India's water shortage

Farmers are having a hard time finding ground water to grow their crops.

(Fortune) -- Just before dusk, on the plains of India's northern Punjab region, 22-year-old Naresh Kumar sprinkles mustard oil, turmeric, and raw sugar inside a ten-inch circle traced in the rich soil. Hands clasped, head bowed, he prays for a bountiful supply of ground water. Then he cranks a wheezing diesel engine, lines up a drill over the offerings, and releases a lever that brings an iron cylinder crashing into the earth. "Business is growing," says Kumar. "But we've placed about as many tube wells as we can in this area."

Indeed, the ground here in India's fertile breadbasket is beginning to look like Swiss cheese. On either side of Kumar's drill the calm beauty of emerald rice paddies belies a catastrophe brewing hundreds of feet beneath the surface. As the water table drops dangerously low, farmers are investing heavily - and often going into debt - to bore deeper wells and install more powerful pumps. A prayer might just be the best chance for survival.

Punjab has only 1.5 percent of India's land, but its output of rice and wheat accounts for 50 percent of the grain the government purchases to feed more than 400 million poor Indians. Experts say the 375-foot-deep tube well and 7.5-horsepower pump Kumar is installing for a farmer are at the eye of a storm that threatens India's food security, environmental health, and economic progress. "We have depleted the ground water to such an extent that it is devastating the country," says Gurdev Hira, an expert on soil and water at Punjab Agriculture University in Ludhiana. Hira estimates that the energy used to subsidize rice production in the region costs $381 million a year. He and other experts warn that, if left unchecked, future drilling will bleed state budgets, parch aquifers, and run farmers out of business. More >>>

IAEA Says Iran Will Settle Outstanding Nuclear Issues In One Month

January 14, 2008 - Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have reached an agreement to settle all outstanding matters relating to Iran's nuclear program in four weeks' time.

IAEA chief Muhammad el-Baradei secured the agreement in talks in Tehran at the weekend. But the United States has already said the accord does not touch upon the core issue, namely the refusal of Iran to halt uranium enrichment. It looks, however, as though it will help unravel some of the past history of Iran's nuclear program, shedding light on activities carried on for many years in conditions of secrecy. The agreement el-Baradei carried away with him from Tehran on January 13 deals with two issues. One relates to so-called military-linked studies. These include indications that Iran was examining how to convert uranium dioxide into a semi-refined product called UF4, which can be refined further into gas suitable for an enrichment cascade; and among other things, that Iran was studying designs for missile reentry vehicles.

The second issue relates to radioactive contamination found at an Iranian technical university. The IAEA wants to know how this uranium contamination got there, and it wants access to the individuals working at the university, as well as to the equipment that was used. More >>>

Climate Change Solutions Key to World Prosperity

'The Power of Collaborative Innovation' is the answer to all the big global challenges we are facing," says Tony Blair

DAVOS, Switzerland, January 23, 2008 (ENS) - The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 opened in Davos today with calls from the co-chairs to exercise "the power of collaborative innovation" to meet the top challenges of economic instability, climate change and equitable growth.

"This is a moment of greater insecurity and challenge in the world today, but it makes a meeting like this all the more important. The theme of the Annual Meeting, 'The Power of Collaborative Innovation' is the answer to all the big global challenges we are facing," said Co-Chair Tony Blair, British prime minister from 1997 to 2007.

More than 2,500 participants from 88 countries are in Davos for the forum, including 27 heads of state or government and 113 cabinet ministers, along with religious leaders, media leaders and heads of non-governmental organizations.

Co-Chair James Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co., USA agreed with Blair that making progress to resolve the Middle East conflict and world peace are at the top of his agenda. "The second would be energy and the environment," he said. More >>>

Indo-French Civilian nuclear agreement negotiated but not to be signed during Sarkozy’s visit

Pact with France only after NSG clearance

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NEW DELHI: India and France have successfully negotiated an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation but it will not be signed during the coming visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to informed sources.

France had agreed with India’s explanation that it would wait for a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a special exemption by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the sources said on Monday.

Referring to the joint India-France statement in 2005, which noted the possibility of civil nuclear cooperation, the sources said: “The ambition of Mr. Sarkozy is to go one step further and make everything possible for the day when an India-specific safeguards agreement is finalised by the IAEA and special status given by the NSG.”

The sources pointed out that France had consistently advocated India’s exclusion from global civil nuclear commerce for fighting global warming. More>>>

Nicholas Burns' exit muddles nuclear deal

Saturday, 19 January , 2008

Washington: The departure of the State Department's No. 3 official adds uncertainty to a US nuclear deal with India that is already in deep trouble.

The United States announced on Friday that Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns would step down in March. Though Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said he would remain as the chief US negotiator for the deal even after his departure, it was not immediately clear what his role will be.

It also was unclear whether his resignation as a full-time diplomat would set back dwindling hopes to complete the deal during the Bush administration, which ends in a year. More >>>

Ambitious nuke plans revealed

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

ANKARA - Driving the renewed interest in nuclear power in Turkey as elsewhere are skyrocketing natural gas and oil prices. While Turkey produces almost no oil, even some oil-producing countries have joined the march toward nuclear power

As part of Turkey's plans to develop its nuclear potential the Turkish Energy Ministry is moving toward plans to position the country as a regional center for uranium enrichment, sources revealed yesterday.

