50% suffer kidney ailments | Deccan Chronicle | 2010-04-21

50% suffer kidney ailments | Deccan Chronicle | 2010-04-21

One more extreme horror from Andhra Pradesh that has implications far beyond the farmers and their families who are suffering from kidney ailments due to an overuse of pesticides. I wonder if those who eat this rice well beyond Andhra's borders are aware of what they are consuming as well? Or, if there are studies that show how many people are infected with these dangerous pesticides as consumers in the end? Thanks to the Deccan Chronicle for highlighting this fact in India. Under normal circumstances, the first that any Indian would have heard about this would have been when some Wessetrn country decided to ban Sona Masuri or some other type of rice grown in Andhra from sale and importation.

In India, the law allows "permissible quantities" of rat shit to be included in rice that is sold for human consumption. My guess is that the Food Ministry (whose head seems more interested in furthering his daughter's political career and in running the cricket board than in ensuring that food in India is safe) simply doesn't care about this slow poisoning of the Indian population.

Shame on you, Government of India! The Indian people deserve better!

Forbes: Over the Next 7 Years, 50% of India's Coal Will come from Overseas

This is an article that offers both promise as well as some major cautions: Forbes magazine takes a close look at the fact that 50% of India's coal is going to be imported about 7 years from now. On the most basic level, this means $ 40 billion a year lost in foreign exchange because of this terrible addiction. Look a little beyond that, and it means much worse - not only is this money going up, quite literally, in smoke, this also means that the air is going to be polluted with sulfur and carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide at the very least, water drawn to cool the coal based powerplants will also be contaminated and when this water is released into the sea or into the river system, some of the contaminants will return to contaminate the soil in the country. A frightening state of affairs to say the very least.

I am not sure what can be done - motivated "experts" like the stupid N N Sachitanand whom I have talked about here, have been touting nonsense about some renewable energy technologies which are being successfully used elsewhere. India has a huge coastline which makes offshore wind a very real and viable possibility. The country is bathed in sunlight and this is, fortunately, an area where the government is doing something - the 13th Plan is looking hard at addressing the deficiency in installed solar capacity. As the country grows to be more prosperous, it is going to require more power. Hopefully, India will wean itself from its coal addiction asap. This is a direction that is not going to end in a comfortable journey, wherever it takes the country.

Let's ROB Video

The video explains the motivation that brings youngsters out every weekend in Chennai to clean the beaches up. Yes, this is the same group about whom I can't write enough: Let's ROB.

If you're in Chennai, please try and volunteer when you can. If you're not, then please let your friends in Chennai know about this group.
Thanks!