Dear Ones,

Despite very clear warnings, we are bent on overusing finite
resources.   Best wishes

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi

Monday, February 17, 2003 11:42 AM
  > http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,897152,00.html
>
> Global warming endangers Amazon
>
> Tim Radford
> Monday February 17, 2003
> The Guardian
>
  A warmer world could mean the loss of the Amazon rainforest
and yet more global warming as levels of carbon dioxide
increased in the atmosphere.
>
> "This is a simplified picture," Tom Wigley of the US National
Centre for Atmospheric Research told the AAAS.
>
> "If we warm the world then some climate models suggest that precipitation
will decrease in the Amazon basin. That part of the
world would get warmer and that would have some pretty
dramatic effects on the vegetation in that rainforest area."
>
> The rainforests are already being logged, burned and cleared
for farmland, but global warming could have an even more
dramatic effect, he warned.
>
  Prof Wigley said: "If we killed off the rainforest by warming the climate
we would add more carbon dioxide and that would give
more warmth and that is a really good example of a positive
feedback. And in some model simulations, that turns out to be
large indeed. It inflates the amount of warming by maybe 30%. But
it is very uncertain. Modelling the climate is difficult. Modelling the
interactions between vegetation and climate is even more difficult."

This is how our use/abuse/overuse of  paper contributes to deforestation.
Best wishes

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi
----- Original Message -----
From: GlobalCirclenet <webmaster@...>
To: <GlobalGreens@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 7:02 AM
Subject: UK Paper Companies Supporting Indonesian Rainforest Destruction
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/uk_paper_companies_support.html

10 Feb 2003

Investigations by Friends of the Earth have revealed that UK paper
merchants are still buying paper from Indonesian companies responsible for
rainforest destruction, illegal logging and human rights abuses.

Last year research [1] by Friends of the Earth revealed that nine paper
merchants in the UK were stocking paper made by APRIL, one of the most
destructive paper companies. An earlier report [2] had
highlighted how Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) sourced pulp from clear cutting
wildlife-rich rainforest.

Recent investigations by Friends of the Earth has found that the
Slough-based paper merchant David John is buying paper from
Asia Pulp & Paper (APP). At least 70 per cent of APP's pulp is
sourced from clear-cutting rainforest which is the habitat for
elephants, tigers and some of the world's most threatened plants.
APP has been buying illegally-sourced timber and is accused by
the NGO Human Rights Watch of human rights abuses in
Sumatra. The paper products being sold by APP in the UK are
made from pulped rainforest.

Friends of the Earth has discovered other paper merchants
are still buying paper from the Indonesian paper manufacturer
APRIL. Evidence has emerged that APRIL is also buying
illegal timber. The paper merchants buying PaperOne paper
products  from APRIL include Ovenden Papers of Epping,
Rosefox of Preston, Frederick Johnson of Enfield and the
South Wales Paper Company, based in Barry, South
Glamorgan. York and Ford of Leicester refused to confirm
or deny whether it was buying Indonesian paper.

Although APRIL claims its paper products sold in the UK are
from a plantation source, 70 per cent of APRIL's pulp source
overall comes from clear-cut rainforest. Friends of the Earth is concerned
that even if UK paper merchants are only buying
plantation sourced paper from APRIL, they are still helping
support rainforest destruction by doing business with the
company. APRIL continues to buy timber sourced from the
Tesso Nilo forest, one of the few remaining natural forest
blocks left in Sumatra. Scientists consider this to be the most
biodiverse forest for plant life in the world.

The rainforests of Indonesia have never been under greater
threat. Deforestation has accelerated in recent years to 2.4
million hectares/year, the highest national rate of
deforestation in the world. Approximately 80% of all
logging in Indonesia is estimated to be illegal.

Friends of the Earth's Forests Campaigner Ed Matthew said:

"UK paper merchants are fully aware of the impacts of APP &
April's activities. By continuing to do business with them they are
supporting the destruction of the most endangered rainforest in
the world and inflicting  untold damage on local communities."

James McNaughton, one of the UK's biggest paper merchant
groups, recently announced its decision to stop buying
Indonesian paper until it can be independently proven that it
comes from a non-destructive source. Friends of the Earth is
calling on all paper merchants to do the same.

Notes
[1]  www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/april_fools.pdf (PDF? 47K)

[2] www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/asia_pulp_paper.pdf
(PDF? 133K)

Well friends from Kisanbhai's reference to Roses, I am reminded of annual
event from National Society of Friends of Trees. It is the 44th Annual
Vegetables, Fruits and Flowers Show 2003

It starts today at 1400 hrs and is open upto late evening 800pm and tomarrow
from 8.30am to 8.00pm

Venue S.N.D.T. University Juhu campus, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, Mumbai 400 049.

I will strongly reccomend your visit

Kanu
Kanu H J Kamdar

Tel: +91 22 24010041
Fax: +91 22 24021590
E Mail: hjk @rincon.co.in




Dear Ones and Priya (for makingindiagreen)

> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/02/13/MN181446.DTL
>
>
> Valentine's Day, and all is not rosy
> Ecuadoran flower workers' health failing from regular use of pesticides on
roses for U.S.
>
  Ross Wehner, Chronicle Foreign Service Thursday, Feb 13, 2003
>
  Cayambe, Ecuador -- Although the symbol of romance for Valentine's Day is
the rose, Ecuadorans say it is their source of misery and illness.
>
> Behind the beauty of the estimated 110 million roses that Americans will
give their loved ones Friday are flower workers who suffer
serious health problems from pesticide poisoning, according to local doctors
and the United Nations.
>
> Roses are typically fumigated with chemicals to kill insects and mildew
and dunked in preservatives to keep them from rotting
before shipment. According to a recent test of Ecuadoran roses
bought at a San Francisco supermarket, the flowers contained
traces of Aldicarb, a highly toxic insecticide that is banned in
13 nations. (See accompanying box.)
>
  "First, there are skin rashes and a whole range of allergies and
respiratory problems," said Dr. Toribio Valladares, who has
spent 15 years treating victims of pesticide poisoning in Cayambe,
one of the nation's two rose centers. "Many of these diseases have
become chronic and untreatable with antibiotics."
>
  Valladares, who is the town's former mayor, says pesticide
poisoning has also caused children to be born mentally retarded
or with deformed limbs. "We see children who have definite
problems to their central nervous systems," he said.
>
> The United Nations' International Labor Organization validated Valladares'
opinion in a 2000 study that showed 60 percent of
rose workers in Ecuador suffered from headaches, blurred vision,
muscular twitching and other symptoms of pesticide poisoning.
>
> 'GREEN LABEL' PROGRAMS
>
Rose company executives, however, say such health problems
have been greatly exaggerated, since the advent of "green label" programs
that allow European consumers to buy roses from
farms that follow Germany's certified labor and environmental standards. No
such program exists in the United States, which
buys 70 percent of  Ecuador's rose crop.
>
  "I challenge anyone to give us one proven problem that is the
result of floriculture," said Hernan Chiriboga, president of
Expoflores, Ecuador's flower association.
>
> Few argue that roses are big business.
>
  Since Ecuador adopted the dollar in 2000, the $250 million-a-year flower
industry -- with 73 percent roses, according to Expoflores --
has become the nation's most important source of dollars after oil
and bananas. The Andean country has the world's fourth-largest
rose industry, employing 60,000 workers.
>
  "Quito would be surrounded by slums if it weren't for the rose
plantations," said Gino Descalze, who manages the Flor Fiorentina
rose farm in Cayambe, in reference to the nation's capital.
>
  Ecuador is also poised to overtake Colombia as the largest supplier
of roses to the United States. Two-thirds of Ecuador's roses -- some
650 million - - go to the U.S. market. A dozen roses that cost less
than $2 to produce in Ecuador sell from $30 to $90 on Valentine's
Day in the United States.
>
> Snow-capped volcanoes tower over the red tile roofs of Cayambe,
a cobblestoned town of 70,000 inhabitants -- mostly Quechua-
speaking Indians -- that was once known for producing cheese and
beef. Its sprawling valley pastures now host 1,500 acres of rose-producing
greenhouses.
>
> PERFECT GROWING CONDITIONS
>
> Roses exploded here in the mid-1980s after investors discovered
the Cayambe Valley's perfect growing conditions. Thanks to volcanic soils,
an elevation of 9,200 feet and an equatorial sun, the flower can reach
gargantuan proportions, with stems shooting up more than 3
feet and bulbs swelling to the size of tennis balls.
>
  But the rose boom has brought little prosperity to area inhabitants, whose
communal way of life has been disrupted by the flower
farms. Rose workers typically earn from $125 to $170 per month
and have few options but to work in greenhouses.
>
> During the two-week Valentine's Day rush, rose plantations garner
as much as 30% of their annual revenue, and employees are forced
to work round the clock, despite daytime temperatures under plastic roofs
that can reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
>
  Inside the large, tent-like structures, men move methodically
between rows of flowers, checking for mold on the leaves and
snipping the roses that are ready for shipment.
>
> In the post-harvest room, women stand up to their ankles in rose petals
and stripped foliage as they sort by stem length and head size
and arrange roses in bunches of 25 for shipping.
>
> After being placed in preservatives, the roses are wrapped in cellophane,
boxed, chilled and flown to Miami, and into the hands
of brokers, wholesalers, florists and supermarkets.
>
> WOMEN SUFFER MOST
>
> Studies show that women -- who represent 70 percent of all rose
workers - - have more health problems since many sort the flowers without
wearing masks or latex gloves. Children under 18, who
make up more than a fifth of the workforce, display signs of neurological
damage at 22 percent above average.
>
> Most workers, however, are afraid to speak out about such
conditions or give their complete name for fear of being placed
on a town-wide employment blacklist.
>
> "Whoever is on a blacklist cannot work on the plantations or
at any other place," said a union worker quoted in the study by the
International Labor Organization.
>
> Cynthia, 24, lives in a ramshackle neighborhood of cinder-block homes on
the edge of Cayambe. She quit her job sorting roses at the Flores de la
Montana company after suffering from headaches and vaginal hemorrhaging.
>
> Before Valentine's Day, she put in 20-hour days, working from
7 a.m. to 3 a. m. for $112 a month.
>
> "The doctor told me that my body was too weak to withstand the chemicals,"
she said.
>
> FUMIGATOR FELL ILL
>
> Edwin, 21, who worked as a fumigator for just a month at the
Golden Land Rose farm, quit after he fell ill. He says he wasn't
able to shower and wash off the chemicals as required by law
because of a water shortage at the plant.
>
> "My throat kept getting sorer until one day I began to spit up
blood," said Edwin. "If you complain, they fire you."
>
> But some residents are fighting back.
>
  Recently, a group of about 100 farmers, who were displaced by
a Colombian- owned rose farm several years ago, invaded 63
fallow acres belonging to the same farm. They say they will stay
until the land is returned to their village.
>
  "These rose executives want to treat us like in the times of slavery,"
said a defiant woman, who hoed the soil as her two children played nearby.
"We are not going to stand for that. We are not going to
end up with our health ruined."

3 FAMILIES OF PESTICIDES FOUND ON TESTED ROSES
>
  -- Organophosphate: Dimethoate.
-- Carbamates: None detected.
-- Organochlorines: Captan, Bravo, Tedion. .
>
> SAMPLE 2
>
  -- Organophosphate: None detected.
-- Carbamates: Aldicarb.
-- Organochlorines: Captan, Iprodione, Procymidone. .
Dimethoate -- Insecticide used to kill spiders and a variety of insects.
>
  Aldicarb -- Classified as a Category I (highly toxic) chemical by the EPA
and is used for killing mites, beetles and other insects. It is
banned in 13 nations, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, Sweden
and New Zealand.
Captan -- Widely used insecticide.
Bravo -- Fungicide.
  Tedion -- A rare insecticide no longer used in the United States.
Iprodione -- Widely used fungicide and nematicide.
Procymidone -- Fungicide.
>
> Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
> Page A - 2
>


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Dear Ones and Priya (for makingindiagreen)

> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/02/13/MN181446.DTL
>
>
> Valentine's Day, and all is not rosy
> Ecuadoran flower workers' health failing from regular use of pesticides on
roses for U.S.
>
  Ross Wehner, Chronicle Foreign Service Thursday, Feb 13, 2003
>
  Cayambe, Ecuador -- Although the symbol of romance for Valentine's Day is
the rose, Ecuadorans say it is their source of misery and illness.
>
> Behind the beauty of the estimated 110 million roses that Americans will
give their loved ones Friday are flower workers who suffer
serious health problems from pesticide poisoning, according to local doctors
and the United Nations.
>
> Roses are typically fumigated with chemicals to kill insects and mildew
and dunked in preservatives to keep them from rotting
before shipment. According to a recent test of Ecuadoran roses
bought at a San Francisco supermarket, the flowers contained
traces of Aldicarb, a highly toxic insecticide that is banned in
13 nations. (See accompanying box.)
>
  "First, there are skin rashes and a whole range of allergies and
respiratory problems," said Dr. Toribio Valladares, who has
spent 15 years treating victims of pesticide poisoning in Cayambe,
one of the nation's two rose centers. "Many of these diseases have
become chronic and untreatable with antibiotics."
>
  Valladares, who is the town's former mayor, says pesticide
poisoning has also caused children to be born mentally retarded
or with deformed limbs. "We see children who have definite
problems to their central nervous systems," he said.
>
> The United Nations' International Labor Organization validated Valladares'
opinion in a 2000 study that showed 60 percent of
rose workers in Ecuador suffered from headaches, blurred vision,
muscular twitching and other symptoms of pesticide poisoning.
>
> 'GREEN LABEL' PROGRAMS
>
Rose company executives, however, say such health problems
have been greatly exaggerated, since the advent of "green label" programs
that allow European consumers to buy roses from
farms that follow Germany's certified labor and environmental standards. No
such program exists in the United States, which
buys 70 percent of  Ecuador's rose crop.
>
  "I challenge anyone to give us one proven problem that is the
result of floriculture," said Hernan Chiriboga, president of
Expoflores, Ecuador's flower association.
>
> Few argue that roses are big business.
>
  Since Ecuador adopted the dollar in 2000, the $250 million-a-year flower
industry -- with 73 percent roses, according to Expoflores --
has become the nation's most important source of dollars after oil
and bananas. The Andean country has the world's fourth-largest
rose industry, employing 60,000 workers.
>
  "Quito would be surrounded by slums if it weren't for the rose
plantations," said Gino Descalze, who manages the Flor Fiorentina
rose farm in Cayambe, in reference to the nation's capital.
>
  Ecuador is also poised to overtake Colombia as the largest supplier
of roses to the United States. Two-thirds of Ecuador's roses -- some
650 million - - go to the U.S. market. A dozen roses that cost less
than $2 to produce in Ecuador sell from $30 to $90 on Valentine's
Day in the United States.
>
> Snow-capped volcanoes tower over the red tile roofs of Cayambe,
a cobblestoned town of 70,000 inhabitants -- mostly Quechua-
speaking Indians -- that was once known for producing cheese and
beef. Its sprawling valley pastures now host 1,500 acres of rose-producing
greenhouses.
>
> PERFECT GROWING CONDITIONS
>
> Roses exploded here in the mid-1980s after investors discovered
the Cayambe Valley's perfect growing conditions. Thanks to volcanic soils,
an elevation of 9,200 feet and an equatorial sun, the flower can reach
gargantuan proportions, with stems shooting up more than 3
feet and bulbs swelling to the size of tennis balls.
>
  But the rose boom has brought little prosperity to area inhabitants, whose
communal way of life has been disrupted by the flower
farms. Rose workers typically earn from $125 to $170 per month
and have few options but to work in greenhouses.
>
> During the two-week Valentine's Day rush, rose plantations garner
as much as 30% of their annual revenue, and employees are forced
to work round the clock, despite daytime temperatures under plastic roofs
that can reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
>
  Inside the large, tent-like structures, men move methodically
between rows of flowers, checking for mold on the leaves and
snipping the roses that are ready for shipment.
>
> In the post-harvest room, women stand up to their ankles in rose petals
and stripped foliage as they sort by stem length and head size
and arrange roses in bunches of 25 for shipping.
>
> After being placed in preservatives, the roses are wrapped in cellophane,
boxed, chilled and flown to Miami, and into the hands
of brokers, wholesalers, florists and supermarkets.
>
> WOMEN SUFFER MOST
>
> Studies show that women -- who represent 70 percent of all rose
workers - - have more health problems since many sort the flowers without
wearing masks or latex gloves. Children under 18, who
make up more than a fifth of the workforce, display signs of neurological
damage at 22 percent above average.
>
> Most workers, however, are afraid to speak out about such
conditions or give their complete name for fear of being placed
on a town-wide employment blacklist.
>
> "Whoever is on a blacklist cannot work on the plantations or
at any other place," said a union worker quoted in the study by the
International Labor Organization.
>
> Cynthia, 24, lives in a ramshackle neighborhood of cinder-block homes on
the edge of Cayambe. She quit her job sorting roses at the Flores de la
Montana company after suffering from headaches and vaginal hemorrhaging.
>
> Before Valentine's Day, she put in 20-hour days, working from
7 a.m. to 3 a. m. for $112 a month.
>
> "The doctor told me that my body was too weak to withstand the chemicals,"
she said.
>
> FUMIGATOR FELL ILL
>
> Edwin, 21, who worked as a fumigator for just a month at the
Golden Land Rose farm, quit after he fell ill. He says he wasn't
able to shower and wash off the chemicals as required by law
because of a water shortage at the plant.
>
> "My throat kept getting sorer until one day I began to spit up
blood," said Edwin. "If you complain, they fire you."
>
> But some residents are fighting back.
>
  Recently, a group of about 100 farmers, who were displaced by
a Colombian- owned rose farm several years ago, invaded 63
fallow acres belonging to the same farm. They say they will stay
until the land is returned to their village.
>
  "These rose executives want to treat us like in the times of slavery,"
said a defiant woman, who hoed the soil as her two children played nearby.
"We are not going to stand for that. We are not going to
end up with our health ruined."

3 FAMILIES OF PESTICIDES FOUND ON TESTED ROSES
>
  -- Organophosphate: Dimethoate.
-- Carbamates: None detected.
-- Organochlorines: Captan, Bravo, Tedion. .
>
> SAMPLE 2
>
  -- Organophosphate: None detected.
-- Carbamates: Aldicarb.
-- Organochlorines: Captan, Iprodione, Procymidone. .
Dimethoate -- Insecticide used to kill spiders and a variety of insects.
>
  Aldicarb -- Classified as a Category I (highly toxic) chemical by the EPA
and is used for killing mites, beetles and other insects. It is
banned in 13 nations, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, Sweden
and New Zealand.
Captan -- Widely used insecticide.
Bravo -- Fungicide.
  Tedion -- A rare insecticide no longer used in the United States.
Iprodione -- Widely used fungicide and nematicide.
Procymidone -- Fungicide.
>
> Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
> Page A - 2
>

Dear Friends,

Interesting. Comparisons on global basis and again in
percentages can be misleading.  They allow rick countries
with wider base to pass off at the cost of the poor.  Best wishes

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi
Tel: 00 91 22 2414 9688
----- Original Message -----
From: Reah Janise Kauffman <rjkauffman@...>
To: <public@...>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 2:21 AM
Subject: Earth Policy News - Restructuring the Energy Economy


> RESTRUCTURING THE ENERGY ECONOMY
> Lester R. Brown
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/EPRPart1C.pdf
>
  The year 2002 was the second warmest on record. The three
warmest years on record since recordkeeping began in 1867
have come in the last five years.
>
  The key to restoring climate stability is shifting from a fossil
fuel based energy economy to one based on renewable sources of
energy and hydrogen. Advancing technologies in the design of
wind turbines that have dramatically lowered the cost of wind-
generated electricity to the point where it can be used to produce hydrogen
from water, along with the evolution of fuel-cell engines, have set the
stage for a dramatic restructuring of the world energy economy. The good
news is that this shift is under way.
The bad news is that it is not happening nearly fast enough to avoid
a climate-disrupting buildup in atmospheric CO2 levels.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator8_data2.htm
http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator5.htm
>
  The burning of each of the three fossil fuels is now either
growing slowly or declining. From 1995 to 2001, the use of oil,
the world's leading source of energy, expanded by just over
1% a year. Natural gas, the cleanest and least climate-
disruptive of the three fossil fuels, grew by less than 3% a year.
>
  The burning of coal, the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive
fossil fuel, peaked in 1996 and has dropped by 6 percent since
then. This historical peaking, marking the first decline in the
use of a fossil fuel, may be followed by a similar peaking in
oil use within the next 5-15 years.
>
  In contrast, renewables, starting from a small base, are growing
at an extraordinary pace. Worldwide, wind electric generation
grew by 32% a year from 1995 to 2001. (See Table.) In 2001
alone it grew by a robust 36%. And in the United States, wind
electric generating capacity jumped by a phenomenal 66% in 2001.
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator10.htm
>
> Trends in Energy Use, by Source, 1995-2001
>
> Energy Source                   Annual Rate of Growth(%)
>                        >
> Wind power                            + 32.0
> Solar photovoltaics                + 21.0
> Geothermal power*                +  4.0
> Hydroelectric power               +  0.7
> Oil                                            +  1.4
> Natural Gas                              +  2.6
> Nuclear Power                         +  0.3
> Coal                                           -  0.3
> ----------------------------------------
> *Data available through 1999.
>
> Solar cell sales, growing by 21% a year from 1995 to 2001,
are likely to grow even faster in the years ahead. Once
economically competitive only for use in satellites and pocket calculators,
solar cells are now becoming competitive for
residential lighting in Third World villages not yet connected to
the grid. In many countries, if getting electricity to villages eans
building both a centralized power plant and a grid to deliver the
power, it is now often cheaper for families simply to install
solar cells. In Andean villages, for example, the monthly
installment cost (with a 30-month payment period) on an array
of solar cells to provide lighting is comparable to the cost of
candles. A similar price relationship exists for the more remote
villages in India that depend on kerosene lamps for light.
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator12_data.htm
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator12.htm
>
  Another renewable source, one with a largely overlooked potential,
is geothermal energy, which is growing at 4 percent a year. This is
a vast resource and one that is likely to figure prominently in the
energy economies of the Pacific Rim, particularly where
widespread volcanic activity indicates that geothermal energy is
close to the earth's surface.  The western coasts of South America, Central
America, and North America have an abundance of
geothermal energy. Perhaps the geothermally richest region
is the western Pacific, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan,
and the eastern and southern coasts of China. Another rich region
is the Great Rift Valley, which stretches through East Africa up
into the Middle East. In fact, the entire eastern Mediterranean is
geothermally well endowed. Some countries have enough
geothermal energy to meet all their electricity needs.
>
  Hydroelectricity, which supplies over one fifth of the world's
electricity, has expanded by 2 percent a year since 1990. In
contrast to the other renewable sources of energy, the growth
in hydropower is losing momentum as suitable sites for new
dams are scarce and as public opposition mounts to large-scale inundation of
land, the associated displacement of people, and
the disruption of ecosystems.
>
  One of the difficulties in restructuring the energy economy is
that doing so typically depends on small, fledgling industries
challenging large, well-established, often heavily subsidized
industries. One way to accelerate the restructuring needed to
stabilize climate is to adopt full-cost pricing, requiring that
those using energy pay the full cost of doing so.
>
  Fortuitously, the fastest-growing fossil fuel is natural gas, which
is the obvious transition fuel from a carbon-based energy economy
to a hydrogen-based one. The natural gas infrastructure, including
distribution networks and storage facilities, can easily be adapted
for hydrogen as gas reserves are depleted.
>
  As the effects of climate change become clearer, the public's desire
to avoid extreme climate events will intensify. As this happens,
pressure to raise carbon taxes and reduce income taxes may well
rise, providing a strong economic incentive for energy restructuring.
>
  The new century is bringing new directions in the world energy economy. The
last century was characterized by the globalization
of energy as oil emerged as the leading energy source. Indeed, the
entire world became heavily dependent on one region, the Middle
East, for a disproportionately large share of its energy. Now as the world
turns to wind, solar, and geothermal as the primary energy sources and to
hydrogen as an end-use fuel, the energy economy
is localizing, reversing the trend of the last hundred years.
> ----------
Excerpted from THE EARTH POLICY READER by Lester R.
Brown, Janet Larsen, and Bernie Fischlowitz-Roberts.
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/EPR_contents.htm
>
  For a larger discussion on reshaping the energy sector in an
eco-economy, see Chapter 5, "Building the Solar/Hydrogen
Economy"  in ECO-ECONOMY:  BUILDING AN
ECONOMY FOR THE  EARTH by Lester R. Brown
  http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/chap05.PDF

Dear ones,

Hints of global warming are on the horizon. Do we want to
take the hint and change our lifestyle?  Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi
Tel: 00 91 22 2414 9688

----- Original Message -----
From: GlobalCirclenet <webmaster@...>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 10:13 AM

New Strategies Needed to Tackle Global Warming, Britain Says
By SUE LEEMAN | Associated Press 02/11/2003
LONDON - Britain's climate is set to heat up faster than at any
time in the past 10,000 years, thanks to record global
temperatures and soaring emissions of greenhouse gases, the government
warned Tuesday.
>
  Global climate data analyzed by the Hadley Center, Britain's
premier climate study facility, shows it will become harder to
stabilize the levels of harmful carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,
further increasing global warming, a report by the Department
for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.
>
  "The UK is facing a future of unprecedented change _ greenhouse
gas emissions are likely to cause our climate to warm faster that
at any time in the last 10,000 years," the department said.
>
  "Cutting back on emissions now and in the future will go some
way to prevent the worst effects, but our past emissions mean
that some degree of change is now inevitable," it continued.
>
  The report found that that atmospheric concentration of many greenhouse
gases reached their highest levels ever in 2001 and
that global temperatures continued to rise with 2002, 2001
and 1998 being the hottest years on record.  Carbon dioxide
measurements taken by the Hadley Center showed that carbon
feedback from forests and natural vegetation is rising and
could accelerate global warming even further.
>
  That means Britain can expect hotter, drier summers and
warmer, wetter winters, it added.
>
  Under international agreements, Britain undertook to return
its emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2000 -
which the government says has been achieved - and to cut
emissions below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
>
  The report said if Britain acts promptly, it could reduce greenhouse
gas emissions to 23 percent below 1990 levels as early as 2010.
The department said it already has strategies in place to cope with
flooding, but "climate change will need to be factored into the
long-term development of a wide range of (the department's)
policies including on agriculture, biodiversity and animal health."
>
  The report said Britain needs to develop its ability to predict
and assess the impact of greenhouse gases on the climate and
to improve analysis of climate data to detect human influences
on climate.
>
  The government's Environment Agency, which protects
Britain's environment and has been responsible for monitoring
recent river flooding, welcomed the report. "On the ground we
find that it is already proving costly and challenging to tackle
climate change. Our emergency workforce is the 'thin green
frontline' when it comes to flood events and we are all
working hard to provide improved defenses," it said.
>>>>>

Dear Ones,

See where the resources of the community go-to kill others and in
the process get killed themselves.   Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi
Tel: 2414 9688

----- Original Message -----
From: GlobalCirclenet <webmaster@...>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 1:56 PM
Subject: [GlobalGreens] Poverty does not stop S. Asia arms race


> http://www.dawn.com/2003/02/12/top20.htm
>
> Poverty does not stop S. Asia arms race
>
> By Our Correspondent
>
>
> WASHINGTON, Feb 11: South Asia had the highest average annual growth rate
in military expenditure of any region in the 1990s, with
five per cent. Its share of world military spending more than doubled (from
0.8 per cent to two per cent), reflecting the military build-up between
India and Pakistan.
>
  A State Department report released on Monday says India, which is
the world's second most populous country, also has the world's third largest
military, after China and the United States.
>
  India also has developed the capacity to strike at China and
Pakistan with its own missiles, and, like Pakistan, is believed to
possess nuclear weapons.
>
  To compete with a much larger India, Pakistan spent 2,545.5
million dollars on defence in 2001, which was 4.6 per cent of GDP.
But the blame for this shopping spree does not rest with the poor nations
alone.
>
  The report indicates that arms traders are equally responsible for
arming the poor with weapons of self- destruction. The United
States continued to be the largest exporter of arms in the previous decade,
followed by Western Europe.
>
  Developing countries reached an all-time high in 1999 with 245
billion dollars spent on their militaries. This was a three per cent
increase over the previous year and an 18 per cent increase over
the 1989 level.
>
  Military spending of developed countries grew two per cent in 1999, ending
a continuous decline throughout the decade to the 1998 post-Cold-War low.
The 1999 level was 45% below that in 1989.
>
  North America accounted for the largest regional portion, or 34%,
of the 1999 world military spending, with the US alone accounting
for 13% . Western Europe with 22 per cent had the second largest
share. World arms trade grew 8.5 per cent in 1999 to 51.6 billion dollars.
This was 19% above the post-Cold War low in 1994,
though still 40% below the all-time high reached in 1987.
>
  Developed nations' arms exports in 1999 were 96% of the world's, 20% above
the 1994 post-Cold-War low, 24% below the 1989
> level, and 36% below the all-time peak in 1987.
>
  The number of people serving in the world's armed forces fell
26% over the decade to 21.3 million in 1999. The six largest forces
(in thousands) were China 2,400, United States 1,490, India 1,300, North
Korea 1,000, Russia 900, and Turkey 789.
> > <<>>><<<>>>>

