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Start early: Don’t wait until the last minute to start your revision. Start as early as possible, so you have enough time to cover all the material and go over the difficult concepts multiple times.
Break it down: Break down your revision into smaller chunks, so it becomes more manageable. This approach can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and make the revision process less intimidating.
Create a study plan: Create a study plan that outlines what you need to cover, when you will cover it, and how long you will spend on each topic. This can help you stay organised and focused.
Practise active recall: Instead of passively reading your notes or textbook, practise active recall. This means testing yourself on what you’ve learned and recalling it from memory. This approach has been shown to be more effective than simply reading or highlighting.
Use memory aids: Use memory aids such as flashcards, mnemonics and acronyms to help you remember important information. These tools can be particularly helpful for memorising lists, formulas and other details.
Study in short bursts: Studies have shown that studying in short bursts of 20-30 minutes, followed by a short break, can be more effective than studying for long periods. This approach can help you stay focused and retain more information.
Mix it up: Instead of studying one subject for an extended period, mix up your revision by switching between different subjects. This approach can help you avoid boredom and keep your mind engaged.
Use past papers: Practising past papers can help you get familiar with the types of questions that may appear on exams and help you identify areas where you need to focus your revision.
Take breaks: Taking regular breaks during your revision can help you recharge your brain and improve your concentration. Take a short walk, do some stretching exercises or simply take some deep breaths.
Stay positive: Finally, stay positive and believe in yourself. Revision can be challenging, but with the right mindset, approach and support, you can achieve your academic goals.
In conclusion, revision is an essential part of the academic process, and it is crucial to approach it in a structured, organised, and effective way. By following these 10 revision tips, you can make the most out of your study time and achieve academic success. | <urn:uuid:243f71cb-b473-466e-a523-cc3ad92db27b> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.capitalccg.ac.uk/news/top-10-revision-tips-for-exam-success | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473598.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221234056-20240222024056-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.928379 | 463 | 3.078125 | 3 |
One of the most important Gardening Tips is to water your plants properly. Most vegetables need at least six hours of direct sunlight, although some varieties of greens can tolerate partial shade. A moist soil helps the roots remain strong and prevents cracking. To determine how much water your plants need, use a fingertip test.
Freshly planted shrubs and trees should receive ample water to stay healthy. Container gardens may need to be watered daily. Some plants, such as garden phlox, are susceptible to powdery mildew. You should also make sure that day lilies get proper deadheading. Deadheading is an important part of gardening, and you can do this by trimming off the blooms at the base.
A rain barrel can help you water your plants on dry days. This water collection system can be easily installed and helps cut down on utility bills. It can be used to water hanging plants as well. It is also a good way to start seeds. Just make sure you don’t put too much water in your plants. You may have to water them more frequently, but the rain barrel can catch the excess water. This trick also saves you time from watering the plants.
The Fall is a great time to start planning for the next year’s garden. As the nights get cooler, you can plant seeds for spring-flowering bulbs. | <urn:uuid:95bbbd98-d48a-42bc-8b98-402941a97eff> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://meepo.org/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474377.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223085439-20240223115439-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.949949 | 278 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Autumn Blaze Red Maple (Acre rubrum ‘Autumn Blaze’) is truly a study of red. Many of the tree’s components—flowers, seeds, fruit, twigs—blaze in brilliant shades of red when they bloom. Notably, this maple tree gets its name from the hallmark scarlet shade it bursts into in the autumn. Native to the east coast, the Autumn Blaze Red Maple grows abundantly all around the country, stretching to places like Minnesota and Texas due to its generalist nature. “Generalist” means that this species is able to tolerate many different types of conditions, habitats, and ecosystems, and adapts to use different resources that are available to it. Autumn Blaze Red Maples have a fast growth rate and a relatively short lifespan, ranging from 80 to 100 years old, with the rare few reaching up to 200 years old.
If Trees Could Sing…
Click here to hear Jerry Douglas talk about one of his favorite trees. Video courtesy of The Nature Conservancy and Jerry Douglas.
Click an image below to start exploring.
