'What exactly is a Smart City?' - No one really knows, but Delhi MUST become smarter

My article 'What exactly is a Smart City?' - No one really knows, but Delhi MUST become smarter appeared in The Daily Mail/Mail Today

Here is the link...

Several months ago, during an interaction with a group of senior (serving and retired) civil servants, the discussion turned to one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship schemes, 'Smart Cities'.
After some time, one of the participants asked: 'But what is a smart city?'

Questions
One 'smart' officer answered that it is an important scheme through which the Prime Minister hopes to change India.
Someone else pointed out that this does not really explain what a 'smart city' is.
How could this change the lives of city dwellers, particularly in places like Delhi, where traffic and pollution are increasing by the day?
A better-connected person admitted that a few weeks earlier, he had phoned one of his colleagues, serving in a senior position in the urban development ministry and asked the latter the same question.
The answer was: 'We are not sure as yet, but we are working on it'. There was no doubt in anybody's mind that there is an urgency for Delhi to become smarter; otherwise, millions could soon suffocate with the increase in pollution, the dysfunctional transportation system and the degradation of the quality of life in general.
Since that discussion, the government and particularly the 'Smart Cities Mission' have done some homework.
The website of the ministry confesses that there is no universally accepted definition for a smart city; it could mean different things to different people.
Ultimately, a smart city 'contains a wish list of infrastructure and services that describes his or her level of aspiration'.
The idea is to provide for the aspirations and needs of the citizens: 'Urban planners ideally aim at developing the entire urban ecosystem, which is represented by the four pillars of comprehensive development - institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure.'
The objectives of the present scheme are to provide a decent quality of life to the citizens - a clean and sustainable environment by using 'smart solutions': 'The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development.'
Ultimately, a smart city 'contains a wish list of infrastructure and services that describes his or her level of aspiration'
Another objective is to 'create a replicable model which will act like a lighthouse to other aspiring cities.'
After a recent visit to Bhutan, I realised that an important factor has been left out - happiness. Should not citizens be happy in their smart city?
It seems quite obvious, except for the 'planners'! The concept of 'happiness', perhaps, places the bar too high. But should not the well-being of the body and the mind be at least included in the objectives of 'smart cities'?
Even if technology can go a long way to help achieve these objectives, the human aspect should remain the main focus.

Experiment
It is important to recall the experiment of Chandigarh in the 1950s. Inaugurating a new university, Jawaharlal Nehru put it in perspective: 'I do not like every building in Chandigarh, I like some of them very much, I like the general conception of the township very much but what I like, above all, is this creative approach, not being tied down to what has been done by our forefathers and the like, but thinking of it in new terms and trying to think in terms of light and air and ground and water and human beings.'
Human beings should be at the centre of preoccupation of the planners when they dream of achieving smartness.
As Nehru put it: 'The main thing is the approach to it, the design, the conception, the wide conception embracing every aspect of the human life.'
Unfortunately, the 'expert' builders took over the new city and the human approach of the model city remained only words. 'Smart City' is today a fashionable slogan, particularly for foreign investors, but how many town planners are ready to follow in the steps of Le Corbusier?
It is true that there is no easy solution. One way out could be the delocalisation of some of the Indian ministries, all located in Delhi.
Why can't the urban development ministry give the example and shift to a 'smart' new place and become an example for others to follow.

Delocalisation
Let us not forget that new technologies, IT in particular, are to be the engine of the 'smart revolution'. With the advent of video-conferencing, emails and other means of communications, the shifting of a few ministries should not impact the efficiency of the babus and their political masters.
Take Shastri Bhavan, which hosts a score of different ministries.
One often reads in the press about fire in Shastri Bhavan. It is one of the most 'un-smart' buildings in Lyutens' Delhi. Why can't some of these ministries be relocated in other parts of India?
Why not in the Northeast or in the south, for example? It will certainly release the pressure on the national Capital and bring new energies to the 'provinces'.
Delocalisation would be a smart move. It would help make India not uniquely a Delhi-centric country, but also help having smarter, more sustainable governance.
Not only ministries, several government undertakings could also be shifted outside Delhi (I am thinking particularly about think tanks and many educational institutions).
Gurugram could have been a great experiment, had it not been uniquely based on economic short-term profits on immovable properties. It has become an example not to be followed.
Another modern tragedy is the migration of populations from the frontiers, particularly the borders with China in Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh.
Delhi works at snail's speed to create a semblance of infrastructure in these areas, resulting in migration towards the 'big cities'. This too is not at all smart.

