News update
Madhya Pradesh to get world’s largest solar power plant
Times of India
Next year on Independence Day, India will have the world’s largest 750MW solar power plant in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, which will pip America’s much-vaunted 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight solar project in California, commissioned four days ago. The state government is setting up the plant in a joint venture with Solar Energy Corporation of India.
As coal auctions begin in Delhi, a splendid forest in Chhattisgarh awaits slow death
Raksha Kumar, Scroll.in
Hasdeo Arand, is spread over 1,200 square kilometres in north Chhattisgarh. It is one of India’s last remaining biodiversity rich forests with an unbroken canopy that acts as an important wildlife corridor. Ignoring its own categorisation, however, the UPA government gave clearances to three coal mines in Hasdeo Arand. The BJP government has put one of those blocks for auction in the first phase itself.
World’s public health leaders call for an end to coal
Noharm-asia.org
At the close of their international conference in Kolkata, as part of a broad “Call to Action for Public Health,” the world’s public health associations advocated “a rapid phase-out of coal” to limit further global warming and prevent illnesses and deaths associated with air pollution. The Call to Action points to the “contribution of fossil fuels and coal in particular to climate change as well as to detrimental impacts on the health and well being of local communities.”
The contested story of India’s green shoots (Review of Jairam Ramesh’s book)
Siddharth Singh, Livemint
Jairam Ramesh was one of independent India’s most successful heads of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). Activists loved him (they still do) while those worried about economic growth considered him a Luddite. This member of the Manmohan Singh government has now penned his record of the 25 months when he was at the helm of the MoEF. Green Signals: Ecology, Growth, and Democracy in India (Oxford University Press) is the story of a contemporary conflict.
Climate change hampering world food production, say scientists
Yahoo News
The acceleration in climate change and its impact on agricultural production means that profound societal changes will be needed in coming decades to feed the world’s growing population, researchers at an annual science conference said. According to scientists, food production will have to be doubled over the next 35 years to feed a global population of nine billion people in 2050, compared with seven billion today.
Climate researcher says CIA fears hostile nations are “manipulating the world’s weather”
The Daily Mail, UK
CIA chiefs fear hostile nations are trying to manipulate the world’s weather. Professor Alan Robock, a climate researcher from Rutgers University in New Jersey, has told of mysterious phone call asking whether foreign countries could be triggering droughts or flooding. CIA is believed to have helped fund a major report into geoengineering.
Imagining the Future History of Climate Change
New York Times
Naomi Oreskes is a historian of science at Harvard, but she is attracting wide notice these days for a work of science fiction. The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View From the Future, written with Erik M. Conway, takes the point of view of a historian in 2393 explaining how “the Great Collapse of 2093” occurred. The 104-page book was listed last week as the No. 1 environmental best-seller on Amazon.
Trees as repositories of climate history
Startribune.com
Most of us know that a tree’s age can be determined by counting its rings. But three scientists at the University of Minnesota say that’s just the beginning. Those rings also bear witness to floods, drought and other milestones, making it possible to track climate, weather and natural disaster trends spanning centuries.