Photos taken at Old Town June 2021 and 2022. | <urn:uuid:a74622fc-eef7-4156-b986-78d3caf744a5> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://oldtownfranklin.com/preservation/trees/autumn-blaze-red-maple/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474377.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223085439-20240223115439-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.927435 | 233 | 2.734375 | 3 |
25 April, 2022
Surely the fashion industry has nothing to do with the climate crisis. After all, we feel better wearing new outfits and inevitably you will need a new frock or tuxedo when next ‘walking the red carpet’!
But the global fashion industry is based on promoting new styles of clothing every few months and enticing you to abandon recently bought garments – ‘Fast Fashion’. According to one survey, nearly half of the clothes in the average UK person's wardrobe are never worn, primarily because they no longer fit or have gone out of style. Another found that a fifth of the items owned by US consumers are unworn. Don’t get me wrong, that’s also my wardrobe, and if in doubt when you next go to a shopping mall simply count how many stores are devoted to selling schmutters. Local fashion shows and ‘runways’ remain regular features of our news and TV entertainment.
Back in the 80s many garments were made in Aotearoa (previously known as New Zealand) but a quick scan of your wardrobe will result in over 90 percent now made in China or Asian nations and then imported, therefore adding to the huge pollution generated by shipping and aviation. Much publicity has rightly been given to the horrendous working conditions and slave pay rates in many ‘third world’ nations, all aimed to get the cheapest ‘fast fashion’ products to market in the ‘first world’. Fortunately, many Kiwi clothing companies now operate sustainable and fair-trade policies regarding sourcing garments.
Sadly, according to the UN Environment Program, the fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for 8-10 percent of global carbon emissions. According to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, these emissions are expected to skyrocket 60 percent by 2030. This is simply huge, generating more nasty emissions than shipping and aviation combined. Fast Fashion is one of highest polluting industries in the world, aside from oil and gas. By using cheap and dirty fabric, it is causing all kinds of pollution to our environment. The toxic chemicals in these types of fabric also cause negative effects to the planet and threatens our oceans.
It’s no longer cotton that rules the garment trade. Sixty-five percent of the clothing we wear is polymer-based and around 70 million barrels of oil a year are used to make polyester fibres in our clothes. A shirt made from polyester has double the carbon footprint compared to one made from cotton, the equivalent of 5.5kg of carbon dioxide compared to 2.1kg from a cotton shirt.
Many garments, both new and pre-loved, end up at the local tip. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that in 2017, 10.2 million tonnes of textiles ended up in landfills while another 2.9 million tonnes were incinerated. Next time you go to a clothing store at the mall by all means ask what happens to those items that never sell. Chances are they go straight to the tip.
So what approaches are readily available for us to reduce the emissions and pollution associated with the rag trade? Fortunately, lots:
· Purchase what you genuinely need, and not what fashion dictates.
· Recycle by donating unused garments to local op shops.
· Ensure that all schools have a program to collect no longer needed uniforms from graduating students and freely allocate them to new students. Same for sports clubs.
· Sell or gift them via social networking and auction web sites. Especially look to reallocate infant and kids gear that no longer fits.
· Look to buy Kiwi-made garments, and ideally from any of Mangawhai’s excellent fashion shops.
· If needing that special outfit for the red carpet, consider hiring it in preference to purchasing a ‘one-off’. Ask friends if they can help out.
· Consider buying ‘pre-loved’ designer-labelled garments in preference to brand new, and ideally ensure that the garment can be worn alongside numerous existing items in your wardrobe. This facilitates having a smaller wardrobe but a more flexible one.
· Clothes are expensive – look after them.
· Simply look to buy garments made to last beyond one season. I applaud the many young ladies I often see in Bennetts who proudly wear old jeans with numerous tears and rips in them!
