What is special about Old growth of Malaysia ? : Compared to the rest of the world's rain forests, Malaysia's is a grandmother. During the Ice Ages, much of the Earth was covered by immense glaciers that kept the global climate cool. Consequently, many of the planet's tropical rain forests had to wait until the glaciers receded before they could evolve. Malaysia's forest, however, was blessed with a location far enough away from the ice that it developed 130 million years ago - far earlier than those of Africa and Latin America (Source :Forests of Malaysia)
I turned my attention to some recent projects in India - tried to look up the World Bank website to find out the patterns of Category A projects approved (Category A project is likely to have significant adverse environmental impacts that are sensitive, diverse, or unprecedented. These impacts may affect an area broader than the sites or facilities subject to physical works)
- Lanco Amarkantak Power Private Limited - coal based power plant in Chattisgarh
- Vicat Sagar Cement - a 60 MW captive coal-fired power plant in Chatrassala village, Karnataka
- Tata Ultra Mega (Tata Mundra) - A coal based 4,000MW ultra mega’ imported coal and supercritical technology based power plant at the port city of Mundra in the state of Gujarat - The coal will be sourced from mines of Indonesia and other countries..operated by Adani group
See also protest by local NGOs : http://www.himvani.com/news/2010/02/20/small-hydel-projects-a-big-issue/4083/
Getting our Malaysian/ Indonesian connection ? and the connection between rainforests and electricity we produce in India? It is the coal, timber and palm oil that connects us all ! I realised the cynicism in the consultant's voice towards my activism :-) This activism is once again a droplet.. we need to increase the droplet into oceans of change - compare the hectares of rainforests lost -rainforests are nature's oxygen mask for the entire world !
What did we do?
- Mr.Khan of KK English School made a good start to his vacation by taking 100 school principals on an eco tourism to Madikeri - how about influencing 100 heads who can potentially influence another 1000 * 100 ? !!!
- Mrs Usha Ramaiah, Nirmith S, Samarendra S and Sreenivasa T took 120 (kids and adults) on a Kids for Tigers nature trail to the forest talking about deforestation issues, loss of tiger habitat, climate change and ofcourse inspiring atleast 60 kids to appreciate the sound and signs of the forest http://picasaweb.google.co.in/meera.rajesh/KFTTrailForMindtreeEmployees#
Though a droplet, impacts are obvious around us - we are seeing an ability in people to point out facts..there are positive debates happening and we have come across a few doers too - every individual should wake up from this long slumber and start being participative, leveraging one's core skills to conserve our environment for future generations.
Homo Sapiens have taken centuries to become global and understand globalisation ( slight variations can cause compounded effects in the economics of this world) AND, we still don't realise that forests and other naturals systems have always been globlal !
No comments:
Post a Comment