CDM 'for market not reform', Says Indian Organisation

A leading Indian nongovernmental organisation has called for a complete overhaul of the clean development mechanism (CDM), saying it focuses more on the market than tackling climate change.
CDM is a mechanism that allows developed countries to invest in projects that reduce carbon emissions in developing countries and claim them against emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
"CDM is a market mechanism, not climate action," Sunita Narain, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, told reporters on 5 December 2007.
Narain said that the biggest flaw in CDM is that it is aimed at the cheapest reduction methods for industrialised countries. There has been no transfer of high-end technologies from the rich to poor countries, or investment in clean coal technologies for poor countries, she said.
By the end of 2005, rich countries could not cut their emissions any further, and instead chose the CDM route to meet their Kyoto commitments. Narain said that in the process, large companies, traders and consultants have taken over the market in developing countries, offering the cheapest technologies to quickly earn credit for reducing emissions.
The focus is on earning credits rather than making genuine efforts toward cleaner technology or energy, she said. For instance, there are few projects on solar energy, wind energy, high-end clean coal or forest planting in the activities available under the CDM.
She said certain clauses in the current CDM framework are providing disincentives for governments in developing countries to create policies for clean energy production.
For example, technology projects need to be 'additional' to projects already running in a developing country to qualify under the CDM. India, for instance, already has a programme on renewable energy, so any further renewable projects are not counted as part of the CDM.
Narain said one of the foremost tasks at the UN climate change conference in Bali, which began on 3 December 2007 week, should be to "reform and reinvent" CDM to make it more effective.
She suggested a system of equal, per capita emission entitlements so that the rich reduce their emissions and the poor do not go beyond their climate quota.

Bird Flu Looming Large, Many Countries Still Not Prepared

Many countries continue to be plagued by poor bird flu surveillance and diagnosis capacity, and weak national preparedness plans, experts have warned.
The third global progress report of the United Nations System Influenza Coordination (UNSIC) and the World Bank is released on December 2007. It warns that the risk of global influenza pandemic is as great in late 2007 as it was in mid-2005, when the first cases began to emerge.
Based on data from 146 countries, the report was circulated at an international ministerial conference on bird flu, in New Delhi, India in the week started on 4 December 2007.
Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general and Jacques Diouf, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization director-general, stressed the continuing threat of bird flu at the meeting.
"The next pandemic will occur through adaptive mutations [in the virus]. We have no idea when and how the pandemic will occur, or whether this high case fatality rate of 61 per cent in humans will be maintained," said Chan.
Diouf warned that the international community would have to prepare for bird flu and other major health crises of animal origin, worsened by climate change and the increased risk of pathogens travelling over large distances in a very short period, due to modern air travel.
Investments are needed to focus on prevention at the source — animals — and in developing countries, he added.
Although many countries report they have developed national preparedness plans, their preparedness for a pandemic is "patchy", and there is insufficient attention to sectors other than health and their operational aspects, said David Nabarro, senior UN system coordinator for avian and human influenza.

Plans To Curb Deforestation Need More Consideration

Incentives to tackle deforestation and forest degradation can play a key role in combating climate change and requires a strong policy framework that is fair to poor communities, says a new report.
The report from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), was launched on 7 December 2007 at the UN climate meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
It states that "an appropriate policy framework to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) would help prioritise areas with high deforestation risk and high carbon content, while ensuring the sustained well-being of forest-dependent communities".
Under the REDD scheme, developing nations could earn billions of dollars through carbon trading by simply leaving forests, such as those in Indonesia and the Amazon and Congo basins, untouched.
The authors of the report say REDD can help reduce carbon emissions if financial incentives are sufficient to overturn the political and economic causes of deforestation.
Frances Seymour, director general of CIFOR and one of the authors, hopes the report will help ensure that any initiatives to stop deforestation emerging in future climate change agreements are firmly grounded in reality.
She highlighted the need to properly consider the effects on poor forest communities. "For the system to be effective, we will need new mechanisms for allocating payments that are efficient as well as fair," Seymour told SciDev.Net.
Seymour said the most feasible techniques to monitor emissions from deforestation were remote sensing of changes in forest cover, combined with robust verification of forest types on the ground and the associated carbon stocks.

Emil Salim, head of Indonesia's delegation of climate change negotiators, said his country wants REDD to become an alternative option to Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, which could help it financially manage its forestry sector better.
CIFOR have also launched a Climate Change and Forest Initiative, focusing on the governance of forest in the global adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.

