type here...
More

    Scientists explain why the sun has been quieter over the past decade

    OWSA Staff
    -
    1
    Scientists explain why the sun has been quieter over the past decade

    A team of Indian astrophysicists are finding out the reason why the sun has been weakening decade over decade. This impacts daily life on earth because it can disturb Global Positioning Signals (GPS), long-distance radio communications, and power grids.

     

    Scientists have been tracing the intensity of solar activity during the last 100 years. Now, a team of Indian astrophysicists say that the sun has been much quieter between 2008 and 2019 than it was between 1996 and 2007. This quietness over the past 10 years is an area of interest for scientists, astrophysicists in particular.

    While there is agreement that the sun is hushing up itself with its solar storms getting smaller, there is a curiosity among scientists to know why exactly this is happening.

    Now, a joint team of Indian researchers is studying this phenomenon through the lens of the sun’s coronal mass ejections or CMEs. The scientists come from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, the M P Birla Institute of Fundamental Research and the Udaipur Solar Observatory.

    What are coronal mass ejections?

    The sun has a magnetic field of its own. All planets and stars in our solar system have their own magnetic fields. (The magnetic fields of Venus and Mars is too small to measure though. At least one star out there has a magnetic field larger than the sun’s – the Tiny Red Dwarf Star.)

    The sun is active with sunspots, solar flares and CMEs. The sun’s magnetic field causes instabilities on its surface. Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are giant expanding bubbles of magnetized plasma erupting from the surface of the sun out into the space from time to time due to instabilities in the its magnetic field.

    CMEs can launch a billions of tons of super-heated gas into space, most of which drifts harmlessly across the solar system. Occasionally one of these is directed at the earth.

    The intensity of such solar activity is known to vary in decade-plus periodic cycles. Understanding the propagation of CMEs is important since these disturb earth’s magnetosphere.

    Are the CMSs getting smaller?

    The answer to the question is an emphatic yes! And finding out why is the astonishing discovery of the Indian scientists.

    The team has concluded that the size of CMEs between 2008 and 2019 is only two-thirds their size in the previous decade. They are startled by this decrease in the mass, size and the internal pressure of the explosive gurgling bubbles.

    The scientists did not expect this decrease in the size of the CMEs. On the contrary, astrophysicists had surmised that the decrease in the pressure in the (CMEs’) outer world would increase in radial size of CMEs. As one scientist explained: “Just imagine you have a bubble of gas in a vacuum that will not stop it from growing larger. That is the type of space the effervescent CMEs live in – but they have defied this logic.”

    Explaining how and why this logic has been defied, Dr. Wageesh Mishra suggests: “The reduced pressure in the interplanetary space (or the CMEs outside world) is compensated by a reduced magnetic content inside CMEs. This did not allow the CMEs to expand enough”. Mishra is from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

    The team also established that the gas pressure in the interplanetary space in the last decade they were studying was only 40 per cent of the pressure in the previous decade. Solar activities are measured by the number of sun spots. One would expect that the ejections would also reduce. In terms of CMEs, the rate at which the Sun has been losing its mass through these episodic ejections had also reduced by 15 per cent.

    Why is the study of CMEs so vital?

    The sun is known to be very active with sunspots, solar flares, and CMEs. Mishra says that understanding this is important because this solar activity effects life on earth.

    CMEs dictate a host of taken-for-granted modern day necessities because they disturb the near-earth space environment, in turn disturbing the orbit of satellites in low-earth orbits. This further disturbs global positioning signals (GPS), long-distance radio communications, and power grids are dependent on the CMEs, Dr Mishra says.

    The intensity of such solar activity is known to vary in decade-plus periodic cycles. It had earlier been traced that the last cycle (cycle 24 between 2008 and 2019) was weaker than the previous one (cycle 23 between 1996 and 2007), and the sun was weakest in 2019 during the last 100 years.

    All hands on the deck as Omicron stalks Nepal

    OWSA Staff
    -
    0
    All hands on the deck as Omicron stalks Nepal

    As the Omicron virus spreads across the country, the government of Nepal isn’t taking chances. The government today took a series of decisions from banning worship in temples to procuring COVID-19 testing kits to importing vaccines.

    Nepal is staring at a likely third wave of COVID-19 and the government has brought forth a slew of measures. Since the detection of the first Omicron infection in the country in December 2021, the virus is now at its infectious worst, infecting health personnel, media persons, bankers, sportspersons, employees, professionals, shopkeepers or homemakers.

    8,730 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Tuesday. These include 35 employees of the Supreme Court of Nepal tested positive for COVID-19.

    117 doctors and health workers of different hospitals in Chitwan district have tested positive for coronavirus. 30 doctors from the Nuwakot district are also infected.

    Nuwakot district’s medical superintendent, Dipendra Pande said nurses, paramedics and lab technicians too have been found positive for coronavirus.” Gynaecology and obstetrics services too have been halted and the hospital has issued a notice and informing people of the closure of services, he said.

    According to reports, the infection rate per 15,000 tests has touched over 4,000 on Sunday. Active cases have crossed 25,500 on the WHO COVID-19 dashboard and seven people have been reported to have died.

