Earth day- Every Day

Hey all,
Loads of thoughts have been running across my mind in the recent times. Thought I should share at least some of them here. Apologies for not being in touch since April. Thanks to the connectivity problems in Bolivia and semester exams back in college.

First a good news, the Forest Survey of India has reported a 0.2% rise in forest cover this year and estimates that the forest cover in India is around 21.06%. Inspite of all our efforts, 150-200 species becoming extinct every 24 hours! This is one of the reason why the WED 2010 was so important to all of us. But, unfortunately we had to celebrate this day, which apparently had the theme as " Many species, One planet, One future" with oil flowing out of Deep Horizon drilling station.

I realised how much work we have to make the folks around us realise the danger Mother Earth is facing. Yes, loads and loads of youth across the globe are joining the climate campaign to bring the change, realising that the leaders have cheated them. They want the leaders to take a commitment we need to avoid the catastrophic climate change that affects everyone, the commitment required to help those already facing the effects of it, at the earliest.

I think it is time for us to strategise our actions to try and give a human face to environment issues and enable the young and energetic to realise not only their responsiblity, but also their power to become the messengers for change in support of sustainable and equitable development.

We would be successful in this if we can some how communicate the "Earth day - Every day" concept of Kartikeya Singh effectively to the youth. Kartik feels that we need more than just one day , we need everyday to be an Earth day or World Environment Day to embody he spirit of the planet in every decision we make.He also feels that the various challenges being faced by us should be addressed first. These Challenges force us to think about how we might serve as key stone species, vital to planets bio diversity and not the opposite.

I completely agree with Kartik. That is how we can make the most of our remaining days on Earth!

PWCCC to give a voice to world's poor

Cross posted from http://envivo.cmpcc.org.bo/Bolivia-climate-change-talks-to?lang=es

By Andres Schipani in La Paz and John Vidal, Guardian, April 18, 2010

Rafael Quispe is gearing up for his trip. He packs a small leather bag, puts on his black poncho, an alpaca scarf sporting the rainbow-coloured, chequered Andean indigenous flag and his black hat. "This will be an important gathering, a very important gathering. It is about saving our Mother Earth, about saving nature," he says.

Quispe, an Aymara indigenous leader, is heading for Bolivia’s central city of Cochabamba for the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, the grassroots alternative to last year’s ill-fated UN talks in Copenhagen.

At least 5,000 people from worldwide indigenous movements and civil-society groups, as well as presidents, scientists, activists and observers from 90 governments, are expected to attend what is being called the "Woodstock" of climate change summits.

"According to some analyses, about 80% of the world’s pollution comes from developed nations and harms, mostly, developing nations. So we feel we have to do something, we must be heard, we must be compensated," says Quispe, who last December lobbied the case of his community at Copenhagen.

"The COP15 was a total failure, so brother President Evo Morales has decided to call for this climate change conference to do something about it. We the people are the ones that should take the lead on how to tackle the climate crisis," says Quispe.

Even if the Cochabamba meeting will have no bearing on the UN climate talks, the idea is to give a voice to the world’s poorest people – those most affected by climate change – and to make governments more aware of their plight.

The main goal is to present draft proposals to the UN climate meeting due to be held in Mexico later this year.

Morales will also use the meeting to announce what could be the world’s largest referendum, with up to 2 billion people being asked to vote on ways out of the climate crisis. Bolivia wants to create a UN charter of rights and to draft an action plan to set up an international climate justice tribunal.

"The only way to get climate negotiations back on track, not just for Bolivia or other countries, but for all of life, biodiversity, our Mother Earth, is to put civil society back into the process. The only thing that can save mankind from a [climate] tragedy is the exercise of global democracy," said Bolivia’s UN ambassador, Pablo Solon.

"There will be no secret discussions behind closed doors. The debate and the proposals will be led by communities on the frontlines of climate change and by organisations and individuals from civil society dedicated to tackling the climate crisis," he added.

Bolivia is playing an increasingly important role in the climate negotiations by leading attempts to force developed countries to slash their emissions further than they have so far pledged.

