The New Nation - Internet Edition

Race is on to fix global warming and make money

Tarequl Islam Munna

Forget the arguments over whether global warming is real. Many American businesses and researchers are well past all that and are scrambling to find ways to make money in a world that must slash its use of fossil fuels.

Energy entrepreneurs have sparked an energy revolution that's just starting in the United States but already producing new ideas, more jobs and growing exports.

'You have a cavalcade of human intellect springing forth just when we need it,' said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., a co-author of 'Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy.'

'The ice is melting in the North Pole but the ice also is melting to resistance to progress here in this country,' he said. 'It's a race to figure out who will win, and I'm betting on our grandkids.'

But for renewable energy to really take off, the federal government will have to end subsidies for fossil fuels, put a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and charge for putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, he said.

Congress is considering whether to create a regulatory system for greenhouse gases, and the Senate is expected to take a second look at extending tax credits to encourage renewable energy, a measure that the House of Representatives already has passed.

But while Washington debates, states and businesses are going to work.

Half of the states have passed measures to encourage the use of renewable energy, spurring power companies to seek new sources of electricity. States in the Northeast, Midwest and West have started to form regional carbon-trading systems to limit emissions. Universities and colleges offer science, engineering and management programs to address global warming. Investors are funding new companies with fresh approaches to produce new sources of energy.

'Every forecast you hear about solar, wind and clean technology going forward, they're all wrong - by half. They're too small,' said Joseph Stanislaw, a former economist at the International Energy Agency, which advises on climate change and other world energy policies, and a co-author of 'Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy.' He spoke at an international renewable-energy conference and trade show in Washington this month attended by some 6,000 people from more than 100 countries.

A new report by the Renewable Energy Network for the 21st Century, a policy group that promotes the expansion of renewable energy worldwide, found that renewable electricity-generation capacity reached an estimated 240 gigawatts worldwide last year, an increase of 50 percent over 2004.

Mohamed El-Ashry, the chairman of the network, said in a statement that so much has happened in renewable energy in the last five years 'that the perceptions of some politicians and energy-sector analysts lag far behind the reality of where the renewables industry is today.'

U.S. companies are investing in solar and wind power as well as in geothermal energy, better biofuels and the technology to harness the energy of tides, currents and waves.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission got its first applications for wave and ocean-current energy preliminary permits a few years ago, and in December it granted the first license for a wave power project, in the Pacific Ocean off Washington state's Olympic Peninsula.

The United States should be leading the world's drive for renewable energy, Inslee said. 'Our skill set is innovation. That's what Americans do.'

General Electric exports $15 billion worth of products each year, almost all in clean energy, its chairman, Jeffrey Immelt, told the nation's governors at their recent winter meeting in Washington. Immelt said that China and India eventually would have to clean up, and he wants to be the one selling products to help them do it.

'Our focus on the environment was never a soft feel-good initiative,' Immelt said. 'It was all about business and making money. And we're blowing away all the numbers. t We are creating jobs. We are actually saving money by reducing our own carbon footprint.'

Detroit automakers are trying to find a way to run cars on fuels that will be cheaper and cleaner than gasoline.

They say they're getting close to a plug-in electric car that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions once clean electric-power sources are in place.

The nonpartisan American Council On Renewable Energy reports that there are more than 42,000 megawatts of renewable energy power-generation projects under development in 45 states, the equivalent of 75 large power plants. In North Carolina, for example, Duke Energy is seeking bids for wind, solar and other forms of no-emission or low-emission energy to meet the state's requirement that renewables produce 12.5 percent of the energy that it supplies by 2021.

'I think all utility companies are moving, even the ones we may have listed as laggards,' said Andrew Brengle, a senior research analyst who covers utilities for KLD Research & Analytics Inc. 'Renewable energy is one way to respond, and a lot of them are looking into it. Some are much farther along than others.'

Consumers have a say in how much renewable energy gets developed.

