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Despite PCMC drive, water hyacinth collects in Pavana river

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Source : The Times of India Date : 09.07.2009
Despite PCMC drive, water hyacinth collects in Pavana river
PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's (PCMC) efforts to remove the water hyacinth from Pavana river do not seem to have brought about
 
the desired results. A green carpet of water hyacinth has accumulated on the Pavana river at Pimpale Gurav.

Water hyacinth is a weed that grows in the polluted water and increases the mosquito menace in the surrounding areas.

A month ago the PCMC conducted a drive to remove the water hyacinth in the stretch of Pavana river that flows through the Military Dairy Farm area in Pimpri. This area lies upstream of Pimpale Gurav village.

Raju Savale, a social activist said, "The PCMC should remove the water hyacinth from Pavana river in the summer and not in the monsoon as it gets washed away during the rains."

Vikas Patil, founder, Indrayani Bachav Kruti Samiti, said that water hyacinth can be found in many areas in municipal limits like Bopkhel, Aundh bridge, Sangvi (Mula river) and in Kalewadi and Pimpale Gurav areas in Pavana river.

"Two years ago the civic body had a special department of 40 labourers to remove the water hyacinth. These labourers were shifted to other departments so the PCMC does not have a regular workforce to remove the water hyacinth," said Patil.

Speaking to TOI, R B Chavan, health executive officer said, "The PCMC has begun the drive to remove the water hyacinth from the Pavana river. The work has been completed in Pimpri, Chinchwad and Kalewadi areas and we will remove the water hyacinth from other areas also."
 

G8 agrees to limit global warming; China, India resist

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Source : The Times of India Date : 09.07.2009

G8 agrees to limit global warming; China, India resist

L'AQUILA, ITALY: The G8 agreed on Wednesday to try to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent, but it failed to persuade China and India to join a bid to halve world emissions.

With only five months until a new UN climate pact is due to be agreed in Copenhagen, climate change organisations said the G8 had left much work to be done and ducked key issues.

China and India resisted signing up for a global goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Developing economies demanded rich nations commit to steeper short term reductions. And while the 2 Celsius goal was adopted for the first time by the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada, it had already been agreed in 1996 by the European Union and its G8 members Germany, Britain, France and Italy.

The G8 statement also failed to pinpoint a base year for the 80 percent reduction -- saying it should be "compared to 1990 or more recent years" -- meaning the target was open to interpretation.

"The world will recognise that today in Italy we have laid the foundations for a Copenhagen deal that is ambitious, fair and effective," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the 2 Celsius (3.6 Farenheit) target, since pre-industrial times, was "clear progress" for the G8.

The G8 backed the creation of a global carbon trading market and a fund financed by rich nations to pay for technological change, but it fell short of the $100 billion a year advocated by Britain's Brown and non-governmental groups.

"While agreeing to keep temperature rise to below 2 degrees rise Celsius, without a clear plan, money and targets on how to do this the G8 leaders will not have helped to break the deadlock in the UN climate negotiations," said Tobias Muenchmeyer, Greenpeace International political adviser.

China's absence key

Temperatures have already risen by about 0.7 Celsius since the start of the Industrial Revolution ushered in widespread burning of fossil fuels, the main cause of warming according to the UN Climate Panel.

Many developing nations also view two degrees as the threshold beyond which climate change will reach danger levels, with rising seas and more heatwaves, floods and droughts.

The temperature target was due to be included in a statement from the 17-member Major Economies Forum (MEF), which groups the G8 plus major developing economies, which will meet on Thursday.

Last minute talks to convince MEF members to sign up to the goal of cutting world greenhouse gases by at least 50 percent by 2050 -- adopted by the G8 last year -- unravelled on Tuesday.

Delegates said the absence of Chinese leader Hu Jintao, who flew home to deal with an outbreak of ethnic violence in western China, dashed hopes of an eleventh hour breakthrough.

"China's not here so they cannot move anywhere: there will be no agreement tomorrow in the MEF text on 50 percent. We will take this up again at the G20 when China is present," said a senior European G8 source involved in the talks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said emerging countries appeared willing to sign up to long-term emissions goals if rich nations would agree to tough targets by 2020. The G8 statement called for "robust" medium-target cutbacks, but gave no details.

 

'Total ban on plastic bags bad idea'

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Source : The Times of India Date : 09.07.2009
'Total ban on plastic bags bad idea'
NEW DELHI: The government made it clear that it is not in favour of a blanket ban on using plastic bags while it is working on use of biodegradable plastic as colouring elements like dyes are a health hazard and
thin bags and material can severely jam up sewage systems.

Minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh told Lok Sabha on Wednesday that while reducing plastics was necessary, the material had been promoted initially to save paper and trees. He sought to argue that if municipalities made a better effort to manage their solid waste
, the plastic problem would reduce considerably.

The government, he said, was working on use of biodegardable plastic as reverting to paper bags could be even more hazardous to the environment. People had switched to use of plastic rather than paper the world over some 20 years ago to slow down deforestation.

"Plastic itself is a chemically inert substance, used worldwide for packaging and is not per-se hazardous to health and environment.
Recycling of plastic, if carried out as per approved procedures and guidelines, may not be an environmental or health hazard," Ramesh said, assuring the House that the government would have a stringent monitoring mechanism in place to ensure that the right kind of re-cycleable plastic is used.
In his response, Ramesh clarified that it was in the wake of the failure of civic bodies to collect and dispose waste that various states like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Delhi had resorted to banning use of plastic bags. The government, he said, had notified Recycled Plastics Manufacture and Usage Rules, 1999 (amended in 2003) to regulate the use and manufacture of plastic carry bags, containers and recycling of plastic wastes.

"We are moving towards thicker and bio-degradable bags. Bio-degradable is at a nascent stage... some establishments have started using it," the minister said. On the recycling of plastic, he said it would be undertaken in accordance with specifications of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). He also advocated use of jute bags as another alternative to paper bags, as jute was an eco-friendly material. The minister said the government had undertaken a project for conservation of Dal Lake in Srinagar which is expected to be completed in the next three years.
 


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