Fuel saving tips for the Dy. C. M.

I am amazed at the thought process of our esteemed Deputy Chief Minister Shri R. R. Patil, as reported by ToI, Mumbai on Page-9 of the 12th Jun 2008 newspaper. He would have us believe that reducing the working days of Government Employees, reducing their trips and vehicle usage, examining the possibility of forcing vehicles to carry full passenger loads, will bring reduction on consumption of fuel whose prices keep escalating by the day. At a simplistic level these thoughts appear laudable, yet even a cursory reflection on each will astound even a person of limited perception.

The Home Dept. has the largest number of 'pending files' of work not done, same as most other state departments, so much so that the press reported the CM as making a specific reference to the delays and negligence of the various Government Departments. Yet, here is a suggestion to reduce working days instead of just the opposite. The irony of it!

It is common knowledge that most of the fuel oil is consumed by industry and large plants and only a small percentage (about 3% by volume) goes for passenger vehicles. Yet this suggestion of saving fuel by reducing visits and trips, so that the officials are more isolated from the citizens and their problems. Note, no suggestion is made that officials should use public transport, which the majority of the toiling citizens are forced to use. Maybe these same officials and their bosses, should try out the suburban trains during rush hour for a reality check.


One would have thought that the Home Minister would be more aware of privacy rights in a democracy, yet if passenger vehicles are to be forced to carry full loads, what will the taxi unions have to say about this? What will happen to the limited public transport?

The obvious solution, to force a rapid development of the much delayed public transport projects is not to be found anywhere. Removing the monopoly of the BEST and the taxi unions is not on the agenda. Reserving traffic lanes for multi passenger vehicles and public passenger transport, forcing polluting vehicle off the roads and highways all over the state, preventing adulteration of fuel and its misuse by individuals and business, all which are regularly documented, have not occurred to the respected Dy. CM. Even a simple task like providing decent footpaths free of encroachers and hawkers is beyond the capabilities of this State Govt. Citizens would walk in comfort and not need cars for short trips. He could be more on target if he has the Government Departments examine the lack of subsidies for use of alternate energy.

Instead of focusing on 'good governance' and providing a safe and secure environment for the citizens to develop economically, socially, spiritually and increase their creativity, the public is now expected to give 'tips' to the vast State machinery on saving fuel? Is this a joke or what? The time is nearing when the public will give more than 'tips', they will cast their votes, which may give a big surprise to the Dy.C.M. and his colleagues in the Government. The recent lessons at the polls are yet to be learnt, sad to say.

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An abridged version appeared as 'farcial solutions' in The Times of India, Mumbai edition, Wed. 25th June 2008, page-14 under 'my times, my voice'.

Food shortages leads to Vegetarianism

The Economic Times, Mumbai edition of Mon. 09th Jun 2008 on page-13 has a very important analysis by Shri Arun Firodia of the two wheeler fame. The very obvious conclusion that any intelligent reader will make is that it is time for a global move to vegetarianism. (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/View_Point/Rising_food_prices_
The_blame_game/articleshow/3112207.cms)

It is the right of all humans to get an opportunity to fulfill basic desires. Given the need for security in food, water, safety and a fair opportunity for growth, shortages of various commodities is a given. Instead of fighting wars for food, water, resources and energy, it will be worthwhile for the global think tanks to motivate their respective governments to force a change in habits of food and resource consumption. This must be highest priority in view the demands of the populations of the developing world, whose averages on all these parameters is so much lower than that of the OECD countries. Now read and ponder ...
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P E R S P E CT I V E S

