is changing before our eyes. We need a complete transformation of the global energy system,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas.

Bitcoin mining unsustainable; climate damages comparable to beef, natural gas, crude oil: Study

In 2021, the total global damages of all coins mined exceed $3.7 billion

By Rohini Krishnamurthy

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Bitcoin mining caused climate damages amounting to $12 billion during 2016-2021, a new study estimated.

Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from electricity production for Bitcoin mining rose 126 times to 113 tonnes in that period, according to the paper published in the Scientific Reports.

In 2021, the total global damages of all coins mined exceed $3.7 billion.

Mining Bitcoin is comparable to making energy-intensive products such as beef, natural gas and crude oil, the research showed.

“We find no evidence that Bitcoin mining is becoming more sustainable over time,” said Benjamin A Jones, associate professor at the University of New Mexico, in a statement.

Rather, it is becoming dirtier and more damaging to the climate over time, he highlighted, adding the cryptocurrency’s environmental footprint is moving in the wrong direction.

Miners worldwide compete to authenticate transactions between parties using energy-guzzling supercomputers. The first person to finish the job is rewarded with a Bitcoin.

Roughly 707 kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity is consumed per transaction, according to Columbia Climate School.

The tremendous amount of electricity being used for mining or production of Bitcoin is mostly from fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, said Jones. “This is causing huge amounts of air pollution and carbon emissions, which is negatively impacting our global climate and our health.”

In this study, researchers calculated climate damages from Bitcoin mining. Next, they estimated climate damages from various sectors such as electricity, agriculture, meat, crude oil, vehicles and precious metals.

In 2020 alone, Bitcoin mining consumed 75.4 terawatt-hours of electricity (TWh), surpassing Austria’s 69.9 TWh that year, the analysis showed.

Bitcoin climate damages exceeded the price of the coins sold for more than one-third of the days in 2020, it added. From 2016-2021, climate damages for Bitcoin averaged 35 per cent of its market value, showed the study.

This share for Bitcoin was slightly less than 46 per cent for natural gas and 41 per cent for gasoline.

Climate damage for Bitcoin as a market value is more than that of beef production (33 per cent) and gold mining (4 per cent), the findings stated.

China’s punch

Determining the energy source powering Bitcoin mining operations is challenging due to a lack of data.

The share of renewable energy — solar, wind, hydropower — ranges from 25 per cent of mining’s total electricity to as high as 73 per cent.

China, once a global Bitcoin mining hotspot, was likely using significant amounts of renewable hydropower, the researchers speculated.

But the country banned all cryptocurrency mining in 2021. “This appears to have drastically altered the global share of renewables used by Bitcoin miners, resulting in increased use of fossil fuels,” they wrote in their study.

Further, Jones and his team considered a hypothetical scenario where 63 per cent of electricity came directly from renewables and nuclear energy.

Their analysis showed that climate damages in this scenario averaged 23 per cent of the coin’s price from 2016-2021.

“Even if Bitcoin miners obtained the majority of their electricity from renewables and directly carbon-free sources, there are still large and growing climate damages,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

The policy challenge in mitigating climate change is creating governance mechanisms for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the authors recognised.

Economy

- What role will tech play in sustainability for businesses

- Simply Put: Cancel all debt?

- ‘Cancel all debt’: Activists disrupt IMF, World Bank annual meet

- 2022 Economics Nobel awarded to trio for improving ability to avoid financial crises

- Afghanistan under Taliban: A decade’s progress eroded in a year, says UN

What role will tech play in sustainability for businesses

From sustainable energy sources to adopting alternative resources, it can help adopt economic, environmental practices

By Rajaneesh Kini

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Natural resources are depleting at an alarming rate and it has become crucial for corporations to follow sustainability models to conduct their daily operations. Technology will help with the way forward for sustainable solutions.

Global material usage will double from 92 million tonnes to 196 million tonnes and greenhouse gas emissions will increase by 43 per cent by 2060, the World Bank has estimated.

The triple bottom line, which comprises people, the planet and profit, has become a significant talking point among organisations.

Read more: Sustainability is not as new an idea as you might think—It’s more than 300 years old

The applications of sustainability are cut across industries. Manufacturing, oil and gas, shipping, agriculture, mining, consumer packaged goods and infrastructure development industries are leading the way by making significant use of digital technologies to monitor and implement sustainable solutions.

A combination of these technologies is helping reduce businesses’ carbon footprint significantly and optimising the use of natural resources.

A research report by multinational technology company Cyient, in collaboration with research firm Everest Group looked into sustainability megatrends.

The report titled Mirror into the Megatrends: Technology-Driven Disruptions that will Define the Decade mentioned some areas where technology can play a key role in enabling sustainability in businesses. Big corporations to small and mid-sized businesses can invest in tech in these areas.

Alternative energy sources:

- Natural resource conservation and shift to alternative energy sources to reduce the pressure on non-renewable energy sources

- Shift to electric mobility and vehicle-to-grid use cases

- Green micro-grids for power supply

Reduction in carbon footprint:

- The use of the internet of things (IoT) to track and optimise different transport modes and routes

- Construction of carbon-neutral offices, ports, manufacturing sites, etc

- Use of blockchain to improve traceability across the supply chain and minimise pollution and waste

- Shift to low-carbon standby power systems, including battery storage and low-carbon fuel cells, as backup power for data centres

- Green data centres

- Development of power-efficient sensors and systems

Waste management:

- Precision agriculture

- Demand forecasting and supply management to reduce wastage

- Genetic modification of crops

- Recycling of materials and products

Green manufacturing and alternate materials:

- Lower water consumption in manufacturing

- Usage of recycled products

- Sustainable packaging materials

- Circular product designs

The future outlook for businesses

Sustainability projects in the future will be driven by a balance between technology and the environment.

Advances in digital technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality, coupled with the demand for improved connectivity and real-time insights, are driving the adoption of the cloud.

This contributes to the centrality of data centres for business continuity. These data centres account for over 200 terawatt hours of electricity (about 1 per cent of global consumption).

Read more: Half the national curricula worldwide don’t mention climate change, most teachers unsure of explaining subject: UNESCO

The trade-off between technological advances and optimised use of materials and energy will be a key focus area going forward; a few prominent business organisations are already shifting their focus to green data centres and more sustainable cloud computing.

Overall, businesses should re-design their supply chains and adopt economic and environmental practices, ranging from using sustainable energy sources to adopting alternative resources.

Advanced data analytics, cobots and robots, mixed reality technologies and digital twins and threads will facilitate increased traceability and circular and green supply chains.

Technology and sustainability

Technology will have a major role to play for businesses in the adoption of sustainability.

In the mining industry, for example, data analytics is used for precision mining, electric and autonomous vehicles help reduce pollution and green mining practices such as automated drilling reduce the environmental impact of mining activities.

The real-time management of production processes based on edge analytics and robotics will likely witness increased adoption.

While business organisations today are primarily interested in collecting data and monitoring trends, the future will be about automating responses such that carbon footprint and water wastage are managed automatically on a real-time basis.

Some prominent conglomerates have incorporated a new role — a chief sustainability officer — to chart their sustainability journeys.

This decade will see more such structural changes in organisations, with environmental, social and corporate governance considerations emerging as vital parameters even for small and mid-sized businesses.

Read more: New Battery Waste Management Rules make producers accountable for recycling

Finally, the evolution of the metaverse will have an impact on sustainability too.

While popularising the metaverse will involve huge amounts of data and, consequently, an increase in computing power, advances in virtual worlds will allow for remote meetings and potentially render physical travel meaningless, thereby reducing carbon emissions.

Technology is becoming crucial for businesses in furthering their sustainability movement. Many businesses can utilise such technologies to reduce the impact on the natural world.

These technologies will definitely play a key role and evolve much better in the next decade to make the world a better place to live for future generations.

Rajaneesh Kini is the chief technology officer of Cyient Ltd, India.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

Simply Put: Cancel all debt?

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

‘Cancel all debt’: Activists disrupt IMF, World Bank annual meet

Call for reparations as solution for stabilising global economy during debt restructuring panel

By Nandita Banerji

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group annual meeting was disrupted October 11, 2022 by two activists from a women-led peace group. CodePink demonstrators interrupted the debt restructuring panel and demanded cancelling all debt.

The boards of governors of the IMF and World Bank Group normally meet once a year to discuss the work of their respective institutions. The annual meeting is taking place in Washington, District of Columbia, from October 10-16, 2022.

Government debt levels, rising interest rates and the risks of a systemic sovereign debt crisis were topics to be discussed for the panel titled ‘IMF Seminar: Debt Restructuring: Why Too Little and Too Late’.

Read more: Why African countries are reluctant to take up COVID-19 debt relief

CodePink activists Olivia DiNucci and Nancy Mancias disrupted the panel with a banner asking the institutions to “cancel all debts.” The women shouted, “cancel all debt, reparations now,” even as security personnel escorted them out of the venue.

A press statement quoted Mancias:

The IMF and World Bank are loan sharks trapping countries into debt. We need localisation and ecological sustainability for the people, planet, and peace. We are calling on the IMF and World Bank to end its debt-trap monetary practices, which are causing countries to sink further down into economic crises.

The solution to stabilising the global economy is not going to be found in debt restructuring but rather in debt cancellation, the group claimed.

The path to economic sovereignty for the Global South is not through the predatory loans offered by the IMF/World Bank, CodePink further said. It is through reparations of all wealth and resources that have been stolen from countries through colonisation, illegal invasions, occupations and extraction of oil, gas, and coal, it said.

United Nations Development Programme, a UN agency, called for debt relief for 54 countries on the same day as the protest, October 11, 2022. Without action, poverty will rise and desperately needed investments in climate adaptation and mitigation will not happen, the agency warned.

A UNDP paper — Avoiding ‘Too Little Too Late’ on International Debt Relief — highlighted the ripple effects of government responses to the recent economic crisis and the potential impacts.

Read more: Somalia drought: FAO asks for $131 million to aid relief efforts

The 54 countries with severe debt problems include 28 of the top 50 most climate-vulnerable nations in the world, the body said.

Although they are home to more than half of the world’s poorest people, they represent little more than three per cent of the global economy, it added.

Down To Earth had earlier reported that almost 60 per cent of Africa’s low-income countries are in debt distress or at high risk of it. These places have record levels of private as well as public debt.

2022 Economics Nobel awarded to trio for improving ability to avoid financial crises

Banks, by acting as intermediaries that accept deposits from many savers, can allow depositors to access their money when they wish, while also offering long-term loans to borrowers

By DTE Staff

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

The Nobel Prize for Economics 2022 has been awarded to Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig. Their work significantly improved the world’s understanding of the role of banks in the economy, particularly during financial crises.

An important finding in their research is why avoiding bank collapses is vital, a statement by the official website of the Novel Prize said.

The statement noted:

For the economy to function, savings must be channelled to investments. However, there is a conflict here: savers want instant access to their money in case of unexpected outlays, while businesses and homeowners need to know they will not be forced to repay their loans prematurely.

Diamond and Dybvig offered a solution to this tangle. Banks, by acting as intermediaries that accept deposits from many savers, can allow depositors to access their money when they wish, while also offering long-term loans to borrowers.

Their analysis also showed how the combination of these two activities makes banks vulnerable to rumours about their imminent collapse.

“If a large number of savers simultaneously run to the bank to withdraw their money, the rumour may become a self-fulfilling prophecy — a bank run occurs and the bank collapses,” the statement said.

Such a scenario can be prevented if the government provides deposit insurance and acts as a lender of last resort to banks.

Diamond also showed how banks, as intermediaries between many savers and borrowers, are better suited to assessing borrowers’ creditworthiness and ensuring that loans are used for good investments.

Ben Bernanke analysed the Great Depression of the 1930s, the worst economic crisis in modern history. Among other things, he showed how bank runs were a decisive factor in the crisis becoming so deep and prolonged.

When the banks collapsed, valuable information about borrowers was lost and could not be recreated quickly. Society’s ability to channel savings to productive investments was thus severely diminished.

“The laureates’ insights have improved our ability to avoid both serious crises and expensive bailouts,” Tore Ellingsen, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, was quoted as saying.

Afghanistan under Taliban: A decade’s progress eroded in a year, says UN

Cascading crises, almost 700,000 jobs vanished, finds report

By Zumbish

Published: Thursday 06 October 2022

Afghanistan is gripped by a “cascading crisis”, including a crippled economy, a year after the takeover by the Taliban, stated a new report by a United Nations body. Humanitarian aid alone cannot address this crisis.

The United Nations Development Program released a new report on Afghanistan’s economic situation October 5, 2022.

The cost of a basket of essentials needed to avoid food poverty has, meanwhile, risen 35 per cent, the report revealed. This has forced poorer households to go deeper into debt or sell off assets just to survive.

“Nearly 700,000 jobs have vanished, further threatening a population reeling from impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, drought and war in Ukraine,” stated UNDP.

Read more: Taliban take-over of Afghanistan: India should be a first responder in the humanitarian crisis

The Afghan people have been relentlessly subjected to extremely difficult circumstances, said the report One Year in Review: Afghanistan Since August 2021. They have survived numerous challenges in the last 40 years and shown enormous resilience, it said.

“Yet the last 12 months have brought cascading crises: A humanitarian emergency, massive economic contraction, and the crippling of its banking and financial systems,” the report added.

These crises are in addition to denying access to secondary education to girls and the restrictions on women’s mobility and participation in the economy, UNDP further said.

Restricting women from working can result in an economic loss of up to $1 billion — or up to five per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the analysis forecast.

“The rights of women and girls are critical for the future of Afghanistan,” raised UNDP Asia-Pacific Director Kanni Wignaraja. “It starts with education and continues with equal opportunities when it comes to employment and pay.”

The report said:

With GDP in steady decline since 2008, Afghanistan had come to rely on international aid to sustain its economy, which accounted for a staggering 75 per cent of total government spending and nearly 40 per cent of GDP at the time of transition.

However, foreign donors largely suspended aid after the transition, UNDP noted.

The report that paints a bleak fiscal picture of the country, dating back to more than a decade before the Taliban ascendency, also brought forth that it has reversed in only 12 months.

Read more: Most number of people in need of aid in Ethiopia, Yemen, DRC & Afghanistan in 2021

Without support from outside, Afghanistan must now rely on limited domestic revenue from agriculture and coal exports, it raised.

