Global warming, sea level rise, ageing flood defence systems: Why European countries have been flooded

 

While rain this time of year isn’t unusual, it’s the intensity of the downpour that has set off alarm bells among experts. They suggest a combination of factors has led to the deluge in the countries. Here is a look.

Heavy rains have hit France, England, Netherlands and Germany for more than two weeks, causing rivers to burst their banks in many areas, flooding homes and prompting evacuations.

While rain this time of year in these regions isn’t unusual, it’s the intensity of the downpour that has set off alarm bells among experts. They suggest a combination of factors, including global warming, rising sea levels, and ageing flood defence systems have led to the deluge in the countries.

Here is a look at the situation.

What is happening?

In France, the northern region has been the worst affected as 189 municipalities of the Pas de Calais department witnessed flooding. Till January 4, at least 1,299 homes had been damaged and a total of 371 people had been evacuated by the local authorities.

Widespread deluge has impacted central England — in Nottinghamshire County, officials declared a “major incident” due to flooding along the Trent River last week. In London, a landslide and flood waters disrupted train travel and around 50 people had to be evacuated because of rising water in the eastern part of the city. The flooding has come just days after the country’s large areas were battered by Storm Henk.

Meanwhile, in Germany, officials declared emergencies in several regions as high-running rivers flooded villages and farmland. In the Netherlands, flood plains were inundated and residents in some towns around the Ijsselmeer inland sea near Amsterdam used sandbags to protect their homes, according to a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Why is it happening?

There are three factors at play here: rising global temperature, sea level rise, and outdated flood defence systems. Let’s look at each of them.

First, global warming. Scientists have known that as the planet gets warmer, there will be more frequent extreme rainfall. With higher temperatures, there is more evaporation from land, oceans and water bodies, which means a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture — experts suggest for every 1 degree Celsius rise in average temperature, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture. This makes storms more dangerous as it leads to an increase in precipitation intensity, duration and/or frequency, which ultimately can cause severe flooding.

El Nino — a weather pattern that refers to an abnormal warming of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean — also partly contributed to increasing the temperatures of oceans, causing more evaporation and ultimately, more rain.

The second factor is sea level rise due to which rivers frequently breach their banks to flood the adjacent areas. Take the example of northern France, where rising sea levels likely led to the recent deluge — between 1966 and 2018, sea levels at Pas de Calais rose by 4.4 cm, according to a report by Euro News.

Lastly, ageing flood defence systems have exacerbated the situation. The Euro News report noted that the outdated water management systems of France failed to tackle the large volumes of water that had entered the affected regions. Authorities had to get water pumps from the Netherlands to combat flooding.

Moreover, people, both in France and England, have built infrastructure like roads and buildings on floodplains, restricting the natural routes the water would have taken to get drained into the floodplain soils. As a result, the water ends up flooding certain areas.

What happens next?

The situation is bound to get worse. Studies have shown that as the planet gets warmer, storms would get more intense, causing heavier rainfall. The frequency of extreme weather events like floods is also expected to go up.

Steve Turner, a hydrologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, in an interview on Friday told Science Media Centre: “Future projections suggest the UK overall may experience wetter winters as well as summers that are hotter and drier than at present but with periods of more intense rainfall. Continued human-induced climate warming in future is likely to result in further increases in peak river flows, which will cause more severe flooding and impacts on people, property and public services.”

Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve flood defences, early warning systems and resilience measures to tackle the fallout of heavy rain.

Written by Alind Chauhan

Source: The Indian Express, 9/01/24

Local to global

 Over the last four decades, I have taken part in countless academic seminars and literary festivals. The most recent took place last month, and was held in the southern hill town of Udhagamandalam, popularly known as Ooty. Billed as a “Conference for the Nilgiris in the Nilgiris”, it sought to envision a “bioculturally sustainable future” for this beautiful and vulnerable mountain district of Tamil Nadu. The speakers included the foremost social scientists and natural scientists who have worked in the region alongside citizen-activists, entrepreneurs, teachers, and tribal elders. In terms of diversity of participants and the quality of the presentations, this was one of the most enjoyable and educative seminars I have ever attended.

I have a personal connection to the Nilgiris. My father was born in Ooty and, as adults, my parents met and fell in love in that same town. However, I was myself born and raised at the other end of the subcontinent, in the foothills of the Garhwal Himalaya. It was in the interior hills of Garhwal that I did my first piece of sustained research. I actually first visited the Nilgiris only when I was forty. However, in the past quarter of a century, I have spent a great deal of time there, on shorter holidays with the family spread out over the years and in longer and more concentrated stretches during the coronavirus pandemic. The Nilgiris are one part of a great mountain chain known as the Western Ghats; Garhwal one part of an even greater mountain chain known as the Himalaya. Listening to the talks and conversations at this “NilgiriScapes” seminar, I thought I could discern some historical parallels between the hills I knew so well in my youth and the hills I am coming to know better in my old age. These parallels extend across the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods.

