The protest brigades

Early in 1970's decade, I used to work in the fort area of Mumbai. There were a large number of commercial banks head offices in that area. Almost on every afternoon, during lunch hour, I would witness a common sight. A group of about 40 or 50 men, would be standing near entrance to one of the bank head offices with banners, placards and would be giving slogans damning the managements. The every day show used to be strikingly similar, except that it was held at different venues; different bank HO's. Once a friend told me that actually the protestors are all same people, because they are hired; they just go around from one bank to another. They are actually paid for the job by bank worker's unions. We would jokingly call these people as protest brigades.

Since last 10 or 20 years, a new and much more developed form of protest brigades has appeared in India. They no longer protest for bank employees, They now oppose new projects that are coming up using all kinds of means; PIL ( Public interest litigations) cases in courts, on line petitions, blockades. Many of them are funded from abroad. For example, take the case of atomic power station project at Kudankulam, on east coast of India. The project was initiated long back, when an Inter-Governmental Agreement was signed in 1988 by then Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, for the construction of two atomic reactors at this site.

Due to international political difficulties, the project was much delayed and construction work finally began only in September 2001. As the project neared completion, the protest brigades got into action. A fear was systematically created in the minds of nearby villagers for their safety, which resulted in intense protests by fishermen and other river folk against the power project. Even a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was also filed against the government’s civil nuclear programme at the Supreme Court.

The apex court took a long time to decide on the matter and only on May 6th 2013, in a landmark judgment, gave its green signal to the commissioning of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu. Dismissing a host of PILs challenging the Madras High Court’s earlier order in favour of the plant, the apex court termed the operationalisation of Kudankulam nuclear power plant as necessary for the country’s growth. It took another year for the first reactor at Kudankulan to start delivering its rated 1000 MW electrical power.

I had always thought that these so called bands of protest brigades, donning different names, but all mainly funded by some or other foreign based organizations, are only active in India, to try and block, whenever any new development project is thought off. The latest news from US has however proved that I am all in the wrong,

A question comes to mind as to what all these protests and PIL's achieve except for delaying the projects and increasing its cost overlays. One might give some weightage to the protestors point of view (if there is one!) in the Kudankulan case, because ever since the Fukushima disaster in Japan, many environmentalists have been questioning about over all long term impact of Nuclear power. But how does one justify protests against an astronomical telescope being set up on a remote mountain because the site offers ideal conditions for astronomical observations and that too in USA?

The highest point in the U.S. state of Hawaii; Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano located on the island of Hawaii. It stands tall at 13,803 ft (4,207 m) above sea level. Because of extremely favourable observing conditions, Mauna Kea's summit is considered as one of the best sites in the world for astronomical observations. The atmosphere here is extremely dry. Since the water vapor in the atmosphere absorbs radiation in submillimeter and infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, Mauna Kea is an ideal spot for submillimeter and infrared astronomy. The cloud cover always remains below the summit and keeps the air above the summit free of atmospheric pollution, stable and without any turbulence. The night skies are very dark as it is far away from any city lights. All these factors make Mauna Kea an ideal place to set up astronomical observatories.

The University of California system, the California Institute of Technology and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy with China, India and Japan are partnering to construct a 18-storey, $1.4 Billion, 30 meter diameter telescope on the summit that should help scientists see some 13 billion light years away for a glimpse into the early years of the universe. This telescope would be so powerful as to identify an object as small as a coin from a distance equivalent to 500 Km.

No way concerned about the scientific progress that can be achieved by this new telescope, the protest brigades, who have also roped in some celebrities, have got into action and have started their campaigns here too. The argument is that the telescope structure desecrates sacred land. If that is not enough, this is also supposed to be a conservation area.

An online petition has been launched to halt construction and has managed to collect about 30,000 signatures. The star of a popular TV serial in US, Game of Thrones; Jason Momoa and San Francisco based base ball team's pitcher Madison Bumgarner and few other known names have joined the protests. The organizers of protests are using social media as well are holding a worldwide sign waving with participants from Hawaii, Alaska, New York City, Las Vegas, Kentucky, Arizona, Tahiti and Tonga. There is direct action too. Protestors have been camped out on the top of the mountain creating a human blockades for two weeks and over 30 people had been arrested.