    Lockdowns, vaccines and testing kits

    The sharp increase in disease today compelled the government to further impose lockdowns.

    All the three district administration in the Kathmandu valley have banned all worship till the middle of February. It is now mandatory for people entering premises of government offices to display their vaccination cards.

    The government began work today to procure 900,000 COVID-19 testing kits.
    Addressing the ninth meeting of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on Monday, Prime Minister Deuba expressed his worry about Omicron’s rapid spread through the country.

    Sources say that the government is wary of any repeat of the flack it faced for its handling of the pandemic’s second wave in April 2021. Hospitals and medical personnel were then overwhelmed as people died for want of oxygen.

    Deuba directed the Ministry of Health and Population to immediately import enough COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate all Nepali citizens.

    So far, only 39 per cent have received both doses of the vaccine, according to the WHO COVID-19 dashboard.

    Earthquake kills dozens; tears down homes in distant Afghanistan province

    OWSA Staff
    -
    0
    Earthquake kills dozens; tears down homes in distant Afghanistan province

    The Badghis province has been hit by an earthquake that has killed at least 26 people and damaged over 700 houses. Badghis is impoverished and particularly vulnerable to earthquakes as it sits in the Hindu Kush mountain range.

    How vulnerable is Afghanistan to even a shallow earthquake? Very much so, say aid workers in the country, pointing to an earthquake measuring a mere 5.3 on the Richter scale that killed at least 26 people and brought down homes in the Qadis district of Badghis province bordering Turkmenistan. north-east of Kabul on Monday.

    Provincial spokesman Baz Mohammad Sarwary said that several people were injured while more than 700 homes were damaged. He warned that the number of casualties could increase. Rescuers are working to remove debris even as it is raining heavily, he said.

    “Buildings and homes that have had very little maintenance over decades just crumbled,” an aid worker attached to the Afghan Red Crescent Society told OWSA over a phone call. “Many homes are just poorly constructed,” he said. The aid worker did not want to be identified and said that he was not authorised to give out numbers of casualties.

    The Hindu Kush mountain range encompassing Afghanistan has seen many earthquakes and Badghis is in a particularly seismic region.

    The Red Crescent aid worker said that Badghis is a distant, neglected place. The mountainous province is about 900 kilometres from Kabul and is poorly connected. The province has reported drought since 2018. Together with the conflict in the country, the drought has impoverished people in the province.

    “Nobody cares because it is so far away. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) provided 7,800 families with some seeds and fertilisers and hardly anybody came returned to see what happened to the people,” he said.

    “Farmers asked for onion seeds during the drought as that is what generations of farmers here have been producing. Onion can be stored after harvest, especially because the roads are so bad.”

     

    Image: For representational purposes only.

    Why is the National Health Authority so focused on the for-profit medical sector?

    OWSA Contributor
    -
    0
    Why is the National Health Authority so focused on the for-profit medical sector?

    India’s health system needs transformative reforms. An institutional arrangement like the NHA legitimises the role of the “for-profit” private sector in government. Commercial or market-based health services are contradictory to the idea of health as a public good and a right.

    By Sulakshana Nandi

    Constituted as an autonomous entity through a decision of the union cabinet, the National Health Authority (NHA) was set up to implement Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (PMJAY) the publicly funded health insurance scheme. NHA is currently also the implementing agency for the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission.

    Serious questions have emerged regarding the legitimacy and extent of public oversight of the NHA. NHA’s legality remains questionable since it was not passed by an Act of Parliament but through a cabinet decision. This institutional arrangement has enabled direct participation and influence of the healthcare industry and for-profit private players in various roles.

    All major health schemes and programmes in our country are implemented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Strangely, however, the NHA was set up as an implementer and regulatory arrangement for PMJAY bypassing the Health Ministry. It answers to a board which includes private (corporate) sector players.

    The involvement of for-profit private players such as hospitals, insurance companies, third party administrators or TPAs, software and IT companies etc. has increased manifold under the NHA. The NHA even outsources its own functions such as monitoring (medical audits), grievance redressal (Aarogya Mitra) and research and technical support to private agencies, multinational consultancies and the World Bank. Private players, therefore, have a vested interest in the continuation of the NHA.

    Public funds diverted to the private sector

    A defining feature of NHA is the lack of transparency and public accountability. Though PMJAY runs on public money, the data generated is treated as NHA’s private property and there is hardly any public disclosure of information. Despite a significant emphasis on and showcasing of IT systems, the public data on PMJAY available on the NHA website is extremely limited and difficult to access. However this data has been made available to select institutions like the World Bank to write policy briefs on behalf of the NHA.

    The involvement of the for-profit private players in the scheme (PMJAY) itself has led to negative consequences for people and the government health system. PMJAY is considered the government’s largest ever public private partnerships (PPP) in healthcare. Studies and reports show that PMJAY has not been able to ensure cashless health services in the private sector to all those who are eligible. A large proportion of eligible patients accessing private sector hospitals empaneled with PMJAY are forced to pay additional money out of pocket, incurring catastrophic health expenditure.