Rising food prices: The blame game

FOOD prices are going up. There is a serious shortage of food all over the world. Even in America there is talk of 'rationing'.
Who is to blame? Fingers are pointed to ethanol — a petrol substitute. It is said that American farmers are diverting corn to making ethanol and hence the rise in world food prices. There is also a serious debate whether it is wise to use land for production of ethanol. Voices have been raised to say that land should be reserved for foodgrains and not for ethanol.
Well said. But who exactly is consuming the foodgrains? Over 70% of the foodgrains produced in America are consumed by cows and pigs for producing meat. Unfortunately, animals are very inefficient converters of foodgrains to meat. A cow takes in 16 kg of foodgrains to develop one kg of beef. Obviously, grain is used more efficiently when consumed directly by humans. If humans were to directly consume grains rather than cycle them through animals to eat their meat, there would be enough food to feed the world and there would be no 'food shortage'.
An average American eats 125 kg of meat every year and all Americans put together consume, hold your breath, 35,000,000 tonnes of meat every year. Chinese situation is even more alarming. An average Chinese (whose diet used to consist of plenty of vegetables) now consumes 70 kg of meat every year. Mostly pork but increasingly beef too. All Chinese put together eat 100,000,000 tonnes of meat every year. World meat consumption has surged five-fold in the past 50 years, forcing diversion of foodgrains to feed the animals. Even in countries like Thailand the proportion of foodgrains diverted to animals has jumped from 1% to 30%. Since demand for foodgrains is racing ahead of supply the price of foodgrains is rising.
For countries like China or the US, meat is food. Foodgrain is not food. They don't care if foodgrain prices rise. As long as meat prices are under control they are not bothered. China even maintains a 'strategic reserve' of hundreds of thousands of live pigs whom they release in the market to keep pork prices under check.
Why do they feed their animals with grains? Why don't they just let them graze in the rangelands and consume grass? Well, the number of animals raised for meat production is 50,000 million, eight times the human population. There isn't enough rangeland to let so many animals roam around and graze. Secondly, animals would grow faster if fed with foodgrains and other nutrients rather than grass. Naturally, meat factories would like to feed the animals (or let us say overfeed them) with foodgrains.

Meat is an inefficient energy provider. Would you believe that a beef-eater needs more energy walking one kilometre than a car travelling one kilometre? An example would prove this point. The beef eater would spend 70 kcalories in walking one kilometre. Let us say he gets this energy back by eating a piece of beef containing 70 kcalories. The beef-cow would have eaten foodgrains containing 1,120 kcalories to produce this piece of beef. The meat supply chain would necessitate further 1,120 calories in the meat processing factory, chilled storage during transportation, warehousing, retailing and at beef-eater's domestic refrigerator totalling 2,240 kcalories. What quantity of petrol would contain 2,240 kcalories? 70 mls of petrol! And a car would go more than one kilometre in that 70 ml petrol!
Present Indian meat consumption is 3 kg per capita per year and all Indians put together consume 3 million tonnes of meat every year. As and when India becomes rich, Indians may start consuming meat at Chinese levels. India would then need 100,000,000 tonnes of meat since India's population would reach present Chinese population figures. Presently Indian cows feed on grass and Indian pigs feed on garbage but large meat factories would have to be set up by well experienced MNCs to yield such high meat output. These factories will feed their animals on foodgrains. Imagine the pressure on food prices when over 70% of India's foodgrains will go to feed the animals producing meat. There isn't enough land in India or even the entire world to produce foodgrains to support such gigantic animal population.
And what about water? 10,000 litres of water are needed to produce 1 kg of beef. Where is the water to produce so many million million tonnes of meat? An animal generates 100 times more waste than a human being. How to dispose off the waste generated by 50,000 million animals? Raising the animals, meat processing, chilled storage, transportation, retailing and storing the meat in deep freezer at home all require huge amount of energy. A significant portion of fossil fuels is needed to power the meat industry. Surely earth's limited resources cannot sustain two burgeoning populations — human beings and animals. Very soon groundwater will dry up and forests will give way to grazing lands. One billion cows and one billion pigs of rich countries will compete with world's poor for food and water. As their population is rising faster than human population one doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to know who is winning. And to know why food prices are rising.

(The author is chairman, Kinetic Group)

Arun Firodia

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Please pass this on to your friends, colleagues, social groups / networks and discuss how all can benefit from this knowledge for the greater public good and preserving of earth resources for future generations.
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CHINDI FENCE TO PROTECT VERSOVA MANGROVES