C.N.R. Rao Receives Nano Award

C.N.R. Rao, Chairman, Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and honorary president of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), was on 6 December 2007 conferred the first Bangalore Nano National Award for his outstanding achievements and sustained work in the field of nanotechnology.
Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur presented the award to Prof. Rao at the Bangalore Nano 2007 — India’s first conference on nanotechnology — organised by the JNCASR, the Department of IT, BT and Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka, and MM Activ.
In his address, Prof. Rao said that though he was involved with organising the festival, the award came as a pleasant surprise.
“We need young minds to take nano technology forward apart from intense study and research in this field.”
Prof. Rao said that with the Government having allocated Rs.1,000 crore towards the study of nanotechnology, this exciting branch of science will receive the impetus it deserves.

Safety Nets To Arrest Bird Freefall

Every monsoon, hundreds of Asian Openbill storks build small colonies atop sal trees in Arrearjhar in Dhubri district of Assam, India, and by the time the season draws to a close, dozens perish from falls or are struck by lightning during storms.
Environmentalists have long racked their brains for a plan that would help reduce the death toll, but without success. So, when some 50-odd openbill stork chicks were found dead after a heavy downpour on October 7, 2007, forest officials decided to do what immediately struck them as a possible solution. They decided to place safety nets under every sal tree so that the birds do not fall and die.
Openbill storks are listed under Schedule IV of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. They are commonly sighted in various parts of Assam but the current death rate is a cause for worry. Every year, the birds build at least 300 nests in Arrearjhar, of which very few manage to survive the monsoon. For now, the nets look like the only saviours.
A project was submitted to the Rapid Action Programme of the Wildlife Trust of India, which has agreed to provide the nets, the forest official said. He added that the project was urgent because some chicks have already emerged and the remaining will come out in the next few weeks. The official said that death from a fall is natural; but the rain and storm this year have resulted in an alarmingly high mortality rate.
The nets, however, are only a partial and temporary solution. "Even if some chicks survived the fall, there is little expertise available to hand-rear the birds. Every attempt by villagers to hand-rear the chicks has failed so far," a forest official said.

Space Technology 'Invaluable for Development'

Space technology has enormous potential to help developing countries progress, an international meeting has been told by Karl Doetsch, chairman of US-based firm Athena Global.
Doetsch told a plenary session of the International Astronautical Congress meeting in Hyderabad, India, on Friday, 28 September 2007, that sustained poverty reduction needs the application of space technology and that space scientists should play a larger role in policymaking.
India uses satellite technology to invigorate development by improving communications and the management of natural disasters and resources such as water, and for weather forecasting, long-distance education and telemedicine services. It is a model other countries should follow, Doetsch says.
At the conference, Jason Hay of the US-based Space Policy Institute at the George Washington University pointed out that developing countries are increasingly turning to space technology to speed up their development.
Space technology, he said, can also improve technical skills, infrastructure and knowledge capital, and provide services such as global positioning information.
His team has developed an analytical model of the Indian space experience and applied it to Kazakhstan and South Africa to gain insight into features that could make satellite technology as effective as in India.
Remote-sensing satellite images are useful for monitoring volcanoes, forest fires and earthquakes in Indonesia, says Harijono Djojodihardo, professor at Universitas Al Azhar in Jakarta and former head of Indonesia's space agency.
It is now the "challenge and responsibility" of space agencies to use their technology for sustainable development of Sub-Saharan Africa, said Simona Di Ciaccio from Italy's space agency, ASI.
ASI is running a project with Kenya's Marine and Fisheries Research Institute to use ASI's remote-sensing satellite for information on fish locations for Kenya's fishermen, to locate degraded land and to detect oil spills.
Di Ciaccio told reporters that ASI plans to start two new projects in October this year, setting up a remote-sensing regional centre in Kenya and launching small satellites designed for Kenya's needs.
Meanwhile, the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa is working on the design of a small satellite equipped with high- and medium-resolution cameras to monitor equatorial forests that are hard to visualise because of widespread cloud cover.
This kind of assessment is important due to the impact of climate change on equatorial forests, said Stellenbosh scientist Keijo Nissen.