The Fate of Planet Earth

As torrential rains forces the authorities to close Chennai Airport, as Beijing chokes under a thick, brown smog and air pollution reaches 20 times what the World Health Organization considers to be safe and as Delhi become the ‘Most Polluted City in the World’, leaders from 147 nations addressed the opening session of the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference held in Paris between November 30 to December 11.
One of the objectives of the COP21 (it is the 21st yearly session of the Conference of Parties), is to review the implementation of the 1992 Rio Convention. In Brazil, world leaders had agreed on a UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aimed at stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and avoiding ‘dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’.
The UNFCCC has now 195 parties/members.
During the COP3 in Japan, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted; then the COP11 in Canada agreed to the Montreal Action Plan, while the COP15 in Copenhagen could only acknowledge that the Kyoto Protocol targets had not been achieved; this perhaps triggered the creation of a Green Climate Fund during the COP17 in Durban.
This time, the aim is to find an effective and equitable agreement to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius.
Will it succeed?
Probably not: simply because the interests of the different players are too divergent. However one should look at the COP21 in another perspective.
Never in the history of mankind, have so many heads of State and Governments congregated in a single place. For months, the world’s chancelleries put tremendous efforts to enable a consensus during the Meet.
France, as the host of the COP21, says that “it is committed to the role of an impartial facilitator for forging an ambitious agreement.”
Laurent Fabius, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and COP21 Chairperson has been criss-crossing the world for months. After his visit to Delhi on November 20, he rushed to South Africa, Brazil and Canada to look for possible solutions and this, despite the disparate interests.
Each and every capital has done some homework. Take Beijing, it recently released its latest scientific assessment, a 900-page document called ‘Third National Climate Change Assessment Report’; some 550 scientists have participated to sum up the present knowledge and environmental consequences of rising greenhouse gas levels for China.
They found that average temperatures across the Middle Kingdom have been rising faster than the global average, and that te trend is likely to continue.
If you multiply these efforts by more than 100 nations who have taken the issue seriously, the COP21 is already a success.
The human race has realized that its fate is in the balance.
Of course, the West and Asia do not see eye to eye.
Steffen Böhm, a professor in Management and Sustainability at the University of Essex is one of the few Westerners who understand the less-developed nations’ point of view; he wrote: “Stop blaming India and China for the West’s 300 years of destroying the environment”
Böhm believes that the COP21 will be failure: “The basic reason is that the unequal distribution of carbon emissions is not even on its agenda. The historical responsibility of the West is not on the table, nor is a method of national carbon accounting that looks at how the emissions a country consumes rather than produces.”
The Indian Prime Minister, while addressing the opening session, expressed similar views: “Over the next few days, we will decide the fate of this planet. …the consequences of the industrial age powered by fossil fuel are evident, especially on the lives of the poor. The prosperous still have a strong carbon footprint. And, the world's billions at the bottom of the development ladder are seeking space to grow. So, the choices are not easy. But, we have awareness and technology.”
A western journalist wrote in La Libre Belgique: “India claims the right to pollute”. She represents the view of many in the West, but this type of attitude can lead nowhere.
President Obama was more diplomatic; he urged negotiators to deliver a meaningful deal, because the ‘next generation is watching’; he added: “Climate change could define the contours of this century more than any other challenge.”
The urgency of the situation is the only consensus right now.
There are however several positive initiatives.
Narendra Modi along with French President Francois Hollande launched the International Solar Alliance. It will be hosted in the premises of the National Institute of Solar Energy in Gurgaon and India will provide land and contribute about US$ 30 million to build the Secretariat: "This day is the sunrise of new hope –- not just for clean energy, but for villages and homes still in darkness; and for our mornings and evenings filled with a clear view of the glory of the sun," said Modi. Let us hope.
The world event in France will see the participation of the ‘civil society’, the green NGOs, ‘stakeholders’ of every hue and of course the climatosceptics, who do not believe in climate change, but only see it as a conspiracy of the rich nations.
Probably a crucial concept will be forgotten, that is Sustainable Consumption which means that humanity has to start consuming less, if it wants to survive. Humans need to realize that the resources of the planet are limited and need to be shared by all. But who should start acting first, the rich or the poor?