I do of course recognise the profound biocultural differences between the two regions. The inhabitants of the Nilgiris and Garhwal were — and are — dissimilar in terms of language, faith, culture, and cuisine. The landscapes of the two regions are very different in terms of their flora, fauna, soil types, and geological formations. Even so, in their modern ecological histories, there remain many similarities, as I shall now explain.

It was in the early 19th century that British colonialists first began to make their presence felt in both Garhwal and the Nilgiris. In each region when the foreigners came, they found four major forms of livelihood being practised by the hill communities — hunting and gathering, pastoralism, agriculture, and craft production. Both regions were largely self-sufficient economically, though not wholly so: the people of the Nilgiris trading with the plains of Kongu Nadu below, the people of Garhwal trading both with the Indo-Gangetic plains and across the high Himalaya with Tibet.

In both the Nilgiris and Garhwal, the local communities had a deep and organic connection with the natural world. They had learned to live and reproduce themselves within the boundaries set by nature. Indigenous knowledge about plants, soils, and climatic conditions was highly developed and embodied in their livelihood practices. At the same time, the worship of specific plants, rocks, and water bodies, and the setting aside of areas of untouched forests as sacred groves, reflected the profound humility towards nature displayed by these premodern communities.

The advent of the British raj marked a radical disruption in both these regions. At the level of ecology, there was a profound transformation in the landscape — which took the form of tea estates in the Nilgiris and of commercial forestry in the Himalaya. The planting and harvesting of tea in the one place and the planting and harvesting of pine in the other led to a major loss in biodiversity and environmental stability. At the level of society, both regions witnessed an influx of outsiders — labourers, officials, teachers, soldiers, pleasure-seekers, and others — as well as a steadily increasing stream of out-migration, as hill folk sought employment in the factories, homes, and offices in the plains. With the raj also came the creation of urban centres and ‘hill stations‘ such as Ooty and Mussoorie.

After Independence in 1947, the social and ecological reshaping of these regions further accelerated. The rivers of the hills were dammed for power, inundating forests and grasslands. With the expansion of the network of motorable roads, the flow of people and commodities in and out of the hills greatly intensified. The ‘development’ programmes of the postcolonial State brought in tens of thousands of government employees with their families. The expansion of the Indian middle class led to an exponential surge in tourism from the plains to the hills. These tourists brought with them opportunities for local employment and income generation, but also drunkenness, brawls, traffic jams and, not least, tonnes of non-biodegradable waste, which they carelessly threw along roadsides and into rivers and forests too.

By the 1970s, the ecological and social crises caused by deforestation in Garhwal was acute enough to have given birth to the Chipko movement. By the 1980s, the Nilgiris had its first citizens’ groups mobilising people for action. These initiatives were timely, for the ecological integrity of both Garhwal and the Nilgiris was threatened from a variety of directions — deforestation, soil erosion, toxic wastes, the invasion of exotic weeds and of too many tourists. In the years that followed, an unequal battle has been waged between those working for a sustainable future for their hills and those seeking to undermine it.

The challenge of climate change has of course made these questions even more urgent. It strikes me here that in three respects the southern hills of my old age are more fortunate than the northern hills of my youth. The first reason is ecological; because the rivers of the Garhwal Himalaya are snow-fed and descend from greater heights, they are far more likely to attract costly and destructive hydro-electric projects. There are indeed a few hydel projects in the Nilgiris, but these have not caused remotely the sort of damage that the large and apparently ever-growing network of dams in the Himalaya has done.

The second source of good luck for the Nilgiris is geostrategic. Thus, while these southern hills can be approached from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, these are all states of the Indian Union. On the other hand, Garhwal borders Tibet, and the fragile relations between India and China have necessitated the building of wide roads and the conveying of large numbers of troops, with negative spill-over effects for nature and for society.

The third piece of good fortune is religious in origin. While the Nilgiris are home to many small and locally venerated temples, shrines, mosques, and churches, none of these attracts visitors from outside the district. On the other hand, Garhwal is home to four of the holiest and most visited temples in India, the so-called Char Dham, namely, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Jamnotri. So long as pilgrimage to these places was conducted on foot and by horse-back this was no problem; but now that religious tourism has expanded by leaps and bounds, and apparently requires the building of four-lane highways to accommodate it, the ecological and social threats it poses are immense.

I have deep personal attachments to Garhwal and to the Nilgiris. I would therefore wish for a ‘bioculturally sustainable future’ for both these hill regions. Yet, on the available evidence, it seems that the prospects for such a future for Garhwal are close to non-existent. To safeguard and renew the socio-ecological integrity of the Nilgiris will no doubt be an arduous and uphill battle, but at least it can be imbued with a measure of hope and possibility. A fruitful collaboration among citizens, scientists, socially-conscious entrepreneurs and public-spirited government officials can yet put in place strategies for restoring the sholas and the forests, for de-chemicalising plantation agriculture, for making tourism more socially inclusive and less resource-intensive, for cleaning and reviving water bodies.

This column is being published on the weekend of the grand G20 summit held in Delhi, when leaders of the most populous, prosperous and powerful nations will meet to discuss the state of the world, accompanied by their boosters and cheerleaders in the media. No doubt some high-minded and piously-worded declarations will be issued at the end of the meeting. But whether this G20 meeting will materially improve the prospects of life on earth is entirely unlikely. For while thinking globally is all very well, acting locally — in the spirit of the NilgiriScapes conference held in Ooty last month — may be even more important for the future of humanity and of nature as well.

