Environment

Greenpeace at war in India

By Rajesh Chhabara – Ethical Corp The Indian government, under the new leadership of Narendi Modi, has taken a harsh line against Greenpeace’s opposition to several development projects – blocking funds and preventing individuals from travelling. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has run into serious trouble in India. The government has barred Greenpeace India from receiving foreign funding and has frozen all its bank accounts. As a result, Greenpeace India has no access to funding, including any new local or foreign funding. The government’s tough stand against Greenpeace is based on a report submitted by the Intelligence Bureau to the prime minister’s office last June when the new federal government was taking charge. The report, leaked to media, calls Greenpeace a “threat to India’s economic and national security”. The report says a number of large development projects have been cancelled, disrupted or delayed because of Greenpeace campaigns against coal mining, coal fired power plants, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), hydro power projects, tea farming practices and several large industrial projects. The intelligence report has named London-based Vedanta’s bauxite project, South Korean company Posco’s steel plant in Odisha state and hydro power projects in Arunachal Pradesh state bordering China as examples of affected projects. The intelligence agency estimates that disruptions to large projects have cut India’s gross domestic product growth by 2-3% a year. Greenpeace has different ideas for India The intelligence agency has noted that Greenpeace and other NGOs are using funds from donors in the US, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands to mobilise protests against development projects in India. The agency alleged that Greenpeace has flouted laws relating to receiving and accounting for foreign funding. It has raised questions about the intentions of a number of expat Greenpeace officials, consultants and journalists who were brought to India for various campaigns […]

Air Shepherd

Air Shepherd, a new initiative of the Lindbergh Foundation, is using sophisticated technology to protect the environment. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) or drones, are successfully stopping the poaching of elephants and rhinos in Africa. They are deployed with advanced infrared surveillance systems and supercomputer-based predictive analytic technology developed at the University of Maryland. • This innovative combination of algorithms and aviation predicts where poaching is likely to happen with 93% accuracy, apprehending poachers before they can kill. Tested on private reserves in southern Africa for two years, in over 650 missions, no animals were killed while Air Shepherd drones were in flight. • SANParks (South African National Parks) announced Thursday that these UAV solutions are an integral part of the current strategy to combat rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park, and that SANParks is in process of evaluating the program over the next year. • There is an alarming increase in animal poaching. In the past year poachers killed nearly 40,000 elephants and over 1,200 rhinos. At this rate both will be extinct within 10 years. Throughout Africa, an estimated 100,000 elephants were killed between 2010-2013 alone. Now, Air Shepherd, has a proven and effective solution to end poaching. Air Shepherd aims to raise $500,000 via crowdfunding to fully implement the program for one year at Kruger National Park with expansion planned over the next year to seven additional African countries. For decades, The Lindbergh Foundation has been a leader in encouraging the use of technology to protect the environment.

Mapping Singapore’s urban heat island phenomenon

Researchers in Singapore are developing a microclimatic modelling tool to prevent further deterioration of the country’s urban heat island phenomenon. Mapping elements like wind flow patterns helps planners build better cities. Copyright: Chensiyuan An urban heat island (UHI) is an urban area that is warmer than the surrounding rural areas due to human economic development. A UHI is also characterised by increased air pollution and decreased relative humidity. In Singapore, where dense urban structures result in the UHI phenomenon, rapid population growth and the expansion of city development are expected to further worsen the quality of urban life. Led by Dr Poh Hee Joo, researchers at the A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) Institute of High Performance Computing are developing an urban microclimatic modelling tool specifically designed for Singapore’s urban landscapes to help city developers draw up UHI countermeasures. The tool provides mapping data for temperature, wind, solar irradiation and shading. It aims to hinder any further rises in temperature and ambient noise, thus improving the liveability of Singapore. “Our multi-physics urban microclimatic modelling tool is considered a pioneer work in the building and urban physics research field. It has great potential for breakthrough and innovation,” says Dr Poh Hee Joo. Three steps were involved in the development of the microclimatic modelling tool. First, the team used computational fluid dynamics (CFD), a fluid flow analysis and simulation method, to produce an urban wind flow and temperature map. Second, they produced a solar irradiance and shading map with daylight simulation. The team then combined the two maps to obtain more accurate urban microclimatic information. As a result, the new tool is capable of providing numeric values to Singapore’s urban microclimatic data. It can also produce high resolution and accurate wind and thermal distribution predictions to an actual urban built-up district, using […]

