The U.S. Global Change Research Program’s climate change report, released by the Obama administration earlier this month, outlines concrete climate change impacts for U.S. society and the economy. According to the findings we could be in for much more severe summers across the country. One example cited: in 1995, Chicago suffered a heat wave that killed more than 700 people. By the end of this century, Chicagoans could experience that kind of relentless heat up to three times a year.
Eleven EarthShare member charities, including American Rivers, Earthjustice and Natural Resources Defense Council, are urging America to reduce emissions quickly to prevent the worst consequences of climate change. Read the report and check out a video of the White House releasing the new climate change bill. Learn more about climate change and global warming in our issues section.
Got trails? With summer upon us, now is the perfect time to grab some friends and head out to discover a new outdoor adventure. The Sierra Club has launched a new resource, Sierra Club Trails , to help you locate a trail, find a community trip or take a national or international excursion into the wilderness. Can’t find any trails near you? Check out EarthShare member charity Rails-to-Trails’ trail-building toolbox – it offers resources to help you build a trail in your own community!
Good news about lighter, fuel-efficient cars. The Rocky Mountain Institute is unraveling the misconception that lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles are less safe than heavier ones. Their research indicates that while there is a connection between car size and safety, there is no such connection between automobile weight and highway safety. So, what type of car is the best for safety and the environment? Vehicles designed to be both lightweight and large fit the bill. With new federal standards set to begin in 2012, this guidance will prove useful to an auto industry tasked with increasing fuel efficiency. But don’t wait until the new efficiency standards kick in when you can help reduce your car’s carbon footprint now! Check out our green tips for saving energy on the road.
Bored with the beach? Be a summer volunteer!
President Obama wants YOU – for his Summer of Service initiative, that is. The program is a call to make volunteerism and community service part of our daily lives and the life of this nation. The Student Conservation Association is inviting you to get involved and take action for the envirionment and the nation by signing their Conservation Declaration. Sign the declaration , agree to take one of many environmental actions (including planting a native tree , volunteering , or entering their Green Your School contest ), and you’ll be automatically entered to win a National Parks Annual Pass! In the words of our leader: “…we need everyone, as America’s new foundation will be built one community at a time, and it starts with you.”
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Know-how at whose cost?
While much of the negotiations at the UN climate change meet in Bonn (28 March to 8 April) centred around targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions - mainly, but by no means exclusively by industrial countries, and funding developing countries to follow suit - the transfer of energy-efficient technologies was also hotly debated.
This follows in the wake of the negotiations in Bali in 2007, where developing countries, among some 190 present, agreed to take "nationally appropriate" mitigation actions in the context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity-building, in a "measurable, reportable and verifiable" manner. The proviso was that such actions would take into account "differences in their national circumstances".
In Bonn, Greenpeace called for developing countries to reduce their projected emissions by 15-30 per cent by 2020, with support from industrialised countries. As it stated: "Countries in this group range from the very poor nations which have scarcely contributed to climate change, to those that are richer than some industrialised countries and clearly cannot all be treated the same. In order to be fair, the level of action should be based on a country's historical responsibility for emissions and its capability and potential."
After eight years in the wilderness, the US - which has not signed the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012 and will be renegotiated in Copenhagen this December - has returned to the table. President Obama's Special Envoy on Climate Change (India's equivalent is Shyam Saran), Todd Stern made no secret of his country's continuing antipathy to the Kyoto Protocol, which does not require developing countries to commit to reducing their energy emissions. Stern is a Washington lawyer who was a former Clinton While House official.
"We all have to do this together," he told the Bonn conference. "We don't have a magic wand. I don't think anybody should be thinking that the US can ride on a white horse and make it all work ... Let me speak frankly here: it is in no one's interest to repeat the experience of Kyoto by delivering an agreement that won't gain sufficient support at home [in the US] ... Too much time has been lost in sterile debates ... America itself cannot provide the solution, but there is no solution without America."
He also thought that the development challenge was making sure that developing countries have the opportunity to follow a cleaner path forward. "I like to tell the story that earlier this decade, India had only about 55 million people with phone service, but, rather than insist on following the industrialised countries' path of wired service, India leap-frogged to cell phones, with the result that a few years later 350 million Indians have phones. We need a similar leap-frogging of fossil fuels in the world of energy."
India itself, however, said that industrialised countries presented five problems. They ignored their historical responsibility; made unsubstantiated projections of likely future emissions from the developing world; created new categories such as 'more advanced developing countries' [including China, India and Brazil]; demanded that developing countries should deliver low carbon pathways without enabling financial, technological and capacity-building support; and drew unsubstantiated marginal abatement cost curves that showed large low cost abatement options even in the bottom 50 per cent of the world, which includes India, that has negligible historical responsibility and together accounts for only 11 per cent of the current carbon dioxide emissions.
The problem is that energy-efficient technologies are by no means cost-free, and developed countries - which have caused global warming in the first place - haven't put their money where their collective mouths are, despite repeated promises to this effect. In Bonn, developing countries called for relaxation of patents on climate-friendly technologies and products. India, in fact, stressed the need for removing barriers to technology transfer, including a "restructuring of the global Intellectual Property Rights regime".
Shyam Saran specifically referred to India's proposal that the UN climate control regime should set up "innovation centres" for research and development. During a plenary session, Dr Ajay Mathur, who heads the Bureau of Energy Efficiency in Delhi, cited an instance of such potential cooperation by holding up India's first commercially available LED (light emitting diodes) bulb, which had been launched by Crompton Greaves in Pune on 28 March. As Dr Mathur said, "It produces as much light as a 40 Watt incandescent bulb or an 8 Watt CFL (compact fluorescent). This has been introduced by an Indian company, which has entered into an agreement with the Dutch company which designed this LED bulb.
"The engineering and manufacturing of this bulb has been carried out in India, and it is estimated that if all Indians were to replace one incandescent bulb with this bulb, it would save 56 billion kWh of electricity, and 44 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, which would be equal to planting 140 million trees.
"The problem is that this LED bulb costs $24 [Rs.1200], compared to $0.30 for a 40 Watt incandescent bulb. We will, of course, encourage the aggressive adoption of this technology, but it will be limited unless supported by a global regime for the accelerated adoption of climate-friendly technologies. We believe that a network of climate innovation centres would be an effective way to achieve this goal."
Dr Mathur told India Together that while the capital cost of the Pharox bulb was high, it had a five-year warranty. It had a life of 50,000 hours, as against a life of only a fifth of this for a CFL. Even CFL bulbs cost Rs.1000 when they were first introduced. The glass bulb has been manufactured in Firozabad, which is a traditional glass industry centre. Such technology could earn carbon credits because of its low consumption of energy.
Although the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012, the EU has till 2015 to purchase carbon credits, which may not exist after then. In the current financial meltdown, the price of Certified Emission Reductions or CERs - the traded cost of reducing a tonne of carbon dioxide - has dropped in the international carbon market but should stabilise in the long term at around 8 Euros, which would work in such a deal without grants or subsidies. "We are working on upscaling this technology even without international support," Dr Mathur said. "The only way to reduce our emissions by half is by the massive transfer of technologies."
India's innovation centres were required for developing such products and also marketing them - virtually creating markets in some instances. The Electricity Act here didn't permit private operators to generate power but there was a huge opportunity for decentralised energy systems to provide electricity and cooking fuel to some 700 million Indians who had to make do without these two basic necessities. For cooking fuel, biomass, which is widely available in rural areas, would be energy-efficient and received a 60 per cent subsidy.
The Bush administration and Obama's too have preferred entering into bilateral environmental agreements with India and China instead of committing to international treaties. Thus Bush had launched the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate, with Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea. At the end of the Bonn conference, the US Deputy Special Envoy on Climate, Dr Jonathan Pershing, told Indian reporters that senior US and Indian officials and businessmen were meeting each other and that there was "enormous support" to facilitate such opportunities.
Flaring landfill gas
For example, according to America.gov, the official website, U.S. and Indian organizations are exploring ways to use methane gas from Indian landfills for fuel, heating and electricity with the Mumbai office of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, NEERI. Landfills, decomposing food and paper release gas, including methane gas, which is 23 times worse in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Methane is also the primary component of natural gas, used as a fuel and energy source.
The trick is to capture the methane before it leaves the landfill and escapes into the atmosphere so that its energy can be harnessed for positive uses," Joe Zietsman, project manager of one Indian landfill investigation, told America.gov. Zietsman is director of the Center for Air Quality Studies at the Texas Transportation Institute, which is part of Texas A&M University.
Zietsman's group is leading a study in Mumbai to investigate the feasibility of converting landfill gas to vehicle fuel or energy sources. Other partners in the study include NEERI, the Texas State Energy Office and Mack Trucks Inc. The investigations are funded by EPA as part of the agency's Methane to Markets partnership - an international initiative advancing cost-effective methane recovery and use as a clean energy source. (See "International Partners Reduce Methane Greenhouse Gas Emissions").
"India is one of 27 partner governments, plus the European Commission, who have joined the partnership to voluntarily reduce methane emissions," Rachel Goldstein, EPA team leader for the landfill methane outreach program, told America.gov. According to Kumar, operating vehicles with LNG would reduce vehicular emissions considerably. This option "could be more relevant for cities like Mumbai, which has a large population and generates about 6,000 tonnes of waste per day."
EPA's Goldstein said the next step "is for each municipality running a landfill to assess their options," including estimating the revenue anticipated from generating electricity and selling the gas. For one Mumbai landfill, the choice has been made. "The Gorai dumpsite will soon be the first landfill in India, as far as we know, to begin flaring landfill gas, when this begins at the end of April," Goldstein said. Worldwide, millions of tonnes of municipal solid waste are discarded daily into sanitary landfills and dumpsites. Landfills are the third-largest human-induced source of methane gas, accounting for about 12 per cent of global emissions.
