underwater governance

Yes, I know I'm late talking about this. But I still want to do a post about it to highlight the significance of COP15. As you may have already read, the Maldives government had a Cabinet meeting underwater to stress the consequence of global warming. As a low lying atoll, Maldives is especially at risk due to rising sea levels. Tourism and fishing are its main economies and it is deemed a developing nation.

The consensus of who should make cuts still has not been reached. Wealthy nations say that all nations should make emission cuts whilst poorer nations say that the wealthy ones should make cuts. This was the predominant argument even during the Kyoto negotiations. President Nasheed of Maldives had already announced plans for a fund to buy a new homeland for his people if the archipelago submerged. He has also announced plans to make the islands the world's first carbon neutral nation within a decade. With his ambitious plans, he certainly puts other richer nations to shame.

I'm not entirely convinced that COP15 is the answer to the current environmental problems we are facing. It is indeed an excellent effort and if a consensus is reached, will affect a small piece of the overall picture. What countries are failing to note is that environmental responsibility can be incorporated can fall within a country's own jurisdiction. What is stopping every country from taking a proactive step forward in ensuring a decent future for its citizens? Consensus reached in COP15 is not going to affect recycling programs within a country for instance. Focus on the relatively smaller matters add up to the big picture - this is not something an international treaty can mandate.

It is also unfair that rich countries are expecting poorer countries to sacrifice their own growth. It is especially unfair that most manufacturing of consumer goods used by people in richer countries are being manufactured in the third world. This imbalance of resource use needs to be addressed. Having enjoyed the environmentally expensive comforts thus far, richer countries should now lend a helping hand to the poorer nations to improve their infrastructure and manufacturing processes in an eco-friendly manner.

This is precisely what President Nasheed and many others want from the richer nations. A leg up, to compete fairly. The third world may be poor in economic terms but in terms of indigenous knowledge and natural resources, they are blessed. They are also plagued with mis-management, corruption and poverty -- all of which are hindrances to an environmentally viable future. It will the strength of COP15 if it recognizes that the fight is not between rich vs poor but a fight towards equalization. The time has come to do away with 'us' and 'them'.

350.org

With less than a hundered days to go before Copenhagen in December where climate treaties will be negotiated, it is time for peope to get involved. Climate change is not an issue to be discussed in the ivory towers of policy makers, it is a peoples' issue which is what 350.org wants to highlight. 350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. Their mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.

350ppm is the level that scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. Currently we are at 387ppm. 350 is more than a number--it is a symbol of where we need to head as a planet. On 24th October, there are mass rallies and other events in every corner of the globe organized by ordinary people in collaboration with 350.org in order to tell the world leaders what the planet needs.

This is a peoples' movement at its best and something I'm really looking forward to. You can get involved by donating or starting an action of your own or joining one that is already happening. The website has a list of already registered actions happening in very country.

daffodils in january

Daffodils are often the first signs of spring. The shoots poke their crisp green leaves through the snow and blossom into a startlingly delicate yellow bell. They usually bloom around Easter and are also called 'lent lilies'. Throughout the centuries the daffodil gained it's fame in many different countries and cultures. The daffodil is associated with renaissances coincidentally blooming around the time of Easter which is the celebration of rebirth, and the return of spring - the season of new beginnings.

My fascination with daffodils started when I was about ten years old and first read Wordsworth's 'Daffodils'. I found it amazing that a field of yellow flowers could inspire in a man such profound thought. The first time I actually saw them was years later in Scotland. I saw them in a florist’s and I recognised them immediately. They were incredibly beautiful, with a vivid yellow colour, which is, quiet impossible to take your eyes off. I imagined how Wordsworth would have felt when he saw a whole field of them. If a bunch of them in a florist’s, 200 years since then; could make me smile – then I could imagine what profound thought it would have inspired in a poet who saw a whole field in animated action.

