Indian environmental activist wins ‘Green Nobel’ for fighting against mining industry

Associated Press | Gare | April 28, 2014 6:00 pm

In this April 15, 2014 photo, India's Ramesh Agrawal walks outside his shop during an interview in Raigarh in Chhattisgarh state, India. (AP)

Summary

For a decade, Agrawal, who has no formal legal training, has been waging a one-man campaign against the mining industry

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The man walked into Ramesh Agrawal’s tiny Internet cafe, pulled out a pistol and hissed, “You talk too much.”  Then he fired two bullets into Agrawal’s left leg and fled on a motorcycle.
The 2012 attack came three months after Agrawal won a court case that blocked a major Indian company, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd., from opening a second coal mine near the village of Gare in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh.
For a decade, Agrawal, who has no formal legal training,  has been waging a one-man campaign to educate illiterate villagers about their rights in fighting pollution and land-grabbing by powerful mining and electricity companies. He’s won three lawsuits against major corporations and has spearheaded seven more pending in courts.
“When I started this fight, I knew I’d be a target. It will happen again. Let it happen. I’m not going anywhere,” the soft-spoken yoga enthusiast said in an interview this month in the city of Raigarh, where he hobbled around his modest home with a cane and a metal brace screwed into his shattered femur.
On Monday, Agrawal, 60, will be recognized in a ceremony in San Francisco as one of six recipients of this year’s $175,000 Goldman Environmental Prize, often called the “Green Nobel.”
Among the other winners are former corporate lawyer Helen Slottje who fought fracking, pumping chemicals and water underground to break open shale rock formations in New York state, and South Africa’s Desmond D’Sa who closed down one of the country’s largest toxic dumping sites. The award was established in 1990 with a grant from philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman to honor grass-roots environmental activists in the six regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, Island Nations, North America and Latin America.
“This is the biggest milestone in my life,” Agrawal said of the award, which he flew to California to receive. “But it also makes me sad, that someone in a foreign country who I don’t even know is willing to do so much for us, while so many people here don’t even know us or want to help.”
Activists, lawyers and analysts in India say that’s changing as hundreds if not thousands of small, scrappy movements are challenging building and mining projects that local residents believe will damage the environment, undermine their livelihoods or even uproot them from their homes.
“People are gaining confidence and losing patience,” environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta said in New Delhi. “These are not established activist groups or nonprofits like Greenpeace campaigning on global issues like climate change. These are regular, everyday people worried about their survival, and their voices of dissent are forcing India to change.”
Villagers in the central state of Madhya Pradesh have won national TV coverage for thei cause by standing neck-deep in water for days to protest large hydro-power dam projects that would flood their farms and homes. Apple growers in northeast Himachal Pradesh are suing dam builders who they say have tunneling plans that will damage their orchards.
“People used to say, ‘You can’t fight with the big guys.’ But once we started winning a few cases, people started believing in themselves and believing in this country again,” Agrawal said.
India’s rapid economic growth over the past decade has boosted the incomes and living standards of millions, mostly city-dwellers.
But the environmental impact has often been ignored, and the rural poor largely left behind. The 400 million Indians who live on less than Rs 75 a day are dubious about their economic prospects, particularly those who have lost their land or been forced to live with poisoned groundwater, dirty air and fetid rivers.
“Why should these villagers pay for development that is defined by shopping malls and luxury items?” Agrawal asked. “We have to redefine what development means, and decide if it’s for the few or the many.”
Environmental activists are also increasingly facing violence,  at least 908 have been killed in 35 countries over the past decade, including six in India, according to a report this month by the London-based Global Witness group.
After he was shot, Agrawal’s attackers turned themselves in, revealing themselves to be Jindal Steel & Power’s security guards. But police never linked the attack with the Indian company.
He also has been jailed for 72 days on what he said were false charges of extortion and defamation that were later dismissed.
In the village of Gare, where Agrawal has helped villagers voice their objections to Jindal’s plans for more mining operations, the earth shakes violently for a half-hour each morning as workmen blast a gaping coal pit with dynamite, sending clouds of black dust billowing up. The acrid smell of smoke hangs in the air, already hazy yellow from the nearby power plant pollution.
The company has been mining coal in the area for several years, but Gare and the neighboring villages of Sarasmal and Kosampali have seen little economic benefit. No new schools or hospital clinics have been built, and only a few dozen menial labor jobs were offered after protests by residents, who were once self-sufficient growing rice and vegetables, villagers said.
There are, however, new roads on which dozens of uncovered coal trucks rattle through communities every day with coal dust blowing off the back.
“For six years I have been sick,” 55-year-old villager Sushila Choudhury said through bloodshot eyes and the wheezing cough of an asthmatic. “Why are they doing this to us? We haven’t done anything wrong.”
Dr. Harihar Patel, the area’s only trained doctor for 10 kilometers (six miles), said he’s seen a jump in the number of people with asthma and other lung ailments, skin lesions and exhaustion.
“The system is not working properly. The rich get richer, and the government supports them over us,” Patel said. “Twenty years ago we had no idea this could happen to us, to our land and our water.”
Agrawal began researching the rights of the poor in confronting corporations in 2005, after becoming alarmed by the sudden influx of industry into his home state of Chhattisgarh. In 2010, he won his first court victory in blocking Indian company Scania Steel & Power Ltd. from expanding a coal-burning power plant without clearance.
He’s been helped by some legal tools along the way. In 2005, India passed a law giving citizens the right to review public records. Six years later, India launched a separate environmental court system that gave any citizen the right to demand a hearing on environmental matters.
Two years ago, the court ruled on a lawsuit filed by Agrawal on behalf of Gare residents to revoke Jindal’s clearance for a second mine in the area. Jindal has since reapplied for clearance to mine in the village, and Agrawal is preparing another suit to block it.
“We have to look after the environment, or there will be hundreds of thousands of people with nothing, no employment, no money, no farmland, no forests,” he said. “They will end up cutting each other’s throats just to survive.”

