tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7104954890602672372024-03-14T01:39:25.157-07:00Nature Protects, As She is ProtectedEarth, upon which this moving, breathing life exists.May she bestow on us the finest of her harvests!
Earth, the all-sustaining, treasure-bearing, resting-place;
Golden-breasted Earth, home of all life,
Who bears the sacred fire.
Atharva Veda Book XIIViva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-72768243468102806122017-03-30T08:17:00.000-07:002017-03-30T08:17:45.043-07:00No Name Calling Please, Give Us Evidence Which Proves GM Crops Are Safe <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Shanthu Shantharam has called my article on the problems
with genetically modified seed and crop "half-baked" and "total
ignorance". My article, "<a href="https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/lets-be-honest-about-genetically-modified-crops">Let’s
be honest about GM crops</a>" was published by Swarajya on <span class="timestamp">Feb 23, 2017</span>and Shantharam's ill-tempered rejoinder is
titled "<a href="https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/genetically-modified-crops-are-the-future-heres-why">Genetically-Modified
Crops Are The Future</a>: Here's Why".<br />
<br />
Swarajya and Shantharam have presented his qualifications as being those of a
scientist, however his marked reluctance to confront the substance of the
points I raised in "<a href="https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/lets-be-honest-about-genetically-modified-crops">Let’s
be honest about GM crops</a>" is typical of supporters of the
bio-technology industry. Such supporters do science a disservice by refusing
to, or side-stepping with name-calling (Shantharam's sorry tactic with my
article), the issues. Another tactic, seen in his reply, is to refer vaguely to
reports from Europe or the USA and claim to the reader that these are all for
GM.<br />
<br />
This is misrepresentation, which the bio-technology and genetic engineering
industry has become well versed at. While in his article he has mentioned
"two gigantic reports of GM safety research funded by the EU for more than
25 years", the two reports are not named. It is possible that one of these
is <a href="http://earthopensource.org/gmomythsandtruths/sample-page/3-health-hazards-gm-foods/3-4-myth-eu-research-shows-gm-foods-safe/">'Research
on GM foods'</a>, which was commissioned by the European Union (EU)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and is often claimed by the bio-tech industry
and GM supporters as having concluded that GM foods are safe. Not at all,
because most of this research project was not designed to examine the safety of
specific GM foods and that is why conclusions about their alleged safety from
the report do not arise. Studies show that GM foods can be toxic, allergenic,
or have unintended nutritional changes. Prof C. Vyvyan Howard, a medically
qualified toxicopathologist based at the University of Ulster and a signatory
to the statement, said: “A substantial number of studies suggest that GM crops
and foods can be toxic or allergenic.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The question of the safety of GM seed and crop has been and
continues to be an issue that the Shantharams of the subject shy away from.
There is little else they can do, for being 'scientific' does unfortunately for
them mean taking full cognisance of risks and the likely compromising of human,
animal and environmental safety. Early in 2017 this was done by the Ministry of
Agrarian Development of the Government of Brazil.What makes this work
noteworthy is that every year for the last five years Brazil is the country
with the largest acreage of sown genetically modified crops after the USA. The
Ministry of Agrarian Development publication is a compilation, titled "<a href="https://www.blogger.com/Transgenic%20Crops%20-hazards%20and%20uncertainties">Transgenic Crops -
hazards and uncertainties</a>", by its scientists. The compilation has
brought together an unprecedented 750 studies on precisely the problem that
Shantharam (and others who have written about GM in Swarajya) claims does not
exist: the risks and hazards of GM seed and crop.<br />
<br />
These 750 studies, the Brazilian scientists have said, provide
"irrefutable evidence" for the lack of consensus among scientists
about GM crops. Their compilation has directly called out the falsehood spread
by the bio-technology industry - including the producers of GM seeds - that
there is no science-based debate about the public health and environmental
risks of GM seed and crop. The references presented in the Brazilian
compilation correspond to studies published by scientists and independent researchers
in journals.<br />
Close on the heels of this report by the Brazilian Government, on January 24<sup>th</sup>,
2017, the UN rapporteur <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G17/017/85/PDF/G1701785.pdf?OpenElement">condemned</a>
the assertion promoted by the agrochemical industry that the intensification,
high input agriculture was needed to feed the world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The report is critical of the oligopoly of the
chemical industry and the powers they wield. Three<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>powerful<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>corporations:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Monsanto<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bayer,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dow<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dupont,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and Syngenta<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>ChemChina control almost 61% of commercial seed sales <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">. They wield such powers that </span><a href="http://www.foe.org/projects/food-and-technology/good-food-healthy-planet/spinning-food"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">they influence policy makers</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">, act as obstructionists, influence regulators and </span>often
contest scientific evidence of the hazards related to their products. Further
they ignore all counter opinions from the scientific world - they are very
quick to dismiss any research that is contradictory to their agenda – this is
anything but science. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To make it worse
,scientists who uncover health and environmental risks to the detriment of
corporate interests<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>may<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>face<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>grave<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>threats<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>their<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>reputations,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>even<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>themselves. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
GM proponents claim that GM crops have been cultivated for
30 years and yet there is not a single instance of any harm to humans or
animals. That not a single American has suffered the ill effects of consuming
GM food is merely anecdotal. It would be good for these proponents to prove
this claim. Most GM crops go into animal feed. Since GM foods are not labelled
in the US, so there is no way of tracking their consumption and linking any
suspected ill effects back to them. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb says “Doctors most
commonly get mixed up between absence of evidence and evidence of absense”. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other claim that genetic modification is natural and
that for millennia humans have been doing genetic modification in agriculture is
contradictory. If indeed this is true, and if this technology occurs naturally
why does a company like Monsanto claim patents worldwide? They tell patent
offices in countries where they operate that the GM process is totally
different from natural breeding and so the generation of a GM crop constitutes
a non-obvious “inventive step”, thus making the GM crop patentable. Yet, on the
other hand, it tells the public that the GM process is little different from
natural breeding and therefore GM foods are as safe as non-GM foods.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 2014, a report by <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/GMO%20Consensus%20IB%20Sept%202014_0.pdf">Food
& Watch</a>, exposes in great detail misinterpretation and twisting of
research finding to back the claim on the safety of GM food. Those part of the GMO
is “safe –consensus” campaign like to refer to the Royal Society of Medicine
and the Royal Society of London as part of the scientific “consensus. However
this safe-consensus is based on quotes from individuals who are not formal
representatives of these groups. The Royal Society of London is said to be part
of the “consensus” group, when in fact the Society called for tougher
regulations before GM food is passed as safe for human consumption. There is
growing pressure that the testing standards for GM food must be improved.
"The battery of tests should be spelt out much more clearly," says
Eric Brunner at University College London and one of the authors of the report.
Some animal testing may also be required, he says. The testing regime must be
independently scrutinised, recommends the report, so that companies cannot
submit selective data about their new GM products.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is all of the above and more, that Professor Shanthu
Shantharam represents. His past association with Syngenta, his ties with
biotechnology industry blinds him to the fact that it is the farmer that has
been cultivating food crops since ancient times. For example, from a wild aquatic
grass, the Indian farmer over centuries, have selected and cultivated thousands
of varieties of rice - rice that can be cultivated in different agro ecological
zones – from the high hills of the Himalayas to the salt marshes of coastal
Indian, creating almost 200,000 varieties of rice, where myths are not needed
to be created to say that they are safe for human consumption. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I write this today, the <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/380590-monsanto-california-glyphosate-cancer-list/">California
Court dismissed Monsanto </a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from
seeking to bar the state from adding glyphosate, the lead ingredient in the
company's Roundup herbicide, to a list of cancer-causing chemicals.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Safe for human consumption did you say Professor Shanthu
Shantharam?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>This article first appeared in <a href="https://swarajyamag.com/economy/no-name-calling-please-give-us-evidence-which-proves-gm-crops-are-safe" target="_blank">Swarajya </a></i></div>
<i><a href="https://swarajyamag.com/economy/no-name-calling-please-give-us-evidence-which-proves-gm-crops-are-safe" target="_blank"> </a></i><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-3954288816985458062017-03-09T08:37:00.000-08:002017-03-09T08:37:15.936-08:00Let’s Be Honest About Genetically Modified Crops<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
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<![endif]-->More than twenty years after they were first introduced,
genetically modified (GM) crops are reported to be grown on approximately 3.7%
of the world's total agricultural land, by less than 1% of the world's farmers<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a>.
In India, only GM cotton (commonly known as Bt cotton) is allowed to be grown
for commercial cultivation, whereas several GM food crop trials have been under
way for a few years. That these genetically modified food crops are being
trialled at all is opposed on agricultural, environmental and economic grounds,
and that they should move beyond trials and into widespread cultivation is
being proposed, often by citing food security and climate change reasons.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb7tFx8WczWKr_f3-z4rCTjue-D69ebCVMVleyT0wDDjqmPrP24YRrplIwDtstEoisLMiaBkJfJ-WwnrA8IJEYvbd0FBty4H_mQ1nUuACsDClzxi24EEgtTA39e_3L9bYlMTWhy3PHW70/s1600/paddy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Photo Credit Rahul Goswami" border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb7tFx8WczWKr_f3-z4rCTjue-D69ebCVMVleyT0wDDjqmPrP24YRrplIwDtstEoisLMiaBkJfJ-WwnrA8IJEYvbd0FBty4H_mQ1nUuACsDClzxi24EEgtTA39e_3L9bYlMTWhy3PHW70/s400/paddy.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Credit Rahul Goswami</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To understand whether GM seed and food should be permitted
in India, it is important to understand what GM technology is. Simply put, a GM
seed is the result of a laboratory process where genes from the DNA of one
species are extracted and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated
plant or animal. The foreign genes may come from bacteria, viruses, insects,
animals or even humans. In other words, genetic modification brings about
alterations in genetic makeup and in the properties of the organism developed.
The World Health Organization defines a GM organism (GMO) as one "in which
the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur
naturally". In simple language, genetic engineers tinker with and
recombine genes of completely unrelated species in the laboratory, creating new
DNA not found in nature, and therefore new organisms that would not be found in
nature.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is one aspect of the idea of an unnatural organism that
leads to a most fundamental question. Are food crops derived from such a method
safe for human (or animal) consumption?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are two ways to seek answers. One is to consider the
more deleterious effects of any sort of progress against a time-line of that
progress - while individual mobility (the automobile) may be considered a boon
the effects of many people practicing such mobility is not (urban traffic, the
rise of suburbia, pollution, increased and unsustainable use of raw material,
wastefulness, etc.), while some modern drugs may help us deal with certain
diseases (tuberculosis, malaria, dysentery, etc.) the unregulated and
profit-maximising tendencies of the pharmaceutical industry has pushed many
families into debt and has contributed to weakening human immune responses.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thus there is for every kind of progress a blowback, which
may be technical, economic, environmental or combination of these. With some
kinds of progress, we now have time-lines several generations long to examine,
such as with automobiles and medicinal drugs. With others, we have a very much
shorter time-line to examine. GM is one such, and it’s already short time-line
is full of high promise but questionable practice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because of its short existence as an idea and as a still
very limited practice (GM seed and food are outlawed in 15 countries of the
European Union)<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a>
it is always only ever experimental. And for that reason the strenuous attempts
of the bio-technology, industrial agriculture and commercial seed industries
worldwide to have it called 'safe' have failed scientific scrutiny and have
also failed public trust. For example, more than 15 years ago in 2001 a report
from an expert panel of the Royal Society of Canada said it was
"scientifically unjustifiable" to presume that GM foods are safe.<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span></span></span></a>
What irked the examiners was the outright assertion that GM is safe - little
has changed since. A year later in 2002 a report by the UK's Royal Society said
that genetic modification "could lead to unpredicted harmful changes in
the nutritional state of foods," and recommended that potential health
effects of GM foods be rigorously researched before being fed to pregnant or
breast-feeding women, elderly people, those suffering from chronic disease, and
babies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the time, such cautions were both necessary and widely
considered necessary. When conscientious scientists like geneticist David
Suzuki, said, "Any politician or scientist who tells you these products
are safe is either very stupid or lying", it was considered vindication of
the need for caution. Contrast that view, no more than 15 years ago, with the
opposition to any caution today when those who advocate it are called
anti-science and Luddites.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Notwithstanding the efforts of the biotech industry, the
commercial seed industry and the retail food industry to paint GM seed and crop
as the answer to all problems existing and to come, opposition to GM and GE
(genetically engineered seed and crop) continued to grow, with farmers' groups,
leading scientists and civil society all calling for at least abundant caution
if not a moratorium or ban. In view of the diversity of opinion on GM and GE
seed and crop, the Government of India constituted a Parliamentary Standing
Committee on GM crops in 2011-12<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[iv]</span></span></span></span></a>.
After a lengthy and exhaustive process that gathered evidence of practice from
cultivators, from experts, from the public and from stakeholder groups, the
Committee issued its report, which was hard-hitting and damning in a way few
Parliamentary reports are.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That the present government was a part of this report - a
landmark in the use of checks and balances by our democratic system of
governance - is now overlooked and ignored. The report noted abuses in
conducting adequate safety trials, the grossly inadequate and antiquated
regulatory mechanism for assessment and approval of transgenics in food crops,
the serious conflict of interest of various stakeholders involved in the
regulatory mechanism, the total lack of post-commercialization monitoring of GM
crops. It also cautioned the Union Government on the effects of GM crops on
agricultural exports when considering whether to approve them. The report
observed that cultivating GM crops leads to contamination and presents an
inherent risk for farmers and Indian agriculture, and that contamination by GM
crops can lead to countries banning imports of Indian agricultural produce.
Given the growing demand for chemical-free, pesticide-free food worldwide, the
risk of contamination by GM seed and crop of traditional and hybrid crop
staples is one of the several risks that this technology carries and which our
country cannot afford.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Considering the flaws and shortcomings noted by the
Committee and the still unclear ramifications of transgenic crops on
bio-diversity, environment, human and livestock health and sustainability, the
Committee demanded that the ongoing field trials in all states be discontinued.
The members of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, across political parties,
were unanimous in their report. The report stands as a comprehensive indictment
- and indeed a signal authoritative rebuttal to the claims of the GM/GE/biotech
industry and its attempts to wrest control of India's food grain and commercial
crops production. That such a comprehensive report is, a scant few years after
its release, not even referred to by either Union government, state governments
or the food and commercial crops industry speaks volumes about transparency and
information, both prerequisites in a democratic system.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Besides, three more high-level reports advising against the
adoption of these crops in India have likewise been ignored. These are the
'Jairam Ramesh Report' of February 2010 - which set a new standard for public
consultation on an ecological and ethical issue - that imposed an indefinite
moratorium on Bt Brinjal; the 'Sopory Committee Report' set up by the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research, of August 2012, on the attempt to develop
through GM means a variety of desi cotton and which exposed both scientific
deception and regulatory oversight; the Supreme Court of India's Technical
Expert Committee which was formed for the Aruna Rodrigues petition concerning
GM field trials, whose final report released in July 2013 has recommendations
that are yet to be acted on by our regulatory agencies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Technical Expert Committee, in its interim report (of
October 2012) had favoured abundant caution on the matter of biological safety
and genetically engineered seeds and crops. It had recommended a ten-year
moratorium on field trials of GM food crops. There was then and remains a very
good reason for making such a recommendation: contamination of relative strains
that are native to the crop growing region, by GM crops under trial, may be
detected only after years, and such contamination is irreversible. For a
country like India, which is a centre of origin for several food crops and
oilseeds and a centre of biological diversity, the first responsibility is to
protect this biological diversity from contamination.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The path of extreme caution has also been recommended to
avoid the likelihood of serious ecological and health (human and animal)
problems caused by the use of unnatural GM and GE seed and crop, as also to
avoid economic stress to growers and the loss of seed sovereignty. As explained
by Colin Todhunter<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[v]</span></span></span></span></a>, a
push for genetically modified seeds is to sanction the exploiting of the
farmer, in favour of profits for the commercial seed industry, and the ruin of
traditional agriculture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among the benefits claimed by the adoption of GM technology
in seed and crop is that of greater yield. This is an attractive inducement for
farmers who would certainly like their half acre or acre of land to produce
more weight in crop per square unit of land. Just as attractive is the claim
that GM seeds require smaller applications of chemical fertiliser and
pesticides, both of which are expensive. These assumptions however have
crumbled under examination.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Data from the USA - a country that has grown GM crops for
well over two decades - gives us a picture very different from the claims
loudly made. In the most extensive and rigorous study, the Union of Concerned
Scientists (UCS) analysed 20 years' returns and costs of GM crops, to conclude
that contrary to myths about the superiority of GE crop yields, most yield
gains in recent years are due to traditional breeding or improvements in other
agricultural practices. UCS expert scientist Doug Gurian-Sherman unequivocally
stated, "Traditional breeding outperforms genetic engineering hands
down."<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[vi]</span></span></span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
India's experience with Bt cotton has been tragic. A new
study published by California-based agricultural scientists in the journal
Environmental Sciences Europe directly links the suicides among Indian farmers
(more than two lakh cumulatively, from the National Crime Records Bureau) to Bt
cotton adoption in rain-fed farming areas, where most of India's cotton is
grown. This appalling record has shown to the world how GM methods ruthlessly
exercise patents to force farmers to buy costly seeds every year, sending their
families into debt, how such crops have left behind degraded soil and polluted
water bodies, and how desi cotton has all but disappeared from India, which is
a starting setback to the revival of the khadi-based village and rural hubs
intended.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The environmental soundness and health benefits of our
traditional agricultural methods, free of chemicals and pesticides and based on
our seed diversity, can enable India to choose diversified agro-ecological
farming instead of the industrial, energy-intensive and monoculture-based mode
that GM fully represents.</div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a>
Source :<span style="font-family: "tt381co00"; font-size: 7.0pt;"> Source: FAO Stat and ISAAA</span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a> <a href="http://sustainablepulse.com/2015/10/22/gm-crops-now-banned-in-36-countries-worldwide-sustainable-pulse-research/">http://sustainablepulse.com/2015/10/22/gm-crops-now-banned-in-36-countries-worldwide-sustainable-pulse-research/</a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span></span></span></a> <a href="https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-014-0034-1">https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-014-0034-1</a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=710495489060267237#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[iv]</span></span></span></span></a> <a href="http://wwfenvis.nic.in/files/Agriculture/Action%20Taken%20by%20the%20Government%20on%20the%20Observations%20Recommendations%20contained%20in%20the%20Thirty-seventh%20Report%20of%20the%20Committee%20on%20Agriculture%20(2011-2012).pdf">http://wwfenvis.nic.in/files/Agriculture/Action%20Taken%20by%20the%20Government%20on%20the%20Observations%20Recommendations%20contained%20in%20the%20Thirty-seventh%20Report%20of%20the%20Committee%20on%20Agriculture%20(2011-2012).pdf</a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
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This article first appeared in <a href="https://swarajyamag.com/politics/lets-be-honest-about-genetically-modified-crops" target="_blank">Swarajya </a></div>
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Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-18006884064557870532016-09-21T09:43:00.002-07:002016-09-21T09:43:53.505-07:00Hindu roots of modern ‘ecology’ <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of the first lessons a student of ecology is taught is that this
science is relatively new, that the term ‘ecology’ was only first
defined in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel. Among the sciences, it has become
sought after from the latter half of the 20th century, largely due to
widespread environmental degradation and pollution.<br />
What the western discourse in general and the western academia and
its textbooks in particular forget to inform us is that the roots of
ecology lie in Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism and no other religion pays as
much attention to environment and environmental ethics, and to the
understanding of the role and value of nature<b>. Hinduism is inherently an ecological religion</b>.
