NEWS UPDATE #96
Chaitanya Mallapur reports: Forest fires over the first four months of 2016 surged 30% –20,667 fires were reported as on April 21, 2016 compared to 15,937 over 2015– according to data tabled in the Lok Sabha on April 26, 2016. This is 40% more than the 3,185 hectares burnt in Uttarakhand since February 2, 2016.
Farmer suicides in Marathwada cross 400 mark in 4 months; toll reaches 1,548
The Indian Express
The farmer suicides, which have remained unstoppable for past few years in eight districts of Marathwada, have crossed the staggering 400-mark in just over four month period in 2016. Compared to 2015, as many as 92 more farmers have embraced deaths in the first four and half months of 2016, highlighting the failure of the government schemes launched in August to curb the spate of suicides. A special taskforce appointed by the Devendra Fadnavis government on Tuesday conceded that the agrarian crisis was too “substantial” and results of the government efforts to put brakes on suicides will take time to show up. (Also read: To avert farmer suicides, govt plans to curb financial firms)
Phalodi in Rajasthan records India’s highest-ever temperature at 51°C
Live Mint
India recorded its highest-ever temperature on Thursday when Phalodi in Rajasthan recorded 51°C as several north and north-western states faced the heat wave, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD). The states facing heat wave are Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra, but Rajasthan is facing severe heat wave conditions. Some of the cities that crossed the 45°C mark on Thursday included Jaipur, Rajkot, Udaipur and Bhopal, while Ahmedabad and Gwalior surpassed 46°C and recorded 46.9°C and 46.4°C, respectively. A close second to the highest temperature was in Churu, in west Rajasthan, which recorded 50.2°C. (Also read: Adani Power shuts 2,640 MW units at Tiroda plant due to water shortage)
Forest Fires Surge 30% In 2016
Chaitanya Mallapur, IndiaSpend
Forest fires over the first four months of 2016 surged 30%–20,667 fires were reported as on April 21, 2016 compared to 15,937 over 2015–according to data tabled in the Lok Sabha on April 26, 2016. Fires swept more than 4,500 hectares of forest in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh since April 7, 2016. This is 40% more than the 3,185 hectares burnt in Uttarakhand since February 2, 2016. (Also read: The Uttarakhand forest fires that lasted for over 100 days should come as a warning to the rest of India since half of its forests are vulnerable to fire)
Land should be given back if the project does not take off: SC
The Hindu
Even as several prominent private builders have come under suspicion for delayed completion of housing projects, the Supreme Court has declared land a “scarce natural resource” and forbidden the government from using its powers of compulsory land acquisition to strip poor farmers of their livelihood only to transfer such land to private builders to feed their business interests. Land, acquired in the name of residential or commercial projects, should revert to its rightful owner — the farmer — in case the project does not take off. No third party has any rights on the land, the apex court said.
India: An agricultural powerhouse of the world
Business Standard
According to the World Factbook of the CIA in 2014, the global agricultural output was $ 4,771 billion. But a full 42 percent of this output comes from just six countries – China ($ 1,005 billion) is the largest producer, followed by India ($ 367 billion). The US is third ($ 279 billion), followed by Brazil ($ 130 billion), Nigeria ($ 122 billion) and Indonesia ($ 121 billion). As one can see, five of the six global leaders in agricultural output are developing countries. In fact, China and India alone account for close to 30 percent of the global total. Unknown to many, India’s agricultural products fetches higher earnings than trade in services or manufacturing.
Government mulling plan to protect grazing lands for cows
The Times of India
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said the government is mulling a plan to ensure the protection of grazing land for cows and provide cow fodder “free of cost” to people for their livestock. “There is a need to protect pasture lands. If there is 500 acres of land, 25 acres be set aside for growing good quality grass and fodder. Draft of a policy is being prepared, which will include a provision to provide protein-rich fodder free of cost to the people living in villages adjoining the jungles for their livestock,” Javadekar said while speaking at a national conference on ‘Gaushalas’ (cowsheds) here. He invited suggestions from the participants from across the country for the kind of policy-based decisions that can be taken to improve the situation. (Also read: India’s Answer to Global Warming: Cows That Belch Less)
Shocking! Maharashtra forest department culls 300 wild boars, nil gais
Ashwin Aghor, Catch News
Man-animal conflict is not new for Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district. But it is the wildlife has been at the receiving end every time. They are always either culled or relocated. Most recently, following several complaints of crop raids by wild boars and blue bulls (Neel Gai), the local forest department has culled a whooping 300 animals in the past few months. This year, wild boars and blue bull menace was first reported from the district in early January. Several farmers reported huge losses due to crop raids. When the frequency of raids increased, people started demanding culling. When the pressure mounted, the state forest department issued a GR allowing culling of wild boars and blue bulls. (Also read: Why is Australia killing almost 2000 kangaroos?)