More than 600 utilities nationwide offer voluntary programs that let consumers support electricity production from solar and wind by paying slightly more for it. More than 500,000 customers participate. The utilities with the highest participation rates are the City of Palo Alto, Calif., followed by Lenox and Montezuma in Iowa, Portland General Electric in Oregon and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California. Utilities or public agencies in many states also promote efficiency.

A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said that more efficient appliances, industrial equipment and buildings could be among the fastest and cheapest ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

Sanctuary steadily losing its flagship species

Arnab Pratim Dutta

"Help save rhinos," a poster appealed. A photograph of a severely-bloodied rhino loomed out of it. We were at Jakhalbanda, a regular halt for buses taking visitors to the Kaziranga National Park. It was peak tourist season, visitors were there in droves but the atmosphere seemed tense. I did not have to set foot in the park to find out why. A local daily that I was carrying noted that six poachers had been nabbed at Kaziranga. Forest officials told me later that the park had lost 24 rhinos to poachers in little over a year. The rhino on the poster was amongst them. The animal's horn had been hacked off but it was still breathing when local journalist Ranjit Razzak clicked.

I sought an appointment with the chief conservator of forest (wildlife) B S Bonal, hoping to get the forest department's viewpoint. Bonal, I knew, was an old hand at dealing with poachers. He had checked poaching in the 1990s by roping in NGOs and local people. Bonal was talking to a few elders from settlements around the park when I knocked at his office doors. But he did not make me wait for long. The conversation though was a bit of disappointment: the forest officer did not say much apart from informing that the park's security was being tightened.

It was time to get the story from the suspects and I seemed to be in luck. Three of the six recently nabbed were being interrogated at the inspection bungalow, metres away from the ranger's office where I had gone for an interview. But that's where my luck ran out: meeting the poachers was out of question, a forest department official said. He did provide some details of the arrested poachers, though. Among the arrested was Adhir Dutta, a Golaghat-based businessman and allegedly the poachers' local conduit. There were also two former poachers, Motka Gogoi and Durlav Saikia, who had turned informers in 2003 but were allegedly back to their old ways.

The meeting got over by late afternoon. I had no time to waste. Punen Gogoi, president of Kaziranga's taxi association had to be located. I was hoping he accompanied me in my forays into areas close to the park. Punen Gogoi had spent nearly 20 years as a tourist guide and was reputed to know the park almost like the back of his palm. Locating him took only a few phone calls. We set out immediately to a village called Missing Gaon.

Punen Gogoi proved true to his reputation. "The forest guards do not get even the basic amenities. Even batteries for torches used during patrolling are hard to come by," he said. Most villagers he said had very little contact with the forest department. At Missing Gaon, Rajen Pegu, a farmer, confirmed what my guide had said. "Animals stray into our land very often. I have lost crops on a fairly large tract. But pleas for compensation have fallen on deaf ears. The government would compensate us with Rs 10,000-15,000 for crop losses earlier, but in the last three or fours years we have not received any compensation."

From Missing Gaon, we headed back to Kaziranga. But a few kilometres into the park, a hailstorm had us scampering into the range office. Our open top Gypsy with no windscreen accorded little protection. It was dusk when the storm eased. Gogoi bid farewell promising a trip into the park the following morning. But I had work left. After a change of clothes and few hurried sips of warm tea, I set out to meet Kaziranga's most experienced forester, D D Boro. I was told that he had spent a quarter of a century in the park. Boro was not in office. A man directed me to his home. He was not there as well. Some said he had accompanied the poachers to the magistrate at nearby Golaghat. Others directed me back to his office. I decided to try my luck there. Boro arrived after half an hour or so.

He acknowledged my presence, but his immediate concern was on locating a file that had details of poachers caught a day before. After a while, the search turned frantic, with Boro making anxious calls to his colleagues even while he tried to keep a conversation with me, largely in monosyllables. The file was finally found and Boro could now give me all attention.

