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Planet earth magazine

The document discusses several topics related to climate change and the environment: 1) For the past few years, climate change has been widely discussed but action has not matched the discussion. Winter is already feeling the effects of climate change with seasons merging into one another. 2) The pressures on the planet come from human lifestyles as the world spends over $7 trillion annually on energy and infrastructure. While research aims to address climate change, individual actions are also needed. 3) The financial crisis, food supply, energy, and climate change are all interlinked issues that require global cooperation to address. The response to these challenges will help determine the future prosperity and sustainability of the global economy.

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ARE WE LOSING WINTERS? HOW GREEN IS YOUR DATA CENTRE? SOLAR ENERGY: THE WAY FORWARD w w w . p l a n e t e a r t h - i n d i a . c o m earth P L A N E T february 2009rs. 100 War in the MakingClimate change is one phenomenon that has brought man down to his knees. Food and water crisis loom large, leaving man with no option but to fight… launch issue COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN
03 04 Countdown to Copenhagen Can science save the world? The hydra-headed challenges of food supply, energy and finance are all linked and breaking a dependence on them is far from possible. The answer lies in working together and the present financial crunch will help us understand its consequences better. The pressures of our planet have been created by our lifestyles. The world over, we spend over $ 7 trillion every year on energy and its related infrastructure. While the current research and development efforts may not combat the climate change challenge, individual measures on our part may help. For the past few years, climate change has been discussed at all the world conferences and across coffee tables. But winter already feels the heat; it happens to be one of the first victims of climate change with one season merging into another 08 20 NEWS Are we losing winters? 27 28 In an economy that is based on hydrocarbons, an initiative that warrants zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology, Masdar city true to its meaning is a source or initiator of a new era, writes Mukta Rohra India has been punching above its weight in renewable energy sector. India started early but other countries have started running, if India has to keep pace we need to Masdar the source Winds of change sprint. Also the industry needs a clear policy framework by the government says Dr Sivaraman in a candid interview with T P Venu Every ambitious country or business house wishes to cash 30 Plan Well For Better Credits in on the benefits offered by CDM projects and earn carbon credits. But be warned that it is environmental compassion and not equipment and emissions reduction, what will turn in greater rewards, says risk analyst Swaminathan Krishnamurthy GREEN TECHNOLOGY WAR IN THE MAKING 33 12 Run out of fuel? Consider coffee18 Longer shelf life, zero- emissions and aromatic exhaust fumes, are just a fraction of the qualities that coffee biodiesel discovered by Dr Manoranjan Misra and his team promise, writes Sheetal Vyas CONTENTS INNOVATION A PEOPLE UPROOTED BY NATURE 22 SOLAR ENERGY THE WAY FORWARD 24
Responding to changes reening the environment is perhaps the most conspicuous area of concern today. GThe governments are under pressure to adopt ‘carbon targets’, the scientific community is working over vehemently to find ways to adapt to climate change and industries are embracing a greener approach. Right from the policy makers to newspapers, international meets to individual discussions, environment and greening is the buzzword. Sustainability and sustainable development have replaced development and growth. While a lot has been said about saving our limited resourcesandcappingthedamagewehavealready donetotheenvironment,actionandcompassiontrail miles away. Similarly to believe that our role ends with just talking about global warming, warming seas, breaking ice-lines and depleting water resources,wouldbeimprudentonourpart. Today, the reality of climate change and man’s contribution in blistering the Earth has crossed thelineofpossibilitytobecomeafactoflife.Now, as we race towards an age that will mark the tail- end of fossil fuel reserves and look up to alternative energy utilisation, there is a critical need to sensitise people, share knowledge and endeavour to thin the lines between research, conceptandreality. With breakthrough scientific research, sustainability drives, eco-friendly living on one hand, and resource availability issues, environmental concerns and programme implementations one the other, receiving less- than-deserved reportage, there is a pressing need to address these issues. To give these issues the deserved attention, Gateway Media has introduced Planet Earth, an exclusive magazineonEarthSciences. The monthly periodical explores environmental policies, Earth care issues and responsibilities like pollution control, waste management, energy efficiency, green living, conservation and eco- friendly buildings and related technology breakthroughs. Features such as Climate Connection, explore the possibilities of a region’s ecological balance and lifestyle being disturbed by subtle, yet powerful climatic changes. Survival weighs the dilemmas of environmental damage, whichhasbeencoveredinthisissue. Our objective is transparent, to develop a scientific understanding of Earth’s system and its response to natural or human-induced changes, and to become a ready reference to the common man seekinginformationabouttheworldaroundhim.At the same time we believe that your suggestions and ideas will help us improve and prioritise our content because as compassionate residents of theEarth,weseektomakeadifference. Ramprasad PublicationDirector ramprasad@gatewaymedia.in w w w . p l a n e t e a r t h - i n d i a . c o mvol 1 issue 1 february 2009 publications director ramprasad associate editor sheetal vyas online editor mukta rohra copy editor srinivas reddy g Design masa vijay, lakshmi d, yogesh dhabale, srinivas web upender reddy v head - business & events wilson rajan wilson@gatewaymedia.in - 99499 05432 manager - marcom padmapriya c padmapriya@gatewaymedia.in - 096191 61665 circulation sri narayana Dr Shailesh R Nayak Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences Government of India TO OUR READERS Mr Kartikeya Sarabhai Director, Centre for Environment Education Nehru Foundation for Development Dr Harsh Gupta President of Geological Society of India & Raja Ramanna Fellow, NGRI Maj Gen (Dr) R Sivakumar CEO, NSDI & Head NRDMS Prof B N Goswami Director, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Dr Prem C Jain Chairman, Indian Green Building Council and CMD Spectral Services Consultants Pvt. Ltd. Dr S R Shetye Director, National Institute of Oceanography Mr Mahesh Babu Managing Director & CEO IL&FS Ecosmart Ltd. Mr C S Bhaskar Managing Director and CEO Naturol BioEnergy Ltd. ADVISORY BOARD marketing & sales mumbai: venkatram pillai manager - marketing & pr venkat@gatewaymedia.in - 098192 34741 delhi: k n sudheer regional manager sudheer@gatewaymedia.in - 099101 66443 kolkata: nikhil doshi region head nikhil.doshi@gatewaymedia.in - 098369 96293 chennai: w sudhakar manager sudhakar@gatewaymedia.in - 097899 81869 international: sowmya shenoy sr. manager sowmya.shenoy@gatewaymedia.in - 098803 78785 Planet Earth is printed and published by L Vijayanand Reddy on behalf of Gateway Media Pvt. Ltd., Plot No.761, Road No.39, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad-500 033, India. Phone: +9140 2355 0991, 2355 0992 Fax : + 91 40 2355 0994 www.gatewaymedia.in. Printed at Kala Jyothi Process Pvt. Ltd. 1-1-60/5, RTC cross roads, Hyderabad - 500 020. Please note: views expressed in the articles are those of the writer(s) and may not be shared by the editor or members of the editorial board. Unsolicited material will not be returned. Copyright: no material published here should be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from gateway media. Feed Back: Readers are advised to send all feedback and comments to editor@gatewaymedia.in Subscribe: Phone: +91 40 2355 0991, e-mail : subscribe@gatewaymedia.in Write to: Gateway Media Pvt. Ltd., Plot No.761, Road No.39, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad-500 033, INDIA Phone: +91 40 2355 0991, 2355 0992; Fax : + 91 40 2355 0994; www.planetearth-india.com Printed on recycle paper
COMMENTARY Gro Harlem Brundtland, Ricardo Lagos, Festus Mogae, And Srgjan Kerim THE FINANCIAL CRISIS has been uppermost in the minds of most world leaders. Yet, however high the price of a global bail- out, we know one thing: it pales next to the enormous costs – and profound human consequences – of delaying action on climate change. There is a sort of beauty in this predicament: if we act wisely, we can tackle both crises at once. Climate change negotiations over the next year offer an unprecedented opportunity to build a more profitable, safer, and sustainable global economy. Today’s challenges – finance, food, and energy, for example – are many. Yet they share a root cause, whereby speculative and often narrow interests have superseded the common interest, common responsibilities, and common sense. This same short- term thinking characterises the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. We cannot break that Countdown to Copenhagen The hydra-headed challenges of food supply, energy and finance are all linked and breaking a dependence on them is far from possible. The answer lies in working together and the present financial crunch will help us understand its consequences better. planet earth | | February 0903 dependence overnight. Yet we recognise that continuing to pour trillions of dollars into carbon- based infrastructure and fossil-fuel subsidies is like investing in sub-prime real estate. In essence, we are mortgaging our children’s future to pay for an inherently unsustainable and inequitable way of life. The greatest risk we face lies in continuing down this path. So, how do we begin to tackle the massive challenge of retooling our global economy, preserving the planet, and lifting billions out of poverty? The answer is to deal seriously with climate change. And this is the time to do it – not in spite of the financial crisis, but because of it. As the saying goes, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. The climate change conference in Poznan was an important step. We have only 12 short months to hammer out the elements of a global climate change accord before world leaders convene next December in Copenhagen. If we work together, guided by a sense of urgency and common destiny, these negotiations can help steer the ship of the global economy toward less turbulent, greener waters and into a safe harbor. We believe that the best investment in our collective future is to scale up the green, low-carbon economy. It is an investment with enormous potential for prosperity and profit. But it requires us to put in place a new climate change agreement now – one that all countries can accept. It must be comprehensive and ambitious, and it must set clear targets for emission reductions, adaptation, financing, and technology transfer. Developed and developing nations must find a shared vision of how this will work, striking a deal whereby rich countries lead by example in cutting emissions while providing the developing world with resources and know-how to ramp up their own climate change efforts. Energy investment decisions made today will lock in the world’s emissions profile for years Former US Vice President Al Gore speaks during the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poznan. UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE POZNAN 2008 POLAND 200 8
to come. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. Potentially catastrophic consequences await, not just for polar bears, but for millions of people. Adaptation must be a vital part of the negotiations. So must mitigation. In the cruel calculus of disasters, those least responsible for causing climate change will suffer first and worst from its inevitable effects. Developing nations will need increased financial support to protect the poorest and most vulnerable. Reaching an accord in Copenhagen is critical. But the route to a greener, lower-carbon future already is being forged in countries from Brazil to Bangladesh, Denmark to Indonesia. From investments in renewable energy and flex-fuel vehicles to reforestation, countries everywhere are realising that green is not an option, but a necessity for recharging their economies and creating millions of jobs. For example, with the right investments, tropical countries could significantly reduce emissions from the forestry sector while also creating green jobs. De-forestation currently accounts for roughly a fifth of all greenhouse-gas emissions. Last month, China announced a $ 586 billion economic stimulus package, some 25 per cent of which is to help bolster conservation, environmental protection, and renewable energy efforts. We hope that the new stimulus package helps to move China toward greener development, and that countries follow suit. The United States has also signaled a fundamental, abrupt shift in its global climate policy. In his first, post-election public address, Barack Obama declared that his presidency “will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs.” In marrying the issues of economic revitalisation, energy security, and climate change, Obama has articulated clearly the benefits of any Green New Deal. We welcome US re- engagement in global climate negotiations and await its leadership in transforming words into concrete policies that promote global green growth. As the US, China, and many other nations now realize, climate change is much more than an environmental issue. It is an energy, finance, and security issue. Indeed, it is a Head of State issue. We urge other world leaders to join us in forging a shared, long-term vision for cooperative action that is realized at next year’s conference in Copenhagen. Global cooperation has been key to managing the financial crisis. It is no less vital to managing climate change, for which the stakes are far higher. Together, we must invest in the safest, surest option – the green economy. Gro Harlem Brundtland is a former Prime Minister of Norway, Ricardo Lagos is a former President of Chile, Festus Mogae is a former President of Botswana, and Srgjan Kerim is a former President of the UN General Assembly. They are the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoys on Climate Change. © Project Syndicate, 2008. www.project-syndicate.org Can science save the world? The pressures of our planet have been created by our lifestyles. The world over, we spend over $ 7 trillion every year on energy and its related infrastructure. While the current research and development efforts may not combat the climate change challenge, individual measures on our part may help. FOR MOST PEOPLE, there has never been a better time to be alive than now. The innovations that drive economic advances – information technology, biotech, and nanotech – can boost living standards in both the developing and the developed world. We are becoming embedded in a cyberspace that can link anyone, anywhere, to all the world’s information and culture – and to every other person on the planet. Martin Rees Twenty-first century technologies will offer environmentally benign lifestyles and the resources to ease the plight and enhance the life chances of the world’s two billion poorest people. Moreover, the greatest threat of the 1960s and 1970s – nuclear annihilation – has diminished. This threat could recur, however, if there is a renewed standoff between new superpowers. And there are other risks planet earth | | February 0904
planet earth | | February 0905 needs for decades to come. If that continues, the concentration of CO will2 rise to twice the pre- industrial level by 2050, and three times that level later in the century. The world spends nearly $ 7 trillion a year on energy and its infrastructure; yet our current research and development efforts are not up to meeting the challenge of climate change. There is no single solution, but some measures, like better insulation of buildings, would save rather than cost money. Efforts to economise on energy, storing it, and generating it by “clean” or low-carbon methods deserve priority and the sort of commitment from governments that were accorded to the Manhattan Project (which created the atomic bomb) or the Apollo moon landing. The top priority should be a coordinated effort by Europe, the United States, and the other G-8+5 countries to build demonstration plants to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. This is crucial, because whatever technical advances there may be in solar and other renewable energy sources, we will depend on coal and oil for the next 40 years. Yet, unless the rising curve of annual emissions can be reversed, the CO2 concentration will irrevocably reach a truly threatening level. Mankind must also confront other global “threats without enemies” that are separate from (though linked with) climate change. Loss of biological diversity is one of the most severe such threats. The extinction rate stemming from humanity’s greater collective impact on the planet, and from the growing empowerment of individuals. Soon after World War II, physicists at the University of Chicago started a journal called the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to promote arms control. The logo on the Bulletin’s cover is a clock, the proximity of whose hands to midnight indicates the editors’ judgment of the precariousness of the world situation. Every few years, the minute hand shifted, either forwards or backwards. It came closest to midnight in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. When the Cold War ended, the Bulletin’s clock was put back to 17 minutes to midnight. But the clock has been creeping forward again. We are confronted by proliferation of nuclear weapons (by, say, North Korea and Iran). Al-Qaeda- style terrorists might willingly detonate a nuclear weapon in a city center, killing tens of thousands. Even if the nuclear threat is contained, the twenty-first century could confront us with grave new global perils. Climate change looms as this century’s primary long-term environmental challenge. Human actions – burning fossil fuels – have already raised the carbon dioxide concentration higher than it has ever been in the last 500,000 years, and it is rising by about 0.5 per cent a year. More disturbingly, coal, oil, and gas are projected to supply most of the world’s growing energy is 1,000 times higher than normal, and is increasing. Biodiversity is a crucial component of human well- being and economic growth. We are clearly harmed if fish stocks dwindle to extinction. Less evidently, there are plants in the rain forest whose gene pool might be useful to us. The pressures on our planet depend, of course, on our lifestyle. The world could not sustain its 6.5 billion people if they all lived like present-day Americans. But it could if even prosperous people adopted a vegetarian diet, traveled little, and interacted virtually. New technology will determine our lifestyle, and the demands that we make on energy and environmental resources. Nevertheless, our problems are aggravated by rapid growth in the human population, which
is projected to reach eight or even nine billion by 2050. If the increase continues beyond 2050, one cannot help but be gloomy about most people’s prospects. There are now, however, more than 60 countries where the fertility rate is below replacement level. If this were true of all countries, the global population would start to decline after 2050 – a development that would surely be benign. All of today’s developments – cyber, bio, or nano – will create new risks of abuse. The American National Academy of Sciences has warned that, “Just a few individuals with specialized skills…could inexpensively and easily produce a panoply of lethal biological weapons.…The deciphering of the human genome sequence and the complete elucidation of numerous pathogen genomes…allow science to be misused to create new agents of mass destruction.” Not even an organised network would be required; just a fanatic with the mindset of those who now design computer viruses. The global village will have its village idiots. In our increasingly interconnected world, there are new risks whose consequences could be widespread – and perhaps global. Even a tiny probability of global catastrophe is unacceptable. If we apply to catastrophic risks the same prudent analysis that leads us to buy insurance – multiplying probability by consequences – we would surely prioritize measures to reduce this kind of extreme risk. The decisions that we will make both individually and collectively in the foreseeable future will determine whether twenty-first century science yields benign or devastating outcomes. Lord Rees is Britain’s Astronomer Royal, President of the Royal Society, Master of the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College, and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics. © Project Syndicate/Europe’s World, 2008. www.project-syndicate.org www.europesworld.org ndia, as described by IPrime Minister Manmohan Singh in his National Climate Change Action Plan release speech, has an ancient legacy, which has forever revered nature as a source of life and not as a force that needs to be overpowered in order to meet our ends. A climate change action plan forwarded by such a country should look at possibilities that will help mobilise the nation’s energy in facing the challenge. For a careful strategy devised, will go a long way in ensuring that we sustain the development we have made and not allow climatic changes to reverse it. The challenge according to him, lies in encompassing the interests of both present and future generations and nurture a world, “which should continue to inspire the human imagination with the immensity of the blue ocean, the loftiness of snow-covered mountains, the green expanse of extensive forests and the silver streams of ancient rivers.” Elaborating on the primary causes that have contributed to the accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions, he suggests that we refer to our basic traditions, in order to set people in the country on the path of ecologically sustainable development. While a lot of discussion has been initiated in terms of compromises we may have to make on our growth in the process of achieving ecologically sustainable development, the Prime Minister believes that the achievement of economic growth need not be affected by ecological policies. A broader perspective on development is what is required, he says. And this should be inclusive of the quality of life. The plan will have the national energies being focussed on eight national missions – Solar Energy, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Conserving Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, Creating a “Green India”, Sustainable Agriculture and Strategic Knowledge Platform for Climate Change – that are to be pursued as key components of the sustainable development strategy. A gradual shift from economic activity based on fossil fuels to one based on non-fossil fuels and from reliance on non-renewable and depleting sources of energy to renewable sources of energy, is what India requires. Not sidelining the role India will play in a collaborative effort to bring about a change, he believes that the wisdom, creativity and enterprising nature of the Indian population will help in achieving this. India’s stand on climate change planet earth | | February 0906
NEWS YOU CAN USE cent post-consumerotorola, seeking M recycled paper into capitalise on addition, a postage-the trend towards paid recyclingmore environmentally envelope in boxfriendly products, has makes it easy tounveiled the first return previous mobilemobile phone made phone for recycling atfrom recycled water no cost.bottles, The MOTO W233 Renew. The phone was previewed at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opening in Las Vegas. "Not only is the plastic Through an alliancehousing of Renew with Carbonfund.org,made from plastics Motorola said, “itcomprised of recycled offsets the carbonwater bottles and 100 dioxide required topercent recyclable, manufacture,but it is also the distribute and operateworld's first carbon the phone throughneutral phone," investments inMotorola said. Care renewable energyhas been taken that sources andtotal packaging is reforestation.”printed on 100 per Mobile phone from recycled water bottles obiMonster, a company based in New Delhi when phone is fully charged or when Bluetooth and Mhas developed a first of its kind eco-friendly WLAN are switched on but not being used. software for Series 60 Mobile Devices that The company is in the process of evaluatingenables to reduce your carbon footprint while carbon footprint related numbers of severalincreasing your charger and battery life by devices. It informs that if used at its optimummanaging several features of a series 60 device level, the software could save up to US$ 10 persuch as Backlight, Charger, WLAN and Bluetooth. year in electricity charges, and a reduction in The software alerts the user to remove the charger carbon emissions A mobile application that reduces your carbon footprint gribusiness giant Monsanto announced the Aworld's first drought-tolerant corn, a development it says will "reset the bar" in farming productivity. "Drought-tolerant corn is designed to provide farmers yield stability during periods when water supply is scarce by mitigating the effects of drought or water stress within a corn plant," Monsanto said. Trials of the corn conducted last year in drought- prone areas of the American Midwest "met or exceeded the 6 per cent to 10 per cent target yield enhancement," according to the company. It advanced the yield by up to 10 corn bushels per acre (six quintals per hectare) beyond the average maximum of 130 bushels per acre (82 quintals per hectare). The corn is the first in a series of crops planned by Monsanto to address the affects of high food prices and climate on agriculture-based cultures around the world by reducing the need for water. World's first 'drought-tolerant' corn ready by 2010: Monsanto Monitoring greenhouse gases from space cientists at the University of California, Berkeley describe a Smethod for using microalgae for making biofuel by genetically modifying the algae. This will minimise the number of chlorophyll molecules needed to harvest light without compromising the photosynthesis process in the cells and instead of making more sugar molecules, the microalgae could be producing hydrogen or hydrocarbons. The scientists want to divert the normal function of photosynthesis from generating biomass to making products such as lipids, hydrocarbons, and hydrogen. Tasios Melis, one of the paper's co- authors uses the phrase “cellular optics” to describe this general effort to maximise the efficiency of the solar-to-product conversion process. Besides getting the algae to convert more sunlight to fuel, another issue that needs to be addressed is how to configure bio-culture tanks in a way that sunlight can penetrate the outer layer of algae so that lower-down layers can participate in the photo-conversion too. Engineered algae to make fuel instead of sugar surface, the Japan Equipped with two sensors, Aerospace GOSAT will track infrared Exploration Agency rays from the Earth, which japanese (JAXA) said. will help calculate the Aspace agency densities of the two "To fight climate change, wewill launch a satellite to greenhouse gases, because need to monitor the density ofmonitor greenhouse gases they absorb the rays at greenhouse gases in allaround the world, hoping the certain wavelengths. The regions around the world anddata it collects helps global satellite is set to be in orbit how their levels change but atefforts to combat climate for five years, will collect the moment, there are verychange. The Greenhouse data once a month, with few observation sites on landGases Observing Satellite preliminary data from the and they are concentrated in(GOSAT) is expected to satellite certain areas,” said Takashienable scientists to calculate expected to be Hamazaki, manager of the 35the density of carbon dioxide ready for billion yen ($372.9 million)and methane from 56,000 researchers in JAXA project.locations on the Earth's April or May. planet earth | | February 0907
Naturalindigodyeingbecomeseco-friendly esearch Scientist Anne Vuorema of MTT Agrifood RResearch Finland proves in her doctoral dissertation that glucose can serve as a reducing agent of indigo there by making the process less energyconsumingandsafe. Plant derived indigo needs to be reduced to a water- soluble leuco-form before dyeing, a process highly time consuming and unsafe, making natural indigo unpopular. Blue synthetic textile dye is produced from oil, in a process which wastes non-renewable natural resources and burdens the environment with syntheticchemicals. Anne Vuorema’s research can transform the process ofextractionofindigofromtheleavesofdyer’swoad(IsatistinctoriaL.).Thenewprocesswillmake the dyeing process more eco-friendly and enhance the energy efficiency of the process. As per the scientist,thisnewglucosedyeingseemstosuitplant-derivedfibres,suchascottonandflax. 14 per cent drop in coral growth he biggest and most robust corals on the TGreat Barrier Reef (GBR) have slowed their growth by more than 14 per cent since the "tipping point" year of 1990, say scientists Glenn De’ath, Janice Lough and Katharina Fabricius of Australian Institute of Marine Science, in a science paper titled “Declining coral calcification ontheGreatBarrierReef.” The researchers analysed the growth rates of 328 coral colonies on 69 individual reefs that make up the 1,250 mile-long Great Barrier Reef, off north-east Australia. They found that the rate at which the corals were laying down calcium in their skeletons dropped by 14.2 per cent between 1990and2005,asuddendeclineinatleast400years. They say that the evidence is strong that the decline has been caused by a synergistic combination of rising sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification. This happens when large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide enter seawater; the resulting chemical changes effectively reduce the abilityofmarineorganismstoformskeletons. Reefcoralscreatetheirhardskeletonsfrommaterialsdissolvedinseawater.Scientistsbelievethat just like corals are impacted, all calcifying organisms that are central to the function of marine ecosystems and food webs will be affected. Corals form the backbone of reef ecosystems. Their complexity provides the habitat for the tens of thousands of plant and animal species associated with the reef. Looking at the sudden change, steep changes in the biodiversity and productivity of theworld’soceansmaybeimminent. n an effort to make IIT Mumbai campus Ienergy-efficient, an energy audit of the institute was recently conducted to identify and suggest measures for conservation. The audit was conducted by MTech students from the Department of Energy Science and Engineering (DESE), as a part of their course, under the guidance of Professor Rangan Banerjee. “We have compiled a list of possible actions to conserve and efficiently utiliseourresources.Thenextstepwouldbe to prioritise their implementation,” Banerjee said. The said recommendations if implemented would bring about a total saving of around Rs1.75 crore per year, the report said. “The audit was aimed at giving the students a feel of the practical problems and difficulties in carrying out such exercises. It has a big impact if students are able to apply what they learn in practical life. Also, the idea is to make the campus an opendemonstrationfacility,”saidBanerjee. An important recommendation is the use of biogasplantforfoodwasteprocessing.“The study showed that around 450 kg food (for 900people)wasgettingwastedperday.So, we've suggested the use of biogas plant for collecting all the wasted food and converting it into fuel supply. This, in turn, will reduce LPG usage,” said Mel George, an MTech student, who was involved in the study. Besides replacement of lighting and regulators, the report suggests use of computersindifferentsettingsormodes. IIT Mumbai campus planning to be energy-efficient NEWS planet earth | | February 0908
Ancient global cooling affected plankton numbers ccording to a new study, diatoms, the oceanic plankton that absorb carbon dioxide from the Aair, may have witnessed a sudden increase in species numbers before they abruptly declined almost 33 million years ago. The Cornell study, which was published in the January 8, 2009 issue of thejournalNature,suggeststhatthesetrendscoincidedwithsevereglobalcooling. The research findings question the earlier theory that diatoms’ success was related to an increase in the nutrients received by the oceans from the neighbouring grasslands about 18 million years ago. The study headed by graduate student Dan Rabosky of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, provides new evidence that takes into account a widespread paleontological problem which suggests that younger fossils areeasiertofindthanolderones. “We just tried to address the simple fact that the number of available fossils is colossally greater from recent time periods than from earlier time periods. It's a pretty standard correction in some fields, but it hasn't been applied to planktonic paleontology up till now,” Science Daily quoted Raboskyassaying. e-wastemanagementinitiativebyNokia okia India has launched a campaign where customers can drop Ntheir old handset in the company's stores and win gifts. It is a step towards promoting recycling of electronic waste and greening the environment. The project will be rolled out in phases across the country, it added. The Finnish handset major, in turn, will plant a tree for every handset dropped into these bins. According to a survey conducted by the company in 13 countries, only 3 per cent said they had recycled their old phone. Also, 50 per cent of those surveyed didn't know phones could be recycled, with awareness being the lowestinIndiaat17percent. “As responsible leaders, we want to drive best practices in our industry,” Nokia India VP and managingdirectorDShivakumarsaid. Biochar for soil replenishment and to combat global warming ormer inhabitants of the Amazon Basin enriched their fields with charred organic materials and Ftransformed one of the Earth's most infertile soils into one of the most productive. Now, scientists, environmental groups and policy makers forging the next world climate agreement see biocharasanimportantwayforcombatingglobalwarmingaswell. Christoph Steiner, soil scientist at University of Georgia says that almost any kind of organic material – peanut shells, pine chips and even poultry litter – can be burned in air-tight conditions, a process called pyrolysis. The byproducts are biochar, a highly porous charcoal that helps soil retain nutrients and water, and gases and heat that can be used as energy. He now investigates the global potential of biochar to sequestercarbon.HealsoservesasaconsultanttotheUNCCD,asisterprogrammetotheclimatechange convention. lack carbon, the component of soot that Bgives it its colour, is thought to be the second largest cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. It is formed through incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood and vegetation. Nasa claims that, cutting down on the pollutant, can have an immediate cooling effect – and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from air pollutionatthesametime. Soot contains up to 40 different cancer- causing chemicals which also cause respiratory and heart diseases. It is estimated to cause two million deaths in the developingcountrieseachyear. The soot is spread around the globe by wind, and heats the atmosphere by absorbing and releasing solar radiation. When it settles down, it darkens snow and ice, at the poles or high in mountains, reducing its ability to reflect sunlight resulting in faster melts and even more absorption of sunlight by the bare snowfreeland. Soot falls immediately unlike carbon dioxide that remains in air for hundereds of years. This is hazardous to health and is heating the Earth. Scientists believe that cutting down on soot emissions is the fastest way to reduce air pollution related deaths and reducetheglobalwarmingdramatically. They further suggest that proper vehicular and industrial pollution control measures and use of solar cooker and biogas for cookingcanreducethesootemissions. Soot reduction could help to stop global warming planet earth | | February 0909
Rating the desirability of 11 possible future energy sources study published in the journal Energy and AEnvironmental Science that claims to be the first comparative evaluation of alternate energy solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security compared nine electric power sources and two liquid fuels for the purpose. It considered their effects on water supply, land use, wildlife and resource availability and indirect effects on energy security, nuclear proliferation, mortalityandunder-nutrition. Wind power, as a source of electricity for battery vehicles, performed best. In the second group were battery vehicles using electricity from solar power and from geothermal, tidal and wave sources. While the third level included battery vehicles driven by hydropower, nuclear, and coal from plants using carbon capture and storage, ethanol use was found to cause the most climate damage, air pollution, damage to land and wildlife, and chemicalwasteasperthisnewstudy. Climate change threatens Pacific, Arctic conflicts nvironmental stress has increased the Erisk of conflicts in the Pacific over resources and food. As per revelations of a summaryofthe report"ClimateChange,The Environment, Resources and Conflict", as theArcticmelts,drillingunderseaoilandgas deposits, becomes a commercially viable process. Rising sea levels would affect nations and islands with low-lying coastlines, and may lead to increase in refugeesfromvulnerablePacificislands. “Environmental stress, caused by both climate change and a range of other factors, will act as a threat multiplier in fragile states around the world, increasing the chances of state failure," states thesummary.Risingsealevels,increaseinrefugees,moreillegalimmigrationandfishingarefewof theconflictareasmentionedinthereport. NEWS Polarised light pollution causes animals to miss natural light cues collaboration of ecologists, biologists Aand biophysicists in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, has shown that cues from polarised light can trigger animal behaviours leading to injury and often death. Human-made light sources can alter natural light cycles, causing animals that rely on light cues to make mistakes when moving through their environment. The research shows that environmental cues, such as the intensity of light, that animals use to make decisions, occur at different levels of severity in the natural world. When cues become unnaturally intense, animals can respondunnaturallystronglytothem. Artificial light that occurs at unnatural times or places – often called light pollution – can attract or repulse animals, resulting in increased predation, migrating in the wrong direction, choosing bad nest sites or mates, collisions with artificial structures and reduced time available to spend looking for food,justtonameafew. NEWS planet earth | | February 0910
Japan to start exploring rare elements on seabed apan is believed to have plentiful resources under the sea not previously exploited due to the Jprohibitivecosts.Alongwithraremetals,Japanisestimatedtohave5,000years'worthofgold,silver andcobaltinitsseabedalongwith100years'worthofmethanehydrate,atcurrentratesofusage. There is an increasing demand for mineral resources around the world, which has pushed prices higher. Japan plans to start exploring its seabed to harvest rare earth elements used in electronics, hoping to reduce its heavy reliance on Chinese imports and would also try to develop its capacity to extract badly needed energy resources such as oil, gas and methane hydrate in the project, which eyes test exploration by the 2018 fiscal year. It is not yet known whether Japan's plan would involve parts of the East China Sea where Japan andChinadisputeunderseagasfields. Cooling by volcanoes may have been masked by global warming limate researchers of Tree Ring Lab at CColumbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have shown that big volcanic eruptions over the past 450 years have temporarily cooled weather in the tropics because volcanic particles reflect sunlight back into space; but they suggest that such effects may have been masked in the 20th century by rising global temperatures. 1816, the year following the massive Tambora eruption in Indonesia, became known as “The Year Without a Summer,” as low temperatures caused crop failures in northern Europe and eastern North America. “This is significant because it gives us more information about how tropical climate responds to forces that alter the effects solar radiation,” said lead author Rosanne D’Arrigo, lead author of the published paper. Along with tree rings, the researchers analysed ice cores from alpine glaciers, and corals, taken from a wide area of the tropics. When things cool, not onlydotreestendtogrowless,butisotopesofoxygenincoralsandglacialicemayshift.Allshowed thatlow-latitudetemperaturesdeclinedforseveralyearsaftermajortropicaleruptions. “Particularly warm decades may have partially overridden the cooling effect of some volcanic events,” This study provides some of the first comprehensive information about how the tropical climatesystemrespondedtovolcanismpriortotheinstrumentalperiod,”saidD’Arrigo. Electronics makers get green grades from Greenpeace n its second greener products survey, I"Green Electronics: The Search Continues," the environmental activist group assessed the progress made by consumer electronic companies in greening their products over the past year. The Greenpeace survey was released at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It says that consumer electronics manufacturers are making greener products than a year ago but more progress needs to be made before they can claim a truly environmentallyfriendlyproduct. For the survey, Greenpeace said 15 companies submitted 50 new products they considered their greenest for evaluation: mobile and smart phones, televisions, computer monitors, notebook and desktop computers,andgameconsoles. The products were graded on use of hazardous chemicals, energy efficiency, innovation, promotion of environmental friendliness and life cycle – whether they canberecycledandupgraded. planet earth | | February 0911