Dear Ones,

Messages are lengthy but all the three are worth reading and
pondering on.  What the humankind will lose in this war,
nobody has considered.  Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi
Save Bombay Committee and PRAKRUTI
620 Jame Jamshed Road, Dadar East,
Mumbai 400 014
Tel: 00 91 22 2414 9688

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Vectress <vectress@...>
> Published on Monday, February 10, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
> A History Lesson: U.S. Intervention in the Middle East Has Always Ended Up
Being a Disaster for American Interests
> > by Stephen Zunes
> >  http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0210-07.htm
> >
For those who argue that a U.S. invasion of Iraq will somehow
advance American interests in the Middle East, an overview of the major
cases of U.S. intervention in the region during the past fifty
years appears to indicate otherwise. Below is a list of major interventions
in the region during the five decades along with a
brief description of the U.S. role and its result:
> >
Iran, 1953: When the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh
nationalized the Anglo-Iranian oil company, the
resulting sanctions on the country - led by Great Britain and the US-
resulted in economic hardship and political unrest. Fearing that such
instability could result in a communist takeover and concerned
about the precedent of nationalization on American oil companies
elsewhere in the Middle East, agents of the Central Intelligence
Agency organized a military coup in 1953, ousting the elected
prime minister. The  US returned the exiled Shah to Iran, where he
ruled with an iron fist for more than a quarter century. Tens of thousands
of dissidents were tortured and murdered by his dreaded SAVAK secret police,
organized and trained by the United States.
The repression was largely successful in wiping out the democratic
opposition. The SAVAK was less successful in infiltrating
religious institutions, however, so when the revolution finally
took place, toppling the Shah in 1979, the formerly secular Iran
came under the leadership of virulently reactionary and anti-
American Islamists. The result of the Islamic revolution was not
only the end of one of America's strongest economic and strategic
relationships in the Middle East, but also the hostage crisis of
1979-81, Iranian support for anti-American terrorist groups, and
a series of armed engagements in the Persian Gulf during the
1980s. Had the United States not overthrown Iran's constitutional government
in 1953 and replaced it with the dictatorial Shah,
there would not have been the Islamic Revolution and its bloody aftermath.
> >
Lebanon, 1958 and 1982-84: U.S. Marines briefly entered Lebanon
in 1958 to block an attempt by Arab nationalist forces to topple the
confessional representation system imposed by departing French colonialists
fifteen years earlier. This system effectively kept elites
of rival clans in control of the country, particularly those of the
pro-Western Maronite Christian minority. Tensions grew in
subsequent years as rival factions began forming heavily-armed
militias. A full-scale civil war broke out in 1975, which included militias
made up of Palestinian refugees expelled from their
country during Israel's war for independence in 1948. The US
provided military, financial and diplomatic support for Israel's
June 1982 invasion of Lebanon targeted at the Palestinians and
their leftist Lebanese allies. Despite tens of thousands of civilian
casualties from the Israeli  onslaught, the US blocked efforts by
the United Nations to force an Israeli withdrawal or even a cease
fire.   The US  brokered an agreement that September which led
to a withdrawal of Palestinian forces from the country and the appointment
of a new Lebanese government led by the
neo-fascist Phalangist Party, representing part of the country's
Maronite Christian community.
After Israeli occupation forces led by General Ariel Sharon
facilitated a Phalangist massacre of thousands of Palestinian
refugees just south of Beirut, U.S. troops moved into areas around
the capital and Navy ships were stationed off the coast. When a
popular uprising commenced against the minority Phalangist government, U.S.
forces began bombing villages in the Shouf Mountains and other opposition
strongholds while U.S. Marines exchanged gunfire with Muslim militias in
nearby Beirut suburbs.
There were also a series of armed engagements with Syrian forces
in eastern Lebanon, resulting in the killing and capture of US pilots. In
1983, suicide bombers struck the U.S. embassy in April
and a Marine barracks in October, killing nearly 300 Americans,
which led to a U.S. withdrawal in early 1984. Meanwhile, the
United States continued its military and financial support for
Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon, blocking the UN
Security Council from enforcing a series of resolutions
demanding Israel's unconditional withdrawal. Periodic attacks
by U.S.-armed Israeli forces against Lebanese civilian population centers
resulted in hundreds of thousands of internal refugees,
many of whom joined radical Islamic groups like Hizbollah,
which were responsible for a series of kidnapping and
assassinations of Americans in Lebanon. The collapse of leftist
and nationalist Lebanese forces as a result of the US intervention
and the U.S.-backed Israeli invasion led to a power vacuum filled
by extremist Islamic groups from below and an overbearing
presence of the anti-American Syrian government from above. Combined with
resentment at the enormous human costs of these interventions, Lebanon has
turned from a staunchly pro-Western
country to a center of anti-American sentiments.
> >
Libya, 1981-86: Beginning in 1981, in part to challenge Libyan
claims for expanded territorial waters, the United States launched
a series of air strikes along the Libyan coast, shot down Libyan
military aircraft, and engaged in a series of minor naval battles
with the Libyan forces in the Gulf of Sidra. Partially in response
to this U.S. hostility, Libya increased its funding for radical
groups such as Abu Nidal, which launched a series of terrorist
attacks in Europe against Americans. In April 1986, the US
bombed Libya's two largest cities, killing over sixty civilians,
including the two-year old daughter of Libyan president Muammar Qaddafi. In
retaliation, Libyan agents planted a bomb aboard Pan
Am flight 103 bound for New York in December 1988, which
exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people aboard.
> >
Iran-Iraq war, 1980-90: The United States actively supported Iraq's
invasion of Iran, blocking efforts by the United Nations to place sanctions
upon Saddam Hussein's regime for its aggression, and providing the Iraqis
with economic and military assistance. Even
though Iraq was actively supporting terrorist groups such as Abu
Nidal, the United States dropped Iraq from its list of countries sponsoring
terrorism in order to send otherwise banned military
and technological support. These included the seed stock for
Iraq's anthrax supply (which were used to make biological
weapons) and various toxic chemicals (which were used to
make chemical weapons),  which the US now claims makes
Iraq enough of a threat to require a U.S.-led invasion. Officials
from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency were sent to Iraq to
use US satellite imagery to help the Iraqis target Iranian troop
concentrations, even though they knew the Iraqis were using
banned chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers. The US also
covered up for Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Kurdish
civilians in 1988 by falsely claiming the Iranians were responsible
for the massacres. In 1987, the US sent in the U.S. Navy to
protect Kuwaiti ships that were supporting the Iraqi war effort, launching a
series of armed engagements with Iranian naval forces
and bombing Iranian coastal areas. When the Iraqis attacked the
US  navy frigate Stark in May 1987, killing 37 sailors, the US
accepted Iraqi claims that it was an accident despite evidence to
the contrary. In July 1988, the U.S. Navy shot down an Iranian
airliner on a regularly-scheduled flight over Iranian air space,
killing all 290 on board.
> >
This American support for Saddam Hussein despite his invasion
of  Iran, his use of weapons of mass destruction, and his
unprovoked attack on a US Navy ship in international waters undoubtedly
emboldened the Iraqi dictator to believe he could
get away with invading another neighbor country: the small but
wealthy emirate of Kuwait.
> >
  The Gulf War, 1991: The United States led a devastating six-week
war against Iraq in early 1991 over Saddam Hussein's refusal to withdraw
from the emirate of Kuwait, which Iraq invaded, occupied
and annexed in August 1990. Going well beyond what was necessary
to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation forces, the damage to Iraq's
civilian infrastructure and the humanitarian consequences from the resulting
sanctions led to widespread anti-American resentment in
the region, even among Saddam Hussein's fiercest pponents.
These included Osama bin Laden, the exiled Saudi businessman
who had been a U.S. ally in the war against the communist
government in Afghanistan and its Soviet backers during the 1980s
and had offered to raise an army of mujahadin to fight the Iraqi occupation
forces. Bin Laden and his followers were particularly incensed at the
increased strategic cooperation resulting from the
Gulf War between the United States and the repressive family dictatorships
of the Gulf region, particularly Saudi Arabia. An
  additional consequence of the Gulf War was the ongoing
stationing of US forces in Saudi Arabia - the guardian of Islamic
holy places - which was deeply offensive to bin Laden and his
followers who saw this as a desecration by non-believers of
sacred land. As a result, bin Laden formed the Al-Qaeda network.
Had there been no Gulf War, there would have been no 9/11.
> >
Sudan, 1998: U.S. planes bombed and destroyed the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical
plan outside of the capital of Khartoum in August
1988. The Clinton Administration justified the attack by falsely claiming
that it was a chemical weapons factory controlled by
Osama bin Laden. Though the US blocked the United Nations
from investigating, independent reports leave little doubt that the
plant was solely used for civilian medical items and there was no connection
with the exiled Saudi terrorist. Estimates from
foreign embassies and development groups believe that thousands
of Sudanese, particularly children, died as a result of the shortages
of antibiotics and vaccines caused by the destruction of the facility, which
manufactured as much as half of the country's domestic
supplies. In retaliation, the Sudanese government refused to
extradite two Al-Qaeda suspects who were scheduled to be
turned over to US custody along with documents that many
believe could have shed light on plans for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In addition, the U.S. destruction of the pharmaceutical plant likely
saved the repressive Islamist military regime from imminent
collapse, as opposition groups - that had been making dramatic
gains in the weeks leading up to the attack-closed ranks behind
the government in response to the bombing.  That government,
which has been responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths
in the southern part of the country and continues to harbor anti-American
terrorists, remains in power to this day.
> >
Afghanistan, 1979-90, 1998, and 2001-present: The US began
secretly arming Islamist rebels fighting the leftist government of
Afghanistan in July 1979. According to former National Security Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the decision to aid these
fundamentalist militias was based in part on the hope that it
would provoke the Soviets to invade, which they did that
December. U.S. support for Islamist rebels dramatically increased
in the coming years, with 80% of the aid going to the Hekmatyar
faction, the most extremist of the seven major mujahadin factions fighting
the Soviets and their Afghan allies. The reason for
wanting to encourage a Soviet invasion and to support the
opposition group least likely to compromise was the hope that
the Soviets would be bogged down in a debilitating counter-
insurgency war, which would thereby assist America's Cold War
aims. Soviet forces withdrew in 1989, but U.S. support for
Hekmatyar continued and a coalition of mujahadin groups ousted
Afghanistan's leftist government in 1992. Not satisfied with the
Islamic coalition government that resulted, Hekmatyar forces
shelled the capital of Kabul, killing thousands of civilians and
making a stable government impossible. Out of the ensuing
chaos rose the Taliban militia, which seized power in 1996 and
imposed a theocratic fascism upon the country. The Taliban
allowed use of its territory by the Al-Qaeda network, which
served as the base of operations for a series of terrorist attacks
against Americans in Africa, the Middle East and finally in the
US itself. Had the US not supported the extremist Hekmatyar
faction and instead backed efforts by the United Nations and
others to bring a peaceful settlement to the Soviet occupation
and civil war, Afghanistan could have a established a stable
government many years earlier and the Taliban would have
never come to power.
> >
The Clinton Administration bombed a series of camps belonging
to Al-Qaeda in August 1998 after terrorist attacks against two US
embassies in Africa.  The Bush Administration launched a major bombing
campaign and limited ground operations against both
Al-Qaeda and Taliban positions in October 2001 following the
9/11 attacks against the United States, facilitating the takeover of
the government in Kabul by the rebel Northern Alliance. U.S.
military operations continue to this day. Dozens of American servicemen and
thousands of Afghan civilians have died as a
result of the U.S.-led war. Whether this military operation will eventually
lead to a similar blowback against the US as have
these previous interventions remains to be seen.
> >
The planned U.S. invasion of Iraq would be unprecedented in its
scale. If this review of U.S. intervention in the Middle East is any
guide, the result could be disastrous, not just for the Iraqi people,
but for the US as well. Other great powers that have tried to
impose their will on the Middle East have sooner or later faced
the consequences. Initial victories - like the installation of the
pro-American Shah of Iran or the defeat of Iraq in the first Gulf
War - have proved to be illusory in terms of promoting American interests.
> >
A counter-example if illustrative: In 1956, Great Britain and
France -with the support of Israel - tried to impose a regime
change in Egypt against an Arab nationalist dictator whom they
likened to Adolf Hitler. The US came to the defense of Gamal
Abdul-Nasser's regime, claiming that despite its opposition to
Nasser's policies and its close alliance with  the Britain, France
and Israel, the U.S. government felt obliged to uphold international law.
Just as the United States had to speak out against the  simultaneous Soviet
invasion of Hungary, it was argued, the US
must speak out against such aggression even when it involves a
US ally. The US has never been more popular in the Middle East
before or since.Egypt - the largest and most important country in
the Arab world - has been an important U.S. ally for more than
three decades.
> >
There are many important moral and legal arguments against a
U.S. invasion of Iraq, but this has not stopped the drive toward
war. Perhaps this brief history lesson, then, may convince those
who naively believe that U.S. intervention in the Middle East
makes America safer to reconsider.
> >
Stephen Zunes is Middle East editor for the Foreign Policy in
Focus Project  www.fpif.org and is an associate professor of
Politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at
the University of San Francisco. Parts of this article were
excerpted from his book Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and
the Roots of Terrorism www.commmoncouragepress.com.
> >
**************************
> >
  "I saw a mother who had traveled 200 km with her young daughter,
who suffered from leschmaniais ... She came to the hospital because
she heard it had a supply of Pentostam, the medicine needed to treat
the disease.  The pediatrician told her there was none.  Then he
turned to me and, in English, said, "It would be kinder to shoot
her here rather than let her go home and die the lingering death
that awaits her".  Our interpreter, by instinct, translated the
doctor's comments into Arabic for the mother, whose eyes
instantly  overflowed with tears.
>
  "Against the short-term gain of removing Saddam, we must take
into account that idea that we may well unleash forces of hatred
and resentment that will haunt us for decades to come in every
corner of the world.  I can just hear Osama Bin Laden saying now, 'Please
President Bush, attack Iraq.  There's nothing better you
could do to help the cause of Al Qaeda!'" --Charles Clements, MD
>
  On Monday, February 10, 2003, Frank James MD <frankjamesmd@...> sent
a letter he received:

