The 9 to 5 Environmentalist

Frinn* loves Friday nights. That's when she can hit the downtown watering hole to let her hair down and drown the harsh pressures of her work-week in bottomless Mojitos. Weekdays, after all, can be oh-so draining.

Her father was slightly disappointed that she didn't take to engineering like he did in college, but she did get into a vastly well-reputed university and that's all that needs to be said to his co-workers at holiday parties, right? So what if she majored in Environmental (instead of Computer) Science? She could write you a research proposal about her summer project in Thailand, incorporating its ultimate impact on the state of global warming knowledge, as well as how it can put an end to elephant poaching that would make you want to pencil in her name on the ballot during presidential elections.

A typical workday in the life of Frinn begins with a glass of organic pomegranate and starfruit elixir (bought in bulk at $7.00/half gallon at the organic section of the downtown supermarket), watching CNN on her wall-mounted LCD that her dad got her when she moved to the city. Winter is nigh, and she's chilly in her shorts so she walks up to set the thermostat up to 82 degrees F. Oops, its already 8:45, a quick shower and she's off to work. Thankfully it isn't snowing yet, so she can stroll over to her office that is some blocks away, and not take the car.

Work is the same everyday. Looking up some environmental news and choose which news item to bring up at the meeting with the chair, perhaps interviewing a local farmer on the phone, writing a draft of a brief fact-sheet about how burning coal might be leading to global warming. Oh and making sure that at staff meetings about inspiration for future work, she contributes from her own personal experience from the week she spent in Costa Rica after college.

Frinn does define herself as an environmentalist. Among all her friends, she’s affectionately known as 'Greenie' because she joined a think-tank.

I was first introduced to the 9 to 5 environmentalist during my undergraduate years. I had chosen to not study engineering or medicine or business because in my heart of hearts, I found rising sea-levels and disappearing forests to be deeply more concerning and I knew that I wouldn't feel very successful or fulfilled in a life/career that doesn't directly deal with such problems. Having made my choice, I faced a steady stream of "Don't you have any ambition?" "Is there money in that?", "What do you mean 'natural' resources?" Very few understood and even fewer appreciated why, despite the enviable GPA, I was heading for tree hugging.

I believed that being an environmentalist was simply a way of thinking or way of living and not just a label that you can attach to yourself to make it easier for others to categorize you. That notion was shelved away for being naïve when I came to college.

I met several individuals who confessed that the major was "easier than trying to get into the engineering college or staying a pre-med". There were also those who "got into an Ivy league, man!! Who cares about the major?" Thankfully though, there were many students who truly were environmental scientists in every way and were probably greener in their thoughts and actions than I can ever be. But, as comforting and inspiring was the presence of the latter group, the sentiments of the former couldn't be forgotten.

Interspersed by lakes and waterfalls, on a campus that is idyllia right out of a Wordsworth sonnet, several of these students often avoided walking to class by the short, woody stroll and opted instead to take the longer bus route, or worse yet, drive. Undergraduate meals and housing plans, a fixed fee which was part of the monthly college bill that went home, would mean that all electronics, lights, and where available, air-conditioning would be left on in dorm rooms, all the time. During meal times, a significant amount of the grand banquet presented by our dining halls would be wasted. I was shocked to see how many of my academic peers would pile on their tray enough food for three, peck at a third of it and throw away the rest. Despite quick heating, water would be left raining from the showers with the claim that it’s not warm enough until it has run for some time.

But, these were the same people who would take part in class discussions about the fate of the world's environment, and participate in exercises designed to hone their critical thinking skills for when they are in management positions in the near future. They would have to deliberate, make a case for, plan and write proposals on issues such as whether it is wise to take away village livelihoods and incomes by fencing in forests to protect wildlife or how much should governments invest in renewable resources. In classes, they would do brilliantly, write eloquently and be beacons of scholarly virtue from morning till dusk. However, their environmental sensibilities would not be reflected in many areas of their lives outside of the classroom.