    Through PMJAY, public funds that should have gone into strengthening government hospitals are instead being diverted to the private sector. On the other hand, critical health programmes under the health ministry remain under-funded. The public sector and government hospitals cater to the more vulnerable groups, such as the poor, rural communities, tribal communities, women and other marginalized groups. The private sector on the other hand is concentrated in the urban areas and there have been several reports of unethical practices. Therefore, under-funding and neglect of the government health system has serious consequences for people’s health and their access to health services.

    Profiteering in times of COVID-19

    PMJAY and private players failed to provide the much needed support even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Government hospitals provided the major portion of free healthcare and free testing for COVID-19.Very few for-profit private players came forward to provide free services for COVID-19 patients needing hospitalisation, though it was widely publicised that testing and treatment would be free even in the private sector for those eligible under PMJAY.

    Hospitals that came forward also forced patients to pay additional money. Excessive billing, extortion and flouting of price ceilings by the private players increased the misery of people being treated for COVID-19 and pushed many families into poverty. During the vaccination drive too, the private sector flouted price regulations and also failed to deliver the number of vaccinations expected of them.

    The Digital Health Mission similarly opens the possibility for enhancing corporate profits from government coffers as its main beneficiaries would be IT companies, digital healthcare companies, insurance companies and other private players. In the absence of adequate data protection and consent procedures, private players can greatly benefit from data mining and commercialization of personal and aggregate health data, while the lack of public accountability and oversight continues. Moreover, mandating a digital health identity for being eligible to receive health services will lead to exclusion of the most vulnerable groups who need public healthcare the most.

    Need regulate private sector

    There is a clear need for transformative reforms in India’s health system. An institutional arrangement such as the NHA legitimises the role of the “for-profit” private sector in government, from decision-making to implementation to monitoring. This creates a possibility for conflict of interest and raises concerns whether public interest or interests of the healthcare industry will be the primary guiding force.

    The NITI Aayog that is responsible for conceptualising and operationalising the NHA has also been promoting a plethora of initiatives for healthcare privatization. Commercial or market-based health services are contradictory to the idea of health as a public good and a right.

    Therefore instead of diverting public funds to private players through NHA and PMJAY, the public sector must be strengthened to provide primary, secondary and tertiary level health services. The government must recruit adequate health workforce, expand public health infrastructure, and improve availability of medicines and diagnostics in the public sector. Regulation of the private sector in healthcare needs to be strengthened. Transparency of data, public accountability and public scrutiny of all health programmes must be improved. Experiences of states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu that have improved government health system and public hospitals must be replicated.

     

    Sulakshana Nandi is a public health researcher and National Joint-Convener of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan

    “Let us now praise brave women and men”: The Nobel Peace Prize 2021

    Inter Press Service
    -
    0
    “Let us now praise brave women and men”: The Nobel Peace Prize 2021

    Communication technology connects people, allows sharing ideas and spreading awareness about human rights abuses. However, the web also spreads a virus of lies that incites people against one-another and sets the stage for the rise of authoritarians and dictators all over the world.

    By Jan Lundius 

    In several countries around the globe, telling the truth is according to its rulers and other influential, generally wealthy, persons a serious crime that might be punished by muzzling the truth-tellers, slandering and humiliating them, and threatening their families and friends. If that does not make them shut up and repent they might be tortured, imprisoned and even killed.

    Novaya Gazeta was founded in 1993 with the self-imposed task of acting as “an honest, independent, and rich source of information benefiting Russian citizens.” However, to provide a critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs is a precarious venture and Novaya Gazeta’s 60 journalists, divided between ten major Russian cities, are all living dangerously.

    Series of deaths. Or assassinations?

    In 2000, Igor Domnikov, who in Novaya Gazeta wrote witty essays about business corruption, had his skull crushed by a hammer blow by the door to his apartment . In 2001,Victor Popkov died after being wounded in a gunfight while on Novaya Gazeta’s behalf reporting about the Chechnyan war.

    In 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, human rights activist and Novaya Gazeta reporter, was in the elevator of her block of flats shot twice at point-blank range, in the chest and the head. In 2009, a human rights lawyer, Stanislav Markelov, was shot to death while leaving a news conference in Moscow, less than 800 metres from the Kremlin, while Anastasia Baburova, a journalist from Novaya Gazeta who tried to come to his assistance was shot and killed as well.

    The same year, the Novaya Gazeta reporter Natalia Estemitrova had been seen screaming while she was forced into a car just outside her house in the Chechnyan capital Grozny. Two hours later she was found dead from one shot to the head and one to the chest.

    Shchekochikin, a member of the Parliament, was in Novaya Gazeta writing articles about criminal activities and corruption among officers of FSB RF, Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the main successor agency to KGB. Shchekochikin died suddenly on 3 July 2003 from a mysterious illness, a few days before his scheduled departure to the U.S., where he was going to meet with FBI agents investigating U.S. contacts with Russian oligarchs and FSB agents. Shchekochikin’s medical records were lost, though physicians who had treated him explained that their patient’s symptoms indicated poisoning from “radioactive materials”.

