Environment is a big business

It had all begun with the debate on implementation of the Silent Valley Hydro-electric Project in Kerala, way back in the early 1980s. Suddenly, from nowhere it appeared, an army of "environmentalists" appeared on the scene and were able to get this project on the Kuntipujha river scuttled on the issue, it appeared later of saving the "lion-tailed macaques" whose natural habitat was the hilly areas through which the river flows. The macaques, actually a species of "medium-sized monkey with a long face and cheek-pouches for holding food" having a tail resembling those of lions was saved from extinction, it was argued and because the hydel plant was shelved. In the early 2000s, a great environmental journalist, who had never crossed the portals of a science college had peremptorily declared that the construction of the Tehri Hydel Project, now in Uttarakhand State, was a "folly" for which the future generations would curse the builders, or words to that effect.

Then we have another environmentalist who went on fast (actually the Hindi word "Upavas" was more appropriate) a large number of times in order to prevent the construction of this 2500-Megawatt (MW) power plant without success, and apparently is convinced that the future generations of Uttarakhandis and the Uttar Pradeshis would have a pay for this "folly" of their forefathers.

One hopes that people of India have not forgotten the dire prediction made by a Nepali-speaking politician of Sikkim, who was living in Delhi, fixing a firm date on which the world would come to an end, some years ago.
There are more such examples of "voodoo" science made public by well known, and world famous "environmentalists" who had fixed a firm date of Anno Domini 2035 for the disappearance of snow from the Himalayan glaciers which inter alia has fetched him a Nobel Prize too in his capacity as the Chairman of the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC). He and his alleged source are now busy denying these predictions made by him without much success. We now know painfully, that environment is a big business and people, who like the journalist mentioned earlier, speak before scientists and technologist with the authority of peers by simply spending three years in colleges, not offering science subjects, of course.

Yet, it is those people who make dire forecasts that the four and a half billion year old earth would collapse within the next 15 years and people believe in them just as many did believe in the forecast by the Sikkimese politician a few years ago. But then, there are people in this world who make authoritative proclamations about the collapse of humanity because of various reasons. One among them was Prof. Thomas Malthus, an economist of England (1766-1834) who had predicted the collapse of humanity because in future, he had prophesied, the population of the world would overtake the availability of resources to feed them. 

Nearer last century, two American economists, the well known Paddock Brothers, had ruled out the possibility of Indians surviving the shortage of foodgrains and would more or less disappear from the earth because of hunger by the year 1975. In actual fact, by 1975, India had so much foodgrains in stock thanks to the green revolution, that she had stopped importing the PL (Public Law) 480 wheat from the United States, thanks to the Green Revolution  in wheat in India and in rice at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
The lesson for all of us is that they should beware of institutions and individuals who write the obituary of the earth and her inhabitants from time to time in order to gain publicity and much more.

The moot question that should be asked now is whether the Nobel Committee of Sweden would withdraw the Nobel Prize awarded to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and people in general in India should beware of the dire forecasts made from time to time by those, particularly journalists, who do not have the requisite qualifications to write on such topics?

By the way, can anyone provide today information about the number of Lion Tailed Macaques still surviving in the Kerala forests on the hills?

Arabinda Ghose, NPA

Central Chronicle
Editorial Posted On Thursday, January 28, 2010