Humanity in need of Climate Responsible Community, Climate Compatible Development.

“Nature does not discriminate between a rich super power or a poor nation. We must stop being a slave to consumption,” says our new ClimateChamp SM Farid Uddin Akhter Farid: http://bit.ly/climatechampfarid

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International Mother Earth Day celebrated Chittagong City Bangladesh, by sasrai volunteer team appeal to all- save a bit, reserve, preserve, rejuvenate and conserve resources – Wish the Peace for each, to ensure Rights for all – Harmony of Nature. sasrai ONLY THE PATH TO SAVE MOTHER PLANET EARTH, NATURE – ONLY THE PATH TO Eliminate Racial Discrimination – END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, CHILDREN—–etc. sasrai ONLY THE PATH TO END VULNEARABILITY, HUNGER, DISASTER, CLIMATE Threat. Each second, minute, hour day needed to be spent considering earth, environment and humanity.

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2011 – A Year of Weather Extremes, with More to Come

Analysis by Janet Larsen and Sara Rasmussen*

On a drought-hit farm in Syria.

Credit:Caterina Donattini/IPS
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WASHINGTON, Feb 1, 2012 (IPS) – The global average temperature in 2011 was 14.52 degrees Celsius (58.14 degrees Fahrenheit). According to NASA scientists, this was the ninth warmest year in 132 years of recordkeeping, despite the cooling influence of the La Niña atmospheric and oceanic circulation pattern and relatively low solar irradiance.

Since the 1970s, each subsequent decade has gotten hotter – and nine of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred in the 21st century.

Each year’s average temperature is determined by a number of factors, including solar activity and the status of the El Niño/La Niña phenomenon. But heat-trapping gases that have accumulated in the atmosphere, largely from the burning of fossil fuels, have become a dominant force, pushing the Earth’s climate out of its normal range.

The planet is now close to 0.8 degrees Celsius warmer than it was a century ago. Hidden within annual averages and expected variability are startling instances of new temperature and rainfall records in many parts of the world – weather extremes that would once be considered anomalies but that now risk becoming the new norm as the Earth heats up.

Worldwide, 2011 was the second wettest year on record over land. (The record was set in 2010, which also tied 2005 as the warmest overall.) Heavier deluges are expected on a warmer planet; each temperature rise of one degree Celsius increases the amount of moisture the atmosphere can hold by about seven percent. Higher temperatures also can fuel stronger storms.

Brazil started the year with the deadliest natural disaster in its history: in January, a month’s worth of rain fell in a single day in Rio de Janeiro state, leading to floods and landslides that killed at least 900 people. That same month, flooding in eastern Australia covered an area nearly the size of France and Germany combined. Overall, it was the third wettest year in Australia since recordkeeping began in 1900.

The most expensive weather disaster of 2011 was the flooding in Thailand in the second half of the year, which ultimately submerged one third of the country’s provinces. At 45 billion dollars worth of damage – equal to 14 percent of Thailand’s gross domestic product – it was also the costliest natural catastrophe the country ever experienced.

In October, more than 100 people died as two storms – one from the Pacific and the other from the Caribbean – pounded Central America with rain. In western El Salvador, nearly 1.5 metres of rain fell over 10 days. And in December, Tropical Storm Washi hit the Philippines, creating flash floods that killed more than 1,200 people.

The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season had 19 named storms. Hurricane Irene brought extreme flooding to the northeastern United States in August, with total damages topping 7.3 billion dollars. The year was the wettest on the books for seven states in the country, while it was among the driest for several others.

Although the extremes appear to balance out, making for a near-average year, in fact a record 58 percent of the contiguous United States was either extremely wet or extremely dry in 2011.

Indeed, as is expected on a hotter planet, while some parts of the globe were overwhelmed by rain in 2011, others were distinguished by dryness. A severe drought in the Horn of Africa that began in 2010 devolved into a crisis situation in 2011, characterised by crop failure, exorbitant food prices, and widespread malnutrition. Exacerbated by chronic political instability and a belated humanitarian response, the death toll may have exceeded 50,000 people.

Back in North America, a drought that began in late 2010 and worsened over 2011 led hundreds of farmers from northern Mexico to march to that nation’s capital in January 2012 to draw the government’s attention to their suffering. Nearly 900,000 hectares of farmland and 1.7 million head of livestock were lost due to the dryness – the worst in Mexico’s 70+ years of data collecting.

Scorching heat, drought, and wildfires across the U.S. Southern Plains and Southwest caused farm, ranch, and forestry damages that exceeded 10 billion dollars in 2011.

Wichita Falls, Texas, experienced 100 days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit – far more than the previous record of 79 days set in 1980. Oklahoma and Texas had the hottest summers of any states in history, breaking by a wide margin the record set in 1934 during the Dust Bowl.

James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, writes that the likelihood of such extreme heat waves “was negligible prior to the recent rapid global warming”. Texas also had its lowest rainfall on record. Invigorated by the heat and drought, wildfires burned across an estimated 1.5 million hectares in the state.

For the continental United States, summer 2011 was the second warmest in history. Nearly three times more weather stations hit record highs than lows in 2011, in line with a trend of increasing heat extremes. Whereas in the middle of the 20th century there were close to the same number of record highs and lows – as would be expected absent a strong warming trend – in the 1990s highs began outpacing lows. In the first decade of this century, there were twice as many record highs as record lows.

