Sunday, February 13, 2011

Cold shoulder to Global Warming!!!

It's gladdening to know the there is no dearth of takers for spreading a message about the environment. 


Here we have yet another guest blogger, Shubhra Rishi (http://paperbagwrit-err.blogspot.com/), who has something factual and interesting to tell...



Earth is falling? Ah! Well, for quite some time now. Earth greenhouse has sustained us for millions of years. It’s time it asked for a change. And why not? We humans have polluted the earth’s atmosphere for centuries. Earlier, it was the construction to the degeneration of the earth’s climate – manufacturing vehicles. If we start to discuss the evolution of machines, it would be difficult to press the brakes.

Global Warming has been the talk of the town for years. It is the average rise in the earth’s temperature, which is a result of human activity. The temperature according to the GlobalWarming.org website has risen 1/3rd degree per Fahrenheit per decade.

Before we get down to discuss what’s happening worldwide, lets scribble down some facts about climate change.



  • In the Jurassic Era, CO2 was 2 to 4 times greater than today (NOAA). 




  • During the Ice Age( 125,000 years ago), the Earth also was much warmer than today and the sea level much higher - by about 13 to 20 feet (4 to 6 meters).


If Alaska is feeling the heat, the sun bathing crowd at Florida will suffer a heat stroke. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.

Arctic Ice is disappearing. Glaciers and Snow Mountains are slowly melting. It has also given rise to extreme weather conditions such as forest fires, heat waves and strong tropical storms. Singing the Zephyr song isn’t enough, guys!

So what is Kyoto Protocol? Wiki states that it is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) which aims at fighting global warming. 37 countries have signed this environmental treaty to reduce the usage of four green house gases namely, Carbon DiOxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Sulphur Hexaflouride. Its being successfully implemented is still a mystery.

We still continue to pollute our environment despite repeated reminders. It’s become an interminable habit .Our surrounding, to us, seems like a wide-open space, readily available for exploitation.

The truth is – there isn’t much time left; or, much space left.

Watch out for this SPACE more. Planet times continues to inform.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

A Generous Effort...

Hello people, here's a post by one of our guest bloggers:


He too, says it as he sees it. He's made an attempt to highlight the importance of each and every single and small step that each one can take towards the maintenance of the environment!!!

http://saby-davy.blogspot.com/2011/02/small-effort.html


Sunday, January 30, 2011

Innovative initiatives

Environment, Green Battle, Green Initiatives, Go Green, Save the Earth....slogans like this have become passe....it was one thing being concerned about the environment, other to glamorize it and a completely different ball game making it a fad.

That is when it all went downhill. "Green is the new black" and "Im green, are you?" t-shirts and posters became famous. It did not matter whether you actually did anything to save the environment or atleast not cause any more damage, it was just enough to show off these t-shirts and tags. But only flashing phrases is not enough. Doing all of this is not going to cleanse or conserve the environment.

With an overload of information from every corner possible, people soon got sick of hearing about the amount of pollution in the atmosphere, the number of trees being cut, the depletion of natural resources, it was all over the place.

This was exactly when a change was required. There was a need to think differently to make sure the seriousness got restored.

That is when the 350 campaign came in. A bunch of people took on a new statistic, one that wasn't sold to death and created a world wide revolution.

The 350 in 350 campaign stood for the ideal carbon parts per million that should be there in the atmosphere. Right now it is about 398 parts per million that is fatal for a lot of flora and fauna. The campaign touched upon this statistic and came up with a world wide campaign on 24th October, 2009 to mark the International Day of Climate Action. It turned out to be what CNN called, "the most widespread day of political action in our planet's history."

It was a movement where 181 countries joined hands to perform 5245 actions to create awareness about the ideal parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere.

Some bungee jumped, some got people to paint on canvases and made bags out of them to say ''say no to plastics,'' some created human chains and took aerial pictures to show their support. As an intern at an NGO in Vasco, Goa at the time, I had the opportunity to be a part of the 350 campaign.

Details about the event can be viewed on http://www.350.org/en/october24

There is a dire need for such initiatives. People need a different kind of outlook to the environment and its conservation. And rest assured, after taking part in the campaign, I was party to the reactions people had and the enthusiasm they showed to do something for the environment. There was  a record to be made with the initiative that was taken, in our case, we got 350 metre canvas, put it up outside the Town Hall in Vasco, Goa and got almost everyone who passed by to paint on it, write, or plain scribble. This was then stitched into bags by the girls of my NGO. When the entire canvas was used, stitched into bags and sold for a nominal amount to passer by's, we could inform the officials. They then took pictures and posted it on the 350 campaign website.




Thursday, January 27, 2011

Greenites Love The Little Green Man!


THE LITTLE GREEN MAN




RIVER PRINCESS

From our guest blogger who has politely requested us not to reveal his identity but wants to make a very long point!







