Sundal
Ingredients:
Channa Dhal - 1 cup
Salt - 3/4 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad Dhal - 1/2 tsp
Dry Red Chilly - 2
Procedure :
Clean the channa dhal and cook in water. Try not to over cook. Decant the excess water completely and set aside for a couple of minutes. Heat up the oil and fry the mustard seeds, urad dhal and chilly. \Add the cooked dhal and salt and stir for a few minutes. If interested, you may add coconut like in the other types..
Friday, September 21, 2007
chakde recipes for festivals....
MODAK
INGREDIANTS
1/2 cups Rice flour
3 cups Water
2 tsp. Oil
STUFFING-
2 cups Coconut,
grated 1 or 1 1/4 cup
Sugar 1/2 cup Dry fruits
A pinch of cardamoms powder
1/4 cup Milk
METHOD
For the Rice Dough
Boil the water & oil and remove from heat. To it add the rice flour, cover and allow it to cool. Later, knead well and keep aside.
For the Stuffing
Mix all the ingredients mentioned under stuffing except milk & cardamom powder Put this mixture on a medium heat and cook stirring all the time. Then add the milk, mixing well and remove off the heat once it is totally dry, sprinkle cardamom powder. mix
To Proceed
Make small balls of the dough. (rice) spread it a little on your palm Make a small hollow in the center and place the stuffing in the middle. Now join the open edges together and give it a shape like a whole garlic. Steam these modaks for 10 minutes, take off, cool you can give shapes on the modak with fork or knife before steaming detailed description-(to give shape) To make the modaks It is best to make the modaks when the dough is slightly warm. Grease the palms of your hands well. Take a ball of dough. Flatten the dough to form a cup shape. Place about 3/4th teaspoon coconut filling into this cup. Dip thumb & index finger in the oil & make 5-6 small pinches side by side on the outside edges of the cup. Bring them together on top and join to form a peak. Your modak is complete. This should look like a whole garlic pod. . Place the modak on a pre greased plate. Make the rest of the modaks. Place them on a pre-greased plate. Steam for about 15 minutes. Serve with ghee.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
summary and conclusion of greenhouse effect
Summary and Conclusions
The late 1980s have seen an unprecedented growth of concern about the 'greenhouse effect'. The political impetus for an international convention to address the problem is now considerable, but as yet there has been little analysis of the form which any agreement might take.
The sheer breadth and complexity of the greenhouse problem means that the first step in a comprehensive international process has to be a framework convention. This would develop common ground on the nature and seriousness of the scientific and political issues involved, and would establish international monitoring and research co-ordination. It would lay the basis for approaching a range of quantified, binding and perhaps costly commitments expressed through various protocols to the convention. Negotiating the protocols will cause the greatest difficulties.
The linchpin of any serious attempt to tackle the greenhouse problem will be the negotiation of international limits on carbon emissions from the energy industries. There have been many calls for target reductions applied either across the board to developed countries or negotiated on a country-by-country basis. This approach cannot succeed. Negotiations conceived in this manner would drag on interminably and would be counterproductive because of the tactical value they would place on over-emphasizing the difficulties of reducing emissions.
In addition this process would not address important underlying issues. In particular, the developing countries will not join any agreement which seeks to reduce their carbon emissions from current levels, and these emissions will grow rapidly unless they receive assistance aimed at avoiding the inefficiencies normally associated with the earlier stages of industrialization.
It is therefore necessary to examine alternative approaches. These include carbon taxes, production quotas, and systems of tradable or leasable emission permits.
Carbon taxes could be an effective way of raising funds for international programmes to alleviate emissions. Applying them on a much larger scale, as an economic instrument, is more problematic. Any international agreement on domestic taxation policies faces difficulties because of the wide range of existing policies and the social and political implications of harmonization. A sizable international carbon tax faces major problems of institutional control and political acceptability, and of exchange-rate manipulations.
Setting quotas for energy production raises major political problems, mainly because of the scale of windfall profits generated. Auctioning quotas internationally faces difficulties similar to those of an international carbon tax.
A system of marketable carbon emission permits offers by far the most promising approach. Bilateral trading of permits offers the greatest flexibility in making the technical, economic and political trade-offs involved. Permits should be leasable but not permanently traded; the currency of exchange should be limited to development and pollution abatement programmes and related transfers of technology and technical expertise. Permits should be allocated on an adult per capita basis.
Such an approach would establish a logical basis for a long-term emissions control regime, and create a mechanism for technical assistance to the less developed countries, paid in proportion to current over-exploitation of the atmospheric resource.
The difficulties associated with monitoring of fossil carbon emissions and enforcement of an agreement do not pose major obstacles. More serious is the problem of universality: countries which do not join a carbon abatement protocol stand to gain. Applying carbon taxes on trade with non-participants could be a legitimate and effective sanction against recalcitrant countries.
Despite these possibilities an effective carbon abatement agreement is clearly going to be extremely difficult to achieve and success is far from guaranteed. Alternatives to a global agreement include regional accords, agreements between select groups of countries, and agreements on various component activities. In the absence of agreement, relatively informal regimes driven by internal pressures and international non-governmental networks may have a substantial impact. None of these is likely to be as effective. as a successful global agreement on abatement but they could still be of great significance.
Countries can and should also act unilaterally to limit carbon emissions. Unilateral measures can be in the national interest, and they may well be crucial in creating the conditions necessary for an effective international emissions abatement agreement.
3. The First Steps
3.1 An umbrella convention
Two broad approaches to an international agreement are possible. One is to attempt to set up an 'Umbrella Convention' which defines rules governing national behavior on all important aspects of the problem in one go.
The main agreement of this type attempted so far is the Law of the Sea, which sought to regulate access to ocean resources. This bears testimony to the problems of such an approach. The text was elaborated over a period of fifteen years of negotiations for final signing in December 1982. In the event, the US and several other important participants declined to sign; the full treaty is still not in force.[18] Furthermore, the Law of the Sea was trying to set up access rights in a field where the scientific uncertainties were relatively few, and where there was little prior exploitation (particularly with respect to deep sea mineral resources) and therefore relatively little in the way of established interests to challenge.
There have been preliminary discussions on a Law of the Atmosphere, most notably at a meeting in Ottawa in February 1989.This conference produced an outline of the issues such an agreement would have to cover in order to be comprehensive. It would clearly be a forbidding task. In some respects it could be simpler than the Law of the Sea, because the issue of extracting resources from the sea bed or fisheries does not arise. But in other respects, it would be more complex, because the current level of pollution is much more serious and more intrinsic to economic activity, and the uncertainties are greater.
One overwhelming conclusion from the discussion in Chapter 2 is that any agreement attempting to tackle the greenhouse effect needs to be flexible in the way it deals with different gases and emission sources. It is hard to see how a comprehensive umbrella convention could provide this. Trying to address all the problems simultaneously could prevent any actually being resolved. The Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, in addressing the Ottawa conference, argued that:By trying to do too much too quickly we may actually retard the moves underway ... In the light of experience with the Montreal Protocol and Hazardous Wastes Convention, I believe that it is much more prudent to seek specific and separate agreements - in parallel where necessary, but within a clear framework of what needs to be done to protect the atmosphere.
In other words, what is required is to provide a general framework within which negotiations on explicit abatement and other measures can proceed.
3.2 A framework convention
The idea of a framework convention has gained increasing acceptance during the past year or so. As noted in the Introduction, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has already begun preliminary discussions on how such a convention might be approached.
In addressing the nature of a framework convention, there is much to be learned from the 1985 Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer. The Vienna Convention itself said nothing about quantified targets for reducing CFC emissions. Rather, it was an expression of concern about the destruction of the ozone layer, a statement of common ground in recognizing the role of CFCs and areas where further work was required - and it provided a framework which made explicit provision for subsequent protocols which could involve quantified targets on CFC emissions, as was taken up two years later at Montreal.
A framework convention on the greenhouse effect would be a formal international recognition of the problem and expression of concern about it. It could contain statements on the current best understanding of the scientific issues, including discussion of the range of gases and a note of the sources involved. It would probably recognize the need to take action in principle, and include general commitments to minimize emissions of greenhouse gases as reasonably practical. In doing so, one valuable function of a framework convention would be to improve understanding in many of the countries which currently have limited experience of the issues. Such an understanding is an essential prerequisite for any more specific protocols.
A framework convention might go further. It could provide recognition of some of the underlying political issues, for example the fact that the industrial countries have been the major source of past emissions of greenhouse gases, and the observation that developing countries are likely to require substantial technical and other resources from the developed countries if they are to limit their emissions. The question of international relief for victims of climatic disasters could also fall within the purview of a convention. So might assistance with measures for protecting against such disasters, such as sea defenses, in particularly vulnerable areas of developing countries.
A framework convention could also set up more extensive international research and monitoring programmes on climatic change, and provide the apparatus for coordinating programmes already under way under the auspices of UNEP, the World Meteorological Office and the International Council of Scientific Unions, as well as more individual national activities operated by various government agencies.
Yet, as the name implies, a framework convention could be much more than this. Its most important role should be to provide a framework for protocols which attempt to tackle the many areas of concern. Among these - and arguably the most important - would be protocols involving explicit measures or targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
The advantage of a framework convention is that it would enable the many complexities to be tackled piecemeal. Different protocols could be developed covering the different gases, or even the different economic spheres involved in their emission. Ideally there would be some linkage between the protocols to reflect the relative importance of the different contributions, but to do this formally would re-introduce the overwhelming complexities of trying to tackle the whole problem at once. Such linkage is probably best left to the age-old techniques of political horse-trading.
Fulfilling these many requirements will be far from easy. A framework convention will have to be robust enough to be useful and yet sufficiently flexible to encompass the many issues from adaptation to limiting emissions, from technology and resource transfer to the co-ordination of a global research programme, all in the context of a rapidly developing scientific understanding. It will take time, and it is just as well that the early stages of the process have already begun.
Drafting and then agreeing a framework convention will be difficult enough, especially if it is drawn more widely to include some of the more politically sensitive issues touched upon above (though these will have to be faced at some stage, and arguably, the sooner the better). However, the real problems will emerge in trying to negotiate the protocols. For it will be the attempt to agree on specific targets or other measures to limit emissions which will require countries to do things they would rather not do, and which will raise most seriously the issues of responsibility, international equity, monitoring, and incentives for compliance. Consequently, the sooner the process of examining and debating the options for the most difficult protocols begins the better. The process may be greatly eased, and repetition between different protocols avoided, if some of the underlying issues can be settled or at least considered in the process of working out the convention.
There have already been a number of independent initiatives by groups of concerned countries, the most notable being the Hague Declaration of March 1989[21] and the Northwick Ministerial meeting of November 1989.At this stage, initiatives which seek to move more directly towards controlling emissions are likely to be of substantial value, so long as they encourage rather than impede a more coherent and complete international approach. Agreements arising from such initiatives may result in commitments and policy changes earlier than could occur if all decisions awaited the negotiation of protocols subsequent to a framework convention. Indeed, prior agreements on aspects of the problem might form the basis of later protocols, and offer backstops in the event of the comprehensive approach running into the ground. Even if effective agreements are not concluded on this basis, the attempts can test many waters.
It therefore makes sense to consider the range of possibilities open for a specific agreement on limiting emissions. One particular case stands out. However broad the scope of a framework convention, and however many the protocols or other media for negotiating agreements on reducing particular emissions, centre stage must be taken by an agreement to limit the emission of carbon from fossil fuel combustion.
3.3 Fossil carbon emissions as a case study
The rest of this paper concentrates on the issues involved in trying to limit emissions of 'fossil carbon' - carbon which is added to the climate system from fossil fuel combustion, as distinct from changes in the sinks and sources of carbon already circulating in the biosphere.
The reasons for this choice are simple. Carbon dioxide emissions form the most important single contribution to the greenhouse effect. The great majority of man-made emissions come from the fossil fuel cycle, and these emissions are projected to rise substantially. The next largest contribution, methane, is a complex mixture of natural and man-made sources. A number of other relevant emissions are associated with fossil fuel combustion, including some methane and carbon monoxide (both formed from the carbon in fossil fuels), nitrous oxide, and the precursors to troposphere ozone.Limiting fossil carbon emissions will also do much to limit these other gases.
In addition, unlike some other contributions, we can in principle do a great deal about fossil energy consumption. Projections for the year 2050 vary by more than a factor of ten.[24] The lower reaches of these are 'projections' only in name: in reality they are more indications of what the authors believe could be achieved given suitable policies. Studies by the US Environmental Protection Agency have concluded that, even against constant economic background assumptions, serious abatement policies could have a major effect on future carbon emissions.
Such changes can only be achieved over a very long time scale, however. Power stations and mines planned today could still be operating in the middle of the next century. If energy systems need to change substantially, the signposts need to be visible as soon as possible.
Carbon emissions from deforestation and other biosphere changes are excluded in the present analysis because of the wide uncertainties in trying to quantify and verify them; estimates of this contribution, as noted in Chapter 2, vary widely. By contrast, the technical obstacles to an agreement on limiting fossil carbon emissions are relatively minor, for, unlike most other contributions to the greenhouse effect (other than CFCs), carbon in fossil fuels is relatively easy to measure and verify from national fuel consumption statistics,and the technical options available for abating carbon emissions are well understood.
An agreement on energy-related carbon abatement would, however, touch upon the major institutional and economic interests associated with energy provision. Consequently, carbon abatement is likely to be politically the most difficult issue to deal with, and will raise most starkly the various questions of equity and distribution in responding to the threat of global climate change.
For all these reasons, negotiating an agreement on limiting carbon emissions from energy systems is likely to be the most critical single step in attempting to limit the greenhouse effect, and the one most in need of study at this stage. The rest of this paper considers the options.
4. The International Problem
'By any traditional standards there are no solutions to
Climate change' - Conrad von Molten'.
4.1 The scale of the problem
Energy consumption provides the main services which underpin civilization: heat, light, materials, transport and communication. The pattern of human development has been one of almost uninterrupted rise in the demand for energy. For the last few hundred years, energy supply has been dominated by fossil fuels. They provide energy in an accessible, concentrated form and their technology is well developed and familiar.