Ramachandra Guha

Source: The Telegraph, 9/09/23

International Day of Zero Wastes

 Every year on March 30, people around the world celebrate the International Day of Zero Waste, a day designated by the United Nations General Assembly to promote reducing waste and sustainable consumption and production patterns. This day promotes the creation of a more sustainable and waste-free world.

History of the International Day of Zero Waste

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution on December 14, 2022, designating March 30 as the International Day of Zero Waste. The proposal was co-sponsored by Turkey and 105 other countries and is part of a series of resolutions dealing with waste. It aims to achieve all the objectives and targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by promoting zero-waste initiatives.

Theme of the International Day of Zero Waste 2023

The theme of the International Day of Zero Waste in 2023 is “Achieving sustainable and environmentally sound practices of minimizing and managing waste.” This theme emphasizes the importance of promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns to reduce the negative impact of waste on the environment.

Impact of Waste on the Environment

According to the UN data, around 2.24 billion tons of municipal solid waste are produced each year. Only 55% of them is being disposed of in managed facilities. Also, an estimated 931 million tons of food are either lost or wasted every year, and approximately 14 million tons of plastic waste enters aquatic ecosystems each year. These numbers highlight the adverse consequences of waste on the environment, including landfills, pollution, and resource depletion.

Promoting Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns

The International Day of Zero Waste seeks to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns by encouraging individuals, communities, and organizations to adopt practices that minimize waste, reuse and recycle materials, and reduce the amount of waste generated. Initiatives like clean-up campaigns, recycling drives, educational programs, and advocacy campaigns are being conducted on this occasion to enable community mobilization towards a more sustainable and waste-free world.

Sustainable Development Goals Promoted by the International Day of Zero Waste

The International Day of Zero Waste promotes SDGs 11 and 12, which aim to make cities and communities more sustainable and promote responsible consumption and production. These goals align with the broader agenda of the United Nations to promote sustainable development and address the challenges posed by climate change, environmental degradation, and poverty.

Observance of the International Day of Zero Waste

International Day of Zero Waste is jointly overseen by the UN-Habitat and the UNEP. Member countries, UN organizations, civil societies, private entities, academia, youth and other stakeholders are encouraged to participate in activities that create awareness of of national, subnational, regional, and local zero-waste initiatives and their role in enabling a sustainable development.

Source: https://www.gktoday.in/topic/international-day-of-zero-wastes/

India’s green power

 In the next decade or so, India hopes to gradually replace hydrogen produced from fossil fuels with purer green hydrogen in two major sectors: petroleum refining and fertiliser production

The Union cabinet approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with the aim of making India a global hub in the production of green hydrogen. Many industry experts argue that the timing of the cabinet approval indicates two things. First, the government is aware of this grand mission’s financial implications and has a kitty of Rs 19,744 crore to fund the initiative. Second, India, being one of the five countries putting its money on the table for green hydrogen, knows that there is no fixed template for incentives in this domain and that establishing a clean energy source hub is a tough task. 

India is aiming for a big push. The target is to produce at least five million metric tonnes of green hydrogen per annum by 2030, with the potential to reach 10 MMT per annum that could cater to the export market. In the next decade or so, India hopes to gradually replace hydrogen produced from fossil fuels with purer green hydrogen in two major sectors: petroleum refining and fertiliser production. The mission would also help India cut down approximately 50 MMT of annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This is in sync with India’s commitment towards the legally binding Paris Agreement of 2015. Employment generation and development of cutting-edge technologies can be accrued benefits once electrolysers, essential for the green hydrogen transition programme, are manufactured in the country.

Two conditions must be met for the green hydrogen mission to take off. There must be optimum demand for green hydrogen by making user industries transition to the cleaner fuel with obligations. Feasible subsidies must be granted to end users to attain parity with grey hydrogen obtained from natural gas and potentially nullify India’s import of liquefied natural gas. This would, in turn, create a consistent demand for green hydrogen and catalyse production of the fuel to incentivise the green ecosystem. The solar power industry, too, would benefit from green hydrogen since solar power requires renewable energy.

However, the success of the mission would depend on the execution of projects by the companies that are its stakeholders. Private sector giants, public sector navratnas as well as renewable energy majors have made ambitious announcements pertaining to the sector. For India’s green hydrogen mission to fructify, it would need plenty of business development activity and compliance with international regulatory norms. The real challenge would be to harmonise standards and certification systems for green hydrogen globally. While this will be a challenge for countries all over the world, India could play a pivotal role in facilitating it given its G20 presidency with a prerogative to champion the Global South.

The cabinet approval for the National Green Hydrogen Mission sends a positive signal to the private and global investing fraternity. Above all, it will give a much-needed impetus to the states to commence their own actions aligned with the principle of decarbonisation. If synchronised and executed properly, it would help India meet its long-term energy needs.

