Plundering the polar ice caps - a blunder in making!

Oil in the Antarctic!

Diamonds in the Arctic!

The whole world (read the business community) leaped in joy. The excitement was palpable. The search for a cheaper alternate energy source suddenly seemed not necessary. The OIL magazine – an energy industry quarterly dedicated its whole March 2013 issue to celebrate the great discovery.  Gianni di Giovanni its editor in chief remarked that the new frontier in energy procurement runs along the Arctic Circle.

Russia officially became the first country to start drilling the ice caps. And it went a step further by demonstrating its stern commitment to its efforts by labelling and convicting Greenpeace activists with piracy. And with Russia’s bold move came similar responses from other nations, who too suddenly jumped the bandwagon to claim their share of the pie. Many nations since then have even formulated a military strategy for the poles.

It’s an accepted fact that the industrial revolution has made us energy hungry. Fossil fuels are the cheapest, most economical source of this energy – another undeniable fact. The last decade has been particularly tricky with the need to find a balance between sourcing cheap energy and rejuvenating the badly damaged ecology. The various conferences and treaties signed since the Kyoto protocol seemed to be the right step forward. But then a few months back, the Russian move suddenly made all these treaties mere words writing on a worthless piece of paper.

Drilling in the remote and harsh but pristine environment of the poles poses two distinct risks:

• Risks to human life working at the rigs
• Environmental risks

The year 2012 was supposed to be a big year for Royal Dutch Shell. The company announced its plans to drill for oil off the coast of Alaska. The coup de grace came on New Year’s even when their rig ran aground near Kodiak. This blunder required the efforts of around 500 personnel and the coast guard working day in and out in the harsh climate to secure the rig. Soon Shell struggled to meet most of the US government’s safety requirements. And in 2013 – they abandoned the project. An independent audit later confirmed that the company did not have the equipment nor the capability to drill in such harsh climatic conditions.

The environmental risks posed by polar drilling are – (1) releasing trapped methane from the caps (2) oil spills and (3) tampering with the pristine ecology.

It is estimated that around 1700 billion tons of methane is trapped in the polar ice caps. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and has the capacity to accelerate global warming at an exponential rate. This factor is never accounted for in the calculations that lead the big energy houses and governments to initiate the idea of polar drilling. In the event of a methane leak from the poles, the effects of climate change such as sea level rise, unpredictable climate etc. would be experienced at a much larger scale than otherwise predicted.

The next major concern from polar drilling is an oil spill. We have already seen the impacts of oil spills on marine lives and coastal communities. Today we do have technology that can be used to mitigate the effects of such spills. But as Shell’s blunder rightly pointed out – we lack the expertise and the technology to counter such an event at the poles. It would simply be catastrophic.

And finally our biggest concern is destroying the last remaining pristine ecology on earth. We in our quest for energy, power and money have plundered the entire world, messed with the ecology and experimented with the balance of nature. Through all these years of mismanagement and stupidity we have learnt the lesson and hence there now exists the need to go green. But the whole drama surrounding the oil exploration exercises at the poles suggests that we as human beings cannot change our originality, but simply put a cloak of pretentiousness.

And now we hear there is abundant coal and diamond reserves as well!

Wake up Earthizen!

Climate change and its impacts on a religious epicenter!

The Ganges – the magnificent symbol of culture, fertility, prosperity and civilization, on whose banks has much of India grown, developed and prospered. This 2500 kilometer long river has the water that is considered sacred by the nearly 800 million Hindus that live around the world. Its origins: the largest glacier in the Himalayas – the gangothri.

The Gangothri glacier in the form of the Ganges forms the lifeline of Nepal, much of North India and entire Bangladesh. This mammoth river apart from being the lifeline of this region is an important constituent of India’s rich mythological history and culture. Now it’s a well-known and a much ignored fact that the Ganges today is polluted beyond repair. Let’s not get into that. But what we will discuss is the much bigger problem that may eventually shut down the entire Ganges! Can you imagine such a scenario? Scary isn't it?

The ever increasing global temperatures due to global warming have begun to take a toll on this holy glacier. Scientists from around the world first started studying this glacier and its behavior in the mid nineteenth century. Around the year 1960 it was observed that the glacier was shrinking at an alarming rate of 26 meters a year! But what shocked the scientific community is what came next – by the year 2006, the shrinkage rate was 800 meters a year!

Throughout the Himalayas more such glaciers are continuously melting. While this may have some short term benefits like an increase in the fresh water flow in the rivers, the long term impacts are often disastrous. For example, the continuous melting of the Himalayan glaciers has resulted in the formation of numerous small lakes. We are aware of the fact that climate change is increasing the global precipitation rates. Imagine a cloud burst on these small lakes.  Would we be seeing at an Uttarakhand part two?

The Himalayan glaciers and the Ganges are important religious and cultural centers of India. The Amaranth Yaatra which nearly 700,000 pilgrims undertake to witness and pray to Lord Shiva in the form of an Ice Shivalinga speaks marvels of the importance attached to these holy mountains and their ice.  However, the as per the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report 2007, Himalayan glaciers are at risk of disappearing by the year 2035 if the Earth continues to warm at its current rate!

Imagine these glaciers disappear by 2035? Will there be an Amaranth Yaatra left? What about the Ganges and the fertile plains that it nourished all these years? What about the billion people depended on this water?

Wake up earthizen. Time is running out! Lord Shiva may have come down from the heavens to save us then! But why would he? We destroyed and ruined the very place where he explained the meaning of eternity? And that very place would cause our doom! What an irony!

True isn't it?

Change begins at home!