It was one of seven countries that refused to sign up to the deal that emerged from Copenhagen, incurring the wrath of Britain and the US, which this month withdrew $3.5m (£2.3m) of climate aid from Bolivia.

Last April, the UN general assembly approved Morales’ initiative of launching the International Mother Earth Day every 22 April to protect the rights of the Andean divinity, Pachamama (Mother Earth), and of "all living beings".

"What is behind all this discussion is that we have broken the harmony with Mother Earth, with nature, and because we have broken that harmony we are now suffering the consequences of climate change," said Solon.

In an office plastered with images of Che Guevara, Solon says Bolivia is taking the initiative because of its indigenous constituency. "Things are moving in a bad direction. Governments know it, scientists know it, but things are not changing. I would say this is the only scenario to make a balance between the pressure that at this moment the corporations are putting on governments, versus the pressure that can emerge from civil society."

Eco-activists mass for alternative climate summit in Bolivia

Cross posted from http://envivo.cmpcc.org.bo/Eco-activists-mass-for-alternative?lang=es

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — Environmental activists, indigenous leaders and Hollywood celebrities are gathering in Bolivia ahead of a self-styled global people’s conference on climate change starting Tuesday.

Thousands of attendees intend to highlight the plight of the world’s poorest who they argue were largely ignored at the official United Nations-sponsored summit in Copenhagen last December.

The Copenhagen meeting was widely drubbed for failing to produce a new treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions, with Bolivia, along with Cuba and Sudan, among the leading voices questioning the climate accord.

Critics say that deal will not avert a catastrophe and the "People’s World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights," which runs through Thursday, aims to draft new proposals for consideration at the next UN meeting in Mexico at the end of the year.

Bolivia’s UN ambassador Pablo Solon said the conference, which was expected to be attended by some 18,000 people, was "the only way to get the climate change talks back on track."

And Bolivian Environment Minister Juan Pablo Ramos described the Cochabamba meeting as "a major mobilization to fundamentally influence the next climate summit in Mexico in December."

Developing nations have resisted a legally binding climate treaty, arguing that wealthy nations must bear the primary responsibility for climate change.

Nearly 130 countries, including many of the world’s poorest, will be represented at the Cochabamba conference, which symbolically reaches its climax on Earth Day.

Individual participants include an assortment of anti-globalization activists like writer Naomi Klein of Canada and Jose Bove of France.

Also invited is James Cameron, the Canadian-born director of the blockbuster film "Avatar" and James Hansen, a US researcher who was among the first to warn about climate change.

Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, noted for his demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, was also due to take part, as was Hollywood actor and political activist Danny Glover.

"We have great extremes of heat and cold, and as a result we’re seeing illnesses and outbreaks that once had disappeared," said Nilo Cayuqueo, a Mapuche Indian preparing to attend the summit.

Cayuqueo described seeing the effect of climate change every day in his Argentine homeland, saying "there are no more butterflies in the air or worms in the earth" due to the impact of global warming.

This week’s gathering will also give a giant megaphone to a left-leaning bloc of Latin American leaders, including presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales, the indigenous president of host nation Bolivia.

The conference will seek to refine proposals presented by Morales in Copenhagen that included the creation of a world tribunal for climate issues and a global referendum on environmental choices.

Presidents Chavez and Morales were among the harshest critics of the December 2009 Copenhagen conference, arguing that developing countries were largely ignored in the debates.

The conference begins the day after representatives from the world’s leading economies gathered in Washington for a preparatory meeting ahead of the December UN summit in Cancun.

The US-led Major Economies Forum comprises 17 countries responsible for the bulk of global emissions and excludes smaller nations such as Sudan whose firebrand negotiators held up sessions at December’s Copenhagen summit.

Washington hopes the closed-door talks will allow key nations to quietly assess what they can achieve heading into the next major climate summit in December in Cancun.

"Clearly, there is still a gap between the views of the developing and developed world," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "We’re going to see if we can, through the course of this discussion, narrow that down."