Chiranjib Haldar

Source: The Telegraph, 6/03/23

The threat from microplastics

 According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there has been a significant increase in these particles in the surface waters of the sea in the last four decades. Some recent studies have also confirmed that plastic particles are finding their way into the human bloodstream and airways.

The use of plastic in every house had started from the 1950s itself, in everyday things like toothpaste, cosmetics and laundry detergent, all of which contain small particles of plastic. Along with sewage, they reach the river drains and this river- processed water reaches our home taps along with microplastics.

Besides polluting the environment, these microplastics could also lead to the danger of extinction of some species. Evidence has been found that even small particles or pieces of plastic can be very harmful to human health; bigger particles are even more harmful. This can cause serious complications in people with lung disease.

The plastics going into the sea decompose to become microplastics. These are particles whose diameter is less than 5 mm. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there has been a significant increase in these particles in the surface waters of the sea in the last four decades. Some recent studies have also confirmed that plastic particles are finding their way into the human bloodstream and airways.

Millions of tons of plastic are produced every year and they spread in the environment in tiny particles. At present, many studies are on to show how dangerous small particles of plastic can prove for human health. It is believed that these fine particles can remain in the lungs for a long time. They can cause inflammation in the lungs and damage the immune system. They are also carcinogenic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems.

Experts have said in a study that the things used daily fill the blood and lungs with microplastics. The researchers identified 12 types of plastic, including polypropylene, polyethylene, terephthalate, and resin. These plastics are commonly found in packaging, bottles, clothing, rope and twine. The most dangerous sources of microplastics include city dust, textiles and even tyres.

Many foods and beverages are also filling the body with microplastics. These include bottled water, salt, seafood, teabags, ready meals and canned food. It is believed that plastic particles can damage lung tissue in the long run, leading to cancer, asthma, heart attack and other health problems.

A new study has raised serious questions about its effects on human health. According to ‘Plos One Journal’, microplastics can travel through blood vessels to vascular tissue. However, scientists have not been able to determine the severity of the health effects. The University of Hull and Hull York Medical School team analysed the study by examining vein tissue from a patient undergoing heart bypass surgery. During this, 15 microplastic particles per gram and five different types of polymers were found in the vein tissue. The researchers found that all these particles were ‘alkyd resin’ (a substance found in synthetic paints) as well as ‘polyvinyl acetate’ (an adhesive in nylon) and ‘EVOS’ (a substance found in packaging materials).

The test found that the level of microplastics was higher than in lung tissue. In fact, the discovery of microplastics in the blood has been explained, but it is now known that these particles can seep into the veins, and it was not clear that they could cross the veins into vascular tissue. A recent study published in ‘Science of the Total Environment’ found microplastics present in all parts of the lungs, including the lower lungs. Coughing, shortness of breath and reduced lung capacity have been observed in textile workers due to microplastic particles released from polyester and nylon fibers, a study has revealed.

Research published in 2019 by the environmental charity ‘WWAF International’ said that there is so much plastic pollution in our environment that humans are ingesting about five grams of plastic every week, which is equivalent to eating a credit card every week. The research highlighted different areas of study being pursued by scientists. They are detecting microplastics in some human organs, including the lungs, spleen, kidneys and even the uterus. , and microfibres in synthetic clothing are being inhaled.

Another study in March confirmed the first traces of PET in blood, with some scientists calling the findings “premature” given the investigators’ small sample size. But there are concerns that if plastic is in the bloodstream, it can reach all organs. A Dutch study published in the ‘Environment International Journal’ in March last year found microplastics in 80 per cent of blood samples from 22 people. After the study, scientists warned that this material could soon enter human organs. Its presence in humans can slow down the metabolic process of cells. These fine plastic particles can increase antibiotic resistance in bacteria by up to 30 times.

Everyday plastic is releasing billions of microscopic particles into the water. In 2021, researchers found microplastics in the umbilical cord of an unborn child. Great concern was then expressed over its potential consequences for fetal development. In such a situation, where scientists have identified the presence of microplastics in the body, it can be assumed that humans have been eating, drinking or breathing small particles of plastic for years. Although health studies on humans are not yet developed, toxicity in some animals reinforces concerns.

Rishabh Mishra

Source: The Statesman, 22/02/23

Double trouble

 From dams to expressways to coal-fired power plants, India’s biodiversity is being battered by the development juggernaut

There’s a new trend in the world of conservation. On the one hand, countries in the Global South are advancing their development agenda with a massive thrust towards building infrastructure. On the other, they are tightening their grip on biodiversity in line with the goals set by the Conference of Parties last year. Both approaches bulldoze local communities that have always conserved forests.

In India, the paradox of development and conservation is quietly unfolding around forests. Call it a double whammy: communities get evicted both by development and conservation. Neither approach sees locals as integral to the landscape. For instance, the country went into a collective ecstasy when cheetahs were reintroduced in the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Few cared about the eviction of tribals. This is not all; around the same area, several infrastructure projects have been unleashed to showcase development.

