Sixty more people succumbed to sunstroke in West Bengal as Global warming boosts the probability of really extreme events, like heat waves, far more than it boosts more moderate events! It is World environment Day today and heatwaves communicate Alar

Sixty more people succumbed to sunstroke in West Bengal as Global warming boosts the probability of really extreme events, like heat waves, far more than it boosts more moderate events! It is World environment Day today and heatwaves communicate Alarming Wall Writings as Corporate Imperialism Rape with Nature to extract Natural resources!

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - Eight HUNDRED THIRTY FIVE


Palash Biswas

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Global warming boosts the probability of really extreme events, like heat waves, far more than it boosts more moderate events.Sixty more people succumbed to sunstroke in West Bengal as the mercury continued to soar in the eastern plains, even as the heat wave ebbed marginally in the north as light rains drenched some pockets.I have just returned from my journey to Mumabi. I was travelling by train and it was quite a horrible experience. Back home in Bengal, the normal life is paralysed by Heat  Waves to which the people in Bengal have never been accustomed. It is World environment Day today and heatwaves communicate Alarming Wall Writings as Corporate Imperialism Rape with Nature to extract Natural resources.The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) celebrates June 5 of every year as World Environment Day (WED). It was started in 1972 and is intended to raise global awareness about the need to take act to better and save the environment.Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is hosting the World Environment Day (WED) 2012. The United Nations Environment Programme has been celebrating WED on Jun 5 every year since 1973 to raise awareness about the need for all of us to save the environment.The date was chosen because the UN Conference on the Human Environment began in Stockholm on Jun 5, 1972. Representatives of 113 countries, 19 inter-governmental agencies and more than 400 inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations congregated in Sweden's capital for this purpose. A declaration containing 26 principles about the environment and development was passed at the meeting and an action plan with 109 recommendations was also drawn up.

Thanks to the Stockholm conference, global awareness of environmental problems increased manifold. It also greatly influenced the policies of many countries. In 1973, the European Union formulated the first environmental action programme. Since that year, the World Environment Day has been hosted by cities across the world. Each time, the theme is different and the host city organises a week-long international exposition on it.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today expressed concern over the prolonged heat spell in the state which has caused several deaths in the past few days. Banerjee said she had asked the state's education minister, Bratya Basu, to extend the summer vacation in schools till June 18 to insulate children from the intense heat. "Movement of children should be restricted during this condition, Oral Rehydrated Solution (ORS) should be taken frequently and even the elders should also minimise their movement outside as a precautionary measure," the chief minister advised. Following acute scarcity of drinking water in several districts, Banerjee said that she had also asked the state's Panchayat, Rural Development and PHE Minister Subrata Mukherjee to arrange for drinking water in those areas where ground water level has drastically gone down. "Heat wave is no longer confined to the districts like Bankura and Purulia. The entire state is affected," she said.

Meanwhile,The quality of environment around the national capital has worsened and its air pollution and congestion crisis will worsen this decade if urgent steps were not taken to address it, two leading green NGOs have warned.

According to an online survey conducted by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), most people perceive the quality of overall environment and its various dimensions affecting their lives to have deteriorated over the last decade.

A large number of people felt the quality of environment around them had worsened. Drinking water quality and availability are key concerns, the TERI survey said. Forty eight per cent of respondents from Delhi NCR found the green cover to have reduced.

Attitude of people was identified as the most important reason for littering in public places, it says.

According to a survey conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment both particulate matter and ozone levels have exceeded standards almost on a daily basis this summer. At the same time, the share of carbon dioxide emissions from personal vehicles (which warms up the air) is increasing rapidly.

"These pollutants can snuff life out of cities," it says.

On top of that, carbon dioxide emissions from cars have added to the warming in and around the city, the survey has found.

"By 2021, car ridership will boom by an amazing 106 per cent. Bus ridership will be slowest to increase at 28 per cent. If people carrying capacity of roads drop, how will Delhi move more than 25 million person trips a day sustainably by 2021?," it asks.

Both the survey reports were released on the occasion of World Environment Day today.





