The Nepal quake, the Chennai floods, the heat wave in north India, pollution in Delhi and Beijing, the historical Paris accord — the year 2015 will go down for all this, and also for how the world coped.
Major environmental challenges, coupled with the media’s penchant to focus on bad news, brought in loads of negative headlines to the breakfast table and into viewers’ bedrooms. But there were slivers of optimism too, which helped the year end on a less gloomy note.
Frederick Noronha Crises were many. The April-May earthquake in Nepal, which killed over 9,000 people and injured an estimated 23,000, came despite long-standing warnings from geophysicists and experts that Nepal’s geology, urbanisation and architecture made it vulnerable to quakes. Large parts of Kathmandu, including many World Heritage sites such as the Kathmandu Durbar Square, were reduced to rubble as the world watched in shock on their TVs.
More bad news came in when drought caused record wildfires in the American west. Some experts suggest that climate change might be making the Syrian civil war, foreign combat involvements and the refugee problem far worse.
India’s May-June heat wave killed over 2,500 people in diverse regions. Andhra and newly formed Telangana were the most acutely affected, with a death toll of 1,735 and 585, respectively. West Bengal and Odisha were affected, too, as the weatherman put 2015’s temperatures as the highest recorded since 1995. The cause? Sparser pre-monsoon showers, resulting in less moisture, and the sudden end of pre-monsoon showers.
On the urban pollution front, you now have a special page on the U.S. Embassy website for India that shows the local air quality index. The U.S. Embassy and its consulates monitor air quality for fine particulate matter, and give readings for points in Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. At the time of writing this, Delhi has a NowCast AQI of 436. This is rated as “hazardous” with “serious aggravation of heart or lung disease and premature mortality in persons with cardiopulmonary disease and the elderly; serious risk of respiratory effects in general population.”
But not all news was bad if one looked hard enough. Globally, there were some positives too. Wired, the online and print magazine about the impact of emerging technologies on culture, the economy and politics, saw the year as “one hell of a year in saving-the-world news.” It noted that the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas multinational Shell gave up its controversial drilling in the Alaskan Arctic, Keystone XL (the controversial Canada-U.S. pipeline system extension) was shut down, and global governments finally decided to do something about the environment.
Technology and idealistic people are playing their role, even if these may be seen only as small efforts. During the Chennai floods, a new relief-focussed community radio station got onto the airwaves in a few days, as reported by The Hindu . Groups like OpenStreetMaps have met humanitarian crises by getting their global volunteers to quickly digitise satellite imagery. This helps create maps and data that can support organisations working on the ground, as seen after the Nepal quake. Thousands of volunteers make for accurate maps.
Another sign of hope came from Pope Francis speaking out strongly about the environment. The concerned Argentinean Pope (who follows decades of conservative ones) went green with his encyclical — a kind of letter concerning Catholic doctrine — Laudato si’ (Praise Be to You): On Care for Our Common Home. It strongly critiques consumerism and irresponsible development, laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls on people to take “swift and unified global action”.
By the year-end, we were seeing news of environmental scientist Madhav Gadgil announcing plans to spearhead his Western Ghats “crusade” to Wikipedia, a renewed focus and promises over solar energy in India, and evaluations of the India’s “hits and misses” at the Paris climate deal. Also, Dow Chemical’s cat-and-mouse game over the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Indian government’s war on Greenpeace and concerns over diesel in urban India are among the issues getting noticed.
Mining continued to make news this year, notorious as it is for human right violations and environmental pollution, besides its high-profile scandals. These included Jindal’s Australia operations, bauxite mining in tribal areas, attempts to restart after a mining ban in Goa, the flattening of the Aravallis by mining, and more.
For a change, politicians were on the defensive when it came to justifying their role on environmental issues. But about-turns continued with aplomb as Oppositions parties turned into ruling governments and vice versa.
Environmental lobby group Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, in its 2016 ‘State of India’s Environment’ report, has prioritised a wider range of issues, which sometimes skip urban perspectives. These include land and agriculture, climate change as expected, urbanisation, forest and wildlife, water and sanitation, air pollution (transport and mobility), energy, mining, forest clearance and river pollution, and even science and technology. Extreme weather events are also obviously a priority.
A growing list of concerns can also be a sign of hope. The question that remains is whether these are timely and sufficient.
Frederick Noronha is founder of the India-EJ list for environmental journalists in India, and co-editor of The Green Pen, a book by journalists writing on green issues.
fredericknoronha@gmail.com
