ACCRA: They are the fiercest economic rivals as well as neighbours that infrequently spar over international borders. But the 'Hindi-Chini bhai bhai' bonding is hard to miss at the climate change talks in Accra. Their close coordination, bilateral understanding and strategic moves have stumped the rich countries. The industrialized countries, such as the EU members and Japan, have over the past couple of days run a shrill campaign to draw a wedge through the powerful G77 countries and China grouping and put the emerging economic power houses — India, China, Brazil and South Africa — on the mat. But China and India's working in tandem has been a key reason for the good old divide and rule policy of the rich nations' cabal coming apart. Both the countries have taken an aggressive stand against what they think is the industrialized countries' attempt to change the very character of the UNFCC — the international compact on climate change — which at present requires only the rich countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions against fixed targets. The rich countries want the four economic power houses to take commitments even though the four bear little historic burden for the crisis the world faces. "All the countries to the UNFCC decided that there would be two groups of countries — the culprits and the others who are suffering because of historical and accumulating emissions of industrialized countries," Yu Qingtai, climate change ambassador of China, told TOI.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth

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Ocean experts told a Senate panel last week that the oceans are in bad shape and getting worse, and called on Congress to enforce recommendations to support ocean research and increase funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA).
Experts say industrial pollution, coastal runoff and overfishing are causing serious damage to the nation's oceans and coastal waters, such as oxygen-poor "dead zones" that have already appeared in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Oregon and in Chesapeake Bay.
A rise in greenhouse gasses and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are causing the oceans to become more acidic, and from coast to coast U.S. scientists are concerned about increased algae blooms.
Leon Panetta, cochair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative and former California congressman, says the U.S. government's policies on oceans are "dysfunctional, out-of-date and inadequate," and calls for the Senate to enact a national ocean policy.
"We have done it for clean water, we have done it for clean air, but we do not have a national ocean policy that commits this country to protecting the oceans," Panetta says.
Experts say part of the solution is to increase funding for the NOAA, but the Bush administration recently proposed a $280 million cut to the NOAA's 2007 budget, which would in turn reduce the National Ocean Service's budget by 30 percent.

Source: naturalnews.comhttp://www.naturalnews.com/

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Dr. Jim Hansen, a NASA climatologist, announced in an interview with The Independent that the world is turning into a different planet due to manmade greenhouse gas emissions.
Hansen stated that the Earth's population has less than a decade to stop global warming from changing the world forever, and noted that the effects on the climate were already observable.
"We just cannot burn all the fossil fuels in the ground," he said. "If we do, we will end up with a different planet. I mean a planet with no ice in the Arctic, and a planet where warming is so large that it's going to have a large effect in terms of sea level rises and the extinction of species."
Hansen indicated that global warming is causing dangerous "positive feedbacks" in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, which can accelerate the rate of climate change. One such feedback is the receding sea ice, which subsequently increases Arctic temperatures because the amount of sunlight and heat reflected back into space is reduced. The melting ice also releases methane, which is 20 times more dangerous as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, Hansen said.
"If we go another 10 years, by 2015, at the current rate of growth of CO2 emissions, which is about 2 percent per year, the emissions in 2015 will be 35 percent larger than they were in 2000," he said. "But if we want to get on a scenario that keeps global temperature in the range that it's been in for the last million years, we would need to decrease the emissions by something of the order of 25 percent by the middle of the century, and by something like 75 percent by the end of the century."

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com

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Malaysia Airlines said Wednesday it has teamed up with the operator of India's Hyderabad airport to set up an aircraft maintenance hub to capitalize on India's fast-growing aviation market.It is the airline's first such overseas venture and part of its efforts to boost income as it reels from high jet fuel cost.Under the pact with GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd., the Malaysian flag carrier said a maintenance, repair and overhaul center would be established to service narrow and wide-bodied aircraft at the new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.There are currently some 300 aircraft in operation in India, with more than 200 new planes expected to take to the sky in the next two years and up to 2,000 new planes over the next decade, the airline said in a statement.Currently, most of the aircraft are sent to Malaysia and other maintenance centers overseas for heavy maintenance, it said.The airline will provide technical and management expertise in the joint venture with GMR Hyderabad, he said.