“Authorities have sought to address revenue shortfalls by cracking down on corruption in key revenue streams, such as customs, and by reaching out to the private sector and foreign investors.”

“Two decades of heavy dependence on international aid and imports, a lack of industrialisation and competitiveness, and limited mobility and connectivity among regions, among other factors, have hindered Afghanistan’s forward momentum,” it further said.

“Afghans are running out of time and resources. Afghanistan needs support from the international community to bring back to life local markets and small businesses, which are the backbone of Afghanistan’s economy.”

The Taliban captured Kabul August 15, 2021 and seized control of the country.

Energy

- India’s green push for second-generation bioethanol

- Net Zero by 2070: India still has 99 coal projects in pipeline

- Surge in clean fuel prices may hurt Delhi’s air pollution fight

- Nord Stream leaks: Where will Europe get its gas from now?

India’s green push for second-generation bioethanol

Could diversify feedstock basket, help secure long-term sustainability with improved economics

By Rahul Jain

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Ethanol-blended petrol is regarded as one of the most acceptable alternative fuel blends for transportation; however, the use of molasses and broken grains for its production raises the question of food vs fuel. Second-generation (2G) bioethanol could help to secure long-term sustainability with improved economics for the Indian biofuel market.

Union Minister of State (Ministry of Science and Technology & Earth Sciences) Jitendra Singh September 23, 2022, announced the launch of the “Innovation Roadmap of the Mission Integrated Biorefineries” September 23, 2022.

The launch was announced at Global Clean Energy Action Forum 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Read more: Was ethanol the reason for the ban on broken rice exports

“The mission aims at greater international collaboration and the need for increased financing for energy research, development, and demonstration during the next five years through public-private investment,” the minister said at the launch.

The biorefineries aim to produce ethanol. Blended petrol with 20 per cent ethanol is also known as E20.

India aims to sell only E20 blended petrol from 2025. In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a report, Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India by 2025, to set a plan for the phase-wise rollout of E20 in the country.

About 1,016 crore litres of ethanol will be required to achieve 20 per cent blending by 2025-26, as per the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas estimation. Sugarcane-derived molasses and broken or surplus grains like rice and maise are primarily used to generate ethanol.

Presently, these two feedstocks can generate about 684 crore litres/year of ethanol collectively, which is proposed to be expanded to 1,500 crore litres by 2025.

This, in turn, will necessitate the production of about 165 lakh metric tonnes of grains and 60 lakh metric tonnes of sugar in the year 2025 for ethanol utilisation. Besides the food versus fuel debate, the move will also significantly increase the water footprint.

Sustainable options

Do we have any other sustainable options for producing ethanol? Yes, agricultural or lignocellulosic waste.

India is the second-largest producer of agricultural waste in the world after China and generates about 500 million tonnes of agricultural waste per year, of which more than half is either discarded or burned.

Read more: Lignin from agro waste helps make useful nanocomposites

Inappropriate management of this agricultural waste generates greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, endangering both people and the environment.

Second-generation (2G) bioethanol production technology has the potential to tap this agricultural waste and convert it into ethanol.

Twelve commercial plants and ten demonstration plants of 2G biorefineries (using agricultural waste as substrate) have already been proposed to be built under the Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan-Vatavaran Anukool Fasal Awashesh Nivaran) Yojana in regions with adequate biomass supply.

The scheme has sanctioned financial support of Rs 1,969.50 crores to commercialise this 2G bioethanol technology.

On World Biofuel Day August 10, Asia’s first 2G ethanol biorefinery, built by a central public sector undertaking Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, was unveiled by Modi in Panipat, Haryana.

This 2G ethanol biorefinery is spread around 35 acres and can process two lakh tonnes of agricultural waste each year to produce approximately three crore litres of ethanol.

Furthermore, it will reduce the pollution caused by stubble burning and remove around 320,000 MT of CO2 yearly, a figure comparable to removing nearly 63,000 cars from the road. By itself, this 2G biorefinery will prevent a yearly expenditure of Rs 55 to Rs 60 crore on imported oil.

“2G technology can process a variety of agricultural waste — rice straw, wheat straw, cotton stalk, corn cobs and corn stover. The commissioned plants can run throughout the year,” Shishir Joshipura, chief executive and managing director, Praj Industries, told Down To Earth.

Praj Industries is a technology licensor and EPCM partner for the Panipat project. The company is installing similar projects for central public sector undertaking Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd at Bargarh, Orissa and oil and gas refining company Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd at Bhatinda, Punjab.

Read more: India's ethanol roadmap : The targets and challenges

Both projects have a capacity of 100 kilolitres per day of bioethanol production, Joshipura claimed.

A biorefinery plant in Assam aims to produce bioethanol from bamboo. It is worth Rs 1,750 crore has been set up by public-sector oil company Numaligarh Refinery Ltd to meet and channelise ethanol blending targets in the north-eastern part of India.

More than 65 per cent of the nation’s bamboo is cultivated in eight northeastern states. Under this project, NRL will process and consume about 5-lakh metric tonnes of bamboo annually.

Assam Biorefinery Pvt Ltd, a joint venture firm, has been established to accomplish this project, along with electric services company Fortum and biorefining company Chempolis from Finland.

Net Zero by 2070: India still has 99 coal projects in pipeline

India has a 36% underutilised coal capacity in existing mines

By Seema Prasad

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

India is developing 99 new coal mines despite the Union government’s international pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2070, according to new research.

The upcoming projects put 165 villages and 87,630 families at risk of displacement. And 41,508 of these families belong to scheduled tribes, noted the research by the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) published October 13, 2022.

India, in its nationally determined contributions, announced a target to cut 1 billion tonne carbon emissions by 2030 and reduce carbon intensity of the economy to less than 45 per cent.

A temporary coal shortage due to high electricity demand prompted the government to start developing these coal projects. These projects have the capacity to produce 427 million tonnes of coal annually (mtpa).

Today, India’s projected annual coal shortage is at 49.3 million tonnes, three times the previous estimates of 17.7 million tonnes, according to a report by the news agency Reuters.

The demand for coal has risen to 784.6 million tonnes for the financial year ending March 2023, the same report added.

GEM report pointed out the impracticality behind expanding this move since existing mines already have wasted the unused capacity that could help meet some of the rising power demands.

India has a 36 per cent underutilised coal capacity in existing mines, equivalent to 433 mtpa. The underutilised capacity exceeds the proposed capacity of 427 mtpa, it added.

Coal Production in India

Mine Status

Proposed Mine Details

State

Operating

Proposed Projects

Projects Announced

Projects Under Exploration

Projects Permitted

Projects Under Construction

Chhattisgarh

153

48

0

35

13

0

Gujarat

10

0

0

0

0

0

Jharkhand

136

106

11

73

22

0

Madhya Pradesh

104

16

0

16

0

0

Maharashtra

55

4

0

4

0

0

Odisha

142

92

0

92

0

0

Rajasthan

7

0

0

0

0

0

Tamil Nadu

28

23

12

12

0

0

Telangana

62

0

0

0

0

0

Uttar Pradesh

40

5

0

5

0

0

West Bengal

32

7

0

3

0

4

This data is based on Global Coal Mine Tracker survey, updated July 2022. Units of measurement: Million tonnes per annum (Mtpa)

Jharkhand and Odisha alone account for 40 per cent of unused mine capacity, with the availability of 100 million tonnes.

New mines can’t solve the industry’s old problems, said Ryan Driskell Tate, project manager for GEM’s Global Coal Mine Tracker, in a press release.

“The irony of this expansion is that opening new mines today could intensify the sector’s weaknesses and inefficiencies tomorrow, especially as competition from renewables and conflicts over land use continue to emerge,” he added.

For example, 389 mtpa of the proposed capacity will be located in high-risk water zones, exacerbating water shortages. These mines require 168,041 kilolitres of water per day, the report stated.

Surge in clean fuel prices may hurt Delhi’s air pollution fight

Commission for Air Quality Management had earlier directed industries to switch to clean fuel

By Shreya Verma

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Deteriorating air quality is synonymous with Delhi winters. Though there are several reasons for poor air quality in the national capital region (NCR), industries — one of the primary air pollution contributors — are finding it difficult to switch to cleaner fuels due to price hikes.

Central pollution monitoring body Commission for Air Quality Management had earlier issued orders for industries to switch to clean fuel. Emissions due to the use of polluting fuels by industries and vehicles contribute significantly to the degradation of air quality in Delhi-NCR.

CAQM shared a list of approved fuels June 23, 2022. The list came into effect for areas with existing PNG infrastructure and supply October 1, 2022. For areas without piped natural gas (PNG) supply, the list will come into effect January 1, 2023.

The commission approved petrol and diesel for vehicular fuel; hydrogen and methane for industrial and vehicular fuel; and compressed natural gas (CNG), PNG, liquefied petroleum gas and liquefied natural gas for vehicular, industrial and domestic purposes.

Electricity was approved for industrial, commercial, domestic and vehicular fuel and biofuels and refuse-derived fuel for power, cement and waste-to-energy plants.

Read more: In Delhi, deadly air pollution is never out of season

Firewood and biomass can be used for religious purposes, wood and bamboo charcoal for tandoors and grills of hotels, restaurants and banquet halls with emission channelisation and control systems. Wood and bamboo charcoal are permitted at open eateries and dhabas too.

Wood charcoal for cloth ironing and electricity, CNG, firewood and biomass briquettes can be used for crematoria. Biomass, agriculture refuse, pellets, briquettes, metallurgical coke and low-sulphur fuel, can be used for industrial purposes only beyond the jurisdiction of Delhi government.

However, the increasing rates of natural gas and biomass make implementing CAQM’s direction grim. In the table below, we can see the hike in biomass prices, which is around a 28 per cent increase over the last three years.

BIOMASS PRICE OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS

Year

Biomass Price/Kg

2020

Rs 3-5

2021

Rs 5-6

2022

Rs 5-7

COMPARING PRICES OF PNG IN DELHI-NCR

The above graph shows the steep increase in PNG prices in Haryana, which is almost doubled (42 per cent) in the last three years. In Uttar Pradesh, PNG prices are doubled (52 per cent) in the last three years. There are similar patterns of prices rising (46 per cent) in Delhi and in Rajasthan (39 per cent rise).

Non-profit Centre for Science and Environment conducted a study on “Assessment of Industrial air pollution in Delhi-NCR” in the year 2020.

The total consumption of coal by industries was around 1.4 million tonnes/year in seven districts (Alwar, Bhiwadi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Panipat and Sonipat) of NCR, the study highlighted. After this study, CAQM removed the use of coal from the approved fuel list for NCR.

Soaring fuel prices

The rising prices of biomass and PNG are hitting the industries badly and, in return, can affect their production capacity and the country's economic growth.

The government October 1, 2022 raised the prices of gas produced from old fields, which make up for about two-thirds of all gas produced in the country. It was hiked from $6.1 per million British thermal units to $8.57 per million British thermal units, according to oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

One of the biggest solutions for clean air is the transition to cleaner fuels. The transition to gas has been the key action taken by Beijing to reduce its air pollution. Changing the fuel itself led to massive air pollution benefits.

Read more: Massive exercise underway to map air pollution sources in Delhi

In fact, all industries will benefit from the transition to clean fuel as they would reduce the cost of air pollution control devices (APCD) and governments would also reduce the costs of regulation.

There are also advantages to the economy from the use of natural gas — its use will be regulated and metred and therefore, industrial production will be better accounted for.

However, today looking at the increasing price of piped natural gas, it becomes difficult for industries to shift to natural gas and meet the CAQM deadline of January 1, 2023 for the areas where PNG is not available. Due to rising PNG prices, financially weak industries may be forced to shut down.

On one side, we are putting efforts into making a clean environment by introducing and mandating the use of cleaner fuels and banning polluting fuels. On the other hand, increasing prices of cleaner fuel restrict the goal.

Governments should consider subsidising rates of cleaner fuel. CSE has advocated for a long time to bring down the costs of clean fuel in the country and try to include it under the goods and services tax.

Nord Stream leaks: Where will Europe get its gas from now?

The next two winters are going to be very challenging for all of Europe’s gas consumers

By Michael Bradshaw

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Accusations continue to fly about the cause of major leaks from the two Nord Stream pipelines transporting gas through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Europe.

Until this latest development, Russia had maintained that western sanctions were behind disruptions to supply from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, as maintenance and repair of essential equipment could not proceed. The German company Siemens that supplied the equipment maintains that this isn’t the case. Politicians across Europe have accused Russia of blackmail and of weaponising the supply of natural gas.

Whatever the truth, most of Europe will now have to face winter 2022, and likely beyond, without any Russian pipeline gas. The EU is determined to end its reliance on Russian gas as soon as possible, a process that might be accelerated by current events.

The next two winters are going to be very challenging for all of Europe’s gas consumers: Households, businesses and industry. But moves are in play that will fundamentally change the continent’s position in global gas markets.

In the past, Europe played a balancing role: A place where liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes were sent, normally in the summer months, when demand was low in Asia. As such, LNG was marginal in European gas security relative to Russian pipeline gas.

If, by 2027, Europe no longer imports Russian gas of any kind, then it will have to compete with Asia as a centre of demand. How long it will take for the LNG market to increase supply to meet Europe’s new demand is unclear, but the global market will rebalance as a result.

A bleak winter ahead?

Russia supplied around 40% of all the gas consumed in the EU in 2021. Germany is especially reliant on this supply of cheap gas. Gas only generates about 15% of the country’s electricity but many rely on it for heating and it is vital to heavy industries such as petrochemicals that use a lot of energy.

Drastic measures are now necessary to secure alternative supplies, reduce gas demand and prepare for the possibility of shortages this winter. The EU’s Save Gas for a Safe Winter programme aims to reduce overall gas demand by 15% across the bloc this winter by asking people to turn down thermostats in homes and offices, for example. Further measures are expected in the coming days.

The good news for supply to Europe is that its other sources of pipeline gas – Norway, North Africa and Azerbaijan – are all flowing normally. Winter storage is over 80% full, which is well ahead of the EU’s deadline to hit this milestone by the end of October. Europe’s ability to get through the winter without a gas supply crisis will depend in large part on the weather: not just how cold it is, but also how sunny and windy, as gas backs up renewable power generation in many countries.