BASIC countries call for acceleration of UN climate Convention process

Crossposted from Green Idol Blog

Greenpeace welcomes the position taken by Ministers of the BASIC group of countries(Brazil, China, India and South Africa), who met yesterday in New Delhi, to continue negotiations on a fair and ambitious climate agreement within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, Greenpeace emphasised that such an agreement needs to be legally binding in order to ensure its implementation.

In their joint statement, ministers from the four leading emerging economies called for meetings of the climate convention’s working groups on long-term co-operative action and the Kyoto Protocol to be held in March 2010. They also want the working groups to meet at least five times before the next major UN climate conference which is scheduled to start on 29 November 2010, in Mexico.

The Ministers underlined that UN climate talks occupy a central position and they called for all negotiations to be conducted in an inclusive and transparent manner. They also outlined their desire for better South-South scientific co-operation and support for vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change.Greenpeace is encouraged by the willingness of the BASIC group to support vulnerable countries, both by ensuring their participation in open and transparent negotiations and by providing technological and or financial support.

However, Greenpeace is calling on the BASIC countries to make this support more tangible by the time of its next meeting that the South African government is to host in April 2010.

Greenpeace also noted the further consolidation of the BASIC countries as a group and urges them to assume the responsibilities that go with an alliance of such influential economic powers.
Though the BASIC countries demonstrating leadership in furthering negotiations on a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement, Greenpeace wants them to exert pressure on industrialised counties tourgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make their own appropriate contributions in emission reductions.

“Continued inaction by governments would allow global warming to engulf us all,” said Siddharth Pathak, Climate and Energy Policy Officer, Greenpeace India. “If we are to keep this demon at bay and avoid dangerous climate change, industrialised countries must cut their emissions together, 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and provide massive financial and technological support to enable developing nations as a whole to reduce their projected growth in emissions by 15-30% over the same timescale. It’s not easy but the consequences of failure would be among our worst nightmares,” he said.

IPCC Facts and spin

Dear Friends,

The media has been buzzing about the IPCC's Himalayan glacier and Netherlands Sea level rise controversies.

The international climate panel headed by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for a ground-breaking report on climate change. Several small errors have now surfaced in the 3,000-page report.

If you're wondering what the news reports mean for climate change, here are some pieces of information and answers to the questions in your mind.

What is IPCC?

The IPCC is not, as many people seem to think, a large organization. In fact, it has only 10 full-time staff in its secretariat at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, plus a few staff in four technical support units that help the chairs of the three IPCC working groups and the national greenhouse gas inventories group. The actual work of the IPCC is done by unpaid volunteers – thousands of scientists at universities and research institutes around the world who contribute as authors or reviewers to the completion of the IPCC reports. A large fraction of the relevant scientific community is thus involved in the effort. The three working groups are:

Working Group 1 (WG1), which deals with the physical climate science basis, as assessed by the climatologists.

Working Group 2 (WG2), which deals with impacts of climate change on society and ecosystems, as assessed by social scientists, ecologists, etc.

Working Group 3 (WG3), which deals with mitigation options for limiting global warming, as assessed by energy experts, economists, etc.

The Controversies and the facts:

Himalayan glaciers: In a regional chapter on Asia in Volume 2, written by authors from the region, it was erroneously stated that 80% of Himalayan glacier area would very likely be gone by 2035.

The problem here is not that the IPCC’s glacier experts made an incorrect prediction. The problem is that a Working Group 2 chapter, instead of relying on the proper IPCC projections from their WG1 colleagues, cited an unreliable outside source in one place. Fixing this error involves deleting two sentences on page 493 of the Working Group 2 report.

Sea level in the Netherlands: The IPCC report states that “The Netherlands is an example of a country highly susceptible to both sea-level rise and river flooding because 55% of its territory is below sea level”. This sentence was provided by a Dutch government agency – the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, which has now published a correction stating that the sentence should have read “55 per cent of the Netherlands is at risk of flooding; 26 per cent of the country is below sea level, and 29 per cent is susceptible to river flooding”.

