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CHAPTER
4
An electronic newsletter of the CUTS Centre for Sustainable Production and ConsumptionNo.1 |
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CHAPTER-4 No.1 |
CONTENTS
Indian
Consumers Get Ecofrig At Last!
Skewed
Consumption and Environmental Degradation Continues
The
Most Polluting Autos
Misleading
Environmental Claims
Ganges
Dolphins Under Threat
Largest
Ozone Losses in the 90s |
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This is the launch issue of Chapter 4, a newsletter,
as the name suggests, dedicated to changing consumption patterns. This
newsletter is a production of the CUTS Centre for Sustainable Production and
Consumption at Calcutta, India which has the mission `To achieve the citizens'
right to be protected against unsafe goods, services and environment, and to
promote sustainable production and consumption, and provoke questioning and
action''. It’s a pleasure to carry the story of the Ecofrig
success in India in this launch issue as CUTS has been campaigning for the last
two and half years to increase consumer awareness about an environment-friendly
hydrocarbon based refrigerator (India had none) or Ecofrig. At last this toil
has borne fruit. On a different note along with greetings in the
launch issue we also bring some very sad news from this part of the world. I am
using this forum to speak about the huge tragedy in the shape of an earthquake,
which has struck the north-western state of Gujarat in India, because several of
our friends have written to us enquiring about it. It happened on 26th January, our 51st Republic Day. As things stand today over 30,000 people have
perished in the disaster with a total loss estimated to exceed $5-10bn. Some
estimate the deaths to cross 100,000, as the rubble is still being cleared in
cities like Ahmedabad, Bhuj and Surat. Reports from villages are creeping,
though the cities with their multistoried buildings suffered much damage. Gujarat is the second most prosperous state in India. We
are situated in adjoining state of Rajasthan. We also felt the tremors for a few
moments here and elsewhere in the country, while rumblings have been heard even
as recently as yesterday. Already both these states are suffering from drought
for the second term. In Jaipur itself, we are already having a water problem,
which will get worse in the ensuing summers. Be that as it may, relief is pouring into Gujarat
from all over, including rescue teams and equipment are coming in from UK,
Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, USA, Germany et al. Even a poor
country like Bangladesh, has rushed food and other emergency supplies. More
countries are joining this massive relief operation. There is also a massive community effort to raise
money and supplies for the affected by all and sundry. The Prime Minister and
the Chief Ministers of all states in India have appealed to people to send
donations to their relief funds. Newspapers, etc. have also launched their own
relief funds and are collecting from people. All the staff at CUTS, like in many
offices, have donated one day’s salary. In the overall, NGOs are much ahead of government
agencies in reaching relief. Should any reader/friend wish to donate any money
to the relief efforts are welcome to send it to: Centre for Health Education, Training and
Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA) Lilavatiben Lalbhai’s Bungalow, Civil Camp
Road, Shahibaug, Ahmedabad 380 004 Telephone No: 91-79-2868856, 2866695 and 2865636 Fax No: +91 (79) 2866513, 6420242 E-Mail : chetna@icenet.net Website: www.icenet.net.in/chetna We hope that you would enjoy the diverse nature of
issues being covered by the launch issue of Chapter 4. Happy reading and
comments are most welcome!