Projections of energy demand vary widely, but almost all see a substantial increase as the poorer countries develop. Traditional forecasts show a doubling or trebling of energy demand over the next thirty years.The foremost study of world 'low-energy' futures concluded that it might be technically possible to supply these needs at only 10% above current world demand, but this would involve a 50% cut in demand in developed countries to offset the rise in the developing world.Even if technically possible, this would require a major revolution in the development of energy demand. Yet, if supply was still based on fossil fuels, even this would still fall far short of requirements for stabilizing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, which requires an estimated cut in emissions of 50-80% (Table 2).
Energy supply constitutes some of the biggest business in the world. Gross annual revenue in the OECD oil companies alone averaged about $6OObn annually over 1980-85, bigger than the GNP of many countries.In most countries, energy accounts for a considerable percentage of GNP and is a major employer. Even if the technical obstacles and economic costs of limiting carbon emissions are not great - a subject of intense debate - the institutional, social and political obstacles to forcing a decline in the scale of fossil fuel industries in the industrialized world are formidable.
Of course, the difficulty of achieving anything approaching atmospheric stabilization is not a reason for doing nothing. Quite the converse: all efforts to curtail emissions will help to reduce the rate of change and consequent impacts, and give more time for other solutions to be sought. Yet because the economic and institutional forces involved are so strong, no amount of fine words and pledges are likely to have much impact on the growth of carbon emissions. If emissions are to be curbed, more forceful and quantified measures and targets will be required. Foremost amongst the proposals have been calls to set national targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
4.2 The Holy Grail: setting targets for CO2 reductions
The final statement from the June 1988 Toronto Conference on 'The Changing Atmosphere' called for a 20% reduction of CO2 emissions worldwide by the year 2005, with the brunt of this to be borne by developed countries. This was echoed at the Hamburg conference in November 1988, which called for 30% reductions by developed countries by the year 2000. Most of the discussion since has been framed in terms of whether countries can or will pursue such reductions. There is a strong expectation that they will negotiate agreement on the basis of such targets applied at the national level.[30]
This is probably because the two most important international agreements on limiting emissions of atmospheric pollutants - the Montreal Protocol on CFCs and the European Community's Large Combustion Plant (LCP) Directive to limit acid emissions - have been formulated in this way. The Montreal Protocol calls for 50% reductions in CFC emissions by the signatory countries by 1999, with a 10-year lag for developing countries. The LCP Directive incorporates a complex formulation of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide reduction levels for three target dates, with different elements of backdating for each member country, resulting in a wide range of target reductions from the nominal 1980 base level.
With the conclusion of two important agreements based upon percentage reduction targets for gaseous emissions, it is not surprising that calls for limiting the greenhouse effect have focused on a similar strategy. If the political pressure and concern over the greenhouse effect increase further, it is quite possible that following in such footsteps will lead to the conference chamber. However, such a path seems most unlikely ever to lead on into the signing hall.
Consider first the Montreal process. A limited number of countries are involved in extensive CFC production; substitutes for many CFC applications are readily available; the economic costs and institutional changes involved are small on a national scale; and a number of major industries stand to benefit.Few of these conditions apply to carbon emissions.
The negotiation of the LCP Directive indicates some of the problems likely to arise when more costly measures are at stake, in conditions where countries are starting from different positions, and reduction costs will not necessarily apply equally to all countries. The negotiation involved twelve countries, all members of the same economic group and all at roughly the same level of economic development, certainly as compared with the gulf between the developed and developing countries. Yet negotiation of the Directive took some five years of intensive bargaining, with twice-weekly sessions much of the time.
Attempts to negotiate an agreement on carbon emissions based upon country-specific target limitations could focus on the simple 'equal reductions' framework of the Montreal Protocol (which does not necessarily exclude demarcation between broad categories, such as the differing provisions made at Montreal for industrialised as opposed to developing countries). Alternatively it could adopt the 'trade-offs' approach of the EC Directive, with each country arguing its case for different targets. In reality, both these approaches seem likely in the case of carbon emissions to founder upon technical and political obstacles which make those involved in the previous agreements seem quite trivial in comparison. To examine the reasons for this in more depth, we need to consider the extent to which the energy economies of some of the major players differ.
4.3 A brief comparison of energy economies
This section briefly examines some indicative statistics of a wide range of economies, covering the nine most populous countries and major regional economic groups. Figure 2
shows their GNP. The US is the largest emitter, followed by the USSR, the EC, and China: these four together account for more than 60% of global emissions.
Current emissions of fossil carbon per capita, shown in Figure 3,
vary by a factor of more than 30 across the range of countries.Historic per capita emissions show a wider variation still.The fuel sources als differ widely, as illustrated in Figure 4: 
carbon emissions in China are almost entirely from coal, while those in many other developing countries, and in Japan, are dominated by oil.
Carbon emissions per unit of GNP shows up other wide differences. Numerical comparisons are greatly complicated by exchange-rate variations, as discussed in Appendix 1. On standard exchange rates, emissions per GNP vary by a factor of more than 10. Even when compared on the basis of 'Real GNP' (GNP corrected for Purchasing Power Parities ) there is still variation by a factor about 2.5.
There is little correlation between the measures of per GNP and per capita emissions. Insofar as there is any, it is an inverse one: the developing nations have the lowest emissions per capita and the highest per unit of GNP.
To express these variations differently, if China and India emitted carbon at the same per capita level as the US, world emissions would be nearly trebled. If all economic activity could be conducted at the per GNP emission level of Japan, then at current world GNP (standard measure), emissions would be reduced almost to a third.Neither situation is possible in practice - the former because China and India simply could not afford or sustain such a level of energy consumption, and the latter because high efficiency in energy use itself requires a degree of economic development and a move towards importing energy-intensive raw materials, and the statistic is again amplified by exchange-rate effects.
The difficulties raised by these variations are compounded by differences in indigenous energy reserve.
There are many uncertainties and discrepancies in detailed reserve estimates, and different sources vary widely.Nevertheless the figures are sufficient to emphasize the extent to which, in the long term, most countries are dependent upon coal for major fossil energy supplies,and again it highlights the great divergence in energy situations. The outstanding feature about China is not just its enormous coal reserves, which in per capita terms are not exceptional compared with those of the US and USSR. The salient point is its lack of other identified fossil reserves with which to supply its huge population (though it is possible that there are still substantial reserves not yet identified, especially of gas). Japan has little of anything. The USSR, especially, has substantial gas reserves which could in principle be used to reduce carbon emissions by replacing other fossil fuels. Renewable energy resources - sun, wind, and other forms - may well differ similarly, partly in inverse relation to the population density.
Looking ahead reveals the future implications of the most important differences. Developing countries are seeking to industrialize; both economic activity and, to an even greater extent, energy demand in the developing world are currently expanding much faster than in the industrialized nations in percentage, though not in absolute, terms. China envisages expanding its coal consumption fivefold to 3 billion tonnes a year by 2020.this alone would add nearly 50% to current worldwide carbon emissions.
This observation does not in any way suggest a case for trying to restrict the rate of development in the developing countries. On the contrary, economic development will be a major factor in helping countries to withstand the impacts of climatic change, as well as in minimizing further population growth.Even ignoring other benefits of development, these gains far outweigh the associated additions to carbon emissions, which at present are still much less than the growth in emissions in the industrialized world.
The long-term potential emissions from the developing world are nevertheless of great importance. The 'climate stabilization report' by the US Environmental Protection Agency concluded that:
The late 1980s have seen an unprecedented growth of concern about the 'greenhouse effect'. The political impetus for an international convention to address the problem is now considerable, but as yet there has been little analysis of the form which any agreement might take.
The sheer breadth and complexity of the greenhouse problem means that the first step in a comprehensive international process has to be a framework convention. This would develop common ground on the nature and seriousness of the scientific and political issues involved, and would establish international monitoring and research co-ordination. It would lay the basis for approaching a range of quantified, binding and perhaps costly commitments expressed through various protocols to the convention. Negotiating the protocols will cause the greatest difficulties.
The linchpin of any serious attempt to tackle the greenhouse problem will be the negotiation of international limits on carbon emissions from the energy industries. There have been many calls for target reductions applied either across the board to developed countries or negotiated on a country-by-country basis. This approach cannot succeed. Negotiations conceived in this manner would drag on interminably and would be counterproductive because of the tactical value they would place on over-emphasizing the difficulties of reducing emissions.
In addition this process would not address important underlying issues. In particular, the developing countries will not join any agreement which seeks to reduce their carbon emissions from current levels, and these emissions will grow rapidly unless they receive assistance aimed at avoiding the inefficiencies normally associated with the earlier stages of industrialization.
It is therefore necessary to examine alternative approaches. These include carbon taxes, production quotas, and systems of tradable or leasable emission permits.
Carbon taxes could be an effective way of raising funds for international programmes to alleviate emissions. Applying them on a much larger scale, as an economic instrument, is more problematic. Any international agreement on domestic taxation policies faces difficulties because of the wide range of existing policies and the social and political implications of harmonization. A sizable international carbon tax faces major problems of institutional control and political acceptability, and of exchange-rate manipulations.
Setting quotas for energy production raises major political problems, mainly because of the scale of windfall profits generated. Auctioning quotas internationally faces difficulties similar to those of an international carbon tax.
A system of marketable carbon emission permits offers by far the most promising approach. Bilateral trading of permits offers the greatest flexibility in making the technical, economic and political trade-offs involved. Permits should be leasable but not permanently traded; the currency of exchange should be limited to development and pollution abatement programmes and related transfers of technology and technical expertise. Permits should be allocated on an adult per capita basis.
Such an approach would establish a logical basis for a long-term emissions control regime, and create a mechanism for technical assistance to the less developed countries, paid in proportion to current over-exploitation of the atmospheric resource.
The difficulties associated with monitoring of fossil carbon emissions and enforcement of an agreement do not pose major obstacles. More serious is the problem of universality: countries which do not join a carbon abatement protocol stand to gain. Applying carbon taxes on trade with non-participants could be a legitimate and effective sanction against recalcitrant countries.
Despite these possibilities an effective carbon abatement agreement is clearly going to be extremely difficult to achieve and success is far from guaranteed. Alternatives to a global agreement include regional accords, agreements between select groups of countries, and agreements on various component activities. In the absence of agreement, relatively informal regimes driven by internal pressures and international non-governmental networks may have a substantial impact. None of these is likely to be as effective. as a successful global agreement on abatement but they could still be of great significance.
Countries can and should also act unilaterally to limit carbon emissions. Unilateral measures can be in the national interest, and they may well be crucial in creating the conditions necessary for an effective international emissions abatement agreement.
3. The First Steps
3.1 An umbrella convention
Two broad approaches to an international agreement are possible. One is to attempt to set up an 'Umbrella Convention' which defines rules governing national behavior on all important aspects of the problem in one go.
The main agreement of this type attempted so far is the Law of the Sea, which sought to regulate access to ocean resources. This bears testimony to the problems of such an approach. The text was elaborated over a period of fifteen years of negotiations for final signing in December 1982. In the event, the US and several other important participants declined to sign; the full treaty is still not in force.[18] Furthermore, the Law of the Sea was trying to set up access rights in a field where the scientific uncertainties were relatively few, and where there was little prior exploitation (particularly with respect to deep sea mineral resources) and therefore relatively little in the way of established interests to challenge.
There have been preliminary discussions on a Law of the Atmosphere, most notably at a meeting in Ottawa in February 1989.This conference produced an outline of the issues such an agreement would have to cover in order to be comprehensive. It would clearly be a forbidding task. In some respects it could be simpler than the Law of the Sea, because the issue of extracting resources from the sea bed or fisheries does not arise. But in other respects, it would be more complex, because the current level of pollution is much more serious and more intrinsic to economic activity, and the uncertainties are greater.
One overwhelming conclusion from the discussion in Chapter 2 is that any agreement attempting to tackle the greenhouse effect needs to be flexible in the way it deals with different gases and emission sources. It is hard to see how a comprehensive umbrella convention could provide this. Trying to address all the problems simultaneously could prevent any actually being resolved. The Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, in addressing the Ottawa conference, argued that:By trying to do too much too quickly we may actually retard the moves underway ... In the light of experience with the Montreal Protocol and Hazardous Wastes Convention, I believe that it is much more prudent to seek specific and separate agreements - in parallel where necessary, but within a clear framework of what needs to be done to protect the atmosphere.
In other words, what is required is to provide a general framework within which negotiations on explicit abatement and other measures can proceed.
3.2 A framework convention
The idea of a framework convention has gained increasing acceptance during the past year or so. As noted in the Introduction, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has already begun preliminary discussions on how such a convention might be approached.
In addressing the nature of a framework convention, there is much to be learned from the 1985 Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer. The Vienna Convention itself said nothing about quantified targets for reducing CFC emissions. Rather, it was an expression of concern about the destruction of the ozone layer, a statement of common ground in recognizing the role of CFCs and areas where further work was required - and it provided a framework which made explicit provision for subsequent protocols which could involve quantified targets on CFC emissions, as was taken up two years later at Montreal.
A framework convention on the greenhouse effect would be a formal international recognition of the problem and expression of concern about it. It could contain statements on the current best understanding of the scientific issues, including discussion of the range of gases and a note of the sources involved. It would probably recognize the need to take action in principle, and include general commitments to minimize emissions of greenhouse gases as reasonably practical. In doing so, one valuable function of a framework convention would be to improve understanding in many of the countries which currently have limited experience of the issues. Such an understanding is an essential prerequisite for any more specific protocols.
A framework convention might go further. It could provide recognition of some of the underlying political issues, for example the fact that the industrial countries have been the major source of past emissions of greenhouse gases, and the observation that developing countries are likely to require substantial technical and other resources from the developed countries if they are to limit their emissions. The question of international relief for victims of climatic disasters could also fall within the purview of a convention. So might assistance with measures for protecting against such disasters, such as sea defenses, in particularly vulnerable areas of developing countries.