Dark Days in Lhasa

The Potala Palace

Dark days have come to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
Do you know how Xinhua news agency usually introduces the Roof of the World to the Chinese tourists?
Read this:

Tibet with its mystery is the spiritual Garden of Eden and is longed by travelers home and abroad.
Only by stepping on the snowy plateau, can one be baptized by its splendor, culture, folklore, life, snow mountains, saint mountains, sacred lakes, residences with local characteristics and charming landscape.

Unfortunately, it is not always true. China Tibet Online reported yesterday:

Dust is obscuring the sights of Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Thursday, disrupting flights.
Renowned as 'Sun City', Lhasa normally basks under blue skies with rarely a foggy day.
Liu Yijun, a senior engineer at the local meteorological observatory, said a sharp drop in temperature, lower pressure and accumulated particulates are main causes of the murk which is forecast to last for another two days.
The dust cloud first manifest itself in Lhasa and neighboring counties of Quxu [Chushur] and Gonggar [Gongkar] early on Thursday morning.
Poor visibility at Gonggar Airport in Lhasa meant two flights were canceled and another seven were unable to land. The airport had resumed normal operation by 2 pm.

The article does not say from where the particles have come.
Not from far perhaps.
A few days ago, China Daily proudly announced that "Tibet's Three Gorges Dam starts generating electricity". He mentioned:

Pondo Water Control Project, the largest water control project in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, started generating electricity.
Its first generating unit, with an annual electricity generation capacity of 150 million kilowatt hours, was put into operation at 11:50 am Tuesday [December 18], said Tang Quanyong, deputy head of the project administration bureau.
The other three generating units are expected to start operations in June 2014, said Tang.
The four generating units will be able to generate a total of 599 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually upon completion, which will relieve the tight power supply in the regional capital of Lhasa, he said.
The project will also improve Lhasa's irrigation and flood prevention capabilities, he said.
Dubbed 'Tibet's Three Gorges Dam', the massive project's construction started in July 2009 with an investment of 4.57 billion yuan (748 million U.S. dollars). It is expected to be completed in 2016.
The project is located in Pondo Township of Lhunzhub County and sits more than 4,000 meters above sea level. The project is about 63 kilometers away from Lhasa.

'Tibet's Three Gorges Dam' probably helped to send a lot of particles in the 'spiritual Garden of Eden'.
Here is some pictures of Lhasa.

 

 

 

China's Ultimate Secret Weapon?

Where is the target?

China has a novel strategic theory and this time, it is not for the East China Sea.
The Global Times, a publication affiliated to the Communist Party’s mouthpiece The People’s Daily today affirmed that smog could thwart missile attacks and hamper hostile air reconnaissance.
That is indeed an interesting military doctrine!
The Global Times' headline is "The impact of smog on military equipment".
It argues: "Smog may affect people’s health and daily lives … but on the battlefield, it can serve as a defensive advantage in military operations."
The South China Morning Post (see below) commented on the Chinese netizen's reactions to China's new defensive weapon.
However, the same day, China Tibet Online, affilated to Xinhua, reported: 'No hazy weather in Tibet'.
It quoted the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection: "No hazy weather has been witnessed in Tibet even though it has visited 20 provinces in inland China and caused severe air pollution. Tibet is much colder compared with many inland areas, but is much cleaner."
That's not good for the Chinese defence preparedness in their Western sector?
The Chinese website explains: "Recently, it is reported on many media that hazy weather has hit 104 cities in middle-east China continuously, and the National Meteorological Centre has sent orange alert to heavy fog and haze.
The polluted air condition has caused traffic troubles and serious impact on people's health. Some cities like Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province, have even suspended classes of secondary and elementary schools.
However, none of that happens in Tibet where blue sky is the most common scene in winter."
According to the latest White Paper 'Development and Progress of Tibet' issued by the Information Office of the State Council in October, the Tibet Plateau is "the third-cleanest area in the world in terms of its environment after the South Pole and North Pole".
The White Paper affirms that Tibet has a clean and transparent atmospheric environment, and similar contents of pollutants to the North Pole.
Does it mean that it is bad for China's defence of its borders with India?
The Indian Ministry of Defence should seriously study this issue?
Another possibility is that the PLA has stakes in some polluting industries and the generals are trying to preserve their interests.
It is however surprising that the 'official' press is allowed to publish such a non-sense.

