NEWS UPDATE #94
Naveen Thukral reports: Nearly a decade after a spike in global food prices sent shockwaves around the world, Asia’s top rice producers are suffering from a drought that threatens to cut output of the staple for half the world’s population. World rice production is expected to decline for the first time this year since 2010.
Largest Civil Disobedience in History of the Environmental Movement Begins Today
350.org staff, EcoWatch
2015 was the hottest year ever recorded and the impacts of climate change are already hitting communities around the world. From rising sea levels to extreme storms, the need to act on climate change has never been more urgent. Added to that, the fossil fuel industry faces an unprecedented crisis—from collapsing prices, massive divestments, a new global climate deal and an ever-growing movement calling for change. The time has never been better for a just transition to a clean energy system. Starting today, a global wave of peaceful direct actions lasting for 12 days will take place across six continents targeting the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel projects, under the banner of Break Free.
Two anti-dam activists killed by police in Arunachal
The Third Pole
Protests against the building of dams in India’s Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh turned violent on May 2, leading to the death of two persons in police firing and injuries to eight more. The two who were killed were identified as Tenpa and Nima Wangde, students of Tawang monastery. Nabin Payeng, Arunachal’s Inspector General of Police, told journalists in state capital Itanagar that the police had been forced to open fire when a “mob” tried to storm the police station in Tawang. The protesters were demanding the release of Lama Lobsang Gyatso, a Buddhist monk who had been arrested on April 28 for having led the anti-dam protests. (Also read: Government prepares framework to boost hydropower projects in country)
To battle drought, govt offers sops to grow dal, reduce acreage for sugarcane
The Hindu
Responding to the clamour for less water-intensive farming after three years of drought, the state government on Saturday announced incentives for farmers who grow pulses and less of groundwater-dependent crops like sugarcane. The incentives will be 5-10 per cent on the central government’s annual procurement prices, and will be over and above the one-time bonus of Rs 75 per quintal already granted for chana and masoor last Rabi season, officials said.
‘Bengaluru will be an unliveable, dead city in 5 years’
Deccan Herald
Exponential and unbridled growth in real estate in Bengaluru has a direct bearing on environment and human health. Buildings have come up in places where there were once trees or open spaces. What if this continues to happen even on the periphery of Namma Bengaluru? What are its long-term implications on the ecosystem? A study conducted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) presents an alarming picture. It shows 525% growth in built-up area in the last four decades, 78% decline in vegetation 79% decline in water bodies. These are not just figures, but the lakes and trees that surrounded you have quietly disappeared as a result of the urban sprawl. (Also read: Water Emergency In Hyderabad, The First In 30 Years)
Nearly 1.9 million hectares of forest land in India encroached upon: Prakash Javadekar
Live Mint
Nearly 1.9 million hectares of India’s forest land has been encroached upon and Madhya Pradesh alone accounts for around 30% of such encroached forest area, said Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday, while replying to a query in Parliament. As per the records of the ministry of environment and forests, a total of 1,899,358 hectares of forest land is under encroachment in 36 states and Union Territories. This comes even as India is striving to achieve the target of having 33% land under forest cover. According to India State of Forest Report 2015 released in December 2015, India’s total green cover has reached 24.16% of the land mass.
Ripe for the picking: why AAP is confident of winning Goa in 2017
Nihar Gokhale, Catch News
The Aam Aadmi Party has decided to contest the Goa assembly election in March 2017. This will be AAP’s third state foray, after Delhi and Punjab. If you are wondering how and why they thought of Goa, recent developments might shed some light. The party hopes that Goans, angered by the Congress’ corruption and the BJP’s failure to act against illegal mining, will seek an alternative in the coming polls – and it seeks to be that alternative. Indeed, even though the BJP’s victory was largely down to its stand on the mining scam, the party has done little about it while in power.
