Centre for Science & Environment , Delhi : An E-Bulletin from CSE on May 17, 2007

CSE's Fortnightly News Bulletin [May 17, 2007]

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An e-bulletin from CSE, India, to our network of friends and
professionals interested in environmental issues. Scroll to the bottom
of this page for information on how to unsubscribe.

INSIDE:

- CSE invites you to a public meeting on river cleaning
- First CSE media briefing workshop on rivers, river pollution and
cleaning strategies
- Summer volunteer and internship programme
- Editorial: Biofuel: good idea, bad practice
- Cover Story: Puducherry port could spell disaster for people, ecology
- News: Public hearing for Posco project in Orissa inconclusive
- News: Uganda protests over sugar plantation on forestland
- News: Srinagar officials, residents agree on three more dumpsites
- Feature: Bureaucracy restricts potential of Orissa's pani panchayats
- Science: New species being discovered by taxonomy and barcoding
- Gobar Times: Down India's roads
- Publication: Anil Agarwal Reader series


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CSE invites you to a public meeting on river cleaning

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CSE had in April organised a landmark public meeting in Delhi to discuss
the approaches towards river cleaning. The second in this series of
meetings is being jointly organised by CSE and Development and Research
Organisation for Nature, Arts and Heritage (DRONAH). The evening will
also feature the release of CSE's publication, 'Sewage canal: How to
clean the Yamuna' by Shri Bhure Lal, Chairman, Environment Pollution
(Prevention and Control) Authority, and Shri S P Gupta, administrator,
Haryana Urban Development Authority. The release will be followed by a
screening of CSE's latest acclaimed 32-minute film on the Yamuna:
'Faecal attraction: Political economy of defecation'.

Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Venue: Unitech Country Club, South City I, Gurgaon 122001
Time: 6:45 pm onwards

Watch the film trailer online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUlkOLLa31s

For more information contact:
Suresh Babu S V <svsuresh@cseindia.org>


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First CSE media briefing workshop on rivers, river pollution and
cleaning strategies
New Delhi

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CSE invites you to a two-day media briefing workshop to understand the
condition of India's rivers, examine existing river cleaning programmes,
learn from them, and discuss strategies that could bring our rivers back
to life. The Yamuna river will be taken as a representative case. The
workshop will bring together river pollution experts, civil society
representatives and government officials to debate and demystify key
issues.

Date: June 14-15, 2007
Venue: India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

Eligibility criteria:
- The workshop is only open to journalists and media professionals
- Seats are limited. We have the resources to support the travel and
accommodation of a few candidates on a first-come, first-served basis.
Therefore, please apply immediately

To apply, e-mail/fax your resume to:
Shachi Chaturvedi <shachi@cseindia.org>
Fax:  011-29955879

Last date for applying: June 1, 2007


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Summer volunteer and internship programme

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Are you interested in getting first hand experience of working on the
most pressing environmental issues with the country's leading research
and information dissemination organisation? If yes, then join CSE's
popular volunteer and internship programme. There are a number of ways
in which you can contribute: by getting involved in research and
advocacy with CSE's environmental campaign teams, by investigating
crucial issues as a reporter with Down To Earth magazine, or
communicating environmental news and analysis globally with our website
team.

Find out more and fill in an online application >>
http://www.cseindia.org/volunteer.htm


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Editorial: Biofuel: good idea, bad practice

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By Sunita Narain

Now that the reality of climate change has been accepted even by its
strongest sceptics, there is a rush to find answers. The latest buzz is
to substitute the use of greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels with
biofuels-fuel processed from plants. Unfortunately, the way we are going
about implementing this "good" idea could mean we are headed from the
frying pan to the fire.

There are two kinds of biofuel: ethanol, processed from sugarcane or
corn, and biodiesel, made from biomass. Climate-savvy Europe gave the
first push to biofuel, mandating they should contribute 6 per cent of
fuels used in vehicles by 2010 and 10 per cent by 2020. The bulk of
biodiesel comes from domestically grown rapeseed. But to meet its
growing needs, it is looking at importing soyabean-based fuel from
Brazil and Argentina, and palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia.

