Sagar Dhara - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Sagar Dhara
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2016
India’s 102,000 MW commercial power generating capacity, 69% by thermal power, is the second larg... more India’s 102,000 MW commercial power generating capacity, 69% by thermal power, is the second largest in Asia.
India’s plans to increase this capacity, largely by thermal power, is one of the world’s largest power augmentation
programmes.
Over the next half-century, Indian thermal power plants may pose a bigger risk to biodiversity in the Indian
subcontinent than all other anthropogenic interferences together did in the past. Sulphur dioxide emissions from
thermal power plants will pose the primary risk; and the siting of new power plants closer to river sources, and
therefore forests, will pose a secondary risk.
Sulphur dioxide emissions, which are currently 6.5 million tonnes, are estimated to grow at 5.5% per annum to 19
million tonnes by 2020. Nitrogen dioxide emissions, currently 10 million tonnes, are estimated to grow at an even
faster rate. The synergistic effect of both these acidic gases will put 35 million Ha, or 55% of India’s best forests
in the Western and Eastern Ghats, the Himalayas, the Northeast and the Andaman Islands at risk of forest dieback
as the soils of these forests have a low buffering capacity and are, therefore sensitive to acidic gas depositions.
To minimize coal transport costs, thermal power plants have largely been located at coalmine pitheads in the major
coal belts of India in North-central and East India. However, these areas are also water-stressed. Thermal power
plants require large quantities of water. In their search for water, new thermal power plants will locate closer to
river sources first close to the Eastern Ghats, then the Himalayas and the Western Ghats. These three hill systems
are also forested. As other downstream industry locate close to power plants, the growth centres that are nucleated
close to the forests will put them and the biodiversity they host under pressure.
Short-term, medium-term and long-term measures are required to tackle these new threats to biodiversity. The
short-term measures include: studying the impact of thermal power on biodiversity, setting up a monitoring
mechanism for acidic depositions and their impacts, encouraging the development of green lungs and using bioindicator
plant species to monitor pollution levels around thermal power stations, training bystander populations
residing around power plants to monitor the plants, including the cost of externalities in the price of power,
formulating environment-friendly power plant siting rules and preparing a toxic release inventory which will put in
public domain.
The medium-term measures include: adopting an energy and environment policy, instituting a carbon and sulphur
tax, having the signatory nations to the Malé Declaration sign a binding protocol on sulphur emission caps, setting
emission standards for power plants, encouraging the use of clean fuels, encouraging emissions control
technologies and combined cycle plants, initiating demand-side management by encouraging low energy
consuming devices, instituting Pollution Prevention Boards and decentralizing the grant of consent for operations
to local self governments, minimizing transmission and distribution losses and encouraging the setting up of
renewable energy capacities.
Natural and human history is primarily the history of energy conversion. Humans have the unique ... more Natural and human history is primarily the history of energy conversion. Humans have the unique ability of creating knowledge and the primary history-changing knowledge that they have continuously created since the time of proto humans is the knowledge of energy conversion. Using this knowledge, humans have drawn increasing amounts of energy from nature. However, these energy resources have been unevenly distributed. Human society faces two tilting points—environmental degradation and a highly unequal society, and two tipping points—peak oil and climate change. While the tilting points may cause serious gashes to the social fabric of human society, the tipping points could well cause civilizational regress or even collapse. We now have to ponder over unbridled development of knowledge has been good for human society and nature, and if not whether we need to voluntarily reduce creating more knowledge that will increase entropy, and increase effort to create knowledge that will increase negative entropy by encouraging biotic processes, e.g., increase forest cover. This does not automatically mean going back to a bullock-cart age. Living systems are low-energy systems, but they are more complex than technologies that humans have invented so far. Encouraging biotic systems and products to decrease entropy does not merely mean increasing photosynthesis to increase forest cover. It also means shifting into technologies that rely far more on photosynthesis as an energy conversion process and on biotic processes rather than on abiotic energy conversion processes such as happens in the burning of fossil fuels.
The causes for Bhopal gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in 1984 can be traced to low product ... more The causes for Bhopal gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in 1984 can be traced to low product sales that made the company disinvest in safety and environmental systems. Events that panned out after the accident—government apathy, poor health and economic rehabilitation effort, no spill cleanup, Carbide’s doublespeak and liability dodging—tantamount to denial of care and justice for the accident victims and are a consequence of low value of life in India and the US, and difference in price of life in the two countries. To achieve the same standard of social justice for all humans, we need to fight for a uniform high value of life, as a fundamental human right, throughout the world.
Two problems plague us today-environmental deterioration and economic inequity. Both have been ca... more Two problems plague us today-environmental deterioration and economic inequity. Both have been caused by our overdrawing energy from nature and distributing it inequitable. Consequently, we face three tipping points-climate change, rapid deterioration of life support systems and peak oil, each having the potential of collapsing human society. To comprehend where we went astray, we must travel back 10,000 years to understand the history of the energetics of human society. This article explores the history of energy surplus-its creation and distribution, and attempts to answer the question of how much energy can each one of us have if we were to stay within earth's capacity to provide energy sustainably and were it distributed equitably.
Cities are energy consumers, not producers. They exist as they siphon large quantity of surplus e... more Cities are energy consumers, not producers. They exist as they siphon large quantity of surplus energy from their hinterlands. Their energy source has a predominant influence on their configuration. With the fossil fuel era coming to a close within this century, and no viable alternative energy source visible on the horizon, cities as they exist today are unsustainable. Their future depends on whether they can reinvent themselves radically-reduce their energy consumption drastically to come closer to that of their hinterlands, and distribute energy equitably to all their residents. Cuba and transition towns in North nations have already begun to go down this road.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2016
India’s 102,000 MW commercial power generating capacity, 69% by thermal power, is the second larg... more India’s 102,000 MW commercial power generating capacity, 69% by thermal power, is the second largest in Asia.