The clean Tibetan plateau

Smog? It bolsters military defence, says Chinese nationalist newspaper
South China Morning Post
December,8 2013
Chris Luo
A nationalist newspaper has tried to put a positive spin on China’s smog, claiming it is conducive to the country's military defence strategy. Smog, it argued, could thwart missile attacks and hamper hostile reconnaissance.
The article in the Global Times under the headline, "The impact of smog on military equipment". It has provoked a lively discussion on Sina Weibo - and also some angry comments.
Missile guidance that relies on human sight, infrared rays and lasers could be affected by smog in varing degrees, the article said. It explained that tiny particles in the air contributing to air pollution could hinder missile guidance systems.
The article said that during the Kosovo war, soldiers of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia used smoke from burning tyres to hamper Nato air strikes. The smoke reduced visibility, hindering reconnaissance efforts, the article said.
Photographic reconnaissance equipment employed by satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and reconnaissance vehicles would be rendered useless by smog it added.
The article also said that during the first Gulf war, sand storms reduced the identification distances of thermal imaging equipment on US tanks from 2,500 metres to 800 metres, while optical detection of Iraqi tanks was reduced to almost nil.
For most of the past week, extensive areas of eastern China including the cities of Shanghai and Nanjing have been hit by severe smog, the worst so far this winter, which some described as an “airpocalypse”.
Smog in Shanghai today. Photo: Brandon King Chinese internet users were unimpressed by the Global Times article, which was seen as an attempt by authorities to put a positive spin on deteriorating air quality and to divert public anger from official inaction.
“Are you saying the smog is not air pollution, but a national defence measure?” a blogger said on Sina Weibo microblog.
Another reader who commented on the article said: “But enemies wouldn’t need to resort to missile attacks if the smog continues to increase – people will simply be poisoned to death.”
Yet some others compared the article to a widely-reposted comment made by a military spokesperson who earlier this year claimed that US nuclear submarines would avoid China’s eastern Yellow Sea because their propeller’s might become entangled by ropes used by farmers to grow seaweed.
“After seaweed, China has added another secret weapon to the country’s national defence arsenal – smog,” one Internet user quipped.