COVER STORY A crisis ends in victory for one party and defeat for the other. But the human conflict induced by climate change, with food shortage pulling at one hand and water shortage plucking the other, is likely to leave us all defeated unless we become more compassionate towards nature, writes Sheetal Vyas IN THE MAKING WAR The rising sun over Ethiopia’s horizon, gives out a pink light against the backdrop of blowing dust. Umpteen number of unruly cattle wander in groups, painting the brown field. Merging with the thorny Acacia trees, they try to nibble on dead grass and dust. The herdsman, with bones poking his skin from all corners, walks cautiously, fearing attack from fellow humans, and directs them to a watering hole, miles away. He wishes to avoid the camel herd coming form the opposite direction and make sure his cattle satisfy their thirst before competition pours in. This is but one frame of the kind of life people in the conflict-torn Ethiopia are leading, starving, thirsty for water and hoping for a small amount of compassion from the well- provided for world. Choosing the violent way Given a choice between starvation and plundering food, man will choose the latter. War is not new to mankind, but in the recent years, a new dimension has been attached to wars, and violence, which may not necessarily be an outcome or political disturbance or the hunger for power. These are wars that have been triggered by the consequences resulting from climatic changes, which though invisible to the eye, work at a brisk pace in altering the very sources that sustain human life: food and water. The planet has been unsettled by tsunamis, record hurricane seasons, floods, tremors and the less glamorous droughts and water pollution and freshwater resource depletion, which have largely led to the present conflict. The hydra- headed conflict arising out of such environmental stress and global warming is the product of a gradual deterioration in the capacity of natural resources to meet the ever bourgeoning demands of the human population. As a consequence, the resources take a reverse step leading to tragic human conflict. Military analyst and writer, Gwynne Dyer, in his recently published book, Climate Wars warns that in the next five years there will be such a shortfall in food crops that sustaining even a fraction of the increasing human population would be difficult, because the crop sustaining rains are pulling back each year. Scientists believe that this could lead to stronger versions of the pasta panics in Italy, tortilla wars in Mexico, bread riots from Haiti to Cairo and rice shortages from India to Bangladesh to the Philippines in addition to the already burning African countries, witnessed recently. The conditions are so bad in Sudan that the United Nations World Food Programme is expressing concerns The percentage of income from the poor in developing countries used to purchase basic food. 75 planet earth | | February 0912
conflicts with the result that more than four billion people have been displaced in Colombia alone. Similar is the situation in Haiti, Gaza, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritania, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Bolivia, Indonesia, Middle East, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where riots have become the order of the day. While in places like Sudan, Chad and Central Africa, war and conflicts between people have become a way of life. Close to 25,000 farmers in India took their own lives, burdened by farming debts and severe grain shortage. Australia, which has been a very self- sufficient nation, witnessed its biggest drought period in 150 years and China reported a grain harvest drop of over 10 per cent. In the case of Darfur, a semi-arid land with moist areas dotting it, the nomadic lives of the communities staying here has received the worst stroke. In the recent years their total rainfall has dived low and is becoming more unpredictable with each passing year. The chaos resulting out of this has caused them to seek the moist lands and the competition was such that they fought amongst themselves to grab a piece of cultivable land. In the last 10 years, the country has witnessed the loss of more than 300,000 human about the possibility of the present food crisis taking a new turn in combination with the poor cereal turn out and the increase in prices of basic food, sorghum in particular. “It is sometimes difficult to imagine how so much misery exists in the world. As some of the waste disposal units work in Sudan, people often attack the officers who oversee the operations and burrow through piles of rubbish in the hope that they will find a half-eaten fruit, scrapings from a food can or in times of desperation a box of shoe polish,” says a member of the peacekeeping force in Sudan, who wished to remain anonymous. The sad part is that global recession has also caused the funding agencies to cut down their funds. Colombia, a country always known to produce an excess of food till recently, is constantly fearing food scarcity and riot outbreak. The decrease in crop production combined with the steep incline in food prices, which were a result of economic policies that turned food trade into a profitable business, has hit poor farmers the most. In order to balance their food requirements and be able to pay for food grains, they have switched to biofuel farming. This has given rise to internal Un peace keeping force in Sudan stays on alert for possible attacks planet earth | | February 0913
lives. There are other countries where tourists are often advised not to venture out at night because they are likely to be attacked by severely starved people who will do anything for food. The plight of civilians in the Gaza strip is such that they have food reserves to sustain them only for a month. Unless a ceasefire is announced, trucks carrying food loads will not enter the region for fear of security. Climate against crop Global warming induced climate change cannot be ignored as a fact. While depleting forest cover, warming oceans, erratic rain and unpredictable storms and droughts are all linked to climate change, food and water crisis, it is the behaviour of the crops that has surprised researchers. Climate alone cannot be blamed for the food crunch we are facing. It works hand- in-glove with conditions created by man to bring about changes of such a serious nature. With every small increase in global temperature, the likelihood of climate change and crop production variation increases. This could be attributed to various conditions such as flooding, lack of rain, hurricanes like Katrina and the more recent Gustav, and cyclonic storms like Nargis, which left vast stretches of agricultural land submerged under water. “While it is believed that hurricanes and storms do not travel far after landfall, but the Orissa cyclone in 1999 and Katrina proved that wrong. They crossed kilometres of land before weakening,” points out Dr A N V Satyanarayana, assitant professor, Centre for Ocean, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences, IIT Kharagpur. Global warming has changed the nature of the climate, making it more unruly and unpredictable. Why else would Rajasthan, a desert be flooded all of sudden. How farmers wish they had a steady flow of water and didn’t had to depend on seasonal rains to irrigate their agricultural lands. However, the truth being otherwise, increasing instances of either too severe or too scanty rainfall, have left agriculturalists high and dry. This is made worse by storms, typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones, which increase the salinity of soil, rendering it uncultivable. Water shortage also plays on the cultivator’s mind when he plans a crop. Certain crops like rice, require the land to be flooded with water in order to produce a healthy crop. But, with water shortage looming large over continents, it is not possible to flood the fields. This has caused rice production to drop. Scientists have often insisted that natural surroundings and their carbon sequestering qualities contribute towards enhancing the produce of a region. A good forest cover ensures sufficient moisture, thus inviting healthy rains. But our greed for wood and land has destroyed massive forest cover in major forest-rich areas, especially the Amazon and the rainforests of Africa. These areas act as carbon sinks and maintain the temperature and moisture levels of the planet. It is believed that an acre of forest cover will absorb over 75 tonne of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. According to Dr V Vinod Goud, project coordinator for World Wide Fund for Nature International & The International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (WWF&ICRISAT) projects, earlier, there used to be alternating periods of draughts and rain. “It would rain adequately for four-five years and as a breather, there would be draught for two years. People made money during the rain-fed years and be prepared for the succeeding droughts. However, these days, droughts extend for years, giving little change to the cultivators to think of alternatives,” he says. Natural changes aside, the biggest contribution to food crisis and the conflicts arising out of it comes from man, who constantly looks for change and comfort. Despite wars and natural calamities, human population continues to grow, adding more number of mouths to be fed than can possibly be supported the total cultivable land available in the world. In the recent years, a shift has been noticed in the food habits of people across the world. The commercial value of crops, time taken to prepare and the yield, play an important role in helping the farmers decide what they wish to grow. Since rice is easy to grow and gives better yield compared to millets and pulses, most farmers in some parts of Andhra Pradesh have stopped cultivating ASIA S.AMERICA N.AMERICA AFRICA EUROPE OCEANIA 15% 8% 11% 13% 8% 13% 5% 1% 36% 26% 6% 60% Glass half empty Population and water distribution don’t always correspond, often leaving highly populated regions with little access to water. This is most true in Asia, which has to support 60% of the world’s population with only 36% of the world’s water. – Percentage of global water supply – Percentage of global population planet earth | | February 0914
millets, which are akin to the dry areas and are rich in nutrients. As a result, millets which are sold cheaper in the market, have taken a back seat in cultivation. “Cotton is another crop which is hijacking the agricultural land meant to grow food crops. It also leaves the soil unfit to cultivate other crops,” says Dr Goud. The rich dividends that crops such as jatropha, palm, maize and sorghum promise in terms of monetary returns are very high compared to food crops. Under such circumstances, it is but natural for farmers to switch to biofuel crops, thus creating a foodgrain shortage. Moreover, the introduction of genetically modified varieties of crops, such as GM foodgrains has been a serious concern for farmers. The step received a lot of flak from farmers all over the world, for its invasive nature. In fact, agitations have been carried out to ban the brand in countries like Zambia and India. Farmers complain that GM varieties often cross-pollinate with the native grain variety, thus increasing their presence, which may spell doom for the native varieties. They say food and housing go together and one cannot co-exist without the other, so also are the corresponding problems. Construction activity, though often portrayed green, still continues to plant concrete jungles, reducing land space. The construction material used by companies can be varied in nature and may have different radiation absorption capacities. Even this causes hot and cold zones to be created, which affect the temperature of a place and its surrounding areas. City skylines, often dotted with buildings, create micro and macro temperature zones. During the day earth heats up and the energy is taken and transported to the soil. The soil then releases radiation at night. This creates mini temperature zones in and around the cities. Depending on the humidity levels, it could cause unseasonal rainfall or bring scanty rain to the surrounding agricultural fields. This disrupts the natural crop cycle, affecting yield. Crisis rooted in water While there may be several reasons cited for the present food crisis, the crux of the problem is the fast depleting water resources and the impending great world water crisis. Water is being described as the new oil and may be the primary cause for the outbreak of the Third World War. This is so because we may live without food, but not without water. Pictures of women balancing huge barrels of water on their heads, have been flashed all over the world earlier, but it was for the sheer grace and ability to balance the pitchers that they were used. However, today, this may be the case in many parts of the world. While the pictured women had the luxury of balancing more than one pitcher, people in countries with water scarcity have to make do with a mugful of water. Man’s role in aggravating the changes that climate is undergoing has caused several countries to intimidate other water-rich nations with threats of war. While water wars have been common place in India, with states fighting with each other to harness river sources, such wars are a relatively new concept for water-rich nations like Latin America, Spain, Bolivia, Ireland, Kenya, Pakistan, New Zealand, Northern China, Portugal and the US where 36 states are looming under severe water shortage. The impact of climate on water resources has been treacherous. While hurricanes, storms and heavy rains bring in a good supply of water, it cannot be used by man because there is no proper system in place to reclaim it. Increasing global warming levels have invited severe droughts, causing rivers and lakes to dry up. Even the glaciers and aquifers that fed the rivers are depleting at a very fast rate. Such is the situation in the US that it is warring with Canada to get access to the great lakes that supply fresh water to the country. Latin America, an extremely water-rich nation seems to have been surrounded with dry rivers and bare lake beds. A 40 per cent fall in rainfall in Spain has put its water resources in peril. The Government sought to divert water from the river Segre, a tributary of the gigantic Ebro, to Barcelona, which is facing severe crisis, but was met with severe opposition and conflict from the Government of the Aragon through which the Ebro flows. The Irish economy too is suffering due to water conflicts arising out of the climate change induced water shortage. The region has received inadequate rainfall and may have reduced winter water flows. Climate change is believed to have reduced the moisture content of the soil in the region, which could affect agriculture and accelerate the erosion of peatlands. China’s shortage is unique in that it has more than adequate reserve in the south but very little water in the north, which in turn has doomed rice production. The biggest threat that the water problem could pose is countries declaring war with one another and uncontrolled human conflicts. Research carried by various institutes and data collected by Nasa shows that glaciers all over the world are receding. This has caused the melt water flow into the rivers to fall during the summer months. Since most nations depend on rivers to supply them with fresh water, this is one of the primary causes for water conflicts. Almost the entire Chacaltaya glacier, which was a source for several rivers in Bolivia The number of residents in the Liaoning province of China are without drinking water 670,000 planet earth | | February 0915
planetearth||February0916 ZIMBABWE ZAMBIA YEMEN VIETNAM VANUATU UZBEKISTAN U. K. U.A.E. UKRAINE UGANDA TURKMENISTANTURKEY TONGA KIRIBATI TOGO THAILAND TANZANIA TAJIKISTAN SYRIA SWITZ. SWEDEN SWAZ. SUDAN SRI LANKA MALDIVES SPAIN SOUTH AFRICA SOMALIA SOLOMON ISLANDS SLOVENIA SLOVAKIA SINGAPORE SERBIA MONT. SAUDI ARABIA SAO TOME & PRINCIPE RWANDA RUSSIA ROMANIA QATAR POLAND PHILIPPINES PAPUA NEW GUINEA PALAU PAKISTAN OMAN NORWAY NIGERIA NIGER NEW ZEALAND NETH. NEPAL NAMIBIA MOZAMBIQUE MOROCCO MONGOLIA MOLD. MAURITIUS MALTA MALI MALAYSIA MALAYSIA MALAWI MADAGASCAR MAC. LUX. LITHUANIA LIBYA LES. LEBANON LATVIA LAOS KYRGYZSTAN KUWAIT SOUTH KOREA NORTH KOREA TAIWAN KENYA KAZAKHSTAN JORDAN JAPAN ITALY ISRAEL IRELAND IRAQ IRAN INDONESIA INDIA INDIA HUNGARY GREECE GHANA GERMANY GEORGIA GABON FRANCE FINLAND FIJI ETHIOPIA ESTONIA ERITREA EQUATORIAL GUINEA EGYPT TIMOR-LESTE DJIBOUTI DENMARK CZECH REP. CYPRUS CROATIA COTE D'IVOIRE CONGO DEM REPUBLIC OF CONGO COMOROS CHINA CHAD CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. CAMEROON CAMBODIA BURUNDI BURMA BURKINA FASO BULGARIA BRUNEI BOTSWANA B-H BHUTAN BENIN BEL. BELARUS BANGLADESH BAHRAIN AZERB. AUSTRIA AUSTRALIA ARM. ANGOLA ALGERIA ALBANIA AFGHANISTAN SAMOA U. K. UKRAINE TUNISIA SWITZ. SWEDEN SPAIN SLOVENIA SLOVAKIA SERBIA MONT. ROMANIA POLAND NORWAY NETH. MOROCCO MOLD. MALTA MAC. LUX. LITHUANIA LEBAN LATVIA ITALY ISRA IRELAND HUNGARY GREECE GERMANY FRANCE FINLAND ESTONIA DENMARK CZECH REP. CYPRUS CROATIA BULGARIA B-H BEL. BELARUS AUSTRIA ALGERIA ALBANIA PORTUGAL VENEZUELA URUGUAY FALKLAND ISLANDS UNITED STATES SURINAME SIERRA LEONE SENEGAL PERU PARAGUAY PANAMA NICARAGUA WESTERN SAHARA MEXICO MAURITANIA LIBERIA ICELAND HONDURAS GUYANA GUINEA GUINEA-BISSAU GUATEMALA GREENLAND THE GAMBIA FRENCH GUIANA EL SALVADOR ECUADOR COSTA RICA COLOMBIA CHILE CAPE VERDE CANADA BRAZIL BOLIVIA BELIZE ARGENTINA TRINIDAD & TOBAGO JAMAICA HAITI DOM. REP. CUBA BAHAMAS BERMUDA ST VINCENT & THE GRENADINES ST LUCIA ST KITTS & NEVIS PUERTO RICO GRENADA DOMINICA BARBADOS ANTIGUA & BARBUDA TUNISIA Conflict hot spots Nations facing increasing risk of armed conflict as a result of climate change Countries under risk of political instability as an off-shoot of climate change Clear data unavailable This map indicates the conflict prone zones in the world that have been affected by food & water wars as a result of climate change. Source: International Allert
has disappeared. Dr Rasik Ravindra, director, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Resaerch, while admitting that green house gases emission have increased global temperatures, says, “Numerous changes in climate have been observed. These include changes in Arctic temperatures, decrease in sea ice cover in the Arctic region and the breaking of ice shelves in western Antarctica, droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and tropical cyclones. While glacial interglacial cyclic episodes have been witnessed in Earth’s history in part, the present interglacial or warmer period through which we are passing has shown perceptible warming trend including rise in sea surface temperatures. Most of the observed increase in global average temperature is apparently due to increase in greenhouse gas concentration.” The changing seasonal patterns, with winters being affected the most, have disturbed the snow build up. The snow that is melting is not being replenished during the winter months, which in turn affects river flows. Sometimes the melt waters that collect in lakes below the glacial mountains, burst, flooding the agricultural lands. These lakes are also a source of drinking water. According to Dr Satyanarayana, a process called evapo-transpiration is causing ground water levels to fall. In this process, certain plants with big pores absorb excess water from the soil and release it in the atmosphere. This in the long run can change the water table levels. Often described as the Blue Planet, Earth is covered with 75 per cent water, why then is there such a dearth of safe drinking water? It is possible that changing climate is stealing us of our freshwater resources, but the situation may not have been so bad had man on his part not added to the water siphoning process. Population explosion is the primary reason why we are experiencing water shortage. The resources aren’t enough to meet the demand and our irresponsible use of water adds to that. Not surprisingly, it is the more densely populated countries that are under threat. The declining water resources have caused communities to seek water deeper into the ground, digging deeper still. While the activity may bear water in one area but only after it has dried the surrounding well. River Dawa in Ethiopia has dried up for this very reason. Food cultivation uses up most of the water and it is maintained at the expense of perennial rivers, such as the Yellow River in China, the Ganges and Brahmaputra in India, Indus in Pakistan and the Nile in Egypt. The Colarado river too is under threat of drying up. Almost three-fourths of naturally available water is used for crops. Besides, certain plant varieties require more water for cultivation, biofuels crops, cotton and rice for instance. Serious resource depletion is being done by bottled water plants which sip-dry groundwater, which is then treated and exported as bottled water. Refugees from water-tight nations increase the burden on other nations, thus widening the crisis. Water crisis cannot be isolated from pollution, which has reached the deepest layers of the earth, rendering groundwater and aquifiers unsuitable for drinking. At times grey water blends with drinking water supplies, causing serious health concerns. It is also a matter of worry, says Dr Goud, that construction activity has blocked catchment areas and covered the soil in a hard layer of tar and concrete, which makes it difficult for rainwater to seep in. Moreover, environmental drives urging people to harvest rainwater fall on deaf years. A lot of research is being done to tackle the water shortage crisis. The WWF&ICRISAT project has resulted in the development of a rice variety that doesn’t require flooding and gives better yields. Nature’s water cycle of evaporation and rainfall, ensures that a steady and required amount of freshwater is supplied to humankind, but we have tampered the natural cycle on such a scale that some of the great rivers of the world are running dry. It is setting in a related food and water shortage cycle. The gurgling sound of water is music to ears when available in abundant supply, but one can only hope that a situation doesn’t come when we become water refugees and increase our burden on the ecosystems. “Cutting down emissions is the only solution and the only way out,” scientists warn. Conflict, climate role reversal t was a day marked with strangeness in January 2008, when snow fell in the war-torn Baghdad, which reportedly halted all armed conflict and gave the media global warming fodder during their Iwar coverage in Iraq. The incident was strange because it was the first time in the living memory of Baghdad that soft snow instead of rain had descended from the skies. Could it have been global warmingspreadingitspresenceorwasitanafter-effectofwar? While we have witnessed conflict instigated by climate change, particularly over the sharing of natural resources, war is also adding its bit to the already sprinting global warming phenomena. Extensive coverage has been given to the war, but none of the reports talk about emissions associated with the war in Iraq, which is not surprising because a report by Oil Change International and Nikki Reisch and Steve Kretzmann, more often than not, military emission are not included in the national greenhouse gases inventories maintained by industrialised nations under the United Nations FrameworkConventiononClimateChange. Accordingtothereport,thewarhasproducedaminimum of141million metrictonsofcarbondioxide equivalent since March 2003, while fuel consumption for Operation Iraq Freedom has released 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Another practice often noticed in Iraq is the burning or oil and gas wells which emit several metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Add to that thepollutionresultingoutofgunpowderandbombs,sufficienttoaltertheclimateofthelandmass. planet earth | | February 0917
INNOVATION It is one thing to sit back and enjoy your morning cup of coffee sip by sip, quite another to brew it stronger and use it to run your car. Professor Manoranjan Misra’s serendipitous discovery of coffee’s fuel potential will perhaps enable you to do so. When he left in a hurry from his lab, leaving behind a steaming hot mug of strong Starbucks coffee on his work desk, little did Dr Misra, echo-logic professor and director, Center for Materials Reliability Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno know that this negligence on his part could result in an important discovery. “I had made a very strong cup of Starbucks coffee and it slipped my mind to consume it. It remained so overnight and the next day I noticed a thin film of oil floating on the top. I got very curious and wanted to explore where the oil came from,” says Misra recalling the chain of events that led to the discovery in 2006. To satiate his curiosity, Misra, along with two of his students, Dr Susanta Mohapatra and Dr Narasimharao Kondamudi, collected about 50 gm of discarded coffee grounds from the Starbucks outlet in the university. These were then brewed, processed and tested. The resulting data revealed that the brew contained 10 to 15 per cent of very high quality triglyceride. A chemical analysis established it as a fact that the dark coloured thick oil, which was as aromatic as freshly ground coffee beans, was indeed high quality triglyceride. Spirited by this find, Misra and his team assessed the possibilities of its application. “It struck us that if it is triglyceride, it would make sense to produce biodiesel out of it through transesterification. It was a very simple process that we worked on in my garage. The process involves the addition of alcohol to the liquid and blend it with hydrous oxide. Once they are combined thoroughly, all you need to do is heat it up and your biodiesel is ready,” says Misra matter-of-factly. It is necessary to note that oil as such doesn’t run a car. It needs a trigger or booster which will help it burn and ignite the engine to run a car. The triggers are often described in terms of C10 and O10 numbers. Transesterification does the trick. With the green mantra attracting an increasing number of companies, laboratories and countries, there is no dearth of biodiesel in the market and new research turns out varied results every single day. In fact, India has been involved in quite a few biodiesel research projects on jatropha, palm and shorgum at various levels. But what sets coffee biodiesel apart from its contemporaries is its lifespan. “Unlike biodiesel extracted out of jatropha, palm and the likes, coffee biodiesel is very stable. Others need to be used as soon as they are made, because any rise or fall in the temperature or moisture content breaks them because they do not contain anti-oxidants. Whereas this aromatic biodiesel contains 3 to 5 per cent anti-oxidants, which gives more stability and a longer shelf life of between six-seven months. There are no issues about variety either because all varieties of coffee yield similar results,” explains 59- year-old Misra. The result has been patented, but it will be some time before the actual coffee biodiesel hits the market for commercial use. Misra who originally belongs to Bhuvaneshwar in Orissa, India, has been working at the University of Nevada for almost 20 years. His area of research concentrates on environmental engineering, water purification, extraction of Hydrogen from water and sunlight ad green energy. However, his shift to biodeisel research has been very recent. Giving reasons for this change, he says, “I had often observed and read that everybody is shifting to making biodiesel from food crops, thus giving more priority to fuel that we use to run equipment over our own body fuel, i.e. food. We need food to survive, we can’t waste it on vehicles. I told my group that it is about time that we looked at waste matter to generate fuel energy instead of food. We are also attempting to make gasoline from carbon dioxide, which is abundant.” It is not surprising then that his team preferred to use discarded and waste coffee grounds instead of fresh ones. The team is presently looking at chicken feather and fat to extract oil in addition to other cellulose matter that could yield oil. Misra describes his work environment as lively and cheerful, where his students discuss the most unusual Longer shelf life, zero-emissions and aromatic exhaust fumes, are just a fraction of the qualities that coffee biodiesel discovered by Dr Manoranjan Misra and his team promise, writes Sheetal Vyas Run out of fuel? Consider coffee planet earth | | February 0918
ideas and set about implementing them. He believes his coffee biodiesel team to be a good mix, with two chemists and an engineer who revel in carrying out complicated experiments and analysing weird concoctions. Feeding the pilot plant which the university plans to set up in a few months, will not be a problem because Misra and his team have ensured a steady supply through the coffee roasting plant near the university, where nearly 250 million pounds of coffee is roasted per year. “They use forward logic to distribute coffee to the stores, our objective is to use reverse logic. Apparently, they pay to discard the defective coffee which cannot be roasted or coffee that has been over-roasted. The bulk of the coffee from the roasters, which goes to the garbage will be used. We are trying to device a method which will collect and bring back used coffee. Since it is the most popular drink, we have a big amount of waste coffee, which will make a great number of galleons of biodiesel,” says Misra who nurtures a deep passion for the environment. The after birth of this process, the used coffee grounds are also used. They are compressed, pelletised and used in wood burning fireplaces to heat the room in countries like the US. These are even better than wood pellets, claims Misra. With a zero-emissions tag and great smelling tanks, coffee biodiesel could be the future fuel option. However, before it is used in cars, they will have to be retro-fitted. Diesel cars can readily speed on coffee biodiesel. Despite his path-breaking research in the field, Misra, however, feels that biodiesel will not solve the energy problem. Portraying the seriousness of the problem, Misra says, “Almost 29 million gallons of oil is consumed globally per day. If we use all the land we have to grow only biodiesel plants, it will give only 14 per cent of the oil required. It is not the solution but a stopgap measure until we find an alternative. Biodiesel is a good option because we know how to make it. But the trouble is that it is time- consuming.” “It feels good to convert an out-of-the-box idea of Professor Misra to a breakthrough research. Our research objective is very simple, to look for alternate fuel from non-food sources which will decrease the world’s fuel deficiency as well as check global warming. While coffee biodiesel produces only around a small fraction of the current world’s fuel demand. However, we need to realise that nothing alone is going to replace the petro-fuels which are being made by nature from millions of years. Every bit helps.” Dr Mohapatra, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada, Reno, has a PhD degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai. “Our project is based upon the idea of taking everyday waste products, like used coffee grounds, and turning them into various forms of renewable fuels such as biodiesel, bio-ethanol, fuel pellets and low molecular hydrocarbons. We succeeded partially and a lot more is to be done in this direction. An observation is one of the most important aspects of scientists. At the time of research, our only goal is to make it feasible and nothing else and it is paid off well.” Mr Narasimharao Kondamudi, PhD scholar, University of Nevada, Reno, has a Masters degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Coffee biodiesel production process planet earth | | February 0919
Be it the saffron farmers of Kashmir or the sugar maple tappers of Vermont, several regions have been bitten by the melting winters. Apple and mango trees are blossoming in January, some plants are flowering more than once in a year and their has not been a white Christmas in Shimla since 1991. These unexpected seasonal variations have been predicted by most of the climate change models. But it is the traditionally cold regions that are feeling the heat. The actual time period for snowfall has also undergone a change with December and January receiving scant or no snow while February and March witness heavy snowfall. In most of the areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in India, the snowfall months have reduced from four months a year to only two. Some of the Himalayan regions are being flooded because of untimely snowmelt. Similar reports come from UK as well as Canada. The spring now arrives almost a month early and autumn is longer. Winter months have shrunk and it doesn’t snow as it used to. Weather patterns are becoming unpredictable and the lines between the seasons are thinning. Loosing some exotic aromas and winter sports One can hardly imagine some of the exotic Indian dishes without the aroma of saffron, but we are losing its crop fast. As per On the Brink: A Report on Climate Change and its Impact in Kashmir, saffron yield in Kashmir has decreased to almost half since the last 10 years. Farmers say that in the past 20 years, land that yielded 1.5 to 2 kg saffron is now yielding barely 200 gm. All this is because of changing pattern in snowfall shorter winter and receding glaciers. Not just India, due to unpredictable weather pattern and shorter winter New England once a leader in the production of sugar maple has been hit rather badly by climate change. The sap tapping season has effectively been shortened by at least three days. Further, maple being a highly climate sensitive tree, the production of sap in the tree is affected by erratic climatic changes that the region is going thorough. Experts believe that although currently Canada’s maple industry is growing the fall is not far. Snow lines have receded; the spring snow melt is coming earlier than ever before. It’s the same everywhere, the Poles, North America as well as for the Himalayas that form largest snow cover outside the poles. Higher temperatures and shorter winters mean less time for skiing. Winter sports a major tourist attraction and an important economic asset of snow capped regions are looking for alternate recreations to compensate the loss due to reduced skiing months. “Snow sports in Washington State are potentially vulnerable to the projected shift in winter precipitation Are we losing winters? CLIMATE CONNECTION For the past few years, climate change has been discussed at all the world conferences and across coffee tables. But winter already feels the heat; it happens to be one of the first victims of climate change with one season merging into another Mukta Rohra planet earth | | February 0920
from snowfall to rain as average temperatures warm. Some ski areas based at low elevations, including destinations that are among the state’s most popular, may experience direct climate change impacts,” says a report on impacts of climate change by Washington State Department of Ecology. Himalayan ski resorts in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are in for the same fate. Trekkers favourite, Pindari glacier reportedly melts 130 metres every year. There are over 5,000 glaciers in the Himalayas. They are all retreating and some of the smaller glaciers in Himalayas have actually vanished leaving the mountains bare with increased danger of landslides. Himalayan glaciers feed 10 river systems and all of them have scarce water primarily due to glacial retreat and early melt. The Gangotri glacier lost one-third of its 15 mile length in the last 50 years. It loses 18 metres every year. Warmer temperature has lead to shortage of water in the region and more paddy fields are being converted into rain fed orchards. Lives of the locals who depend on farming and tourism have become as unpredictable as nature. Not just the locals living there for generations, lives of nomadic communities in these high altitude regions have become even more difficult. Due to this unexpected rain, snow and dry spells their fixed ways of grazing the cattle in high altitude in winters and lower. It is becoming difficult for them to sustain themselves and keep the cattle healthy, specially the pashmina goat as their pastures are fast drying up. The thought of a non-existant winter is scary because ingrained with it will be cancelled so many traditions, a Lohri bonfire and a vacation in snow-capped Gulmerg, the aroma of saffron and the warmth of pashmina. Well, they are all a part of the endangered list. saffron yield in Kashmir has decreased to almost half since the last ten years Winter Shivers The ten hottest years ever documented have all occurred since 1990 Global temperatures have risen by over 0.7C since the 1700s with 0.5C of this warming occurring during the past 100 years. Since the mid-1970s the average air temperature measured at 49 stations of the Himalayan region rose by 1°C with high elevation sites warming the most Sixty-seven percent of glaciers are retreating in Himalayas The Khumbu Glacier, a popular climbing route to Mt Everest, has retreated over 5 km from where Sir Edmund Hillary had crossed it The Gangotri glacier lost one-third of its 15 mile length in the last 50 years. It loses 18 metres every year. Average arctic winter temperature has already increased by 11 degrees Fahrenheit. Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 Average global sea levels have increased by between 0.1 and 0.2 meters over the last 100 years Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. Rice, the world’s most significant grain crop, yield has fallen by 10% for each degree of warming The World Health Organization estimates that climate change is already responsible for an estimated 150,000 deaths per year. In 1998 alone, 650 deaths occurred in Orissa due to heat waves. planet earth | | February 0921
ENVIRONMENT As the shadows of palm trees stretch along the shores and the orange-red sun melts into the sea, the picture perfect island nations belie the fact that each passing wave is questioning their existence and only time will tell whether they will sink or swim, writes T P Venu A people uprooted by nature smail Hassan sits in his jolhi fathi (In the Maldivian language IDhivehi, it means an easy chair made out of coconut trunk and husk) and waits for the birds of far away lands to descend on his little island Komandoo, in the Maldives. It is June and still there is no trace of the birds. It is the first time that the birds have not come. Thanks to the changing climate. Life for the islanders, be it Maldives or Marshall islands, Tonga or Trinidad, is becoming difficult as climate changes. Seasons no longer stick to schedule, rain which would start in June but now it only does in December and melting glaciers are changing the geography as well as the lifestyles of islanders. Schools of fish are no longer seen at the locations that they were supposed to thrive on, sea birds seem to thin in number and prefer to spend their winters elsewhere and rising sea levels are eating away the heart of the islands slowly but effectively. Given the current rate of degradation with global warming, whole coastal communities will be wiped out and along with it the indigenous cultures which date back to centuries. Time is ticking! Living on the edge We have seen war refugees and for the first time we will have to confront environmental refugees. Sample this: Trinidad is losing almost four yards of land per year, Maldivian islands are just 1 metre above sea level, Tuvalu 15, Kiribati islands 2 metres and Marshall Islands less than six and a half feet above sea level. One- third of Palau’s reefs are lost due to changing weather patterns. Coral bleaching is for real and none can escape it right from Fiji, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Palau. Fifteen per cent of Fiji’s reefs are dead. These people who are living on the edge of oceans are in jeopardy of losing their homelands forever. According to Dr B N Goswami, Director of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, “Sea levels would rise between 20-50 cm by the end of the century and depending on planet earth | | February 0922
the topography of islands some are more vulnerable than others and all are at risk.” Changing lifestyles, disappearing cultures Islanders no longer hunt as before nor fish as they used to and their ability to predict weather is lost. They no longer produce elegant handicrafts out of coconut leaves; farming techniques are changing; they are not able to grow traditional food crops. Their ancient cultures of subsistence lifestyle is taking a beating; and these once self- sufficient people are being reduced to borrowers of aid as their islands are being swallowed by water. Sea levels are rising by 3.3 millimetres per year and projections are that by 2100 it would touch 18 cm. The coconut palm is considered as the tree of life for islanders all over the world, but with salt water intrusion these palms are dying. Coconut palms are an inseparable part of island life as every part of the tree is used in building boats, its leaves for thatches and the fruit itself forms an integral part of island cuisine. People in Pacific islands can no longer grow their staple food Taro due to continuous infiltration of sea water. Now, they grow them in buckets, tin containers and jars. Wells are getting contaminated with sea water and islanders have to be at the mercy of rain gods to collect water. Houses are built with slanting roofs and tanks are fixed adjacent to them. People are finding ways to save themselves and the Dutch have found a novel way by building floating houses which become buoyant when it floods and remain above water. Food for thought Lives of the islanders are tied to the sea and fish is their main diet. There was a time when islanders joked that they could sail over fish backs such was the abundance, but now if someone said so it would be termed as being rude and mocking at their plight. For, they are finding it difficult to catch fish due to acidification of oceans. Rising temperature is destroying coral reefs, plankton and commercial fish species. Fishermen are no longer sure of locations of fish schools. Many a time, islanders get content with breadfruit but even breadfruit trees are vanishing fast. Climate change is making it difficult to sustain fish catch. The effect of global warming is showing in dwindling fish numbers. Tuna, the sought after fish of Papua New Guinea, Maldives, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and other nations, is harder to find because water is getting warmer and the ideal temperature for Tuna is 27-29 degrees centigrade. So, they go deeper into the oceans resulting in low catch. People in flight Already people from lohachara and Ghoramara islands in the Sunderbans have been relocated to Sagar. More than 4,000 Tuvaluans now live in New Zealand, over 1,600 residents of Papua New Guinea’s Carteret Islands have moved out, another hundred residents of Tegua had to be evacuated. The number is rising as each wave kisses the shores of islands. Dr K Krishna Kumar of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, says “Danger to islands depend on factors such as ocean basin dynamics, morphology, the topography and ocean currents. They all affect the life span of islands. The health of coral reefs which surround the islands act as a wall from storms in mitigating natural disasters.” He further adds that stringent measures including a world wide check on global emissions are needed and advices strengthening of banks and building sea walls as alternative measures, which though temporary will help small island nations to create a stop gap. Uncertain future “Man is nature’s sole mistake,” said, W S Gilbert and man has not disappointed. Today, thousands of islanders across the globe live in perpetual fear. They do not know when a tsunami, a hurricane, a storm or a flood would hit them. All islanders love their land and some do not want to accept the fact that their islands are in peril and it’s only a matter of time. If they do not want to budge they will die. But, if they leave, some part of them will die as they are deeply connected to the islands, its waters, and way of life. Nothing can be sadder than talk about ones own nation’s death, and this is the predicament faced by many. What is ironical is that these small island nations which have contributed least to carbon footprint are the hardest hit. Meanwhile, Ismail Hassan fills the bird bath with water and waits for the elusive birds that have been making his island their home for a couple of months of the year, for centuries. Will they come? Is anybody’s guess, for now Ismail lives in hope. planet earth | | February 0923
