08 August 2007 - India —
Over the past two weeks, our India office
has been ramping up their climate change campaign
with a series of protests set to the backdrop
of massive flooding across South Asia.
In India, 20 million people are said to be
affected by the recent floods, along with
another 8 million in Bangladesh and 300,000
in Nepal. Increased flooding and drought from
climate change will also hurt agricultural
production, especially among subsistence farmers.
"India could lose 125 million tons of
its rain fed cereal production -- equivalent
to 18 percent of its total production,"
UN Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General
Jacques Diouf said yesterday.
July 29th - Activists protested outside one
of India's historical landmarks, the Mysore
palace. At night this building is brilliantly
lit - with approximately 96,000 (energy wasting)
lightbulbs in total. We took thermographic
photos showing the heat wasted by these massively
inefficient bulbs, which waste more than 90
percent of their energy as heat.
Changing the palace over to Compact Florescent
Lightbulbs (CFLs) would save and 47 tonnes
of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
Warning in Mumbai
August 1st - It is the financial capital
of India, home to an estimated 18 million
people, and much of it is at sea level. To
highlight the danger, we put a 20-metre (66ft)
life ring in the harbour.
"The predicted rise in sea level of
50 centimetres together with storms and frequent
floods would render most of Mumbai's low-lying
areas uninhabitable," said Greenpeace
climate and energy campaigner Vinuta Gopal.
" This is reality, not scare-mongering."
Blockading a lightbulb manufacture
Yesterday - Almost 100 activists blockaded
the entrance to one of the country's leading
lightbulb manufactures - preventing shipments
of lightbulbs from leaving the factory. Some
of the activists passed out in temperatures
over 35 degrees celsius (95F), but were revived
with water and continued their protest.
We're out to ban energy wasting lightbulbs
by 2010, and want this company to shift its
production to CFLs.
Every step
It may seem like a small stand against such
a global problem, but if these activists win
the effect will be profound. There are millions
of lightbulbs in India. Twenty percent of
the country's electricity consumption is for
lighting.
If all of India's energy wasting incandescent
light bulbs were replaced by CFLs it would
save at least 12,000 MW of electricity and
over 55 Million tonnes of CO2 per year.
That's not a small step; it's a big one.
Update: At 9:15pm last night, the activists
ended their protest after securing a written
promise that the chairman of the company will
meet with us to discuss the issue within 60
days. Over the past four months the company
had repeatedly refused our offers to talk.