Water-Man-of-India-gets-Stockholm-Water-Prize

“Water man of India” makes rivers flow again

Revival of traditional rainwater harvesting has transformed the driest state in India, and could be used to combat the effects of climate change across the world. School textbooks in India have been telling children for generations that Rajasthan is an inhospitable state in the northwest of the country, constrained by the hot, hostile sands of the Thar Desert. But the driest state in India has a softer, humane face as well – that of Rajendra Singh, known as the “Water Man of India”, whose untiring efforts in water conservation in arid Rajasthan have led to him being awarded the Stockholm Water Prize, commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize for Water. Singh did not attempt to design a new technology to address Rajasthan’s water problems. He began simply by de-silting several traditional surface level rainwater storage facilities – called “johads” in the local Hindi language − that fell out of use during British colonial rule. And, in doing so, he has quenched the thirst of villages that were dying. Thousands of villages followed his example, and so much water was captured and soaked into aquifers that dry rivers have begun to flow again. Water wars Singh believes that water conservation is vital to combat the effects of climate change and to avoid “water wars” in the future. And such is his reputation on water issues that he received a call from Prince Charles, heir to the UK throne, seeking advice on how to handle the devastating summer floods in England in 2007. In an interview with Climate News Network, Singh recalled how he began making water flow again in perennially dry Rajasthan by inculcating do-it-yourself initiatives in the villagers. He explained: “I imbibed Gandhian ideals during my school days that emphasised working for empowerment of villages. “As an Ayurvedic (traditional […]

Communications around fracking have gone wrong

I’m back from a week surfing in Portugal. It was glorious, as always. Having grown up by the sea I learned to sail at ten, started racing dinghies at 13, collected multiple bumps and bruises, lived on a boat on the Thames in London and, it’s safe to say, I feel at home in the water. Ok, some of us are real water babies, others less so. A friend of mine simply won’t go near the sea for fear of waves. She’s in her thirties but still terrified by its power. Fair enough. Not ideal when it’s your holiday buddy on a surf trip, but hey. You can see what’s coming here. Quite simply, water plays a vital role in our lives – for surfers and non surfers alike. It’s arguably the world’s most precious resource and something we interact with daily. Mineral water providers have long been extolling the virtues of the ‘purest’ water, in a continual game of one-upmanship. One can even buy the ultimate in purity shipped over from Fuji. I just also happen to find it peaceful to be near and in, most of us do. The human body is 60% water so, fundamentally, when we protect it we’re protecting over half of our own selves, our physicality. So, as the pressure on our natural resources grows, the content of our food and water systems becomes increasingly questioned, is it any wonder we hold water in such high regard? Which is how I get to fracking. To begin, I believe clean technology is the answer to our energy future. I want to see us moving away from fossil fuels as fast as feasibly possible, and know wholeheartedly that this is the answer to a sustainable and prosperous economy. But, opinion aside, I am also in the […]

Oil Industry climate risks

Oil giants are failing to disclose to investors the risks posed by climate change, a new report finds Major oil and gas companies are failing to tell investors about the full risks related to both climate change and new forms of resource development, according to a damning report from Ceres, an influential Boston-based coalition of investment and public interest groups. The report looks at the first quarter 2011 Securities and Exchange Commission filings of 10 companies – Apache, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Eni, ExxonMobil, Marathon, Shell, Suncor and Total – and grades the quality of disclosures across issues such as deepwater drilling safety, and preparedness for climate regulation. Of 60 climate-related disclosures, it classed only five as ‘good’, with 34 deemed ‘poor or no disclosure’. Of 50 deepwater drilling rates, it says only four were ‘good’, with 29 ‘poor or no disclosure’. None of the disclosures was rated ‘excellent’, meaning even the best companies could do better. Ceres says energy companies have taken on increasingly risky projects, without updating investors of the potential liabilities. The Deepwater Horizon disaster – which cost BP $86bn when including the effect on its share price – showed the potential impact of the new types of exploration, it says. “While companies are making extensive capital investments related to climate change and deepwater drilling that carry material financial risks, they are generally failing to adequately disclose them consistent with SEC rules and growing investor expectations,” the report says. In fact, BP comes out better than most on deepwater disclosure. It gets ‘good disclosure’ marks in four of five categories ÐÊthough Ceres says there is still room for improvement. “Since [Deepwater Horizon] they’ve had 86bn reasons to concentrate very intently on offshore safety, and that’s reflected in their improved disclosure,” says Andrew Logan, director of Ceres’s oil and […]

How eggshell recycling could save waste and create new materials

by Ray Cooling It must be the ultimate in recycling … using previously unwanted eggshells to protect eggs! The project devised by scientists working in the United Kingdom plans to turn eggshells into plastics that could be used to manufacture anything from food packaging to construction materials. Part of project will see matter extracted from eggshells that may prove valuable in the pharmaceuticals industry. A research project at the University of Leicester, central England is looking at eggs and eggshells in a fresh light and is being funded by the UK’s Food and Drink iNet (innovation network). The plan is to find useful ways of recycling eggshells that are currently regarded as waste by food producers and which has to be disposed of in landfill sites at serious cost. The Food and Drink iNet is supporting the project with the university to discover innovative ideas of using eggshells practically in various ways to be seen as income generating by egg producers, rather than a financial drain on their business. Scientists in the Department of Chemistry at Leicester University who specialise in ‘green chemistry’ and sustainable materials are looking at how to extract glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), proteins that are found in eggshells. GAGs are used in numerous biomedical applications and could prove useful in pharmaceuticals. The Just Egg company in Leicester is a hard-boiled egg and mayonnaise manufacturer that uses about 1.3 million eggs every week, creating 10 tonnes of eggshells. The firm spends about 30,000 pounds a year sending 480 tonnes of shells to landfill for disposal. Managing director Pankaj Pancholi believes the research could bring big benefits to the food and drink sector. “If I wasn’t spending the 30,000 pounds a year on landfill costs I could employ another worker or two part-time workers, or invest that money in research […]