Years have passed since the pickled reptile samples and the thick management plans that would resist even the most powerful staplers. We are now a part of the "real" world that each student dreads and I find that for some, the anomaly presented above has carried on from student life into adult careers. It made me wonder how many 9 to 5 environmentalists are really out there? I am truly very happy that this is not evident in a strong majority of my colleagues, professional peers and friends. I am constantly inspired and in awe of their work and their dedication to the environment and poverty alleviation. However, I still can’t help but think whether or not every tree-hugger like me is that fortunate.


*Purely fictitious character. Any resemblance to actual persons is coincidental.

Pygmy Elephants: Few Today, None Tomorrow?

Image by Tim Parkinson

Encroaching plantations and rampant logging are posing a growing threat to Pygmy elephants endemic to Borneo. Fewer than 1,500 pygmy elephants currently inhabit the forests of Borneo in the Malaysian state of Sabah where clear cutting of forests for plantations and expanding human settlements are reducing the elephant feeding grounds and breeding areas.
Genetically distinct from other Asian elephants, Pygmy elephants are smaller in size, less aggressive and concentrated in their movements to northeastern Borneo. Although over the last 4 decades Sabah has lost almost half of its original forests to plantations, especially due to Malaysia’s emphasis on producing oil palm as biodiesel feedstock, it still remains one of the largest intact habitat for elephants in Asia. With a sprawl of 600,000 to 800,000 hectares, the region is deemed lucrative for plantations and continues to be under great threat from agriculture.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Sabah confirmed the shrinking of elephant habitat after conducting Asia’s largest project involving satellite tracking of the animals to determine their movements. Raymond Alfred of the WWF’s Sabah project informed the press that, “in one day the elephant needs to have more than 200 kg of food, and if lowland forests are converted to oil palm or other uses, that will reduce the food sources for them. And we still don’t know whether they will be able to adapt to the highland forest food sources.”

A shrinking habitat has also been a catalyst towards heightened human-elephant conflict in the region. Almost 20 percent of elephants living in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary have suffered near-fatal injuries from illegal snares laid down by plantation workers to trap small game animals. Despite their gentle nature, the last few years has seen a significant aggressive streak in the behavior of pygmy elephants in their interaction with people.
The WWF informs that elephant communities still have a chance at maintaining viable populations if certain steps are immediately taken. Marking out and protecting corridors between habitat patches can facilitate elephant movements. Additionally, greater monitoring of critical habitats can curb disturbances from timber felling and intrusions by plantation workers. However, these steps would encourage a halt in the conversion of forests to plantations, the economics of which would create a significant conflict of interest.
Sensitive to the situation faced by the elephants and other wildlife in Borneo, the state promised in July to demarcate close to 180,000 hectares of forests for sustainable forestry in order to maintain habitats critical for the survival of orang utans, rhinoceri and pygmy elephants.

Renewed Whaling

First polar bear hunting, and now whales. The International Whaling Commission has renewed a 5 year whaling contract allowing continued subsistence hunting of bowhead whales. By a consensus vote, Alaska natives and indigenous communities of the Chukotka region in Russia (where polar bear hunting was legalized last month), have been allowed a quota of 280 bowhead whales over the next five years. The Japanese Whaling Commission supports this move and hopes that it's proposal to the IWC calling for subsistence hunting of minke whales by indigenous communities in Japan, will also be granted. Another proposal by Greenland is supposed to be raised this week supporting an increase of western Greenland's minke whale catch limits from 25 a year to 200 and the creation of an annual hunting quota of 10 humpback whales and two bowhead whales. According to the Environmental News Network, the commission has also renewed Russia's and the United States' aboriginal catch limits for gray whales in the North Pacific and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean also got a five-year renwed catch quota of four humpback whales a year renewed.
....
Brazil has been asking for a sanctuary in the Atlantic ocean since 1998, but it has failed to gain 75% of the votes necessary to create a whaling-free zone in the South Atlantic Ocean. Pro-whaling nations oppose sanctuaries saying that they don't take into account scientific findings about growing whale populations.
In an age where we are losing an astounding number of species everywhere due to compounding environmental pressures and illegal hunting, I never thought that too many whales were ever going to be an issue. And who defines "subsistence" hunting or whaling? Aren't these renewed quotas and hunting policies pretty much laying out the red carpet for commercial scale poaching by non-indigenous groups? Who will monitor that only indigenous groups specified in the renewed policies, are those engaging in hunting and whaling? Who is going to assure that quotas are kept and catch limits are not exceeded? Who makes sure that the hunting and whaling is being used/will be used purely for cultural and subsistence reasons by indigenous communities who have persisted sustainably with these creatures, for generations. How strongly will surpassing the quota be dealt with?
Let's talk about subsistence. Polar bears are likely to become extinct in the next 25-50 years. Humpback whales have been on the endangered/threatened list, for as long as I can remember. What about the impending need to turn our attention to their subsistence?