It can quite easily be said that Hinduism is the world’s largest
nature-based religion that recognises and seeks the Divine in nature and
acknowledges everything as sacred. It views the earth as our Mother,
and hence, advocates that it should not be exploited. A loss of this
understanding that earth is our mother, or rather a deliberate ignorance
of this, has resulted in the abuse, and the exploitation of the earth
and its resources.<br />
Centuries before the appearance of the likes of Greenpeace, World
Environment Day, and what is known as the environmental movement, the <b><i>shruti</i></b> (Vedas, Upanishads) and <b><i>smruti</i></b> (Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, other scriptures) instructed us that <b>the
animals and plants found in the land of Bharatavarsha are sacred; that
like humans, our fellow creatures, including plants have consciousness;
and therefore all aspects of nature are to be revered</b>. This
understanding, care and reverence towards the environment is common to
all Indic religious and spiritual systems: Hinduism, Buddhism and
Jainism. Thus, there is ample evidence to show that the earliest
messages of the importance of the environment and the need for
ecological balance and harmony can be found in ancient Indic texts.
After all the Upanishads say,”<i>Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma</i>“(everything
is Brahman). Hinduism, thus, has always had a deep understanding of
ecology and the relationship between man and nature.<br />
<a href="http://indiafacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-476214768-1.jpg"><img alt="tree" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13082" height="457" src="http://indiafacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-476214768-1.jpg" width="342" /></a><br />
While there is no formal environmental movement (inasmuch as it is
defined by the West) in India, except in recent times, or no category of
“environmentalism” in Hindu tradition, it is our Dharmic tradition that
has helped sustain our ecology for centuries. Hinduism teaches us to
worship the earth as our Divine Mother. In fact, a very conspicuous
aspect of Hindu culture and tradition is the strong love and respect for
nature. It honours the Earth as the mother goddess (Bhūmī-Devī<b>)</b>
and promotes a worship of the rivers, streams, trees, mountain peaks,
plants, animals, birds, forests, and every kind of flora and fauna. In
the Atharva Veda’s “Hymn to the Earth “(Bhumi Suktha), the earth is
adored and respected: “The Earth is our mother and we are all her
children”. Our oldest texts, the Vedas, contain 1028 hymns, almost all
of which are redolent with love for nature. The Vedic deities are
connected with deep symbolism and have many layers of existence. One
such association is with ecology. Thus, <b>Surya is associated with the
Sun, the source of heat and light that nourishes everyone; Indra is
associated with rain, crops, and abundance; and Agni is the deity of
fire and transformation and controls all changes</b>. The Vedic hymns are filled with many simple, but universal messages, such as:<br />
Plants are mothers and Goddesses. (Rig Veda Samhita x-97-4)<br />
Trees are homes and mansions. (Rig Veda Samhita x-97-5)<br />
Sacred grass has to be protected from man’s exploitation (Rig Veda Samhita vii-75-8)<br />
Plants and waters are treasures for generations. (Rig Veda Samhita vii-70-4)<br />
We invoke all supporting Earth on which trees, lords of forests, stand ever firm (Atharva Veda 12:1:27)<br />
“Do not cut trees because they remove pollution.” (Rig Veda 6:48:17)<br />
“One should not destroy the trees.” (Rig Veda Samhita vi-48-17)<br />
The Western religions, especially the Christians viewed this nature
worship as Paganism, failing to recognise the scientific and spiritual
basis of the relationship between man and nature and how this is the
only way to sustain ecological balance. While all ancient religions and
cultures ascribed some powers and divinity to nature, with the birth of
Christianity, this ended. Christians were made to turn all their love
and adoration for nature towards their One and only God, who was a
jealous God. The elements of nature, then became devoid of all divinity,
and were left to be conquered by man.<br />
<a href="http://indiafacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/unnamed.jpg"><img alt="Kovai" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13081" height="223" src="http://indiafacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/unnamed.jpg" width="582" /></a><br />
Even today, Bharat is blessed with a rich biodiversity, because of
the spiritual connectedness that Hindus have with nature. That there
exists <b><i>sthala vriksham</i></b> shows that trees were intimately associated with spiritual tradition (In Sanskrit, <i>sthala</i> is a place, especially a sacred place, and <i>vriksh</i> is tree). <b>Every temple is associated with a tree and every tree is associated with a deity and a story.</b> The more well-known examples of <i>sthala vriksham</i> include the Kadamba at the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai and the <i>vanni</i> tree (<i>khejri</i>
in Hindi) at the Magudeshwara Temple at Kodumudi. The famous mango tree
at the Ekambereshwara Temple at Kancheepuram is believed to be more
than 3,000 years old! The presiding deity Shiva is worshipped as
Prithivi Linga – earth linga. The four branches are said to represent
the four Vedas. Some trees are sacred to the place and some to the
individual deity.<br />
Our ancient, majestic trees, some that are many centuries old are part of our rich ecological inheritance. <b>Today, the </b><b><i>sthala vriksham </i></b><b>is considered the single genetic resource for the conservation of species diversity</b>.
Unlike the west, where trees are merely natural objects, India is
filled with magnificent sacred trees: peepal, neem, bel, banyan, asoka,
amla, arjuna to name, but a few –and most deities have their favourites.
For Shiva, his favourites are Rudraksh and Bel, for Vishnu it is Peepal
and tulsi, for Hanuman it is Mango. In fact, first came the tree and
then the <i>mandir</i>. No ritual is complete without the leaf of a
bilva, or neem or tulsi. The use of these leaves reminds us of our
connection with the earth and the unity of man and nature.<br />
Since, rituals are incomplete without trees and their flowers,
leaves, and fruits, they had to be preserved and protected. So much
importance was given to trees, that there was also <b><i>Vrikshayurveda</i></b> <b>–</b> <b>an ancient Sanskrit text on the science of plants and trees</b>. Written by <b>Acharya Surapala</b>,
around the 10th century, this is a complete manuscript for the
management plants and trees. This starts with the glorification and
praise for trees and tree planting, and provides details about
management and care of seeds, plants and trees. It contains details from
soil conservation, planting, sowing, treatment, propagating, how to
deal with pests, diseases, etc. Further, the <i>Vrikshayurveda</i> is
complete with details, such as when to plant, where to plant the sacred
trees. For example, the bel and peepal should be planted to the west
side of a dwelling, mango and amla to the south side.<br />
Ancient India knew and understood the role of ecology, trees and
forest in making life on this earth possible. In fact, tree planting and
tree worship was not just confined to those involved in forest
management. Tree worship was undertaken by all. The Banyan tree (<i>ficus benghalensis</i>),
the most venerated of all trees, known as aal in Tamil, vat in Hindi
and Nyagrodha in Sanskrit, got its name Banyan from the British, who
observed that the merchants/traders (banias) carried out all their
business under this tree – hence from Bania, they coined the word
banyan. The Banyan tree is the kalpavriksh, the wish fulfilling tree.
Likewise, this tree is sacred for the Jains. All through the Vedas , the
Puranas, and in the Mahabharata, this tree finds mention and its
planting considered auspicious. Nyagrodha also played important role in
various Samskaras and ceremonies performed by the Hindus. A tradition
that still holds good.<br />
The Peepal tree or asvatta (<i>ficus religiosa</i>) has had a conspicuous position in the cultural landscape of Bharat for at least as long as there has been <i>shruti</i> and <i>smruti</i>. It was depicted even on the seals found at the sites of Mohenjodaro. Buddha found enlightenment under a Peepal tree (also <i>bodhi</i> or <i>bo</i>
tree) born in a sacred grove, Lumbinivana that was full of sal trees.
The love and respect for trees is as old as our ancient civilisation.
Hence, trees like the venerable Peepal are amongst the most easily
identifiable and recognisable all across Bharat, and can be found in
almost every village. It is considered sacred as it is believed to be
the dwelling place of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva. The Atharva Veda (V.4.3)
refers to the Peepal as the permanent seat of God.<br />
On the other hand, the Abrahamic faiths in their scriptures like the
Old Testament, for example, perceive man as the Supreme Being, the
supreme species, who “rules all over other creatures”. In fact nature
worship is so abhorred and derided by the Church, it is almost
iniquitous to worship rivers, to revere mountains and trees as these are
considered soulless objects to be conquered by man. The elements of
nature are devoid of any form of divinity.<br />
This is in complete contrast to the Hindu’s love, understanding and
respect for nature, which shows that Hinduism understood the invaluable
role of trees and forests in ecosystem services like purifying the air,
hydrological services, as a provider of food and material, climate,
rain, and soil.<br />
In fact, in any reading of the Bible (both the old and new
testaments), there is not a single reference to the earth being sacred,
or being looked upon as mother-like or divine. Nature and all its
elements are soulless and the only one, who is worthy of worship is the
Abrahamic God. Unlike the Hindu, who nurtures a great sense of sanctity
towards all elements of nature and perceives Divinity in the sky, in the
water, in the fire, and in the snow-capped mountain peaks. All Indic
traditions have respect for all forms of life and does not differentiate
between the soul of man and that of an animal. Whereas the Christian
belief is that nature is destructive and therefore has to be conquered,
the Dharmic view propagates conservation of the nature and advices man
to live in harmony with nature without indulging in exploitation.<br />
For Hindus, nature is a manifestation of the Divine. Brahman exists
as the innermost Self (Atman) of not only humans, but also of all forms
and beings in nature. Hence, a large number of pilgrim centres in India,
are the sacred rivers, mountains, trees, forests and groves themselves.
Whether it is the Kailash Mansarovar, the Char Dham, the Gangotri in
the north or the deep forests of Sabarimala, Hindus have continued to
worship the elements of nature. This is in such contrast from the
Abrahamic religions, where sacred spots are largely anthropomorphic that
are linked to a human form – (Lourdes In France is a popular pilgrim
site for Christians as Mother Mary appeared there, the Wailing Wall, the
Temple Mount for Jews in Jerusalem, the Al Aqsa Mosque, etc.) – none of
these religion associate spirituality for anything in its natural form.<br />
Sacred groves were found in abundance in Bharat, which were protected
by local communities and which goes to show that forest resources were
precious. Our ancestors did not require any law to protect these groves,
which, like the <i>kavus</i> of Kerala, are sacred places, where trees
and plants were allowed to grow undisturbed and where reptiles, birds
and animals could have free living without fear of poaching or
interference by man. Such groves may be close to settlements, attached
to households or near them, and usually have the serpent or Durga as
deities. The existence of forests today in India can be credited to this
practice, which still survives in India today.<br />
Hindus strongly believe in the tenet <i>vasudev kutumbakam</i> (the
world is one family) and hence, the divine is also seen in animals and
are protected. The deification of animals, therefore, has led to the
protection of many species of animal. Hinduism in its belief that all
living creatures are subject to the cycle of birth, death and rebirth,
never distinguishes between the soul of man and a soul of an animal.
Apart from this, the recognition that every animal played a role in
creating an ecological balance, allowed us to live in harmony with
animals.<br />
Animals are also vahanas or vehicles of the Gods and Goddesses and
are equally worshipped as their riders. Some vahanas were treated equal
to their Gods, some were their companions and some friend! Garuda
(Eagle) is the vehicle of Vishnu, the Bull that of Shiva, the mouse that
of Ganapati. At times, the vahana is the only way to recognise the
deity, which shows the closeness or connectedness between the divine and
the animal. The Yajur Veda (13.47) says service to animals leads to
heaven: “No person should kill animals helpful to all and persons
serving them obtains heaven.” According to the Atharva Veda (12.115),
the earth was created for the enjoyment of not only human beings, but
also for bipeds and quadrupeds, birds, animals and all other creatures.
This reverence of animals and protection of forest allowed Bharat to be a
land of great faunal and floral diversity.<br />
The period of the Moghuls, followed by the British colonial rule saw a
continuous period of large-scale hunting. The British arrival in India
saw the decline of the wildlife population. Conferring no divine status
on the tiger or any other wildlife, hunting was a favourite pastime of
the Englishman. They indulged in reckless hunting and by 1947 the last
cheetah in India was killed. According to <b>Mahesh Rangarajan</b>, researcher and historian, “<b>over 80,000 tigers were slaughtered in 50 years from 1875 to 1925</b>”.
Tigers were considered ‘Villains of Indian Jungles’ and to follow the
biblical injunction, man had to dominate over his natural environment.
By the early 1950s the cheetah was declared extinct in India, the only
large animal to have been declared extinct in our recorded history.
Likewise, other animals like the tiger, leopard and lion were brought to
near extinction.<br />
That India today is home to 70% of the world’s tigers – our country
has some 2,500 tigers in the wild – is because the tiger is considered
divine, a vahana of the Durga and present in any form of Durga
iconography. Tigers have been wiped out in Java and Sumatra, the great
islands of Indonesia across which, the majestic big cat once roamed
freely, for Indonesia was once Hindu.<br />
Nothing better explains Hinduism approach to animals than this:<br />
<i>vidya-vinaya-sampanne</i><i><br />
</i><i>brahmane gavi hastini</i><i><br />
</i><i>suni caiva sva-pake ca</i><i><br />
</i><i>panditah sama-darsinah</i><br />
<i>Those who are wise and humble treat equally, the Brahmin, the cow, elephant, dog and dog-eater</i>. (Bhagavad Gita 5.1)<br />
Why does the Hindu psyche intuitively respect nature and all its forms?<br />
<b>The concept of karma, or the cosmic law of cause and effect, which
is at the heart of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, demonstrates the
interconnectedness or the web of life of humans, not just with other
humans, but with non-humans too.</b> Every action, however miniscule
creates its own set of reactions, which then has a cascading effect.
Today, under the principles of the <b>Chaos Theory</b>, the commonly known as the <b>Butterfly Effect</b>
– where a creature as delicate as the butterfly, by flapping its wings,
sets up a series of reactions, by first causing some changes in the
atmosphere, can end up causing a storm. This is nothing, but the Hindu
understanding of karma, that all actions are connected and are part of
the universe and that our actions affect not just other humans, but also
nature, of which we are a part. That even a small act can have great
consequences is intuitive to every Hindu. It follows that every action
we take has a planetary and cosmic effect – and this is what scientists
today call ‘<b>footprint’</b>.<br />
Today’s environmental crisis demands a response. The world is
grappling to find solutions to multiple crises of the environment.
Technology is considered the panacea. Global conventions on biodiversity
and climate change are signed by 190-odd countries, earth summits keeps
taking place, activism by international environmental NGOs is at its
peak. But, it is very unlikely that the ecology would be saved by this
Western approach, which is characterized by activism and relies solely
on science and the scientific community. For ecology to be truly saved
and revived, we have to return to the meanings and practices that infuse
sacredness and reverence towards nature as in Hindu traditions,
re-awaken our relationship with nature and not view religion and ecology
as separate. For Hindus, the environment is not protected because of
the selfish urgency to save biodiversity and hence save human future,
but because it is the Dharmic way of life and hence a righteous duty
that all humans are obliged to perform.<br />
<h2>
<b>References:</b></h2>
Danino, Michel. Indian Culture and India’s Future. New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2011.<br />
Frawley, David. Hinduism: The Eternal Tradition (Sanatana Dharma). New Delhi: Voice of India, 2008.<br />
Krishna, Nanditha, and M. Amirthalingam. Sacred Plants of India. Gurgaon: Penguin India, 2014.<br />
Krishna, Nanditha. Sacred Animals of India. New Delhi: Penguin India, 2010.<br />
Agrawal, D.P, Surapala’s Vrikshayurveda: an Introduction [<a href="http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/t_es/t_es_agraw_surapala_frameset.htm">http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/t_es/t_es_agraw_surapala_frameset.htm</a>]<br />
<a href="http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Nature_Worship.htm">http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Nature_Worship.htm</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<i>This article first appeared on IndiaFacts on September 21, 2016 </i><br />
<a href="http://indiafacts.org/hindu-roots-modern-ecology/"><i>http://indiafacts.org/hindu-roots-modern-ecology/</i></a><br />
<i> </i></div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-15008221022689335352015-12-04T06:45:00.001-08:002015-12-05T05:41:27.570-08:00Ancient wisdom for a contemporary problem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="line number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">World
leaders<span style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;"> gathered </span> in Paris, France, on 30 November 2015 for the fortnight-long
deliberations on climate change. This is the COP-21, the Conference of Parties
summit, called by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) whose
responsibility it is to find ways that contain temperature rise.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">The
science is clear. For the first time in recorded history, climate change has
been caused by human actions largely due to the increased level of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuel whose origin coincided
with the start of the industrial revolution around 1750. The advent of large
scale industrialisation, deforestation, intensive commercial agriculture,
changing food habits, increasing consumption patterns which are the
characteristics of developed countries, all contribute to the deteriorating
health of our planet.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">This is
what is now called the anthropogenic impact (and one of the popular terms for
this era of climate change caused by human activities is 'anthropocene'). The
terms describe planetary effects of collective action or behaviour. Such scales
are often difficult to convey to households or even city and town wards. Yet at
the local level it is individuals, households, communities and village
panchayats which must also act responsibly so that environmental degradation is
halted and for climate change to be addressed.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">The
problem appears too large and too daunting, more so for India, as it strives to
meet its development challenges. Yet our government has announced an ambitious
climate change action plan which will work only when citizens collaborate fully
with government, at all levels. And if we want our government to be successful
in its endeavour, citizens must find solutions because these exist. One of the
strengths of our Indian society (in its many forms) is its ability to be
sustainable, to use and re-use wisely, where values are placed on recycling, on
conserving and protecting our trees and forests and existing in harmony with
nature.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">Earth
science tells us (indeed earth systems scientists have been making this warning
for at least a decade) that we must respond quickly to the climate crisis.