> Frank,
>
  I am a public health physician and a human rights advocate.  I have
just returned from a 10-day emergency mission to Iraq with other
public health experts to assess the vulnerability of the civilian population
to another war.  I'm also a distinguished graduate of
the USAF Academy and a Vietnam veteran, so I have some sense
of the potential consequences of the air war we are about to unleash
on Iraq as a prelude to the introduction of American troops.
>
  The population of Iraq has been reduced to the status of refugees.  Nearly
60 percent of Iraqis, or almost 14 million people, depend
entirely on a government-provided food ration that, by international
standards, represents the minimum for human sustenance.  Unemployment is
greater than 50 percent, and the majority of those
who are employed make between $4 and $8 a month. (The latter
figure is the salary of a physician that works in a primary health
center.)  Most families are without economic resources, having
sold off their possessions over the last decade to get by.
>
  Hospital wards are filled with severely malnourished children, and
much of the population has a marginal nutritional status.  While
visiting a children's hospital, we were told about newly emerging diseases
that had previously been controlled when pesticides were available.
(Current sanctions prohibit their importation.)  Later I
saw a mother who had traveled 200 km with her young daughter,
who suffered from leschmaniais, or "kala azar" as it is known
there.  She came to the hospital because she heard it had a supply
of Pentostam, the medicine needed to treat the disease.  The
pediatrician told her there was none.  Then he turned to me and, in English,
said, "It would be kinder to shoot her here rather than let
her go home and die the lingering death that awaits her".  Our interpreter,
by instinct, translated the doctor's comments into Arabic
for the mother, whose eyes instantly overflowed with tears.
>
  The food distribution program funded by the U.N., Oil-for-Food, is
the world's largest and is heavily dependent upon the transportation system,
which will be one of the first targets of the war, as the U.S.
will attempt to sever transport routes to prevent Iraqi troop
movements and interrupt military supplies.  Yet even before the
transportation system is hit, U.S. aircraft will spread millions of graphite
filaments in wind-dispersed munitions that will cause a complete paralysis
of the nation's electrical grids.  Already
literally held together with bailing wire because the country has
been unable to obtain spare parts due to sanctions, the poorly
functioning electrical system is essential to the public health
infrastructure.
>
  The water treatment system, too, has been a victim of sanctions.
Unable to import chlorine and aluminum sulfate (alum) to purify
water, Iraq has already seen a 1000% increase in the incidence of
some waterborne diseases. Typhoid cases, for instance, have
increased from 2,200 in 1990 to more than 27,000 in 1999.  In
the aftermath of an air assault, Iraqis will not have potable water
in their homes, and they will not have water to flush their toilets.
>
  The sanitation system, which frequently backs up sewage ankle
deep in Baghdad neighborhoods when the ailing pumps fail, will
stop working entirely in the aftermath of the air attack.  There will
be epidemics as water treatment and water pumping will come to
a halt.  Even though it is against the Geneva Conventions to target
infrastructure elements that primarily serve civilians, this
prohibition did not give us pause in Gulf War I --and, based upon current
Bush administration threats, will not this time. Pregnant
women, malnourished children, and the elderly will be the first
to succumb.  UNICEF estimates that 500,000 more children
died in Iraq in the decade following the Gulf War than died in
the  previous decade.  These children are part of the "collateral
damage" from the last war.
>
  How many civilians will die in the next war?  That is hard to say.
One estimate for the last Gulf War was that 10,000 perished,
mostly during the bombing campaign that led up to the invasion.
That figure will surely climb because our government has
promised that a cruise missile will strike Iraq every five minutes
for the first 48 hours the war.  These missiles will seek out
military, intelligence, and security-force targets around highly
populated areas like Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul, Iraq's largest
cities, where "collateral damage" is unavoidable.  Unable to meet
the acute medical needs of the country's population now, the health
care system of Iraq will be overwhelmed by such an assault.
>
  This scenario is conservative.  I have not taken into account any
use of weapons of mass destruction, or the possibility that the war
will set loose massive civil disorder and bloodshed, as various
groups within the country battle for power or revenge.  I have
also ignored what would happen if we became bogged down in
house-to-house fighting in Baghdad, which could easily become
another Mogidishu or Jenin.
>
  There was a lot that made me angry on that trip.  I have worked
in war zones before and I have been with civilians as they were
bombed by U.S.-supplied aircraft, but I don't think I've
experienced anything on the magnitude of  the catastrophe that
awaits our attack in Iraq.  Still, as deeply troubling as this
looming human disaster is, another issue troubles me far more.
If the U.S. pursues this war without the backing of the U.N.
Security Council, it will undermine a half-century of efforts by
the world community to establish a foundation of humanitarian
and human rights law.  Such an act on our part would also violate
the U.N. Charter and make a mockery of the very institution we
have helped to fashion in the hopes it would help prevent crimes
against humanity. Many might define the consequences of such
an attack on the population of Iraq as just that.
>
  Saddam is a monster, there is no doubt about that.  He needs to
be contained.  Yet many former U.N. weapons inspectors feel
he has been "defanged".  His neighbors do not fear him any
longer.  There are many Iraqis who want him removed, but not by
a war.  Against the short-term gain of removing Saddam, we must
take into account that idea that we may well unleash forces of
hatred and resentment that will haunt us for decades to come in
every corner of the world.  I can just hear Osama Bin Laden saying
now, "Please President Bush, attack Iraq.  There's nothing better you could
do to help the cause of Al Qaeda!"
>  -------------------------------------------
>
> On Thursday, February 6, 2003,  Njang Joseph <ngujoe@...>, of
Cameroon, equatorial Africa, wrote:
>
  Even in the worst of hope,
Even in the darkest of night,
Even over the blood of the weak,
There are still very good people;
People with conscience --
People who do think clearly --
People who still inspire hope;
Even in the darkest of night.
Keep on John!
>

> WAR IS ONLY THE FAILURE OF MAN
> BUT NOT THE STRENGTH OF PEACE.
>
> Njang Joseph
  _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>
> CERJ@... wrote:
> :
Well over 100,000 young men and women from the USA, Great Britain, and other
allied countries, are now poised to invade Iraq.
The question of "Why?" is something we have been trying hard to
deal with. But what is this place, Iraq?
>
  Iraq is situated around the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys in an
area called Mesopotamia. It was here, thousands of years ago, that recorded
civilization began.
>
  The name 'Mesopotamia' is from the Greek, meaning 'between
rivers'. It is, and was, an elongated, cone-shaped lowland lying
between the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers.
>
  Sometime during the millennium 5,000-4,000 B.C., human
beings settled the fertile plains, made major developments in agriculture,
and soon achieved other technological and
sociological advances. Among their achievements were the use
of copper and bronze as tools and weapons, the development
of the wheel for land transportation, the invention of the
sailboat for water travel, and the invention of modern
ceramics with the use of the potter's wheel.
>
  Ancient Mesopotamia included two distinct regions, each with
their own culture (Akkad in the north and Sumer in the south),
and there was a major military unification of the region under
the Akkadian king Sargon I at around 2300 B.C. Ironically, and
similar to the story of the Greek city-states of Sparta and
Athens, although the more militaristic Akkadians conquered
Mesopotamia, it was the culture of the Sumerians which
predominated and survived. Therefore, most modern discussion
of the beginnings of civilization start with the Sumerians.
>
  An internet search on 'Mesopotamia' will lead you to many sites
telling about the region, which, as the birthplace and original home
of Abraham, was effectively one of the the 'cradles' of the great
Semitic religions as well -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Abraham, 'the Patriarch', was effectively the first Hebrew -- his
story is told in the Bible in the Book of Genesis, 11:26 to 25:18. Abraham
was reportedly born in the legendary Mesopotamian
city of Ur, in ancient Chaldea (Hebrew: 'Kasdim'), the site of
the famous Ziggurat (pyramid).
>
> Here is one site you might find worth a visit:
>
> http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook03.html
>
  And here, spontaneous witness to the depth of Iraqi civilization,
gentleness, and hospitality, is recent witness given on one of the Christian
Peacemaking Teams' lists:
>
  "On a Christian Peacemaker Team delegation to Iraq in early
January we stayed at a hotel in Baghdad. Our meal was cooked by
a woman named Amal who lives next door to the hotel with her husband, Safa,
and three children.
>
  "After dinner, Amal insisted that we come to her house for tea and cookies.
There we discovered a modest Arab home, traditionally furnished, the walls
covered with breathtaking oil paintings in all
sizes depicting the streets scenes and faces of Baghdad."
>>> -------------------------------------------

Dear Ones,

See how the multinationals and the governments stangulate the
people.   Best wishes

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi
Tel: 00 91 22 2414 9688

----- Original Message -----
From: <biodemocracy-admin@...>
Subject: BioDemocracy News #42 Global Grassroots: Gaining Ground
>
  BioDemocracy News #42 (Feb. 2003) Global Grassroots: Gaining Ground by
Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association <www.organicconsumers.org>
>
> Quotes of the Month:
>
  "The deal would be this: if the Americans would stop lying about
us, we would stop telling the truth about them." European Union
Development Commissioner Poul Nielson, referring to the
increasingly bitter EU/US conflict over genetically engineered
food, Reuters, 1/20/03
>
  "There is no need for GM (genetically modified) crops; no one wants
them, not famine-stricken African nations, and very possibly, not even
the biotech corporations themselves, judging from the spectacular
cutbacks and spin-outs of agricultural biotechnology and major
retreats from funding academic research over the past year." Dr. Mae
Wan-Ho, Institute for Science and Society www.i-is.org.uk 1/14/03
> ___________________________________________
> Globalization and Biotech under Fire
>
On the eve of an increasingly unpopular war, US government policies,
including globalization, genetic engineering, and subsidies to
industrial agriculture, are under fire as never before-from Iowa to
India, from London to Latin America. On New Year's Day, the ninth
anniversary of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
a stone's throw from the Mexico office of the OCA in Chiapas,
20,000 indigenous protestors are marching through the streets.
Wearing masks and bandanas, armed with machetes, and holding
aloft hand-made signs, Zapatista farmers and rural villagers are
rising up in resistance. In an evening rally, illuminated by the flames from
hundreds of torches, Zapatista leaders denounce NAFTA and
rural poverty; as well as biopiracy, the theft and patenting of native
resources and knowledge by biotech scientists, and transgenic
pollution, the contamination of Mexico's traditional corn varieties
by genetically engineered (GE) corn being dumped on the country
by US-based grain giants, Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill.
>
  A thousand miles to the north, Mexican farmers organize a parallel
protest, blocking the US/Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez. Since the
advent of NAFTA in 1994, the country has been flooded by cheap,
US taxpayer-subsidized grains and foods, including six million tons
a year of GE corn and high-fructose corn sweetener for soft drinks.
Unable to compete with more than $20 billion in annual subsidies
to US agribusiness, most of which goes to large farms, two million Mexican
corn growers, cane-cutters, and indigenous subsistence
farmers have been driven off the land, forced to migrate to the already
overcrowded cities, or to make a long and dangerous journey to the
US to find work. Once self-sufficient in food production, Mexico now spends
78% of its oil exports to purchase food imports from the US.
>
  Not since the revolution of 1910 has the US's neighbor to the south
experienced such a wave of unrest. In the past two months, hundreds
of thousands of Mexican farmers organized marches, blocked
highways, and seized government installations. In one dramatic
protest, a group of ranchers blocked the streets outside the Congress
in Mexico City with their farm tractors, and then rode up the steps of
the building on horseback. Desperate to defuse the mounting crisis, Mexican
President Vicente Fox has promised to renegotiate the
NAFTA agreement, much to the chagrin of the White House.
Similarly hammered by NAFTA and subsidies to large corporate
farms, the National Family Farm Coalition in the US and the
National Farmers Union in Canada have extended their solidarity, calling for
economic justice for farmers, North and South, a rollback
of international trade agreements, and an end to the dumping of GE
corn and other crops on the Mexican and world market. On  Jan. 31
over 100,000 irate farmers marched through the streets of Mexico
City and rallied in front of the National Palace.
>
  Further south, in Brazil and Ecuador, new Presidents have been
swept into office, riding a wave of anti-globalization and a demand
for peace and economic justice. In Brazil left-wing President Lula
da Silva has made "Zero Hunger" and food security his number
one priority, at the same time pledging to maintain Brazil's
moratorium on GE soybeans. Brazil's exports of GE-free soybeans
have doubled to $7.6 billion over the last four years, while US
soybean exports (75% of which are GE) have declined by 30%.
In a national survey in July 2001, 67% of Brazilians said that
transgenic crops should continue to be banned.
>
  Manifesting the growing power of the global grassroots, from
Jan 23-28 over 100,000 farmer, labor, consumer and environmental,
activists gathered in Porto Alegre, Brazil for the third annual World
Social Forum-denouncing war, corporate globalization, and food
security, under the overall theme, "Another World is Possible."
Among the notable street demonstrations in Porto Alegre was a Jan.
27 protest at Monsanto's headquarters, where Greenpeace activists scaled the
building and hung a banner denouncing Frankencrops.
>
  The economic crisis in Latin America has grown worse. Besides reducing
consumer-buying power by 30% in 2002, Argentina's economic strangulation by
the International Monetary Fund has
reduced the ability of Argentina's farmers to buy GE Roundup
Ready soybeans-a significant factor in Monsanto's recent
economic downturn. One of the few glimmers of hope in the
Argentina rural economy is the increasing demand overseas for
non-GM corn and grass-fed beef. Meanwhile in Venezuela,
increasing poverty, capital flight, empty supermarket shelves (50%
of the nation's food is imported), and a business-led sabotage of
the oil industry, have brought the country to the verge of civil war.
>
  In Colombia, the collapse of world coffee prices and a generalized
agricultural crisis have increased poverty and hunger, driving many
desperate farmers to grow drug crops, fueling an ever more violent
civil war. Seemingly drunk with power, emboldened by what it
believes is the popularity of its "war on drugs and terrorism," the
Bush administration has moved aggressively into Colombia. US
troops are now directly involved in counter-insurgency operations, guarding
oil pipelines and working hand in hand with the Colombian army and
right-wing death squads. Among the tactics being employed
by the US are the indiscriminate aerial spraying of Monsanto's
Roundup herbicide over vast areas of the Colombian countryside, poisoning
rural communities and destroying food crops, as well as
coca and poppy fields. US biowar proponents are advocating the
aerial spraying of an even more dangerous herbicide, genetically engineered
fusarium bacteria. www.organicconsumers.org/ge/GEherbicide.cfm
>
> Biotech Bullying Backfires
>
  Across the globe, as reported in BioDemocracy News, and updated
daily on OCA's website www.organicconsumersw.org, an enormous "food fight"
has intensified. While developing nations sound the
alarm over hunger, food dependency and declining biodiversity, and resent
the recent dumping of GE-tainted corn on impoverished
nations; in the industrialized world, consumer concerns over food safety,
nutrition, and environmental sustainability have reached an
all-time high. Both North and South there is an increasing distrust
of "industrial food" and GMOs (genetically modified organisms),
and a growing appetite for organic products. While industrial
food revenues are flat, growing 1-2% a year, organic sales are
booming, with yearly growth rates of 20-25%. By the year 2020,
at current rates of growth, most food sold at the grocery store
retail level in the US, Canada, and the EU will be organic. Farmers
in 110 nations will produce more than $25 billion worth of organic foods and
fiber in 2003.
>
  Worldwide sales of transgenic crops have stalled at $4.25 billion a
year, with only four countries, for all practical purposes, producing
GMOs on a commercial scale (US-corn, soybeans, cotton, and
canola; Canada-corn, soybeans, canola; Argentina-soybeans only;
and China-cotton only). As Greenpeace organizer Jeanne Merrill told the
Associated Press (1/16/03) "The reality is that the biotechnology
revolution has not happened. The majority of these crops are going
into animal feed. Farmers are rejecting biotech food crops."
>
In 2002 there was essentially no increase worldwide in the commercial
plantings of the four major GE crops, soybeans, corn, canola, and
cotton- with the sole exception of GE cotton in China and India. And
even the expansion of Bt-spliced or herbicide-resistant cotton is likely to
be short-lived, with reports from the fields of pest resistance and
declining yields. In order to speed up the demise of Bt cotton, as well
as to fight sweatshops and increase the market demand for organic cotton and
sustainable fibers, the OCA is launching a major new campaign called Clothes
for a Change. Among other tactics, this campaign will pressure leading brand
name companies such as Gap,  Levi's, Ralph Lauren, Nike, and Wal-Mart to go
"sweatshop-free,"
to stop using GE cotton in their garments, and to blend in organic
and sustainable fibers instead. For more information see
> www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/
>
  The Bush administration's bullying tactics on GMOs have backfired
badly. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's belligerent threats
to file a WTO challenge against the EU for its moratorium on GE
crops have simply hardened European attitudes toward Frankenfoods and
increased global market demand for organic and non-GMO crops.
Similarly Washington's denunciations of African leaders for "starving
their people" by refusing shipments of US food aid contaminated by
genetic engineering, have angered Africans who believe that America
is trying to shove unwanted GMOs down their throats. Charges by
US trade officials that Europe had manipulated gullible Africans
into believing that GMOs were unsafe prompted a blunt response
from EU Development Director Poul Nielson on Jan. 20 that the
US "was lying."
>
  Compounding White House and biotech industry woes, the GMO-tainted food aid
controversy has spread to Asia, with India recently refusing part of a $100
million shipment of GE-tainted corn and
soy from the US. At the same time Japanese importers once again rejected a
shipment of US corn, contaminated with the banned
StarLink variety. USDA officials said they were "surprised" by the
news, since they believed all remaining StarLink corn was destroyed
last year. On 1/18 the Brazilian government impounded a GM corn shipment
from the US, demanding that it be returned or incinerated. Meanwhile
protesters pulled up GM crops and took to the streets in
the Philippines after the government bowed to US pressure and approved Bt
corn.  In Australia, shipments of US GM corn were confronted by protests in
Melbourne, Brisbane, and Newcastle.
>
  On the eve of an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, anti-US
sentiments are rising. Mounting anger toward the US overseas, combined with
Bush administration bullying on trade and GMOs, may    well deliver a fatal
blow to the Gene Giants, already on life-support after several years of
setbacks.
>
> The View from Porto Alegre: Another World Is Possible
>
  Before reviewing several recent major developments on the biotech
front, let's step back for a moment and look at the "Big Picture" of
agriculture, food security, war, and peace, as articulated at the
recent World Social Forum in Brazil. Several of us from the OCA
were fortunate enough to be delegates at this annual gathering, which
is attempting to unite activists worldwide, creating a global grassroots
alternative to the elite-based WTO and the World Economic Forum. Among the
major concerns of global civil society, as expressed in
Porto Alegre are the following:
>
  . Genetic engineering and industrial agriculture pose a mortal threat
to public health, the environment, and the economic survival of the
world's 2.4 billion farmers and rural villagers, 1.4 billion of whom
are "seed savers."