Funny part is that Mauna Kea summit already has number of telescopes built within that conservation zone. In the early 1970s, a 2.2 meter diameter telescope built by University of Hawaii, UH 88 came up here. It was the seventh largest optical/infrared telescope in the world at that time. Today, there are 13 observation facilities at Mauna Kea Science Reserve, funded by as many as 11 countries. The largest facility, commissioned in 1999, has been built by Japan and is known as the Subaru Telescope, considered as one of the world’s biggest, it has a single main mirror that measures 8.2 meters in diameter. The Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce has been encouraging astronomical development of Mauna Kea ever since early 1960s.

This week, the governor of Hawaii temporarily halted construction on the telescope, saying it was "a time out" and a chance for both sides to talk. I find the entire endeavour of protests, bordering on being ridiculous. When there are already 12 other telescopes functioning on site, developing another plot of about five acres of land for the Thirty-Meter Telescope is not going to make any major difference. It seems that Mauna Kea 30 meter telescope project is going in the Kudankulam nuclear power plant way, which is indeed bad news for the science.

15^th April 2015

Hit by pollution on roads

Few years back, the environmental laws and norms that were in place in India, did not pay much attention to pollution caused by vehicles on the roads. It was a common sight to see huge clouds of black smoke ballooning from the exhaust pipes of diesel burning lorries. The problem actually was two fold. The fuels delivered at the pumps, used to contain lead and also other pollutants like sulfur and secondly the vehicle engines also were not designed for low or almost nil exhaust pollution.

There is a major road artery near my house in my home town Pune, with very heavy traffic flowing almost throughout the day. It used to be a nightmare to walk along this road, as air used to be thickly polluted with exhaust fumes and carbon particles. Even a short stint along the road was enough to make your eyes watery and nose stuffy. While driving on this road, it was a must to switch on the air conditioning and prevent outside air coming in.

I am mentioning this past experience just to highlight the discomfort we face in polluted environment. The pollution in a city is usually measured by weight of small particles present in the air per cubic meter. These small particles are often referred to as PM2.5 particles or the particles small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs. World Health Organization or WHO specifies 25 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic meter as the safe limit.

Residents of China's capital city Beijing are facing one of the worst air pollution these days with 993 micrograms of PM2.5 particles present in one cubic meter of air. This figure works out to be 40 times the safe limit specified by WHO.

Dense smog has shrouded large areas of northern China, cutting visibility to 100 meters in some areas. There are 5 Million cars in Beijing and pollutants from vehicles mixed with pollution from factories and coal burnt for heating in the winter, have all got mixed in the smog. The winds from mountains, north and west of Beijing are always low in this season and are causing the smog to stay on. The widespread smoggy weather has led to the increase in respiratory patients and people are being advised to wear face masks to protect themselves.

China’s tightly-controlled media, usually do not raise concerns without official nod. This time however, they have joined the internet media to raise concerns over health problems linked to Government policies regarding heavy industrialization. An editorial in the China Daily blamed the pollution on the pace of urbanization, and says: “China’s process of industrialization has not finished. In the middle of a rapid urbanization process, it is urgent for China to think about how such a process can press forward without compromising the quality of urban life with an increasingly worse living environment.”

Even the state-run Global Times newspaper calls in an editorial for more transparent figures on pollution, urging Beijing to change its previous method of covering up the problems and instead publish the facts. It adds: “The choice between development and environmental protection should be made by genuinely democratic methods. Environmental problems shouldn’t be mixed together with political problems.” It even questions the differences between air quality figures given by Chinese authorities and the US embassy in Beijing.

On Sina Weibo, China’s hugely popular version of Twitter, pollution crisis still dominates the discussion. One web user put up his photograph wearing a mask and tweets “This pollution is making me so angry.”

Officials in China have a long history of covering up environmental and other problems by not releasing information. In 2003 SARS outbreak, Chinese health officials initially denied the very existance of the disease. Even in January 2013, a chemical spill into a river was only publicly disclosed five days after it happened.

I think that China's state-run newspaper Global Times is absolutely right about what it says on development and environmental protection. Even in India, we face this problem almost every day. In my home town, the city is developing at a fast pace only at the cost of environment. During my young age, Pune city weather was famous all over India as one of the best. Those days are all gone now and one of the major reasons for this is the so called development.

Perhaps, Beijing smog and pollution, is sort of a warning for other cities of the world. Its OK to have development, but it should not be at the cost of environment.

16 January 2013