Cement, Energy and Environment

Mr. Frank Mitloehner from the University of California at Davis (UCD) said curbing meat production and consumption would in fact be less beneficial for the climate than has been claimed. "Smarter animal farming, not less farming, will equal less heat," he told delegates at the American Chemical Society (ACS) meeting in San Francisco. "Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries." He pointed out that the report, published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reached the 18 per cent figure by totting up all greenhouse-gas emissions associated with meat production from farm to table, including fertilizer production, land clearance, methane emissions from the animals' digestion, and vehicle use on farms. But the authors had not calculated transport emissions in the same way, instead just using the IPCC's figure, which only included fossil fuel burning, Mr. Mitloehner said. "This lopsided 'analysis' is a classical apples– and-oranges analogy that truly confused the issue," he said. One of the report's authors, FAO livestock policy officer Mr. Pierre Gerber said he accepted Mr. Mitolehner's criticism. "He has a point - we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn't do the same thing with transport, he said. FAO is now working on a much more comprehensive analysis of emissions from food production, he said. Courtesy: The Statesman, March 26, 2010, Pt. GOVT RINGS ALARM BELLS ON RISING SEA LEVEL OFF INDIA COAST Thiruvananthapuram, January 5 There is an alarming rise in sea level along the Indian coast since 2004, said Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences. Addressing the Indian Science Congress session on 'Weather, Climate and Environment,' Nayak said the seal-level rise during 2004-08 along the Indian coast was about 9 mm. The global average sea-level rise from 1961 to 2003 was 1.8 mm per year. The annual rate along the Indian coast was faster from 1993 to 2003 and has reached about 3.1 mm a year. He said the average temperature of global oceans had increased, contributing to the sea-level rise. However, the rise in sea waters could not be attributed to global warming alone. Mountain glaciers and snow cover have declined in both hemispheres and their widespread decrease has contributed to the rising sea level, he said. Courtesy: The Indian Express, January 6, 2010, P t . CLIMATE CHANGE WORRIES TEA GROWERS Guwahati, January 5 As climate change is a world-wide concern, the tea industry in Assam too is worried about the damage done to the plantation sector, with Jorhat– based Tocklai Experimental Station (TES) having already made some significant revelations in this respect. While the volume of rainfall in the state has been showing significant variations, TES has gathered data that show a 200 em decrease in rainfall in tea– growing districts. "Decrease in rainfall is definitely a major issue, especially for the perennial crop like tea that is dependent on rainfall . We are, however, yet to reach any conclusion regarding the impact that this change has caused to the plantation industry as a whole," said Mridul Hazarika, Director, TES, which was established in1911 . A study being conducted by TES and partly funded by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) has taken into account rainfall and temperature data of the past 80 years to assess climate change impact on tea industry. "Besides climate change impact, it will also be interesting to find out the exact adaptability character that tea bushes probably have," Hazarika said from Jorhat. The study, which began in late 2008, is expected to be completed in the next two years. Meanwhile, Tea Board Chairman Basudev Banerjee recently said that erratic weather conditions had brought down production marginally down by 10 to 15 million kilos in 2009. Courtesy: Indian Express, January 6, 2010. PB. STATES WARMING UP TO CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUES New Delhi April4, State Governments are warming up to the reality of climate change and have started working on adaptation strategies. Delhi is the first and only State to have prepared a climate change agenda so far. 41