A shirt made from polyester has double the carbon footprint compared to one made from cotton, and sheds microplastic. PHOTO/THE ROBIN REPORT | <urn:uuid:8bde02bf-ff81-4747-9b53-d67927340309> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | http://www.mangawhaifocus.co.nz/Archives/25th+April+2022+Anzac/The+Climate+Chap+Is+fashion+destroying+our+climate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474715.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228112121-20240228142121-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.944593 | 935 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Hazara persecution in Afghanistan requires nearby countries, in the Middle East and beyond, to enhance their support in streamlining refugees’ access to safety. Despite the increased proliferation of violence against the minority community, several statistics suggest that Afghanistan’s neighbors are restricting movement across borders. In November 2021 – IOM announced that over one million Afghans have been returned in the past year, and in the last week of October 28,000 Afghans were sent back to Afghanistan. Moreover, many of Afghanistan’s neighbors have closed their borders to those who do not possess accurate travel documents, forcing many to undertake perilous crossings, such as: “crawling under a fence near an official crossing in Afghanistan’s Herat Province, or climbing over a two-meter-high wall in Nimroz province.”
Amnesty International also notes that Afghans have been subject to violent pushbacks upon attempted entry into Iran and Turkey, undoubtedly impacting minority communities who are most desperate to flee. This article sheds light on the dire conditions that the Hazara people currently face in Afghanistan, while imploring countries in the Middle East to enhance their support for communities who are at risk of life-threatening danger.
16-year-old Marzia Mohammadi’s diary tells of her hopes: to see the Eiffel Tower, enjoy pizza in an Italian restaurant, as well as to ride a bike in Kabul and learn to play the guitar. However, being a Hazara girl in Taliban controlled Afghanistan, Marzia’s dreams would be difficult to realize. We will never know what would become of these dreams, because a suicide bomber’s blast killed her and 53 other students in an attack on Marzia’s school in Kabul on September 30.
It wasn’t the first such attack and it won’t be the last. The minority Hazara community, ethnically and religiously distinct from most Afghans, is under assault by ISIS and other terrorists. Since May 2021, Hazara groups have documented 25 attacks victimizing Hazaras across Afghanistan, particularly the west Kabul area of Dasht-e-Barchi, with a body count of over 500. Research by Human Rights Watch put the number of killed or wounded at 700 since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.
Clearly, the frequency and severity of attacks point to a deadly problem.
To raise awareness, on October 8, the World Hazara Council coordinated unprecedented global protests in 100 cities. Diaspora communities rallied in Australia, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Pakistan, Poland, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, and even within Afghanistan itself. Protests in the United States stretched from coast to coast, from Los Angeles to Kansas City to Washington, DC.
Azra Jafari, who served as Afghanistan’s first female mayor, told me, “Year after year, there are attacks on Hazara neighborhoods… from mosques to maternity wards to schools, our people are massacred every day.” Azra said the purpose of the protests was “to spread awareness for the Hazara Genocide.”
During the protests, crowds called for the United Nations to recognize the genocide against the community and to form a UN commission of inquiry. Homira May Rezai of the World Hazara Council explained to me that “recognition of Hazara genocide will help with a mechanism of accountability and removing the culture of impunity in Afghanistan.” She noted such a finding would also counter “the lack of recognition that Hazaras are being persecuted due to their ethnic and religious identity.”
With experts and activists recognizing the unique level of vulnerability Hazaras face, policymakers must consider how the facts concerning the Hazara meet the threshold for genocide. The U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines the “crime of crimes” as certain acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Examples of this kind of violence include killing individuals of a particular group, inflicting bodily or mental harm, “deliberately inflicting” conditions to cause the “physical destruction in whole or in part” of a group.
The local ISIS franchise, ISIS-Khorasan, has demonstrated the ability for mass murder through repeated attacks, killing individuals with impunity. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, two weeks before the latest school bombing, reported how frequent ISIS-K attacks “appear to be systematic in nature and reflect elements of an organizational policy, thus bearing hallmarks of international crimes including crimes against humanity.” He noted Hazaras are “historically one of the most severely persecuted groups in Afghanistan.”
And ISIS-K works to physically destroy the Hazara, in whole and in part. The group has pledged to exterminate Hazaras because of their religious and ethnic identity. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum noted that “since its emergence in 2015, ISIS-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) has also attacked the community and stated its goal to exterminate Shi’a, including the Hazara.”
For those who survive, the residual mental harm leaves debilitating scars. And the Taliban offer no protection. “Since the Taliban takeover, ISIS-linked fighters have committed numerous brutal attacks against members of the Hazara community as they go to school, to work, or to pray, without a serious response from the Taliban authorities,” said Human Rights Watch’s Fereshta Abbasi. The Taliban, while an arch-enemy of ISIS-K, are not helping Hazaras. Their promises of security are cold comfort and unreliable.