Developing countries wary
One reason why India and other developing countries may be wary of such deals is that after such technologies are demonstrated on the ground, they may be commercially exploited in the international market. In other words, such pilot projects may be testing grounds to see how this know-how works in tropical conditions. By entering into such deals, the US may seek to avoid parting with patented technologies under a global climate regime.
It has, for example, been pursuing the "carbon capture and sequestration" method of scrubbing carbon dioxide from the chimneys of coal-fired power plants, which would reduce the emissions by up to 80-90%. This carbon dioxide can then be buried deep in the earth or in storage tanks in ocean beds. However, this is extremely expensive and untested technology, which however could conceivably be cost-effective in the long run when the cost of reducing a tonne of carbon rises prohibitively. But right now, there are a range of existing technologies which would help developing countries, but industrial nations have shown extreme reluctance to part with them without a fee
Darryl D'Monte
This follows in the wake of the negotiations in Bali in 2007, where developing countries, among some 190 present, agreed to take "nationally appropriate" mitigation actions in the context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity-building, in a "measurable, reportable and verifiable" manner. The proviso was that such actions would take into account "differences in their national circumstances".
In Bonn, Greenpeace called for developing countries to reduce their projected emissions by 15-30 per cent by 2020, with support from industrialised countries. As it stated: "Countries in this group range from the very poor nations which have scarcely contributed to climate change, to those that are richer than some industrialised countries and clearly cannot all be treated the same. In order to be fair, the level of action should be based on a country's historical responsibility for emissions and its capability and potential."
After eight years in the wilderness, the US - which has not signed the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012 and will be renegotiated in Copenhagen this December - has returned to the table. President Obama's Special Envoy on Climate Change (India's equivalent is Shyam Saran), Todd Stern made no secret of his country's continuing antipathy to the Kyoto Protocol, which does not require developing countries to commit to reducing their energy emissions. Stern is a Washington lawyer who was a former Clinton While House official.
"We all have to do this together," he told the Bonn conference. "We don't have a magic wand. I don't think anybody should be thinking that the US can ride on a white horse and make it all work ... Let me speak frankly here: it is in no one's interest to repeat the experience of Kyoto by delivering an agreement that won't gain sufficient support at home [in the US] ... Too much time has been lost in sterile debates ... America itself cannot provide the solution, but there is no solution without America."
He also thought that the development challenge was making sure that developing countries have the opportunity to follow a cleaner path forward. "I like to tell the story that earlier this decade, India had only about 55 million people with phone service, but, rather than insist on following the industrialised countries' path of wired service, India leap-frogged to cell phones, with the result that a few years later 350 million Indians have phones. We need a similar leap-frogging of fossil fuels in the world of energy."
India itself, however, said that industrialised countries presented five problems. They ignored their historical responsibility; made unsubstantiated projections of likely future emissions from the developing world; created new categories such as 'more advanced developing countries' [including China, India and Brazil]; demanded that developing countries should deliver low carbon pathways without enabling financial, technological and capacity-building support; and drew unsubstantiated marginal abatement cost curves that showed large low cost abatement options even in the bottom 50 per cent of the world, which includes India, that has negligible historical responsibility and together accounts for only 11 per cent of the current carbon dioxide emissions.
The problem is that energy-efficient technologies are by no means cost-free, and developed countries - which have caused global warming in the first place - haven't put their money where their collective mouths are, despite repeated promises to this effect. In Bonn, developing countries called for relaxation of patents on climate-friendly technologies and products. India, in fact, stressed the need for removing barriers to technology transfer, including a "restructuring of the global Intellectual Property Rights regime".
Shyam Saran specifically referred to India's proposal that the UN climate control regime should set up "innovation centres" for research and development. During a plenary session, Dr Ajay Mathur, who heads the Bureau of Energy Efficiency in Delhi, cited an instance of such potential cooperation by holding up India's first commercially available LED (light emitting diodes) bulb, which had been launched by Crompton Greaves in Pune on 28 March. As Dr Mathur said, "It produces as much light as a 40 Watt incandescent bulb or an 8 Watt CFL (compact fluorescent). This has been introduced by an Indian company, which has entered into an agreement with the Dutch company which designed this LED bulb.
"The engineering and manufacturing of this bulb has been carried out in India, and it is estimated that if all Indians were to replace one incandescent bulb with this bulb, it would save 56 billion kWh of electricity, and 44 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, which would be equal to planting 140 million trees.
"The problem is that this LED bulb costs $24 [Rs.1200], compared to $0.30 for a 40 Watt incandescent bulb. We will, of course, encourage the aggressive adoption of this technology, but it will be limited unless supported by a global regime for the accelerated adoption of climate-friendly technologies. We believe that a network of climate innovation centres would be an effective way to achieve this goal."
Dr Mathur told India Together that while the capital cost of the Pharox bulb was high, it had a five-year warranty. It had a life of 50,000 hours, as against a life of only a fifth of this for a CFL. Even CFL bulbs cost Rs.1000 when they were first introduced. The glass bulb has been manufactured in Firozabad, which is a traditional glass industry centre. Such technology could earn carbon credits because of its low consumption of energy.
Although the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012, the EU has till 2015 to purchase carbon credits, which may not exist after then. In the current financial meltdown, the price of Certified Emission Reductions or CERs - the traded cost of reducing a tonne of carbon dioxide - has dropped in the international carbon market but should stabilise in the long term at around 8 Euros, which would work in such a deal without grants or subsidies. "We are working on upscaling this technology even without international support," Dr Mathur said. "The only way to reduce our emissions by half is by the massive transfer of technologies."
India's innovation centres were required for developing such products and also marketing them - virtually creating markets in some instances. The Electricity Act here didn't permit private operators to generate power but there was a huge opportunity for decentralised energy systems to provide electricity and cooking fuel to some 700 million Indians who had to make do without these two basic necessities. For cooking fuel, biomass, which is widely available in rural areas, would be energy-efficient and received a 60 per cent subsidy.
The Bush administration and Obama's too have preferred entering into bilateral environmental agreements with India and China instead of committing to international treaties. Thus Bush had launched the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate, with Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea. At the end of the Bonn conference, the US Deputy Special Envoy on Climate, Dr Jonathan Pershing, told Indian reporters that senior US and Indian officials and businessmen were meeting each other and that there was "enormous support" to facilitate such opportunities.
Flaring landfill gas
For example, according to America.gov, the official website, U.S. and Indian organizations are exploring ways to use methane gas from Indian landfills for fuel, heating and electricity with the Mumbai office of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, NEERI. Landfills, decomposing food and paper release gas, including methane gas, which is 23 times worse in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Methane is also the primary component of natural gas, used as a fuel and energy source.
The trick is to capture the methane before it leaves the landfill and escapes into the atmosphere so that its energy can be harnessed for positive uses," Joe Zietsman, project manager of one Indian landfill investigation, told America.gov. Zietsman is director of the Center for Air Quality Studies at the Texas Transportation Institute, which is part of Texas A&M University.
Zietsman's group is leading a study in Mumbai to investigate the feasibility of converting landfill gas to vehicle fuel or energy sources. Other partners in the study include NEERI, the Texas State Energy Office and Mack Trucks Inc. The investigations are funded by EPA as part of the agency's Methane to Markets partnership - an international initiative advancing cost-effective methane recovery and use as a clean energy source. (See "International Partners Reduce Methane Greenhouse Gas Emissions").
"India is one of 27 partner governments, plus the European Commission, who have joined the partnership to voluntarily reduce methane emissions," Rachel Goldstein, EPA team leader for the landfill methane outreach program, told America.gov. According to Kumar, operating vehicles with LNG would reduce vehicular emissions considerably. This option "could be more relevant for cities like Mumbai, which has a large population and generates about 6,000 tonnes of waste per day."
EPA's Goldstein said the next step "is for each municipality running a landfill to assess their options," including estimating the revenue anticipated from generating electricity and selling the gas. For one Mumbai landfill, the choice has been made. "The Gorai dumpsite will soon be the first landfill in India, as far as we know, to begin flaring landfill gas, when this begins at the end of April," Goldstein said. Worldwide, millions of tonnes of municipal solid waste are discarded daily into sanitary landfills and dumpsites. Landfills are the third-largest human-induced source of methane gas, accounting for about 12 per cent of global emissions.
Developing countries wary
One reason why India and other developing countries may be wary of such deals is that after such technologies are demonstrated on the ground, they may be commercially exploited in the international market. In other words, such pilot projects may be testing grounds to see how this know-how works in tropical conditions. By entering into such deals, the US may seek to avoid parting with patented technologies under a global climate regime.
It has, for example, been pursuing the "carbon capture and sequestration" method of scrubbing carbon dioxide from the chimneys of coal-fired power plants, which would reduce the emissions by up to 80-90%. This carbon dioxide can then be buried deep in the earth or in storage tanks in ocean beds. However, this is extremely expensive and untested technology, which however could conceivably be cost-effective in the long run when the cost of reducing a tonne of carbon rises prohibitively. But right now, there are a range of existing technologies which would help developing countries, but industrial nations have shown extreme reluctance to part with them without a fee
Darryl D'Monte
Winning the battle against poaching
Policing protected areas (PAs) means scanning through every centimetre of wildlife habitat: checking every tree, shrub, branch, leaf and twig for rope snares and preventing smuggling of all kinds of forest produce: be they timber, animals or products. Policing implies patrols to scan through every centimetre of soil to check for foot traps, and to peer through every water body, rock, crevice and cliff to protect the roaming wildlife 24X7X365.
