Was the Nobel Prize awarded to Dr. Pachauri, or
to IPCC, currently headed by Dr. Pachauri?
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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:28:10 +0530
Subject: [WaterWatch] Environmentalists Critical
of Nobel Prize for R K Pachauri headed IPCC
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Environmentalists Critical of Nobel Prize for R K Pachauri headed IPCC
New Delhi: Global Alliance Against Pollution
expresses surprise at the choice of Dr R K
Pachauri headed UN climate group for Noble Peace
Prize which has proposed solutions like "a major
expansion in nuclear power, use of GM crops to
boost biofuel production, and reliance on
unproven technologies" to mitigate adverse
climate change.
Such solutions have put the group on a collision
course with those who argue that simply
replacing one set of technologies with another
set of technologies won't work. Nuclear reactors
are dangerous and land clearance and chemical
pesticides and fertilisers used to grow fuel
crops can cause huge environmental damage.
Pachauri is also a known supporter of
Interlinking of Rivers project involving massive
land use change-a listed cause of climate change
as per Kyoto Protocol.
It is shocking to note that Pachauri headed The
Energy Research Institute (TERI) is advising the
Government of India to undertake polluting
incineration technology based municipal waste to
energy projects that has failed in US and
Europe. Rationalising the same, he says, "The
stress is on India because we are a developing
nation so we need energy more. But developed
countries shouldn't be pointing fingers at us
because they have done their bit to pollute the
environment. So they should set their own house
in order first." TERI in its study done for
Indian Environment Ministry estimates that
municipal solid waste to energy projects have
the largest potential of around $400,000 every
year.
In fact TERI itself in one of its other studies
on solid waste management in India has pointed
out that the techno-economic feasibility of such
projects is not established. Therefore, their
recommendation to undertake the same is baffling
given the fact that waste incineration is
mentioned in the annexure A of the Protocol as a
source of green house gas emissions. Although by
now it is fairly well known that carbon trade
does not alleviate poverty, Pachauri remains a
votary of this trade in the name of poor.
It must be remembered that Pachauri, an Indian
engineer and an economist had replaced Robert
Watson, a US atmospheric scientist in 2002 as
the Chairman of UN Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. Watson has been the chairman of
IPCC since 1996. Pachauri received 76 votes as a
result of George Bush administration's reported
campaign against Watson who got only 49 votes.
At the behest of fossil fuel lobby, the US
campaign worked on a strategy for Watson's
removal to ensure industry friendly officials at
IPCC. The world's biggest oil company,
Exxon-Mobil among others had proposed this
strategy in liaison with oil producing countries
like Saudi Arabia. His industry friendly
approach manifested itself in all the seminars,
conferences and workshops he organized either as
IPCC or TERI by taking sponsorship from all
those corporations who are known for heinous
corporate crimes. When the Indian Ministry of
Water Resources Resolution dated 24 February,
2003, made him a member of the Task Force on
Interlinking of Rivers project constituted "with
a view to bringing about a consensus among the
states," it became evident that he represents
corporate interest and not the public interest
that has rejected the mega project. A December
2002 resolution of Government of India has
presented it as a panacea of all water problems
that cannot be questioned.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director,
Reliance Industries Limited in his speech
"Transforming India Towards a New Development
Model" on 21st August 2007 said, "We can
converge civil engineering and agriculture to
build a trans-India water resources system. This
can be done by linking rivers on an
unprecedented scale. It can result in adequate
water resources for agriculture, particularly to
put marginal land to productive use and benefit
marginal farmers." He was speaking at the sixth
Darbari Seth Memorial Lecture organized by TERI.
Pachauri, TERI, Ambani and others who support
the ecologically disastrous networking of rivers
project ignore the way it would contribute to
global warming by replumbing of the earth and
rewriting of geography. Among other
environmentally destructive consequences, it is
noteworthy that Prof V. Rajamani of Jawaharlal
Nehru University had brought out consequences of
the proposed project on the South West monsoon.
Unmindful of the fact that one of the major
outcomes of `development' is water-scarcity,
according to Pachauri this mega project would
flood proof and drought proof the country,
improve agriculture through canal irrigation,
provide alternative transport, additional
electricity, higher GDP growth, employment etc.
What he does not pay attention to is that these
projects cause near total removal of suspended
sediment load from the stream flow, which would
otherwise get deposited on land through
flooding. Consequently, irrigation water would
become nutrient depleted and this would
necessitate the extensive use of chemical
fertilizers for agriculture.
Connecting the rivers is an engineer's dream but
Pachauri chooses to remain oblivious of massive
human displacement, disappearance of villages,
water logging of millions of hectares of
agricultural land for the benefit of
contractors, engineers and industrialists.
According to a report of earth scientists, "The
benefits of the monsoon rainfall to the entire
ecology of India as well as to the human-centric
economy need no reiteration. The adverse effects
of reduced run-off to the Bay of Bengal because
of river linkages appear to be real." This
report was co-authored by earth scientists such
as Prof. Rajamani, U. C. Mohanty, Indian
Institute of Technology, New Delhi, R. Ramesh,
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, G. S.
Bhat, P. N. Vinayachandran and D. Sengupta,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India;
Prasanna Kumar, National Institute of
Oceanography, Goa, and R. K. Kolli, Indian
Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and
published in Current Science.
Pachauri and Ministry of Water Resources do not
take into cognizance several ecological and
social consequences. If only little water is
returned to the oceans because of interlinking
of rivers, there are at least two major
consequences. Marine life is deprived of
nutrient supply and marine productivity is
adversely affected. If the monsoon system from
the Bay of Bengal slowly shuts itself off on a
decadal or a century scale in the event of
land-water not reaching the sea, then rivers on
the Indian continent may not exist to sustain
their linkages.
Is it believable that likes of Pachauri, TERI
and Ambani do not know about these grave
ramifications of their megalomania- a
psychopathological condition characterized by
delusional fantasies of wealth, power, genius,
or omnipotence?
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