"Climate Change and its impact on the poor and third world countries" : Talk By Vandana Shiva

I had attended a talk by Dr Vandana Shiva quite some time back.

Below are my notes of the talk. I haven't verified them and are mostly for my own reference but I do want more and more people to know what she said. ( Its also possible that I may have written down something incorrectly)

1. 3 major greenhouse gases are Nitrogen Oxide, Methane and CO2 in decreasing order of harmfulness. NO is 300 times more damaging the CO2. The major source of NO in the atmosphere are the nitrogenous fertilizers that are used very liberally these days.

2. She has written a book called " The Violence of Green Revolution" (In case some one has it,then do let me know :) ) where she tries to dispel myths which most people have about the Green Revolution. Green in "Green Revolution" never meant environment or ecology as is commonly mistaken. In those times Green basically meant !=Red which was the color of communism. This was taken as 1 of the ways to prevent the spread of communism.

3. There is no documented data that the use of foreign seeds, fertilizers has actually increased the size of "the food basket". Rice and wheat were the major beneficiaries in the states of Haryana and Punjab but that was at the cost of oilseeds,pulses,millets etc, the size of the entire food basket DID NOT increase.

4. The chemical way of farming has had its own impact. The dwarf seeds which began to be sown were shorter in height resulting in a scarcity of fodder. In a country where most of the farmers are landless labourers, livestock is their actual asset and when the supply of fodder dwindled so did the livestock.

5. If you have noticed, the fields in southern states almost always have coconut,betelnut trees grown alongside the crops generating additional sources of revenue for the farmers, this practice is completely missing in Punjab and Haryana.

6. Green Revolution was/is a very high cost system. Genetically Modified Seeds, Fertilizers, High Water Demand. Between the years 2002 to 2007 the water table dwindled by 100 cubic metres in the entire North India!

7. For those who are interested she has another book titled "Soil Not Oil " . However I don't recollect what that book exactly was about. I am pretty sure you will find some of the stuff which I am going to say in it.

8. There are 3 kinds of draughts. Ecological,Soil and Aquifier. Ecological is when we actually have less amount of rainfall. Soil is when the soil is dry, which I think can be due to the wrong kind of plantations grown continously. An example in mind is Eucalyptus ( Bringing it from Australia was a mistake of gigantic proportions!). The third one is aquifier draught which is basically drying up of the water table.

9. A researcher, by the name of Somsekhar Reddy if I am correct, studied the recent drought in the Northern Karnatka region of Dharwad. His studies showed that the rainfall Dharwad received that year was at par with its average rainfall, however, the draught was caused due to continous plantations of Dwarfed varieties of Shorgum!! In other words it was a man made draught!

10. Major sources of methane - Plastics and Animal Industrial Farming.

11. The issue of climate change has to be tackled as a whole and not in parts. It is imperative that Glaciologists,geologists, marine scientist etc study it together and not limit the impact to their respective fields. A case in point that this year in Bangalore, it looks like that the entire monsoon cycle has shifted by 2 months! The metereologists will say that bangalore received above average rainfall for the year 2009 but they can not measure the impact on bio-diversity of this 2 month shift.

12. Another alarming fact which she mentioned (take it with a pinch of salt) is that out of the 10 rs Lays Chips packet which we munch away, 0.08 paisa actually goes to the farmer! Pepsi gets a profit of 8 rupees on every 10 rupee packet!

13. Another issue is the outsourcing of pollution. The carbon emissions by a country is a false measurement criteria. Japan, EU, USA have stopped Aluminium and Iron Production. This does not mean that they have stopped using it. Consumption rather than production has to be given consideration.

14. Another issue that has not been linked to climate change is diplacement issue that a lot of states like Orissa and Jharkhand are facing due to the setting up of industries by Posco and Vedanta. Lets not forget that a lot of this produce goes to Western Countries.

15. Walmart - 80% of their produce comes from China!

16. I was mistaken that US under Obama is making significant commitments to stop climate change. Under Kyoto Protocol the world except US and Australia that is, had a made commitment to reduce the carbon emissions by 7% by 2012 from the 1990 levels. Commitment which the US has made is 5 % by 2020 and that too of 2005 levels.

There is a lot more stuff which was discussed but I feel I have written enough to send ones mind on a tailspin. Will probably write another entry to discuss rest of the stuff.....To say that I was depressed and enraged when the talk ended would be an understatement :(