image courtesy of Clean Water for All

Hawaii Five-O

In Hawaii, five environmental groups are suing the navy for its use of high-intensity sonar during anti-submarine training exercises, that are heavily harmful to whales, dolphins and marine mammals. The lawsuit plans to "stop the Navy from doing its sonar exercises until it complies with environmental laws they are violating," confirmed Paul Achitoff, the Earthjustice attorney representing the coalition comprising of the Ocean Mammal Institute, the Animal Welfare Institute, KAHEA (the Hawaiian Environmental Alliance), the Center for Biological Diversity and the Surfrider Foundation.

The navy plans 12 anti-submarine combat exercises in the next year, despite ample evidence in the last few years of the harmful effects of sonar that leads to the death of marine mammals. Sonar leads to countless deaths of whales and dolphins by damaging their hearing. Plus, a congressional report found last year that the Navy's sonar training activities have been held responsible for at least 6 cases of mass death and stranding of whales in the last 10 years.

Why such ignorance and blind lack of concern?Come on, people! Where is the Endangered Species Act? Is it not enough that terrestrial wildlife habitats are being ravaged in the name of defense, security and justice? Must life in the oceans suffer too?

Solar Power Brings Light to 100,000 Lives

A solar photovoltaics (PV) pilot project in India has transformed the lives of approximately 100,000 people living in poverty-stricken rural regions by providing several hours of uninterrupted lighting every night. The goal of the $1.5 million project, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), was to facilitate household financing for solar home systems. Its success has inspired satellite programs to improve energy access in Algeria, China, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, and Mexico.

In the absence of alternative energy options and plagued by day-long and sometimes, week-long blackouts due to unreliable local electricity grids, several rural areas in India have had to use polluting kerosene lamps and household stoves to meet lighting needs. According to UNEP, a single wick of kerosene can burn up to 80 liters of fuel, emitting more than 250 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year. In developing countries, 64 percent of deaths and 81 percent of lifelong disabilities from indoor pollution for children under the age of five is attributed to kerosene and other polluting fossil fuels. What is even more unfortunate, is that while kerosene and similar fuels amount to 20 percent of global lighting expenses, they supply only 0.1 percent of lighting energy services.
Approximately 45 percent of people in India are hooked up to a power grid and suffer daily power failures. Those without grid access must often hike long distances to buy a few liters of expensive kerosene, which, upon their arrival, can be no longer available since much of it is traded on the black market as an illegal way to dilute fuel and diesel. "Kerosene used by the poor for lighting is often unaffordable, unavailable, unsafe, and unhealthy, while the electricity power grid is unreliable," explained Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation. Speaking about the new solar project, he noted that, "To provide even this little degree of electricity reliability and independence is to empower the poor in ways that can profoundly alter lives for the better."
The largest barrier to the switch to solar power in developing countries with ample sunlight, has been the lack of good financing options for clean energy in poor communities. The poorest people of the world can often afford only highly polluting options such as kerosene that dibilitates their livelihoods often trapping them in a vicious cycle of poverty. With a program such as UNEP’s Solar Home Systems project, communities gain more ready access to financing, with the chance to pay more money upfront to acquire better, cleaner technologies that can save money in the long-term while improving their quality of life.
With the project, the number of financed solar home systems in the pilot region of Karnataka state in south India increased from 1,400 in 2003 to 18,000 today, providing power to approximately 100,000 people. The systems supply a few hours of continual power in homes or small shops to run small appliances and provide improved reading light. The UN states that, "the lighting has been credited with better grades for schoolchildren, better productivity for cottage-based industries such as needlework artisans and even better sales at fruit stands, where produce is no longer spoiled by fumes from kerosene lamps."
Poverty alleviation and the mainstreaming of renewable energy in rural areas are the likely long-term results of the project, along with the immediate improvement of rural livelihoods and reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

Happy Earth Day

Kudos to Google for their climatically apt Earth Day logo!