    True journalism

    It was not the first time KGB/FSB used radioactive substances to poison defectors and detractors. The first recorded incident was in 1957 when Nikolai Khoklov was poisoned by radioactive Thallium-201, suffering symptoms similar to those of Roman Tsepov, a corrupt businessman who in 2004 after drinking a cup of tea at a local FSB office experienced a sudden drop of white blood cells and died after two weeks. In 2006, Alexander Litvinenkov, a defector and former FSB agent died in London after being poisoned with polonium-210. In 2018, another defector and former military intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, was in Salisbury with his daughter poisoned by a Novichok Nerve Agent and in 2020, anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny was poisoned by a similar substance.

    When Novaya Gazeta’s editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, in Oslo was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize he lamented Russian limitations to free speech, adding that he was not the rightful receiver of the prestigious prize. Worthier men and women had lost their lives while defending the truth: “It’s just that the Nobel Peace Prize isn’t awarded posthumously, it’s awarded to living people.” Accordingly, in his Nobel speech Muratov stated that:

    “…this award is for all true journalism. This award is to my colleagues from Novaya Gazeta, who have lost their lives – Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekotschikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Anastasija Baburova, Stas Markelov and Natasha Estemirova. This award is also to the colleagues who are alive, to the professional community who perform their professional duty.”

    Free Media in the Philippines

    The Philippine journalist Maria Angelita Ressa shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Dmitry Muratov. The prize was awarded for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”

    In her speech, Maria Ressa mentioned that “in the Philippines, more lawyers have been killed – at least 63 compared to the 22 journalists murdered after President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016.” Just the day before she was giving her Nobel speech, Maria Ressa’s colleague, Jesus “Jess” Malabanan, was killed in a street in Manila.

    Rodrigo Duterte remains popular among the majority of the Philippine population. After his election victory in 2016 something called DuterteNomics was introduced, including tax reforms, infrastructure development, social protection programs, a shift to a federal system of Government and strengthened relations with China and Russia. The infrastructure initiative was promoted through the slogan: “Build! Build! Build!” In 2021, 214 airport projects, 451 commercial social and tourism port projects, 29,264 kilometres of roads, 5,950 bridges, 11,340 flood control projects, 11,340 evacuation centres, and 150,149 classrooms were completed under the infrastructure program.

    In spite of this progress Duterte has from some quarters been severely criticized for his obvious authoritarianism, self-glorification, and rampant populism, expressed through callous and vulgar rhetoric, for example his trivialization of rape and the murderous activities of vigilante groups. Duterte has repeatedly confirmed to personally having killed suspected criminals during his term as mayor of Davao and he is the only Philippine president who has refused to declare his assets and liabilities. Furthermore, he has by human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, been directly linked to extrajudicial killings of over 1,400 alleged criminals and street children, while the International Criminal Court in The Hague currently is investigating his administration’s crackdown on narcotics, said to have left as many as 30,000 dead, while the administration listed the toll at around 8,000.

    Watchdog versus troll army

    Duterte’s image of being a strong-willed, controversial but highly efficient leader has been actively supported by a docile propaganda machinery which, among other means, allegedly is supported by a pro-Duterte online “troll army” that is pushing out fake news stories and manipulating the narrative around his presidency. Such misuse of the web was lamented by both Markelov and Ressa, who emphasized that one of the main tasks of journalism is to distinguish between facts and fiction, meaning that a reporter must patiently and objectively investigate as many angles as possible of an issue at large. Markelov quoted the famous war photographer Robert Capa: “If your picture isn’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”

    Both Markelov and Ressa declared that the immense power of a constantly and increasingly advanced communication technology is both beneficiary and harmful for upholding the truth. It connects people from all over the world, allows for sharing ideas and the spreading of awareness about human rights abuses. However, the web also spreads a virus of lies that incites us against each other, brings out our fears, anger and hate, and sets the stage for the rise of authoritarians and dictators all over the world. Journalists have to contradict that kind of hate and violence, which by Ressa is defined as:

    “the toxic sludge that’s coursing through our information ecosystem, prioritized by American internet companies that make more money by spreading that hate and triggering the worst in us. […] What happens on social media doesn’t stay on social media. Online violence is real world violence. Social media is a deadly game for power and money. […] Our personal experiences are sucked into a database, organized by Artificial Intelligence, then sold to the highest bidder. Highly profitable micro-targeting operations are engineered to structurally undermine human will – a behavior modification system in which we are Pavlov’s dogs, experimented on in real time with disastrous consequences in countries like mine….”

    Markelov stated that much of the unfounded and manipulated information that spreads its poison through the web have dimmed our conscience and even worse, making people believe that:

    “… politicians who avoid bloodshed are weak. While threatening the world with violence and war is the duty of true patriots. Aggressive marketing of war affects people and they start thinking that war is acceptable.”

