I see man at the waterside, Casting nets for the surging tide. Oh island in the sun, Willed to me by my father’s hand, All my days I will sing in praise, Of your harvest waters, your shining sand. By Chanden Sen Florida Shall Not Go Under Well, our leaders have spoken and it does not bode well for us environmentalists. From Kyoto to Bali, Copenhagen to Cancun, and now Durban, the world leaders, meeting to discuss steps to combat global warming, have decided that economic progress is more important than sustainability. For the most part our leaders are democratically elected and so, willy-nilly, we have to go along with their decision. No matter that large parts of Florida will be flooded by the rising sea, which will also inundate some island nations in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, along with low lying areas in Bangladesh and the like. No matter that the polar ice caps will disappear, taking with them the polar bears. Who cares? It’s more important, or so say the cynics, that every person on planet earth has a color TV. The other day I told my son that whenever I catch myself thinking about it, I immediately switch off my portable radiant heater, reminding myself of the coal that is at that precise moment being burnt to produce the necessary electricity. My son corrected me and said that we in North Carolina get our juice from Shearon Harris, which is a nuclear power station. I reply that I thought that we were all connected on a common grid into which the electricity is fed from various power stations, nuclear, thermal, hydel etc. In any case, France has done well with nuclear power, with the result that the air quality over France is better than that over any other developed nation. But it takes only one nuclear mishap to set the clock back, and worldwide we’ve had several – Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and most recently Fukoshima. I tell my son, almost humorously, that Kolkata is becoming almost too hot for human habitation in the summer months. Those who can, drift off to cooler climes. Will Kolkata go the way of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro and become a desert? Who knows, but according to experts deserts are slated to grow in these times of heating climates. Even funnier thoughts invade my mind. I see myself, with a 20-year food supply, lodging myself in the International Space Station, or on the moon, or even on Mars! I don’t expect to live longer than 20 years, so I’ll lie on my back on the surface of Mars, and gaze out at the large blue orb in the sky which will be Planet Earth. This was the last scene in the movie Space Cowboys, starring Clint Eastwood. However, it’s not Clint but one of his cohorts that opts to go to Mars. Maybe those among us that are fortunate enough to be well connected will be able to abandon Planet Earth and leave like rats forsaking a sinking ship. Maybe, as in the Kevin Costner movie Waterworld, there will remain pockets of nominally civilized people floating on a water-logged planet. But how can America allow Florida to go under? That’s the thought that’ll be on my mind as I slowly exhaust my 20-year supply of food and fuel on Mars. A variation of the song goes: Oh planet in the sun, Willed to me by my father’s hand, All my days I will sing in praise, Of your harvest waters, your shining sand. I see woman on bended knee, Currying cane for her family, Saathee.com
Vanishing Rain Forests Most humans love forests for what they are – mysterious greenery that is a joy to explore, with a vibrant eco system consisting of flora and fauna, and a definite benefit for our planet. Yet it is shocking to know that, in the name of progress, slightly more than one acre of forests is cleared on earth every second. That amounts to almost 100,000 acres every day, and more than 34 million acres per year – an area the size of Greece. This is partially offset by new growth and organized tree-planting programs, so the net loss of forests each year amounts to 18 million acres. The biggest direct cause of deforestation is the “slash and burn” technique used to rapidly clear forests for subsistence farming, plantation agriculture, and cattle ranches – mostly in tropical and sub-tropical countries. The carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation are second only to the burning of fossil fuels for the production of electricity and heat as the largest source of global warming pollution on the planet. Indeed, an estimated 15 to 23 percent of annual carbon dioxide emissions – more than that from all the cars and trucks in the world – result from the destruction and burning of forests. The two countries accounting for 60 percent of the total acreage lost in deforestation are Brazil and Indonesia. In Brazil almost 20 percent of the Amazon forest has already been destroyed. After the best wood is removed, the remainder is burned away to make way for cattle and crops. Brazil has been historically sensitive to any efforts by the international community to engage the country in agreements that would give the rest of the world any say in the future of the Amazon. Nevertheless, Brazil has announced a national target of reducing deforestation by 70% by 2017. In August 2008, President Luis Imacio da Silva announced the creation of a fund and a set of new regulations designed to protect the Amazon. However, these new regulations are not yet being effectively enforced. In Indonesia, large peatland forests have been cleared of trees and drained to make way for palm oil plantations. More than 80 percent of the world’s palm oil comes from Indonesia and its next door neighbor Malaysia. In order to accelerate the drying process, the developers of these plantations burn the peatlands. That is why massive clouds of smoke and soot now cover large portions of the South East Asian archipelago every year during the burning season. To add to the problem, both Indonesia and Malaysia have enacted subsidies and other incentives for the rapid expansion of palm oil plantations. Indonesia’s official policy calls for the tripling of palm oil plantations by 2020. After Brazil and Indonesia, the next eight countries that top the list of deforesting nations are: Sudan, Myanmar, Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Congo, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela. The good news is that governments throughout the world continued on page 118
Chandan Sen Contact: chandansen33@hotmail.com
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April 2012