Others see the merits in genocide claims. In August, the UK Parliament’s Hazara Inquiry concluded that the Hazaras are at “serious risk of genocide at the hands of the Taliban and Islamic State-Khorasan Province,” which engenders “the responsibility of all states to protect the Hazara and prevent a possible genocide.” Last year, experts at the U.S. Holocaust Museum said Hazara face “a risk of crimes against humanity or even genocide,” and it has only gotten worse.
The Hazaras feel such a determination would recognize their plight and highlight their dire circumstances. A special UN commission, as they call for, would clarify the situation and develop recommendations. But governments need not wait on the United Nations. The United States and other likeminded countries can review the situation themselves. Yet having personally participated in previous genocide deliberations while serving at the State Department, only Secretary of State Blinken’s direct involvement will ensure fair and speedy consideration. Otherwise, without sufficient leadership, State Department genocide reviews are often slow and bureaucratic, or suffer from politicization.
However, when applying the facts to the legal standard of genocide, the answer seems clear – ISIS-K is perpetrating genocide. But would a genocide determination help Hazaras in Afghanistan? While honoring their suffering, “genocide” is not a magic word unlocking automatic actions by the international community.
The World Hazara Council recognizes this, which is why they also called for “urgent measures for the protection of the Hazaras in Afghanistan, including the creation of an internationally assisted and monitored self-defense mechanism .” Doing so would, as Azra Jafari said, “allow[s] our people to live, work, and be educated in peace.”
Stopping future attacks will be difficult. The Biden Administration’s new National Security Strategy only discusses Afghanistan in the context of counter-terrorism. However, signatories to the Genocide Convention, such as the United States, carry the obligation to both prevent genocide and punish those committing genocide. In 2007, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled every country with a “capacity to influence effectively the action of persons likely to commit, or already committing genocide” has the obligation “to employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible.” Sharing intelligence with Hazara groups or offshore counter-terror strikes on ISIS-K cells could limit the threat.
Other possibilities for deterrence exist, such as investigations by the International Criminal Court under universal jurisdiction, which could break the cycle of impunity. The Holocaust Museum recommended “the establishment of an investigative mechanism empowered to collect evidence of crimes committed by all perpetrators in Afghanistan.” Experts at the U.S. Institute of Peace have pushed for additional human rights monitoring resources to support accountability. American leadership will be crucial in this effort.
But to avoid future suffering, helping Hazara escape would save lives. The ongoing targeting of Hazaras because of their religion and ethnicity means that many would qualify for resettlement under the U.N. Refugee Convention. North America and Europe, as well as Asian nations like Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Korea, should resettle Hazaras as refugees. Also, nearby countries like India, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, and various Gulf emirates could open their doors for Hazaras for temporary work status. Many are well-educated and speak English, thus increasing the human capital of those nations’ workforces. Relocating Hazaras would save vulnerable individuals from certain future harm.
There are no easy answers, but the Hazaras need help. Marzia’s life was taken by a ruthless act of hate because she was a Hazara girl pursuing an education. Without new action, terrorists will kill many other Marzias. Recognizing a genocide would be an important step. But as Azra Jafari pleaded, “We want change, we want recognition, and we need this violence to stop.”
This article is also published in the Journal of Middle Eastern Politics & Policy. illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability & Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem. | <urn:uuid:af8957fb-97a6-41ac-b446-369c5c03a0ca> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/genocide-and-hazara-persecution-in-afghanistan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474853.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229202522-20240229232522-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.949089 | 2,076 | 2.65625 | 3 |
VoIP as a model applicable to developing countries
One Destination Center
At present, VoIP users in Indonesia can’t make outgoing calls from VoIP systems due to the fact that the country’s PTSN infrastructure is unable to connect calls placed from VoIP to existing phone lines (a fact which implies that the government does not fully integrate their numbers into the e164.arpa, the Electronic Number Mapping System association acknowledged by the International Telecommunication Union).
