Gobind Thukral

DO you feel that summers are getting hotter every year? Well it is not just your imagination; temperatures are rising every year at an alarming rate. Glaciers are melting at an alarming speed. Some scientists assert that in ext 40 to 50 years time, the Himalayan glaciers would just disappear, leaving no water for drinking or irrigation. Same is the fate of glaciers across the world. This week Australia suffered a black storm not seen in the last sixty years. Worldwide climate warming and rising sea levels are sure of signs of increasing environmental hazards.

But maximum has been added by industrial pollution. Since the industrial revolution the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has gone up by a whopping 30 per cent, trapping more heat than necessary. This has resulted holes into the ozone layer. The main culprits are greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases trap the sun's heat in the atmosphere instead of letting it escape again. We release these gases every time we burn petrol by running a car, burn coal or even run the AC longer than needed. This leads to a term we are all now most familiar with - climate change. Some naturally existing gases like water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane have greenhouse properties. These provide the earth with the warmth it needs.

Maximum damage has been done by the highly developed countries like America that adds 25 per cent of the total world pollution, Canada and Europeans countries. Now India, China, Brazil and Mexico and other countries developing fast on the western pattern are adding emission that threaten the environment and push human existence to dangerous levels. There is world wide concern. There had been several conferences and agreements like Kyoto agreement, but still not much has been done. Now on September 22 the United Nations called a conference in New York where American President Barack Obama for the first time owned some responsibility and promised action.

The United Nations’ top expert on climate change Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has taken on the US president for not saying and doing enough on climate change. This Indian-born scientist who won Nobel prize along with American political leader Al Gore that President Barack Obama missed an opportunity to outline bold initiatives and show more leadership in the run-up to the Copenhagen where the next conference is coming soon. The developing countries who to fight poverty and other problems expected much more from him. They thought he would make certain commitments and certain pledges to take some action.

America and the West want India and China to drastically cut emissions. But the two rising economic giants insist that the West is responsible for 80 of the current greenhouse gases. So it must shoulder most of the burden and transfer clean technologies to developing nations. Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh though promised to be deal maker and not deal breaker said,
"India will not buckle down on climate change, we will not accept legally binding emission cut”. Evidently there has been intense pressure on the developing world to meet emission cut targets set by the US but India says for now this is simply not possible.

Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh who rarely disagrees with the Western countries took a different stand and said, “The US and others can't hide behind the shield of India and China. They have to take their own stand and comparing situations is just not an option here.” Since highly industrialized world is the major culprit, so it must shoulder more responsibility.

There is so much riding on Copenhagen with many experts feeling that this is the last big chance for the international community to come together and battle climate change but with countries like America, India and China pulled in different directions because of domestic compulsions it remains to be seen whether they can in fact, think of a worthy successor to the Kyoto protocol.

As this world faces disaster and we can see it happening in India. This summer the rains nearly failed in many parts of the country, forcing farmers to dig deep and irrigate their fields. It was the question of survival. About 45 per cent of India's land is degraded, air pollution is increasing in all its cities, it is losing its rare plants and animals more rapidly than before and about one-third of its urban population now lives in slums. The State of Environment Report India 2009 brought out by the government admitted this harsh reality. The third official report on the state of India's environment published after a gap of eight years and released in New Delhi on September 2, 2009.

The cost of environmental damage in India would shave 4 percent off of the country's gross domestic product. Lost productivity from death and disease due to environmental pollution are the primary culprits.

The government agency responsible for environmental affairs is the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Coping with India’s industrial pollution is perhaps the agency’s top priority. Everyone including the government recognises the need to strike a balance between development and protecting the environment in administering and enforcing the country’s environmental laws and policies. The government heightened the Ministry’s powers with the passage of the 1986 Environment Protection Act. This Act built on the 42nd amendment to India's constitution in 1976 that gave the government the right to step in and protect public health, forests, and wildlife. This amendment however had little power as it contained a clause that stated it was not enforceable by any court. India is the first country in the world to pass an amendment to its constitution ostensibly protecting the environment. But in practice it is meeting the fate of other such laws.