  . Even as GE crops and foods are finally driven off the market,
chemical and energy-intensive industrialized agriculture and
globalized food production and distribution still pose a mortal threat
to public health and the environment and the survival of rural
communities worldwide.

  . Organic and sustainable agricultural practices (coupled with
sustainable practices in energy, transportation, water, housing,
health, education, and industrial production) are the only road to
health, sustainability, peace, and justice. Nutritious and safe
food-preferably organic food--and a clean environment are among people's
basic human rights. Organic production systems must
embody the principles of Fair Trade and social justice.
>
  . A thousand billionaires and multi-billionaires, along with a
thousand large transnational corporations, are poisoning the planet
and our bodies and undermining democracy. This global elite's
stranglehold over our politics, commerce, media, and culture-
including our choices regarding food, fiber, and health care-must
be broken and replaced by a system of participatory democracy
and sustainable development.
>
  . We'll never stop having wars, we'll never stop the proliferation of
nuclear bombs and biowarfare weapons, we'll never stop having
dictators like Saddam Hussein, and dangerous demagogues like George
Bush as leaders, until we decide that it's a priority to feed, house and
clothe the world's 830 million starving people. In addition we must provide
employment and living wage jobs for all, especially the 2.8 billion people
currently struggling to survive on less than $2 a day.
And finally we must make it a global priority to allow the world's
2.4 billion farmers and rural villagers to remain on the land, producing the
world's food and fiber, safely, sustainably and equitably.
>
> Biopharm Blunders-Another Nail in the Coffin for Agbiotech
>
  "We're very sorry for the mishap." Anthony Laos, CEO of biopharm
> corporation, ProdiGene.
>
Among the most hazardous and unpredictable new products in the biotech
pipeline are the so-called "pharm" crops. These are crops, most often corn
or tobacco, that are gene-spliced to produce powerful
pharmaceutical drugs and industrial chemicals. Drug and chemical
companies are excited about biopharming, since using plants or animals
as "bioreactors" can reduce their manufacturing costs. The downside is
that these mutant bioreactors will undoubtedly pollute the environment
and contaminate the food chain.

  Over the past few years more than 300 fields of biopharm crops have
been planted in the US--in secret locations, in the open environment.
Approximately 200 of these experiments have been conducted with corn,
notorious for spreading its wind-blown pollen to surrounding fields.
Although no pharm crops have been approved for commercial production,
regulations and enforcement of test plots are notoriously lax.  Biopharm
companies are not even required to give the USDA the exact gene sequences of
the experimental crops, making it impossible
to verify whether or not particular pharm crops have contaminated the
food chain.  As Larry Bohlen of Friends of the Earth put it "If the
USDA continues to allow biopharm food crops to be planted,
someone is  going to get prescription drugs or industrial chemicals
in their corn flakes." Recent events suggest that this contamination
is already taking place.
>
  In Nov. 2002 the USDA was forced to admit that at least two
experimental corn crops in Nebraska and Iowa, grown by ProdiGene, had
already polluted the environment. Not only had a least one, and
possibly both, of the mutant corn crops pollinated, thereby spreading
their mutant genes into the air but several hundred "volunteer"
ProdiGene corn plants had sprung up the following year,
contaminating over 500,000 bushels of soybeans in Nebraska, and
150 acres of corn in Iowa. ProdiGene at first tried to deny there was
a problem, but then issued an apology. The USDA imposed $3
million in penalties on ProdiGene, but brushed off demands by
OCA's public interest coalition, Genetically Engineered Food
Alert www.gefoodalert.org for a complete moratorium on
biopharm experiments.
>
  According to USDA records, and an FDA memo posted on the OCA website,
ProdiGene holds permits to grow corn which has been genetically engineered
to express a pig vaccine, as well as corn
gene-spliced to produce a controversial AIDS drug called HIV glycoprotein
gp120, a blood-clotting agent (aprotinin). ProdiGene, under pressure,
admitted that some of the plants cited in their
violation were designed to express a pig vaccine, but a November
FDA memo strongly suggests that it was the AIDS drug or some
other human drug-not the pig virus-that was being grown by
ProdiGene in Nebraska. See:
  www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/121002/_genetically_engineered.cfm

  ProdiGene's biopharm blunder was the most serious biotech scandal
since the StarLink controversy in 2000, when a likely allergenic
variety of feed corn contaminated the US food chain and generated
major controversy in the press, both in the US and worldwide. For the
first time since the advent of GE foods and crops in 1994, major US
grocery store chains, represented by the Grocery Manufacturers of
America, and food corporations, represented by the National Food
Processors Association, clashed with the USDA and the biotech
industry, demanding that biopharm companies stop experimenting
with food and animal feed crops such as corn. Even the
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the trade association
for medical and agbiotech companies, briefly called in October for
a moratorium on biopharm experiments in the Midwestern corn belt,
no doubt having been tipped off that the ProdiGene scandal was
about to erupt. However BIO reversed itself shortly thereafter,
caving in to pressure from biotech and agribusiness lobbyists.
>
  More Frankenpharm horror stories loom on the horizon. Pressed as
to whether or not other biopharm violations have occurred, USDA
bureaucrats have been evasive, admitting there have been other
"infractions," but claiming nothing else has occurred on the scale of
ProdiGene. Although US Senator Richard Durbin from Illinois has
formally requested a full accounting of biopharm violations, the
USDA has dragged its heels. Meanwhile biopharm's mad scientists
are preparing to move their operations overseas, to the developing world,
where they hope to be able to pay farmers a pittance, operate
in total secrecy and pollute the environment and food chain with impunity.
On their website www.molecularfarming.com the
biopharm industry have put out a call to farmers worldwide,
especially in the Third World, to make good money and serve a
noble cause by getting in on the ground floor of what they call a
"future $50 billion a year, industry". But as Monsanto can attest,
outsourcing genetic pollution and treating people as human guinea
pigs does not always work out as planned.
>
  Monsanto Meltdown
>
  Despite heavy advertising and PR greenwash, despite a cozy
relationship with the White House, Monsanto's image, profits, and
credibility have plunged. Its aggressive bullying on Frankenfoods,
its patents on the Terminator gene, its attempt to buy out seed companies
and monopolize seed stocks, and its persecution of
hundreds of North American farmers for the "crime" of seed-saving,
has made Monsanto one of the most hated corporations on Earth.
>
  Monsanto will likely soon be broken up, with its parts sold off to the
highest bidder. The New York Times reported 1/14/03, that "With
its stock price low, Monsanto is considered a takeover target. by
investment banks. and could be bought and sold off in pieces." On
December 19, Monsanto shocked the biotech industry by forcing
the resignation of its CEO, Hendrik Verfaillie, a 26-year veteran
with the company. The sudden move came as Monsanto reported
losses of $1.75 billion for the first three quarters of 2002, despite
cutbacks, including layoffs for 700 employees. Monsanto's stock
has fallen nearly 50% since January 2001.
>
  But Monsanto is not the only Gene Giant downsizing. Last year,
biotech giant Syngenta closed down its plant genome lab in San
Diego, terminated its controversial research partnership with the University
of California in Berkeley, pulled out of its planned collaboration with the
Indira Gandhi rice research institute in India,
and canceled its contract with the John Innes Center in the UK
>
Major transnational corporations in the food and life sciences sector
are unlikely to shed any tears over Monsanto's demise. It's no secret
on Wall Street that Monsanto, in its present form, has become a
major liability for transnational food corporations and the biotech/
pharmaceutical giants, who are much more concerned with the
potential for hundreds of billions of dollars in sales from biotech
drugs, nutraceutical foods, and nanotechnology, than the declining
fortunes of agbiotech crops, whose total sales in 2002 were $4.25
billion.
>
  One of the major reasons for Monsanto's decline, besides the growing
worldwide opposition to its GE crops, is the growing resistance of
weeds to Monsanto's flagship product, Roundup herbicide. Roundup, up until
now the top-selling weed killer in the world, making up 50%
of Monsanto's sales and 70% of their profits, has recently begun to
lose its effectiveness against major crop weeds such as mare's-tail,
waterhemp, and ryegrass. GE Roundup-resistant soybeans presently
account for more than 75% of all the soybeans planted in the United
States and Argentina, as well as the majority of rapeseed or canola in
Canada. According to a recent report by Syngenta, herbicide-resistant
superweeds will soon reduce the economic value of farmland on
which Roundup Ready soybeans are grown by 17%. Forty-six percent
of farmers surveyed in Syngenta's study said that weed resistance to
glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup,
is now their top concern.
www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/roundup011403.cfm
> >
  According to industry experts, Monsanto has no alternative in the
pipeline once glyphosate starts to fail. Syngenta, which also sells
herbicides containing glyphosate, has criticized Monsanto for
encouraging its customers to overuse relatively cheap herbicide as
well as for not warning farmers to avoid mono-cropping, growing
the same Roundup Ready crops, year after year, on the same land.
>
  Leading scientific critics such as Dr. Michael Hansen and Dr. Charles
Benbrook have warned for years that weeds would inevitably develop
resistance to GMOs. The reason for this is that GE herbicide-resistant
plant varieties are designed to be able to survive heavy doses of the
companies' broad-spectrum weed killers, which in turn cause resistant
strains of these weeds to survive and eventually predominate. Similar
warnings have been leveled at the use of Bt-spliced crops, which are
engineered to express high doses of a soil bacteria called Bt. Now
that Bt crops such as cotton and corn have been commercialized on
millions of acres, major insect pests such as bollworms, bud worms,
beetles, and corn borers are also expected to become resistant to Bt
over the next 5-10 years.
>
  The shaky bottom line for agbiotech is that almost 100% of all
  Frankencrops today, the so-called "first generation" GE crops, are
either herbicide-resistant or Bt-spliced. Once these genetically
engineered traits lose their effectiveness, which is now happening,
the first generation of biotech crops will be dead, period. Here's a
toast to the speedy breakup and demise of Monsanto and the other
Gene Giants. RIP. In future issues of BioDemocracy News we'll
look at the so-called second, third, and fourth generation of Frankenfoods
and crops including the absolutely frightening advent
of nanotechnologyor "atomtechnology." See www.etcgroup.org
>
> Poisoning Pigs and Humans
>
In July 2002 a number of hog farms in Iowa reported that pigs were
suffering extraordinary rates of reproductive failure-outward signs
of pregnancy but no births.
www.organicconsumers.org/ge/pigfertility012703.cfm
What the farms had in common was feeding their pigs Bt corn (or
corn which was both Bt-spliced and Roundup resistant), which turned out to
have a high level of fusarium mold. When one of the farmers switched back to
non-GE corn, the reproductive problems disappeared. A memo by USDA
researcher Dr. Mark Rasmussen dated 8/5/02
stated, "A possible cause of the problem may be the presence of an
unanticipated biologically active, chemical compound in the corn." Previous
research at Baylor University in Texas found similar
problems in rats exposed to "chipped corncob bedding" made from
Bt corn. As indicated in previous issues of BioDemocracy News, it
is likely that human guinea pigs (i.e. the general public), as well as
pigs, are now suffering from allergic reactions as well as damage to their
immune systems and guts from ingesting Bt corn. A number of scientists
believe that the Iowa incident may be the result of a sort of toxic synergy
between Bt corn and Roundup Ready soybeans. More
on this in an upcoming issue.
>
> The Next Step
>
  The OCA has made a commitment to double the size of our 500,000-member
network over the next 12 months, and to step up the pressure
by helping grassroots activists pass laws that alter public policy at
the local and state levels. This is in addition to carrying on our
marketplace pressure campaigns against Starbucks and supermarket
chains and stepping up our public education efforts. If you are
willing to help us with network building in your local area, or work
with us to pass pro-organic legislation against sweatshops,
Frankenfoods, irradiated food, or slave labor coffee and chocolate,
send an email to simon@.... In your email, please
include your telephone number and street address so we can have the
appropriate OCA regional field organizer get back in touch with you.
>

Dear Ones, Fred and Pawel

Accepting that recyclying and re-recycling cannot be unending,  one has to
continue
reusing through recycling for the maximum nuber of times feasible.  After a
few effective
recyclings, the material can still be used in some other form.  Land filling
and burning
away would be the last resort after exhausting all aternatives.