US president George Bush has this year called on his country to produce
132 billion litres of biofuel by 2017, to cut dependence on foreign
fuel. The US's favourite biofuel is ethanol, which it produces from corn
starch. Brazil, the world's largest ethanol producer, mostly uses
sugarcane. It is estimated that ethanol plants will burn up to half of
the US's domestic corn supplies in the coming few years. In addition,
its biofuel industry is looking to make fuel out of soya and other crops
to feed the automobile industry's growing hunger.

Already, the repercussions of this switch are beginning to show. Late
last year, Mexico saw its tortilla wars, as people found the price of
their staple-corn-had doubled. The hike was a result of the crop's new
market as a source of vehicle fuel and the control over the crop and its
uses by corporate USA. In this case, one company, Archer Daniels
Midlands, has dominant interests in the corn and wheat market and is the
largest ethanol processor in the region. In addition, it has a financial
stake in a Mexican company that makes tortillas and refines wheat. In
other words, the company benefits when corn price increases and
consumers switch to wheat. Or when the switch takes place from food to
fuel, they benefit. Similarly, Cargill, the agribusiness multinational,
is now the big name in the biofuel market. In this scenario, prices of
other food commodities-wheat, soya, palm oil-are rising as well, in
turn, impacting the poorest consumers globally. The projections are that
food prices will increase between 20-40 per cent in the next 10 years or
so because of this switchover.

The problem is compounded by the fact that this "switch" will do little
to avert climate change. It is clear that all the biofuel in the world
will be a blip on the total consumption of fossil fuel. In the US, for
instance, it is agreed that if the entire corn crop is used for ethanol,
it can only replace 12 per cent of current gasoline-petrol-used in the
country. A recent paper in the US journal Foreign Affairs estimates that
filling a 95-litre fuel tank with pure ethanol will require about 200 kg
of corn, which has enough calories to feed a person for a year.

If we factor in the fuel inputs that go into converting biomass to
energy-from diesel to run tractors, natural gas to make fertilisers,
fuel to run refineries-biofuel is not an energy-efficient option. It is
estimated that roughly 20 per cent of corn-made ethanol is 'new' energy.
This does not account for the water it will take to grow this new crop.
There is also evidence that rainforests will be cut to expand the
cultivation of soya, sugarcane and palm oil, which in turn will
exacerbate climate change.

Don't get me wrong: I am in favour of biofuel. But the question we need
to ask is how to use it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Currently,
though we are only interested in maximising corporate profits, we
believe rather naively that social objectives are being met.

Firstly, let us be clear that biofuels cannot substitute fossil fuels;
but they can make a difference if we begin to limit the consumption of
the latter. If this is the case, governments should not provide
subsidies to grow crops for biofuel, as is being done in the US and
Europe, but spend to limit their fuel consumption by reducing the sheer
numbers of vehicles on their roads. If this is done, biofuels, which are
renewable and emit less greenhouse gases, will make a difference.
Otherwise, we are only fooling ourselves.

Secondly, the question is where will the biofuels be used? Let us be
clear that the opportunity for a massive biofuel revolution is not in
the rich world's cities, to run vehicles-but in the grid-unconnected
world of Indian or African villages. It is here that there is a scarcity
of energy-electricity to power homes, fuel to cook, to run generator
sets to pump water and to run vehicles. It is also here that the use of
fossil fuels will grow because there is no alternative.

Instead of bringing fossil fuel long distances to feed this market, this
part of the world can leapfrog to a new energy future-from no fuel to
the most advanced fuel. The biofuel can come from non-edible tree
crops-jatropha in India, for example-grown on wasteland, which will also
employ people.

This fuel market will demand a different business model. It cannot be
conducted on the basis of the so-called free market model, which is
based on economies of scale and, therefore, demands consolidation and
leads to uncompetitive practices. In today's model, a company will grow
the crops, extract the oil, transport it first to refineries and then
back to consumers.

The new generation biofuel business needs a model of distributed growth
in which we have millions of growers and millions of distributors and
millions of users. Remember, climate change is not a technological fix
but a political challenge. Biofuel is part of a new future.