While there are national and state-level responses and plans, there is equally
a need for awareness and action at the most basic of local units: the
household. It is here that following traditional values and tapping into our
collective memory can make that difference - the lived stories and accounts of
our grand-parents' generation are often enough to point out the way.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMa-Fiooq2DiQNv0dyT8VdEc_Cf8f6Vam9nd3nAEt0KytP89rPhKcY7k3pY9h1kIG_BluNZb5pNgMk4L0v-66Flowwl-30bjgj4CI7gavOUUzUVnp6d8XigT1DflINxBySYnXrSzTp_7A/s1600/11053415_10153083500582819_1756577192382449930_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMa-Fiooq2DiQNv0dyT8VdEc_Cf8f6Vam9nd3nAEt0KytP89rPhKcY7k3pY9h1kIG_BluNZb5pNgMk4L0v-66Flowwl-30bjgj4CI7gavOUUzUVnp6d8XigT1DflINxBySYnXrSzTp_7A/s200/11053415_10153083500582819_1756577192382449930_o.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">Consider
the sacred botany of India, for such trees and plants are a part of our
environmental heritage and of our cultural consciousness. Evidence of tree
worship goes back to the Indus-Saraswati civilisation - these are seen on
ancient seals with the peepal (ficus religiosa) being the most frequent. In the
Vedas, trees are referred to as 'vansapati' (lord of the forest) and invoked as
deities, just as rivers are invoked. The Vedas, the most ancient of all Hindu
texts, pay tribute to nature and consider the earth as mother. Within the
precincts of the home, however humble or grand, a tulsi plant is often present,
cared for by the household.</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;"></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzqEnBtPNQNiEKOcv7Cf-Vy8mTw0_Tw5Nc2C3Vc-ghTnW53IU_KceAB3lVXsqcB2lXHKTypNu9oTJnNY5qeij5mEbFpy2mOIqL1DpuSeGOUpwk-2nIZyWY5FnIAn2Q9mBGAdN927WY74s/s1600/B1hV4QDCEAIP-vi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzqEnBtPNQNiEKOcv7Cf-Vy8mTw0_Tw5Nc2C3Vc-ghTnW53IU_KceAB3lVXsqcB2lXHKTypNu9oTJnNY5qeij5mEbFpy2mOIqL1DpuSeGOUpwk-2nIZyWY5FnIAn2Q9mBGAdN927WY74s/s320/B1hV4QDCEAIP-vi.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">Choice
of food - not only what is consumed every day by the household but also what is
cultivated - has a direct impact on the health of our local ecosystem and on
the planet. In October 2015, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated
that the livestock industry accounts for 18.5% of the worldwide greenhouse gas emission,
even more than the transport industry! According to the UN Environment Program
(UNEP), cattle raised to provide animal protein is one of the biggest sources
of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and is acutely energy intensive
(the global meat industry is a disproportionate user of water and land
resources). Here too, it is our traditional values that have prevailed for the
vegetarian diet has proven to be the most ecologically sound (according to a
UNEP study in 2012, Indians consume 12 grams of meat per person per day, very
much under the world average of 115 grams). There is today a mass of evidence
to show that a vegetarian diet is not only for the planet but good for health,
and such a diet plays a positive role in the mitigation of the effects of
climate change.</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;"></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">Even so,
it is not enough to have an evening walk in the park nearby (if there is still
one that the builders and property developers have spared) or a weekend with
the family at a forest reserve. Everyday mindfulness is needed, for as many
actions that can be recognised as helping re-green India. The difference is
made at the level of the household - reducing and finally halting altogether
the use of plastics, being sparing (whether it is monsoon season or not) with
the use of water, consuming only what is needed and not making purchases based
on the household's ability to store or its ability to pay in instalments. These
are the ways in which every household can contribute.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">While
today we are wont to connect such behaviours and practices with relatively
recent concepts and ideas that we have come to accept, such as sustainable
development, the substance of such ideas was being considered and discussed in
the decades preceding our Independence. In 1909 Sri Aurobindo wrote, "The
mould is broken; we must remould in larger outlines and with a richer
content". He was writing in the context of the need for an intellectual
and cultural reawakening (this was over a century ago, and is needed as much
now as it was then). Aurobindo was describing how the spirit and ideals of
India has become confined to the old mould (imposed by colonialism) which had
to be broken.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">In the
same way, it is useful to see that there are 'moulds' which India must protect
and defend as a part of the inter-government and multi-lateral structures now
concerned about climate change and the environment, but this does not mean we
are not free to create larger and richer moulds that are better suited to
describing the needs and imperatives of our polity. For this reason, while
being cognisant of the measures used by inter-governmental political and
scientific fora (such as the UNFCCC), we need also to step beyond the 'per
capita', the 'energy intensity' and the 'emissions' group of concepts. This is
especially important when considering what the average household, whether rural
or urban, can contribute through its behaviour and practice.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">We are
not unused to dealing with several frames of reference at the same time. During
the first efforts at central planning in India, in 1939 the sub-committee on
Cottage Industries met at Wardha, Maharashtra. As documented by the historian
Dharampal, Mohandas Gandhi is said to have consented to a programme of
industrialisation, provided it was accompanied by an equal effort given to the
promotion and extension of the cottage industry. It is of interest that at that
time too, the question of what standard of living this was to help achieve was
being discussed.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">And so
today we continue to speak, in the context of climate change and of our
responsibilities, of what is an acceptable standard of living and what is not.
We know that the primary sources of energy in India are what we call
traditional (fuelwood, agricultural residue and animal dung) and commercial
(fossil fuels and renewable - biogas, solar, wind and off-grid micro and mini
hydroelectric). The percentage of poor households has been decreasing, but
their number continues to rise and therefore the use of non-commercial biomass
has also continued to rise - according to the 2011 census, 67% of households
still cook using firewood, crop residues, cow dung cakes or coal.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">This is
among the truths about which we acknowledge that India is part of the problem.
What has been somewhat obscured is that India has also been an active and constructive
participant in the search for solutions, which the Intended Nationally
Determined Contribution (INDC) document submitted to the UNFCCC states
unequivocally. Thus overall, when the per capita emissions of many developed
countries vary between 7 to 15 metric tons, in India it is about 1.56 metric
tons (in 2010). Likewise, the average annual energy consumption in India in
2011 was 0.6 tons of oil equivalent per capita as compared to global average of
1.88 tons per capita, while per capita annual electricity consumption stands at
917 kWh, which is about a third of the world's average. These ratios have been,
in contemporary analysis of economics and energy, been linked to where on the
Human Development Index our country lies, and where it must travel to.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFaNnaZSLj8xL3A_u1NxhaJkc3zNJBUfnF1Dz7PBl9QZ16xqFqBKK6yo4X_VRr-JZ56lYmqcq_Tz6O4_PRib2K6H1kVaMJdg-HWGgpS4UOgclQ2rpPvrNT_gnLKQ8feqvWgOo8I9yfNPY/s1600/CVdnuMnVAAAhkQH.jpg+large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFaNnaZSLj8xL3A_u1NxhaJkc3zNJBUfnF1Dz7PBl9QZ16xqFqBKK6yo4X_VRr-JZ56lYmqcq_Tz6O4_PRib2K6H1kVaMJdg-HWGgpS4UOgclQ2rpPvrNT_gnLKQ8feqvWgOo8I9yfNPY/s320/CVdnuMnVAAAhkQH.jpg+large.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy : Zenrainman</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">Just as
there are simple, everyday actions based on traditional values possible (and
practiced) at the household level, so too there are community and ward-level
activities that contribute to lowering our collective harmful impacts on the
environment and thereby lowering our carbon footprint. Our cities and towns are
struggling with refuse, garbage and household waste. For large cities (with
populations of 4 million and above) the daily waste produced is recorded as
being upwards of 1,000 tons (for large metros the quantities are more than
4,000 tons). When such quantities are consigned to landfills, apart from
endangering the health of those in nearby settlements, the methane adds to the
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (and methane is more potent than carbon).</span></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">Once
again, the easy and time-tested solution lies in our memory of what was common
practice. What is today called wet waste (the cut and inedible portions of
vegetables and fruit), when supplemented with leaf litter and garden trimmings,
with only a little care and attention transforms over time into rich and
nourishing dark compost that when added to soil rejuvenates the fertility of
land (or potted plants), dramatically increases the amount of water the soil
can retain, and is indispensible for organic cultivation.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;">It is
with such a holistic view that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (clean India campaign)
and the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (organic farming campaign) have been
conceived. By themselves these (and other initiatives that promote renewable
energy at the community and household level) are effective but it is together
that they become powerfully transformative. The climate crisis and the current
state of our planet demands responses that go beyond technology and finance. A
reorientation and a renewed consciousness is required, in every Indian
household, which rest upon our ancient values and also employ the tools of the
present.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "bookman old style" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This article first appeared in the December 2015 issue of Yojana, published by GOI </span></i></span></span></div>
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Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-73927611901906293612014-08-30T23:30:00.000-07:002014-09-04T07:48:42.196-07:00By trashing the Gadgil report recommendations, did we just kill the Western Ghats?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Older than the Himalaya, the Western Ghats, 1,600 km long
stretch, makes its way through 6 states. Its ecosystem plays a critical
role in influencing the monsoon and weather patterns in the
subcontinent. Known for its exceptionally high biodiversity and
endemism, unique only to this part of the world, it is home to Tiger
Reserves, National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, and Reserved Forests. It
is the source of thousands of medicinal plants. What makes the Western
Ghats special is that while its total area is less than 6 % of the land
area of India, the Western Ghats contains more than 30% of all plant,
fish, bird, and mammal species found in India. It contains genetic
resources of numerous spices, grains and fruits. More importantly, the Ghats and its forests sustain the livelihoods
of approximately 245 million people who live in the Indian states that
receive most of their water supply from rivers originating in the
region.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhASMZiWY_e5GYr2_Jz7WxfJi-Rgrl2wOVpp1xtHHeqjFqLeu9lXhJtJeQqMkbBvCUtJL0nhh0DL9DNTqFiGv-uQj3wPJvsIqNgblThZ0iH2fk7Cu1m8LN8ygE_s_UVkKWPTTeRq0AOyMs/s1600/DSC03674.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhASMZiWY_e5GYr2_Jz7WxfJi-Rgrl2wOVpp1xtHHeqjFqLeu9lXhJtJeQqMkbBvCUtJL0nhh0DL9DNTqFiGv-uQj3wPJvsIqNgblThZ0iH2fk7Cu1m8LN8ygE_s_UVkKWPTTeRq0AOyMs/s1600/DSC03674.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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When Jairam Ramesh was the Minister for Environment and Forest, he
commissioned renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil to study the Western Ghats
and offer recommendations for its conservation. The report, when ready,
was neither shared and nor made public for over a year.<br />
<br />
After PILs were filed, the Court ordered the MoEF to put the report
in the public domain - Gadgil called for the highest protection to the
Ghats and marked the entire Ghats as eco sensitive. He classified the
entire area into three zones, depending on how fragile it was. He also
recommended a gradual phasing out of all existing mining activities over
five years and no new licenses to be issued.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhLalxurRzMkwsXSqnxjhTDLd6_KOC6zDLf4IC3t0sGS3kqbkehAGvRBfo1lIty8Kf8sJQ1BY3Ti63I3XDw5IL7wjoRmMgl3Sy5FucTJHjlZGRs85xNh_PSMDhm0oXxRfzPJgewnLm2KU/s1600/western+ghat+map.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhLalxurRzMkwsXSqnxjhTDLd6_KOC6zDLf4IC3t0sGS3kqbkehAGvRBfo1lIty8Kf8sJQ1BY3Ti63I3XDw5IL7wjoRmMgl3Sy5FucTJHjlZGRs85xNh_PSMDhm0oXxRfzPJgewnLm2KU/s1600/western+ghat+map.png" height="227" width="320" /></a></div>
The then UPA Government squashed the report which was found to be
inconvenient to the wants of industry. The Kerala government was the
first to strongly oppose it claiming it is impractical and will come in
the way of its “development”. Other states chanted the same mantra
prompted by the mining and real estate lobbies.<br />
<br />
Ramesh’s successor , Jayanti Natarajan, dismissed the report and
sought a second opinion - that in itself was wrong and caused some
amount of confusion .She commissioned K Kasturirangan to do another
study. When complete this study found that only 37% of the Western Ghats
is eco-sensitive and that mining, construction, dam-building and other
destructive activities can be allowed in the rest of the area of the
Ghats. Kasturirangan diluted the Gadgil report to favour industry and
appease the crony capitalists in all the states through which the Ghats
and its spurs run. Till now no decision has been taken in favour of
either report.<br />
<br />
Madhav Gadgil is better placed than Kasturirangan to recommend to the
MoEFCC about protecting the Western Ghats - one is an ecologist who
knows the Western Ghats better than anyone else, the other a scientist,
and ex planning commission member.<br />
<br />
Sadly the decision to reject the report was communicated on August 27
by the NDA government to the National Green Tribunal. Once again, the
debate is cast as a split: if you support Gadgil, you are called
anti-development, anti-growth, regressive etc. But the evidence has been
gathering all along the Ghats for decades - in an era of climate
instability, fast-changing monsoon patterns and the pressures of
urbanisation and resource extraction, the destruction of the Western
Ghats as is now being sanctioned by the BJP-led NDA government will
dangerously affect the climate of peninsular India and further endanger
the livelihoods and well-being of millions in the river basins whose
streams originate in these lush hills.<br />
<br />
Those who support full and non-negotiable protection of the entire
Western Ghats are not idealists; they are amongst those Indians who keep
our connection with nature current, a connection that goes back to the
Vedas. It is capitalist forces and growth-obsessed policies that will,
if unchecked, brutally destroy that relationship – a relationship that
was celebrated in the hymns of the Rig Vedas.<br />
<br />
It is in our long-term interest to protect every hillside and valley
and stream of the Western Ghats and not open up the fragile region to
senseless "development". If we do not, generations to come will pay a
huge price.<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">This article first appeared in <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-by-trashing-the-gadgil-report-recommendations-did-we-just-kill-the-western-ghats-2014640" target="_blank">DNA</a> on 29th August 2014 <span></span></span></i></span></div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-32365764046968709712014-08-01T09:15:00.000-07:002014-08-01T09:15:23.570-07:00GM crops debate needs Swadeshi voice <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<em> By
the end of the active stage of the ‘Green Revolution’, the result of
the long campaign had been to take away from Bharat’s farmers their
legitimate claims to being scientists, innovators, natural resource
stewards, seed savers and hybridisation experts.</em></div>
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The agro-ecological farming systems of Bharat have been placed under
modern threat from the time that the ‘Green Revolution’ was planned.
This planning became manifest through the direct policy support given to
the public finance and sanction given to the creation of ‘command
areas’ which were fed by the water collected behind new large dams. But
it also became manifest through the connections that were being created
between our national agricultural research system and the West, in
particular the agricultural universities of the USA.<br />
That threat took form from the early 1960s, and one of its results
was to lead a generation of crop scientists, agricultural administrators
and State and Central Governments to accept ‘high yielding’ and
‘productivity’ and ‘hybrids’ as the only dimensions of the relationship
between staple crops and the provision of food to Bharat’s people. These
views were successfully marketed, thanks to sustained and continuous
support by the Government machinery, to the consuming public, and even
found place in school textbooks in all major languages. In this way, the
idea that a ‘scientific’ approach to new ways of growing our staple
crops was projected to our society as being the only modern way.<br />
When this happened, for over a generation of younger citizens who
became adults in the early 2000s, the idea that agriculture is equal to
well-applied doses of science was one that went largely unquestioned.