A framework convention could also set up more extensive international research and monitoring programmes on climatic change, and provide the apparatus for coordinating programmes already under way under the auspices of UNEP, the World Meteorological Office and the International Council of Scientific Unions, as well as more individual national activities operated by various government agencies.
Yet, as the name implies, a framework convention could be much more than this. Its most important role should be to provide a framework for protocols which attempt to tackle the many areas of concern. Among these - and arguably the most important - would be protocols involving explicit measures or targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
The advantage of a framework convention is that it would enable the many complexities to be tackled piecemeal. Different protocols could be developed covering the different gases, or even the different economic spheres involved in their emission. Ideally there would be some linkage between the protocols to reflect the relative importance of the different contributions, but to do this formally would re-introduce the overwhelming complexities of trying to tackle the whole problem at once. Such linkage is probably best left to the age-old techniques of political horse-trading.
Fulfilling these many requirements will be far from easy. A framework convention will have to be robust enough to be useful and yet sufficiently flexible to encompass the many issues from adaptation to limiting emissions, from technology and resource transfer to the co-ordination of a global research programme, all in the context of a rapidly developing scientific understanding. It will take time, and it is just as well that the early stages of the process have already begun.
Drafting and then agreeing a framework convention will be difficult enough, especially if it is drawn more widely to include some of the more politically sensitive issues touched upon above (though these will have to be faced at some stage, and arguably, the sooner the better). However, the real problems will emerge in trying to negotiate the protocols. For it will be the attempt to agree on specific targets or other measures to limit emissions which will require countries to do things they would rather not do, and which will raise most seriously the issues of responsibility, international equity, monitoring, and incentives for compliance. Consequently, the sooner the process of examining and debating the options for the most difficult protocols begins the better. The process may be greatly eased, and repetition between different protocols avoided, if some of the underlying issues can be settled or at least considered in the process of working out the convention.
There have already been a number of independent initiatives by groups of concerned countries, the most notable being the Hague Declaration of March 1989[21] and the Northwick Ministerial meeting of November 1989.At this stage, initiatives which seek to move more directly towards controlling emissions are likely to be of substantial value, so long as they encourage rather than impede a more coherent and complete international approach. Agreements arising from such initiatives may result in commitments and policy changes earlier than could occur if all decisions awaited the negotiation of protocols subsequent to a framework convention. Indeed, prior agreements on aspects of the problem might form the basis of later protocols, and offer backstops in the event of the comprehensive approach running into the ground. Even if effective agreements are not concluded on this basis, the attempts can test many waters.
It therefore makes sense to consider the range of possibilities open for a specific agreement on limiting emissions. One particular case stands out. However broad the scope of a framework convention, and however many the protocols or other media for negotiating agreements on reducing particular emissions, centre stage must be taken by an agreement to limit the emission of carbon from fossil fuel combustion.
3.3 Fossil carbon emissions as a case study
The rest of this paper concentrates on the issues involved in trying to limit emissions of 'fossil carbon' - carbon which is added to the climate system from fossil fuel combustion, as distinct from changes in the sinks and sources of carbon already circulating in the biosphere.
The reasons for this choice are simple. Carbon dioxide emissions form the most important single contribution to the greenhouse effect. The great majority of man-made emissions come from the fossil fuel cycle, and these emissions are projected to rise substantially. The next largest contribution, methane, is a complex mixture of natural and man-made sources. A number of other relevant emissions are associated with fossil fuel combustion, including some methane and carbon monoxide (both formed from the carbon in fossil fuels), nitrous oxide, and the precursors to troposphere ozone.Limiting fossil carbon emissions will also do much to limit these other gases.
In addition, unlike some other contributions, we can in principle do a great deal about fossil energy consumption. Projections for the year 2050 vary by more than a factor of ten.[24] The lower reaches of these are 'projections' only in name: in reality they are more indications of what the authors believe could be achieved given suitable policies. Studies by the US Environmental Protection Agency have concluded that, even against constant economic background assumptions, serious abatement policies could have a major effect on future carbon emissions.
Such changes can only be achieved over a very long time scale, however. Power stations and mines planned today could still be operating in the middle of the next century. If energy systems need to change substantially, the signposts need to be visible as soon as possible.
Carbon emissions from deforestation and other biosphere changes are excluded in the present analysis because of the wide uncertainties in trying to quantify and verify them; estimates of this contribution, as noted in Chapter 2, vary widely. By contrast, the technical obstacles to an agreement on limiting fossil carbon emissions are relatively minor, for, unlike most other contributions to the greenhouse effect (other than CFCs), carbon in fossil fuels is relatively easy to measure and verify from national fuel consumption statistics,and the technical options available for abating carbon emissions are well understood.
An agreement on energy-related carbon abatement would, however, touch upon the major institutional and economic interests associated with energy provision. Consequently, carbon abatement is likely to be politically the most difficult issue to deal with, and will raise most starkly the various questions of equity and distribution in responding to the threat of global climate change.
For all these reasons, negotiating an agreement on limiting carbon emissions from energy systems is likely to be the most critical single step in attempting to limit the greenhouse effect, and the one most in need of study at this stage. The rest of this paper considers the options.
4. The International Problem
'By any traditional standards there are no solutions to
Climate change' - Conrad von Molten'.
4.1 The scale of the problem
Energy consumption provides the main services which underpin civilization: heat, light, materials, transport and communication. The pattern of human development has been one of almost uninterrupted rise in the demand for energy. For the last few hundred years, energy supply has been dominated by fossil fuels. They provide energy in an accessible, concentrated form and their technology is well developed and familiar.
Projections of energy demand vary widely, but almost all see a substantial increase as the poorer countries develop. Traditional forecasts show a doubling or trebling of energy demand over the next thirty years.The foremost study of world 'low-energy' futures concluded that it might be technically possible to supply these needs at only 10% above current world demand, but this would involve a 50% cut in demand in developed countries to offset the rise in the developing world.Even if technically possible, this would require a major revolution in the development of energy demand. Yet, if supply was still based on fossil fuels, even this would still fall far short of requirements for stabilizing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, which requires an estimated cut in emissions of 50-80% (Table 2).
Energy supply constitutes some of the biggest business in the world. Gross annual revenue in the OECD oil companies alone averaged about $6OObn annually over 1980-85, bigger than the GNP of many countries.In most countries, energy accounts for a considerable percentage of GNP and is a major employer. Even if the technical obstacles and economic costs of limiting carbon emissions are not great - a subject of intense debate - the institutional, social and political obstacles to forcing a decline in the scale of fossil fuel industries in the industrialized world are formidable.
Of course, the difficulty of achieving anything approaching atmospheric stabilization is not a reason for doing nothing. Quite the converse: all efforts to curtail emissions will help to reduce the rate of change and consequent impacts, and give more time for other solutions to be sought. Yet because the economic and institutional forces involved are so strong, no amount of fine words and pledges are likely to have much impact on the growth of carbon emissions. If emissions are to be curbed, more forceful and quantified measures and targets will be required. Foremost amongst the proposals have been calls to set national targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
4.2 The Holy Grail: setting targets for CO2 reductions
The final statement from the June 1988 Toronto Conference on 'The Changing Atmosphere' called for a 20% reduction of CO2 emissions worldwide by the year 2005, with the brunt of this to be borne by developed countries. This was echoed at the Hamburg conference in November 1988, which called for 30% reductions by developed countries by the year 2000. Most of the discussion since has been framed in terms of whether countries can or will pursue such reductions. There is a strong expectation that they will negotiate agreement on the basis of such targets applied at the national level.[30]
This is probably because the two most important international agreements on limiting emissions of atmospheric pollutants - the Montreal Protocol on CFCs and the European Community's Large Combustion Plant (LCP) Directive to limit acid emissions - have been formulated in this way. The Montreal Protocol calls for 50% reductions in CFC emissions by the signatory countries by 1999, with a 10-year lag for developing countries. The LCP Directive incorporates a complex formulation of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide reduction levels for three target dates, with different elements of backdating for each member country, resulting in a wide range of target reductions from the nominal 1980 base level.
With the conclusion of two important agreements based upon percentage reduction targets for gaseous emissions, it is not surprising that calls for limiting the greenhouse effect have focused on a similar strategy. If the political pressure and concern over the greenhouse effect increase further, it is quite possible that following in such footsteps will lead to the conference chamber. However, such a path seems most unlikely ever to lead on into the signing hall.
Consider first the Montreal process. A limited number of countries are involved in extensive CFC production; substitutes for many CFC applications are readily available; the economic costs and institutional changes involved are small on a national scale; and a number of major industries stand to benefit.Few of these conditions apply to carbon emissions.
The negotiation of the LCP Directive indicates some of the problems likely to arise when more costly measures are at stake, in conditions where countries are starting from different positions, and reduction costs will not necessarily apply equally to all countries. The negotiation involved twelve countries, all members of the same economic group and all at roughly the same level of economic development, certainly as compared with the gulf between the developed and developing countries. Yet negotiation of the Directive took some five years of intensive bargaining, with twice-weekly sessions much of the time.
Attempts to negotiate an agreement on carbon emissions based upon country-specific target limitations could focus on the simple 'equal reductions' framework of the Montreal Protocol (which does not necessarily exclude demarcation between broad categories, such as the differing provisions made at Montreal for industrialised as opposed to developing countries). Alternatively it could adopt the 'trade-offs' approach of the EC Directive, with each country arguing its case for different targets. In reality, both these approaches seem likely in the case of carbon emissions to founder upon technical and political obstacles which make those involved in the previous agreements seem quite trivial in comparison. To examine the reasons for this in more depth, we need to consider the extent to which the energy economies of some of the major players differ.
4.3 A brief comparison of energy economies
This section briefly examines some indicative statistics of a wide range of economies, covering the nine most populous countries and major regional economic groups. Figure 2
shows their GNP. The US is the largest emitter, followed by the USSR, the EC, and China: these four together account for more than 60% of global emissions.Current emissions of fossil carbon per capita, shown in Figure 3,
vary by a factor of more than 30 across the range of countries.Historic per capita emissions show a wider variation still.The fuel sources als differ widely, as illustrated in Figure 4: 
carbon emissions in China are almost entirely from coal, while those in many other developing countries, and in Japan, are dominated by oil.Carbon emissions per unit of GNP shows up other wide differences. Numerical comparisons are greatly complicated by exchange-rate variations, as discussed in Appendix 1. On standard exchange rates, emissions per GNP vary by a factor of more than 10. Even when compared on the basis of 'Real GNP' (GNP corrected for Purchasing Power Parities ) there is still variation by a factor about 2.5.
There is little correlation between the measures of per GNP and per capita emissions. Insofar as there is any, it is an inverse one: the developing nations have the lowest emissions per capita and the highest per unit of GNP.
To express these variations differently, if China and India emitted carbon at the same per capita level as the US, world emissions would be nearly trebled. If all economic activity could be conducted at the per GNP emission level of Japan, then at current world GNP (standard measure), emissions would be reduced almost to a third.Neither situation is possible in practice - the former because China and India simply could not afford or sustain such a level of energy consumption, and the latter because high efficiency in energy use itself requires a degree of economic development and a move towards importing energy-intensive raw materials, and the statistic is again amplified by exchange-rate effects.
The difficulties raised by these variations are compounded by differences in indigenous energy reserve.
There are many uncertainties and discrepancies in detailed reserve estimates, and different sources vary widely.Nevertheless the figures are sufficient to emphasize the extent to which, in the long term, most countries are dependent upon coal for major fossil energy supplies,and again it highlights the great divergence in energy situations. The outstanding feature about China is not just its enormous coal reserves, which in per capita terms are not exceptional compared with those of the US and USSR. The salient point is its lack of other identified fossil reserves with which to supply its huge population (though it is possible that there are still substantial reserves not yet identified, especially of gas). Japan has little of anything. The USSR, especially, has substantial gas reserves which could in principle be used to reduce carbon emissions by replacing other fossil fuels. Renewable energy resources - sun, wind, and other forms - may well differ similarly, partly in inverse relation to the population density.
Looking ahead reveals the future implications of the most important differences. Developing countries are seeking to industrialize; both economic activity and, to an even greater extent, energy demand in the developing world are currently expanding much faster than in the industrialized nations in percentage, though not in absolute, terms. China envisages expanding its coal consumption fivefold to 3 billion tonnes a year by 2020.this alone would add nearly 50% to current worldwide carbon emissions.
This observation does not in any way suggest a case for trying to restrict the rate of development in the developing countries. On the contrary, economic development will be a major factor in helping countries to withstand the impacts of climatic change, as well as in minimizing further population growth.Even ignoring other benefits of development, these gains far outweigh the associated additions to carbon emissions, which at present are still much less than the growth in emissions in the industrialized world.
The long-term potential emissions from the developing world are nevertheless of great importance. The 'climate stabilization report' by the US Environmental Protection Agency concluded that:
Action by the industrialized countries on their own can significantly slow the rate and magnitude of climatic change, but ... because of the large potential for growth in their emissions, the participation of the developing nations is crucial for stabilizing greenhouse gases.
The root global problem to be faced is the environmental consequence of world wide economic development and still expanding population, combined with a fossil energy resource base which is dominated by coal. In terms of allocation, the problems are wider than just the differing levels of economic development. They also reflect different patterns of development, fuel mix, and resource endowment.
4.4 Why the traditional approaches will not work
These variations rule out any targets based upon equal percentage reductions as a practical and effective tool even amongst developed countries. Japan, for example, would argue - with some justification that it cannot reduce emissions as much as other industrialized [countries because it has already taken major measures to limit fuel use, during the 1970s. As a result, its emissions are substantially lower than any of the other developed countries both in per capita and per GNP terms. By contrast, the US and the USSR both have relatively easy options for reducing emissions: neither uses energy very efficiently, by either measure, and both have options for moving away from coal, particularly in the case of the USSR.