But since it is problem that the entire world; all human beings animals, birds and plants or in one word all the living beings face, the world leaders must come forward and join hands to stop green house emissions. Take remedial measures, adopt those technologies that help save forests and preserve climatic health. Equally important is the role of the public and it must understand the dangers and on its own level use less fuel, electricity, water and other natural or man made resources. It should also push pressure on the governments to do something concrete before it is too late.

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Environment: Act now or lose forever, climate summit told

Thalif Deen

THE world's small island developing nations, most of which are threatened with environmental devastation, put the international community on dire notice: either accept ambitious and binding emission reduction targets, or humanity is doomed. The one-day U.N. summit meeting of world leaders Tuesday came out with a clear message demanding urgent action against the growing threats from climate change.

Maldives, one of the world's smallest nation states facing extinction, exposed the political hypocrisy of world leaders pontificating on the dangers of global warming but doing little or nothing towards a resolution of the ecological crisis at hand.

President Mohamed Nasheed, one of only 12 hand-picked speakers at the plenary of the summit, said that on cue the world's vulnerable nations keep telling the world how bad things are.

"We warn you that unless you act quickly and decisively, our homeland and others like it will disappear beneath the rising sea before the end of this century. We ask you, what will become of us?" he said.

But in response, the assembled world leaders stand up, one by one, and rail against the injustice of it all, he added.

"We are with you," they say, "We must act now before it is too late."

But once the political rhetoric has settled and the delegates have drifted away to their home countries, "the sympathy fades, the indignation cools, and the world carries on as before."

"A few months later, we come back and repeat the charade," Nasheed told the gathering of world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Indian Ocean island of Maldives, with a population of about 400,000 people and a per capita income of about 4,400 dollars, relies on tourism for more than 60 percent of its foreign exchange earnings.

But the gradual sea level rise, caused by climate change, is threatening to wipe the country off the face of the earth - perhaps before the end of the century.

The summit has attracted over 100 heads of state or government and has been described as the largest single gathering of world leaders on climate change.

At a press conference on the sidelines of the summit, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, one of the world's foremost environmentalists, said the statement made by the Maldivian president was "one of the most important statements" at the summit.

He said there should be common obligations that are binding on everyone - both developed and developing nations.


Nasheed said industrial nations must acknowledge their historic responsibility for global warming and accept ambitious and binding emission reduction targets consistent with an average temperature increase of below 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.

"If developed countries do act decisively, we in the developing world must be ready to jump, by accepting binding emission reduction targets under the principle of common but differentiated responsibility - providing that the rich world gives us the tools to do so, namely the technology and finance to help us reform our economic base and pursue carbon-neutral development."

Apisai Ielemi, the prime minister of Tuvalu, a Pacific island nation also battling global warming, called for a new institutional framework that will provide finance and technical support for developing countries with significant emissions to leapfrog fossil fuel technologies and move quickly to renewable energy and energy efficient systems.

"A new financial arrangement such as renewable energy bonds should be developed to support efforts to deploy these new technologies," he added.

"The future of my country, Tuvalu, is in your hands," Ielemi added.

President Jose Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste, a country with a population of over 1.1 million, said that while most nations will ultimately suffer the adverse impacts of climate change, some Pacific island nations are already grappling with dire and immediate impacts today.

"I am deeply distressed when listening on how people might have to resettle elsewhere as their islands submerge in the next decades, in our lifetime," he said.

Ramos-Horta said his own country, a small island developing state, faces a severe threat from climate change.

"Our country is prone to floods, landslides and soil erosion resulting from a combination of heavy monsoon rain, steep topography, widespread destruction of forests and unstable agricultural practices like slash and burn," he added.

He said rising sea levels pose a dire problem for coastal areas, including the country's capital city Dili, which is only a few metres above sea level.

Speaking on behalf of the 43-member Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Prime Minister Tilam Thomas of Grenada warned that the cost of inaction or the cost of an inadequate level of ambition, far exceeds the cost of the course of action which guarantees the survival of major ecosystems, economies and people.

As stated many times before, he said, with temperature increases of 2 degrees Celsius, "Many of the economies of small island developing states and island ecosystems will virtually disappear." [Courtesy IPS]

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South Asia disunity hovers over a region battling climate change

Athar Parvaiz

AS the Copenhagen Conference on climate change draws nearer, South Asia, which appears poised for severe threats from the impacts of climate change, faces a stiff challenge on two fronts. For one, South Asia’s member states – home to half the world’s poor – need to convince the developed world to take steps toward the mitigation of future climate-related risks in the region.