Otherwise, Europe needs to attract flexible LNG cargoes to Europe (that is, supplies that are not tied into long-term contracts which dominate in Asia). EU member states and members of the European Economic Area are expected to import 41 billion cubic metres more LNG than in 2021, covering 67% of the expected drop in Russian imports.

This remarkable progress was aided by China’s LNG demand falling almost 25% this year compared to last due to its zero-COVID policy and the slowdown in its economy. Nevertheless, this still leaves a significant supply gap and there are warning signs of growing competition from other parts of Asia for winter LNG supplies.

A cold winter would be calamitous for households already struggling to afford heating. Anton Kudelin/Shutterstock

All hands on deck

To ensure this gas can be imported, however, Europe needs better LNG infrastructure (the terminals that unload LNG from ships, store it and then convert it to a gas that is injected into pipelines that carry it to consumers). It is currently running beyond full capacity due to congestion everywhere: gas is held up by full pipelines, which causes short-term fluctuations in local gas prices.

Global LNG shipping capacity is also stretched, and rates for hiring an LNG tanker to ship gas to Europe are topping US$100,000 (£90,173) a day – a 60% rise in the last month.

All around Europe’s coasts new LNG import terminal projects are being planned. One industry analysis suggests that the EU total import capacity could increase by 42% by 2025. But it takes time to build these permanent LNG terminals. In the meantime, Europe has been busy leasing floating regasification and storage units – large ships that are moored and unload the LNG from specialist carriers and convert it into gas for pipelines.

The same industry analysis suggests that Europe’s import capacity will grow faster than additional LNG supplies, resulting in increased competition and a tight market for the next few years. Certainly, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been on a whistlestop tour of LNG-exporting countries like the United Arab Emirates to fill his new terminals.

Fortunately, by 2026-27, there will be a wave of new LNG supply to fill these terminals as production expands in Qatar and new projects come onstream in the US. The current crisis is also prompting new investments, particularly in the US, and the industry is even talking about a danger of oversupply by the end of the decade.

But the EU doesn’t just want to pivot away from Russian gas, it is seeking to drive down gas demand by accelerating its deployment of renewable power, improving the energy efficiency of its building stock, electrifying domestic heating and finding alternatives to gas use in industry, such as hydrogen. This means that Europe’s LNG needs may well peak by the end of the decade, contributing to global oversupply.

The natural gas industry hopes that Asia will then pick up the slack, but that is by no means certain. Europe’s response to the current gas crisis may mean that by 2030 it is consuming far less gas than might otherwise have been the case and that it is further down the road to meeting its climate change targets, as well as improving its energy security.

Michael Bradshaw, Professor of Global Energy, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Environment

- This Pune stone-crusher unit shows how to do it properly

- Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 10, 2022)

- Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 7, 2022)

- NGT stops mining in ecologically sensitive Madhav National Park in Madhya Pradesh

This Pune stone-crusher unit shows how to do it properly

Mangrul village unit runs on best practices despite being surrounded by polluting ones

By Divyansh Upadhyay

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

The stone-crushing industry receives a lot of negative attention for generating a huge amount of fugitive emissions that degrade air quality and the environment. However, one unit in Pune hopes to change this by providing an exemplary example of following good practices.

Illegal stone mining in protected areas has often been in the spotlight, with several cases filed with the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court.

Most stone crushers do not follow the state board guidelines for operation. They also do not take adequate measures of installing air pollution control devices and water sprinkling and dust extraction systems, which contribute substantially to air pollution.

Read more: Mahoba mess continues: NGT seeks report on stone mining

Flouting of environmental norms by the stone-crusher units is regularly reported in the news too, with several cases are filed in the NGT. Pune has several classic examples of units flouting norms, especially in the Wagholi area, Lonikand, Bavadi village in Haveli taluka and Gevari taluka.

In 2016, the NGT had given directions to Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and Central Pollution Control Board in Uttamrao Vithalrao Bhondwe Vs state of Maharashtra and others case.

“Carry out a joint monitoring of 56 stone-crusher units in taluka Havali, district Pune and submit their report of joint inspection monitoring and cumulative impact assessment,” the NGT bench had directed.

The joint committee was also asked to “carry out ambient air quality monitoring in the nearby areas where the stone crusher units are situated and also to identify possible sources of air pollution in those localities.”

Many stone-crusher units did not adhere to the state guidelines, the study report found. MPCB had to issue a blanket ban on working stone crushers and cut down the power supply.

However, one stone-crusher unit in village Mangrul in Malwal taluka of Pune district was a guiding light for all stone crushers. The unit strictly adhered to MPCB guidelines for operating crushers and works on the best operating practices.

The cherry on the cake is that the unit ran on solar energy as well as on electricity. During closure and breakdown time, the unit returned the electricity to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

The unit has two crushers with a capacity of 200 tonnes per hour (tph) each and another with a capacity of 300 tph. It has a ready-mix concrete (RMC) plant of 120 tph in addition to this.

Currently, the RMC is for in-house purposes because they are making a storage plant to store final products in a closed space.

Adherence to MPCB norms

Despite such a huge capacity, the unit adheres to the MPCB guidelines and also takes some other good steps to save energy and reduce air pollution and fugitive emissions.

Read more: Villagers protest relocation of stone-crushers

The sitting criteria of the unit were strictly adhered to as per the guidelines. The unit was 1 kilometre away from the national highway and 500 metres away from the state highway, schools, hospitals and human habitation.

Steps taken by the unit for adhering to MPCB guidelines

Parameters

Steps taken

Conveyor belts

Covered with GI/MS sheets

Water sprinklers

Available at unloading, handling, and loading section

Screen classifiers

Fully covered with GI/MS sheets

Wetting of the road

On regular basis with sprinklers

Approach road

Metalled roads

Display Board

Available at the entrance of the unit

Boundary wall

All sides covered with 10 feet wall

Plantation

The thick foliage of the plants along the periphery

Housekeeping

Regularly on a daily basis

Operating time

7 am to 6 pm

Energy saving

Installation of two solar plants, each of 1 megawatt capacity, helps the unit conserve energy. One plant was installed in 2018 and the other in 2021. The solar plants are constructed over the stone quarry, which has been previously used by the unit.

The cost of installing the solar plant was around Rs 6 crore and the plant generates around 1.5 million units every year.

Maintenance of solar panels in the area surrounded by the crusher units and quarries is a challenging task, as huge amounts of dust got accumulated on the solar panels and hampered energy generation. However, unit combats this with regular washing and wiping.

Washing of solar panels. Photo: Divyansh Upadhyay

Some of the steps taken by the unit to follow best practices are:

- Cleaning of solar panels

- Covered conveyor belts

- Regular wetting of roads

- Display board outside the industry

- Thick foliage of plants along unit's periphery

- Sprinklers along the roadside

The above-mentioned case study should be highlighted and propagated to wider audiences. Global good operating practices should be documented as well.

Read more: Quarrying suspended in Navi Mumbai’s Parsik Hill as authorities review mining lease

Such holistic documents will help the sector, maximize explicit knowledge and will enable other industries to benefit from exchanging experiences with one another. The documentation should help develop and implement solutions adaptable to similar problems in different situations and contexts.

Exposure visits should be conducted for regulators and industry professionals, accompanied by training programmes, to showcase the ongoing good practices prevailing in different industries.

By adapting to good practices, the stone-crusher industry can enhance their feasibility and profitability and can set an exemplary example in front of other industries.

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 10, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

By DTE Staff

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Bhalswa landfill: Delhi's action plan to prevent fires

The Delhi government presented a report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) October 10, 2022 on the status of waste management at the Bhalswa dumpsite, where a massive fire broke out this April.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been undertaking biomining and bioremediation of legacy waste at the landfill, the report stated. It is similar to the model implemented by the Indore Municipal Corporation.

A plan has been prepared to install CCTV cameras all around the landfill to avoid unauthorised access, the state wrote. An area has been earmarked for dumping of fresh garbage, since fires generally occur in these sites.

At present, 18 trommel machines are processing legacy waste at the site. Till September 29, 2022, 2.6 million tonnes of legacy waste has been processed, according to the report.

An integrated tender has been floated for biomining and disposal of 3 million tonnes of legacy waste from Bhalswa dumpsite. The bid was opened on September 23, 2022.

As soon as the proposed waste-to-energy plant at Narela-Bawana starts to function, fresh municipal solid waste will be stopped from dumping at Bhalswa dumpsite, the state government mentioned in the report.

Rejuvenating Chandapura lake

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has engaged RV College of Engineering, Bangalore to conduct an environmental audit of all industries in the catchment area of Chandapura lake, KSPCB told NGT.

The KSPCB has not accorded permission to any industry having captive effluent treatment plant to discharge its effluents into the common effluent treatment plant (CETP), it mentioned.

Samples will be collected from drains leading to Chandapura lake for the forensic analysis and tracing pollutant studies.

As a permanent solution to keep the lake contamination-free, the detailed project report for implementation of the underground drainage system of Hebbagodi City Municipal Council of around Rs 153 crore and for Bommasandra Town Municipal Council of around Rs 109 crore have been submitted to the government for consideration.

This action plan for the rejuvenation of Chandrapura lake was part of the KSPCB report in response to an NGT order dated March 29, 2022.

Bank guarantee sought from Shah Sponge Iron & Power

The Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) directed Shah Sponge Iron and Power Ltd in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand to submit a bank guarantee of Rs 25 lakh for non-compliances in their operations.

The petitioner Jairam Hansda had said that the company is causing water pollution, air pollution and also adversely affecting the biodiversity of the area and health of nearby residents.

NGT directed the constitution of a joint committee, which inspected the unit April 18, 2022. The non-compliances reported by the joint committee during the inspection were:

- Exceedance of SOx, NOx, however PM value was found within the prescribed limit.

- Leakages from the kiln feeding and discharge to the cooler

- Leakages from the kiln emergency cap

- Sufficient green belt not developed as per the Central Pollution Control Board norms

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 7, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

By DTE Staff

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Penalise contract carriage operators flouting safety norms: Kerala high court

Strict action must be taken against operators of contract carriages and other transport vehicles flouting safety standards and the drivers’ licence should be revoked, directed the Kerala high court October 6, 2022. The certificate of fitness granted to such transport vehicles should also be cancelled by the prescribed authority, the court said.

The matter was taken up following reports of major road accidents in the state involving such vehicles, with people suffering serious injuries.

The assistant solicitor-general of India was asked to address arguments on behalf of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on the issue.

The HC was also shown YouTube videos of motor accidents involving contract carriages and use of contract carriages fitted with unauthorised LED / laser / neon lights.

Justices Anil K Narendran and PG Ajithkumar of the HC said that despite the court's order on January 10, 2022, the enforcement officers under the Transport Commissioner and the police officers are not taking earnest efforts to ensure strict enforcement of the provisions under the Motor Vehicles Act.

The special government pleader asked for time to get instructions from the transport commissioner on the accident in Anchumoorthy Mangalam in Thrissur district involving a contract carriage carrying students from Mar Baselios School, Mulanthuruthy.

Action may also be taken against vloggers and others uploading videos on YouTube and other online platforms promoting the use of motor vehicles. The deputy solicitor-general of India has requested for time to get instructions on the same from the secretary, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Kochi Water Metro Project important

The Kochi Water Metro Project is an essential means of transportation for the residents of island communities around Kochi, especially during floods when other modes of transportation are non-operational, the general manager, Water Transport, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd said in a report to the National Green Tribunal.

Kochi Metro was assigned the task of executing the urban water transport project on behalf of the government of Kerala, the report stated. It envisages to connect 38 jetties and provide inter-model connectivity between jetties, bus terminals and metro networks across 78 kilometres.

The clearance / no-objection required for construction of boat terminals including High Court and Mattancherry terminals of Kochi Water Metro Project have been obtained from Kochi Municipal Corporation, Kerala State Wetland Authority and Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority.

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had given its final clearance for the project October 1, 2019.

Furnish information on schemes for elderly welfare: SC to states

The Supreme Court of India directed the states and Union Territories to furnish information on their existing schemes for the welfare of the elderly. These relate to pension for the elderly, old age homes in each district and geriatric care.

The information has to be submitted to the advocate-on-record of the Union of India. After collecting information from all the respective states and the Union Territories within a period of two months, a revised status report should be filed a month thereafter by the Union of India, the apex court directed.

The revised report of the states must also disclose the present status of implementation of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, the SC order added.

NGT stops mining in ecologically sensitive Madhav National Park in Madhya Pradesh

Tribunal-appointed panel found advertisements published for leasing out mining sites; recommends geological study to find reasons behind excess iron in groundwater

By Shuchita Jha

Published: Tuesday 04 October 2022

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has called for halting mining in the ecologically sensitive zone (ESZ) of Madhav National Park in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh.

NGT’s Madhya Pradesh bench, headed by Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi, restrained MP’s mining department and district collector of Shivpuri from granting a lease for mining operations in the area. The order was given September 21, 2022.

The tribunal was hearing a petition by advocate Abhay Jain of Zenith Society for Socio-Legal Empowerment, a non-governmental organisation that provides legal services.

Jain filed a plea against the continued mining in the ESZ. Advertisements were published for leasing out mining sites by Shivpuri district’s mining department, he alleged.

Read more: NGT questions clearances; halts mining at Shaliganga Nallah in Kashmir

The central government notified the ESZ of the park, spread over 277.2 square kilometres, Jain submitted to NGT. It covers 100 metres on the notified urban and ‘Abadi’ (inhabited) area side and two kilometres on the rest of the area from the boundary of the Madhav National Park, he said.

“Annexure II of the ESZ notification contains a list of villages falling within ESZ and Majhera is one of those villages,” Jain wrote in his petition.

Majhera village was called the village of widows owing to the high death rate of male members on account of silicosis and tuberculosis caused by stone mining in the area, Jain pointed out.

The village was home to 25 families of Sahariya tribe — a community of a particularly vulnerable tribal group — residing within a kilometre range of the mining area. The tribe was prone to adverse effects of mining, Jain wrote in the plea.

The NGT had constituted a panel in July to submit a factual and action-taken report within two months over the issue. The joint committee submitted its report on September 13, 2022.

The committee comprised the state Pollution Control Board; regional office of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change at Bhopal; director for Madhav National Park; director, department of mines and minerals, MP government; commissioner, Gwalior and collector, Shivpuri.

Advertisements were published for leasing out mining sites that fall within a two-kilometre range from the ESZ of the park, the joint panel found. It raised the question of the permissibility of the mining in the said sites.