Worldwide, seven countries set all-time temperature highs in 2011: Armenia, China, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Republic of the Congo, and Zambia.

Interestingly, Zambia also was the only country to experience an all- time low temperature when it dropped to minus nine degrees Celsius in June. Kuwait experienced the year’s highest temperature, with thermometers measuring a searing 53.3 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth during the month of August.

Even more threatening to health than daytime highs are extra hot nighttime minimum temperatures, which do not allow any respite from the heat. The world’s hottest 24-hour minimum ever – 41.7 degrees Celsius – was recorded in Oman in June 2011.

Even the Arctic had a notably warm year, with the 2011 temperature a record 2.2 degrees Celsius above the mean for 1951-80. Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost U.S. city, spent a record-breaking 86 consecutive days at or above freezing, far more than the previous record of 68 days set in 2009.

In fact, over the last 50 years temperatures in the Arctic have risen more than twice as fast as the global average, melting ice and thawing permafrost. Arctic sea ice has been shrinking more rapidly, falling to its lowest volume and second lowest area on record during the 2011 summer melt season.

With the summertime ice loss outpacing wintertime recovery, Arctic sea ice has thinned, making it increasingly vulnerable to further melting. Scientists expect a completely ice-free summertime Arctic by 2030 or even earlier.

As the reflective ice disappears, it exposes the dark ocean, which more readily absorbs solar energy, further warming the region. This sets forth a climate cascade, accelerating ice loss both in the ocean as well as on nearby Greenland, which contains enough ice to raise global sea level by 7 metres if it completely melted. The warming also thaws Arctic permafrost, releasing carbon dioxide and methane, further accelerating global warming.

Even without fully incorporating such climate feedback, models show that continued reliance on fossil fuels could raise the global temperature by up to seven degrees Celsius by the end of this century. Such an elevated temperature would amplify temperature and precipitation extremes enough to make the weather events of recent years look tame in comparison.

Only a rapid, dramatic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions can hold future temperatures in a range bearing any resemblance to what civilization has known.

*This article was originally published by the Earth Policy Institute. Data and additional resources at http://www.earth-policy.org.

wish the peace for each creature in universe

To ensure Rights for all
save a bit, reserve, preserve, conserve resources

Let’s achieve significant change in mindset, behavior and attitude combat Climate Crisis, Reduce Risk & Poverty, save Bio-diversity – Peace for Humanity……as the way to achieve desired goal – sasrai – work locally-serve globally, initiative local-outcome global

AIMED AT SUSTAINABLE LIVING, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Please Keep a hand written sasrai-Movement Poster — in any discussion area
Let’s have zeal to self tune in sasrai-Movement policy and be committed to save resource and reduce solid waste in our daily living – no matter how small it is. Please relentless to voice from each corner across the globe
• Please, save a drop of water daily, during all water related activities
• Please, plant at least a Native tree annually at own home or community
• Please, keep off electric appliances one minute daily
• Please, suspend travel by personal car once a day
• Please, keep a day in a week luxury free
• Please, do not throw away the waste wherever you like
• Please, No more junk food
• Please, save one minute to think on Climate Change and Environment
• You Can Reduce CO2 Emissions, Plant Native Trees Worldwide
• You could uphold the movement instantly using sasrai-Movement appeal at the bottom of your all printed material
Let’s we try to save one Taka/dollar/pound/yen …………FROM daily expenditure/ LUXURY combat the CLIMATE CHANGE and the sequences

http://sasrai.wordpress.com/sasrai-movement/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8450962401

http://www.facebook.com/Pallipathagar

http://sasrai.blogspot.com/

Let’s be a desired friend to all creature, humanity, environment, earth
Plant for planet, water for world, environment for entire
sasrai –sustainable augmentation, solicited restraint, animated integrity

Environmental Expose: Eliminating loopholes in international climate-change policy

The United Nations Conference of the Parties’ 17th gathering (COP17) has taken place in Durban, South Africa. As with previous events in Bali, Copenhagen and Cancún, the mainstream media (and even certain commentators in Resurgence) will bemoan the slow pace of progress in light of the severity of the crises we face. But this, to borrow George Bush’s immortal utterance, is to “misunderestimate” the task in hand. Policies that were conceived to be ‘climate positive’, such as carbon trading and carbon offsets, have been developed in such a way they exacerbate climate change, and much of the perceived delay is due to environmental NGOs and Indigenous peoples working hard to expose the injustices.

