Re-Discovery of the Detached Dart
from Butterflies of Singapore
Magnificent Monitors
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity! and Busting Myths about Monitors
The Spider Temple
from Macro Photography in Singapore
Happy 2011 from Venus Drive
from wonderful creation
Stork-billed kingfisher @ Japanese garden鹳嘴翠鸟
from PurpleMangrove
More mangroves at Kranji in the New Year
from wild shores of singapore
Grace Chua Straits Times 2 Jan 11;
Singapore's transport successes are well known, but its transport system could be greener, with easier access for the old and infirm.
A new study of urban transport in 15 cities, conducted by consulting firm Accenture, came to that conclusion about Singapore and what it terms as fellow 'laboratory' cities, such as Seoul in South Korea.
Such cities already use effective solutions, such as congestion charges and car-pooling incentives, but they can go even further, said Accenture managing partner Lee Won Joon.
He oversaw the Asian segment of the study, which looked at a wide range of cities picked for their different sizes, stages of development and locations.
The study will be used for Accenture projects on urbanisation and intelligent cities - urban centres which use technology to cut energy consumption, become more sustainable and respond faster to residents' needs.
Mr Lee pointed out Singapore's successes in using congestion charges and cutting down the car population with quota schemes, and acknowledged its attempts to beef up its public transport network.
But Singapore's population is burgeoning and commuters' expectations are higher, he said.
The popular sentiment is that roads are crowded with too many cars, while buses are too slow and trains too crowded or infrequent.
Last year, customer satisfaction with public transport fell, according to the annual Customer Satisfaction Index by Singapore Management University's Institute of Service Excellence.
Also, transport should be made more environmentally friendly - not just by cutting back on the number of private cars, but also by improving on public transport.
In Mr Lee's native Seoul, for example, most public buses run on natural gas, whereas many here run on diesel.
National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der Horng supported the use of clean-energy public transport, and suggested that Singapore aim for large scale shared-access electric vehicle (EV) schemes rather than personal EVs.
The MRT Circle Line has already received a Green Mark for Rapid Transit Systems, for its use of braking systems which reuse energy and other measures.
The Green Mark framework will assess the environmental friendliness of MRT lines such as the Downtown Line, the first stage of which is set to open in 2013.
Researchers also felt that transport measures must be properly integrated with urban planning.
For example, the Accenture report noted that parking restrictions in the city centre sometimes cause businesses to move out to the suburbs.
Sometimes this is done as part of a deliberate strategy to develop or rejuvenate an area. For example, the National Development and the Environment and Water Resources ministries will move to the Jurong Gateway area by 2015, along with the agencies under them.
As for park-and-ride schemes, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report in November last year on Asian cities' parking policies pointed out that such facilities were often built in high-density places 'where park-and-ride is unlikely to be a cost-effective use of high-value space near mass transit'.
But in Singapore, many park-and-ride carparks are in residential areas, where they share space with residential carparks that would otherwise be empty in the daytime, the ADB report said.
However, Accenture's Mr Lee suggested that Singapore faces a 'last mile' problem with both commuters and delivery services, exacerbated by its climate.
For example, due to the hot climate, commuters are far more willing to use the MRT train if they do not have to walk too far to the station. Those who live 800m from a station take half of their trips by car on average, whereas those who live less than 200m from the MRT travel by car only a quarter of the time.
But even if transport gets greener and more convenient, said Mr Lee, the question remains: who pays?
Whether the Government finances public transport, or operators bear the cost or pass it on to consumers, there is no easy answer.
Professor Lee from NUS is in favour of government help or incentives for newer or greener buses, such as hybrid buses.
'The Government should take the lead and compose a mechanism to help or subsidise the operators,' he said.
In Hong Kong, the MTR metro network has a novel financing model: it has the rights for developing land next to train stations.
The revenue that it gets from property activities helps to fund its rail infrastructure projects, so the costs are not borne by taxpayers or commuters alone.
Such transit-oriented models should be a key part of urban planning, said researchers like Prof Lee.