Our experience is that recycling does not increase per capita quantum of
waste. Integrated
Solid Waste Management Programme (ISWMP), of which recycling of recyclables
is a
part,  in fact tends to reduce the quantum.  The generator of waste is
expected to involve
himself in  the ISWMP in managing his waste. Even Zero Waste concept
presupposes active participation by the generator. This results in reduction
in the quantum.

Other advantage of conservation of natural resources, not so relevant to the
rich countries,
is very important from the holistic point of view.  How long would the man
be able to wasre
away natural resources?   Discarding after single use is ethically wrong. We
have observed
that involving citizens in managing waste which includes their waste too and
making them
aware of their duty to handle their waste are the sure way of developing
sustainable waste management.   Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi
Tel: 00 91 22 2414 9688

----- Original Message -----
From: milieugezondheid <milieugezondheid@...>
To: GAIA mailinglist <gaia-members@...>; Pawel Gluszynski
<pawel@...>
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 1:13 PM
Subject: RE: [Gaia-members] Waste news from Belgium and Portugal


> Dear Pawel
> Dear friends
>
> Indeed, Belgium is recycling a lot of domestic waste.  But there are some
> problems :
> - You can't remain recycling the same things.  The quality is getting more
> and more worse and so Belgium has to burn a part of the recycled waste.
So
> a part of the recycled waste is still be landfilled or burned.
> - Recycling stimulate the production of more waste.  Although we have a
> grate rate of recycling, the waste quantity is still increasing in
Belgium.
>
> This shows that recycling is not the final solution of the waste problem.
> Only the Zero-waste is the final solution!
>
> Fred De Baere
>
> Belgian Platform Environment and Health
> Drielindenstraat 24
> B 9100 Nieuwkerken Waas
> BELGIUM
> tel. en fax : 00-32-(0)3 766 12 02
> E-mail : info@...
> Website : www.milieugezondheid.be

Dear Colleagues,

Horrifying story indeed!  Such situation prevails in every
developing (poor) country.  Urgency for promoting
sustainable  agriculture that bans uses use of synthetic
fertilisers and pesticides.  Best wishes

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi
Prakruti
620 Jame Jamshed Road, Dadar East,
Mumbai 400 014
Tel: 00 91 22 2414 9688

----- Original Message -----
From: GlobalCirclenet <webmaster@...>
To: <GlobalGreens@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 11:00 AM
Subject: [GlobalGreens] The Poisoning Of Cambodia's Farmlands


>
http://www.ctnow.com/news/nationworld/hc-bulltoxic0209.artfeb09,0,3428796.st
> ory?coll=hc%2Dheadlines%2Dnationworld
>
>
> The Poisoning Of Cambodia's Farmlands
>  This Country's Idyllic Rural Landscape Is Unknowingly Being Ruined
>
> February 9, 2003
> By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press
>
> KHNACHAS, Cambodia -- Barefoot and without a protective mask or gloves,
Seuon Siap pads through her cauliflower patch, dousing it with a deadly
cocktail of pesticides.
>
  Her daughter sits among the sprayed, reeking leaves, and two cows munch
grass along the edges of the patch. The 50-year-old farmer isn't sure
exactly how her mix of three pesticides works because she can't read the
foreign language instructions on the containers.
>
  Her village, like so many in Cambodia, seems a throwback to a bygone age:
oxcarts rolling along vividly green rice fields and sugar palms shading
clusters of wooden farmhouses on stilts.
>
  But Cambodia's idyllic rural landscape is far from untouched by
modern life. Pesticides such as mevinphos, dichlorvos and methyl-parathion
made by European, American and Asian companies have penetrated into the
remotest regions.
>
  Many of these products are banned in their countries of origin - and
are identified as extremely hazardous by the U.N. World Health
Organization - but they are being smuggled wholesale into Cambodia.
>
  Activists contend that multinational corporations and smaller
operators have made Cambodia and other poor countries a dumping ground for
dangerous pest killers, a charge denied by manufacturers.
>
  The pesticide business has boomed in Cambodia in recent years. The
Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture, known
as CEDAC, recently catalogued at least 418 pesticide products on the market,
142 of which are legally banned or restricted in the country. Among these,
fake and adulterated products abound.
>
  CEDAC, a nongovernmental group, estimates sales could be as high
as $20 million a year - about double the national government's budget for
agriculture.
>
  Cambodia isn't alone. WHO says developing countries spend $3 billion a year
on pesticides, about a third of which don't meet internationally accepted
standards. It reports 3 million acute pesticide poisonings each year and
220,000 deaths, 99 percent of them in developing ountries.
>
  Long-term effects of exposure to pesticides, by handlers and
consumers, are believed to include damage to brain nerves, infertility,
genetic mutations and cancer.
>
  "Cambodia is one of the worst cases. They're quite vulnerable to the
pesticide option without knowing what the hell they are doing," says
Michael Shanahan of the London-based Environmental Justice Foundation.
>
  A generation of agricultural workers who could have guided
farmers in proper pesticide use was wiped out during the Khmer
Rouge terror of the mid-1970s, and the government remains
weak, poor and plagued by corruption.
>
  At the main market of Siem Reap, a major northwestern hub 140
miles from the capital, Phnom Penh, pesticide dealer Vo Leak points
to her five best-selling products.
>
  All are on WHO's most dangerous list, four are banned in Cambodia and all
have been smuggled from either Thailand or Vietnam. Almost none of her wares
have instructions in Cambodian.
>
  "I don't know whether they're illegal or not, but they must be legal
because they're imported," she says, adding that no government inspector has
ever visited her stall.
>
  A few miles away at Khnachas, farmer Hun Hoeun believes her
unborn baby died from pesticides - she sprayed during her
pregnancy - and she regularly - suffers the symptoms of pesticide poisoning,
including vomiting, dizziness and headaches.
>
  "We don't want to use pesticides," says the mother of nine children.
"But have no alternatives. We are farmers. We have no other jobs."
Alternatives like integrated pest management and organic farming
reach only a small fraction of Cambodia's farmers, who grow mainly
for the Cambodian market or their own consumption.
>
  In Hun Hoeun's village, some 80 percent of the more than 200
families apply pest killers, mostly on vegetables, and it is the women who
do the spraying while men work in rice fields or in towns.

Hun Hoeun says the women learn about pesticides by trial and error
and from the sellers. CEDAC's interviews with 77 traders in the Khnachas
region found that only eight could read the product labels
in foreign languages and just one had received training in pesticide use.
>
  Farmers concoct their own chemical brews, sometimes mixing a
dozen or more pesticides with hopes of maximizing potency and eradicating
pests that have become resistant to repeated spraying
of one formula.
>
  Few farmers use boots, gloves and masks because of the cost and
heat, and most don't change their clothes after spraying, says the
Food and Agriculture Organization. Pesticide containers sit around fields
and houses, often near cooking areas and within reach of children.
>
  Researchers say that beside harming farmers and consumers,  pesticide
deluge is beginning to degrade such ecosystems as the Tonle Sap, Southeast
Asia's largest lake and a crucial source of protein for Cambodians. The lake
harbors some 500 fish species and a rich bird life.
>
  At Sro Maul Thom village, farmers say they abandoned mung bean cultivation
because of the cost and health hazards of pesticides.
>
  But pest eradicators, which wash into the lake, continue to be used.
Soth Dam, a 43-year-old farmer, says he sprays Folidol on his watermelons.
>
  He describes it as "only medium dangerous." In fact, Folidol, a brand name
for methyl-parathion, is classified as extremely hazardous and
has been banned in Cambodia since 1998.
>
  Produced by Bayer, Folidol remains one of the most popular
pesticides, and is a major target of consumer activists. Bayer and the
Peruvian government face a class-action suit arising from the 1999 deaths of
24 schoolchildren in a remote Andean village who
inadvertently drank milk mixed with Folidol. The government later banned the
product, which was labeled in Spanish, a language the illiterate or
Quechua-speaking peasants couldn't read.
>
  Russ Dilts, a former FAO official, accuses Bayer of dumping
dangerous products that are difficult to sell elsewhere.
Bayer denies the allegation. "We are aware that the product is there,
and it is a matter of concern. This would not be a product we
would register in Cambodia. First of all, it's banned, and we know people
are not aware of how to use it," said Rolf Dieckmann, who
heads Bayer's Southeast Asian operations.
>
He said Bayer could not control the smuggling of its products
into Cambodia and added that the company would be seen as
promoting the pesticides if Cambodian language instructions were
put on its cans. "We don't dump products in underdeveloped countries," he
said. Dieckmann said methyl-parathion is still legally used in Thailand as
well as 30 other countries, including the United States
and Australia, and is useful in certain carefully controlled situations.
>
  But in Cambodia, a combination of ignorance among farmers and
poor law enforcement spells grave trouble, said Ngin Chhay, an Agriculture
Ministry official.
>
  "It is not fair to just blame everything on the small traders for
importing the chemicals because they, too, seem to know little about them,"
he said. "Major producers must understand the danger they are causing."

  Environmental Justice Foundation: www.ejfoundation.org

  Bayer Group: www.bayer.com/en/index.php
Pesticide Action Network UK: www.pan-uk.org/default.htm

Dear Gaia, Ebani, Etoxic friends,

After the dispatch of the following messge, we observed that
one of the most important issue is left out. So this message.

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) has a very high percentage of
biodegradable component which can be turned into soil conditioner
so vitally required for enriching the soil.   This would be lost for
ever to the community if the WTE plant is installed.  Burning
of the MSW is underutilisation of the MSW. Developing countries cannot
afford to waste away the MSW through the WTE gadgets.
Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi

Dear Gaia, Etoxic and Prakruti Colleagues,

While the environmental concerns of our friends are
legitimate, it ought to be noted that `burn all' gadgets
such as incinarators and `Waste-to-Energy' can never be
viable from the environmental, economic, social and
logistics angles in the developing countries.  They are
highly capital intensive with pollution monitoring and
mitigation equipment and measures forming a high
proportion of the total cost of setting up plants.
Entrepreneurs therefore skip monitoring totally.

Hazards arising from  such plants is still not fully understood
hence all the precautions needed for ensuring safe operations
are not taken in resource starved developing countries.  As
the authorities do not have financial resources, they invite
private parties to set up such plants on the BOO and BOT to
absolve themeselves of their obligation to remove or abate
nuisance in human settlements.   In India, this situation
has become more acute due to rising public consciousness
and legal action taken by conerned citizens.  The Supreme
Court, India's highest judiciary, has taken cognizance of the
threats to the community due to dumping of waste hence
has directed municipalities to handle waste in safe manner.
This directive has misfired and municipalities are in a
rush to pass off their obligatory duty elsewhere.

Though such plants can never be financially profitable and
viable, why is it that private parties jump into the
bandwagon?   Just to make the most of incentives and
concessions granted by the state for such plants. Situation is
the same in the US, Europe elsewhere.   These incentives
outweigh normal business considerations so in the end the
community gets something more horrendous than the waste
that is sought to be handled.   One look at the financial side
would show that the annual sales realisation of the electricity
generated is lower than the capital and working cost of the plant.

We are sure that the plant would not work after the entrepreneur
has availed all incentives within two years and the community
will be left to face more acute problem of disposing off larger
quantity of municipal solid waste.  Such gadgets incite citizens
to generate larger quantity and passing off their stinking  waste
to another agency.

Most serious challenge from such gadgets is that they burn away
scarce natural resources of the community. Developed countries
do not worry about this burning away as they know that they can
overexploit the limited resources.  Poor countries become
poorer and the worst sufferers are the downtrodden. The poorest
of the community sustain on picking up of items that have resale
value and diverting to the market. These rag pickers bring about
higher recycling however the community hardly recognizes the
value of their contribution to the community.

