APJ Kalam suggests Dhaka, Delhi join hands for green economy

Former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam on Thursday expressed his "dreams" of enhanced Bangladesh-
India ties for promoting green economy identifying "jute" to be a binding factor for the joint campaign to replace synthetics.
"I have a dream India and Bangladesh will join hands to replace plastics by jute products (globally)," he said as he delivered a lecture sharing his ideas of comprehensive rural development coinciding with the 33rd founding anniversary celebrations of Dhaka-based Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (Cirdap).
Kalam asked the 15-nation inter-government organisation to take initiatives for promotion of the natural fibre for green economy and outlined his model of rural development under the framework of his Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA), an institutional campaign.
The former Indian president also identified "water resource" to be another crucial area of bilateral cooperation saying the scarce resource being shared by the two countries through common rivers was being wasted largely due to "inefficient management".
Kalam, a nuclear scientist who has been dedicating his efforts for the past 10 years to the rural development, also outlined a detailed design for implementing his PURA model in Bangladesh's Khulna region.
The model suggests a holistic approach for development of rural neighbourhoods providing livelihood opportunities and urban amenities to villages under private-public partnership which is run by local government bodies at the grassroots.
Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives
Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, state minister for the ministry Jahangir Kabir Nanak joined the discourse at the Cirdap auditorium while leading economists, sociologists, foreign relation experts and diplomats attended.
Kalam named specific resources of South Asian and Asia
Pacific countries, identified their domestic and regional challenges and suggested ways for their networking and enhanced cooperation.
Later joining a brief press conference, Kalam said despite extreme rivalry between nuclear proliferation nations, he expected South Asia to emerge as an integrated region like the European Union in next 10 year.
"I think South Asia will emerge as an integrated region in next 10 years" discarding their rivalry following footsteps of the EU and ASEAN nations.
Kalam referred to his eyewitnesses' experience of the integrity of the European nations which they developed despite their centuries-long enmity.
Asked if he had had any "guilty feeling" for his pivotal role in nuclear armament of India as he now spearheads campaigns for regional peace and enhanced cooperation, Kalam defended his works saying it was then important for regional power balance.
"You see, big nations around India have had their nuclear weapons at that time, and it was important for India to develop ballistic missiles to make a balance . . . it also did not cost high," he said as asked about the impact of the proliferation on the Indian economy.


Source: The Daily Star
Thursday, July 5, 2012 

Bangladesh needs global support for climate adaptation: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said Bangladesh deserves high level of international support, technological and financial assistance for its climate change adaptation and implementing mitigation initiatives.
She said this when outgoing Dutch Ambassador Alphons Hennekens met her at her office (PMO).
The Dutch Envoy underscored the need for strengthening regional cooperation and sharing of experiences to face the adverse impacts of global climate change.
After the meeting, PM’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad briefed reporters.
Hennekens told the Prime Minister that his country will continue its cooperation to Bangladesh in different sectors, including Bangladesh Delta Plan-2012 and training programme.
Hasina said a MoU was signed between the two countries on Bangladesh Delta Plan-2012 as a new vision document for a strategic partnership in sustainable delta management, integrated water resources management, disaster management and adaptation to climate change.
The Press Secretary said the prime minister also mentioned various steps taken by her government to ensure people’s basic rights, including food, shelter health and education.
During the meeting, Hasina and Hennekens also discussed various bilateral issues, including the expansion of trade and business.
Ambassador at-Large M Ziaudding was, among others, was present on the occasion.