Despite the much needed once a year hubbub about the Earth's environment... I can't help but think that its about time the celebration and resulting duration (!) of an environmental conciousness should be year long, every year.

White Alert?

With their homes melting away beneath their feet, polar bears present a painful example of the cold, hard truth behind global warming. As warmer poles eat away at ice shelves, natives like the polar bears find themselves trapped on constantly shrinking ground.

Studies with heart-wrenching results reveal that not only have polar bear numbers shrunk by one quarter in the last 20 years.... but so have their bodies. With an average height of 10ft and weight capacity of 1700 lbs, polar bears use their body fat to survive in long, polar winters when temperatures can plummet to -45 degrees celsius. However, scientists have discovered that, in their struggle for survival, most bears are now much thinner.

Four bears, recently drowned off the coast of Alaska because they were simply not strong enough to cope with a storm. Females have started giving birth to weaker twins and triplets when normally they gave birth to single, healthy cubs. As shown recently on Planet Earth, in their desperation for food, polar bears are risking their lives and trying to attack large walruses, who live in packs and often returning with crippling injuries rather than food.

Its frightening to think that my grandchildren may live in a world where they know polar bears or blue whales or rhinos as being creatures of the past which they heard stories about from their grandmother.

Malaysia Unhappy With Overseas Doomsdaying Involving Orangutans

Accusing international activists of painting an unnecessarily bleak picture of Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), the Malaysian government said it deplores such seeming propaganda that undermines the national oil palm industry. Notorious for converting miscellaneous natural vegetation into monoculture matrices, palm oil plantations in southeast asia have ballooned in both number and scale as a result of the recent surge in biofuels. Palm oil mixed with diesel or ethanol has been touted as the optimal biofuel alternative to convential fuel, hence providing a solution to an impending energy crisis. However, the many environmental no-no's of oil palm have spurred a heated debate among environmentalists and policy-makers alike. Oil palm plantations have replaced illegal logging and forest fires as the leading cause of depleting virgin rainforests in southeast Asia and as it turns out, its the probably the first environmental solution swiftly on its way towards becoming a major environmental problem!


Going back to Orang Utans, the Malay government stresses that the oil palm cultivation is taking place sustainably, using land that has already been cleared, traditionally for rubber. The UN report, "The Last Stand of the Orang Utan: A State of Emergency" begs to differ, claiming that with the present rates of land conversion in Indonesia and Malaysia, not even a trace of virgin forests will remain by 2022. In as soon as 5 years, Orang Utan sightings may be limited to glass cases of stuffed models in the Smithsonian...due to the natural populations having been driven to extinction.

Climate Soup

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 4th assessment report on climate change yesterday. This report summarizes the present state of knowledge about the near future of the global climate. The forecast for some parts of the world projects challenging times ahead where a lot will depend on resilience and adaptability on the part of human and animal communities to ensure long-term sustenance. The title of this report is "Impacts. Adaptation and Vulnerabililty". BBC News has compiled a summary of this report with short features on the impact of climate change on different regions of the world, ecosystems and water. I'll showcase a few of their summaries and their full feature can be found here.


Water
The supply of water is very likely to increase at higher latitudes and in some wet tropics, including populous areas in east and southeast Asia. It is very likely to decrease over much of the mid-latitudes and dry tropics, which are presently water-stressed areas.

Drought-affected areas will likely increase. Instances of extreme rainfall are likely to increase in frequency and intensity, raising the risk of floods. Increases in the frequency and severity of floods and droughts will have implications on sustainable development.

Water volumes stored in glaciers and snow cover are very likely to decline, reducing summer and autumn flows in regions where more than one sixth of the world population currently live.