When it comes to planning and improving infrastructure, 'public transport should undoubtedly enjoy the highest and clearest priority compared to private modes', he said.
Evelyn Choo Channel NewsAsia 1 Jan 11;
SINGAPORE : Fewer people were caught littering on New Year's Eve compared to the previous year.
National Environment Agency (NEA) officers were on the prowl for litterbugs islandwide. At the end of their blitz on Friday night, 74 littering tickets were issued, down almost 40 per cent from last year's figure of 116.
During NEA's Orchard Road blitz, the first culprit nabbed turned out to be a tourist, who was let off with a warning.
Otherwise, first-time offenders could be fined S$300 for throwing items like sweet wrappers and cigarette butts. Larger items like food wrappers and drink cups warrant a higher penalty of S$1,000, plus a Corrective Work Order.
At the stroke of midnight at Orchard Road, people unleashed spray cans of foam and confetti everywhere. Cleaning companies were given the tight deadline of cleaning the area by Saturday morning.
The NEA said it does not generally take action against those who use party spray cans during festive periods, but asked that the items be disposed of properly.
At the end of the Orchard Road blitz, eight people were caught.
Teh Chun Siong, manager of operations at National Environment Agency, said: "Most people are taking more responsibility not to litter this year; they are continuing to keep the environment clean and green.
"NEA also worked with event organisers to put in more additional workers to keep the place clean and empty bins throughout the event."
With more workers on shift on Friday night, cleaning contractors got busy right after the partying.
Alia Jiffry, public relations officer at Purechem Veolia Environmental Services, said: "(The items included) cans, bottles, tissue paper. But the most challenging for us are the planted areas, because our workers have to go there and dig up all the litter."
By 6am, refuse collected in Orchard Road amounted to 2.8 tonnes, significantly less than the 3.7 tonnes collected last year.
- CNA/ms
After the big party, it's the big clean-up
However, less litter this year for cleaners of New Year countdown mess
Lester Kok Straits Times 3 Jan 11;
FOR many people, the New Year countdown marked not only the close of 2010 but also the end of the night's partying.
For those responsible for cleaning up, however, it was just the start of a hectic working day.
At 2am on Saturday, Orchard Road was strewn with drink cans, disposable cups, cigarette butts, confetti and party poppers.
Just two hours later, almost all the evidence that a party had taken place had vanished as if by magic.
This was not just down to the efficiency of the cleaners.
Partygoers also appeared to have helped by dropping less litter than last year.
In Orchard Road, 2.6 tonnes of rubbish was collected on Saturday, a third less than the 3.67 tonnes collected after the 2009 countdown party.
It was also less than half of the six tonnes collected after the Christmas Eve celebrations two weeks earlier.
Even before the party officially ended at 2am, janitors from Purechem Veolia Environmental Services, the company responsible for keeping Orchard Road spick and span, had already started work.
They picked and swept up litter, emptied and cleaned the bins, and drove sweeper vans to clean the roads.
Cleaners from Veolia were seen cycling around on tricycles with carts of trash bags, cleaning out bins one by one throughout the wee hours.
By 3am, almost all traces of litter were gone, except for a few strands of confetti and the odd party popper.
At 4am, workers with water jets started scouring the last remaining bits of dirt from the streets.
Efficiency is key to a clean Singapore, but the janitors The Straits Times spoke to said having less litter helped too.
The supervisor in charge of housekeeping for Ngee Ann City and its Civic Plaza, who gave his name only as Andrew, was surprised there was much less litter.
'Last year, we had all four rubbish bins (dumpster type) full of rubbish, but this year, we have only half a bin,' said the 26-year-old.
Having more hands also helped.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) worked with event organisers to put in extra workers to clean and empty bins.
While the main party was over by 2am, there was a smaller event going on at *Scape organised for 14- to 25-year-olds.
Named 'Get the Funk Out 2010/2011', it was attended by about 3,000 partygoers and went on until 4am.
When the lights were turned on, confetti whistles and empty drink cans were seen lying on the ground.
However, organisers said it was not that much litter when you consider how many items were handed out.
