Earth Hour, Indian Style!

Today, the 29th of March 2008, Earth Hour will be celebrated. Which means that around 20 cities across the world are going to switch off their lights from 8pm to 9pm today. This is purportedly to increase awareness about Global Warming. And yes, before you ask, no Indian city is participating in this initiative. Everyone is grumbling over this pathetic response shown by India .

Well, on a less serious note, I really don’t think any Indian city needs to participate in any initiative like the Earth Hour. We already have stuff like compulsory load shedding being thrust on us. We already save tons of carbon emissions by bearing these power cuts. Let us enjoy the wonders of electricity at least when we have it!

As G.Singh fromGurgaon says in a comment on The Times of India website,

We have been celebrating Earth Hour for so many years in India. With electricity being cut off for hours by our State Electricity boards, what is a better way to show solidarity for this cause. I think most of the Indians are life members of this elite club of not using electricity. For a change the world joined us for one hour on March 29th. But we shall carry on our endeavour for this cause without fail for the next few years thanks to our government’s planning on power generation.

Heh. I loved that comment!

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Just 1,411 tigers in India?

Here is the chronology:

1972 (a year before Project Tiger started): 1,827 tigers

1997: 3508 tigers

2008: 1411 tigers

Effectively, there has been a 60% dip over the last 10 years!

The Indian Express reports,

It is official now. The final tiger census figures released today show a sharp dip. There are now 1,411 tigers as compared to 3,508 in 1997. In 1972, a year before Project Tiger was launched, there were 1,827 tigers in India.

Areas like Bandhavgarh and Ranthambore, once a rich reserve of tigers, have seen the sharpest dip in numbers. The report calls for urgent conservation measures in these areas.

Releasing the final figures today after surveying 17 parks, the government refused to see its dark implications. Rajesh Gopal, Member Secretary, Project Tiger said, “the assessment shows that though the tiger has suffered due to direct poaching, loss of quality habitat, and loss of its prey, there is still hope.”

OK, we have lost the battle. We have betrayed the big cat. A few years down the line, we will see the tiger…only in the photos. And the biggest loser in the bargain will be India, because India will lose it’s National Animal.

And what does India’s government do? It just throws good money after bad. The same old story again.

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Biofuels Worsening Global Warming…Now What?

Just when we thought that biofuels will help us fight Global Warming, a few studies (published in the journal Science) are saying that growing crops to make biofuels results in vast amounts of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere and does nothing to stop global warming.

UNI further reports,

The biofuels actually make global warming worse by adding to the man-made emissions of carbon dioxide that they are supposed to curb, the studies claim.

“This research examines the conversion of land for biofuels and asks the question ‘is it worth it?’ Does the carbon you lose by converting forests, grasslands and peat lands outweigh the carbon you ’save’ by using biofuels instead of fossil fuels?” said Joe Fargioine of the US Nature Conservancy who was the lead scientist in one of the studies.

“And surprisingly the answer is ‘no’. These natural areas store a lot of carbon, so converting them to croplands results in tonnes of carbon emitted into the atmosphere,” he said.

Heck, now what?

Information Source: DNA

Rs 6 bn ($150 million) To Save Tigers?

Reuters reports,

India will spend an estimated 6 billion rupees ($150 million) over the next five years in an attempt to save its endangered tigers, the cabinet said on Wednesday.

This is a classic example of simply throwing good money after bad. The government must realise that the real problem is not lack of money but bad management and outright corruption at some of India’s tiger reserves. But for all I know, by the time this happens, there may be no tigers remaining to save at all. Sigh.

Global Warming: Is It Really That Serious A Threat?

Lately, a lot of sounds are being made about how the sea levels are going to rise and how some of the important cities in the world are going to go underwater in some years, all because of human-induced global warming. The green brigade led by Al Gore is going berserk telling us that we are doomed.

OK, am I scared? No, I was scared. Why? What has changed now? Well, I just came across a great post titled ‘Excessive Lying Is Unsustainable’ on a blog called Lattenomics which effectively shows how the green brigade is exaggerating facts. It also cites a research which has been reported in The Telegraph in which,

“ Scientists have discovered that glaciers survived for hundreds of thousands of years during an era when crocodiles roamed the Arctic. “

You can read the post on Lattenomics here

You can read the research reported in The Telegraph here

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