Mining had previously taken place at the sites and there was overburden in the area, the NGT said on the basis of the panel report. In mining, overburden  is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation.

Pits were created due to mining activity and rainwater had accumulated in the same, the committee found.

The bench ordered the mining and geology department of the state and collector, Shivpuri, to restrain from granting any mining lease and executing any mining lease deed in respect of the survey numbers in question and also in the areas falling within ESZ.

“The district magistrate and the superintendent of police, Shivpuri, are also directed to take appropriate steps to ensure that no illegal mining takes place in the survey numbers in question,” read the order.

Closing of the mining activities, appropriate actions for reclamation of the mined area and implementation of the mining closure plan have not been taken by the mining department, the NGT noted.

The mining and geology department of the state will undertake the required actions for reclamation of land and implementation of the mine closure plan within two months’ time and submit the report with photographs within three months, the bench said.

Read more: 60 years after they were last seen, tigers to come back to Madhya Pradesh’s Madhav National Park

“The expenses for such remedial action may be initially borne by the state of Madhya Pradesh, but the same may be recovered from the defaulting project proponents in accordance with the ‘polluter pays principle’ by following due process of law,” read the order.

The joint committee recommended that a geological study may be conducted by the Central Ground Water Board through a reputed Institution to find out the reasons for excess iron in the groundwater in the area, stated the order.

The State Ground Water Board is to engage experts from any of the reputed institutions in MP to find out the reasons for excess iron in groundwater in the area, the bench directed.

The report must be sent to NGT and to the concerned authorities and public health engineering department of the state to take appropriate remedial action, it added.

Disaster

- Hazards in waiting: Half the world still without early warning systems, flags UN report

- Southwest monsoon likely to withdraw from UP, Gujarat, MP in next 4-5 days: IMD

- Flood warnings that don’t break the banks

- Mexico braces for flash floods, landslides as Hurricane Orlene barrels in

Hazards in waiting: Half the world still without early warning systems, flags UN report

Africa, South America, Arab countries, the Caribbean reported low coverage, UNDRR-WMO report finds

By Seema Prasad

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Half the countries in the world have no early warning systems to help prepare against natural disasters, according to a new survey. The survey found low coverage of multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) in Africa, South America and countries in the Arab and Caribbean regions.

The United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released the report October 13, 2022 on the occasion of International Day of Disaster Risk Reduction.

The analysis was made with data from the Sendai Framework Monitor (SFM), an online tool where member countries report their progress on the targets outlined in The Sendai Framework (2015-2030). The framework is a global blueprint for disaster risk reduction and prevention.

Of the seven targets in the framework, Target G aims to “substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030”. The framework also has 38 indicators to measure progress on risks and losses.

Read more: Ground report: Climate disasters in Bihar, UP make children more vulnerable to trafficking

The number of countries that have MHEWS vary from region to region. However, on average, at least 40 per cent of countries in every region reported that they operate a MHEWS.

Specifically, less than 50 per cent of Least Developing Countries (LDC) and only 33 per cent of Small Island Developing Countries (SIDS) were equipped with MHEWS.

The report titled the Global Status of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems — Target G recommended:

Special assistance is needed for LDC, SIDS and Africa. More investments are needed throughout the MHEWS value cycle, with emphasis on reaching the 'last mile'.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told the media that the international weather monitoring organisation is spearheading a UN initiative on Early Warnings for All in the next five years.

One limitation of the survey highlighted by the authors of the report was that several countries may have a working MHEWS, but they may not have officially reported it to SFM. They urged these governments to scale up reporting for better analysis.

Evaluation

There are four items on the UNDRR checklist to ensure that an early warning system is up to the mark:

1. Risk knowledge;

2. Technical monitoring and warning service;

3. Communication and dissemination of warnings;

4. Community response capability

Considerable progress has been made in all four areas, but “to advance the MHEWS across all the countries, considerable investments are still needed in all its interrelated elements”, the report noted.

Most of the WMO member countries, for instance, reported not having evaluated their  MHEWS performance. Only a third of WMO members said they have conducted a systematic evaluation.

Read more: World will face at least 560 climate disasters every year by 2030, warns UN

It is crucial to rate the effectiveness of the system, according to the report. “National capacities in assessing MHEWS effectiveness, especially in LDCs and SIDS, need to be enhanced".

To that end, the UNDRR launched an open-access platform called the Risk Information Exchange to connect countries with global and regional initiatives by aggregating disaster risk information.

Internet Access

The Common Alerting Protocol is a standard process for disseminating alerts on impending disasters. Around 48 per cent of countries said they followed the protocol, which involves emergency messaging on internet, broadcast and cellular services, according to the findings of the survey.

A third of the world’s population still does not have a stable internet connection, another study showed. In Africa, 18 per cent of the population lacks access to mobile broadband networks.

Among the people living in least developed and landlocked developing countries, 17 per cent lack access to mobile internet, the report said. This prevented community outreach for early warning systems.

Southwest monsoon likely to withdraw from UP, Gujarat, MP in next 4-5 days: IMD

Heavy rainfall spells will continue over Tamil Nadu and Rayalaseema for the next five days

By DTE Staff

Published: Wednesday 12 October 2022

The southwest monsoon is likely to withdraw from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in the next four-five days, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The IMD’s announcement comes at a time when heavy rains have thrown life in various regions of Uttar Pradesh completely out of gear. Farmers in India’s largest state are facing significant losses as their crops have been devastated by incessant rains since October 5, 2022.

“Conditions are very likely to become favourable for withdrawal of southwest monsoon from some more parts of northwest and central India during next four-five days,” the weather agency said in its forecast issued October 12, 2022.

Some 67 of the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh recorded excess rainfall since October 1, according to IMD. Some 580,000 people in 650 villages across 16 districts have been affected by floods, according to the UP Relief Commissioner, Prabhu Narain Singh.

Grey stands for ‘No Data’, Red for ‘Deficient’, Blue for ‘Large Excess’, Green for ‘Normal’, Yellow for ‘Large Deficient’ and Light Blue for ‘Excess’

Schools in several cities, including Lucknow, Noida, Gaziabad, Kanpur and Agra, are still closed. More than 18 people have died in different rain-related incidents across the state, according to media reports.

Rivers like the Ghaghra, Sharda and Rapti, major tributaries of the Ganga, are in spate. The districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh — Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur and Azamgarh — are the most affected.

In the rest of the country, heavy rainfall spells will continue over Tamil Nadu and the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh for the next five days and interior Karnataka in the next two days, the forecast added.

IMD attributed these projected rainfalls to cyclonic circulations prevailing over parts of Kerala and the Bay of Bengal. The amount of rain in Uttar Pradesh this month has been 500 per cent above average, according to the Mint daily.

The damage to major summer crops like rice, soyabeans, cotton, pulses and vegetables is likely to fuel food inflation in the country.

Increased food costs might push the Reserve Bank of India to increase interest rates again and prompt government to impose new limits on the export of food products like rice, wheat and sugar.

In northwest India, the rainy season typically ends by mid-September. It should be over for the entire country by mid-October.

Flood warnings that don’t break the banks

Global number of weather disasters has increased by five times over the last 50 years

By Linda Speight

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Affordable and accurate, flood warnings have advanced to be a great tool to prevent disaster. But that’s proving to be only half the battle.

Globally, only extreme storms like hurricanes cause more damage than floods. Over the last 50 years, the global number of weather disasters has increased by five times, but thanks to improved early warnings and disaster management, the number of deaths from such events has decreased almost three-fold.

Flood warning systems are a cost-efficient way to prevent floods from destroying lives and livelihoods.

While warnings don’t prevent flooding, they give advance notice of an impending flood to allow communities to prepare: bringing in extra emergency personnel, establishing temporary flood defences, securing clean drinking water, moving valuables or — for the most extreme events — evacuating.

Getting the jump on an incoming flood also allows for the mobilisation of resources to accelerate the clean-up after a flood, reaching people in need sooner and reducing the impact.

Flood warnings are one part of a larger flood forecasting system. Warnings are used to communicate the flood forecast to individuals, businesses, and emergency responders.

The best flood warnings don’t just provide information on the river level (which is often meaningless to users), they combine this information with an explanation of the potential impacts, for example: “River levels will rise rapidly causing widespread flooding. Damage to roads and property is expected.”

A flood forecasting system only becomes useful when the flood warning leads to effective action. The aim of flood forecasting systems is to provide as much lead-time as possible. The difficulty is that the longer the lead-time, the more uncertain the forecast can be.

The accuracy of weather forecasts is continually improving. Today, the forecast for six days ahead is as good as the forecast for five days ahead from 10 years ago. Flood forecasting models cover all of the major rivers in the world.

However, forecasting the most extreme events, such as the intense rainfall in Zhengzhou, China in 2021, or the rapid intensification of Typhoon Nuro in the Philippines, remains a challenge.

In these situations, creative solutions are emerging that seek to help decision-makers understand the inherent uncertainty or use new methods like machine learning to improve lead-time.

Increasingly, the effectiveness of flood forecasting systems is constrained by poor communication rather than forecast skill. Scientists were shocked that more than 200 people died in the western European floods of 2021.

While the forecasts for this event were considered “quite good”, when surveyed, 35 percent of people in one of the affected regions in Germany said they had not been warned. In other cases, the flood warnings were received but they did not convey the severity of the impending event.

Communicating extreme events is difficult. An individual’s response to flood warnings is often influenced by their previous experience. Without having seen a river in full flood, it is very difficult to comprehend the destructive power of water or appreciate the urgency of preparation.

This communication challenge requires new and imaginative thinking and ongoing work. Some of the innovative graphics and clear communication for Hurricane Ian in Florida shows that progress is being made.

Uncertainty remains a challenge for decision-makers. Actions have costs and no one wants to take them unnecessarily. Flood forecasters need to strike a balance between uncertainty and lead-time.

The best way to achieve this balance is to design flood forecasting systems in collaboration with decision-makers to tailor warnings to their needs. Scientists often forget that decision makers have to balance multiple and often competing considerations around economic, political and societal pressures.

But even a reliable and well-communicated flood warning is useless if the recipient does not have the ability to take action. Lead-time is important, but more critically, large parts of society lack the resources to take action.

Studies of major events, such the devastating monsoon flooding in Pakistan in 2022, or the repeated tropical cyclones that hit Madagascar earlier in the year, highlight that alongside the effects of climate change, many people are unable to bounce back from extreme events.

The Red Cross Climate Centre is pioneering the use of forecasts to release funding in advance of floods occurring. This means that vulnerable communities can be supported financially to evacuate, or immediate needs such as clean water and sanitation supplies can be provided. The increasing use of flood forecasts is also helping humanitarian organisations to target their resources to the areas most at risk.

The climate is changing. Extreme weather is occurring more frequently and there is an urgent need to increase flood resilience. To live successfully in a changing climate, all aspects of society need to be ready to adapt when warnings are issued.

Warning systems fail when they are not believed or trusted, something that was evident in the response to the forecast summer 2022 heatwave in the UK. Warnings are not issued lightly, they are based on the best possible forecasting science and understanding of the impacts on people and infrastructure.

They are issued in advance of events and aim to provide enough time to take preventative action before impacts occur. They should not be ignored.

Linda Speight is a hydrometeorologist at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford whose research seeks to develop early warning systems to improve disaster risk management, particularly for flooding. She is interested in global flood forecasting, surface water flood forecasting, ensemble forecasts, impact-based forecasts, risk communication, decision making and climate resilience.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.

Mexico braces for flash floods, landslides as Hurricane Orlene barrels in

Orlene is expected to pass Mexico’s Islas Marias islands before its landfall on the coast of mainland Mexico

By Arya Rohini

Published: Monday 03 October 2022

Hurricane Orlene, a hazardous Category 3 storm, is likely to bring torrential rainfall to Mexico’s southwest coast, the United States’ National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned October 2, 2022.

Hurricane Orlene barreled towards the country’s Pacific coast between the tourist destinations of Mazatlan and San Blas, prompting authorities to establish shelters.

Category 3 storms are hurricanes with wind speeds of 178-208 kilometres per hour.

Orlene, with maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour, is expected to pass Mexico’s Islas Marias islands before its landfall on the coast of mainland Mexico October 3, 2022.

“Weakening is expected during the next day. However, Orlene is forecasted to be a strong hurricane when it passes near or over Islas Marias and remain a hurricane when it reaches southwestern Mexico,” the NHC noted.

The Mexican mainland’s coast from San Blas to Mazatlán and the Las Islas Marias is under a hurricane warning. A hurricane watch is in place from Playa Perula to San Blas and from Mazatlán to Bahia Tempehuaya on the coast of mainland Mexico, including Puerto Vallarta.

Flash flooding and potential landslides could result from torrential rainfall in places with mountainous terrain, the NHC added.

In certain areas, it may bring rains that could cause flooding up to 25 centimetres. Puerto Vallarta shut down its port to all boat and ship activity as coastal flooding is also expected.

Orlene could result in “mudslides, rising river and stream levels, and flooding in low-lying areas,” according to Mexico’s National Water Commission.

They categorised Orlene as a minor storm with hurricane-force winds of around 20 km and a tropical storm force of 95 kilometres.

The eastern Pacific has formed 15 named storms so far this year. The Pacific hurricane season starts on May 15 and lasts through November 30, according to the NHC.

Orlene was one of five named storms that developed last month. Tropical Storm Kay landed on the Baja California peninsula in early September and attained hurricane status. Orlene was upgraded from tropical storm to hurricane October 1, 2022.

Climate change has made hurricanes more powerful and wetter over the past forty years. Increased storm surges are a result of rising sea levels.

Pollution

- Delhites, all that rain does not mean you will have a smog-free Diwali. Here is why

- Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 12, 2022)

- Simply Put: Zero Compensation

- Nord Stream spews high levels of methane, likely to affect marine life

- Bhopal victims demonstrate in Delhi ahead of Supreme Court hearing on more compensation

- Sodium chromate fears drive activists to oppose planned factory in Nalgonda village

- Polluter didn’t pay: Plachimada awaits compensation from Coca-Cola, 2 decades on

Delhites, all that rain does not mean you will have a smog-free Diwali. Here is why

Firecrackers, industries, vehicles, date of the festival and late withdrawal of the monsoon, all could cause a repeat of previous Diwalis, experts say

By Zumbish

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

It may have rained heavily in late September in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) and the rest of northwestern India. Stubble burning has also not reached its peak for this time of the year. But Delhi still won’t have a smog-free Diwali, experts told Down To Earth (DTE) October 14, 2022.