Primates in Laboratories

Every year in the U.S., more than 125,000 primates are imprisoned in laboratories, where they are abused and killed in invasive, painful, and terrifying experiments. While it is well known that nonhuman primates are sensitive, intelligent beings who share many important biological and psychological characteristics with humans, these very attributes, unfortunately, make them prime targets for experimenters, who treat them as if they were disposable pieces of laboratory equipment. The U.S. even holds the dishonorable distinction of being the only nation in the world, other than Gabon, that continues to conduct invasive experiments on chimpanzees.

How Primates End Up in Laboratories Primates abused in experiments are bred in government or commercial facilities, born in laboratories, or captured in the wild in countries such as China, Cambodia, and the island of Mauritius.

Babies born in laboratories are forcibly torn from their screaming mothers and permanently separated from them—usually within three days of birth. Numerous investigations have found that in order to abduct primates from their homes in the wild, trappers often shoot mothers from trees, stun the animals with dart guns, and then capture the babies, who cling, panic-stricken, to their mothers’ bodies. Some wildlife traders catch whole primate families in baited traps. The animals are packed into tiny crates with little to no food or water and are taken to filthy holding centers, where they await long and terrifying trips in the cargo holds of passenger airlines. Their destination: laboratories or breeding centers in Europe, Israel, or the U.S..
Deprivation
After enduring a traumatic separation from their families and/or homes, primates in laboratories are usually confined to barren steel cages—a far cry from the lush forests and savannahs where they would otherwise live. In their natural habitats, nonhuman primates may travel for miles, foraging for a variety of foods, socializing with family and friends, climbing hills, swinging from vines, swimming in rivers, scampering across fields, and cavorting with their companions.

In laboratories, these animals have barely enough room to sit, stand, lie down, or turn around. The rich days full of sensory stimulation that they should be experiencing are replaced by days that are devoid of color, scent, and almost every other type of environmental enrichment. At most, the primates in laboratories are given cheap plastic toys, scratched mirrors, and the occasional slice of apple or banana.
Loneliness, Boredom, and Insanity