For another, divergence of ideas among these countries over some crucial issues arising from the impact of this global concern on the region is a potential stumbling block to training some of the global climate change spotlight on South Asia.

The region will need to lobby hard during the Copenhagen summit in December to get the support they need, given the potential threats confronting the region as a result of climate change impacts, experts say.

World leaders will assemble in Denmark’s capital to hammer out a fresh agreement on this global challenge. The expected agreement will replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012.

The international agreement adopted in Kyoto, Japan on Dec. 11, 1997 establishes legally binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gases and two groups of gases. When its first commitment period ends in 2012, a new international framework should have been negotiated and ratified.

Over the years, South Asian states "have not been able to discuss even matters of mutual interest seriously," said a top-ranking official in one of the countries in the region, who requested anonymity.

For instance, during the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa on Aug. 26 to Sep. 4, 2002, no regional session for South Asia could take place, since the region had failed to submit a position paper "before the stipulated three months while all other regions had submitted it right in time." This despite the region "being environmentally so vulnerable," he said.

This apparent lack of cohesion and collective concern was evident anew in a regional conference on climate change held in late August in this capital.

"Out of the eight participating countries from the region, only three sent their environment ministers while the rest sent only their representatives such as their secretaries deputy secretaries and undersecretaries," said the South Asian official.

The South Asia Regional Climate Change Conference – which revolved around the theme, 'From Kathmandu to Copenhagen: A Vision for Addressing Climate Change Risks and Opportunities in the Himalaya Region' – described the region as a "climate change hot spot that influences the lives of half of the world's population."

The climate of "non-cooperation" hovering over South Asia is likely to hamper collaborative efforts and thus derail the formulation of a common policy that will address climate change issues in South Asia, regional observers note.

Within the Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain range — said to be the world's greatest repositories of snow and ice outside of the polar region — the glaciers are retreating at a rapid pace, experts say.

"A majority of the glaciers are reported to be shrinking in mass at low and mid-altitudes in the Himalayan region, but only a few of them are being scientifically monitored," Pradeep K. Mool, a remote-sensing specialist with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), told IPS.

The Kathmandu-based ICIMOD assists mountain people in the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan – in understanding how "(g)lobalisation and climate change have an increasing influence on the stability of fragile mountain ecosystems and (their) livelihoods."

The International Commission on Snow and Ice in Kathmandu – which promotes the scientific study of snow, permafrost and ice and their dynamics with the ecosystems – said the Himalayan glaciers are retreating faster than anywhere else in the world, and could be gone by 2035.

"Glacial melt, coupled with more variable precipitation, could severely compromise livelihoods and the future prospects of agriculture" in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain range – the source of the nine largest rivers of Asia, said a World Bank (WB) report.

Researchers working on climate change say that the temperature rise, due to the changing climatic conditions, has attracted insects to the high altitudes of the Himalayas, which were heretofore unknown in these places.

"For example, people in Lhasa (the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region) are now using mosquito nets in summers," said Mool. The presence of mosquitoes has also been observed at Mount Everest’s base camp, and this has the potential of spreading diseases like malaria and dengue fever, he added.

In landlocked Nepal, several areas are exposed to threats like glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) – a sudden discharge of huge volumes of water due to glaciers melting at rapid rate. This phenomenon can destroy life and property along the downstream.

"Nepal’s glacial lakes have grown both in number and in volume, and some village communities now live in constant threat of glacial outbursts," said World Bank lead economist Claudia Sadoff during the climate change regional conference here.

"There have been more than 13 reported cases of glacial (lake) outburst floods in the Nepal Himalayas since 1964, causing substantial damage to human beings, livestock, land environmental resources and infrastructure," said Nepal’s environment minister Thakur Prasad Sharma in an interview with IPS. About 20 lakes in Nepal Himalayas "are considered most threatened," he said.

Based on World Bank’s projections, GLOF and varying agricultural yields are going to be the greatest threats to another Himalayan nation, Bhutan, in the future.

In Afghanistan, the WB report, ‘Projected Climate Change impacts in South Asia’, states that the already extreme climate variability will increase and would compound social and economic risks.