Take biofuels as an example: one can be forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief on hearing that a series of massive new biofuel power stations are being planned for the UK. Many people think that because they are labelled ‘bio’ they are sustainable. But nothing could be further from the truth. These power stations will be fuelled by palm oil shipped to the UK from the tropics, and palm oil production has been proven to worsen climate change. Sadly, policy making that was supposed to address climate change has in fact provided massive subsidies to promote biofuels, resulting in the expansion of industrial monocultures, GM trees, destruction of natural forests to make way for palm oil plantations, and land grabs as investors cash in on these profitable new markets.
Unfortunately, the UK government now makes it even easier for corporations to get planning permission for major infrastructure such as biofuel power stations, and to further limit the ways in which local authorities and residents can refuse these developments. The UK’s largest proposed palm oil power station in Bristol was recently approved by the government, despite more than a thousand objections and strong opposition from 20 MPs, Bristol City Council and many NGOs.
These kinds of policy loophole are happening all over the world. In Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state, Indigenous people are being relocated from their homelands into ‘Sustainable Rural Cities’ to make way for vast biofuel plantations, forest carbon offset projects and carbon trading. As it turns out, the Sustainable Rural Cities are nothing more than “insultingly diminutive” prefabricated houses erected on bare hillsides, with no access to land to grow corn for tortillas, showing a gross lack of cultural awareness – and this in a state that is committed to the implementation of UN Millennium Development Goals.
Jeff Conant of the Global Justice Ecology Project spoke with social psychologist Abraham Rivera Borrego about the Rural Sustainable Cities programme. In Rivera’s opinion, “It’s unbelievable, the capacity capitalism has to absorb everything, every discourse, every concept. Now we’re seeing that it’s absorbed even that concept of respect for Nature. ‘Green capitalism’ has been invented, with the idea that biofuels will stop the burning of fossil fuels. But we don’t seem to understand that as long as we don’t change the model, the exploitation of the Earth is the same. The sale of carbon credits is displacing communities from their homes, so that Japanese or American companies can buy these spaces and continue polluting. It’s a very serious contradiction.”
Rivera continued, “We spoke with the municipal representative of Jaltenango, Mexico, which is where they’re going to resettle the people from the jungle of El Triunfo, and he told us, ‘Look, I’m going to tell you the truth. What we want is to clear out the reserve of El Triunfo, for carbon credits.’ Just like that.”
So when we watch the news reports from COP17 in Durban, with the TV reporter saying that there’s little progress being made, we need to remember that behind the scenes are NGOs and Indigenous peoples actively fighting to uphold the rights of communities and Mother Earth in the face of the might of corporate lobbying, government inertia and an insidious form of Orwellian doublespeak where a term like REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) can and often does result in the opposite scenario.
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk
http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

wish the peace for each creature in universe

To ensure Rights for all
save a bit, reserve, preserve, conserve resources

Let’s achieve significant change in mindset, behavior and attitude combat Climate Crisis, Reduce Risk & Poverty, save Bio-diversity – Peace for Humanity……as the way to achieve desired goal – sasrai – work locally-serve globally, initiative local-outcome global

AIMED AT SUSTAINABLE LIVING, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Please Keep a hand written sasrai-Movement Poster — in any discussion area
Let’s have zeal to self tune in sasrai-Movement policy and be committed to save resource and reduce solid waste in our daily living – no matter how small it is. Please relentless to voice from each corner across the globe
• Please, save a drop of water daily, during all water related activities
• Please, plant at least a Native tree annually at own home or community
• Please, keep off electric appliances one minute daily
• Please, suspend travel by personal car once a day
• Please, keep a day in a week luxury free
• Please, do not throw away the waste wherever you like
• Please, No more junk food
• Please, save one minute to think on Climate Change and Environment
• You Can Reduce CO2 Emissions, Plant Native Trees Worldwide
• You could uphold the movement instantly using sasrai-Movement appeal at the bottom of your all printed material
Let’s we try to save one Taka/dollar/pound/yen …………FROM daily expenditure/ LUXURY combat the CLIMATE CHANGE and the sequences

http://sasrai.wordpress.com/sasrai-movement/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8450962401

http://www.facebook.com/Pallipathagar

http://sasrai.blogspot.com/

Let’s be a desired friend to all creature, humanity, environment, earth
Plant for planet, water for world, environment for entire
sasrai –sustainable augmentation, solicited restraint, animated integrity

‘Poverty far from being erased in society’

By Tim Mou Hui

Singapore Poverty (AFP file photo)
It is never a good time to talk about poverty.
With the economic contagion in Europe dominating headlines, it is no wonder that little attention is given to the millions across the world who fall below poverty lines.
Any global financial turmoil, however, will worsen the lot of the poor and those living precariously close to poverty, so it is worth remembering for a moment the plight of those struggling to survive in a world that is still undeniably affluent, despite its current economic woes.
Poverty is not some faceless entity; poverty is real. It is all around us, often, right in our backyards.
That is perhaps even more important for impressionable students like myself living Singapore, where poverty is not always acknowledged forthrightly by the government. Singapore’s former representative to the United Nations, Kishore Mahbubani, once declared that “there are no homeless, destitute or starving people in Singapore. Poverty has been eradicated.”
Yet poverty exists amidst the economic bustle of our small country. An elderly woman, back hunched over, trawls through dumpsters for cardboard to sell for a few measly dollars, barely enough to buy a simple meal or two.
A young mother who stays home to look after her children and ill husband is forced to put aside her dignity by living on the goodwill of relatives. A beggar who hides in inconspicuous corners outside malls to evade detection — begging is an offence here — depends on the charity of passing shoppers to get by each day.
Poverty may have been erased from official rhetoric, but it is far from being erased in society.
I am fortunate to have taken a course this past semester called “Development, Underdevelopment, and Poverty,” offered by Assistant Professor of Political Science John A. Donaldson of the School of Social Sciences at the Singapore Management University (SMU).
Together with 35 other students, I learnt that development and poverty issues are far more complex and multi-faceted than we have been conditioned to believe. They go beyond the simple economic dimensions that policy-makers are comfortable dealing with.
That this course is offered in a university whose primary focus is on the world of business and finance provides a beautiful contrast; it reminds us of the struggles of the impoverished, even as we engage in our often individualistic pursuits of good jobs with ever-higher salaries.
But the best lesson I learnt is that global poverty is not a hopeless situation. My classmates from India, China, Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, and of course, Singapore, shared their experiences with projects in their home country and region that have lifted the lives of the poor and destitute. Many of us are involved in such projects ourselves, in some cases even leading them.
While these certainly have not and will not solve the global poverty challenge on their own, it is difficult to deny the real impact these projects have had on individual communities. Small projects can have big impact. The class was a cosmopolitan forum of ideas looking to understand a cosmopolitan issue through grassroots perspectives.
The most important outcome of this course is not in the substantive theories and content on development and poverty. It is not in the grades, something students in Singapore are all too obsessed with. It is in inspiring us to make a difference to the lives of those suffering from the anguish of poverty, a class of 36 at a time.
And we do not need to look far to help. Curing the world of poverty may be a daunting task, but improving the lives of just one individual or household in our community is a victory in itself. Let’s not lose sight of the few, just because we cannot help the many. And what better time to start than during the proverbial Season of Giving — Christmas.
It is always a good time to talk about poverty.
The writer is an undergraduate at the School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University majoring in Political Science and Corporate Communication.