Research shows that 90 percent of primates in laboratories exhibit abnormal behaviors that are caused by the physical abuse, psychological stress, social isolation, and barren confinement that they are forced to endure. Many go insane, rocking back and forth, pacing endlessly in the cages, and engaging in repetitive motions such as back-flipping. They even engage in acts of self-mutilation, including tearing out their own hair or biting their own flesh.
Video footage taken inside Covance, the University of Utah, and the Oregon National Primate Research Center illustrates the extent of the insanity that can result when primates are completely deprived of meaningful sensory stimulation.
Pain and Misery
Besides having their most fundamental needs and desires disregarded, primates imprisoned in laboratories are subjected to painful and traumatic procedures, including the following:

• Pharmaceutical tests: In these tests, thick gavage tubes are forced up primates’ nostrils or down the animals’ throats so that experimental drugs can be pumped into their stomachs—even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that animal tests have an appalling 92 percent failure rate in predicting the safety and/or effectiveness of pharmaceuticals. Video footage taken by a whistleblower inside SNBL reveals the anguish and trauma that monkeys used in pharmaceutical tests endure.

• Vaccine tests: Chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys are given infectious diseases and then used as test subjects for experimental vaccines. Even though decades of these experiments on primates have failed to produce effective vaccines for humans, monkeys are still infected with HIV-like diseases that cause them to suffer acute weight loss, major organ failure, breathing problems, and neurological disorders before they die excruciatingly painful deaths or are killed.
• Military experiments and training: In recent experiments conducted by the military, primates were exposed to anthrax and infected with botulism and bubonic plague. In archaic chemical casualty training exercises that were ended after protests from PETA, squirrel monkeys were poisoned with nerve agents that caused them to convulse, even though human-patient simulators exist and provide more effective training.
• Maternal-deprivation experiments: These unbelievably cruel studies began more than five decades ago when Harry Harlow infamously pulled baby primates away from their mothers, giving them only rag dolls or noxious wire “mothers” as substitutes. Even though we know the negative implications of separating babies from their mothers, similar experiments are conducted today at places such as the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Wake Forest University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Washington, where infant monkeys are torn from their mothers in order intentionally to cause psychological trauma and examine the harm that results. In some recent egregious studies, experimenters looked at the connection between maternal deprivation and whether the baby monkeys became right-handed or left-handed or how it affected the animals’ alcohol-drinking behavior later in life.

• Invasive brain experiments: In disturbingly common experiments at universities across the country—including the University of Utah, the University of California—San Francisco, and the University of Washington, monkeys have holes drilled into their skulls, metal restraint devices screwed into their heads, and electrodes inserted into their brains. Experimenters at Columbia University caused strokes in baboons by removing their left eyeballs and using the empty eye sockets to clamp critical blood vessels leading to their brains. Some animals have portions of their brains destroyed or removed to impair their cognitive function or cripple them. These sensitive, intelligent animals then have their bodies immobilized in restraint chairs and their heads bolted into place as they are forced to perform a variety of behavioral tasks while their brain activity is recorded. In order to coerce the monkeys to cooperate, they are sometimes deprived of water for up to 24 hours at a time. When the experiments conclude, most of the animals are killed and their brains are removed and dissected.

Read more: http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/primates-laboratories/#ixzz3098grqeq

Introduction to Compressed Breathing Air

Introduction to Compressed Breathing Air

Compressed air has many applications, including its use in Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA). This document provides some practical information about the tests needed to guarantee SCBA Breathing Air Quality as described in the following:

 Air Composition
Common Air Contamination Sources
Carbon Monoxide (CO) Contamination
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Contamination
Oxygen (O2) Level Control
Total Hydrocarbon Content (THC as methane)
Oil (Consensable Mist/Vapor) and Particulate Matter
Water Vapor (H2O), Content, and Dew Point
Odor Evaluation

Air Composition

Clean, natural air is an odorless, colorless gas mixture.  Excluding water vapor (H2O) levels, which vary greatly, three major elements make up about 99.97% of dry air: nitrogen (N2) at 78.09%, oxygen (O2) at 20.95% and argon (Ar) at 0.93%.  An important minor component of natural air is carbon dioxide (CO2) at 0.03% (300 ppm).  Trace gases in clean, natural air include: methane (CH4) at 0.0002% (2 ppm) and less than 0.0001% (1 ppm) of hydrogen (H2), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone (O3) and some noble gases.  Synthetic air is also used in SCBA applications. This type of air is produced by blending N2 and O2 gas in the proper proportions.