Ah Goa! Where you can sit back with a Kings beer, some Butter garlic Kalamari and watch the sunset on a beach, but wait what’s that Ship doing there blocking your view?  The MV River Princess has been a part of the Sinquerim-Candolim beach in Goa since June, 2000. It’s been there so long that the locals have forgotten what the beach looks like without the Ship.
Why haven’t the authorities removed it yet and sent it to Alang where it can finally meet its maker? This is the curious case of the MV River Princess and M/s Salgaoncar Mining Industries Limited.

 Nine companies from around the world have bid to remove the River Princess. Technical tenders received in response to the ninth global tender issued by the state government were opened on Monday, but with time to award the work order running out, the government may an extension from the high court of Bombay at Goa to take a decision.
The companies that have bid to remove the stranded vessel include: Jaisu Shipping Pvt Ltd from Kandla-Gujarat, Sea Reliance from Vasco da Gama, Resolve Salvage and Fire Europe Ltd from UK, Kadar Qureshi from Mumbai, Al Fara General Trading from Bahrain, Salgaocar Mining Industries Pvt Ltd from Goa and Titan Maritime (Sea) Pvt Ltd from Singapore. One Sanjeev Jain from Mumbai submitted a joint bid with Arihant-Shipbreaking, while Madgavkar Salvage has done the same teaming up with Smith Salvage of Singapore.
Confronted with legal action, the Goa government is expected to call for fresh global tenders to remove the River Princess, the bulk carrier that has been grounded off Candolim beach for 10 years.
Two contracts were terminated and eight tenders cancelled in the last nine years highlighting the extent of deliberate bungling within political circles here over the bid to remove the rusting ship.

Salvage experts said it would take at least three years to cut up and clear the remnants of the highly corroded 20,000 tonne vessel from the shore. The government is expected to insist that the job be done from the seaward side to avoid pollution and more damage to the beach. The project will cost the state exchequer over Rs 100 crore.

Through the decade-long saga, no one has talked of imposing costs on the owners of the vessel, the Anil Salgaocar-run Salgaocar Mining Industries Ltd. The vessel was anchored at Panjim outer harbour without insurance and drifted ashore in the June 2000 storm. The company also ignored a government order to refloat the stranded ship within 90 days.

SMIL director Sameer Salgaocar says his firm has “never shirked responsibility over the vessel.” But even after the state government took possession of the River Princess in 2003, the ship’s insides were stripped of all saleable material and massive holes appeared practically overnight in its hull to make refloating impossible. The ship is now seven metres deep in sand.

“The idea was to make sure the vessel would never be refloated, so the government would have little choice but to ask that it be broken down and taken away for scrap,” a salvage expert said. Anil Salgaocar, who is also an independent MLA, has run huge advertisements here in the past few days alleging a scam in the recent tender. He said he is prepared to remove the River Princess for free.

“The catch is, he wants to cut it up on shore and keep the scrap,” a government official said. The scrap, say experts, would fetch over Rs 30 crore. The government has so far ruled out the option of breaking the ship on shore.

A 2008 report by the National Institute of Oceanography said over 1.1 km of the Dando-Sinquerim coast had eroded because the River Princess is blocking the natural sedimentation. The beach had reduced by 14 metres between 2005 and 2006. 
With the stranded River Princess eroding 110 meters of candolim beach in the last eight years, there is a danger of sea making a further entry into land and flooding the villages of Candolim and Nerul in Goa . This issue was discussed during a recent meeting held to examine the status of the River Princess vessel and the problems faced. During the meeting, the report of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Dona Paula was put forward. The report stated that every year about 10 meters of Candolim beach gets eroded due to the stranded River Princess vessel.
It was also urged at the meeting to declare this situation as a ‘State Disaster’ in order to enable the state government with special powers to tackle the problem.

Advocate general (AG), Subodh Kantak, informed the high court of Bombay at Goa that the process of awarding a contract for towing away M V River Princess is in its final stages and a final decision would be taken within this week after convening a meeting of the tender committee. 

The AG told the high court that the bids of two companies had been short listed. 

"The technical bids as well as financial bids have been opened. A meeting of the tender committee would now be convened within this week for the purpose of finalizing the award of contract for towing away the vessel," he said. 

A division bench comprising Justice A S Oka and Justice F M Reis were hearing a public interest litigation ( PIL) filed by the River Princess Hatao Manch complaining about the environmental damage that the stranded vessel had caused to the beach during the course of the past 10 years. The court heard the matter further on July 7.