Miss Althea Lim, project manager from The Youth Empire - a private organisation known for youth-oriented events - said it had earlier given the crowd about 3,000 cans of drink, 6,000 lightsticks, party poppers and whistles.
Miss Lim still felt that 'Singapore has a pretty serious problem on littering', compared to countries such as Australia where people are more civic-minded.
However, the littering problem does seem to be improving.
On Friday night, NEA issued 74 littering tickets in the whole of Singapore - 36 per cent less than the 116 in 2009. At Orchard Road, only eight tickets were issued during the enforcement blitz from 9pm to 11pm.
Mr Wilson Ang, founder of Environmental Challenge Organisation (ECO) Singapore, agreed that people were becoming more conscious of the environment.
He said education efforts such as ECO's Dunk It! Programme and the work of other non-governmental organisations such as WaterWays Watch Society, 'are beginning to pay off', adding: 'You can see people holding on to their trash consciously and placing it in the litter bins around them.'
The Star 1 Jan 11;
LANGKAWI is the only place in the country to spot the Mountain Hawk Eagle and Brown Winged Kingfisher and it is the easiest place in Malaysia to see the Wreathed Hornbill, Great Hornbill and Oriental Pied Hornbill.
Naturist and birding enthusiast Irshad Mobarak said that on Gunung Raya, avid bird watchers were guaranteed to catch a glimpse of the hornbills on any given day.
“There are 10 hornbill species in Kedah,” he said, adding that five years ago, an astonishing 142 Great Hornbills were seen at one location, creating a national record for Langkawi.
He said Langkawi boasted more than 226 species of birds and in the last decade, was popular among bird watchers from Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, England and Scandinavia.
Of the world’s 54 hornbill species, some 20% can be found in Malaysia.
“In Langkawi, you can find low-land forests, mangrove swamps and wetlands within minutes of each other,” he said.
“Because of the diverse landscape, you have myriad birds and creatures.
“That is why it is important for us to conserve Langkawi’s nature — our full tourism potential has yet to be realised.”
Irshad, who has been conducting birding and nature tours for the last 20 years, said mangrove river tours at the Kilim Geo-Forest Park is a “must-do” for nature lovers.
“Two decades ago, I was among the pioneer group who started bird watching tours here. Then, there was only one long tail boat to ferry passengers but now there are more than 100 fibreglass ones zooming past.”
He cited speeding boats as a major threat to the ecology as they caused soil erosion.
There are about 55 mangrove tree species in the world and more than 26 species can be found in Langkawi.
“It’s heartbreaking when the tide is low and you can see how much of the mangrove roots are exposed due to erosion. The carrying capacity for tourists aboard boats must be regulated,” Irshad said.
He said regulations were needed to ensure that boat and tour operators were respectful of nature and mindful of the destruction they could cause.
Irshad said the mangrove river where the Hollywood blockbuster ‘Anna and The King’ was filmed was “the most beautiful coastal river in Malaysia”.
“This is an unbeatable world-class attraction but we need to make it sustainable so the locals will continue to benefit for generations to come,” he said.
“Nowhere else have I seen such a scenic landscape of 450-year-old limestone forests and many diverse plants along one river ride.”
Otters and water monitors are common sightings.
“The Bryde’s Whale and Pink Dolphins in the open sea were sometimes seen back in the day but with the many boats now, they have rarely been spotted,” he said, adding that Langkawi had more than 500 butterflies species.
“We will lose all of these precious attractions if we fail to protect our natural habitat,” he warned.
The dollars and sense of going green
The Star 1 Jan 11;
RUNNING an eco-friendly resort makes “perfect business sense”, an environmentalist and entrepreneur says.
By 2030, businesses that are not green will not be able to survive, The Frangipani Langkawi Resort and Spa owner Anthony Wong said.
“In the next 20 years, our natural resources will be gone and you will be out of business if you don’t practise sustainability,” he said.
“You can make money if you are eco-friendly because tourists these days are willing to pay more to help conserve Mother Nature,” he said.
Wong, who is also the managing director of Asian Overland Services (AOS), a tourism and hospitality group of companies specialising in eco-tourism activities, said it would cost more in the initial stages to run a green hotel but it would be cheaper in the long run.