“One is proper surveillance network has to be established; secondly people residing in the core and periphery must cooperate with field staff, collection of evidence is tedious because material decomposes after a while, scattered evidence might not be easy to connect to poaching case in question” says P S Somashekar, the field director of the Sariska Tiger reserve.
Protection of forest wealth calls for effective roster systems of patrol duty, accountable staff, state of the art equipment, latest communication facilities, intelligence gathering, and rewarding informers, providing incentives to committed personnel, foolproof investigations, effective enforcement and prosecution, and sealing borders to prevent smuggling of wildlife derivatives.
The reality: poor working conditions, low budgets
India’s forest staff operate in appalling working conditions: Guards use open toed footwear, they lack simple facilities like torch… jeep, wireless sets or gun. When they are posted in anti poaching camps in the desolate interiors of the forests, they lack both sanitation and protection against elements and wildlife. Forest guards often get their salary in arrears, and they live far away from their families. Forest officers rue that there is no foolproof system in place.
There is atleast a 50 per cent vacancy; trained personnel need to be recruited in all the PAs in the country. Those in service are aged, lacking motivation. Each guard gets Rs. 350 per month (apart from salary) as project allowance in Tiger Reserves, not in other PAs; commuting from their dwelling quarters to remote stations in the tiger reserves is onerous. “Maintaining their families in two areas is virtually impossible” says Manoj Kumar the Deputy Conservator of Forests at the Dandeli Anshi Tiger Reserve.
The budget for patrolling the Corbett Tiger Reserve last year was a measly Rs 60,000 per annum! With that meager amount, the former field director of the Reserve - Rajeev Bhartari had to quite literally indulge in fire fighting: motivate the anti poaching staff, maintain the watch towers every few hundred square metres, compensate the anti poaching staff, prevent outbreak of forest fires, maintain patrol fleet and rations in the anti poaching camps, and administer 24X7 vigil.
Perceptively, the forest department has employed locals for foot patrol and offers them food rations, nutrition supplements, livelihood options in return for their vigilance inside the Protected Area. “In a footnote to the tragedy in Sariska, Corbett has proven that policing can be effective if there is will and direction in the management” says Bhartari, now deputy director in the Uttaranchal Tourism department.
“In reserves where protection comprising foot patrols, permanent anti poaching camps at strategic locations alongwith mobile patrols are active 24X7X365, poaching activities can be controlled”, agrees Praveen Bharghav of the Wildlife First. “It is not only realistic but essential to employ local people with jungle skills in wildlife protection work… The prevailing recruitment rules of the forest department emphasize scholastic learning over jungle craft and local origin, which does not facilitate hiring them except as temporary labourers. This is unfortunate and needs to change” says Ullas Karanth, wildlife biologist of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
That the tiger is at the head of biodiversity is quantified by the documented crimes against wild boars, peacocks, hyenas, Sambhars, crocodiles, jungle cats, palm civets, mongoose, panthers, hares and jackals, in more than 75 wildlife crime cases booked in Sariska alone between 2002 and 2005. Bio piracy of insects, butterflies and leeches by well equipped and well informed foreign researchers is going on unchecked; legally - customs officials cannot check outbound goods, - thus, bio piracy is not even discovered much less prosecuted in India. Policing is even more challenging when it comes to protection of the minute faunal spectrum under the tiger’s stride.
Bemoaning the inefficacy of policing, a senior forest official in Rajasthan, speaking on condition of anonymity, attributes a series of errors causing the inevitable Sariska fiasco. “During the peak of the poaching in Sariska in summer and monsoon months of 2004 the entire staff went on French leave; the system collapsed not top down but from bottom up. We need to address the problems of the staff: inadequate compensation and training, low motivation, and infrastructure”.
There is also the original human-tiger conflict issue that impacts the value of policing. (See other articles in this series). On the 1st of September 2008, villagers of Chaan village on the periphery of the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve poisoned the carcass of the cow killed by a tigress; the tigress died. What kind of policing can possibly prevent anthropogenic conflict? “Wherever half eaten carcasses of livestock because of carnivore depredation are reported, such carcasses should be incinerated in the presence of a gazetted officer to eliminate the possibility of poisoning for revenge killing by local people” according to the Guidelines for preparation of Tiger Conservation Plan.
“It is only by sterilising Protected Areas inviolate can we protect the wildlife. I fully agree that people are alienated but the problems of the periphery villagers have to be addressed” says the senior forest officer.
Prosecuting poachers
The Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) says it is aware of 10 tiger cases in which the accused were convicted.
One of the prominent and recent convictions is that of Sansar Chand. Chand is the most notorious wildlife trader in India having to his dubious distinction more than 45 cases filed by the forest and police departments in many states in India. He came out of prison in May 2004 by submitting fake medical certificates, and it is widely believed that he hired villagers in and around Sariska to vengefully kill all the 22 tigers in the monsoon months of that year.
Sansar Chand was convicted for 5 years and a fine of Rs. 60,000 was levied by additional chief judicial magistrate (Railways) Ajmer. Chand served the sentence in the Ajmer jail till his 1st February 2008. He is serving term in another case in Jaipur Jail presently.
Sharing the political will that helped successful prosecution of Chand, the then Superintendent of Police of the Government Railway Police in Ajmer Rajasthan, Hemant Priyadarshi who is presently DIG CBI, in Bhopal, says “once involvement of Sansar Chand in this case became known, we put this case on highest priority, collected previous criminal record against Sansar Chand, and opposed any move for anticipatory bail right upto the Supreme Court”. Priyadarshi’s team went the extra mile to collect chain of evidence to prove to the court the import of the arrest of Chand.
Other recent wildlife conviction cases, according to the WPSI, are as follows:
October 2008: 20 persons were convicted to 3 years RI and Rs 10,000 fine in connection with lions poaching in Gir National Park on March and April 2007.October 2008: 1 person convicted to 3 years imprisonment, 2nd person to 1 and a half month and third person to two and a half months imprisonment for electrocuting lions in Gir. September 2008: 1 Czech national sentenced to 3 years imprisonment in connection with butterfly smuggling in the Singalila National Park in Darjeeling. July 2008: 1 person was convicted to 3 years RI and Rs 10,000 fine in Haridwar in connection with leopard bone smuggling.
Foolproof policing means administrative cohesion, transparent jurisprudence, effective prosecution, a sound land use policy, pooling intelligence, effective customs controls, inviolate protected areas, and a responsible civil society that rejects wildlife derivatives. Necessary infrastructure include state of the art equipment, all-terrain jeeps and boats, helicopter gunships, legal immunity for dutiful personnel, adequate fuel supply, wireless sets and satellite phones, binoculars, intelligence network, training, forensic skills, accountability, liaison with Interpol and scientific monitoring of data.
Lastly, media scrutiny of effective enforcement and successful prosecution serves the purpose of deterrence. All of these can be telling only if enforcement and prosecution serve as the deterrent it is meant to be. Media scrutiny is critically significant. Only a democratic ethos affords this kind of an elaborate institutional support, even as it, ironically, also offers rights to people charged with wildlife crime
“One is proper surveillance network has to be established; secondly people residing in the core and periphery must cooperate with field staff, collection of evidence is tedious because material decomposes after a while, scattered evidence might not be easy to connect to poaching case in question” says P S Somashekar, the field director of the Sariska Tiger reserve.
Protection of forest wealth calls for effective roster systems of patrol duty, accountable staff, state of the art equipment, latest communication facilities, intelligence gathering, and rewarding informers, providing incentives to committed personnel, foolproof investigations, effective enforcement and prosecution, and sealing borders to prevent smuggling of wildlife derivatives.
The reality: poor working conditions, low budgets
India’s forest staff operate in appalling working conditions: Guards use open toed footwear, they lack simple facilities like torch… jeep, wireless sets or gun. When they are posted in anti poaching camps in the desolate interiors of the forests, they lack both sanitation and protection against elements and wildlife. Forest guards often get their salary in arrears, and they live far away from their families. Forest officers rue that there is no foolproof system in place.
There is atleast a 50 per cent vacancy; trained personnel need to be recruited in all the PAs in the country. Those in service are aged, lacking motivation. Each guard gets Rs. 350 per month (apart from salary) as project allowance in Tiger Reserves, not in other PAs; commuting from their dwelling quarters to remote stations in the tiger reserves is onerous. “Maintaining their families in two areas is virtually impossible” says Manoj Kumar the Deputy Conservator of Forests at the Dandeli Anshi Tiger Reserve.
The budget for patrolling the Corbett Tiger Reserve last year was a measly Rs 60,000 per annum! With that meager amount, the former field director of the Reserve - Rajeev Bhartari had to quite literally indulge in fire fighting: motivate the anti poaching staff, maintain the watch towers every few hundred square metres, compensate the anti poaching staff, prevent outbreak of forest fires, maintain patrol fleet and rations in the anti poaching camps, and administer 24X7 vigil.
Perceptively, the forest department has employed locals for foot patrol and offers them food rations, nutrition supplements, livelihood options in return for their vigilance inside the Protected Area. “In a footnote to the tragedy in Sariska, Corbett has proven that policing can be effective if there is will and direction in the management” says Bhartari, now deputy director in the Uttaranchal Tourism department.