This would make an 'equal reductions' agreement very hard to negotiate and economically inefficient. Some nations - such as Japan might incur substantial costs in achieving relatively modest reductions. Others might be able to reduce by much more for lesser costs. If they were bound to equal targets, many relatively cost-effective options for reducing emissions could go unexploited.Yet a 'country trade-offs' agreement scarcely seems to offer better prospects, for similar reasons. All countries will endeavor to find some arguments why they should reduce emissions by less than the average sought. The US has already started preparing the ground by arguing that its large continental land mass inevitably results in high energy requirements for transport, and by pointing to the energy requirements of operating a large part of the West's military forces. Officials in many other countries are similarly trawling for historical, geographical and economic arguments to wield in negotiations. Inevitably there will be an abundance of special cases.
Such difficulties will be greatly compounded by the need to include developing countries, for most of whom the question is not how to reduce carbon emissions but how to limit their rate of growth while developing, and how to finance the programmes for such limitations. The associated questions will further magnify the complexity of negotiating targets.
In an attempt to address some of these problems, researchers have suggested a variety of alternative target setting systems. The most serious attempt is that described in the 'Princeton Protocol',which proposes targets set to result in a progression towards equal per capita emissions over an 80-year time scale, with the exact targets revised every decade to correct for population variations and other changes. Such an approach would require an abrupt turnaround in the path of industrialized countries, changing from current increases in emissions to decreases of 2-3% a year. This in practice might make such targets impossible to negotiate or implement. Such an approach would still not give an efficient solution, however, because there is no mechanism for trading-off the many other variations between countries.
More general questions remain unanswered, and may be unanswerable. What is to be done if countries fail to keep within their targets? Forms of sanctions might be considered for industrial nations, but since a major part of the developing countries' problem is their lack of capital and technical resources for efficient development, trying to enforce agreed targets through some kind of economic sanction might only make things worse.
How far ahead should targets be set? It takes many years for energy systems to change; indeed power plants planned today could well be operating in the middle of the next century, so targets should be set far ahead. Or should they? Future emissions will depend upon growth and population changes, and technical change; it is absurd to propose hard targets so far ahead for every country. Targets for each country would therefore need to be renegotiated every few years, adding further to the potential for political deadlock, and weakening the impact of initial targets.
The difficulties involved in negotiating the EC LCP Directive have already been alluded to. Those involved in negotiating reductions in carbon emissions would be very much greater. The time taken to reach such an agreement may well rise exponentially with the number of participants, the extent of inequality in historical and current contributions, and the costs of taking action - especially when that cost may vary greatly between countries. Past experience of negotiating international agreements suggests that a 'country trade-offs' agreement would require many thousands of meetings, over many years. In such circumstances, the target of what is achievable, and the political circumstances of the negotiating countries, would change far more rapidly than the negotiations could keep pace with. Agreement on targets might never be achieved. And even if it were, a treaty on this basis could probably not be enforced in the developing countries.
Finally, as indicated above, a fundamental drawback to the whole process of trying to negotiate country-specific targets is that it creates entirely the wrong incentives. In preparing this paper and a related study of energy policies, the author has talked to analysts and officials in many countries who are considering responses to the greenhouse effect. Many have seemed keener to emphasize the problems in limiting carbon emissions than to examine seriously the options for curtailment. This tendency partly reflects the genuine difficulties to be faced in altering energy systems, but it is reinforced by the expectation that there will be negotiations on setting national emission targets.
From the standpoint of national self-interest, the higher a countries emission target is set, relative to others, the better. Consequently, the pressure in such negotiations will always be to prove how difficult it will be to limit emissions. This psychology is pervading much official research on the problem, and could be very damaging: the difficulties in limiting carbon emissions are great enough without the diplomatic prizes being awarded to whoever can amplify them the most.
To conclude, it may or may not be possible for the world to reach the Toronto or even the Hamburg targets for carbon emissions. But one conclusion seems clear: these goals are very unlikely to be achieved by the countries of the world sitting around a table and agreeing on whom should reduce by how much. The idea that a protocol on limiting carbon emissions will be like the Montreal Protocol writ large is an illusion best dispersed before it leads us irretrievably down a blind alley.
4.5 Underlying themes
A number of possible alternative approaches are considered in the following chapter. Before turning to these, it is necessary to examine some of the underlying features of the greenhouse effect as a problem in international affairs.
The atmosphere as a common resource
The main difficulties to be faced in negotiating control of carbon emissions can be summarized in six points:
i) Carbon emissions control can have profound and potentially costly political and economic implications.
ii) By whatever measure is chosen (whether absolute; per capita; per unit of energy; etc.) countries vary greatly both un past and current contributions.
iii) The implications and costs of limiting emissions, and the possible impact of global warming, may vary greatly between countries.
iv) Many countries at very different stages of development would have to be involved for any agreement to be acceptable and effective in the long run.
v) Carbon emissions are closely tied to (though not necessarily proportionate to) the extent and structure of economic development.
vi) There is a long time-lag involved in any programmed to modify carbon emissions.
Points ii) to v) in this list require particular attention as they raise basic issues of international equity. They reflect the fact that the atmosphere is a global commons in the literal sense of the term: the atmosphere does not respect political boundaries.
What has happened, and is happening, with respect to the atmosphere is exactly the process enunciated by Garrett Hardin in his essay 'The Tragedy of The Commons'. The atmosphere has been exploited by all without reference to the possibility of ultimate degradation, or to the access rights for the different parties. It has been treated as a free and infinite resource, and humanity is now faced with the realization that it is neither, and indeed that a portion of the reservoir has already been 'used up'.
the process, some countries - mostly those that have exploited the resource most heavily - have grown rich. Others, likewise seeking to enrich themselves through development fuelled by fossil fuel resources, may not be able to do so without engendering serious, and global, climatic costs. In this situation, attempts to address the problem can take one of two broad approaches:
Marginal adjustments, in which the current level of exploitation is taken as the basis from which to negotiate marginal changes to prevent over-exploitation of the resource; or Neutral entitlements, in which future access is managed on the basis of equal entitlements to the resource through a flexible system which encourages countries to develop towards a state of exploitation which is regarded as 'just' on some clear and widely-accepted criteria.
Almost all attempts to deal internationally with both environmental resource and economic issues have taken the approach of marginal adjustments. All attempts to consider agreements on country-specific target limitations of carbon dioxide are of this type. Most of those concerned with the issue recognize that a degree of assistance for developing countries will be required, and that there is a strong practical basis for this, in addition to the moral aspect of compensation which emerges from the standpoint of regarding the atmosphere as a common resource which has been partially used up by the industrialized countries.
The 'North-South' issue is bound to cause further difficulties, and is considered below. The central element in the critique developed earlier, however, is that an agreement based on negotiating country-specific targets provides entirely the wrong incentives, and requires too many parties to agree to too many arbitrary targets too far ahead, for there to be much chance of success.
Are the prospects for an agreement based upon some system of 'neutral entitlements' any better? In general, two fundamental objections can be raised against such an agreement: it is too complex; and it defies the nature of Realpolitik, because it involves the more powerful countries giving up some of the fruits of their power to an international system of control.
However, a system which focuses upon one particular gas or source, as a protocol to a framework convention, will not necessarily be very complex. Indeed, as will be argued in the next chapter, there are a number of options for carbon regulation which in fact have the merit of relative simplicity.
The major objection is thus one of Realpolitik: if the nature of a 'neutral entitlements' agreement requires developed countries to give up their current privileged position, would they ever agree to it? The question of resource transfer to developing countries is thus not only a very important factor in marginal adjustments agreements, it is central to any attempts to develop a more coherent system of management.
Developing countries and resource transfer
Clauses on technology transfer have been included in previous environmental agreements. Article 5 of the Montreal Protocol makes special provision for CFC emissions from developing countries, and states:
The Parties undertake to facilitate access to environmentally safe alternative substances and technology for Parties that are developing countries and assist them to make expeditious use of such alternatives.
The Parties undertake to facilitate bilaterally or multilaterally the provision of subsidies, aid, credits, guarantees or insurance programmes to Parties that are developing countries for the use of alternative technology and for substitute products.
The Article recognizes the problem and gives assurances, but does not contain binding or quantified commitments. Such clauses have in general resulted in providing little of what the developing countries had hoped for, and they are becoming increasingly frustrated with the situation. The minor rebellion of China and India in refusing to sign the Montreal Protocol is likely to become more widespread and deep-rooted, and there are signs that developing countries will refuse to agree to significant constraints on their future emissions of greenhouse gases without more binding commitments from the developed world.
Technology transfer is a more fundamental issue than many realize. The dire predictions of future global carbon emissions cannot be avoided if the developing countries industrialize along the same broad path as the developed have done. They will need to 'leapfrog' directly to more advanced and efficient technologies than would occur naturally in the course of development-
Yet little has been written on the form which such aid might take or the levels which might be involved. China submitted proposals for a global assistance fund at the Helsinki meeting subsequent to the Montreal Protocol. These proposals received substantial support, and some developed countries at least seemed genuinely prepared to offer cash to back their verbal recognition of the problem. The UK Secretary of State for the Environment complained:
No one has yet addressed a number of fundamental questions about this idea. It has not been suggested who would run such a fund; how it would operate; on what criteria its funds would be raised, and from whom, and what would happen if they did not contribute. Nor have we heard how it would be administered.
Such complexities can be overcome if sufficient political will exists; the Chinese negotiators have now suggested that such a fund could be financed by payments directly in proportion to CFC emissions, and administered by the UNEP executive. With reference to global warming, the Princeton Protocol contains detailed proposals on the nature and control of a World Agency for Technology Transfer. Yet such issues will certainly further complicate any attempts to negotiate an agreement based upon arbitrary targets. If developing countries do take a strong stand on the issue of resource transfer, one attractive feature of neutral entitlement agreements is that some forms automatically address some of these issues, as described in Chapter 5.
The root global problem to be faced is the environmental consequence of world wide economic development and still expanding population, combined with a fossil energy resource base which is dominated by coal. In terms of allocation, the problems are wider than just the differing levels of economic development. They also reflect different patterns of development, fuel mix, and resource endowment.
4.4 Why the traditional approaches will not work
These variations rule out any targets based upon equal percentage reductions as a practical and effective tool even amongst developed countries. Japan, for example, would argue - with some justification that it cannot reduce emissions as much as other industrialized [countries because it has already taken major measures to limit fuel use, during the 1970s. As a result, its emissions are substantially lower than any of the other developed countries both in per capita and per GNP terms. By contrast, the US and the USSR both have relatively easy options for reducing emissions: neither uses energy very efficiently, by either measure, and both have options for moving away from coal, particularly in the case of the USSR.
This would make an 'equal reductions' agreement very hard to negotiate and economically inefficient. Some nations - such as Japan might incur substantial costs in achieving relatively modest reductions. Others might be able to reduce by much more for lesser costs. If they were bound to equal targets, many relatively cost-effective options for reducing emissions could go unexploited.Yet a 'country trade-offs' agreement scarcely seems to offer better prospects, for similar reasons. All countries will endeavor to find some arguments why they should reduce emissions by less than the average sought. The US has already started preparing the ground by arguing that its large continental land mass inevitably results in high energy requirements for transport, and by pointing to the energy requirements of operating a large part of the West's military forces. Officials in many other countries are similarly trawling for historical, geographical and economic arguments to wield in negotiations. Inevitably there will be an abundance of special cases.
Such difficulties will be greatly compounded by the need to include developing countries, for most of whom the question is not how to reduce carbon emissions but how to limit their rate of growth while developing, and how to finance the programmes for such limitations. The associated questions will further magnify the complexity of negotiating targets.
In an attempt to address some of these problems, researchers have suggested a variety of alternative target setting systems. The most serious attempt is that described in the 'Princeton Protocol',which proposes targets set to result in a progression towards equal per capita emissions over an 80-year time scale, with the exact targets revised every decade to correct for population variations and other changes. Such an approach would require an abrupt turnaround in the path of industrialized countries, changing from current increases in emissions to decreases of 2-3% a year. This in practice might make such targets impossible to negotiate or implement. Such an approach would still not give an efficient solution, however, because there is no mechanism for trading-off the many other variations between countries.
More general questions remain unanswered, and may be unanswerable. What is to be done if countries fail to keep within their targets? Forms of sanctions might be considered for industrial nations, but since a major part of the developing countries' problem is their lack of capital and technical resources for efficient development, trying to enforce agreed targets through some kind of economic sanction might only make things worse.
How far ahead should targets be set? It takes many years for energy systems to change; indeed power plants planned today could well be operating in the middle of the next century, so targets should be set far ahead. Or should they? Future emissions will depend upon growth and population changes, and technical change; it is absurd to propose hard targets so far ahead for every country. Targets for each country would therefore need to be renegotiated every few years, adding further to the potential for political deadlock, and weakening the impact of initial targets.
The difficulties involved in negotiating the EC LCP Directive have already been alluded to. Those involved in negotiating reductions in carbon emissions would be very much greater. The time taken to reach such an agreement may well rise exponentially with the number of participants, the extent of inequality in historical and current contributions, and the costs of taking action - especially when that cost may vary greatly between countries. Past experience of negotiating international agreements suggests that a 'country trade-offs' agreement would require many thousands of meetings, over many years. In such circumstances, the target of what is achievable, and the political circumstances of the negotiating countries, would change far more rapidly than the negotiations could keep pace with. Agreement on targets might never be achieved. And even if it were, a treaty on this basis could probably not be enforced in the developing countries.
Finally, as indicated above, a fundamental drawback to the whole process of trying to negotiate country-specific targets is that it creates entirely the wrong incentives. In preparing this paper and a related study of energy policies, the author has talked to analysts and officials in many countries who are considering responses to the greenhouse effect. Many have seemed keener to emphasize the problems in limiting carbon emissions than to examine seriously the options for curtailment. This tendency partly reflects the genuine difficulties to be faced in altering energy systems, but it is reinforced by the expectation that there will be negotiations on setting national emission targets.
From the standpoint of national self-interest, the higher a countries emission target is set, relative to others, the better. Consequently, the pressure in such negotiations will always be to prove how difficult it will be to limit emissions. This psychology is pervading much official research on the problem, and could be very damaging: the difficulties in limiting carbon emissions are great enough without the diplomatic prizes being awarded to whoever can amplify them the most.