The southern and western districts of West Bengal, including the metropolis, on Monday reeled under a severe heatwave, with forecast of similar weather conditions on Tuesday. The city recorded the day's highest temperature of 40.2 degrees Celsius, regional Met director G C Debnath said. "While parts of the city suffered from heatwave conditions, districts in western and southern Bengal suffered from severe heatwave conditions," he said.

Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore districts recorded around 45 degrees Celsius or more during the day.

There was little hope for any respite from the severe heat tomorrow, he said.

Meanwhile, roads and public places were seen almost empty at noon in the metropolis and in other districts assailed by intense heat.

A spell of shower, measuring 12 mm, brought some respite to the national capital Delhi, bringing down the maximum temperature from Monday's 41.9 degrees Celsius to 40.8 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature, however, saw a rise from 29 to 29.5 degrees Celsius.

As heatwave intensified in Odisha with 30 sunstroke deaths, most areas sizzled under blistering temperatures as the mercury soared to a record 46.7 degree Celsius in the state capital on Tuesday.

The highest temperature of 47.3 degree Celsius was recorded in the coal town of Talcher followed by 47.2 degree at Chandbali and 47 degree Celsius in western Odisha's Titlagarh, the meteorological centre here said.

The weatherman warned that heatwave conditions would continue for the next two days in most parts of the state where at least 30 people have died due to sun-stroke so far this summer, official sources said.


Normal life was severely affected in Bhubaneswar as the capital city recorded its highest ever temperature of 46.7 degree Celsius. Earlier, 46.3 degree Celsius had been recorded in Bhubaneswar on June 12, 2005, the met centre said.

In Baripada, the district headquarter town of Mayurbhanj, about 1,500 bats were found dead in a park due to unbearable heat, sources said.

Sweltering heat swept the entire western Odisha with the mercury touching 45.4 degree Celsius at Sambalpur, 45.9 degree at Angul, 45.3 degree Celsius at Bolangir, 45.2 degree Celsius at Jharsuguda and 45 degree at Sundargarh, the sources said.

An assistant sub-inspector of police died of heat stroke in Dumka, taking the toll to six in the three-week long heat wave in Jharkhand.

Mohammad Istiyak was admitted to the Dumka Sadar Hospital after he collapsed due to severe heat on Monday. He died in the hospital last night, an official release said on Tuesday.

With this, Dumka recorded five heat wave related deaths while another one died in Latehar.

Dumka, which registered 45 degree C on Monday, had some respite during the day with the mercury lowering to 42.5 degree C, according to Met Office sources.

Bokaro had another hot day at 46.2 degree C while Dhanbad recorded 46, Garwha 45, and Jamshedpur 44.8 degree C.

Heat wave conditions also continued to prevail in Palamau (43.8), Latehar (42), Lohardaga (43.4.), West Singhbhum (44.2), Gumla (40) and Ranchi (40.6).

"The heat wave conditions will prevail for the next 24 to 48 hours," said G K Mohanty, Director Met office, Ranchi.

Light rains drenched isolated parts of Uttar Pradesh, but the showers did little to bring down the intensity of the heat wave which continued to prevail in most pockets of the state.

The rains, however, brought down temperatures marginally in Aligarh, Hapur, Allahabad and Agra divisions, which have been reeling under an intense hot spell in the last two weeks.

Temperature was appreciably above normal in Varanasi, Faizabad, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Moradabad and Kanpur divisions, the MeT office said.

Despite the marginal drop in the mercury level, Allahabad continued to remain the hottest place in the state with a maximum temperature of 45.4 degrees Celsius, three degrees above normal, followed by Etawah at 44.8 and Varanasi at 44.5 degrees Celsius.

Rain and thunderstorm are likely to occur at one or two places in the state, the MeT department said. The temperature dropped marginally in Rajasthan, with the mercury falling below the 45 degrees Celsius mark at most places.

Churu remained the hottest place in the state, recording a maximum of 44.3 degrees Celsius.

SriGanganagar, Bikaner, Kota and Jaipur recorded day temperatures of 44, 42.5, 41.9 and 41.5 degrees Celsius respectively, while other places recorded between 38.8 and 40.6 degrees Celsius.