“Your initial investment may be about 20% more and you’ll need more staff but at the end of the day, the profits justify the effort and you are doing your part to help save the environment,” he explained.
“Langkawi has about 90,000 inhabitants and 2.5 million visitors yearly – the main benefactors are the locals because 90% of the population depends on the tourism industry to survive,” he added.
Recycling and energy-saving are practised at Wong’s resort at Pantai Tengah.
He relies on the wetland system to treat sewage and waste water.
The water treatment system uses plants to turn stinky, dirty sewage into clean water,” he said.
“The first step is to identify the main pollutants in the water which we channel into a pond near the resort.
“Next step is to find the most suitable plants that can soak up the pollutants.
“I took three years to find the perfect combination of plants that could effectively treat the water,” he said.
Wong uses the water mimosa, thalia genicula, water hyacinth, water lily, water vetiver and water spinach at his pond.
Laboratory tests have shown that the treated water from the pond is of grade A quality.
“You can actually drink the water once it goes through the ultraviolet light and water filtering process although we only use the treated water for cleaning and watering the plants.
“At least 45% of the water used at the resort is recycled,” the Kuala Lumpur native said.
He is especially proud of his Zero Waste Eco Farm where ducks and chickens roam and organic vegetables grow.
“Those interested in learning more about how we do things here are welcome,” he said.
Other eco-friendly practices at the resort are worm composting, waste separation, solar heating and using natural sunlight and ventilation for the buildings.
Wong stresses the importance of grease traps.
“We re-use the cooking oil to make soaps and bio-diesel.
“There are old bathtubs everywhere and these are planted with organically grown vegetables and ulam,” he said.
“The frangipani flowers from our trees are dried and used to make tea and keropok (chips).”
Wong said future guests would be intrigued by a toilet made from used bottles next year.
The Star 2 Jan 11;
PETALING JAYA: Shoppers throughout the country will now have to pay 20 sen for each plastic bag when they shop at hypermarkets, supermarkets and Petronas service stations on Saturdays.
The move, which is already in force in Selangor and introduced to reduce the eight billion plastic bags used each year in Malaysia, caught many shoppers by surprise.
Other developments:
> The sum charged will go to a special fund which will benefit the environment and community;
> Shoppers in Penang will have to pay for their bags in these outlets every day; and
> Plastic industry players in Penang have expressed unhappiness, vowing to distribute 30,000 free bags in defiance of the move.
Nationwide green campaign begins at various outlets
Reports by DHARMENDER SINGH, DERRICK VINESH, MANJIT KAUR, MARTIN CARVALHO, SYLVIA LOOI, SHAUN HO, ZALINAH NOORDIN, K. ASHRAF KAMMED and SHARIN SHAIK
The Star 2 Jan 11;
PUTRAJAYA: Starting immediately, all hypermarkets, supermarkets and Petronas stations nationwide will no longer give out free plastic bags on Saturday.
Shoppers who do not bring their own plastic bags or “green bags” will be charged 20 sen for each bag they need from these outlets.
The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry launched yesterday a simultaneous nationwide campaign to encourage more outlets to take part in the effort to reduce the usage of plastic bags.
In a statement, the ministry said it had met with retailers to discuss the effort to minimise the use of plastic bags and more of them were expected to take part in the campaign.
It said money collected from the “sale” of plastic bags would be channelled into a special fund for environment preservation and protection programmes as well as to finance activities for consumers and the community.
Shoppers in Penang, however, will have to pay 20 sen per plastic bag every time they request for it from hypermarkets, chain stores and supermarkets.
Proceeds from the plastic bag sale in Penang would be channelled to the state’s Partners Against Poverty scheme to wipe out hardcore poverty.
The ministry said the campaign was launched as its projection showed that Malaysians would create 30,000 tonnes of solid waste daily by the year 2020.
Deputy Minister Datuk Tan Lian Hoe said hypermarkets nationwide distributed about 90 to 100 million plastic bags a year and about 20 million litres of petroleum was used to produce them.