    In such a poisoned environment truth-telling journalists are suffering. In may countries they live under a real threat of being slandered and tortured, of spending the rest of their lives in jail, or being brutally murdered. They have no idea what the future holds for them. Nevertheless, these heroes of the free word assume that their sacrifices are worth the risks they are taking. They believe in their mission to bring the truth to people and thus support empathy, peace and critical thinking. In the words of Markelov:

    “Yes, we growl and bite. Yes, we have sharp teeth and strong grip. But we are the prerequisite for progress. We are the antidote against tyranny. […] I want journalists to die old.”

    Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2021/ceremony-speech/ 

    This piece has been sourced from Inter Press Service

    Image: Hippopx

    Sourced from hippox.com and licensed under Creative Commons Zero – CC0

    Richest 98 Indians own the same wealth as the bottom 55.2 crore people: Oxfam

    OWSA Staff
    -
    0
    Richest 98 Indians own the same wealth as the bottom 55.2 crore people: Oxfam

    The richest 98 Indians own the same wealth as the bottom 552 million people, the India supplement of Oxfam’s Inequality Kills report of 2022 says. India added 40 billionaires last year, but the number of its poor doubled.

    The India supplement of Oxfam’s Inequality Kills report reveals that the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 142, while 84 per cent of households in the country suffered a decline in their income in the past year. India now has more billionaires than France, Sweden and Switzerland combined.

    The supplement centered on the impact of the pandemic on India’s poor also states that just a one per cent wealth tax on 98 richest billionaire families in India can finance Ayushman Bharat, the national public health insurance fund of the Government of India for more than seven years.

    The briefing was published Sunday, ahead of the of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda. The briefing indicates that the collective wealth of India’s 100 richest people hit a record high of INR 57.3 lakh crore (USD 775 billion) in 2021. It discusses India’s governance structures that promote the accumulation of wealth by a few, while failing to provide safety nets to the rest of the population.

    While the report hinges on the tremendous loss of life and livelihoods during 2021, it cites the recent Pandora Papers investigation highlighting the loopholes that India’s rich exploit to conceal their assets and evade taxes.

    Stark inequalities

    According to the report, the wealth of Indian billionaires increased from INR 23.14 lakh crore (USD 313 billion) to INR 53.16 lakh crore (USD 719 billion) during the pandemic (since March 2020, through to 30 November 2021).

    In the meanwhile, more than 4.6 crore Indians have been estimated to have fallen into extreme poverty in 2020 (nearly half of the global new poor according to the United Nations).

    India added 40 billionaires during the last year but the number of poor doubled. The level of this inequality is so stark that the wealth of India’s 10 richest is enough to fund the school, higher education of every child for 25 years, say the authors of the report.

    Interestingly, a fifth of the increase in the wealth of India’s richest 100 families was accounted for by the surge in the fortunes of a single individual and business house – Adani. Gautam Adani’s net worth multiplied eight times in the space of one year, the Oxfam report says.

    Offering solutions

    The wealth inequality in India is a result of an economic system rigged in favour of the super-rich over the poor and marginalised, the report says, arguing that the richest 98 Indians own the same wealth as the bottom 552 million people, the report says.

    In this context, the report alludes to the abolition of ‘wealth tax’ in 2016. This abolition accompanied with steep cuts in corporate taxes and an increase in indirect taxation has removed the rich from being the primary source of tax revenue.

    The briefing advocates a one percent surcharge on the richest 10 percent of the Indian population to fund inequality combating measures such as higher investments in school education, universal healthcare, and social security benefits like maternity leaves, paid leaves and pension for all Indians.

    A 2021 OECD report for G-20 countries highlighted an inherent need to move beyond just improving individual taxes and looking at reformulating ‘tax systems’ to promote inclusive, sustainable, and equitable growth. “Unfortunately, not only has the taxation policy of the Indian government been pro-rich, it has also deprived India’s states of important fiscal resources—both particularly damaging in the context of the COVID-19 crisis,” the Oxfam report says.

    Sri Lankan fishermen restless

    OWSA Contributor
    -
    0
    Sri Lankan fishermen restless

    Inflation has added to the woes of fishing communities, already anguished by a series of environmental and business developments.

    Rising fuel prices have Sri Lanka’s fishermen up in arms. They say that this will cripple the fishing sector along with the damage done over the past years to the marine ecosystem.

    “We consider the continuous price revisions of fuel and even other essential commodities as a move to destablise the fisheries sector,” says Aruna Roshantha Fernando, president of the All-Ceylon Fisher-Folks Trade Union. “This will enable global companies to expand their territories making use of the port city to exploit the marine resources of the country,” he said.

    Sri Lanka’s runaway inflation has led to a huge hike in the price of essential foods. The fishermen say that families will not be able to purchase fish, an essential for Sri Lankan households, if they factor in the price of the fuel costs. “Selling a catch without considering the hike in fuel prices is not viable,” said a fisher trade union leader, emphasising that the present situation was exceptionally difficult.

    An alliance of Sri Lankan fishermen trade unions is scheduled to meet this week to map out plans.

    “We have been battered for nearly two years with a meagre income due to the (COVID-19) pandemic which has shattered the hopes of the community for a better living,” local media quoted Fernando as saying.