A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity. There is no universal definition of a heat wave;[1] the term is relative to the usual weather in the area and relative to normal temperatures for the season. Temperatures that people from a hotter climate consider normal can be termed a heat wave in a cooler area if they are outside the normal climate pattern for that area.The term is applied both to routine weather variations and to extraordinary spells of heat which may occur only once a century. Severe heat waves have caused catastrophic crop failures, thousands of deaths from hyperthermia, and widespread power outages due to increased use of air conditioning.

Heat waves form when high pressure aloft (from 10,000–25,000 feet (3,000–7,600 metres)) strengthens and remains over a region for several days up to several weeks. This is common in summer (in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres) as the jet stream 'follows the sun'. On the equator side of the jet stream, in the middle layers of the atmosphere, is the high pressure area.

Summertime weather patterns are generally slower to change than in winter. As a result, this mid-level high pressure also moves slowly. Under high pressure, the air subsides (sinks) toward the surface. This sinking air acts as a dome capping the atmosphere.

This cap helps to trap heat instead of allowing it to lift. Without the lift there is little or no convection and therefore little or no convective clouds (cumulus clouds) with minimal chances for rain. The end result is a continual build-up of heat at the surface that we experience as a heat wave

In the Eastern United States a heat wave can occur when a high pressure system originating in the Gulf of Mexico becomes stationary just off the Atlantic Seaboard (typically known as a Bermuda High.) Hot humid air masses form over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea while hot dry air masses form over the desert Southwest and northern Mexico. The SW winds on the back side of the High continue to pump hot, humid Gulf air North-eastward resulting in a spell of hot and humid weather for much of the Eastern States

In the Western Cape Province of South Africa, a heat wave can occur when a low pressure offshore and high pressure inland combine to form a Bergwind. The air warms as it descends from the Karoo interior, and the temperature will rise about 10 degrees C. from the interior to the coast. Humidities are usually very low, and the temperatures can be over 40°C in summer. The highest official temperatures recorded in South Africa (51.5°C) was recorded one summer during a bergwind occurring along the Eastern Cape coastline.

This year's World Environment Day theme

For 2012, the theme is 'Green Economy: Does it include you?' It puts the onus on everyone to find out more about the Green Economy and assess whether, in their country, they are being included in it. According to the UN Environment Programme, a green economy is 'one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities'.

A Green Economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive. In such an economy, people's income grows exponentially and employment is driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution. Energy and resource efficiency is enhanced. Simultaneously the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services is prevented. These objectives are achieved through targeted public expenditure, policy reforms and regulation changes.

The importance of World Environment Day

It is high time we realised that environmental degradation puts our future in peril. Besides, we are supposed to hand over our common heritage to future generations. The task will become well nigh impossible if we don't preserve the existing things. Numerous species have already become extinct and many more are currently on the endangered list. We must not go down the same path.

The felling of trees due to our ever growing needs has been on an unprecedented scale and has caused an alarming depletion in green cover. The overall rainfall has been decreasing over the years in inverse proportion to the greenhouse effect, leading to disastrous climate change.

Residents of areas which received abundant rain in the past are facing water scarcity at present. Cherrapunji in the state of Meghalaya was till the 1980s the wettest place in India, it hasn't recorded sufficient rain for years now. Vast tracts of land which were once lush green have turned into deserts.

Several important glaciers have significantly shrunk in size. Polar ice is also melting fast. Large icebergs have been seen floating near Antarctica. If this trend continues, sea levels will rise and entire islands could be submerged. In order to avoid ending up in a watery grave, millions living on the coast or near the sea would be forced to relocate.

Further increase in global temperature will also lead to loss of vital flora and fauna. As each species has a vital role to play in the food chain, any imbalance means destruction of the ecosystem itself. It is incumbent on everyone concerned to avoid this possibility. Time is running out. Will we join hands and take the required steps before it is too late?

Marking World Environment Day, United Nations officials today highlighted the need for a change in thinking and approach to ensure the sustainability of the Earth's resources as the world population grows.
"Sustainability entails providing opportunity for all by balancing the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development. We have to rebut the myth that there is conflict between economic and environmental health," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day. "With smart policies and the right investments, countries can protect their environment, grow their economies, generate decent jobs and accelerate social progress."