The importance of clean breathing air to sustaining life and maintaining good health is well known.  The dangers associated with breathing contaminated air are also well known and especially critical when using SCBA tanks in emergency situations.  To ensure SCBA air quality, NFPA 1404 (Sec. 7-1.1) requires a minimum CGA G-7.1 Grade D air quality, at least a 3-month air sampling schedule and a test record maintenance program. Many fire and rescue department programs have opted to use CGA G-7.1 Grade E (the minimum SCUBA grade for diving to 130 ft.) as their minimum SCBA air standard.

  Common Air Contamination Sources

Industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust, combustion heating activities and local environmental conditions can seriously degrade the quality of intake air used during compression. Compressor equipment, malfunctions and poor maintenance or operational practices can also introduce contaminants into SCBA air tanks.

 Carbon Monoxide (CO) Contamination

CO (a colorless, odorless gas) ranks as the most dangerous compressed air contaminant. Headaches, dizziness, unconsciousness and death can result from exposure to elevated CO levels. High-pressure compressors are often equipped with a catalyst which converts CO into much less toxic CO2. Both CGA G-7.1 Grades D and E (the most widely recognized SCBA air quality grades) list a 10 ppm maximum CO content. If a good air supply and a properly functioning, efficient compressor are in use, CO levels will be less than 1 ppm. Detectable CO levels above 1 - 2.5 ppm are abnormal and require further investigation.

 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Contamination

Normal CO2 levels in outdoor air (i.e. 200 - 400 ppm) or indoor air (i.e. 500 - 2,500 ppm) are not considered hazardous. However, compressed air with CO2 levels that are within the "indoor air range" can create problems in SCBA applications. Some compressors are equipped with filters to reduce CO2 levels. CGA G-7.1 lists a 1,000 ppm maximum for Grade D and a 500 ppm maximum for Grade E air. High CO2 levels in SCBA tanks can produce many of the same symptoms as CO poisoning (see above). In addition, high CO2 levels increase breathing rates, which shorten SCBA usage time. One of the most common causes of SCBA air quality failures is excessive CO2 content.

 Oxygen (O2) Level Control

The O2 level in compressed air derived from natural or synthetic air should fall within a narrow % range. CGA G-7.1 lists an allowable 19.5 - 23.5% range for Grade D and a tighter 20 - 22% range for Grade E air. Most compressed natural air samples will have test values of 21% ± 0.5. Synthetic air samples tend to have a slightly wider, but acceptable, O2 range.

 Total Hydrocarbon Content (TH as methane)

Several thousand types of organic gases and vapors are potentially present in air. Volatile organic contaminants can be man-made (e.g. gasoline vapor, exhaust fumes, cleaning solvents, lube oil vapor) or the result of biogenic activities (e.g. marsh gas, mold, mildew). Many organic vapors are hazardous and/or have irritating odors. A common feature of these volatile organic materials is that they contain 1 or more hydrogen (H) + carbon (C) atom. Since it is impractical to measure each type of organic contaminant present, they are measured as a group and described as a "Total Hydrocarbon Content" (TH).

The instrument used to measure TH responds to the total amount of H+C containing molecules present. Since methane gas standards are used to calibrate this instrument, TH results are reported in "ppm v/v as methane" units. CGA G-7.1 does not list a TH limit for Grade D air, but sets a 25 ppm TH maximum for Grade E air. Clean, natural air has a TH value of about 2 ppm due to the normal presence of methane at 2 ppm. Compressed synthetic air can have TH values of less than 1 ppm. TH Values for compressed air that are greater than about 5 ppm are abnormal and require further investigation. High-pressure compressors are usually equipped with odor filters (e.g. activated charcoal filters) that remove many organic vapors. A high TH value could indicate, for example, charcoal filter saturation and the presence of lube oil degradation mist/vapors.

