Monday 31 March 2014

The Rising Cost of Climate Impacts in India

The Rising Cost of Climate Impacts in India

The impacts of climate change over the last few years have been growing in scale and suffering as the poorest and the most vulnerable in India take the biggest hit. Take the recent crop devastation caused by unprecedented hail storms in central and southern India where over a 100 farmers committed suicide unable to bear the debt they accrued with another year of massive losses. It is hard not to see the climate connect when for many regions that suffered this storm, the precipitation was the highest ever in their recorded history. The state of Maharashtra, the worst hit by the storm is in fact yet to recover from the worst drought it had seen in 40 years that affected 30 million people in the summer of 2013.  Such incidents reinforce the vicious cycle that put farmers in perennial debt.
If erratic rainfall is one issue, the intensity of it is another. We don’t have to look too far into our past to remind us of the biblical floods that ravaged the state of Uttarakhand in June last year. An incredible downpour swallowed over 5000 lives and put a dent in the state’s tourism for a long time to come. The frequency and intensity of cyclones battering India has also gone up in the last decade. A case in point is cyclone Phailin, a freak superstorm that left a trail of destruction in its path across the eastern coast of India in August ‘13.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that further inaction on climate change will only exacerbate the erratic rainfall patterns, crop loss, heat waves, droughts and other extreme weather events in India. The challenge as expected does not limit itself to the poorest, as we are beginning to witness indirect effects of extreme weather in the form of rising food prices and ever burgeoning costs of relief and rehabilitation.
Acting on climate change in the Indian context involves both mitigation and adaptation. Proactive measures need to be taken to support people in staving off the worst impacts of extreme weather whilst creating a vision of development that does not focus on aggravating the problem by increasing carbon emissions through our dependence on fossil fuels.
As the world’s largest democracy goes to polls this year, a lot is at stake for the future of those teeming millions of Indians who are barely making ends meet. As political parties of all hues and colours promise development, it is difficult yet important to separate the wheat from the chaff and so far it’s all been chaff. Development that pulls over 300 million people out of poverty is a national imperative but the current policies and polity of parties across the spectrum grossly ignore the impacts of climate change on their well adorned development driven manifestos.
(Below are images of the hail storm in Maharashtra and the cyclone Phailin in Odisha)
House of Ch Ruby in PodampettaHailstorm

IPCC Report: “Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change.”

IPCC Report: “Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) launched its latest report in Yokohama, Japan, earlier today which deals with the risk to society due to climate change and how to manage this risk.
The main conclusion from the report is that  climate change is already having sweeping effects on every continent and throughout the world’s oceans. Scientists warned that the problems will grow substantially worse unless greenhouse emissions are brought under control.
In the words of Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the intergovernmental panel:
“Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change.”

With regards to adaptation, the report concludes that while some may be able to adapt to some of these changes, this can only happens within limits. According to the IPCC, the world can no longer choose to either pollute and adapt, or to mitigate without adapting. We are now required to both manage the impacts hitting us already while preventing the impacts of the future.
Below is a summary of the main findings around climate risk alongside links to a series of global stories written by 350.org highlighting the reality of climate change affecting the lives of communities worldwide adding to the need for immediate climate action.
SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS
Increased food insecurity due to more intense droughts, floods, and heat waves in a warmer world, especially for poorer countries.
Increased water insecurity, due for example to shrinking of glaciers that act as key water resources for various regions around the world, and through changing precipitation patterns.
Consequently, IPCC anticipates that violent conflicts like civil wars will become more common.
Number of people exposed to river floods is projected to increase.
Continued sea-level rise will also cause submergence, flooding, and erosion of coastal regions and low-lying areas.
Ocean acidification poses significant risk for marine ecosystems; coral reefs in particular.
The general risk of species extinctions rises as the planet warms.
The report also estimates that global surface warming of approximately 2°C above current temperatures may lead to global income losses of 0.2 to 2.0 percent.
Thus, failing to curb human-caused global warming poses major risks to the global economy.
The IPCC reports that many of these climate risks can be reduced by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and thus avoiding the worst climate change scenarios. The IPCC states that risks associated with reduced agricultural yields, water scarcity, inundation of coastal infrastructure from sea-level rise, and adverse impacts from heat waves, floods, and droughts can be reduced by cutting human greenhouse gas emissions.
In short ..
The only way to minimize these devastating impacts is to keep much of known coal, oil and gas reserves in the ground. We simply cannot allow the fossil fuel industry to continue their business as usual.
This latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) serves as an urgent warning that the world is running out of time to transition away from fossil fuels and towards a low-carbon future.
Read below 350.org’s climate impacts stories from around the world highlighting the reality of climate change:
INDIA:  The Rising Cost of Climate Impacts in India