“In reserves where protection comprising foot patrols, permanent anti poaching camps at strategic locations alongwith mobile patrols are active 24X7X365, poaching activities can be controlled”, agrees Praveen Bharghav of the Wildlife First. “It is not only realistic but essential to employ local people with jungle skills in wildlife protection work… The prevailing recruitment rules of the forest department emphasize scholastic learning over jungle craft and local origin, which does not facilitate hiring them except as temporary labourers. This is unfortunate and needs to change” says Ullas Karanth, wildlife biologist of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
That the tiger is at the head of biodiversity is quantified by the documented crimes against wild boars, peacocks, hyenas, Sambhars, crocodiles, jungle cats, palm civets, mongoose, panthers, hares and jackals, in more than 75 wildlife crime cases booked in Sariska alone between 2002 and 2005. Bio piracy of insects, butterflies and leeches by well equipped and well informed foreign researchers is going on unchecked; legally - customs officials cannot check outbound goods, - thus, bio piracy is not even discovered much less prosecuted in India. Policing is even more challenging when it comes to protection of the minute faunal spectrum under the tiger’s stride.
Bemoaning the inefficacy of policing, a senior forest official in Rajasthan, speaking on condition of anonymity, attributes a series of errors causing the inevitable Sariska fiasco. “During the peak of the poaching in Sariska in summer and monsoon months of 2004 the entire staff went on French leave; the system collapsed not top down but from bottom up. We need to address the problems of the staff: inadequate compensation and training, low motivation, and infrastructure”.
There is also the original human-tiger conflict issue that impacts the value of policing. (See other articles in this series). On the 1st of September 2008, villagers of Chaan village on the periphery of the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve poisoned the carcass of the cow killed by a tigress; the tigress died. What kind of policing can possibly prevent anthropogenic conflict? “Wherever half eaten carcasses of livestock because of carnivore depredation are reported, such carcasses should be incinerated in the presence of a gazetted officer to eliminate the possibility of poisoning for revenge killing by local people” according to the Guidelines for preparation of Tiger Conservation Plan.
“It is only by sterilising Protected Areas inviolate can we protect the wildlife. I fully agree that people are alienated but the problems of the periphery villagers have to be addressed” says the senior forest officer.
Prosecuting poachers
The Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) says it is aware of 10 tiger cases in which the accused were convicted.
One of the prominent and recent convictions is that of Sansar Chand. Chand is the most notorious wildlife trader in India having to his dubious distinction more than 45 cases filed by the forest and police departments in many states in India. He came out of prison in May 2004 by submitting fake medical certificates, and it is widely believed that he hired villagers in and around Sariska to vengefully kill all the 22 tigers in the monsoon months of that year.
Sansar Chand was convicted for 5 years and a fine of Rs. 60,000 was levied by additional chief judicial magistrate (Railways) Ajmer. Chand served the sentence in the Ajmer jail till his 1st February 2008. He is serving term in another case in Jaipur Jail presently.
Sharing the political will that helped successful prosecution of Chand, the then Superintendent of Police of the Government Railway Police in Ajmer Rajasthan, Hemant Priyadarshi who is presently DIG CBI, in Bhopal, says “once involvement of Sansar Chand in this case became known, we put this case on highest priority, collected previous criminal record against Sansar Chand, and opposed any move for anticipatory bail right upto the Supreme Court”. Priyadarshi’s team went the extra mile to collect chain of evidence to prove to the court the import of the arrest of Chand.
Other recent wildlife conviction cases, according to the WPSI, are as follows:
October 2008: 20 persons were convicted to 3 years RI and Rs 10,000 fine in connection with lions poaching in Gir National Park on March and April 2007.October 2008: 1 person convicted to 3 years imprisonment, 2nd person to 1 and a half month and third person to two and a half months imprisonment for electrocuting lions in Gir. September 2008: 1 Czech national sentenced to 3 years imprisonment in connection with butterfly smuggling in the Singalila National Park in Darjeeling. July 2008: 1 person was convicted to 3 years RI and Rs 10,000 fine in Haridwar in connection with leopard bone smuggling.
Foolproof policing means administrative cohesion, transparent jurisprudence, effective prosecution, a sound land use policy, pooling intelligence, effective customs controls, inviolate protected areas, and a responsible civil society that rejects wildlife derivatives. Necessary infrastructure include state of the art equipment, all-terrain jeeps and boats, helicopter gunships, legal immunity for dutiful personnel, adequate fuel supply, wireless sets and satellite phones, binoculars, intelligence network, training, forensic skills, accountability, liaison with Interpol and scientific monitoring of data.
Lastly, media scrutiny of effective enforcement and successful prosecution serves the purpose of deterrence. All of these can be telling only if enforcement and prosecution serve as the deterrent it is meant to be. Media scrutiny is critically significant. Only a democratic ethos affords this kind of an elaborate institutional support, even as it, ironically, also offers rights to people charged with wildlife crime
Panipat power plant pollutes with impunity
In early January last year, The Indian Express had reported on the health hazards caused by Haryana Power Generation Corporation (HPGC) owned Panipat thermal plant. The story stated that at least one person in each family living in nearby Khukhrana village suffered either from skin diseases or respiratory ailment thanks to air and water pollution caused by thermal power plant. HPGC is a public sector undertaking under Haryana state government, formerly the Haryana State Electricity Board.
A year later, in February 2009, the latest Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit report that contains a detailed performance audit of the plant. It records how Panipat Thermal power station failed to monitor pollution levels and failed to ensure compliance of norms. Scrutiny of the records of Panipat Thermal power station with regard to environmental safeguards and pollution control and monitoring found a plethora of issues:
- Deficiency in keeping the concentration of Suspended Particulate Matter [SPM] and Particulate Matter [PM] under the prescribed limit.- Failure in disposal of 10-12 dumps of mill reject coal that caused frequent fire hazards, an abysmally poor disposal of fly ash produced during 2003-’08 even after lapse of more than eight years. - Failed to develop green belt by the extent of 60 per cent compared to what it committed and targeted for.
The concentration of SPM in ambient air
The concentration of SPM in ambient air, as prescribed by Ministry of Environment and Forests [MoEF] in April 1996 should have been maximum of 500 micrograms per cubic metre. However, the scrutiny of records found that during October 2006 to March 2007 – except during March and July 2007 – concentration of SPM ranged between 600 to 1494 micrograms per cubic metre.
The CAG has indicted the company for having failed to take effective measures to control the concentration of SPM. This could be done by regular tuning of electrostatic precipitators, proper stacking of crushed coal, proper dumping/disposal of mill rejected coal and making sprinklers functional in coal handling areas.
Further the audit scrutiny noticed that the authorities had failed to provide online monitoring system to record SPM levels in Units I to V. The online monitoring system provided in unit VI was not in working condition and the company was getting monitoring done through outsourcing on a year to year basis, although to provide online monitoring system to record SPM levels is mandatory for thermal power station as per existing environmental governance under Environment Protection Act, 1986.
After this deficiency was pointed out by CAG auditors, the HPGC management responded in August 2008 with this: “..efforts are being made to control the concentration of SPM in ambient air and online monitoring system is being introduced”. HPGC's chairman is Ashok Lavasa, and Managing Director is Sanjeev Kaushal.
The concentration of PM
The concentration of PM for thermal power plant should have been maximum of 150 mg per Nm3 (Nm3 is a measure of volume, normal cubic metre, under specific conditions of temperature and pressure), as prescribed by MoEF in May 1993. However, it was found in the audit scrutiny that the PM level of stack emission of units I to IV was higher than the prescribed limit since June 2006 (except in units I and II during August 2006 and for unit II during March 2008) which ranged between 157 and 1276 mg and was the highest at 570 mg in units I and II during April 2007 and 1276 mg in units II and IV in January 2007.
In October 2007, Central Electricity Authority had communicated to authorities its concern over excessive PM level in the stack emission and advised the company to initiate remedial measures to bring down the PM level at stack to or below the prescribed norm
The CAG audit report for the year ending March 31, 2008 also notes that the PM level had not been brought under control till March 2008 and even to this finding the response of authorities in August 2008 was identical, “Unit I is under renovation and modernisation and efforts are being made to bring down the PM level of units III and IV”.
The use of present continuous tense in the language of these replies – ‘being made’, ‘being introduced’ – is a giveaway, in the light of the CAG findings. The plant managers have failed to keep pollution under legally enforceable prescribed limits.
Dumps of mill reject coal not disposed
But this is not all. The CAG audit notes that representatives of MoEF, Chandigarh and CPCB, Kanpur during their visit in October 2007 had observed 10-12 dumps of mill reject coal lying around which caused regular fire hazards and asked plant authorities at HPGC to dispose them. However, not only did authorities failed to dispose those dumps, the mill reject coal had accumulated to 2.04 lakh MT as on March 31, 2008.
Not only this, CAG report shockingly notes that mill reject coal was even used for generation at times!
To this observation, plant management replied in August 2008 stating that sale order for disposal of mill reject coal of unit V had been issued and for disposal in remaining units, tenders had been floated. However, this audit findings leaves one wondering whether representatives of MoEF, Chandigarh and CPCB, Kanpur during their visit in October 2007 looked into the SPM level in ambient air and PM level in the stack emission and had there been any follow up on their observation and advise on the matter of disposal of mill reject coal between October 2007 and March 2008.
Similarly, one wonders whether CEA followed up on what action was taken up by plant authorities after its communication in October 2007.
Abysmally poor record on disposal of fly ash
MoEF had notified in September 1999 that brick kilns within a radius of 50 kms around thermal power plant (by a revision in August 2003 this was enhanced to 100 kms radius) would use at least 25 per cent of coal ash on weight to weight basis and thermal power plants were asked to submit an action plan to the Central/State Pollution Control Board and regional office of MoEF by March 2000 for full utilisation of the ash within a period of nine years. Audit scrutiny found that the said report has not been submitted as of March 2008. Audit of the records of ash produced and disposed during 2003-’08 revealed that the disposal of ash ranged from 1.80 per cent to 11.26 per cent indicating lack of efforts by the authorities.
To this observation, management replied in August 2008 stating that dry fly ash evacuation system was in the process of installation. Again, note the use if the language ‘in the process of’.