Meanwhile, the role of the kisan was deliberately diminished. By the end
of the active stage of the ‘Green Revolution’, the result of the long
campaign had been to take away from Bharat’s farmers their legitimate
claims to being scientists, innovators, natural resource stewards, seed
savers and hybridisation experts. Instead, they were reduced to becoming
recipients of technical fixes and consumers of the poisonous products
of a growing agricultural inputs industry.<br />
It is against such a background – which is a chapter of the overall
transformation of the cultivation of food in Bharat – that the
opposition to genetically-modified crops and food is to be viewed. The
steadfast opposition to this technology is grounded in the recognition
that our country’s immense biodiversity of seeds, plants and life forms
is our collective heritage, which has evolved through the cumulative
innovations, adaptations and selections of many generations of
indigenous farming communities, for whom these seeds and life forms are
sacred.<br />
When this position is understood, then the reason why genetically
modified organisms – uncontrollable and irreversible when let into the
agro-ecological environment – and their produce is so despised, becomes
plain. It is not a matter of science alone, as the geneticists and their
financiers claim, but has as much, if not more, to do with culture,
independence and self-reliance. These are essential aspects of the GM
discussion which the proponents and advocates cannot employ, because
none of these aspects favours their position.<br />
Articles such as ‘<a href="http://www.niticentral.com/2014/07/30/gm-crops-debate-can-do-without-swadeshi-paranoia-234917.html" target="_blank">GM crops debate can do without Swadeshi paranoia’ (by Surajit Dasgupta in Niticentral, 30 July 2014)</a>
follow a pattern of advocacy. They treat technology of GM as being by
itself the silver bullet that can solve all crop problems, they elevate
GM scientists over all other science related to the practice of
agriculture, they denigrate shamefully and belittle the farmer and her
knowledge, they cast slurs on all those who are critical of GM and seek
to discredit them by citing academic papers and other material that
advocates GM. This is the pattern that we are seeing not only in Bharat,
but wherever there is opposition to GM and to the policies that the
technology depends on to enter a country.<br />
The growing of our crop staples, of vegetables and fruit has to do
with a great deal more than the adoption of a particular technology. On
everything other than the need (always framed as urgent) to accept GM,
the proponents and advocates of this technology can join no discussion,
for that is the limit of their argument. For a generation, farmers’
groups and unions have been protesting the neglect that farm livelihoods
have been subjected to. They have protested (and continue to) policy
impacts that have caused the displacement of farmers in huge numbers
because smallholder farming earns them nothing, or because their farms
are swallowed up by racing urbanisation; they have been demanding a
minimum living income as a guarantee to all farm households, which must
be their due as food growers.<br />
Who are they and what do they have? They have 85 per cent of the
total holdings in Bharat (117.60 million marginal and small holdings of
the total of 138.34 million) which account for 44.5 per cent of the land
area under agriculture (71.15 million hectares of the total of 159.59
million hectares). It is this large section of our people, the providers
of Bharat’s food on that 85 per cent of all farm holdings, whom we are
accustomed to call ‘<em>annadaata</em>‘, that is represented by
organisations like the Bhartiya Kisan Union, the largest farmers’ union
in the country, which has opposed GM crops (and field trials) from the
outset. “We are concerned about farm community’s and nation’s seed and
food sovereignty which will certainly be eroded when GMOs are pursued as
a technology,” was the BKU statement, which powerfully shows us why GM
is a socio-economic, ecological and cultural question, none of which are
subordinated to science.<br />
This is what worries the growers of Bharat’s food. Technological and
market fixes have not shortened this list of worries but have done the
opposite. The subject for us is the growing of crop staples, or crop
choice, the methods used to cultivate, the support that the ‘kisan’
finds, and the environmental and cultural links between crop grower and
food consumer. When considering this multi-dimensional nature of food
and farming, it is important to note (which the GM advocates and
proponents omit) that conventional crop breeding continues to meet
important challenges like improving drought tolerance, improving
nitrogen fertiliser efficiency, and increasing yields according to the
contexts of the different agro-ecological regions in our country. When
we reached self-sufficiency in food staples, we did so by relying on
crop breeding together with providing support (erratic as it was, prone
to politically manipulation) to our ‘kisans’. Where then is the place
for GM?<br />
There is none. That is why proponents have resorted to quoting papers
that are designed by institutions outside Bharat which have a great
interest in facilitating the grabbing of Bharat’s genetic commons and
bio-cultural heritage to be privatised and monopolised. The Bharat Beej
Swaraj Manch had stated their opposition to GM most forcefully in a
statement (released in New Delhi earlier this year): “We assert our
sovereign rights to freely plant, use, reproduce, select, improve,
adapt, save, share, exchange or sell our seeds – without restriction or
hindrance – as we have done for past millennia.” GM has no place in this
assertion, by a countrywide seed savers’ network, of the rights of
kisans.<br />
There is no place for GM under any of the scenarios presented by the
proponents (climate change in particular). As an indication of our
enormous agro-diversity, the National Gene Bank of the National Bureau
of Plant Genetic Resources has said that its base collections total
402,894 accessions of 1,586 crop species. These include 159,569 cereals,
57,523 millets, 58,756 pulses or grain legumes, 58,477 oilseeds, 25,330
vegetables, 6,872 medicinal and aromatic plants, and 3,847 spices and
condiments. There is in this astonishing collection (and the kisans’ own
collections) all that our country needs to find staples that will deal,
as Surajit Dasgupta has mentioned, with “increasing temperatures,
decreased water availability in some places and flooding in others,
rising salinity, and changing pathogen and insect threats”.<br />
The methods to deal with these have been practiced by the cultivating
households (of which there are many within our 167 million rural
households) in the 20 agro-ecological regions of Bharat and their 60
sub-regions over which are roughly apportioned the diversities of soil,
climate, physiography, the availability periods of conducive moisture
(which determines the length of growing seasons). They had perfected
crop rotations (largely abandoned by industrial agriculture) and which
can increase yields by even 20 per cent, the water holding capacity of
soils (woefully under-studied) had been improved, they lowered
susceptibility to drought by planting cover crops that increase soil
organic matter, they had saved themselves from water pollution by
nitrogen and the need for pesticides.<br />
This is a small glimpse of the wider context in which the GM
advocates and proponents work, but they do so outside the dimension of
cognitive justice that ties us together – acknowledging the right for
different knowledge systems to exist with their associated practices,
livelihoods, ways of being, and ecologies to coexist. It is
organisations like Anchalika Krushak Sanghatan of Odisha, Bhu Adhikar
Abhiyan of Madhya Pradesh, Ekta Parishad, Gujarat Khedut Samaj, Bharat
Swabhimaan Andolan Lucknow, Shetkari Sanghatan of Maharastra that are
rearticulating this wider context in which GM and the techno-capital
domination is represents. These are a few amongst the many organisations
that have created diverse spaces which democratise food, its research
and its provision, and whose hundreds of thousands of members practice
bio-diverse ecological agriculture free from the narrow issues of
technology and its overlords.<br />
<br />
<i>Authored jointly by Rahul Goswami and Viva Kermani</i><br />
<i>First appeared in Niti Central</i><br />
<i><a href="http://www.niticentral.com/2014/08/01/gm-crops-debate-needs-swadeshi-voice-235071.html" target="_blank">http://www.niticentral.com/2014/08/01/gm-crops-debate-needs-swadeshi-voice-235071.html </a></i></div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-35879819666907587102014-07-23T04:42:00.001-07:002014-07-23T04:42:40.267-07:00GM food crops – Why India must say no<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) on July 18
decided that open field trials of 21 new varieties of genetically
modified (GM) crops should be permitted, the arguments contra and pro
became considerably more intense. That a single committee is seen to
have the experience and foresight to judge the consequences of allowing
open field trials of genetically modified rice, wheat, maize and other
food crops can hardly be believed, but that is the state of what passes
for ‘regulation’ these days.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPTv8rqAh-HnVMYhnIUjFSUMNZsWzUHpYUJ_kcbcJkytG9dV4h0qEipLXr1BdkOPZh8-tWpIGmIaNEtsDmHEUiwx1EsWSeQfLN0TZU7-JadS_ppQYjEh2Xvuu07cswuq9Kz4Q9z8Bci0c/s1600/BtN5PnjCAAI1r81.jpg+large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPTv8rqAh-HnVMYhnIUjFSUMNZsWzUHpYUJ_kcbcJkytG9dV4h0qEipLXr1BdkOPZh8-tWpIGmIaNEtsDmHEUiwx1EsWSeQfLN0TZU7-JadS_ppQYjEh2Xvuu07cswuq9Kz4Q9z8Bci0c/s1600/BtN5PnjCAAI1r81.jpg+large.jpg" height="253" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Desperate to corner the Indian market, which is seen in international
agri-business as vital for the long-term profitability of the food
bio-tech companies, the GM seed companies have pulled out many tricks in
order to try and make their arguments convincing. The latest attempt is
to claim that India needs GM food crops to feed its growing population
and that without GM crops we will never be able to feed ourselves. This
claim is worse than specious and is amongst those that provoked outrage
enough to lead the Minister into distancing his Government from the
decision of the committee.<br />
<br />
What GM technology proponents fail to tell you is that India has been
self-sufficient in food staples for over a decade, and more than that
for cereals. Today the country grows about 100 million tons (mt) of
rice, 95 mt of wheat, 170 mt of vegetables, 85 mt of fruit, 40 mt of
coarse cereals and 18 mt of pulses (refer to the Economic Survey for the
data). These totals ensure that our farmers grow enough to feed all
Indians well with food staples. We have 66 mt of grain, two-and-a-half
times the required buffer stock (on January 1, 2013). The country has
reached this stage through, first and foremost, the knowledge and skill
of our farmers who have bred and saved seed themselves and exchanged
their seed in ways that made our fields so bio-diverse.<br />
<br />
This is the aspect that the GM proponents, such as Amol Parth (‘<a href="http://www.niticentral.com/2014/07/22/gm-field-trials-government-must-be-guided-by-consumer-and-farmer-choice-234427.html" target="_blank">GM Field Trials-Government must be guided by Consumer and Farmer Choice</a>‘)
miss or omit by design. Instead, the statements that they use such as
“thousands die of hunger daily in India” are irresponsible and baseless
scare-mongering with a view to projecting GM as the only answer. When
our people go hungry, or suffer from malnutrition, it is not for lack of
food, it is because their right to safe and nutritious food that is
culturally connected has been blocked. That is why it is not a
technological fix problem and GM has no place in it.<br />
Recognising the wider context, the Technical Expert Committee
appointed by the Supreme Court, in its interim report of October 17,
2012, had also recommended a ten-year moratorium on field trials of Bt
food crops. Why did they do this? No field trials of Bt transgenic crops
until gaps in the regulatory system are addressed, the committee had
said. Field trials are conducted before establishing biosafety as GM
contamination from field trials may be detected after years, and such
contamination is irreversible. Yet the GEAC has chosen to ignore the
Supreme Court recommendations – this must be questioned.<br />
Moreover, the TEC could not find any justification for India becoming
the first country where major food crop that is directly used for human
consumption is genetically modified. The health risks are too great.
Routinely, the GM industry influences scientific journals to publish
reviews purportedly showing that GM foods are safe on the basis of
long-term animal studies, whereas they show considerable evidence of
risk and use unscientific double standards to reach conclusions not
justified by the data. This is part of the GM lobby’s bag of dirty
tricks, a bag now opened in our country.<br />
A common argument made in favour of GM crops is that the farmer
benefits as yield increase. This is a totally spurious claim designed to
hoodwink our farmers, who are already struggling with high input costs.
European countries are often criticised for their opposition to GM
whereas impartial research has shown that Europe’s mostly non-GM
agriculture delivers higher yields than the USA’s mostly GM agriculture
with less pesticide use. On the contrary, it is the GM-adopting USA that
is falling behind Europe in terms of productivity and sustainability.<br />
Seventeen years after its introduction, only 3.4 per cent of the
world’s agricultural land is sown with GM seed. If this technology is as
wondrous as its mischievous supporters claim, and is the answer for
improved yield and lower costs, why has it not been embraced more
widely? Quite simply because the good sense of farmers has halted its
spread. Food growing countries, states, districts and farmers understand
fully well that GM technology is about patents and control. Letting GM
in will mean exposing the farmer, the consumer and the nation to
unacceptable risk. Our seed sovereignty is dear to us. That is why the
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), India’s largest farmer union, on July 21,
stated that GMOs are unsafe and are not needed in India.<br />
For a country that has great diversity and a vast repository of seeds
and knowledge that come to us from agricultural systems many
generations old, it is in our national interest to protect our seeds and
traditional knowledge and bar multi-national seed companies that want
to control our food system. This is what swadeshi economics means.<br />
<br />
<i>This article first appeared in NITI Central<a href="http://www.niticentral.com/2014/07/23/gm-food-crops-why-india-must-say-no-234572.html" target="_blank"> http://www.niticentral.com/2014/07/23/gm-food-crops-why-india-must-say-no-234572.html </a></i></div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-57730147898487632462014-07-21T01:21:00.002-07:002014-07-21T01:21:58.875-07:00GMOs are uneeded and unsafe - says India's largest farmer union<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) on July 18th gave the
green signal for field trials of genetically modified (GM) rice,
mustard, cotton, chickpea and brinjal at its meeting in Delhi. This has led to widespread condemnation by various groups - from the RSS, to Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS),Gujarat Khedut Samaj, Organic Farmers’ Association<br />
<br />
I am reproducing the letter here as its not available online<br />
<br />
Below is a copy of the letter from Bhartiya Kisan Union
(BKU) dated July 21st, 2014<br />
<br />
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To:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Shri Prakash Javadekar,</div>
<div>
Central Minister for Environment, </div>
<div>
Forests and Climate Change (I/C),</div>
<div>
Government of India,</div>
<div>
Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex,</div>
<div>
New Delhi.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Respected Shri Javadekar,</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Sub: GMOs are unneeded and unsafe – urge you to cancel field trial approvals given by regulators.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Respected Sir,</div>
<div>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> Bhartiya Kisan Union
(BKU) is the largest farmers’ union in the country working for farmers’
rights and benefits in various states of India. From the time the debate
unfolded in India on the controversial technology of Genetically
Modification (GM), we have been opposed to GM crops being allowed in
India, including for field trials. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The reasons for this are many – we are concerned
about farm community’s and nation’s seed and food sovereignty which will
certainly be eroded when GMOs are pursued as a technology. This is
because most genes as well as processes of transgenics are already
patented and these IPRs work for the monopolistic or oligopolistic
benefit of profit-hungry corporations like Monsanto. It is well known by
now that the ease with which transgenic technology allows corporations
to claim ownership rights over seeds is what makes it attractive to
these corporations who spin lies around why the world needs these GMOs.
All their claims are hyped, unfounded and false whether it be related to
productivity, or lack of need for chemicals or stress-tolerant GMOs
etc. GMOs, backed by IPRs, are the way by which corporations want to
control entire food chains. The implications are clear and have already
been experienced by farmers here in India in the case of Bt cotton and
elsewhere, in the case of other GMOs too. Seed prices will increase
exorbitantly; these corporations will not hesitate to sue even
governments in their pursuit of profits; seed choices will be highly
limited for farmers; farmers will be driven to make irrational choices
with a changed scenario related to seed supply; farmers will be sued in
the name of proprietary rights when GM contamination happens, which of
course is inevitable. All of this seriously jeopardizes the livelihood
security of farmers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Another important aspect of this debate is the lack
of safety of GMOs – there is enormous scientific evidence that is
already available to show that GMOs are unsafe, both for human and
animal health and for our environment. If our crop ecosystems are
disrupted, and our very soils affected, once again it becomes a
livelihood security issue for us farmers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A neglected but important side to this debate is
that of the very need for GMOs. It has been shown very convincingly by
scores of scientists in India, in a letter addressed to a former
Environment Minister that GMOs do not bring in food security; on the
country, in countries which opted for GMOs in a significant manner, the
food security indicators worsened. For all the various problems that GM
is touted as a solution for, there are better, safer answers which are
actually more affordable both for governments to take the solutions to
farmers, and for farmers themselves to adopt. It is these solutions that
need to be promoted urgently, while GM is a dangerous, unneeded, costly
distraction.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sir, BJP seems to be belying its promises in its
manifesto by allowing deliberate release of untested GMOs into the
environment through the latest approvals accorded by the GEAC. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We urge you to intervene and get the approvals annulled immediately, to
keep the party’s word to the electorate of this country, to show respect
towards the judiciary which is right now looking into the matter
through the PIL filed by Ms Aruna Rodrigues and others, and most
importantly to show conclusively that your government will act on behalf
of citizens’ interests. Like we said, there is not a single convincing
reason why the government should rush ahead with these trials of new
organisms in our Nature and environment. Once again, we request you to
cancel the approvals urgently. Thank you.</div>
<div>
Sincerely</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Naresh Tikait<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Dharmendra Malik<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> Yudhveer Singh</div>
<div>
(President BKU)<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> (Coordinator BKU) <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> (Genral Secretary BKU)</div>
</div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-55333558253797672112014-06-08T04:46:00.000-07:002014-06-08T04:48:29.957-07:00And all is not lost<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Just a quick update on my earlier post in January of this year - <a href="http://vivakermani.blogspot.in/2014_01_01_archive.html" target="_blank">Mad About an Airport </a>and the controversy in Kerala about the plan to construct a stupid airport amidst cast acres and acres of paddy fields,destruction of wetlands in the heritage town of Aranmula.</div>
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In an era of rapid loss of natural resources, accelerated
deforestation and an insatiable need for high speed everything, I feel <span class="st">bouyan</span>t <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that last week, the Chennai bench of the National Green
Tribunal revoked the environmental clearance for the proposed Aranmula Airport project.