The Dark Sky of Beijing

Do you know why the Chinese love Tibet so much?
It is simple, they breathe better on the Roof of the World.
Scientific research conducted by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute of China Academy of Sciences shows that the air quality of the Namtso Lake situated in southern Tibet, east of Lhasa is as good as that of Antarctica.
It is not the case in China, particularly in Beijing.
The sky created havoc for the Chinese citizens at the end of the long Mid-Autumn Festival Holiday.
Xinhua reported that Beijing had to close down expressways and airports, preventing the return of holiday goers at the end of the Golden Week. In Beijing, visibility was less than 1,000 meters in the city and even lower in the suburbs.
On October 6, Beijing traffic police closed six interprovincial expressways, including roads to Harbin in the northeast, Shanghai to the south, Tianjin and Hebei Province.
Xinhua said: “Visibility at Beijing's Capital International Airport on the northeastern outskirts was 250 to 500 meters. Nearly 44 percent of the departing flights were delayed or canceled, and dozens of incoming flights were forced to land in neighboring cities or return to where they came.”
On the last day of China's National Holiday week, the smog forced lakhs of citizens to postpone their return.
The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center frankly admitted that on October 6, early in the morning: “all 35 monitoring centers across the city indicated heavy air pollution at the highest level of six. …the density of PM 2.5 (airborne particles of less than 2.5 microns), exceeded 200 micrograms per cubic meter.”
The weather forecast said that heavy fog would persist for a few days in the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong and Tianjin.
Worse, the atmospheric condition kept pollutants in the air. The US embassy announced that the air quality indexes “have averaged over 300 in the 24-hour period beginning at 8 pm on October 4, and were over 400 overnight”. The embassy uses the norms of the US Environmental Protection Agency to monitor the pollution; if the index level goes above 301, it is considered hazardous, ‘all physical activities outdoors’ should be avoided.
Well, there were some outdoors activities around the Chinese capital.
As Bloomberg commented: “This weekend, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice player safety for its own long-term financial health.”
In China as elsewhere, sport is business! The Reignwood Classic being the first LPGA tournament in China, the show had to go on. It was too important an event for the association which is banking on China’s rapidly expanding golf market.
American Jessica Korda told the financial publication: “The smog that’s coming in right now, it’s making it heavy, and it’s harder to breathe out there. You cough a lot.”
Players and caddies were seen wearing face-masks in a smoggy backdrop. Finally, the final round of the Reignwood tournament had to be rescheduled, “due to low visibility, the start of the final round has been delayed by 90 minutes.”
During the week-long National Day holiday, millions of visitors landed in the capital, more than 1.1 million visitors on October 3 alone. The tourists from outside could experience a phenomenon familiar to the Beijingers. Visiting Beijing, a Weibo blogger wrote: “My nose and throat are protesting due to the heavy pollution over the past two days. People who dare to travel to Beijing must be from the death squad.”
The biggest attraction in Beijing during the Mid-Autumn Festival Holiday was the newly arrived Big Yellow Duck by Florentijn Hofman, a Dutch artist. It attracted over 300,000 visitors to Beijing’s Summer Palace, though many clicked only blurred images of the Duck.
In the midst of the holidays, the Chinese Government announced that it will ban new coal-fired power plants in three key industrial regions around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in order to combat air pollution.
The State Council, China’s Cabinet, decided to cut coal’s share of the country’s total primary energy use to below 65 percent by 2017 and increase the share of nuclear power, natural gas and renewable energy.
The State Council admitted the country’s air pollution level was ‘grim’ and was ‘harming people’s health and affecting social harmony and stability’. ‘Affecting stability’ will force the Government to move fast. Beijing would now like to cut the density of fine particle matter in Beijing by 25 percent by 2017 (from 2012 levels) and by at least 10 percent in other big cities.
Martin Adams, the Hong Kong-based energy editor for the Economist Intelligence Unit commented on the Government decision: “I think possibly, just as important, if not more important, is the signal that it sends to the Chinese people that ‘we are trying to control pollution levels on the eastern seaboard’.”
The moral of the story is that there is no free meal, even in Communist China where ‘development’ has occurred at a break-neck pace for the past 3 decades. The Middle Kingdom is today paying the price for this rapid development.
Is India watching? Could the great planners in Delhi learn a lesson from what is happening in the Middle Kingdom? Probably not! ‘Development’ at any cost is still the motto of these ‘Planners’.

Chinese tourists near the Namtso

In the meantime, Cong Zhiyuan, researcher of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute of China Academy of Sciences explains that the area around the Namtso Lake is one of the cleanest on the globe.
The Chinese loves to walk around the blue waters of the lake.
Chen Quanguo, the Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region vowed to protect the world's last ‘pure land’. He said that environmental considerations should be at the heart of Tibet's development to protect the region's forests, grasslands, mountains and rivers, adding: “Projects with high energy consumption, pollution and emissions will be strictly banned and mineral resource development will undergo environmental assessment procedures.”
But Mr. Chen has invited 15 million Chinese tourists on the Roof of the World, while mining companies continue to loot the mineral wealth of region. Does not Mr. Chen realize tourism and mining are two of the most polluting activities?
There is no doubt the Tibet will soon follow the steps of the Mainland. How long will Chinese tourists continue to breathe freely and deeply on the Roof of the World? A few years perhaps, not more. Isn’t tragic?