Needless to say, the actual number mentioned in the report has no bearing on any IPCC conclusions and has nothing to do with climate science, and it is questionable whether it should even be counted as an IPCC error.

Do the U.N. climate panel's errors mean there is no threat from climate change?

No, the dire threat from climate change is not in question. The panel's errors were only related to the intensity of climate change. There are in fact only two real mistakes that have been found so far and neither point to any change in the basic premise of human induced climate change. [ "U.N. climate panel admits Dutch sea level flaw," Reuters, 13 February 2010 http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE61C1V920100213 ]

In some media reports the impression has been given that even the fundamental results of climate change science are now in question, such as whether humans are in fact changing the climate, causing glacier melt, sea level rise and so on. The IPCC does not carry out primary research, and hence any mistakes in the IPCC reports do not imply that any climate research itself is wrong. A reference to a poor report or an editorial lapse by IPCC authors obviously does not undermine climate science. Doubting basic results of climate science based on the recent claims against the IPCC is particularly ironic since none of the real or supposed errors being discussed are even in the Working Group 1 report, where the climate science basis is laid out.

For over two decades, scientists have consistently found that climate change is happening, and it's caused by human activity. ["New proof that man has caused global warming," Times Online UK, 18 February 2009http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article516033.ece ]

Why is there so much furore about these errors?

To those familiar with the science and the IPCC’s work, the current media discussion is in large part simply absurd and surreal. Journalists who have never even peeked into the IPCC report are now outraged that one wrong number appears on page 493 of Volume 2.

Over the past 20 years, the U.N. climate panel has been attacked again and again by the fossil fuel industry and by politicians who are determined to discredit climate change science and continue on an unsustainable development pathway which would ensure dire consequences for this earth. ["The doubters do disservice to climate facts," The Globe and Mail, 18 February 2009http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/the-doubters-do-disservice-to-climate-facts/article1472224/ ]

Are the Himalayan glaciers melting or not?

In 2007, the U.N. climate panel reported that Himalayan glaciers might vanish by 2035. The specific year turned out to be based on a flawed study, and the panel has corrected the error.

["UN climate panel admits Dutch sea level flaw", Times of India/AFP, 15 February 2010 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/UN-climate-panel-admits-Dutch-sea-level-flaw/articleshow/5574581.cms]
The Himalayan glaciers are retreating, but the exact rate of retreat is still uncertain. India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh was one of the first to argue that the 2035 forecast was "not based on an iota of scientific evidence," but he confirms the Himalayan glaciers "are indeed receding and the rate is cause for great concern." ["U.N. panel re-examines Himalayan glacier thaw report," Reuters, 18 January 2010 http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60H3VE20100118 ]

Who will be impacted by climate change?

Everyone. Lesser developed countries and small island states will be hit hardest and fastest. ["Island states stake bold claim at UN climate talks," AFP, 11 December 2009 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3BrJHqiKUM_tiAQ8EAQc_H_qEsg ]

But rich nations are not immune to the violent weather, drought, disease, famine, mass migrations, and wars that will be caused if we don't stop climate change. ["Pentagon review to address climate change for the first time," The Hill, January 30, 2010http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/78855-pentagon-review-to-address-climate-change-for-the-first-time ]

What is my personal call on climate change?

The science is clear. Climate change is real, is happening now and is caused by people. The solution is clean energy, smart use of our power and forest protection.

If enough of us take action, we can stop climate change.

Since lots of people are wondering about the media stories, please spread this information to your family, friends, classmates and to everyone who can strengthen the global climate movement.

Thanks a billion!

Disclaimer: The views expressed are my personal views and are not related to IYCN.

Climate Action- Right Now!