The Aranmula Heritage Village Action Council chief patron Kummanam
Rajashekharan, a senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh <i>pracharak </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">has been leading the struggle against the
airport in 2012 .</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihfVqOmMZBGE53ZGrwt8Qyj3QsbuuQ9hsZo0-Vl4nWLbPpCz3YekfG4VcXeH37Ftk0UM4ExHeRpIaH9x-vHeJYGDhPVIzdEf5XdVcqWFKQbk2DNZrh6uk0HORk6Ch9cnULj7ziNxjmnfg/s1600/With+prasadam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihfVqOmMZBGE53ZGrwt8Qyj3QsbuuQ9hsZo0-Vl4nWLbPpCz3YekfG4VcXeH37Ftk0UM4ExHeRpIaH9x-vHeJYGDhPVIzdEf5XdVcqWFKQbk2DNZrh6uk0HORk6Ch9cnULj7ziNxjmnfg/s1600/With+prasadam.jpg" height="400" width="302" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kummanam
Rajashekharan, celebrating with Prasadam from the Temple, the NGT' s decision</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">For those who have
not read my earlier post, the Kerala government approved </span>2,000 acres in
Aranmula for a totally unnecessary airport. Aranmula , a temple town known for
its paddy fields, deep tradition and culture ,its boat race and for the unique
Aanmula glass- known as <i>kannadi</i>, a rare handmade metal-alloy mirror,
would loose <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>700 acres of paddy fields,
its wetlands , have a negative ecological impact. For the airstrip to be
operational the mast of the temple would have to be lowered and the entrance
door of the temple changed. So rich and deep is its cultural heritage that UNESCO
has declared it a heritage zone.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>So when the southern
Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), on May 29<sup>th</sup>, cancelled
the environmental clearance given to the controversial international airport
project in Kerala, there was much rejoicing – full credit to the people of
Aranmula and the man who led the struggle.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Here is the man and
these are his stories</div>
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<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/aranmula-stir-is-for-nature-kummanam/article5966220.ece" target="_blank"> http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/aranmula-stir-is-for-nature-kummanam/article5966220.ece</a></div>
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<a href="http://thiruvaranmula.blogspot.in/2013/03/facts-about-proposed-airport-at-aranmula.html">http://thiruvaranmula.blogspot.in/2013/03/facts-about-proposed-airport-at-aranmula.html</a></div>
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<a href="http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=16827&SKIN=K">http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=16827&SKIN=K</a></div>
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<a href="http://newsturbate.blogspot.in/2012/05/aranmula-airport-investigation.html" target="_blank">http://newsturbate.blogspot.in/2012/05/aranmula-airport-investigation.html </a></div>
<a href="http://newsturbate.blogspot.in/2012/05/aranmula-airport-investigation.html" target="_blank">
</a><br />
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</div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-63745466820160847112014-03-22T04:29:00.000-07:002014-03-27T19:56:36.315-07:00Up and up and up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
In a world that is obsessed with higher and higher growth,
expressways and XUVs, where SUVs are becoming passé, where development is equated only with highways, roads and spiffing airports, where man's insatiable consumption need has to be met at any cost , where a
desire to monetize any and everything , deforestation at the light of speed ,
where the slow dying of our coral reef does not seem to matter , where unsafe and high pollution levels<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>make
our cities unfit for us to breathe in or
live in, the dropping dead of bee colonies by the millions, the drying
up of
our rivers, the destruction of wetlands that give way to sky scrapers,
chemical
riddled food, where nuclear contamination and radiation uncertainty is
accepted, where we are unconcerned about the acidification of
our oceans and parts of our seas being declared sea dead,traffic jams <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3JJy99F_d71qO4RNLSN0TcHmiBNzN3RGzKgIIQPRLqrko0sXtBhCGCAz34vWAUHRWxDodQK5BB5pcqu7lhUTXVSX7suZhtTqhD8iCrxevKNz0iVcr38huIww8MS6OEY4SRpJAZZ8-oM/s1600/Everset+2013529103040974847_8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3JJy99F_d71qO4RNLSN0TcHmiBNzN3RGzKgIIQPRLqrko0sXtBhCGCAz34vWAUHRWxDodQK5BB5pcqu7lhUTXVSX7suZhtTqhD8iCrxevKNz0iVcr38huIww8MS6OEY4SRpJAZZ8-oM/s1600/Everset+2013529103040974847_8.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<![endif]-->on the 8,848-metre high Everest caused by
people who came from far away countries to “conquer” the peak ,instead leave
behind waste on the pristine white mountain , where dams are not good
enough, but mega dams is the answer, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>where glaciers melt rapidly, where peak summer
temperatures are reached more frequently than ever, where we want growth at any cost,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a significant change happened to our planet.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
We crossed 400 parts per million
(ppm) of carbon dioxide (C0<sub>2</sub>) in the atmosphere again, earlier this month. To preserve
a liveable planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the
atmosphere from its current level of 400 parts per million(ppm) to below 350 ppm. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But instead, we are rapidly and rapaciously
adding more C0<sub>2<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sub>into the atmosphere, making a planet
that will not be habitable by humans.<br />
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYg6mIhIj2GYUMElalD7gdMih8rTG76Xg40xZAFbTw16hY5ZdgwSM7_8h2H6-M_kLAELDuFTEaIQaTsLMmgHkqeORDtc0wXxK1pZpP7lPpVbhj4Ic048LNxL-MKRHusPMTBwxIYgkxBT0/s1600/untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYg6mIhIj2GYUMElalD7gdMih8rTG76Xg40xZAFbTw16hY5ZdgwSM7_8h2H6-M_kLAELDuFTEaIQaTsLMmgHkqeORDtc0wXxK1pZpP7lPpVbhj4Ic048LNxL-MKRHusPMTBwxIYgkxBT0/s1600/untitled.jpg" height="320" width="259" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It is then that I am reminded about what Gandhi said that
distinguished modern civilization from our ancient civilization - the
distinguishing characteristic of modern civilization is an indefinite
multiplicity of wants ,where ancient civilization were marked by an “imperative
restriction upon, and a strict regulating of these wants “. He detested the
thought of the distance that man would go to in search of their satisfaction –
“If modern civilization stands for all this, and I have understood it to do so,
I call it satanic .“<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was in the
year 1927.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
While I contemplate our present and brood our future, I often ask where is all this leading to, who gains and who benefits - for it is in this pursuit of what we call a "good life" that the falcon cannot hear the falconer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-3938527813452162072014-02-08T05:50:00.002-08:002017-03-22T09:24:44.210-07:00 The barber's shop<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was the divine festival of Mahashivrati - one of the biggest Hindu festivals dedicated to Lord Siva, celebrated in the month of Maagha (or <b>माघ</b> <i>maagh</i> in Hindi) of the Hindu calender. I was in a small town in the district of <span class="st">Chhatarpur in the state of Madhya Pradesh </span>celebrating the night off- the most auspicious day dedicated to Lord Siva.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEbGBQBVxOZu384fhPFN7XoKM0Hmb6P3w5K1w4qpUMU1pGu7x76YjQRIQoVgkMVSYfpfG8Qzfz9md_iZ4VO7SgsLUuQD4Ksmza8onXBEFari8WePVaLQdWriW4gmNNEp-bhKnmth3haNA/s1600/shivratri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEbGBQBVxOZu384fhPFN7XoKM0Hmb6P3w5K1w4qpUMU1pGu7x76YjQRIQoVgkMVSYfpfG8Qzfz9md_iZ4VO7SgsLUuQD4Ksmza8onXBEFari8WePVaLQdWriW4gmNNEp-bhKnmth3haNA/s320/shivratri.jpg" width="211" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">The days and nights leading up to the great night were intoxicating - the town was filling up with men, women, children and families, all gathered by their love and devotion to Lord Siva, there were chants of Om Namah Shivaya, offerings of the sacred "bilva" tree (bael) , it is a day of renunciation and prayer, a night of fasting, with an all night vigil ,worshiping Lord Siva - this is Mahashivratri - the great night of Siva, when Lord Siva appears.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGLQq9U8bNCiXCXJ-BWM6OFC75LWI4KDiFvb9BanTDtbB5wYusreXJP9S6hJy4JgRycCJi-gOfM0-jmkZ3-Iib2kaBm3EWMWE7tkyT617ubScpjWj01upiLfiqK2JvuEht3r0YHtjcvbI/s1600/kh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGLQq9U8bNCiXCXJ-BWM6OFC75LWI4KDiFvb9BanTDtbB5wYusreXJP9S6hJy4JgRycCJi-gOfM0-jmkZ3-Iib2kaBm3EWMWE7tkyT617ubScpjWj01upiLfiqK2JvuEht3r0YHtjcvbI/s320/kh.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">After
the fasting, the puja and abulations over, women wonder around,
continuing their worship, and the street markets come alive selling odds
and ends from bindis to bangles. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpvD0rg5Ii1T9wfI-zPkaCXDxjNmg2_lj-7S4UmfDlh0xyXoihT5jp8dKZxNfILlH8d07Q1IIqAOwqAVAyxC9SWZ6hk4oOH-tuKmB-AaZkSg540okNWZvRW_2FsIp0WkF7xun1hjSkOWQ/s1600/298351_1494274852919_6545618_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpvD0rg5Ii1T9wfI-zPkaCXDxjNmg2_lj-7S4UmfDlh0xyXoihT5jp8dKZxNfILlH8d07Q1IIqAOwqAVAyxC9SWZ6hk4oOH-tuKmB-AaZkSg540okNWZvRW_2FsIp0WkF7xun1hjSkOWQ/s320/298351_1494274852919_6545618_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT_DuUK61x9fJTe2CxXPAyw80Xo8IlX28c9C1vH5LEHIlmJyK2r1jM80Q1TPEPilsNnyaXgtHc-6zOJvbpZ3687zHG_llfTLLp5_zWZdOWc2fR_4607UeQfN5gMexaHXveXdu9wbqiayE/s1600/Bangle+seller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT_DuUK61x9fJTe2CxXPAyw80Xo8IlX28c9C1vH5LEHIlmJyK2r1jM80Q1TPEPilsNnyaXgtHc-6zOJvbpZ3687zHG_llfTLLp5_zWZdOWc2fR_4607UeQfN5gMexaHXveXdu9wbqiayE/s320/Bangle+seller.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The
men in the town head to Dinesh - who gets ready at the crack of dawn ,
to set up his shop and start business. I am amazed at this small ,
nimble but well equipped barber shop. I watch him set up his shop,ask if
I can take pictures. He smiles sweetly and nods his head. I wait to
see his first customer .</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxc4Jbq5oaw3HENabwqXFuH70YfPCanbpz9WurG6mV8_OvuG1a5vEyaydxhHQ8dQZRz4xOvI_C01dJ3JeXgtbWvctQ62p8oXMtCxT5L7PMmHFq44yzwp_ncxFy3AIZAX_8q6pDyfI5veE/s1600/haircutting+tools.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxc4Jbq5oaw3HENabwqXFuH70YfPCanbpz9WurG6mV8_OvuG1a5vEyaydxhHQ8dQZRz4xOvI_C01dJ3JeXgtbWvctQ62p8oXMtCxT5L7PMmHFq44yzwp_ncxFy3AIZAX_8q6pDyfI5veE/s1600/haircutting+tools.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_RKfpppH5NuWmCOT5E7GixOY1Lyv3wFA_1oVOZmrRJkrF8YcfWM8TzwgV-A8FUGNNCecJWEu8pScIS1jWBoKCIYQVQNxU3E3JM33UKG6PuqIhU9Nw2IgtoLkYdPCLHmEJOfWJBaCsFc/s1600/Barber+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_RKfpppH5NuWmCOT5E7GixOY1Lyv3wFA_1oVOZmrRJkrF8YcfWM8TzwgV-A8FUGNNCecJWEu8pScIS1jWBoKCIYQVQNxU3E3JM33UKG6PuqIhU9Nw2IgtoLkYdPCLHmEJOfWJBaCsFc/s1600/Barber+2.jpg" width="240" /></a> <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ywHjXQ_5wfsU9gJsYt1xdMb9PFmjZbOM77wJBQSH68xJg4ydpQQmJJ6xCE8U0kzpuCP2obveE32Srx5jiKrmC0KekKa7O5WVKQ0eb-eilSKqDyEhihojx04FfVmGD2C-H0w8zgQFOuU/s1600/Barber+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ywHjXQ_5wfsU9gJsYt1xdMb9PFmjZbOM77wJBQSH68xJg4ydpQQmJJ6xCE8U0kzpuCP2obveE32Srx5jiKrmC0KekKa7O5WVKQ0eb-eilSKqDyEhihojx04FfVmGD2C-H0w8zgQFOuU/s1600/Barber+1.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">But before I knew it, Dinesh had his first customer and there were men waiting to be shaved and shined. There was no place for an onlooker like me.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpASCyt2VM04lszRDZl-0-HqyYKwhZL6y1ICzN0y_cSJ1Rvu27EHD-YvOQYW6krtgD7MzHtVC4Lej-NkAydQNqLkIvlEVsgBEFU1REx5GVSDcrs2PFlFV7JrNvsB-i2WHBzQy1O3xuXfA/s1600/Khajuraho+barber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpASCyt2VM04lszRDZl-0-HqyYKwhZL6y1ICzN0y_cSJ1Rvu27EHD-YvOQYW6krtgD7MzHtVC4Lej-NkAydQNqLkIvlEVsgBEFU1REx5GVSDcrs2PFlFV7JrNvsB-i2WHBzQy1O3xuXfA/s1600/Khajuraho+barber.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-86682713478280990792014-01-02T22:45:00.004-08:002017-03-30T08:19:31.719-07:00Mad about an an airport<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is how the government of Kerala describes itself-this is from its tourism website.<br />
<b><br />Kerala, God's Own Country</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9XfBKquUMKnGOD7D_GxIKfz-CN7Ai2jX_KfNipSFiFrD5VsSs5apCI1QIKhWpKS76JZvYHiek3WBYECVhUowU9bLylM2pC0yCR4orBaWxnPvbZsDAfOqM92X8H_6UJ29nyUKxgnV9y_U/s1600/kerala-gods-own-country.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9XfBKquUMKnGOD7D_GxIKfz-CN7Ai2jX_KfNipSFiFrD5VsSs5apCI1QIKhWpKS76JZvYHiek3WBYECVhUowU9bLylM2pC0yCR4orBaWxnPvbZsDAfOqM92X8H_6UJ29nyUKxgnV9y_U/s640/kerala-gods-own-country.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
"With the Arabian Sea in the west, the Western Ghats towering 500-2700 m in the east and networked by 44 rivers, Kerala enjoys unique geographical features that have made it one of the most sought after tourist destinations in Asia. An equable climate. A long shoreline with serene beaches. Tranquil stretches of emerald backwaters. Lush hill stations and exotic wildlife. Waterfalls. Sprawling plantations and paddy fields. Ayurvedic health holidays. Enchanting art forms. Magical festivals. Historic and cultural monuments. An exotic cuisine... All of which offer you a unique experience. And what's more, each of these charming destinations is only a two hour drive from the other - a singular advantage no other destination offers."</div>
<br />
All of this is completely true but go back and read the last sentence.<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i>And what's more, each of these charming destinations is only a two hour
drive from the other - a singular advantage no other destination offers.</i><br />
<br />
<i> </i>If you open any travel guide book or google the famous Aranmula Boat Race (Kerala’s oldest river festival) – this is what you are likely to find in the "Getting There" section.<br />
<br />
Venue: River Pampa in Aranmula<br />
Location: Aranmula<br />
District: Pathanamthitta<br />
Getting there<br />
By road: Chengannur, about 10 km<br />
By rail: Chengannur, which is about 11 km<br />
By air: Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, about 117 km<br />
<br />
Now does Aranmula need another airport ?: <br />
<br />
Aranmula is a heritage village - it is famous for its snake boat race, the oldest river boat festival in Kerala.The boat race takes place during the Onam festival, (the harvest festival),near the 1800 year old Parthasarathy Temple in Aranmula. The long traditional Kerala boats are used in the races. Each boat comprises of 150 men of which four are helsmen, 25 men are
singers and 125 are the actual oarsmen.These boats are no ordinary boats - they are constructed as per specifications taken from the Sthapathya Veda, an ancient treatise for the building of wooden boats. An auspicious day and time is chosen for the boat to be built.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyrU_WNADtRhgSjnOaYU-dxRJ2wu7WodmkqRopVmS2um8nNqW8Gp66Xl6201Sq7WqHvXvCQTccUGjqKIe55S8aoJiMjmv0LHEE6OJpUti-pTJn-7jFVCz0DtV2RYLwaLV2kZNvUo2pres/s1600/Boat+race.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyrU_WNADtRhgSjnOaYU-dxRJ2wu7WodmkqRopVmS2um8nNqW8Gp66Xl6201Sq7WqHvXvCQTccUGjqKIe55S8aoJiMjmv0LHEE6OJpUti-pTJn-7jFVCz0DtV2RYLwaLV2kZNvUo2pres/s1600/Boat+race.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aranmula Uthrattathi Boat Race</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
When complete it resembles a snake, long and slender,that tapers at one end to appear like a snake with its hood raised. Each boat is meticulously crafted and belongs to individual villages located near the river Pamba. Barefoot and bare chested, the oarsmen, dressed in their traditional
mundu and turnban, sing traditional boat songs, yet deftly steering
their boats. One mistake by a single person can disturb the balance and overturn the boat - symbolic of the need for harmony and unision with nature.<br />
<br />
If you read more about Aranmula you will learn that apart from the snake boat race, that is held on the holy river Pampa ,Aranmula in Pathanamthitta District of Kerala, is noted for its ancient temple dedicated to Lord Krishna (Parthasarathy -Arjuna's Charioteer).In fact,it is said that the idol was brought here in a raft made with aru (six)
pieces of mula (bamboo) which gave the town its name, Aranmula.It is one of the most important Krishna temples in Kerala and is associated with the Mahābhārata .The temple is on the left bank of the Pampa River. The temple has four
towers over its entrances on its outer wall.The eastern tower is
accessed through a flight of 18 steps.The 57 steps from the northern
tower leads to river Pampa. The temple is noted for its architecture
(vasthu) and fine mural paintings which dates to the 18th century.The culture and heritage of the village is nourished by and around the temple.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPb0kkyMICAy1eu3FkWIkaVglTR6AKsUDanveKXX-aJRs3aR4gwI5wPRW3xA_WmEN1NrZCO1ehm8omfVDyCOffPbfnTErwGIedlwQJjO6Gc7fpVrfEnF3pqJ91T-fm0isoMGHvv0gom8/s1600/Temple+Aranmula.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPb0kkyMICAy1eu3FkWIkaVglTR6AKsUDanveKXX-aJRs3aR4gwI5wPRW3xA_WmEN1NrZCO1ehm8omfVDyCOffPbfnTErwGIedlwQJjO6Gc7fpVrfEnF3pqJ91T-fm0isoMGHvv0gom8/s1600/Temple+Aranmula.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Temple at Aranmula</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
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<div style="text-align: right;">
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<div style="text-align: right;">
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<div style="text-align: right;">
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<span id="content"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span><span id="content"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span><br />
<span id="content"><span lang="EN-US">Aranmula is also famous for its craftsmanship - the unique </span></span><span id="content"><span lang="EN-US"> Aranmula mirror, is made here .Metal mirrors were made and used during the Vedic times and Arnamula is the only place in the world today where </span></span><span id="content"><span lang="EN-US">metal mirrors are still made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The craft of making metal mirrors, a combination
of copper and white lead ,in right proportions, is now practised, and kept a
secret preserve, by a few families of Viswakarmas. The craftmanship is inherited - a family gift that is handed down through generations.Today, a few families remain that have the skill and know the secret of making a metal mirror. </span></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylXDGfnwUejP8pY6cNSUzQg-05cvSw9ht2fa0uxPYcftR0w6woqCJpkf0whyu-ZwAOwoxOlVBEpQBV04XGtfzyYAs47UCWgZIdnZFaxKxarsgQt-OlMQmZjAVK8qPo-DED5gRfM5GyxY/s1600/Aranmula_mirror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylXDGfnwUejP8pY6cNSUzQg-05cvSw9ht2fa0uxPYcftR0w6woqCJpkf0whyu-ZwAOwoxOlVBEpQBV04XGtfzyYAs47UCWgZIdnZFaxKxarsgQt-OlMQmZjAVK8qPo-DED5gRfM5GyxY/s1600/Aranmula_mirror.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aranmula mirror - made from metal</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span id="content"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span><span id="content"><span lang="EN-US">All these treasures and traditions are made even more special by the green</span></span> Aranmula Puncha (paddy field) that surrounds Aranmula - a tributary of the holy River Pampa runs through the puncha, and carries the water that is collected in the fields during the monsoon. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was but natural for UNESCO to declare Aranmula as a global heritage village - in fact,Aranmula is the epitome of Kerala heritage. It has the most beautiful and magnificent of Hindu symbols from temples, to traditional craft and sport, to great Vedic centres of learning and practices traditional agriculture. Above all it is blessed with abundant natural resources .Aranmula stands for all that is good and clean.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_LtAlnUoQAiejXWuah2rM75zINxt5Lgmp2xTnToQUWMXCxPSTPUYhipVuC2hUXNSZaBlcSR8llFnPRQ8L2-a0N2JYeHCue72q6N3x7WuHCj_Mni4BjcpMQK6_b_7OaZltv6usf2cbfWY/s1600/DSC03898.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_LtAlnUoQAiejXWuah2rM75zINxt5Lgmp2xTnToQUWMXCxPSTPUYhipVuC2hUXNSZaBlcSR8llFnPRQ8L2-a0N2JYeHCue72q6N3x7WuHCj_Mni4BjcpMQK6_b_7OaZltv6usf2cbfWY/s1600/DSC03898.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
But a shadow is creeping over Aranmula - the Kerala Government has plans of building an airport in Aranmula. The Government has earmarked 1500 acres of fertile land for the airport, of which 80% are paddy fields - the effete MoEF has given its clearance for constructing the airport - a totally unnecessary airport that will be built on the canal,which is a tributary of the Pampa leading to destruction of wetlands, (which will destroy the breeding ground of certain fish species) , sacred groves,acres and acres of fertile land will be lost to a runaway, paddy fields will be killed, hills are to be razed,which will cause devastating damage to the ecosystem and flow of water. Not only will the airport destroy the surrounding natural environment, the airport will required the flag mast of temple to be reduced and the main entrance (Gopuram) to be removed from the existing place.The temple mast of Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple, situated 905 metres
