Thursday, December 31, 2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Thursday, December 10, 2015
CoP 21 Update: Leading Scientists call for 1.5 Degree Pathway!
23 IPCC and Leading Scientists Call for Greater Ambition
and 1.5
Degree Pathway
A group of 23 leading scientists has called for greater reductions to
avoid crossing dangerous thresholds in “cryosphere” – snow and ice – regions,
stressing the need for a 1.5 degree pathway to constrain risk. The statement is based on the findings of the
Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Fifth Assessment, but takes
into account important research published since that sharpens concerns about
dynamics that might be triggered within the next few decades, especially in
West Antarctica. This includes the risk
of 4-5
meters committed or “irreversible” sea-level rise that would unfold over many
centuries, but could be impossible to halt once begun.
The scientists, 13 of them IPCC authors,
others senior and cutting-edge researchers, note, "... This can set into
motion very long-term changes that cannot be stopped or reversed, even if
temperatures later decrease. Some changes, such as committed sea-level rise
from the great polar ice sheets, cannot be reversed short of a new Ice Age.”
These potentially irreversible risks include mountain
glaciers, 80% of which can be expected to disappear at current
pledges or INDCs; sea-level rise from the ice sheets of Greenland and
Antarctica; permafrost thaw and related carbon release, which may eat one-third
to one-half of current carbon budgets at existing INDCs; Arctic summer sea ice
loss; and serious polar ocean acidification, which is occurring even faster in
these waters than in oceans at lower latitudes.
As a result of these risk-filled dynamics, as negotiations
move into their final stages the scientists urge a focus on actions that will
lead to temperatures preferably under 1.5 degrees over
pre-industrial, for the best chance of limiting these risks.
Source: email from Pam Pearson, Director, International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI)
Saturday, December 5, 2015
See how Climate Change, Dams and Disastrous Urban Planning caused Chennai Floods!
Climate change; dams; disastrous urban planning that has
killed water bodies, rivers and chocked water ways & flood plains are the
main causes of Chennai Flood devastation....
Save Rivers, Water Bodies and Ecology to save civilizations!
https://www.facebook.com/indianexpress/videos/10153761844038826/
Friday, December 4, 2015
SC says fair compensation for land is human right of farmers! Some issues to ponder...
Dear
Friends/Co-sailors,
The
Supreme Court of India has now said it in clear terms that fair compensation
for land acquired by government is farmer’s human right. Pasting below (at
bottom) a news published in Times of India with further details. My pick from
this would be the following:
Right to property is now recognized as a constitutional
right by Article 300A, which provides that "no person shall be deprived
of his property save by authority of law".
The bench pulled up Rajasthan government for not fulfilling
its promise of fair compensation to landowners whose properties were acquired
by the state in 2001. The state government had assured landowners allotment
of 15%
developed land near the acquired land but it resiled from the promise and
allotted them undeveloped land in a far off place.
Directing the state to allot developed land with all basic
facilities to owners, the bench said, "Right to property, though no longer
a fundamental right, is otherwise a zealous possession of which one cannot be
divested save by the authority of law as is enjoined by Article 300A of
the Constitution. Any callous inaction or apathy of the state and its
instrumentalities, in securing just compensation would amount to dereliction of
a constitutional duty.
Well,
that’s a powerful judgement. However, we
need more teetch to it. As far as small
farmers are concerned, we need to have at least the following, besides what the
2013 LA Act says:
Right
not to be evicted forcefully.
Right
to property in lieu of property.
Right
to own the businesses as legally mandated shareholders in businesses/projects
that are build in the lands acquired by them. This has to come with adequate state guaranteed safeguards.
We can
add more and discuss.
Thanks
and regards,
Ranjan
Panda
==============
The ToI
news as appeared @ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Fair-compensation-for-land-acquired-by-govt-is-farmers-human-right-SC/articleshow/50050793.cms?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=TOI
Fair compensation for land acquired by govt is farmer’s
human right: SC
Amit Anand Choudhary,TNN | Dec 5, 2015,
06.46
AM IST
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday said right to
property was part of human rights, and landowners had a right to fair
compensation for land acquired by the government.
"The right to property having been elevated to the status
of human rights, it is inherent in every individual, and thus has to be
venerably acknowledged and can, by no means, be belittled or trivialized by
adopting an unconcerned and nonchalant disposition by anyone, far less the
State, after compulsorily acquiring his land by invoking an expropriatory
legislative mechanism," a bench of Justices V Gopala Gowda and Amitava Roy
said.
The ruling in a case arising from the demand by a group of
farmers in Rajasthan for fair compensation for the land acquired from them by
the government marks a step towards elevation of right to property. Recognized
as a fundamental right by the framers of the Constitution, right to property
was done away with by the 44th amendment to the Constitution in 1978, in
what reflected the ethos which had reigned supreme until the 1980s.
Right to property is now recognized as a constitutional
right by Article 300A, which provides that "no person shall be deprived
of his property save by authority of law".
The constitutional amendment only completed the process
which began in the 1960s and which saw the government seeking to chip away at
right to property for the professed objective of creation of an egalitarian
society.
On Friday, however, the wheel of jurisprudence appeared to
be coming full circle when Justices Gowda and Roy, while stressing the
constitutional obligation of the government to compensate landowners, called
right to property a "prized privilege".
The court said it was the government's constitutional
obligation to ensure that the landowner was adequately compensated. It said
other rights became illusory in the absence of right to property and the state
must ensure it was protected.
"The judicial mandate of human rights dimension, thus,
makes it incumbent on the state to solemnly respond to its constitutional
obligation to guarantee that a land loser is adequately compensated. The
proposition does not admit of any compromise or laxity," it said.