Will work out a scheme to protect tiger corridors: Prakash Javadekar
Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava, Hindustan Times
Two days after Hindustan Times reported that surplus tigers dispersing out of the Ranthambore National Park might become easy targets for poachers, Union minister of environment, forest and climate change Prakash Javadekar said his ministry will work out a scheme to incentivise industry for reforesting tiger corridors under the “compensatory afforestation scheme”. “We will create a scheme of incentivising (industry) for offering compensatory afforestation in tiger and wildlife corridors. If alternative land for afforestation is offered in corridor areas, they will be given some incentive. That way they will offer more land in corridor area…,” Javadekar told HT. (Also read: Where are the big cats? Curious case of Ranthambore’s missing tigers)
Identify wetlands in at least 5 to 10 dists: NGT to states, UTs
PTI
With wetland ecosystems across the country facing increasing threat of extinction, the National Green Tribunal today directed all state governments and Union Territories to identify and notify wetlands in atleast five to ten districts under their jurisdiction. A bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar said while smaller states may go for less number of districts (for example 5) bigger states like Uttar Pradesh may go for a larger number in identification of wetlands. “The process to identify and notify wetlands by each states and UTs has to be finalised by July 22, the next date for hearing the case,” the bench said.
It Won’t Be Smooth Sailing for Government’s Waterways Plan
Nitin Sethi, Business Standard
In March, the National Waterways Act, 2016, came into being with the Rajya Sabha giving its nod to the legislation. It paved the way for the union government to turn 111 rivers across India into national waterways. The upper house saw a lively debate on the bill with most members, including some from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, expressing concerns on three counts: the law’s impact on the already drying rivers, the rights of people and the power of the states to regulate the economy along the banks of these rivers.
World’s Largest Rooftop Solar Power Plant Inaugurated in Amritsar (Video)
The Quint
Extremely delighted over the installation of the eco-friendly solar project in the state, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday dedicated the world’s largest Single Rooftop Solar Power Plant with a capacity of 11.5 MW to the nation at Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, Amritsar. Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal along with New & Renewable Energy Resources Minister Bikram Singh Majithia inaugurated Rs 139 crore project. (Also read: Revolutionary: Germany Builds A Solar City That Produces Four Times More Energy Than It Consumes)
Climate change: Kolkata, Mumbai to be most vulnerable in 50 years
Catch News
Population rise and urbanisation will make Kolkata and Mumbai two of the most vulnerable cities to climate change by 2070. The two metros are rated at the top of a global ranking of cities vulnerable to rising sea levels, according to a new study released on 16 May. Sea level rise is caused by global warming, which melts ice at the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica and it will definitely happen happen despite our best efforts at reigning in warming. If global temperatures rise to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100 – the goal of the recently signed global Paris Agreement on climate change – there will still be about 79 centimetres of sea level rise.
Beyond India: There’s drought on five continents and it’s breaking records
Mridula Chari, Scroll.in
With the El Niño finally on the wane since January, researchers now suggest that it will be followed by a La Nina phenomenon, characterised instead by cooling Pacific temperatures and for India, more rain. But the weather formation’s impact has not been limited just to the Indian monsoon. It is also among the reasons that every month since May 2015 has broken temperature record highs and why severe floods and droughts have been recorded around the world. Acute water distress of any kind triggers migrations. The longer the drought, as the example of Syria shows, the worse the exodus and resulting violence. As this daily drought risk map by El Dorado Weather shows, pretty much every single continent apart from the poles has regions facing crippling droughts. (Also read: April 2016 Hottest on Record as ‘Climate Emergency’ Grows)
Rising carbon dioxide is greening the Earth – but it’s not all good news
Pep Canadell & Yingping Wang, The Conversation
Dried lake beds, failed crops, flattened trees: when we think of global warming we often think of the impacts of droughts and extreme weather. While there is truth in this image, a rather different picture is emerging. In a paper published in Nature Climate Change, we show that the Earth has been getting greener over the past 30 years. As much as half of all vegetated land is greener today, and remarkably, only 4% of land has become browner. Our research shows this change has been driven by human activities, particularly the rising concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere. This is perhaps the strongest evidence yet of how people have become a major force in the Earth’s functioning.