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT URINE THERAPY TREATMENT

There are names and address of hundreds of patients recovered from different incurable diseases in the two famous bulky books “Manav Mootra” written by late Raojibhai Patel and “The Water of Life” of J. W. Armstrong, but I am highly surprised when people after reading those books come to me to get guidance to start U. T. for treating their diseases ! Hence the sole aim of writing SHIVAMBU GITA and putting it in your hands is to impart you the maximum practical information about Shivambu. So that you may become self-reliant in respect of treating any kind of disease you come across without consulting anybody; or even without meeting me. That is why even though I have got testimonials of hundreds of patients of India as well as of several countries, still with a view to make you self reliant in­stead of reproducing the thrilling recovery stories I have given priority to the detailed instructions of U. T. treat­ment and its timely significance in the present genera­tion. By reading which you will not only get rid of your diseases, but will be transformed into a Urine Therapist and a propagator of it. Of course I do expect that after receiving the benefits of U. T. you will oblige me by send­ing your experiences by letters, so that other patients can get inspiration from the same.

For Shivambu devotees there is no other harmless panacea than Shivambu in the world. Hence the first condition of Shivambu Treatment is that one should commence. U. T. after relinquishing all medicines, non-vegetarian food and intoxicating things like Bidi, Cigarette, Tobacco and liquor etc. However there are two exceptions. Patients suffering from heart trouble and dia­betes cannot discontinue medicines abruptly. As such they may drink Shivambu along with their usual medi­cines and if they realize that Shivambu suits them, then they can reduce the dose of medicines gradually in a phased manner and increase the dose of SHIVAMBU. Thus in a couple of months they can get rid of the medicines completely.

Peculiarities of U. T. Treatment

1. It has been proved by experience that almost all the diseases are cured by U. T. provided it is done systematically without spoiling the case by harmful medicines and treatments.

2. This treatment is simple like household remedies, can be taken without any expenditure and without any danger or risk.

3. There is no need of any pathological tests of blood, urine, stools etc. in order to diagnose the disease. Most wonderful thing is despite passing blood, pus, sugar or any other abnormality in our urine the same urine cures our disease You all know the popular maxim “Diamond cuts diamond” or “poison kills poison”. Hence there is no need of testing urine.

4. External application of urine upon any injury or wounds arising out of cuts or burns gives instant relief and the wounds get dried and healed soon. Even the marks of the wounds would not remain on the body ! Hidden injury due to sprain or swelling in any part of the body gets cured by Shivambu.

5. U. T. Treatment is very effective in counteracting the venom of snake, scorpion, poison due to mad-dog’s bite or intoxicating influence of opium, brown sugar and other nasty drugs. It’s the most harmless yet powerful detoxifying agent for drug addicts. The drug addicts can’t afford to remain ignorant about the most beneficial use of Shivambu for detoxifying their brain, body and whole system by this simple yet most effective therapy !!

Obstructions In Shivambu Treatment & How to Over­come Them :

While practicing U. T. two particular obstructions arise due to misunderstandings connected with Urine, but they can be removed easily with right approach. First difficulty is the age old conception prevailing in our society that Urine is the poisonous and dirty excreta of the body. But this fallacy is far from truth, as proved by the scientists of different advanced countries, on the basis of successful research and experiments done upon human Urine. This aspect is already discussed by me earlier. Second difficulty comes on account of foul smell and disagreeable taste, though it tastes much better than beer and wine ! This difficulty also can be overcome by taking simple food free from chilly and condiments, like milk and fruits – which in turn purifies the color, smell and taste of Urine which will resemble almost like water. In the beginning you may add equal amount of water while drinking it and you won’t feel the disagreeable taste of it. If any person or child has too much repulsion about it he can mix honey or syrup along with water in urine for a couple of days. Thereafter you will get into the habit of drinking it without adding anything.