“Imagine how much we can save from reducing the usage of plastic bags,” she added.
Launching the state-level campaign in Butterworth, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the ruling on free plastic bags would take effect from yesterday.
“We understand that the campaign may cause some inconvenience to the people, but the state government is willing to lose its popularity to protect the environment for our future generations,” he said.
He reminded operators of mini markets and shops to observe the “no free plastic bag day” on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays or risk losing their business licence.
Plastic bag makers unhappy over ban implementation
The Star 2 Jan 11;
PETALING JAYA: The no free plastic bag ruling — only on Saturday nationwide and every day in Penang — has drawn mixed reactions from interested parties.
While the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (Fomca) supports the ruling, the Malaysian Plastics Forum (MPF) and the Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association (MPMA) are unhappy with the decision taken by the federal and the Penang state governments.
“Plastic does not pollute the environment. It is the person that uses is who pollutes. I think there is plenty of misconceptions floating around about plastic bags,” said MPF chairman Lim Kok Boon.
He said the authorities should focus more on creating awareness of the 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle), rather than banning the use of plastic bags.
MPMA northern branch chairman Willy Tan said the association would distribute 30,000 free plastic bags with an explanation on the myths surrounding plastic bags printed on them from today through newspaper vendors.
Fomca executive officer Datuk Paul Selvaraj lauded the no free plastic bag ruling and said it was the first step towards encouraging people to recycle and reuse.
Penang Gerakan environmental bureau head Tan Chai Liang said the state government should consult the plastic industry to work out a better plan before implementing a total ban on free plastic bags in the state.
He said any change in business plans should be implemented gradually and noted that plastic manufacturers and the industry have been part of the state’s economy.
Penang shoppers laud move to save the environment
The Star 2 Jan 11;
GEORGE TOWN: Many shoppers in Penang have given the thumbs-up for the “no free plastic bags” ruling in the state.
An expatriate from Germany, Husne Kaya, 40, said she was shocked to see the way Malaysians used plastic bags.
Kaya who was shopping at Sam Batik House on Penang Road said back in her home country, people would bring their own reusable bags or pay if they wanted plastic bags.
“I’m happy with the programme implemented here,” she said.
Tourist R. Kamachi, 30, from Singapore also lauded the move.
“We need to save the environment and this is a good start. In Singapore, we do have a similar ruling as well,” she said.
Damithah Fisson, 26, from Alor Setar said other states should follow the example set by Penang to save our planet.
A check at several stores and supermarkets showed that most were adhering to the ruling.
However, checks at several outlets in Batu Feringghi showed that plastic bags were still being given for free at mini markets, tailor shops and souvenir shops.
Sunshine Wholesale Mart general manager Yee Kam Ming said being the first day, many shoppers forgot to bring their own bags.
He said only 20% of the shoppers had brought their own bags, while the rest had to be provided with paper boxes and brown recycled bags.
“I hope the public will start preparing themselves by bringing their own bags.
“But there is a need for more publicity so that the message reaches everyone. Then, we don’t need to remind our customers repeatedly about the new ruling,” he added.
Supermarkets and petrol stations give full support to new ruling
The Star 2 Jan 11;
PETALING JAYA: The “no free plastic bag day” ruling on Saturday at hypermarkets, supermarkets and Petronas stations nationwide was launched simultaneously in all states yesterday.
Perak Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Department assistant director Amer Mansor said the ruling received full support from hypermarkets, supermarkets and all Petronas stations.
Launching the state-level campaign in Ipoh, Amer advised shoppers to bring their own bags if they needed to shop on that day or pay 20 sen for each plastic bag.
However, many shoppers were caught unawares and had come without their own bags.
A shopper who declined to be named said she was not aware of the campaign. She ended up loading all her groceries into a trolley to take them to her car.
In Malacca, Transport and Consumerism Committee chairman Datuk R. Perumah said it was the start of the state’s green campaign.
“Hypermarkets, supermarkets and other outlets are free to extend the ruling beyond Saturdays if they wish,” he said.
