Today being world Earth Day, its only fit we discuss the next big environmental crisis to hit Asia - e-waste or electronic waste. With consumerism on the rise, the rate at which we buy and dispose off mobile phones, Tv’s, laptops, PC’s, refrigerators etc is only making the problem of e-waste worse for Asia.

The star.com reported that despite international agreements that prohibit the import and export of hazardous waste, shipments of broken electronic devices continue to pour into the harbours of Kenya, India and China.The reason is strictly financial. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates it’s up to 10 times cheaper to export e-waste than to dispose of it domestically.

About 150,000 people are employed by the e-waste industry in Guiyu, China, and 25,000 more work in the scrapyards of New Delhi, India. The gold, silver, copper, aluminum and other metals salvaged become a vital resource for the manufacturing of new items. A typical wage for the arduous, dangerous work is $2 to $4 a day.

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Melting Himalayan glaciers, which perennially feed the Ganges and Yangtze, India and China’s main rivers may soon dry up in summer, leading to drastic food shortages at a time when prices and populations are growing unanimously. China and India are the world’s leading producers of both wheat and rice, humanity’s food staples. In the Ganges, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River basins, where irrigated agriculture depends heavily on rivers, this loss of dry-season flow will shrink harvests.

“In a world where grain prices have recently climbed to record highs, with no relief in sight, any disruption of the wheat or rice harvests due to water shortages in these two leading grain producers will greatly affect not only people living there but consumers everywhere,” the Times of India quoted Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute as saying.

An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that Himalayan glaciers are receding rapidly and that many could melt entirely by 2035. If the giant Gangotri Glacier that supplies 70 per cent of the Ganges flow during the dry season disappears, it warned, the Ganges could become a seasonal river, flowing during the rainy season but not during the summer dry season when irrigation water needs are greatest.

Moreover, Brown said, in both of these countries, food prices will likely rise and grain consumption per person can be expected to fall. In India, where just over 40 per cent of all children under five years of age are underweight and undernourished, “hunger will intensify and child mortality will likely climb.”

The Ganga is the largest source of surface water irrigation in India and the leading source of water for the 407 million people living in the Gangetic Basin, a population larger than any other single country other than China. The Yellow River and Yangtze basin hold a similar position in China.

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 While reports done by various bodies, independant or governmental differ in blaming India or China as the more polluting country, the quality of our air, water and soil continues to deteriorate. It might be a population problem or the fact that we are developing countries and that pollution is a by-product, nonetheless to the common citizen it seems like little is being done to create a better world for gen next.
A recent story by the Times of India, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lets_Work_Together/articleshow/2716049.cms
talks about enviroment challenges and the road ahead. While comparing Beijing and New Delhi, the article points a finger at all the avtaars of pollution - plastics, people and poaching. The story also highlights steps taken by the government and international agencies - the recent MoU signed between India and China during Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit in the areas of co-operation in land resource management, scientific research and development projects, sustainable development in agriculture and the civilian use of nuclear energy. It also includes efforts taken by the International Eneregy Agency and the US based world-watch institute.

Additionally, the article covers Dr Manmohan Singh’s diplomatic response to the debatable topic, should developing countries cut pollution levels as much as developed countries who have already polluted the enviroment during their developmental phase?  

Happy new year to all 2.6billion.com viewers!!! May 2008 bring you all, health, wealth and happiness!!

A few days ago, i read a report that made me smile, with realisation. Its not only India that faces corruption at all levels, its just that Indians have a voice and like to grumble. Give the Chinese a chance and watch them vent their frustration.

Recently, the website of China’s National Bureau of Corruption Prevention (NCBP) crashed just hours after it was launched, as a huge number of people logged on to the site to lodge their complaints against corrupt officials. The website yfj.mos.gov.cn launched on the 18th of December was inaccessible by afternoon due to the large number of visitors, Beijing Youth Daily said.

The enthusiasm which greeted the launch of the site is a reflection of the growing frustration felt by the Chinese towards corruption at all governmental levels, which has been accentuated by several high-profile corruption cases in the last five years.