To conclude, it may or may not be possible for the world to reach the Toronto or even the Hamburg targets for carbon emissions. But one conclusion seems clear: these goals are very unlikely to be achieved by the countries of the world sitting around a table and agreeing on whom should reduce by how much. The idea that a protocol on limiting carbon emissions will be like the Montreal Protocol writ large is an illusion best dispersed before it leads us irretrievably down a blind alley.
4.5 Underlying themes
A number of possible alternative approaches are considered in the following chapter. Before turning to these, it is necessary to examine some of the underlying features of the greenhouse effect as a problem in international affairs.
The atmosphere as a common resource
The main difficulties to be faced in negotiating control of carbon emissions can be summarized in six points:
i) Carbon emissions control can have profound and potentially costly political and economic implications.
ii) By whatever measure is chosen (whether absolute; per capita; per unit of energy; etc.) countries vary greatly both un past and current contributions.
iii) The implications and costs of limiting emissions, and the possible impact of global warming, may vary greatly between countries.
iv) Many countries at very different stages of development would have to be involved for any agreement to be acceptable and effective in the long run.
v) Carbon emissions are closely tied to (though not necessarily proportionate to) the extent and structure of economic development.
vi) There is a long time-lag involved in any programmed to modify carbon emissions.
Points ii) to v) in this list require particular attention as they raise basic issues of international equity. They reflect the fact that the atmosphere is a global commons in the literal sense of the term: the atmosphere does not respect political boundaries.
What has happened, and is happening, with respect to the atmosphere is exactly the process enunciated by Garrett Hardin in his essay 'The Tragedy of The Commons'. The atmosphere has been exploited by all without reference to the possibility of ultimate degradation, or to the access rights for the different parties. It has been treated as a free and infinite resource, and humanity is now faced with the realization that it is neither, and indeed that a portion of the reservoir has already been 'used up'.
the process, some countries - mostly those that have exploited the resource most heavily - have grown rich. Others, likewise seeking to enrich themselves through development fuelled by fossil fuel resources, may not be able to do so without engendering serious, and global, climatic costs. In this situation, attempts to address the problem can take one of two broad approaches:
Marginal adjustments, in which the current level of exploitation is taken as the basis from which to negotiate marginal changes to prevent over-exploitation of the resource; or Neutral entitlements, in which future access is managed on the basis of equal entitlements to the resource through a flexible system which encourages countries to develop towards a state of exploitation which is regarded as 'just' on some clear and widely-accepted criteria.
Almost all attempts to deal internationally with both environmental resource and economic issues have taken the approach of marginal adjustments. All attempts to consider agreements on country-specific target limitations of carbon dioxide are of this type. Most of those concerned with the issue recognize that a degree of assistance for developing countries will be required, and that there is a strong practical basis for this, in addition to the moral aspect of compensation which emerges from the standpoint of regarding the atmosphere as a common resource which has been partially used up by the industrialized countries.
The 'North-South' issue is bound to cause further difficulties, and is considered below. The central element in the critique developed earlier, however, is that an agreement based on negotiating country-specific targets provides entirely the wrong incentives, and requires too many parties to agree to too many arbitrary targets too far ahead, for there to be much chance of success.
Are the prospects for an agreement based upon some system of 'neutral entitlements' any better? In general, two fundamental objections can be raised against such an agreement: it is too complex; and it defies the nature of Realpolitik, because it involves the more powerful countries giving up some of the fruits of their power to an international system of control.
However, a system which focuses upon one particular gas or source, as a protocol to a framework convention, will not necessarily be very complex. Indeed, as will be argued in the next chapter, there are a number of options for carbon regulation which in fact have the merit of relative simplicity.
The major objection is thus one of Realpolitik: if the nature of a 'neutral entitlements' agreement requires developed countries to give up their current privileged position, would they ever agree to it? The question of resource transfer to developing countries is thus not only a very important factor in marginal adjustments agreements, it is central to any attempts to develop a more coherent system of management.
Developing countries and resource transfer
Clauses on technology transfer have been included in previous environmental agreements. Article 5 of the Montreal Protocol makes special provision for CFC emissions from developing countries, and states:
The Parties undertake to facilitate access to environmentally safe alternative substances and technology for Parties that are developing countries and assist them to make expeditious use of such alternatives.
The Parties undertake to facilitate bilaterally or multilaterally the provision of subsidies, aid, credits, guarantees or insurance programmes to Parties that are developing countries for the use of alternative technology and for substitute products.
The Article recognizes the problem and gives assurances, but does not contain binding or quantified commitments. Such clauses have in general resulted in providing little of what the developing countries had hoped for, and they are becoming increasingly frustrated with the situation. The minor rebellion of China and India in refusing to sign the Montreal Protocol is likely to become more widespread and deep-rooted, and there are signs that developing countries will refuse to agree to significant constraints on their future emissions of greenhouse gases without more binding commitments from the developed world.
Technology transfer is a more fundamental issue than many realize. The dire predictions of future global carbon emissions cannot be avoided if the developing countries industrialize along the same broad path as the developed have done. They will need to 'leapfrog' directly to more advanced and efficient technologies than would occur naturally in the course of development-
Yet little has been written on the form which such aid might take or the levels which might be involved. China submitted proposals for a global assistance fund at the Helsinki meeting subsequent to the Montreal Protocol. These proposals received substantial support, and some developed countries at least seemed genuinely prepared to offer cash to back their verbal recognition of the problem. The UK Secretary of State for the Environment complained:
No one has yet addressed a number of fundamental questions about this idea. It has not been suggested who would run such a fund; how it would operate; on what criteria its funds would be raised, and from whom, and what would happen if they did not contribute. Nor have we heard how it would be administered.
Such complexities can be overcome if sufficient political will exists; the Chinese negotiators have now suggested that such a fund could be financed by payments directly in proportion to CFC emissions, and administered by the UNEP executive. With reference to global warming, the Princeton Protocol contains detailed proposals on the nature and control of a World Agency for Technology Transfer. Yet such issues will certainly further complicate any attempts to negotiate an agreement based upon arbitrary targets. If developing countries do take a strong stand on the issue of resource transfer, one attractive feature of neutral entitlement agreements is that some forms automatically address some of these issues, as described in Chapter 5.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Greenhouse Effect + Intercontinental Pollution => More frequent droughts in India
WHAT IS GREEN HOUSE EFFECT?
The so-called greenhouse effect of the earth's atmosphere is vital: a layer of air enveloping the planet lets about 70 percent of incoming sun rays pass through, but retains a large part of the heat reflected by the Earth's surface.
The greenhouse effect is an increase in the average temperature of the Earth. It happens because certain gases absorb infrared heat that would normally be radiated into space. Infrared light is what you feel as heat from heat lamps used in restaurants to keep French fries hot. It also causes the heat you feel from ordinary light bulbs. Since carbon dioxide absorbs this heat, the more carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, the warmer the air will be. If the air gets too hot, the balance of life will be disrupted.Species of plants and animals will die. The food chain could be upset. This would cause many serious problems worldwide.
This effect makes sure that the planet always has a comfortable median temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. Without the greenhouse effect we would be freezing at minus 18 degrees.
The greenhouse effect is caused by certain traces of gases in the atmosphere that let short-wave radiation, such as sunlight pass through easily, but holds back long-wave heat radiation.
Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O, known as laughing gas) are among the main greenhouse gases after steam.
Since the beginning of industrialization, these gases, especially CO2, have been entering the atmosphere in large amounts through the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Agriculture is another source of greenhouse gases.
With more intensive farming practices, deforestation, increasing numbers of cars on our roads, rising industrial production in developed countries and the industrialization of developing nations, the situation is getting worse by the day.
As humans produce more greenhouse gases, the atmosphere absorbs more heat, causing global warming and changing the Earth's climate.
Some visible effects of global warming are melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and worsening weather conditions such as heat waves and stronger storms.
CO2, methane and nitrous oxide make up nearly 90 percent of man- made greenhouse gases, says the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO). With the emission of those gases, humans increase the natural greenhouse effect.
Compared to measurements taken around 1750 - before industrialization - figures at the end of 2005 had increased as follows: Carbon dioxide up 35.4 per cent, nitrous oxide up by 18.2 per cent and methane up by 154.7 per cent
The average CO2 concentration in 2005 was 379.1 ppm (parts per million particles of air). The average for methane was 1.78 ppm, for nitrous oxide 0.32 ppm. At the beginning of industrialization, the CO2 concentration stood at 280 ppm.
Greenhouse Effect + Intercontinental Pollution => More frequent droughts in India
Polluted "atmospheric brown clouds" (ABC) traveling from one continent to another interact with oceanic warming and increase variability in the monsoon over the Indian subcontinent, according to recent studies sketched in Science Daily. The result may be an increased frequency of drought conditions affecting 2 billion people.
The recent studies from various sources including the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Field observations used in the study were obtained as part of the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), a $25 million international campaign funded by the NSF, the U.S. Dept. of Energy and NOAA.
Scripps scientist V. Ram Nathan is quoted in a Science Daily article: "About five to 10 years ago we used to think about pollution as an urban problem. Now we have discovered, with new observations including satellite data, that these pollution clouds travel quickly and can cover an entire ocean. Scientists have shown that in a matter of five days pollution traveled from China to the United States, and in a matter of three to four days it can travel from the U.S. to Europe."
"The greenhouse gases are pushing in one direction, warming the ocean and trying to make more rain, and the aerosols are pushing in another direction for cooler oceans and less rain. The net effect is to drive the monsoon rain system away from South Asia into the equatorial and southern oceans," said Ram Nathan. "Some years the aerosols might win and in some years the greenhouse effect may win. So we are concerned that in coming decades the variability between the two will become large and it will be difficult to cope with rapid changes from year to year."
The so-called greenhouse effect of the earth's atmosphere is vital: a layer of air enveloping the planet lets about 70 percent of incoming sun rays pass through, but retains a large part of the heat reflected by the Earth's surface.
The greenhouse effect is an increase in the average temperature of the Earth. It happens because certain gases absorb infrared heat that would normally be radiated into space. Infrared light is what you feel as heat from heat lamps used in restaurants to keep French fries hot. It also causes the heat you feel from ordinary light bulbs. Since carbon dioxide absorbs this heat, the more carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, the warmer the air will be. If the air gets too hot, the balance of life will be disrupted.Species of plants and animals will die. The food chain could be upset. This would cause many serious problems worldwide.
This effect makes sure that the planet always has a comfortable median temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. Without the greenhouse effect we would be freezing at minus 18 degrees.
The greenhouse effect is caused by certain traces of gases in the atmosphere that let short-wave radiation, such as sunlight pass through easily, but holds back long-wave heat radiation.
Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O, known as laughing gas) are among the main greenhouse gases after steam.
Since the beginning of industrialization, these gases, especially CO2, have been entering the atmosphere in large amounts through the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Agriculture is another source of greenhouse gases.
With more intensive farming practices, deforestation, increasing numbers of cars on our roads, rising industrial production in developed countries and the industrialization of developing nations, the situation is getting worse by the day.
As humans produce more greenhouse gases, the atmosphere absorbs more heat, causing global warming and changing the Earth's climate.
Some visible effects of global warming are melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and worsening weather conditions such as heat waves and stronger storms.
CO2, methane and nitrous oxide make up nearly 90 percent of man- made greenhouse gases, says the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO). With the emission of those gases, humans increase the natural greenhouse effect.
Compared to measurements taken around 1750 - before industrialization - figures at the end of 2005 had increased as follows: Carbon dioxide up 35.4 per cent, nitrous oxide up by 18.2 per cent and methane up by 154.7 per cent
The average CO2 concentration in 2005 was 379.1 ppm (parts per million particles of air). The average for methane was 1.78 ppm, for nitrous oxide 0.32 ppm. At the beginning of industrialization, the CO2 concentration stood at 280 ppm.
Greenhouse Effect + Intercontinental Pollution => More frequent droughts in India
Polluted "atmospheric brown clouds" (ABC) traveling from one continent to another interact with oceanic warming and increase variability in the monsoon over the Indian subcontinent, according to recent studies sketched in Science Daily. The result may be an increased frequency of drought conditions affecting 2 billion people.
The recent studies from various sources including the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Field observations used in the study were obtained as part of the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), a $25 million international campaign funded by the NSF, the U.S. Dept. of Energy and NOAA.
Scripps scientist V. Ram Nathan is quoted in a Science Daily article: "About five to 10 years ago we used to think about pollution as an urban problem. Now we have discovered, with new observations including satellite data, that these pollution clouds travel quickly and can cover an entire ocean. Scientists have shown that in a matter of five days pollution traveled from China to the United States, and in a matter of three to four days it can travel from the U.S. to Europe."
"The greenhouse gases are pushing in one direction, warming the ocean and trying to make more rain, and the aerosols are pushing in another direction for cooler oceans and less rain. The net effect is to drive the monsoon rain system away from South Asia into the equatorial and southern oceans," said Ram Nathan. "Some years the aerosols might win and in some years the greenhouse effect may win. So we are concerned that in coming decades the variability between the two will become large and it will be difficult to cope with rapid changes from year to year."
Get Info Objectives
1. Identify greenhouse gases.
2. Determine why some proposed replacements for greenhouse gases wouldn’t work.
3. Determine the percentage of the various greenhouse gases’
effects on global warming.
Gather Data Objectives
1. Determine the change in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air.
2. Determine the possible causes of the greenhouse effect.
3. Determine the link between industrialization and the greenhouse effect.
Application Objectives
1. Hypothesize reasons for increases in production of certain greenhouse gases and propose solutions to global warming.
2. Infer what international problems need to be addressed to stop the greenhouse effect.
3. Describe the effects of global warming on humans and on plants.Before doing anything else, add the NOAA Research "Greenhouse Effect" site to Bookmarks or Favorites on your web browser.
What else can we do to slow global warming?
- Preserve existing forests and encourage reforestation.
- Develop alternative non-polluting energy sources.
