=================================== Fortnightly News Bulletin (March 2, 2013) ===================================
Hamid Ansari, the Vice President of India, will be the chief guest at the Second Anil Agarwal Dialogue, to be held on the 4th and 5th of this month at New Delhi's India Habitat Centre. These Dialogues, organised by CSE in memory of its founder director Anil Agarwal, are unique -- they are perhaps the only large-scale national conferences in the country which provide the civil society -- the non-government sector -- a platform to discuss and debate contemporary issues of environment and sustainable development with those who run the country: the government. This year's Dialogue has been named 'Excreta Does Matter', and it is bringing together over 150 people from across India -- activists, experts, scientists, entrepreneurs, regulators, lawmakers etc to talk about water and wastewater management in urban India. In essence, we began the discussion on this subject in our Seventh State of India's Environment report -- 'Excreta Matters' -- and this Dialogue, we hope, will take that discussion forward. To know more about it, just visit our website, www.cseindia.org. Also in focus this fortnight is the recent Budget. Web DTE brings you a comprehensive analysis -- environmentally speaking -- of Budget 2013-14. Do check it all out at http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/budget-2013-14-package Down To Earth also investigates an intriguing question in medical science: why do millions of people suffer from Vitamin D deficiency in India, a country which has plenty of sunshine (which is the key source of this vitamin)? Read on for more of what's happening at CSE this fortnight.... ==================================================================== To subscribe to this newsletter, or any of our other newsletters, please click on http://cseindia.my2.in/cseindia/?p=subscribe To unsubscribe from this newsletter, just click http://www.cseindia.org/content/please-enter-your-email-id-unsubscribe-cse-newsletter If you have any questions or concerns about newsletter subscription, please contact Vikas Khanna at vi...@cseindia.org =========================================================== EDITORIAL: Wake up and smell the air by Sunita Narain ====================================================== Our health is not on anybody’s agenda. Or, we just don’t seem to make the connections between the growing burden of disease and the deteriorating condition of our environment. We don’t really believe the science, which tells us each passing day how toxins affect our bodies, leading to high rates of both morbidity and mortality. It is true that it is difficult to establish cause and effect, but we know more than enough to say that air pollution is today a leading cause of both disease and death in India and other parts of South Asia. The Global Burden of Disease is an initiative involving WHO that tracks the causes of disability-adjusted life years lost—the number of productive years lost to diseases—and human death. In other words, it assesses a large number of risk factors responsible for the global burden of disease. Why are we ill? The initiative’s decadal 2010 assessment should make us angry. In South Asia the top cause of disease and death is particulate pollution—inside homes because of the poor quality cook stoves and biomass fuel burnt by poor households, and outside homes because of growing numbers of vehicles and use of dirty diesel fuel. What is more worrying is that ambient and household-level air pollution has a correlation with ischemic heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and lower respiratory infections. According to this assessment, some 627,000 deaths in 2010 are attributable to ambient air pollution alone in India, of which heart disease caused almost 50 per cent deaths and stroke and hypertension another 25 per cent. In all, over 1.6 million deaths happened in India because of indoor and outdoor air pollution in 2010, finds the global assessment. It is not mocking numbers. What is clear is that we have run out of air and time. Rural India suffers badly because it still burns biomass for cooking its food. Commercial fuel is expensive, while kerosene does not reach the very people for whom it is subsidised. There is no option for the poor but to burn leaves, twigs, wood or cow dung in inefficient chulhas in poorly ventilated conditions. Women suffer the highest exposure to toxins, which is equivalent to smoking many cigarettes every day. The answer is to improve the combustion efficiency of the stove, the quality of material being burnt and ventilation. But till date, government programmes—and there have been many—have failed to get this done. As a result, indoor air pollution is the top cause of morbidity and mortality in India. In fact, air does not differentiate between rich and poor; rural and urban. Biomass burnt inside houses also contributes to ambient air pollution; everyone in an airshed is affected. Then pollution takes new forms which makes it difficult for us to find protection even if we are rich and capable. The ground-level ozone is found to be a key pollutant adding to the death burden in South Asia. This is a gas, which is not necessarily found in the most polluted parts of the city. Instead, it drifts away from the source of pollution to greener and less congested regions. Thus, it hits and hurts even where one cannot smell or see pollution. All in all, this is bad news. This is when we know that half of India’s urban population lives in cities where particulate pollution levels exceed the standards considered safe. And as much as one-third of this population breathes air having critical levels of particulate pollution, which is considered to be extremely harmful. We are also running out of “clean” places. Small and big cities are now enjoined in the pain of pollution. Of the 180 cities monitored by different pollution control agencies, only two—unknown cities in Kerala—meet the criteria of low pollution. In other words, they have pollution levels 50 per cent below the standard. Rest have foul air. But we don’t make the connection. Current policies on containing air pollution, particularly in cities, are regressive and border on the criminal. We know that diesel particulates are indicted as known carcinogens. Use of diesel in vehicles needs to be contained. We also know that the price differential between petrol and diesel has pushed up sales of inefficient SUV-type vehicles. This hurts oil companies and kills us, literally. There has been pressure on government, mostly