He also added that shoppers could buy reusable grocery bags sold at hypermarkets and supermarkets for between RM1 and RM5 depending on size and design as a long-term alternative to plastic bags.
In Putrajaya, officials from the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry distributed pamphlets on the campaign and free reusable cloth bags to shoppers.
In Klang, ministry deputy secretary-general Mahani Tan Abdullah urged traders and consumers to work together to reduce the use of plastic bags.
“This is in line with the efforts to ensure a healthier and safer environment for the people,” said Mahani when launching the Selangor level campaign at AEON Bukit Tinggi yesterday.
AEON corporate social responsibility and corporate branding general manager Noryahwati Mohd Noh said the company had saved 10 million plastic bags since the Selangor government implemented the “no free plastic bag” ruling two years ago.
Over the past decade, as crops have failed year after year, 200,000 farmers have killed themselves
Alex Renton The Independent 2 Jan 11;
Naryamaswamy Naik went to the cupboard and took out a tin of pesticide. Then he stood before his wife and children and drank it. "I don't know how much he had borrowed. I asked him, but he wouldn't say," Sugali Nagamma said, her tiny grandson playing at her feet. "I'd tell him: don't worry, we can sell the salt from our table."
Ms Nagamma, 41, showed us a picture of her husband – good-looking with an Elvis-style hairdo – on the day they married a quarter of a century ago. "He'd been unhappy for a month, but that day he was in a heavy depression. I tried to take the tin away from him but I couldn't. He died in front of us. The head of the family died in front of his wife and children – can you imagine?"
The death of Mr Naik, a smallholder in the central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, in July 2009, is just another mark on an astonishingly long roll. Nearly 200,000 Indian farmers have killed themselves in the past decade. Like Mr Naik, a third of them choose pesticide to do it: an agonising, drawn-out death with vomiting and convulsions.
The death toll is extrapolated from the Indian authorities' figures. But the journalist Palagummi Sainath is certain the scale of the epidemic of rural suicides is underestimated and that it is getting worse. "Wave upon wave," he says, from his investigative trips in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. "One farmer every 30 minutes in India now, and sometimes three in one family." Because standards of record-keeping vary across the nation, many suicides go unnoticed. In some Indian states, the significant numbers of women who kill themselves are not listed as "farmers", even if that is how they make their living.
Mr Sainath is an award-winning expert on rural poverty in India, a famous figure across India through his writing for The Hindu newspaper. I spoke to him at a screening of Nero's Guests, a documentary film about the suicide epidemic and some of the more eye-popping inequalities of modern India.
"Poverty has assaulted rural India," he said. "Farmers who used to be able to send their children to college now can't send them to school. For all that India has more dollar billionaires than the UK, we have 600 million poor. The wealth has not trickled down." Almost all the bereaved families report that debts and land loss because of unsuccessful crops were among their biggest problems.
The causes of that poverty are complex. Mr Sainath points to the long-term collapse of markets for farmers' produce. About half of all the suicides occur in the four states of India's cotton belt; the price of cotton in real terms, he says, is a twelfth of what it was 30 years ago. Vandana Shiva, a scientist-turned-campaigner, also links failures of cotton farming with the farmer suicides: she says the phenomenon was born in 1997 when the Indian government removed subsidies from cotton farming. This was also when genetically modified seed was widely introduced.
"Every suicide can be linked to Monsanto," says Ms Shiva, claiming that the biotech firm's modified Bt Cotton caused crop failure and poverty because it needed to be used with pesticide and fertilisers. The Prince of Wales has made the same accusation. Monsanto denies that its activities are to blame, saying that Indian rural poverty has many causes.
Beyond any argument – though no less politically charged – is the role of the weather in this story. India's climate, always complicated by the Himalayas on one side and turbulent oceans on the two others, has been particularly unreliable in recent years. In Rajasthan, in the north-west, a 10-year drought ended only this summer, while across much of India the annual monsoons have failed three times in the past decade.
India's 600 million farmers and the nation's poor are often the same people: a single failed crop tends to wipe out their savings and may lead to them losing their land. After that, there are few ways back. The drought, following a failed monsoon, that I saw in Andhra Pradesh in 2009 was the tipping point that drove Mr Naik to suicide.