Firecrackers, industries, vehicles, the timing of the festival this year and the late withdrawal of the monsoon, all could cause a repeat of previous Diwalis that Delhi-NCR has witnessed.

One of the main reasons, according to experts is the time the festival will be celebrated this year. It is to be observed on December 4, three weeks before it did last year.

Gufran Beig, air quality and emissions expert told DTE that Diwali this year will be observed at a time when the temperature is still warmer.

“Even if firecrackers are burst at the same scale as last Diwali, there could be more dispersion. Farm activities in comparison to last year are extremely low this year.

“If the wind direction is congenial, which it is likely to be and fire counts’ instances (of burning paddy stubble) also multiply, the air quality may deteriorate for a long period of time in the last week of October, even if there are less emissions from firecrackers,” he said.

Delhi had received 46.2 millimetres (mm) of rainfall between the morning of September 22 and the morning of September 23. This is more than 10 times its normal rainfall of 4.1 mm, according to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The national capital had recorded its best reading of the air quality index (AQI) since August 2020 following the heavy rains.

The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was 44 October 10 according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board. “It was recorded as 48, 56 and 55 October 9, October 8 and October 7 respectively,” the data stated.

An AQI of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’, and 401-500 ‘severe’. Above 500 is the ‘severe-plus’ or ‘emergency’ category.

DS Pai, director of the Institute of Climate Change Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, told DTE that while it was true that there had been incessant rains for a few days, the southwest monsoon has started to withdraw. “The rainfall activity will reduce in the coming days in northwest India,” he said.

The southwest monsoon “had further withdrawn from remaining parts of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat; most parts of Madhya Pradesh and some parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra,” according to the IMD’s statement October 14.

Then there are the instances of paddy stubble burning. The total fire activities in Punjab and Haryana, in the period between October 1 and 12 were 826 according to data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Amritsar and Tarn Taran, both in Punjab, have been the biggest stubble burning hotspots in the region so far this year.

Avikal Somvanshi, senior programme manager, Air Pollution, at Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said:

Large scale burning in farms has not started yet since the rains have pushed back the timeline. So there is a chance there may be more smoke fall in general due to farm fires when large scale burning actually takes place.

He added that there was, however, no way of calculating how much smoke fall would actually take place due to farm fires.

“Last time, AQI levels around Diwali in the capital were alarming but no concentrated burning in the farms had taken place around that time period. Back then, after the festival, smog had also lasted for nine to 10 days,” Somvanshi said.

So, despite the AQI levels not being alarming and greater emissions of toxic gases from firecrackers and other pollutants including that from industries and vehicles, it may still be a bad Diwali, according to CSE experts.

Whether it will be worse than the last one remains to be seen, they added. It may be a cleaner Diwali ecologically as is being speculated considering the AQI levels seen in the run up to it but we need still need to take a lot of precautions, they said.

The government should be prepared since a lot of factors like stubble burning and bursting of firecrackers may be a spoiler, the experts noted.

The Delhi government had announced a ban on the production, sale and use of all types of firecrackers in the national capital till January 1 in September. The Supreme Court had refused to lift the ban October 10. “The matter will be heard again before the Diwali holidays,” the apex court had said.

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 12, 2022)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal

By DTE Staff

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Bhopal gas tragedy

The Union government will pursue its curative petition seeking additional compensation to the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, Attorney General R Venkataramani informed the Supreme Court.

The court was hearing the Union government’s curative petition seeking Rs 7,844 crore additional compensation from successor firms of Union Carbide October 11, 2022.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by SK Kaul ordered the Center to submit a compilation of its statements within 56 days.

“A number of NGOs seek to be added as parties to the curative petition,” the court noted.

Union Carbide’s successor, Dow Chemicals, urged the court to re-examine the curative petition.

“The very maintainability of the curative petitions will have to be examined as it came 19 years after the judgment was passed and without going through a process of review petition,” stated the company.

The court listed the matter for January 10, 2023. The tragedy’s survivors have been fighting for fair compensation and appropriate medical care for illnesses caused by the deadly gas leak.

A curative petition is the last chance a party can ask the court to reconsider a case after the court refuses to review a judgment.

The Government of India filed a curative petition in December 2010. The compensation settlement was seriously impaired and did not consider the quantum of deaths, injuries and losses, the government stated in the petition.

NGT slaps 500 crore

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a fine of Rs 500 crore on the Karnataka government for its failure to protect Chandrapura lake. The lake spans 17.27 acres in Chandapura town and 7.2 acres in Heelalige village.

The tribunal took suo moto cognisance of the matter October 10, based on a media report. The waste dumped in the lake raises several concerns, the media report stated.

It also mentioned encroachments on the buffer zone of the lake. A report was filed by the chief secretary on the same. It showed the poor state of the lake.

“Out of the total 24.27 acres, nearly two acres of the lake in Chandapura town has been encroached,” the report read.

The mushrooming of ‘red-category industries’ in the Jigani Bommasandra industrial area is a significant cause of concern, it added. Industries with a pollution index score of 60 and above are categorised under red. These industries discharge effluents into lakes, violating the government’s zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) policy.

The ZLD water management system prohibits the release of untreated water into lakes.

The fund must be utilised for the lake’s restoration within six months. The restoration should be monitored by a committee headed by the chairperson of the State Wetland Authority, the tribunal added.

Untreated sewage disposal

The NGT has slapped a fine of Rs. 7.5 crore on the Uttar Pradesh government for its failure to prevent sewage discharge into the drains near Lar town in the Deoria district. The tribunal was responding to a petition October 10.

The sewage must be appropriately treated and used for secondary purposes such as irrigation, the tribunal added. It recommended the formation of a committee to oversee the utilisation of the fund.

The committee should consist of the principal secretary for urban development, Uttar Pradesh; nominees of the pollution control boards and the district magistrate of Deoria, the tribunal stated.

Simply Put: Zero Compensation

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Nord Stream spews high levels of methane, likely to affect marine life

Dissolved methane transforms back into a gaseous form when it reaches the surface

By Arya Rohini

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Methane levels near Russia’s ruptured Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system were 1,000 times higher than normal, according to a new research.

The methane gas leak under the Baltic Sea was discovered 26 September 2022. Since then, it has continued to leak into the water, according to the University of Gothenburg’s scientific investigation team.

“In the water samples, we could see that the methane levels were up to 1,000 times higher than normal. The distribution pattern of the methane from the leak was difficult to explain,”  said Katarina Abrahamsson, a marine chemist at the University of Gothenburg and coordinator for the expedition, in a press note.

The research vessel Skagerak returned to Gothenburg after a five-day expedition. The hurriedly planned mission to the Nord Stream leaks in the Baltic Sea is over and the researchers are happy with their work.

The researchers needed to get to the location as soon as possible to quantify the impacts of this significant discharge and gather crucial data.

“In less than 48 hours, we got the researchers and equipment we wanted onboard,” said Abrahamsson. The team collected some 100–200 water samples over 54 hours. They couldn’t measure the whole discharge as the vessel was not permitted beyond Swedish waters.

Methane gas, dissolved in water, transforms back into a gaseous form when it reaches the surface and is emitted into the atmosphere. The ocean currents and the duration of the leakage determine its persistence in the Baltic Sea.

The impact of these high methane levels on marine life is obscure. For instance, there are bacterias in the water that proliferates by oxidising methane gas.

“I have filtered water samples during the expedition to see if there’s any growth of these types of bacteria at elevated methane levels in the water,” said Carina Bunse, a marine biologist at the University of Gothenburg.

If these methane-eating bacterias expand at the expense of other plankton species, it might impact the local food chain. But we are unable to predict the outcome. Conclusions can be drawn only after conducting a DNA analysis of the components in the water samples, said Bunse.

Bhopal victims demonstrate in Delhi ahead of Supreme Court hearing on more compensation

Delhi police and CRPF dispersed the group of women survivors and forced them to leave

By Zumbish,

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Some 50 women survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy carried out a demonstration in front of Nirman Bhavan in New Delhi, a day ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on a curative petition seeking enhancement of compensation to the victims.

“The India government may withdraw from the petition,” the survivors expressed their apprehensions.

A Constitution Bench of the court had given Solicitor General Tushar Mehta time till October 11 to get instructions from the Centre on whether it wants to “press” its curative petition seeking enhancement of compensation to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, over and above the $470 million already paid by Union Carbide.

DTE visited Nirman Bhawan and spoke to the gas tragedy survivors and the leaders representing their cause.

“We had filed a petition in 2010 that the survivors and families of the Bhopal gas tragedy should get appropriate compensation,” said Nasreen, a survivor who had lost three family members in the aftermath of the tragedy that unfolded on December 2-3,1984.

The last time each family who has lost family members and whose generations have suffered severe health hazards due to the gas leakage received compensation was about 12 years ago, she added.

It was as less as Rs 25,000 per family and the petition was to seek additional compensation. In 2011, the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, promised Rs 5 lakh compensation for each victim’s family, she said.

But the promises were forgotten. Today, after 12 years, the petition will be heard in court. We are demanding Rs 6 lakh compensation for each family, she added.

“We are here at Nirman Vihar to appeal to the concerned ministry to take a step in our favour, as we are apprehensive about what will take place tomorrow,” she said.

A compensation is the least we can get after the hell that unleashed on us ever since the day of tragedy. We hope the Centre takes a step in our favour, said Nasreen.

The chemical leak in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, was the worst industrial accident in history.

About 45 tonnes of the dangerous gas methyl isocyanate escaped from an insecticide plant owned by the Indian subsidiary of the American firm Union Carbide Corporation,according to Britannica.

The gas drifted over the densely populated neighbourhoods around the plant, killing thousands of people immediately and creating a panic as tens of thousands of others attempted to flee Bhopal.

The final death toll was estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000. Some half a million survivors suffered respiratory problems, eye irritation or blindness and other maladies resulting from exposure to the toxic gas.

Twelve years ago, the whole of India was in uproar at the injustice caused to Bhopal survivors by the Government of India, Union Carbide and Dow Chemical,” said Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, an organisation working for the cause of victims.

“The government recognised that compensation granted to Bhopal survivors was grossly inadequate, so filed a petition in the Supreme Court to ‘cure’ it, but in all the years since, no government has lifted one finger to support this petition,” she said.

An hour after the demonstration started, Delhi police and CRPF dispersed the group of women survivors and forced them to leave.

Setting a beautiful example of communal harmony in present-day India, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, located in central Delhi, has been setting an example by providing shelter to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy — of whom almost everyone is a Muslim.

Salma Khan, who had lost her brother and parents in the disaster, was shivering when she recounted the disaster.

She and her five sisters were the only family members left alive in the family. She says the compensation will help bring the family on track. “Life has been no less than a nightmare since the day of tragedy,” she said.

She prays it never becomes anyone else’s reality like it was for her family.

“I suffer from anxiety till date, the tragedy had unfolded right in front of my eyes 38 years ago,” said an old lady who survived the tragedy.

Leaders from the organisations representing the cause of the gas tragedy survivors met officials of the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers at Nirman Bhawan after the demonstration.

“UPA government had filed the present curative petition after it realised that Union Carbide and its current owner, Dow Chemical, had not adequately compensated the Bhopal disaster,” said Rachna Dhingra, a leader of the demonstration.

The 1989 civil settlement instead constituted a “gross and irremediable injustice” perpetrated upon the survivors, she added.

“We do not forget that among the most prominent voices clamouring twelve years ago for the UPA government to remedy this injustice before the Supreme court, were authorised spokespersons for the Bharatiya Janta Party,” she added.

The present government’s failure to pursue the curative petition is most likely to be perceived as a betrayal of the commitments made through the Bhopal Act and the responsibilities bestowed by the constitution, she added.

We urge the government to act and act immediately, she said.

“We urge you to ensure that the government of India discharges its statutory and constitutional duty towards the victims of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal by continuing to prosecute the curative petition to the best of its ability and resources,” stated Bhopal survivors’ organisations, who are co-petitioners in the curative petition, in their letter to the ministry.

Dhingra called for understanding the gravity and urgency of the situation, affecting thousands of India’s most vulnerable citizens.

The leaders could not meet the minister of chemical and fertilisers, Manshukh L Mandaviya. However, the ministry officials assured them that the government of India would continue to pursue the curative petition for additional compensation for the gas tragedy victims’ families.

Peedit Mahila Purush Sangarsh Morcha and Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogi Sangarsh Morcha were among the organisations present.

Sodium chromate fears drive activists to oppose planned factory in Nalgonda village

Hazardous nature of the chromate ore processing residue is not mentioned in the draft EIA report

By Arya Rohini

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

A section of environmentalists have flagged irregularities in the draft Environmental Impact Assessment report for a proposed chemical plant in Telangana’s Nalgonda district.

An electric utility provider, Krishna Godavari Power Utilities ltd, has proposed a sodium saccharin unit in Nalgonda’s Wadapally village. Farmers and environmentalists have strongly objected to the proposal.

“The project uses outdated technology to produce sodium dichromate from chromite ore, while disguising itself as a sodium saccharin unit,” K Babu Rao, a retired chief scientist from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, told Down To Earth.

Sodium dichromate is a hazardous chemical. It is corrosive to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract. Exposure to the substance may cause affect kidney and liver, according to a joint brochure issued by the World Health Organization and International Labour Organization.

“The substance may result in kidney impairment. This substance is carcinogenic to humans,” the brochure added.

Villagers in Dameracherla Mandal had already suffered the effect of sodium chromate pollution. They had to wage years of battle before ending the operations of Deccan Chromates Ltd (DCL) in 2014.

The company abandoned 100,000 tonnes of chromite ore processing residue, which continuously leached hexavalent chromium through a stream joining the Krishna.

“The villagers lost several cattle, goats and sheep from drinking contaminated water,” N Harinder, Nalgonda district president of Human Rights Forum, a voluntary rights organisation, told DTE.

Even a brief exposure to the substance can damage tissues.

“A few years back, we visited a former Deccan Chromate employee to study the implications of sodium chromate exposure. His nasal septum has ruptured despite barely working there for a few weeks,” said Rao.

The WHO brochure also says about its impact on the nasal septum.

“Repeated or prolonged inhalation may cause nasal ulceration. This may result in perforation of the nasal septum,” it read.