… continued in next article “Method of Massage with Old Urine”

Dear DHIMANT JI,

I’ve studied ‘URINE THERAPY’ and practiced it for my asthma issue when in college and been healed.

During college, I was involved in assembling an electronic biofeedback monitor which helped oneself to relax by measuring skin resistance and conveying an audible but pleasant tone. This was a ‘BIO-FEEDBACK’ monitor.

I also read about ‘BIO-FEEDBACK’ for assisting oneself in moving into ALPHA WAVES.

I understood that any involuntary action of the human body could be now influenced.

Much later, when I designed Electronic control systems, I realised that ‘URINE THERAPY’ was about giving ‘FEEDBACK’ to the body, which is how it made corrections to itself and overcame imbalances.

Though not obvious, the body does not know some of what is happening within itself and relies on signals and information by reflection.

For serious ailments, the urine is fermented and it stinks.

BIOSANITIZER (TM) can solve this issue and the urine can even then be flavoured with spices such as Cinnamon, Saffron, Clove, Cardamom, honey and mixed with green tea too.

Cheers

Such adjustments are possible only with INDIAN KNOW WHY, which makes common KNOW HOW powerful.

Best,

Shantharam Shenai

http://india.ashoka.org/fellow/shantharam-umanath-shenai

Dhimant Joshi

Amazon Turtles – Illegal Protein for the Poor, Delicacy for the Rich

By Mario Osava

A large part of the eggs laid by turtles on the beaches of the Xingu river are lost due to different causes.

Credit:Mario Osava/IPS
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BAJO XINGU, Brazil, Dec 19, 2011 (IPS) – “Many people lie” about the common practice of poaching turtles to eat or sell, said a man renowned for his fishing skills who lives on the banks of the Xingu river in Brazil’s eastern Amazon jungle region.

He is an illustration of the risks of engaging in the illegal capture of turtles: he has been fined a total of 45,000 reals (24,000 dollars) by the environmental authorities, a staggering sum for local people.

On the last occasion, he was fined for taking eight Giant Amazon river turtles (Podocnemis expansa). “There were only five of them, and I was going to let the two little ones go and only eat three, but they fined me for eight,” he complained to IPS.

To pay the steep fine, the fisherman, who preferred to remain anonymous, must rely on his income from extracting latex, used for making natural rubber, from rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) which are abundant in the forests of Bajo Xingu.

Brazilian law bans capturing turtles and their eggs; the only exception is for indigenous peoples within their territories. But the law fails to recognise the survival needs of traditional riverside communities and the descendants of African slaves who hunt for subsistence. Offenders incur heavy fines and are sometimes even arrested.

This is neither rational nor just, says biologist Juarez Pezzuti, a professor at the Federal University of Pará, a northern Amazon jungle state.

Communities of poor riverside dwellers face draconian penalties for their traditional subsistence activities, which hardly threaten turtles in comparison with commercial hunting, he said, adding that fishing of truly endangered species is tolerated at the same time.

Furthermore, since 1992, farming of two turtle species most used for human food, the Giant Amazon turtle and the tracajá or yellow-spotted river turtle (Podocnemis unifilis) has been encouraged, to supply restaurants authorised to offer their customers turtle meat.

Through its Amazon Turtle Project, Brazil’s national environment authority, IBAMA, collects and protects millions of turtle hatchlings in their first weeks of life, to prevent their depredation on the beaches where they hatch, before releasing them into rivers.

But it donates up to 10 percent of the hatchlings to officially recognised turtle farmers. In the case of the yellow-spotted river turtle, up to 20 percent of hatchlings may be handed over.

Hundreds of turtle farms have sprung up without any noticeable reduction of pressure on the turtle populations from hunting and illegal trade. What facts are known indicate that little or nothing has been achieved towards the intended goals: the recovery of reproductive rates and a decrease in the risk of extinction.

Turtle farming for the restaurant trade should be banned, as it transfers to the private sector wild fauna, defined in the constitution as public property that cannot be appropriated, said Pezzuti.

The private turtle farmers are treated completely differently from the riverside dwellers, marking an apparent class distinction. The farmed turtle is served up as a rare delicacy to the patrons of posh restaurants, while the law comes down hard on small-time forest poachers.

And there is another kind of discrimination going on. Turtle meat produced with factory farming techniques, with the creatures taken from their habitat and fattened in captivity in artificial ponds, is granted legal status – unlike the product hunted in the wild, or the potential raising of turtles in their natural habitat.

Modifying the laws that fail to recognise turtle hunting for subsistence so that they allow sustainable catches for food would be an important step towards more effective conservation of turtles and other wildlife, Pezzuti argues.

He also said enforcement of the law is failing, because it is impossible to have enough inspectors in the vast Amazon region. He pointed, meanwhile, to successful examples of participative management in Costa Rica and Ecuador, using turtle eggs from nests trampled by other females, or at risk from river floods.

The ban on turtle hunting frustrates the collection of reliable statistics, sets the local population in opposition to environmental authorities, and hampers integration between traditional and academic knowledge, to the detriment of effective management, the biology professor said.

In order to preserve and even increase turtle populations in the Amazon jungle, Pezzuti proposes including riverside communities as participants in their management. There are community initiatives that have succeeded in recovering populations of these species, but if people are barred from legally enjoying the results, cohesion and long-term management are weakened, he said.