The plans come to light as Turkey prepares to issue its first public tender for construction of a nuclear plant and are prompted by the need to acquire and manage nuclear fuel. Turkey's interest in nuclear energy is drawing scrutiny from the United States and both U.S. and Turkish officials are in broad discussions on Turkey's plans to build nuclear energy power plants. More >>>

Iran nuclear answers 'in a month'

Iran has agreed to clarify all outstanding questions over its past nuclear activities within a month, the UN nuclear watchdog has announced.

The IAEA made the announcement after talks in Tehran held by the agency's head, Mohamed ElBaradei. A senior official from Iran's atomic energy agency confirmed the agreement, saying Iran has nothing to hide.
Western countries fear Iran is refusing to suspend uranium enrichment because it wants to produce a nuclear weapon.
Tehran denies this, insisting the programme is solely to generate electricity. An IAEA spokeswoman said Mr ElBaradei had also received information on Iran's "new generation of centrifuges". More >>>

Antarctic ice sheet shrinking at faster rate

January 13, 2008 at 1:00 PM EST

One of the biggest worries about global warming has been its potential to affect the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet, a vast storehouse of frozen water that would inundate the world's coastal regions if it were to melt because of a warming climate. The southern continent contains enough ice to raise ocean levels by about 60 metres, a deluge that would put every major coastal city in the world deep under water and uproot hundreds of millions of people.

The huge implications posed by the health of the ice sheet have prompted major scientific interest into whether it is growing, shrinking, or stable, with no clear consensus among researchers about its overall trend.
But a new study released today, based on some of the most extensive measurements to date of the continent's ice mass, presents a worrisome development: Antarctica's ice sheet is shrinking, at a rate that increased dramatically from 1996 to 2006. More >>>

Sarkozy to sign UAE nuclear deal

January 13, 2008
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed that he will sign a nuclear co-operation deal with the United Arab Emirates during his regional tour.

It will be the third such deal Mr Sarkozy has made with Muslim countries since taking office in May last year.
He said the Arab world should have the same rights to civilian nuclear programmes as enjoyed by others. Mr Sarkozy said the sale of such technology could foster trust between the West and the Muslim world. Mr Sarkozy is travelling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - three Gulf states interested in developing a civilian nuclear programme despite huge oil and gas wealth. More >>>

India to develop anti-missile defence system by 2010: official

Visakhapatnam, India (AFP) Jan 8, 2008
The system was currently being designed and would go on trial from 2009, said V.K. Saraswat, the chief controller of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.India will develop an indigenous defence system to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles by 2010, a defence official said.

It would be capable of detecting, intercepting and destroying intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles from any country, he added on the sidelines of a science conference that ended Monday.
"We are developing a robust anti-missile defence system that will have high-speed interceptions for engaging ballistic missiles in the 5,000-kilometre (3,000-mile) class and above," he said. More >>>

Head of IAEA to visit Iran in attempts to clear up questions about Tehran's nuclear past

January 7th 2008

VIENNA, Austria: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency will visit Tehran this week in attempts to add momentum to his agency's investigation of Iran's past nuclear activities and to seek additional knowledge of present programs, the IAEA said Monday.

IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei will visit Friday and Saturday "with a view of resolving all remaining outstanding issues and enabling the agency to provide assurance about Iran's past and present activities," agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

She said ElBaradei would "meet with a number of high officials," but provided no other details in an e-mailed statement. More >>>

Improve climate change data and its analysis: Indian PM

Visakhapatnam, Jan 3 - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday called upon scientists, especially meteorologists, to improve the quality of data and its analysis on climate change in the wake of worldwide concern over global warming.

'Experts should improve the quality of data they collect and analysis of the available data, especially with regard to climate change,' Manmohan Singh said.'For instance, there is a need to collect data on what is happening to the Himalayan glaciers and not just on our side of the border but on the system as a whole,' the PM told delegates in his inaugural address of the 95th Indian Science Congress (ISC) here.Referring to the focal theme of the ISC and approach towards a knowledge-based society that was environmentally sustainable, Singh said the concern over climate change was based on painstaking statistical work though its basis was weak and more theoretical.

'Climate change poses a great challenge to our development prospects as well as the livelihood of our people. We need a global response, a national response and a local response,' Singh asserted. More >>>

Global warming hits Australia with fires and floods

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia endured bushfires, floods and record high temperatures in its drought-ravaged foodbowl in 2007 as global warming brought the nation's sixth hottest year on record, the weather bureau said on Thursday.

The crucial Murray-Darling river basin, home to 2 million people and almost half the country's fruit and cereal crop, had its hottest known year, the Bureau of Meteorology said in its 2007 Australian Climate Statement. More >>>

Speak subtly to Pakistan

The Boston Globe, 2 January 2008

IN THE AFTERMATH of Benazir Bhutto's murder, domestic power struggles are shaping, or distorting, debates about how she was killed, what becomes of her Pakistan People's Party, and when to hold pending elections. Given Pakistan's geopolitical importance, and the likelihood that any overt American meddling in those power struggles will exacerbate resentment of the United States, the Bush administration must avoid any temptation to play the puppeteer in Pakistan.Americans cannot be indifferent to what is going on in Pakistan, or about control of its nuclear weapons. In the past, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, A. Q. Khan, peddled nuclear technology and hardware to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. Pakistan's military establishment had to know about Khan's proliferation activities. Today, Pakistan is the likeliest source of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of undeterrable extremists. More>>>