Kuno is but one example. The disregard for taking communities along is stark. Otherwise, how is it that there isn’t one example of locals being roped in for conservation? Take a look at every major protected area, you’ll find both notions going hand in hand, much to the detriment of communities, with the brunt being borne largely by scheduled tribes who live amidst some of the pristine forests.

From dams to expressways to coal-fired power plants, India’s biodiversity is being battered by the development juggernaut. The same goes for mindless conservation projects that do not factor in the locals inhabiting the ecosystem. The latest strategy adopted by the different states and the Centre is to carve out smaller conservation and community reserves instead of creating big national parks or sanctuaries. The former evokes less opposition and also allows authorities to push for infrastructure projects if needed in those very landscapes they aspire to conserve.

The protected area database (http://www.wiienvis. nic.in/Database/Protected_ Area_854.aspx), throws up a startling development: India hasn’t really seen an increase in sanctuaries and national parks in the last few years. But there’s a burst of small community and conservation reserves — terms denoting protected areas acting as buffer zones or connectors and migration corridors between established national parks or sanctuaries. These categories were first introduced in the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2002 “because of reduced protection in and around existing or proposed protected areas due to private ownership of land, and land use”. Why this sudden tweak in strategy?

One plausible reason could be that India is wedded to the ambitious spatial targets set by CoP to place nearly 30 per cent of the world’s land and water under formal protection by 2030. This will be seen as a gauge to measure success, never mind the disregard for human rights. Where can you seek to expand the forests or biodiversity? Obviously where protected forests still exist.

An overwhelmingly large population lives within and near protected areas in the Global South, including India. They invest in and contribute to the economy of the commons equally. Most of these are indigenous people using forest resources for livelihood and sustenance. The double whammy of infrastructure projects and expansion of protected areas to meet spatial conservation targets don’t augur well for them. In the long run, it hurts conservation goals too because they pitch the two against each other. That’s one reason why locals went on a rampage near the Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh after a tiger attacked and killed a human.

It is high time India reviewed its myopic approach and roped local communities into conservation of protected areas to avert a million potential conflicts

Jaideep Hardikar

Source: The Telegraph, 16/12/22

Why fusion could be a clean-energy breakthrough

 

Using powerful lasers to focus enormous energy on a miniature capsule half the size of a BB, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California started a reaction that produced about 1.5 times more energy than was contained in the light used to produce it.

The major advance in fusion research announced in Washington on Tuesday was decades in coming, with scientists for the first time able to engineer a reaction that produced more power than was used to ignite it.

Using powerful lasers to focus enormous energy on a miniature capsule half the size of a BB, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California started a reaction that produced about 1.5 times more energy than was contained in the light used to produce it. There are decades more to wait before fusion could one day — maybe — be used to produce electricity in the real world. But the promise of fusion is enticing. If harnessed, it could produce nearly limitless, carbon-free energy to supply humanity’s electricity needs without raising global temperatures and worsening climate change.

At the press conference in Washington, the scientists celebrated. “So, this is pretty cool,” said Marvin “Marv” Adams, the National Nuclear Security Administration deputy administrator for defense programs.

“Fusion fuel in the capsule got squeezed, fusion reactions started. This had all happened before – 100 times before – but last week for the first time they designed this experiment so that the fusion fuel stayed hot enough, dense enough and round enough for long enough that it ignited,” said Adams. “And it produced more energy than the lasers had deposited.”Here’s a look at exactly what nuclear fusion is, and some of the difficulties in turning it into the cheap and carbon-free energy source that scientists hope it can be.

What is nuclear fusion?

Look up, and it’s happening right above you — nuclear fusion reactions power the sun and other stars.The reaction happens when two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus. Because the total mass of that single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei, the leftover mass is energy that is released in the process, according to the Department of Energy.In the case of the sun, its intense heat — millions of degrees Celsius — and the pressure exerted by its gravity allow atoms that would otherwise repel each other to fuse.

 Scientists have long understood how nuclear fusion has worked and have been trying to duplicate the process on Earth as far back as the 1930s. Current efforts focus on fusing a pair of hydrogen isotopes — deuterium and tritium — according to the Department of Energy, which says that particular combination releases “much more energy than most fusion reactions” and requires less heat to do so.

How valuable could this be?

Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy and society at the University of California at Berkeley, said nuclear fusion offers the possibility of “basically unlimited” fuel if the technology can be made commercially viable. The elements needed are available in seawater.It’s also a process that doesn’t produce the radioactive waste of nuclear fission, Kammen said. Crossing the line of net energy gain marks a major achievement, said Carolyn Kuranz, a University of Michigan professor and experimental plasma physicist.“Of course, now people are thinking, well, how do we go to 10 times more or 100 times more? There’s always some next step,” Kuranz said. “But I think that’s a clear line of, yes, we have achieved ignition in the laboratory.”

How are scientists trying to do this?

One way scientists have tried to recreate nuclear fusion involves what’s called a tokamak — a doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber that uses powerful magnets to turn fuel into a superheated plasma (between 150 million and 300 million degrees Celsius) where fusion may occur.The Livermore lab uses a different technique, with researchers firing a 192-beam laser at a small capsule filled with deuterium-tritium fuel. The lab reported that an August 2021 test produced 1.35 megajoules of fusion energy — about 70% of the energy fired at the target. The lab said several subsequent experiments showed declining results, but researchers believed they had identified ways to improve the quality of the fuel capsule and the lasers’ symmetry.