India’s plans to increase this capacity, largely by thermal power, is one of the world’s largest power augmentation
programmes.
Over the next half-century, Indian thermal power plants may pose a bigger risk to biodiversity in the Indian
subcontinent than all other anthropogenic interferences together did in the past. Sulphur dioxide emissions from
thermal power plants will pose the primary risk; and the siting of new power plants closer to river sources, and
therefore forests, will pose a secondary risk.
Sulphur dioxide emissions, which are currently 6.5 million tonnes, are estimated to grow at 5.5% per annum to 19
million tonnes by 2020. Nitrogen dioxide emissions, currently 10 million tonnes, are estimated to grow at an even
faster rate. The synergistic effect of both these acidic gases will put 35 million Ha, or 55% of India’s best forests
in the Western and Eastern Ghats, the Himalayas, the Northeast and the Andaman Islands at risk of forest dieback
as the soils of these forests have a low buffering capacity and are, therefore sensitive to acidic gas depositions.
To minimize coal transport costs, thermal power plants have largely been located at coalmine pitheads in the major
coal belts of India in North-central and East India. However, these areas are also water-stressed. Thermal power
plants require large quantities of water. In their search for water, new thermal power plants will locate closer to
river sources first close to the Eastern Ghats, then the Himalayas and the Western Ghats. These three hill systems
are also forested. As other downstream industry locate close to power plants, the growth centres that are nucleated
close to the forests will put them and the biodiversity they host under pressure.
Short-term, medium-term and long-term measures are required to tackle these new threats to biodiversity. The
short-term measures include: studying the impact of thermal power on biodiversity, setting up a monitoring
mechanism for acidic depositions and their impacts, encouraging the development of green lungs and using bioindicator
plant species to monitor pollution levels around thermal power stations, training bystander populations
residing around power plants to monitor the plants, including the cost of externalities in the price of power,
formulating environment-friendly power plant siting rules and preparing a toxic release inventory which will put in
public domain.
The medium-term measures include: adopting an energy and environment policy, instituting a carbon and sulphur
tax, having the signatory nations to the Malé Declaration sign a binding protocol on sulphur emission caps, setting
emission standards for power plants, encouraging the use of clean fuels, encouraging emissions control
technologies and combined cycle plants, initiating demand-side management by encouraging low energy
consuming devices, instituting Pollution Prevention Boards and decentralizing the grant of consent for operations
to local self governments, minimizing transmission and distribution losses and encouraging the setting up of
renewable energy capacities.
Natural and human history is primarily the history of energy conversion. Humans have the unique ... more Natural and human history is primarily the history of energy conversion. Humans have the unique ability of creating knowledge and the primary history-changing knowledge that they have continuously created since the time of proto humans is the knowledge of energy conversion. Using this knowledge, humans have drawn increasing amounts of energy from nature. However, these energy resources have been unevenly distributed. Human society faces two tilting points—environmental degradation and a highly unequal society, and two tipping points—peak oil and climate change. While the tilting points may cause serious gashes to the social fabric of human society, the tipping points could well cause civilizational regress or even collapse. We now have to ponder over unbridled development of knowledge has been good for human society and nature, and if not whether we need to voluntarily reduce creating more knowledge that will increase entropy, and increase effort to create knowledge that will increase negative entropy by encouraging biotic processes, e.g., increase forest cover. This does not automatically mean going back to a bullock-cart age. Living systems are low-energy systems, but they are more complex than technologies that humans have invented so far. Encouraging biotic systems and products to decrease entropy does not merely mean increasing photosynthesis to increase forest cover. It also means shifting into technologies that rely far more on photosynthesis as an energy conversion process and on biotic processes rather than on abiotic energy conversion processes such as happens in the burning of fossil fuels.
The causes for Bhopal gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in 1984 can be traced to low product ... more The causes for Bhopal gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in 1984 can be traced to low product sales that made the company disinvest in safety and environmental systems. Events that panned out after the accident—government apathy, poor health and economic rehabilitation effort, no spill cleanup, Carbide’s doublespeak and liability dodging—tantamount to denial of care and justice for the accident victims and are a consequence of low value of life in India and the US, and difference in price of life in the two countries. To achieve the same standard of social justice for all humans, we need to fight for a uniform high value of life, as a fundamental human right, throughout the world.
Two problems plague us today-environmental deterioration and economic inequity. Both have been ca... more Two problems plague us today-environmental deterioration and economic inequity. Both have been caused by our overdrawing energy from nature and distributing it inequitable. Consequently, we face three tipping points-climate change, rapid deterioration of life support systems and peak oil, each having the potential of collapsing human society. To comprehend where we went astray, we must travel back 10,000 years to understand the history of the energetics of human society. This article explores the history of energy surplus-its creation and distribution, and attempts to answer the question of how much energy can each one of us have if we were to stay within earth's capacity to provide energy sustainably and were it distributed equitably.
Cities are energy consumers, not producers. They exist as they siphon large quantity of surplus e... more Cities are energy consumers, not producers. They exist as they siphon large quantity of surplus energy from their hinterlands. Their energy source has a predominant influence on their configuration. With the fossil fuel era coming to a close within this century, and no viable alternative energy source visible on the horizon, cities as they exist today are unsustainable. Their future depends on whether they can reinvent themselves radically-reduce their energy consumption drastically to come closer to that of their hinterlands, and distribute energy equitably to all their residents. Cuba and transition towns in North nations have already begun to go down this road.