    The rise in the cost of fuel that they need to run their fishing boat engines deep into the waters of the Indian ocean is the latest in a series of setbacks that the fishing communities of the island nation have faced in the past five years.

    2021 oil spill

    Oil spilling from a sinking ship off the coast in June 2021 impacted their living together with the COVID-19 pandemic at that time. The had to venture out in the deep sea to get a catch, spending more fuel and yet, unable to find buyers for their catch. “People were then scared to buy the fish because they thought it was contaminated.”

    The oil has had its share of environmental damages.

    An UN Environment Programme (UNEP) official described the event as “the biggest environmental catastrophe to hit Sri Lanka since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.”

    According to the UNEP, the ship’s cargo included 25 tonnes of nitric acid, 348 tonnes of oil and up to 75 billion small plastic pellets. “The crisis could plague Sri Lanka for years,’ UNEP has said.

    The Sri Lankan government had then granted Sri Lankan Rs. 5,000 as a compensation to fisher families to tide over the crisis. That was at the height of the pandemic. Fernando feels that the offering was a pittance and an insult to the sector which is a vital cog of the country’s economy.

    Foreign fishing companies

    Fisher society representatives say that they have never been consulted on government plans to make new harbours. On the other hand, they allege, larger fishing companies from outside the country have had a say in the planning process for the new harbours that will need draft up to 40 feet, which they say, is an evidence of the government accommodating larger fishing vessels.

    They fear that this will pave the way for foreign entities to grab land along the coastal belt and establish their businesses in Sri Lanka.

    Fernando feels that such plans will turn the fishermen into cheap labourers of the owners of larger fishing vessels belonging to foreign companies to in the businesses.
    The fisher community has been calling on lawmakers to formulate a national policy for the fisheries sector which has been a major need to develop the sector.

    “We have been clamouring for a national policy to streamline and upgrade the sector which has enormous potential to promote and expand nautical tourism which is a dynamic and lucrative industry globally,” Fernando says.

    “The need to use new technology for precision and risk mitigation has been a long-felt need for the fisheries sector,” Fernando opines. “Law makers talk high about the country being surrounded by the seas and marine resources but have done pretty little to support the sector especially during tough times.”

     

    Image: Hippopx

    Sourced from hippox.com and licensed under Creative Commons Zero – CC0 

    One in two families in drought-affected Iraq need food assistance

    OWSA Contributor
    -
    0
    One in two families in drought-affected Iraq need food assistance

    Families in rural parts of the war-torn country say their only source of living is vanishing in front of their eyes as their lands are drying up and there is nothing they can do about it. This is all rooted in a water shortage crisis, says a research report from the Norwegian Refugee Council.

    The scale of suffering inflicted by drought on Iraq’s populations in the past year has been laid bare in new research by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

    The study shows that one in two families in drought-affected regions require food assistance because of drought, while one in five do not have sufficient food for everyone in the family.

    Communities across Iraq have faced damaging losses to their crops, livestock, and income. Children are eating less, and farmers and displaced populations are hit hardest.

    Key findings

    According to NRC’s research, which surveyed 2,800 households in drought-affected areas across the country. The study found that 37 per cent of wheat farmers and 30 per cent of barley farmers have suffered crop failure. Another 37 per cent of households have lost cattle, sheep or goats in the last six months, mainly due to insufficient water, inadequate feed or disease.

    The researchers have documented that harvests were at least 90 per cent below expectations and the average monthly income in six out of seven governorates surveyed has dropped lower than the monthly survival threshold.

    Samira (name changed), 46, has returned from displacement to Mosul to farm her land with two of her five children, but has already seen reductions in produce. “Our production has decreased due to water shortage recently, which also led to a decrease in our income… I can’t afford the necessary food for my family so I borrow money from my relatives or buy food on credit,” she said.

    Over the past few years, drought conditions, rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall have reflected the growing threat of climate change in the country. Water flow from upstream countries has also receded.

    “Our harvest has dropped due to drought. Our land was thriving but now it is losing its value day after day and no one seems to care about what farmers are facing. Our land used to produce 20 tonnes each season, now it’s no more than 10 or 11 tonnes,” said Osama, a 27-year-old farmer from Hawija.

    Water shortages

    Such extreme circumstances have forced people to leave their home, compounding the displacement crisis in Iraq. Of those surveyed, one in 15 households told NRC researchers that a family member had migrated in the last 30 days in search of work and income. Many of those had been in displacement at least once before, or had just returned home.

    Young people are particularly vulnerable. The research shows that 45 per cent of people aged 15-24 had left their farming communities to find a job in towns and cities, while 38 per cent have lost a job.

    The outlook for 2022 is worrying, with continued water shortages and drought conditions likely to devastate the coming farming season. This may increase families’ reliance on purchased water as well as poor hygiene practices, which could lead to disease outbreaks. There are signs of waves of displacement already taking place amid water scarcity, income losses, and rising food prices within farming communities.