Delhi’s Air Pollution Rose 23% During Second Odd-Even Phase
IndiaSpend
Air pollution levels in Delhi rose 23% during the second phase of the odd-even registration rule, from April 15 to April 29, over the previous 14 days (April 1 to April 14), based on an analysis of PM (particulate matter) 2.5 data, generated by IndiaSpend’s #Breathe air-quality monitoring devices. The odd-even scheme ends today, April 30, 2016, the data indicating that it likely cannot work in the long term without additional action, such as improving bus services, curbing factory and truck emissions and suppressing construction dust–which accounts for about half of Delhi’s air pollution. Wind speed and temperature also affect air quality. (Also read: Canadian firm to sell canned air in India at Rs 12.50 per breath)
India gets its own GPS: here’s all you need to know about the IRNSS
Nihar Gokhale, Catch News
The Indian Space Research Organisation is not new to putting satellites in orbit using its famed PSLV rocket. But the latest successful mission on 28 April, called PSLV-C33/IRNSS-1G, was special. It put the seventh and final satellite of India’s own GPS system into orbit, and with it, India fulfilled its decades-long desire to have its own satellite-based positioning systems. The latest satellite completes a constellation of satellites known as the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS), which will have a dedicated gaze towards India, and an arc up to 1,500 km from India’s borders.
‘Water man of India’ Rajendra Singh bags top prize
BBC News
An award known as “the Nobel Prize for water” has been given to an Indian campaigner who has brought water to 1,000 villages. The judges of the Stockholm Water Prize say his methods have also prevented floods, restored soil and rivers, and brought back wildlife. The prize-winner, Rajendra Singh, is dubbed “the Water Man of India”. The judges say his technique is cheap, simple, and that his ideas should be followed worldwide. Mr Singh uses a modern version of the ancient Indian technique of rainwater harvesting.
In a first, Gujarat farmers form solar cooperative
Business Standard
With the help of Colombo-based International Water Management Institute (IWMI), six Gujarat farmers have formed world’s first solar power cooperative society to sell surplus power generated from solar water pumps installed at their farms. After conducting a successful pilot project of connecting farmer with the grid at Anand district of Gujarat, IWMI has now assembled six farmers of Dhundi village in Kheda district for the society. Having been trained on use of solar water pump and how to earn from connecting surplus power from it to the grid, these farmers have come together to form a solar cooperative society named Dhundi Saur Urja Utpadak Sahakari Mandali or Solar Pump Irrigators Cooperative Enterprise (SPICE).
Capital shame: hunger gnaws at them
Bindu Shajan Perappadan, The Hindu
No ration or Aadhaar cards, a sizeable population of migrants is battling severe malnourishment as they remain invisible to government policies. Unable to ensure three balanced meals a day for all, the Capital of the world’s fastest growing economy bears the shame of having 47 per cent of its kids (urban poor) diagnosed as malnourished — that’s one out of every two children. A closer look reveals that a large proportion of the urban population (31.16 per cent) afflicted by poverty, hunger and malnutrition, is actually rural and migrated to urban areas such as Delhi and Gurgaon — referred to as migrants and transitory populations.
Grains rotting with FCI could have fed 8L for a year
The Times of India
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has allowed 46,658 tonnes of foodgrains to rot in its 1,889 warehouses across the country in three years, while another 143.74 tonnes were reported stolen. Together, this could have fed nearly 8 lakh people from priority families under the National Food Security Act for an entire year. In other words, it could have fed 10 per cent of Bengaluru’s population or 6 per cent of Mumbai’s citizens if each person received 5kg of foodgrains per month. The problem has been plaguing FCI for decades now with tonnes of foodgrains having gone stale over the years, and it has been trying to reduce its buffer storage.
Food Security Fears Resurface as Asia’s Rice Crop Shrivels
Naveen Thukral, The Wire
Nearly a decade after a spike in global food prices sent shockwaves around the world, Asia’s top rice producers are suffering from a blistering drought that threatens to cut output and boost prices of a staple for half the world’s population. World rice production is expected to decline for the first time this year since 2010, as failing rains linked to an El Nino weather pattern cut crop yields in Asia’s rice bowl. A heat wave is sweeping top rice exporter India, while the No.2 supplier Thailand is facing a second year of drought. Swathes of farmland in Vietnam, the third-biggest supplier, are also parched as irrigation fed by the Mekong river runs dry. The three account for more than 60% of the global rice trade of about 43 million tonnes.