- Slow population growth
- Encourage environmental laws and treaties
- Use energy more efficiently and insulate houses.
Effects of Global Warming
1. Predict the economic effects on people affected by increasingglobal temperatures.Answers will vary. Answers could include: increased crop production in some areas, decreased in others; polar ice cap melting; starvation due to breaks in the food web, etc.
2. Predict the effects on plants affected by increasing global temperatures and increased carbon dioxide concentration.Plants in some areas will thrive while others will not handle the increased
temperatures and will die. All plants need carbon dioxide, so they should grow better with an increased supply of carbon dioxide.
1. Identify greenhouse gases.
2. Determine why some proposed replacements for greenhouse gases wouldn’t work.
3. Determine the percentage of the various greenhouse gases’
effects on global warming.
Gather Data Objectives
1. Determine the change in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air.
2. Determine the possible causes of the greenhouse effect.
3. Determine the link between industrialization and the greenhouse effect.
Application Objectives
1. Hypothesize reasons for increases in production of certain greenhouse gases and propose solutions to global warming.
2. Infer what international problems need to be addressed to stop the greenhouse effect.
3. Describe the effects of global warming on humans and on plants.Before doing anything else, add the NOAA Research "Greenhouse Effect" site to Bookmarks or Favorites on your web browser.
What else can we do to slow global warming?
- Preserve existing forests and encourage reforestation.
- Develop alternative non-polluting energy sources.
- Slow population growth
- Encourage environmental laws and treaties
- Use energy more efficiently and insulate houses.
Effects of Global Warming
1. Predict the economic effects on people affected by increasingglobal temperatures.Answers will vary. Answers could include: increased crop production in some areas, decreased in others; polar ice cap melting; starvation due to breaks in the food web, etc.
2. Predict the effects on plants affected by increasing global temperatures and increased carbon dioxide concentration.Plants in some areas will thrive while others will not handle the increased
temperatures and will die. All plants need carbon dioxide, so they should grow better with an increased supply of carbon dioxide.
Enrichment Activities
Research
1. Research Venus’ greenhouse effect. How is it different from Earth’s greenhouse effect?
2. Research ozone’s role as a greenhouse gas. Find out whichgreenhouse gases destroy ozone.
3. Mars’ atmosphere has a high concentration of carbon dioxide. Find out why Mars is so cold despite a high percentage of atmospheric CO2.
4. Develop a plan for all countries to help decrease the greenhouse effect.
Research
1. Research Venus’ greenhouse effect. How is it different from Earth’s greenhouse effect?
2. Research ozone’s role as a greenhouse gas. Find out whichgreenhouse gases destroy ozone.
3. Mars’ atmosphere has a high concentration of carbon dioxide. Find out why Mars is so cold despite a high percentage of atmospheric CO2.
4. Develop a plan for all countries to help decrease the greenhouse effect.
Monday, September 17, 2007
NAVRATRI
NAVRATRI(नवरात्रि)
'Nav' means 'nine' and 'ratri' means 'night', thus, 'Navratri' means 'nine nights'. There are many legends attached to the conception of Navratri like all Indian festivals but all of them are related to Goddess Shakti (Hindu Mother Goddess) and her various forms. Though it is one of the most celebrated festivals of Hindu calendar, it holds special significance for Gujratis and Bengalis and one can see it in the zeal and fervor of the people with which they indulge in the festive activities of the season. The first three days of Navratri are dedicated to Goddess Durga (Warrior Goddess) dressed in red and mounted on a lion, next three to Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity) dressed in gold and mounted on an owl and finally, last three to Goddess Saraswati (Goddess Of Knowledge) dressed in milky white and mounted on a pure white swan.Dandiya and Garba Rass are the highlights of the festival in Gujarat while farmer sow seeds and thank the Goddess for her blessings and pray for better yield. In olden times, this festival was associated with the fertility of Mother Earth who feed us as her children. Sweetmeats are prepared for the celebrations and children and adults dress up in new bright-colored dresses for the night performances. With commercialization, the festival has moved on to be a social festival rather than a religious or agrarian festival. In some communities people undergo rigorous fasts during this season that lasts for the nine days of the festival, only to be opened on the tenth day of Dussehra. However, nothing dampens the spirit of the devout followers of Mother Goddess as they sing devotional songs and indulge in the gaieties of the season. This year celebrate Navratra from Oct 14 to 22, 2004
CUSTOMS & RITUALS OF NAVRATRI
The nine days and nights of Navratri are totally dedicated to Mother Goddess and includes fasts, strictly vegetarian diets, japa (chanting mantras in honor of the Goddess Shakti), chanting religious hymns, prayer, meditation and recitation of sacred texts related to Devi Maa (Mother Goddess). Celebrated generally during September or October, the main ritual of this festival consists of placing images of the Goddess in homes and temples. There is a grand ceremony that involves offering of fruits and flowers to the Goddess and singing 'bhajans' (hymns) in her honor. In Gujarat, it is a community event, where people perform devotional songs and dances that are popular by the names of Dandiya Raas and Garba Raas, and observe Jaagran (waking through the night). Bengalis feature worshipping of huge beautifully made idols of the Goddess, perform devotional songs and dances and finally take out grand processions on the tenth day when the idols are immersed in water. The last four days of the festival are most important here. People worship pre-pubescent young girls known as 'kanyas' as embodiments of Goddess. 'Ayudha Puja' is performed on the ninth day where one worships the tools and implements of their livelihood and place it on the altar of the Goddess for her blessings of success and prosperity. It serves to remind one to uphold one's responsibility as a sacred duty to the divine. Even children place their study books and writing tools on the altar and the families spend whole day in contemplation of the Goddess. On the tenth day of Dussehra, devotees perform 'Saraswati Puja' for blessings of knowledge and mental peace and Durga for her victory over the mighty demon-king Mahishasura.
NAVARATRI CELEBRATIONS IN INDIA
North India believes that the war between Ram and Ravana lasted for nine days of Navratri and hence, there is annual depiction of life-story of Rama during these days in rural areas under twinkling stars, which ends with the death of Ravana on Dussehra when huge effigies of Ravana and his demon-brother and son are exploded with fireworks. People often read Ramayana with an aim to finish it in nine days and special puja and decorations are part of the scenery of the season. In Bengal, Navaratri is celebrated in a grand and lavish manner as Durga Puja as huge idols of the goddess Durga posed as killing the demon Mahishasura are worshipped in almost every street. Huge 'pandals' (tents) are set up. Skilled artists prepare idols painstakingly for community and family worship. Bengal, Bihar and Orissa is full of a frenzy as people offer a number of 'saris', flowers, fruits and 'jewelry' to the Goddess. There are music and dance performances everywhere as people buy new clothes, jewellery and sweets. There are grand processions on the tenth day as idols are taken with pomp and show for immersion in rivers, lakes or seas. In Gujarat, painted earthen pots are used to represent the Mother Goodess called 'ghata', which is revered as the abode of the goddess. Devotional Garba dances are performed by the Gujarati women around 'ghata' in circles clapping their hands or decorated sticks to the rhythm of the music of energetic traditional songs. After worshipping and 'Aarti', 'Dandiya raas' is performed in colordul traditional attire of Gujarat as a community dance all through the night. Navratris are considered auspicious for buying jewellery and gold. In Maharashtra, nine days of Navratri are dedicated to Goddess Durga while the tenth day or Vijayadashami is dedicated to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and learning. On this day, school-going children worship the tantrik symbol of the goddess for her blessing in their studies and it is considered auspicious day to begin education and learn dance and music, buy new homes, performing housewarmings and weddings and start new ventures. In Mysore, Chamundi, the royal deity of the Mysore royalty is worshipped durng Navratri with pomp and pageantry. There is a magnificent procession of elephants, horses, chariots and costumed attendants on the tenth day, when Maharaja goes to worship the hilltop temple of the goddess. In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, women arrange 'Bommai Kolu', a special placing of dolls in various costumes decorated with flowers and ornaments on specially prepared steps. Nine young 'kanyas' or virgins are offered new clothes and sweets as the goddesses and married women share flowers, kumkum and snacks among themselves. The Hindu minorities of Kashmiri Pandits celebrate Navratri in a subdued manner as all the adult members of the household fast for nine days on water. One important ritual involves a trip to the temple of guardian goddess Kheer Bhawani in the middle of a Sarovar (lake) on all nine days. It is said that deity warns her devotees of a catastrophe by turning the water of the lake black. It is said that water turned black on a day before Indira Gandhi's assassination and before the last war of India and Pakistan. Here, dance and music is shunned as these nine days are supposed to be spent in the contemplation of Goddess here.
DANDIYA RAAS IN NAVRATRI
Dandiya and Garba are the featured dances of Navratri evenings in Gujarat. Originated as devotional Garba dances, which were performed in the honor of Goddess Durga, this dance form is actually the staging of a mock-fight between the Goddess and Mahishasura, the mighty demon-king. The sticks of the dance represent the sword of Durga. Women normally perform it in a graceful and rhythmic manner in a circle as they rotate around the 'mandvi'. The women wear traditional dresses such as colorful embroidered choli, ghagra and bandhani dupattas dazzling with mirror work and heavy jewellery. The dancers whirl and move their feet and arms in a choreographed manner to the tune of the music with lots of drum beats. The main difference between the 'Garba' and 'Dandiya' dance performances is that Garba is performed before
'Aarti' (worshipping ritual) as devotional performances in the honor of the Goddess while Dandiya is performed after it, as a part of merriment. While Garba is performed exclusively by women, men and women join in for Dandiya. Also known as 'stick dance' as performers use a pair of colorfully decorated sticks as props, the circular movements of Dandiya Raas are slightly more complex than that of Garba. The dancers strike the sticks with their partners to the rhythm of the music. The origin of these dance performances or 'Raas' can be traced back to the life of Lord Krishna. Today, 'Rasa' is not only an important part of Navaratra in Gujarat but extends itself to other festivals related to harvest and crops as well.
STORY OF NAVRATRI
There are many myths and legends attached to the Navratras. According to North Indian stories, Mahishasura, the mighty demon with the power to change into a buffalo obtained a boon from Lord Brahma that he could not be killed by any man in the world. Puffed up by the protection of the boon, he Mahishasura set out to conquer the three worlds of heaven, earth and hell and drove away Indra and other deities from their kingdom. To protect the world from his atrocities the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva united their powers to give birth to a female warrior-goddess Durga. Dazzled by the divine beauty, Mahishasura proposed the Goddess for marriage but was instead challenged to a duel that went on for nine days and nights and at last, resulted in the beheading of Mahisa on the tenth. The nine nights came to be known as Navratri, while the tenth day was called vijaya dashami, the tenth day that brought the triumph of good over the evil. In East India, however, the legends suggest that Daksha, the king of the Himalayas had a beautiful and virtuous daughter called Uma, who wished to marry Lord Shiva since her childhood. However, when Shiva finally came to marry her, the tiger-skin clad groom displeased Daksha and he broke off all the relationships with his daugher and son-in-law. The events took such a turn that Uma was so incensed of her father's rude behavior that she immolated herself to the great grief of Lord Shiva. However, she took re-birth and again won Shiva as her groom and peace was restored. It is believed that since then Uma comes every year with her four children Ganesh, Kartik, Saraswati and Laxmi and two of her best friends or 'sakhis' called Jaya and Bijaya, to visit her parent's home during Navratri. These legends and story are part of the history that surrounds the festival of Navratri and are going to be around as long as the festival continues.
SIGNIFICANCE OF NAVARATRI
A deeper meaning of the festival Navaratri suggests the spiritual growth of a person, where one needs courage to stand up for others and protect the weaker and be able to fight the evil and their temptations. This is the first requirement of spiritual growth - to take a firm against the evil and for the good. The second requirement is to fulfill one's needs, treat the guests and help the poor. For this one needs money and the next three days of Navratri are dedicated to the worship of Lakshmi so that she would bless us with the necessary money to be put to good use. Learning virtues and good qualities and upholding one's responsibility as a sacred duty is the next requirement to the spiritual growth. Finally, Goddess Saraswati is worshipped so that she blesses us with power of knowledge and helps us to attain spiritual enlightenment. The 9 nights festival of Navratri begins on the first day of Ashwin of the bright fortnight. The festival comes to an end on the tenth day of Vjay Dashmi or Dussehra, when the idols of the Goddess Shakti are immersed in the river. Dussehra, is thus, considered auspicious for beginning mantra incantation and renouncing the world as 'Sanyasi'. However, Navaratri has a message for people who lead worldly life too. It teaches us to surmount obstacles with the help of Durga, thank and pray to Lakshmi for her blessings and gain knowledge with the blessings of Saraswati. This done, we can find Shakti (power) within ourselves. We must also understand that Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati are different facets of a single entity, thus, representing that Mother Goddess bestow us with wealth, prosperity and knowledge and protect us too.
