Editorial of Assam Tribune 30 August 2013 on Food Security Bill, and observations on Assam’s state of Food security.
Friday, 30 August 2013
Article:Are we heading for Kleptocracy?
Article by Dr Tilak Sarma appeared in Assam Tribune on 30th August 2013
Article:Legislative Councils-Where is the Need?
Article by Col (Retd) Manoranjan Goswami which appeared in Assam Tribune on 30th August 2013.
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Tuesday, 27 August 2013
CLIMATE CRISIS TO HARM ALL FORMS OF MARINE LIFE, FINDS STUDY
Scientists have found: Rising levels of carbon dioxide are harming all forms of marine life because the oceans are acidifying as they absorb the gas. Scientists claim current rate of change is likely to be more than 10 times faster than it has ever been in Earth’s history.
According to a study report titled Inhospitable Oceans, published on August 26 in Nature Climate Change, molluscs, corals and a class of creatures called echinoderms that includes starfish and sea urchins are the worst affected by the uptake of CO2 by the seas.
The study was based on examinations of five key components of ocean eco-systems: corals, echinoderms, molluscs, crustaceans and fish. All were found to be adversely affected by acidification: crustaceans were more resilient while corals, molluscs and echinoderms were worst affected. The direct effects on fish were less clear.
The CO2 forms carbonic acid when it dissolves in the oceans, lowering their pH level.
The scientists conducting the study are from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany.
The researchers found: Creatures that show negative effects from acidification include commercial species such as oysters and cod. Given the pace at which CO2 emissions are growing, human emissions threaten to trigger extinctions at a faster pace than die-outs millions of years ago.
“There is a danger that we're pushing things too fast and too hard toward an evolutionary crisis,” Hans-Otto Poertner, one of the authors, said. “In the past, these crises have taken much longer to develop.”
Poertner, professor of marine biology at the Alfred Wegener Institute told the Guardian: “We are at a risk of causing extinctions. We cannot give with any certainty the year when people will start to report extinctions due to climate change. It depends on what temperature change and CO2 concentrations we allow.”
The research will be fed into the United Nations' most detailed study into the science of climate change, which is being published in three parts and an overall summary by the end of 2014, and is designed to inform international climate treaty negotiations.
The latest study will be input for the second part of that report, by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The first part is scheduled for publication on Sept. 27.
The research was designed to look at the effects of the acidification caused by the CO2 emissions, according to Poertner.
When the warming effects of the gas are also factored in, it could accelerate negative effects because the temperature a species can withstand in more acidic conditions may be lower, he said.
The researchers examined 167 previous studies about the effects of acidifying oceans on 153 species to predict the way they might be affected as CO2 emissions into the atmosphere grow. The oceans absorb more than a quarter of manmade CO2 emissions.
The scientists found that at concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere of 500 parts per million to 650 parts per million, negative effects outweighed positive ones for corals, echinoderms, molluscs and fish though not for crustaceans. At higher concentrations, all categories of creatures were harmed. CO2 is currently just under 400 parts per million, rising about 2 ppm to 3 ppm a year.
Rapidly rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere are causing a potential catastrophe in oceans as they become more acidic, scientists have warned. Under the rapid escalation of GHG emissions, ocean acidification is gathering pace and threatening many forms of marine life.
Poertner said that if emissions continue to rise at “business as usual” rates, this would be potentially catastrophic for some species.
Acidification is just one of a broader range of the problems facing the oceans and the combination of different effects is increasing the threat.
Poertner said: “We are already seeing warm water coral reefs on a downslide due to a combination of various stressors, including [rising] temperature. Ocean acidification is still early in the process [but] it will exacerbate these effects as it develops and we will see more calcifying species suffering.”
However, the process of acidification takes decades and the worst effects on some species could still be avoided if emissions are urgently reduced.
Evidence from prehistoric ocean life provides a comparison. “The [effects observed] among invertebrates resembles those seen during the Permian Triassic extinctions 250m years ago, when carbon dioxide was also involved. The carbon dioxide range at which we see this sensitivity [to acidification] kicking in are the ones expected for the later part of this century and beyond.”