Now of course weather patterns are not as predictable. The Easter lilies bloom as early as January in some places. This is frightening because it implies that our seasons are changing. The blooming of daffodils three months earlier isn't the only indication of weather changes. Autumns and winters are getting shorter which has implicated for global agriculture, ripening of fruits, flowers and natural methods of pest control. These changes also interfere with animal reproduction and behaviour. People noticing these changes are not just climatologists but those whose professions are intricately connected to the land - farmers, fisherman and hunters.

This 'global wierding' of weather is not something that is restricted to certain parts of the world. Within the Indian sub-continent, the monsoon patterns are changing. Global weather change is not a linear change but an exponential change where an increase in temperature affects not just hotter heat spells but also droughts, heavier snowfall, typhoons etc - weather phenomenon is an intricate balance that is finely calibrated and small changes makes impacts that we are not immediately aware of.

Simple creations like the daffodils, seemingly have no real purpose on earth except to beautify it. In spite of being so small and insignificant, it seems to me that they realize their purpose on this earth, in ways we never could…

why carbon sinks?

Everybody is talking about reduction of green house gases and carbon-cuts. What a lot of people don't realise is that even if carbon amounts in the atmosphere are reduced today, the effects of current levels of carbon already present is going to be felt for atleast 100 years - this is how long it takes for carbon to dissipate. In other words: even if we reduce carbon emissions now, the carbon already present can contribute to global warming.

This realization is the reason why there is a current scramble for carbon sequestration technologies. The idea behind this is to capture carbon and then bury it under the earth, in the sea-bed or to come up with a method where the conversion of carbon is accelerated.

Currently forests have been acting as a great 'carbon sink' whereby carbon is naturally captured. However due to global warming there have been speculations that forests could release huge quantities of carbon and create a situation in which they do more to accelerate warming than to slow it down. While deforestation is responsible for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, forests currently absorb more carbon than they emit.

But the problem is that the balance could shift as the planet warms, the report concludes, and the sequestration service provided by the forest biomes could be lost entirely if the Earth heats up by 2.5C or more. Droughts, more pest invasions, and other environmental stresses would trigger considerable forest destruction and degradation. This could create a dangerous feedback loop, it adds, in which damage to forests from climate change would increase global carbon emissions that then exacerbate global warming.

The other biggest natural carbon sink are the oceans of the world which are already showing stress due to acidification because of excess carbon. Plankton in the ocean also act as a carbon sink and they will slowly die as the oceans become more acidic and warm up. The other big carbon sink is the permafrost which is said to contain large amounts of methane. Global warming will cause it to melt which will release all the methane which is more potent than CO2 as a GHG.

The need for reducing carbon emissions as well as to reduce the amount of carbon already in the atmosphere is pressing. So there is a twin objective to be met in order to combact enhanced global warming. Does this make it harder to reach our objectives? Perhaps. But it also impresses upon us the incredible delicacy of the Earth's natural regulating systems.

climate change and waste management

One of the greatest challenges facing the modern world today is climate change. Apart from the obvious consequences like floods, droughts etc., climate change is the single most important factor affecting global economy. Among the things that can alleviate climate change, one of the most important is waste management.

Waste management has at least five types of impacts on climate change, attributable to:

• landfill methane emissions
• reduction in industrial energy use and emissions due to recycling and waste reduction
• energy recovery from waste
• carbon sequestration in forests due to decreased demand for virgin paper
• energy used in long-distance transport of waste
  

It is arguable to say therefore, that reducing wastes reduces GHG emissions which are the causative agents of the global warming which causes climate change. Recycling of wastes not only reduces landfill space but also reduces energy consumption during the production of virgin material and energy used for incineration and disposal of wastes. It also forces manufacturers to take a closer look at the production process and employing philosophies like TQM which not only reduces wastes but also increases productivity throughout the production line. Carrying out life cycle assessments is another way to tackle the growing problem of wastes.

Modern landfills which accept biodegradable wastes are engineered to capture the gases produced. About 42% of renewable gas and electricity now comes from landfill gas in Great Britain. Burning the methane collected in this manner releases CO2 into the atmosphere which is less harmful and as it is derived from biomass, it does not count towards the national average emissions.