The River Princess Hatao Manch (RPHM), a group of Sinquerim villagers, on Wednesday threw its hat into the ring for the removal of the grounded M V River Princess.
Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes, an active supporter of the RPHM submitted a letter to the Goa State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) at its meeting on Wednesday evening.
"RPHM has agreed to submit a similar offer to the state government as has Salgaocar Mining Industries Pvt Ltd (SMIPL). We will employ the same methods as SMIPL has stated. In fact, SMIPL has agreed to furnish a bank guarantee of 1 crore, however, RPHM is ready to submit a bank guarantee of 2 crore," Fernandes said, after the meeting concluded.

Earlier in the day, the advisory committee of the GSDMA met and discussed on 'Consent Terms' between SMIPL and the state government. RPHM convenor Fermino Fernandes and the Calangute MLA - both vehemently opposed this move by the government.
"Our offer is similar to that of Salgaocar and we are as competent as he is for the job. In fact, our offer is as risky to the environment as Salgaocar's. We fear that the situation of the grounded vessel will be more of a mess if SMIPL gets the removal job," the Calangute MLA said.
The RPHM, last week, said it will sue SMIPL for recovering damages caused to the properties of Sinquerim residents by the River Princess.
They have also decided to approach the high court in public interest so that government recovers costs incurred so far on protection measures undertaken for the Sinquerim beach as well cost of the ship's removal, if any, from SMIPL as per the Goa Tourist Places (Protection and Maintenance) Act, 2001.
On September 8, the Bombay High Court of Goa directed the state government to commence the ship's removal within two months from the date of the directive.
Around ten days ago, the GSDMA postponed its decision to award the tender for the ship's removal to either Titan Salvage or Madgavkar Salvage, after SMIPL sent a letter to chief minister Digambar Kamat; with sources disclosing that the company had indicated acceptance of the government's terms but still continue its offer to cut up the vessel for free.
IN 2002, River Princess ran aground off Sinquerim beach. At that time our marine firm, Madgavkar Salvage, offered the owners of the ship, M/s. Salgaonkar Mining Industries and the government to salvage the ship within 15 days at the cost of rupees one crore. Unfortunately, the offer was not considered since the owners were not interested and the government said they were leaving it to the owners to settle the matter. Besides, the vessel was not insured and the owners did not want to pay for its salvage.
In 2001, the government floated global tenders for the removal of the grounded vessel and we quoted for the tender, along with an international company called M/s Smit International Pvt. Ltd. Singapore. We both agreed to take the scrap of the wrecked ship as payment for our salvage work. The government awarded the work to Smit International in May 2002 because they quoted three months to complete the work which actually is impossible. We lost the tender because we asked for six months and said we would start work only after the monsoons because salvaging operations cannot be conducted during the rains. Subsequently, Smit International could not start the work immediately as promised and informed the government that they would start after the monsoons - that is in October 2002. The government did not agree to this delay and Smit International forfeited their deposit of Rs 10 lacs.
The government then floated a second tender in 2003 when our company again quoted along with a couple of Indian companies including M/s Smit International. However, M/s Smit International, this time, did not deposit any earnest money for the tender and were disqualified. The government agreed to give us the work if we were agreeable to start work in April 2003 and finish the work before the monsoons giving us just two months, April and May, before the monsoons arrived in June. Since this was an impossible feat, we informed the government that we will start the work in October of that year and complete the work by May 2004. The government didn’t agree to our proposal and instead cancelled the tender. The same farcical process started in 2005 but we refused to submit any further bids.
In 2006, the government again floated a tender and awarded M/s Crosschem International Pvt Ltd UK, who had absolutely no knowledge of marine salvaging. They failed miserably and pilfered important items and machinery from the vessel before their contract was terminated. In 2007, the government again floated a tender for the ship wreckage and, this time, awarded the work contract to M/s Jaisu Shipping Co. Pvt Ltd Gujarat to refloat the vessel. They promised to complete the work within a year. However, even after two years, when nothing was done by the company, the government terminated their contract. M/s Jaisu Shipping went to court and got a stay order stopping the government from terminating their contract and retendering the work. But, the government approached the court and obtained permission to float a tender for this work since they can only award it if the court agrees. But the government has not yet submitted the details to the court and therefore matters are still pending. Meanwhile, the River Princess deteriorated steadily with the onslaught of the sea and wind and developed a large number of holes and gigantic cracks besides destroying a large section of the beach, from Candolim to Sinquerim, eroding the surrounding land mass and causing huge environmental damage.
THE government is now planning to give the job to Singapore-based Company, M/s Titan Salvage as they promised to salvage the vessel by May 2011. They have told the government to dispose off the scrap of the vessel and have only quoted a daily hire basis for their machinery and equipment. They have also not agreed to the ‘no cure no pay’ terms and have not agreed to pay any penalty if they fail to complete the work in the stipulated time period.
Since the tender requires that the contractor disposes off the scrap of the wreck, M/s Titan Salvage should be compelled to abide by the rules and not go scot-free and burden the government with the disposal of scrap which is about 15,000-18,000 tonnes. However, in spite of M/s Titan Salvage’s refusal to comply with the rules of work tender, the government is still keen to award the tender to them. We must know the reason why the government is keen to award them the tender in spite of discrepancies and irregularities.
THE ship has broken up badly that there’s no chance of refloating it, with huge cracks and holes. It has also been mauled by miscreants for the last ten years and affected the delicate ecology of the place. It can only be broken and sold as scrap to scrap yards along the coastal belt; after all approx., 15,000-18,000 tonnes of scrap has to be lugged landwards which will be difficult operation.