To address this disconnect, the project team developed a modified softswitch (a central device in a telecommunications network which connects telephone calls from one phone line to another) capable of connecting VoIP systems to the telephone grid to enable those with limited communications options to build their own low-cost communication infrastructure. The “Briker” softswitch developed for this project is an Internet Protocol Private Branch eXchange (IP PBX) software equipped with enum (E.164 Number Mapping) compatibility, which means the softswitch itself is able to make the connections the national infrastructure cannot.
IP PBX is a telephone system designed to deliver voice or video over a data network. Just like a normal Private Branch eXchange (PBX) or the conventional phone exchange, IP PBX also connects a number of phone lines (extensions). IP PBX may have benefits over conventional PBX, as it is based on Internet Protocol (IP). IP PBX may be wireless, can accommodate more extensions than conventional PBX, and enables communication at a rate that is far less costly than long distance and international calling. IP PBX can also be interconnected to Public switched telephone networks (PSTN), allowing users registered to an IP PBX system to dial and receive calls from PSTN or Cellular to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and vice versa. | <urn:uuid:cbf8fe00-02f3-48d4-b13b-40ca79b316ad> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://apnic.foundation/projects/voip-as-a-model-applicable-to-developing-countries/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473690.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222030017-20240222060017-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.913409 | 371 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Rainforests contain millions of different species of plants, animals, and insects that form a complex ecosystem that is essential to the life of the entire planet. In addition to important respiratory functions and fresh water reserves, they are also the source of many life-saving drugs. Unfortunately, the rainforests are being threatened by development. Tropical rainforests are areas that covered in thick vegetation and filled with one of the widest collections of unique creatures and plant life. The rainforest is home to half of all known living species. Due to all the plant life they yield a great deal of water vapor through evaporation that is used by other biomes. It normally is very warm and very wet in these areas. It has been known to rain up to four hundred inches annual in these regions. This ecosystem covers just under ten percent of the planet and is one of the oldest biomes on Earth having been around since the time of dinosaurs.
This collection of worksheets offers short reading passages, questionnaires, and activity sheets about the plants, animals, and cultures found in the rainforests. Fun Fact: Though they only cover about 2% of the Earth's surface, it is estimated that rainforests house over 50% of the planet's plant and animal species. | <urn:uuid:729ed08d-0798-46ed-b862-f7985a554762> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.easyteacherworksheets.com/science/rainforest.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473690.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222030017-20240222060017-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.964978 | 257 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Ammonites were spiral-shelled marine mollusks that drifted throughout the Mesozoic seas until the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction event. Despite how abundant they are in the fossil record, we don’t know that much about their ecology. Now, researchers trying to reconstruct their habitats reveal where in the water column these ubiquitous fossils preferred to live. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, might help researchers reconstruct ancient climate.
Because ammonites are diverse and their shells preserve so well, these sea creatures are an important index fossil for dating rock layers. For example, the 35-million-year-long record of Upper Cretaceous deposits in the U.S. Western Interior Seaway has been divided into 66 ammonite zones. At the upper Maastrichtian Owl Creek Formation in northern Mississippi, three common ammonite families – Baculitidae, Scaphitidae, and Sphenodiscidae – co-occur with other well-preserved organisms living at various depths, from planktonic (surface dwelling) critters to benthic (bottom dwelling) ones. This area provides a rare opportunity to constrain depth habitats of ammonites by comparing isotopic compositions of all the co-occurring groups of organisms: Shell chemistry, specifically oxygen isotopes, records the temperature of the surrounding water.
To recreate the water column profile and determine where ammonites lived, a team led by Jocelyn Sessa from the American Museum of Natural History performed isotopic analyses on ammonites as well as planktonic and benthic protists called foraminifera. Of the 553 Owl Creek Formation mollusk specimens they studied, the team ended up with 234 isotopic measurements.
Baculites and scaphites, they found, have similar chemical compositions as benthic organisms – which means they lived close to the sea floor. The third family of ammonites, the sphenodiscids, was more closely associated with planktonic foraminifera and those from the warmer half of the benthic environments. That means they lived near the sea surface. Relative to baculites and scaphites, sphenodiscids were rare and poorly preserved: Their shells likely reached Owl Creek by drifting seaward after death.