'Nav' means 'nine' and 'ratri' means 'night', thus, 'Navratri' means 'nine nights'. There are many legends attached to the conception of Navratri like all Indian festivals but all of them are related to Goddess Shakti (Hindu Mother Goddess) and her various forms. Though it is one of the most celebrated festivals of Hindu calendar, it holds special significance for Gujratis and Bengalis and one can see it in the zeal and fervor of the people with which they indulge in the festive activities of the season. The first three days of Navratri are dedicated to Goddess Durga (Warrior Goddess) dressed in red and mounted on a lion, next three to Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity) dressed in gold and mounted on an owl and finally, last three to Goddess Saraswati (Goddess Of Knowledge) dressed in milky white and mounted on a pure white swan.Dandiya and Garba Rass are the highlights of the festival in Gujarat while farmer sow seeds and thank the Goddess for her blessings and pray for better yield. In olden times, this festival was associated with the fertility of Mother Earth who feed us as her children. Sweetmeats are prepared for the celebrations and children and adults dress up in new bright-colored dresses for the night performances. With commercialization, the festival has moved on to be a social festival rather than a religious or agrarian festival. In some communities people undergo rigorous fasts during this season that lasts for the nine days of the festival, only to be opened on the tenth day of Dussehra. However, nothing dampens the spirit of the devout followers of Mother Goddess as they sing devotional songs and indulge in the gaieties of the season. This year celebrate Navratra from Oct 14 to 22, 2004CUSTOMS & RITUALS OF NAVRATRI
The nine days and nights of Navratri are totally dedicated to Mother Goddess and includes fasts, strictly vegetarian diets, japa (chanting mantras in honor of the Goddess Shakti), chanting religious hymns, prayer, meditation and recitation of sacred texts related to Devi Maa (Mother Goddess). Celebrated generally during September or October, the main ritual of this festival consists of placing images of the Goddess in homes and temples. There is a grand ceremony that involves offering of fruits and flowers to the Goddess and singing 'bhajans' (hymns) in her honor. In Gujarat, it is a community event, where people perform devotional songs and dances that are popular by the names of Dandiya Raas and Garba Raas, and observe Jaagran (waking through the night). Bengalis feature worshipping of huge beautifully made idols of the Goddess, perform devotional songs and dances and finally take out grand processions on the tenth day when the idols are immersed in water. The last four days of the festival are most important here. People worship pre-pubescent young girls known as 'kanyas' as embodiments of Goddess. 'Ayudha Puja' is performed on the ninth day where one worships the tools and implements of their livelihood and place it on the altar of the Goddess for her blessings of success and prosperity. It serves to remind one to uphold one's responsibility as a sacred duty to the divine. Even children place their study books and writing tools on the altar and the families spend whole day in contemplation of the Goddess. On the tenth day of Dussehra, devotees perform 'Saraswati Puja' for blessings of knowledge and mental peace and Durga for her victory over the mighty demon-king Mahishasura.NAVARATRI CELEBRATIONS IN INDIA
North India believes that the war between Ram and Ravana lasted for nine days of Navratri and hence, there is annual depiction of life-story of Rama during these days in rural areas under twinkling stars, which ends with the death of Ravana on Dussehra when huge effigies of Ravana and his demon-brother and son are exploded with fireworks. People often read Ramayana with an aim to finish it in nine days and special puja and decorations are part of the scenery of the season. In Bengal, Navaratri is celebrated in a grand and lavish manner as Durga Puja as huge idols of the goddess Durga posed as killing the demon Mahishasura are worshipped in almost every street. Huge 'pandals' (tents) are set up. Skilled artists prepare idols painstakingly for community and family worship. Bengal, Bihar and Orissa is full of a frenzy as people offer a number of 'saris', flowers, fruits and 'jewelry' to the Goddess. There are music and dance performances everywhere as people buy new clothes, jewellery and sweets. There are grand processions on the tenth day as idols are taken with pomp and show for immersion in rivers, lakes or seas. In Gujarat, painted earthen pots are used to represent the Mother Goodess called 'ghata', which is revered as the abode of the goddess. Devotional Garba dances are performed by the Gujarati women around 'ghata' in circles clapping their hands or decorated sticks to the rhythm of the music of energetic traditional songs. After worshipping and 'Aarti', 'Dandiya raas' is performed in colordul traditional attire of Gujarat as a community dance all through the night. Navratris are considered auspicious for buying jewellery and gold. In Maharashtra, nine days of Navratri are dedicated to Goddess Durga while the tenth day or Vijayadashami is dedicated to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and learning. On this day, school-going children worship the tantrik symbol of the goddess for her blessing in their studies and it is considered auspicious day to begin education and learn dance and music, buy new homes, performing housewarmings and weddings and start new ventures. In Mysore, Chamundi, the royal deity of the Mysore royalty is worshipped durng Navratri with pomp and pageantry. There is a magnificent procession of elephants, horses, chariots and costumed attendants on the tenth day, when Maharaja goes to worship the hilltop temple of the goddess. In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, women arrange 'Bommai Kolu', a special placing of dolls in various costumes decorated with flowers and ornaments on specially prepared steps. Nine young 'kanyas' or virgins are offered new clothes and sweets as the goddesses and married women share flowers, kumkum and snacks among themselves. The Hindu minorities of Kashmiri Pandits celebrate Navratri in a subdued manner as all the adult members of the household fast for nine days on water. One important ritual involves a trip to the temple of guardian goddess Kheer Bhawani in the middle of a Sarovar (lake) on all nine days. It is said that deity warns her devotees of a catastrophe by turning the water of the lake black. It is said that water turned black on a day before Indira Gandhi's assassination and before the last war of India and Pakistan. Here, dance and music is shunned as these nine days are supposed to be spent in the contemplation of Goddess here.DANDIYA RAAS IN NAVRATRI
Dandiya and Garba are the featured dances of Navratri evenings in Gujarat. Originated as devotional Garba dances, which were performed in the honor of Goddess Durga, this dance form is actually the staging of a mock-fight between the Goddess and Mahishasura, the mighty demon-king. The sticks of the dance represent the sword of Durga. Women normally perform it in a graceful and rhythmic manner in a circle as they rotate around the 'mandvi'. The women wear traditional dresses such as colorful embroidered choli, ghagra and bandhani dupattas dazzling with mirror work and heavy jewellery. The dancers whirl and move their feet and arms in a choreographed manner to the tune of the music with lots of drum beats. The main difference between the 'Garba' and 'Dandiya' dance performances is that Garba is performed before'Aarti' (worshipping ritual) as devotional performances in the honor of the Goddess while Dandiya is performed after it, as a part of merriment. While Garba is performed exclusively by women, men and women join in for Dandiya. Also known as 'stick dance' as performers use a pair of colorfully decorated sticks as props, the circular movements of Dandiya Raas are slightly more complex than that of Garba. The dancers strike the sticks with their partners to the rhythm of the music. The origin of these dance performances or 'Raas' can be traced back to the life of Lord Krishna. Today, 'Rasa' is not only an important part of Navaratra in Gujarat but extends itself to other festivals related to harvest and crops as well.
STORY OF NAVRATRI
There are many myths and legends attached to the Navratras. According to North Indian stories, Mahishasura, the mighty demon with the power to change into a buffalo obtained a boon from Lord Brahma that he could not be killed by any man in the world. Puffed up by the protection of the boon, he Mahishasura set out to conquer the three worlds of heaven, earth and hell and drove away Indra and other deities from their kingdom. To protect the world from his atrocities the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva united their powers to give birth to a female warrior-goddess Durga. Dazzled by the divine beauty, Mahishasura proposed the Goddess for marriage but was instead challenged to a duel that went on for nine days and nights and at last, resulted in the beheading of Mahisa on the tenth. The nine nights came to be known as Navratri, while the tenth day was called vijaya dashami, the tenth day that brought the triumph of good over the evil. In East India, however, the legends suggest that Daksha, the king of the Himalayas had a beautiful and virtuous daughter called Uma, who wished to marry Lord Shiva since her childhood. However, when Shiva finally came to marry her, the tiger-skin clad groom displeased Daksha and he broke off all the relationships with his daugher and son-in-law. The events took such a turn that Uma was so incensed of her father's rude behavior that she immolated herself to the great grief of Lord Shiva. However, she took re-birth and again won Shiva as her groom and peace was restored. It is believed that since then Uma comes every year with her four children Ganesh, Kartik, Saraswati and Laxmi and two of her best friends or 'sakhis' called Jaya and Bijaya, to visit her parent's home during Navratri. These legends and story are part of the history that surrounds the festival of Navratri and are going to be around as long as the festival continues.
SIGNIFICANCE OF NAVARATRI
A deeper meaning of the festival Navaratri suggests the spiritual growth of a person, where one needs courage to stand up for others and protect the weaker and be able to fight the evil and their temptations. This is the first requirement of spiritual growth - to take a firm against the evil and for the good. The second requirement is to fulfill one's needs, treat the guests and help the poor. For this one needs money and the next three days of Navratri are dedicated to the worship of Lakshmi so that she would bless us with the necessary money to be put to good use. Learning virtues and good qualities and upholding one's responsibility as a sacred duty is the next requirement to the spiritual growth. Finally, Goddess Saraswati is worshipped so that she blesses us with power of knowledge and helps us to attain spiritual enlightenment. The 9 nights festival of Navratri begins on the first day of Ashwin of the bright fortnight. The festival comes to an end on the tenth day of Vjay Dashmi or Dussehra, when the idols of the Goddess Shakti are immersed in the river. Dussehra, is thus, considered auspicious for beginning mantra incantation and renouncing the world as 'Sanyasi'. However, Navaratri has a message for people who lead worldly life too. It teaches us to surmount obstacles with the help of Durga, thank and pray to Lakshmi for her blessings and gain knowledge with the blessings of Saraswati. This done, we can find Shakti (power) within ourselves. We must also understand that Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati are different facets of a single entity, thus, representing that Mother Goddess bestow us with wealth, prosperity and knowledge and protect us too.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
EDUCATION
Education is a Fundamental Right:
The Constitution of India was amended at the beginning of the Tenth Plan period to make education a Fundamental Right of the child between the ages of 6-14 years. While great strides have been made in providing access to education, the Right itself cannot be said to have been realized for all children. The challenge for SSA is to be able to address the needs for access and quality education for each child. This will require a strong rights orientation within the programme.
In very broad terms the following 2 dimensions of work are crucial for the 2nd phase of SSA under the 11th Plan:
(i)Improvement of the quality of education imparted in the primary and upper primary schools through a range of coherent and comprehensive strategies with clearly defined goals that help in measuring progress. Quality of education is a much discussed issue and there is no clear consensus on what constitutes quality, how to measure it, or whether it can be measured at all. The meaning of ‘improved quality’ needs to be defined in operational terms through clearly identified outcome indicators for various dimensions like teacher competence, classroom processes, teaching learning materials, students’ performance etc.
There is a need for states to envision the change they want in simple terms and to communicate it to teachers, educational administrators and all othrs involved with school education. Sharing this vision with parents could help increase the
accountability of the system to work towards achieving this change. Monitoring of identified outcomes at all levels and across time periods would be necessary.
(ii)Focus on disadvantaged and educationally backward areas and social groups that are lagging behind. This focus should include higher resource allocations, capacity building for preparation and implementation of strategies based on identified needs, more intensive monitoring and supervision and tracking of progress. The ways of working in these identified pockets and with disadvantaged social groups would need to be different from the usual pattern under SSA. The focus on the most vulnerable groups of children who are still out of school would require partnership with NGOs and a commitment to a rightsbased, equity oriented approach. Equity needs to permeate each process under SSA beginning with planning. Equity issues need to become a central theme in the discussion and vision for quality improvement.
The role of SSA:
The very nature of a Mission is to complete a task in a time-bound manner. SSA has succeeded in helping the states in largely achieving the task of basic provision of infrastructure and in creating systems and processes for improved educational attainments. As SSA adopts quality and equity as two main thrust areas, the process improvements brought about as a part of SSA need to be mainstreamed into the Education Departments of the states so that the lessons gained in SSA are sustained.
Better integration of State level SSA with the Directorates of elementary / school education should be achieved on a priority basis. Different models will need to be tried in different States and UTs based on existing structures. At the district level parallel structures should be completely disallowed and SSA should aim at strengthening of the mainstream department structures.
A clearly articulated goal of 2nd phase of SSA should be to influence the education system and target key reforms that would help sustain and institutionalize the gains from SSA. Unless there is a strong effort to address the systemic issues of regular functioning of schools, teacher attendance, school supervision, accountability of educational administrators, delegation of powers to VEC/PRIs, teacher transfer & promotion policies and effective decentralization of school management, the gains of SSA will be difficult to sustain.
It is important that the mechanism of annual work plan appraisal and sanction of budgets is used for identifying and incorporating some conditions to which release of funds under SSA gets linked. These conditions / some incentives could be based on the identified outcomes for selected indicators. One of these could be PTR / single teacher schools for assessing the progress of teacher rationalization. Similarly, States and UTs could be encouraged through such conditions to introduce mechanisms for assessment of teacher competence and
performance and accountability to the local school level committee or the panchayat.
Other Important Recommendations Relating to Programme Duration, Funding Pattern and State Budgets:
1. SSA needs at least another five years to complete the unfinished agenda with a slightly altered focus. Therefore the duration of the programme should be extended to the end of the 11th Five Year Plan viz. 2011-12. This also necessary to ensure that some of the good practices under SSA take root and can be sustained through the mainstream education system after the close of the programme. On account of the recommendation for a somewhat modified focus and priortization of SSA interventions during the 11th Plan, it would be appropriate to refer to the balance 5 year period of the programme as 2nd phase of SSA. This would also imply significant changes in the definition of eligible
activities and financial norms.
2.The recommendation of the Ministry of HRD and the Mid-Term Appraisal Report of the Planning Commission for continuing the 75:25 fund sharing pattern between the Centre and States for the 11th Plan period needs to be accepted. With the allocations for SSA increasing significantly during the last two years of the 10th Plan period and projected to increase further in the 11th Plan, the States and UTs will not be in a position to share 50% of the total SSA allocations. The fact that States and UTs are now contributing their 25% State share regularly indicates their commitment to SSA and UEE. Any change in the funding pattern at this stage is likely to result in undermining the likely future achievements under SSA. It is important that States and UTs receive early confirmation about continuation of the 75:25 fund sharing pattern.
3.Expenditures on elementary education in some States are stagnating. In the interest of sustainability, it is important that States’ allocations for elementary education should continue to increase. The SSA programme should in consultation with the States and UTs modify the condition for funding of SSA to require ‘an increase in real term expenditure on elementary education over 2005-06 level’ instead of the present requirement of maintaining the expenditure in nominal terms only.
4.At present, the public spending on education is about 3.7% of the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). There is a national commitment to enhance the
expenditure in education upto 6% of the GDP in a phased manner. This needs to reflect the requirements of the elementary education sector in ample measure.
The Constitution of India was amended at the beginning of the Tenth Plan period to make education a Fundamental Right of the child between the ages of 6-14 years. While great strides have been made in providing access to education, the Right itself cannot be said to have been realized for all children. The challenge for SSA is to be able to address the needs for access and quality education for each child. This will require a strong rights orientation within the programme.