Indian Consumers
Get Ecofrig At Last! Finally
environmental concerns of Indian refrigerator consumers have been addressed by
at least one manufacturer. The first Ecofrig (an environment-friendly
refrigerator free of 1) ozone depleting CFCs and HCFCs and 2) HFCs which is a
greenhouse gas responsible for climate change) was launched in the Indian market
on 9th January 2001 by Godrej Appliances Ltd. Godrej is the largest
domestic manufacturer of refrigerators. The
new refrigerator uses the environmentally benign and safe hydrocarbon technology
thus dispensing of totally with any kind of ozone-depleting substances or
greenhouse gases which are being used by other manufacturers. Godrej
has dubbed its new HC based fridges `Pentacool’ and have launched these in
four different capacities of 180 lts, 202lts, 215lts and 235lts. The models, are
also very competitively priced vis-à-vis non-HC models of other manufacturers
like LG and Whirlpool for example. The
launch of the first Ecofrig is also cause for some cheer for NGOs like CUTS
which has been running a nation-wide campaign for increasing consumer awareness
about Ecofrig i.e. a hydrocarbon based refrigerator. However its a pity to note
that the multinational refrigerator manufacturers operating in India are still
using old and environmentally destructive HFC and other technologies despite the
fact that the same companies are selling Ecofrigs in Europe and elsewhere since
long time. CUTS and other NGOs of the `Ecofrig network’ have been attacking
the double standards of such manufacturers. Skewed Consumption
and Environmental Degradation Continues
According
to Vital Signs 2000, a report released
by the World Watch Institute, inequalities of wealth, power, opportunities, and
survival prospects are confounding efforts to reverse environmental degradation.
However, overall, trends reported are mixed. Thus, while there is a drop in
foodgrain production and productivity of rangelands, energy production has moved
towards environmentally benign means. There is also a move towards environmental
diplomacy and green taxes. The
study shows that though the world economy pumped out nearly $41 trillion worth
of goods and services in 1999, 45 percent of the income went to 12 percent of
the world’s people who live in the western industrialised countries. The per
capita use of paper in industrialised nations is now 9 times higher than
developing countries while the number of cars per person was about 100 times
higher in North America, Western Europe, and Japan than in India or China. In the last 50 years, although the global economy has
registered a six-fold increase but the environmental flip side of this growth,
however, was that it was fuelled by a four-fold growth in the use of fossil
fuels. There was an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 317 ppm
in 1959 to 368 ppm in 1999. The report says that this 16 percent rise in carbon
dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas was accompanied by a record rise in
temperatures, which contributed to some of the most destructive storms and
floods on record. The world’s major automakers have been ranked recently and Isuzu has come out on top followed by Daimler Chrysler and Ford. Daimler Chrysler, Ford and General Motors have bagged three of the top four rankings because of high levels of production of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and trucks. The ranking was done by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) which is a non-profit group based in the United States. SUVs and light trucks are up to five time dirtier and about thirty percent less fuel-efficient than cars. UCS alongwith the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy based its report on recent data on air pollution and global warming emissions and used this to rank each automaker’s fleet of new vehicles.
The four big automakers are followed in the rankings
by BMW, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and Subaru. SUVs and light trucks are allowed to
consumer one third more gas than cars because of a US federal loophole. This
adds 240 million tons of global warming gases to the atmosphere annually. The UCS report titled Pollution Lineup: An Environmental Ranking of Automakers, says that
despite three decades of emission regulations, cars and light trucks – which
includes SUVs, minivans and pickups – still threaten Americans’ health and
the environment. Automakers however continue to project themselves as
environment-responsible companies through advertising and voluntary actions to
reduce pollution from their vehicles. Misleading
Environmental Claims The National Consumer Council (NCC), a UK based
consumer watchdog wants a clampdown on manufacturers and retailers who make
misleading claims on their products.
According to NCC the current voluntary code of practice of ‘green’
labelling was not working. The UK government had launched the Green Claims code
in 1998 to try and ensure that any environment claims on products were accurate
and verifiable. The NCC said that a survey of products on sale at supermarkets,
garden centres and home improvement stores found that the government’s
voluntary code had not improved the quality or integrity of environmental claims
on products. According to NCC the government should stamp out
misleading and false claims using legally enforceable penalties if they were
found to flout the existing Green Claims code. Ganges Dolphins Under Threat
Severe pollution of the Ganges River of northern India and acute habitat degradation is threatening the survival of one of the most exotic of water creatures, the Ganges Dolphin. Recent scientific studies conducted to estimate the threat to this endangered mammal found that severe pollution by organochlorine pesticides and industrial effluents coupled with acute degradation of their habitat has brought them close to extinction.