Being able to determine where different types of ammonites lived – using the oxygen isotopes of their shells – may help researchers reconstruct past climate. "Ammonites haven’t been used much in temperature reconstructions because we didn't know whether they were surface dwellers, bottom dwellers, or perhaps even both if they swam through different water masses," Sessa explains to IFLScience. "Now that the depth habitats of these three groups have been established, they could be used to provide temperature estimates of particular water masses in the future." | <urn:uuid:3c386571-a74b-4caa-bda8-9c23cef6e589> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.iflscience.com/where-ocean-did-iconic-spiral-ammonites-live-32039 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473690.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222030017-20240222060017-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.945663 | 588 | 4.34375 | 4 |
- The Himalayan landscape is the locus of numerous dams and hydropower projects. Hydropower, considered a clean energy source, accounts for about 14% of India’s power generation capacity as of 2023.
- However, experts say that dams and hydro projects significantly impact the sensitive ecology of the mountains and activists argue that rampant construction and deforestation due to hydro projects, increase disaster risks.
- The land subsidence in Joshimath and the recent glacial lake outburst floods, and intense rainfall and floods in the Indian Himalayan Region, raise concern about the carrying capacity of the mountains and the need for caution while developing infrastructure.
“There’s no light or water, but I stay here with my kids. All houses are like this; they are sinking,” says Anita, an agricultural labourer from Joshimath, Uttarakhand, pointing to the severe cracks in her house. This was the result of the rapid subsidence that took place in early 2023.
Thousands of houses in the hilly Himalayan town developed cracks and it became unsafe for the residents to live there. They had to be evacuated and relocated. However, some residents returned to their unsafe houses, as they found it challenging to earn a living from temporary shelters located far away.
In addition to land subsidence, several villages in the mountainous regions of Uttarakhand also witness other frequent disasters, including floods, cloudbursts, landslides and cold waves.
According to experts, the fragile mountainous region cannot bear the brunt of rampant development and construction. They have repeatedly raised concerns about the carrying capacity of the fragile Himalayan terrain and the need to caution while developing infrastructure. This Himalayan landscape is also the site of numerous dams or hydropower projects to produce electricity.
Energy infrastructure in the mountains
Hydropower, considered a clean energy source, accounts for about 14% of India’s installed power capacity as of 2023. Dams are also considered a reliable addition to solar and wind energy, which are variable by nature. Uttarakhand is the state with the highest number of dams in the country.
While the government denies any links between hydropower and the sinking situation in Joshimath, some experts and residents feel otherwise. They say that the crisis in Joshimath spotlights the threat of large-scale dams in the mountains of the Himalayas.
“In 2013, I was chairing the Supreme Court committee and we concluded that the presence of dams aggravates the impact of floods. If the dam wasn’t there, the river would keep moving. If a dam was there, it has to put a lot of energy and it releases destructive energy,” shares Ravi Chopra, a research scientist at People’s Science Institute.
Arun Kumar, a professor from IIT-Roorkee, who specialises in hydropower development, environmental management and energy economics, explains, “Food security, water security and energy security are all available with water storage projects. However, there is no energy without impacts. The question then is whether the impacts are more on the positive side or the negative side.”
Chopra argues that the impacts on the biodiversity of the region are huge. “Our engineers only see the water; they don’t see a river…The most sensitive ecology exists higher up in the mountains.”
An activist and the convenor of the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, Atul Sati, says that the local people initially protested against the hydropower projects. While some were promised jobs, those jobs were mostly temporary and low-paying, he shares. Sati also opines that the people whose water, forests, land and resources are being used for the hydro projects are not at the centre of it.
While India pushes for more hydropower projects, especially in the Himalayan region, experts highlight the importance of including local communities in decision-making and the need for mountain-appropriate development pathways.
Banner image: Hydro project on Dikchu, a tributary of Teesta. Photo by A. J. T. Johnsingh, WWF-India and NCF/Wikimedia Commons. | <urn:uuid:d9dd6d62-96f8-45eb-9f0a-95418f952e6c> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://india.mongabay.com/2024/01/video-hydropower-in-the-himalayas-and-disaster-risks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474569.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20240224212113-20240225002113-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.956766 | 870 | 3.40625 | 3 |
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