The Rain God held back while over one hundred citizens came out of their homes, young and old, to participate in a citizens movement on Sunday morning of 08th June, between 9:30 AM and 12 noon. Volunteers gathered in the dozens at various points along the Mangrove line from HDFC lane to Natasha Tower end of Juhu Versova Link Road, Andheri West.
They brought old cloth pieces and all worked together under the directions of SAVE Forum (http://www.saveforum.org/) to prepare a chindi fence from Versova end of the Juhu Versova Link Road to the HDFC lane. The entire stretch of mangrove land was fenced in by three strands of cloth tied to bamboo posts, brought by the citizens who are disappointed with the apathy and lethargy exhibited by the City and State Government. Even judicial orders fall by the wayside due to vast delays in implementation.
In an inspiring speech, at the end of the fence being set up, Shri Deepak Mehta, SAVE Forum promised the citizens of escalating this activity further if the 'powers that be' do not act promptly and put up a proper fence and protect the mangroves which are the first line of defense in case of monsoon storms and high tides. Later Ms. Usha Kiran talked of the work done by the Forum which has always been in the larger interest of the citizens.
The monsoon has set in today and there is excellent probability for the mangroves to recover provided the total ban on illegal dumping of rubble, filth, etc. and land reclamation is implemented all along the Versova coastline.


Here under is what the newspaper: DNA, Mumbai, Mon. 09th June 2008, page-3 has to say ...

Citizens guard city’s ‘natural buffers’

Residents of Juhu, Versova, Lokhandwala come together for the protection of mangroves

Mahafreed Irani

Looking for inspiration to save the environment? Then read this green story. Five hundred residents of Juhu, Lokhandwala and Versova decided to meet on a rainy Sunday morning to do their bit for Mumbai’s mangroves. Their mission was clear: “We want to stop encroachments in the Versova mangroves,” said Rajesh Vora, secretary, SAVE Forum (Save Andheri Versova Environment). Residents, who gathered on the street around 9am, came fully equipped with old pieces of saree, dupatta, and towel cloth. They tied together the bits and pieces to build a 1.5km-long fence around what they call “the city’s natural buffers”. “Yes, mangroves are the best buffers. Unlike other low-lying areas, which were flooded during the 26/7 deluge, our area was clear, thanks to the mangroves,” said Sunita Singh, a resident of the area. Singh is not the only one who knows the importance of the ‘buffer’. Several studies have revealed that areas having mangrove ecosystems were less damaged by the 2004 tsunami. Researchers believe that these trees managed to absorb almost 70-90% of the impact of the waves. Ira Bhongade, 12, is aware of this. She wants to protect the Versova mangroves too. “We need oxygen, and these trees help clean the air we breathe,” she said. Ira is the youngest member of the symbolic protest. She along with others went door-to-door giving out posters to make sure that the neighbourhood would unitedly come forward to demand for a protection wall to save the mangroves. “In March 2002, we filed a PIL to rejuvenate the mangroves. In response, the Urban Development Department of Maharashtra sanctioned Rs7.40 crore. But till date, no work has started,” said Vora. Fed up with the BMC ways, Vinny Dewan decided to join the symbolic protest too. “The authorities came and carried out researched. But when will they start building the protection wall?” she asked. The residents set up the fence as a symbol of protest, but some went back with a sense of disillusionment. They felt that BMC wasn’t taking action because it didn’t want to obstruct the setting up of a playground in the mangrove area for Versova’s Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology. “We won’t let this happen and plan to fight on till this area is declared as forest land,” said Vora. m_irani@dnaindia.net

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Chiller-fridge works without external energy.

As a small boy over fifty years ago, I remember my father putting a tall aluminium pot containing a sweet milk product (baasundi) inside our home drinking water pot made of mud-clay (called madkaa). Ice was rare and often unhealthy. Fridges were only heard off and not seen.

We used to drink water from this ‘madkaa’ which had a small tap, since it used to be much cooler than ambient temperature and this was used to chill the food in the aluminium pot rather quickly.

Use of ‘madkaa’ for cool water is very popular all over India and food can be easily chilled in it. A small family can use larger ‘madkaa’ and chill veggies, fruits, cooked food and extend their shelf life.

Some 170 million households do not have a chiller or a fridge and all could immediately benifit from the ‘metal pot in a madkaa’ concept. Farmers need to use thick walled mud huts with double layered sloping roofs of wet staw mats as ‘chilled rooms’ to store the farm produce for market day. Water sprinkled on the outer walls will keep the inside temperature down.

The issue of promoting such ‘green concepts’ remains. This is traditional knowledge which is gradually being forgotten due to the loud multi channel shouts on the TV reaching some 75 million households in India. However, since simple basic desires are not being met even sixty years after political freedom and supply of electric energy for all the 220 million households in India is a dream for another ten years, NGOs and ‘activists’ need to promote the traditional knowledge to bring relief to the ignorant masses.