Why is fusion so hard?

It takes more than extreme heat and pressure. It also takes precision. The energy from the lasers must be applied precisely to counteract the outward force of the fusion fuel, according to Stephanie Diem, an engineering physics professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. And that’s just to prove net energy gain is possible. It’s even harder to produce electricity in a power plant. For example, the lab’s lasers can only fire a few times a day. To viably produce energy, they would need to fire rapidly and capsules would need to be inserted multiple times a minute, or even faster, Kuranz said.Another challenge is to increase efficiency, said Jeremy Chittenden, a professor at Imperial College in London specializing in plasma physics. The lasers used at Livermore require a lot of electrical energy, and researchers need to figure out a way to reproduce their results in a much more cost-effective way, he said.

Source: Indian Express, 15/12/22

E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022

 The Indian Government issued notification on E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, which will come to effect from next financial year.

What is E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022?

• The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022 was published by the Ministry of Environment, forest and climate change on November 2, 2022.
• The new rules will come to effect from April 1, 2023.
• They will apply to all businesses and individuals involved in manufacturing, sales, transfer, purchase, refurbishing, dismantling, recycling and processing of e-waste or electrical and electronic equipment.
• Under the new rules, the number of items that have been categorized as e-waste has been increased from 21 to 106.
• It includes all electrical devices and radiotherapy equipment, nuclear medicine equipment and accessories, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), electric toys, air conditioners, microwaves, tablets, washing machine, refrigerator, iPad and others.
• This includes electronic components, consumables, parts and spares that make the electronic products operational.
• The new rules are not applicable for waste batteries, which are covered under the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022.
• It is also not applicable for packaging plastics, which are covered under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
• It also does not apply for micro enterprises and radio-active wastes, which are covered under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 and Atomic Energy Act, 1962 respectively.

What are the key features of the rules?

• The rules restrict the use of hazardous substances for manufacturing electrical and electronic equipment. This comes in response to the deaths caused by exposure to radioactive materials.
• Manufacturers of electronic equipment are mandated to reduce the use of lead, mercury, cadmium and other others that can harm human health and environment.
• These materials can adversely affect brain, heart, liver, kidneys and skeletal system. It also causes harmful effects on neurological and reproductive systems.
• Under the new rules, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will conduct random sampling of electrical and electronic equipment placed in the market to monitor and verify compliance of reduced use of hazardous substances.
• Manufacturers are required to use technologies and methods that make the end product recyclable. They are also required to ensure the compatibility of components or parts developed by different manufacturers. This will minimise the generation of e-wastes.
• Imports or sales of new electrical and electronic equipment are allowed only if they comply with the government regulations. If the product does not comply with the rules, the manufacturer must withdraw all samples from the market.
• It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to collect e-wastes generated during the manufacturing process and ensure that they are recycled or disposed as per the rules.

What is the Mangrove Alliance for Climate, which India joined at COP27?

 

The Mangrove Alliance for Climate seeks to educate and spread awareness worldwide on the role of mangroves in curbing global warming and its potential as a solution for climate change.

At the 27th Session of Conference of Parties (COP27), this year’s UN climate summit, the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC) was launched with India as a partner on Tuesday (November 8). The move, in line with India’s goal to increase its carbon sink, will see New Delhi collaborating with Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other countries to preserve and restore the mangrove forests in the region.

Attending the event in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on Tuesday, Union Minister for Environment Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav said that India is home to one of the largest remaining areas of mangroves in the world — the Sundarbans — and has years of expertise in restoration of mangrove cover that can be used to aid global measures in this direction.

The MAC

An initiative led by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indonesia, the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC) includes India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Japan, and Spain. It seeks to educate and spread awareness worldwide on the role of mangroves in curbing global warming and its potential as a solution for climate change.

Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, UAE’s Minister of Climate Change and the Environment, while launching the alliance, said that her country intends to plant 3 million mangroves in the next two months, in keeping with UAE’s COP26 pledge of planting 100 million mangroves by 2030.

“Increasing reliance on nature-based solutions is an integral element of the UAE’s climate action on the domestic as well as international level, therefore, we seek to expand our mangrove cover,” she said, as per a report in Dubai-based news channel Al Arabiya. “We are pleased to launch MAC jointly with Indonesia, and believe it will go a long way in driving collective climate action and rehabilitating blue carbon ecosystems,” she added.

However, the intergovernmental alliance works on a voluntary basis which means that there are no real checks and balances to hold members accountable. Instead, the parties will decide their own commitments and deadlines regarding planting and restoring mangroves. The members will also share expertise and support each other in researching, managing and protecting coastal areas.

The significance of mangroves

Mangroves have been the focus of conservationists for years and it is difficult to overstate their importance in the global climate context. Mangrove forests — consisting of trees and shrub that
live in intertidal water in coastal areas — host diverse marine life. They also support a rich food web, with molluscs and algae-filled substrate acting as a breeding ground for small fish, mud crabs and shrimps, thus providing a livelihood to local artisanal fishers.