Source: The Daily Star
Thursday, July 5, 2012

Contemplating mitigation measures

All things that make up the environment are interrelated. The way in which people, animals and plants are related to each other and to their surrounding is known as ecology. The ecosystem is a complex web that links animals, plants and every other life form in the biosphere. By altering any one part of the web you can affect all other parts. For example, the destruction of forests may have serious ecological consequences for humans and animals.
It is our responsibility to prevent the environment from being spoilt. To make life healthy and comfortable we should keep the environment clean and danger free.
But often people spoil the environment by doing unwise things and as a result, endanger their own lives. In recent years, many alarming reports provide strong evidence that world temperatures are increasing day by day. This increase in global warming is caused by increased amounts of carbon dioxide around the earth.
This is exemplified by the destruction and burning down of tropical rain forests, by traffic that clogs up city streets, by the rapid growth of industry, the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in packaging and manufacturing, the use of detergents and so on. The oceans are also said to be affected both human waste and because of pollution caused by industrial waste products, oil seeping from damaged supertankers and from other maritime disasters. However, the main culprit for global warming is carbon dioxide gas, produced by the burning of fossil fuels and forests and pollutants such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons.
Climatologists predict that by midway through the next century temperatures may have risen by as much as 40C. This could catastrophically reduce mankind's ability to grow food, destroy or severely damage wildlife and wilderness, raise sea levels and thereby flood coastal areas and farmland, the lower southern part of Bangladesh included.
If the world is going to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, we must agree to limit emissions so as to respect ecological limits. In order to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change, the latest science tells us that carbon emissions in industrialized countries will need to drop by at least 90 percent by 2050.
The United Nations aims to get countries to reduce their emissions of climate changing gases via the Kyoto Protocol. But the target for CO2 reduction is currently set at only 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012 for the industrialised countries. Countries have still not achieved consensus on a way to move forward past 2012.
From another perspective, while the use of fuel increases to keep up with modern demands, the world is becoming more vulnerable to environmental hazards and disasters. At present, oil provides above 40 to 43 percent of all energy used by the world. Oil and coal each account for 40 percent of global warming emissions from fossil fuels worldwide. In the United States, energy use accounts for 82 percent of our global warming emissions, with oil counting for 42 percent of those emissions. Countries in the tropics and the small island states are likely bear the brunt of the consequences.
Developing country economies are harmed when they are dependent on volatile oil imports. And when the oil is finally burned, and the carbon contained in it released into the atmosphere, it contributes heavily to decreased agricultural production, increased droughts, human health impacts, environmentally related refugees and other already observed and predicted impacts of climate change.
One of the most effective solutions to these environmental hazards is to raise the price of fuel. The use of petroleum releases toxic chemicals into our atmosphere. These chemicals escape into the air during refilling, from the gasoline tank and carburetor during normal operation, and from engine exhaust. Transportation sources account for about 30-50% of all harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
Raising the price of fuel would mean that people would use less petroleum. They would find other alternative means of transport to save money, which would mean using less high priced fuel for everyday purposes. For example, cycling is a healthy activity and it saves the earth too. Also for a long journey, people could try to find friends together for car-pooling. Car-pooling saves a lot of fuel and would save a lot of money too.
Many environmental hazards like “smog” are increasing around the would due to excessive use of petroleum in our daily lives. Raising the price of the fuel may make all the difference to the environment. It would force people to use petrol in more responsible way and use it less, and thereby provide one of the most effective solutions to the problem of ever-increasing environmental hazards.
We feel the government and its specialised agencies, non-governmental organisations, industries, educational institutions and individuals should act immediately to counter the on-going degradation of the atmosphere.
Target for energy-efficiency and energy supply improvement should be fixed. The desired reduction in carbon dioxide emissions will also require switching to fuels that emit less carbon dioxide; reviewing strategies for the implementation of renewable energy, especially advanced biomass conversion technologies; and reviewing nuclear power. If safety, radioactive waste and unclear weapons proliferation problems can be solved, unclear power could play a role in lowering emissions of carbon dioxide.
There must be vigorous application of existing technologies to reduce emissions of acidifying substances, other substances that are precursors of troposphere ozone, and greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide.
Products should be labeled to allow consumers judge the extent and nature of atmospheric contamination arising from the manufacture and use of the product.
Resources for research and monitoring efforts within the world climate programme, the international ecosphere-biosphere programme, and the human response to global change programme should be increased. It is particularly important to understand how climate changes on a regional scale and gets related to an overall global change of climate, and how the oceans affect global heat transport and the flux of greenhouse gases.
Funding for research, development and the transfer of information on renewable energy should be significantly increased, and technology transfer should be extended with particular emphasis on the needs of developing countries.
Funding for extensive technology transfer and technical cooperation projects in coastal zone protection and management should be expanded.
Deforestation should be reduced and afforestation increased through establishment of a trust fund to provide adequate incentives to developing nations to manage their tropical forest resources at a sustainable level.
Technical cooperation projects to allow developing nations to participate in international mitigation efforts should be developed and supported.
Funding may be increased to non-governmental organisations for establishment of environmental education programmes and public awareness campaigns that would aim at changing public values and behaviour with respect to the environment.