DCL has affected the lives and livelihoods of fishermen in the region.

They frequently lament fewer catches due to dangerous substances being swept up from DCL’s untreated landfills, said Harinder.

The WHO brochure has also warned about its long-term impact on aquatic ecosystems.

“The substance is very toxic to aquatic organisms. It may cause long-term effects on the marine environment. It is strongly advised not to let the chemicals enter the environment,” the advisory read.

The proposed project is nearly seven times larger than that of DCL and is located near the Krishna-Musi confluence.

The industry will affect three villages — Wadapally, Irki Gudem in the Nalgonda district and Pondgula in the Guntur district. These plants will damage the rivers, said Harinder.

More than a crore people in Andhra and Telangana rely on Krishna waters for drinking. Hence, the ramifications of the current project are terrifying, he added.

Krishna Godavari Power Utilities ltd proposes setting up a unit, producing 12,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) of sodium saccharin and its bi-products, stated the documents submitted by the company before the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)

“The bi-products are — sodium dichromate (50,000 TPA), basic chromium sulphate (100,000 TPA) and white sodium sulphate (15,000 TPA),” the document added.

The EIA report blindly repeated the same without questioning the scientific abnormalities in the documents, said Rao.

“Sodium dichromate is not a by-product of sodium saccharin. It is a hexavalent chromium compound that oxidises O-Toluene Sulphonamide to saccharin,” he said.

Sodium saccharin is an organic compound used mainly in pharmaceutical industries.

“They called it a sodium saccharin company to silence public outrage. The villagers will not let another sodium chromate company in the region since they are aware of its hazardous nature,” he added.

The hazardous nature of the chromite ore processing residue is not mentioned in the draft EIA report.

The report diluted its hazardous nature with a statement, “approximately 200 TPD of solid waste will be created during operation of the planned ferro-alloy plant and will be disposed of correctly.”

Some 200 TPD of Chrome ore processing residue will be sent to an approved hazardous waste management facility in Hyderabad, the company said in its report to the MoE&FCC.

For KGP, the disposal cost amounts to Rs 4 lakh Rs per day as the company generates 200 tonnes of waste daily. DCL had left some 100,000 tonnes of hazardous wastes in the 10 acres of land owned by the company. They have not disposed of it to date despite producing nearly a tenth (22-30 TPA) of that of the proposed plant, said Rao.

The expert argued that terms of reference (ToR) were issued hastily without proper scrutiny.

“It is highly unjust to force a public hearing on people based on false EIA. MoE&FCC should cancel the ToR issued in error and ask for a fresh EIA for sodium dichromate, basic chromium sulphate and sodium saccharin,” he said.

The project area is evenly distributed among Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. However, the committee has used baseline data from just one site, Pondugala village, in Andhra. Public hearings must also be held in both states in case of inter-state projects.

“Public hearings must be held in Andhra as well. But no such notification has yet been made,” said Harinder. Telangana’s public hearing scheduled for October 10 has been postponed indefinitely for unspecified reasons.

Polluter didn’t pay: Plachimada awaits compensation from Coca-Cola, 2 decades on

The Coca-Cola plant that caused over-exploitation of groundwater, toxic contamination of soil, groundwater, loss of agriculture and health in Plachimada shut down 18 years ago

By Zumbish

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Coca-Cola Co, the multi-American beverages giant with presence across the globe, has been in news for its sponsorship of the upcoming 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Even as it draws flak for littering the world with its bottles and cans, in India, there is another concern: The company is yet to shell out compensate those affected by its Plachimada plant in Kerala.

People from the area told DTE that they wanted the Union government to make sure the company paid the compensation.

The Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd (HCBPL), Coca-Cola’s Indian subsidiary, had set up a plant that manufactured soft drinks in Plachimada village of Palakkad district in 2000.

The plant was closed in 2004 following protests by local Adivasi residents who said it had caused the village land to become barren, contaminated its water and violated rules and acts. The plant remained closed till May 2021.

The Plachimada Struggle Solidarity Committee confirmed to DTE that no penalty had been imposed on Coca-Cola till date. Isa bin Abdulkareem, general convenor of the Committee, said:

We demand that the Coca-Cola Company be prosecuted for the extraction and over-exploitation of water in Plachimada. It should pay the compensation amount to Plachimada villagers immediately.

“We have organised a Satyagraha to get compensation from Coca-Cola. The government should take urgent steps to make sure the company provides us the said compensation. Our protest has been going on for 20 years,” Sakthivel, a protester from Plachimada, told DTE.

Georgekutty Kadaclacka, who had come from Kottayam district to join the Satyagraha October 8 said: “What the company did to the people of Plachimada cannot be reversed. However, the compensation should not be denied anymore.”

Why no compensation?

The Kerala Assembly had unanimously passed the Plachimada Coca-Cola Victims’ Relief and Compensation Claims Special Tribunal Bill February 24, 2011. This step was taken to adjudicate disputes relating to compensation of Rs 216.25 crore.

That amount was to be paid by the company for over-exploitation of groundwater, toxic contamination of soil, groundwater and water bodies, loss of agriculture and causing health problems in Plachimada.

HCCB is said to have violated the following Acts because of its actions sat Plachimada:

1. Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974

2. The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

3. The Factories Act, 1948

4. Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989

5. The SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

6. Indian Penal Code

7. Land Utilization Order, 1967

8. The Kerala Ground Water (Control & Regulation) Act, 2002 Indian Easement Act, 1882

9. Indian Easement Act, 1882

The Bill sought the establishment of a tribunal to try all disputes for compensation and secure it from Coca Cola company. But it never saw the light of day.

The state governor had reserved the Bill for Presidential consideration in 2011. In March of the same year, it was forwarded to the Government of India and remained with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for months.

The Centre had then argued that environmental compensations came under the purview of the NGT and a state government did not have powers to form a separate tribunal to deal with them.

In November 2015, the governor of Kerala was informed that the then-President Pranab Mukherjee “had been pleased to withhold his assent from the Bill”.

Water

- Water, Marathwada women’s woe: No brides for farmers as families look for city matches

- In the name of development: How Nashik’s Goda Ghat juggled concretisation & de-concretisation over 2 decades

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: No brides for farmers as families look for city matches

Access to water, better infra drive marriage prospects as women yearn for more 'comfortable' lives

By Himanshu Nitnaware

Published: Monday 10 October 2022

Floods, droughts, floods again — Marathwada farmers have suffered at the hands of extreme weather events for decades. Their economic standings have taken a beating too, which has led to a unique problem: The chances of men from the affected villages getting married has started to thin.

Years of droughts and erratic rains have heavily impacted agricultural income, leading to several social issues like the lack of brides. Even farmers don’t want their daughters to marry other farmers and look for matches in urban areas or grooms with stable jobs.

Maharashtra suffered 79 droughts during 2010-2020 — way more than the 11 it faced during 1970-1980, according to non-profit Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). A report mentioned extreme weather events in Marathwada, including districts like Nanded, Jalna, Latur, Aurangabad and Osmanabad.

Read more: Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

Parts of western Maharashtra, including Kolhapur, Pune and Sangli districts, were affected too.

These areas have also shown extreme flood events in the past three years, according to India Meteorological Department data. The region has received normal or above-normal rainfall that damaged crops and led to floods.

In 2022 alone, the incessant rains in July, August and September damaged over 4 million hectares of agricultural land. In the past 50 years, the flood frequency has increased by almost eight times in India, said another CEEW report released in 2020.

Such extreme weather events increased uncertainties related to agriculture and rural livelihoods, it added. Years of these uncertainties are now reflected in the social fabric of these farmers.

The fundamental cause behind the issues is water. Access to the critical resource is a daily struggle for women in rural India, said Archana Gade, a villager from Gevrai.

“Villagers depend on borewells during monsoon. Government water schemes are not reliable, as we get water once a week or even a fortnight at times,” she told Down To Earth.

Women walk for at least 2 kilometres during summers to nearby wells and other groundwater resources, taking up two-three hours. “My family requires at least 50 litres of water daily, requiring at least five trips. It delays household chores and reduces the time I can spend on the farm,” Gade said.

“I can spend only around 2.5 hours tending to crops,” she further said, adding that festivals and guest visits demand add to the ordeal.

This reduced time means less income. “The production on my cotton farm has reduced from about five quintals per acre to around three,” she said.

All farmer families in her village, with around 900 people, face similar issues. Gade does not want her daughter to suffer the same problems as her.

Indu Gade, another villager with two daughters, said she has been struggling to access water since she got married around 17 years ago. “Earlier, women walked to the river about four kilometres away, taking away crucial time for farm work,” she said.

Her family spends around a lakh per acre on seeds, fertilisers and spraying of insecticides and pesticides. Droughts and excess rains ruined the standing crop, pushing her family into debt. “So far, we have not been able to repay Rs 5 lakh in loans. No private bank is lending us anymore,” Indu narrated.

Read more: Nearly 600 farmer suicides in 8 months: Is Marathwada facing agri-distress

Indu does not wish a life of such hardship and debt for her own daughters. “Agriculture has become a gamble where the investment cost is high and the outcome is poor,” she added.

A groom earning Rs 10,000-15,000 per month in a city seems a better prospect. “Cities have water, electricity and better infrastructure. It is worth selling off some land to pay a dowry for prospects from cities,” Indu said, adding that she is willing to educate her 17-year-old daughter to support her future husband.

The daily struggles have affected their physical health, causing knee pains and spine issues, the women said.

In Gevrai alone, there are at least 100 men above 30 years, far beyond marriageable age in the context of rural criteria.

About 40 km away in Ambesawali village, 32-year-old Ganesh Bande has been unsuccessfully looking for a bride for the last three years.

Bande and his two brothers jointly grow cotton on 3.5 acres. “The frequent droughts and heavy rains have reduced the farm income by 50 per cent and doubled the input cost,” he said. The farmer also drives an autorickshaw to sustain himself and complained that women do not want to compromise on a comfortable lifestyle.

Hanumant Gundegar has five sisters, four of whom are married. “My sisters live in terrible conditions. I am looking for a city groom for my fifth sister, so at least she has a comfortable life,” Gundegar said, adding that he knew of the sufferings of farmers firsthand.

The death of prospects is not limited to the poorer farmers. Shivaji Shinde in Jamgaon, Ahmednagar, owns 16 acres of farmland. His three sons have all “crossed the marriageable age”.

“The village is perennially reeling under drought, which becomes a major reason for low income. Farmers cannot take more than one crop a year. The farm pond scheme from the government only helps to survive the Kharif crop,” he said.

Limited income and severe droughts have severely deteriorated Shinde’s economic conditions. “Prospects for my sons demand men to have a job and an additional business or a farm income. These demands are unmatchable as the farmer’s sons are not very educated and their sole focus is farming. Low education rates do not enable them to get a job opportunity,” he said.

He added that there are about 600 men in the village who are about 28 years of age and unmarried. “The situation is widespread and it is no longer a taboo,” he said.

The demands of jobs and farmland secure the lives of the brides financially, said Gade.

Read more: DTE tracks trafficking: Droughts, migrating parents leave Marathwada girls vulnerable

“The COVID-19 lockdown demonstrated that men who had migrated from village to cities were forced to return and rely on farming for survival. So, apart from a stable job, agricultural land becomes important for security,” she added.

Young male farmers were stuck in a vicious circle of poverty, said Shinde. “These men cannot earn a good income from agricultural activities, but at the same time, are unqualified to seek a job in cities,” he explained.

Demonetisation and COVID-19 maimed farmers’ economy, said Hanumant Chate, youth secretary of Shetkari Sanghatna, a farmer’s body. “Demonetisation put away farmers’ money in banks and heavy charges incurred in lieu of services. COVID-19 stripped them of the buffer cash and safety provisions,” he said.

Farmers’ situation is at an all-time low, Chate said. “There needs to be a revision of government policies to boost the agrarian sector directly,” he added.

This story is a part of a series that aims to bring out the impact of drought and water issues in changing the social fabric in Marathwada.

In the name of development: How Nashik’s Goda Ghat juggled concretisation & de-concretisation over 2 decades

Recurring urban floods exposed how thoughtless development projects have renedered the area vulnerable

By Ritika Rajput

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

The July 2022 floods at Goda Ghat, Nashik exposed the impacts of trying to tame the Godavari river in the name of riverfront development.

In the last three decades, Goda Ghat has gone through a lot of interventions, particularly concretisation that resulted in recurring and devastating floods in 2008, 2016, 2019 and 2022.

Goda Ghat got shaped and re-shaped in the last two decades by state interventions, particularly through urban-missions and schemes. These include the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart City Mission (SCM) as well as the Kumbh Melas.

Timeline of major interventions at Goda Ghat

The 1992 Kumbh mela was a watershed moment for the Godavari in Nashik. This is when concretisation commenced in and along Goda Ghat to mend the potholes and slippery nature of the basalt bedrock.

A decade later, ahead of the 2003 Kumbh Mela, a massive re-concretisation of the banks took place for beautification and to prevent drowning. This extensive concretisation not only destroyed the riverine ecology but also blocked 17 kunds (structures to store water) with four natural springs.

It resulted in reduced width of the river, changing its natural hydraulic flow. This caused lateral erosions and flooding in the surrounding areas.

The Godavari riverfront development initiative was brought under JNNURM, with stormwater drainage as important components of the city development plan. The project was politically motivated in the line of the Sabarmati riverfront development.

The Rs 60 crore first phase of the Godavari riverfront development included construction of a concrete walkway (2.5 kilometres). However, this colossal project did not succeed because of the concretisation-driven massive flooding incident in 2008 — considered one of the worst floods in the city.

The mission and scheme of infrastructural development also failed to bring significant relief to the city. The city, for instance, spent approximately Rs 400 crores to install 300 kilometres of drainage under JNNURM and construction of sewerage treatment plants under AMRUT.

But none of the projects turned out to be beneficial for the city. It is because no separated stormwater and sewerage drainage were installed and the planners overlooked the natural surface geomorphology of the city. This resulted in worse incidents of waterlogging and sporadic flooding.

Interestingly, the sewerage infrastructure in the core city is discharging within 500 metres of the sacred Ram Kund and has been polluting the poised ghat.

In 2013, the riverfront development was handed over to the Reliance India Foundation because of fund constraints. The company began to develop a nearly 500 m stretch of the Goda Park in 2014.

