India top in sustainable behaviour!

Surprise! A survey has ranked India top in sustainable behavior. The survey was conducted by the National Geographic Society and research consultancy GlobalScan. The results of the survey were presented in The Annual Greendex report 2012. It was conducted on 17,000 consumers in 17 countries to quantitatively measure the number of environmentally friendly people all around the world. The survey was a measure of consumer behaviour in 65 areas relating to housing, transportation, food and consumer goods.

The results of the survey are shocking, that the people who had the highest footprint (the US) were found to be least bothered about the result of their impacts on the environment. The ‘Greendex’ found that Indians had the most sustainable behaviour, followed by Chinese and Brazilians. Americans ranked last in the survey and France ranked last in
the Europe.

According to the survey, India was on the top with a Greendex score of 58.9, followed by China at 57.8, and then Brazil at 55.5. USA scored 44.7. Despite the highest sustainable behaviour, 45% of the consumers from India and China were found to exhibit guilt over the consequences of their actions.

It would be interesting to get more details on how the survey was analysed for its findings. For instance, is this sustainable behavior a result of inability to consume/buy given low funds? Or was it borne of conscious choices? Probably, the former. Perhaps, a comparison of survey findings with some period n the past would have given a clearer picture whether there is progress. At least, the guilt factor is something that gives hope!

Plunging crisis

A 10 percent of the global population was plunged into a powerless state with the collapse of the northern grid that affected 670 million in northern parts of India. As trains and traffic signals ground to a halt, it was chaos everywhere. Hospitals and crematoria faced problems most unprepared for. Miners trapped below ground were rescued using generators. As the power corporation rushed to address the crisis, and a ‘power shuffle’ in the ministry sent ripples, big questions remained.

Why did it happen? Was it due to poor infrastructure? Or due to over drawing of power by states? Power consumption in India vastly exceeded available supply, due in part to high temperatures and drought. Many see the root of India’s electricity problem as due to a wobbly infrastructure combined with too little generation. Some blame it on “the non-availability of coal.” However, the quality of India’s domestic coal is largely too poor for recent-generation coal plants. More than half of India’s power-generation capacity of 205 gigawatts is coal-based, and Coal India Ltd., the world’s biggest coal producer, is unable to produce enough.

Free electricity to farmers who have been overdrawing owing to sinking water table and a reluctance among politicians to raise power tariffs have drained cash reserves of the utilities, leaving them incapable to address the infrastructure needs. The Central Electricity Authority has reported power deficits of more than 8% in recent months. As the demand surges, it remains doubtful if supply can catch up.

Meanwhile, solar capacity in the country has crossed 1000 MW mark, though mostly in Gujarat. There is also an additional 85 MW of off-grid PV solar. Gujarat Solar Park currently has scores of solar installations totaling about 600 MW, and it is planned to soon expand that capacity to about 1,000 MW. For the current fiscal year, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has set goals of adding another 800 MW of solar and 2,500 of wind. Off-grid solar might swell to 1,000 MW installed per year by 2016. From big to small, from centralised to localised, from one (energy source) to many -- only such a combined move will help ease the situation which is sure to get worser every day.

Hunger in the offing

The drought-stricken area spreading across more and more of the US has engulfed virtually the entire corn belt. World carryover stocks of grain will fall further at the end of this crop year, making the food situation even more precarious, warns Lester Brown. Food prices, already elevated, will follow the price of corn upward, quite possibly to record highs. As we have seen in India, the weak monsoon has sent farmers into a panic. It has upset sowing plans across the nation.

The world may be much closer to an unmanageable food shortage – soaring food prices, spreading food unrest, and riots. Why is there no political vision? Why are there no proactive steps taken by governments in the farm sector? Besides announcing drought relief! Why are our water resources so badly managed – polluted and wasted. It belies common sense that our policy makers fail to realise how the belly needs to be full before one goes to buy cars or phones and television sets. Why are more people leaving farming like never before? Simply because it just does not pay to grow food!

Share your thoughts on what you think is the need of the hour.

Growing waste

Growing prosperity and urbanization could double the volume of municipal solid waste annually by 2025, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) for its Vital Signs Online service. Although some of this waste is eventually recycled, the doubling of waste that current projections indicate would bring the volume of municipal solid waste—or MSW—from today’s 1.3 billion tons per year to 2.6 billion tons.

MSW consists of organic material, paper, plastic, glass, metals, and other refuse collected by municipal authorities, largely from homes, offices, institutions, and commercial establishments. MSW is a subset of the larger universe of waste and typically does not include waste collected outside of formal municipal programs. Nor does it include the sewage, industrial waste, or construction and demolition waste generated by cities. And of course MSW does not include rural wastes. MSW is measured before disposal, and data on it often include collected material that is later diverted for recycling.

MSW tends to be generated in much higher quantities in wealthier regions of the world. Members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of 34 industrialized nations, lead the world in MSW generation, at nearly 1.6 million tons per day.

The list of top 10 MSW-generating countries however includes four developing nations (Brazil, China, India, and Mexico) in part because of the size of their urban populations and in part because their city dwellers are prospering and adopting high-consumption lifestyles. Although the United States leads the world in MSW output at some 621,000 tons per day, China is a relatively close second, at some 521,000 tons. Even among the top 10, however, there is a wide range of output: the United States generates nearly seven times more urban refuse than France, in tenth position, does.

