Alcohol kills 2.5 million people worldwide: WHO

Harmful use of alcohol kills 2.5 million people annually and is the eighth leading factor for deaths globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

Of the 2.5 million people, 320,000 people are between 15 and 29 years of age, it said.

For the first time, representatives from 193 member states of the WHO have reached a consensus at the World Health Assembly May 17-21 on a resolution to confront the harmful use of alcohol.

The resolution urges countries to support initiatives to tackle the problem.

Ten recommended target areas for policy intervention include health services' responses, community action, pricing policies and reducing public health impact of illicit alcohol. The WHO was urged to support countries to implement the strategy and monitor progress.

Alcohol kills 2.5 million people worldwide: WHO- Hindustan Times

6 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 6:33 AM

Food inflation rises to 16.49 percent In India

India's annual food inflation edged up for the second straight week, rising to 16.49 percent for the week ended on May 8, official data released today showed.

The food inflation stood at 16.44 percent the previous week, up from 16.04 percent for the week ended April 24.

Data on the wholesale price index (WPI) released by the commerce and industry ministry showed that food inflation rose though the index for this group dropped marginally during the week under review.

The primary articles index was up 16.19 percent, compared to a rise of 16.76 percent during the previous week. Fuel prices rose 12.33 percent during the week ended on May 8, against a similar increase during the last week.

Following are the rise and fall in prices of some essential food items over the 52-week period:

- Pulses: 33.65 percent

- Milk: 21.12 percent

- Fruits: 17 percent

- Rice: 7.72 percent

- Cereals: 6.37 percent

- Wheat: 4.74 percent

- Potatoes: (-)30.36 percent

- Onions : (-) 16.01 percent

The overall annual rate of inflation in April stood at 9.59 percent.

The government, farmers and consumers alike are hoping that the monsoon will be good this year after last year's erratic and rainfall.

Over 60 percent of India's cultivable land is rain-fed, and hence the monsoon plays a critical part in food grain output and economic growth.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee drove home the importance of monsoon rains when he said recently that in India monsoon is "the real finance minister".

The India Meteorological Department has forecast normal rainfall during the June-September monsoon period. The seasonal rainfall is likely to be 98 percent of the 50-year average this year. (IANS)

Food inflation rises to 16.49 percent

4 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 3:02 AM

No tsunami threat to India due to Indonesia earthquake

There is no immediate tsunami threat to the Indian mainland and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands due to the earthquake which hit Indonesia today morning, the Indian government said.

"However, there is a possibility of a mild rise in the sea water level," the government said in a statement.

The union home ministry has advised the coastal states and union territories to take appropriate precautionary measures, it added.

Indonesia issued a tsunami warning after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the Sumatran coast of Aceh province.

DPA reports, quoting the Indonesian Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency, said the quake was recorded at 0559 GMT, with the epicentre 66 km southwest of Maulaboh in West Aceh district.

There were no reports of damage or casualties. (IANS)

No tsunami threat to India due to Indonesia earthquake

2 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 2:59 AM

Cyclone builds in south India, oilfield closes

A cyclone intensified over the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, forcing a southern Indian oilfield to shut and cut its gas output, and the evacuation of some 50,000 people in the region, officials said.

Officials also voiced concerns the cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 155 kph (100 mph), could slow the progress of the monsoon rains, vital for India's trillion-dollar economy.

Tropical Cyclone Laila was set to hammer the coast of the southern state Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, prompting Reliance Industries to stop oil production and reduce gas output from the region by 10 per cent, company sources said.

"We are monitoring the situation and if we find that the cyclone will directly hit our facilities, then our FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility) may have to be taken to a safer location," said a company source, which declined to be named, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The cyclone is forecast to move towards Orissa after striking Andhra Pradesh, but it is likely to weaken by the time it reaches the Paradip port, a hub for iron ore exports.

G.K. Biswal, deputy conservator of Paradip port, said port authorities were on alert although they did not expect any disruption.

Concerns for monsoon

Last year some forecasters blamed a cyclone in May for the failure of monsoon rains, but scientists are divided about the impact of tropical storms on the monsoon.

India has been hit by street protests due steep food prices, partly the result of last year's poor monsoon rains.

"We have to observe the post-Laila scenario," said Ajit Tyagi, the director general of India's Meteorology Department.

Tyagi said the weather office was standing by its forecast last month, which said the June-September monsoon rains would be 98 per cent of average.

Monsoon rains reached India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands and several parts of the Bay of Bengal on Monday, three days ahead of schedule.

"Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon," the weather office said in its latest five-day forecast.

Local officials said heavy rainfall would help the rice crop that will be sown next month as rains would boost soil moisture and facilitate ploughing.

"Due to pre-monsoon rains, summer planning has started. If the state receives rain, the ploughing will further pick up," said Babaji Giri, director of the agriculture department in the eastern state of Orissa.

Officials in Bangladesh said they had also alerted ports and fishing vessels.

Heavy rains and lightning have already killed 10 people in Andhra Pradesh.A cyclone intensified over the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, forcing a southern Indian oilfield to shut and cut its gas output, and the evacuation of some 50,000 people in the region, officials said.

