Manmohan: developed nations responsible for climate change (Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh)

Stressing on the need for India to have a "proactive and pragmatic" strategy to deal with climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday exhorted the scientific community to develop environment-friendly and efficient technologies that are "affordable and also scalable". Speaking after inaugurating the 95th Science Congress here, the Prime Minister said India must take steps to stop further environmental degradation even though the major responsibility lay with the developed countries. "They (the developed world) bear the biggest responsibility for what has happened and must bear the greatest responsibility for correcting the damage. But we too have to take action. I believe our response must be proactive and based on our finding feasible and practical solutions to the real and potential threats we face," the Prime Minister said.

Towards this end, he said, the scientists must also tap into traditional knowledge base. The Prime Minister identified five areas where such clean technologies needed to be applied on a "war footing", among them food production and energy security. Mass transport systems, construction industry and manufacturing sector were the other areas where such technologies needed to developed, he said.

"The most important area for the application of knowledge for sustainable development is in energy conservation and the development of renewable energy sources," Manmohan Singh said while advocating greater dependence on solar and atomic energy. "I would like to see a concerted effort being made in the development of solar energy by our scientific, technological and business communities.

"In the longer run, atomic energy can also make an important contribution to energy security. It is this perspective which has led us to seek removal of restrictive regimes which prevent India from participation in international trade in civilian nuclear materials, equipment and technologies," he said.

This year's Science Congress-an annual jamboree of Indian scientists which has attracted close to 4,000 delegates to Vizag-has its theme as "Knowledge Base Society Using Environmentally Sustainable Science and Technology".

Manmohan Singh said the Government was ready to invest in and strengthen the infrastructure required to develop the scientific capability in this new area. "We need a quantum jump in science education and research. This agenda can no longer wait. I am aware that we need policy reform, we need institutional reform, we need organisational reform, and above all, we need more investment in science education. Let us work together and transform science education and research in India," he said.

From a google search:

Today the BBC reports that traffic police offices in Calcutta will be outfitted with oxygen devices as a way to counteract the ill-effects of air pollution.

The news item cites a report by the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, one of India’s most respected research centers, that found that around 70% of Calcutta’s 18 million inhabitants suffers from respiratory problems, such as asthma, lung cancer, and breathing difficulties, much of it caused by pollution from the cities chaotic transport sector.

Traditionally used in hospitals by sick patients undergoing medical treatment, the oxygen devices will now be deployed at the cities 11 traffic offices, where traffic officers who have performed an eight hour stint on Calcutta’s contaminated streets will be able to use them for up to 20 minutes.

The article notes that one of the largest polluters on India’s roads are the auto rickshaws that are powered by a “deadly concoction of kerosene and petrol.” Can these rickshaws be made environmentally friendly?

This just in: (Press release)

Changes in the Sun’s Surface to Bring Next Climate Change

January 2, 2008

Today, the Space and Science Research Center, (SSRC) in Orlando, Florida announces that it has confirmed the recent web announcement of NASA solar physicists that there are substantial changes occurring in the sun’s surface. The SSRC has further researched these changes and has concluded they will bring about the next climate change to one of a long lasting cold era.

Today, Director of the SSRC, John Casey has reaffirmed earlier research he led that independently discovered the sun’s changes are the result of a family of cycles that bring about climate shifts from cold climate to warm and back again.

“We today confirm the recent announcement by NASA that there are historic and important changes taking place on the sun’s surface. This will have only one outcome - a new climate change is coming that will bring an extended period of deep cold to the planet. This is not however a unique event for the planet although it is critically important news to this and the next generations. It is but the normal sequence of alternating climate changes that has been going on for thousands of years. Further according to our research, this series of solar cycles are so predictable that they can be used to roughly forecast the next series of climate changes many decades in advance. I have verified the accuracy of these cycles’ behavior over the last 1,100 years relative to temperatures on Earth, to well over 90%.”

As to what these changes are Casey says, “The sun’s surface flows have slowed dramatically as NASA has indicated. This process of surface movement, what NASA calls the “conveyor belt” essentially sweeps up old sunspots and deposits new ones. NASA’s studies have found that when the surface movement slows down, sunspot counts drop significantly. All records of sunspot counts and other proxies of solar activity going back 6,000 years clearly validates our own findings that when we have sunspot counts lower then 50 it means only one thing - an intense cold climate, globally. NASA says the solar cycle 25, the one after the next that starts this spring will be at 50 or lower. The general opinion of the SSRC scientists is that it could begin even sooner within 3 years with the next solar cycle 24. What we are saying today is that my own research and that of the other scientists at the SSRC verifies that NASA is right about one thing – a solar cycle of 50 or lower is headed our way. With this next solar minimum predicted by NASA, what I call a “solar hibernation,” the SSRC forecasts a much colder Earth just as it has transpired before for thousands of years. If NASA is the more accurate on the schedule, then we may see even warmer temperatures before the bottom falls out. If the SSRC and other scientists around the world are correct then we have only a few years to prepare before 20-30 years of lasting and possibly dangerous cold arrive.”

When asked about what this will mean to the average person on the street, Casey was firm. “The last time this particular cycle regenerated was over 200 years ago. I call it the “Bi-Centennial Cycle” solar cycle. It took place between 1793 and 1830, the so-called Dalton Minimum, a period of extreme cold that resulted in what historian John D. Post called the ‘last great subsistence crisis.’ With that cold came massive crops losses, food riots, famine and disease. I believe this next climate change will be much stronger and has the potential to once more cause widespread crop losses globally with the resultant ill effects. The key difference for this next Bi-Centennial Cycle’s impact versus the last is that we will have over 8 billion mouths to feed in the next coldest years where as we had only 1 billion the last time. Among other effects like social and economic disruption, we are facing the real prospect of the ‘perfect storm of global food shortages’ in the next climate change. In answer to the question, everyone on the street will be affected.”

Given the importance of the next climate change Casey was asked whether the government has been notified. “Yes, as soon as my research revealed these solar cycles and the prediction of the coming cold era with the next climate change, I notified all the key offices in the Bush administration including both parties in the Senate and House science committees as well as most of the nation’s media outlets. Unfortunately, because of the intensity of coverage of the UN IPCC and man made global warming during 2007, the full story about climate change is very slow in getting told. These changes in the sun have begun. They are unstoppable. With the word finally starting to get out about the next climate change, hopefully we will have time to prepare. Right now, the newly organized SSRC is the leading independent research center in the US and possibly worldwide, that is focused on the next climate change. Some of the world’s brightest scientists, also experts in solar physics and the next climate change have joined with me. In the meantime we will do our best to spread the word along with NASA and others who can see what is about to take place for the Earth’s climate. Soon, I believe this will be recognized as the most important climate story of this century.”

More information on the Space and Science Research Center is available at: www.spaceandscience.net

The previous NASA announcement was made at:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10may_longrange.htm

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