A massive climate out-migration in Bangladesh is likely to happen, given the exceptional scale of impacts including sea-level rise directly affecting at least 30 percent of the population, coupled with intensified monsoons and changes in rainfall patterns yielding floods, drought and cyclones.

In India, frequency of storm surges, cyclones, floods and droughts is expected to increase and intensify while climate change would negatively impact agricultural yields, decrease river flows, cause sea level rise thereby impacting coastal livelihoods. "The magnitude of every climate change impact is likely to be among the world’s highest, but this massive challenge is crowded out by mitigation concerns," says the WB report.

The WB’s projections about Pakistan indicate that the Indus River, which is 50 percent glacier-fed, will witness huge reductions in flow due to rapid glacier melt while intensified droughts and sea-level rise in that country "will require major livelihood transitions and economic transformation, with consequent risks of social upheaval if unplanned."

These potential threats looming over the region are enough reason why countries need to lobby hard for appropriate action during the Copenhagen summit.

Unless climate change becomes a policy issue in the South Asian states’ elections, "it will not be taken seriously," a miffed Maldivian environment minister, Mohammed Aslam, said during one of the sessions in the Kathmandu conference.

"I am not seeing anything serious happening here," said a delegate from Bangladesh, which is regarded as one of the countries extremely exposed to the climatic threats.

Philippine senator Loren Legarda, the United Nation’s Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for the Asia Pacific region, said the Maldives is on the brink of destruction, noting that "a one-meter rise in sea level could submerge 80 percent of (its) 1,192 islands." Legarda led a U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction delegation in July as part of an advocacy mission to the island state.

Experts say that the Maldives faces a serious threat due to the probable sea-level rise spawned by climate change. Not a single part of the Maldives lies more than 2.5 metres above sea level even as dozens of islands of this nation are undergoing erosion, experts say.

While other countries have expressed deep concern about the impacts of climate change, whether in the South Asia or elsewhere in the world, India appears to be downplaying them.

"India is rather keen to collaborate with another Asian giant, China, since both China and India are under pressure from the developed countries to reduce their carbon emissions," said Syed Iqbal Hasnain, a prominent Indian glaciologist. Apart from being major contributors of black carbon emissions in Asia, the two countries together account for 25 to 35 percent of global carbon emissions.

South Asian countries have to collaborate with each other in order to come out with a joint policy, said Hasnain. "Apart from complaining, the countries of the region have to make local efforts to reduce the risks of climate change." [Courtesy IPS]

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Haryana sitting on a social volcano

Prof. Manjit Singh

READ this news titled, “Girl Kills Seven of her Family” in a national daily with the opening sentence, “Haryana police has arrested a 19-year-old girl for allegedly murdering seven members of her family, including her parents and brother, in connivance with her boyfriend on Saturday evening (19 Sept. ’09) at a village near Rohtak.” The incident has not only sent shock waves but plunged every conscientious mind to deep introspection if this is only a tip of the iceberg.

This is not an isolated incident but third of its kind in the recent past. During the last five years Haryana is in the headlines of national media for many such volcanic eruptions whether in the form of decrees from Khaap (community) Panchayats against the ‘free-will marriages’ between the youngsters or in the form of violence against the dalits. It is high time to ignore such incidents of serious social repercussions.

Haryana presents an ideal case to show that what happens to people when they are suddenly swept off their feet by the high tide of consumerism, accompanied by the economic prosperity, whereas the collective social consciousness of society resists to the permeation of corresponding changes in social relations. The tension between the two unleashes a social ‘pathology’ far more dangerous and painful than any known epidemic in human history.

All societies, whether Eastern or Western, have undergone such social metamorphosis, triggered by the changes in the economic arena, but the sufferings become unbearable if the economic changes, centred around consumerism, abruptly take on an unprecedented speed. The access to better economic and communicative means put a tremendous pressure on the archaic social bonds sustained around hierarchies.

The conflict thus unleashed envelops everyone, old and new generation. The old generation, with the help of new income generated by green revolution, wishes to fortify traditional social relations whereas the new generation is on the path of revolt and yearns to consume social relations in the same way as other commodities are consumed in the economic arena. The choice is not easy, and the entrenched clash of generations over values and norms of society, has pushed Haryana society to a threshold full of tensions and break of communication between them.