Equally importantly, they act as effective carbon stores, holding up to four times the amount of carbon as other forested ecosystems. Mangrove forests capture vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and their preservation can both aid in removal of carbon from the atmosphere and prevent the release of the same upon their destruction.

The current state of the mangroves

South Asia houses some of the most extensive areas of mangroves globally, while Indonesia hosts one-fifth of the overall amount. India holds around 3 percent of South Asia’s mangrove population. Besides the Sundarbans in West Bengal, the Andamans region, the Kachchh and Jamnagar areas in Gujarat too have substantial mangrove cover.

However, infrastructure projects — industrial expansion and building of roads and railways, and natural processes — shifting coastlines, coastal erosion and storms, have resulted in a significant decrease in mangrove habitats.

Between 2010 and 2020, around 600 sq km of mangroves were lost of which more than 62% was due to direct human impacts, the Global Mangrove Alliance said in its 2022 report.

ndia at COP

Unlike other world leaders — US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has skipped this edition of the conference, with Union Minister Bhupender Yadav representing India instead. Yadav has said that India’s focus currently is on concessional and climate-specific grants to drive climate finance, and has teamed up with Brazil, South Africa and China (the BASIC bloc) to negotiate agreements.

Demands by various negotiating blocs

As seen in the previous sessions of the climate conference, building consensus among the 190+ countries who are members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a tough task. China, for instance, has ramped up the use of coal amidst energy security risks and rising tensions with Taiwan. Its deteriorating relationship with the US, the second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gas behind Beijing, has further complicated possibilities of negotiations. The European Union, which negotiates as a single entity for its 27 members, is at the lower end of the spectrum of gas emitters, but is under pressure to ease its resistance to its staunch position

against the issue of ‘loss and damage’, which calls for rich and developed countries to compensate poorer, developing countries who are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change. 

G77 and China is the largest intergovernmental organisation of developing countries in the UN. Pakistan, which currently chairs the group and faced devastating floods this year, will lead the group in its demand for a dedicated fund for compensation from wealthy countries, Reuters reported. The Climate Vulnerable Forum, which represents 58 countries that are disproportionately affected by the consequences of climate change such as Bangladesh and Maldives, reportedly demands a dedicated fund in which rich polluting nations help bear the costs of “loss and damage”.

Written by Navmi Krishna

Source: Indian Express, 11/09/22

What an Oxfam report says about carbon emissions of the world’s richest people

 

The report said that on average, billionaires are responsible for emitting “3 million tonnes” of carbon a year, which is “more than a million times the average for someone in the bottom 90% of humanity.” Here is how it reached its conclusions.

An Oxfam report titled, Carbon Billionaires: The investment emissions of the world’s richest people, has said the world’s richest people emit “unsustainable amounts of carbon,” as compared with an ordinary person. 

This report is based on the fact that every human on Earth has a carbon footprint, which can be divided into “personal consumption emissions, emissions through government spending and emissions linked to investments.”

What does the Oxfam report say?

An analysis of the investments of 125 of the world’s richest billionaires was conducted by Oxfam International, and the report was published this November. It demonstrated that on average, billionaires are responsible for emitting “3 million tonnes” of carbon a year, which is, “more than a million times the average for someone in the bottom 90% of humanity.” 

It further found out that the 125 billionaires taken as a sample fund about 393 million tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per year. This is equivalent to the “annual carbon emissions of France,” which is a nation of 67 million people. 

In comparison, it said, “it would take 1.8 million cows to emit the same levels of CO2e as each of the 125 billionaires,” and “almost four million people would have to go vegan to offset the emissions of each of the billionaires.”

How was the research conducted?

Oxfam listed the 220 richest people in the world, based on Bloomberg Billionaire List (August 2022), and obtained emissions data from data provider Exerica. It then identified the ownership of these billionaires in corporations and their emissions

Scope 1 emissions: These are a direct result of the company’s operations.

Scope 2 emissions: They constitute indirect emissions, for example, energy to operate machines.

Scope 3 emissions are other indirect emissions such as those resulting from a company’s supply chains. 

To focus on investments and sectors where billionaires have a massive influence, their final research database involved 183 corporates, with investments by 125 billionaires worth $2.4 trillion. They utilised the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which “provides the world’s most widely used GHG accounting standards”, to calculate the carbon footprint of these companies. 

Why does the report matter?

The report comes at a time when discussions to meet the globally agreed target of limiting the world’s temperature to below 1.5℃ is underway at COP 27 in Egypt and has significant implications for climate policymaking. It takes a critical look at the relationship between economic inequality and climate crisis.

The idea is that since billionaires hold significant wealth and stakes in globally recognised corporations, they hold the power to influence the ways in which those corporations behave. As people from low and middle-income backgrounds do not exercise much control over their energy choices, the report says it is imperative for world leaders to ensure that “those who emit the most carbon also do the most to reduce those emissions.”