Pollution, pollution, pollution

Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Ji Lin was chairman of Chinese capital top advisory body, the Beijing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. 
He now says that the Chinese capital is today doing far more than it did few years ago to ensure that Beijingers enjoy a blue sky.
Ji affirmed: "We went all out to improve the environment and had 'truly exceptional Games' in 2008, ...now we are addressing air pollution on a larger scale and with more investment than was possible when we prepared for the Games."
But with little results.The China Daily wrote: "In addition to capping coal consumption in Beijing, the city is seeking to get neighboring Tianjin, Hebei and Shanxi to rally behind the fight against pollution."
However a Chinese ministry report shows smog caused 1.1 trillion yuan (about 180 billion US $) in losses in 2010, though the study does not include damage to people's health and deaths.
The South China Morning Post also writes on the hot topic: "The mainland is paying an increasingly heavy price for rampant pollution, with direct economic losses more than doubling between 2004 and 2010, a recent government-backed study has found."
An estimate prepared by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP), using published BP (British Petroleum) energy data and cement production data believed that during the the 1990-2006 period, global fossil-fuel related CO2 emissions increased over 35%. 
It says: "In 2006 global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use increased by about 2.6%, which is less than the 3.3% increase in 2005. The 2.6% increase is mainly due to a 4.5% increase in global coal consumption, of which China contributed more than two-third. China’s 2006 CO2 emissions surpassed those of the USA by 8%. This includes CO2 emissions from industrial processes (cement production). With this, China tops the list of CO2 emitting countries for the first time. In 2005, CO2 emissions of China were still 2% below those of the USA."
That was in 2006.
Today according to the data collected by the United States Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) for the United Nations, China has produced 23.5% of the world CO2 in 2012; the USA comes second with 18.27%, the EU third with  13.98% and  India, fourth with 'only' 5.83%.
Another interesting study has been published in China. 
It affirms that "about 90 per cent of glaciers in Tibet called the Third Pole region are shrinking because of black carbon pollution 'transferred from South Asia' to the Tibetan Plateau".
Yao Tandong, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research claims that the ongoing research over more than 30 years has given scientists a better understanding of pollution on the Tibetan Plateau. 
According to him, black carbon generated from industrial production in South Asia is being taken to the Tibetan Plateau by the Indian monsoon in spring and summer. 
The China Daily quoted him saying: "The accumulation of black carbon on the plateau will accelerate the shrinking of glaciers, bringing with it persistent organic pollutants that will be deposited in the soil".
The investigation using topographic maps and satellite images revealed the retreat of 82 glaciers, area reduction by 7,090 glaciers and the mass-balance change of 15 glaciers, and for  Yao: "Systematic differences in glacier status are apparent from region to region, with the most pronounced shrinkage in the Himalayas, the south eastern part of the region. Some of the glaciers there are very likely to disappear by 2030 ...The shrinkage generally decreases from the Himalayas to the continental interior and is smallest in the western part. Some glaciers there are even growing."
Whether is assessment is correct or not will have to be checked by Indian scientists. The fact remains that China has huge problems in its metropolises.
It is high time to start calculating the true growth of a country which should include 'green' parameters and the damage caused to environment.
We will then discover that old Europe is perhaps not in such a bad shape.

Map showing CO2 emissions

1.1 tr yuan in economic losses from pollution in 2010, China report says
South China Morning Post
March 28,  2013
Li Jing
Ministry's report shows smog caused 1.1tr yuan in losses in 2010, but incomplete study does not include damage to people's health and deaths
The mainland is paying an increasingly heavy price for rampant pollution, with direct economic losses more than doubling between 2004 and 2010, a recent government-backed study has found.
An incomplete calculation of the environmental costs in 2010 showed that pollution had caused 1.1 trillion yuan (HK$1.36 trillion) in economic losses, or 2.15 times the 511.8 billion yuan loss in 2004, when the "green GDP" project was launched.
The direct cost of pollution accounted for 2.5 per cent of total economic output in 2010, but if damage to the ecosystem - including forests, wetlands and grasslands - was included, the losses added up to 1.54 trillion yuan, or 3.5 per cent of that year's gross domestic product.
The cost of pollution also grew more rapidly than GDP in 2010, up 13.7 per cent compared with GDP growth of 10.4 per cent.
The latest update of the study, led by the Ministry of Environmental Protection's Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, was quietly posted on the academy's website in January, when about a seventh of the mainland was shrouded in smog. It said the findings were incomplete due to lack of data in some areas.
Aimed at putting a price tag on the mainland's runaway economic growth, the study has been stubbornly resisted by local governments because the findings could tarnish their political achievements. As a result, the academy had only previously released figures for 2004 and 2008, even though the study is conducted annually.
"The existing accounting system fails to reflect the true cost of resources consumption and environmental degradation, as a result the country's economic achievement has been over exaggerated," the academy said in a summary of the findings for 2010 that was posted on its website.
Government campaigns targeting major air and water pollutants since 2006 were not able to reverse the trend of rising environmental costs, it said.
A total of 558.9 billion yuan would have been needed to clean up pollution in 2010, an increase of 94 per cent from the 287.4 billion yuan needed in 2004, the study said.
The research does not calculate the health costs associated with pollution, but they would push the economic losses even higher.
A government-sponsored report released in 2006 said air pollution caused 358,000 premature deaths in 600 mainland cities each year, with an estimated health cost of 152.7 billion yuan.
The World Bank estimated in 2007 that the health costs of air and water pollution equalled 4.3 per cent of the mainland's GDP.
Premier Li Keqiang has pledged that the country will not pursue economic growth at the expense of the environment, saying "such growth won't satisfy the people", but has yet to release details of his planned remedy.
Professor Li Wei, from Beijing Normal University, said the "green GDP" project's findings should serve as a wake-up call for local governments and officials, and prompt them to reconsider their economic growth targets.
China Environmental News, the ministry's daily, said on Tuesday that the project might have regained momentum.

