[GreenYouth] Fishers, Scientists Pick Holes in Draft 'Ocean Policy'

[T Peter]

Fishers, Scientists Pick Holes in Draft 'Ocean Policy'

By Unnikrishnan S


http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/Fishers-Scientists-Pick-Holes-in-Draft-Ocean-Policy/2016/01/05/article3212161.ece

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Fisherman and scientists have criticised the draft
‘Ocean Policy Statement for Blue Economy - A Road Map’ on the provisions
for exploitation of strategic minerals from sea. Though many have hailed it
for extraction of rich manganese nodules from deep sea, a few have raised
alarm on its impact on the fragile marine eco system and on the fishermen’s
livelihood.

The note on it accessed by ‘Express’ stated about harnessing poly-metallic
or manganese nodules estimated at around 380 million metric tonnes in sea.
“The document looked harmless in its entirety. But a closer look on
suggestion on mining of non-living resources  reveals a plan behind opening
the sea for some major mining that will affect the marine ecology and the
fishermen,” said a source from the Fisheries Department.

He said safeguards should be taken while mining strategic minerals such as
titanium found abundantly on the Kerala coast. “The policy is aimed at
allowing foreign participation in mineral extraction to comply with
multi-national treaties. Often priorities get skewed at the cost of native
industry,” he said. The high seas and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) up
to 200 nautical miles will be subjected to mining.



National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), protesting against the drafting of new
National Marine Fisheries Policy without their participation, felt left out
in the Ocean policy as well. “Though the government claimed that mining
would be done in deep sea it would eventually affect the livelihood of
fishermen. Fishermen should be included while drafting policies that have
far reaching consequences on their lives,” said T Peter, secretary, NFF.
The first policy statement was issued in 1982 for optimal utilisation of
living resources, exploitation of non-living resources such as hydrocarbons
and heavy placer deposits, processing of polymetallic nodules and so on
from the deep sea. Though experiments were a success mining requires huge
capital.Some scientists believe the concerns are unfounded. “There is a
need to balance between development and ecology. These metals are of high
value and could offset the problems created through mining,” said K
Sunilkumar Mohamed, senior scientist with Central Marine Fisheries Research
Institute.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Green Youth Movement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[GreenYouth] World Nuclear Industry Status as of 1 January 2016: Mind the China Effect Monday 4 January 2016

[Sukla Sen]

[In 2015 China contributed eight out of the ten reactor
startups—resulting in a total of 31 operating units—and six of the
seven new building sites in the world. The other startups were in
South Korea and Russia (after 31 years of construction), while outside
China only one new-build project was launched, at Barakah in the
United Arab Emirates. Of the 62 nuclear power plants with a combined
capacity of 60 gigawatts now under construction in 14 countries, 24
units (24 gigawatts of capacity) are located in China. The world total
is down 8 percent from a 25-year-high of 67 reactors in various
building stages in 2013.
...
In 2009, China launched the construction of seven of the nine units in
the world and in 2010, ten out of 15. Since the Fukushima disaster
started unfolding in 2011, the number of construction starts globally
plunged to three in 2014. Even in China construction starts slowed and
over the five years 2011—2015 only 13 new projects were started, just
three more than in 2010 alone. In 2015, the Chinese government granted
permission for the building of eight reactors, however, it remains to
be seen, whether China can maintain such a high expansion speed and
thus remain the exception to the global trend.]

http://www.worldnuclearreport.org/UPDATE1-World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-as-of-1-January-2016-Mind-the-China.html

UPDATE1: World Nuclear Industry Status as of 1 January 2016: Mind the
China Effect
Monday 4 January 2016

Paris. 4 January 2016—UPDATE 5 January 2016 In 2015, a total of ten
new nuclear reactors were connected to the world’s grids, more than in
any year since 1990. Two reactors were closed, Grafenrheinfeld in
Germany and Wylfa in the United Kingdom. As of 1 January 2016, a total
of 398 reactors—eight more than a year ago, but 40 less than in
2002—were operating in 31 countries. Two reactors, Sendai-1 and -2,
were restarted in Japan, the first since the country was shaken by the
triple disaster earthquake-tsunami-radioactive fallout on the coast
line of Fukushima in 2011. Most of the Japanese reactors, 38 units,
remain in Long-Term Outage (LTO). An additional reactor in Belgium,
Doel-1, was restarted after the Belgian nuclear phase-out legislation
was amended in order to extend the lifetimes of Doel units 1 and 2 by
ten years. However, the decision does not affect the legal date for
nuclear phase-out completion in 2025.