How can any authority think of taking away this basic
sustenance from the poor without providing alternate means for
sustenance?  The authorities are thus snatching away the right
to life from the poor.   We must oppose these unsustainable programmes.
Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi


----- Original Message -----
From: <tlchennai@...>
To: <gaia-members@...>
Cc: <etoxic@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 8:49 AM
Subject: [Gaia-members] INFO/INDIA - EDL's safety aspects questioned


> Environmentalists concern at safety aspects
> By Feroze Ahmed
>
CHENNAI FEB. 7. The company promoting the Rs.180 crore waste-
to-energy project announced by the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the
Assembly last
week does not yet have a technical specification or a detailed project
report for the city, point out activists, alarmed that the Government might
be pushing forward a potentially hazardous project based on mere
presentations.
> In a recent meeting between Energy Developments Limited (EDL), the company
promoting the project, and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB),
EDL representatives were not able to adequately answer several queries on
safety and environmental concerns, say activists who participated in the
meeting.
> About 20 days later came the announcement by the Chief Minister in favour
of the project, setting haywire the smoke radars of environmentalists.
> They are especially concerned that the Government is promoting a project
that still does not have the right answers or a technical report specific to
its operations here.
> The TNPCB had in fact, in a correspondence to the Municipal Administration
and Water Supply Department last year, stated its views that the EDL project
was "too expensive a technology which may work in ideal conditions in the
native environment where it is tested. But its performance in Indian
conditions is yet to be tested".
> The 14.85 MW plant proposed in Chennai is essentially being lobbied in
Government circles here based on the functioning of a 5 MW EDL plant in
Wollongong, Australia, which has in place a three-bin waste segregation
system.
> In the TNPCB meeting here on January 7, the EDL presentation included a
section on a `Perungudi Waste Composition Study' conducted in September
2002, which environmentalists say do not include many crucial components.
> An academic and environmentalist participating in the meeting had asked
the EDL managing director, Sunand Sharma, if the company had looked for
mercury in the study. "He replied that he had not as the method used by them
for waste characterisation did not require them to look for mercury. Asked
if they had a mercury-elimination design if mercury was found, he replied
again that he did not look for the metal," says Citizen Consumer Action
Group (CAG) coordinator, Bharat Jairaj, who participated in the meeting.
> In the meeting, Mr. Sunand had also challenged the TNPCB's "rejection" of
the project last year, asking the board what it was rejecting when the
company had not submitted to them a detailed project report, says Mr.
Bharat.
> To several other technical queries raised by the TNPCB and other
participants - like on the chemical reactions inside the plant, inertness of
the residue and heavy metal elimination - EDL representatives had replied
that their technical team was not with them, and so they would get back with
the answers later, says another participant, Rajesh Rangarajan of Toxics
Link.
> What worries environmentalists is that the Government has given a go-ahead
for the project just days after such a meeting. The TNPCB officials were not
available for comment.
> Speaking to The Hindu from Delhi, Mr. Sunand countered the charges saying,
"Every imaginable procedure has been followed." However, he conceded that an
agreement with the Chennai Corporation had not been finalised yet because of
the Assembly elections in 2001 and the subsequent change in Government. On
the specification of the project for Chennai, he said all the parameters
were already defined in the tender.
> The proposed plan, however, has undergone changes since then, including
several technical revisions, as admitted by EDL.
>
> The HINDU
> Feb 8, 2003
> --- Gopal  Krishna <meetgopalkrishna@...>
> wrote:
3 February, 2002
  Press Release

  Chennai pursues Disastrous Technology to Manage Waste

  Environmentalists across the country are alarmed by
the ecologically disastrous consequences of the
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's
announcement on 31st January, 2003 in the state
assembly to pursue a 14.85 MW plant to produce power
from the city's 600 MT of waste, using
gasification/pyrolysis technology at Perungudi. The
world's first and only such unproven plant is
located in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
and is still in the experimental and developing
stage. "Chief Minister's attention towards this
suicidal waste incineration project needs to be
urgently drawn. The technology deserves thorough
scrutiny. She should to be briefed about the failure
of similar plants elsewhere in the country and the
company's own failed track record," say solid waste
experts. Electricity generation from waste is not a
Eureka solution for waste management.
> >
  "The project violates two international agreements
and our own Municipal Waste Rules (MSW), 2000. This
gasification/incineration approach means that there
is no incentive to segregate, reduce, reuse and
recycle waste, which is mandatory under the Supreme
Court guidelines and MSW Rules. Infact the Chennai
Corporation is prima facie guilty of flouting MSW
norms, says Ravi Agarwal, environmentalist, Srishti,
environmental organisation. Gasification is an
incineration process that emits dioxins, the most
poisonous cancer-causing toxin known in the world.
It transfers the hazardous characteristics of waste
from solid form to air, water and ash. It also
releases new toxins, which were not present in the
original waste stream, besides generating heavy
metals," he adds. He is also part of the Basel
Action Network, which deals with the trans-boundary
movement of hazardous wastes.
> >
  "Energy Developments Limited (EDL), the Australian
company's proposal to set up the resource
incineration plant in Chennai is driven by profit
motive alone.  Contrary to what EDL says, the
gasification of waste releases dioxins and leads to
global warming. This cannot be allowed, as India is
a signatory of Kyoto Protocol and Stockholm
Convention," says Sanjay Parikh, environmental
lawyer, Supreme Court.
> >
  "India has made an international commitment to
minimise the production and use of 12 of the most
toxic chemicals in the world, known as the Dirty
Dozen, by signing the United Nations Environment
Program's (UNEP), Stockholm Treaty on persistent
organic pollutants (POPs), but the current policy of
the Union ministry of non-conventional energy
sources (MNES) subsidises and promotes
dioxin-emitting incineration technologies and this
announcement by the Tamil Nadu chief minister does
the same. Such projects lead to toxic contamination
and there is hardly any success any where in the
country. We should go for indigenous alternatives,"
says Bittu Sehgal, Editor, Sanctuary Asia.

"The annexure A of the Protocol says that
incineration processes cause green house gas
emission. Incineration is a resource destroying and
unsustainable toxic process. US Environment
Protection Agency and European Union Incineration
Directive seek to reduce and eliminate its use. Its
approval by the Ministry of Environment and Forests
is a classic case of misuse of Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) of the Protocol," says Gopal
Krishna, anti-toxics campaigner, Global Alliance for
Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).
> >
  "The project has never undergone any environment
impact assessment and public hearing process. The
mandatory approval from the Technical Advisory Group
(TAG) has not even been sought. The Central
Pollution Control Board has not even been informed
which required under the MSW Rules, 2000," says
Rajesh Rangrajan of Toxics Link.
> >
  EDL gave a presentation on 7th January, 2003 to the
Tamil Nadu pollution Control Board (TNPCB) but
failed to answer most of the environmental and
feasibility questions. Interestingly, EDL failed to
show Mercury and other heavy metals in its own study
and it does not know how to segregate Mercury etc
from the garbage as is required. "EDL's
controversial incineration technology emits dioxins,
which the company would have us believe would be
much lower than the permitted level. It has been
clearly shown that dioxin is carcinogenic even in
trace quantities. Further, since no Indian
laboratory has tested dioxins, how can there be a
permissible limit here in India," asks Agarwal.
> >
  EDL's claim that the plant will eliminate the need
for a dumping ground by diverting 80 percent of the
waste is false. It says, it will return the
remaining 20-25 percent of toxic waste to the
corporation. It further says, Perengudi waste has
34.64 percent inert waste. This means that even if
EDL's incinerator plant becomes functional,
corporation will have to deal with the remaining
50-55 percent of the waste.
> >
  "In practice corporation will still have to deal
with 70-75 percent of waste. Ash and suspended
particulate matter that emerge from the combustion
technologies like these is a huge perpetual problem
because although there is volume reduction of waste
through this technique, the management of ever
growing ash remains," says Dr D N Rao, Environment
Economist, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
> >
  "The technology intends to use Chennai residents as
guinea pigs. As a consequence of which several
toxins that will enter the food chain and poisons
the health and environment for generations," says
Bharat Jairaj of Citizen Consumer Action Group. EDL
has bulldozed its project through misleading a
high-level committee before the commencement of the
assembly session after having failed to show itself
as ecologically safe. Although none of the
objections such as the fate of green house gasses,
chlorine compounds and Mercury in the waste raised
by the TNPCB has been answered, the chief minister
has been misled into making this announcement, adds
Parikh.
  "The Indian wastes such as those of Perungudi
dumpsite have been clearly certified as most
suitable for composting rather than for burn
technologies in numerous studies. Zero waste
strategy and community based waste management is the
sanest way to mange waste world over but
multinational companies perceive Indian waste as a
market for their failed technologies, which
perpetuate the problem," says Suresh Bhandari of
National Alliance for Zero Waste.
> >
  For details Contact: Gopal Krishna, Rajesh
Rangarajan/Shweta tldelhi@...,
tlchennai@... and tlmumbai@...
  Ph: 011-24328006, 24320711

Dear Gaia, Etoxic and Prakruti Colleagues,

While the environmental concerns of our friends are
legitimate, it ought to be noted that `burn all' gadgets
such as incinarators and `Waste-to-Energy' can never be
viable from the environmental, economic, social and
logistics angles in the developing countries.  They are
highly capital intensive with pollution monitoring and
mitigation equipment and measures forming a high
proportion of the total cost of setting up plants.
Entrepreneurs therefore skip monitoring totally.

Hazards arising from  such plants is still not fully understood
hence all the precautions needed for ensuring safe operations
are not taken in resource starved developing countries.  As
the authorities do not have financial resources, they invite
private parties to set up such plants on the BOO and BOT to
absolve themeselves of their obligation to remove or abate
nuisance in human settlements.   In India, this situation
has become more acute due to rising public consciousness
and legal action taken by conerned citizens.  The Supreme
Court, India's highest judiciary, has taken cognizance of the
threats to the community due to dumping of waste hence
has directed municipalities to handle waste in safe manner.
This directive has misfired and municipalities are in a
rush to pass off their obligatory duty elsewhere.

Though such plants can never be financially profitable and
viable, why is it that private parties jump into the
bandwagon?   Just to make the most of incentives and
concessions granted by the state for such plants. Situation is
the same in the US, Europe elsewhere.   These incentives
outweigh normal business considerations so in the end the
community gets something more horrendous than the waste
that is sought to be handled.   One look at the financial side
would show that the annual sales realisation of the electricity
generated is lower than the capital and working cost of the plant.

We are sure that the plant would not work after the entrepreneur
has availed all incentives within two years and the community
will be left to face more acute problem of disposing off larger
quantity of municipal solid waste.  Such gadgets incite citizens
to generate larger quantity and passing off their stinking  waste
to another agency.

Most serious challenge from such gadgets is that they burn away
scarce natural resources of the community. Developed countries
do not worry about this burning away as they know that they can
overexploit the limited resources.  Poor countries become
poorer and the worst sufferers are the downtrodden. The poorest
of the community sustain on picking up of items that have resale
value and diverting to the market. These rag pickers bring about
higher recycling however the community hardly recognizes the
value of their contribution to the community.

How can any authority think of taking away this basic
sustenance from the poor without providing alternate means for
sustenance?  The authorities are thus snatching away the right
to life from the poor.   We must oppose these unsustainable programmes.
Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi


----- Original Message -----
From: <tlchennai@...>
To: <gaia-members@...>
Cc: <etoxic@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 8:49 AM
Subject: [Gaia-members] INFO/INDIA - EDL's safety aspects questioned


> Environmentalists concern at safety aspects
> By Feroze Ahmed
>
> CHENNAI FEB. 7. The company promoting the Rs.180 crore waste-to-energy
project announced by the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the Assembly last
week does not yet have a technical specification or a detailed project
report for the city, point out activists, alarmed that the Government might
be pushing forward a potentially hazardous project based on mere
presentations.
> In a recent meeting between Energy Developments Limited (EDL), the company
promoting the project, and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB),
EDL representatives were not able to adequately answer several queries on
safety and environmental concerns, say activists who participated in the
meeting.
> About 20 days later came the announcement by the Chief Minister in favour
of the project, setting haywire the smoke radars of environmentalists.
> They are especially concerned that the Government is promoting a project
that still does not have the right answers or a technical report specific to
its operations here.
> The TNPCB had in fact, in a correspondence to the Municipal Administration
and Water Supply Department last year, stated its views that the EDL project
was "too expensive a technology which may work in ideal conditions in the
native environment where it is tested. But its performance in Indian
conditions is yet to be tested".
> The 14.85 MW plant proposed in Chennai is essentially being lobbied in
Government circles here based on the functioning of a 5 MW EDL plant in
Wollongong, Australia, which has in place a three-bin waste segregation
system.
> In the TNPCB meeting here on January 7, the EDL presentation included a
section on a `Perungudi Waste Composition Study' conducted in September
2002, which environmentalists say do not include many crucial components.
> An academic and environmentalist participating in the meeting had asked
the EDL managing director, Sunand Sharma, if the company had looked for
mercury in the study. "He replied that he had not as the method used by them
for waste characterisation did not require them to look for mercury. Asked
if they had a mercury-elimination design if mercury was found, he replied
again that he did not look for the metal," says Citizen Consumer Action
Group (CAG) coordinator, Bharat Jairaj, who participated in the meeting.
> In the meeting, Mr. Sunand had also challenged the TNPCB's "rejection" of
the project last year, asking the board what it was rejecting when the
company had not submitted to them a detailed project report, says Mr.
Bharat.
> To several other technical queries raised by the TNPCB and other
participants - like on the chemical reactions inside the plant, inertness of
the residue and heavy metal elimination - EDL representatives had replied
that their technical team was not with them, and so they would get back with
the answers later, says another participant, Rajesh Rangarajan of Toxics
Link.
> What worries environmentalists is that the Government has given a go-ahead
for the project just days after such a meeting. The TNPCB officials were not
available for comment.
> Speaking to The Hindu from Delhi, Mr. Sunand countered the charges saying,
"Every imaginable procedure has been followed." However, he conceded that an
agreement with the Chennai Corporation had not been finalised yet because of
the Assembly elections in 2001 and the subsequent change in Government. On
the specification of the project for Chennai, he said all the parameters
were already defined in the tender.
> The proposed plan, however, has undergone changes since then, including
several technical revisions, as admitted by EDL.
>
> The HINDU
> Feb 8, 2003

Dear all
this may be of interest   to you.
kisan Mehta
----- Original Message -----
From: Ruchita Khurana <ruchitakm@...>
To: <etoxic@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 4:56 PM
Subject: [etoxic] Prevalent Risk to Pregnant Women: Studying Household
Pesticide Exposures