Merely 40 per cent plantation in ‘green belt’
MoEF had asked the authorities in August 2002 to develop green belt on 44 hectares of land. The audit scrutiny revealed that it took the company 20 months to come out with a scheme of development of green belt [May 2004] in next three year getting 153 thousand [1.53 lakh] trees planted and raised by forest department by spending Rs.1.59 crores. Although the estimated cost was revised to Rs 1.95 crore subsequently, the forest dept could plant just 61,245 trees upto August 2007, there by submitting utilisation certificates for Rs.1.01 crores, as against the advance worth Rs.1.10 crores released to it by the company.
Thus, even after the expiry of three years, the plantation coverage stood only at 40.03 percent. The audit report doesn’t give details on field visit observation of the said green belt and survival rates of plantation.
Let us go back to what the one-year-old news item ended with. It had stated, “Fed up with lackadaisical attitude of Haryana government and the district administration to the problem, the villagers have formed a Gaon Sudhar Samiti to fight a legal battle in the Punjab and Haryana High Court”. It is not clear whether a legal petition has been filed in courts, but can one hope that the judiciary will take suo moto cognizance of this indictment of Panipat thermal power plant.
A year later, in February 2009, the latest Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit report that contains a detailed performance audit of the plant. It records how Panipat Thermal power station failed to monitor pollution levels and failed to ensure compliance of norms. Scrutiny of the records of Panipat Thermal power station with regard to environmental safeguards and pollution control and monitoring found a plethora of issues:
- Deficiency in keeping the concentration of Suspended Particulate Matter [SPM] and Particulate Matter [PM] under the prescribed limit.- Failure in disposal of 10-12 dumps of mill reject coal that caused frequent fire hazards, an abysmally poor disposal of fly ash produced during 2003-’08 even after lapse of more than eight years. - Failed to develop green belt by the extent of 60 per cent compared to what it committed and targeted for.
The concentration of SPM in ambient air
The concentration of SPM in ambient air, as prescribed by Ministry of Environment and Forests [MoEF] in April 1996 should have been maximum of 500 micrograms per cubic metre. However, the scrutiny of records found that during October 2006 to March 2007 – except during March and July 2007 – concentration of SPM ranged between 600 to 1494 micrograms per cubic metre.
The CAG has indicted the company for having failed to take effective measures to control the concentration of SPM. This could be done by regular tuning of electrostatic precipitators, proper stacking of crushed coal, proper dumping/disposal of mill rejected coal and making sprinklers functional in coal handling areas.
Further the audit scrutiny noticed that the authorities had failed to provide online monitoring system to record SPM levels in Units I to V. The online monitoring system provided in unit VI was not in working condition and the company was getting monitoring done through outsourcing on a year to year basis, although to provide online monitoring system to record SPM levels is mandatory for thermal power station as per existing environmental governance under Environment Protection Act, 1986.
After this deficiency was pointed out by CAG auditors, the HPGC management responded in August 2008 with this: “..efforts are being made to control the concentration of SPM in ambient air and online monitoring system is being introduced”. HPGC's chairman is Ashok Lavasa, and Managing Director is Sanjeev Kaushal.
The concentration of PM
The concentration of PM for thermal power plant should have been maximum of 150 mg per Nm3 (Nm3 is a measure of volume, normal cubic metre, under specific conditions of temperature and pressure), as prescribed by MoEF in May 1993. However, it was found in the audit scrutiny that the PM level of stack emission of units I to IV was higher than the prescribed limit since June 2006 (except in units I and II during August 2006 and for unit II during March 2008) which ranged between 157 and 1276 mg and was the highest at 570 mg in units I and II during April 2007 and 1276 mg in units II and IV in January 2007.
In October 2007, Central Electricity Authority had communicated to authorities its concern over excessive PM level in the stack emission and advised the company to initiate remedial measures to bring down the PM level at stack to or below the prescribed norm
The CAG audit report for the year ending March 31, 2008 also notes that the PM level had not been brought under control till March 2008 and even to this finding the response of authorities in August 2008 was identical, “Unit I is under renovation and modernisation and efforts are being made to bring down the PM level of units III and IV”.
The use of present continuous tense in the language of these replies – ‘being made’, ‘being introduced’ – is a giveaway, in the light of the CAG findings. The plant managers have failed to keep pollution under legally enforceable prescribed limits.
Dumps of mill reject coal not disposed
But this is not all. The CAG audit notes that representatives of MoEF, Chandigarh and CPCB, Kanpur during their visit in October 2007 had observed 10-12 dumps of mill reject coal lying around which caused regular fire hazards and asked plant authorities at HPGC to dispose them. However, not only did authorities failed to dispose those dumps, the mill reject coal had accumulated to 2.04 lakh MT as on March 31, 2008.
Not only this, CAG report shockingly notes that mill reject coal was even used for generation at times!
To this observation, plant management replied in August 2008 stating that sale order for disposal of mill reject coal of unit V had been issued and for disposal in remaining units, tenders had been floated. However, this audit findings leaves one wondering whether representatives of MoEF, Chandigarh and CPCB, Kanpur during their visit in October 2007 looked into the SPM level in ambient air and PM level in the stack emission and had there been any follow up on their observation and advise on the matter of disposal of mill reject coal between October 2007 and March 2008.
Similarly, one wonders whether CEA followed up on what action was taken up by plant authorities after its communication in October 2007.
Abysmally poor record on disposal of fly ash
MoEF had notified in September 1999 that brick kilns within a radius of 50 kms around thermal power plant (by a revision in August 2003 this was enhanced to 100 kms radius) would use at least 25 per cent of coal ash on weight to weight basis and thermal power plants were asked to submit an action plan to the Central/State Pollution Control Board and regional office of MoEF by March 2000 for full utilisation of the ash within a period of nine years. Audit scrutiny found that the said report has not been submitted as of March 2008. Audit of the records of ash produced and disposed during 2003-’08 revealed that the disposal of ash ranged from 1.80 per cent to 11.26 per cent indicating lack of efforts by the authorities.
To this observation, management replied in August 2008 stating that dry fly ash evacuation system was in the process of installation. Again, note the use if the language ‘in the process of’.
Merely 40 per cent plantation in ‘green belt’
MoEF had asked the authorities in August 2002 to develop green belt on 44 hectares of land. The audit scrutiny revealed that it took the company 20 months to come out with a scheme of development of green belt [May 2004] in next three year getting 153 thousand [1.53 lakh] trees planted and raised by forest department by spending Rs.1.59 crores. Although the estimated cost was revised to Rs 1.95 crore subsequently, the forest dept could plant just 61,245 trees upto August 2007, there by submitting utilisation certificates for Rs.1.01 crores, as against the advance worth Rs.1.10 crores released to it by the company.
Thus, even after the expiry of three years, the plantation coverage stood only at 40.03 percent. The audit report doesn’t give details on field visit observation of the said green belt and survival rates of plantation.
Let us go back to what the one-year-old news item ended with. It had stated, “Fed up with lackadaisical attitude of Haryana government and the district administration to the problem, the villagers have formed a Gaon Sudhar Samiti to fight a legal battle in the Punjab and Haryana High Court”. It is not clear whether a legal petition has been filed in courts, but can one hope that the judiciary will take suo moto cognizance of this indictment of Panipat thermal power plant.
Cancer crisis, Punjab officials fiddling
A high powered committee constituted by Punjab Government on the issue of pesticides and health was scheduled to meet on 19 September at Chandigarh. The committee was to meet to take a decision regarding the high incidence of cancer and its relation with pesticides and traces of pesticides in found in human blood in Punjab. The Chief Minister, Capt. Amarinder Singh, is the chairman of this committee. The meeting was postponed to 28 September.
The committee came into being in June this year after New Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment brought out its report on abnormally high traces of pesticides in blood samples taken from villages of Talwandi Sabo block of Bathinda district. Also, an earlier study conducted by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, and sponsored by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) showed that the same villages were recording abnormally high numbers of cancer patients. The PPCB-PGIMER study concluded that pesticides used and detected in the Malwa region could be one of the main reasons for the high incidence of cancer there. The study itself was initiated on the personal interest of the Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, about two years back.
Apart from the state's Health Minister and Health Secretary, other members of the committee include Dr S S Johl, Vice Chairman, Punjab State Planning Board, Dr G S Kalkat, Chairman Punjab State Farmers Commission, Dr T P Rajinderan, Assistant Director General of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).
The postponement of the 19 September meeting is the continuation of a series. The committee has had no meeting since its inception. It's notification was issued on June 27 and the first meeting was fixed for 22 July, but this was then postponed to August. Again the meeting was postponed to 19 September, then again to the 20th, and now for the 28th. Clearly the committee does not have time to look into crisis of environmental health in Punjab.
Underlying this is a deeper cause of concern. The Health and Family Welfare Department and some experts from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) have taken virtually a pro-pesticides stance. Soon after the CSE's results were released, a new study emerged in July from the health department which disputed the findings of the CSE study. On 25 July 2005, in a meeting of the expert group held at PGIMER, Chandigarh, the department declared that no pesticides were found in blood samples of their own survey. The department claimed it had procured 235 blood samples and tested for at least four groups of pesticides. It also appears that health department tried to create confusion about the PPCB-PGIMER study by saying that its sample size is not adequate, when the latter study had surveyed a population of 183,243.
Ironically, the same department was part of whole process during the original PPCB-PGIMER study. This study was a scientifically planned (and executed) cancer-prevalence epidemiological study in selected high pesticide-exposure geographic areas of Punjab. It's results are a clear indicator of the grave situation Punjab has fallen into. The study was reviewed periodically by a expert group which include eminent scientists. It was accepted by this group before being made public. Even a representative of the heath department had signed the report. The findings became a consensus document binding on all, including state's health department.