Whereas the nuclear industry’s situation in the rest of the world
continued to deteriorate developments in China bucked this trend and
distort the global picture. ***In 2015 China contributed eight out of
the ten reactor startups—resulting in a total of 31 operating
units—and six of the seven new building sites in the world. The other
startups were in South Korea and Russia (after 31 years of
construction), while outside China only one new-build project was
launched, at Barakah in the United Arab Emirates. Of the 62 nuclear
power plants with a combined capacity of 60 gigawatts now under
construction in 14 countries, 24 units (24 gigawatts of capacity) are
located in China. The world total is down 8 percent from a
25-year-high of 67 reactors in various building stages in 2013.***
[Emphasis added.]

***In 2009, China launched the construction of seven of the nine units
in the world and in 2010, ten out of 15. Since the Fukushima disaster
started unfolding in 2011, the number of construction starts globally
plunged to three in 2014. Even in China construction starts slowed and
over the five years 2011—2015 only 13 new projects were started, just
three more than in 2010 alone. In 2015, the Chinese government granted
permission for the building of eight reactors, however, it remains to
be seen, whether China can maintain such a high expansion speed and
thus remain the exception to the global trend.*** [Emphasis added.]

[Graph]

The Paris Agreement on climate change did not provide the push for
nuclear power the industry had hoped and intensely worked for. The
term “nuclear” does not even appear in the 32-page Agreement. While
nuclear builders and the traditional utilities continue to struggle
with the rapidly changing energy sector environment. The French
state-controlled AREVA, having announced an outlook of a further
“heavy loss” in 2015, was downgraded by credit-rating agency Standard
& Poor’s to B+ (“highly speculative”). On 29 December 2015, the
company plunged to a new historic low on the stock market (€5.30
compared to €72.50 eight years ago). On 7 December 2015, Euronext
ejected the French heavy weight Électricité de France (EDF), largest
nuclear utility in the world and “pillar of the Paris Stock Exchange”,
from France’s key stock market index, known as CAC40. One day later,
EDF shares lost another four percent of their value, which led to a
new low, a drop of over 85 percent from its 2007 level. Two days
later, the trade union representatives at the Central Enterprise
Committee of EDF—unanimously and for the first time—launched an
official “economic alert 

[GreenYouth] After 60 years of nuclear power, the industry survives only on stupendous subsidies

[Sukla Sen]

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2986749/after_60_years_of_nuclear_power_the_industry_survives_only_on_stupendous_subsidies.html

After 60 years of nuclear power, the industry survives only on
stupendous subsidies
Pete Dolack

4th January 2016

Snipped

-- 
Peace Is Doable

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Green Youth Movement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[GreenYouth] The Imperiled Bloggers of Bangladesh

[Sukla Sen]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/magazine/the-price-of-secularism-in-bangladesh.html?hpw=magazine=click=Homepage=well-region=bottom-well=bottom-well&_r=0

The Imperiled
Bloggers of Bangladesh

Until he was stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife and forced to flee
to Europe two years ago, Asif Mohiuddin was a leading member of
Bangladesh’s ‘‘freethinker’’ movement and the country’s best-known secular
provocateur. We met last June at a cafe on a pedestrian promenade around
the corner from his apartment, a sunlit space in a shabby-­chic
neighborhood in northern Germany. (He asked me not to name the city.)
Mohiuddin, dressed that day in jeans and a green T-shirt that proclaimed
‘‘American Atheists Convention, Memphis, April 2-5, 2015,’’ was still
getting used to the tranquillity of his new surroundings. Shortly after he
secured a fellowship at a German institute and left Bangladesh, extremists
serially murdered four of his friends — all secular bloggers who had
criticized fundamentalist Islam and whose names appeared on ‘‘hit lists’’
assembled by hard-­liners and disseminated on social media. ‘‘Everybody is
wondering who will be next,’’ Mohiuddin told me while picking halfheartedly
at the kiwi slices on his plate.