 Oil (Condensable Mist/Vapor) and Particulate Matter

Air compressors, including non-lubricated models, utilize some type of lubricating fluid. Many compressors contain either mineral or synthetic lubricants (e.g. oil). Even with particle, oil and odor filters, it is still possible for oil (e.g. aerosol mist or vapor) or fine particulates (e.g. dust, dirt, powders, wear particles, pollen, spores) to contaminate SCBA air if a mechanical malfunction occurs or there has been poor maintenance. The proper sampling of compressed air for oil mist/vapor and particulates is difficult because these contaminants are not evenly distributed in the air stream and can condense on tank walls or within regulators. Re-introduction of oil mist/vapor and particulates into the air stream can occur under the right conditions.

Sampling procedures involve connecting a filter assembly to the compressor outlet, SCBA tank or a filled sample cylinder and passing a known amount of air through the pre-weighed filter. The total weight of oil plus particulates trapped is measured in a laboratory. Both CGA G-7.1 Grades D and E list a 5 mg/m3 (0.005 mg/L = 5 ppm w/v) maximum for oil mist/vapor at Normal Temperature and Pressure (NTP = 20° [68°F] and 1 atm [14.7 psia = 101 kPa abs = 760 mm Hg]). Detectable oil levels above 0.1 - 0.3 mg/m3 are abnormal and require further investigation.

 Water Vapor (H2O) Content and Dew Point

The dew point is the temperature at which H2O vapor will start to condense from air. This value depends upon the air's H2O vapor content and pressure. The H2O vapor content of intake air ranges from saturated to very dry. Saturation levels are in the low % range. For example, at 20°C (68°F) air can hold 2.3% H2O vapor (23,100 ppm v/v = 34 mg/L). At 40°C (104°F) this value is 6.8% (68,400 ppm v/v = 51 mg/L). The amount of H2O vapor that gets into SCBA air depends on the intake air level and filter efficiency. SCBA air is required to be dry enough to prevent malfunctions (e.g. air flow blockage) due to internal condensation or icing caused by expansion cooling past regulators. High H2O levels can also inhibit catalysts that convert CO into CO2. CGA G-7.1 does not list an H2O limit for Grade D or E air. However, SCBA air must either have a maximum H2O content of 63 ppm (0.05 mg/l), which corresponds to a -50°F dew point, or an H2O vapor maximum (ppm) resulting in a dew point that is 10°F lower than the coldest temperature expected for SCBA use. Therefore, H2O vapor limits for SCBA air are essentially dependent on the geographic region. CGA dew point limits are not pressure values but refer to "dew point over ice at 1 atm."

 Odor Evaluation

Clean air is odorless. Many air compressors have filters to remove odors. Both CGA G-7.1 Grades D and E require that "no pronounced odor" be present in compressed air. Since the sensory response of the human nose is highly variable and extremely sensitive to certain odors, evaluation of "odor" is highly subjective. If there is a slight odor, this may be abnormal. We suggest further investigation.

Weak monsoon forecast, El Nino monster worry bankers

• 

The `normal-to-below-normal' monsoon forecast of India Meteorological Department (IMD) for June through September period coupled with a 60% probability of El-Nino hitting India have got bankers and economists worried once again on rising commodity prices in the days to come.
About 65% of India's population are dependent on agriculture which in turn contributes 16-18% to the GDP growth. Adverse rainfall is thus seen hitting rural spends and hence consumption levels.
Bankers feel the time is too early for Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to call for a rate hike.
They said a sharp rise in food inflation and a drop in growth rates could put RBI in a quandary once again. Any hike in rates could be detrimental to growth and employment levels unless inflation soars to double digits again, bankers said.
``If monsoons are below average there will certainly be a drop in agriculture production, pressure on food subsidies and inflation," said K Harihar, treasury head at FirstRand.
Another banker said food inflation may not be an immediate concern as India has sufficient food-grain stock owing to satisfactory monsoon in 2013. Food grain production in FY13 was lower from the earlier year's 259.30 million tons at 255.4 million tons. However, in FY14, it rose to 263 million tons, according to the statistics available with the agriculture ministry.
One economist said GDP of 4.9% during 2013-14 was largely on account of a good monsoon that led to a marked improvement in agriculture produce. "In fact agro sector could witness a de-growth due to the higher base effect we are now venturing into," he added.
The current year's monsoon forecast at 96% ± 5% of long period model average (LPMA), is not totally governed by El-Nino – changes in weather conditions that leads to droughts, floods, and drop in crop yields – as there were other parameters based on which the monsoon has been categorised normal to below normal, said an IMD official.
``We would wait and see the intensity of El Nino on India and come out with monthly updates," he said on condition of anonymity.
El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), an index that helps seasonal operational forecasts for rainfall during the southwest monsoon season, has been neutral in the equatorial Pacific but there has been a rise in temperatures that could have an effect on Indian monsoon, he added.