Geological Experts Warns: Demolition of Adam's Bridge Will Cause Natural Disasters

Amidst debates on whether "Ram Sethu" was a man-made structure or a natural formation, geological experts, on 28 September, 2007, warned that demolition of Adam's bridge for the implementation of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) might trigger natural disasters.
Environmental scientists and geologists who have come under the banner of 'The Movement Against Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project' said the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar area was not only fragile with respect to tectonic movements but also highly sensitive to higher heat flow manifestations coupled with seismically vulnerable nature.
Geological Survey of India (GSI) former Director K Gopalakrishnan said the Adam's Bridge was not merely a group of simple sandy shoal or sandy bars of migratory nature as was being projected by the Centre and project authorities.
"Evidences are available to prove that such physical feature forms a distinct geological, geotectonic, oceanographic and oceanic divide that has got a specific and important role to play as a barrier in controlling different geological and oceanographic activities in this highly fragile and sensitive area," he added.
Destablisation of the multifarious barrier zone of Adam's Bridge would cause submarine landslides, induce earthquakes and earth tremors and lead to tectonic movements along active fault zones bringing about subsidence and submergence of areas, he said.
Though geo-technical evaluation was mandatory for any project, no sub-surface geological survey was conducted for the SSCP, Gopalakrishnan said.
He also questioned why the Centre entrusted NEERI with the responsibility of preparing the Environment Impact Report when the GSI was the competent authority to carry out the work.
He urged the Centre to form a multi-disciplinary committee to go into the vulnerability of the project.
Dr Arunachalam, an environmental scientist and Associate professor in Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, said the project would be a major man-made stressor to fragile ecosystms such as Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar.
Apart from the loss of biodiversity, the changes brought about by breaking the Adam's Bridge would result in thorough alteration to the coromandel coast and the Indian Ocean which might lead to conditions detrimental to mankind by way of cyclones or tsunami, he added.
As the country was completely relying on the monsoon for fresh water resources and livelihood, the changes might bring a condition of floods and droughts by monsoonal changes in oceans near India, he said.

Robot Cooks So You Don't Have To

This was supposed to be the future. Where is my robot chef for days when I'm too tired to cook?

Turns out, the future is just around the corner. Liu Changfa, a retired professor in Beijing, has grabbed headlines with the prototype of his "food robot." The 5-foot-tall iron chef comprises a base that houses a computer, a gut that contains an induction cooker and a pot, and a chest that frames a screen. The chef also has a robotic arm to help with stirring as well as a C-3PO-esque mien that's far friendlier than the other robot chef we've seen.

Hungry humans can program recipes into the food robot's computer, then kick back with a cocktail while the bot assembles the meal. More than 200 diners have enjoyed the machine's cuisine thus far, and reportedly taste testers have found the food to be on par with a traditional restaurant kitchen, flavor-wise. (No mention has been made of the robot's plating abilities.)

Global Warming and the Pacific Northwest Coast

An Ecological Crisis

The Pacific Northwest is blessed with an amazing diversity of coastal habitats. These habitats support thousands of species of fish and wildlife, and they are crucial for the regional economy, culture and quality of life.

However, the region’s coastal habitats and wildlife are under pressure from human activities such as development and pollution. Now, sea-level rise due to global warming will create even greater challenges for our coasts.

We are facing an ecological crisis that could see wholesale loss of wildlife populations and profound changes in our outdoor way of life. We must address the greatly accelerating impacts of global warming before it's too late and work together to protect and conserve the Pacific Northwest and the rest of the country.

Recent studies show that the global average sea level will rise as much 20-56 inches by 2100, including in the Pacific Northwest.
Learn more major facts:

• The National Wildlife Federation looked at a number of sea-level rise scenarios for the region and found that even a relatively moderate scenario of sea level rise of just over 2-feet by 2100 will have a significant impact on coastal habitats.
• Recent studies show that it is likely the Pacific Northwest coast will have a significant sea level rise by 2100 of between 20-56 inches.
• Among the most vulnerable habitats is estuarine beach, which provides vital spawning areas for forage fish, including surf smelt and sand lance, which in turn provide food for birds, marine mammals, salmon, and other fish and wildlife.
• More than 2/3 of beaches in the Tacoma area are predicted to be lost by 2100.
• The Seattle area is built on high land, and so would have limited impact due to sea level rise. However, 741- 988 acres of dry land will become marsh or tidal flat. More than half of estuarine beaches in the area will be lost.

Bangalore Hospital Performs Rare Heart Surgery

A private super speciality hospital in Bangalore has performed a rare surgery, claimed to be the first of its kind in medical history, on a 14-year-old Pakistani boy, suffering from Pulmonary Atresia.
Tauseef Ahmed underwent the complex surgery at the Narayana Hrudayala on the city outskirts on August 22 2007, and has recovered well, Dr Shekhar Rao, whose led team performed the surgery told a press conference in Bangalore on 8 September 2007.
The boy is doing well and would be returning to Abbothbad, a village situated on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in a day or two, he said.
The doctors in Pakistan who conducted diagnostic investigations had delcared that it was impossible to subject the boy to surgery.