Officials also voiced concerns the cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 155 kph (100 mph), could slow the progress of the monsoon rains, vital for India's trillion-dollar economy.

Tropical Cyclone Laila was set to hammer the coast of the southern state Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, prompting Reliance Industries to stop oil production and reduce gas output from the region by 10 per cent, company sources said.

"We are monitoring the situation and if we find that the cyclone will directly hit our facilities, then our FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility) may have to be taken to a safer location," said a company source, which declined to be named, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The cyclone is forecast to move towards Orissa after striking Andhra Pradesh, but it is likely to weaken by the time it reaches the Paradip port, a hub for iron ore exports.

G.K. Biswal, deputy conservator of Paradip port, said port authorities were on alert although they did not expect any disruption.

Concerns for monsoon

Last year some forecasters blamed a cyclone in May for the failure of monsoon rains, but scientists are divided about the impact of tropical storms on the monsoon.

India has been hit by street protests due steep food prices, partly the result of last year's poor monsoon rains.

"We have to observe the post-Laila scenario," said Ajit Tyagi, the director general of India's Meteorology Department.

Tyagi said the weather office was standing by its forecast last month, which said the June-September monsoon rains would be 98 per cent of average.

Monsoon rains reached India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands and several parts of the Bay of Bengal on Monday, three days ahead of schedule.

"Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon," the weather office said in its latest five-day forecast.

Local officials said heavy rainfall would help the rice crop that will be sown next month as rains would boost soil moisture and facilitate ploughing.

"Due to pre-monsoon rains, summer planning has started. If the state receives rain, the ploughing will further pick up," said Babaji Giri, director of the agriculture department in the eastern state of Orissa.

Officials in Bangladesh said they had also alerted ports and fishing vessels.

Heavy rains and lightning have already killed 10 people in Andhra Pradesh.

Cyclone builds in south India, oilfield closes- Hindustan Times

1 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 8:43 PM

Even plants cannot help cool earth if CO2 is in excess: Study

Contrary to the belief that plants could help cool earth, scientists have found that they will directly warm the land surface when there is excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A recent global scale model study points to an emerging consensus that the physiological effects of increasing atmospheric CO2 on plants on land will contribute to global warming beyond what is caused by the ‘radiative’ effects of CO2, Prof. Govindasamy Bala of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, one of the authors of the study, said.

Carbon dioxide warms the earth because it is a greenhouse gas. However, elevated CO2 in the atmosphere causes plants to transpire less and provide less ‘evaporative cooling’, he said.

“For scientists trying to predict global climate change in the coming century, the study underscores the importance of including plant biology in their climate models,” Bala, who conducted the study jointly with Long Cao and Ken Caldeira of Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University, said.

Explaining plant physiology, Bala said, “The CO2—physiological effect arises from a change in plant transpiration rate under elevated atmospheric CO2“.

“On a hot day, we sweat more, release more water through pores in our skin and cool ourselves. Similarly, while doing photosynthesis (food production process in plants using photons from sun), plants cool the environment by releasing water through the pores called stomata on the surface of leaves,” Bala said.

“But stomata opens less widely and the canopy sweats less when CO2 is increased which causes a decline in plant transpiration and thus warming of the land surface,” he said.

“Plants do photosynthesise and remove CO2 from the atmosphere and thus could help in cooling down the warming planet,” Prof. Bala said.

Plants have a very complex and diverse influence on the climate system, Prof Ken Caldeira from Stanford said, adding .

“plants take CO2 out of the atmosphere, but they also have other effects, such as changing the amount of evaporation from land surface. It’s impossible to make good climate predictions without taking all of these factors into account.”

An increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration influences climate both directly through its radiative effect (trapping long wave radiation) and indirectly through its physiological effect (reducing transpiration of land plants), he said.

“We compared the climate response to radiative and physiological effects of increased CO2 using the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) coupled Community Land and Community Atmosphere Model,” he said.

The paper was published in the May 3—7 online edition of Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences.

“The scale is important when we deal with global climate change. For average land, plants transpire about 25 cm of water each year. With doubling of CO2, this amount goes down to 20 cm. This change of 5 cm is about the same magnitude as decrease of evaporation from deforestation or annual global water extraction by humans for irrigation and other consumptive use,” the scientists said.

The greenhouse warming effect of CO2 has been known for a long time but Prof Bala and his colleagues were concerned that it is not as widely recognised that CO2 also warms planet by its physiological effects on plants.

“There is no longer any doubt that CO2 decreases evaporative cooling by plants and that decreased cooling adds to global warming. This effect would cause significant warming even if CO2 were not a greenhouse gas,” lead author Cao said.

In their climate modelling study, scientists doubled the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and recorded the magnitude and geographic pattern of warming from the greenhouse and physiological effects. They found that over the entire global land surface, the effects from physiological change account for 15 per cent of warming.

The scientists also found larger runoff from the land surface in most areas for elevated CO2, as more water from precipitation bypasses the plant cooling system and flows directly to rivers and streams.