When products are recycled and reduced, industrial consumption of energy decreases as a result because they are not starting a virgin production cycle. Reduction of paper wastes saves trees from being cut down thereby saving forests. Paper is biodegradable because it is made of a natural substance, but it can also be recycled and reused thereby decreasing the amount of trees felled. Transporting, compacting and sorting of wastes uses up tremendous amounts of energy which contribute to the global energy demand and release of GHG into the atmosphere. Waste management therefore, is a global issue. An example to prove the point - plastic bags from UK are transported to China to be recycled and transported back. This leaves a huge carbon footprint due to transportation of goods over 10,000 miles . As 17 billion plastic bags a year are handed out to British shoppers, this generates a huge amount of wastes. When plastic bags are not disposed of properly, they not only take many years to biodegrade but also leach into the soil to contaminate ground water supplies and cause many detrimental affects to wildlife. This situation also throws into light how something as seemingly simple as a plastic carrier bag can cause global problems. Declining a plastic bag is something that every one of us can do as plastic carrier bags are easily reusable.

Using natural materials can help to alleviate the hazards of landfill gases but this in turn puts biodiversity at risk. The issue of tackling wastes therefore is not an easy problem. It has varying dynamics and it requires a balanced decision making approach. Every individual can do their bit to tackle the issue of wastes by taking simple measures to choose products with less packaging material, declining plastic bags etc. Waste management should become a personal decision making factor for every one of us especially when it comes to choosing the products we buy and how we manage domestic waste. Since this is so intricately tied into other bigger, global problems, there is an opportunity within the waste management framework to alleviate some of those problems as well. Waste management ultimately is tied into the three golden Rs of sustainability - reduce, reuse, recycle.

Waste management forms one of the corner-stones of tackling the looming consequences of climate change and global warming. The effects of climate change are already being felt in many parts of the world and if current trends continue, the problems associated with enhanced global warming are only going to accelerate.

sinking against rising tides

Global warming has brought about yet another social problem - climate change refugees. To some people the reality of living with the impacts of climate change has never been so stark. As predicted, the effects of global warming are most severe on those who did the least to contribute to it and can least afford measures to adapt or save themselves. The disappearance of Lohachara beneath the waters of the Bay of Bengal created the world’s first environmental refugees. There are similar islands facing the same fate amid the vastness of the low-lying Sundarbans, the largest mangrove wilderness on the planet.

A third of the Sundarbans lies in India and two-thirds in Bangladesh. It is here that the waters of two of Asia’s biggest rivers, the Ganges and Brahmaputra, form the world’s largest delta. Across the India portion of the delta, homes have been swept away, fields and fruit trees ravaged by worsening monsoon rains, livelihoods sunk beneath the waves.

Lohachara Island was the world’s first populated island to be lost to climate change and its disappearance left more than 7,000 people homeless. Neighbouring Ghorama has lost a third of its land mass in the last five years. To the north, Sagar, the largest of India’s Sundarbans islands, already houses 20,000 refugees from the tides. The influx of displaced people is swamping the original inhabitants of Sagar, putting pressure on the island’s already fragile resources. Scientists believe the Ghorama islanders’ fate is being sealed 2,000km away, at the source of the Ganges, where the Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever before and the islands are bearing the brunt. Can you even imagine the feeling of literally watching your land sink beneath your feet?

Environmental refugees are the worst kind of refugees because they can never return. Their land is lost forever and they have no place to go. Governments have no plan for these stricken people whose only fault was to live where they have been living for centuries.

rebirth of the primordial soup?

One of the most devastating effects of global warming is how it affects the oceans and seas of the world. In order to understand how climate change affects the oceans, it is essential to know how oceans affect global weather.

Oceans dominate the movement of water, supplying most of the water vapour in the atmosphere by evaporation. Of this, 91% is returned to the oceans as precipitation, the remainder is transported and precipitated over landmasses. Runoff and groundwater from land flow back to the oceans.

The oceans and the atmosphere are tightly linked, and together form the most dynamic component of the earth’s climate system. Oceans store heat. When the earth’s surface cools or is heated up by the sun, the temperature change is greater and faster over land than over the oceans.