by Md. Atikur Rahman, The Daily Star-Saturday, May 26, 2012

Durban not total failure

The Durban climate conference is not a total failure as it extended the Kyoto protocol to a second phase, said Environment and Forests Minister Hasan Mahmud. “We are not happy, but not frustrated either as it saved the Kyoto protocol,” the minister said, adding that Bangladesh expected much more from the conference. Briefing reporters in his ministry, he said the developed nations will cut carbon emission by 25 to 40 percent compared to the level of 1990 during the second commitment period of the protocol. But Japan, Russia and Canada pulled themselves out of the process which is unfortunate, he said. During the conference, an ad-hoc working group on the Durban Platform for Enhance Action was formed. The working group will come up with an outcome of legally binding instrument for all countries, he told reporters. “It will be too late if we have to wait till 2020 to implement the legally binding document and cap the temperature rise within two degree Celsius,” the minister said. The Green Climate Fund was created at the conference to help the vulnerable countries, which is another major achievement of the conference, Hasan said, adding that Bangladesh has got $200 million as fast start funding out of $3 billion raised in the UNFCCC. The minister also reminded the developed nations of their responsibilities for emission cuts as they are fully responsible for global warming. About detailed outcome of the meet, Hasan said, the activities of the ad-hoc working group on long-term cooperation action (AWG-LCA) were increased by the meeting. The AWG-LCA will formulate an outcome to implement the decision of the Bali Action Plan.

 

Durban pledges

Efforts must go on beyond the conference

THE 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) has ended on a note of agreement towards a legal deal covering all countries. The process, beginning next year, is to be completed by 2015 and put into effect by 2020. While the action has been hailed as a “historic breakthrough” by some, others have criticised it for not being aggressive enough, and as containing a loophole which may be exploited by the major polluting countries to get out of a legal binding.
The Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, was proof that a global agreement could be reached despite several odds, but its targets remain to be met, with the first phase deadline expiring next year. The Durban deal may be seen as another step in the right direction -- with the compromise averting a collapse of the talks -- but negotiations and efforts must be stepped up. The slower the efforts are, the more difficult it will be to fight climate change. As it is, carbon emission levels remain high, with global temperatures continuing to rise, increasing the likelihood of worse droughts, floods, storms and rising sea levels.
Political will, especially of the rich and major polluting nations, is lacking. It is up to the emerging nations and LDCs, some of whom are the worst affected in the world, to push their agenda through concerted efforts. Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable nations, has played a significant role at Durban as well as at the preceding Climate Vulnerable Forum, but it too must now carry on the efforts and engage countries such as the US, China, India and Brazil in doing more before the next climate negotiations. Indeed, higher level political and diplomatic efforts will be necessary across the board and especially so among the vulnerable countries if the battle against climate change is to be sustained and led to a satisfactory outcome. So far, in terms of action, conferences, negotiations and pledges have been many, but results have been few and the world continues to head towards environmental disaster.

