Greenie versus Greenie: Tidal power versus tigers

Nothing in real life ever suits the Greenies

Tigers in the world's largest reserve for the big cats are threatened by Indian plans for a tidal power project that will only provide electricity for a few thousand families, scientists and critics said on Friday. The proposed US$9-million plant will generate just four megawatts of power -- enough to light up 15,000 homes -- as water from tidal rivers is allowed to rise in one of many creeks dissecting the Sunderbans and is then released through a turbine. But conservationists fear large areas of the swampy mangrove park, home to about 280 tigers in the eastern state of West Bengal, will be washed away in the process. "It is too small a power project but has the potential to wipe out tiger habitat and harm the fragile ecology," S.R. Banerjee, state WWF director told Reuters. "We have asked the central government to stop this madness."

Three of the 50 or so islands that make up the Indian side of the Sunderbans -- the rest lie in neighbouring Bangladesh -- have been lost to sea erosion in recent years. S.P. Gon Chowdhury, director of the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency and architect of the scheme, said there was no cause for concern. "We will get all necessary clearances before starting the work later this year," he told Reuters. "There will be no threat to the tigers." The state minister for the Sunderbans, Kanti Ganguly, said the environment would be protected and the project was important for improving the living standards of hundreds of people. "We are going ahead with the project and the environmental hazards will be hardly any because the people behind the project have taken precautions," he told Reuters on Friday. "This project is important for raising the lifestyle of hundreds of villagers as they cannot live in the dark forever. "Once the project strarts later this year the perception of the conservationists will change forever."

But environmentalists say it is hard to see how the plant -- which would be India's first tidal power scheme -- can avoid both eroding some areas of the 350 sq km (135 sq mile) park and silting up others as the natural flow of water is disrupted. "Once the canal is blocked by sluice gates, the flow of water will be completely restricted causing widespread sedimentation and siltation," Pranabesh Sanyal, a senior official of the National Coastal Zone Management Authority, said. "This will lead to eventual destruction of a large part of the mangrove," he said of the region where the river Ganges flows into the Bay of Bengal.

The state government plans to construct two sluice gates at either end of the Durgaduani creek, which connects two rivers. During high tides, sea water will be allowed into the creek and as the level rises it will be released through a turbine. Over the past year, Indian officials, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have expressed alarm at reports of a dramatic fall in the tiger population because of rampant poaching and human encroachment on leading sanctuaries. A century ago, there were about 40,000 tigers in India but according to official estimates, there are now barely 3,600 and some wildlife experts say there could be fewer than 2,000. A single tiger can fetch up US$50,000 on the black market. So it's trappers and hunters that are the problem: Not dams

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WHY AL GORE SHOULD LEARN TO SPEAK CHINESE

Thanks to Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, the global warming debate is back on our political radar screen. We can let the scientists sort out the accuracy of his vision of a world tilting toward ruin. But even if Gore & Co. are correct that the international community must immediately act to stem the increase in global temperatures, conspicuously absent is any acknowledgment that the Asian economic revolution has made whatever problem exists much more difficult to solve. The folks who focus on U.S. noncompliance with the Kyoto agreement as the only impediment to a global solution are as outdated in their thinking as were the explorers of the Middle Ages who thought the world was flat.

Yes, the United States, as the world's largest economy, remains the biggest source of greenhouse gases, and any international solution would require American participation. But for any global agreement to win approval in Washington, it must recognize the belief that the restraints on emissions required by Kyoto will cost American jobs.

China, and to a lesser degree India and the other Asian tigers, are industrializing at a frenetic pace. Any agreement to limit global warming must include their participation. An acknowledgment of that reality by the environmentalists is the required first step in any effort to deal with the problem of rising world temperatures.

The Kyoto agreement was signed in 1997 before U.S. companies began outsourcing millions of jobs to China and India. The pact exempted both and other developing nations from the requirements of curbing emissions. The rationale was that the United States and Western Europe had caused most of the problem, so they should bear the brunt of the sacrifice. It was a noble but impractical idea. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose nation signed the accord, acknowledged that "no country will want to sacrifice its economy" in the process. The United States refused to approve the agreement for that reason. Although Western European nations did, some of them have failed to keep the commitments they made.