Winds and currents are constantly moving the ocean’s waters. The Gulf Stream Drift, for example, is powered by cold, dense, salt-laden water sinking off the north polar coastal regions and moving south in the depths, pushing the surface warm water from the tropical and subtropical Atlantic (including some from the Gulf of Mexico) up north to bathe the shores of Western Europe, producing a climate that is surprisingly mild for that latitude.

Global warming and melting of the polar ice-caps freshens the surface water, reducing its density and preventing it from sinking. As a result, the Gulf Stream slows down, or may even reverse, bringing severe winters to northern Europe while the rest of the earth heats up.

All over the world ocean waters are warming as a result of global warming putting stress on marine ecosystems and sea life, already under siege from pollution, overfishing and habitat destruction. Warmer oceans also mean that ice caps are going to be melting faster, the rising sea-level will put underlying coastal areas at risk of being submerged. Sea levels are predicted to rise 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century, plus 4 to 8 inches if recent melting in Greenland and Antarctica continues. Many scientists consider these conservative estimates.

Apart from this there is going to be a direct influence on global weather patterns with increase in hurricanes and typhoons. We have already seen evidence of this. Additionally, winters in northern Europe and Scandinavia have grown wetter, while those in southern Europe and the Middle East have become dryer. European farmers have encountered an earlier and longer growing season. The habitats and life cycles of many marine and terrestrial species have changed. There have been changes to the monsoon in India and the Pacific Southwest as well.

Food for thought: The planet's weather not only supports its varied species of life, it also supports global economy. The biggest economic sectors directly affected by climate change are agriculture and the fishing industry. The warming up of our oceans is a bigger threat to human survival than anything else we currently face. A continued increase in ocean temperatures will see the top predator species of the food chain extinct with oceans reverting back to the primordial soup stage of early creation.

welcome to the church of the holy cabbage. lettuce pray

Recently I have been doing a lot of research on food production as this is one of ways in which the environment is impacted. Not only is food growing an energy intensive process as it is largely dependent on fossil fuel resources, there are several steps in the production process that uses energy. Transportation of food not only domestically but also internationally contributes towards a large part of what I like to call 'foobon' footprint which is specifically carbon footprint of food. Additionally consuming packaged, frozen, processed food contributes towards this not only during the process itself but also the disposal of waste material created in the process.

The obesity epidemic we are currently seeing even in the developing world is tied into the way we view and consume food. This in turn is tied into the way we can change our eating habits in order to reduce individual foobon footprint. This will eventually lead to a healthy system and a cleaner planet.

I'm not touting becoming vegetarian or vegan or anything which seems extreme although people with these food habits usually have a lower foobon footprint. However, what I am promoting is eating locally, seasonally and if/where possible organically.

Eating locally produced food grown within a 100mile radius of where you live not only reduces energy used to transport food but also boosts local economy. In the bargain, the food you consume is fresher - better yet, if you have enough space grow your own vegetables and herbs. Even very small apartments have enough space for a herb-box at the very least.

Eating seasonally means you only eat fruits and vegetables which are grown in that season which means you reduce air-miles of those food which are brought in from other parts of the world.

Eating organic means cultivation of food without chemical pesticides and herbicides which is better for the soil. It also means that fresh food tastes better than chemically grown fruit and veg. Additionally, as a side point - eat whole-grain which is not only better for your body but also is less processed. Buy fair-trade where possible as it is a socially-responsible way to eat.

All this brings us to the great meat debate. Is there a greener way to eat meat? It is well known that the production of red-meat is energy intensive and releases methane. Again I would suggest eating locally or buying from a butcher rather than a supermarket which atleast reduces packaging and energy used in the packaging process. With most commercial fish species now endangered, the greenest way to consume seafood is to make sure it is sourced from ecologically managed fisheries. White meat from free-range farms generally have a lower foobon footprint. Finally if you are not inclined to become vegetarian then reduce the amount of meat you eat. The green stuff is better for you anyway!

Finally you are what you eat. And since eating habits are so deeply tied into ecological and biological systems, think before you munch.