Mohiuddin, who is 31, grew up in a Muslim family in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s
capital city of 14 million. The son of a middle-­ranking civil servant, he
studied religion after school at a mosque. ‘‘I learned many ridiculous
things — that I would get virgins in heaven, or that I would suffer the
ultimate punishment in hell for eternity,’’ he said. At 13, he declared
himself an atheist. Muslims make up 89 percent of Bangladesh’s population
(Hindus, Buddhists and Christians constitute most of the rest), and belief
in God is near universal; for a child to profess such lack of faith was
unheard-­of, and his father was deeply shamed. While in high school,
Mohiuddin read ‘‘A Brief History of Time,’’ by Stephen Hawking, which he
calls ‘‘a major influence.’’ At 16, he picked up a Bengali science magazine
that used relativity theory and other scientific principles to explain
miracles described in the Quran. He felt compelled to challenge the article
in print. ‘‘I wrote that it was scientifically impossible for the Prophet
Muhammad to ascend to heaven on a horse,’’ he said. The science magazine
barred him from its pages, but he began contributing to the religion
section of Dhaka newspapers, sharing the space with believers. ‘‘The
Islamists would write during Ramadan that fasting is very good for health,
that it creates new brain cells, and I would write back, ‘This is
[expletive],’ ’’ he told me.

In 2008, after earning a degree in computer science, Mohiuddin turned to
blogging. Writing in Bengali for a website called Somewhere in ... Blog
, he drew upon the thinking of Bangladeshi
philosophers and agnostics like Humayun Azad, whose most ­famous work,
‘‘Nari,’’ criticized the chauvinistic attitude of Islam toward women and
was banned by the Bangladeshi government in 1995. (The ban was lifted five
years later.) Mohiuddin’s online writing grew even more strident. His posts
— advocating women’s rights and secular education, criticizing a law
banning marriages between Hindus and Muslims, condemning communal violence
targeting Hindus and questioning the infallibility of the prophet —
attracted as many as one million views. They also enraged the country’s
­Islamists, a relatively small but increasingly vocal part of the country’s
population of 168 million. Mohiuddin was sometimes challenged by the
Islamists to debates in Dhaka, packed public forums during which he would
only anger them further. ‘‘They said, ‘You should say the prayer to
Muhammad before we start,’ ’’ he said. ‘‘And I said, ‘Why should I?’ ’’
Gradually, the invitations stopped, and the threats began.
Photo
Asif Mohiuddin. CreditImke Lass for The New York Times

Advertisement
Continue reading the main story


Threats of violence against freethinkers in Bangladesh were common, but at
that point they had seldom been carried out. A rare exception was in
February 2004, when Azad, then a professor at the University of Dhaka, was
stabbed and critically wounded by radical Islamists near campus. He fled
the country and died six months later of heart failure in his Munich
apartment. Eight years on, when the radicals began to make threats against
Mohiuddin, he brushed off the possibility that he would be killed.

Late one night in January 2013, four men surprised Mohiuddin as he stepped
out of a motorized rickshaw in front of the I.T. firm where he worked night
shifts as an office manager. The assailants struck quickly. As Mohiuddin
paid the driver, they approached from behind and hit him with an iron rod,
then delivered a series of rapid cuts using a 

[GreenYouth] Yoga for justice!

[KP Sasi]

The BJP Kerala State Cell Coordinator B. Gopalakrishnan states that if the
CPM leaders Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan could practise yoga,
their arrogance could be controlled. If yoga had been that useful, how come
BJP under Narendra Modi Government in Gujarat fif not control the arrogance
of the Sangh Parivar with yoga before murdering over 2,000 innocent
Muslims, rape of many women belonging to the minorities, destruction and
 loot many houses belonging to  innocent Muslims? How come yoga was not
made compulsory in restricting  the arrogance of Sangh Parivar when over
350 churches and worship places were destroyed in Kandhamal, murdering over
90 Adivasi Christians and Dalit Christians, displacing over 56,000 people,
subjecting over 40 women to rape, molestation and abuse and destroying over
5,600 houses of innocent people? How come BJP did not practise yoga in
Muzaffarnagar? Perhaps if Narendra Modi practices yoga regularly, India may
not be sold to the corporates. And I am sure, yoga can bring us an
equitable, just, secular, socialist and democratic republic as per the
Indian Constitution if all the ministers, bureaucrats and all those in the
executive, legislative and judiciary bodies practise it regularly. Perhaps
Ambedkar forgot the possibility of a `Yogic Indian Constitution’.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Green Youth Movement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.