Most of the eggs laid by turtles on beaches in areas like Tabuleiro do Embaubal, a set of more than 100 islands on the final stretch of the Xingu river, never hatch because of flooding of the nests, excessive temperatures and various other causes.

Controlled selective collection of eggs from the most vulnerable nests would not affect the turtles’ reproduction, Pezzuti said.

Turtles are prolific breeders, laying over 100 eggs in most of their nests, a reproductive strategy for ensuring the survival of the species in the face of mass mortality from the elements and natural enemies, like seagulls, vultures, other reptiles and fish.

A tiny percentage of turtle hatchlings reach adulthood. But this situation can favour management: taking a few careful measures against predation losses can ensure rapid multiplication of the species.

Over the past three decades, IBAMA’s Amazon Turtle Project has demonstrated the success of this practice by protecting turtle nests and gathering and raising hatchlings, to give them a survival advantage when they are released into the wild. Predation on the beaches has been minimised, and the turtle populations have made a comeback in many parts of the rainforest.

For poor riverside dwellers, the meat and eggs of Amazon turtles are a much-needed source of protein.

A 2007 study by Maria de Jesus Rodrigues, a professor at the Federal Rural University of Amazonia, and Luciane de Moura, a fisheries engineer, found a very high protein content in wild turtle meat: 79 percent of dry weight, much higher than in beef or in farmed turtles.

But changing the law is difficult. Those in favour of reform are disorganised and scattered, in contrast with the rising tide of environmental activists who will no doubt oppose any relaxation of the ban. And the environmental crimes law, which stiffened penalties, was enacted relatively recently, in 1998. (END)

CLIMATE CHANGE Waiting for the “Heavens to Weep”

By Ignatius Banda

More than 70 percent of Africans – the majority of whom are women –rely on farming for survival.

Credit:Ignatius Banda/IPS
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BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Dec 20, 2011 (IPS) – Duduzile Sibanda takes a break from preparing her long stretch of land for her maize crop in rural Mberengwa, in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province. She wipes her brow under the scorching sun and looks upwards. The sparse clouds are a cause of concern as she studies the sky and wonders aloud when the “heavens will weep.”

A smallholder farmer all her life, the 57-year-old grandmother is worried about the late rainfall this planting season. Even the indigenous knowledge she has used all her life to study the seasons has failed her. Planting season here usually begins in October with the rains, but in early December they are yet to fall.

“We are headed for another drought,” she muses with palpable frustration.

After last year’s poor harvest Sibanda does not wish to contemplate another year of low crop yield, especially here in the rural areas where villagers grow their own food.

Sibanda finds herself at the centre of growing climate change concerns that have altered cropping seasons, turning long-followed planting cycles on their head. Traditionally planting season in Zimbabwe begins in early October.

“We have always studied the sky to know when the season starts. We do not know anymore,” Sibanda tells IPS.

Jennifer Nkomo, Sibanda’s neighbour, says she is all too aware about the threat of poor harvests and fears the delayed rains could mean she will be lining up for food assistance.

“What we have always wanted is to be able to feed ourselves but without the rains this won’t happen and we cannot afford to curse the skies,” Nkomo says, expressing the frustration that has become palpable here among smallholder farmers.

“We only want the skies to open,” she says.

But when the rains do come, the levels are not the same as they have been in the past. According to the Zimbabwe Meteorological Service Department, “below normal to normal” rainfall began in Midlands province on Dec. 18, more than two months after they were expected to start.

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), which is working with the Zimbabwean government to formulate a climate change policy, says early research on the impact of climate change suggests the country will have to cope with changing rainfall patterns, temperature increases and more extreme weather events, like floods and droughts.

CDKN says that longer and more frequent droughts could substantially reduce crop yields, including that of maize – the country’s staple crop.

Sobona Mtisi, a climate change expert leading the CDKN research in Zimbabwe says, “The changing climate is adversely affecting production.”

“This is in view of the discernable shifts in climate, a shift also marked by frequent droughts,” Mtisi says.

The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union (ZCFU) says smallholder farmers across the country have seen reduced yields of between 50 and 75 percent this year as compared to the yield in 2000. Years of interrupted farming activities after the launch of the land reform programme in 2000, coupled with climatic shifts, have seen Zimbabwe experiencing successive poor harvests.

This year only 800,000 tonnes of crop was harvested against an expected 1,2 million tonnes, according to the ZCFU.

It has raised concerns about the need for alternative agricultural methods to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Today, Zimbabwe is a major importer of maize from its neighbours, paying 270 million dollars to import one million tonnes of maize this year.

“Smallholder farmers have especially been affected by climatic shifts as they have no clue about when not to plant and when to plant, as the knowledge systems they use are proving useless,” says Josh Manyora, of environment watchdog Environment Africa.

“In the absence of programmes that teach people in the most remote of rural areas about the weather, the climate and new agriculture techniques that respond to climate change challenges, I think we will have these problems each year,” Manyora says.

The Famine Early Warning System Network, the United States-based food security monitor announced in November that more than one million Zimbabweans will require food assistance in the coming year amid signs that the country will not be able to grow enough food to feed itself.