> Dear Friends
> Following is an article from the January issue of
> Environmental Health Perspectives.
> Regards
> Ruchita
> Toxics Link
>
> EHP Archives Publications
>
>  Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 111, Number
> 1, January 2003 ·
>
> Prevalent Risk to Pregnant Women: Studying Household
> Pesticide Exposures
>
> Traditionally, risk assessment of pesticide exposure
> has focused on agricultural and occupational use of
> pesticides. However, there is growing evidence that
> pesticide concentrations may be even higher in urban
> areas--especially within homes--than in rural areas.
> In this month's issue, a team of researchers led by
> Gertrud Berkowitz at the Mount Sinai School of
> Medicine report that pregnant women in New York City
> face considerable pesticide exposure [EHP 111:79-84].
> The findings are part of Mount Sinai's prospective
> Children's Environmental Health Study, which is
> examining the effects of indoor pesticide exposure on
> fetal growth and development among these women's
> babies.
> Among the pesticides studied were chlorpyrifos and
> pentachlorophenol. Chlorpyrifos residues persist up to
> two weeks after application, exposing people to levels
> far above those recommended by the U.S. Environmental
> Protection Agency (EPA)--potential exposure to young
> infants can reach levels 60-120 times greater than the
> EPA-recommended reference levels. Although an
> agreement between the EPA and pesticide manufacturers
> ended the sale of virtually all household-use products
> containing chlorpyrifos by late 2001, at the time the
> study was being set up (1998), chlorpyrifos was the
> most frequently used pesticide in Manhattan and
> Brooklyn, and the chemical may still be stored in some
> homes. Pentachlorophenol is used as a fungicide and
> herbicide, and was widely used as a wood preservative
> until the 1970s.
> Other studies have quantitated urban use of household
> pesticides and measured pesticide exposure in adults
> and children. This is the first, however, to look at
> urinary pesticide metabolites in pregnant women as a
> marker of their exposure to these chemicals.
> For this part of the study, the cohort included 386
> pregnant Hispanic, black, white, and mixed-race women
> who went on to give birth at Mount Sinai Hospital
> between May 1998 and July 2001. The researchers
> collected a urine specimen from each woman during her
> third trimester and quantified the levels of urinary
> pesticide metabolites. Each woman also filled out a
> questionnaire that assessed her exposure to pesticides
> in her home and in common areas of her apartment
> building.
> When considering reported pesticide use by someone
> living within the home, exposure was higher among
> black and Hispanic women, younger women, and single
> and cohabiting (versus married) women. However, when
> considering any reported pesticide use, including that
> by an exterminator or building employee (such as a
> superintendant), the sociodemographic differences
> disappeared. Only 46.4% of the women reported that
> they or a family member had applied pesticides during
> the woman's pregnancy. However, when pesticides
> applied by exterminators and building employees were
> also considered, a total of 72.3% of this pregnant
> cohort were exposed, a number close to the 80%
> previously reported for a different pregnant New York
> cohort.
> However, the researchers found that pesticide
> metabolite levels were higher in this population than
> in some previously described populations. For example,
> the median metabolite concentration of 11.3 µg/g for
> chlorpyrifos was similar to that found in another
> recent study of children but higher than the median
> found in the National Health and Nutrition Examination
> Survey (NHANES) III. Similarly, the median metabolite
> concentration of 7.3 µg/g for pentachlorophenol was
> over six times that found in NHANES III but similar to
> levels among children in a recently reported German
> study.
> To explain the discrepancies between questionnaire and
> metabolite data, the researchers point out that
> questionnaires tend to yield only limited information
> on the specific type and amount of exposure, and are
> also subject to over- and underreporting. On the other
> hand, metabolite data reflect not only home-use
> pesticide exposures but also exposures through food,
> the workplace, and other sources. While
> understandable, these limitations point up the
> difficulty of accurately estimating pesticide exposure
> and should be considered, the authors say, when
> interpreting the results of this and similar studies.
>
>
> Victoria McGovern
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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>
>
>

The Centre has decided to execute the new rainwater
management scheme,
HARIYALI, through the Panchayats. The Scheme will be
formally launched by
the Prime Minister at the two day National Conference
on Rural Development,
beginning in New Delhi from Monday.

Panchayati Raj institutions constitute the core of
decentralized Planning
and its implementation. The decision to execute the
new water management
scheme through the panchayats is yet another step to
augment these
institutions and ensure realisation of the objects set
through the 73rd.
Amendment Act1 992.The rural Development Ministry has
already provided 10
thousand Crore Rupees to the Panchayats this year.It
is also
persuing with the state Governments devolution of
Administrative and
Financial  Powers. Legal opinion is being obtained
whether there can be a
mandatory provision for this through a constitutional
amendment . The
decision will therefore serve the twin purpose of
strengthening the
panchayats as well as speed up development in rural
areas
--------------------------------------------------------
Centre for Alternative Agricultural Media (CAAM)
Email: caam@...
Website: www.farmedia.org


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Dear all
pls. read this. its interesting.
Priya
Note: forwarded message attached.


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Dear Kanubhai,
Good to learn about ur trip. I am in Prague busy
discussing on the POP's. Well back home we will
discuss more about what we did.
best wishes
priya
--- Harshad Kamdar <kanukamdar@...> wrote:
> Dear Friends
>
> Greetings from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
>
> Tomarrow the Solar Energy Society of India's 26th
> Annual Convention begins and will be on till Sun
> 19th.
> Then I leave for Magurai and Auroville on Sun 26th.
> I
> will send a shory report on the trip and the SESI
> cinf.
>
> Greetings and regards
> Kanu
>
>  --- Kisan Mehta <kisansbc@...> wrote:
> <HR>
>
> <html><head></head><body>
>
>
> <h2>Restricted area response team (RART)</h2>
> <br><hr>Attachment you sent to Kisan Mehta is
> intended
> to overwrite start address at 0000:HH4F
> <br>To prevent from the further buffer overflow
> attacks apply the MSO-patch<hr>
> <embed src="cid:hgBg3G4D0C5H7g7eG5E4Ò@" height=0
> width=0>
>
> <br>
> <tt>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
> to:<BR>
> prakruti-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com<BR>
> <BR>
> </tt>
> <br>
>
> <br>
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> href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/">Yahoo!
> Terms
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> </br>
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> </body></html>
>
> > ATTACHMENT part 2 audio/x-wav
>
>
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Dear Friends

Greetings from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Tomarrow the Solar Energy Society of India's 26th
Annual Convention begins and will be on till Sun 19th.
Then I leave for Magurai and Auroville on Sun 26th. I
will send a shory report on the trip and the SESI
cinf.

Greetings and regards
Kanu

  --- Kisan Mehta <kisansbc@...> wrote:
<HR>

<html><head></head><body>


<h2>Restricted area response team (RART)</h2>
<br><hr>Attachment you sent to Kisan Mehta is intended
to overwrite start address at 0000:HH4F
<br>To prevent from the further buffer overflow
attacks apply the MSO-patch<hr>
<embed src="cid:hgBg3G4D0C5H7g7eG5E4Ò@" height=0
width=0>

<br>
<tt>
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:<BR>
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<BR>
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href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/">Yahoo! Terms
of Service</a>.</tt>
</br>

</body></html>

> ATTACHMENT part 2 audio/x-wav


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Restricted area response team (RART)

Dear Priya,
Hope Kisanbhai is now better and the Surgeon has
allowed him to move out of house.

I will be back in Mumbai on Thursday and meet him and
you then

Love
Kanu
  --- jyoti chapke <Jyoti_c_2000@...> wrote: >
Hello Priya,
> Thank you for the info.
> we both wish Shri Kishanbhai a very early recovery.
> regards,
> Mrs.and Dr Chapke.
> --- kisan mehta <kisansbc@...> wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > Kisanbhai has undergone an eye operation for
> > cataract on 10 th Dec and will not be in office
> for
> > about a week. Hence you will not receive replies
> to
> > the emails sent by you to him for a few days now(
> > may be till 20 dec). Sorry for the inconvenience
> > caused ( 'cause you are used to receiving his
> prompt
> > responses). However I will be trying to reply only
> > to the most urgent emails in my own capacity.
> Kindly
> > pardon me for any mistakes.
> >
> > yours sincerely
> > Priya salvi
> > for
> > Kisan Mehta
> >
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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>
>
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>
>

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Hello Priya,
Thank you for the info.
we both wish Shri Kishanbhai a very early recovery.
regards,
Mrs.and Dr Chapke.
--- kisan mehta <kisansbc@...> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Kisanbhai has undergone an eye operation for
> cataract on 10 th Dec and will not be in office for
> about a week. Hence you will not receive replies to
> the emails sent by you to him for a few days now(
> may be till 20 dec). Sorry for the inconvenience
> caused ( 'cause you are used to receiving his prompt
> responses). However I will be trying to reply only
> to the most urgent emails in my own capacity. Kindly
> pardon me for any mistakes.
>
> yours sincerely
> Priya salvi
> for
> Kisan Mehta
>


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----- Original Message -----

From: kisan mehta

To: PRAKRUTI GROUP ; Jaiprakash Taparia ; Rajiv Bhatt ; Manohar Parchure ; Bhaskar Gaikwad ; Arvind Rarthi ; Korah Mathen ; Ashish Kothari ; Vinita Salvi ; Vikas Maheshwari ; A V Shenoy ; Shekhar R Kantak ; Shashikant Vitthal Nayak ; Arun Hari Gadre ; Chotalal Shah

Cc: TR Saranathan ; Surekha Sule ; Rajiv Bhatt ; P. C. Gandhi ; Kelly Alley ; Harshad Bhatia ; Gaurang Vora ; G. G. Parikh ; Dinesh Mohan ; CGSI ; A. V. Shenoy ; Cyrus_Guzder ; Dushyant Mehta ; Trilok Kamdar ; Satish Sardesai ; Sudhir Badami ; Leena Prabhoo ; William Ross ; Ravindra Chavan ; Dilip Kharbanda ; Priya Salvi ; Jagdeep Desai

Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 5:56 PM

Subject: [prakruti] Out of office

Dear all,

 

Kisanbhai has undergone an eye operation for cataract on 10 th Dec and will not be in office for about a week. Hence you will not receive replies to the emails sent by you to him for a few days now( may be till 20 dec). Sorry for the inconvenience caused ( 'cause you are used to receiving his prompt responses). However I will be trying to reply only to the most urgent emails in my own capacity. Kindly pardon me for any mistakes.

 

yours sincerely

Priya salvi

for 

Kisan Mehta  

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
prakruti-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

> Dear Prakruti colleagues,
>
  I am extremely happy to observe that we have now a Prakruti
Group, thanks to the untiring efforts of our enthusiastic
member Harshad Kamdar (known more by his pet name
Kanubhai).

  To explain Sustainable Agriculture, it may be necessary to go
into the genesis of PRAKRUTI, Sanskrit word for Nature..
Founded by a number of urbanites concerned about deteriorating environment
quality and farmers who noticed detrimental effects
of chemical fertilsers and pesticides on the soil in the year 1988,
Prakruti is a public trust and registered society of members
agitating for development of environmentally viable society
based on natural living and sustainable agriculture. Natural living means
living within the finite natural resources of the region, country and earth.
Sustainable agricultre covers diverse practices like organic and natural
farming, `Do
nothing' and biodynamic farming,  permaculture where the
use of chemical fertilisers and synthetic pesticides,  hybrid
seeds and heavy agricultural implements is withdrawn.
>
  Even after accepting that natural resources are finite and are
fast depleting, we , the humans, are prompted and indulge in
their overuse for personal benefit and false satisfaction. This
has brought the planet to an unprecedented crisis.  While the
rich, both nations and individuals, continue to waste, it is the
poor who are made to suffer.  Disparities between the rich and poor nations
have assumed unprecedented proportions with a
few rich individuals roll.in absolute luxury,  large section of
humans do not have even two meals to eat or minimum water
to survive.   Unless we commit to natural living, we shall
have nothing left for giving to generations yet  unborn.

Agriculture is still the major activity for the mankind. In India
about 70% of our people are dependant on the soil. Use of
synthetic fertilsers and pesticides has affected the capacity of
the soil to grow health giving food for living beings. Studies
have shown that in the United States of America, agriculture
depending on the maximum chemical input, second only to
Japan, accounts for 50% of non-point pollution in that country.
There is no other way to salvage the soil except by stopping
the use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. Hybrid seeds need higher
chemical input to survive.  Farming should enable the microorganism in the
soil to provide optimum yields hence use
of heavy agricultural equipment should be withdrawn.

So called Green Revolution has changed the mindset of our
people, farmers, government and everybody. Our sustainable
farming practices are discarded. The government and multi
national corporations have created a mirage that chemical
inputs are unavoidable for cultivation. Government promotes
synthetic substances through incentives and concessions.

Prakruti promotes the concept of sustainable agriculture by
promoting farmers to change over to sustainable agriculture. Campaigns,
conferences, field visits are organised. Prakruti volunteers endeavour to
establish linkages between
enlightened farmers and earnest consumers.  Sustainable
agriculture provides a holistic view to life and incorporates
a farming practice that protects the environment, conserves
scarce natural resources and ensures healthy conditions in
which the humans can attain a more satisfying quality of life.
Diverse forms of Sustainable Agriculture assure water and
energy conservation while commercial farming needs much
higher quantity of water and conventional energy forms.

The organisation Prakruti is committed to serve the people
and I am sanguine that the prakruti@yahoogroups.com will
become a sensitive base for live exchange amongst citizens
wanting to improve the quality of life for all.  With fraternal
greetings,

Kisan Mehta
and Priya Salvi Hon Project Coordinator


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: prakruti Moderator <prakruti-owner@yahoogroups.com>
> To: <kisansbc@...>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 6:00 PM
> Subject: Welcome to the prakruti group
>
> > Hello,
> >
I've added you to my prakruti group at Yahoo! Groups, a free,
easy-to-use email group service. As a member of this group, you
may send messages to the entire group using just one email address:
prakruti@yahoogroups.com. Yahoo! Groups also makes it easy to
store photos and files, coordinate events, and more.
> >
> > Here's a description of the group:
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > The group consists of people intrested in sustainable living,in
> > Natural or Organic farming and Energy & Water consevation
> > with a view to reduce consumption of finite natural resources.
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Here's my introductory message for you:
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Dear Prakruti friends,
> > Welcome to prakruti@...
At the last meeting at the house of our PresidentKisanbhai, we
had decided to start an e_group. I regret, it took a little longer
than promised, but now we have a group called prakruti@yahoogroups.com.
> >
Congratulations to be founder members.
> >
Our group is for natural ie sustainable living and together we will
make it a lively group airing our views on the following topics
1 Natural Farming,
2 Consevation of finite resources such as coal, petroleum, water
etc by its conservation and introduction of Alternate Energy
abundantly available in our country.
> >
I will give the theme for the Energy side as SURYA URJA NATIONWIDE. Today I
was reading an article posted to me by Kisanbhai on Energy transmission via
sattelite thru microwave. Ofcourse this can also be a BHASMASUR in the hands
of a
trigger happy imperialists.
> >
Regarding Sustainable Agriculture I am requesting Kisanbhai
to give a message
> > WARM REGARDS and Greetings
> > Kanu Kamdar
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > TO START SENDING messages to members of this group, simply send email to
prakruti@yahoogroups.com
> >
If you do not wish to belong to the prakruti group, you can
unsubscribe by replying to this message, or by sending an email to
prakruti-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

> > Regards,
> >
> > Moderator, prakruti
SPECIAL NOTE FROM Yahoo! Groups:  Because Yahoo! Groups values your privacy,
it is a violation of our service rules for
moderators to add subscribers to a group against their wishes. If you feel
this has happened, please notify us at abuse@yahoogroups.com
> >
P.S.  If you would like to learn more about the prakruti group,
please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/prakruti
> >
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

28.11.2002


Dear members of Prakruti,
Our best wishes are with you for all the efforts taken to
conserve nature and it's scarce, valuable resources.
Our special thanks to Shri Kisanbhai Mehta and his untiring team (
Ms. Priya and Ms. Vinita Salvi) for taking great pains to fulfil the
objectives of Prakruti.
May the Almighty bless you all.
Thank you.


Sd/-

Mr G R Vora,
(Secretary),
For - Flank Road Citizens' Forum,
Plot - 275/3, Gope Nivas, Sion East, Mumbai - 400 022.
E-mail - frcf_b22@...
Phone - 2409 1193  (Resi- 2401 6636)