from the proposed runway, ia 30.08 metres high but the permissible
elevation is 23.7 metres.If sanctioned the Temple mast will be have to be lowered<br />
<br />
The Kerala government in cahoots with the private KGS Group, have hatched up plans for this nonsensical airport but far worse is its plan for a modern township,for which thousands of acres of land is being grabbed - this unwanted modern township will have a soul-less mall, a speciality hospital for the richest, an international school ,shopping complex, luxury hotels and other uninspiring structures. For this undesirable and totally unnecessary airport and township, thousands of families will have to be evicted, irreparable damage to Aranmula's ecology and the spirit of the temple will be disturbed.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So who wants this ? Who wants to create an airport and a township ? Whose idea was this ? Whose greed is this ? Certainly not the local communities, not the local artisans or farmers - no one is Aranmula wants this airport - but the Kerala government is hell bent on going ahead despite all the protests by the local people who have been protesting for over a year. These protests have been led by Aranmula Heritage Village Action Council patron,Kummanam Rajasekharna, and has gained full support by all the local people. The protests are growing and getting louder, the movement getting bigger. There will be more such protests and more such confrontations - because for the people of Aranmula all that glitters is not gold and their inherited wisdom tells them that their wealth and well being is in the rivers, the streams, the hills, the diety, the paddy fields,the clean air, the unpollutted river and time old traditions.</div>
<br />
It is this wisdom and tradition of Aranmula that has to be protected and it is our dharma to protest this airport.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiecnjniqULzpQ_85zaoG4eLz54esdOgdPyYornwH3NAxqBCGjBhhC1jdTSWBxIQ3xu7jsAxz8kUMA1PcTzyDWo71IsVKGqHVBB0ODbf_w-UwbLujFYJg1kdkk2V60_EkzDyIH-PAcEzog/s1600/Protests+Arnma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiecnjniqULzpQ_85zaoG4eLz54esdOgdPyYornwH3NAxqBCGjBhhC1jdTSWBxIQ3xu7jsAxz8kUMA1PcTzyDWo71IsVKGqHVBB0ODbf_w-UwbLujFYJg1kdkk2V60_EkzDyIH-PAcEzog/s1600/Protests+Arnma.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Local people protesting against the planned airport at Aranmula</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
PS<br />
Now go back and read what Kerala government has to say about getting to Aranmula <br />
Getting there<br />
By road: Chengannur, about 10 km<br />
By rail: Chengannur, which is about 11 km<br />
By air: Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, about 117 km <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-59792199128556104882013-12-24T10:11:00.000-08:002013-12-24T18:46:37.326-08:00Coffee Works<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnfvnd6cIaV1rkDZShximKSzVTes5nOyybIQiUGWeYyeYkalPzqq7xISxTfo263bANot-F13fdgn6imOSrE-59rdl3RqV-mHtBpnqatl5iXul4JRJu-SI_nxUDxMvRJU8hrv-r5EWCoc/s1600/Coffee+crop.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnfvnd6cIaV1rkDZShximKSzVTes5nOyybIQiUGWeYyeYkalPzqq7xISxTfo263bANot-F13fdgn6imOSrE-59rdl3RqV-mHtBpnqatl5iXul4JRJu-SI_nxUDxMvRJU8hrv-r5EWCoc/s200/Coffee+crop.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coffee plant</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">This is coffee when it first starts – up in
the beautiful and verdant Western Ghats of India, almost pristine, in harmony
with its biodiversity, its rivers, its wildlife, its trees and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hills, sacred<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>groves, (</span><span lang="EN-US">Devara Kaadu) local deities and farmers. Under a high canopy of shade trees, coffee in India grows gloriously alongside
pepper, cardamom, oranges and arecenut. </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">The coffee flower smells nothing like what
it taste<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- the flowering of the coffee plant,
gives a sweet fragrance, intoxicating the entire landscape.The blossom of the coffee plant transforms the landscape to appear like a white, fragrant
laden sheet – its smell sweet, the air gentle. This rousing lasts ,sadly, for just a few days
before the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>coffee flower matures to become the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>coffee seed and ready to be picked.</span></div>
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<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgik0sWV8tpW8pXL8Lbq9azwBH7txYmYidbe7vUirPb-0Xm6mDWdG5MovwyqIAkUr49VyP8KAaaaRD4s-N5ytRXQqnNBBY8Ka90a1ifMD8ho4ZcSntTEb0mZNLxN3PtyImHQ0klx-uxG9s/s1600/coffee+bloom.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgik0sWV8tpW8pXL8Lbq9azwBH7txYmYidbe7vUirPb-0Xm6mDWdG5MovwyqIAkUr49VyP8KAaaaRD4s-N5ytRXQqnNBBY8Ka90a1ifMD8ho4ZcSntTEb0mZNLxN3PtyImHQ0klx-uxG9s/s1600/coffee+bloom.png" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coffee blossom</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">She is then gently handpicked and and mostly sun dried . Sometimes sent to a local Curing Works. Once
dried, she is put into sacks and stored -usually in the store room of the residence of
the coffee grower. She awaits the agent.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Coffee grows only in tropical countries and grown mostly by small farmers as a cash crop. Due to the predominance of small coffee growers in India, (according to The Coffee Board of India almost<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>98% of coffee
is grown by marginalized and small farmers) , coffee is sold through agents –
this buying and selling happens at the “gate”. The agent offers a price and
farmer takes what he gets – because some commodity trader sitting in a glass
office has decided the price of this precious bean.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A coffee farmer sun drying his coffee</td></tr>
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<![endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Coffee seeds<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>dried, roasted and powdered to make coffee
powder.Sometimes the coffee goes to towns and
cities for further trade and household consumption- as filter coffee, in
South India, or as ghastly instant coffee that is produced by the likes of
Nestle.Some find their way into cafés to become <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the classic espresso, or <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>cappuccino or other high street coffees - for which there are millions of consumers who are willing to pay a couple of dollars a pop. In the multibillion coffee industry, the profits go mainly to the shippers, the roasters and the retailers.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US"> But if you are a traditional coffee drinker
and relish your coffee, you avoid the Starbucks and Café Coffee Days -
instead you would go to an unpretentious hole in the wall – <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Gayathri Coffee Works" for
example- and buy premium Arabica coffee, freshly grounded for about Rs. 360 a
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpqiedJMSO81b3lQ-xq-RdDAciPggzT8EfM7VrNKKuwm0dhs969nN7-_GD6fqz1BXV8amgxKRbPjQ1h4PrpqKHIAd4PqkaclewFD5ospDTFQt60262qIVBZiZFaKGl159I5xgVpxoCVM/s1600/All+363.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpqiedJMSO81b3lQ-xq-RdDAciPggzT8EfM7VrNKKuwm0dhs969nN7-_GD6fqz1BXV8amgxKRbPjQ1h4PrpqKHIAd4PqkaclewFD5ospDTFQt60262qIVBZiZFaKGl159I5xgVpxoCVM/s320/All+363.jpg" height="300" width="400" /><span id="goog_867014262"></span><span id="goog_867014263"></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gayathri Coffee Works, Mysore</td></tr>
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<br /></div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-60313289713643995132013-06-22T01:15:00.002-07:002013-06-22T09:24:26.513-07:00Remembering Gaura Devi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In 1925, Gaura Devi was born in the village of Latha, in the
Garwhal region of the Himalayas, in the upper Alakananda Valley. Around that
time, the area was covered with pristine forests, dark, deep, thick forests –
this was also the source of their traditional agricultural economy. In keeping
with tradition, she was married off at the age of 12 to Meherban Singh, in the
nearby village of Reni. Singh was a small farmer, with a small piece of land,
reared some sheep and traded in wool. They were by no means rich but they
certainly had a comfortable life devoid of hardship and penury. The inevitable
happened. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meherban Singh died 10 later,
and when her son grew up and had children of his own, they all worked together
to keep the family going. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As tension
grew between India and China, their trade suffered, but the forests produce
kept her family going. She became a grandmother and step into her role of a
matriarch. She then went on to become the head of the Mahila Mandal. </div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3CJ5WFpamufs9A2bmWwT22DSYXS6bM5JxTf2cUrPSyA86EeUMPmL54dG6qgtsyaxrlCU1SVAwRCA6rGwwRJVaZuKQykESgcTijEV5i7A9jE-9d8YeyC6tovzsIUfrgPdcHZ_ZO2F3yRI/s1600/photogauradevil-thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3CJ5WFpamufs9A2bmWwT22DSYXS6bM5JxTf2cUrPSyA86EeUMPmL54dG6qgtsyaxrlCU1SVAwRCA6rGwwRJVaZuKQykESgcTijEV5i7A9jE-9d8YeyC6tovzsIUfrgPdcHZ_ZO2F3yRI/s200/photogauradevil-thumb.jpg" width="153" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gaura Devi</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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A little down the Alakanda Valley, the Chipko movement
started taking roots – <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chandi Prasad Bhatt
and Govind <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Singh Rawat started to protest
against the felling of the deodar trees in a forest near the village. It was the year <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1974, and about 2500 deodars trees were marked for
felling. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gaura Devi joined the protest
movement and actively campaigned for protection of the trees.</div>
<br />
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Ten years later in an interview Gaura Devi said “Brothers,
these forests are like our maternal home (maika). We get herbs, fuel fruits and
vegetables from them. Cutting the forests will result in floods." </div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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And today, in a flood-ravaged
Uttarakhand, that has destroyed Kedarnath<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and other large parts of the state have been washed away and battered , leaving
thousands, possibly missing or dead, thousands homeless,thousands of mules
and cattle dead , I remember the wise Gaura Devi and her caution.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The disaster that we
see today in Uttarakhand cannot be blamed only on the heavy rains -
the devastation that we are seeing today <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is largely due to deforestation, illegal construction,
reckless damming of rivers and a complete abuse of our rivers and our natural resources.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Gaura Devi <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>may not have
been to school but she had the wisdom of our ancient teachers and rishis . All
our Hindu scriptures, from the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mahabharata to the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ramayana, the Vedas,
Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas and Smriti contain the earliest messages for
preservation of environment and ecological balance.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Gaura Devi knew this then but sadly, those who have been
charged with protecting <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>our people and
our forests, still don’t know this. Indeed, they have morphed themselves from being protectors to predators.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<i>Soil ours, water ours, ours are these forests. Our
forefathers raised them, it’s we who must protect them.</i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i> Old Chipko Song</i></div>
<i>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCXKuj3Y8DHtfebnf7fAJ305R8MY_QvZvUoHX2Ld51znxI7CQCfhQhc3T0rudA1gxFaierYf5UP069mS-p1ZXw1Uo9zgPZ3EX6XKOrQpq9leQicPaPd-JvBsXMqXLvM3ztg3Vbhu_2ItY/s1600/chipko-thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCXKuj3Y8DHtfebnf7fAJ305R8MY_QvZvUoHX2Ld51znxI7CQCfhQhc3T0rudA1gxFaierYf5UP069mS-p1ZXw1Uo9zgPZ3EX6XKOrQpq9leQicPaPd-JvBsXMqXLvM3ztg3Vbhu_2ItY/s200/chipko-thumb.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
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Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-54595063331248193992013-05-18T05:13:00.000-07:002013-05-18T05:14:18.539-07:00So how did we get here ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<span class="equalizer-inner" style="display: block; margin: 0; padding: 0;">Latest reading: 400.27 ppm.</span><span class="equalizer-inner" style="display: block; margin: 0; padding: 0;">CO2 concentration on May 16, 2013</span></h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="equalizer-inner" style="display: block; margin: 0; padding: 0;">Concentrations of the greenhouse gas ,carbon dioxide, in the global atmosphere have reached 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history.</span><span class="equalizer-inner" style="display: block; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </span><span class="equalizer-inner" style="display: block; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpCUlJh9bCimvghdYICprpGvZWM4R2Tuc0fm9ruGlWSIHIGWIxuxzRe5YqQpk3KMDbiudWyD7rB_g9KGtOE9SQ50T1DwdpjauzgTPNDhtVxp93_Zr2hLv7HYvhwhh1ngPw8QbVrkGDI8/s1600/mlo_full_record.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpCUlJh9bCimvghdYICprpGvZWM4R2Tuc0fm9ruGlWSIHIGWIxuxzRe5YqQpk3KMDbiudWyD7rB_g9KGtOE9SQ50T1DwdpjauzgTPNDhtVxp93_Zr2hLv7HYvhwhh1ngPw8QbVrkGDI8/s400/mlo_full_record.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span class="equalizer-inner" style="display: block; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </span><span class="equalizer-inner" style="display: block; margin: 0; padding: 0;">But that's not all. </span></h4>
Man made CO2 emissions into the atmosphere will continue to rise and will push temperatures further up.We have surpassed the safe levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.According to climate science, the safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
So how did we get here and can we get out of this hell ? </h4>
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Before the industrial age CO2 emissions were at 275 ppm - and ever since then they have risen rapidly. So where did this unprecedented rise of CO2 come from ? <br />
<br />
Here is the quick and dirty list.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-x491UdHe6GsO-mxcoA38L6K9YevbWtDEkP30Yy9-IAh2z167F8B6ecv_H7fd4xSSldcVLLlZuEnQ1eDTWgIT_tU1x-Qk9N3630IlKuN2BLWeRaTkENCEPMwi5k3NIU8Kw2D8i-IdGS4/s1600/sumatra_0493.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-x491UdHe6GsO-mxcoA38L6K9YevbWtDEkP30Yy9-IAh2z167F8B6ecv_H7fd4xSSldcVLLlZuEnQ1eDTWgIT_tU1x-Qk9N3630IlKuN2BLWeRaTkENCEPMwi5k3NIU8Kw2D8i-IdGS4/s320/sumatra_0493.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Burning of fossil fuel,such as oil, coal, and gas . We need all this to power our lives - from driving our cars, to taking that plane, to using our laptops, iPhones, ipads,washing machines, micro waves,air-conditioners and other what nots. Then the endless mass production and transportation of cheap goods in one continent, meant for another continent. Deforestation and changes in land use ! Forests are a precious resource and absorb enormous quantities of carbon , they are the lungs of the planet and play a crucial role in stabilising climate - cutting them down puts this carbon back into the atmosphere. But we are cutting down our forests faster than they can ever be replaced.The reckless clearing of forest land for mining and other infrastructure "development" - building of highways,express ways, shops, malls.The industrialization of agriculture , urbanisation and the conversion of fertile land to build industrial parks - at break neck speeds- are some reasons for rise in CO2 emissions.</div>
<br />
A new report from WWF shows that five Asian countries, Cambodia,Laos,Burma,Thailand and Vietnam has lost nearly one-third of their forests in the last 35 years and could be left with 10-20% of their original cover in 15 years.If the current rate of deforestation continues, the world's rain forests will vanish within 100 years- causing unknown effects on global climate.<br />
<br />
So we can continue to live business-as-usual ,pumping CO2 into the atmosphere but in doing so we will destroy our planet. And when we destroy the planet, we destroy ourselves.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBsDelINJbQpagB6aJFuTcCXHrYR7YlHJ0Auh-OdM16PAiMpmaBteJjzhXsyqqBhfWLxEHMaffWHYOjTCmCG4UtJRqveTfCZ_bSXdxgOB3Dz-lvT2rYHaWeU8l13Wyltc07kbNhYQYw1s/s1600/earth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBsDelINJbQpagB6aJFuTcCXHrYR7YlHJ0Auh-OdM16PAiMpmaBteJjzhXsyqqBhfWLxEHMaffWHYOjTCmCG4UtJRqveTfCZ_bSXdxgOB3Dz-lvT2rYHaWeU8l13Wyltc07kbNhYQYw1s/s200/earth.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-60752404222381392852013-03-20T01:59:00.000-07:002013-03-20T02:12:42.176-07:00Revathi Malay<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
At a time of unprecedented rise in temperatures in most of the districts in Karnataka and warnings of further rise in temperatures, some untimely rain in February, the coffee belt of Karnataka was blessed with the timely and good arrival of the Revathi malay in the districts of Kodagu, Hasan and Chikmagalur.<br />
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</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgik0sWV8tpW8pXL8Lbq9azwBH7txYmYidbe7vUirPb-0Xm6mDWdG5MovwyqIAkUr49VyP8KAaaaRD4s-N5ytRXQqnNBBY8Ka90a1ifMD8ho4ZcSntTEb0mZNLxN3PtyImHQ0klx-uxG9s/s1600/coffee+bloom.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgik0sWV8tpW8pXL8Lbq9azwBH7txYmYidbe7vUirPb-0Xm6mDWdG5MovwyqIAkUr49VyP8KAaaaRD4s-N5ytRXQqnNBBY8Ka90a1ifMD8ho4ZcSntTEb0mZNLxN3PtyImHQ0klx-uxG9s/s200/coffee+bloom.png" width="150" /></a></div>
Revathi malay (malay means rain in Kannada) is the blossom shower that arrives every year (in a normal year !) and is rainfall that occurs between March 1st and April 30th.Revathi is the rain that is needed for the coffee bud to flower . The blossoming is key to coffee production . This year Revathi has kept her date and has arrived on time much to the relief of the coffee farmer.<br />
However, what is worrying is the warming from the Meteorological Department, that there is likely to be an average two degree rise in the mean temperature in most districts. This certainly is bad news not just for coffee but for other crops too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_z9JbnPwKsAGSu2DVZsdyZmF3PfPImVsiIyGqzfLXOgwNQ30GMIa_8s8qEAT5T98QzSqjSNSY3afenqfST4d4DbH3fhLPbPXKlzxrQeNn31gm4uro8KVO6Q6t1ulyhLeLt1F68oldYo/s1600/Picture+088.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_z9JbnPwKsAGSu2DVZsdyZmF3PfPImVsiIyGqzfLXOgwNQ30GMIa_8s8qEAT5T98QzSqjSNSY3afenqfST4d4DbH3fhLPbPXKlzxrQeNn31gm4uro8KVO6Q6t1ulyhLeLt1F68oldYo/s320/Picture+088.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Our most ubiquitous, humble but delicious bananas are under so much stress.The banana trees have started to wither due to the lack of water and excessive heat. Coconuts are dropping early and their size reduced due to excess heat, says Timmegowda, director, All India Coconut Growers’ Federation.This will only get worse. In the Malnad, the summer temperature range was between 18 degrees and 28 degrees Celsius. Today the lower range starts at 28 degrees says Mohan Kumar, a coffee grower in Sakleshpur.</div>
<br />
Which brings me to what I like to<br />
ask "why is the measure of love loss ?"<br />
<br /></div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-6104174595237330992012-12-14T10:07:00.000-08:002012-12-15T00:39:29.103-08:00 The insufferable hypocrisy of Starbucks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiji-es1ZePpaM_r1Bgyj5PuxQNErStAhFZ6nCcSptXA8wqJ77t2u6PqcgzCHUGiloFVvHk215BAS-BzqwEqorxYAGzADaZLXLMdYC3WbrAita9P6k8uu74nqdE3haFlFcUxq2rQ9GtNV8/s1600/starbucks.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiji-es1ZePpaM_r1Bgyj5PuxQNErStAhFZ6nCcSptXA8wqJ77t2u6PqcgzCHUGiloFVvHk215BAS-BzqwEqorxYAGzADaZLXLMdYC3WbrAita9P6k8uu74nqdE3haFlFcUxq2rQ9GtNV8/s1600/starbucks.png" /></a>The giant global coffee company, Starbucks Corporation, has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons. With over 20,000 odd stores in over 60 countries from Aruba to Wales, the Starbucks stores are ubiquitous in high street locations, serving up all kinds of brews and blends – from coffee sourced from Ethiopia to Hawaii. Starbucks now joins the infamous rank of companies that avoid paying tax. A recent <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/oct/15/starbucks-tax-uk-sales" target="_blank">Reuters investigation</a> found that the company reportedly paid hardly any tax in UK, despite generating over £3bn in sales over 14 years, but had paid less than 1% in corporation tax. Worse still, Starbucks often reported a loss in its UK business, yet consistently told shareholders that Starbucks was profitable. In 2011, their total annual revenue was $11.7 billion on which they hardly paid tax. Britons are now raving mad that in 2011, Starbucks did not pay a penny by way of corporate tax , despite sales of $640 million. In an attempt to regain its credibility and public image, Starbucks has now <span dir="ltr" lang="en">promised a £20m <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/starbucks-tax-avoidance-brits-frothing-mad-202516717.html" target="_blank">corporate tax pledge</a>. But this is too little, too late. </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fk7apARBCTA/UMw0nWl-N5I/AAAAAAAAATw/zWD3lgP73IY/s1600/o-STARBUCKS-570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fk7apARBCTA/UMw0nWl-N5I/AAAAAAAAATw/zWD3lgP73IY/s200/o-STARBUCKS-570.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