The capital moat in solar energy production may have been plugged with government subsidies and tax incentives, but technology improvement and consumption subsidies are areas that need to be addressed, writes Jagadeesh Napa Solar energy The way forward BUSINESS BYTES planet earth | 24 | February 09
Sunrise Sunrise (or rather sunshine), couldn't tempt us if it tried… If we were to sing the famous song popularised by Norah Jones today, we couldn't be fooling ourselves more, for it is the very source of energy that is likely to bail us out of an energy deficit. While abundantly available, solar energy, considered to be one of the cleanest energy sources, still remains underutilised. For quite a few years now, solar power is being promoted by an increasing number of countries as an ideal replacement for fossil fuels. Environmentalists too have blown their trumpets at full lung capacity to 'go solar' from the time the first solar cell was invented. Since then, many efforts have been undertaken to tame this energy resource and bring it to the common man. Cost, say industrial experts, is perhaps one of the primary reasons why its wide-scale application could be prolonged, and it will be some time before every household appliance runs on cost-efficient solar power. However, the proponents of clean energy are joining hands with researchers worldwide, and are striving hard to achieve this goal. Interestingly, about 30 per cent of the global investments in renewable energy development are directed towards solar energy. India is one of those few fortunate countries where a part of its rural population uses appliances that are powered by solar energy. Selco India and Tata BP Solar have attempted to facilitate this and light up lives of the poor and downtrodden with solar appliances. They have succeeded to a large extent, but the biggest challenge lies in bringing solar power to society's midriff; the middle class household. Incidentally, this happens to be the biggest consumer market which is yet to be tapped. Indian initiative Investment in this clean alternate energy is something that all stakeholders have been advised to consider. Recognising the need to develop solar power as the next generation's energy source, Indian Government, together with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has set a target of generating 50 MW of solar power in the current Five Year Plan 2007-2012. To achieve the target, a massive incentive scheme which offers 80 per cent subsidy to companies investing in solar power generation that can be distributed to ordinary households, has been announced by the Government. Dr T C Tripathi, advisor to the ministry on solar energy said, “The Government has taken an active initiative in this direction and is providing up to 80 per cent of the cost as incentive. This can be a very big momentum for the industry as it has garnered the support of the Government in a big way.” The cost of generating one unit of solar energy (which can be fed to the grid) currently is Rs 15. The central and state governments have joined forces to provide a combined incentive of Rs 12 per unit, while the private investors have to bear the remaining 20 per cent that is Rs 3 per unit. Active research need of the hour Dr Tripathi asserts that cost is the biggest obstacle against adopting this clean energy in large scale. Production cost for solar power generation being high, it is not viable for mass production, in which case the incentive will attract and encourage more industrial investment. However, as a regulator and a driving force for the industry, it is also necessary for the Government to look at ways to reduce the cost of production. The Government's endeavour in the long run should be to actively encourage research in solar power with this aim. Research is currently underway the world over to reduce the overall cost of solar power generation and institutions and organisations in India are also in the league. It is now time for the government to catalyse this process. Dr Tripathi suggests the inclusion of IITs, regional engineering colleges, existing state- owned power corporations like NTPC to meet this end. He says, “Almost all the IITs and other industry bodies are into this kind of research and it is focussed on different technologies and materials that can reduce the cost of solar modules.” There is no dearth of scientific experimentation in the area. Researchers at IIT Madras are working on solar decentralised power generation and Hybrid thermo-photovoltaic systems among 1500 Exajoules 1250 1000 750 500 250 Year 2000 2050 Kohle Oil + NGL Gas Hydro tradit. Bio Wind Nuclear Biomass Solar Geothermal Expected projections of alternate energy output planet earth | | February 0925
other things. A study carried by Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA) in September 2008 has identified that research has to be focussed basically on two aspects – cost reduction and improving efficiency. Ongoing research is in line with this as it focusses on lower cost and less energy-intensive techniques for polysilicon (material used in the solar cells) production and a reduction in the usage of this material. In a single solar cell module, around 45 per cent of the cost goes for the silicon wafer and another 35 per cent for the material used to assemble the module. With growing demand for silicon, the market prices are only expected to shoot up rather than come down. Technology holds the key Conversion of solar energy into electrical energy has been described by many (scientists and industrialists) as one of the greatest inventions in human history. Polysilicon is being used to build solar cells to trap solar energy. According to the ISA study, usage of silicon has reduced to 10 g/Wp (grams per Watt peak) from 13 g/Wp in the last few years and this is quite an achievement. But further reduction of silicon presents a big challenge for the researchers. The European Union, which is one of the pioneers in this field, has set ambitious targets for the short and long terms. This includes reducing the usage of polysilicon to below 5, 3, 2 g/Wp in the short, medium and long terms respectively. Incentivise usage Presently, usage of solar power in India is restricted to the environment- conscious business establishments and households. On the other hand, NGOs have partnered with companies manufacturing solar appliances to distribute domestic solar appliances to families below poverty line at cheaper and affordable prices. While this is a big market for these companies, the biggest markets – middle class and upper middle class – are yet to be tapped. It is necessary to look at these markets as highly potential consumption markets of the future. Thus to attract them to use solar PV Technologies India Ltd. Solar PV 6000.00 Titan Energy System Ltd Solar PV, Polysilicon 5880.58 KSK Surya Photovoltaic Ventures (P) Ltd. Solar PV 3211.00 Signet Solar Inc.* Solar PV 9672.00 Moser Baer PV Technologies India Ltd* Solar PV 6000.00 Reliance Industries Ltd. Solar PV, Polysilicon 11631.00 Reliance Industries Ltd.* Semiconductor Wafer Fab 18521.00 Phoenix Solar India Ltd. Solar PV 1200.00 Tata BP Solar India Ltd.* Solar PV 1692.80 Solar Semiconductor (P) Ltd. Solar PV 11821.00 TF Solar Power (P) Ltd. Solar PV 2348.00 Lanco Solar (P) Ltd. Solar PV, Polysilicon 12938.00 * These companies have plans to produce solar energy Company Category Proposed Investment in crores power at this early stage, the Government has to subsidise certain amount of consumption. For instance, as it is currently providing 80 per cent incentive to the industry, a part of which can be diverted to the consumer in the form of either a subsidy or tax exemption incentive. A direct subsidy of Re 1 per unit can be also considered or a percentage of the total amount paid as electricity bills can be given as tax exemption. This may not solve the problem altogether, but could be applied till such time a better solution is arrived at. Japanese model Japan is one country that has directed its efforts on both focussing its resources in the research of cost- efficient solar power as well as providing incentives to its biggest consumer markets, in addition to producers of solar power. It is the biggest producer of solar energy in the world and is followed by Germany. The country had announced the incentives programme in 1994 and as a result has achieved a 75 per cent reduction in production costs till date. It targeted the biggest consumer market – the middle class and upper middle class groups – for the usage of solar power and provided incentives through direct subsidy, access to easy finance, net metering etc. Consumers in Japan get a 10 per cent subsidy on the cost of a standard solar power system as a result of the government's attempt to promote solar power and reduce environmental pollution. The way ahead Given the current active participation of the Indian Government (through incentives to the industry) to promote solar energy, it is expected to churn out some good results in the near future. But a big revolution in this domain can only be expected if the Government proactively works towards increasing the R&D work so as to improve technology and at the same time encourage the enormous consumer markets to switch to alternative energy. Current usage of Solar PV Modules Exports Telecom Home Lighting System Solar Pumps Solar PV Power plantsOthers Solar Lanterns Street Lights 225 5.5 7.58.5 11 16.5 39 22 Companies investing in solar energy planet earth | | February 0926
FUTURE ENGINEERING The city relies entirely on renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero- carbon, zero-waste ecology. The walled city of Masdar is a minutely planned city being constructed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The new age city is being constructed 17 kilometres east-south- east of the city of Abu Dhabi, beside Abu Dhabi International Airport is an initiative by the Government of Abu Dhabi through Mubadala Development Company designed by Foster and Partners. The city will cover 6 square kilometres on an allotted area of 6.4 square kilometres in size. Of this, 30 per cent will be for housing; 24 per cent for the business and research; 13 per cent for commercial purposes; 6 per cent for the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology; 19 per cent for service and transportation; and 8 per cent for civic and cultural pursuits. It will house 50,000 people. More than 1,500 visionary companies will have offices, research centres and operations within the city walls. It is expected that approximately 40,000 workers will commute to the city daily. The paradox is that cars and other automobiles will be banned within the city. With a maximum distance of 200m to the nearest transport link and amenities, the city will be linked to the outside world by public mass transit and personal rapid transit systems. A pedestrian friendly city will have open public squares intercept the shaded streets that will also funnel breezes. Masdar City will require approximately 200 MW of installed clean power. The construction itself relies on a 40 to 60 MW solar power plant on the site. The facility will later be increased and additional solar power modules will be placed on the rooftops to produce 130 mw of power. A few 20 MW wind farms will be established outside the city. The city may also utilise geothermal power and build the world's largest hydrogen power plant as well. The water management plan proposed is environment friendly. Water consumption presumption is stated to be 60 per cent lower than similarly sized communities which will be met by a solar powered desalination plant. Eighty per cent of the water used will be recycled, waste water will be reused as many times as possible and grey water will be used for crop irrigation and other purposes. The bio waste will be used to create nutrient-rich soil and fertiliser, and as an additional power source. Industrial waste, such as plastics and metals, will be recycled or re-purposed for other uses. The ambitious project is expected to cost US$ 22 billion and take some eight years to build. The first phase is expected to be complete 2009. Carbon emissions reduced by Masdar City will be monetised under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. Masdar City is a highly planned, specialised, research and technology-intensive project that incorporates a living environment, without damaging it. In an economy that is based on hydrocarbons, an initiative that warrants zero- carbon, zero-waste ecology, Masdar city true to its meaning is a source or initiator of a new era, writes Mukta Rohra Masdar the source Masdar headquarters will be the greenest building in the world The first drawings of the green buildings of Masdar City, that zero-waste city of the future concept, were made by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill who designed Masdar Headquarters. This building will be the first that will generate power in order to be assembled. The power will be acquired with the help of a solar roof which, of course, is going to be assembled first. planet earth | | February 0927
India has been punching above its weight in renewable energy sector. India started early but other countries have started running, if India has to keep pace we need to sprint. Also the industry needs a clear policy framework by the government says Dr Sivaraman in a candid interview with T P Venu ENERGY TALK Winds of change What according to you is the global scene on renewable energy? I don't think there is any slowdown. In fact, in the next four to five years I expect an increased rate of adoption of renewable energy. There could be a minor hiccup in the next 12 months or so because of the general financial tightness. But I think almost all countries feel the need for renewable energy in their energy mix. Especially with the new administration in US, it is definitely is going to get on board the renewable energy space and change the attitude and dynamics of renewable energy worldwide. What are the other applications you see for wind energy in the near future? The primary application of wind energy is going to be grid connected generation of power. The other alternative uses for wind basically for pumping are going to be in small scale. Wind is primarily going to be driven by the large turbines we are looking at now. How far do you think the use of technology in maximising output has succeeded in increasing production? There are two points how wind turbine or wind energy can be maximised. One is maximising the efficiency of the machine in harnessing wind. I think we are moving in the right direction there by making machines and turbines which are capable of producing higher power at blower wind speeds. The second equally important area is once the power is generated utilising the power effectively i.e. getting it from the place it is generated to the place where it is to be used. That requires an investment in the grid and the control system of the grid. That investment is being met worldwide on uploading grid capacities to absorb larger percentages of wind. So, only when both go in tandem will you have optimum wind utilisation. There will be fluctuations and the grid has to be robust enough to take care of that fluctuation and balance it. Are there any specific initiatives taken in Indian context? What is being done is only strengthening the grid in higher capacity of evacuation line. In the future what is foreseen is smart grid which will be able to automatically adjust generation from other sources with better prediction of wind generation. A lot of work in this area is being done in Europe and it will take some time for us to adopt here. Apart from a host of problems, wind energy is facing an increasing transport time, even for the wind turbine equipment. What is being done to overcome this issue? That is the problem with which we have to live with. Even from the highways to wind farms, transport is a problem and the wind farm owners have to manage. We cannot expect the state to lay roads. Manufacturers and farm developers have to manage. What are the challenges faced by companies that are shifting to the renewable energy sector? The primary challenge is from the financial market and always the question mark that is there with renewable energy is from the government policy. We need to have a clear policy on concessions that will stay in place for the next five years so that we can have long-term plans. Now, we wait every year for the budget and see if tax laws change. All renewable energy projects have long-term returns. We need to have clarity in the policy. Global wind energy capacity crossed 100,000 MW this year. What has India's contribution been? We have been one of the early players and the consumption is pretty high and next only to countries like Germany and Denmark. India has been punching above its weight in wind industry over the last ten years. But now the rate of growth is going to be slower than other parts of the world. T Shivaraman, Managing Director, Shriram EPC planet earth | | February 0928
What do you think are the reasons? The policy framework outside India is better from an economic perspective. Farm development outside India has a significant advantage. The onus has to be on the Government. Wind tariffs in India are perhaps one of the lowest in the world. Nowhere in the world do you get it for something as low as 3 per kw. India gives tax breaks on wind power which other countries don't give. On balance, I would say that for a standalone farm developer, India is not as good a location as other nations. The problem is power being a state subject each state has its own policy and own requirements of renewable energy are to be fed into the grid. Rs The state and central policies both have to be in sync. Are you doing any projects on renewable energy? The major work we are doing is with our associate company Orien Grid Power. We are setting up multiple bio-mass plants to steer the bio-mass research. We will probably be established as the largest bio-mass player in India. You are into municipal waste management for quite some time. What is the scope for managed waste being used for energy? The municipal solid waste energy market has lot of scope. It has vast potential and has major technological challenges. The Indian scenario is very different from Europe and we need to design specific technology. Secondly, change is needed from regulatory and government perspective because India is so huge and we need a policy in place or else it would be a major problem. Mumbai has already taken up work in this area and modifying their strategy. Are there any states which are conducive for players to enter into? Rajasthan and Maharastra are two states that come to mind. Green Conclave will be a congregation of people who can propose a holistic vision of a better, greener Earth. The focus of this two-day conclave (conference-cum-exhibition) will be on how the decision makers and the industry can come together for the cause of protecting our environment and in utilising the scientific and technological know-how. The purpose is to assess earth’s vulnerability and its attempts at adapting to natural turmoil. The conclave will gauge the viability of green alternatives of energy, water, waste management and other important sustainability measures. November 12-13, 2009 New Delhi supported bypresented by ggrreeeennCONCLAVECONCLAVE ggrreeeenn For more information visit www.greenconclave.in planet earth | | February 0929
MANAGEMENT Every ambitious country or business house wishes to cash in on the benefits offered by CDM projects and earn carbon credits. But be warned that it is environmental compassion and not equipment and emissions reduction, what will turn in greater rewards, says risk analyst Swaminathan Krishnamurthy Carbon credits as a concept, has come to enjoy special privilege in corporate conversations, business plans and the headlines of business newspapers and magazines. Such is the obsession with the phrase that no meeting-over-hi tea, scientific conference or business seminar is concluded without a mention of or presentation on carbon credits. The defining factor It is a fact well known that the world over, serious attempts are being made to cut down carbon (CO ) emissions. International2 bodies have been trying to implement policies and offer such incentives that will enable countries to realise the desired reduction in carbon emissions. The Kyoto Protocol, one such international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which became effective in February 2005, sets binding targets for over 35 industrialised nations, in addition to the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These amount to an average of 5.2 per cent compared to the 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012. Carbon credits are a means to cut down Co emissions at the national2 and international levels through trading schemes implemented to counter global warming. A monetary value is set for each earned credit. As per the Kyoto Protocol, the signatory Annex 1 countries (developed countries) are under an obligation to trap GHG emissions through individual industrial entities established in the country by capping the annual emissions on an industrial scale. Any shortfall in the committed GHG reduction – which could be 6 per cent for one country or 9 per cent for another – scale is balanced through the buying and selling of carbon credits in the international market. The Kyoto Protocol provides for an arrangement, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which allows countries that have committed to GHGs reduction to invest in environment friendly projects that cap CO emissions.2 The need for CDM projects While committed countries have to ensure that the target is achieved, individual industrial entities – which could be a civil plant, a power plant or any other energy intensive plant – in the country, who have been included in the programme or have voluntarily agreed on a CO reduction figure need to weigh the possibilities2 planet earth | | February 0930 This is the first part in the two part series on carbon credits.
and choose alternatives. They are usually given a specific target based on the production capacity and the emissions allowance they have been given. It is basically a campaign- based system. Emissions above the allowed level will require them to either pay a penalty or buy credits from the market and get a permit sanctioned. Achieving the target may not be easy for a country. Considering a particular facility is operating at 80 per cent efficiency, it can be limit- stretched to operate at 90 per cent efficiency. However, if a certain facility is already operating at 90 per cent efficiency, each level in efficiency increase would require the plant to seek additional local investment. This could make the entity in question less competent in the market. Therefore, it was agreed at the Kyoto Protocol under the CDM scheme that a part of the target percentage will be considered for in- house reduction and improvements, while the remaining part could be achieved through investments in a GHG mitigating project elsewhere and credits claimed for that. Who invests in CDM projects CDM and carbon credits projects were initiated with the sole purpose of ensuring that companies and countries that are consciously making an effort to cut down GHGs emissions are rewarded suitably. It is the industrialised, developed or Annex1 countries that invest in CDM projects in the developing or non-Annex 1 countries. Certain established entities also sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who volunteer to lower their carbon footprint. Often referred to as carbon offsetters, they purchase such carbon credits from organisations that have accrued them in excess through individual projects. A stringent validation process is involved which ensures the quality of the credits. Project eligiblity under CDM CDM is supervised by the CDM Executive Board (CDM EB). Industries and businesses that are planning to apply for CDM projects and thus ensure that carbon credits flow in, need to ensure that they start planning early and consciously make an effort to better the environment by capping carbon emissions. Additionality Any project, being planned by a company to reduce energy in the form of power or heat generation and which in the process would reduce the burning of fossil fuels that could contribute to global warming, is eligible for CDM. However, no amount of CO reduction will place2 the project under CDM, unless the promoters establish that the planned reduction in emissions is being undertaken with the sole purpose of arresting emissions, and it will not be Coal is mixed in a coal mix hall at the Prosper II mine in the western town of Bottrop. A handful of nations are developing plans to trap and seal beyond reach, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) produced from burning fossil fuels in power plants. The technology, called carbon capture and storage (CCS), may help create more energy for less CO2. The idea is that companies build coal-fired power plants and bolt on CCS technology later when it becomes commercially viable. You purchase carbaon credits from www.carbon planet.com Carbon Planet Purchases carbon credits in bulk Carbon Planet transfers owenership of carbon credits to the customer Planet Saving Super Hero (You) Carbon Credits Money MoneyCarbon Credits Carbon Planet Purchases fully certified carbon credits. Greenhouse Gas Emissions (eg. Co2) - The leading human cause of global warming planet earth | | February 0931
possible to achieve the target without the incentive offered by carbon credits. This is called the ‘additionality’ factor. They will have to prove their compassion for the environment and explain why a particular project which is being undertaken, is not a business-as- usual project and why it would require carbon credits. They will also have to explain how the revenue generated from the carbon credits would help the project proponent. CDM/Carbon Credits, a project- based initiative Planning and time are two crucial aspects of CDM projects and carbon credits. If a project promoter says that the project had been commissioned in 2004, it proves that the project has been running for 3-4 years. The supervising bodies are likely to raise doubts about how they were able to run it for these many years without support. Since they have a limited pie to give away, they cannot consider every GHG reducing project as a CDM project. For example, a project being planned by a cement company which will help convert a wet process to a dry process plant. Mere GHG mitigation does not qualify a project for CDM tag while converting a wet process plant to a dry process plant, the company will in any case reduce emissions. Why then do they need CDM support? In a country like India, where almost 90 per cent of the cement industry is already running under semi-dry or dry process plants, another plant that claims to convert the plant from one process to another will not make any difference, because the project promoter knows for sure that he cannot sustain the operations without converting the plant into a dry process plant. The project promoters will have to clearly prove that CDM will prove beneficial and play an important role. They should prove that it would be difficult for their project to sustain without CDM revenue. Emissions allowance Every country and business unit that is environment-conscious (and even otherwise) will have historic emissions calculations and what they have committed to. It takes into consideration the development pattern of the country and based on its development, it will be categorised either as an Annex 1 country or a non-Annex 1 country. Annex 1 countries are developed countries, who in the process of development have already contributed towards global warming. These countries have a target to meet and these targets will percolate into different entities within the countries. The size of the entity will decide the allowance they get. It is the country’s responsibility to see that the target is met. However, they may have different ways of doing or achieving this. Joint implementation A CDM project is termed as being planned under joint implementation when an entity in a developed country invests in a project being developed by an entity in a developing country. The carbon credits generated will go towards meeting the target of the developed country and the revenue will flow to the entity in the developing country. It is a win-win situation for both. Since carbon emissions is a global issue, it doesn’t matter where the GHGs are being reduced as long as they are being reduced. The writer is a risk analyst and climate change expert. Look out for Part 2 of the story in the next issue Carbon footprint: While carbon credits are the monetary benefits that you reap out of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, carbon footprint is a measure of the impact that our lifestyle and activities have on the environment. This is calculated in terms of the amount of green house gases (GHGs) that are produced through a particular process. The activities that produce GHGs could include fossil fuel burning, electronic appliances and the clearing of green forests. Originally, the idea of carbon footprint originated from the ecological imbalance and damage we are causing and thus ecological footprint. UNFCCC: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was set up in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. As many as 154 countries agreed to be a part of the UNFCCC, which committed the industrialised signatories to a voluntary aim to reduce green house gases emissions. This step was taken as one of the measures to control global warming and climate change. The nations that signed the proposition agreed to take stringent measures for the good of mankind. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): According to the Kyoto Protocol, industrialised countries have been given permission to invest money in projects that work towards reducing green house gases emissions in their attempt to reach their carbon reduction targets. These projects are generally invested in the developing nations by the developed countries. However, one of the basic criteria for CDM approval is that the project promoter should have proved the conscious effort being undertaken to reduce carbon emissions and how the additional funds will help the project. Jargon Buster China 41% Brazil 14% India 14% Republic of Korea 11% Mexico 5% Chile 2% African countries 2% Other countries 11% CDM CERs distribution by country planet earth | | February 0932
An increasing number of IT firms are getting together to cut down energy consumption. Green data centres are a good option How green is your data centre? The operational challenges of today's data centres have become a gloomy issue for IT managers and CIOs around the globe. As hundreds of thousands of servers and storage systems are deployed to keep pace with ever- growing business computing needs, data centre managers are faced with increasing operational costs – namely power, cooling and maintenance. Today's data centres spend just 30 per cent of their budget on capital expenditures, while a whopping 70 per cent is consumed by operational expenses. IT firms like Dell, Intel, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Lenovo, Nokia, Tulip Telecom etc. have realised that "Going Green" is a profitable business in today's world. It requires a low initial investment but it also earns them brownie points for helping in reducing e-waste. Setting up green data centres is an effort in this direction. A decade ago, the electricity bill was the last thing on any CIO's mind while setting up a data centre. The numbers of servers were small and the volumes of data were even smaller. Electricity was cheaper then. GREEN TECHNOLOGY Gargee Borah planet earth | | February 0933
Data centres nowadays are filled with many racks of servers and switches and other equipment. The energy requirements are also growing at the rate of 15 to 16 per cent. The ever- increasing server load necessitates further upgrades and newer equipments. The amount of power consumed by a single data centre can sometimes be as high as that required to light up an entire town. Server power costs have more than doubled, over the last decade, placing greater stress on cooling and power infrastructure. The annual expenditure on a data centre just for cooling reaches the multi-million dollar range. So every watt conserved provides real cost savings back to the business. But the demands have changed and the power situation is gradually turning into a crisis, data centre design practices haven't changed much in decades. Today new and energy-efficient, greener technologies are available or are undergoing development in many R&D labs. Nowadays X86 server designs have enabled dramatic improvements in density, with rack-mount systems packing more, ever-faster processors into a cabinet. Advancements such as the half-depth form factor and back-to-back mounting enable density levels as high as 80 1U rack- mount servers per cabinet. The newest multi-core processors from AMD and Intel are enabling never- before-seen CPU core densities, and the introduction of quad-core computing has increased compute levels to an unprecedented 640 processing cores in a cabinet just 7 feet tall and 3.5 feet deep. Density levels that high with all those processing cores in such a small footprint is a necessity for data centres managing mission-critical applications, resulting in exponentially greater compute power in a small amount of space. But higher density comes with a price – a very high price in the form of power, cooling and maintenance. Thus, while delivering the flexibility and scalability that leading Internet and High Performance Computing (HPC) environments are clamouring for, dense server clusters raise power consumption levels and amplify thermal management challenges. Going green is no longer just a matter of moral rightness or social responsibility. It is now becoming a business necessity for data centre operations to know how much energy each device consumes and to find ways of reducing that energy consumption. It simply costs too much to not do so. Satish Pendse, chief information officer, Hindustan Construction Company said, “Cooling consumes around 35 to 40 per cent of the electricity consumed in a data centre; servers, storage, networking How to maintain an energy-efficient data centre 1 Sealing. Ensure that the data centre is properly sealed to ensure optimum cooling. Otherwise the load on air- conditioners increases and correspondingly power consumption. It makes sense to cut off the data centre environment from the rest of the building. Vapor sealing is a cost-effective solution and easy to implement. If the data centre has raised flooring, then it is recommended to have the base flooring sealed with rubber or poly vinyl matting. Put sunscreens on windows, and if possible have two stage windows to trap air in between. The use of false ceilings is also advisable. 2. Air Flow. Should be such that the maximum amount of heat is removed with minimal energy consumption. Conventional racks are designed to throw heated air from the rear. Use the front facing racks and a conduit behind the rack that channels hot air upwards which is again sucked by the air-conditioner's return path. The proper arrangement of cables behind racks also allows managing the air flow. Air travel should be minimised by placing air- conditioners at right angles to the hot air path (hot air being lighter travels upwards). 3. Consolidation and optimisation. Virtualisation can be used to consolidate servers/applications; use a quad processor server than two separate dual CPU machines (think of cost and simplicity before virtualising). Use power management tools. Use the hardware to the maximum since the same power is consumed even if server is running at lower utilisation levels. 4. New technologies Supplemental and embedded cooling should be adopted for more benefits. Supplemental cooling is a new approach that overcomes the limitations of raised flooring when rack density increases and embedded cooling can provide direct cooling to racks. Source:TheClimateGroup 20 20 20 10 30 40 40 30 20 10 50 40 30 20 10 50 2020 business asusual 2020 minus reductions Possible ICT*-enabled reductions Other possible reductions Emissions of which from ICT* *Information and communications techology How IT can help Global emissions and possible reductions, tonnes CO equivalent2 Total emissions:1.43bn tonnes CO equivalent2 PCs, peripherals and printers 57% Telecoms infrastructure and devices 25% Data centers 18% Source:TheClimateGroup IT footprints Emissions by sub-sector,2020 planet earth | | February 0934
equipment etc. also consume a considerable amount of power. Increasing redundancy from N to N+1 to N+2 also increases power consumption.” Utilising blade servers seem to be a worthwhile proposition for many as they have many benefits. However, they can lead to densities for power and heat that existing facilities' infrastructure cannot handle. Virtual PCs and other Thin Client architectures, on the other hand, can provide significant environmental advantages in system power consumption, reduced quantities of desktop equipment, and extended product lives. However, deployment requires a rethinking of overall IT system architecture for most enterprises. Virtualisation and adoption of multi-core processors may also significantly affect the type and quantity of equipment to be installed in a data centre. Manikkam VS, Head-Information Technology, Henkel CAC explained, “Equipment densities are continuing to rise and it is important to have a roadmap for dealing with higher densities to ensure you are not limited in your ability to adopt new technology and make the most effective use of your data centre space. Increasing rack spacing to accommodate higher densities is a costly strategy when facility costs are taken into account; significant savings can be achieved if the facility can scale to support higher density racks without reducing the number of racks being supported.” Sometimes changing the placement of servers can help in avoiding heat issues, by converting a hot aisle into a cold aisle. But this is not always possible. Pendse explained that if one changes how servers face, one has to also change the path of power cabling, the network cables and the access approach to the servers. It may also happen that in an existing data centre it will require some interior changes too, including changes to the floor, the heat vents. If you have a return ceiling plenum then that path needs to be changed or suitably modified to accommodate the hot aisle/cold aisle approach. This also may require downtime which may add to the cost but in the long run this is recovered through savings in the energy bill. New technologies for liquid cooling at the rack level can address the heat removal requirements for high power, high density computing environments. Adopting these designs runs counter to the practice of data centres being designed as raised floor environments; a new cabling design and fresh management practices are needed. The use of industrial cooling technologies adapted from other industries is another area of innovation being offered for energy- efficient cooling at the facility level. Newer floor mount precision cooling systems automatically adjust their capacity to room requirements without cycling compressors, increasing efficiency and reliability. This allows extra capacity to be designed into the system initially without a significant increase in energy costs. For power efficiency, more efficient server power supplies are available today, as are new engineering approaches to eliminating inefficiencies in traditional systems with multiple AC/DC power conversions. Innovative designs for DC powered data centres that could radically increase power efficiency are being researched and tested. The cooling and power consumption requirements of a data centre can be drastically reduced if proper planning is undertaken. It is good to plan for future requirements, but over-provisioning everything also leads to inefficiencies. Be it a small, medium or large organisation, energy saving means a lot to everyone, especially when it directly translates into heavy costs. But if appropriate measures are taken to ensure optimum efficiencies of data centre equipment, every organization will be able to do its bit towards contributing to a greener earth. planet earth | | February 0935
The high priest of the Sankat Mochan Temple in the mystic city of Varanasi and a former professor of hydraulics, compares the Ganges’ flow to the now-quick- now-quiet quality of raag Bhairav, has taken it upon him to ensure that river flows clean and pure Man with a missionary zeal At a time when boys his age made schemes to trouble the neighbouring shanty-owner selling inconsequential ware, Dr Veer Bhadra Mishra would search for opportunities to steal into the waters of river Ganges, flowing through Tulsighat at the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi. He would sit by the banks and devise grandiose plans to clean the Ganges or Ganga Maiyya, as he prefers to call the river, which has been revered in India since the ancient times. He was 11 then. Today at 70, when his fight to cleanse the river off industrial pollution, organic waste PROFILE planet earth | | February 0936