The New York Times Exclusive

Marching off the cliff

Noam Chomsky

A task of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, now under way in Durban, South Africa, is to extend earlier policy decisions that were limited in scope and only partially implemented.
These decisions trace back to the UN Convention of 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, which the US refused to join. The Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period ends in 2012. A fairly general pre-conference mood was captured by a New York Times headline: "Urgent Issues but Low Expectations."
As the delegates meet in Durban, a report on newly updated digests of polls by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Program on International Policy Attitudes reveals that "publics around the world and in the United States say their government should give global warming a higher priority and strongly support multilateral action to address it."
Most US citizens agree, though PIPA clarifies that the percentage "has been declining over the last few years, so that American concern is significantly lower than the global average -- 70% as compared to 84%."
"Americans do not perceive that there is a scientific consensus on the need for urgent action on climate change (euro). A large majority think that they will be personally affected by climate change eventually, but only a minority thinks that they are being affected now, contrary to views in most other countries. Americans tend to underestimate the level of concern among other Americans."
These attitudes aren't accidental. In 2009 the energy industries, backed by business lobbies, launched major campaigns that cast doubt on the near-unanimous consensus of scientists on the severity of the threat of human-induced global warming.
The consensus is only "near-unanimous" because it doesn't include the many experts who feel that climate-change warnings don't go far enough, and the marginal group that deny the threat's validity altogether.
The standard "he says/she says" coverage of the issue keeps to what is called "balance": the overwhelming majority of scientists on one side, the denialists on the other. The scientists who issue the more dire warnings are largely ignored.
One effect is that scarcely one-third of the US population believes that there is a scientific consensus on the threat of global warming -- far less than the global average, and radically inconsistent with the facts.
It's no secret that the US government is lagging on climate issues. "Publics around the world in recent years have largely disapproved of how the United States is handling the problem of climate change," according to PIPA. "In general, the United States has been most widely seen as the country having the most negative effect on the world's environment, followed by China. Germany has received the best ratings."
To gain perspective on what's happening in the world, it's sometimes useful to adopt the stance of intelligent extraterrestrial observers viewing the strange doings on Earth. They would be watching in wonder as the richest and most powerful country in world history now leads the lemmings cheerfully off the cliff.
Last month, the International Energy Agency, which was formed on the initiative of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1974, issued its latest report on rapidly increasing carbon emissions from fossil fuel use.
The IEA estimated that if the world continues on its present course, the "carbon budget" will be exhausted by 2017. The budget is the quantity of emissions that can keep global warming at the 2 degrees Celsius level considered the limit of safety.
IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said: "The door is closing (euro) if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum (for safety). The door will be closed forever."
Also last month, the U.S. Department of Energy reported the emissions figures for 2010. Emissions "jumped by the biggest amount on record," The Associated Press reported, meaning that "levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst-case scenario" anticipated by the International Panel on Climate Change in 2007.
John Reilly, co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's program on climate change, told the AP that scientists have generally found the IPCC predictions to be too conservative unlike the fringe of denialists who gain public attention. Reilly reported that the IPCC's worst-case scenario was about in the middle of the MIT scientists' estimates of likely outcomes.
As these ominous reports were released, the Financial Times devoted a full page to the optimistic expectations that the US might become energy-independent for a century with new technology for extracting North American fossil fuels.
Though projections are uncertain, the Financial Times reports, the US might "leapfrog Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's largest producer of liquid hydrocarbons, counting both crude oil and lighter natural gas liquids."
In this happy event, the U.S. could expect to retain its global hegemony. Beyond some remarks about local ecological impact, the Financial Times said nothing about what kind of a world would emerge from these exciting prospects. Energy is to burn; the global environment be damned.
Just about every government is taking at least halting steps to do something about the likely impending catastrophe. The US is leading the way -- backward. The Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives is now dismantling environmental measures introduced by Richard Nixon, in many respects the last liberal president.
This reactionary behaviour is one of many indications of the crisis of US democracy in the past generation. The gap between public opinion and public policy has grown to a chasm on central issues of current policy debate such as the deficit and jobs. However, thanks to the propaganda offensive, the gap is less than what it should be on the most serious issue on the international agenda today -- arguably in history.
The hypothetical extraterrestrial observers can be pardoned if they conclude that we seem to be infected by some kind of lethal insanity.
The writer is a Professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
© New York Times. Distributed by the New York Times Syndicate.

Climate Refugees: Displaced forever

"See how we live like a caged bird," Mahmuda Khatun said pointing to her 70-square-foot makeshift hut on the narrow embankment by the Kholpetua river at Gabura in Satkhira.
Mahmuda along with her husband, sixty-year-old mother-in-law and four children live in the tiny bamboo-made thatched hut, merely 400 metres off from their homestead, which is now under saline water.
She said her children have no place to move around or play. The families living on the embankment always remain worried about their children, who may drown anytime in a moment of carelessness. Many of the families have stopped sending the children to school.
"Most of the time I keep my children virtually confined to the hut. When they get extremely bored, I have to allow them to walk outside for a moment but not too far," Mahmuda said, giving a picture of a common fear in the entire floating community.