Cows, rice and soil are key to farming emissions cuts
Climate Change News
According to research out this week, agriculture alone should be reducing non-CO2 emissions one gigatonne a year by 2030 in order to meet the newly signed Paris Agreement. Further analysis shows that that current agronomic and policy interventions compatible with food production would achieve only 21 to 40% of the needed mitigation to meet agriculture’s share of the target agreed in Paris. Agriculture contributes between 10-12% of global emissions, and has too much mitigation potential to be ignored.
Last stand for Europe’s remaining ancient forest as loggers prepare to move in
The Guardian
Europe’s last primeval forest is facing what campaigners call its last stand as loggers prepare to start clear-cutting trees, following the dismissal of dozens of scientists and conservation experts opposed to the plan. Oak trees as high as 150 feet that have grown for 450 years could be reduced to stumps under the planned threefold increase in tree fells. Białowieża hosts Europe’s largest bison population and wolves and lynx still roam freely across its sun-mottled interior. Its foliage stretches for nearly 1,000 square miles across the border between Poland and Belarus. Poland’s new far right government says logging is needed because more than 10% of spruce trees in the Unesco world heritage site of Białowieża are suffering from a bark beetle outbreak. But nearly half the logging will be of other species, according to its only published inventory.
Oil Price Spike Is Not As Far Away As Many Think
Dan Steffens, OilPrice.com
We are beginning to see the first real signs of the global oil markets moving rapidly back into balance. OPEC, which produces approximately 40 percent of the world’s oil supply, cannot meet future oil demand on their own… On the demand side of the equation, May is the beginning of an annual spike in demand for hydrocarbon based liquid fuels. In their monthly Oil Market Report dated May 12, 2016 the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that demand will increase by 1.66 million barrels per day from the first quarter of this year to the third quarter.
Proved Oil Reserves Lost $840 Billion In Value
Robert Rapier, OilPrice.com
The portion that is technically AND economically recoverable at prevailing oil prices may be classified as proved oil reserves. (The same concept applies for natural gas). This means that proved reserves are a function of prevailing oil prices. This qualifier is often misunderstood. It was estimated that when oil was $100/bbl, there was a total of 1.7 trillion barrels of proved oil reserves globally… Annual reports have now been filed, so the results are in. Of the 125 oil and gas companies in my database that reported proved reserves to the SEC, 92 reported declines in their proved oil reserves… Cumulatively, these 92 oil companies reported a decline in reserves at the end of 2015 of about 3 billion barrels (11 billion barrels of oil equivalent if natural gas proved reserves are included).
Growing warnings over Chinese debt
World Socialist Website
While the turbulence that hit global financial markets in the early part of this year has subsided somewhat, at least temporarily, the underlying recessionary trends continue to intensify. These trends are clearly seen in the world’s two major economies, the United States and China. Earlier this week, the Financial Times pointed to the flattening of the yield curve, which measures the difference between the interest rates on higher yielding long-term 10-year treasury bonds and two-year debt, noting that it was down to its lowest level since December. A flattening of the curve, when long- and short-term rates start to converge, signals lack of investor confidence about the long-term outlook for the economy. The yield curve has not inverted—a situation which is regarded as indicating a recession—but there are other indications of slowing growth.
New Book Gives Rare Insider View of Sharing City Seoul
Cat Johnson, Shareable
A new ebook from Creative Commons Korea (CC Korea) provides an insider’s view into Sharing City, Seoul, a pioneering, city-wide sharing initiative. Seoul Draws a City Through Sharing details the project origins, from Mayor Won-soon Park’s first announcement of the Sharing City in 2012, through the end of 2015, when Seoul had firmly established itself as a leader in the global sharing cities movement. The ebook highlights the inner workings of the project and explains why Sharing City, Seoul was launched in the first place.