"Though earlier, human rights existed to the claim of
individuals' right to health, livelihood, shelter and employment etc, these
have started gaining a multifaceted approach, so much so that property rights
have become integrated within the definition of human rights," the bench
said while referring to its previous verdict.
The bench pulled up Rajasthan government for not fulfilling
its promise of fair compensation to landowners whose properties were acquired
by the state in 2001. The state government had assured landowners allotment
of 15%
developed land near the acquired land but it resiled from the promise and
allotted them undeveloped land in a far off place.
Directing the state to allot developed land with all basic
facilities to owners, the bench said, "Right to property, though no longer
a fundamental right, is otherwise a zealous possession of which one cannot be
divested save by the authority of law as is enjoined by Article 300A of
the Constitution. Any callous inaction or apathy of the state and its
instrumentalities, in securing just compensation would amount to dereliction of
a constitutional duty.
"The persistent denial of their right to the developed
land in lieu of compensation and that too without any legally acceptable
justification, has ensued in manifest injustice to them over the years. Neither
have they been paid just compensation for the land acquired nor have they been
provided with the developed land in place thereof, as assured."
===========
When you kill your water bodies you increase flood occurrences in your city!
(Illustration Credit: Anonymous , sourced from a friend's wall in Facebook)
What happens when you kill your water bodies in the name of
so called 'Development'...
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Chennai Floods: How it is a man made calamity!
Man destroyed it's course, but the River found its way!
Disastrous urban planning killing Rivers, Water Bodies and Ecology has made Chennai Floods a man made calamity. Time we respect the Nature and learn living with it...
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/badi-khabar/is-chennai-crisis-man-made/393340
Chennai Floods: See what happens when you kill your Rivers!
See what happens when you kill your Rivers in the name of so called "Development."
===========
Please also read the following post I just uploaded in our fb pages:
A lesson to learn?
Oh no, we are so smart actually. We want more coal fired power plants, more unsustainable urban areas, more vehicles; we want to kill all water bodies and construct market complexes and other structures, encroach all flood plains...and everything that finally brings us to this state of affairs where we may have money but no life on earth...
A lesson to learn from Chennai? Or just let the time pass and start destroying the nature again?
Well, our memory may be short but Nature's isn't!
Ranjan
--
Ranjan K Panda
Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO)
Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, India
Mahanadi River Waterkeeper (Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance, New York)
Tweet @ranjanpanda
Tweet @MahanadiRiver
Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader
Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader
Blog: http://www.
Fighting water woes, combating climate change...25 years now!
Fighting water woes, combating climate change...25 years now!
CoP21: Odisha farmers join global mobilization movements to demand a Climate Deal that benefits Small Farmers!
Drought Affected Farmers of Odisha demand
definitive Climate Deal at Paris
More than
three hundred farmers in Nuapada and Bargarh districts
organised a “March To the Crop Field” on the
Global Mobilization Day for CoP 21
Sambalpur,
India: 29th November, 2015 -
As the global leaders prepare to strike a new
deal to fight climate change during the Conference of Parties 21
(CoP21) meeting at Paris that starts tomorrow,
villagers from drought affected districts of Nuapada and Bargarh organized a
“March to the Crop Field” asking the world leaders to make a definitive climate
deal that reduces global warming and greenhouse gases and support small and
marginal farmers in adapting to negative impacts of climate change.
This March was organised at two places –
Kharamal village in Bargarh district and Kushmal in Nuappada district – where
about three hundred villagers – including women and children participated to
send out their message to the world governments to save small farmers from
vagaries of climate change by signing a strong climate deal in Paris.
The villagers have demanded that:
1. Small and marginal farmers are
facing the maximum impacts of climate change and as a result are losing on
their livelihoods, resorting to distressed migration and even committing
suicides due to crop failures and other reasons. We want the governments at CoP21
to finalize a deal that arrests global warming and helps small farmers to fight
the impacts through schemes and programmes suitable for the small farmers.
2. We want the governments to
support local agro-ecology based farming projects and programmes.
3. We
want the governments to support decentralized water harvesting and management
systems.
4. We want the governments to end
corporate control of the farm sector including their control of our seeds.
5. We want the governments to
promote organic farming.
6. We want the governments to
ensure local farm based enterprises owned and operated by small and marginal
farmers with all kind of support provided to them.
7. We
want the governments to ensure best remuneration to farmers for their produces
and insure all crops and farmers irrespective of land ownership, with adequate
and dignified insurance amounts.
8. We
want the governments to provide assured irrigation, cold storage facilities and
ensured marketing of farm produces to the farmers.
9. We
want the governments to help the farmers fight with all sorts of disasters such
as droughts, floods and cyclones and support farmers in their coping and
resilience efforts.
10. To strengthen climate change
adaptation programmes like the MGNREGA.
Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) and Mahanadi
River Waterkeeper facilitated this action along with Vikash, Khariar; CANSA and
Action2015India as part of a global mobilization day being
organized throughout the world by thousands of common people including small
farmers, landless labourers, fisherfolks, forest dwellers, concerned citizens,
social activists, civil society organisations and others who want the global
leaders to take a strong decision to deal with climate change.
For further details, please contact:
Ranjan Panda
Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha
Mahanadi River Waterkeeper
Convenor,
Combat Climate Change Network, India
Mob: +91-9437050103
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com
====================
Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) is a state level
coalition of civil society organisations, farmers, academia, media and other
concerned, which has been working on water, environment and climate change
issues in the state for more than two and half decades now.
Mahanadi River Waterkeeper, a member of Global Waterkeeper Alliance, works towards conservation of River Mahanadi in India
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