Such tragedies and even the selling of children for marriage or as bonded labour – a common shock-horror news story in India – are the most dramatic results. But far more common is the story of rural families migrating, in tens of millions, to India's cities, swelling the ranks of the urban poor and leaving holes in the farming infrastructure that keeps India fed.
I visited an idyllic village, Surah na Kheda, last month in the limerick-worthy district of Tonk, Rajasthan. We arrived to find the rows of whitewashed mud-walled houses gleaming in the rising sun, while inside the courtyards women in bright saris were stirring milk to make yogurt and butter for the day's meals. Their daughters kneaded dough for the breakfast chapattis.
But there was an odd thing: a distinct lack of people. There were the old and the very young – but virtually no one of working age. Half the village, some 60 adults and many children, had gone to Jaipur, the state capital, to look for work. Even though the Diwali holiday fell the following week, no one expected their neighbours and relatives back. Times were too hard.
Prabhati Devi, 50, said four of her seven children had joined the exodus. "They had to go," she said. "Twenty years ago, we could grow all we needed, and sell things too. Now we can't grow wheat, we can't grow pulses, we can't even grow carrots, because there is not enough rain. So we go to the cities, looking for money."
She looked bereaved as she talked of the damage the 10-year drought had done. "It crushes people," she said. "Before, we were able to deal with drought. It would come every four years, and you could prepare. We would store grain and people could share it. In the past, when your buffalo wasn't giving milk, neighbours would share theirs. But now kindness is no longer possible."
I found the other end of Surah na Kheda's story under a flyover in Jaipur. Here, in the early morning, hundreds of men and boys, farmers from all over northern India, gather looking for work as labourers on the city's building sites. Many of them sleep under the flyover, and their clothes were stiff with dirt. The air was tense, and smelled of drugs and cheap alcohol.
Shankar Lal, one of the Surah na Kheda émigrés, was sipping tea at a stall under the flyover with half a dozen other young men from the village, waiting for a contractor to give them a lift. "If the rains came back we would be farmers again. But will they?" He did not think so: "In 10 years' time, there will be no village. Everyone will be here in the city. Or they will be dead."
The men were working for 150 rupees (£2.15) a day, decorating a house in one of Jaipur's posh suburbs. This is relatively good work, and they had all found a floor to sleep on. In another building site, we found a seven-strong rural family who slept in the cement store. The mother and grandmother were working for less than £1 a day, carrying cement and bricks on their heads up precarious bamboo scaffolding. In one half-built block of flats a baby slept in the dust next to the cement mixer. None of these people were happy to be in the city. "If we could survive at home we would go straight back," I was told.
Many of the labourers on the sites were children, some as young as 12: an interrupted education is another part of the social fallout of rural collapse. In Rajasthan, most older people in the villages told me they had not gone to school, but they were proud that their children had. However, the new poverty brought about by the "chaos in the weather" was keeping their grandchildren out of school.
According to the World Food Programme, 20 million more people joined the ranks of India's hungry in the past decade, and half of all the country's children are underweight. Some analyses say that fast-developing India is performing worse than some of the poorest countries, such as Liberia and Haiti, in addressing the basic issue of hunger. With so many farmers giving up, the question is how India will feed the entire country, not just its poor.
It is widely agreed that there have been radical shifts in the weather patterns in India in the past two decades; what is less certain are the causes. Is the change in the weather "climate change"? For many development workers, the question needs answering, because the collapse of India's rural economy – if it continues – will bring about a catastrophe that will affect people far beyond India's borders: even rumours of a poor monsoon or bad harvest in India tends to send food prices on the world commodity markets soaring, as they did again this spring.
Alka Awasthi, of Cecoedecon, a Rajasthani rural poverty organisation part-funded by Oxfam, asks: "When is the data going to catch up with the stories? Why don't the scientists come and listen to people who actually work with the rain? They don't know what a woman like Prabhati Devi is dealing with."
