Day: February 7, 2021

BIO-TERRORISM AND CLIMATE GETTING WORSE- TWO MORE PANDEMICS WAITING FOR US IN THE FUTURE

In 2015, when Bill Gates warned us about a possible global pandemic occurring in the future, which could kill above 10 million people, he predicted that it would not be because of a nuclear war but it would come in the form of a deadly virus. He warned us that we are not prepared enough to face the pandemic head-on and our unpreparedness will result into very adverse outcomes.

Looking back at it, he was right wasn’t he. We remained unprepared ignoring the warnings and then coronavirus hit us, and it hit us so bad that even developed countries like China, Italy, USA and UK took a serious blow and the death toll is still increasing. Vaccines are being developed but we still have a long way to go.

And while we are still recovering, we are facing the danger of two more pandemics which are- Bio-terrorism and Climate change. In his recent interview, Bill Gates talked about these issues, he warned about increasing death toll in future due to changing climate and spread of biological weapons in form of infectious bacteria and viruses with the intention to cause damage globally. Many physical impacts of climate change are already visible, including extreme weather events, glacier retreat, increase in level of sea water, drought and wildfires etc. And he also suggested us the ways in which we could better prepare ourselves to fight effectively against these future pandemics, they are-

  1. Field based activity- Appointing a team of epidemiologists so that they could go to the affected locations and collect data about the problems and difficulties they are facing because vaccine research begins only after a careful assessment of public health priorities. Work conducted in the basic research laboratory forms the scientific foundation for all subsequent investigation.
  2. R&D activity- Investing more in the Research and development for the solutions to the pandemics, like in case of an infectious virus developing mRNA vaccines and developing warning systems using technology.
  3. Contact Tracing- Contact tracers use clear protocols to notify, interview, and advise close contacts to patients with confirmed or probable infections . Jurisdictions can use the following steps and considerations as a framework when developing a protocol for the tracing of close contacts.

To prevent climate change we have to take some important steps ourselves to save our environment and sustain our resources by-

  1. Planting more trees & Stop deforestation
  2. Using resources like water and fuels responsibly
  3. Using energy efficiently and minimizing wastage
  4. Using natural resources like solar power to generate electricity.
  5. Recycling and using renewable resources
  6. Informing and educating others of these dangers and ways to fight against it

Few Important Findings from FAO’s Recent Publication

This article is based on FAO’s recent publication viz., World Food and Agriculture Statistical Pocketbook 2019 of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Rome. So I have highlighted the issues based on their publication.  I was in FAO Rome, to present my research paper as they selected me few years ago, so could  observe their function closely and feel that FAO has been doing commendable work in the field of agriculture and rural development.  

a)      As per the publication, the total number of people in the world is around 7.5 billion, indicating an increase of 100 percent since the early 1960s.  

b)      In many areas of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa young populations present high fertility. 

c)      At present about 45 percent of the global world population is classified as rural, based on ‘national definitions’. It clearly implies that urbanisation has been taking place rapidly. Of course, we know the pace of urbanisation is much faster in developed countries than developing countries.

d)     Another important finding is that as national income goes up, the share of agriculture in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreases. And in the developed countries agriculture accounts for a smaller share of GDP.

e)      In India and China because of fast development of secondary and services sectors, share of agriculture in GDP has been scaling down.

f)       In the context of using chemical or mineral fertilizers in the world, the statistics reveal that in 2017 total use of nitrogen (N) was 109 Metric ton/Mt, 45 Mt phosphates (P2O5) and 38 Mt potash (K). It may be mentioned here that in comparison to 2002, this represented increases of 34 percent use of nitrogen (N)     , 40 percent increase of phosphates (P2O5) and 45 percent for potash (K).   

g)      In the world total agricultural use of fertilizers per hectare of cropland (arable land and permanent crops) also increased in 2017 and the data are 70 kg N/ha, 29 kg P2O5/ha and 24 kg K/ha.

h)      Hunger is now a great issue particularly in the developing countries. The data in this regard reveal the number of undernourished people (million) in 2015 in the world were 785 which scaled up to 821.6 million in 2018.

i)        Number of severely food insecure people in 2015 was 568.2 million against the backdrop in 2018 the same was 704.3 million, such a figure is unfortunate as instead of coming down the same has gone up.  In this context, it may be mentioned that as per the publication, hunger is traditionally measured by the prevalence of undernourishment, which is the inability to acquire enough food to meet dietary energy requirements.

j)        Top 20 countries with the highest number of undernourished during 2016 to 2018 were India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Philippines, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Madagascar, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan Vietnam Zimbabwe Mozambique and Sudan. Whereas a number of severely food insecure people by sub region (2018) wise are: Southern  Asia, Eastern Africa, Western Africa,  South America, South-eastern Asia, Western Asia, Southern Africa, Central America, Northern Africa and Eastern Asia.

  I feel these statistics will help the readers to get an idea about hunger and agricultural development in the different parts of the world. And also I suggest researchers can take up M.Phil. /Ph. D. studies selecting the topic like use of fertilizers, chemicals, hunger, poverty etc.  

Prof Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad

Twinkle Twinkle little star – Now I wonder why so far

You must have read & recited the poem ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ in your childhood days. Kids still read & recite the poem. But there’s a difference in their recitation.While we used to recite it in starry nights, they just watch twinkling stars in a youtube video.What else can they do ?

Those starry nights are no longer visible. Even in a small town , there are only a few stars you can see by naked eyes. Future generations will see the starry nights only in pictures.

Now you can’t just point out your finger in the north to show someone the pole star.

Now the question is why ? Why the night sky is vanishing ? Why the Milky Way is fading ? Why the stars are no longer visible ?

Well , the reason is light pollution. With the advancement of more & more LEDs , the milky way is now no longer visible to more than a third population of the world. Those thousands of stars have just turned into hundreds.

Buildings’ lights , residents’ lights , street lights, vehicles’ lights , neon signs. Well , this much amount of light is creating a permanent ‘skyglow’ at night,which is obscuring that beautiful sight.

Is it only about the stars ? No , excessive lighting at night has other adverse consequences too –

1. It can disrupt our sleep , or in long run can cause stress.

2. It is waste of energy , not all the lights you see in cities at night , are needed. A lot of buildings or streets just glow for the sake of beauty.Thus , a lot of energy get wasted.

3. It’s not good for animals , birds & ecosystem. Migratory birds often get bewildered by lighting buildings , sea turtles lose their ability to navigate in ocean due to the confusion lighting from coastal create. There’re evidences that artificial lighting make it harder for the zooplankton to eat harmful algae in lakes , thus degrades the water quality.

And of course this one consequence is also there , from which I started the blog. Future generation will not be able to see the milky way without a telescope , thus it”ll lessen their interest in astronomy. It”ll lessen their sense about vastness of Universe.

Of course , the street lighting is necessary , but not for the show off. Unnecessary lighting can be avoided. Street lights can be replaced by more focused LEDs which only send light downward rather than those lights which scatter the lights in all directions. There can be other ways to reduce the light pollution. As it is said “Where there’s a will , there’s a way”.