Hundreds of families from other coastal villages in Satkhira, Khulna and Bagerhat had the same fate since cyclone Aila ripped through the region on May 25, 2009.
Tidal surges have breached parts of the embankment, washed away houses along with all belongings, livestock and poultry, and displaced families from their locality.
Cyclone Aila, though, did not claim more than 190 lives because of precautionary measures. But it caused a huge loss to property killing 150,000 livestock and ruining crops on about 3.23 lakh acres of land, according to the food and disaster management ministry.
The Campaign for Sustainable and Rural Livelihood (CSRL) programme of Oxfam which has been working in the Aila-hit areas since the disaster occurred said, as many as 77,531 families were affected.
Citing a recent survey, Ziaul Haq Mukta, member secretary of CSRL, said 54,530 individuals from 10,906 families could not return to their own places and are still living on the embankment in certain areas.
During a recent visit to many affected areas, it was seen that the villagers who took shelter on the embankment are still marooned even after two years as saline water permanently inundated their homestead, cropland and ponds.
The normal village life that they had only two years ago seems to be lost forever as these people have no alternative means to earn a living.
Allegations are rife that the authorities concerned are not repairing the damaged embankments that once protected the villages from the waters of the Kabodak and Kholpetua rivers. Besides, there are allegations of misappropriation and inadequate supply of relief materials.
Thirty-year-old Habibullah Gazi who lives on the embankment said, "We got some food, drinking water, medicine and few other materials from the government and non-government organisations.
"But we did not get anything which could help us get back to our normal life," he added.
Everyone raised the same point that Aila came to their life for a day and was over two years ago, but the miseries it inflicted on them still persist.
What frustrates the victims most is the fact that there is no move from any quarter to restore their normal life.
Now they have become refugees or slum dwellers in their own villages where they once had their houses and everything.
The situation is even worse for the children who have no place to freely move around or play. Their life has been confined to the 10-foot-width of embankment by the river.
Sixty-year-old Sahara Khatun, mother-in-law of Mahmuda, still cannot believe how the catastrophe shattered their lives. She often thinks she is having a nightmare and everything will be alright when she would wake up.
Sahara was born in the village where her ancestors lived for generations and which is now under saline water.
"None of my parents and grandparents had witnessed such a devastating cyclone," said Sahara with a grim face and a blank look.
Recalling the serene pictures of the village during her youth, she said, "I do not wish to live like this anymore."
The marooned people live on a part of the embankment, which is also eroding and may collapse anytime due to the pressure of water from both sides.
They have no land to cultivate now, while cultivation may not be possible in near future due to salinity in the soil. There is no big or small fish in the river near their villages, and it takes a day to bring drinking water from the distant villages.
The only source of income for these victims is shrimp fry. All the men, some women and even children catch shrimp fry and sell it in the market across the river.
With the little money they get from shrimp fry sale, they buy rice, vegetables and potato. At times, vegetables turn too expensive and they are forced to eat only rice and potato.
Asked about protein in their menu, the villagers said it is now just a dream for them.
"We cannot even think about it in this present situation," said Sahara.
Md Abdus Samad, deputy commissioner of Satkhira, told The Daily Star that rehabilitation programmes undertaken for the victims include repair and reconstruction of embankments, food aid, money-for-work, house construction and support in agricultural activities, among others.
Most of the people in this region are farmers who cannot grow rice or any other crop as salinity in the soil remains unnaturally high since the Aila swept across the land, he said.
"So we are looking into shrimp farming as an alternative for crop," he added.
"But if you talk about giving them back their normal life, it will take a long time," the DC said.

The report has been taken from The Daily Star. Date- Sunday, May 1, 2011 

Landslides in Bangladesh

Powerful landslides are another fatal climate disaster that turn many people into climate refugees in Bangladesh. Heavy rains kill and displace many people each year as early monsoon showers sweep across the country.As rain continues to pour down, landslides strike the country. The following are some of the tragic pictures of the landslides in Bangladesh.



Landslide in Cox's Bazar

 Landslide in region near the border with Myanmar

  Landslide in Chittagong

The mudslides usually strike south of the capital, Dhaka, Chittagong, a hilly and forested region near the border with Myanmar.

Plight of Climate Refugees in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the worst climate victims in the world. As a low-lying land the country has always been under the threat of environmental disasters like hurricane, tornadoes , high tides etc. But during  the recent years Bangladesh has been frequently hit by catastrophic environmental disasters. According to the climate experts the rise of the sea level due to the global warming is one of the main reasons for the periodic hit of environmental disasters.  Each time the sudden hit of tornadoes leaves thousands of people homeless and landless. The following is one of the common scenes during a high tide caused by heavy rain falls or tornadoes.  

Most of the climate victims are poor.After any climate disaster they become even poorer. Most of them are displaced from their own lands and head to the big cities like Dhaka and Chittagong. Driven out of their lands, they become refugees and lead an uncertain and insecured life.