For any business it is perfectly legitimate to make profits and therefore perfectly legitimate to pay taxes. While Starbucks may have not done anything " illegal ", to me it reeks of nothing less than rapaciousness and corporate greed - finding complex tax schemes,creating international subsidiaries, finding ways of moving money to low rate regimes, to avoid paying tax on their profits. According to Forbes,Starbucks CEO ,Mr. Howard Schultz , personal net worth is $1.5billion.<br />
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It is estimated that 1.6 billion cups of coffee are drunk worldwide everyday. Coffee is a $80 billion business today and it is often said that it is the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil. However, the share of the coffee trade enjoyed by the actual coffee grower has fallen by two-thirds,whilst transnational coffee companies have reaped huge profits from the low price they pay to the producer.According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee:_A_Dark_History" target="_blank">Anthony Wild</a>, the average price paid to coffee producers internationally has fallen 80% since their last high in 1997. The widening gap between the have and the have-nots are illustrated in the growing inequalities of the coffee trade.Most of the coffee growers are small producers and this is specially true of Ethiopia where some of the finest coffees are produced - the coffee farmer can own as few as 20 plants. The story is no different in India - where 98.5% of coffee farmers are small holders. Since they are at the mercy of the global coffee trade which squeezes them for their own profits, coffee farmers are being forced to abandon their holdings and move to cities seeking a different and often uncertain future.</div>
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The boom in coffee consumption means next to nothing for the coffee producer .That Starbucks creates new markets in different countries does not help the producer. Today the coffee farmer is being battered by climate change on one side and speculative trading on the other - the small farmer in the Western Ghats of South India , or in the Sidamo Province of Ethiopia faces unpredictable weather patterns,unseasonal rain, rising temperatures , periods of drought followed by periods of flooding ,is desperate to save his crop and his livelihood so as to provide for his family .But sadly, a trader sitting in London or New York will decide the price of the coffee to be paid to the farmer and the coffee farmer is lucky, if in the end ,he even gets 10% of what you just paid to Starbucks Corporation for your Latte.</div>
So for a company that says they strive to "strike a balance between profitability and social conscience," they have a long way to go.</div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-12089008016594374252012-10-03T03:28:00.000-07:002012-10-04T02:21:39.569-07:00After Revathi, Rohini did not come<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After Revathi, the monsoon laden Rohini did not come as she usually does.<br />
Her arrival in June after the Indian summer is life line for all those living in the Malnad and for 150,000 coffee farmers. The warm Indian summer dries up tanks and springs, but when Rohini arrives, life is back. Springs are activated, tanks are recharged and rivers start to flow.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPJzAPsd6-SZOQ5XSf0BxOoZ1EoILgcokw0ReIyhgAMLLfgEvZCAoOVasfBNKodoFsEJmno7oJXyYpkvyVCI6MMHgKBy4WrDzi97V0ZzosMfgJthtXAs4n2pIRGVmptOc_xM4PRMn7_LY/s1600/Mist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPJzAPsd6-SZOQ5XSf0BxOoZ1EoILgcokw0ReIyhgAMLLfgEvZCAoOVasfBNKodoFsEJmno7oJXyYpkvyVCI6MMHgKBy4WrDzi97V0ZzosMfgJthtXAs4n2pIRGVmptOc_xM4PRMn7_LY/s200/Mist.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
But this year, Rohini arrived late.Like Rohini, the other rains also arrived late - Bharini, Kritika, Pushya . They were all late.. Not only were they late, they were not accompanied by the usual strong winds -the rains did not get distributed evenly and some parts of the Malnad received very heavy rains and their were unseasonal downpours. The rains and winds are all changing in their patterns. In fact, the beauty of the monsoon pattern in the shade growing coffee regions is in its distribution, according to Dr Anand Pereira, an eco friendly coffee planter in Sakleshpur.<br />
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According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data, monsoon rains from June to August 8, 2012 have been deficient in North Interior Karnataka by 33 % , South Interior Karnataka by 34% and in Malnad it has been upto 44% . For a crop that is so dependant on the monsoon and for the 100,000 coffee farmers in Karnataka, mostly small holders , this spells disaster. What is often not known is that most of the coffee farmers are small farmers. According to India's Coffee Board 98.8% of the farmers are small holders - this is the story of coffee cultivation - not just in India but globally, from Africa to the Americas - coffee is produced by small farmers - some who own hardly 20 to 30 coffee plants. One drought, or one season of incessant rain can wipe them out. And unlike tea, the countries that produce coffee, are countries often too poor to drink it - with the exception of Brazil that consumes 40% of what is produces. The flow of coffee is from developing countries to developed countires - where coffee is produced at the lowest possible price .The top producers are Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia ,Mexico and the top consumers are United States, Germany, Japan, France.India is about 5th/6th in coffee production .<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lDxFD528BEXcU1Y3bUqj52ARPrDuTeww4MW8w_2HRUqQUtMLGsUIqgzldaBMBljMZDDVxzgXHl93FB1EP2xs2x2Kx9ZkO8RrF3A2fN-4ZwRybV-M_YDns_1PzAlW4TttO6GhDdNKNcU/s1600/coffee+beans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lDxFD528BEXcU1Y3bUqj52ARPrDuTeww4MW8w_2HRUqQUtMLGsUIqgzldaBMBljMZDDVxzgXHl93FB1EP2xs2x2Kx9ZkO8RrF3A2fN-4ZwRybV-M_YDns_1PzAlW4TttO6GhDdNKNcU/s200/coffee+beans.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
So while our farmers who wait and pray for rain, who invoke the rain Gods so that their crops survive and they get a good harvest, so they can send their kids to school, urban India awaits the arrival of its first Starbucks store.</div>
Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-37618005535622665842012-04-01T06:10:00.000-07:002012-04-01T08:05:37.304-07:00And Revathi did not come<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Summer has descended upon the subcontinent .<br />
The cities, towns, plains, and the once salubrious hill stations are heating up.<br />
The days are hot, the nights are still. There is no escape.<br />
It is immutable.Everyone waits for rain. The Malnad is ready to receive her.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgik0sWV8tpW8pXL8Lbq9azwBH7txYmYidbe7vUirPb-0Xm6mDWdG5MovwyqIAkUr49VyP8KAaaaRD4s-N5ytRXQqnNBBY8Ka90a1ifMD8ho4ZcSntTEb0mZNLxN3PtyImHQ0klx-uxG9s/s1600/coffee+bloom.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgik0sWV8tpW8pXL8Lbq9azwBH7txYmYidbe7vUirPb-0Xm6mDWdG5MovwyqIAkUr49VyP8KAaaaRD4s-N5ytRXQqnNBBY8Ka90a1ifMD8ho4ZcSntTEb0mZNLxN3PtyImHQ0klx-uxG9s/s200/coffee+bloom.png" width="150" /></a>Even the beautiful Coffea Arabica bud is ready. It awaits Revathi ,the pre-monsoon shower. Revathi, the giver of life, the nurturer.In the wilderness of the Malnad will Revathi keep her date ? But this year she is late again. Her timely arrival is important. For some its life .For some its business as usual. Her arrival announces that the South West Monsoon is on its way.Her drizzle enhances the coffee bloom .The coffee farmer waits in anticipation. She brings the Malnad back to life.</div>
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This year the temperatures in the Malnad touched 36 degrees against a normal temperature of 33-34 degrees Celsius. Apart from this higher than normal temperature, there has been a dry spell of nearly 5 months in the coffee growing areas that is affecting coffee production. But Revathi did not come.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnfvnd6cIaV1rkDZShximKSzVTes5nOyybIQiUGWeYyeYkalPzqq7xISxTfo263bANot-F13fdgn6imOSrE-59rdl3RqV-mHtBpnqatl5iXul4JRJu-SI_nxUDxMvRJU8hrv-r5EWCoc/s1600/Coffee+crop.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnfvnd6cIaV1rkDZShximKSzVTes5nOyybIQiUGWeYyeYkalPzqq7xISxTfo263bANot-F13fdgn6imOSrE-59rdl3RqV-mHtBpnqatl5iXul4JRJu-SI_nxUDxMvRJU8hrv-r5EWCoc/s200/Coffee+crop.JPG" width="200" /></a> The dry spell and the high temperatures are worrying the farmers, specially in the areas that lack irrigation facilities. Coffee production in India is about 300 years old and largely occurs on small, family-owned farms - majority being up to 2.5 acres. The occurrence of irregular and unseasonal rain, extreme weather events - have started to take its toll on India's coffee.The hard ,dark brown coffee bean belies the fact that the coffee crop is acutely sensitive and like most crops is sensitive to rain. A long-term increase in the number of extreme and unseasonal rainfall events has lowered crop yields, threatening the livelihood of those dependant on this sector .Coffee has seen a decline in its productions in the last couple of years. In fact the magnitude of this decline is quite astounding .Yields have declined almost 10% since 2000.</div>
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In the year 2009 both Arabica and Robusta suffered losses due to unseasonal heavy rains.Likewise, heavy rains during the blossoming delayed the harvest and lowered crop quality in 2010. There have been periods of drought In 2002, Karnataka experienced a severe drought for three consecutive years (2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04). The IPCC on Climate Change predicts that yields from rain-dependant agriculture could be down by 50% by 2020 . In the Coorg region, some areas have already seen rainfall drop by one-third – from 106 inches per year to 70 inches.</div>
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The problem with today’s economy is that we have become obsessed by the idea of "GDP growth” - which seems to be the single most important measure for success. A green economy is the only sustaining economy - it put values on natural resources, it uses resources sparingly, makes use of its natural capital rather than wasting it and stands committed to environmental protection.Our current GDP models do not recognise the role of natural capital.There is a lot that needs to change. Unless the economic importance of biodiversity and ecosystems, of ecology and forests, not just among economists, but at the level of policy makers, administrators, businesses and the public is understood,the wait for Revathi will get longer.</div>
</div>Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-22852604379313786742012-01-12T20:47:00.000-08:002012-01-12T20:47:31.966-08:00Whose Money Is It Anyway ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am not an economist.<br />Neither do I subscribe to The Financial Times nor to The Economist. Nor do I care to seriously read any of the salmon colored newspapers.<br />
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<br /> Despite all of this, I am amazed at how, in the very recent past, there has been a flood of articles, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/opinion/blow-inconvenient-income-inequality.html">op-eds</a>, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/11/carlyle-founders-land-400m-payday">stories</a>, <a href="http://hyperactivexs.blogspot.com/2011/11/great-inequality-debate-i-world-of.html">blog posts</a>, tweets and re-tweets on the rise in income inequality. Outrage seems to be on how we have allowed capitalism to grow into the form that it is today - which is killing equality, destroying the world’s ecology and causing severe environmental degradation .The manner in which there is an overzealousness in natural resource exploitation , one would imagine that our natural capital is here for us to last till perpetuity.<br />The rise of disparity of incomes is not limited to countries such as India, where there has been a history of stark inequality, but the rise of income inequality is growing notoriously in developed countries such as the US and UK. A recent study done in the US showed that the top 1% households' income grew by 275% - this is just one revealing statistics – there is a lot more data out there to show that more wealth is shifting to fewer people, with few bankers having a disproportionate control over the economy. As a recent New York Times article puts it – it has been the era of the rise of the super rich. If not the ultra-rich.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpuAk8OP3Ljv7aqNugyr_6OLTRBorQkLQ0XIDAq7z57536HV05-3LbcBzLEtuUd8XRhLrNdb5HiKw5B7EbVbXmOlxSbWqIHfP4iSeVr3d7kLhuwZ6MwMn9LbaiD2UT8Eb_xSZGnCK7ndU/s1600/currency.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpuAk8OP3Ljv7aqNugyr_6OLTRBorQkLQ0XIDAq7z57536HV05-3LbcBzLEtuUd8XRhLrNdb5HiKw5B7EbVbXmOlxSbWqIHfP4iSeVr3d7kLhuwZ6MwMn9LbaiD2UT8Eb_xSZGnCK7ndU/s200/currency.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Forbes annually tallies the fortunes of the world’s billionaires. The world’s 1,210 current billionaires, Forbes reported in March 2011, hold a combined wealth that equals over half the total wealth of the 3.01 billion adults around the world. Something is seriously going wrong. Despite India s economy growing anywhere between 7% and 8 % in the last few years, income inequality has doubled in 20 years. Surely, GDP growth cannot be the only measure of development and progress or for that matter prosperity.<br />
Nevertheless, why is all this happening? What are we missing that is driving this rapaciousness? Is it because of our inability to perceive the difference between public benefits and private profits?<br />
<br />I have come to see this polarisation more acutely and closely over the last 12 months in my work with the <a href="http://kgf.org.in/">Karnataka Growers Federation</a>. I have been working extensively with the small to medium-sized coffee farmer in the southern state of Karnataka. Coffee is now big business in India. According to India’s Coffee Board, domestic consumption has been witnessing a steady growth of five to six per cent in the last five years. And we can see this – almost all of urban India today is dotted with coffee bars. Coffee is the preferred choice for the upwardly mobile and uber cool. With the ubiquitous Café Coffee Day, Baristas, Costa Coffee, and the much awaited entry of the more expensive Starbucks into India, the latte and cappuccino are here to stay.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih95fPAp0HjEvaKQyYKKE1_GURCpMv3d7s13B4Ch20euM_5aoe7UKcONZF4ZMOAny50bLYB8ZsRJKZiHuFo8ryKn2hgfyXw8zQ4MbuofENpaNPjbNBpbq6AC0TT_bFhWN15oYTe5IiT0Q/s1600/coffee+cup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="129" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih95fPAp0HjEvaKQyYKKE1_GURCpMv3d7s13B4Ch20euM_5aoe7UKcONZF4ZMOAny50bLYB8ZsRJKZiHuFo8ryKn2hgfyXw8zQ4MbuofENpaNPjbNBpbq6AC0TT_bFhWN15oYTe5IiT0Q/s200/coffee+cup.jpg" width="200" /></a> The world has been gulping down so much coffee that it is now the second most globally traded commodity after oil. But coffee is one of the few internationally traded commodities that is still mainly produced not on large estates or plantations but on small holdings. The economies of the some of the poorest countries are highly dependent on trade in coffee –in some African countries like Ethiopia and Burundi -but the producer today hardly makes a living from his or her coffee bean, given their small holdings – the majority being anywhere between 2.5 acres to10 acres.<br />
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The story is no different in India.<br />Contrary to popular perception, 98.5% of coffee growers in India are small farmers. Today India produces 4.5% of the world’s coffee. This is good news – to some.<br /><br />
The bad news is that coffee is produced by 90 countries globally but consumed by just 40 countries. The global coffee trade today is close to USD 96 billion. Of this USD 96 billion trade, a meagre USD 8 billion comes back to coffee-producing countries. There is not a chance in hell that the farmer, who produces coffee on say a 10 acre holding, has any control on the market prices or access to any share of this mega profit. The producer s share of this profit is unusually low while the usual suspects in between and at the end, laugh all the way to bank. The world’s big four coffee roasters also have big coffee brands – and therefore enjoy huge margins - while the producer benefits the least. Squeezing the small farmer for the lowest possible price – in the long run is a bad business idea – it will drive the coffee farmer out of business.<br />
<br />Coupled with no control over prices, there is another challenge facing the farmer today – that of unseasonal rain and unpredictable weather patterns. Whilst climate change is just one of numerous factors that may affect global coffee production, the International Coffee Organization considers it will likely be one of the most important ones with smallholders (who produce the majority of the world's coffee) the most vulnerable group. In Karnataka, the state that produces about 70% of India’s coffee, there were 3 years of continuous drought during the coffee season from 2002 to 2005 followed by heavy rainfall in 2006 and 2007. This lead to severe infestation of pest and disease, like stem borer and leaf rust, which resulted in huge crop loss. For the first time we heard of suicides among coffee farmers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNu4apRQpwxYzO_voian9lwTmUrzzyi1DkEz-jM5xvKwkiHw3j0oThuKgeld4apCBUJdqaRiBn9gMJJTl2oTSaL9O_qbxAqapWZIRqJrH-AJO4FmcsR6c12RqHwmy2_d26COW-9oJtEg/s1600/coffee+cherry.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNu4apRQpwxYzO_voian9lwTmUrzzyi1DkEz-jM5xvKwkiHw3j0oThuKgeld4apCBUJdqaRiBn9gMJJTl2oTSaL9O_qbxAqapWZIRqJrH-AJO4FmcsR6c12RqHwmy2_d26COW-9oJtEg/s200/coffee+cherry.JPG" width="200" /></a>When it comes to coffee, India is unique. It is the only country on the world map that grows all its coffee in the shade. Indian coffee is grown in forest like conditions –verdant and rich in biodiversity. India also grows both the varieties of coffee – Arabica (Coffea Arabica) and Robusta(Coffea robusta). Arabica is high-end coffee – it is rich and yet delicate in flavour and therefore commands a higher price. Robusta is the low-end variety – it is hardier but commands a lower price. One would think that Indian farmers would want to grow Arabica and get a higher price for their coffee bean. But sadly the trend is the reverse. Arabica-growing farmers instead are opting out of this highly-flavoured cherry to grow the Robusta variety (which requires less care), partly because the Arabica plant cannot stand up to climate variability and unpredictable weather patterns. And this is the other thing – we are now drinking more and more coffee but of less and less quality. <br />