In very broad terms the following 2 dimensions of work are crucial for the 2nd phase of SSA under the 11th Plan:
(i)Improvement of the quality of education imparted in the primary and upper primary schools through a range of coherent and comprehensive strategies with clearly defined goals that help in measuring progress. Quality of education is a much discussed issue and there is no clear consensus on what constitutes quality, how to measure it, or whether it can be measured at all. The meaning of ‘improved quality’ needs to be defined in operational terms through clearly identified outcome indicators for various dimensions like teacher competence, classroom processes, teaching learning materials, students’ performance etc.
There is a need for states to envision the change they want in simple terms and to communicate it to teachers, educational administrators and all othrs involved with school education. Sharing this vision with parents could help increase the
accountability of the system to work towards achieving this change. Monitoring of identified outcomes at all levels and across time periods would be necessary.
(ii)Focus on disadvantaged and educationally backward areas and social groups that are lagging behind. This focus should include higher resource allocations, capacity building for preparation and implementation of strategies based on identified needs, more intensive monitoring and supervision and tracking of progress. The ways of working in these identified pockets and with disadvantaged social groups would need to be different from the usual pattern under SSA. The focus on the most vulnerable groups of children who are still out of school would require partnership with NGOs and a commitment to a rightsbased, equity oriented approach. Equity needs to permeate each process under SSA beginning with planning. Equity issues need to become a central theme in the discussion and vision for quality improvement.
The role of SSA:
The very nature of a Mission is to complete a task in a time-bound manner. SSA has succeeded in helping the states in largely achieving the task of basic provision of infrastructure and in creating systems and processes for improved educational attainments. As SSA adopts quality and equity as two main thrust areas, the process improvements brought about as a part of SSA need to be mainstreamed into the Education Departments of the states so that the lessons gained in SSA are sustained.
Better integration of State level SSA with the Directorates of elementary / school education should be achieved on a priority basis. Different models will need to be tried in different States and UTs based on existing structures. At the district level parallel structures should be completely disallowed and SSA should aim at strengthening of the mainstream department structures.
A clearly articulated goal of 2nd phase of SSA should be to influence the education system and target key reforms that would help sustain and institutionalize the gains from SSA. Unless there is a strong effort to address the systemic issues of regular functioning of schools, teacher attendance, school supervision, accountability of educational administrators, delegation of powers to VEC/PRIs, teacher transfer & promotion policies and effective decentralization of school management, the gains of SSA will be difficult to sustain.
It is important that the mechanism of annual work plan appraisal and sanction of budgets is used for identifying and incorporating some conditions to which release of funds under SSA gets linked. These conditions / some incentives could be based on the identified outcomes for selected indicators. One of these could be PTR / single teacher schools for assessing the progress of teacher rationalization. Similarly, States and UTs could be encouraged through such conditions to introduce mechanisms for assessment of teacher competence and
performance and accountability to the local school level committee or the panchayat.
Other Important Recommendations Relating to Programme Duration, Funding Pattern and State Budgets:
1. SSA needs at least another five years to complete the unfinished agenda with a slightly altered focus. Therefore the duration of the programme should be extended to the end of the 11th Five Year Plan viz. 2011-12. This also necessary to ensure that some of the good practices under SSA take root and can be sustained through the mainstream education system after the close of the programme. On account of the recommendation for a somewhat modified focus and priortization of SSA interventions during the 11th Plan, it would be appropriate to refer to the balance 5 year period of the programme as 2nd phase of SSA. This would also imply significant changes in the definition of eligible
activities and financial norms.
2.The recommendation of the Ministry of HRD and the Mid-Term Appraisal Report of the Planning Commission for continuing the 75:25 fund sharing pattern between the Centre and States for the 11th Plan period needs to be accepted. With the allocations for SSA increasing significantly during the last two years of the 10th Plan period and projected to increase further in the 11th Plan, the States and UTs will not be in a position to share 50% of the total SSA allocations. The fact that States and UTs are now contributing their 25% State share regularly indicates their commitment to SSA and UEE. Any change in the funding pattern at this stage is likely to result in undermining the likely future achievements under SSA. It is important that States and UTs receive early confirmation about continuation of the 75:25 fund sharing pattern.
3.Expenditures on elementary education in some States are stagnating. In the interest of sustainability, it is important that States’ allocations for elementary education should continue to increase. The SSA programme should in consultation with the States and UTs modify the condition for funding of SSA to require ‘an increase in real term expenditure on elementary education over 2005-06 level’ instead of the present requirement of maintaining the expenditure in nominal terms only.
4.At present, the public spending on education is about 3.7% of the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). There is a national commitment to enhance the
expenditure in education upto 6% of the GDP in a phased manner. This needs to reflect the requirements of the elementary education sector in ample measure.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
HOLY BASIL (TULSI)
"The Queen of Herbs" - is the most sacred herb of India. Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), although also known as Holy Basil, is a different plant from the pesto variety of Basil (Ocimum basilicum). Tulsi has been revered in India for over five thousand years, as a healing balm for body, mind and spirit, and is known to bestow an amazing number of health benefits. ORGANIC INDIA is pleased to offer Organic Tulsi, for the first time, as a stress-relieving, energizing and delicious tea. For our ORGANIC INDIA Tulsi Tea Collection we utilize a proprietary combination of 3 varieties of Tulsi: Rama Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), Krishna Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) and Vana Tulsi (Ocimum gratissiumum). Each variety lends its own distinct and characteristic taste that contributes to the delicious flavor and aroma of our blend.
What are the health benefits of Tulsi?
Rich in antioxidant and renowned for its restorative powers, Tulsi has several benefits:
· Relieves stress / adaptogen
· Bolsters immunity
· Enhances stamina
· Provides support during cold season
· Promotes healthy metabolism
· A natural immuno-modulator
"Modern scientific research offers impressive evidence that Tulsi reduces stress, enhances stamina, relieves inflammation, lowers cholesterol, eliminates toxins, protects against radiation, prevents gastric ulcers, lowers fevers, improves digestion and provides a rich supply of antioxidants and other nutrients. Tulsi is especially effective in supporting the heart, blood vessels, liver and lungs and also regulates blood pressure and blood sugar." Dr. Ralph Miller, former Director of Research for the Canadian Dept. of Health and Welfare.
What are the health benefits of Tulsi?
Rich in antioxidant and renowned for its restorative powers, Tulsi has several benefits:
· Relieves stress / adaptogen
· Bolsters immunity
· Enhances stamina
· Provides support during cold season
· Promotes healthy metabolism
· A natural immuno-modulator
"Modern scientific research offers impressive evidence that Tulsi reduces stress, enhances stamina, relieves inflammation, lowers cholesterol, eliminates toxins, protects against radiation, prevents gastric ulcers, lowers fevers, improves digestion and provides a rich supply of antioxidants and other nutrients. Tulsi is especially effective in supporting the heart, blood vessels, liver and lungs and also regulates blood pressure and blood sugar." Dr. Ralph Miller, former Director of Research for the Canadian Dept. of Health and Welfare.
How can Tulsi offer so many health benefits?
The unique chemistry of Tulsi is highly complex. Tulsi contains hundreds of beneficial compounds known as phyto-chemicals. Working together, these compounds possess strong antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, adaptogenic, and immune-enhancing properties that promote general health and support the body's natural defense against stress and diseases. The essential oils in the leaves of Tulsi that contribute to the fragrance and refreshing flavor of Tulsi Tea, are a particularly rich source of valuable phyto-chemicals.
What is an adaptogen?
An adaptogen is an agent that helps the body adapt more efficiently to stress. Adaptogens reduce the intensity and negative impact of the stress caused by mental tension, emotional difficulties, poor lifestyle habits, disease and infection, pollution and other factors. Tulsi is one of the most effective adaptogens known.
What are antioxidants?
Antioxidants slow down the process of excess oxidation and protect cells from the damage caused by free radicals. When cells are attacked by free radicals, excess oxidation occurs which damage and destroy cells. Antioxidants stop this process. The cellular damage caused by free radicals can be responsible for causing and/or accelerating many diseases. Tulsi is rich in antioxidants and is recommended to guard against free radicals and protect from damaging excess oxidation.
An immuno-modulator is an agent that balances and improves the immune response of the body in fighting antigens (disease causing agents such as bacteria, viruses, microbes, allergens etc.) and maintaining health.
How soon can I expect to see results from drinking ORGANIC INDIA Tulsi Teas?
Some of Tulsi effects are quite immediate, while others develop gradually after weeks of regular use. For example, you may feel more relaxed and energized after the first cup. Although Tulsi has many specific effects on different body systems, its main benefits arise from its impressive general capacity to assist the body's natural process of healing and maintaining health. Tulsi overall health promotion and disease prevention effects are powerful, but often subtle. For example, you may simply notice that you do not seem to be bothered by stress or common illnesses, such as colds or flu, nearly as often as before. Or you may notice that you generally tire less easily. As with many other herbal supplements, it usually takes at least a week or so of consistent use for the body to experience major benefits.
Friday, September 14, 2007
MOTHER TERESA
Mother Teresa Biography
Born: August 27, 1910
Born: August 27, 1910
Died: September 5, 1997
Achievements:
Started Missionaries of Charity in 1950; received Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979; received Bharat Ratna in 1980.
Mother Teresa was one of the great servants of humanity. She was an Albanian Catholic nun who came to India and founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. Her selfless work among the poverty-stricken people of Kolkata (Calcutta) is an inspiration for people all over the world and she was honored with Nobel Prize for her work.
Mother Teresa's original name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was born on August 27, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia. Her father was a successful merchant and she was youngest of the three siblings. At the age of 12, she decided that she wanted to be a missionary and spread the love of Christ. At the age of 18 she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India.
After a few months of training at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dublin Mother Teresa came to India. On May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948, Mother Teresa taught geography and catechism at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta.
However, the prevailing poverty in Calcutta had a deep impact on Mother Teresa's mind and in 1948, she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, she returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. She started an open-air school for homeless children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and she received financial support from church organizations and the municipal authorities. On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Vatican to start her own order. Vatican originally labeled the order as the Diocesan Congregation of the Calcutta Diocese, and it later came to known as the "Missionaries of Charity". The primary task of the Missionaries of Charity was to take care of those persons who nobody was prepared to look after.
The Missionaries of Charity, which began as a small Order with 12 members in Calcutta, today has more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices, charity centres worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless and victims of floods, epidemics and famine in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, Poland, and Australia. In 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresa permission to expand her order to other countries. The order's first house outside India was in Venezuela. Presently, the "Missionaries of Charity" has presence in more than 100 countries.
Mother Teresa's work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions. These include the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971), Nehru Prize for Promotion of International Peace & Understanding (1972), Balzan Prize (1978), Nobel Peace Prize (1979) and Bharat Ratna (1980).
On March 13, 1997, Mother Teresa stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity and died on September 5, 1997, just 9 days after her 87th birthday. Following Mother Teresa's death, the Holy See began the process of beatification, the second step towards possible canonization, or sainthood. This process requires the documentation of a miracle performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa. In 2002, the Vatican recognized as a miracle the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, following the application of a locket containing Teresa's picture. Monica Besra said that a beam of light emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumor. Mother Teresa was formally beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 2003 with the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. A second miracle is required for her to proceed to canonization.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
DR. AVUL PAKIR JAINULABDEEN ABDUL KALAM
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF Dr. A. P. J. Abdul KalamBorn on 15th October 1931 at Rameswaram, in Tamil Nadu, Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, specialized in Aero Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology.
He initially worked in DRDO in 1958 and then joined ISRO in 1963. Dr. Kalam has made significant contribution to Indian satellite and launch vehicles of ISRO and also in the missile programme of DRDO. As project Director, SLV-III, he contributed for the design, development and management of India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) to inject Rohini satellite in the near earth orbit. He was responsible for the evolution of ISRO’s launch vehicles programme and configurations. He rejoined DRDO in 1982 and conceived the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) for indigenous missiles.
He was Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development from July 1992 to December 1999.
As Chairman, Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), he generated the Technology Vision 2020 documents – a road map for transforming India from Developing India to Developed India. He provided overall guidance to a number of Homegrown Technology Projects and major technology missions such as Sugar, Advanced Composites and Fly Ash utilization.
Dr. Kalam has served as the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, in the rank of Cabinet Minister, from November 1999 to November 2001. He was primarily responsible for evolving policies, strategies and missions for generation of innovations and support systems for multiple applications. Also, generating science and technology task in strategic, economic and social sectors in partnership with Government departments, institutions and industry. Dr. Kalam was also the Chairman, Ex-officio, of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SAC-C).
Dr. Kalam took up academic pursuit as Professor, Technology & Societal Transformation at Anna University, Chennai and involved in teaching and research tasks. Above all he is on his mission to ignite the young minds for national development by meeting high school students across the country.
Dr. Kalam was conferred with the Degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc. Honoris Causa) by 30 universities/academic institutions. He is recipient of several awards including the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration 1997.
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has been awarded Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and BHARAT RATNA in 1997.
INDIA PAKISTAN FRIENDSHIP
India Pakistan Friendship
RUK JAAYENGE NAHI KAHI HUM HAAR KE…KAL YEH JAHA BADLAYENGE HUM…YEH WAADA RAHA HUMARA!
RUK JAAYENGE NAHI KAHI HUM HAAR KE…KAL YEH JAHA BADLAYENGE HUM…YEH WAADA RAHA HUMARA!
More than 55 years of problem. It’s been long since our immoral politicians, generals and religious bigots have cheated us. Let’s make a new beginning with new friends...let’s get over our pre-conceived notions and convictions and write a new chapter in the history of Indo-Pak relations. Why shouldn't we be friends? Lahore is nearer to Delhi than Washington or London. We look alike, we have similar cultures, and we speak the same language. We have been united in our struggle for freedom. But somewhere we got misguided misled and we became prey to the machinations of an outsider. If you believe in this, then this forum is for you. Lets be part of the solution... Peace!
THE TEARS SHED SILENTLY ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER DUE TO MORE THAN 55 YEARS OF HOSTILITY BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN, FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER.
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