Source: http://avindia.blogspot.com

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India is considered to be one of the world's top polluters in terms of emissions, but this week the country said this week that it's not doing any harm to the world's atmosphere, despite increasing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Global temperature rises of 2 to 3 degrees Celsius are predicted in the next 50 years by experts if greenhouse gas emissions are not kept under control. If this happens, scientists agree that a devastating effect on the world's climate would be the end result.
The Kyoto Protocol does not include India at this stage, so the country has no mandate to cut emission levels. But experts say its emissions are rising because of its rapid economic development, and that soon India could become a significant contributor to global warming.
India's environment minister, A. Raja, told his parliament that India's emissions are insignificant compared to those of richer nations. He then suggested that these nations should first take the lead in curbing greenhouse gases.
Raja went on to say, "India is very little in terms of emissions and we are not the biggest polluters when compared to the developed nations … we are not doing any harm to the entire world. We are, in spite of the developmental activities taking place in this country, very categorical that our emissions are below 3 percent, which is within limits."
A survey by the World Bank in May of this year stated that carbon emissions from two of the world's fastest growing economies -- China and India -- had risen steeply over the past decade, and India alone increased carbon dioxide emissions by 33 percent between 1992 and 2002.
But, New Delhi -- India's capitol -- says it must use more energy to lift its population from poverty, and that its per-capita emissions are a fraction of those in rich states that have burned fossil fuels unhindered since the Industrial Revolution. However, according to figures from the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, the top five sources of greenhouse gases worldwide were the United States, China, Russia, India and Japan.

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com

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The number of people travelling by air has fallen to 3.04 million in July, down 12.65% from a year ago, the civil aviation ministry has said.It is the sharpest fall in air passengers in the four years since India’s aviation boom started in the summer of 2004. In June this year, air passenger demand, measured by passengers flown, had shrunk 3.8% from June 2007.Airlines, fighting to contain the effects of record jet fuel prices, have raised air fares at least six times this year. The increased fares have resulted in fewer people flying. July to September is also typically a lean season for air travel.Despite airlines cutting down heavily on the number of flights—2,144 flights a week were pulled back from route maps of domestic carriers in July from nearly 11,000 weekly flights earlier—carriers are still reporting lower occupancy rates.Airlines carried 3.05 million passengers in July compared with 3.49 million in the same month of 2007. “The decline is largely a result of higher fares and essentially reflective of the higher fuel prices,” said Samyukth Sridharan, chief commercial officer of low-fare carrier SpiceJet Ltd.Deccan Aviation Ltd-run Simplifly Deccan, which is merging with Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, saw its sharpest dip in load factors—a measure of how full a flight is—at 49% in July compared with the same month in 2007 when it flew its planes 67.7% full.Other low-fare carriers SpiceJet, InterGlobe Aviation Pvt. Ltd-run IndiGo and JetLite India Ltd, too, saw their flight occupancy drop to 57.8%, 59% and 60.4%, respectively, compared with 71.4%, 71.5% and 68%, respectively, last year.Kingfisher flew its planes 63% full compared with 66.7% last year. Rivals Jet Airways, National Aviation Co. of India Ltd’s Air India and Paramount Airways India Pvt. Ltd reported 67.9%, 55.5% and 76.1% occupancy on their flights in July compared with 67%, 69.1% and 53.1%, respectively, in July 2007.
Source: http://avindia.blogspot.com

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IGI airport's new runway is almost set for commercial operations. As reported earlier by Times of India, proving flights — flights without passengers meant for carrying out trials — will land on the runway on August 21, in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. Henceforth, commercial operations will start in another week, depending on air traffic control clearances.The new runway, being looked forward to in the face of rising air traffic and growing congestion over Delhi, will enhance the flight handling capacity of the airport from the current about 35 flights per hour to about 55-65 flights. That's another thing that with rising aviation turbine fuel costs; several airlines have cut down on their total flights. However, congestion remains as bad as ever, with an average hovering time of 35-45 minutes during peak hours."We are much ahead of schedule and the runway will be operational a good eight months before its deadline," said I Prabhakar Rao, chief development officer, Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL).The 4.4-km long new runway is probably one of the longest in Asia and capable of handling wide bodied aircrafts like A-380 s and Antonov An-225. Calibration work on navigational aids is almost over and according to sources, work on calibrating the instrument landing system for one side of the runway remains to be completed.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

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After the United Nations conference on climate change in Bali last December and in the run-up to its successor in Copenhagen to be held next year, countries are gearing up for the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases after 2012. The US, and President George Bush in particular, is determined to get major developing countries like China, India and Brazil to agree to some caps on their emissions of carbon dioxide. But these nations are equally adamant in refusing to do so.

And now comes a new twist. According to recent reports, the European Union is thinking of a carbon tax on goods imported from major industrial developing countries which have not agreed to cut emissions under the Kyoto regime. The EU regards this measure as a means of ensuring a level playing field by introducing a 'carbon equalisation system'.

Not to be left behind, the US Senate has tabled a bill known after its drafters, Senators Lieberman and Warner, along with other bills seeking to "protect" the US from those who haven't agreed to reduce their carbon emissions. Unlike the blanket EU proposal, the Lieberman-Warner bill is sector-specific, covering six types of energy-intensive imported goods.

Source: http://www.indiatogether.org/2008/may/env-carbontax.htm

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Welcome to the world of Aviation. In the present day we cannot think of any other means of transportation other than flying from one destination to other. However, with the growth of avaition, our planet is also facing the problem of climate changes due to various emission of GHGs from various sources including avaition. Through this blog, an attempt is made to make people aware of the Global Warming issues and the various means to minimize the effect.

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