and poisonous chemicals, has come to fruitition, Mishra is just as deeply attached to the river as he was 59 years back. The retired hydraulic engineering professor and former head of the Department of Civil Engineering, Benaras Hindu University, who also is the mahant (high priest) of the Sankat Mochan Temple, has fought a long fight, spanning almost 30 years, to get his Advanced Integrated Wastewater oxidation Pond System (AIWPS) project to plug the flow of domestic and industrial waste into the Ganges, passed by the Government. Not surprisingly, it was no ordinary day for him when in June 2008, a long awaited communication from the Prime Minister's office arrived, inviting him to a meeting to discuss his environment friendly and cost- efficient technology. The Centre agreed to support a pilot run of his inexpensive scheme and hold back patronage to a costlier government-run project. The foundation has been given the responsibility of one AIWPS plant with a capacity of 37 million litre per day at Ramana. Describing his reaction to the news then as ecstatic, Mishra in gentle, well-measured words says, “When the Government decides something, it is difficult to change their line of action. I have been trying to impress upon the Government the effectiveness of this technology since the last two decades, but it is only now that I have succeeded.” And while he waited for the Government's verdict on the plan which was unanimously passed by the city municipality, it was his love and respect for the river that fed his patience. While every single day introduced him to a new facet of the river and strengthened his conviction, an incident in 1965 is what actually moved him into initiating his Swacha Ganga mission. He recalls, “That was when the diesel locomotive factory was set up in Varanasi and some of the chromium plating plants were dumping effluents into the river. That day I stepped into the river for my morning Sandhya Vandan. As I cupped the water in my hands, a stench disturbed me. Then I saw a thick film of copper coloured liquid flowing past. A little ahead I saw several hundreds of fish bouncing in the water, but strangely enough, they were all dead. It was very disturbing, and I decided something needs to be done.” In addition to pollution, climate change is also ringing its perilous bell for the river, which has caused the Gangotri glacier which pumps water to the river to recede. But Mishra begs to differ. He says, “I have seen the river swell and shrink by planet earth | | February 0937
almost 40 feet. I don't see its flow being affected by climate change or glacial melt. The dry river flow is contributed by aquifiers and ground water. The problem is that these sources are being polluted, which could harm the river.” Coming from a family of religious heads, which has the eldest son inheriting the father's position at the temple, Mishra was initiated into the temple at the age of 14. Not the one to be restricted to the religious and philosophical domain alone, he was the first in his line to join the university. “I was not allowed to attend classes in my priest's robes and had to take special permission to wear a trouser. I was always supported by my mother and Ganga maiyya. University life though exciting also brought forth amusing experiences. Every time I was introduced as the mahant of the temple and that I teach at the Benaras Hindu University (BHU) people would assume I taught philosophy and Sanskrit,” says Mishra in his lyrically trained voice. A delicate balance on the line separating religious and scientific logic is what Mishra has maintained. He switches between his responsibilities as the high priest and a scientist with surprising dexterity. It is required of him to do his morning ablution or aachaman with a sip of the river water, but the scientist in Mishra, who was received the 'Hero of the Planet' title from TIME Magazine in 1999 and was included in the United Nations Environmental Program's Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1992, has prevailed upon him to skip this step. For the Ganges may be holy and signify purity but it is also true that it has become the pin cushion for high levels of industrial pollution, organic waste, domestic sewage and human corpses that are often flowed into the river by the poor. Mishra, who takes joy in learning Hindustani classical music from his guru Channulal Mishra even at 70, and often tries to compare the mood and flow of the river to the various ragas, raag Bhairav in particular, has not accepted any position after his retirement in 2001. He owes his ability to balance both responsibilities to his grassroots background. “I connect with the base as well as my profession. I take a dip in the Ganges and use the water to do all the temple chores. But honestly, I have suffered physically. Sometimes I have severe pain in my entire being which I cannot describe. However, this doesn't affect my dedication to the river's cause. Where the physical world ends, metaphysical world begins,” says the activist who often blends religious imagery with poetic delight. Supported by his education, Dr Mishra was able to gauge the threats to the Ganges, and together with Dr William Oswald, an engineering professor from the University of California, Berkeley, developed the AIWPS. He voices facts about the pollution levels in the Ganges with just the same lyrical touch as he chants the mantras. “The Ganges which flows over 1,600 miles before joining the sea, supports over five million people through the length of its stream. Out of the 116 cities situated on the banks of river Ganga, five are such that have a population of more than one million. These cities are polluting the rive more. Most programmes that were implemented here attempted just to remove the organic matter, which forms just 5 per cent of the pollution. The main threat is from industrial waste and domestic waste which feeds the fecal coliform bacteria; the root cause of al water-borne diseases,” informs Mishra. Shockingly, every 10 ml of water 7 contains 10 FC count of fecal coliform bacteria. His technology doesn't dwell on the intricate. Rather, it requires no electricity to operate the plant and uses abundantly available natural resources to disintegrate and treat the waste that is spewed into the river through point sources, which include the 30-odd sewage pipelines that release black water into the river. As the founder president of the Sankat Mochan Foundation, a body that has taken the responsibility to render the Ganges dirt- free, he set up a natural water-tight inception system along the ghats of Varanasi, with the help of Oswald, Dr Billy Green; another scientist and engineers collected from all over the country. The interceptor takes all the sewage outflows and directs it outside the city to a huge wasteland downstream Varuna river. The diverted effluents are stored in the ponds and are broken down by sunlight, algae and bacteria. Once treated, the water is 95 per cent pure and facilitates a five log reduction in fecal cloriform count, and without any slush. The foundation which is surviving on support from members and other organisations abroad has switched roles from being a catalytic agent to being a watch dog. Though Mishra acknowledges that their work is being recognised, he expects people to be more actively involved. “I always wonder how, but word spreads. Recently a college based in Tamil Nadu awarded me with the title of “Warrior of Ganga” and when the former president of the US, Mr Bill Clinton gave a public speech, he invited me to share the podium with him. Such incidents reassure us but they are not our aim. I believe that the two banks of the river, with faith and commitment on one bank and technology on the other, should be made firm for the Ganges to flow happily and give us happiness,” says Mishra. planet earth | | February 0938
RECOMMENDATIONS e talk in hushed tones about Wit and it’s often considered taboo to discuss it in public. We seek ways to dispose it secretly, but don’t stop at using its word variations to express disappointment and shock. Human waste is common to all and we cannot do without eliminating it, yet we prefer not to talk about it, unless forced. However, it’s absolutely necessary that we discuss it, for not just the developing countries, but human waste disposal is an enormous problem but even in the most developed nations. The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste, aims to disband all fears associated with discussing human waste. It talks about everything from car loos, to underground sewers in urban cities to slums that have thousands of people sharing one restroom. Rose George, the writer explores ways in which human waste can be utilized to produce energy and the heroes of third world sanitation movements. The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste Author: Publisher: Rose George Macmillan, 304 pp ow far can one go to adapt to Ha lifestyle of bare necessities and still manage a sense of humour? Well! In the engrossing Finnish documentary Recipes for Disaster, some of the extreme measures that filmmaker/patriarch John Webster inflicts on his wife kids can be maddening and hilarious to watch. The family attempt to detach themselves from life’s comforts, from fossil fuel, plastic, makeup, shampoo, and even toothpaste. As the temptation to succumb to luxuries increases the test of willpower eats into the family. The film traverses on how daily routine affects global warming, it also investigates on the impact it has on the family. The groups sense of humour in spite of hardships they encounter coupled with vintage footage and jovial narration is a must watch. Recipes for Disaster Director: John Webster Time: 85 mins Environmental Management in Mining 10 to 12 February 2009 Perth, WA, Australia This event will allow you to speak directly with the key government contacts that impact on your planning through their legislation http://www.iqpc.com/a u/environmentalmining Mega Water Expo 2009 26 to 28 February 2009 Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Business opportunities in water conservation, wastewater management, Effluent treatment, Water recycle and reuse, Desalination, Rain water harvesting. http://watertoday.org Green Energy Summit 3 Mar - 7 Mar 2009 Bangalore Green Energy Summit 2009 will provide a unique platform for debate, dialogue and action between research, industry, academia, financial organisations, entrepreneurs and government bodies worldwide. http://www.greenenerg ysummit.com/ 6th International Biofuels Conference 4 to 5 March 2009 Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi The Conference will deliberate on issues facing the biofuels movement; provide information about the local and global potential of biofuels, and examine new developments. http://www.winrockindi a.org International Conference on Implementing Environmental Water Allocations 23 to 26 February 2009 Port Elizabeth, South Africa International conference to promote the sustainable use of rivers, wetlands, estuaries and groundwater http://www.wrc.org.za International Colloquium for Environmentally Preferred Advanced Power Generation 10 to 12 February 2009 Newport Beach, California, United States ICEPAG is a three-day international colloquium focused on advanced hybrid and large system electric generation technology: 1 megawatt to 1,000 megawatts. http://www.apep.uci.ed u/ICEPAG2009 India Events International Events You needn’t touch this recycle bin Recycling helps better the environment, but how does one do it without having to step on a clumsy pedal or touch sticky, dirty waste disposal lids? The new Touchless Recycling center and trashcan uses latest sensor technology to make recycling convenient while ensuring a germ-free environment in your homes. It provides two separated eight gallon compartments. One each for trash and recycle, or one for paper and one for bottles/cans. The minute your hand nears the infrared sensor on top of the trash can, the lid opens automatically and closes 3 seconds after your hand has moved away. The trashcans are ideal for use in kitchens, garages, hospitals, offices, schools, child care centers and at healthcare facilities. Go ahead, use paper guilt-free If you scream at your colleagues every time they take printouts, telling them that they are destroying trees in the process, it would be advisable to switch to organic banana paper offered by www.ecopaper.com. Made from combining tree- free agricultural bio-products coupled with 100% post consumer recycled content, this eco-friendly variety of paper is laser printer compatible and is Process Chlorine Free (PCF), which means that the paper has no bleach, chlorine or chlorine derivatives. Being acid-free it will not turn yellow or disintegrate over time. Recycled old suitcases turned into chairs These funky chairs are a clever solution to recycling old, out-of use suitcases, which could add to environmental waste. Designed by MayBeDesign, a Turkish company, the furniture line, dubbed Sit Bag, uses patterned material to cover recycled luggage bags. Each chair consists of two retro hard-cases while the automans are made of a single closed case. planet earth | | February 0939 BOOKS FILM PRODUCTS EVENTS
Growing environmental concerns such as depletion of the ozone layer, climatic changes and global warming that is melting the glaciers in the polar region resulting in a rise in sea levels are some of the adverse effects of growing environmental pollution, which has caught the eye of both governments and the common man. Globally, the automotive sector accounts for a 16 per cent of the total industrial pollution. For instance, in the US, the transportation sector (including gasoline and diesel powered cars, trucks and busses) accounts for 58 per cent of carbon monoxide emissions, 34 per cent of hydrocarbon emissions and 57 per cent of nitrogen oxides. Consumer conscience In September 2007, Oliver Wyman, a US-based international management consulting firm conducted a study on the impact of climate change on consumer purchasing behaviour in Europe and the US. The study revealed that consumers want eco- friendly cars but are reluctant to pay a premium price for it. Environmental compatibility occupies fifth position after reliability, safety, price/performance ratio and total cost of ownership among the attributes influencing the purchase decision. It is worth mentioning that environmental compatibility has been rated above attributes including design, service and brand prestige. Fifty-five per cent of the respondents find it difficult to decide whether a car is eco-friendly or not and look for ‘eco-seal’ on the car. Seventy per cent of the European and US respondents said the ‘eco-seal’ played a major role in their purchase decision. Japanese and French brands are perceived to be more eco- friendly by consumers. However, they expect German car makers to produce more eco-friendly cars in the next decade. Forty per cent of European and 25 per cent of US respondents prefer to go for a car that can be easily recognised by its eco-friendly design or model name. Seventy five per cent of European and 65 per cent of the US respondents expect their respective governments to offer tax incentives upon purchase of an eco-friendly car, which can be a driving force for consumers. More than 90 per cent of the respondents consider less fuel consumption and low CO emissions2 as important attributes in an eco- friendly car. Eighty per cent of European and 60 per cent of the US respondents consider a drafted life INDUSTRY WATCH Omer Ahmed Siddiqui The automotive sector contributes a total of 16 per cent to global industrial pollution. Auto makers are striving to bring down the levels with fuel-efficient and hybrid options RRaacciinngg ttoowwaarrddss aa cclleeaanneerr ttoommoorrrrooww planet earth | | February 0940
cycle emission assessment procedure should be implemented. Fifty per cent of the respondents consider use of recyclable material as an important factor in producing eco- friendly cars. Toyota, Renault and Peugeot are popular among the European respondents as eco- friendly brands. Automakers in action Escorted by the emission norms and growing consumer inclination for eco-friendly vehicles, automakers are left with no option but to produce clean and green vehicles. Hybrids, plug-in hybrids, diesel-powered cars and vehicles running on ethanol and fuel-cell are some of the eco-friendly cars currently being produced. Hybrids are twice more fuel efficient than gasoline cars, while diesel engines are about 30 per cent more fuel-efficient than conventional gasoline engines. Hybrids from Toyota In 1997 Toyota Motor Corporation introduced Prius, the world's first commercially mass produced hybrid. This also signalled the development of hybrid powertrain incorporated in the Toyota Hybrid System. Since then Toyota has positioned hybrid cars at the core of its manufacturing strategy. Toyota plans to start mass production of electric cars in early 2010. The company is also promoting its gasoline-electric hybrid system as a core environmental technology. Dian Ogilvie, senior vice president of Toyota Motor North America opines, "Over the past year, we saw a convergence of will from industry, government and society to respond to climate change and to address our collective footprint on the planet. It is clear that the mix of limited resources, rising temperatures and an increasing global population that wants to be mobile demands an innovative and sustainable response. We realise that the road to sustainable mobility is a long one, but we are ready and willing to go the distance. Our best resource to achieve this is our people." Honda bets on diesel and hybrids Honda has staged plans to become the most eco-friendly player in the global auto industry by 2015. In January 2008, Honda introduced CR- Z, a lightweight sports hybrid concept vehicle powered by a gas- electric hybrid system, and the FCX Clarity, a zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicle based on the new Honda V Flow fuel cell platform. The company is concentrating on developing eco-friendly and fuel- efficient diesel engines. It is introducing its new i-DTEC clean diesel engine in Honda Acura in the North American market in 2009. The engine reduces noxious exhaust emissions while boosting power and fuel efficiency. Nissan electric cars soon Nissan, a Japanese automaker plans to bring affordable zero-emission vehicles to the US market. The company plans to launch an affordably priced electric car to the US market by 2010. The initial launch will be a small economy sized car, while Nissan will role out a complete line of electric vehicles in all shapes and sizes worldwide by 2012. Other small Japanese rivals including Mazda Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp are focussing on hydrogen rotary engines and short-haul electric vehicles respectively. In June 2008, Genepax, a Japanese car manufacturer, unveiled a duel fuel car that runs on petrol and water. It has a mileage of 80 km per litre of water. Genepax has applied for patents for the car. If the car becomes a commercial success, it can solve global fuel crisis. Bentley's biofuel strategy Bentley has implemented biofuel strategy under which it is producing a bioethanol-fuelled car which is expected to be released at the Green cars Hybrids combine two or more different propulsion systems, typically a gasoline engine and one or more electric drive motors. Most hybrids on the road today compliment their gas engines by charging a battery when breaking. Engines running on diesel or other alternative fuels can also be used in hybrids. Natural gas, the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, is being used by an increasing number of medium- and heavy- duty commercial vehicles. Natural gas is stored and used in its liquefied or compressed states. It is most commonly abbreviated as LNG for Liquefied Natural Gas, and CNG for Compressed Natural Gas. Electric cars produce zero localised emissions since they’re propelled by electric motors that run on batteries charged at home, or special electric vehicle charging stations. Electric cars are extremely efficient and run for pennies per mile, much cheaper than any other alternative fuel. Plug-in hybrids boast great potential for improving fuel economy. Plug-in hybrid technology allows gasoline- electric hybrid vehicles to be recharged from the grid and run many miles on battery power alone. Plug-in hybrids may never need to run on anything but electricity for shorter commutes. Hydrogen is perhaps the cleanest of all alternative fuels, burning with nearly zero emissions in an internal combustion engine and with emissions of only water vapor and heat in an electro- mechanical fuel cell. Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. As a fuel, ethanol can be used in more than 30 flex fuel vehicle models that have been designed to run on alcohol, gasoline, or any combination of the two fuels from the same tank. Biodiesel is a renewable alternative fuel made from various sources ranging from waste vegetable oil to soybeans. It can often be used seamlessly in diesel engines of all kinds. Biodiesel is a cleaner fuel than standard petroleum diesel. Hybrid EthanolHydrogenNatural Gas Plug-insElectric Biodiesel planet earth | | February 0941
Geneva motor show in March 2009, and will be offered for sale by the end of July. The Crewe-based luxury car maker expects the strategy to help reduce CO emissions by 40per2 cent in the next three years. According to Bentley, considering the total CO emissions on a well-to-2 wheel basis, ethanol offers reduced CO emissions as compared to2 electric or hybrid cars, but this aspect has been overlooked by European regulators who only concentrate on tail pipe emissions. Using bioethanol Bentley aims to achieve 15 per cent of its target of reducing emissions by 400 gm/km by 2012. Landrover's start/stop technology In December 2008, Landrover introduced its Freelander TD4_e in London. The ‘e’ refers to e_Terrain Technologies, an environment friendly programme of Landrover. The technology stops the engine when the car is idling and the engine is restarted when the car moves. This reduces fuel consumption of the car when it moves in traffic, ultimately reducing the tail pipe emissions. The technology provides an 8 per cent decrease in CO emissions and2 12 per cent improvement in fuel economy. General Motors finds fuel cell promising General Motors introduced ‘The Provoq’ in January 2008 that runs on a hydrogen fuel cell and a lithium ion battery. The car uses hydrogen as the primary fuel and battery supports during peak power requirements. The car is fitted with solar panels on the roof to power electronics. BMWs to breath on hydrogen The US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory tested BMW Hydrogen 7 mono fuel in March 2008 to declare it as the vehicle with the least emissions. The car complied with super-ultra low- emission vehicle (SULEV) level, the most stringent emissions performance standard available at that time. Thomas Wallner, a mechanical engineer who leads Argonne's hydrogen vehicle testing activities opined, “The BMW Hydrogen 7's emissions were only a fraction of SULEV level, making it one of the lowest emitting combustion engine vehicles that have been manufactured. Moreover, the car's engine actively cleans the air. Argonne's testing shows that the Hydrogen 7's 12-cylinder engine actually shows emissions levels that, for certain components, are cleaner than the ambient air that comes into the car's engine." Coming home in a recyclable Maruti Not to stay behind, Maruti Suzuki has staged plans to make its entire line of cars eco-friendly by 2010. The company is striving to make its cars recyclable by complying with European Union's end-of-life vehicle recycling specifications. It plans to make 85 per cent of the car recyclable after the completion of its green in2008 cars top five planet earth | | February 0942 Honda Civic Hybrid Mercury Mariner Hybrid Ford Escape Hybrid Toyota Camry Hybrid Toyota Prius
service life. This can be done by eliminating the use of harmful substances like mercury, cadmium, lead, hexavalent chrome, toxic and mutagenic compounds. Maruti will launch Splash and D-segment Kizashi car during 2009, the first of its brands to comply with recycling specifications. Use of recyclable material will reduce fuel consumption by 10 to 15 per cent. Electric cars on role Maini Reva the electric car manufactured in India is making waves in England, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The basic model of the car offers 50 miles per charge, while the high-end model offers 90 miles. Ajanta Group, the clock making company, has staged plans to launch an electric car cheaper than Nano in 2009. Tata Motors also plans to launch the electric version of Nano in the same year. In November 2008, Fiat released Punto that is fitted with dual engines to run on both methane and petrol mainly to reduce emissions and fuel consumption. Research and Development A team at the Melbourne-based Australian Centre of Excellence for Electro materials Science at Monash University has developed a new fuel cell prototype that can trigger commercial production of cheap and fuel-efficient fuel cells for powering eco-friendly cars. Production cost of the fuel cell is brought down by replacing expensive cathodes incorporating platinum Nan particles with cathode made of conducting polymers. Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which is a part of the Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence in the US, are investigating the use of solid ammonia borane, compressed into small pellets for safe storage, dispensing and easy refuelling of hydrogen. Each millilitre of ammonia borane weighs about three-quarters of a gram and can store up to 1.8 litres of hydrogen. Thus, ammonia borane pellets for storing hydrogen, will occupy less space and be lighter in weight than systems using pressurised hydrogen gas. This will also increase the capacity of automobiles. PNNL scientist Dave Heldebrant notes, "With this new understanding and our improved methods in working with ammonia borane we're making positive strides in developing a viable storage medium to provide reliable, environmentally friendly hydrogen power generation for future transportation needs." Outlook According to Peter Bosch, Automotive expert at Oliver Wyman, “The climate change debate has caused environmental compatibility to come up of nowhere to fifth place among purchasing criteria. If this trend continues, environmental compatibility could become permanently established as third basic expectation alongside safety and reliability.” Consumers perceive German auto makers to be moving towards producing eco-friendly cars. The basic reason behind consumer expectations with the German brands is that they consider these brands as the most technologically advanced and have the capability to lead on the environmental friendly engineering front in the near future. The high price tag of hybrid cars still restraints customers from going for them and car makers cannot reduce the cost unless they embark on mass production, which again should find optimum demand. Hence, automakers will have to create a trade-off between technology and cost. Hybrids, fuel-efficient diesel engines and electric cars will rule the roads in the near future. Honda executive vice-president Koichi Kondo opines, “The game is still open as car-making enters a new phase in which alternative energy sources and power systems will become mainstream, re-writing the rules of a century-old business. Petrol-electric hybrids will be the next big thing to replace petrol and diesel-powered cars.” uto manufacturers in India are Aconcentrating on producing ecofriendly cars considering the growing buzz about environmental conservation. As a result a number of hybrids and convertible cars such as the Volvo C70 convertible were showcased at the Auto Expo that took place in New Delhi in January 2008. But the question still remains, are these cars fit for the Indian market? Two factors – cost and eco- friendliness of these cars need to be analyzed to arrive at an answer. Hybrids cost 60 per cent more than their equivalent models in India, which make them more attractive to personal car owners rather than the commercial fleet. Even if the price premium decreases to 10 per cent, coupled with government incentives and favorable tax policies, demand for these cars for commercial applications is unlikely to catch up until there is a sharp rise in fuel prices. In India, annual petrol car emissions amount to 22.03 million ton of CO2. Even if 5 per cent hybrids penetrate Indian market in the next few years it will result in a 0.55 million ton reduction in CO emissions per2 annum. This accounts for only 0.23 per cent of the 244.8 million ton of total vehicular CO emissions per2 annum, which is extremely insignificant. Further the batteries used in hybrids are made of nickel- metal-hydride, and there are no battery disposal norms in India as compared to the western nations. Even though hybrids are the first step towards a zero emission cars future, a lot more work needs to be done on the economic feasibility and ecofriendly aspects of hybrids, especially in the Indian context. Hybrids: Indian feasibility planet earth | | February 0943
Mona Ramavat Surprised that your electricity bill somehow always totals to more than you estimate? Well, every gadget or appliance in your home might be an energy thief or ghost electricity consumer! Bust the ghost consumer our electricity bills accounting for as much as one-thirds of Ypower more than you actually consume can truly be a horror story! The phantoms responsible for this lie in your electronic gadgets that although turned off or on power save mode, suck up a great deal of energy. This kind of ‘mysterious’ consumption of electricity, when apparently, there isn’t any supply, has come to be called ghost electricity consumption. Surprising, but true, a television or laptop left plugged in, although turned off – and forgotten – can still add to ticking meters. What’s more, besides escalating electricity bills, this also results in considerable damage to the environment. Typical ghost energy haunts Virtually every gadget in your home that is plugged into a socket sucks up more energy than you can imagine, while it is turned off or on standby. Televisions turned off with the remote control, while the main switch is left on, a hair dryer that remains plugged in, phone chargers that are not unplugged even after the phone is fully charged, microwave ovens, laptops, game consoles, DVD players are all typical ghost consumers. Although not designed with the purpose of consuming electricity when they are turned off or on standby, these gadgets, end up doing so by default. For instance, the TV that is turned off using a remote control is ‘semi-awake’ in case it needs to be turned on again. Printers, speakers, scanners etc. are ‘half conscious’ for any possible signal from the computer. Many gadgets also remain in standby mode and don’t totally shut off unless you LIFE STYLE planet earth | | February 0944
switch off the mains, so that their status gauges or clocks can remain updated. Says Pune based electronics engineer, Pranav Mishra, “An easy way of determining if an appliance that has an adaptor is consuming ghost energy is to check if the adaptor is warm even when the device is switched off.” Although the energy they consume while being turned off is a pretty small volume, accumulated over the weeks and months, it can amount to quite a deal. Besides, consider the number of electronic gadgets in a single home these days. When they all add up, it is quite believable that the amount of ghost energy consumed amounts to something like 10 to 30 per cent of your actual electricity consumption. Reducing ghost energy consumption It is practically impossible to do away with ghost energy consumption altogether, but with a little more awareness and some effort, you can certainly reduce the menace. Small changes in your lifestyle can make a big difference to your electricity consumption over the months and years. First things first; while it is advisable to keep gadgets unplugged when not in use, you don’t have to switch off and pack away your laptop each time you take a coffee break! Instead, ensure that appliances like laptops, microwave ovens, televisions, DVD and CD players etc. are unplugged at nights. Plug in again during the day when you need to use the device. Also, when you are done using the PC for the day, switch off the stabilizer too after you’ve shut down your computer. Says hardware engineer, Sukumar Deb, “It’s a myth that a computer consumes greater energy when being turned on, which is why you need to leave it on all the time. You can save more energy by turning it off even if you aren’t using the computer for a couple of hours.” Similarly, do not leave phone chargers plugged in till long after the phone is charged. Professor of electronic physics, Sitaram Mistry suggests, “Being organised helps too. For instance, you could store all your cell phone chargers in a drawer or some such place, so that they are not left permanently plugged into sockets. Use a charger when you need it and immediately put it back in its place after you are done charging. It will help reduce ghost energy consumption since a phone charger draws quite a bit of power when plugged in.” The ghosts lurk in your bathroom too, in the form of the electric geyser that continues to draw power on thermostat mode, when left switched on for a long time. Choosing and maintaining your gadgets When buying a new electronic gadget, check its technical specifications and features thoroughly. There might be some gadgets – like the microwave with a built in clock – that consume more ghost energy than others. Check if you really need a gadget fitted with features you can do without. Besides this, the regular maintenance and upkeep can also help reduce ghost energy consumption to an extent. Cleaning out AC vaults or maintaining your microwave, not only increase the efficiency of such devices, but also help reduce phantom loads. Regular servicing and maintenance of appliances is certainly a worthwhile investment when compared to the benefits involved. How the phantoms affect the environment It is estimated that ghost electricity consumption globally makes up for about one per cent of carbon dioxide emissions. And carbon dioxide is a gas that directly contributes to global warming. Imagine the damage done by every single plugged in appliance or device in homes all over the world! So although, it might not have a direct bearing, ghost energy consumption is gradually but surely adding to the adverse affects to the planet in the long run. So now you know that another way to go green is to unplug! Ghost consumption TV turned off using the remote control – 6 Watts per hour TV turned off at the switch but still plugged in – 0.5 1 Watts per hour UPS of computer left on – 9- 15 Watts per hour Cell phone charger plugged in socket – 3 Watts per hour Mosquito repellant – 5 Watts per hour You see – Broken sockets or cords, the outer body of an appliance chipping off or missing guards in an appliance. Cracked, cut or burnt parts need to be replaced immediately to prevent further damage to the appliance and a potential electric accident. You hear – Erratic start-stop operation sounds, unusual popping or spluttering sounds coming from an appliance is a sign of lack of regular maintenance. You smell – Smoke, fumes or a constant burning smell, are all signs of overloading, which means you need to have the appliance checked by the electrician immediately. Replace or have your appliance repaired if: Clean refrigerator coils regularly the dust on the coils acts as insulation that prevents the fan from efficiently removing heat. Tune up heating and cooling equipment – Furnaces, boilers, and air-conditioning systems have mechanical parts apart from electrical components. Over time these parts can go out of adjustment and need lubrication and cleaning to maintain efficiency. Replace the rubber fill hoses on your washing machine – Do this at least every five years to prevent a flood caused by a burst hose. Replace the element socket – It will help solve the problem of an intermittent electric oven. Replace water inlet valve – So that adequate water continues to get into the machine to help make your dishwasher more efficient. – To increase energy efficiency planet earth | | February 0945
PERSPECTIVE Dark clouds and a silver lining Lower sales, layoffs, financial insecurity, we can feel the pinch of economic meltdown everywhere. However, the environmentalists have a reason to rejoice, writes Mukta Rohra The marketplaces give a deserted look even during the festive season, reporting fewer footfalls than ever. One can clearly see recession, now showing its impact. It is evident in the way people are gradually changing their ways and the way corporates are trying to reduce expenditure. John Machado, AVP Operations, of Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, renowned construction consultants in Mumbai, says that even though lifestyle may not have changed drastically since there is a reduction in the number of permanent recruitments, no one wants to take a chance in the current scenario. He states that there is a noticeable slow down in the number of new malls and other constructions. Shrinking pockets and insecurity is forcing people to tone down their lifestyles and conserve on whatever resources they have. The situation is actually compelling them to be more cautious and more judicious in the way they spend or switch jobs. Gautam, an IT professional in Hyderabad who is fond of buying anything new that comes in the market, is living on the edge with job insecurity hovering over him. He says, “I have just stopped going to the market unless I really need to buy something. As of now, I am happy with what I have.” Consumerist behaviour has certainly taken a backseat. Recycling and reuse have come in vogue again. The size of the trash cans is clear indicator of the paradigm shift. Many have resorted to buying the local and the seasonal produce which is quite economical. “It is like back to our childhood days when so many options were either not available or we were asked to consume almost everything with a limit put to it,” says Amrita, a housewife. Those who were vacationing regularly have reduced the excessive travel. This certainly is helping conserve oil and save money, but is also giving them an option to look planet earth | | February 0946 An environmental review or audit is a good starting point for the ‘Go team’. The process involves examining your current situation and assessing what you want to improve and how you might go about doing it. This provides a baseline against which any improvement can be measured. Some organisations choose to employ a contractor or consultant to help with this. TIP
around in the neighbourhood to see what is available for them to fulfil their basic recreational requirements. Amrita informs that they have cut down on their weekend outings as it costs a lot. “Instead we plan it once a month. For the rest of the month, I plan some activity with kids at home and we enjoy it even more than our outings. This has made our outing, events we look forward to,” she adds. One of the most beautiful aspects that have come into light is that the open spaces in vicinity are being located and developed by the residents into a green recreation patches, thereby improving the general quality of the area. Those with air conditioning systems installed, have for good, opened the windows to let the air in. Many have realised that “the green living ideas” as we put it these days, are actually saving a lot of cash for them. In fact, all the cost-cutting activities are adding up as eco- friendly initiatives. Even though these are small efforts, the impact, added together is huge say the experts. They believe that this “cautious with money” attitude has come as a boon for the environment. Experts especially those who are concerned about the consumerist behaviour impacting the environment negatively are calling recession as god-sent. Not being consumerist for them spells out as utilising only as much of the resources as is the necessity. This saves the environment from the extra burden that it bears because of our excess consumption. Promoters of green lifestyles point out that lesser consumption means less degradation of the environment, lesser pollution and lesser depletion of resources. There were tips that experts had been insisting on for ages now but they remained in books. Only the market fall has now brought them out and got people to practice them. Corporates green up Not just individuals, corporates are also gearing up to go green. In fact, there have been reports that those who had already adopted the green scenario, had to suffer less during these testing times. Their energy consumption was already minimal and all the technology in place. Availability of the relevant technology has for sure made the task slightly easy but getting the employees to use it has taken much of the creativity of the human resource and administration departments. “Green practices do have an edge provided the process is being followed properly. Things like using natural light, recycling of water, recycling of paper etc. help in a huge saving. But this initiative needs to be driven from top for effective utilisation,” says John Machado of Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj. He adds, “Our clients still maintain their stand on sustainability and energy management”, an issue that forms a part of their corporate social responsibility. Technologies like electronic mail and video conferencing have drastically reduced travelling costs. Some of the corporates now insist that the staff should get their tea mugs instead of using the disposable cups. Corporates have even come up with their best practices lists encouraging their employees to follow the same. There is a new set of services developing that is facilitating green practices. “We have been promoting carpooling across India since early 2006 primarily because we believe that it is an excellent way for commuters to reduce their spending on fuel, restrain menacing urban traffic and also contribute towards saving the environment and reducing harmful CO2 emissions which cause global warming,” says Udit Bhandari, Founder & CEO of Indimoto.com. The ad world is virtually painted green. Organisations now flaunt their eco- friendly activities and environment, something that existed only in the corporate social responsibility document remained hidden for all these years. Awareness amongst people has led the companies to showcase their green efforts. Going green has come out as one of the most effective ways of cost- cutting as well as gaining client loyalty. People are waking up to the fact as to how sustainable and effective conserving is. Industry is the largest mover of the lifestyles, if they are adapting to the change, rest will automatically follow. The economic meltdown may actually give environment a breather, a respite from constant attack by humans. The fact remains that this is a temporary phase. It is time we need to re-think the meaning of development. It is time we wake up to the fact that if we don’t change our ways now, it will be too late. We have to ascertain that the green guide that is for the first time being actually practised sustains its charm and becomes our habit. Corporate Green Beans • Optimising the energy settings for computers • Switch off computers when not in use • Increase the ambient air conditioning temperature by 1 degree • Regular maintenance of all equipment • Modify timings to fit during the daylight hours • Encourage work from home and day shifts when possible • Let the daylight in • Opt green commuting, carpool, bike or local transport • GPS for better tracking and planning of logistics • Use washable mugs • Use both sides of the paper for printing • Use refillable pens and mechanical pencils • Re-label and reuse files and folders • Avoid using stickies planet earth | | February 0947
PHOTO FEATURE he word sahel means “shore” in Arabic, which Timplies a continental margin, a grand beginning and a final end. Stretching across northern Africa roughly along the 13th parallel, the Sahel divides the sands of the Sahara and Africa’s tropical forests. Some 50 million of the world’s poorest, most disempowered; most forgotten people hang fiercely on to life here. The Sahel drought from the late 1960s to early 1980s created a famine that killed a million people and afflicted more than 50 million. planet earth | | February 0948 Expanding desert

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Planet earth magazine

  • 1.