To comment, write to >>
editor@downtoearth.org.in

Read the editorial online >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=2


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Cover Story: Puducherry port could spell disaster for people, ecology

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The famed beaches of Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry) have been getting
eroded over the years due to construction of a harbour and breakwaters.
A planned deep-water port threatens to finish them off completely. The
proposed port will endanger the ecology of the area and the livelihoods
of its people. The project has been riddled with controversies right
from the word go -- it was conceived in an ad hoc manner and there has
been little regard for procedural requirements. Moreover, there have
been allegations of corruption in the land deal, the environment impact
assessment has been half-hearted, and there has been a reluctance to
discuss various issues with the people. If the port project comes
through, Puducherry and its nearby towns will be affected by air
pollution, many villagers will be uprooted from their homes without
getting adequate compensation, and beaches and mangroves will be
destroyed. These issues, say environmentalists, are embedded in a larger
problem -- the lack of an overall plan for coastal development. Can a
solution be found?

Read online >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=1


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More in Down To Earth magazine

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News: Public hearing for Posco project in Orissa inconclusive

The Orissa Pollution Control Board had last month organised a public
hearing in the state's Jagatsinghpur district to discuss the
environmental ramifications of South Korean giant Pohang Steel's
proposed Rs 5,100-crore Posco steel plant, which has made little headway
since June 2005. The people were sceptical about the meet right from the
beginning. They have been demanding shifting of the project to
comparatively barren areas, as the current land marked to be acquired is
used for growing betel wines and paddy. Posco says the option is not
viable. The villagers are also unhappy with the compensation package
offered to them. The project area has now become a site of frequent
clashes between anti- and pro-Posco groups.

Read complete article >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=3

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News: Uganda protests over sugar plantation on forestland

Uganda broke out into protests in early April over the government's plan
to give away one third of Mabira forest, the country's biggest
rainforest, to Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd (SCoUL). The protests
took a racial turn because a part of SCoUL is owned by Indians -- the
Mehta Group. Environmentalists have for years been warning that the
de-gazettement of Mabira will cause a major ecological disaster in
Uganda, and will set a precedent for other companies. Activists say that
instead of addressing these concerns, the government is busy trying to
project the violence as a racial issue. But the Uganda government is
also in a fix as it has to choose between ecology and economy.

Read online >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=4

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News: Srinagar officials, residents agree on three more dumpsites

Residents of Achen, a locality in Srinagar, and the municipal
authorities have agreed to set up three new dumpsites in three zones of
the city. These will supplement the existing one in Achen. The decision
came after residents took to the streets in April protesting against the
dumping of garbage at Achen, which they said was creating health
hazards. Each of the new sites will handle 25 per cent of the city's
waste. Environmentalists say that Srinagar must look at devising
effective ways of solid waste management.

Read online >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=5

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Feature: Bureaucracy restricts potential of Orissa's pani panchayats

The pani panchayats in Orissa have brought the state's farmers'
organisations together. However, many members are upset because
bureaucratic delays and lack of communication from the administration
has meant lower participation for them and for villagers. Members feel
that their efforts are also not recognised because officials consider
them threats to their corrupt practices. Clearly, the four-tier pani
panchayat system is not working in Orissa.

Read online >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20070515&filename=news&se
c_id=50&sid=21

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Science: New species being discovered by taxonomy and barcoding

A host of new species, including marine organisms, have been discovered
with taxonomy and DNA barcoding techniques. Of late scientists have been
debating over which of the two is better. While DNA barcoding identifies
cryptic species by their genetic composition rather than their
appearance, conventional taxonomy helps in recognising a species through
its morphology, physiology and ecology, which scientists say is required
while dealing with less charismatic species.

Read online >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20070515&filename=sci&sec
_id=12&sid=1


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Gobar Times: Environment for beginners

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Down India's roads
India's road network is the second largest in the world. It plays a
vital role in trade and also gives a boost to industrial growth. For
long, the state of a country's roads has been reflective of its
development. However, roads have some negative impacts as well.
Construction of highways can lead to deforestation and erosion of
mountain slopes. This, in turn, can trigger landslides, even change the
course of rivers and streams. Gobar Times presents a reality check.

Read online >>
http://www.gobartimes.org/


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Publication: Anil Agarwal Reader series

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The Anil Agarwal Reader, available in three volumes, puts together the
weekly essays/opinion pieces written by eminent environmentalist and
journalist Anil Agarwal between 1991 and 2001. The essays are a riveting
commentary on the environment-development problem that unfolded in India
and the world during this period. The readers delve on issues like the
structural adjustment programme, natural resource management and
ecological globalisation, and have a common theme: the poor are the
country's real resource managers.

For more information go to >>
http://csestore.cse.org.in/store1.asp?sec_id=1&subsec_id=25
Contact: <vikas@cseindia.org>


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