Ocean Acidification: Do We Give a Fish?

This week – and the next week – I am in Pyeong Chang – a mountain town in the Republic of Korea, covering the 12th Conference of Parties on Biological Diversity (CBD COP). Posting here my views on what’s happening at the venue.  You can also read my news articles from the COP here.

Two years ago, one morning I stood on the beach of  Calangute – a coastal town in western India’s Goa and watched rows of fishing boats returning to the shore. Each of these boats had, wrapped in a large net, the night’s harvest from the ocean. As the fishermen emptied their nets, the sand was instantly covered with a silver carpet of thousands of fish. ‘Blessed wealth of a benevolent sea god’– I remembered whispering to myself.

Today, I am reading a UN scientific report that shows that the blessing and wealth of the ocean is under severe threats, thanks to a rapidly rising level of acidification of the ocean water.

India’s New Mining Bill: Worries of A Nobody

Its official then: Indian government is ready the table Mineral Development and Regulation (MMDR) Bill, 2011 - a draft law that allows local people get the financial benefits of mining activities.

The bill, passed today by the union cabinet, asks coal mining companies to pay 26 per cent of their profit after tax to “district mineral foundations” (DMFs), to the district administrations. The money, collected by district collectors, is to be spent on development projects for the locals, mainly tribal communities residing in the mining areas. Roughly put,  the mining firms will pay approximately Rs 10,000 crore a year to the 60 districts (about Rs 1.7billion a year to each), once the bill is enacted.

Undoubtedly, it’s a historic move, to provide justice to scores of tribals who have lost and continue to lose, their land and livelihood across the country due to mining activities. But happy though I am, there are doubts rising in my heart: this new bill, will it just end up as a dud? Will all these hope building just fall flat in near future?