So whether Arabica survives or not, or whether farmers only grow Robusta because they have to, I know that if <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Budan">Baba Budan</a> were around today, he would have probably been a very rich man.</div>Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-74581547080074646242011-04-23T03:04:00.000-07:002011-07-16T03:34:38.334-07:00For the love of coffee<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Before the Café Coffee Days, there was Baba Budan and his 7 coffee beans.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Baba Budan, a 17</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> century Sufi Saint, smuggled 7 coffee beans into India from Yemen, thereby, part breaking the Arab monopoly over coffee. The story goes that Baba Budan smuggled out 7 coffee beans from Al Muckha (Mocha), a port city in Yemen. Between the 15</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> and 17</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> century, Mocha was the main market place for coffee trading. It is from this Red Sea port of Mocha, that the English word mocha has its origin.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">While the earliest history of coffee goes back to antiquity - there is evidence that point to the existence of the coffee plant in 13</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> century Ethiopia. Till the mid 17</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> century or so, the Arab rulers enjoyed their monopoly over coffee. They did what they could to ensure that the cultivation did not spread – so they would strip the bean of its outer layer, roast it and render it infertile. They banned the export of the coffee bean – it could be taken out only if it was boiled or roasted so as to prevent the bean from germinating. Coffee had been colonized.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This is why Baba Budan, an Indian pilgrim to Mecca, had to smuggle his 7 beans out of Yemen. It was not just Baba Budan who broke the coffee colonization, there was fierce competition between the European colonizers to get hold of coffee. It was the Dutch who in the late 17</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> century first managed to get some seeds and attempted to grow coffee in their colonies. The Dutch were by now already growing some coffee in the Malabar region of India as well as in their other far eastern colonies. And before you knew, the British started coffee plantations in Jamaica -the rest is cruel ,colonial history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">There are myriads of stories of how coffee found its way out of Arabia and how it was transported by colonizers, travelers, wanderers, investors ,missionaries and traders – with the rise in the demand for coffee, came a rise in the demand for sugar, both becoming important commodities. Coffee was a commodity that formed part of the trade triangle – from England to Africa to the Americas. Coffee houses sprang up and became meeting places and were centers of social interaction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But behind all this energy and movement, the story is really not sweet. The well-known coffee historian, Antony Wild, in his book “</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Dark-History-Antony-Wild/dp/0393060713"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Coffee : A Dark History</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">”, takes us to the early days of the history of coffee, on how the, European merchants came across it in Arabia and brought it to Europe. Soon hugely popular, they quickly realized that they could make more money if they planted coffee themselves, in their plantations, using slave labour in their tropical, colonial outposts. Coffee was now on its way to becoming global – from the colonies in Caribbean to the colonies in Java – coffee was leaving its footprint.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">As Antony Wild says, this is the legacy of coffee – tropical countries produce it and rich countries drink it. Even today this legacy is almost true . Quite unlike tea – countries that produce tea mostly drink it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Meanwhile, on his return to India, after Mecca, Baba Budan planted the Arabica beans in the hills of Chandragiri, situated in today's Chikmagalur district of Karnataka– and thus is the story of the birth of Indian coffee. Today ,India produces almost 4.5% of the world’s coffee, grown mostly by small and medium growers, and is grown mostly in the three main Southern States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, with Karnataka contributing to 72% of what is grown. (A little bit is also grown in the Northeast and Andhra Pradesh). With the rise of urban India there is a rise in coffee shops – coffee bars are becoming ubiquitous in urban India. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdnOtu_7hUuC9qhSStsjnwYpDqA1PV3XLx0dOZqC7DvvWGUfd8pkwyq1sfLLMn0H_lnkIWD01P6XTevK7RfBtAxkF207mV38QAWoCB8r00uVSVoK78s58LKeL4x_T2RJUZ6Fd64RagNY/s1600/800px-Filter_coffee_South_Indian_style.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdnOtu_7hUuC9qhSStsjnwYpDqA1PV3XLx0dOZqC7DvvWGUfd8pkwyq1sfLLMn0H_lnkIWD01P6XTevK7RfBtAxkF207mV38QAWoCB8r00uVSVoK78s58LKeL4x_T2RJUZ6Fd64RagNY/s200/800px-Filter_coffee_South_Indian_style.JPG" width="200" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The once less known South Indian filter "kaapi" , served piping hot in steel tumbler with a small dabarah (cannot find a similar word in English) for cooling, has now morphed into cappuccinos and lattés , finding its way onto menus across India’s burgeoning cities and youth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">India’s coffee is both special and unique - right from its planting to its traditional style of drinking. And that is really the idea behind this blog post. It is not to re-tell the well known but bitter history of coffee but more to inform about its current crisis and uncertain future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Indian coffee is the finest shade growing coffee in the world and it is rare because all the coffee grown in India ,is grown in natural conditions , is dependant on monsoon rain and thrives in shade growing areas. There are close to 250,000 coffee planters in India – of which 98% are small farmers, cultivating on less than 10 hectares. There is almost no mechanization – it is labour intensive , employing about 2 million people directly thereby generating rural livelihood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Drive through any coffee growing district in South India – From Coorg to Chikmagalur and what you will discover are verdant coffee forests, acres of coffee estates full of all kinds of trees with coffee growing under a thick canopy of natural shade, often mixed with ginger, pepper and vanilla . With most of the coffee estates located in the Western Ghats, coffee forests are located in biodiversity hotspots that have a high level of endemism, bio diversity and wide array of flora and fauna. From Indian mahogany, to teak and sandalwood , to the silver oak, and white cedar, trees stand majestically tall . It is almost as if the forests nurture and protect the coffee berries . Maintaining forests ensure a healthy coffee crop and the coffee planters almost has a sacred relationship with nature. There are wide species of butterflies and birds . Protected wildlife parks often dot the region. Elephants wander about, sometimes destroying coffee plants - the famous langur, slender loris, ,spotted deer are some of the animals that live in the region.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And here’s the other thing – five major South Indian rivers have its origin in coffee estates, the most popular one being the River Cauvery -that starts in the coffee growing region of Coorg. Here the river is venerated and worshipped as Goddess Cauvery – as a protector of their land. Coffee is so closely linked to the elements – and over time the coffee growers have developed a deep tradition to preserve rivers and forests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But the picture is not about the sweet fragrance of the coffee plant in bloom or misty rolling mountains. It is about a rapid change in climate that has resulted in rising temperatures and unseasonal rains , sometimes heavier rainfalls , periods of drought and flooding ,prolonged higher day time temperatures and sudden drop in night time temperature – all climatic impacts that have resulted in lowered yields that are making coffee cultivation almost economically unviable. There is a growing need to invest in technology to adapt to changing and unpredictable weather patterns but since the farmer is small, these are not always accessible or possible. There is a shift that is taking place. Slowly growers are selling their estates, part by part, the price the land fetches for the timber it holds, is more profitable than cultivating coffee in a climate changing world. More worrying is that there are no takers in the next generation as high profits on coffee cultivation start to dim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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So is coffee all about about cash and commerce ? Is its value limited to commodity indices and high menu prices? Does no one recognize its intrinsic value and its role in maintaining biodiversity, acting as a carbon sink, globally sequestering about 6 billion kgs of carbon, and conserving wildlife and ecosystems ?The value of coffee lies way beyond its economic price tag – its value in providing ecological services is indeed priceless.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">During my recent visit to Chikmagalur, I met a coffee planter who said that he himself had personally planted over 100,000 trees in his life time – this was way before the world was hot on climate change , carbon trading and clean development mechanism. And standing on his coffee estate I thought to myself - indeed these small planters are not Gordon Gekko s children !<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The silent coffee planter that protects India s rich biodiversity and forests, does not need a trading mechanism to protect our natural resources and create a better world. What he needs is for his voice to be heard while a different crisis brews.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It is indeed time to wake up and smell the coffee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-5311773251911414652010-07-23T03:01:00.000-07:002012-04-01T23:39:01.330-07:00Rig the Climate<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;">The climate denial lobby is beginning to look really silly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It creates loonies out of people -the most recent one - <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/jun/03/monckton-us-climate-change-talk-denial">Lord Monckton</a> - who claims that climate change, is a conspiracy, a new flag of the left and rebukes the very idea of global warming. For someone who has no training in science whatsoever to discount the IPCC s body of some 800 scientists, he is irresponsible and certifiable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The science is now loud and clear - warming of the earth is unequivocal and there is no doubt that much of the change in climate is due to human induced action. Scientists at<a href="http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt"> NASA-GISS</a> have confirmed that the first six months of 2010 have set a global temperature record.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">But I am not going to write about the vicissitudes of climate change of my generation or the politics that world leaders has been engaged in over the last decade to try to solve the climate crisis or what is the planet we are leaving behind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">It has been about 2 decades since the Earth Summit in Rio and we are still struggling for an agreement to protect our planet and its ecosystems, its forest, water tables, atmosphere, oceans and mountains. In the last 50 years or so millions have been spent in UN conventions, declarations and pledges for environmental protection. While we may have failed the earth in the last 100 years or so – there were some who paid it glorious tribute 5000 years ago. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The best tribute ever paid to the environment can be found in the Vedas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The Vedas are considered the most sacred books for Hindus. The word Veda means “wisdom”. There are 4 Vedas .The Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Atharva Veda.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The Rig Veda , a collection of hymns ,are the most ancient of all Hindu texts, probably about 5000 years old but codified much later.This is concerned with the worship of gods that are largely personifications of the powers of nature. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The Rig Veda contains the most popular mantra , the Gayatri mantra. I don’t know any Indian who does not know the Gayatri Mantra – it’s the mother of all mantras. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Aum Bhoor Bhuwah Swaha </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Tat Savitur Varenyam</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Bhargo Devasaya Dheemahi</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Dhiyo Yo Naha Prachodayat</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There are various interpretations of this simple mantra - I do not wish to go into the existential meaning of this mantra, its metaphor or its esoteric meaning.I am no expert in Sankrit or ancient texts. Not at all and cannot even remotely claim to be. But this much I know -when I do a word to word break down of the Gayatri Mantra it is telling me something – a prayer to the "giver of light and life" - the sun (savitur). Its power remains unchallenged and unrivalled.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It is not only the Rig Veda that pays tribute to nature. There are 63 mantras of Atharva Veda (12.1.1. to 12.1.63) pertain to Hymns to the Earth, which glorifies Mother Earth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> The Rig Veda regards trees and plants as possessing healing properties. Tree planting is considered a religious duty. So ecology is not a modern day science that was started in Europe. Its root can be found in our ancient texts and its modern day manifestation in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipko_movement">Chipko Movement </a>that began in the early 70’s in the Garwhal – where villagers formed a human chain and hugged trees marked to be cut down for the development of a sports equipment factory. Since then, the movement has grown as a ecological movement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So while world leaders break their heads over complex documents on carbon emissions,legal frameworks,binding targets,offsetting, de-forestation and afforestation, Indian Rishis understood this 5000 years ago but instead,chose to express it through beautiful, 4 line hymns - that are still chanted today.</span></div>
</div>Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-87939466012201133352010-07-08T03:34:00.000-07:002010-07-11T08:52:56.126-07:00The Age of Innocence<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Like the players in Edith Wharton‘s The Age of Innocence, climate change seems to be plagued with scandals. There have been a series of climategates – from hacked emails of the </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/07/climate-emails-question-answer"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">University of East Anglia</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> , to accusations of unnecessary alarm on the melting of the Himalayan glaciers, exaggeration on the sea level rise that the Dutch objected to, lack of peer reviews within the IPCC, to CDM fraud and its unintended beneficiaries and even to Dr Pachauri s high carbon miles and his vested interests in clean tech businesses. That he wrote a racy sex novella immediately before the scandal broke did not help the good doctor.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ah. There was even Amazongate – which attacked the IPCC, claiming their data on the Amazon Rainfall was false. The claim was aired in hundreds of publications. Only to be subsequently </span><a href="http://www.wwfblogs.org/climate/content/sunday-times-publishes-correction-and-apology-for-bogus-article"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">retracted by the Times</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">. But the damage had been done.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now wait till the full Al Gore sex scandal with his masseuse comes to he fore. There will be a settlement of a few millions – it will get more eyeballs than 2010 year being another temperature record year, or USD2.65 billion needed to clean up the BP oil spill or the rapid Arctic Sea ice loss that we experienced in June or even drought in parts of the rainforests in the Amazon. That we are likely to head towards a 4 degree temperature increase leading to near-total collapse of the huge Greenland ice sheet will get a dot of a mention.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Why even go to such sibylline locations of the Arctic or the Amazon.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In our own country we do not hear about environmental refugees from the Ghoramara islands of the Sunderbans due to sea level rise, who are forced to vacate their community. Or the threat to our national security due to melting of glaciers along our borders with Tibet. That we already experience more severe droughts and floods is taken as business as usual. Food security will be under severe threat.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjPPgoVBrqwSvFtVuf4Q7L8VIVe9aD48e20BpAXCjNeBDSpv7q2KRerGJuKwsXB_L9JDZ5Ocm_H2UrPRL4wy7lbqEb7azzgNUrvBwbaCMYCA3IWLHLedXgstfu_GuKqWIFc0VbugyKXac/s1600/07-28-Ind-Gangotri-Mountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjPPgoVBrqwSvFtVuf4Q7L8VIVe9aD48e20BpAXCjNeBDSpv7q2KRerGJuKwsXB_L9JDZ5Ocm_H2UrPRL4wy7lbqEb7azzgNUrvBwbaCMYCA3IWLHLedXgstfu_GuKqWIFc0VbugyKXac/s200/07-28-Ind-Gangotri-Mountain.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Neither is the rapid melting of the Gangotri glacier, a source of drinking water for 40% of the world’s population even newsworthy . That some of our revered rivers will become seasonal before they disappear completely has not caught the attention in any news reporting circles. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> How desperate does the climate crisis have to get before we even acknowledge it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Will we forget our Ganga as we did our Saraswati ?</span>Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-13004876267921360482010-06-01T01:18:00.000-07:002010-07-11T09:01:25.415-07:00From Markets With Love<div style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%;">The carbon super market may just get another goodie</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%;">At the Carbon Expo, carbon traders are discussing the launch of the Green Bond or International Carbon Bond.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Like the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that pays developing countries to reduce GHG emissions , the Green Bond will do just the same.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 115%;">To the uninitiated, the CDM is </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">the principal tool for engaging with developing countries on mitigation policy. This allows developed country governments and companies to meet emissions reduction targets in part by purchasing certified emissions reduction credits (CERs) which they receive in return for financing projects in developing countries which reduce emissions. This is also known as “offsetting”.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">India and China are the leading countries in CDM projects but recently China has over taken India. While India entered the CDM market </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 115%;">in 2003,</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> the size of projects is small – largely driven by mid-sized </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">companies</span><span lang="EN-US">. However this could change, should some of the Indian Public Sector Units chose to enter the carbon markets.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%;"> Like some bonds, including Daniel Craig, this is also hot .And here is why.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4VOTquJURAZZEm1gfBSRuMWb9AOh7aK16Fndje_JvrGj6XTZrgD59NF4INSIt3OlfQjSqD8qKWQIsLzTaHo7Umj2xzb2hYnd3K5Lc42zMpydOoFc20mSAs1tQkCzZZEOG4yGlIMaCNLA/s1600/daniel-craig-james-bond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4VOTquJURAZZEm1gfBSRuMWb9AOh7aK16Fndje_JvrGj6XTZrgD59NF4INSIt3OlfQjSqD8qKWQIsLzTaHo7Umj2xzb2hYnd3K5Lc42zMpydOoFc20mSAs1tQkCzZZEOG4yGlIMaCNLA/s200/daniel-craig-james-bond.jpg" width="158" /></span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%;">Unlike the CDM process where there is a lengthy review process, with the Green Bond, the money is paid up front by investors and the returns guaranteed to the investor. The Investor then would be free to trade the bonds in international market. And governments will earmark funds exclusively for carbon abatement programmes.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%;">And here is the sweet spot.It would be like a sovereign debt.So if the project fails and there is no reduction in emissions,the investor is protected as the bond is backed by the World Bank or some such financial institution.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%;">So if you want to make some quick bucks, watch this space and keep in touch with your investment banker - he is very likely to sell you the bond and not the sun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div>Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-710495489060267237.post-77246980796145670302010-05-21T00:05:00.000-07:002013-11-12T04:15:43.862-08:00Of banana peels and popcorn<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">About two weeks ago, I met Peo and Satoko Ekberg.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Peo is from Sweden - a country that is fueling ahead to be the world's first oil-free country by 2020.This is without increasing its nuclear energy capabilities.I would call this ambition, to a point of being far fetched.,but Sweden seems to be on its way. From 70% energy from oil in 1975, today only 30% of its energy comes from oil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">So are the 9 million Swedes committed to this idea. Is it really possible to break the oil dependency and still run a first world country efficiently? From what Peo tells me, yes. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg0KAB6WUMrsqNMWBp69MWgeO1iHk_uCQMK3b7zZEnjE4Bq_oc_PEdR9RtE7GonGjOToWQL118FBbzE6qJY5UZLExEsrFS-KjfTXIS-5XmocqjZnaFdLan4R40YiA_VJGrM9jinlxYgJ0/s1600/Sweden+public+trasnprot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg0KAB6WUMrsqNMWBp69MWgeO1iHk_uCQMK3b7zZEnjE4Bq_oc_PEdR9RtE7GonGjOToWQL118FBbzE6qJY5UZLExEsrFS-KjfTXIS-5XmocqjZnaFdLan4R40YiA_VJGrM9jinlxYgJ0/s200/Sweden+public+trasnprot.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <span lang="EN-US">Buses run on banana peels and kitchen waste, elevators are solar powered, taxis ferry you on coffee wastes collected from coffee shops. The capital, Stockholm, has reduced its household wastes by 97% - a big part of the garbage is recycled into energy to power homes and transport. Public transport in Stockholm now runs a 100 % on bio-energy. The list goes on.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">So I asked Peo, what does the city smell like with all this garbage in buses, taxis and cars? "Oh ! Fresh popcorn".</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">So next time you get a whiff of fresh pop corn, remind yourself that you may not be in a cinema house having your favourite popcorn, but you are probably in Sweden, on a bus, going to watch Bergman’s “Autumn Sonata”</span></div>
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Viva Kermanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com3