    “Families are telling us they have to borrow money to eat amid soaring prices and dwindling savings. They say their only source of living is vanishing in front of their eyes. Their lands are drying up and there is nothing they can do about it. This is all rooted in a water shortage crisis,” said Maithree Abeyrathna, NRC’s Head of Programmes in Iraq.

    “We want to see solid water management plans to support communities badly hit and prevent future shocks, and these plans must be informed by farmers themselves.”

    The refugee aid organisation is also calling for international assistance to support livestock farmers and provide irrigation rehabilitation and drought tolerant seeds to reduce crop failure and crop losses. The Governments of Iraq and Kurdish Regional Government are encouraged to incorporate climate-mitigation strategies within national job creation efforts and advocate for water-sharing agreements to be upheld by upstream countries to prepare for the future effects of climate change in Iraq and continued drought conditions.

    ‘Nepal must scrap ageing diesel buses and trucks’

    SciDevNet
    -
    0
    ‘Nepal must scrap ageing diesel buses and trucks’

    Kathmandu ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, with the main source of pollution being its diesel-powered vehicles such as trucks and buses. Experts suggest Nepal must upgrade the diesel vehicles and put into place stricter laws to curb pollution in the country’s capital city.

    By Ranjit Devraj / SciDev.Net

    The rapidly deteriorating air quality in Nepal demands an overhaul of its over a quarter million diesel-powered buses and trucks as well as a drastic revision of the country’s vehicles mass emission standards, says a new study.

    On the morning of 5 January, the capital, Kathmandu, registered 438 on the Air Quality Index (AQI) — 12 times more than the WHO’s suggested maximum limit of 35. The composite measurement takes into account particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulphur, nitrogen dioxide and ozone.

    “Using experiment-based emission factors measured on the roadside, we were able to build a comprehensive diesel vehicle emission inventory for the country (Nepal) covering the period from 1989 to 2018,” said Bhupendra Das, main study author and researcher at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, in Potsdam, Germany, and at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu.

    During that period, Nepal’s diesel consumption in the transport sector went up 13 times to 892,770 kilolitres annually, according to the study published online last month in Science of the Total Environment.

    In building an emissions inventory for Kathmandu, Das and his team encountered large uncertainties due to differing emission factors based on vehicle category, fuel quality and maintenance. “We took into account factors like total distance travelled, fuel consumed, mileage, driving conditions, climatic factors, load and the age of the diesel-powered vehicles that were studied,” he said.

    Scrapping old diesel vehicles is the way

    The team focused on four major pollutants — carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, black carbon and PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns). The researchers found most diesel-powered buses and other public transport vehicles deployed in Kathmandu are old and poorly maintained. Low vehicle speeds, below 20 kilometres per hour, old vehicles with high mileage, the narrow and hilly roads of the Kathmandu Valley, and poor fuel quality were significant contributors to carbon monoxide and other pollutants.

    Fuel quality tests showed that 80 per cent of the diesel sampled exceeded the sulphur limits of 350 milligrams per litre as laid down by the public sector Nepal Oil Corporation.
    Alok Sagar Gautam, assistant professor at the physics department of the HNB Garhwal University in Uttarakhand state, India, said that while landlocked Nepal imports diesel and other petroleum products from India, “the origins of sulphur and other contaminants in retail fuel are totally different in India and Nepal”.

    India has ordered the scrapping of all diesel vehicles older than 10 years from the start of the year. Such a drastic move may be difficult for Nepal to follow. But Das suggests a lowering of the present upper limit of 20 years to 15 with emphasis on strict monitoring of older vehicles for emissions.

    “Because this study covers both the historical emission factors as well as recent ones, it is valuable for the development of an emission inventory for India and other countries in the SouthAsia region,” Gautam said. “What is needed is a scaled-up project covering the whole region.”

    Previous research

    Previous studies, such as one published in 2020 in Aerosol and Atmospheric Chemistry, had also shown that poor quality fuel, high traffic congestion, old and poorly maintained diesel vehicles were responsible for a large increase in transport-related emissions in recent years.

    The 2020 study found that timely servicing and maintenance of diesel vehicles could lower black carbon emission by 1.4 times and PM 2.5 by almost three times. It recommended a policy of mandatory, routine maintenance of the diesel fleet to systematically reduce emissions in the Kathmandu Valley.

    Das suggests a different approach, however. “The present scenario in Kathmandu and in the rest of Nepal, a least-developed country, demands practical, cost-effective solutions to quickly cut emissions. These could start with repair and maintenance of roads, improvement of fuel quality and switching the ageing diesel fleet to at least Euro IV standards,” he said.

    Nepal’s nationally determined contribution submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change envisages promotion of advanced, electric, hybrid, hydrogen-powered, and other types of vehicles running on clean fuels. By 2025 at least 25 per cent of all private passenger vehicles sales and 20 per cent of all public transport vehicles will be electric-powered, the commitments say.

    “The concept of climate-resilient economic growth through an improved transport sector is being taken seriously,” said Das. “It is now inescapable that highly polluting and obsolete transport vehicles burning diesel be phased out through scrappage policies that involve compensations or other schemes with incentives for vehicle owners.”