    ARE WE LOSING WINTERS? HOWGREEN IS YOUR DATA CENTRE? SOLAR ENERGY: THE WAY FORWARD w w w . p l a n e t e a r t h - i n d i a . c o m earth P L A N E T february 2009rs. 100 War in the MakingClimate change is one phenomenon that has brought man down to his knees. Food and water crisis loom large, leaving man with no option but to fight… launch issue COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN
  • 3.
    03 04 Countdown to Copenhagen Can science savethe world? The hydra-headed challenges of food supply, energy and finance are all linked and breaking a dependence on them is far from possible. The answer lies in working together and the present financial crunch will help us understand its consequences better. The pressures of our planet have been created by our lifestyles. The world over, we spend over $ 7 trillion every year on energy and its related infrastructure. While the current research and development efforts may not combat the climate change challenge, individual measures on our part may help. For the past few years, climate change has been discussed at all the world conferences and across coffee tables. But winter already feels the heat; it happens to be one of the first victims of climate change with one season merging into another 08 20 NEWS Are we losing winters? 27 28 In an economy that is based on hydrocarbons, an initiative that warrants zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology, Masdar city true to its meaning is a source or initiator of a new era, writes Mukta Rohra India has been punching above its weight in renewable energy sector. India started early but other countries have started running, if India has to keep pace we need to Masdar the source Winds of change sprint. Also the industry needs a clear policy framework by the government says Dr Sivaraman in a candid interview with T P Venu Every ambitious country or business house wishes to cash 30 Plan Well For Better Credits in on the benefits offered by CDM projects and earn carbon credits. But be warned that it is environmental compassion and not equipment and emissions reduction, what will turn in greater rewards, says risk analyst Swaminathan Krishnamurthy GREEN TECHNOLOGY WAR IN THE MAKING 33 12 Run out of fuel? Consider coffee18 Longer shelf life, zero- emissions and aromatic exhaust fumes, are just a fraction of the qualities that coffee biodiesel discovered by Dr Manoranjan Misra and his team promise, writes Sheetal Vyas CONTENTS INNOVATION A PEOPLE UPROOTED BY NATURE 22 SOLAR ENERGY THE WAY FORWARD 24
  • 4.
    Responding to changes reeningthe environment is perhaps the most conspicuous area of concern today. GThe governments are under pressure to adopt ‘carbon targets’, the scientific community is working over vehemently to find ways to adapt to climate change and industries are embracing a greener approach. Right from the policy makers to newspapers, international meets to individual discussions, environment and greening is the buzzword. Sustainability and sustainable development have replaced development and growth. While a lot has been said about saving our limited resourcesandcappingthedamagewehavealready donetotheenvironment,actionandcompassiontrail miles away. Similarly to believe that our role ends with just talking about global warming, warming seas, breaking ice-lines and depleting water resources,wouldbeimprudentonourpart. Today, the reality of climate change and man’s contribution in blistering the Earth has crossed thelineofpossibilitytobecomeafactoflife.Now, as we race towards an age that will mark the tail- end of fossil fuel reserves and look up to alternative energy utilisation, there is a critical need to sensitise people, share knowledge and endeavour to thin the lines between research, conceptandreality. With breakthrough scientific research, sustainability drives, eco-friendly living on one hand, and resource availability issues, environmental concerns and programme implementations one the other, receiving less- than-deserved reportage, there is a pressing need to address these issues. To give these issues the deserved attention, Gateway Media has introduced Planet Earth, an exclusive magazineonEarthSciences. The monthly periodical explores environmental policies, Earth care issues and responsibilities like pollution control, waste management, energy efficiency, green living, conservation and eco- friendly buildings and related technology breakthroughs. Features such as Climate Connection, explore the possibilities of a region’s ecological balance and lifestyle being disturbed by subtle, yet powerful climatic changes. Survival weighs the dilemmas of environmental damage, whichhasbeencoveredinthisissue. Our objective is transparent, to develop a scientific understanding of Earth’s system and its response to natural or human-induced changes, and to become a ready reference to the common man seekinginformationabouttheworldaroundhim.At the same time we believe that your suggestions and ideas will help us improve and prioritise our content because as compassionate residents of theEarth,weseektomakeadifference. Ramprasad PublicationDirector ramprasad@gatewaymedia.in w w w . p l a n e t e a r t h - i n d i a . c o mvol 1 issue 1 february 2009 publications director ramprasad associate editor sheetal vyas online editor mukta rohra copy editor srinivas reddy g Design masa vijay, lakshmi d, yogesh dhabale, srinivas web upender reddy v head - business & events wilson rajan wilson@gatewaymedia.in - 99499 05432 manager - marcom padmapriya c padmapriya@gatewaymedia.in - 096191 61665 circulation sri narayana Dr Shailesh R Nayak Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences Government of India TO OUR READERS Mr Kartikeya Sarabhai Director, Centre for Environment Education Nehru Foundation for Development Dr Harsh Gupta President of Geological Society of India & Raja Ramanna Fellow, NGRI Maj Gen (Dr) R Sivakumar CEO, NSDI & Head NRDMS Prof B N Goswami Director, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Dr Prem C Jain Chairman, Indian Green Building Council and CMD Spectral Services Consultants Pvt. Ltd. Dr S R Shetye Director, National Institute of Oceanography Mr Mahesh Babu Managing Director & CEO IL&FS Ecosmart Ltd. Mr C S Bhaskar Managing Director and CEO Naturol BioEnergy Ltd. ADVISORY BOARD marketing & sales mumbai: venkatram pillai manager - marketing & pr venkat@gatewaymedia.in - 098192 34741 delhi: k n sudheer regional manager sudheer@gatewaymedia.in - 099101 66443 kolkata: nikhil doshi region head nikhil.doshi@gatewaymedia.in - 098369 96293 chennai: w sudhakar manager sudhakar@gatewaymedia.in - 097899 81869 international: sowmya shenoy sr. manager sowmya.shenoy@gatewaymedia.in - 098803 78785 Planet Earth is printed and published by L Vijayanand Reddy on behalf of Gateway Media Pvt. Ltd., Plot No.761, Road No.39, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad-500 033, India. Phone: +9140 2355 0991, 2355 0992 Fax : + 91 40 2355 0994 www.gatewaymedia.in. Printed at Kala Jyothi Process Pvt. Ltd. 1-1-60/5, RTC cross roads, Hyderabad - 500 020. Please note: views expressed in the articles are those of the writer(s) and may not be shared by the editor or members of the editorial board. Unsolicited material will not be returned. Copyright: no material published here should be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from gateway media. Feed Back: Readers are advised to send all feedback and comments to editor@gatewaymedia.in Subscribe: Phone: +91 40 2355 0991, e-mail : subscribe@gatewaymedia.in Write to: Gateway Media Pvt. Ltd., Plot No.761, Road No.39, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad-500 033, INDIA Phone: +91 40 2355 0991, 2355 0992; Fax : + 91 40 2355 0994; www.planetearth-india.com Printed on recycle paper
  • 5.
    COMMENTARY Gro Harlem Brundtland,Ricardo Lagos, Festus Mogae, And Srgjan Kerim THE FINANCIAL CRISIS has been uppermost in the minds of most world leaders. Yet, however high the price of a global bail- out, we know one thing: it pales next to the enormous costs – and profound human consequences – of delaying action on climate change. There is a sort of beauty in this predicament: if we act wisely, we can tackle both crises at once. Climate change negotiations over the next year offer an unprecedented opportunity to build a more profitable, safer, and sustainable global economy. Today’s challenges – finance, food, and energy, for example – are many. Yet they share a root cause, whereby speculative and often narrow interests have superseded the common interest, common responsibilities, and common sense. This same short- term thinking characterises the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. We cannot break that Countdown to Copenhagen The hydra-headed challenges of food supply, energy and finance are all linked and breaking a dependence on them is far from possible. The answer lies in working together and the present financial crunch will help us understand its consequences better. planet earth | | February 0903 dependence overnight. Yet we recognise that continuing to pour trillions of dollars into carbon- based infrastructure and fossil-fuel subsidies is like investing in sub-prime real estate. In essence, we are mortgaging our children’s future to pay for an inherently unsustainable and inequitable way of life. The greatest risk we face lies in continuing down this path. So, how do we begin to tackle the massive challenge of retooling our global economy, preserving the planet, and lifting billions out of poverty? The answer is to deal seriously with climate change. And this is the time to do it – not in spite of the financial crisis, but because of it. As the saying goes, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. The climate change conference in Poznan was an important step. We have only 12 short months to hammer out the elements of a global climate change accord before world leaders convene next December in Copenhagen. If we work together, guided by a sense of urgency and common destiny, these negotiations can help steer the ship of the global economy toward less turbulent, greener waters and into a safe harbor. We believe that the best investment in our collective future is to scale up the green, low-carbon economy. It is an investment with enormous potential for prosperity and profit. But it requires us to put in place a new climate change agreement now – one that all countries can accept. It must be comprehensive and ambitious, and it must set clear targets for emission reductions, adaptation, financing, and technology transfer. Developed and developing nations must find a shared vision of how this will work, striking a deal whereby rich countries lead by example in cutting emissions while providing the developing world with resources and know-how to ramp up their own climate change efforts. Energy investment decisions made today will lock in the world’s emissions profile for years Former US Vice President Al Gore speaks during the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poznan. UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE POZNAN 2008 POLAND 200 8
  • 6.
    to come. Meanwhile,the clock is ticking. Potentially catastrophic consequences await, not just for polar bears, but for millions of people. Adaptation must be a vital part of the negotiations. So must mitigation. In the cruel calculus of disasters, those least responsible for causing climate change will suffer first and worst from its inevitable effects. Developing nations will need increased financial support to protect the poorest and most vulnerable. Reaching an accord in Copenhagen is critical. But the route to a greener, lower-carbon future already is being forged in countries from Brazil to Bangladesh, Denmark to Indonesia. From investments in renewable energy and flex-fuel vehicles to reforestation, countries everywhere are realising that green is not an option, but a necessity for recharging their economies and creating millions of jobs. For example, with the right investments, tropical countries could significantly reduce emissions from the forestry sector while also creating green jobs. De-forestation currently accounts for roughly a fifth of all greenhouse-gas emissions. Last month, China announced a $ 586 billion economic stimulus package, some 25 per cent of which is to help bolster conservation, environmental protection, and renewable energy efforts. We hope that the new stimulus package helps to move China toward greener development, and that countries follow suit. The United States has also signaled a fundamental, abrupt shift in its global climate policy. In his first, post-election public address, Barack Obama declared that his presidency “will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs.” In marrying the issues of economic revitalisation, energy security, and climate change, Obama has articulated clearly the benefits of any Green New Deal. We welcome US re- engagement in global climate negotiations and await its leadership in transforming words into concrete policies that promote global green growth. As the US, China, and many other nations now realize, climate change is much more than an environmental issue. It is an energy, finance, and security issue. Indeed, it is a Head of State issue. We urge other world leaders to join us in forging a shared, long-term vision for cooperative action that is realized at next year’s conference in Copenhagen. Global cooperation has been key to managing the financial crisis. It is no less vital to managing climate change, for which the stakes are far higher. Together, we must invest in the safest, surest option – the green economy. Gro Harlem Brundtland is a former Prime Minister of Norway, Ricardo Lagos is a former President of Chile, Festus Mogae is a former President of Botswana, and Srgjan Kerim is a former President of the UN General Assembly. They are the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoys on Climate Change. © Project Syndicate, 2008. www.project-syndicate.org Can science save the world? The pressures of our planet have been created by our lifestyles. The world over, we spend over $ 7 trillion every year on energy and its related infrastructure. While the current research and development efforts may not combat the climate change challenge, individual measures on our part may help. FOR MOST PEOPLE, there has never been a better time to be alive than now. The innovations that drive economic advances – information technology, biotech, and nanotech – can boost living standards in both the developing and the developed world. We are becoming embedded in a cyberspace that can link anyone, anywhere, to all the world’s information and culture – and to every other person on the planet. Martin Rees Twenty-first century technologies will offer environmentally benign lifestyles and the resources to ease the plight and enhance the life chances of the world’s two billion poorest people. Moreover, the greatest threat of the 1960s and 1970s – nuclear annihilation – has diminished. This threat could recur, however, if there is a renewed standoff between new superpowers. And there are other risks planet earth | | February 0904
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    planet earth || February 0905 needs for decades to come. If that continues, the concentration of CO will2 rise to twice the pre- industrial level by 2050, and three times that level later in the century. The world spends nearly $ 7 trillion a year on energy and its infrastructure; yet our current research and development efforts are not up to meeting the challenge of climate change. There is no single solution, but some measures, like better insulation of buildings, would save rather than cost money. Efforts to economise on energy, storing it, and generating it by “clean” or low-carbon methods deserve priority and the sort of commitment from governments that were accorded to the Manhattan Project (which created the atomic bomb) or the Apollo moon landing. The top priority should be a coordinated effort by Europe, the United States, and the other G-8+5 countries to build demonstration plants to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. This is crucial, because whatever technical advances there may be in solar and other renewable energy sources, we will depend on coal and oil for the next 40 years. Yet, unless the rising curve of annual emissions can be reversed, the CO2 concentration will irrevocably reach a truly threatening level. Mankind must also confront other global “threats without enemies” that are separate from (though linked with) climate change. Loss of biological diversity is one of the most severe such threats. The extinction rate stemming from humanity’s greater collective impact on the planet, and from the growing empowerment of individuals. Soon after World War II, physicists at the University of Chicago started a journal called the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to promote arms control. The logo on the Bulletin’s cover is a clock, the proximity of whose hands to midnight indicates the editors’ judgment of the precariousness of the world situation. Every few years, the minute hand shifted, either forwards or backwards. It came closest to midnight in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. When the Cold War ended, the Bulletin’s clock was put back to 17 minutes to midnight. But the clock has been creeping forward again. We are confronted by proliferation of nuclear weapons (by, say, North Korea and Iran). Al-Qaeda- style terrorists might willingly detonate a nuclear weapon in a city center, killing tens of thousands. Even if the nuclear threat is contained, the twenty-first century could confront us with grave new global perils. Climate change looms as this century’s primary long-term environmental challenge. Human actions – burning fossil fuels – have already raised the carbon dioxide concentration higher than it has ever been in the last 500,000 years, and it is rising by about 0.5 per cent a year. More disturbingly, coal, oil, and gas are projected to supply most of the world’s growing energy is 1,000 times higher than normal, and is increasing. Biodiversity is a crucial component of human well- being and economic growth. We are clearly harmed if fish stocks dwindle to extinction. Less evidently, there are plants in the rain forest whose gene pool might be useful to us. The pressures on our planet depend, of course, on our lifestyle. The world could not sustain its 6.5 billion people if they all lived like present-day Americans. But it could if even prosperous people adopted a vegetarian diet, traveled little, and interacted virtually. New technology will determine our lifestyle, and the demands that we make on energy and environmental resources. Nevertheless, our problems are aggravated by rapid growth in the human population, which
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    is projected toreach eight or even nine billion by 2050. If the increase continues beyond 2050, one cannot help but be gloomy about most people’s prospects. There are now, however, more than 60 countries where the fertility rate is below replacement level. If this were true of all countries, the global population would start to decline after 2050 – a development that would surely be benign. All of today’s developments – cyber, bio, or nano – will create new risks of abuse. The American National Academy of Sciences has warned that, “Just a few individuals with specialized skills…could inexpensively and easily produce a panoply of lethal biological weapons.…The deciphering of the human genome sequence and the complete elucidation of numerous pathogen genomes…allow science to be misused to create new agents of mass destruction.” Not even an organised network would be required; just a fanatic with the mindset of those who now design computer viruses. The global village will have its village idiots. In our increasingly interconnected world, there are new risks whose consequences could be widespread – and perhaps global. Even a tiny probability of global catastrophe is unacceptable. If we apply to catastrophic risks the same prudent analysis that leads us to buy insurance – multiplying probability by consequences – we would surely prioritize measures to reduce this kind of extreme risk. The decisions that we will make both individually and collectively in the foreseeable future will determine whether twenty-first century science yields benign or devastating outcomes. Lord Rees is Britain’s Astronomer Royal, President of the Royal Society, Master of the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College, and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics. © Project Syndicate/Europe’s World, 2008. www.project-syndicate.org www.europesworld.org ndia, as described by IPrime Minister Manmohan Singh in his National Climate Change Action Plan release speech, has an ancient legacy, which has forever revered nature as a source of life and not as a force that needs to be overpowered in order to meet our ends. A climate change action plan forwarded by such a country should look at possibilities that will help mobilise the nation’s energy in facing the challenge. For a careful strategy devised, will go a long way in ensuring that we sustain the development we have made and not allow climatic changes to reverse it. The challenge according to him, lies in encompassing the interests of both present and future generations and nurture a world, “which should continue to inspire the human imagination with the immensity of the blue ocean, the loftiness of snow-covered mountains, the green expanse of extensive forests and the silver streams of ancient rivers.” Elaborating on the primary causes that have contributed to the accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions, he suggests that we refer to our basic traditions, in order to set people in the country on the path of ecologically sustainable development. While a lot of discussion has been initiated in terms of compromises we may have to make on our growth in the process of achieving ecologically sustainable development, the Prime Minister believes that the achievement of economic growth need not be affected by ecological policies. A broader perspective on development is what is required, he says. And this should be inclusive of the quality of life. The plan will have the national energies being focussed on eight national missions – Solar Energy, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Conserving Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, Creating a “Green India”, Sustainable Agriculture and Strategic Knowledge Platform for Climate Change – that are to be pursued as key components of the sustainable development strategy. A gradual shift from economic activity based on fossil fuels to one based on non-fossil fuels and from reliance on non-renewable and depleting sources of energy to renewable sources of energy, is what India requires. Not sidelining the role India will play in a collaborative effort to bring about a change, he believes that the wisdom, creativity and enterprising nature of the Indian population will help in achieving this. India’s stand on climate change planet earth | | February 0906
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    NEWS YOU CANUSE cent post-consumerotorola, seeking M recycled paper into capitalise on addition, a postage-the trend towards paid recyclingmore environmentally envelope in boxfriendly products, has makes it easy tounveiled the first return previous mobilemobile phone made phone for recycling atfrom recycled water no cost.bottles, The MOTO W233 Renew. The phone was previewed at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opening in Las Vegas. "Not only is the plastic Through an alliancehousing of Renew with Carbonfund.org,made from plastics Motorola said, “itcomprised of recycled offsets the carbonwater bottles and 100 dioxide required topercent recyclable, manufacture,but it is also the distribute and operateworld's first carbon the phone throughneutral phone," investments inMotorola said. Care renewable energyhas been taken that sources andtotal packaging is reforestation.”printed on 100 per Mobile phone from recycled water bottles obiMonster, a company based in New Delhi when phone is fully charged or when Bluetooth and Mhas developed a first of its kind eco-friendly WLAN are switched on but not being used. software for Series 60 Mobile Devices that The company is in the process of evaluatingenables to reduce your carbon footprint while carbon footprint related numbers of severalincreasing your charger and battery life by devices. It informs that if used at its optimummanaging several features of a series 60 device level, the software could save up to US$ 10 persuch as Backlight, Charger, WLAN and Bluetooth. year in electricity charges, and a reduction in The software alerts the user to remove the charger carbon emissions A mobile application that reduces your carbon footprint gribusiness giant Monsanto announced the Aworld's first drought-tolerant corn, a development it says will "reset the bar" in farming productivity. "Drought-tolerant corn is designed to provide farmers yield stability during periods when water supply is scarce by mitigating the effects of drought or water stress within a corn plant," Monsanto said. Trials of the corn conducted last year in drought- prone areas of the American Midwest "met or exceeded the 6 per cent to 10 per cent target yield enhancement," according to the company. It advanced the yield by up to 10 corn bushels per acre (six quintals per hectare) beyond the average maximum of 130 bushels per acre (82 quintals per hectare). The corn is the first in a series of crops planned by Monsanto to address the affects of high food prices and climate on agriculture-based cultures around the world by reducing the need for water. World's first 'drought-tolerant' corn ready by 2010: Monsanto Monitoring greenhouse gases from space cientists at the University of California, Berkeley describe a Smethod for using microalgae for making biofuel by genetically modifying the algae. This will minimise the number of chlorophyll molecules needed to harvest light without compromising the photosynthesis process in the cells and instead of making more sugar molecules, the microalgae could be producing hydrogen or hydrocarbons. The scientists want to divert the normal function of photosynthesis from generating biomass to making products such as lipids, hydrocarbons, and hydrogen. Tasios Melis, one of the paper's co- authors uses the phrase “cellular optics” to describe this general effort to maximise the efficiency of the solar-to-product conversion process. Besides getting the algae to convert more sunlight to fuel, another issue that needs to be addressed is how to configure bio-culture tanks in a way that sunlight can penetrate the outer layer of algae so that lower-down layers can participate in the photo-conversion too. Engineered algae to make fuel instead of sugar surface, the Japan Equipped with two sensors, Aerospace GOSAT will track infrared Exploration Agency rays from the Earth, which japanese (JAXA) said. will help calculate the Aspace agency densities of the two "To fight climate change, wewill launch a satellite to greenhouse gases, because need to monitor the density ofmonitor greenhouse gases they absorb the rays at greenhouse gases in allaround the world, hoping the certain wavelengths. The regions around the world anddata it collects helps global satellite is set to be in orbit how their levels change but atefforts to combat climate for five years, will collect the moment, there are verychange. The Greenhouse data once a month, with few observation sites on landGases Observing Satellite preliminary data from the and they are concentrated in(GOSAT) is expected to satellite certain areas,” said Takashienable scientists to calculate expected to be Hamazaki, manager of the 35the density of carbon dioxide ready for billion yen ($372.9 million)and methane from 56,000 researchers in JAXA project.locations on the Earth's April or May. planet earth | | February 0907
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    Naturalindigodyeingbecomeseco-friendly esearch Scientist AnneVuorema of MTT Agrifood RResearch Finland proves in her doctoral dissertation that glucose can serve as a reducing agent of indigo there by making the process less energyconsumingandsafe. Plant derived indigo needs to be reduced to a water- soluble leuco-form before dyeing, a process highly time consuming and unsafe, making natural indigo unpopular. Blue synthetic textile dye is produced from oil, in a process which wastes non-renewable natural resources and burdens the environment with syntheticchemicals. Anne Vuorema’s research can transform the process ofextractionofindigofromtheleavesofdyer’swoad(IsatistinctoriaL.).Thenewprocesswillmake the dyeing process more eco-friendly and enhance the energy efficiency of the process. As per the scientist,thisnewglucosedyeingseemstosuitplant-derivedfibres,suchascottonandflax. 14 per cent drop in coral growth he biggest and most robust corals on the TGreat Barrier Reef (GBR) have slowed their growth by more than 14 per cent since the "tipping point" year of 1990, say scientists Glenn De’ath, Janice Lough and Katharina Fabricius of Australian Institute of Marine Science, in a science paper titled “Declining coral calcification ontheGreatBarrierReef.” The researchers analysed the growth rates of 328 coral colonies on 69 individual reefs that make up the 1,250 mile-long Great Barrier Reef, off north-east Australia. They found that the rate at which the corals were laying down calcium in their skeletons dropped by 14.2 per cent between 1990and2005,asuddendeclineinatleast400years. They say that the evidence is strong that the decline has been caused by a synergistic combination of rising sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification. This happens when large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide enter seawater; the resulting chemical changes effectively reduce the abilityofmarineorganismstoformskeletons. Reefcoralscreatetheirhardskeletonsfrommaterialsdissolvedinseawater.Scientistsbelievethat just like corals are impacted, all calcifying organisms that are central to the function of marine ecosystems and food webs will be affected. Corals form the backbone of reef ecosystems. Their complexity provides the habitat for the tens of thousands of plant and animal species associated with the reef. Looking at the sudden change, steep changes in the biodiversity and productivity of theworld’soceansmaybeimminent. n an effort to make IIT Mumbai campus Ienergy-efficient, an energy audit of the institute was recently conducted to identify and suggest measures for conservation. The audit was conducted by MTech students from the Department of Energy Science and Engineering (DESE), as a part of their course, under the guidance of Professor Rangan Banerjee. “We have compiled a list of possible actions to conserve and efficiently utiliseourresources.Thenextstepwouldbe to prioritise their implementation,” Banerjee said. The said recommendations if implemented would bring about a total saving of around Rs1.75 crore per year, the report said. “The audit was aimed at giving the students a feel of the practical problems and difficulties in carrying out such exercises. It has a big impact if students are able to apply what they learn in practical life. Also, the idea is to make the campus an opendemonstrationfacility,”saidBanerjee. An important recommendation is the use of biogasplantforfoodwasteprocessing.“The study showed that around 450 kg food (for 900people)wasgettingwastedperday.So, we've suggested the use of biogas plant for collecting all the wasted food and converting it into fuel supply. This, in turn, will reduce LPG usage,” said Mel George, an MTech student, who was involved in the study. Besides replacement of lighting and regulators, the report suggests use of computersindifferentsettingsormodes. IIT Mumbai campus planning to be energy-efficient NEWS planet earth | | February 0908
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    Ancient global coolingaffected plankton numbers ccording to a new study, diatoms, the oceanic plankton that absorb carbon dioxide from the Aair, may have witnessed a sudden increase in species numbers before they abruptly declined almost 33 million years ago. The Cornell study, which was published in the January 8, 2009 issue of thejournalNature,suggeststhatthesetrendscoincidedwithsevereglobalcooling. The research findings question the earlier theory that diatoms’ success was related to an increase in the nutrients received by the oceans from the neighbouring grasslands about 18 million years ago. The study headed by graduate student Dan Rabosky of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, provides new evidence that takes into account a widespread paleontological problem which suggests that younger fossils areeasiertofindthanolderones. “We just tried to address the simple fact that the number of available fossils is colossally greater from recent time periods than from earlier time periods. It's a pretty standard correction in some fields, but it hasn't been applied to planktonic paleontology up till now,” Science Daily quoted Raboskyassaying. e-wastemanagementinitiativebyNokia okia India has launched a campaign where customers can drop Ntheir old handset in the company's stores and win gifts. It is a step towards promoting recycling of electronic waste and greening the environment. The project will be rolled out in phases across the country, it added. The Finnish handset major, in turn, will plant a tree for every handset dropped into these bins. According to a survey conducted by the company in 13 countries, only 3 per cent said they had recycled their old phone. Also, 50 per cent of those surveyed didn't know phones could be recycled, with awareness being the lowestinIndiaat17percent. “As responsible leaders, we want to drive best practices in our industry,” Nokia India VP and managingdirectorDShivakumarsaid. Biochar for soil replenishment and to combat global warming ormer inhabitants of the Amazon Basin enriched their fields with charred organic materials and Ftransformed one of the Earth's most infertile soils into one of the most productive. Now, scientists, environmental groups and policy makers forging the next world climate agreement see biocharasanimportantwayforcombatingglobalwarmingaswell. Christoph Steiner, soil scientist at University of Georgia says that almost any kind of organic material – peanut shells, pine chips and even poultry litter – can be burned in air-tight conditions, a process called pyrolysis. The byproducts are biochar, a highly porous charcoal that helps soil retain nutrients and water, and gases and heat that can be used as energy. He now investigates the global potential of biochar to sequestercarbon.HealsoservesasaconsultanttotheUNCCD,asisterprogrammetotheclimatechange convention. lack carbon, the component of soot that Bgives it its colour, is thought to be the second largest cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. It is formed through incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood and vegetation. Nasa claims that, cutting down on the pollutant, can have an immediate cooling effect – and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from air pollutionatthesametime. Soot contains up to 40 different cancer- causing chemicals which also cause respiratory and heart diseases. It is estimated to cause two million deaths in the developingcountrieseachyear. The soot is spread around the globe by wind, and heats the atmosphere by absorbing and releasing solar radiation. When it settles down, it darkens snow and ice, at the poles or high in mountains, reducing its ability to reflect sunlight resulting in faster melts and even more absorption of sunlight by the bare snowfreeland. Soot falls immediately unlike carbon dioxide that remains in air for hundereds of years. This is hazardous to health and is heating the Earth. Scientists believe that cutting down on soot emissions is the fastest way to reduce air pollution related deaths and reducetheglobalwarmingdramatically. They further suggest that proper vehicular and industrial pollution control measures and use of solar cooker and biogas for cookingcanreducethesootemissions. Soot reduction could help to stop global warming planet earth | | February 0909
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    Rating the desirabilityof 11 possible future energy sources study published in the journal Energy and AEnvironmental Science that claims to be the first comparative evaluation of alternate energy solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security compared nine electric power sources and two liquid fuels for the purpose. It considered their effects on water supply, land use, wildlife and resource availability and indirect effects on energy security, nuclear proliferation, mortalityandunder-nutrition. Wind power, as a source of electricity for battery vehicles, performed best. In the second group were battery vehicles using electricity from solar power and from geothermal, tidal and wave sources. While the third level included battery vehicles driven by hydropower, nuclear, and coal from plants using carbon capture and storage, ethanol use was found to cause the most climate damage, air pollution, damage to land and wildlife, and chemicalwasteasperthisnewstudy. Climate change threatens Pacific, Arctic conflicts nvironmental stress has increased the Erisk of conflicts in the Pacific over resources and food. As per revelations of a summaryofthe report"ClimateChange,The Environment, Resources and Conflict", as theArcticmelts,drillingunderseaoilandgas deposits, becomes a commercially viable process. Rising sea levels would affect nations and islands with low-lying coastlines, and may lead to increase in refugeesfromvulnerablePacificislands. “Environmental stress, caused by both climate change and a range of other factors, will act as a threat multiplier in fragile states around the world, increasing the chances of state failure," states thesummary.Risingsealevels,increaseinrefugees,moreillegalimmigrationandfishingarefewof theconflictareasmentionedinthereport. NEWS Polarised light pollution causes animals to miss natural light cues collaboration of ecologists, biologists Aand biophysicists in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, has shown that cues from polarised light can trigger animal behaviours leading to injury and often death. Human-made light sources can alter natural light cycles, causing animals that rely on light cues to make mistakes when moving through their environment. The research shows that environmental cues, such as the intensity of light, that animals use to make decisions, occur at different levels of severity in the natural world. When cues become unnaturally intense, animals can respondunnaturallystronglytothem. Artificial light that occurs at unnatural times or places – often called light pollution – can attract or repulse animals, resulting in increased predation, migrating in the wrong direction, choosing bad nest sites or mates, collisions with artificial structures and reduced time available to spend looking for food,justtonameafew. NEWS planet earth | | February 0910
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    Japan to startexploring rare elements on seabed apan is believed to have plentiful resources under the sea not previously exploited due to the Jprohibitivecosts.Alongwithraremetals,Japanisestimatedtohave5,000years'worthofgold,silver andcobaltinitsseabedalongwith100years'worthofmethanehydrate,atcurrentratesofusage. There is an increasing demand for mineral resources around the world, which has pushed prices higher. Japan plans to start exploring its seabed to harvest rare earth elements used in electronics, hoping to reduce its heavy reliance on Chinese imports and would also try to develop its capacity to extract badly needed energy resources such as oil, gas and methane hydrate in the project, which eyes test exploration by the 2018 fiscal year. It is not yet known whether Japan's plan would involve parts of the East China Sea where Japan andChinadisputeunderseagasfields. Cooling by volcanoes may have been masked by global warming limate researchers of Tree Ring Lab at CColumbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have shown that big volcanic eruptions over the past 450 years have temporarily cooled weather in the tropics because volcanic particles reflect sunlight back into space; but they suggest that such effects may have been masked in the 20th century by rising global temperatures. 1816, the year following the massive Tambora eruption in Indonesia, became known as “The Year Without a Summer,” as low temperatures caused crop failures in northern Europe and eastern North America. “This is significant because it gives us more information about how tropical climate responds to forces that alter the effects solar radiation,” said lead author Rosanne D’Arrigo, lead author of the published paper. Along with tree rings, the researchers analysed ice cores from alpine glaciers, and corals, taken from a wide area of the tropics. When things cool, not onlydotreestendtogrowless,butisotopesofoxygenincoralsandglacialicemayshift.Allshowed thatlow-latitudetemperaturesdeclinedforseveralyearsaftermajortropicaleruptions. “Particularly warm decades may have partially overridden the cooling effect of some volcanic events,” This study provides some of the first comprehensive information about how the tropical climatesystemrespondedtovolcanismpriortotheinstrumentalperiod,”saidD’Arrigo. Electronics makers get green grades from Greenpeace n its second greener products survey, I"Green Electronics: The Search Continues," the environmental activist group assessed the progress made by consumer electronic companies in greening their products over the past year. The Greenpeace survey was released at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It says that consumer electronics manufacturers are making greener products than a year ago but more progress needs to be made before they can claim a truly environmentallyfriendlyproduct. For the survey, Greenpeace said 15 companies submitted 50 new products they considered their greenest for evaluation: mobile and smart phones, televisions, computer monitors, notebook and desktop computers,andgameconsoles. The products were graded on use of hazardous chemicals, energy efficiency, innovation, promotion of environmental friendliness and life cycle – whether they canberecycledandupgraded. planet earth | | February 0911