Handling Of Chlorine Safety dos and donts

Handling Of Chlorine Safety dos and donts

Do's and Dont's

Earth Day 2014: Green Cities

Earth Day 2014: Green Cities

 

Every year on April 22, over a billion people in 190 countries take action for Earth Day. From San Francisco to San Juan, Beijing to Brussels, Moscow to Marrakesh, people plant trees, clean up their communities, contact their elected officials, and more—all on behalf of the environment.
Like Earth Days of the past, Earth Day 2014 will focus on the unique environmental challenges of our time. As the world’s population migrates to cities, and as the bleak reality of climate change becomes increasingly clear, the need to create sustainable communities is more important than ever. Earth Day 2014 will seek to do just that through its global theme: Green Cities. With smart investments in sustainable technology, forward-thinking public policy, and an educated and active public, we can transform our cities and forge a sustainable future. Nothing is more
powerful than the collective action of a billion people.

" I appeal to all people everywhere to raise their voices. Speak out on behalf of this planet, our only home. Let us care for Mother Earth so she can continue to care for us as she has done for millennia. "

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Earth Day 2014 will focus on green cities, mobilizing a millions of people to create a sustainable, healthy environment by greening communities worldwide. Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. As the urban population grows and the effects of climate change worsen, our cities have to evolve.
It’s time for us to invest in efficiency and renewable energy, rebuild our cities and towns, and begin to solve the climate crisis. Over the next two years, with a focus on Earth Day 2014, the Green Cities campaign will mobilize a global movement to accelerate this transition. Join us in calling for a new era of green cities.

Harmony with Nature

The world has been slow to respond to the emergencies posed by global warming and the damage human activities are causing the planet. In 1972, the United Nations organized the first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. It marked the beginning of a global awareness of the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species, and our planet.

International Mother Earth Day promotes a view of the Earth as the entity that sustains all living things found in nature. It honors the Earth as a whole and our place within it. It does not seek to replace other events, such as Earth Day, which has been celebrated by many people around the world on 22 March since the 1970s, but rather to reinforce and reinterpret them based on the evolving challenges we face.

The Green Cities Campaign

Earth Day Network launched the Green Cities campaign in the fall of 2013 to help cities around the world become more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint. Focused on three key elements – buildings, energy, and transportation – the campaign aims to help cities accelerate their transition to a cleaner, healthier, and more economically viable future through improvements in efficiency, investments in renewable technology, and regulation reform.

Energy

Most of the world currently relies on outdated electric generation structures that are extremely inefficient and dirty. To help cities become more sustainable, we need to redesign the current system, transition to renewable energy sources, and implement 21^st century solutions.

Green Buildings

Buildings account for nearly one third of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Through simple efficiency and design improvements to buildings we can reduce those emissions drastically. To realize that vision, cities need to update ordinances, switch to performance based building codes, and improve financing options.

Transportation

Transportation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, three quarters of which comes directly from road vehicles. To reduce these emissions and the resulting smog, we need to improve standards, increase public transportation options, invest in alternative transportation, and improve city walk ability and bike ability.

We stand at a crossroads…

If the right investments are made in energy, transportation and green buildings, the cities of the future could look very different than the cities of today. Our communities could be cleaner and more sustainable. Our quality of life could be better.
We face great challenges, for sure—a changing climate, a rapidly growing population, a scarcity of resources. But we also face great opportunity—the opportunity to redesign and transform cities, the opportunity to harness the power of human innovation, the opportunity to live more sustainably, the opportunity to live better lives.
The future is bright. And its cities are green.
 

http://dramarnathgiri.blogspot.in/2013/04/earth-day-2013-highlights-from-face-of.html

http://dramarnathgiri.blogspot.in/2012/04/earth-day-2021-march-april-22.html

History of Earth Day

Each year, Earth Day — April 22 — marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
The height of hippie and flower-child culture in the United States, 1970 brought the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. Protest was the order of the day, but saving the planet was not the cause. War raged in Vietnam, and students nationwide increasingly opposed it.
At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.  Although mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962.  The book represented a watershed moment for the modern environmental movement, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries and, up until that moment, more than any other person, Ms. Carson raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and public health.
Earth Day 1970 capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center.

