The climate in Paris

All eyes are on Paris. The ‘glocal’ phenomenon of climate change needs a collective global effort for its mitigation. There is no alternative to measures such as a substantial cut in carbon emissions and replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy if we are to stabilise temperatures to survival levels.

Given their meagre contributions to global warming and their compulsion to strike a balance between pulling their populations out of grinding poverty and limiting their emissions of greenhouse gases to acceptable levels, the nations of the poor South will seek ‘climate justice’ and ‘differentiated responsibilities’ at the negotiating table.

They are totally justified in demanding ‘loss and damage’ funds, transfer of technologies and changes in global trade rules to be able to forge partnership with the nations of the rich North in combating climate change.

Thankfully, the ‘spoiler’ tag against countries such as India is no more heard as their INDCs far exceed their ‘reckoned’ obligations. Top carbon-emitting nations cannot put forward the ‘same boat’ argument or a ‘hybrid’ approach to an international agreement in order to force poor nations to share the burden of reducing carbon pollution without differentiation. The rich nations must agree to play their part for carbon sequestration.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

What we can do

The need of hour is to limit greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, we all must save maximum electricity. Switch on lights, fans, ACs, TVs , computers only when needed. Switch off the mains of chargers after the appliance is fully charged. Join carpools. This will reduce the emission of the carbon monoxide to a great extent. If possible, walk or cycle.

Minimise industrialisation and encourage organic farming. This will stop the undesired use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Perfumes, sprays, deodorants also cause air pollution; after all, they are disastrous chemicals. This is the time to plant and conserve saplings and trees. These steps will prevent further damage to the protective ozone layer and save us and our planet.

Hansraj Bhat

Mumbai

The hunger games

This refers to ‘Climate change and the rise of hunger’ by Jose Graziano Da Silva (November 30). One of the concerns is that climate is what national security experts call a threat multiplier. It takes existing tensions over land, over water, over food and it exacerbates those tensions because it reduces access to land, water and food. And so it is sort of a perfect storm of consequences coming together to create a potentially major national security threat especially in regions like West Asia which are already a tinder box.

CR Arun

Email

It is important to note that the highly extractive and input intensive type of agriculture, euphemistically called the “green revolution”, is contributing enormously to the production of two greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N2 _O ) and methane (CH ₄ ), the former contributing more than 15 per cent to ambient heating. Aa molecule of nitrous oxide stays in the atmosphere for as long as 120 years and has five times more heat-trapping potential than the commonly alleged carbon dioxide, and the only way one can get rid of it is through secondary chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Among the nations, the US is the biggest contributor of N20, through excessive urea use.

It is impossible to get rid of this menace without a drastic paradigm shift in farming techniques. When the green revolution was ushered in, India did not have any chemical fertiliser manufacturing capacity. The dwarf imported wheat and rice genotypes were highly fertiliser responsive, especially nitrogenous ones, and, tragically, India became the dumping ground for American fertilisers. Food production jumped, but at a huge cost to the environment. Many other countries too are grappling with this problem. Soils vary hugely and a ‘one size fits all’ approach will not do. It is hoped the FAO will take note of this.

KP Prabhakaran Nair

Calicut

Never too old to pay

On the recent sentencing for one year of an 88-year-old former joint secretary on charges of corruption, we can only grin less and bear it more. Excessive protection of the bureaucracy or poor depth and speed of investigation or both, bring up such instances. The Lokpal is yet to find billing in the marquee as rehearsals have been on for decades. The play may not open for a long while. Scams that light up the media, get routinely shifted from the law section to the shelves of history. In a nation that vows at the drop of a hat that the law will take its course, nemesis must visit the guilty, albeit in their sunset years. The creation of geriatric cells should signal our strong resolve to fight corruption.

R Narayanan

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Ball in the Congress court

The Congress is still mulling its response to overtures by the government with regard to the proposed GST. The meeting between the Prime Minister and his senior ministers with Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh was meant to break the ice. Now the ball is in the court of the Congress Party. It will be hard for it not to meet the government halfway. Whatever its response, it should be reasoned and fair. Binding the government hand and foot with a predetermined tax number irrespective of the economic environment is ridiculous.

It is absolutely necessary for the GST Bill to be passed in this session if it is to be implemented from April 1, 2016. However hard the Congress might want to obstruct the forward-looking measure, it should know that there will be costs to be paid in reduced public approval if it is seen to be blocking the Bill. But then, though States stand to lose revenue because of the taxation structure, the new policy will widen the tax base by offering tax credits down the length of the entire supply chain, besides discouraging manufacturers, suppliers and retailers from dodging taxes. However, given that the new system will take time to scale up, the government’s benefits in increasing its short-term revenues will be limited.

JS Acharya

Hyderabad

Wait and watch

While one appreciates P Chidambaram terming the banning of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses as wrong, should he have waited for 27 long years to come out with such a statement? It will be interesting to see how the Congress leadership chews and digests this bitter statement.

It is pertinent to relate here that there are umpteen instances in which cartoonists have had to bear the brunt for lampooning the political class. Since Independence, the country has had to deal with intolerance, so why so much concern all of a sudden? Is it not time to bury this non-issue and concentrate on burning issues besetting the nation and come out with solutions for the benefit of the nation and its populace?

HP Murali

Bengaluru

No comparison

This is with reference to ‘We can’t export our way to growth’ by Ritesh Kumar Singh (November 30). Tthe China growth story can’t be decried on the ground that it is shedding some growth. Levelling is expected. India has not taken a flight to growth as yet. The difference lies in political administration, management and governance. The infrastructure is robust and has come out of the close relationship between the union and the state. The people are uniformly qualified and trained, and they’re not dishonest. Bureaucracy is under control.

India hasn’t achieved even 25 per cent of this level. The ideas are scattered and mistrust is at its peak. Resources are frittered away by one government which does not follow the policies of the previous government. Each government experiments with its new thoughts. For example, the trimming of subsidies by this government has put the corporate and banking sectors in the dock because of missing demand causing NPAs. The economy is static but we still hope for 8 per cent growth. When it comes to export, it is said that prices have fallen, but the volume is same. As long as education, training, entrepreneurship are neglected and there is no uniformity, while deprivation is high, it does not matter if the government keeps shouting from the rooftop: things won’t change.

RK Arya

Faridabad, Haryana

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Send your letters by email to bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

COMMENT NOW