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    COVER STORY A crisisends in victory for one party and defeat for the other. But the human conflict induced by climate change, with food shortage pulling at one hand and water shortage plucking the other, is likely to leave us all defeated unless we become more compassionate towards nature, writes Sheetal Vyas IN THE MAKING WAR The rising sun over Ethiopia’s horizon, gives out a pink light against the backdrop of blowing dust. Umpteen number of unruly cattle wander in groups, painting the brown field. Merging with the thorny Acacia trees, they try to nibble on dead grass and dust. The herdsman, with bones poking his skin from all corners, walks cautiously, fearing attack from fellow humans, and directs them to a watering hole, miles away. He wishes to avoid the camel herd coming form the opposite direction and make sure his cattle satisfy their thirst before competition pours in. This is but one frame of the kind of life people in the conflict-torn Ethiopia are leading, starving, thirsty for water and hoping for a small amount of compassion from the well- provided for world. Choosing the violent way Given a choice between starvation and plundering food, man will choose the latter. War is not new to mankind, but in the recent years, a new dimension has been attached to wars, and violence, which may not necessarily be an outcome or political disturbance or the hunger for power. These are wars that have been triggered by the consequences resulting from climatic changes, which though invisible to the eye, work at a brisk pace in altering the very sources that sustain human life: food and water. The planet has been unsettled by tsunamis, record hurricane seasons, floods, tremors and the less glamorous droughts and water pollution and freshwater resource depletion, which have largely led to the present conflict. The hydra- headed conflict arising out of such environmental stress and global warming is the product of a gradual deterioration in the capacity of natural resources to meet the ever bourgeoning demands of the human population. As a consequence, the resources take a reverse step leading to tragic human conflict. Military analyst and writer, Gwynne Dyer, in his recently published book, Climate Wars warns that in the next five years there will be such a shortfall in food crops that sustaining even a fraction of the increasing human population would be difficult, because the crop sustaining rains are pulling back each year. Scientists believe that this could lead to stronger versions of the pasta panics in Italy, tortilla wars in Mexico, bread riots from Haiti to Cairo and rice shortages from India to Bangladesh to the Philippines in addition to the already burning African countries, witnessed recently. The conditions are so bad in Sudan that the United Nations World Food Programme is expressing concerns The percentage of income from the poor in developing countries used to purchase basic food. 75 planet earth | | February 0912
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    conflicts with theresult that more than four billion people have been displaced in Colombia alone. Similar is the situation in Haiti, Gaza, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritania, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Bolivia, Indonesia, Middle East, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where riots have become the order of the day. While in places like Sudan, Chad and Central Africa, war and conflicts between people have become a way of life. Close to 25,000 farmers in India took their own lives, burdened by farming debts and severe grain shortage. Australia, which has been a very self- sufficient nation, witnessed its biggest drought period in 150 years and China reported a grain harvest drop of over 10 per cent. In the case of Darfur, a semi-arid land with moist areas dotting it, the nomadic lives of the communities staying here has received the worst stroke. In the recent years their total rainfall has dived low and is becoming more unpredictable with each passing year. The chaos resulting out of this has caused them to seek the moist lands and the competition was such that they fought amongst themselves to grab a piece of cultivable land. In the last 10 years, the country has witnessed the loss of more than 300,000 human about the possibility of the present food crisis taking a new turn in combination with the poor cereal turn out and the increase in prices of basic food, sorghum in particular. “It is sometimes difficult to imagine how so much misery exists in the world. As some of the waste disposal units work in Sudan, people often attack the officers who oversee the operations and burrow through piles of rubbish in the hope that they will find a half-eaten fruit, scrapings from a food can or in times of desperation a box of shoe polish,” says a member of the peacekeeping force in Sudan, who wished to remain anonymous. The sad part is that global recession has also caused the funding agencies to cut down their funds. Colombia, a country always known to produce an excess of food till recently, is constantly fearing food scarcity and riot outbreak. The decrease in crop production combined with the steep incline in food prices, which were a result of economic policies that turned food trade into a profitable business, has hit poor farmers the most. In order to balance their food requirements and be able to pay for food grains, they have switched to biofuel farming. This has given rise to internal Un peace keeping force in Sudan stays on alert for possible attacks planet earth | | February 0913
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    lives. There areother countries where tourists are often advised not to venture out at night because they are likely to be attacked by severely starved people who will do anything for food. The plight of civilians in the Gaza strip is such that they have food reserves to sustain them only for a month. Unless a ceasefire is announced, trucks carrying food loads will not enter the region for fear of security. Climate against crop Global warming induced climate change cannot be ignored as a fact. While depleting forest cover, warming oceans, erratic rain and unpredictable storms and droughts are all linked to climate change, food and water crisis, it is the behaviour of the crops that has surprised researchers. Climate alone cannot be blamed for the food crunch we are facing. It works hand- in-glove with conditions created by man to bring about changes of such a serious nature. With every small increase in global temperature, the likelihood of climate change and crop production variation increases. This could be attributed to various conditions such as flooding, lack of rain, hurricanes like Katrina and the more recent Gustav, and cyclonic storms like Nargis, which left vast stretches of agricultural land submerged under water. “While it is believed that hurricanes and storms do not travel far after landfall, but the Orissa cyclone in 1999 and Katrina proved that wrong. They crossed kilometres of land before weakening,” points out Dr A N V Satyanarayana, assitant professor, Centre for Ocean, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences, IIT Kharagpur. Global warming has changed the nature of the climate, making it more unruly and unpredictable. Why else would Rajasthan, a desert be flooded all of sudden. How farmers wish they had a steady flow of water and didn’t had to depend on seasonal rains to irrigate their agricultural lands. However, the truth being otherwise, increasing instances of either too severe or too scanty rainfall, have left agriculturalists high and dry. This is made worse by storms, typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones, which increase the salinity of soil, rendering it uncultivable. Water shortage also plays on the cultivator’s mind when he plans a crop. Certain crops like rice, require the land to be flooded with water in order to produce a healthy crop. But, with water shortage looming large over continents, it is not possible to flood the fields. This has caused rice production to drop. Scientists have often insisted that natural surroundings and their carbon sequestering qualities contribute towards enhancing the produce of a region. A good forest cover ensures sufficient moisture, thus inviting healthy rains. But our greed for wood and land has destroyed massive forest cover in major forest-rich areas, especially the Amazon and the rainforests of Africa. These areas act as carbon sinks and maintain the temperature and moisture levels of the planet. It is believed that an acre of forest cover will absorb over 75 tonne of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. According to Dr V Vinod Goud, project coordinator for World Wide Fund for Nature International & The International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (WWF&ICRISAT) projects, earlier, there used to be alternating periods of draughts and rain. “It would rain adequately for four-five years and as a breather, there would be draught for two years. People made money during the rain-fed years and be prepared for the succeeding droughts. However, these days, droughts extend for years, giving little change to the cultivators to think of alternatives,” he says. Natural changes aside, the biggest contribution to food crisis and the conflicts arising out of it comes from man, who constantly looks for change and comfort. Despite wars and natural calamities, human population continues to grow, adding more number of mouths to be fed than can possibly be supported the total cultivable land available in the world. In the recent years, a shift has been noticed in the food habits of people across the world. The commercial value of crops, time taken to prepare and the yield, play an important role in helping the farmers decide what they wish to grow. Since rice is easy to grow and gives better yield compared to millets and pulses, most farmers in some parts of Andhra Pradesh have stopped cultivating ASIA S.AMERICA N.AMERICA AFRICA EUROPE OCEANIA 15% 8% 11% 13% 8% 13% 5% 1% 36% 26% 6% 60% Glass half empty Population and water distribution don’t always correspond, often leaving highly populated regions with little access to water. This is most true in Asia, which has to support 60% of the world’s population with only 36% of the world’s water. – Percentage of global water supply – Percentage of global population planet earth | | February 0914
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    millets, which areakin to the dry areas and are rich in nutrients. As a result, millets which are sold cheaper in the market, have taken a back seat in cultivation. “Cotton is another crop which is hijacking the agricultural land meant to grow food crops. It also leaves the soil unfit to cultivate other crops,” says Dr Goud. The rich dividends that crops such as jatropha, palm, maize and sorghum promise in terms of monetary returns are very high compared to food crops. Under such circumstances, it is but natural for farmers to switch to biofuel crops, thus creating a foodgrain shortage. Moreover, the introduction of genetically modified varieties of crops, such as GM foodgrains has been a serious concern for farmers. The step received a lot of flak from farmers all over the world, for its invasive nature. In fact, agitations have been carried out to ban the brand in countries like Zambia and India. Farmers complain that GM varieties often cross-pollinate with the native grain variety, thus increasing their presence, which may spell doom for the native varieties. They say food and housing go together and one cannot co-exist without the other, so also are the corresponding problems. Construction activity, though often portrayed green, still continues to plant concrete jungles, reducing land space. The construction material used by companies can be varied in nature and may have different radiation absorption capacities. Even this causes hot and cold zones to be created, which affect the temperature of a place and its surrounding areas. City skylines, often dotted with buildings, create micro and macro temperature zones. During the day earth heats up and the energy is taken and transported to the soil. The soil then releases radiation at night. This creates mini temperature zones in and around the cities. Depending on the humidity levels, it could cause unseasonal rainfall or bring scanty rain to the surrounding agricultural fields. This disrupts the natural crop cycle, affecting yield. Crisis rooted in water While there may be several reasons cited for the present food crisis, the crux of the problem is the fast depleting water resources and the impending great world water crisis. Water is being described as the new oil and may be the primary cause for the outbreak of the Third World War. This is so because we may live without food, but not without water. Pictures of women balancing huge barrels of water on their heads, have been flashed all over the world earlier, but it was for the sheer grace and ability to balance the pitchers that they were used. However, today, this may be the case in many parts of the world. While the pictured women had the luxury of balancing more than one pitcher, people in countries with water scarcity have to make do with a mugful of water. Man’s role in aggravating the changes that climate is undergoing has caused several countries to intimidate other water-rich nations with threats of war. While water wars have been common place in India, with states fighting with each other to harness river sources, such wars are a relatively new concept for water-rich nations like Latin America, Spain, Bolivia, Ireland, Kenya, Pakistan, New Zealand, Northern China, Portugal and the US where 36 states are looming under severe water shortage. The impact of climate on water resources has been treacherous. While hurricanes, storms and heavy rains bring in a good supply of water, it cannot be used by man because there is no proper system in place to reclaim it. Increasing global warming levels have invited severe droughts, causing rivers and lakes to dry up. Even the glaciers and aquifers that fed the rivers are depleting at a very fast rate. Such is the situation in the US that it is warring with Canada to get access to the great lakes that supply fresh water to the country. Latin America, an extremely water-rich nation seems to have been surrounded with dry rivers and bare lake beds. A 40 per cent fall in rainfall in Spain has put its water resources in peril. The Government sought to divert water from the river Segre, a tributary of the gigantic Ebro, to Barcelona, which is facing severe crisis, but was met with severe opposition and conflict from the Government of the Aragon through which the Ebro flows. The Irish economy too is suffering due to water conflicts arising out of the climate change induced water shortage. The region has received inadequate rainfall and may have reduced winter water flows. Climate change is believed to have reduced the moisture content of the soil in the region, which could affect agriculture and accelerate the erosion of peatlands. China’s shortage is unique in that it has more than adequate reserve in the south but very little water in the north, which in turn has doomed rice production. The biggest threat that the water problem could pose is countries declaring war with one another and uncontrolled human conflicts. Research carried by various institutes and data collected by Nasa shows that glaciers all over the world are receding. This has caused the melt water flow into the rivers to fall during the summer months. Since most nations depend on rivers to supply them with fresh water, this is one of the primary causes for water conflicts. Almost the entire Chacaltaya glacier, which was a source for several rivers in Bolivia The number of residents in the Liaoning province of China are without drinking water 670,000 planet earth | | February 0915
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    planetearth||February0916 ZIMBABWE ZAMBIA YEMEN VIETNAM VANUATU UZBEKISTAN U. K. U.A.E. UKRAINE UGANDA TURKMENISTANTURKEY TONGA KIRIBATI TOGO THAILAND TANZANIA TAJIKISTAN SYRIA SWITZ. SWEDEN SWAZ. SUDAN SRI LANKA MALDIVES SPAIN SOUTHAFRICA SOMALIA SOLOMON ISLANDS SLOVENIA SLOVAKIA SINGAPORE SERBIA MONT. SAUDI ARABIA SAO TOME & PRINCIPE RWANDA RUSSIA ROMANIA QATAR POLAND PHILIPPINES PAPUA NEW GUINEA PALAU PAKISTAN OMAN NORWAY NIGERIA NIGER NEW ZEALAND NETH. NEPAL NAMIBIA MOZAMBIQUE MOROCCO MONGOLIA MOLD. MAURITIUS MALTA MALI MALAYSIA MALAYSIA MALAWI MADAGASCAR MAC. LUX. LITHUANIA LIBYA LES. LEBANON LATVIA LAOS KYRGYZSTAN KUWAIT SOUTH KOREA NORTH KOREA TAIWAN KENYA KAZAKHSTAN JORDAN JAPAN ITALY ISRAEL IRELAND IRAQ IRAN INDONESIA INDIA INDIA HUNGARY GREECE GHANA GERMANY GEORGIA GABON FRANCE FINLAND FIJI ETHIOPIA ESTONIA ERITREA EQUATORIAL GUINEA EGYPT TIMOR-LESTE DJIBOUTI DENMARK CZECH REP. CYPRUS CROATIA COTE D'IVOIRE CONGO DEM REPUBLIC OF CONGO COMOROS CHINA CHAD CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. CAMEROON CAMBODIA BURUNDI BURMA BURKINA FASO BULGARIA BRUNEI BOTSWANA B-H BHUTAN BENIN BEL. BELARUS BANGLADESH BAHRAIN AZERB. AUSTRIA AUSTRALIA ARM. ANGOLA ALGERIA ALBANIA AFGHANISTAN SAMOA U. K. UKRAINE TUNISIA SWITZ. SWEDEN SPAIN SLOVENIA SLOVAKIA SERBIA MONT. ROMANIA POLAND NORWAY NETH. MOROCCO MOLD. MALTA MAC. LUX. LITHUANIA LEBAN LATVIA ITALY ISRA IRELAND HUNGARY GREECE GERMANY FRANCE FINLAND ESTONIA DENMARK CZECH REP. CYPRUS CROATIA BULGARIA B-H BEL. BELARUS AUSTRIA ALGERIA ALBANIA PORTUGAL VENEZUELA URUGUAY FALKLAND ISLANDS UNITED STATES SURINAME SIERRA LEONE SENEGAL PERU PARAGUAY PANAMA NICARAGUA WESTERN SAHARA MEXICO MAURITANIA LIBERIA ICELAND HONDURAS GUYANA GUINEA GUINEA-BISSAU GUATEMALA GREENLAND THE GAMBIA FRENCH GUIANA EL SALVADOR ECUADOR COSTA RICA COLOMBIA CHILE CAPE VERDE CANADA BRAZIL BOLIVIA BELIZE ARGENTINA TRINIDAD & TOBAGO JAMAICA HAITI DOM. REP. CUBA BAHAMAS BERMUDA ST VINCENT & THE GRENADINES ST LUCIA ST KITTS & NEVIS PUERTO RICO GRENADA DOMINICA BARBADOS ANTIGUA & BARBUDA TUNISIA Conflict hot spots Nations facing increasing risk of armed conflict as a result of climate change Countries under risk of political instability as an off-shoot of climate change Clear data unavailable This map indicates the conflict prone zones in the world that have been affected by food & water wars as a result of climate change. Source: International Allert
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    has disappeared. DrRasik Ravindra, director, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Resaerch, while admitting that green house gases emission have increased global temperatures, says, “Numerous changes in climate have been observed. These include changes in Arctic temperatures, decrease in sea ice cover in the Arctic region and the breaking of ice shelves in western Antarctica, droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and tropical cyclones. While glacial interglacial cyclic episodes have been witnessed in Earth’s history in part, the present interglacial or warmer period through which we are passing has shown perceptible warming trend including rise in sea surface temperatures. Most of the observed increase in global average temperature is apparently due to increase in greenhouse gas concentration.” The changing seasonal patterns, with winters being affected the most, have disturbed the snow build up. The snow that is melting is not being replenished during the winter months, which in turn affects river flows. Sometimes the melt waters that collect in lakes below the glacial mountains, burst, flooding the agricultural lands. These lakes are also a source of drinking water. According to Dr Satyanarayana, a process called evapo-transpiration is causing ground water levels to fall. In this process, certain plants with big pores absorb excess water from the soil and release it in the atmosphere. This in the long run can change the water table levels. Often described as the Blue Planet, Earth is covered with 75 per cent water, why then is there such a dearth of safe drinking water? It is possible that changing climate is stealing us of our freshwater resources, but the situation may not have been so bad had man on his part not added to the water siphoning process. Population explosion is the primary reason why we are experiencing water shortage. The resources aren’t enough to meet the demand and our irresponsible use of water adds to that. Not surprisingly, it is the more densely populated countries that are under threat. The declining water resources have caused communities to seek water deeper into the ground, digging deeper still. While the activity may bear water in one area but only after it has dried the surrounding well. River Dawa in Ethiopia has dried up for this very reason. Food cultivation uses up most of the water and it is maintained at the expense of perennial rivers, such as the Yellow River in China, the Ganges and Brahmaputra in India, Indus in Pakistan and the Nile in Egypt. The Colarado river too is under threat of drying up. Almost three-fourths of naturally available water is used for crops. Besides, certain plant varieties require more water for cultivation, biofuels crops, cotton and rice for instance. Serious resource depletion is being done by bottled water plants which sip-dry groundwater, which is then treated and exported as bottled water. Refugees from water-tight nations increase the burden on other nations, thus widening the crisis. Water crisis cannot be isolated from pollution, which has reached the deepest layers of the earth, rendering groundwater and aquifiers unsuitable for drinking. At times grey water blends with drinking water supplies, causing serious health concerns. It is also a matter of worry, says Dr Goud, that construction activity has blocked catchment areas and covered the soil in a hard layer of tar and concrete, which makes it difficult for rainwater to seep in. Moreover, environmental drives urging people to harvest rainwater fall on deaf years. A lot of research is being done to tackle the water shortage crisis. The WWF&ICRISAT project has resulted in the development of a rice variety that doesn’t require flooding and gives better yields. Nature’s water cycle of evaporation and rainfall, ensures that a steady and required amount of freshwater is supplied to humankind, but we have tampered the natural cycle on such a scale that some of the great rivers of the world are running dry. It is setting in a related food and water shortage cycle. The gurgling sound of water is music to ears when available in abundant supply, but one can only hope that a situation doesn’t come when we become water refugees and increase our burden on the ecosystems. “Cutting down emissions is the only solution and the only way out,” scientists warn. Conflict, climate role reversal t was a day marked with strangeness in January 2008, when snow fell in the war-torn Baghdad, which reportedly halted all armed conflict and gave the media global warming fodder during their Iwar coverage in Iraq. The incident was strange because it was the first time in the living memory of Baghdad that soft snow instead of rain had descended from the skies. Could it have been global warmingspreadingitspresenceorwasitanafter-effectofwar? While we have witnessed conflict instigated by climate change, particularly over the sharing of natural resources, war is also adding its bit to the already sprinting global warming phenomena. Extensive coverage has been given to the war, but none of the reports talk about emissions associated with the war in Iraq, which is not surprising because a report by Oil Change International and Nikki Reisch and Steve Kretzmann, more often than not, military emission are not included in the national greenhouse gases inventories maintained by industrialised nations under the United Nations FrameworkConventiononClimateChange. Accordingtothereport,thewarhasproducedaminimum of141million metrictonsofcarbondioxide equivalent since March 2003, while fuel consumption for Operation Iraq Freedom has released 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Another practice often noticed in Iraq is the burning or oil and gas wells which emit several metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Add to that thepollutionresultingoutofgunpowderandbombs,sufficienttoaltertheclimateofthelandmass. planet earth | | February 0917
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    INNOVATION It is onething to sit back and enjoy your morning cup of coffee sip by sip, quite another to brew it stronger and use it to run your car. Professor Manoranjan Misra’s serendipitous discovery of coffee’s fuel potential will perhaps enable you to do so. When he left in a hurry from his lab, leaving behind a steaming hot mug of strong Starbucks coffee on his work desk, little did Dr Misra, echo-logic professor and director, Center for Materials Reliability Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno know that this negligence on his part could result in an important discovery. “I had made a very strong cup of Starbucks coffee and it slipped my mind to consume it. It remained so overnight and the next day I noticed a thin film of oil floating on the top. I got very curious and wanted to explore where the oil came from,” says Misra recalling the chain of events that led to the discovery in 2006. To satiate his curiosity, Misra, along with two of his students, Dr Susanta Mohapatra and Dr Narasimharao Kondamudi, collected about 50 gm of discarded coffee grounds from the Starbucks outlet in the university. These were then brewed, processed and tested. The resulting data revealed that the brew contained 10 to 15 per cent of very high quality triglyceride. A chemical analysis established it as a fact that the dark coloured thick oil, which was as aromatic as freshly ground coffee beans, was indeed high quality triglyceride. Spirited by this find, Misra and his team assessed the possibilities of its application. “It struck us that if it is triglyceride, it would make sense to produce biodiesel out of it through transesterification. It was a very simple process that we worked on in my garage. The process involves the addition of alcohol to the liquid and blend it with hydrous oxide. Once they are combined thoroughly, all you need to do is heat it up and your biodiesel is ready,” says Misra matter-of-factly. It is necessary to note that oil as such doesn’t run a car. It needs a trigger or booster which will help it burn and ignite the engine to run a car. The triggers are often described in terms of C10 and O10 numbers. Transesterification does the trick. With the green mantra attracting an increasing number of companies, laboratories and countries, there is no dearth of biodiesel in the market and new research turns out varied results every single day. In fact, India has been involved in quite a few biodiesel research projects on jatropha, palm and shorgum at various levels. But what sets coffee biodiesel apart from its contemporaries is its lifespan. “Unlike biodiesel extracted out of jatropha, palm and the likes, coffee biodiesel is very stable. Others need to be used as soon as they are made, because any rise or fall in the temperature or moisture content breaks them because they do not contain anti-oxidants. Whereas this aromatic biodiesel contains 3 to 5 per cent anti-oxidants, which gives more stability and a longer shelf life of between six-seven months. There are no issues about variety either because all varieties of coffee yield similar results,” explains 59- year-old Misra. The result has been patented, but it will be some time before the actual coffee biodiesel hits the market for commercial use. Misra who originally belongs to Bhuvaneshwar in Orissa, India, has been working at the University of Nevada for almost 20 years. His area of research concentrates on environmental engineering, water purification, extraction of Hydrogen from water and sunlight ad green energy. However, his shift to biodeisel research has been very recent. Giving reasons for this change, he says, “I had often observed and read that everybody is shifting to making biodiesel from food crops, thus giving more priority to fuel that we use to run equipment over our own body fuel, i.e. food. We need food to survive, we can’t waste it on vehicles. I told my group that it is about time that we looked at waste matter to generate fuel energy instead of food. We are also attempting to make gasoline from carbon dioxide, which is abundant.” It is not surprising then that his team preferred to use discarded and waste coffee grounds instead of fresh ones. The team is presently looking at chicken feather and fat to extract oil in addition to other cellulose matter that could yield oil. Misra describes his work environment as lively and cheerful, where his students discuss the most unusual Longer shelf life, zero-emissions and aromatic exhaust fumes, are just a fraction of the qualities that coffee biodiesel discovered by Dr Manoranjan Misra and his team promise, writes Sheetal Vyas Run out of fuel? Consider coffee planet earth | | February 0918
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    ideas and setabout implementing them. He believes his coffee biodiesel team to be a good mix, with two chemists and an engineer who revel in carrying out complicated experiments and analysing weird concoctions. Feeding the pilot plant which the university plans to set up in a few months, will not be a problem because Misra and his team have ensured a steady supply through the coffee roasting plant near the university, where nearly 250 million pounds of coffee is roasted per year. “They use forward logic to distribute coffee to the stores, our objective is to use reverse logic. Apparently, they pay to discard the defective coffee which cannot be roasted or coffee that has been over-roasted. The bulk of the coffee from the roasters, which goes to the garbage will be used. We are trying to device a method which will collect and bring back used coffee. Since it is the most popular drink, we have a big amount of waste coffee, which will make a great number of galleons of biodiesel,” says Misra who nurtures a deep passion for the environment. The after birth of this process, the used coffee grounds are also used. They are compressed, pelletised and used in wood burning fireplaces to heat the room in countries like the US. These are even better than wood pellets, claims Misra. With a zero-emissions tag and great smelling tanks, coffee biodiesel could be the future fuel option. However, before it is used in cars, they will have to be retro-fitted. Diesel cars can readily speed on coffee biodiesel. Despite his path-breaking research in the field, Misra, however, feels that biodiesel will not solve the energy problem. Portraying the seriousness of the problem, Misra says, “Almost 29 million gallons of oil is consumed globally per day. If we use all the land we have to grow only biodiesel plants, it will give only 14 per cent of the oil required. It is not the solution but a stopgap measure until we find an alternative. Biodiesel is a good option because we know how to make it. But the trouble is that it is time- consuming.” “It feels good to convert an out-of-the-box idea of Professor Misra to a breakthrough research. Our research objective is very simple, to look for alternate fuel from non-food sources which will decrease the world’s fuel deficiency as well as check global warming. While coffee biodiesel produces only around a small fraction of the current world’s fuel demand. However, we need to realise that nothing alone is going to replace the petro-fuels which are being made by nature from millions of years. Every bit helps.” Dr Mohapatra, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada, Reno, has a PhD degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai. “Our project is based upon the idea of taking everyday waste products, like used coffee grounds, and turning them into various forms of renewable fuels such as biodiesel, bio-ethanol, fuel pellets and low molecular hydrocarbons. We succeeded partially and a lot more is to be done in this direction. An observation is one of the most important aspects of scientists. At the time of research, our only goal is to make it feasible and nothing else and it is paid off well.” Mr Narasimharao Kondamudi, PhD scholar, University of Nevada, Reno, has a Masters degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Coffee biodiesel production process planet earth | | February 0919
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    Be it thesaffron farmers of Kashmir or the sugar maple tappers of Vermont, several regions have been bitten by the melting winters. Apple and mango trees are blossoming in January, some plants are flowering more than once in a year and their has not been a white Christmas in Shimla since 1991. These unexpected seasonal variations have been predicted by most of the climate change models. But it is the traditionally cold regions that are feeling the heat. The actual time period for snowfall has also undergone a change with December and January receiving scant or no snow while February and March witness heavy snowfall. In most of the areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in India, the snowfall months have reduced from four months a year to only two. Some of the Himalayan regions are being flooded because of untimely snowmelt. Similar reports come from UK as well as Canada. The spring now arrives almost a month early and autumn is longer. Winter months have shrunk and it doesn’t snow as it used to. Weather patterns are becoming unpredictable and the lines between the seasons are thinning. Loosing some exotic aromas and winter sports One can hardly imagine some of the exotic Indian dishes without the aroma of saffron, but we are losing its crop fast. As per On the Brink: A Report on Climate Change and its Impact in Kashmir, saffron yield in Kashmir has decreased to almost half since the last 10 years. Farmers say that in the past 20 years, land that yielded 1.5 to 2 kg saffron is now yielding barely 200 gm. All this is because of changing pattern in snowfall shorter winter and receding glaciers. Not just India, due to unpredictable weather pattern and shorter winter New England once a leader in the production of sugar maple has been hit rather badly by climate change. The sap tapping season has effectively been shortened by at least three days. Further, maple being a highly climate sensitive tree, the production of sap in the tree is affected by erratic climatic changes that the region is going thorough. Experts believe that although currently Canada’s maple industry is growing the fall is not far. Snow lines have receded; the spring snow melt is coming earlier than ever before. It’s the same everywhere, the Poles, North America as well as for the Himalayas that form largest snow cover outside the poles. Higher temperatures and shorter winters mean less time for skiing. Winter sports a major tourist attraction and an important economic asset of snow capped regions are looking for alternate recreations to compensate the loss due to reduced skiing months. “Snow sports in Washington State are potentially vulnerable to the projected shift in winter precipitation Are we losing winters? CLIMATE CONNECTION For the past few years, climate change has been discussed at all the world conferences and across coffee tables. But winter already feels the heat; it happens to be one of the first victims of climate change with one season merging into another Mukta Rohra planet earth | | February 0920
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    from snowfall torain as average temperatures warm. Some ski areas based at low elevations, including destinations that are among the state’s most popular, may experience direct climate change impacts,” says a report on impacts of climate change by Washington State Department of Ecology. Himalayan ski resorts in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are in for the same fate. Trekkers favourite, Pindari glacier reportedly melts 130 metres every year. There are over 5,000 glaciers in the Himalayas. They are all retreating and some of the smaller glaciers in Himalayas have actually vanished leaving the mountains bare with increased danger of landslides. Himalayan glaciers feed 10 river systems and all of them have scarce water primarily due to glacial retreat and early melt. The Gangotri glacier lost one-third of its 15 mile length in the last 50 years. It loses 18 metres every year. Warmer temperature has lead to shortage of water in the region and more paddy fields are being converted into rain fed orchards. Lives of the locals who depend on farming and tourism have become as unpredictable as nature. Not just the locals living there for generations, lives of nomadic communities in these high altitude regions have become even more difficult. Due to this unexpected rain, snow and dry spells their fixed ways of grazing the cattle in high altitude in winters and lower. It is becoming difficult for them to sustain themselves and keep the cattle healthy, specially the pashmina goat as their pastures are fast drying up. The thought of a non-existant winter is scary because ingrained with it will be cancelled so many traditions, a Lohri bonfire and a vacation in snow-capped Gulmerg, the aroma of saffron and the warmth of pashmina. Well, they are all a part of the endangered list. saffron yield in Kashmir has decreased to almost half since the last ten years Winter Shivers The ten hottest years ever documented have all occurred since 1990 Global temperatures have risen by over 0.7C since the 1700s with 0.5C of this warming occurring during the past 100 years. Since the mid-1970s the average air temperature measured at 49 stations of the Himalayan region rose by 1°C with high elevation sites warming the most Sixty-seven percent of glaciers are retreating in Himalayas The Khumbu Glacier, a popular climbing route to Mt Everest, has retreated over 5 km from where Sir Edmund Hillary had crossed it The Gangotri glacier lost one-third of its 15 mile length in the last 50 years. It loses 18 metres every year. Average arctic winter temperature has already increased by 11 degrees Fahrenheit. Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 Average global sea levels have increased by between 0.1 and 0.2 meters over the last 100 years Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. Rice, the world’s most significant grain crop, yield has fallen by 10% for each degree of warming The World Health Organization estimates that climate change is already responsible for an estimated 150,000 deaths per year. In 1998 alone, 650 deaths occurred in Orissa due to heat waves. planet earth | | February 0921
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    ENVIRONMENT As the shadowsof palm trees stretch along the shores and the orange-red sun melts into the sea, the picture perfect island nations belie the fact that each passing wave is questioning their existence and only time will tell whether they will sink or swim, writes T P Venu A people uprooted by nature smail Hassan sits in his jolhi fathi (In the Maldivian language IDhivehi, it means an easy chair made out of coconut trunk and husk) and waits for the birds of far away lands to descend on his little island Komandoo, in the Maldives. It is June and still there is no trace of the birds. It is the first time that the birds have not come. Thanks to the changing climate. Life for the islanders, be it Maldives or Marshall islands, Tonga or Trinidad, is becoming difficult as climate changes. Seasons no longer stick to schedule, rain which would start in June but now it only does in December and melting glaciers are changing the geography as well as the lifestyles of islanders. Schools of fish are no longer seen at the locations that they were supposed to thrive on, sea birds seem to thin in number and prefer to spend their winters elsewhere and rising sea levels are eating away the heart of the islands slowly but effectively. Given the current rate of degradation with global warming, whole coastal communities will be wiped out and along with it the indigenous cultures which date back to centuries. Time is ticking! Living on the edge We have seen war refugees and for the first time we will have to confront environmental refugees. Sample this: Trinidad is losing almost four yards of land per year, Maldivian islands are just 1 metre above sea level, Tuvalu 15, Kiribati islands 2 metres and Marshall Islands less than six and a half feet above sea level. One- third of Palau’s reefs are lost due to changing weather patterns. Coral bleaching is for real and none can escape it right from Fiji, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Palau. Fifteen per cent of Fiji’s reefs are dead. These people who are living on the edge of oceans are in jeopardy of losing their homelands forever. According to Dr B N Goswami, Director of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, “Sea levels would rise between 20-50 cm by the end of the century and depending on planet earth | | February 0922
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    the topography ofislands some are more vulnerable than others and all are at risk.” Changing lifestyles, disappearing cultures Islanders no longer hunt as before nor fish as they used to and their ability to predict weather is lost. They no longer produce elegant handicrafts out of coconut leaves; farming techniques are changing; they are not able to grow traditional food crops. Their ancient cultures of subsistence lifestyle is taking a beating; and these once self- sufficient people are being reduced to borrowers of aid as their islands are being swallowed by water. Sea levels are rising by 3.3 millimetres per year and projections are that by 2100 it would touch 18 cm. The coconut palm is considered as the tree of life for islanders all over the world, but with salt water intrusion these palms are dying. Coconut palms are an inseparable part of island life as every part of the tree is used in building boats, its leaves for thatches and the fruit itself forms an integral part of island cuisine. People in Pacific islands can no longer grow their staple food Taro due to continuous infiltration of sea water. Now, they grow them in buckets, tin containers and jars. Wells are getting contaminated with sea water and islanders have to be at the mercy of rain gods to collect water. Houses are built with slanting roofs and tanks are fixed adjacent to them. People are finding ways to save themselves and the Dutch have found a novel way by building floating houses which become buoyant when it floods and remain above water. Food for thought Lives of the islanders are tied to the sea and fish is their main diet. There was a time when islanders joked that they could sail over fish backs such was the abundance, but now if someone said so it would be termed as being rude and mocking at their plight. For, they are finding it difficult to catch fish due to acidification of oceans. Rising temperature is destroying coral reefs, plankton and commercial fish species. Fishermen are no longer sure of locations of fish schools. Many a time, islanders get content with breadfruit but even breadfruit trees are vanishing fast. Climate change is making it difficult to sustain fish catch. The effect of global warming is showing in dwindling fish numbers. Tuna, the sought after fish of Papua New Guinea, Maldives, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and other nations, is harder to find because water is getting warmer and the ideal temperature for Tuna is 27-29 degrees centigrade. So, they go deeper into the oceans resulting in low catch. People in flight Already people from lohachara and Ghoramara islands in the Sunderbans have been relocated to Sagar. More than 4,000 Tuvaluans now live in New Zealand, over 1,600 residents of Papua New Guinea’s Carteret Islands have moved out, another hundred residents of Tegua had to be evacuated. The number is rising as each wave kisses the shores of islands. Dr K Krishna Kumar of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, says “Danger to islands depend on factors such as ocean basin dynamics, morphology, the topography and ocean currents. They all affect the life span of islands. The health of coral reefs which surround the islands act as a wall from storms in mitigating natural disasters.” He further adds that stringent measures including a world wide check on global emissions are needed and advices strengthening of banks and building sea walls as alternative measures, which though temporary will help small island nations to create a stop gap. Uncertain future “Man is nature’s sole mistake,” said, W S Gilbert and man has not disappointed. Today, thousands of islanders across the globe live in perpetual fear. They do not know when a tsunami, a hurricane, a storm or a flood would hit them. All islanders love their land and some do not want to accept the fact that their islands are in peril and it’s only a matter of time. If they do not want to budge they will die. But, if they leave, some part of them will die as they are deeply connected to the islands, its waters, and way of life. Nothing can be sadder than talk about ones own nation’s death, and this is the predicament faced by many. What is ironical is that these small island nations which have contributed least to carbon footprint are the hardest hit. Meanwhile, Ismail Hassan fills the bird bath with water and waits for the elusive birds that have been making his island their home for a couple of months of the year, for centuries. Will they come? Is anybody’s guess, for now Ismail lives in hope. planet earth | | February 0923