Food security remains tied to the challenges presented by climate change, says the University of Cape Town’s Climate Systems Analysis Group, which has noted that rain-fed agro-systems in Africa are bearing the brunt of climate change.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) says, “for hundreds of millions of people in Africa, climate change is not about lowering smoke stack emissions or turning off electric lights. It is about whether or not they will have enough to eat.”

Sibanda and Nkomo know this only too well. But they are just two of the more than 70 percent of Africans – the majority of whom are women – who AGRA says rely on farming for survival. (END)

“Space ball” drops on Namibia

A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency.
The hollow ball with a circumference of 1.1 metres (43 inches) was found near a village in the north of the country some 750 kilometres (480 miles) from the capital Windhoek, according to police forensics director Paul Ludik.
Locals had heard several small explosions a few days beforehand, he said.
With a diameter of 35 centimetres (14 inches), the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of “two halves welded together”.
It was made of a “metal alloy known to man” and weighed six kilogrammes (13 pounds), said Ludik.
It was found 18 metres from its landing spot, a hole 33 centimetres deep and 3.8 meters wide.
Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and Latin America in the past twenty years, authorities found in an Internet search.
The sphere was discovered mid-November, but authorities first did tests before announcing the find.
Police deputy inspector general Vilho Hifindaka concluded the sphere did not pose any danger.
“It is not an explosive device, but rather hollow, but we had to investigate all this first,” he said.

sasrai-Movement’s achievement

ABSTRACT REFERENCE NUMBER: 297
Dear Mr. Akhter,
Planet Under Pressure 2012
25th – 29th March 2012, Excel London, UK
Thank you for submitting a paper to Planet Under Pressure 2012. We are delighted to inform you that your abstract, entitled ‘sasrai-Movement promotes prudent and thrifty use and conservation of resources. It aimed at to animate each individual, family, community, institution, organization to combat Climate Change, Global warming, food, fuel, water security, poverty, disaster, w’, has been accepted as a poster presentation. Note that, if you requested an oral presentation but the session convenors did not have space for this, we are still offering you poster space. Please advise us if you do not wish to take up this invitation.
Title:
sasrai-Movement promotes prudent and thrifty use and conservation of resources. It aimed at to animate each individual, family, community, institution, organization to combat Climate Change, Global warming, food, fuel, water security, poverty, disaster, w
Authors:
Akhter S.M.F.U.
Session:
0102-3-A-Climate Change Adaptation
Presenting Author(s)[1]:
S.M.F.U. Akhter (1) presenting
Please check the above details of your presentation carefully as all conference material will be printed with this information. The name of the presenting author or authors will be indicated in the conference material by using the following symbol *. If you require any corrections to be made please inform us as soon as possible by email to:pupreview@elsevier.com
All authors will be notified of the timing of their session in due course. Details on the day your presentation is scheduled can be found in the sessions listing on the conference website:http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/sessions.asp
In a few cases your submission may have been moved to a session other than the one to which you submitted it, where it was felt it might fit better or was requested by a convenor.
It is a condition of abstract acceptance that you or a nominated presenting author(s) registers for the conference by the author registration deadline of Friday 25th November.Please register online at:http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/registrationInfo.asp
The abstracts of all unregistered presenting authors will be removed from the programme after this date. Should the addressee above not be the nominated presenting author or authors, please inform me of the name and email address of the presenter immediately: pupreview@elsevier.com
All authors will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses. Unfortunately the conference organisers do not have funds available to support the attendance of individual delegates.
The conference organisers have secured limited funding to assist colleagues from the Developing World to attend the conference. Those authors who have already applied for financial assistance (the deadline for which has now passed) will be notified of the result of the selection process in the next few days.
Accommodation
Accommodation for the conference can be booked via the conference website:http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/accommodation.asp
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries and I look forward to receiving your completed registration.
Yours sincerely,
Planet Under Pressure Secretariat
on behalf of the Scientific Organising Committee

ABSTRACT REFERENCE NUMBER: 442
Dear Mr. Akhter,
Planet Under Pressure 2012
25th – 29th March 2012, Excel London, UK
Thank you for submitting a paper to Planet Under Pressure 2012. We are delighted to inform you that your abstract, entitled ‘Safe Drinking Water for Slum/Squatter Dweller (SDWSD)’, has been accepted as aposter presentation. Note that, if you requested an oral presentation but the session convenors did not have space for this, we are still offering you poster space. Please advise us if you do not wish to take up this invitation.
Title:
Safe Drinking Water for Slum/Squatter Dweller (SDWSD)
Authors:
Akhter S.M.F.U.
Session:
0363-4-B-Humanism
Presenting Author(s)[1]:
S.M.F.U. Akhter (1) presenting
Please check the above details of your presentation carefully as all conference material will be printed with this information. The name of the presenting author or authors will be indicated in the conference material by using the following symbol *. If you require any corrections to be made please inform us as soon as possible by email to:pupreview@elsevier.com
All authors will be notified of the timing of their session in due course. Details on the day your presentation is scheduled can be found in the sessions listing on the conference website:http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/sessions.asp
In a few cases your submission may have been moved to a session other than the one to which you submitted it, where it was felt it might fit better or was requested by a convenor.
It is a condition of abstract acceptance that you or a nominated presenting author(s) registers for the conference by the author registration deadline of Friday 25th November.Please register online at:http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/registrationInfo.asp
The abstracts of all unregistered presenting authors will be removed from the programme after this date. Should the addressee above not be the nominated presenting author or authors, please inform me of the name and email address of the presenter immediately: pupreview@elsevier.com
All authors will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses. Unfortunately the conference organisers do not have funds available to support the attendance of individual delegates.
The conference organisers have secured limited funding to assist colleagues from the Developing World to attend the conference. Those authors who have already applied for financial assistance (the deadline for which has now passed) will be notified of the result of the selection process in the next few days.
Accommodation
Accommodation for the conference can be booked via the conference website:http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/accommodation.asp
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries and I look forward to receiving your completed registration.
Yours sincerely,
Planet Under Pressure Secretariat
on behalf of the Scientific Organising Committee