fiscal, to contain the use of diesel in private vehicles. So what does it do? It raises the price of diesel for retail buyers by Rs 0.50 per litre. It also raises the price of diesel for bulk buyers by Rs 10 per litre. What it does not explain is that bulk users of diesel are mainly railways and public-sector bus transport agencies. Therefore, what government does is deliberately hit the more efficient forms of transport, which carry more people using less fuel. It also hits the poor and not the rich who travel in cars. Health is not on the agenda. That is pretty much clear. To post your comments on this editorial online, please visit http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/wake-and-smell-air ========================= MORE FROM DOWN TO EARTH ========================= Cover story: Vitamin D complex When sunlight falls on the skin, it forms an essential nutrient, vitamin D. India, which has an average of 300 clear sunny days in a year, this sunshine vitamin should be available in abundance. However, reports show as many as 80 per cent people in urban India and 70 per cent in rural India are deficient in the vitamin. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/vitamin-d-complex Special Report: Curse of copper After fouling 10 Madhya Pradesh villages with heavy metals and acid, HCL is set to expand its mine http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/curse-copper Special Report: Small fish, big net In the face of a rising demand for fish and a stagnating aquaculture growth, government wakes up to the potential of small fishery http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/small-fish-big-net Special Report: Wasted e-waste Electronic waste is a mine of precious metals, but poor regulations simplify its squandering away http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/wasted-e-waste Special Report: Victim of its success MGNREGA blamed for causing labour shortage; cut in budgetary support likely http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/victim-its-success Crosscurrents: On a wing and a prayer Vulture revival projects give hope http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/wing-and-prayer Interview: Novel Therapy Bimal K Banik, professor of chemistry at College of Science and Mathematics, University of Texas-Pan American in conversation with Vibha Varshney about the anticancer activity of beta-lactam molecules generally used as antibiotics. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/novel-therapy Interview: Energy transition is now a must Edited excerpts of an interview with Marie-Hélène Aubert, adviser to the French president for international negotiations on climate and environment on France’s plans to reduce dependence on nuclear power and explore alternatives. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/energy-transition-now-must Features: Let’s play with mud Using earth to develop modern, sustainable buildings http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/let-s-play-mud Features: Bon appetit with sun Enter the world’s largest solar kitchen http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/bon-appetit-sun Science and Technology: Together is better New algorithm shows how group size affects animals’ response to environmental changes http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/together-better Science and Technology: Betel benefit Compounds in paan leaf can kill several pathogenic bacteria http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/betel-benefit Science and Technology: Pesticide scavenger Modified enzyme neutralises ill-effects of toxic chemicals http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/pesticide-scavenger Science and Technology: Dark secret is out How black fever parasite develops drug resistance http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/dark-secret-out News: Wasteland or wetland? Three panels’ reports later, green tribunal wants re-evaluation of Nirma project site http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/wasteland-or-wetland News: Development handcuffed Confidential audit exposes financial, planning lapses in Andhra’s urban renewal mission http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/development-handcuffed News: Cauvery tribunal award notified Disgruntled Karnataka chief minister writes to prime minister http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/cauvery-tribunal-award-notified News: Drugs pricing policy in limbo Supreme court delays judgement on case that will help fix prices of essential medicines http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/drugs-pricing-policy-limbo Patently Absurd: Testing the CL route Roche’s Herceptin will be a test case for government and generics industry as India readies to issue compulsory licences for life-saving drugs http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/testing-cl-route - Down to Earth on your iPad: For more information and ordering please visit us at: http://www.magzter.com/IN/Society-for-Environmental-Comm/Down-To-Earth/Technology/ - Down to Earth on Google+: Please "+1" at: https://plus.google.com/106293307783638713083 - Down to Earth on Facebook and Twitter: Do follow us, share, comment, and discuss and stay in constant touch with our reporters on: www.facebook.com/down2earthindia and twitter@downtoearthindia. =============================================== Web DTE =============================================== - Blogs: Budget 2013: the path remains the same There is little budget allocation to steer the country towards ecologically sustainable development http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/budget-2013-path-remains-same-0 - Down To Earth readers can now interact with some of India's social innovators. In 'Learning from the Change Makers', they can post questions online. This week, we feature Shashank Kumar and Manish Kumar, two IIT-ians who quit their plum jobs to help farmers make farming profitable. Just log on to http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/learn-change-makers - Photo Gallery: Smoke on the water http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/389/20691/32482 - Blogs: Workers don’t count The recent strike reflects how the workers’ bargaining power has been crushed, and the impotence of the Left to lead them http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/workers-don-t-count - Book review: Genes, Cells and Brains DNA and grey cells http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/dna-and-grey-cells =========================== On India Environment Portal =========================== - Get weekly update from India Environment Portal Subscribe to weekly newsletter from the India Environment Portal for an update on environment and development from the region every week. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/newsletter/india - Editor's Pick Check out Editor's Pick for a selection of top stories on environment http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/editors-pick - Browse and research in your language India Environment Portal is now available in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Urdu and several other languages too. Select the language of your choice, browse and research. - India Environment Portal is on Facebook and Twitter. Do follow, share, comment, and discuss at http://www.facebook.com/pages/indiaenvironmentportal/228015872817 and https://twitter.com/indiaenvportal For more details or any assistance, contact Kiran Pandey at ki...@cseindia.org, kiran...@gmail.com ================================== UPDATES FROM OUR PROGRAMME UNITS ================================== 16th CSE Media Fellowships: Off-grid Renewable Energy April-May 2013 Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) Media Fellowship Programme invites journalists from India writing/reporting in any language to apply for its 16th Media Fellowships to address, analyse and report on the issue of off-grid renewable energy. For details, please get in touch with Sheeba Madan at she...@cseindia.org/08860659190 or visit http://www.cseindia.org/content/16th-cse-media-fellowships-announcement-grid-renewable-energy --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excreta does matter: Second Anil Agarwal Dialogue on water and wastewater management in urban India Date: March 4-5, 2013 New Delhi The Dialogue will deliberate on critical issues on how cities will get affordable and sustainable water and wastewater systems that can supply to all and take back and treat the sewage of all. For more details, kindly contact Nitya Jacob at ni...@cseindia.org / 9810189408 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orientation Workshop on Sustainable Buildings: Panchkula Date: March 14, 2013 Panchkula, Haryana The Orientation Workshop will focus on the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC). For more details, please contact Disha Singh (Research Associate) Email: di...@cseindia.org Mobile: 91-9650584179 Tel: 91-11-40616000 Ext. 250 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CSE’s Regional Media Briefing Workshop on Air Quality, Urban Mobility and Health Date: March 22, 2013 Bengaluru, Karnataka Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is organising a regional media briefing Workshop on ‘Air Quality, Urban Mobility and Health’, which will focus on the recent researches and developments on the three subjects. For details, please get in touch with Sheeba Madan at she...@cseindia.org or 8860659190 or visit http://cseindia.org/content/cse%E2%80%99s-regional-media-briefing-workshop-air-quality-urban-mobility-and-health ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Green Clearance Watch CSE has launched a website which is a public information system that tracks all environment clearances granted/pending with MoEF from 2007 onwards. The website is envisaged keeping in mind the increasing need for enhanced transparency in the environmental and forest clearance regime in India. We would like to invite your comments / view on the website. We would also like your participation to enrich the database and welcome you to share information on projects that has got or is awaiting to get Environmental Clearances. We soon plan to incorporate forest clearances on the website too. Check us out on http://www.greenclearancewatch.org/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainwater Harvesting Technical Support Every Friday between 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, CSE provides detailed technical guidance to interested individuals, RWAs and institutions to implement rainwater harvesting. This technical assistance is provided at CSE’s office at 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi. For details, see http://www.cseindia.org/content/catch-rainwater-solve-your-water-problems ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical Advice: Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Systems Every second and fourth Friday, meet our experts at CSE, 41, Tughlaqabad Institutional Area for guidance on planning and designing these systems. For details, contact Deblina at debl...@cseindia.org or call her on 9899596661. ==================================== The CSE Store ==================================== New books: Catch Water Where It Falls A toolkit for urban rainwater harvesting A comprehensive ready-to-use manual on how to harvest rainwater in a city For details or for placing an order, contact Ramachandran (9810641996 / rchand...@cseindia.org). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reinvent, Recycle, Reuse A toolkit for decentralised wastewater management A comprehensive ready-to-use manual on how to set up decentralised wastewater management systems For details or for placing an order, contact Ramachandran (9810641996 / rchand...@cseindia.org). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Environment Profiles -- Steel Companies of India Profiles of 21 major steel plants, which were involved in CSE's Green Rating Project for the Indian iron and steel sector, are out on the stands now. They contain detailed information on design, technology, operations, pollution control, environment management and stakeholders' perceptions for each plant. For details or for placing an order, contact Ramachandran (9810641996 / rchand...@cseindia.org). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Going Remote and Facing the Sun A set of two reports on the state of the Indian solar power sector. Contains comprehensive analysis of the Solar Mission, and case studies from across the country. To know more and to order, just visit http://csestore.cse.org.in/books/renewable-energy.html ================== About this e-mail ================== You are receiving this newsletter because you have asked to be included in our list, attended a CSE event or requested information. CSE is an independent, public interest organization that was established in 1982 by Anil Agarwal, a pioneer of India's environmental movement. CSE's mandate is to research, communicate and promote sustainable development with equity, participation and democracy. _______________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________