Many senior officials have recently been found guilty of serious corruption, including the former director of the national bureau of statistics Qiu Xiaohua, the former food and drug administration head Zheng Xiaoyu and former Party head of Shanghai Chen Liangyu.

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If you have been following our Comparator, you would know the statistics. The two have actually been making it quite difficult to fight global warming by increasing their dependence on coal.

Extracts from Standard & Poor’s report:

The extent to which these rapidly developing nations will be able to shift away from coal-fired generation toward low-carbon energy investments is crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Rob Morrison, head of the financial services company CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, had this to say

A critical challenge to sustainable growth for India and China is both countries’ dependence on oil imports and coal, and a corresponding lack of initiatives to push for nonpolluting, renewable energy. One of the big issues is–growth at what price? Both countries are very dependent on imports for their energy requirements. So rising global prices are a key issue for them. Among the big economies of the region, we are the most bullish (esp. on banking, construction and real estate stocks) on India, adding that while China is attractive in the long-term, valuations are “excessive” at present. In India, prices have run up, but earnings have also expanded–averaging 25% to 27%, average earnings to continue to grow faster than 20% for the next fiscal year.

What do you think?

1. Is it high time that they be doing something to cure the situation and do you have some suggestions/alternatives
2. Are they somewhere correct in saying that the developed nations should be handling the situation first then they would…
 

China overtook Britain to be the worlds 4th largest economy in 2005. Predictions in January 2007 (considering China growing rapidly) were that it would go up the ladder to number 3 position by 2008. It’s mid of the year 2007, China has already reached there leaving Germany behind and there seems to be nothing stopping it.

So does China has an unstoppable growth or is it heading for a negative development?

Check out the article, ‘What might stall the “Great Chinese Growth Engine”? by the friend and contributor of 2point6billion, Shantanu Bhagwat of Global Themes blog as he shares his learnings from the lecture of Wing Thye Woo, Professor of Economies at the University of California, on “The Real Challenges to China’s Continued High Growth”. Professor Wing has compared the Chinese growth model to a speeding car which could lead to crash in the absence of required actions. These failures are hardware (breakdown of economic mechanism), software (societal disorders) and power (environmental degradation).

On the probability of occurrence of these failures, Professor Wing commented in one of his write ups- “ What are the High-Probability Challenges to Continued High Growth in China? “

“My assessment is that the highest probability event in hardware failure is the weakening of China’s fiscal position; the highest probability event in software failure is social disorder, and the highest probability event in power supply failure is water shortage. And my ranking of the probability of these three specific negative events in descending order is social disorder caused by outmoded governance, water shortage as a result of inept environmental management, and fiscal crisis generated by the repeated recapitalization of the state banks and the rapid aging of the population.”

China needs to gear up for necessary institutional reforms if it wants to continue shining at that 11 % plus GDP rate. China knows this and wants it, though might be surprising to many that it needs them while it has survived the 30 years of speed!

China announced on Tuesday that it is building a metalled road to the Mount Everest or the Mt Qomolangma Base Camp. The plan is to transport the Olympic torch to this point, from where Chinese runners will carry it to the world’s tallest peak.

The construction of the road will commence in a weeks time and in a period of four months the Chinese will have it ready. It will be 110 Kms long with the height of 5200 meters and will link Tingri County of Xigaze Prefecture at the foot of the mountain to the Base Camp into a blacktop highway. The new highway in future would become a major route for tourists and mountaineers.

The construction of the road has given rise to protests in New Delhi in the name of environment issues as the increase in construction activity would mean more pollution on a definite. (more…)

How many people sigh ”I always wanted to go to there but never had the chance” Well now you can and you don’t even have to leave you chair.

Nowadays you can visit any place you want, learn from its Geography, find out how well it is governed, how well its institutions operate, what life style people have, what places to avoid etc. What you need is an Internet connection and Google Earth. Thanks to the blessing of modern satellites that beam back razor sharp images, added tourist information, history and web-links it a great way to compare cities and learn what we people are doing on and doing to the planet…

Check out the full text article at: http://www.2point6billion.com/Using_Google_Earth_to_visit_Mumbai.pdf