     

    This piece has been sourced from SciDev.Net

     

    Representative image from Wikimedia: Black smoke emissions from a vehicle’s exhaust are a key contributing factor to air pollution and climate change.

    Photograph by: Emmanuel Kwizera

    Ecological concerns emerge as Nepal’s bird census gets underway

    OWSA Contributor
    -
    0
    Ecological concerns emerge as Nepal’s bird census gets underway

    Emerging global problems like climate change, urbanization and pollution are causing changes to bird migratory patterns and their arrival in Nepal.

    The endangered woolly neck stork, called Lovipapi Garud in Nepali, has been spotted in the Mini Kositappu wetland area in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu.

    A team led by wildlife photographer and bird watcher Sanjay Tha Shrestha sighted the bird during the mid-winter water bird-count and searched it across the area from the Shalinadi River area in Kathmandu to Bhaktapur.

    A total of 25 Steppe Eagles, known as Gomayu Mahachil in Nepali, were also sighted during the census. This is another endangered bird species.

    The team counted the native birds found in the area, prominent among which is the winter waterfowl arriving to Nepal’s wetlands from Siberia.

    The team led by Tha Shrestha included bird watchers and wildlife photographers counted the birds in collaboration with the Nepal Ornithologists Association, Wetland International, Himalayan Nature, Zoological Society of London, Bird Conservation Association, Pokhara Bird Society and various other organisations.

    Water-birds arrive in Nepal on their annual flight every year from Mongolia, Siberia, Tibet and Europe to avoid freezing winter in their native land and in search for food.

    Climate change, pollution, urbanisation and hunting

    Climate change, which has emerged as a global problem, has also affected bird migration.

    According to Shrestha, the birds have been counted to document the recent migration of birds to various wetland and coastal areas of Nepal.

    Shrestha noticed that some bird species observed in previous years have not been seen this year while some new species of birds have also been spotted during the census.

    “Bird habitats are becoming endangered. In such a situation, the birds seen this year may not be seen in the next year,” Tha Shrestha said.

    Sugam Tamrakar, another wildlife photographer involved in the census exercise spoke of urbanization and pollution causing changes in bird migration, besides climate change.

    Hunting birds for game, though prohibited, is rampant in the country and so is the damage to their habitats due to urbanisation. Local government bodies have yet to come up with conservation policy, though Nepal receives respectable funding for wildlife conservation.

    “Due to the rapid urbanization around the river and the pollution it has caused, there has been a shortage of fish, frogs and other aquatic animals that the birds feed on,” Tha Shrestha said. “These are the reasons for the reduction in the number of migrating birds,”

    The pace of urbanisation has not been matched with regulation, he said, citing how the illegal exploitation of riverine products, including sand was leading to a decline in the declining number of water-birds.

    According to Tha Shrestha, the habitat of waterfowl is also at risk due to dumping of garbage in the riverside, water pollution and destruction of bird habitat in the Manohara River.

    Bird watchers’ delight

    Altogether, 106 different species of birds were also found in the area, Tha Shrestha said.
    Nepal lies at the confluence of four eco-biological domains, and its vast altitude difference invites a large variety of birds from over the world. The country is a bird-watcher’s delight.

    Ornithologists and bird watchers across the globe have documented upwards of 9,000 different species of bird species. But there are varying claims on the numbers of bird species found in the country.

    More than 150 bird species have gone extinct over the last five centuries across the globe and over 1,400 bird species are threatened with extinction. 43 bird species have been classified as threatened, though Nepal alone has put 168 bird species on the list of nationally threatened bird species.

    While some put the number at 880, there is also another estimation based on sightings over the years that puts the total numbers at 915 bird species – which is far more that in the United States. This is largely attributed to Nepal’s diverse terrain that soars from 70 metres to nearly 8,850 metres above sea level within a distance of barely 100 km as the bird flies!

    1...194195196...203Page 195 of 203
    Bangladesh

    China Urges Investment Climate Reforms as Interest in Bangladesh Grows

    China has grown into one of Bangladesh’s most significant economic partners. In FY 2023–24, Bangladesh imported goods worth $16.637 billion from China, accounting for 26.4 per cent of the country’s total imports, indicating the growing demand for Chinese products.
    Accountability

    Muhammad Yunus’ Resignation Threat a Bid to Consolidate Power

    The army, which played a key role in ushering in the interim setup, has grown wary of Yunus's intentions.
    Global Governance

    Global Leaders Pledge $170 Million to WHO at 2025 World Health Assembly, Marking Leap Towards Sustainable Financing

    The commitments mark a key milestone in WHO’s ongoing Investment Round, a critical drive to secure sustainable financing and strengthen the organisation’s capacity to respond to global health needs.

    Editor Picks

    Climate Change

    Hot Topics

    About OWSA

    OWSA aims to be the place global citizens turn to for news and views concerning human development from across SouthAsia – the kind of news untouched by the mainstream media. We do not sell fear.

    Follow Us

    © 2021 All Rights Reserved. www.owsa.in