The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land.

As a result, on the 22nd of April, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. “It was a gamble,” Gaylord recalled, “but it worked.”
As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It also prompted President Bill Clinton to award Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1995) — the highest honor given to civilians in the United States — for his role as Earth Day founder.
As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. With 5,000 environmental groups in a record 184 countries reaching out to hundreds of millions of people, Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. It used the Internet to organize activists, but also featured a talking drum chain that traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, and hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Earth Day 2000 sent world leaders the loud and clear message that citizens around the world wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy.

Much like 1970, Earth Day 2010 came at a time of great challenge for the environmental community. Climate change deniers, well-funded oil lobbyists, reticent politicians, a disinterested public, and a divided environmental community all contributed to a strong narrative that overshadowed the cause of progress and change. In spite of the challenge, for its 40th anniversary, Earth Day Network reestablished Earth Day as a powerful focal point around which people could demonstrate their commitment. Earth Day Network brought 225,000 people to the National Mall for a Climate Rally, amassed 40 million environmental service actions toward its 2012 goal of A Billion Acts of Green®, launched an international, 1-million tree planting initiative with Avatar director James Cameron and tripled its online base to over 900,000 community members.

The fight for a clean environment continues in a climate of increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more manifest every day. We invite you to be a part of Earth Day and help write many more victories and successes into our history. Discover energy you didn’t even know you had. Feel it rumble through the grassroots under your feet and the technology at your fingertips. Channel it into building a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations to come.

MONTHLY INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENT OR MIXED EFFLUENT DISCHARGE MONITORING REPORT in other countries

TENTH SCHEDULE

[Subregulation 7(2)]

MONTHLY INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENT OR MIXED EFFLUENT DISCHARGE MONITORING REPORT

SECTION I
IDENTIFICATION

1.      (i) Name and address of premises:

..............................................................................................................................................................

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Telephone number: .……………………………………Fax number: ………………………...........

(ii) File reference number (if applicable): ………...…………………………....................................

2.   (i) Name and address of accredited analytical laboratory: ..................................................................

               Telephone number: ……………………………….Fax number: ……………..…………………...

(ii) Name of analyst: ...........................................................................................................................

       3. (i) Reporting year:………………………………………………………………..................................

          (ii) Reporting month: …………………………………………………………….................................

SECTION II

INFORMATION ON INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENT OR MIXED EFFLUENT

4. (i) Flowrate*

        Minimum: ………………………...….……. m3/d, Maximum: ………………….………….…. m3/d

(ii) Quality of effluent discharged (unit in mg/L)

Parameter ***	First  Week	Second  Week	Third Week	Fourth Week
Sample Date	Date: …………	Date: …………	Date: …………	Date: ………
Temperature
pH Value
BOD5 at 20°C
COD
Suspended  Solids
Mercury
Cadmium
Chromium, Hexavalent
Arsenic
Cyanide
Lead
Chromium,Trivalent
Copper
Manganese
Nickel
Tin
Zinc
Boron
Iron
Silver
Aluminium
Selenium
Barium
Fluoride
Formaldehyde
Phenol
Free Chlorine
Sulphide
Oil and Grease (n-hexane extract)
Ammoniacal Nitrogen
Colour**

* The flowrate and concentration of industrial effluent or mixed effluent at the point of discharge as determined in accordance with the sampling procedure and method of analysis as specified in regulation 16.
** ADMI unit
*** Choose only the significant parameters

SECTION III
DECLARATION

I, ………………………………..hereby declare that all information given in this form is to the best of my knowledge and belief true and correct.

Signature of responsible person: ………………………………….....................…………………….
Name: ………………………………................... Designation: ………………………….................
Date : …………………………………................

(Affix official seal or stamp of the company)