Gripped by Climate Disruption, World on Brink of Global Water Crisis
Common Dreams
Global water shortages, exacerbated by human-caused climate change, are likely to spur conflict and migration across the Middle East, central Asia, and Africa—all while negatively impacting regional economies, according to a new World Bank report published Tuesday. Rising demand combined with increasingly “erratic and uncertain” supply could reduce water availability in cities by as much as two thirds by 2050, compared to 2015 levels, the report warns. Meanwhile, “food price spikes caused by droughts can inflame latent conflicts and drive migration,” a World Bank press statement reads.
Groundwater depletion shifting Earth’s axis: Scientists
The Times of India
roundwater depletion in India is a calamity that now calls for urgent measures. What is less well known, though, is that Earth’s spin around its axis too is especially sensitive to changes in the mass of water beneath Earth’s surface. By the law of rotation, the 45 degrees North and South latitudes would play an especially important role in determining the spin. And India’s groundwater depletion has indeed been causing a shift in the axis, scientists have explained in a paper published earlier this month in the journal Science Advances.
‘Today Marks the End of TTIP’: Greenpeace Leak Exposes Corporate Takeover
Common Dreams
Confirming that the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) amounts to “a huge transfer of power from people to big business,” Greenpeace Netherlands on Monday leaked 248 secret pages of the controversial trade deal between the U.S. and EU, exposing how environmental regulations, climate protections, and consumer rights are being “bartered away behind closed doors.” The documents represent roughly two-thirds of the latest negotiating text, according to Greenpeace, and on some topics offer for the first time the position of the United States.
Europe Bans Pesticides Thought Harmful to Bees
The New York Times
The European Commission will enact a two-year ban on a class of pesticides thought to be harming global bee populations, the European Union’s health commissioner said Monday. “I pledge to do my utmost to ensure that our bees, which are so vital to our ecosystem and contribute over €22 billion annually to European agriculture, are protected,” Tonio Borg said in a statement from Brussels, where the commission is based. Mr. Borg made the announcement after representatives of the 27 E.U. member states failed for the second time in two months to reach a binding agreement on a proposal to ban the pesticides, known as neonicotinoids. (Also read: Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields)
Venezuela orders five-day weekends in bid to save power grid
Live Mint
Venezuela declared five-day weekends for government workers and said it was seeking international help to save its power grid amid a drought that threatens the capital’s main source of electricity. Venezuelans, except those in Caracas and some states, began to experience programmed four-hour rolling blackouts on Monday as a drought cripples generation at the Guri dam. It’s the latest blow to an economy that the International Monetary Fund forecasts will contract 8% this year, after shrinking 5.7% in 2015.
Surprise, the pundits were wrong: poll shows huge support for Leap Manifesto
The Guardian UK
Here’s a fact the media cannot stomach reporting: Canadians may be more in touch with the reality and implications of climate change than they are. Turns out they understand widely that the Leap Manifesto’s call for a full transition from fossil fuels to green energy by 2050 is not just based on science and technologically possible—it is necessary and beneficial.
Why Oil Prices Will Likely Drop Below $40 Soon
Rakesh Upadhyay, Oilprice.com
Though Nigeria, Kuwait, and Venezuela’s production has been hit hard due to various reasons, OPEC’s production of 32.64 million b/d is very close to its highest level of 32.65 million b/d recorded in January 2016, according to Reuters survey records since 1997. There isn’t much by way of fundamentals to rely upon for the rally to continue. Closer to $50/b, additional supply will start trickling in and buyers will be wary to buy at higher prices. With no excuses at hand, the speculators will find it difficult to prop prices higher. The short-term speculative pop in crude is about to end and the long-term fundamentals will take over. Prices should drop closer to $36 to $38/b in the near future.