Asia

Glacier melting in the Himalayas is virtually certain to disrupt water supplies within the next 20 to 30 years. Floods and rock avalanches are virtually certain

to increase. Heavily-populated coastal regions, including the deltas of rivers such as the Ganges and Mekong, are likely to be at risk of increased flooding.

Economic development is likely to be impacted by the combination of climatic change, urbanisation, and rapid economic and population growth.

Forecast changes in temperature and rainfall are likely to reduce crop yields overall, increasing the risk of hunger.

The presence of lethal diarrhoeal diseases associated with floods and droughts is expected to rise in East, South and Southeast Asia and rises in coastal water temperature could exacerbate cholera in South Asia.

Small Islands

Sea level rise is likely to worsen floods, storm surges and coastal erosion, with impacts on the socio-economic wellbeing of island communities.

Beach erosion and coral bleaching are likely to reduce tourism.

There is strong evidence that water resources in small islands are likely to be seriously compromised.

Increased invasion by non-native species is likely.

Environmentalism at whose cost? - Thoughts from a year ago.

A year ago, I left my field site in Sumatra, Indonesia with a rather dreary conclusion. It was one that was feed for many presentations, seminars, group discussions with my students who, already dreary from their bi-weekly dose of international conservation, could only think about why the minute hand wouldn't move faster. All talk... every time... let to an unresolved-dilemma, a large question mark on the concluding slide of each presentation... What should one do? Will it be too late?

Sept. 14, 2005 -- Being a tree hugger has been, and I’m sure will continue to be, a very interesting experience. An experience spattered with realizations both big and small. This summer out in the jungles of Sumatra led me to do some thinking about the environmentalist agenda that is in such stark contrast *sometimes* with what is real and what is feasible. You know how the stereotypical environmentalist is all about saving nature from the ravages of humankind? Yeah.. that can be quite a naïve stance. Not all people are greedy uber-capitalists driven solely by profit, whose primary objectives are to extract and over-extract the earth’s resources. A huge portion of the Earth’s population is poor and rural. And a large portion of those communities interact closely and sustainably with a wide array of ecosystems including forests and wetlands. At least till now they have. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is a phenomenon that is true in many nations of the developing world and my experience is one limited to Indonesia. Hence I will not claim to pass judgment on any other scenario.

Picture this: A farmer in a village. He has been cultivating rubber trees in his 2 hectare agroforest for the past several decades. Not just rubber trees, he grows a variety of fruit trees and his agroforest contains several natural species too. In this way he has created in his backyard, essentially a mini natural forest that is home to several wild animals and birds and also is a source of income and food for him and his family. However, it is not enough anymore. The price of rubber has fallen and he is not making enough money to meet his family’s needs. He would much rather, cut all other trees down in his agroforest and grow just rubber. Or cut everything down and only grow oil-palms, plantation style, which fetch a much higher price. But, then he will be doing away with the “eco-friendliness” of his plot. His plot will not be a mini forest anymore and will not be home to wild animals anymore. *Poof* appears the environmental and ecosystem minded extension agent, talking to the farmer about the importance of biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and how monoculture plantations are bad and semi-natural agroforests like his are extra good for the planet.

What right do I have to tell him to keep his plot as it is now in the name of the environment? How can I ask him to forego a better livelihood for himself and his family, because it makes me and others like myself, who have comfortable enough lifestyles and thus the luxury of being environmentalists, feel good about what we do and what we work for? The environmentalist agenda, through its several avatars over the last 100 or so years, has largely established a barrier between nature and humans. The sweeping sentiment has been “Save nature from humans”.

All this while tree huggers and social-development people were following separate, detached, almost mutually exclusive schemas. But here is a prime example of a situation where the two cannot be teased apart. The lifeline of both the environment and the people living in it are intricately braided together. And now, environmentalists are finding themselves trying to learn ways of getting through to poor people, in order to understand their minds because it has struck them how these same people control the fate of the environment.

But by the time, a concrete, coherent and collaborative plan develops and work finally evolves further from discussions and visits.... it might be too late. There might not be anything left to save. And all that will remain are rows and rows of oil palm as far as the eyes can see.