But the health department took a u-turn in July. The department has gone to the extent of questioning the findings of Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow (a CSIR institute, which is the nodal centre for the UNEP sponsored Regionally-Based Assessment of Persistent Toxic Substances and also the nodal centre for the National Implementation Plan for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants) and the Quality Control Laboratory for Processed Food, Department of Post Harvest Technology, PAU, which had done laboratory tests on behalf of PGIMER.
It is also important to note that within five days of the CSE report, the officials of the state government's Patiala laboratory had gone to the press claiming "No pesticides in human blood, urine and vegetables". The CSE study was released on 7 June 2005. By 12 June, the Chief Chemical Examiner had made his counter claim that was reported in the print media on 13 June. On the very same day the State Chemical Examiner released press statement from Chandigarh, the chairman of Agro-Chemical Promotion Group Mr Salil Singhal had also addressed a press conference refuting the CSE study's findings.
Many questions raised remain unanswered about the Patiala laboratory's counter study. First, it was done very secretively. According to the department, they study had covered four districts - Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot and Muktsar comprising of nearly 1000 habitats and villages beside towns in just three days! It is not clear what methodology was adopted for this survey. The study methodology and results were not revealed even in the expert group meeting held at PGIMER in Chandigarh on 25 July.
Other questions: From where did they collect their samples? Did they take samples from farmers, their families and farm workers or others who had long term occupational exposure? What tests were carried out and what was the protocol followed? What instruments and equipments were used? Do they have an accredited lab for pesticide residual analysis? From available information, it is doubtful whether the Patiala laboratory is capable of undertaking this exercise. Every epidemiological study has a requisite protocol to be followed and a scientific methodology to be adopted. What systems were followed in the study? What was the study design? What was the implementation mechanism? What was the time frame? Who was the Principal Investigator?
To these and other questions, the Director of Health & Family Welfare has not given an answer. It is clear that there were no proper surveys undertaken. In the meantime, if no further postponements happen, the high powered committee chaired by the Chief Minister is scheduled to meet 28 September.
The committee came into being in June this year after New Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment brought out its report on abnormally high traces of pesticides in blood samples taken from villages of Talwandi Sabo block of Bathinda district. Also, an earlier study conducted by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, and sponsored by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) showed that the same villages were recording abnormally high numbers of cancer patients. The PPCB-PGIMER study concluded that pesticides used and detected in the Malwa region could be one of the main reasons for the high incidence of cancer there. The study itself was initiated on the personal interest of the Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, about two years back.
Apart from the state's Health Minister and Health Secretary, other members of the committee include Dr S S Johl, Vice Chairman, Punjab State Planning Board, Dr G S Kalkat, Chairman Punjab State Farmers Commission, Dr T P Rajinderan, Assistant Director General of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).
The postponement of the 19 September meeting is the continuation of a series. The committee has had no meeting since its inception. It's notification was issued on June 27 and the first meeting was fixed for 22 July, but this was then postponed to August. Again the meeting was postponed to 19 September, then again to the 20th, and now for the 28th. Clearly the committee does not have time to look into crisis of environmental health in Punjab.
Underlying this is a deeper cause of concern. The Health and Family Welfare Department and some experts from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) have taken virtually a pro-pesticides stance. Soon after the CSE's results were released, a new study emerged in July from the health department which disputed the findings of the CSE study. On 25 July 2005, in a meeting of the expert group held at PGIMER, Chandigarh, the department declared that no pesticides were found in blood samples of their own survey. The department claimed it had procured 235 blood samples and tested for at least four groups of pesticides. It also appears that health department tried to create confusion about the PPCB-PGIMER study by saying that its sample size is not adequate, when the latter study had surveyed a population of 183,243.
Ironically, the same department was part of whole process during the original PPCB-PGIMER study. This study was a scientifically planned (and executed) cancer-prevalence epidemiological study in selected high pesticide-exposure geographic areas of Punjab. It's results are a clear indicator of the grave situation Punjab has fallen into. The study was reviewed periodically by a expert group which include eminent scientists. It was accepted by this group before being made public. Even a representative of the heath department had signed the report. The findings became a consensus document binding on all, including state's health department.
But the health department took a u-turn in July. The department has gone to the extent of questioning the findings of Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow (a CSIR institute, which is the nodal centre for the UNEP sponsored Regionally-Based Assessment of Persistent Toxic Substances and also the nodal centre for the National Implementation Plan for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants) and the Quality Control Laboratory for Processed Food, Department of Post Harvest Technology, PAU, which had done laboratory tests on behalf of PGIMER.
It is also important to note that within five days of the CSE report, the officials of the state government's Patiala laboratory had gone to the press claiming "No pesticides in human blood, urine and vegetables". The CSE study was released on 7 June 2005. By 12 June, the Chief Chemical Examiner had made his counter claim that was reported in the print media on 13 June. On the very same day the State Chemical Examiner released press statement from Chandigarh, the chairman of Agro-Chemical Promotion Group Mr Salil Singhal had also addressed a press conference refuting the CSE study's findings.
Many questions raised remain unanswered about the Patiala laboratory's counter study. First, it was done very secretively. According to the department, they study had covered four districts - Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot and Muktsar comprising of nearly 1000 habitats and villages beside towns in just three days! It is not clear what methodology was adopted for this survey. The study methodology and results were not revealed even in the expert group meeting held at PGIMER in Chandigarh on 25 July.
Other questions: From where did they collect their samples? Did they take samples from farmers, their families and farm workers or others who had long term occupational exposure? What tests were carried out and what was the protocol followed? What instruments and equipments were used? Do they have an accredited lab for pesticide residual analysis? From available information, it is doubtful whether the Patiala laboratory is capable of undertaking this exercise. Every epidemiological study has a requisite protocol to be followed and a scientific methodology to be adopted. What systems were followed in the study? What was the study design? What was the implementation mechanism? What was the time frame? Who was the Principal Investigator?
To these and other questions, the Director of Health & Family Welfare has not given an answer. It is clear that there were no proper surveys undertaken. In the meantime, if no further postponements happen, the high powered committee chaired by the Chief Minister is scheduled to meet 28 September.
Industrial safety concerns in the ship breaking industry / Alang-India
part of an Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan, it is necessary to review safety and related issues at the Alang and Sosia Ship Breaking Yard (ASSBY). ASSBY is located on the coast of Bhavnagar district and in the Gulf of Cambay, a distance of 56 km south from Bhavnagar city. This place has the best continental shelf available for ship breaking in the whole of Asia. At the same time, it is known for the highest tidal level (10 meters) in the country. The vast expanse of intertidal zone gets exposed during ebb tide which makes it convenient for ship breaking activity, whereas the high tide makes it possible to accommodate big ships. The first ship breaking activity started in 1983 at Alang. Today ASSBY boasts the biggest ship breaking yard in whole of Asia with 182 plots carrying on this activity year round. Last year, ships worth 3.2 million tones were broken in this yard. With the facilitating measures in the central budget, the ship breaking activity has the potential to achieve more tonnage.
THE IMPACT OF THE ALANG AND SOSIA SHIP BREAKING YARD (ASSBY): The impact of any project will be different on different groups depending upon the way their lives and interests are affected by the project. Their attitudes towards the project are shaped in response to the way the project affects them. There are basically four interest groups involved in the ship breaking activity. They are: the Government of Gujarat through the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), the ship breaking management, the workers or labourers, and the villagers in the ASSBY area. All four groups are stakeholders. They have immensely benefited from the ship breaking industry. However, the sudden expansion of the ship breaking activity, a lack of trained management and manpower and the unorganised nature of the industry has created some problems also. The problems of safety and the work environment in and around the yard are common for all the four stakeholders.
THE ISSUES: The Gujarat Ecology Commission has carried out a detailed study of ecological restoration at ASSBY. However, without going into the ecological details of the project, three basic issues can be mentioned: 1) issues causing ecological imbalance at Alang and in nearby areas, 2) issues causing impact on nearby villages and village infrastructure, and 3) issues causing concern during ship breaking. The ship breaking activity itself is manual labour intensive and unorganised. It is necessary to bring advanced technology to this industry so that the rate of accidents can be further reduced. The uproar on the Alang situation in the Western media is uncalled for, as the situation at Alang is within control and not beyond repair. What is required is a sustainable coastal zone management approach.
Alang is certainly the best location and neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh can compete with Alang. It is the entrepreneurship of ship breakers which has brought this development. However, if we do not take the necessary steps to solve the problems, we will lose Alang. All concerned parties will have to come together to solve the problems. Integrated coastal zone management is the key word for the development of Gujarat in the 21st century. A time for development of a silver corridor on the coastal belt of Saurashtra, in place of the existing golden corridor, has now come. There will be a lot of development pressures on marine resources, marine transportation, effluent discharge in marine area, and industrial pressures on coastal area. All these things call for an integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) approach. There are four stakeholders so far as ASSBY is concerned: (1) the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) or the Government, (2) ship breakers, (3) workers, and (4) nearby villagers. These four stakeholders have different stakes in the ship breaking activity and they will try to influence the policy and programmes. Hence, an integrated plan could only be evolved after meaningful participation of all four stakeholders. The ship breaking activity as it runs today calls for much improvement. The industry, which is unorganised today, could earn more profit and long term benefit if it were organised on scientific management lines which incorporated a sustainable development philosophy. It is in the interest of ship breakers that they cease to be fair weather friends and become scientific managers. GMB should realise that integrated coastal zone management is a multi disciplinary endeavour. It will have to take help from experts of different disciplines like engineering, marine science, environmental science, sociology and planning. GMB will have to adopt a less rigid stance and call for participation of all these experts.