Urban agriculture: Growing food in our cities

City dwellers have been growing their own food for millennia, but the concept of urban agriculture been formally recognised in research and public policy since the mid 1990s. Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has played a leading role in forging this new discipline and raising awareness of it. In issue 25 of Urban Agriculture Magazine – RUAF 10 years, IDRC program officer and urban agriculture (UA) specialist Luc Mougeot traces the achievements of this young field and the challenges its practitioners face. Taking the lead Before the 1990s, interest in unregulated ‘city farming’ had been largely confined to academic research, often conducted by individual scholars who approached UA primarily from the viewpoint of the informal economy. The rising costs of energy and food, water shortages, and worries about food safety shifted the perspective on city farming toward concerns like food security, eco-development, and self-reliance. Later still, it moved toward urban environmental management and sustainability issues such as waste recycling. In the early 1990s development assistance organisations began placing UA on their agendas. Mougeot traces this growing attention to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. UNCEDÕs Agenda 21 plan encouraged local governments to become involved in managing city environments. In the same year the United Nations Development Programme, as Mougeot puts it, “invited IDRC to take the lead on UA.” IDRC’s efforts accelerated to become a full program of work, highlighted by two phases of its ambitious Cities Feeding People research initiative carried out from 1996 to 2005. Bearing fruit Also during that decade, local governments worldwide began paying attention to UA and raising the issue in international forums, particularly the United Nations. One important side-effect of this shift was that the UN system became more receptive to implementing its own initiatives […]

Report on LNG Project in PNG warns of major challenges

A new report on the impacts of the multi-billion dollar Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project in Papua New Guinea highlights the industry’s achievements in addressing social change but warns of continuing major concerns that need to be addressed. The report, The Community Good Examining the Influence of the PNG LNG Project in the Hela Region of Papua New Guinea, finds that, although the project has boosted the local economy through employment, the project is fuelling community tensions because of inadequate community awareness-raising, belief that the process of landowner identification is flawed and community concern about how project benefits will be shared. At the same time, the report notes the potential for resolution through constructive stakeholder dialogue. The Liquefied Natural Gas Project (LNGP) will extract natural gas from the Hela region in the Highlands, condition and send it to the coast for liquefaction before exporting the gas to overseas markets. The initial construction phase of the LNGP began in 2010, with its completion expected in 2014. Oxfam New Zealand’s Executive Director, Barry Coates said this report was an important reminder that while large-scale resource-extraction projects could deliver economic development benefits, it was vital that they also resulted in enduring improvements to human well-being. This was not always an easy task, but it certainly was possible. “Throughout this research, the voices of the people of Hela Province can be heard – loud and clear,” Mr Coates said. “We hope that decision makers give proper consideration to this important study to ensure that benefits from the LNG project are maximised for all citizens of Papua New Guinea, particularly women and children in those communities where the impact of the project will be the greatest.” “All stakeholders must take responsibility to ensure that the project does not cause harm to local people. The New […]

Businesses not adapting to climate change

Companies are failing to develop the resilience they will need to cope with climate change, say two business experts from The University of Queensland. Dr Martina Linnenluecke and Professor Andrew Griffiths of UQ Business School have spent 10 years working with businesses to develop climate change strategies. “Companies should be planning now to safeguard their long-term future,” Dr Linnenluecke said. “Climate change is upon us but the business community has not yet fully considered the implications. “Some firms are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there has been little discussion of how to cope with the physical impact of climate change. “Temperatures are gradually rising, but even more concerning is the increase in extreme weather.” Storms, floods and other climate events were likely to be more damaging for businesses than higher temperatures, and few areas would escape the effects. “Even where businesses sustain no direct damage, they are likely to be affected by power cuts or damage to infrastructure,” Dr Linnenluecke said. “With companies increasingly reliant on high-tech systems, any outages can result in large-scale disruption.” Dr Linnenluecke and Professor Griffiths’ book, The Climate Resilient Organization, argues that businesses have two courses of action: reducing greenhouse gas emissions to try to prevent further climate change, and adapting to change. “We say companies need to do both,” she said. “Unless we make attempts to avert climate change, it could become so severe that we will be unable to adapt at all. However, even with the most stringent efforts, we cannot fully avoid the impact. “We will have to learn to adapt to gradual changes, such as the rise in temperatures, and also build the resilience required to be able to recover quickly from extreme weather incidents.” Dr Linnenluecke said companies also should look at how they could take advantage of any opportunities associated […]

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