“We find that the impact of physiological effect is stronger than greenhouse effect on land surface hydrology,” Prof. Bala added.

http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article432057.ece?homepage=true

3 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 4:03 AM

Maheshwar hydro-power project lands up in environmental clearance mess again

This project—first proposed in 1983— continues to be marred by rehabilitation issues, with the MOEF issuing work-suspension orders and eminent activists demanding compliance with the missive

The controversies surrounding the much-delayed Maheshwar hydro-electric power project refuse to die out. In a recent development, the ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) has sent a construction work suspension order to Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Ltd. While meetings are being held to reconsider the MOEF order with the prime minister, eminent personalities have written to the prime minister seeking compliance to this missive.

In a letter dated 23 April 2010, the MOEF stated that the reply submitted by Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Ltd has been reviewed and found non-satisfactory. The reasons stated were involving negligible work on resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R). Thus, the ministry demanded immediate suspension of the ongoing construction work for the project.

Later, on 10 May 2010, the MOEF wrote to the company that the directions in the earlier letter are being amended to the extent that only seven gates, which are yet to be made functional and under installation may be completed before the onset of the monsoon.

According to Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activists, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, chief minister, Madhya Pradesh, has asked prime minister Manmohan Singh to cancel the MOEF order on grounds of it being “false and baseless.” The PMO had called a meeting in this regard on 7 May 2010 and they will be meeting again today.

In a release, the NBA stated that Rajendra Sachar, retired Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court; Kuldip Nayyar, a veteran journalist and ex-Member of Parliament; Surendra Mohan, veteran socialist leader and ex-Member of Parliament and Swami Agnivesh, President, World Council of Arya Samaj have written a joint letter to the prime minister asking him to affirm the order of the MOEF suspending the construction of Maheshwar dam, and not to let the private project promoters trample on fundamental and statutory rights of the oustees.

This hydro-electric power project was first proposed in 1983. However, it was rejected by the concerned authority in 1986. The reason for rejection was stated as non-submission of environment management plans. Later in 1994 the project was awarded environmental clearance subject to certain conditions, based on the environment management plan (EMP) submitted by the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA). In 2001, the NVDA decided to hand over the project to a private player S Kumars and the environment clearance was transferred to the company.

During the same period, the MOEF constituted a monitoring committee to study the resettlement and rehabilitation compliance of this project. The committee after inspection suggested that the project authority should prepare a comprehensive R&R action plan with an implementation schedule and submit it before the financial closure is achieved after which construction work could be started. However, in 2006, the project authority started the construction work without submitting the comprehensive R&R action plan with time schedule. Thus, the MOEF ordered immediate suspension of construction work, on which the project authority managed to get a stay order from the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Thereafter, the project was in constant tussle with the environment ministry and environment groups. The recent dispute was triggered by a visit from the monitoring committee’s visit to the site. The committee expressed dissatisfaction on the rehabilitation issue.
Maheshwar hydro-power project lands up in environmental clearance mess again - Moneylife: Personal Finance Magazine

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 4:00 AM

Take environmental safeguards before implementing projects: Governor

Proper environmental safeguards must be taken before any new project is started in the mountains and river valleys of Sikkim, Governor B P Singh said in Gangtok Sunday.
"This was particularly relevant in the case of roads and hydel projects as the mountains of Sikkim are geologically fragile and that the state government and locals alike should be extra vigilant in such cases because developments must go on but their negative impacts must be minimized to the extent possible," Singh said.
Sikkim’s resource is all nature based and sensitive to environmental changes and this reality the state government should be compelled to work and progress within this limitation, Singh stated.
On tourism he said "since our tourism resources are all nature based and exposed to environmental and ecological impacts, we should try maintain a balance between quality and quantity tourism after assessing our carrying capacity."
He further said that our ultimate goal should be to encourage local private initiatives to manage tourism affairs and the government’s role should be limited to being a facilitator and a regulator.
Take environmental safeguards before implementing projects: Governor- Hindustan Times

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 3:59 AM

SMS alert for kitchen gas leaks

In a bid to prevent rising kitchen fires, a group of young innovators, technologists and engineers has developed a cooking gas alarm and SMS system to prevent accidents due to leak either from stove or rubber pipe.
Even when no one is at home, the resident gets an SMS on his or her mobile phone about the impending danger in case of a gas leak with the help of the innovative gadget put together by a Bhubaneswar-based company 'RoboticWares'.
''We are working to make common man's life more simple and secure. We are targeting military, medical, consumer and industrial sector as a potential market of robots," says CEO of RoboticWares, Kushal Nahata.
Claiming that some 7,000 people suffer burns every year due to cooking gas leak, he said fire can be prevented with the help of remote gadgets which can help switch off the cylynder after getting an alert.
Another significant addition to the company's kitty of innovative products is Remote Video Surveillance known as 'Far Eye' which provides a complete software solution for office or home security, he said.
"Far eye monitors home or office round the clock, captures motion event using webcam and saves into compressed video clips. It enables one to remote video surveillance from anywhere in the world," said the chief technology officer of RoboticWares, Gaurav Srivastav.
SMS alert for kitchen gas leaks- Hindustan Times

0 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 3:49 AM