Re-concretisation and redevelopment of the ghat was carried out once again on the eve of the 2015 Kumbh Mela. The repercussions of the concretisation were evident in the 2016 pre-monsoon droughts, when the river dried up and exposed the concrete riverbed.

Later, in the monsoon period, the city also experienced destructive floods. Local experts claimed that, along with heavy rains, the concretisation of the riverbed and confluence of the major sewerage system around the Goda Ghat were the main reasons.

‘Smart’ riverfront development

The consequences of unsustainable infrastructure development practices inevitably pushed environmentally conscious citizens to the Bombay High Court for the rejuvenation of the river.

Nashik was also selected under SCM and the riverfront infrastructure development featured as the identity of the city in the SCM proposal. The project was envisioned as an opportunity to generate revenue.

It specifically proposed to redevelop the Godavari riverfront with promenade, boating and beautification of the Goda Ghat to attract more tourists.

The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), however, was directed by the court to prioritise the de-concretisation of the river. NMC assigned the responsibility to the newly formed Nashik Municipal Smart City Development Corporation Limited (NMSCDCL).

NMSCDCL de-concretised only four out of 17 kunds between Dutondya Maruti to Gadge Maharaj Bridge, for fulfilling the court mandate.

Besides this ‘symbolic’ de-concretisation, in the ambitious Goda Park project (on the other side of the Ahilyabai Holkar Bridge), both horizontal and vertical concretisation is going on.

As one of the residents of Nashik puts it, “Call it smart or stupid, they are just concretising it.”

Indubitably, these interventions represent the techno-managerial unsustainable patchwork which is not apt for the health of the river and will further aggravate the future flooding events.

Rather than injecting funds for short-term patchworks, there is a need to develop flood-resilient long-term strategy with the stakeholder engagements. The central schemes such as JNNURM, AMRUT and SCM have failed to address the complexities of disasters.

These missions and schemes have also failed to acknowledge the diversities of Indian cities and provided a universal template of urban development.

Hence, the disaster-resilient city-specific infrastructure is yet to be part of the discourse. Therefore, there is an urgent requirement to integrate disaster management and climate change with long-term planning for resilient urban futures.

In a nutshell, the installation of precarious infrastructure along the ghat and the booming real-estate along the river require critical attention for rectification.

The future of the Godavari in Nashik needs to count on the interaction of riverine ecology, religious identity, shifting land-use and unimagined impact of climate change.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

Waste

- International E-Waste Day: Over 5 billion phones will become waste this year

- How one social enterprise is working to make Ladakh waste-free

- Legacy Waste: Did mustard gas from World Wars dumped in Baltic cause Nord Stream explosions

- NGT’s Rs 3,800 crore fine on Telangana is the biggest one yet over waste disposal

International E-Waste Day: Over 5 billion phones will become waste this year

One of six e-products in average european household is being hoarded, finds non-profit survey

By DTE Staff

Published: Friday 14 October 2022

Hoarding of small, unused, dead or broken plug-in and battery-operated products is the focus of this year’s 5th annual International E-Waste Day. One out of every six electronic products in an average European household is hoarded, a survey has found.

International E-Waste Day is held on October 14 every year as an opportunity to reflect on the impacts of e-waste. This year’s slogan is ‘Recycle it all, no matter how small!’.

Roughly 5.3 billion mobile/smartphones will drop out of use this year, according to non-profit Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum, which started the day in 2018. The electronics would reach a height of around 50,000 km if stacked flat and on top of each other. That’s an eighth of the distance to the moon.

Read more: How e-waste crisis continues to plague informal sector

WEEE Forum is an international association of 46 e-waste producer responsibility organisations.

A majority of these phones will disappear into drawers, closets, cupboards or garages, or be tossed into waste bins bound for landfills or incineration, the body said. Mobile phones/ smartphones have valuable gold, copper, silver, palladium and other recyclable components.

The forum released the results of surveys conducted to reveal why so many households and businesses fail to bring in for repair or recycling. The results were consolidated by the United Nations’ Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Sustainable Cycles Programme.

Of 8,775 European households in six countries, the average household contains 74 e-products such as phones, tablets, laptops, electric tools, hair dryers, toasters and other appliances (excluding lamps), said a WEEE Forum press statement.

Of that 74 average total e-products, 13 are being hoarded (9 of them unused but working, four broken). Portugal, Netherlands, Italy, Romania and Slovenia were surveyed, along with a separate one for the United Kingdom.

The top five hoarded small electronic products were (in order): small electronics and accessories (eg, headphones, remotes), small equipment (eg, clocks, irons), small IT equipment (eg, hard drives, routers, keyboards, mice), mobile and smartphones, small food preparation appliances (eg, toasters, grills).

Meanwhile, LED lamps ranked the top of the list of products most likely to be trashed.

Read more: Food can have toxic chemicals from recycling e-waste

“We focused this year on small e-waste items because it is very easy for them to accumulate unused and unnoticed in households or to be tossed into the ordinary garbage bin,” said Pascal Leroy, director general of the WEEE Forum.

People tend not to realise that all these seemingly insignificant items have a lot of value and, together at a global level, represent massive volumes, Leroy added in a press statement.

Small EEE items such as cell phones, electric toothbrushes, toasters and cameras produced worldwide will weigh an estimated total of 24.5 million tonnes — four times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza, claimed Magdalena Charytanowicz of the WEEE Forum.

How one social enterprise is working to make Ladakh waste-free

Ladakh has progressed a lot in recent years in developing a sound waste recovery mechanism, but there is still a lot more to be done to make Ladakh 100 per cent zero waste

By Shumzin Wangmo

Published: Thursday 13 October 2022

Climate change has truly reached our doorstep and is knocking at our doors. Having said that, a wide range of equally disastrous environmental issues are being taken somewhat lightly, especially in the high Himalayas. One of them is waste management.

It is no secret that Ladakh faces a huge challenge of waste management like the rest of the country. We Ladakhis often see plastic wrappers and bottles flowing in our streams and rivers, waste being burned near houses and burgeoning dumpyards on roadsides.

The threats of mismanaging waste are immense. Burning plastics can release toxic gases like furans and dioxins that are harmful to humans and animals.

Wet waste can lead to the problem of feral dogs if it is not managed properly. This, in turn, can wreak havoc on wildlife present in micro ecosystems. It is something that is ongoing nightmare in Ladakh.

Micro-plastics that enter the soil and water, also release chemicals that affect the chemistry of the two.

Waste collected from in and around Leh, the capital of Ladakh, was taken for a long time to a landfill popularly known as ‘Bomb Garh’. This landfill, which was hidden between the mountains with smoke constantly emanating from it, was and continues to be Leh’s dark secret.

More than 500 stray dogs feed on food waste at the site. Many would thus agree that Bomb Garh reveals the nasty side of an unsustainable ecosystem supported by mindless consumerism and commercialisation.

Bomb Garh still burns even as better strategies have been implemented by the municipality, like setting up a new material recovery Facility.

To the rescue

PlanetFirst Recycling, a waste management social enterprise, decided to tackle the growing problem of waste in Ladakh. PlanetFirst has set up a scrap buying and selling network connected to all satellite Solid Resource Management Centres, run by the administration of the Union Territory.

These centres are equipped with the necessary machinery that segregate and turn recovered material into compressed pellets / bales, which are then further sold to PlanetFirst for recycling and scientific disposal.

It was also found that the food leftovers from Army camps in Changthang were being dumped in the open. This attracte free-ranging dogs who started hunting local wildlife including snow leopards and black necked cranes (state bird of Ladakh) when not fed.

PlanetFirst installed an organic waste composter near the Galwan valley. The project was monitored for a year including during the the peak winters of -35 degrees Celsius. The machine performed in a desired manner during this time.

PlanetFirst also introduced the the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Devcelopment Council and the Union territory administration to the concept of Deposit Return System.

The team was able to pull in TOMRA, inventors of Reverse Vending Machine(RVM), a Norwegian company to present this unique and modern collection mechanism being followed all over Europe for efficient waste recovery.

The model involves setting up a deposit for consumers on all packaging materials. Once the packaging material is returned, the deposit collected will be returned to the consumer. This system encourages source segregation and collection of scrap from all stratas of the society.

The team has been actively involved in building various policies and plans around environment and waste management in Ladakh. The District Environment Management plan was curated by the team, along with the district waste management and district plastic waste management plan.

PlanetFirst’s active involvement in the waste management ecosystem of Ladakh has led to various bold decisions around collection and recovery of waste across the Union territory. One of its team members, Rohit Joshi has been appointed as a member of the Union territory-level plastic committee.

Ladakh stands at a crucial juncture, where the people are in a connundrum of exploiting the local resources and its flora and fauna as they aim for increased tourism or pushing for the conservation of its sensitive ecosystem.

The ambiguity around the conservation efforts stands as it is, but there are individuals and organisations fighting to bring in a fresh perspective on the balance between economic growth and land conservation.

PlanetFirst is also cognisant of the fact that protecting the environment is not the responsibility of one but of everyone. Therefore, PlanetFirst is also working towards spreading the message of ‘zero waste’ through community engagements. After all, the survival of the natural environment and species can only be possible through collective efforts.

Ladakh has progressed a lot in recent years in developing a sound waste recovery mechanism, but there is still a lot more to be done to make Ladakh 100 per cent zero waste. The biggest stakeholder remains the Indian Army, which is yet to incorporate a waste recovery mechanism.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

Legacy Waste: Did mustard gas from World Wars dumped in Baltic cause Nord Stream explosions

The recent Nord Stream explosions in the Baltic took place northeast of Bornholm, a major dumping ground for German chemicals and explosives including mustard gas

By Rajat Ghai

Published: Tuesday 11 October 2022

Could deadly legacy waste like mustard gas used in the two World Wars and dumped in the Baltic Sea have caused the explosions during the recent Nord Stream methane leak? An article on the website of a French non-profit has hinted that this could be a possibility.

The Nord Stream pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic sprang a leak September 26, 2022 after explosions rocked the area.

A huge plume of methane, a strong greenhouse gas, subsequently spread across northern Europe before dissipating. The United Nations Environment Programme called the leak the biggest emission of methane yet.

The article uploaded October 6 on the website of Robin Des Bois, a non-profit that works for “the protection of Man and the Environment” pointed to Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic.

“According to Sweden and Denmark, the ruptures of the underwater gas pipelines were caused by explosions equal to several hundred kilograms of TNT, the equivalent of several conventional aerial bombs used during the last World War,” the piece read.

It added that the explosions took place to the northeast of Bornholm. The island and the sea around it was the site where an estimated 30,000-35,000 tonnes of chemical weapons from World War I and II were dumped from August 1945 to July 1965.

These chemicals were unused by Germany. Alongside, raw materials and additives used for making them were also dumped under the supervision of British and Soviet authorities in post-World War II Germany. Later, the German Democratic Republic or East Germany carried out the dumping.

These chemicals and raw materials include vesicants, irritants, lachrymogens, vomitants, sternutatories, lung agents, toxics, neurotoxics and blood agents.

Deadly and infamous products developed by German chemists such as tabun, mustard gas, phosgene and Zyklon B were also among those dumped at the site.

“At least 300 tonnes of large conventional explosive bombs were also dumped off Bornholm,” the article said.

Burns in the Baltic

The article noted that the waters around Bornholm were not more than 70-100 metres deep. At this depth, corrosion, erosion and underwater swell can easily cause the chemicals to shift and decompose.

The dominant chemical warfare agent dumped in the Baltic near Bornholm was mustard gas, according to Robin Des Bois.

“During the pre-laying works for Nord Stream 1 in the Danish Exclusive Economic Zone, four KC 250 mustard gas bombs were discovered between seven metres and 17 metres from the projected route. They were inspected prior to laying in autumn-winter 2010,” the article noted.

The non-profit said the bombs were in an advanced state of corrosion: “Mustard gas lumps were visible. It was estimated that each munition contained 20 kg, ie 20 per cent of the initial content of each bomb.”

For each munition, a 15 kg charge of TNT was visible and appeared to be intact.

But inexplicably, the Danish authorities allowed the bombs to remain where they were as they did not consider them to be a threat to the pipeline. “They were inspected again in January 2011, after the pipeline was laid. No further damage was reportedly observed,” the article said.

But mustard gas has burned people in the area. HELCOM (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission) has noted these incidents in a report.

The document, titled Chemical Munitions Dumped in the Baltic Sea. Report of the ad hoc Expert Group to Update and Review the Existing Information on Dumped Chemical Munitions in the Baltic Sea, was published in 2013.

“Between 1994 and 2012, HELCOM reports that around 4 tonnes of mustard gas lumps were brought to the surface by fishing gear in the Bornholm area. They were mostly dumped at sea in spots designated by the Danish authorities,” according to Robin Des Bois.

At least 25 Polish fishermen were burnt by mustard gas residues caught in nets in the Bornholm area between 1968 and 1984.

Some 102 children from a summer camp were burnt on a beach in Darlowo, Poland, opposite Bornholm, in July 1955, after recovering a leaking barrel containing mustard gas from the beach.

Some 196 tonnes of fish contaminated in Danish fishermen’s nets with mustard gas particles were withdrawn from the market and destroyed between 1968 and 1984.

The chemicals have severely affected marine life around Bornholm, according to the report.

NGT’s Rs 3,800 crore fine on Telangana is the biggest one yet over waste disposal

West Bengal government was fined Rs 3,000 crore in September 2022

By Vivek Mishra

Published: Friday 07 October 2022

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in a recent order slapped a compensation of Rs 3,800 crore on the Telangana government for its failure in the management of solid waste and sewage.

This is the biggest fine ever imposed by the NGT for waste disposal. The West Bengal government was fined Rs 3,000 crore September 2022 for non-compliance with orders relating to the disposal of sewage and solid waste.

Read more: Most Indian villages do not have any waste management infrastructure: Study

A bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel imposed the environmental penalty on the Telangana government October 1, 2022.

The amount of the penalty was decided on the basis of an earlier judgment by the Supreme Court September 2, 2014 in Almitra Patel case and February 22, 2017 Paryavaran Suraksha vs. Union of India case.

The tribunal also followed the ‘polluter pays’ principle under Section 20 of the NGT Act, the order said. It referred to its September 1, 2022 order in the West Bengal case regarding the amount of the penalty imposed.