There are around 24,000 direct workers and some 11,000 to 12,000 workers in allied activities in the ASSBY area. Out of around 35,000 workers, according to one survey, only 0.55% belong to Gujarat. It means that more than 99 percent of the workers are from other states. They are mainly from three states, Orissa, U.P. and Bihar. They are mainly from backward and drought prone regions of those states. This means that this is a migrant labour force. The Interstate Migrant Workman Act will have to be applied here. If this Act is applied, most of the problems of working and living conditions can be solved, because the ISMW Act mentions accommodation, medical facilities and even travelling allowances. Wages are not a problem for these workers, but the working living conditions are hazardous and inhuman.
So far as safety aspects are concerned, no standards are observed either by workers or by plot management. Out of 361 workers, according to the survey, 14 (3.88%) workers reported accidents, 11 workers (3.05%) sustained burns and 14 workers (3.88%) reported injuries. Ten workers (2.77%) wear helmets, only one worker reported having gloves, two workers reported having shoes and three workers reported having welding glasses.
Ship breaking labour is a semi-technical task. The survey mentions that 32 workers (8.62%) reported that they received some informal training, while the rest of them are untrained. Working hours are not decided. More than 50 percent of the workers reported that they work for between 8 and 12 hours. The state of industrial safety is found to be very poor as only a few plot owners provide safety equipment such as shoes, glasses, gloves etc. The nozzles of gas cylinders create accidents due to heat and explosion. The oil remaining in fuel tankers also is a major cause of accidents. Fire accidents take place many times. As of today, the ship breaking industry falls under the Factory Act and they have to follow Factory Act rules. There are various rules covering safety provisions mentioned in Factory Act and they should be followed religiously. However, what is more important is the development of a safety conscious mind set or culture for the ship breaking activity. All concerned stakeholders will have to come together to evolve such a safety conscious mind set.
THE IMPACT OF THE ALANG AND SOSIA SHIP BREAKING YARD (ASSBY): The impact of any project will be different on different groups depending upon the way their lives and interests are affected by the project. Their attitudes towards the project are shaped in response to the way the project affects them. There are basically four interest groups involved in the ship breaking activity. They are: the Government of Gujarat through the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), the ship breaking management, the workers or labourers, and the villagers in the ASSBY area. All four groups are stakeholders. They have immensely benefited from the ship breaking industry. However, the sudden expansion of the ship breaking activity, a lack of trained management and manpower and the unorganised nature of the industry has created some problems also. The problems of safety and the work environment in and around the yard are common for all the four stakeholders.
THE ISSUES: The Gujarat Ecology Commission has carried out a detailed study of ecological restoration at ASSBY. However, without going into the ecological details of the project, three basic issues can be mentioned: 1) issues causing ecological imbalance at Alang and in nearby areas, 2) issues causing impact on nearby villages and village infrastructure, and 3) issues causing concern during ship breaking. The ship breaking activity itself is manual labour intensive and unorganised. It is necessary to bring advanced technology to this industry so that the rate of accidents can be further reduced. The uproar on the Alang situation in the Western media is uncalled for, as the situation at Alang is within control and not beyond repair. What is required is a sustainable coastal zone management approach.
Alang is certainly the best location and neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh can compete with Alang. It is the entrepreneurship of ship breakers which has brought this development. However, if we do not take the necessary steps to solve the problems, we will lose Alang. All concerned parties will have to come together to solve the problems. Integrated coastal zone management is the key word for the development of Gujarat in the 21st century. A time for development of a silver corridor on the coastal belt of Saurashtra, in place of the existing golden corridor, has now come. There will be a lot of development pressures on marine resources, marine transportation, effluent discharge in marine area, and industrial pressures on coastal area. All these things call for an integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) approach. There are four stakeholders so far as ASSBY is concerned: (1) the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) or the Government, (2) ship breakers, (3) workers, and (4) nearby villagers. These four stakeholders have different stakes in the ship breaking activity and they will try to influence the policy and programmes. Hence, an integrated plan could only be evolved after meaningful participation of all four stakeholders. The ship breaking activity as it runs today calls for much improvement. The industry, which is unorganised today, could earn more profit and long term benefit if it were organised on scientific management lines which incorporated a sustainable development philosophy. It is in the interest of ship breakers that they cease to be fair weather friends and become scientific managers. GMB should realise that integrated coastal zone management is a multi disciplinary endeavour. It will have to take help from experts of different disciplines like engineering, marine science, environmental science, sociology and planning. GMB will have to adopt a less rigid stance and call for participation of all these experts.
There are around 24,000 direct workers and some 11,000 to 12,000 workers in allied activities in the ASSBY area. Out of around 35,000 workers, according to one survey, only 0.55% belong to Gujarat. It means that more than 99 percent of the workers are from other states. They are mainly from three states, Orissa, U.P. and Bihar. They are mainly from backward and drought prone regions of those states. This means that this is a migrant labour force. The Interstate Migrant Workman Act will have to be applied here. If this Act is applied, most of the problems of working and living conditions can be solved, because the ISMW Act mentions accommodation, medical facilities and even travelling allowances. Wages are not a problem for these workers, but the working living conditions are hazardous and inhuman.
So far as safety aspects are concerned, no standards are observed either by workers or by plot management. Out of 361 workers, according to the survey, 14 (3.88%) workers reported accidents, 11 workers (3.05%) sustained burns and 14 workers (3.88%) reported injuries. Ten workers (2.77%) wear helmets, only one worker reported having gloves, two workers reported having shoes and three workers reported having welding glasses.
Ship breaking labour is a semi-technical task. The survey mentions that 32 workers (8.62%) reported that they received some informal training, while the rest of them are untrained. Working hours are not decided. More than 50 percent of the workers reported that they work for between 8 and 12 hours. The state of industrial safety is found to be very poor as only a few plot owners provide safety equipment such as shoes, glasses, gloves etc. The nozzles of gas cylinders create accidents due to heat and explosion. The oil remaining in fuel tankers also is a major cause of accidents. Fire accidents take place many times. As of today, the ship breaking industry falls under the Factory Act and they have to follow Factory Act rules. There are various rules covering safety provisions mentioned in Factory Act and they should be followed religiously. However, what is more important is the development of a safety conscious mind set or culture for the ship breaking activity. All concerned stakeholders will have to come together to evolve such a safety conscious mind set.
World's oldest construction material, bamboo, now adorns the latest computing technology
ASUS Technology (India) today announced the launch of its much awaited eco-friendly Bamboo Series Notebook in India. The Bamboo series Notebooks are exquisitely designed with real bamboo to give a personalized and exclusive feel to each notebook. The end-to-end eco-friendly Bamboo Notebook is a revolutionary innovation in Green Computing. It is ‘green’ throughout its life cycle – from its conception, production to its recycling and disposal. It totally complies with RoHS* and WEEE Standard and in fact it exceeds the benchmarks of these standards.
ASUS is the first company to come up with a revolutionary concept of using bamboo casing for Notebooks. The Bamboo Series notebooks are ultimate celebration of the versatility of bamboo combined with the most advanced computing technology. It is an extremely fashionable Notebook with exquisite craftsmanship design that exudes unique and personalized user experience.
Stanley Wu, Country Manager for Notebook business, ASUS India, said, “The launch of Bamboo Series Notebook will usher in a new era of green computing. It will mark a paradigm shift in the way computers are used and manufactured. With the ever increasing concern over global warming and the ecological imbalance, we find it necessary to innovate products that are not only eco-friendly but also commercially viable.”
The ASUS Bamboo Series Notebook uses Super Hybrid Engine that reduces the yearly CO2 emission by 12.3kg per notebook. Given that ASUS ships approximately 6 million notebooks per year, this works out to a massive 73.8 million kilograms of CO2 emission reduced per year, which equates to saving 36 million trees annually.
About ASUS Bamboo Series Notebook:
The ASUS Bamboo Series notebook: A Seamless Marriage of Art and Engineering
The first thing about the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook that commands immediate and unfailing attention is its artisan-grade Moso bamboo paneling, which is crafted with the precision and care typically associated with bamboo instruments and arts and crafts. The organic tactility, refreshing scent and minimalist aesthetics of bamboo lend the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook an arresting aura of spirituality, warmth and old world charm that synthetic material and cold, impersonal metals will struggle to replicate. With every touch, users will be able to feel the difference – the bamboo gives an instant sense of familiarity, just like the sensation one would get from running one’s fingertips across furniture. The sensation of being close to nature is even conveyed when users use the touch pad. The genuine bamboo fiber patterns on the touch pad create the sensation of touching live bamboo. Furthermore – like any piece of original art – every ASUS Bamboo Series notebook is unique, each with its own natural patterning that is brought out beautifully by ASUS’ proprietary manufacturing process. The air of individuality of each piece can be further enhanced by several treatments that yield different colors, or by laser etching distinctive designs onto the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook’s bamboo-clad cover.
ASUS Super Hybrid Engine: A Next Generation Breakthrough in Power Efficiency
All of the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook’s power does not come at the expense of the environment. On the contrary, the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook – as with the new generation of ASUS notebooks released to market from the second half of 2008 – is remarkably energy-efficient, thanks to the implementation of ASUS’ exclusive Super Hybrid Engine technology, which is the product of a comprehensive redesigning of the hardware, software and BIOS on the part of ASUS’ engineers.