Observance of World Environment Day began in 1972 as a way to raise awareness of the environment and encourage political attention and action. This year's theme for the Day, Green Economy: Does it include you?, seeks to underscore the need for everyone to play a part in keeping humankind's ecological footprints within planetary boundaries.

In his message, the Secretary-General emphasized that with the world's growing population, there will be more pressure on natural resources – food, water and energy – and countries will need to shift their development paradigms to find sustainable solutions for their citizens.

Mr. Ban noted that the UN Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20), in Brazil from 20-22 June, will provide an opportunity for countries to deepen their commitment to find these solutions.

"Rio+20 is our opportunity to deepen global commitment to sustainable development," Mr. Ban said. "We should agree that the world needs a set of sustainable development goals that will build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). And we should make progress on some of the building blocks of sustainability – energy, water, food, cities, oceans, jobs and the empowerment of women."

In her message to mark the Day, the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, noted that at Rio+20 the international community needs to set new directions for sustainability, ranging from building new forms of agriculture, to finding new sources of energy and new ways of building and transportation.

"Reaching these goals requires new approaches to freshwater and the ocean, to lands and the climate. It calls for new thinking about the meaning of progress," Ms. Bokova said. "It demands new sources of innovation and resilience that have deeper roots than material or economic assets. We must construct green economies on the foundations of green societies."

Today (June 5) is World Environment Day (WED), an annual event celebrated since 1972 and dedicated to stimulate global awareness about the environment. This year's WED theme is 'Green Economy: Does It Include You?'

WED, as it is often called, was established by the United Nations General Assembly to mark the start of the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm from 5th to 16th June 1972. WED has become one of the main vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness on the environment and encourages political attention/actions.

The UN Environment Programme defines the Green Economy as which significantly reduces environmental risks and ecological scarcities in an improved human well-being and social equity.


Practically speaking, a green economy is one whose growth in income and employment is driven by public and private investments, that reduces carbon emissions and pollution, enhances energy and resource efficiency, and prevents the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The Rio+20 Earth Summit in Brazil later this month is being hailed as one of the largest and most important gatherings in the history of the United Nations. In addition to 2012 being an important date in the history of World Environment Day, it is also the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Summit that was held in Rio in 1992.

This year's Rio+20 Earth Summit will be seen as a once in a generation opportunity to set the world on a path leading to a sustainable low-carbon green economy. It is confidently expected that at least 130 world heads of state will be attending the gathering.

Unfortunately the major problem facing the world is that inspite of the determined efforts in recent years to improve the environment, according to some experts the situation is actually getting worse rather than better.

Recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest award for grassroots environmental activists, are calling on world leaders to attend the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro and make real commitments to protect the environment.

A total of 106 Goldman Prize winners, representing a broad spectrum of environmental activists--indigenous leaders, attorneys, clergy, government officials, biologists, among others--from 67 countries have added their names to the statement. All have taken great personal risks to protect the environment, often facing arrest, torture, violent threats and assassination attempts along the way.

Signatories on the letter include:

-- Alexander Nikitin (Russia, 1997), a former naval captain who was jailed on treason charges for revealing the environmental threats behind Russia's decommissioned nuclear submarines;

-- Medha Patkar (India, 1992) who has been repeatedly beaten and arrested during protests against environmentally destructive redevelopment projects; and

-- Marina Silva (Brazil, 1996), former Brazilian environment minister who, despite the assassination of her close colleague Chico Mendes, led demonstrations with rubber tappers to protect tropical forests in the Amazon.

The statement recognizes that much of the progress achieved in environmental protection since the original Earth Summit in 1992 came from the grassroots level, but that there is now a pressing need for leadership at the government level to rise to the challenge of climate change and sustainable development.

The open letter, addressed to government leaders around the world, was released today, on UN World Environment Day. It reads: "For over two decades, the Goldman Environmental Prize has honored individuals for the great risks we take to protect the environment. Now we ask you to take a risk. Attend the Earth Summit in Rio and lead us into action."

About the Goldman Environmental Prize

The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989 by late San Francisco civic leaders and philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman. Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals. For additional information visit www.goldmanprize.org .
This can be summed up as being a socially inclusive, low carbon economy that is efficient with its resources.