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    The capital moatin solar energy production may have been plugged with government subsidies and tax incentives, but technology improvement and consumption subsidies are areas that need to be addressed, writes Jagadeesh Napa Solar energy The way forward BUSINESS BYTES planet earth | 24 | February 09
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    Sunrise Sunrise (orrather sunshine), couldn't tempt us if it tried… If we were to sing the famous song popularised by Norah Jones today, we couldn't be fooling ourselves more, for it is the very source of energy that is likely to bail us out of an energy deficit. While abundantly available, solar energy, considered to be one of the cleanest energy sources, still remains underutilised. For quite a few years now, solar power is being promoted by an increasing number of countries as an ideal replacement for fossil fuels. Environmentalists too have blown their trumpets at full lung capacity to 'go solar' from the time the first solar cell was invented. Since then, many efforts have been undertaken to tame this energy resource and bring it to the common man. Cost, say industrial experts, is perhaps one of the primary reasons why its wide-scale application could be prolonged, and it will be some time before every household appliance runs on cost-efficient solar power. However, the proponents of clean energy are joining hands with researchers worldwide, and are striving hard to achieve this goal. Interestingly, about 30 per cent of the global investments in renewable energy development are directed towards solar energy. India is one of those few fortunate countries where a part of its rural population uses appliances that are powered by solar energy. Selco India and Tata BP Solar have attempted to facilitate this and light up lives of the poor and downtrodden with solar appliances. They have succeeded to a large extent, but the biggest challenge lies in bringing solar power to society's midriff; the middle class household. Incidentally, this happens to be the biggest consumer market which is yet to be tapped. Indian initiative Investment in this clean alternate energy is something that all stakeholders have been advised to consider. Recognising the need to develop solar power as the next generation's energy source, Indian Government, together with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has set a target of generating 50 MW of solar power in the current Five Year Plan 2007-2012. To achieve the target, a massive incentive scheme which offers 80 per cent subsidy to companies investing in solar power generation that can be distributed to ordinary households, has been announced by the Government. Dr T C Tripathi, advisor to the ministry on solar energy said, “The Government has taken an active initiative in this direction and is providing up to 80 per cent of the cost as incentive. This can be a very big momentum for the industry as it has garnered the support of the Government in a big way.” The cost of generating one unit of solar energy (which can be fed to the grid) currently is Rs 15. The central and state governments have joined forces to provide a combined incentive of Rs 12 per unit, while the private investors have to bear the remaining 20 per cent that is Rs 3 per unit. Active research need of the hour Dr Tripathi asserts that cost is the biggest obstacle against adopting this clean energy in large scale. Production cost for solar power generation being high, it is not viable for mass production, in which case the incentive will attract and encourage more industrial investment. However, as a regulator and a driving force for the industry, it is also necessary for the Government to look at ways to reduce the cost of production. The Government's endeavour in the long run should be to actively encourage research in solar power with this aim. Research is currently underway the world over to reduce the overall cost of solar power generation and institutions and organisations in India are also in the league. It is now time for the government to catalyse this process. Dr Tripathi suggests the inclusion of IITs, regional engineering colleges, existing state- owned power corporations like NTPC to meet this end. He says, “Almost all the IITs and other industry bodies are into this kind of research and it is focussed on different technologies and materials that can reduce the cost of solar modules.” There is no dearth of scientific experimentation in the area. Researchers at IIT Madras are working on solar decentralised power generation and Hybrid thermo-photovoltaic systems among 1500 Exajoules 1250 1000 750 500 250 Year 2000 2050 Kohle Oil + NGL Gas Hydro tradit. Bio Wind Nuclear Biomass Solar Geothermal Expected projections of alternate energy output planet earth | | February 0925
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    other things. Astudy carried by Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA) in September 2008 has identified that research has to be focussed basically on two aspects – cost reduction and improving efficiency. Ongoing research is in line with this as it focusses on lower cost and less energy-intensive techniques for polysilicon (material used in the solar cells) production and a reduction in the usage of this material. In a single solar cell module, around 45 per cent of the cost goes for the silicon wafer and another 35 per cent for the material used to assemble the module. With growing demand for silicon, the market prices are only expected to shoot up rather than come down. Technology holds the key Conversion of solar energy into electrical energy has been described by many (scientists and industrialists) as one of the greatest inventions in human history. Polysilicon is being used to build solar cells to trap solar energy. According to the ISA study, usage of silicon has reduced to 10 g/Wp (grams per Watt peak) from 13 g/Wp in the last few years and this is quite an achievement. But further reduction of silicon presents a big challenge for the researchers. The European Union, which is one of the pioneers in this field, has set ambitious targets for the short and long terms. This includes reducing the usage of polysilicon to below 5, 3, 2 g/Wp in the short, medium and long terms respectively. Incentivise usage Presently, usage of solar power in India is restricted to the environment- conscious business establishments and households. On the other hand, NGOs have partnered with companies manufacturing solar appliances to distribute domestic solar appliances to families below poverty line at cheaper and affordable prices. While this is a big market for these companies, the biggest markets – middle class and upper middle class – are yet to be tapped. It is necessary to look at these markets as highly potential consumption markets of the future. Thus to attract them to use solar PV Technologies India Ltd. Solar PV 6000.00 Titan Energy System Ltd Solar PV, Polysilicon 5880.58 KSK Surya Photovoltaic Ventures (P) Ltd. Solar PV 3211.00 Signet Solar Inc.* Solar PV 9672.00 Moser Baer PV Technologies India Ltd* Solar PV 6000.00 Reliance Industries Ltd. Solar PV, Polysilicon 11631.00 Reliance Industries Ltd.* Semiconductor Wafer Fab 18521.00 Phoenix Solar India Ltd. Solar PV 1200.00 Tata BP Solar India Ltd.* Solar PV 1692.80 Solar Semiconductor (P) Ltd. Solar PV 11821.00 TF Solar Power (P) Ltd. Solar PV 2348.00 Lanco Solar (P) Ltd. Solar PV, Polysilicon 12938.00 * These companies have plans to produce solar energy Company Category Proposed Investment in crores power at this early stage, the Government has to subsidise certain amount of consumption. For instance, as it is currently providing 80 per cent incentive to the industry, a part of which can be diverted to the consumer in the form of either a subsidy or tax exemption incentive. A direct subsidy of Re 1 per unit can be also considered or a percentage of the total amount paid as electricity bills can be given as tax exemption. This may not solve the problem altogether, but could be applied till such time a better solution is arrived at. Japanese model Japan is one country that has directed its efforts on both focussing its resources in the research of cost- efficient solar power as well as providing incentives to its biggest consumer markets, in addition to producers of solar power. It is the biggest producer of solar energy in the world and is followed by Germany. The country had announced the incentives programme in 1994 and as a result has achieved a 75 per cent reduction in production costs till date. It targeted the biggest consumer market – the middle class and upper middle class groups – for the usage of solar power and provided incentives through direct subsidy, access to easy finance, net metering etc. Consumers in Japan get a 10 per cent subsidy on the cost of a standard solar power system as a result of the government's attempt to promote solar power and reduce environmental pollution. The way ahead Given the current active participation of the Indian Government (through incentives to the industry) to promote solar energy, it is expected to churn out some good results in the near future. But a big revolution in this domain can only be expected if the Government proactively works towards increasing the R&D work so as to improve technology and at the same time encourage the enormous consumer markets to switch to alternative energy. Current usage of Solar PV Modules Exports Telecom Home Lighting System Solar Pumps Solar PV Power plantsOthers Solar Lanterns Street Lights 225 5.5 7.58.5 11 16.5 39 22 Companies investing in solar energy planet earth | | February 0926
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    FUTURE ENGINEERING The cityrelies entirely on renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero- carbon, zero-waste ecology. The walled city of Masdar is a minutely planned city being constructed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The new age city is being constructed 17 kilometres east-south- east of the city of Abu Dhabi, beside Abu Dhabi International Airport is an initiative by the Government of Abu Dhabi through Mubadala Development Company designed by Foster and Partners. The city will cover 6 square kilometres on an allotted area of 6.4 square kilometres in size. Of this, 30 per cent will be for housing; 24 per cent for the business and research; 13 per cent for commercial purposes; 6 per cent for the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology; 19 per cent for service and transportation; and 8 per cent for civic and cultural pursuits. It will house 50,000 people. More than 1,500 visionary companies will have offices, research centres and operations within the city walls. It is expected that approximately 40,000 workers will commute to the city daily. The paradox is that cars and other automobiles will be banned within the city. With a maximum distance of 200m to the nearest transport link and amenities, the city will be linked to the outside world by public mass transit and personal rapid transit systems. A pedestrian friendly city will have open public squares intercept the shaded streets that will also funnel breezes. Masdar City will require approximately 200 MW of installed clean power. The construction itself relies on a 40 to 60 MW solar power plant on the site. The facility will later be increased and additional solar power modules will be placed on the rooftops to produce 130 mw of power. A few 20 MW wind farms will be established outside the city. The city may also utilise geothermal power and build the world's largest hydrogen power plant as well. The water management plan proposed is environment friendly. Water consumption presumption is stated to be 60 per cent lower than similarly sized communities which will be met by a solar powered desalination plant. Eighty per cent of the water used will be recycled, waste water will be reused as many times as possible and grey water will be used for crop irrigation and other purposes. The bio waste will be used to create nutrient-rich soil and fertiliser, and as an additional power source. Industrial waste, such as plastics and metals, will be recycled or re-purposed for other uses. The ambitious project is expected to cost US$ 22 billion and take some eight years to build. The first phase is expected to be complete 2009. Carbon emissions reduced by Masdar City will be monetised under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. Masdar City is a highly planned, specialised, research and technology-intensive project that incorporates a living environment, without damaging it. In an economy that is based on hydrocarbons, an initiative that warrants zero- carbon, zero-waste ecology, Masdar city true to its meaning is a source or initiator of a new era, writes Mukta Rohra Masdar the source Masdar headquarters will be the greenest building in the world The first drawings of the green buildings of Masdar City, that zero-waste city of the future concept, were made by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill who designed Masdar Headquarters. This building will be the first that will generate power in order to be assembled. The power will be acquired with the help of a solar roof which, of course, is going to be assembled first. planet earth | | February 0927
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    India has beenpunching above its weight in renewable energy sector. India started early but other countries have started running, if India has to keep pace we need to sprint. Also the industry needs a clear policy framework by the government says Dr Sivaraman in a candid interview with T P Venu ENERGY TALK Winds of change What according to you is the global scene on renewable energy? I don't think there is any slowdown. In fact, in the next four to five years I expect an increased rate of adoption of renewable energy. There could be a minor hiccup in the next 12 months or so because of the general financial tightness. But I think almost all countries feel the need for renewable energy in their energy mix. Especially with the new administration in US, it is definitely is going to get on board the renewable energy space and change the attitude and dynamics of renewable energy worldwide. What are the other applications you see for wind energy in the near future? The primary application of wind energy is going to be grid connected generation of power. The other alternative uses for wind basically for pumping are going to be in small scale. Wind is primarily going to be driven by the large turbines we are looking at now. How far do you think the use of technology in maximising output has succeeded in increasing production? There are two points how wind turbine or wind energy can be maximised. One is maximising the efficiency of the machine in harnessing wind. I think we are moving in the right direction there by making machines and turbines which are capable of producing higher power at blower wind speeds. The second equally important area is once the power is generated utilising the power effectively i.e. getting it from the place it is generated to the place where it is to be used. That requires an investment in the grid and the control system of the grid. That investment is being met worldwide on uploading grid capacities to absorb larger percentages of wind. So, only when both go in tandem will you have optimum wind utilisation. There will be fluctuations and the grid has to be robust enough to take care of that fluctuation and balance it. Are there any specific initiatives taken in Indian context? What is being done is only strengthening the grid in higher capacity of evacuation line. In the future what is foreseen is smart grid which will be able to automatically adjust generation from other sources with better prediction of wind generation. A lot of work in this area is being done in Europe and it will take some time for us to adopt here. Apart from a host of problems, wind energy is facing an increasing transport time, even for the wind turbine equipment. What is being done to overcome this issue? That is the problem with which we have to live with. Even from the highways to wind farms, transport is a problem and the wind farm owners have to manage. We cannot expect the state to lay roads. Manufacturers and farm developers have to manage. What are the challenges faced by companies that are shifting to the renewable energy sector? The primary challenge is from the financial market and always the question mark that is there with renewable energy is from the government policy. We need to have a clear policy on concessions that will stay in place for the next five years so that we can have long-term plans. Now, we wait every year for the budget and see if tax laws change. All renewable energy projects have long-term returns. We need to have clarity in the policy. Global wind energy capacity crossed 100,000 MW this year. What has India's contribution been? We have been one of the early players and the consumption is pretty high and next only to countries like Germany and Denmark. India has been punching above its weight in wind industry over the last ten years. But now the rate of growth is going to be slower than other parts of the world. T Shivaraman, Managing Director, Shriram EPC planet earth | | February 0928
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    What do youthink are the reasons? The policy framework outside India is better from an economic perspective. Farm development outside India has a significant advantage. The onus has to be on the Government. Wind tariffs in India are perhaps one of the lowest in the world. Nowhere in the world do you get it for something as low as 3 per kw. India gives tax breaks on wind power which other countries don't give. On balance, I would say that for a standalone farm developer, India is not as good a location as other nations. The problem is power being a state subject each state has its own policy and own requirements of renewable energy are to be fed into the grid. Rs The state and central policies both have to be in sync. Are you doing any projects on renewable energy? The major work we are doing is with our associate company Orien Grid Power. We are setting up multiple bio-mass plants to steer the bio-mass research. We will probably be established as the largest bio-mass player in India. You are into municipal waste management for quite some time. What is the scope for managed waste being used for energy? The municipal solid waste energy market has lot of scope. It has vast potential and has major technological challenges. The Indian scenario is very different from Europe and we need to design specific technology. Secondly, change is needed from regulatory and government perspective because India is so huge and we need a policy in place or else it would be a major problem. Mumbai has already taken up work in this area and modifying their strategy. Are there any states which are conducive for players to enter into? Rajasthan and Maharastra are two states that come to mind. Green Conclave will be a congregation of people who can propose a holistic vision of a better, greener Earth. The focus of this two-day conclave (conference-cum-exhibition) will be on how the decision makers and the industry can come together for the cause of protecting our environment and in utilising the scientific and technological know-how. The purpose is to assess earth’s vulnerability and its attempts at adapting to natural turmoil. The conclave will gauge the viability of green alternatives of energy, water, waste management and other important sustainability measures. November 12-13, 2009 New Delhi supported bypresented by ggrreeeennCONCLAVECONCLAVE ggrreeeenn For more information visit www.greenconclave.in planet earth | | February 0929
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    MANAGEMENT Every ambitious countryor business house wishes to cash in on the benefits offered by CDM projects and earn carbon credits. But be warned that it is environmental compassion and not equipment and emissions reduction, what will turn in greater rewards, says risk analyst Swaminathan Krishnamurthy Carbon credits as a concept, has come to enjoy special privilege in corporate conversations, business plans and the headlines of business newspapers and magazines. Such is the obsession with the phrase that no meeting-over-hi tea, scientific conference or business seminar is concluded without a mention of or presentation on carbon credits. The defining factor It is a fact well known that the world over, serious attempts are being made to cut down carbon (CO ) emissions. International2 bodies have been trying to implement policies and offer such incentives that will enable countries to realise the desired reduction in carbon emissions. The Kyoto Protocol, one such international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which became effective in February 2005, sets binding targets for over 35 industrialised nations, in addition to the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These amount to an average of 5.2 per cent compared to the 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012. Carbon credits are a means to cut down Co emissions at the national2 and international levels through trading schemes implemented to counter global warming. A monetary value is set for each earned credit. As per the Kyoto Protocol, the signatory Annex 1 countries (developed countries) are under an obligation to trap GHG emissions through individual industrial entities established in the country by capping the annual emissions on an industrial scale. Any shortfall in the committed GHG reduction – which could be 6 per cent for one country or 9 per cent for another – scale is balanced through the buying and selling of carbon credits in the international market. The Kyoto Protocol provides for an arrangement, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which allows countries that have committed to GHGs reduction to invest in environment friendly projects that cap CO emissions.2 The need for CDM projects While committed countries have to ensure that the target is achieved, individual industrial entities – which could be a civil plant, a power plant or any other energy intensive plant – in the country, who have been included in the programme or have voluntarily agreed on a CO reduction figure need to weigh the possibilities2 planet earth | | February 0930 This is the first part in the two part series on carbon credits.
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    and choose alternatives.They are usually given a specific target based on the production capacity and the emissions allowance they have been given. It is basically a campaign- based system. Emissions above the allowed level will require them to either pay a penalty or buy credits from the market and get a permit sanctioned. Achieving the target may not be easy for a country. Considering a particular facility is operating at 80 per cent efficiency, it can be limit- stretched to operate at 90 per cent efficiency. However, if a certain facility is already operating at 90 per cent efficiency, each level in efficiency increase would require the plant to seek additional local investment. This could make the entity in question less competent in the market. Therefore, it was agreed at the Kyoto Protocol under the CDM scheme that a part of the target percentage will be considered for in- house reduction and improvements, while the remaining part could be achieved through investments in a GHG mitigating project elsewhere and credits claimed for that. Who invests in CDM projects CDM and carbon credits projects were initiated with the sole purpose of ensuring that companies and countries that are consciously making an effort to cut down GHGs emissions are rewarded suitably. It is the industrialised, developed or Annex1 countries that invest in CDM projects in the developing or non-Annex 1 countries. Certain established entities also sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who volunteer to lower their carbon footprint. Often referred to as carbon offsetters, they purchase such carbon credits from organisations that have accrued them in excess through individual projects. A stringent validation process is involved which ensures the quality of the credits. Project eligiblity under CDM CDM is supervised by the CDM Executive Board (CDM EB). Industries and businesses that are planning to apply for CDM projects and thus ensure that carbon credits flow in, need to ensure that they start planning early and consciously make an effort to better the environment by capping carbon emissions. Additionality Any project, being planned by a company to reduce energy in the form of power or heat generation and which in the process would reduce the burning of fossil fuels that could contribute to global warming, is eligible for CDM. However, no amount of CO reduction will place2 the project under CDM, unless the promoters establish that the planned reduction in emissions is being undertaken with the sole purpose of arresting emissions, and it will not be Coal is mixed in a coal mix hall at the Prosper II mine in the western town of Bottrop. A handful of nations are developing plans to trap and seal beyond reach, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) produced from burning fossil fuels in power plants. The technology, called carbon capture and storage (CCS), may help create more energy for less CO2. The idea is that companies build coal-fired power plants and bolt on CCS technology later when it becomes commercially viable. You purchase carbaon credits from www.carbon planet.com Carbon Planet Purchases carbon credits in bulk Carbon Planet transfers owenership of carbon credits to the customer Planet Saving Super Hero (You) Carbon Credits Money MoneyCarbon Credits Carbon Planet Purchases fully certified carbon credits. Greenhouse Gas Emissions (eg. Co2) - The leading human cause of global warming planet earth | | February 0931
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    possible to achievethe target without the incentive offered by carbon credits. This is called the ‘additionality’ factor. They will have to prove their compassion for the environment and explain why a particular project which is being undertaken, is not a business-as- usual project and why it would require carbon credits. They will also have to explain how the revenue generated from the carbon credits would help the project proponent. CDM/Carbon Credits, a project- based initiative Planning and time are two crucial aspects of CDM projects and carbon credits. If a project promoter says that the project had been commissioned in 2004, it proves that the project has been running for 3-4 years. The supervising bodies are likely to raise doubts about how they were able to run it for these many years without support. Since they have a limited pie to give away, they cannot consider every GHG reducing project as a CDM project. For example, a project being planned by a cement company which will help convert a wet process to a dry process plant. Mere GHG mitigation does not qualify a project for CDM tag while converting a wet process plant to a dry process plant, the company will in any case reduce emissions. Why then do they need CDM support? In a country like India, where almost 90 per cent of the cement industry is already running under semi-dry or dry process plants, another plant that claims to convert the plant from one process to another will not make any difference, because the project promoter knows for sure that he cannot sustain the operations without converting the plant into a dry process plant. The project promoters will have to clearly prove that CDM will prove beneficial and play an important role. They should prove that it would be difficult for their project to sustain without CDM revenue. Emissions allowance Every country and business unit that is environment-conscious (and even otherwise) will have historic emissions calculations and what they have committed to. It takes into consideration the development pattern of the country and based on its development, it will be categorised either as an Annex 1 country or a non-Annex 1 country. Annex 1 countries are developed countries, who in the process of development have already contributed towards global warming. These countries have a target to meet and these targets will percolate into different entities within the countries. The size of the entity will decide the allowance they get. It is the country’s responsibility to see that the target is met. However, they may have different ways of doing or achieving this. Joint implementation A CDM project is termed as being planned under joint implementation when an entity in a developed country invests in a project being developed by an entity in a developing country. The carbon credits generated will go towards meeting the target of the developed country and the revenue will flow to the entity in the developing country. It is a win-win situation for both. Since carbon emissions is a global issue, it doesn’t matter where the GHGs are being reduced as long as they are being reduced. The writer is a risk analyst and climate change expert. Look out for Part 2 of the story in the next issue Carbon footprint: While carbon credits are the monetary benefits that you reap out of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, carbon footprint is a measure of the impact that our lifestyle and activities have on the environment. This is calculated in terms of the amount of green house gases (GHGs) that are produced through a particular process. The activities that produce GHGs could include fossil fuel burning, electronic appliances and the clearing of green forests. Originally, the idea of carbon footprint originated from the ecological imbalance and damage we are causing and thus ecological footprint. UNFCCC: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was set up in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. As many as 154 countries agreed to be a part of the UNFCCC, which committed the industrialised signatories to a voluntary aim to reduce green house gases emissions. This step was taken as one of the measures to control global warming and climate change. The nations that signed the proposition agreed to take stringent measures for the good of mankind. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): According to the Kyoto Protocol, industrialised countries have been given permission to invest money in projects that work towards reducing green house gases emissions in their attempt to reach their carbon reduction targets. These projects are generally invested in the developing nations by the developed countries. However, one of the basic criteria for CDM approval is that the project promoter should have proved the conscious effort being undertaken to reduce carbon emissions and how the additional funds will help the project. Jargon Buster China 41% Brazil 14% India 14% Republic of Korea 11% Mexico 5% Chile 2% African countries 2% Other countries 11% CDM CERs distribution by country planet earth | | February 0932
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    An increasing numberof IT firms are getting together to cut down energy consumption. Green data centres are a good option How green is your data centre? The operational challenges of today's data centres have become a gloomy issue for IT managers and CIOs around the globe. As hundreds of thousands of servers and storage systems are deployed to keep pace with ever- growing business computing needs, data centre managers are faced with increasing operational costs – namely power, cooling and maintenance. Today's data centres spend just 30 per cent of their budget on capital expenditures, while a whopping 70 per cent is consumed by operational expenses. IT firms like Dell, Intel, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Lenovo, Nokia, Tulip Telecom etc. have realised that "Going Green" is a profitable business in today's world. It requires a low initial investment but it also earns them brownie points for helping in reducing e-waste. Setting up green data centres is an effort in this direction. A decade ago, the electricity bill was the last thing on any CIO's mind while setting up a data centre. The numbers of servers were small and the volumes of data were even smaller. Electricity was cheaper then. GREEN TECHNOLOGY Gargee Borah planet earth | | February 0933
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    Data centres nowadaysare filled with many racks of servers and switches and other equipment. The energy requirements are also growing at the rate of 15 to 16 per cent. The ever- increasing server load necessitates further upgrades and newer equipments. The amount of power consumed by a single data centre can sometimes be as high as that required to light up an entire town. Server power costs have more than doubled, over the last decade, placing greater stress on cooling and power infrastructure. The annual expenditure on a data centre just for cooling reaches the multi-million dollar range. So every watt conserved provides real cost savings back to the business. But the demands have changed and the power situation is gradually turning into a crisis, data centre design practices haven't changed much in decades. Today new and energy-efficient, greener technologies are available or are undergoing development in many R&D labs. Nowadays X86 server designs have enabled dramatic improvements in density, with rack-mount systems packing more, ever-faster processors into a cabinet. Advancements such as the half-depth form factor and back-to-back mounting enable density levels as high as 80 1U rack- mount servers per cabinet. The newest multi-core processors from AMD and Intel are enabling never- before-seen CPU core densities, and the introduction of quad-core computing has increased compute levels to an unprecedented 640 processing cores in a cabinet just 7 feet tall and 3.5 feet deep. Density levels that high with all those processing cores in such a small footprint is a necessity for data centres managing mission-critical applications, resulting in exponentially greater compute power in a small amount of space. But higher density comes with a price – a very high price in the form of power, cooling and maintenance. Thus, while delivering the flexibility and scalability that leading Internet and High Performance Computing (HPC) environments are clamouring for, dense server clusters raise power consumption levels and amplify thermal management challenges. Going green is no longer just a matter of moral rightness or social responsibility. It is now becoming a business necessity for data centre operations to know how much energy each device consumes and to find ways of reducing that energy consumption. It simply costs too much to not do so. Satish Pendse, chief information officer, Hindustan Construction Company said, “Cooling consumes around 35 to 40 per cent of the electricity consumed in a data centre; servers, storage, networking How to maintain an energy-efficient data centre 1 Sealing. Ensure that the data centre is properly sealed to ensure optimum cooling. Otherwise the load on air- conditioners increases and correspondingly power consumption. It makes sense to cut off the data centre environment from the rest of the building. Vapor sealing is a cost-effective solution and easy to implement. If the data centre has raised flooring, then it is recommended to have the base flooring sealed with rubber or poly vinyl matting. Put sunscreens on windows, and if possible have two stage windows to trap air in between. The use of false ceilings is also advisable. 2. Air Flow. Should be such that the maximum amount of heat is removed with minimal energy consumption. Conventional racks are designed to throw heated air from the rear. Use the front facing racks and a conduit behind the rack that channels hot air upwards which is again sucked by the air-conditioner's return path. The proper arrangement of cables behind racks also allows managing the air flow. Air travel should be minimised by placing air- conditioners at right angles to the hot air path (hot air being lighter travels upwards). 3. Consolidation and optimisation. Virtualisation can be used to consolidate servers/applications; use a quad processor server than two separate dual CPU machines (think of cost and simplicity before virtualising). Use power management tools. Use the hardware to the maximum since the same power is consumed even if server is running at lower utilisation levels. 4. New technologies Supplemental and embedded cooling should be adopted for more benefits. Supplemental cooling is a new approach that overcomes the limitations of raised flooring when rack density increases and embedded cooling can provide direct cooling to racks. Source:TheClimateGroup 20 20 20 10 30 40 40 30 20 10 50 40 30 20 10 50 2020 business asusual 2020 minus reductions Possible ICT*-enabled reductions Other possible reductions Emissions of which from ICT* *Information and communications techology How IT can help Global emissions and possible reductions, tonnes CO equivalent2 Total emissions:1.43bn tonnes CO equivalent2 PCs, peripherals and printers 57% Telecoms infrastructure and devices 25% Data centers 18% Source:TheClimateGroup IT footprints Emissions by sub-sector,2020 planet earth | | February 0934
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    equipment etc. alsoconsume a considerable amount of power. Increasing redundancy from N to N+1 to N+2 also increases power consumption.” Utilising blade servers seem to be a worthwhile proposition for many as they have many benefits. However, they can lead to densities for power and heat that existing facilities' infrastructure cannot handle. Virtual PCs and other Thin Client architectures, on the other hand, can provide significant environmental advantages in system power consumption, reduced quantities of desktop equipment, and extended product lives. However, deployment requires a rethinking of overall IT system architecture for most enterprises. Virtualisation and adoption of multi-core processors may also significantly affect the type and quantity of equipment to be installed in a data centre. Manikkam VS, Head-Information Technology, Henkel CAC explained, “Equipment densities are continuing to rise and it is important to have a roadmap for dealing with higher densities to ensure you are not limited in your ability to adopt new technology and make the most effective use of your data centre space. Increasing rack spacing to accommodate higher densities is a costly strategy when facility costs are taken into account; significant savings can be achieved if the facility can scale to support higher density racks without reducing the number of racks being supported.” Sometimes changing the placement of servers can help in avoiding heat issues, by converting a hot aisle into a cold aisle. But this is not always possible. Pendse explained that if one changes how servers face, one has to also change the path of power cabling, the network cables and the access approach to the servers. It may also happen that in an existing data centre it will require some interior changes too, including changes to the floor, the heat vents. If you have a return ceiling plenum then that path needs to be changed or suitably modified to accommodate the hot aisle/cold aisle approach. This also may require downtime which may add to the cost but in the long run this is recovered through savings in the energy bill. New technologies for liquid cooling at the rack level can address the heat removal requirements for high power, high density computing environments. Adopting these designs runs counter to the practice of data centres being designed as raised floor environments; a new cabling design and fresh management practices are needed. The use of industrial cooling technologies adapted from other industries is another area of innovation being offered for energy- efficient cooling at the facility level. Newer floor mount precision cooling systems automatically adjust their capacity to room requirements without cycling compressors, increasing efficiency and reliability. This allows extra capacity to be designed into the system initially without a significant increase in energy costs. For power efficiency, more efficient server power supplies are available today, as are new engineering approaches to eliminating inefficiencies in traditional systems with multiple AC/DC power conversions. Innovative designs for DC powered data centres that could radically increase power efficiency are being researched and tested. The cooling and power consumption requirements of a data centre can be drastically reduced if proper planning is undertaken. It is good to plan for future requirements, but over-provisioning everything also leads to inefficiencies. Be it a small, medium or large organisation, energy saving means a lot to everyone, especially when it directly translates into heavy costs. But if appropriate measures are taken to ensure optimum efficiencies of data centre equipment, every organization will be able to do its bit towards contributing to a greener earth. planet earth | | February 0935
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    The high priestof the Sankat Mochan Temple in the mystic city of Varanasi and a former professor of hydraulics, compares the Ganges’ flow to the now-quick- now-quiet quality of raag Bhairav, has taken it upon him to ensure that river flows clean and pure Man with a missionary zeal At a time when boys his age made schemes to trouble the neighbouring shanty-owner selling inconsequential ware, Dr Veer Bhadra Mishra would search for opportunities to steal into the waters of river Ganges, flowing through Tulsighat at the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi. He would sit by the banks and devise grandiose plans to clean the Ganges or Ganga Maiyya, as he prefers to call the river, which has been revered in India since the ancient times. He was 11 then. Today at 70, when his fight to cleanse the river off industrial pollution, organic waste PROFILE planet earth | | February 0936
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    and poisonous chemicals,has come to fruitition, Mishra is just as deeply attached to the river as he was 59 years back. The retired hydraulic engineering professor and former head of the Department of Civil Engineering, Benaras Hindu University, who also is the mahant (high priest) of the Sankat Mochan Temple, has fought a long fight, spanning almost 30 years, to get his Advanced Integrated Wastewater oxidation Pond System (AIWPS) project to plug the flow of domestic and industrial waste into the Ganges, passed by the Government. Not surprisingly, it was no ordinary day for him when in June 2008, a long awaited communication from the Prime Minister's office arrived, inviting him to a meeting to discuss his environment friendly and cost- efficient technology. The Centre agreed to support a pilot run of his inexpensive scheme and hold back patronage to a costlier government-run project. The foundation has been given the responsibility of one AIWPS plant with a capacity of 37 million litre per day at Ramana. Describing his reaction to the news then as ecstatic, Mishra in gentle, well-measured words says, “When the Government decides something, it is difficult to change their line of action. I have been trying to impress upon the Government the effectiveness of this technology since the last two decades, but it is only now that I have succeeded.” And while he waited for the Government's verdict on the plan which was unanimously passed by the city municipality, it was his love and respect for the river that fed his patience. While every single day introduced him to a new facet of the river and strengthened his conviction, an incident in 1965 is what actually moved him into initiating his Swacha Ganga mission. He recalls, “That was when the diesel locomotive factory was set up in Varanasi and some of the chromium plating plants were dumping effluents into the river. That day I stepped into the river for my morning Sandhya Vandan. As I cupped the water in my hands, a stench disturbed me. Then I saw a thick film of copper coloured liquid flowing past. A little ahead I saw several hundreds of fish bouncing in the water, but strangely enough, they were all dead. It was very disturbing, and I decided something needs to be done.” In addition to pollution, climate change is also ringing its perilous bell for the river, which has caused the Gangotri glacier which pumps water to the river to recede. But Mishra begs to differ. He says, “I have seen the river swell and shrink by planet earth | | February 0937