Well friends its official now, all the hopes of Hopenhagen have gone low because nothing fabulous came out of the conference halls of COP15 as many of us expected. 45000 energetic environmentalists and climate campaigners at Copenhagen, millions across the various cities on the globe are all more than frustrated, angry and sad to hear or read or discuss about the Copenhagen accord and for their useless efforts to change the thoughts of the brainless political leaders through their campaigns in the past few months. Leaders have failed to deliver the agreement they promised, the agreement we need to avoid catastrophic climate change that affects everyone, the agreement we need to help those already facing the risks of climate change. Everybody knows that the overnight Copenhagen accord stint was not because the leaders felt that climate change is the biggest problem facing humanity or to emphasize their political will to urgently combat climate change but to just save their face and their own interests. But one thing is crystal clear Copenhagen did not deliver what was necessary. Instead of taking a step forward, they took a couple of them backward.

Now the question arises... What next? Curse the world leaders for not sealing the deal or start our preparations to corner them at least at COP16. Let’s not lose all the hopes, energy and enthusiasm. Let us prove the world that the harder a ball is hit against the ground, the more it bounces. Its time to plan for a climate renaissance. Its time for us to unite all the people who are like minded and are ready to wage a war on climate change, without bothering about treaties and protocols. Its time for us to explain, confuse or convince the people who don’t believe in climate change to join us. Its time for us to reach out to the youth of India and lead a bigger climate revolution across the nation, continent and the globe. Its time for all of us to realize that this time is past urgent and that we have to act now to save those trillions of families who are to suffer. Its time for us to get the civil society better and mobilize them to demand justice of our leaders for the sake of those lives at stake. Its time for us to regroup, reenergize and reemerge as a stronger movement. A movement that despite momentary weariness will persevere for as long as it takes to see justice come.

Yes, its time for us to have satyagrahas and protests all across the world and start our campaigns so that a fair, binding and ambitious deal comes out of COP16.

Well after all this I can’t wait for tomorrow anymore. I am ready to bang my head against the wall till it falls though it is not that easy. I am ready, right now, to be the soldier who doesn’t mind going down fighting to save the future of all his brothers, sisters and future generations …. What about U?

smoke free village

COOKERS ALL THE WAY: On a street in Bysanivaripalle in Andhra Pradesh.

Here is a bright little village in Andhra Pradesh that is all solar and smoke-free — the first of its kind in the country.

Bysanivaripalle, 125 km northwest of Tirupati, has 36 families. Their main means of livelihood is sericulture. The eco-conscious residents of the electrified village went in for the first biogas plant in the region two decades ago. The officials of the Non-Conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NEDCAP) did not need to put in much effort to motivate them to go solar.

Intersol, an Austrian non-governmental organisation, sponsored the provision of "Sk-14" cookers here last year. Gadhia Solar, a Valsad-based environmental body that imports, supplies and installs them, executed the job. It is the single largest cluster of cookers that Gadhia Solar has installed anywhere. A group of schoolchildren from Austria visited the village last year to witness the project.

"With 23 biogas plants and 26 solar cookers, we do not have to use a matchstick," says Sadananda Reddy, a progressive sericulturist who was honoured by the Karnataka Government recently for his top quality cocoons.

Apart from preparing rice, the solar cookers are used to fry chips, roast peanuts and make traditional Andhra sweets. Eyeing sales in the nearby Madanapalle town, a few enterprising people are baking cakes and biscuits too.

The physically challenged local washerman has stopped buying coal: he keeps his traditional iron on the cooker and takes it out burning hot in 10 minutes before he flattens creases into a starchy crisp.

Says Papulamma, who cooks midday meals for 48 children in the village school: "No need to go to the forest anymore to fetch firewood. I cook the meal in less than two hours and avoid coughing, and burning in the eyes." To counter the harsh sunrays, NEDCAP has provided the women sunglasses.

The village saves 72 tonnes of firewood, or 5,832 kg of LPG, cutting carbon dioxide emissions to the tune of 104 tonnes a year, according to Jagadeeswar Reddy, NEDCAP's district manager.

The village has come in for praise from the developer of the Sk-14 cooker, Dieter Seifert of Germany. In an e-mail message, he says: "There may be places where there are more number of solar cookers, but I have never come across an entire village using just solar cookers and biogas, which makes it a smoke-free village in the real sense."