Very high levels of DDT has been found in the body
fat of this aquatic creature in areas near the cities of Patna, Hardwar etc
which indicates the declining eco-status of the Ganges river itself. This has
far reaching and wider implications. According to Dr Ravindra Sinha of the department of biology of Patna university about 2500 specimens of this fresh water mammal, known commonly is Susu currently survives. Dr Sinha has been conducting pioneering studies of the status and behavioural patterns of the Gangetic dolphin.
Largest Ozone Losses in the 90s
An
international team of scientists detected losses in Arctic ozone levels as high
as 60 percent at altitudes of around 18kms in the first three months of this
year. Previous recorded losses were upto 45 percent. The present findings imply
that North Europeans will face increased risk of skin cancer and eye cataracts
resulting from increased UV-B radiations entering through the thinner ozone
shield. The development of such ozone as has been discovered now follows a
period of usually low temperatures combined with high levels of pollution in the
stratosphere. According
to the European Commission there has been 15 percent ozone depletion in Europe
since the early 1980s. The ozone shield has been thinning over the years because
of the use of ozone-unfriendly man made chemicals which have been labeled as
ozone depleting substances (ODS). And Pesticides in Children’s Food Consumers Union, a non-profit advocacy group is the
US, have urged their government to ban the use of dangerous chemicals as
pesticides. Their urge was based on an independent analysis made by them on the
US Department of Agriculture’s 1998 tests of thousand of fruit and vegetable
sample, domestic and imported, fresh and processed. It was found that pesticide residues in food children
eat everyday like apples and grapes often exceed safe levels of toxic residues.
Some other foods like winter squash, peaches, apples, pears, strawberries, green
beans, spinach and cantaloupe also contain high levels of relatively toxic
residues from pesticides leading to health risks including blurred vision and
memory loss. The group has also asked for tighter control of about 20 specific
chemicals that are responsible for a large share of residues found in foods. The
Consumers Union report is available at http://www.ecologic-ipm.com/PDP/Update-Childrens-Foods.pdf
Forthcoming Events South Asian Consultation on Atmospheric
Issues, April 2001, New Delhi, India CUTS along with UNEP TIE’s
OzonAction Programme and the South Asia Watch on Trade Economics and Environment
(SAWTEE) is about to launch a series of activities: `Awareness Generation for
Parliamentarians in South Asia on Atmospheric Issues’. The
first in this series will be a regional consultation: The South Asian
Consultation on Atmospheric Issues in the first week of April, 2001 in New
Delhi, India. This consultation will familiarise parliamentarians (from
Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) and other agents of change
with the issues of ozone depletion, climate change and global warming
(atmospheric issues) and the interlinkages between them. The regional
consultation will be followed with country workshops and other relevant
activities. For
further information about this event contact Rajat Chaudhuri at
rajat.chaudhuri@cuts-india.org The Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has recently notified the draft Battery (Management and Handling) Rules under the Environment Protection Act 1986. Recognising the potentially hazardous nature of lead-acid batteries and the opportunities for facilitating environmental improvements in the sector CUTS has been organising a series of workshops for capacity building and training of lead-smelters and individuals involved in allied trades. The
`National Consultation - Sustainable Production and the Lead Acid Battery
Sector’ will discuss the feedback received from the four training workshops
organised
in various Indian cities. and
help to make appropriate and necessary revisions in the training,
capacity-building and lobbying strategies being followed till now. The revised
strategies will be informed by the experience gained and our analysis of
workshop feedback as well as expert opinion. The Consultation will also
involve formation of an Expert Group for future consultations on this and
similar issues. For further information about this event contact Arjun Dutta |
CUTS
Centre for Sustainable Production & Consumption (CUTS-CSPAC)
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Suren Tagore Road, 2nd Floor, Calcutta-700019, India Telefax:
91-33-24601424, Fax: 91-33-24407669 Email:
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