The global market for scrap metal and paper is at least $30 billion per year, according to the World Bank. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates the market for waste management, from collection through recycling, to be some $400 billion worldwide. Yet UNEP also estimates that to “green” the waste sector would require, among other things, a 3.5-fold increase in MSW recycling at the global level, including nearly complete recovery of all organic material through composting or conversion to energy. Big job there!

Purposeful chat!

It came as no surprise to read about a survey showing that a large section of India’s population, over 80 percent, are mobile-armed! Those familiar with the landscape will know that sanitation may take a rap, but not mobile phone coverage. Ironical as that seems, the same technology can be used effectively for more than idle chat.

A team from the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, proposes installing in Kenya handpumps containing devices that automatically send text messages to local water engineers whenever pumps break down or dry up. The device is fitted into handpump handles, and automatically monitors the number of strokes made when a pump is operated.

This data, which provides estimates of daily and seasonal demand, including critical under- or over-usage information, is then transmitted to a central hub — thus informing engineers, cheaply and regularly, of the need for repairs, and helping to ensure a constant flow of water.

A prototype transmitter was successfully tried in Zambia in 2011.

The project comes as a response to the widespread failure of hand pumps [largely because of wear and tear, and mechanical faults] and associated health and economic failure impacts on the 276 million Africans who do not have improved water services.It is estimated that at any one time, one third of handpumps in rural Africa are not working. Unimproved water access is associated with 1.5 million unnecessary deaths of children under five!

The initiative would particularly benefit arid and semi-arid areas, which require a constant water supply.

For the project to be effective, it needed to work closely with mobile communication providers to ensure good signal coverage. Technology-enabled empowerment at its best.

Renewable lies?

Is renewable energy the answer to our energy demand? This is a question we have asked many times, and often the answer is mixed. Like everything else in life, it has its shades of black and white and grey! The latest study just released by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (an organization that exists to study and promote the viability of renewable energy) suggests that it may be possible to get 80% or so of North America’s electric power from renewable sources by 2050. But is that significant? Not really when you focus on the word power, as against energy! An interesting interpretation of the study goes to show how the same study indirectly proves that renewable energy will be a minority player in humanity’s energy portfolio.

The blogger goes on to show how the study suggests that only 13% of our electric energy will come from solar. Distributed solar enthusiasts (who favor photovoltaic solar panels on rooftops) will be further disappointed because half of that 13% will come from water-sucking centralized concentrated solar thermal power plants, many located in desert ecosystems, leaving only about 6% for solar panels on rooftops, of which many will probably not be on rooftops but in centralized power plants, probably displacing ecosystems or crops.

As electricity represents only 40% of the US’ energy needs, if all renewable energy sources are used up for electricity, there won’t be any left for the other 60% of the energy needs. In other words, what the study tells is that only 32% of the total energy needs can be “potentially” renewable.

He goes on into the definition of renewable, where hydro and biofuels fail to qualify while biomass is shown to be more polluting than coal. Removing all these from the renewable bracket would mean lesser energy available for electricity. Read on for more on nuclear and more.

All this brings us back to – what do we do now? Opt for nuclear? Or put the brakes on energy consumption? Is that possible? Or simply wait for a replenishment of energy dense fossil fuels? This would of course mean another mass extinction that leaves behind organic matter to decay over millions of years to produce the fossil fuels for another race??! Write in.

Catch the wind

Wind energy opponents who say that producing electricity using the power of the wind is not efficient would do well to take a look at a new graphic using UK Government data which shows that thermal sources of electricity – gas, coal, nuclear, waste/biomass, oil and other – lose massive amounts of energy as waste heat, compared to almost 0% for renewables.

Gas accounts for 48% of the UK’s electricity supply and, of the 372 Terra-Watt hours of electricity it produces per year, 54% of this is lost as heat. Coal, meanwhile, accounts for 28% producing 297 TWh, loses an even higher proportion – 66%. Nuclear – accounting for 16% of the energy supply with 162 TWh, loses 65% and oil – 3% of the supply with 51 TWh – loses 77%.

Renewable energy – which all together accounts for 4% of the UK’s electricity supply producing 14 TWh – loses less than one percent. So, under this measure, renewable energy is 100% efficient.

Wind energy opponents centre their arguments on the ‘capacity factor’ of a wind farm. Wind farms do not operate at wind speeds of less than 4 metres per second, and they are shut down to prevent damage during gale force winds of 25 metres/second or more, or for maintenance. But conventional power stations also do not operate all the time – they stop generating electricity during maintenance or breakdowns.

Comparing the outputs of both sources does show that conventional power stations produce power at a level compared to their theoretical maximum that is currently higher than the level for wind energy. Wind power’s capacity factor is around 30% onshore and 40% offshore, increasing year on year as more wind turbines come online and technology improves. Meanwhile, data from the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (Bundesverband der Energie und Wasserwirtschaft) shows that fossil fuels are often below 50%, even in winter.

A pat there for wind, but wait to see more in our next post.