Dam it!

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the 500GW RE target, the Power Minister Mr. RK Singh has recently announced that the target enhancement would necessitate investments in hydropower. The problem with hydropower is that it is extremely costly both environmentally (ecosystem damage, greenhouse gas emissions) and economically (silting and reduced life spans). I would slow down a bit on RE projects, and utilize the opportunities from the rapidly falling costs of other RE options such as solar, wind, and biomass. 

India did not sign the top ‘Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement’, nor did it commit to reducing methane emissions, or for that matter commit to stopping deforestation by the end of the decade. But most other countries did. The stated reasons were, either we are anyway ahead of the world or that the practice is widely spread (methane emissions from rice fields and cows). India, at the very least, needs to develop a plan for reducing these, with a study that looks at various options.

Sri Lanka, in one go and with no warning, eliminated the use of all things inorganic from its farms. However, an economic emergency, rising food prices, and a building agricultural disaster forced it to revert; and now it is helping its farmers use urea and ammonium sulphate among others through quick imports from India and Lithuania. The path of environment-friendly change cannot and should not, be so fast. Here is hoping that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa continues on this path, but slowly, letting the economy readjust to a new sustainable ecosystem.

News on the Chennai floods was not covered nationally. Perhaps because too much news on urban floods used up the quota allocated to environmental disasters for this year. We did not pay heed to the warnings and have undertaken much city expansion on low-lying areas. There is no other solution left now, either destroy what we built or have a comprehensive Netherland-style plan for every major Indian city to save it from drowning. Check this Twitter thread with maps and all on the mess we consciously created.

Suddenly, even before COP26 ended, we find more and more news on the potential of nuclear power. The data is clear, it takes about 7.5 years on average to get nuclear power operational, just enough time to meet 2030 commitments. Since coal has to be shut down globally, from an environmental perspective there is a single key tradeoff – the low probability disaster from nuclear, with the perpetual damage done in manufacturing and disposing batteries, solar panels, and their constituents. And then, of course, there is nuclear fusion, pollution, and radiation-free energy that everyone tried but no one succeeded; a private venture has gotten USD 0.5 billion funding with nothing but a dream to show.

Videos of how the livestock industry treats its chickens, cows, goat, sheep, and pigs have been around for some time now and the horror is undeniable. Increasingly news from nutrition and health domains is documenting the direct relationship between meat consumption and bad health outcomes. Finally, the third big blow is coming from the environmental domain. If you add it all up, more than four-fifths of all carbon emissions can be directly or indirectly ascribed to animal farming and its associated activities, once you take the opportunity costs into consideration. The solution is obvious, if we can’t ban animal husbandry altogether, we can at least seriously regulate its unethical, unhealthful, and unsustainable practices. When we do that, the costs of meat and animal products (including milk and eggs) will shoot up and both consumption and negative impact fall.

Thousands of crores were allocated to clean India’s air, but no one used it - the excuse being that the government does not have the capacity. As is often mentioned in these columns India’s largest polluter is its own government through its agencies or companies. The courts also draw from the same agencies for the expertise and advice.  When these agencies fail, they get away scot-free. The judiciary knows how to make them answerable, but has desisted so far.