The compensation for untreated liquid waste was determined to be Rs 2 crore per million litres per day (MLD) and Rs 300 per tonne for unprocessed legacy waste. Thus, the bench imposed Rs 3,648 crore on Telangana for untreated 1,824 MLD sewage.

It also fined the state government Rs 177 crore for non-treatment of 5.9 million tonnes of legacy waste by 141 urban local bodies — totalling the penalty to Rs 3,800 crore.

The bench calculated 5.9 million tonnes of legacy waste on the basis of disposal of 2,446 tonnes per day waste of 114 municipal bodies. It also noted that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had dumped 1.2 million tonnes of legacy waste at the Jawaharnagar dump site, which is against the norms of the Central Pollution Control Board.

Read more: NGT order on Korba: Can it improve fly ash disposal, utilisation in India

The Telangana government did not take NGT directions ‘seriously’ and there was no ‘adequate compliance’ even after three years, the bench said. The government had not fixed any accountability, collected any fines or carried out any performance audits, it added.

The state government was directed to deposit the fine amount in two different accounts within the next two months. The Chief Secretary of the state will use the penalty amount to restore the damage to the environment, the tribunal directed.

The state was also directed to file a progress report with the NGT every six months. The Chief Secretary will take restoration steps at the earliest, the NGT said.

Telangana’s Chief Secretary submitted a progress report on sewage and solid waste management to the NGT September 28, 2022. There wasn’t much progress in the disposal of sewage and solid waste, the tribunal observed.

Table of Contents

Down To Earth

India

Global Hunger Index: India slips to 107 from 101, behind all Asian countries except war-torn Afghanistan

Alzheimer’s disease: surprising new theory about what might cause it

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 14, 2022)

Delhites, all that rain does not mean you will have a smog-free Diwali. Here is why

International E-Waste Day: Over 5 billion phones will become waste this year

India’s green push for second-generation bioethanol

Organic fertiliser: A must for the next green revolution

Device made for the Moon may aid in carbon sequestration on Earth

What role will tech play in sustainability for businesses

Net Zero by 2070: India still has 99 coal projects in pipeline

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 13, 2022)

Simply Put: Cancel all debt?

Mozambique had no data about snakebites. Our new study filled the gap — and the results are scary

COVID-19 pandemic impacted blood supply in Africa: WHO

Surge in clean fuel prices may hurt Delhi’s air pollution fight

How one social enterprise is working to make Ladakh waste-free

Bihar agrarian crisis: Why crores in diesel subsidies may not be the answer

Can carbon capture be new hope for mitigating CO2 emissions?

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 12, 2022)

Living Planet Report 2022: Wildlife populations decline by 69% in 50 years

This Pune stone-crusher unit shows how to do it properly

Simply Put: Noah’s Ark 2.0

India bears world’s highest health, economic burden due to lead poisoning: Centre

Bullseye! NASA’s DART hits the mark, successfully alters asteroid path

Make steel future-ready

As world converges for an African CoP, the continent’s east bets on geothermal

‘Cancel all debt’: Activists disrupt IMF, World Bank annual meet

India is patently way behind on 5G

Skewed sex ratio worsens marriage woes for Marathwada farmers

Southwest monsoon likely to withdraw from UP, Gujarat, MP in next 4-5 days: IMD

These are India’s climate hotspots

The 5 biggest threats to West Africa’s oceans — and what to do about them

New ‘highly infectious’ Omicron strains scare China

Simply Put: Zero Compensation

North India rains: Crops ruined in Uttar Pradesh; over half a million affected by floods

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Inclement weather affecting farmers’ mental health, social standing

Recurring rains in October call for change in monsoon definition

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 10, 2022)

Bhopal victims demonstrate in Delhi ahead of Supreme Court hearing on more compensation

Bihar man-eater shot: ‘We need to put down problem animals for wildlife conservation’

Bihar man-eater shot: Here is when an order can be given to put down such an animal

International Girl Child Day: Crimes against girls on the rise in India, especially eastern states

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: No brides for farmers as families look for city matches

Telangana’s new forest conflict panels bring Centre-state land rights relation under scanner

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 7, 2022)

Flood warnings that don’t break the banks

Sodium chromate fears drive activists to oppose planned factory in Nalgonda village

India is many, not one; has assimilated ideas from everywhere: Upcoming report

Polluter didn’t pay: Plachimada awaits compensation from Coca-Cola, 2 decades on

The Nobel for Svante Pääbo is an attempt to redefine modern man

‘India’s cheetah plan is flawed, may become hurdle for national conservation priorities’

In the name of development: How Nashik’s Goda Ghat juggled concretisation & de-concretisation over 2 decades

‘Changing climatic conditions induce vegetation changes, which shapes human evolution’

UP Dussehra downpour: 10,000% excess rain in 3 districts of state wrecks kharif crop

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

NGT’s Rs 3,800 crore fine on Telangana is the biggest one yet over waste disposal

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 6, 2022)

Simply Put: Extinction, not evolution

Our Coal, Our Right: Here is why these Chhattisgarh tribals stage a ‘coal satyagraha’ every October 2

Depleting food grain stock ring alarms: Is India staring at a rice crisis?

Climate change escalates suicide rates among Marathwada farmers

War-Pandemic: World is poorer now; will double its poverty level on the target year of eradication

2022 Chemistry Nobel awarded for ‘click chemistry’, which has possible applications in healthcare

Monsoon 2022: Is excess September rainfall to blame for the Danda-2 avalanche in Uttarakhand

2022 Physics Nobel for quantum entanglement which creates secure communication networks

NGT stops mining in ecologically sensitive Madhav National Park in Madhya Pradesh

Report: 200 environmental activists murdered in 2021

District formation in Indian states is a tricky decision

NGT questions clearances; halts mining at Shaliganga Nallah in Kashmir

Semantics of Anthropocene: Have humans really formed a new era

Researchers find what happens when the sun goes to sleep

Nobel prize: Svante Pääbo’s ancient DNA discoveries offer clues as to what makes us human

Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

WHO warns of ‘worrying surge’ in cholera cases globally

Food production will need 165-600 million hectares more land to meet demand by 2050

Carbon dots: A futuristic solution for sustainably managing aquatic environment?

Punjab is usually blamed for burning paddy stubble; here is the back story to that

Millet might: Here is how Odisha can succeed in reviving these cereals lost to the Green Revolution

‘Caste and Partition in Bengal’ ignores the work of Dalit scholars; here is how

Strong start: This Prayagraj non-profit gives poor children a chance to complete their education

World

Eating right, for the environment: WWF’s diet chart to help curb climate change, biodiversity loss

Heavy metal out there: Researchers detect barium in atmospheres of 2 exoplanets

IN PHOTOS: Species unlisted by CITES being traded more than recognised ones, says study

Ocean currents protect Galápagos Islands from global warming; but are they safe forever?

Nigeria floods: Expert insights into why they’re so devastating and what to do about them

Hazards in waiting: Half the world still without early warning systems, flags UN report

Africa needs $25 billion per year for universal access to clean energy: IEA

Male birth control options are in development, but a number of barriers still stand in the way

Indian researchers spot rare supermassive black hole, opens new avenues for star formation research

We have produced a new guide to decolonise language in conservation

Net-zero emission means doubling energy supply from renewables

Hidden Hunger: Every second child globally deficient in micronutrients, finds report

COVID-19: Is SARS-CoV-2 evolving differently after omicron

Climate crisis: Expect more extreme heatwaves in near future

Legacy Waste: Did mustard gas from World Wars dumped in Baltic cause Nord Stream explosions

Nord Stream spews high levels of methane, likely to affect marine life

Insects today damage plants more despite dwindling numbers: Study

Climate finance: Donors give less than they claim; and not for mitigation to needy countries

Simply Put: Death of Irony

Not enough women in World Health Assembly: Some countries may need a century for gender parity

World Mental Health Day: WHO-FIFA installs friendship benches to promote mental-health awareness

A million-year-old marine DNA can reveal how climate change will affect Antarctica

2022 Economics Nobel awarded to trio for improving ability to avoid financial crises

Climate change triggered droughts in Northern Hemisphere: Study

Almost 60% of Africa’s low-income countries in debt distress: UNCTAD

Why every degree counts now

Nigeria’s missing virus hunters: University decline robs country of virologists

Vultures mostly forage outside protected areas; conservation efforts should be focused there, urges study

Irony just died: Coca-Cola, among biggest global polluters, to sponsor CoP27

Climate tipping points could lock in unstoppable changes to the planet — how close are they?

‘Sea monsters’ were real millions of years ago. New fossils tell about their rise and fall

Sustainable forestry paramount for biodiversity conservation: FAO

Lack of indigenous people’s participation big barrier to mainstreaming of biodiversity: FAO

Ice flow in Antarctica changes with season, can impact sea-level rise estimates

Graduates in forest education ill-equipped to handle sector’s emerging demands: Report

FAO report forecasts spike in wood-based substitutes to non-renewables; expects 1 million new jobs

Vegetarians more likely to be depressed than meat-eaters – possible reasons

WHO sounds alarm on India-made cough syrups linked to children’s death in The Gambia

Afghanistan under Taliban: A decade’s progress eroded in a year, says UN

Indigenous communities must be at the centre of sustainable agrifood systems: FAO director-general

WHO approval to South Africa’s vaccine regulatory body

Inflation can kill Africa human development, World Bank warns

How climate change is wreaking havoc on communities in Niger Delta

No evidence of microplastics in emperor penguins, says study

Fresh twist in Moon’s genesis; lunar body likely formed within hours after collision

Climate risk index shows threats to 90% of the world’s marine species

Africa in space: continent has a lot to gain, but proper plans must be put in place

Australia to make efforts at saving koalas, 108 other ‘priority species’ over next 10 years

Climate change may aid spread of Lassa fever from west to east Africa by 2070: Report

Human activities are eating into reindeer grazing land in Europe

Nord Stream leaks: Where will Europe get its gas from now?

Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo gets Medicine Nobel for his contributions to paleogenomics

Mexico braces for flash floods, landslides as Hurricane Orlene barrels in

Bitcoin mining unsustainable; climate damages comparable to beef, natural gas, crude oil: Study

James Webb Telescope captures clearest view of Neptune’s rings after 3 decades

Brazil to go in for second round of voting after Lula fails to win outright

Agriculture

Organic fertiliser: A must for the next green revolution

Bihar agrarian crisis: Why crores in diesel subsidies may not be the answer

Skewed sex ratio worsens marriage woes for Marathwada farmers

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Inclement weather affecting farmers’ mental health, social standing

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: Weather vagaries force farmers to sell lands

Depleting food grain stock ring alarms: Is India staring at a rice crisis?

Climate change escalates suicide rates among Marathwada farmers

Extreme rainfall damages nearly 4 million hectares of crops in Marathwada

Food production will need 165-600 million hectares more land to meet demand by 2050

Punjab is usually blamed for burning paddy stubble; here is the back story to that

Millet might: Here is how Odisha can succeed in reviving these cereals lost to the Green Revolution

Climate Change

Device made for the Moon may aid in carbon sequestration on Earth

Can carbon capture be new hope for mitigating CO2 emissions?

Simply Put: Noah’s Ark 2.0

Make steel future-ready

These are India’s climate hotspots

Climate crisis: Expect more extreme heatwaves in near future

North India rains: Crops ruined in Uttar Pradesh; over half a million affected by floods

Recurring rains in October call for change in monsoon definition

Climate finance: Donors give less than they claim; and not for mitigation to needy countries

Simply Put: Death of Irony

A million-year-old marine DNA can reveal how climate change will affect Antarctica

Climate change triggered droughts in Northern Hemisphere: Study

Why every degree counts now

Irony just died: Coca-Cola, among biggest global polluters, to sponsor CoP27

Climate tipping points could lock in unstoppable changes to the planet — how close are they?

‘Changing climatic conditions induce vegetation changes, which shapes human evolution’

UP Dussehra downpour: 10,000% excess rain in 3 districts of state wrecks kharif crop

Ice flow in Antarctica changes with season, can impact sea-level rise estimates

Climate risk index shows threats to 90% of the world’s marine species

Monsoon 2022: Is excess September rainfall to blame for the Danda-2 avalanche in Uttarakhand

Human activities are eating into reindeer grazing land in Europe

Renewable Energy

Africa needs $25 billion per year for universal access to clean energy: IEA

Net-zero emission means doubling energy supply from renewables

Bitcoin mining unsustainable; climate damages comparable to beef, natural gas, crude oil: Study

Economy

What role will tech play in sustainability for businesses

Simply Put: Cancel all debt?

‘Cancel all debt’: Activists disrupt IMF, World Bank annual meet

2022 Economics Nobel awarded to trio for improving ability to avoid financial crises

Afghanistan under Taliban: A decade’s progress eroded in a year, says UN

Energy

India’s green push for second-generation bioethanol

Net Zero by 2070: India still has 99 coal projects in pipeline

Surge in clean fuel prices may hurt Delhi’s air pollution fight

Nord Stream leaks: Where will Europe get its gas from now?

Environment

This Pune stone-crusher unit shows how to do it properly

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 10, 2022)

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 7, 2022)

NGT stops mining in ecologically sensitive Madhav National Park in Madhya Pradesh

Disaster

Hazards in waiting: Half the world still without early warning systems, flags UN report

Southwest monsoon likely to withdraw from UP, Gujarat, MP in next 4-5 days: IMD

Flood warnings that don’t break the banks

Mexico braces for flash floods, landslides as Hurricane Orlene barrels in

Pollution

Delhites, all that rain does not mean you will have a smog-free Diwali. Here is why

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (October 12, 2022)

Simply Put: Zero Compensation

Nord Stream spews high levels of methane, likely to affect marine life

Bhopal victims demonstrate in Delhi ahead of Supreme Court hearing on more compensation

Sodium chromate fears drive activists to oppose planned factory in Nalgonda village

Polluter didn’t pay: Plachimada awaits compensation from Coca-Cola, 2 decades on

Water

Water, Marathwada women’s woe: No brides for farmers as families look for city matches

In the name of development: How Nashik’s Goda Ghat juggled concretisation & de-concretisation over 2 decades

Waste

International E-Waste Day: Over 5 billion phones will become waste this year

How one social enterprise is working to make Ladakh waste-free

Legacy Waste: Did mustard gas from World Wars dumped in Baltic cause Nord Stream explosions

NGT’s Rs 3,800 crore fine on Telangana is the biggest one yet over waste disposal