Before we harp on to the suggestions it is important to point out the sources triggering social tensions. Spread of modern education, development of means of transport and communication, and exposure to media, all place individuality at the centre of our existence in contrast to the communitarian existence upheld by the ‘older’ generation. The ideology of modernity rooted in the Enlightenment ideas of equality, reason, freedom and fraternity, immediately come into clash with communitarian living that has its own merits and demerits. The sudden upswing in commoditisation of social life leaves no time with the people to adjust to the new demands made on them. And thus the generational gap is posing serious challenge to Haryana. We only wish the economic prosperity would have been at a rate that could be absorbed into the age old social seams of Haryana society only to transform it rather slowly.

In the short run the perceived reality is more real than the reality itself. In their own respect either side, old and new generation, has sufficient arguments to defend their position but it only complicates the problem as it snaps communication. The real need of the hour is to take this challenge squarely by all the social activists, cultural organizations and concerned individuals, and not let the communication blocked. It is only civil society actors who can provide social space for debate so that, instead of allowing self-legitimising actions of either side to prevail, the social dialogue is restored.

State on its part cannot sit back as mute spectator to such grievous happenings. It must regulate its agenda of economic reforms to such a pace so that the concomitant social tensions are within the bearable limits. Though there is no easy and quick solution to the social reflection of cataclysmic economic changes in Haryana, at the same time, history cannot be left to the free play of market forces playing havoc with the cultural and social life of the innocent people.

[Prof. Manjit Singh, Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Panjab University, Chandigarh]

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Decision to recognize Komagata Maru heroes as freedom fighters too late

Gurpreet Singh writes from Vancouver

THE India government’s decision to recognize the Komagata Maru heroes as freedom fighters is too late. The Indian government is learnt to have agreed to recognize them as participants of the freedom struggle following sustained efforts of the Punjab government and petitioning by a senior lawyer and historian, Prof. Malwinder Jit Singh Waraich.

Until now the Indian government was reluctant to recognize them as freedom fighters and maintained that they had traveled to Canada for economic reasons. The Japanese vessel with 376 passengers aboard – mostly Sikhs from Punjab had arrived at the Vancouver harbour on May 23, 1914. It was turned away after two months by the Canadian government that accused the ship passengers of violating the then racist continuous journey law, which was enacted to dissuade the Indians seeking immigration to Canada and keep the country white.

The ship was charted and brought by Baba Gurdit Singh, a hero of the freedom struggle. By bringing immigrants to Vancouver he had challenged the law which the Canada government has now acknowledged was discriminatory. The Komagata Maru passengers had come to Canada as British subjects in the hope of a better future, but the Canadian response had belied all claims of fairness and equality under the British rule. His action was therefore a symbol of resistance against an Empire that ruled not only India but had a control over Canada.

Ironically, the India ’s bureaucracy that is enjoying the fruits of the freedom was not willing to recognize this act of revolt as part of the struggle that earned India liberty in 1947. Their attitude can be better understood by a message written along side the brick that was thrown by the Komagata Maru passengers on the Canadian police and currently preserved by the Museum of Vancouver . The message opens with a question; What can a brick tell us about history? The answer below is- It all depends on who’s telling the story. The visitors can read three different quotes, one from the museum conservator and one from a newspaper report, while the last one from a Sikh historian. The quote from the news report sounds more like an official line. It reads, “This brick was hurled by Hindus at our brave officials in the most bitterly waged assault to which the Canadian immigration laws have been subjected’’. Perhaps, the Indian officials too were also at loss to understand the historical significance of the incident that became a turning point for the revolutionaries and looked at the whole issue from an administrative point of view. It’s the Indian establishment which is at fault and a few clerks or the administrators cannot be blamed for mishandling the issue. Some other episodes related to the India ’s freedom struggle are awaiting similar recognitions.

The Komagata Maru affair may have transformed most passengers into rebels. The historical research suggests that this event had ignited the passions of the followers of the Gadar Party, a group that believed in an armed struggle against the foreign occupation of India and had its headquarters in California in USA . The shootout by the British police on the passengers that left a dozen people dead at Budge Budge in Bengal when the ship retuned to India had added insult to the injury. It’s a shame that while the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper has apologized for the Komagata Maru incident last year, the Indian government has been sleeping over the matter despite the departure of the British 62 years ago.

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