Officials from Titan Salvage, Singapore, who have bagged the contract to remove the River Princess, arrived in Goa on Tuesday morning and held discussions with the advisory committee constituted under the Goa State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA). 

The advisory committee, chaired by the chief secretary, put forth a couple of clarifications before the Titan Salvage officials. However, the officials did not commit to the changes in the tender sought by the government, sources said. An official of Titan Salvage said that he would place the matter before his superiors in Singapore as there would be financial implications involved if there are any changes to the tender. 

However, he assured that he would get back to the state government within the next 8-10 days, sources told TOI. The advisory committee also briefed the Titan Salvage official about the current status of the River Princess, to which he replied that the company will undertake a fresh survey of the ship before commencing work. 

Meanwhile, the tourism department on Monday evacuated staff of Jaisu Shipping from the M V River Princess after they called for help, saying they felt unsafe on the ship. 

"They informed us that they felt unsafe on the ship. It may break into two pieces at any time, they said. They also said they have been hearing strange noises," a tourism official told TOI. It may be pointed out here that Jaisu Shipping has obtained a stay from the district court on the termination of its contract and the matter is presently before the high court. 

Tourism director Swapnil Naik said he took no chances and asked the Jaisu staff to submit some form of undertaking that they voluntarily wanted to leave the ship. 

"I asked them to give us a statement that they voluntarily want to disembark from the ship and that we are not forcing them to do so. Accordingly, they have given us a statement on camera. They were eight of them on board," Naik said. 

TOI on Sunday reported that the deck level on the mid-hull of the grounded vessel on Candolim beach has caved in, leaving a gaping hole on the ship's starboard side, raising possibilities that the vessel may further break up.
The case of the M.V. River Princess doesn’t look like it is going to get resolved any time soon, the main concern is if it gets too late then miles of coastline will be lost forever and it will cause irreversible ecological damage

Smoke Away....NOT!


So there i was, sweating in the not so famous Mumbaiya heat, trying to hail a cab and finding my packet of milds in my bag which has just about a million things inside it (I think i once lost an elephant in there.)

On top of that I had ten minutes to make it to class or else I would have to entrap myself in the torturous confines of the (stupid) students lounge...

Got a cab!- check
Got a smoke in my hand!- check
Found a light!- CHECK!

and then..

just as i light that finely rolled, fresh out-of-the-packet cigarette the cab driver looks back at me, almost empathetically and says "Madam taxi me Esmokin ka CHALAN hai ab!"

"what the duce!" i thought, but to my utter disappointment it's true! Since when did cab drivers and passengers want cleaner air (this being one of the reasons behind the ban!)??? What about all that factory smoke in places like Andheri and Bhandup? Will they shut down shop?

Alas! Smoking in cabs can cost you 1200 bucks on the spot! and 300 for the cabbie too! No mercy!

It'll take some getting used to but i guess at the end of the day I'll be cutting almost 50% down on smoking. Yeah ..I loved smoking in cabs...  :-(

Why Crib???


Not that I’m picking on SoBo, but certain characteristics about the town make me raise an eyebrow at the so called elitism of Mumbai (nay… here, it’s apt to say Bombay!) The residential and commercial buildings here may be rock solid, built during the British rule as they were. But the constant dripping and leaking from these buildings that hit your head while you walk below them, take you by surprise.

*assuming the posture of The Thinker*

1 minute ...

3 minutes…

 5 minutes…

Well, I feel ashamed of myself that I haven’t gotten over this phenomenon, despite being a Mumbaiite all my life. My BAD!!! L I mean, even a prisoner in the filthiest environment gradually gets adapted to the stench and filth around him, then why can’t I, a Mumbaiite? And what is SO terrible about the city eh?

The garbage dump at select spots?

The clogged drains?

The potholes?

 THAT’S ALL???

(Sigh!) Grow up girl!!!

Just look around. When varied species can feel at home at various public places of this magnanimous city, when rats and rodents can live here, in the island city – capital of Maharashtra :O – then why can’t YOU, a part of the species with superior intellect, be sportive enough to live like a KING in this KINGDOM???

(-- the above question was an open-ended one, the answers to which can be completely subjective --)