http://sasrai.blogspot.com/2011/12/sasrai-movement-achievement.html

‘Problems with fresh water are getting more severe. Too much of it brings floods, too little of it, drought.

‘Problems with fresh water are getting more severe. Too much of it brings floods, too little of it, drought.

http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/news/v.php?id=23798&pid:50

By Denis McClean

Geneva- Following agreement on the Summary for Policymakers, the authors of the 800-page Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) will be busy between now and the end of the year reconciling the changes agreed by IPCC member governments to the Summary with the text of the nine final chapters which will make up the SREX when it is published early next year.

As they prepared to embark on the so-called “trickle back” process, here’s what some of them had to say about the significance of the SREX once the Summary was agreed on at the IPCC meeting in Kampala last week.

Prof. Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Professor of Earth Sciences at the Polish Academy of Science who is a Coordinating Lead Author on Chapter 4 dealing with the Impacts of Climate Extremes on Human Systems, said: “Exposure is growing and will be growing. There is no question that sea level rise will increase exposure because so many people are living by the sea. Sea level rises are a guarantee in a warming climate. So coastal flooding is inevitable with the increase of the risk.

“Problems with fresh water are getting more severe. Too much of it brings floods, too little of it, drought. Clearly the report sends a very serious and unfortunate message to many world regions where droughts are getting more severe, the Mediterranean, Central Europe, Southern Africa, North-East Brazil and the southern part of North America.

“Heat waves are on the rise everywhere. What used to be a one-in-20 year event will become every year or every second year in nearly all regions by the end of the century. This is a very strong message. The trend is quite clear, less cold extremes and more hot extremes. For aging European societies this is very bad news.”

An acknowledged expert on floods, Prof. Kundzewicz said he was very concerned about Bangladesh in particular where coastal and river flooding is “endemic”.

Prof. Ian Burton who is Coordinating Lead Author on Chapter 7 which focuses on lnternational Management of Disaster Risk, commented that the Summary for Policymakers “helps to move disaster risk reduction a step or two up the international agenda. DRR has been trying to escape from the traditional view of disasters which is that they were local, caused by natural events, acts of God beyond human control. And you still see that view widely reflected in media reports.

“Linking disasters to climate change adaptation has helped push forward thinking about disasters so that the event itself cannot be viewed in isolation. The size of the losses and the cause of the disaster are dependent on human decisions.

“This report says that human decisions in two areas are important. One is exposure which means putting more people in harm’s way which means all kinds of dangerous places, flood plains, hillsides and coasts. People don’t have to live there but historically decisions have been made.

“And the second thing is vulnerability. You can build in an earthquake zone but it must be earthquake-proof. In other cases, you have to think about building which is flood-proof or wind-resistant to reduce the damage. Exposure to geo-physical events can be avoided but not eliminated.”

Prof. Virginia Murray, a Co-ordinating Lead Author on Chapter 9 which includes the case studies, said: “The science and evidence base of this report is vital for UNISDR. It meets all three criteria for a good report: useful, usable and used. What we need now is for each National Platform and the Hyogo Framework for Action focal points to take this forward in their own countries and identify the parts of the report that are useful for them and that can influence development.”

Richard Klein, a lead author and senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, said that the report highlights the importance of addressing socio-economic factors that compound vulnerability to disasters and climate extremes.

“The disaster following Hurricane Katrina was not due only (or even primarily) to the strength of the storm or the failure of the levees, but also to social inequalities and poor disaster preparedness,” said Prof. Klein.

This has major implications for climate finance, Klein said, because “any money mobilised for adaptation or risk reduction will have only limited effect on people’s vulnerability if the underlying causes are not addressed – linked to factors such as wealth, education, race, religion, gender, age and health status.”

Klein is a lead author of the report chapter “Managing the Risks: International Level and Integration Across Scales,” for which he reviewed the role of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in advancing climate change adaptation and disaster risk management, and assessed how existing and new international finance mechanisms could strengthen efforts to reduce vulnerability, especially in developing countries.

One of the chapter’s findings, Klein noted, is that stronger international efforts will not necessarily lead to substantive and rapid results at the local level, because there is a need for greater integration. There is also a pressing need to integrate adaptation with socio-economic development, he said, both within the UNFCCC and in individual countries.

“There are very few examples of effective integration of adaptation and development,” he said. “And even though investment in disaster risk reduction pays off, the separation between adaptation and development means that finance flows are often separate as well, so potential synergies between adaptation and disaster risk reduction are missed.”