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    almost 40 feet.I don't see its flow being affected by climate change or glacial melt. The dry river flow is contributed by aquifiers and ground water. The problem is that these sources are being polluted, which could harm the river.” Coming from a family of religious heads, which has the eldest son inheriting the father's position at the temple, Mishra was initiated into the temple at the age of 14. Not the one to be restricted to the religious and philosophical domain alone, he was the first in his line to join the university. “I was not allowed to attend classes in my priest's robes and had to take special permission to wear a trouser. I was always supported by my mother and Ganga maiyya. University life though exciting also brought forth amusing experiences. Every time I was introduced as the mahant of the temple and that I teach at the Benaras Hindu University (BHU) people would assume I taught philosophy and Sanskrit,” says Mishra in his lyrically trained voice. A delicate balance on the line separating religious and scientific logic is what Mishra has maintained. He switches between his responsibilities as the high priest and a scientist with surprising dexterity. It is required of him to do his morning ablution or aachaman with a sip of the river water, but the scientist in Mishra, who was received the 'Hero of the Planet' title from TIME Magazine in 1999 and was included in the United Nations Environmental Program's Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1992, has prevailed upon him to skip this step. For the Ganges may be holy and signify purity but it is also true that it has become the pin cushion for high levels of industrial pollution, organic waste, domestic sewage and human corpses that are often flowed into the river by the poor. Mishra, who takes joy in learning Hindustani classical music from his guru Channulal Mishra even at 70, and often tries to compare the mood and flow of the river to the various ragas, raag Bhairav in particular, has not accepted any position after his retirement in 2001. He owes his ability to balance both responsibilities to his grassroots background. “I connect with the base as well as my profession. I take a dip in the Ganges and use the water to do all the temple chores. But honestly, I have suffered physically. Sometimes I have severe pain in my entire being which I cannot describe. However, this doesn't affect my dedication to the river's cause. Where the physical world ends, metaphysical world begins,” says the activist who often blends religious imagery with poetic delight. Supported by his education, Dr Mishra was able to gauge the threats to the Ganges, and together with Dr William Oswald, an engineering professor from the University of California, Berkeley, developed the AIWPS. He voices facts about the pollution levels in the Ganges with just the same lyrical touch as he chants the mantras. “The Ganges which flows over 1,600 miles before joining the sea, supports over five million people through the length of its stream. Out of the 116 cities situated on the banks of river Ganga, five are such that have a population of more than one million. These cities are polluting the rive more. Most programmes that were implemented here attempted just to remove the organic matter, which forms just 5 per cent of the pollution. The main threat is from industrial waste and domestic waste which feeds the fecal coliform bacteria; the root cause of al water-borne diseases,” informs Mishra. Shockingly, every 10 ml of water 7 contains 10 FC count of fecal coliform bacteria. His technology doesn't dwell on the intricate. Rather, it requires no electricity to operate the plant and uses abundantly available natural resources to disintegrate and treat the waste that is spewed into the river through point sources, which include the 30-odd sewage pipelines that release black water into the river. As the founder president of the Sankat Mochan Foundation, a body that has taken the responsibility to render the Ganges dirt- free, he set up a natural water-tight inception system along the ghats of Varanasi, with the help of Oswald, Dr Billy Green; another scientist and engineers collected from all over the country. The interceptor takes all the sewage outflows and directs it outside the city to a huge wasteland downstream Varuna river. The diverted effluents are stored in the ponds and are broken down by sunlight, algae and bacteria. Once treated, the water is 95 per cent pure and facilitates a five log reduction in fecal cloriform count, and without any slush. The foundation which is surviving on support from members and other organisations abroad has switched roles from being a catalytic agent to being a watch dog. Though Mishra acknowledges that their work is being recognised, he expects people to be more actively involved. “I always wonder how, but word spreads. Recently a college based in Tamil Nadu awarded me with the title of “Warrior of Ganga” and when the former president of the US, Mr Bill Clinton gave a public speech, he invited me to share the podium with him. Such incidents reassure us but they are not our aim. I believe that the two banks of the river, with faith and commitment on one bank and technology on the other, should be made firm for the Ganges to flow happily and give us happiness,” says Mishra. planet earth | | February 0938
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    RECOMMENDATIONS e talk inhushed tones about Wit and it’s often considered taboo to discuss it in public. We seek ways to dispose it secretly, but don’t stop at using its word variations to express disappointment and shock. Human waste is common to all and we cannot do without eliminating it, yet we prefer not to talk about it, unless forced. However, it’s absolutely necessary that we discuss it, for not just the developing countries, but human waste disposal is an enormous problem but even in the most developed nations. The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste, aims to disband all fears associated with discussing human waste. It talks about everything from car loos, to underground sewers in urban cities to slums that have thousands of people sharing one restroom. Rose George, the writer explores ways in which human waste can be utilized to produce energy and the heroes of third world sanitation movements. The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste Author: Publisher: Rose George Macmillan, 304 pp ow far can one go to adapt to Ha lifestyle of bare necessities and still manage a sense of humour? Well! In the engrossing Finnish documentary Recipes for Disaster, some of the extreme measures that filmmaker/patriarch John Webster inflicts on his wife kids can be maddening and hilarious to watch. The family attempt to detach themselves from life’s comforts, from fossil fuel, plastic, makeup, shampoo, and even toothpaste. As the temptation to succumb to luxuries increases the test of willpower eats into the family. The film traverses on how daily routine affects global warming, it also investigates on the impact it has on the family. The groups sense of humour in spite of hardships they encounter coupled with vintage footage and jovial narration is a must watch. Recipes for Disaster Director: John Webster Time: 85 mins Environmental Management in Mining 10 to 12 February 2009 Perth, WA, Australia This event will allow you to speak directly with the key government contacts that impact on your planning through their legislation http://www.iqpc.com/a u/environmentalmining Mega Water Expo 2009 26 to 28 February 2009 Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Business opportunities in water conservation, wastewater management, Effluent treatment, Water recycle and reuse, Desalination, Rain water harvesting. http://watertoday.org Green Energy Summit 3 Mar - 7 Mar 2009 Bangalore Green Energy Summit 2009 will provide a unique platform for debate, dialogue and action between research, industry, academia, financial organisations, entrepreneurs and government bodies worldwide. http://www.greenenerg ysummit.com/ 6th International Biofuels Conference 4 to 5 March 2009 Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi The Conference will deliberate on issues facing the biofuels movement; provide information about the local and global potential of biofuels, and examine new developments. http://www.winrockindi a.org International Conference on Implementing Environmental Water Allocations 23 to 26 February 2009 Port Elizabeth, South Africa International conference to promote the sustainable use of rivers, wetlands, estuaries and groundwater http://www.wrc.org.za International Colloquium for Environmentally Preferred Advanced Power Generation 10 to 12 February 2009 Newport Beach, California, United States ICEPAG is a three-day international colloquium focused on advanced hybrid and large system electric generation technology: 1 megawatt to 1,000 megawatts. http://www.apep.uci.ed u/ICEPAG2009 India Events International Events You needn’t touch this recycle bin Recycling helps better the environment, but how does one do it without having to step on a clumsy pedal or touch sticky, dirty waste disposal lids? The new Touchless Recycling center and trashcan uses latest sensor technology to make recycling convenient while ensuring a germ-free environment in your homes. It provides two separated eight gallon compartments. One each for trash and recycle, or one for paper and one for bottles/cans. The minute your hand nears the infrared sensor on top of the trash can, the lid opens automatically and closes 3 seconds after your hand has moved away. The trashcans are ideal for use in kitchens, garages, hospitals, offices, schools, child care centers and at healthcare facilities. Go ahead, use paper guilt-free If you scream at your colleagues every time they take printouts, telling them that they are destroying trees in the process, it would be advisable to switch to organic banana paper offered by www.ecopaper.com. Made from combining tree- free agricultural bio-products coupled with 100% post consumer recycled content, this eco-friendly variety of paper is laser printer compatible and is Process Chlorine Free (PCF), which means that the paper has no bleach, chlorine or chlorine derivatives. Being acid-free it will not turn yellow or disintegrate over time. Recycled old suitcases turned into chairs These funky chairs are a clever solution to recycling old, out-of use suitcases, which could add to environmental waste. Designed by MayBeDesign, a Turkish company, the furniture line, dubbed Sit Bag, uses patterned material to cover recycled luggage bags. Each chair consists of two retro hard-cases while the automans are made of a single closed case. planet earth | | February 0939 BOOKS FILM PRODUCTS EVENTS
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    Growing environmental concerns suchas depletion of the ozone layer, climatic changes and global warming that is melting the glaciers in the polar region resulting in a rise in sea levels are some of the adverse effects of growing environmental pollution, which has caught the eye of both governments and the common man. Globally, the automotive sector accounts for a 16 per cent of the total industrial pollution. For instance, in the US, the transportation sector (including gasoline and diesel powered cars, trucks and busses) accounts for 58 per cent of carbon monoxide emissions, 34 per cent of hydrocarbon emissions and 57 per cent of nitrogen oxides. Consumer conscience In September 2007, Oliver Wyman, a US-based international management consulting firm conducted a study on the impact of climate change on consumer purchasing behaviour in Europe and the US. The study revealed that consumers want eco- friendly cars but are reluctant to pay a premium price for it. Environmental compatibility occupies fifth position after reliability, safety, price/performance ratio and total cost of ownership among the attributes influencing the purchase decision. It is worth mentioning that environmental compatibility has been rated above attributes including design, service and brand prestige. Fifty-five per cent of the respondents find it difficult to decide whether a car is eco-friendly or not and look for ‘eco-seal’ on the car. Seventy per cent of the European and US respondents said the ‘eco-seal’ played a major role in their purchase decision. Japanese and French brands are perceived to be more eco- friendly by consumers. However, they expect German car makers to produce more eco-friendly cars in the next decade. Forty per cent of European and 25 per cent of US respondents prefer to go for a car that can be easily recognised by its eco-friendly design or model name. Seventy five per cent of European and 65 per cent of the US respondents expect their respective governments to offer tax incentives upon purchase of an eco-friendly car, which can be a driving force for consumers. More than 90 per cent of the respondents consider less fuel consumption and low CO emissions2 as important attributes in an eco- friendly car. Eighty per cent of European and 60 per cent of the US respondents consider a drafted life INDUSTRY WATCH Omer Ahmed Siddiqui The automotive sector contributes a total of 16 per cent to global industrial pollution. Auto makers are striving to bring down the levels with fuel-efficient and hybrid options RRaacciinngg ttoowwaarrddss aa cclleeaanneerr ttoommoorrrrooww planet earth | | February 0940
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    cycle emission assessmentprocedure should be implemented. Fifty per cent of the respondents consider use of recyclable material as an important factor in producing eco- friendly cars. Toyota, Renault and Peugeot are popular among the European respondents as eco- friendly brands. Automakers in action Escorted by the emission norms and growing consumer inclination for eco-friendly vehicles, automakers are left with no option but to produce clean and green vehicles. Hybrids, plug-in hybrids, diesel-powered cars and vehicles running on ethanol and fuel-cell are some of the eco-friendly cars currently being produced. Hybrids are twice more fuel efficient than gasoline cars, while diesel engines are about 30 per cent more fuel-efficient than conventional gasoline engines. Hybrids from Toyota In 1997 Toyota Motor Corporation introduced Prius, the world's first commercially mass produced hybrid. This also signalled the development of hybrid powertrain incorporated in the Toyota Hybrid System. Since then Toyota has positioned hybrid cars at the core of its manufacturing strategy. Toyota plans to start mass production of electric cars in early 2010. The company is also promoting its gasoline-electric hybrid system as a core environmental technology. Dian Ogilvie, senior vice president of Toyota Motor North America opines, "Over the past year, we saw a convergence of will from industry, government and society to respond to climate change and to address our collective footprint on the planet. It is clear that the mix of limited resources, rising temperatures and an increasing global population that wants to be mobile demands an innovative and sustainable response. We realise that the road to sustainable mobility is a long one, but we are ready and willing to go the distance. Our best resource to achieve this is our people." Honda bets on diesel and hybrids Honda has staged plans to become the most eco-friendly player in the global auto industry by 2015. In January 2008, Honda introduced CR- Z, a lightweight sports hybrid concept vehicle powered by a gas- electric hybrid system, and the FCX Clarity, a zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicle based on the new Honda V Flow fuel cell platform. The company is concentrating on developing eco-friendly and fuel- efficient diesel engines. It is introducing its new i-DTEC clean diesel engine in Honda Acura in the North American market in 2009. The engine reduces noxious exhaust emissions while boosting power and fuel efficiency. Nissan electric cars soon Nissan, a Japanese automaker plans to bring affordable zero-emission vehicles to the US market. The company plans to launch an affordably priced electric car to the US market by 2010. The initial launch will be a small economy sized car, while Nissan will role out a complete line of electric vehicles in all shapes and sizes worldwide by 2012. Other small Japanese rivals including Mazda Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp are focussing on hydrogen rotary engines and short-haul electric vehicles respectively. In June 2008, Genepax, a Japanese car manufacturer, unveiled a duel fuel car that runs on petrol and water. It has a mileage of 80 km per litre of water. Genepax has applied for patents for the car. If the car becomes a commercial success, it can solve global fuel crisis. Bentley's biofuel strategy Bentley has implemented biofuel strategy under which it is producing a bioethanol-fuelled car which is expected to be released at the Green cars Hybrids combine two or more different propulsion systems, typically a gasoline engine and one or more electric drive motors. Most hybrids on the road today compliment their gas engines by charging a battery when breaking. Engines running on diesel or other alternative fuels can also be used in hybrids. Natural gas, the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, is being used by an increasing number of medium- and heavy- duty commercial vehicles. Natural gas is stored and used in its liquefied or compressed states. It is most commonly abbreviated as LNG for Liquefied Natural Gas, and CNG for Compressed Natural Gas. Electric cars produce zero localised emissions since they’re propelled by electric motors that run on batteries charged at home, or special electric vehicle charging stations. Electric cars are extremely efficient and run for pennies per mile, much cheaper than any other alternative fuel. Plug-in hybrids boast great potential for improving fuel economy. Plug-in hybrid technology allows gasoline- electric hybrid vehicles to be recharged from the grid and run many miles on battery power alone. Plug-in hybrids may never need to run on anything but electricity for shorter commutes. Hydrogen is perhaps the cleanest of all alternative fuels, burning with nearly zero emissions in an internal combustion engine and with emissions of only water vapor and heat in an electro- mechanical fuel cell. Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. As a fuel, ethanol can be used in more than 30 flex fuel vehicle models that have been designed to run on alcohol, gasoline, or any combination of the two fuels from the same tank. Biodiesel is a renewable alternative fuel made from various sources ranging from waste vegetable oil to soybeans. It can often be used seamlessly in diesel engines of all kinds. Biodiesel is a cleaner fuel than standard petroleum diesel. Hybrid EthanolHydrogenNatural Gas Plug-insElectric Biodiesel planet earth | | February 0941
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    Geneva motor showin March 2009, and will be offered for sale by the end of July. The Crewe-based luxury car maker expects the strategy to help reduce CO emissions by 40per2 cent in the next three years. According to Bentley, considering the total CO emissions on a well-to-2 wheel basis, ethanol offers reduced CO emissions as compared to2 electric or hybrid cars, but this aspect has been overlooked by European regulators who only concentrate on tail pipe emissions. Using bioethanol Bentley aims to achieve 15 per cent of its target of reducing emissions by 400 gm/km by 2012. Landrover's start/stop technology In December 2008, Landrover introduced its Freelander TD4_e in London. The ‘e’ refers to e_Terrain Technologies, an environment friendly programme of Landrover. The technology stops the engine when the car is idling and the engine is restarted when the car moves. This reduces fuel consumption of the car when it moves in traffic, ultimately reducing the tail pipe emissions. The technology provides an 8 per cent decrease in CO emissions and2 12 per cent improvement in fuel economy. General Motors finds fuel cell promising General Motors introduced ‘The Provoq’ in January 2008 that runs on a hydrogen fuel cell and a lithium ion battery. The car uses hydrogen as the primary fuel and battery supports during peak power requirements. The car is fitted with solar panels on the roof to power electronics. BMWs to breath on hydrogen The US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory tested BMW Hydrogen 7 mono fuel in March 2008 to declare it as the vehicle with the least emissions. The car complied with super-ultra low- emission vehicle (SULEV) level, the most stringent emissions performance standard available at that time. Thomas Wallner, a mechanical engineer who leads Argonne's hydrogen vehicle testing activities opined, “The BMW Hydrogen 7's emissions were only a fraction of SULEV level, making it one of the lowest emitting combustion engine vehicles that have been manufactured. Moreover, the car's engine actively cleans the air. Argonne's testing shows that the Hydrogen 7's 12-cylinder engine actually shows emissions levels that, for certain components, are cleaner than the ambient air that comes into the car's engine." Coming home in a recyclable Maruti Not to stay behind, Maruti Suzuki has staged plans to make its entire line of cars eco-friendly by 2010. The company is striving to make its cars recyclable by complying with European Union's end-of-life vehicle recycling specifications. It plans to make 85 per cent of the car recyclable after the completion of its green in2008 cars top five planet earth | | February 0942 Honda Civic Hybrid Mercury Mariner Hybrid Ford Escape Hybrid Toyota Camry Hybrid Toyota Prius
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    service life. Thiscan be done by eliminating the use of harmful substances like mercury, cadmium, lead, hexavalent chrome, toxic and mutagenic compounds. Maruti will launch Splash and D-segment Kizashi car during 2009, the first of its brands to comply with recycling specifications. Use of recyclable material will reduce fuel consumption by 10 to 15 per cent. Electric cars on role Maini Reva the electric car manufactured in India is making waves in England, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The basic model of the car offers 50 miles per charge, while the high-end model offers 90 miles. Ajanta Group, the clock making company, has staged plans to launch an electric car cheaper than Nano in 2009. Tata Motors also plans to launch the electric version of Nano in the same year. In November 2008, Fiat released Punto that is fitted with dual engines to run on both methane and petrol mainly to reduce emissions and fuel consumption. Research and Development A team at the Melbourne-based Australian Centre of Excellence for Electro materials Science at Monash University has developed a new fuel cell prototype that can trigger commercial production of cheap and fuel-efficient fuel cells for powering eco-friendly cars. Production cost of the fuel cell is brought down by replacing expensive cathodes incorporating platinum Nan particles with cathode made of conducting polymers. Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which is a part of the Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence in the US, are investigating the use of solid ammonia borane, compressed into small pellets for safe storage, dispensing and easy refuelling of hydrogen. Each millilitre of ammonia borane weighs about three-quarters of a gram and can store up to 1.8 litres of hydrogen. Thus, ammonia borane pellets for storing hydrogen, will occupy less space and be lighter in weight than systems using pressurised hydrogen gas. This will also increase the capacity of automobiles. PNNL scientist Dave Heldebrant notes, "With this new understanding and our improved methods in working with ammonia borane we're making positive strides in developing a viable storage medium to provide reliable, environmentally friendly hydrogen power generation for future transportation needs." Outlook According to Peter Bosch, Automotive expert at Oliver Wyman, “The climate change debate has caused environmental compatibility to come up of nowhere to fifth place among purchasing criteria. If this trend continues, environmental compatibility could become permanently established as third basic expectation alongside safety and reliability.” Consumers perceive German auto makers to be moving towards producing eco-friendly cars. The basic reason behind consumer expectations with the German brands is that they consider these brands as the most technologically advanced and have the capability to lead on the environmental friendly engineering front in the near future. The high price tag of hybrid cars still restraints customers from going for them and car makers cannot reduce the cost unless they embark on mass production, which again should find optimum demand. Hence, automakers will have to create a trade-off between technology and cost. Hybrids, fuel-efficient diesel engines and electric cars will rule the roads in the near future. Honda executive vice-president Koichi Kondo opines, “The game is still open as car-making enters a new phase in which alternative energy sources and power systems will become mainstream, re-writing the rules of a century-old business. Petrol-electric hybrids will be the next big thing to replace petrol and diesel-powered cars.” uto manufacturers in India are Aconcentrating on producing ecofriendly cars considering the growing buzz about environmental conservation. As a result a number of hybrids and convertible cars such as the Volvo C70 convertible were showcased at the Auto Expo that took place in New Delhi in January 2008. But the question still remains, are these cars fit for the Indian market? Two factors – cost and eco- friendliness of these cars need to be analyzed to arrive at an answer. Hybrids cost 60 per cent more than their equivalent models in India, which make them more attractive to personal car owners rather than the commercial fleet. Even if the price premium decreases to 10 per cent, coupled with government incentives and favorable tax policies, demand for these cars for commercial applications is unlikely to catch up until there is a sharp rise in fuel prices. In India, annual petrol car emissions amount to 22.03 million ton of CO2. Even if 5 per cent hybrids penetrate Indian market in the next few years it will result in a 0.55 million ton reduction in CO emissions per2 annum. This accounts for only 0.23 per cent of the 244.8 million ton of total vehicular CO emissions per2 annum, which is extremely insignificant. Further the batteries used in hybrids are made of nickel- metal-hydride, and there are no battery disposal norms in India as compared to the western nations. Even though hybrids are the first step towards a zero emission cars future, a lot more work needs to be done on the economic feasibility and ecofriendly aspects of hybrids, especially in the Indian context. Hybrids: Indian feasibility planet earth | | February 0943
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    Mona Ramavat Surprised thatyour electricity bill somehow always totals to more than you estimate? Well, every gadget or appliance in your home might be an energy thief or ghost electricity consumer! Bust the ghost consumer our electricity bills accounting for as much as one-thirds of Ypower more than you actually consume can truly be a horror story! The phantoms responsible for this lie in your electronic gadgets that although turned off or on power save mode, suck up a great deal of energy. This kind of ‘mysterious’ consumption of electricity, when apparently, there isn’t any supply, has come to be called ghost electricity consumption. Surprising, but true, a television or laptop left plugged in, although turned off – and forgotten – can still add to ticking meters. What’s more, besides escalating electricity bills, this also results in considerable damage to the environment. Typical ghost energy haunts Virtually every gadget in your home that is plugged into a socket sucks up more energy than you can imagine, while it is turned off or on standby. Televisions turned off with the remote control, while the main switch is left on, a hair dryer that remains plugged in, phone chargers that are not unplugged even after the phone is fully charged, microwave ovens, laptops, game consoles, DVD players are all typical ghost consumers. Although not designed with the purpose of consuming electricity when they are turned off or on standby, these gadgets, end up doing so by default. For instance, the TV that is turned off using a remote control is ‘semi-awake’ in case it needs to be turned on again. Printers, speakers, scanners etc. are ‘half conscious’ for any possible signal from the computer. Many gadgets also remain in standby mode and don’t totally shut off unless you LIFE STYLE planet earth | | February 0944
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    switch off themains, so that their status gauges or clocks can remain updated. Says Pune based electronics engineer, Pranav Mishra, “An easy way of determining if an appliance that has an adaptor is consuming ghost energy is to check if the adaptor is warm even when the device is switched off.” Although the energy they consume while being turned off is a pretty small volume, accumulated over the weeks and months, it can amount to quite a deal. Besides, consider the number of electronic gadgets in a single home these days. When they all add up, it is quite believable that the amount of ghost energy consumed amounts to something like 10 to 30 per cent of your actual electricity consumption. Reducing ghost energy consumption It is practically impossible to do away with ghost energy consumption altogether, but with a little more awareness and some effort, you can certainly reduce the menace. Small changes in your lifestyle can make a big difference to your electricity consumption over the months and years. First things first; while it is advisable to keep gadgets unplugged when not in use, you don’t have to switch off and pack away your laptop each time you take a coffee break! Instead, ensure that appliances like laptops, microwave ovens, televisions, DVD and CD players etc. are unplugged at nights. Plug in again during the day when you need to use the device. Also, when you are done using the PC for the day, switch off the stabilizer too after you’ve shut down your computer. Says hardware engineer, Sukumar Deb, “It’s a myth that a computer consumes greater energy when being turned on, which is why you need to leave it on all the time. You can save more energy by turning it off even if you aren’t using the computer for a couple of hours.” Similarly, do not leave phone chargers plugged in till long after the phone is charged. Professor of electronic physics, Sitaram Mistry suggests, “Being organised helps too. For instance, you could store all your cell phone chargers in a drawer or some such place, so that they are not left permanently plugged into sockets. Use a charger when you need it and immediately put it back in its place after you are done charging. It will help reduce ghost energy consumption since a phone charger draws quite a bit of power when plugged in.” The ghosts lurk in your bathroom too, in the form of the electric geyser that continues to draw power on thermostat mode, when left switched on for a long time. Choosing and maintaining your gadgets When buying a new electronic gadget, check its technical specifications and features thoroughly. There might be some gadgets – like the microwave with a built in clock – that consume more ghost energy than others. Check if you really need a gadget fitted with features you can do without. Besides this, the regular maintenance and upkeep can also help reduce ghost energy consumption to an extent. Cleaning out AC vaults or maintaining your microwave, not only increase the efficiency of such devices, but also help reduce phantom loads. Regular servicing and maintenance of appliances is certainly a worthwhile investment when compared to the benefits involved. How the phantoms affect the environment It is estimated that ghost electricity consumption globally makes up for about one per cent of carbon dioxide emissions. And carbon dioxide is a gas that directly contributes to global warming. Imagine the damage done by every single plugged in appliance or device in homes all over the world! So although, it might not have a direct bearing, ghost energy consumption is gradually but surely adding to the adverse affects to the planet in the long run. So now you know that another way to go green is to unplug! Ghost consumption TV turned off using the remote control – 6 Watts per hour TV turned off at the switch but still plugged in – 0.5 1 Watts per hour UPS of computer left on – 9- 15 Watts per hour Cell phone charger plugged in socket – 3 Watts per hour Mosquito repellant – 5 Watts per hour You see – Broken sockets or cords, the outer body of an appliance chipping off or missing guards in an appliance. Cracked, cut or burnt parts need to be replaced immediately to prevent further damage to the appliance and a potential electric accident. You hear – Erratic start-stop operation sounds, unusual popping or spluttering sounds coming from an appliance is a sign of lack of regular maintenance. You smell – Smoke, fumes or a constant burning smell, are all signs of overloading, which means you need to have the appliance checked by the electrician immediately. Replace or have your appliance repaired if: Clean refrigerator coils regularly the dust on the coils acts as insulation that prevents the fan from efficiently removing heat. Tune up heating and cooling equipment – Furnaces, boilers, and air-conditioning systems have mechanical parts apart from electrical components. Over time these parts can go out of adjustment and need lubrication and cleaning to maintain efficiency. Replace the rubber fill hoses on your washing machine – Do this at least every five years to prevent a flood caused by a burst hose. Replace the element socket – It will help solve the problem of an intermittent electric oven. Replace water inlet valve – So that adequate water continues to get into the machine to help make your dishwasher more efficient. – To increase energy efficiency planet earth | | February 0945
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    PERSPECTIVE Dark clouds and asilver lining Lower sales, layoffs, financial insecurity, we can feel the pinch of economic meltdown everywhere. However, the environmentalists have a reason to rejoice, writes Mukta Rohra The marketplaces give a deserted look even during the festive season, reporting fewer footfalls than ever. One can clearly see recession, now showing its impact. It is evident in the way people are gradually changing their ways and the way corporates are trying to reduce expenditure. John Machado, AVP Operations, of Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, renowned construction consultants in Mumbai, says that even though lifestyle may not have changed drastically since there is a reduction in the number of permanent recruitments, no one wants to take a chance in the current scenario. He states that there is a noticeable slow down in the number of new malls and other constructions. Shrinking pockets and insecurity is forcing people to tone down their lifestyles and conserve on whatever resources they have. The situation is actually compelling them to be more cautious and more judicious in the way they spend or switch jobs. Gautam, an IT professional in Hyderabad who is fond of buying anything new that comes in the market, is living on the edge with job insecurity hovering over him. He says, “I have just stopped going to the market unless I really need to buy something. As of now, I am happy with what I have.” Consumerist behaviour has certainly taken a backseat. Recycling and reuse have come in vogue again. The size of the trash cans is clear indicator of the paradigm shift. Many have resorted to buying the local and the seasonal produce which is quite economical. “It is like back to our childhood days when so many options were either not available or we were asked to consume almost everything with a limit put to it,” says Amrita, a housewife. Those who were vacationing regularly have reduced the excessive travel. This certainly is helping conserve oil and save money, but is also giving them an option to look planet earth | | February 0946 An environmental review or audit is a good starting point for the ‘Go team’. The process involves examining your current situation and assessing what you want to improve and how you might go about doing it. This provides a baseline against which any improvement can be measured. Some organisations choose to employ a contractor or consultant to help with this. TIP
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    around in theneighbourhood to see what is available for them to fulfil their basic recreational requirements. Amrita informs that they have cut down on their weekend outings as it costs a lot. “Instead we plan it once a month. For the rest of the month, I plan some activity with kids at home and we enjoy it even more than our outings. This has made our outing, events we look forward to,” she adds. One of the most beautiful aspects that have come into light is that the open spaces in vicinity are being located and developed by the residents into a green recreation patches, thereby improving the general quality of the area. Those with air conditioning systems installed, have for good, opened the windows to let the air in. Many have realised that “the green living ideas” as we put it these days, are actually saving a lot of cash for them. In fact, all the cost-cutting activities are adding up as eco- friendly initiatives. Even though these are small efforts, the impact, added together is huge say the experts. They believe that this “cautious with money” attitude has come as a boon for the environment. Experts especially those who are concerned about the consumerist behaviour impacting the environment negatively are calling recession as god-sent. Not being consumerist for them spells out as utilising only as much of the resources as is the necessity. This saves the environment from the extra burden that it bears because of our excess consumption. Promoters of green lifestyles point out that lesser consumption means less degradation of the environment, lesser pollution and lesser depletion of resources. There were tips that experts had been insisting on for ages now but they remained in books. Only the market fall has now brought them out and got people to practice them. Corporates green up Not just individuals, corporates are also gearing up to go green. In fact, there have been reports that those who had already adopted the green scenario, had to suffer less during these testing times. Their energy consumption was already minimal and all the technology in place. Availability of the relevant technology has for sure made the task slightly easy but getting the employees to use it has taken much of the creativity of the human resource and administration departments. “Green practices do have an edge provided the process is being followed properly. Things like using natural light, recycling of water, recycling of paper etc. help in a huge saving. But this initiative needs to be driven from top for effective utilisation,” says John Machado of Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj. He adds, “Our clients still maintain their stand on sustainability and energy management”, an issue that forms a part of their corporate social responsibility. Technologies like electronic mail and video conferencing have drastically reduced travelling costs. Some of the corporates now insist that the staff should get their tea mugs instead of using the disposable cups. Corporates have even come up with their best practices lists encouraging their employees to follow the same. There is a new set of services developing that is facilitating green practices. “We have been promoting carpooling across India since early 2006 primarily because we believe that it is an excellent way for commuters to reduce their spending on fuel, restrain menacing urban traffic and also contribute towards saving the environment and reducing harmful CO2 emissions which cause global warming,” says Udit Bhandari, Founder & CEO of Indimoto.com. The ad world is virtually painted green. Organisations now flaunt their eco- friendly activities and environment, something that existed only in the corporate social responsibility document remained hidden for all these years. Awareness amongst people has led the companies to showcase their green efforts. Going green has come out as one of the most effective ways of cost- cutting as well as gaining client loyalty. People are waking up to the fact as to how sustainable and effective conserving is. Industry is the largest mover of the lifestyles, if they are adapting to the change, rest will automatically follow. The economic meltdown may actually give environment a breather, a respite from constant attack by humans. The fact remains that this is a temporary phase. It is time we need to re-think the meaning of development. It is time we wake up to the fact that if we don’t change our ways now, it will be too late. We have to ascertain that the green guide that is for the first time being actually practised sustains its charm and becomes our habit. Corporate Green Beans • Optimising the energy settings for computers • Switch off computers when not in use • Increase the ambient air conditioning temperature by 1 degree • Regular maintenance of all equipment • Modify timings to fit during the daylight hours • Encourage work from home and day shifts when possible • Let the daylight in • Opt green commuting, carpool, bike or local transport • GPS for better tracking and planning of logistics • Use washable mugs • Use both sides of the paper for printing • Use refillable pens and mechanical pencils • Re-label and reuse files and folders • Avoid using stickies planet earth | | February 0947
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    PHOTO FEATURE he wordsahel means “shore” in Arabic, which Timplies a continental margin, a grand beginning and a final end. Stretching across northern Africa roughly along the 13th parallel, the Sahel divides the sands of the Sahara and Africa’s tropical forests. Some 50 million of the world’s poorest, most disempowered; most forgotten people hang fiercely on to life here. The Sahel drought from the late 1960s to early 1980s created a famine that killed a million people and afflicted more than 50 million. planet earth | | February 0948 Expanding desert