He blamed the rise in poaching to the failure of the intelligence network. "Most poachers use mobile phones. After a kill they make off through the national highway 37 around Kaziranga's southern periphery. There are 39 resorts and 41 dhabas on the highway and it is extremely difficult for the department to keep track of all people visiting the park. We do not have the infrastructure," he said. He also complained that the local police do not cooperate with the forest department.

I could have chatted with Boro for long. But it was late in the day and the forest officer seemed to have work pending. Next morning my guide was back. After a brief halt at a fuel station where petrol was sold in water bottles, we headed towards Kaziranga. Two friends of my guide, Podum Bora and Bipon Gogoi, joined us on the way. The two were interesting company, especially because they came from the Dohagaon, the same village as the suspected poacher, Motka Gogoi. "In the past few years we have seen Motka's family wear the best clothes and jewellery. We were not sure where the money was coming from. Now we know," said Bipan Gogoi. Bora added that Motka Gogoi's son was a guard with the forest department and there were regular fights between father and son. We tried to trace the son, but he was away on duty. We had taken the popular tourist route to the park-from the Kohra range. Our first stop was a forest camp called Barundiga where my guide tried to strike a conversation with Rubul Sarma, a forest guard who had joined Kaziranga in 1993. Initially reticent, Sarma began listing the problems of a forest guard slowly. There are four or five people in a camp, three regular guards and one or two temporary staff, commonly called muster-role workers. "On an average, the guards need to patrol nearly 20 sq km on foot everyday. Besides, there are other chores like taking care of elephants. Guards are regularly attacked by wild animals," the forest guard rued.

The litany of problems was long: no ambulance, inadequate ammunition, bad infrastructure. "Most rifles misfire. Forget poachers, the rifles don't go off when we want to scare an animal by firing in the air," he said.

Pawan Barua, a forester at Karsingh camp confirmed what Sarma had said. He was a few hundred meters away when a rhino was shot in 2007. Barua initially thought that guards accompanying tourists had shot in the air to ward off an animal. However, with no tourist vehicle at sight, he decided to investigate with another guard and sure as hell they found a dead rhino with its horn missing. "We chased them on foot. But that was obviously futile. We did not even have a wireless set to coordinate with other guards," the forester complained.

Other forest guards joined in the conversation, but we had it to cut it short because news reached us that that the suspected poachers had been remanded to two days at Kohra police station. They were undergoing medical examination, when we reached the station and there were a few hours before we could meet them. I used the time to chat with Ranjit Razzak, the journalist who had photographed the rhino on the poster in its death throes. Razzak gave me these photographs along with some photographs of poachers caught on February 14, 2008 involved in killing elephants.

After a quick lunch, it was time to meet the suspects. But station in-charge S Das would allow me no more than a few questions.

Why was Kaziranga becoming an easy target for poachers? I seemed to be getting some answers. But several questions still lingered. How severe is the staff and infrastructure shortage? Why has the problem become acute in recent years?

I recalled what Anwaruddin Choudhury of Rhino Foundation an NGO working with the state's forest had told me. "The shortage of forest guards has been building up for more than 15 years now, he said. I decided to go through some basic literature on Kaziranga. They substantiated what everybody had told me in the past few days. In the last 30 years or so, the park area has more than doubled, with adjoining reserves getting added to it. So what was a 431 sq km national park in 1974, sprawls over almost 900 sq km today. But there has been no addition to the forest guard strength. Currently, the park has 432 forest guards and according to official estimates it requires at least 400 more guards. The Assam government has not recruited a forest guard since 1993. I remembered what a few guards had told me: there are no young legs to chase poachers. Only nine guards in Kaziranga are below 35 years, 66 are above 50.

(CSE/Down To Earth Feature Service)

Trial with eco-friendly toilets in trains

R K Srinivasan

If you happen to travel in Rewa Express, you will notice a slight change in its coaches: small steel tanks fitted between the wheels. These are part of environment-friendly toilets, where the excreta is treated and stored. Coaches in Rewa Express, running between Delhi and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, are being equipped with biological treatment facility.