Astrid Wittmann, co-author of the paper, said species with low resilience could be outcompeted by those that were more vulnerable to acidification, and that further studies were needed, particularly on plants and plankton, which were left out of this research.
Behavioral changes
Negative effects include behavioral and sensory changes that make fish less fearful of predators, altered metabolism, and a slowing of the rate at which molluscs can form shells. Similar sensitivity to rising CO2 can be observed in the fossil records of extinctions that took place 55 million years ago and 250 million years ago respectively, Poertner said.
He cautioned that the study has limitations because “you cannot do sufficiently long studies to really mimic what will happen in 50 years.”
Oceans are one of the biggest areas of focus for current climate change research. The gradual warming of the deep oceans, as warmer water from the surface circulates gradually to lower depths, is thought to be a significant factor in the earth’s climate.
New research findings suggests that the absorption of heat by the oceans is probably one of the reasons that the observed warming in the last 15 years has been at a slightly slower pace than previously, and this is likely to form an important part of coming IPCC report.
Source: Countercurrents.org Dated : 26 August, 2013
Monday, 26 August 2013
Article-Ethnocentrism:bane for NorthEast by Vijayanta Sharma Pathak
Source: The Assam Tribune,26 August 2013.
Sunday, 25 August 2013
Friday, 23 August 2013
Editorial Article-Rhino Poaching
An editorial that highlights some key points behind the issue of the Rhino poaching in Assam.
(source Assam Tribune, 23rd August 2013)
Article: Development disparity and unrest in Assam by Jayanta Kumar Sarma
Article: Development disparity and unrest in Assam
(Source Assam Tribune, 23rd August 2013
News Item-6 ethnic groups of Assam do not meet criteria: Centre
6 ethnic groups do not meet criteria: Centre (Source:Assam Tribune, 23rd August 2013)
NEW DELHI, Aug 22 ,2013- Setting at rest all speculations over granting Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six communities of the State, the Tribal Affairs Ministry has declared that the communities could not fulfil the five criteria for identification as scheduled tribes.
In what could yet again spell trouble for the Tarun Gogoi Government, Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo has sought to clarify once and for all, the Centres stand on the demand for grant of ST status to the six communities, in a reply to a Rajya Sabha question by Santiuse Kujur.
The Government of Assam had recommended ST status for the Koch-Rajbongshi, Tai Ahom, Moran, Mattak and tea tribe communities on various occasions. But these communities could not fulfil the criteria, he declared.
The proposal for identification of communities for inclusion in the list of Scheduled Tribes should meet the five criteria. These include: indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large and backwardness.
In reply to a question, the Minister further ruled out the possibility of expediting the recommendations of the State Government.
The Minister also clarified that it has not received any proposal from the Government of Assam for inclusion of the Tiwa community in the list of ST. The issue considered politically sensitive for the State Government, is also part of the charter of demands submitted by the pro-talk faction of ULFA.
The six communities have been for long demanding ST status. In 1996, the UF Government had issued an ordinance including the six communities in the ST list.
The Bill to this effect was introduced in the Lok Sabha during that period, but because of opposition from various tribal members including Jayanta Rongpi, the then Speaker PA Sangma set up a Parliamentary Select Committee under the chairmanship of MP Amar Rai Pradhan to go into the issue. The Parliamentary Select Committee in its report recommended that not only the Koch Rajbongshi community, status of other communities including the Chutia, Mattak, Moran and Tai Ahom be rescheduled. It suggested that the entire OBC and MOBC list be upgraded to the Scheduled List.
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Article-Panacea for State economic Ailments by Dr Manmohan Das
Article appeared in the Assam Tribune 21 August 2013.
Article-Nanotechnology and its Applicability in Assam
Article appeared in the Assam Tribune 21 August 2013
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Monday, 19 August 2013
Friday, 16 August 2013
Saturday, 3 August 2013
Rainfall variability and its impact on Climate - Dr PK Das (Assam Tribune 3rd August 2013)
This article appeared in Assam Tribune on 3rd August 2013. Read it. Relevant for Environmental Studies.
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