That's why the idea that all the environmental folks have to do is show the Chinese how much they are polluting to get them to happily agree to the Kyoto limits is almost as naive as it is simplistic. The New York Times reported recently that the Chinese are so dependent on dirty coal for their power needs that their "dangerous brew of soot, toxic chemicals and climate-changing gases" is ruining the air quality not just for their own citizens but also for those in neighboring Asian nations. In fact, the Times reported, the Chinese emissions are making the air in non-urban parts of the Western United States as dirty as ever recorded.

It is hard to see the Chinese easily agreeing to curb their emissions. Doing so would require expensive technology on their industrial plants that would make their products more expensive in the international marketplace. Therefore, what American politician would support such steps at home with the knowledge that doing so would make U.S. products more expensive at the same time some of their global competitors are not complying? It is easy for those no longer in the political trenches to take the absolutist position, but political death wishes are in short supply at the White House and in Congress these days. That's why Mr. Gore and his buddies should learn to speak Chinese if they want to get an agreement that will be accepted in Washington.

The Baltimore Sun, 29 June 2006






BRITAIN: BACK TO THE 15TH CENTURY

Flood defences were torn down yesterday to allow the North Sea to swallow a chunk of the Essex coast and create the biggest man-made saltmarsh in Europe. The Wallasea saltmarsh will be a sanctuary for wildlife and has been created as compensation for the loss of similar habitat elsewhere on the coast. It will take up to five years for the marsh and mudflats to attract all the plants and animals associated with such habitat but the first birds and marine creatures were already in residence last night. Avocets were among the first to make use of the new saltmarsh as the tide flowed in yesterday afternoon and they are expected to be quickly followed by a range of other seabirds, fish, and molluscs.

Allowing the sea to encroach at Wallasea is in line with government policy on letting coastlines recede and minimising the cost of defences in the face of rising sea levels. Mechanical diggers moved into position early in the morning to tear down more than 300 yards of sea wall, which have for decades prevented the sea from encroaching on land. Seawater began flooding the 115-hectare (284-acre) site at high tide in the afternoon.

Mark Dixon, the project manager for the scheme, by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said that the saltmarsh would provide an unrivalled feeding station for thousands of birds. He said: "It takes two years for all the saltmarsh to get established. That's when it's a completely living marsh. In five years it will be fully established. "But straight away we are going to get fish in there and in a matter of days we will have some of the interesting invertebrate creatures living in the muddy bits. Some seaweed will be there within a fortnight."

Saltmarshes are rich feeding grounds for birds and especially important to migrants which use them to refuel. Fish also find plenty of food in them and use them as nurseries. Much of the richness is attributable to hydrobia, tiny marine snails, which colonise the mud in huge numbers. Seaweeds, sea grasses and sea asparagus will create "meadows in the sea" in the saltmarsh. Mr Dixon added: "The Wallasea saltmarsh is like a supermarket for the birds."

The Essex coastline is one of the most important in Britain for migrating birds but the natural saltmarshes that were once common have been destroyed by development and sea defences. In the 15th century the county had 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres) but now only 2,000 hectares remain.

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EUROPEAN EMISSION TRADING: REALITY HAS A HABIT OF WINNING OUT

Fans of the European approach to greenhouse gas emissions should meanwhile consider what is going on in Germany, France, and Greece. The beloved cap and trade-based Emissions Trading Scheme, touted as "effective" by Al Gore, is proving to be useless. The UK's chief cheerleader for emissions trading, Michael Grubb, had this to say the other day: "I have been a big supporter of the EU ETS, but hearing the German news I feel more depressed than I ever have done about our ability to tackle climate change...I really believed that Europe would lead the way through the EU ETS but now I wonder whether this will ever happen."

Friends of the Earth is even more upset:

Friends of the Earth Europe said the EU is "shamefully off-course to meet its international Kyoto Protocol obligations". Jan Kowalzig, climate campaigner of the organisation said: "As these new figures embarrassingly show, our European leaders still haven't woken up to the climate crisis. Europe's governments make grand statements about their commitment to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, yet economy and industry Ministers continue to block or water down policy measures to switch to renewable energies, reduce energy waste or introduce fuel consumption standards for cars".

As Tony Blair has conceded, economic growth will always win out over fears about future weather when the two are put up against each other, wherever you are. Those who are worried about global warming have to suggest something other than an economic straitjacket if they want to be listened to. They have consistently failed to do this, becoming shriller and shriller in their rhetoric. Unfortunately for them, reality has a habit of winning out.

NRO, 29 June 20006

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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