Sunday 30 March 2014

WHO: air pollution 'is single biggest environmental health risk'

WHO: air pollution 'is single biggest environmental health risk'


Heavy pollution fog on New Delhi, India
India Gate can barely be seen through smog in Delhi. Around 4.3 million deaths in 2012 were caused by indoor air pollution, mostly from wood and coal stoves in Asia. Photograph: Louis Dowse/Corbis
Air pollution has become the world's single biggest environmental health risk, linked to around 7 million – or nearly one in eight deaths in 2012 – according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The new figures are more than double previous estimates and suggest that outdoor pollution from traffic fumes and coal-burning, and indoor pollution from wood and coal stoves, kills more people than smoking, road deaths and diabetes combined.
Around 80% of the 3.7 million deaths from outdoor pollution came as a result of stroke and heart disease, 11% from lung diseases and 6% from cancers. The vast majority were in Asia, with 180,000 in the Americas and Europe combined, said the WHO.
Indoor air pollution led to 4.3 million deaths, of which 34% were caused by strokes, 26% heart diseases and 12% respiratory disease in children. Only 19,000 of these deaths were in rich countries, with the vast majority being in low- and middle-income countries. Because many people are exposed to both indoor and outdoor air pollution, the WHO said deaths attributed to the two sources cannot be added together.
"The risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought or understood, particularly for heart disease and strokes," said Maria Neira, director of WHO's department for public health, environmental and social determinants of health. "Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution; the evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe."
South-east Asia, said the WHO, is now the most polluted region in the world, with 3.3 million deaths linked to indoor air pollution and 2.6 million deaths related to outdoor air pollution. This reflects the explosive growth of cities and industrial development in China and India, as well as continuing deep poverty in rural areas.
Indoor pollution due to cooking open fire : Kagera, Tanzania A woman breastfeeds her baby while another prepares food on an open fire indoor in Kagera, Tanzania. Women had higher levels of exposure than men in developing countries. Photograph: Jochem Wijnands/Alamy The new estimates are based not on an significant increase in pollution, but on improved knowledge of the links between air pollutants and heart diseases and cancers, in addition to known links with respiratory diseases. A 2008 WHO report estimated that outdoor pollution led to about 1.3 million deaths, while about 1.9 million people were killed by indoor pollution. A Lancet study last year suggested that the surge in car use in south and east Asia killed 2.1 million people prematurely in 2010. Last year, WHO's cancer agency classified air pollution as a carcinogen, linking dirty air to lung and bladder cancer.
"Cleaning up the air we breathe prevents non-communicable diseases as well as reduces disease risks among women and vulnerable groups, including children and the elderly," said Dr Flavia Bustreo, WHO assistant director general of family, women and children's health. "Poor women and children pay a heavy price from indoor air pollution since they spend more time at home breathing in smoke and soot from leaky coal and wood cook stoves."
Martin Williams, professor of air quality at the environmental research group, King's College London, said: "This is an important study, and although the majority of attributable deaths occur in south-east Asia and the western Pacific, air pollution impacts on mortality and health are still a significant public health problem in Europe, including the UK."
Air pollution is increasingly linked with ill health and deaths in rich countries as traffic emissions rise. In the US, air pollution causes about 200,000 early deaths a year, with emissions from cars and trucks causing 53,000 and power generation 52,000, according to MIT's environment laboratory. California suffers most from air pollution, with 21,000 early deaths.
In Europe, poor air quality is the top environmental cause of premature deaths in the EU, causing more than 100,000 premature deaths a year and costing from £300bn-£800bn a year in extra health costs, said Janez Potočnik, the EU environment commissioner.
Air pollution causes 29,000 early deaths a year in the UK and similar numbers in France and Germany.

LIFETIME ASSESSMENT OF NH3 - PLANTS, A PRACTICAL APPROACH FOR LIFETIME EXTENSION

LIFETIME ASSESSMENT OF NH3 - PLANTS,  A PRACTICAL APPROACH FOR LIFETIME EXTENSION
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With best regards,
(2014)
Dr. AMAR NATH GIRI
EHSQ , NFCL
amarnathgiri@nagarjunagroup.com
M.Sc.,Ph.D & DIPLOMA AS - P.G.D.E.P.L,CES, DCA,
EX IIM LUCKNOW FELLOW, EX RESEARCH SCIENTIST
IGIDR-MUMBAI 
EHSQ BLOG : http://dramarnathgiri.blogspot.in/?view=magazine