‘Change begins at home!’

We can all endlessly complain and protest about the government’s policies towards the climate, we can move the courts against industries to prevent them from destroying the planet, we can go on door to door campaigns to educate people  - but if we ourselves aren’t green enough we would simply become pastors who only preach but not follow!

The green movement today needs pastors who lead by example. And what better way than to begin your green campaign your house! ‘Friends of the Earth’, I hereby present a few simple tips make our lives cleaner and greener

• Save Energy - reduce pollution:

1. Turn off the lights when leaving the room
2. Reduce air-conditioning requirement by planting a few trees around your house.
3. Do not idle your car engines for more than 10 seconds.
4. Turn off all electrical appliances and do not leave them in stand-by modes.
5. Wash your laundry in cold water
6. Carpool
7. Use the public transport system.
8. Plan your activities smartly while running errands to avoid making frequent trips to the same place on your car.
   

• Save water – save energy:

1. Turn off dripping taps.
2. Take shorter showers or simply use a bucket and a mug.
3. Do not use the entire capacity of the flush tank when not needed.
4. Plant low water consuming plants and trees in your garden.
5. Avoid washing your car every day.
6. Plan your laundry day smartly to avoid wasting water.
   

• Avoid plastics, E-waste:

1. Always carry your own bag while going to the supermarket.
2. Reduce dependence on bottled water - as the bottles are not bio degradable.
3. Segregate garbage between bio degradable and non-biodegradable.
4. Be careful while disposing electronic waste – ensure that it gets into the right channels for disposal.
5. Buy recycled products and promote them.
   

• General tips:

1. Always print on two sides of the paper.
2. Avoid printing if not necessary.
3. Pay bills and shop online – saves energy and paper.
4. Plant trees in your backyards – provides cleaner localized environment and reduces air-conditioning requirement
5. Walk short distances – saves energy and promotes good health

I am sure we cannot follow all of these, but we could always try and consciously do so. If you have any more tips you would love to share, please feel free to share them through your comments.

Emma Dcruz

The writer is an ardent supporter of the green movement and an active member of this blog.

The six degrees unto death

Global Warming- not a new phrase right?

While our world leaders are politicizing it and scientists are shouting 'crisis', and we honorable earthizens are sitting silent digging our own grave. We are a simple bunch of uneducated folk - who simply do not make any attempts to learn and explore. Its human nature to be so. But the situation is grim and time is fast running out. We have to wake up and rise.

"There should have been panic on the streets," says Mark Lynas in his book, Six Degrees, "people shouting from the rooftops, statements to parliament and 24-hour news coverage." . It's a very serious problem we are dealing with.

In an article titled"Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feed-backs in a coupled climate model", published in November 2000 in the scientific journal Nature - the UK Met Office’s Hadley Center for Climate Change, rings the loudest possible alarm bells. In layman's language, Hadley simply expresses its helplessness, while calling for an immediate response to this problem . According to this report, nature itself would become increasingly uncomfortable and would turn violent. There would be unpredictable changes in the weather patterns, which at first would be less violent and the latter would even turn fatal. Acute shortage of food and quality drinking water would plague the world and man would be forced to even turn to cannibalism! It would be an absolutely lawless world, filled with misery and grief, until nature finally pulls the plug.

It's human tendency to accept and understand only the facts that please us. Global warming sadly is one of those unpleasant facts. Mark Lynas states "The end of the world is nigh, and it's already been published in Nature."  Therefore it is essential for us to first understand the implications of our actions, effects of climate change and then try and implement a few proven solutions. As step one towards our learning process, let us understand the gradual changes that are going to happen around us, as global temperatures rise .

1c Increase - Ice free Sea absorbs more heat and accelerates global warming; fresh water lost from a third of the world's surface; low-lying coastlines flooded.

2c Increase - Europeans dying of heatstroke; forests ravaged by fire; stressed plants beginning to emit carbon rather than absorbing it; a third of all species face extinction.

3c Increase - Carbon release from vegetation and soils speeds global warming; death of the Amazon rain forest; super-hurricanes hit coastal cities; starvation in Africa.

4c Increase - Runaway thaw of permafrost makes global warming unstoppable; much of Britain made uninhabitable by severe flooding; Mediterranean region abandoned.

5c Increase - Methane from ocean floor accelerates global warming; ice gone from both poles; humans migrate in search of food and try vainly to live like animals off the land.

6c Increase - Life on Earth ends with apocalyptic storms, flash floods, hydrogen sulfide gas and methane fireballs racing across the globe with the power of atomic bombs; only fungi survive.

I assume this brief prediction sums it all. It’s a selfish world we live in, filled with ignorant and stubborn people. On an international level a lot of tantrums are thrown by world leaders about the steps that they would take (at a time of their convenience) and how through these steps they would be saviors of mankind. But the reality is – any government that tries to push towards policy reforms concerning climate change is isolated internationally. The best example is that of Ecuador – which recently gave up its vows to prevent drilling in the pristine Yasuni National Park. 

You may now wonder – why don’t the world leaders act? And why aren't the big business houses that control these world leaders pushing them to act?

The answer is extremely simple. Two per cent of the world’s population (comprising of these business and world leaders who in-turn control 98% of the wealth), have already invested in technology that would probably transport them to another planet, where they would live safely. What about the rest? Oh yes, we are the fools living in this selfish world.

It’s high time we open up our eyes and understand the truth. Let us all join hands and fight to secure a future for our children.

(For a more in-depth analysis of how the world leaders are out to destroy us and what can be done to save ourselves, please read my book Shall we save the Earth?)