Unlike a normal toilet, in the bio-toilet only the water trickles down the track, while the sludge is retained in the tank.

Bio-toilets are part of an experiment to try out different types of eco-friendly toilets in trains. The Indian Railways plans to install eco-friendly toilets in all its 9,000 trains by 2011-13.

And it is about time the railways changed tracks from open to 'biological' toilets, for an estimated two million passengers use its toilets daily, wasting a huge amount of water and creating hygiene problems. Presenting the Railways Budget, union minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announced a provision of Rs 4,000 crore for "discharge-free green toilets" in all 36,000 coaches in the eleventh plan period.

It is a tough challenge and the railways' previous experiments with eco-friendly toilets have not always been successful. Nonetheless, a beginning has been made. The bio-toilet developed by the railways' Research Designs and Standards Organisation with Microphor of the US and Faridabad-based Aikon Technology, was first tested in the Delhi-Allahabad Prayagraj Express. In this system the excreta is collected in a tank, which is divided into two chambers. The first chamber contains a patented bacterial culture that breaks down waste in six-seven days by enzyme action. The resulting liquid is led into the second section where it is treated with chlorine before disposal.

This toilet uses less than 5 litres of water per flush against uncontrolled use of water in open toilets. In a year, about a kg of waste will be collected in the tank, which will be cleared manually. Though it will save water, the bio-toilet comes at a price. For every coach, the railways will have to shell out Rs 8 lakh as equipment cost and Rs 1.5-2 lakh as operations cost per year.

It is not the only eco-friendly toilet the railways is experimenting with. IIT Kanpur has developed a cheaper "zero-discharge" toilet that will separate 90 per cent of the liquid from the waste and reuse it for flushing. It will soon be tested in a Chennai train, says N S Vyas, coordinator, Technology Mission on Railway Safety, and professor at the Mechanical Engineering Department of IIT Kanpur.

There are critics who say bio-toilets will be a flop. T S Seshadri, who patented his model of a toilet in 2000, says, "In 1994, bio-toilets of Microphor were installed in the Tamil Nadu and Grand Trunk Express coaches, and were a complete failure." Seshadri, who had then reviewed the functioning of bio-toilets, says clogging of the filter led to foul smell, cockroaches and worms, and the toilets had to be removed within six months. Bio-toilets, however, are back, and this time the emphasis is on maintenance. Aikon Technology has been given the contract of maintaining them in Rewa Express.

In the prevalent system in trains the excreta is dropped on tracks through a hole. Stained tracks are manually cleaned at the station and excreta discharged into drains, which are usually chocked. The 2006 Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report says of the 358 stations it reviewed, drainage systems in 101 stations were clogged. Therefore, it is necessary to shift to zero-discharge systems.

Collecting and treating excreta from 9,000 trains, handling approximately 1.4 crore passengers per day, is a tall order. G Raghuram, professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, estimates that every day 2,74,000 litres of excreta is dumped on rail tracks.

Seshadri suggests railways should focus on collecting and disposing of toilet waste, not treating it. In his model, a tank of 600-900 litres capacity for each commode will be fitted between the wheels. He claims his model will cost only Rs 60,000-excluding commode, flush and overhead tank-with an annual maintenance cost of Rs 5,000. The Janshatabdi Express uses a similar system called the controlled discharge toilet system (CDTS). In this the excreta is stored in a sealed tank and emptied slowly when the train leaves the station and hits a speed of more than 30 km per hour. The cost is Rs 7.5 lakh per coach.

Under the Integrated Railway Modernisation Plan, the railways has to install CDTS in 5,000 coaches by 2010. Until March 2006, only 261 coaches had been fitted with CDTS, said the CAG report. The railways have not yet exhausted their options. Says Arvind Nautiyal, director, mechanical division, coach maintenance: the railways will also be trying out the vacuum toilets, a technology used in aircraft. In vacuum toilets the excreta will be sucked out using minimum water and the collected waste will be discharged in closed drains at railway stations. The idea smells good.

(CSE/Down To Earth Feature Service)