But at Rajasthan's Institute of Development Studies, Surjit Singh believes the calamitous weather shifts are as much to do with changing patterns of farming, growing population and failed government policies as any greater human-induced change to the climate. "The state has failed the rural poor, and so has the private sector. Economic liberalisation has clearly failed. How long can the boom go on? The economy may be growing at 9 per cent but food-price inflation is running at 16 to 18 per cent."
Dr Singh is in no doubt, though, that the changes in weather have increased poverty in rural India – and that there lies a huge injustice. "Climate change puts the onus on the poor to adapt – but that's wrong. Who is using the planes, the cars and the plastic bottles? Not the poor man with no drinking water."
For Mrs Devi and Sugali Nagamma, though, such debates are meaningless. I asked Mrs Devi if she had a question to ask me. "If these industries and factories stop burning petrol and sending poison into the atmosphere will it bring our rains back?" I had to tell her I did not know.
For more on Oxfam's work in India visit: www.oxfam.org.uk/climate
* Cancun talks send positive climate signal to Asia
* China likely to include CO2 target into 2011-15 plan
* Domestic pressures in other nations key risk -analyst
David Fogarty, Reuters AlertNet 31 Dec 10;
SINGAPORE, Dec 31 (Reuters) - The outcome of U.N. climate talks in Mexico this month should boost steps in Asia to curb greenhouse gas emissions, with China a likely bright spot in 2011, a senior analyst at a leading U.S. think tank said.
The talks helped put the troubled U.N. negotiations back on track but failed to agree on a broader pact meant to avert every more extreme droughts, floods, heat waves and rising sea levels.
Across the region, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Taiwan are working on myriad policy steps to put a price on carbon emissions, drive more investment in solar and wind as well as greater energy efficiency.
But domestic pressures, such as resistance from big business lobbies fearing higher costs, has led to some plans being put aside for more study, such as Japan's decision this month to shelve, although not scrap, its planned scheme. [ID:nTOE6BR023]
"The outcome from Cancun should hopefully boost the prospects of action in Asia as it does show a level of collective will in tackling the climate problem," said Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute in Washington.
There was cause for some optimism in the United States, she told Reuters in an email interview, despite Congress's failure to pass emissions trading legislation in the world's second largest carbon polluter.
Morgan, director of WRI's Climate and Energy Program, pointed to California moving ahead with emissions trading and the federal Environmental Protection Agency stepping up efforts to regulate emissions of power stations and refineries as mandated by President Barack Obama. [ID:nN23440737]
"WRI analysis shows that, if the Obama Administration pursues its authority thoroughly, it can get close to its 17 percent commitment," she said, referring to the government's commitment to cut emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, a target many green groups still regard as weak.
CHINA RISING
China, the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, has pledged to reduce its carbon intensity, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted for each dollar of economic activity, by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 compared to 2005.
The government is likely to include this in its 12th five-year plan from 2011 to 2015 and could outline fledging market-based steps to curb carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.
"It has begun to engage provinces and municipalities in strategies to achieve the target. This is very exciting and shows the level of focus of the government on reducing carbon intensity," Morgan said.
But China's emissions are still set to grow for some time, as the economy burns more coal, oil and gas to fuel growth and drive factories that export goods around the globe.
Despite the policy set-back in Japan, the world's fifth-largest emitter, Australia has pledged to announce in 2011 how it will put a price on carbon, most likely a tax and then a limited CO2 trading scheme, after initial efforts stalled.
But the emergence of unconnected schemes also had risks.
"Having different national schemes to meet targets is not an issue and provides flexibility for countries to develop the best policies and measures for their economies," Morgan said.
The challenge occurred if countries wanted to join an international carbon market.
"If so, then international accounting standards are needed to ensure that all credits are robust and not "junk credits". In addition, international accounting standards are essential to be able to compare level of effort and actions across countries," she said.
Over time, policies would also need to ramp up to achieve deeper emissions cuts, she added.
"If those targets and policies are not strong enough then a high-carbon infrastructure will be built which will be much more costly to replace later. It is thus essential that countries increase ambition now to save resources and funds later".
(Editing by Ramthan Hussain)
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