The most remarkable breakthrough of Super Hybrid Engine is that it accords users the control they need to obtain their desired level of performance – either improving power efficiency or boosting performance by the same technology core. In terms of power efficiency improvement, Super Hybrid Engine can extend battery life between 35% and 70% as compared to notebooks with the same specifications but without the technology, and yet enable users to boost their systems’ performance by up to 23%. It achieves this by intelligently monitoring the power requirements of the notebook’s components and automatically adjusting the power levels in real-time to match the current consumption needs, thus optimizing both system performance and power efficiency. Users are also given the option of selecting from a number of presets manually to ensure that the notebook conforms to the owner’s usage demands.
Bamboo as an Alternative Material: The Natural Choice
ASUS has achieved international renown for its research into, and inspired use of, biodegradable materials such as leather in its products, but its decision to embrace bamboo is nothing short of ingenious. Through the use of bamboo which has an immense tensile strength that rivals that of many metal alloys, the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook is highly resilient – an attribute proven conclusively by the fact that it is the first notebook to have survived the unforgiving conditions of snow-capped Qomolangma Peak, which stands at a staggering height of 8,848 meters (29,028 feet). Bamboo also has a renewal rate that no other plant can match. It has been known to grow 60cm in just 24 hours, reaching its maximum height in several years. Bamboo is also capable of regenerating itself upon harvesting without necessitating replanting, making it possibly the perfect renewable resource.
It’s Easy Being Green
The crux of the message borne by the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook is that “it’s easy being green”. This message resonates at both the consumer and solution provider strata. For consumers, being green is a simple matter of making smart, environmentally-conscious purchasing decisions. Choosing the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook – or any of ASUS’ notebooks, all of which were designed and manufactured in strict adherence to the same rigorous green policies and standards that governed the development of the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook – over less green alternatives, will help to preserve the Earth in no small measure.
For solution providers, the key to going green entails looking beyond mere legal compliance and proactively inculcating green values among staff. ASUS is the beacon of success for this approach. In relation to the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook for instance, staff spanning the research and development, strategy development, manufacturing, procurement, quality control, sales and marketing and even administrative departments rallied behind a common raft of green principles set by a steering committee headed by the Chairman of ASUSTek Computer Inc., Jonney Shih. This was only made possible by the company-wide green design, manufacturing and procurement systems that ASUS has in place, as well as its considerable investment into green-oriented e-learning platforms and staff education programs.
Bamboo Notebook Specifications:CPU + NB Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8600 -Mobile Intel® PM45 express chipset- Intel® WiFi Link 5100 OS Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Memory NVidia GeForce 9300M GS with TAG RAM up to 1536MB (depends on system memory). HDD DDR2 800MHz, 2 x SODIMM up to 4GB (depends on Vista 64bits readiness)SATA HDD up to 320G/5400rpm, UltraSlim ODD built in 8-in-1 Card Reader,Fingerprint, TPM module. Camera Built-in 1.3M pixel Camera with ASUS SmartLogon & LED light Battery 300 x 220 x 25.3 - 31.6 mm (W x D x H), 6 cell + 3 cell Net Weight 1.57 kg Warranty 2 years global warranty/ 1 year warranty on battery
- End -
ASUS is a leading company in the new digital era. With a global staff of more than ten thousand and a world-class R&D design team, the company’s revenue for 2008 was 8.1 billion U.S. dollars. ASUS ranks among the top 10 IT companies in BusinessWeek’s “InfoTech 100” andhas been on the listing for 11 consecutive years. ASUS was also selected by the Wall Street Journal Asia as No.1 in Quality and ServicesinTaiwan. Its product portfolio includes notebooks, motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, LCD monitors, information appliances, desktop PCs & PC components, servers, wireless solutions, mobile phones, handhelds, digital home solutions, broadband communication products and networking devices
ASUS is the first company to come up with a revolutionary concept of using bamboo casing for Notebooks. The Bamboo Series notebooks are ultimate celebration of the versatility of bamboo combined with the most advanced computing technology. It is an extremely fashionable Notebook with exquisite craftsmanship design that exudes unique and personalized user experience.
Stanley Wu, Country Manager for Notebook business, ASUS India, said, “The launch of Bamboo Series Notebook will usher in a new era of green computing. It will mark a paradigm shift in the way computers are used and manufactured. With the ever increasing concern over global warming and the ecological imbalance, we find it necessary to innovate products that are not only eco-friendly but also commercially viable.”
The ASUS Bamboo Series Notebook uses Super Hybrid Engine that reduces the yearly CO2 emission by 12.3kg per notebook. Given that ASUS ships approximately 6 million notebooks per year, this works out to a massive 73.8 million kilograms of CO2 emission reduced per year, which equates to saving 36 million trees annually.
About ASUS Bamboo Series Notebook:
The ASUS Bamboo Series notebook: A Seamless Marriage of Art and Engineering
The first thing about the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook that commands immediate and unfailing attention is its artisan-grade Moso bamboo paneling, which is crafted with the precision and care typically associated with bamboo instruments and arts and crafts. The organic tactility, refreshing scent and minimalist aesthetics of bamboo lend the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook an arresting aura of spirituality, warmth and old world charm that synthetic material and cold, impersonal metals will struggle to replicate. With every touch, users will be able to feel the difference – the bamboo gives an instant sense of familiarity, just like the sensation one would get from running one’s fingertips across furniture. The sensation of being close to nature is even conveyed when users use the touch pad. The genuine bamboo fiber patterns on the touch pad create the sensation of touching live bamboo. Furthermore – like any piece of original art – every ASUS Bamboo Series notebook is unique, each with its own natural patterning that is brought out beautifully by ASUS’ proprietary manufacturing process. The air of individuality of each piece can be further enhanced by several treatments that yield different colors, or by laser etching distinctive designs onto the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook’s bamboo-clad cover.
ASUS Super Hybrid Engine: A Next Generation Breakthrough in Power Efficiency
All of the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook’s power does not come at the expense of the environment. On the contrary, the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook – as with the new generation of ASUS notebooks released to market from the second half of 2008 – is remarkably energy-efficient, thanks to the implementation of ASUS’ exclusive Super Hybrid Engine technology, which is the product of a comprehensive redesigning of the hardware, software and BIOS on the part of ASUS’ engineers.
The most remarkable breakthrough of Super Hybrid Engine is that it accords users the control they need to obtain their desired level of performance – either improving power efficiency or boosting performance by the same technology core. In terms of power efficiency improvement, Super Hybrid Engine can extend battery life between 35% and 70% as compared to notebooks with the same specifications but without the technology, and yet enable users to boost their systems’ performance by up to 23%. It achieves this by intelligently monitoring the power requirements of the notebook’s components and automatically adjusting the power levels in real-time to match the current consumption needs, thus optimizing both system performance and power efficiency. Users are also given the option of selecting from a number of presets manually to ensure that the notebook conforms to the owner’s usage demands.
Bamboo as an Alternative Material: The Natural Choice
ASUS has achieved international renown for its research into, and inspired use of, biodegradable materials such as leather in its products, but its decision to embrace bamboo is nothing short of ingenious. Through the use of bamboo which has an immense tensile strength that rivals that of many metal alloys, the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook is highly resilient – an attribute proven conclusively by the fact that it is the first notebook to have survived the unforgiving conditions of snow-capped Qomolangma Peak, which stands at a staggering height of 8,848 meters (29,028 feet). Bamboo also has a renewal rate that no other plant can match. It has been known to grow 60cm in just 24 hours, reaching its maximum height in several years. Bamboo is also capable of regenerating itself upon harvesting without necessitating replanting, making it possibly the perfect renewable resource.
It’s Easy Being Green
The crux of the message borne by the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook is that “it’s easy being green”. This message resonates at both the consumer and solution provider strata. For consumers, being green is a simple matter of making smart, environmentally-conscious purchasing decisions. Choosing the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook – or any of ASUS’ notebooks, all of which were designed and manufactured in strict adherence to the same rigorous green policies and standards that governed the development of the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook – over less green alternatives, will help to preserve the Earth in no small measure.
For solution providers, the key to going green entails looking beyond mere legal compliance and proactively inculcating green values among staff. ASUS is the beacon of success for this approach. In relation to the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook for instance, staff spanning the research and development, strategy development, manufacturing, procurement, quality control, sales and marketing and even administrative departments rallied behind a common raft of green principles set by a steering committee headed by the Chairman of ASUSTek Computer Inc., Jonney Shih. This was only made possible by the company-wide green design, manufacturing and procurement systems that ASUS has in place, as well as its considerable investment into green-oriented e-learning platforms and staff education programs.
Bamboo Notebook Specifications:CPU + NB Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8600 -Mobile Intel® PM45 express chipset- Intel® WiFi Link 5100 OS Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Memory NVidia GeForce 9300M GS with TAG RAM up to 1536MB (depends on system memory). HDD DDR2 800MHz, 2 x SODIMM up to 4GB (depends on Vista 64bits readiness)SATA HDD up to 320G/5400rpm, UltraSlim ODD built in 8-in-1 Card Reader,Fingerprint, TPM module. Camera Built-in 1.3M pixel Camera with ASUS SmartLogon & LED light Battery 300 x 220 x 25.3 - 31.6 mm (W x D x H), 6 cell + 3 cell Net Weight 1.57 kg Warranty 2 years global warranty/ 1 year warranty on battery
- End -
ASUS is a leading company in the new digital era. With a global staff of more than ten thousand and a world-class R&D design team, the company’s revenue for 2008 was 8.1 billion U.S. dollars. ASUS ranks among the top 10 IT companies in BusinessWeek’s “InfoTech 100” andhas been on the listing for 11 consecutive years. ASUS was also selected by the Wall Street Journal Asia as No.1 in Quality and ServicesinTaiwan. Its product portfolio includes notebooks, motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, LCD monitors, information appliances, desktop PCs & PC components, servers, wireless solutions, mobile phones, handhelds, digital home solutions, broadband communication products and networking devices
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