Clarion call against fossil fuels

A three-day workshop on the implications of global warming for Kerala, organised by the State Forest Department with the cooperation of several agencies, has recommended that each government department consider it important to include in its policy statement 'global warming and climate change' as a major issue to be tackled in this century.The workshop, which concluded on Wednesday, said that the programmes of each department should be placed in the context of what was happening to the climate and judged with a deep understanding of why and how it was happening and what its repercussions were. The programmes should mitigate the issue and not fuel its flames. Governor R.S. Gavai inaugurated the workshop's valedictory function with Forest Minister Benoy Viswom on the chair. Addressing the workshop, eminent public cause campaigner Vandana Shiva said it was time to wake up. Man was putting more burden on the earth than the earth could bear, more poison into the atmosphere than it was possible for nature's carbon cycle to heal. The delicate balance of the earth, the sun, the rains and the winds that had evolved over time was being upset by man's greed in a "fossil-driven economy." Oceans were warming up, ocean currents were shifting and winds were blowing in new directions. Climate extremes of the types visiting the globe these days were but mere portents of the dangerous days to come. Dr. Vandana Shiva said the solutions were obvious: go back to the basics. The solutions were easier for a country like India than the developed countries to implement, although it was a global issue that no single country alone could answer. Eighty per cent of the Indian population were outside the "fossil-driven economy." The solutions could be easier for India if it could withstand the pull of the other 20 per cent, she said.Mr. Viswom said the State was looking deeply into what it could do at its level to combat the dangers of global warming and, perhaps, inspire other States also to think seriously of measures to mitigate the danger.Principal Chief Conservator of Forests T.M. Manoharan presented a list of 20 recommendations the workshop had generated through deliberations in which experts and policy makers from different parts of the country attended.

The Hindu, 22nd January 2009