India Plans To Spend $6 Billion On Creating New Forests (qz.com) 47
The Narendra Modi government plans to spend $6.2 billion to create new forests through the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015, which has been passed by lawmakers in India's lower house this week. The bill aims to increase India's forest cover from 21.34% of the total land to 33%. Where does the money come from? It comes from private companies and various "other entities" who paid fees to the Indian government since 2006 for allowing them to set up projects on forest land. The bill proposes local state governments be provided 90% of the accumulated funds, with 10% left with the central government. "Our forest cover will dramatically increase and it will result in achieving our target 33% of tree cover and most importantly 2.5 billion tonne of carbon sink as we have indicated in our intended nationally determined contributions (INDC)," India's environmental minister, Prakash Javadekar said on May 3rd. Naturally, some experts are concerned with how appropriately the funds will be used, as well as how exactly the government will develop forests on alternate land. According to Quartz, "Since 1980, the environment ministry has approved the diversion of 1.29 million hectares of forestlands for non-forestry purposes, according to a study by CSE." India's comptroller and auditor general has expressed his dissatisfaction with the ministry's failure to grow forests on alternative land in a report in 2013.
Wishful thinking (Score:3)
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So that buys you like an acre of forest, right?
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That's almost as stupid as Trump's wall. Have you read a history book? Go read about Frederick Douglass.
well, Islam wants to build a mountain (Score:2, Troll)
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No. The Hindus don't have much to do with this. The politicians want to create a $6.2B slush fund. Plus, they need to keep handing public (forested) land over to private entities, and this gives them a justification for it: "Look, we've got a plan to plant new trees to make up for the ones we cut down." In reality, not a single tree will be planted, and yet the $6.2B will disappear into many pockets.
Whew (Score:2)
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Trees are actually good for something.
There will be no forests (Score:1, Insightful)
Continent Toupee (Score:4, Insightful)
For places that have used up all the forests.
100 million spending, 5900 in some richs' pockets (Score:2)
another Earth by David Brin prediction (Score:1)
Trillion Trees [google.com]
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You surely lived in India. There was not one instance when we went out for a long walk in Banguloru streets and didn't step into poo. It was dog poo, cow poo, human poo or some poo every time. And my Indian colleagues advised me to rub my flip-flops against the pavement to get it off. Pretty standard practice there. I wasn't annoyed, but its hilarious.
And surely the kind of corruption they have in their, makes this country feel like the most honest nation on the planet. You can buy your way out of/into anyt
Water? (Score:3)
Right now India is drying up, 330 million people don't have enough water [washingtonpost.com], wells have dried up, armed guards are stationed around the power dam to prevent people from stealing water because if it falls just one more foot, no more power.
They'd be far better off forcibly sterilizing people (both parents) after 1 kid.
Trees! (Score:3)
It sounds like planting more trees in place of sugar cane could help with this problem. From the article you linked to:
Experts also say that the drought is not a natural disaster but a consequence of decades of bad farming practices.
In recent years, the state government allowed the proliferation of sugar factories owned by local politicians, which led to a sort of gold rush among farmers here to cultivate water-guzzling sugar cane, said Pradeep Purandare, a former professor of water studies at the Water and Land Management Institute.
Seventy percent of the water from the state’s dams goes to cane farms. But cane growers have drawn on groundwater, further sapping the aquifers.
Mostly unrelated but cool fact I learned: planting trees can have serious effects on climate. Take the example of Ascension Island [wikipedia.org]
In 1836 the Beagle voyage visited Ascension. Charles Darwin described it as an arid treeless island, with nothing growing near the coast... In 1843, botanist and explorer Joseph Hooker visited the island. Four years later, Hooker, with much encouragement from Darwin, advised the Royal Navy that with the help of Kew Gardens, they should institute a long-term plan of shipping trees to Ascension. The planted trees would capture more rain and improve the soil, allowing the barren island to become a garden. So, from 1850 and continuing year on year, ships came with an assortment of plants from botanical gardens in Argentina, Europe and South Africa. By the late 1870s Norfolk pines, eucalyptus, bamboo, and banana trees grew in profusion at the highest point of the island, Green Mountain, creating a tropical cloud forest.
Granted, that's a special case that won't be repeated in India. Still, we usually only think of weather affecting the plants -- not plants affecting weather. It's good to remember that it works both ways.
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Bamboo Forests Are Best (Score:3)