One can also gauge the ways in which the conduct of investors in the global economy impacts our environment. The decisions made by the investors — whether to invest in corporations failing to reduce carbon emissions, or to fund fossil fuel and similar industries — can further determine the intensity of future emissions. 

What are billionaires’ ‘personal consumption emissions’?

Apart from investments by billionaires, their personal consumption also adds up. For example, in 2018, emissions from the private yachts, planes, helicopters and mansions of 20 billionaires generated, on average, about 8,194 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂e). As evident in the billionaire space race, a single space flight can emit as much carbon dioxide as a normal person will in their lifetime, the report highlighted.

In 2021, research conducted by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute revealed: “The richest 1 per cent (around 63 million people) alone were responsible for 15 per cent of cumulative emissions and that they were emitting 35 times the level of CO₂e compatible with the 1.5°C by 2030 goal of the Paris Agreement.”

What can be done to curb their carbon footprint?

Corporations are failing to cut emissions and avert climate change, as per the report. To make the 2050 climate change plans of ‘net-zero’ total carbon emissions, they are heavily relying on using land in low-income countries to plant trees but the report points out some flaws in that plan. “In 2021 Oxfam revealed that using land alone to remove the world’s carbon emissions to achieve ‘net zero’ by 2050 would require at least 1.6bn hectares of new forests, an area equivalent to five times the size of India,” it said.

“At present,” the report states, “no state in the world compels corporates to reduce their carbon footprints.” It is the responsibility of governments to create climate policies that work towards green transition, mainly, through the regulation of corporate investments in highly polluting industries. 

They should aim to set strong and binding science-based GHG reduction targets and demand greater transparency. Governments should also include workers’ rights, protection of their livelihoods and that of marginalised communities who are adversely affected by climate change in policy decisions.

Most importantly, the report suggests that a wealth tax on the richest could aid the urgent climate finance needs of developing countries and “raise hundreds of billions of dollars to help and protect those already suffering the impacts of catastrophic climate change.”

Written by Ariba

Source: Indian Express, 8/11/22

Role of technology in conservation

 When we hear the word “conservation”, which professions comes to mind? If you answered ecologists and biologists, you are correct. However, what if we added engineers, data scientists and statisticians? Unlikely as it may seem, they all play a vital part in a multifaceted approach toward the mission of wildlife and landscape conservation.

These specialised roles allow conservation efforts to leverage the power of modern technology. With these, monitoring natural areas, making real-time observations, and managing field operations are possible. The result? We gain new, better and predictive insights into the health of an ecosystem

Improved understanding

One key factor in implementing a conservation solution through technology is understanding the “Where” of it. Our ecosystems are grounded in the fabric of geography, and one solution combining all of these roles is using the power of geospatial technology. This uses location information to create, manage, and analyse all types of data. It connects data to a place and provides a better foundation for understanding patterns, relationships and geographic relevance. This, in turn, improves our understanding of the complex threats, opportunities and challenges facing our natural world.

With the ongoing efforts for conservation, we can benefit from this technology as it the most basic process of gaining insights into the health of a landscape, using aerial imagery. Satellites or low-flying UAVs help gather information about the area’s physical characteristics. This process is known as remote sensing and is used widely in conservation efforts to access areas where physical contact is impossible. These images combined with location information for a place give us geospatial data, which help significantly widen conservation efforts' reach.

Forest fires have unfortunately become increasingly frequent in recent years. Satellites use a visible, infrared instrument onboard NASA’s and NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) to detect locations of fire incidents in near real-time. Combing this location information with areal images allows us to compute how much forestland has been damaged by fire incidents. Gauging the location of these incidents also helps establish the cause of such occurrences and helps establish if it was natural or man-made. This is geospatial technology at work!

Field observations

While satellite technology is very much an “Eye in the Sky”, it is always supported by technology on the ground through field observations. Today most ecologists use the power of the web and mobile devices like smartphones and tabs to collect ground information and update an interconnected database using the power of the internet. The GPS of a mobile device allows the ecologists to enrich their observations and have them stored in a centralised database allowing their teams to access the information as soon as it is collected. Integrating this helps managers plan their strategies better and coordinate their field workforce in real-time.

Environmentalists now enhance their on-ground observations with technologies such as camera traps and acoustic monitoring devices. These help measure wildlife activity and understand their connectivity, distribution and relationship with local and global biodiversity, immensely adding to the knowledge body.

Advancements in computing and remote technologies have provided conservation professionals with the tools to reveal insights with optimised software, algorithms, applications and scientific workflows. Indeed, conservation efforts today are data-driven, and these technologies allow us to augment and enrich our understanding of the interdependent factors that lead to a healthy ecosystem.

Are you excited by technology, yet love Nature enough to work actively in shaping a better environment? The conservation world needs youth who will constantly propel technological innovation, keeping their role in making conservation data science better and more meaningful. This sector invites youth from all backgrounds in ecology, engineering, data science, mathematics and statistics. As budding professionals, we must consider using our skillset to contribute to humanity’s efforts toward conservation.

The writer is the Director, IGCMC (Remote Sensing and GIS) and Coordinator- ENVIS (MoEF and CC)

Areendran Gopala

Source: The Hindu, 25/06/22