When Pigs will fly in the Air and swim in the Rivers

A couple of weeks ago, the news flashed that the rotting bodies of some 2,000 pigs had been found in a river that supplies tap water to Shanghai.
A few days later, the tally had gone to 3,000, then 6,000 and now it has been reported that 13,000 hogs would have been thrown in the river.
Reuters said that this draws “attention to an ugly truth - China's pig farms are often riddled with disease and one way or another, sick animals often end up in the food chain.” The news agency added: “authorities have found traces of a common pig virus in some of the animals floating in the Huangpu River and industry insiders say farmers likely dumped them”
Let us remember that pork is a staple meat in China and its swine population is the world's largest with 475 million heads.
This year, the National People’s Congress (NPC), the Chinese parliament followed the great Communist tradition of ‘voting’ to elect its new leaders for the next 5 or 10 years, with most of the new team receiving 99 % or more of the votes of the 3000-odd NPC delegates.
However, one issue triggered countless comments from the Chinese netizens: though 2,952 delegates voted ‘yes’ in favour of Xi Jinping becoming China's new president, there was a lone ‘no’ vote. It attracted a lot of attention on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, as bloggers remembered that in 1949, Zhang Dongsun, a philosopher and former CPPCC delegate, had voted against Mao. He was later killed for his alleged incorrect behavour. Hopefully it will not happen this time around as times have changed in the Kingdom.
However many observers have noted the results of the vote for the NPC's Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee; the new Committee had some 850 negative votes and 125 abstentions, a third of the total votes; this needs to be entered in China’s Guinness Book of Records.
Most of the almost 3,000 NPC deputies greeted the result with a long boo, before clapping as the decision was approved.

The South China Morning Post remarked: “It was one of the lowest approval rates in NPC voting since a plan to construct the massive Three Gorges Dam was endorsed in 1992. About two-thirds of 2,633 deputies at the time voted for the dam, while 177 opposed it and 664 abstained.”
Environment Minister Zhou Shengxian won the least recognition from delegates, receiving 2,734 ‘yes’, the lowest among 25 ministers.
The Hong Kong newspaper commented: “The unusually strong opposition vote showed that even the mainland's legislators - one-third of whom are government officials - can no longer bear its filthy air and water.”
A day later, the new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged that his government would "show even greater resolve" in tackling the pollution issue.
During his maiden press conference as Premier, Li encouraged increased public participation in cleaning China's environment: “This government will show even greater resolve and take more vigorous efforts to clean up such pollution." He added: “We need to face the situation and punish offenders with no mercy and enforce the law with an iron fist.”
These are strong words in the mouth of a Chinese Premier, but the situation is bad indeed. The Washington Post correspondent, Debra Bruno described Beijing thus: “I woke up in my dark bedroom the other day, head pounding and mouth dry. Before I even got out of bed, I knew that Beijing was having one of its hazardous-air-quality days. …On a similar day a few days before, I’d walked only 10 minutes from my apartment to my friend’s place. By the time I got there, my coat, scarf and hair smelled the way they would have smelled after a night in a smoky bar followed by a couple of hours standing behind a car’s exhaust pipe.” Can you believe it?
Even Li Keqiang admits: “We shouldn't pursue economic growth at the expense of the environment. Such growth won't satisfy the people.”
Radio Free Asia asserted that toxic chemicals have been found in the ‘pea-soup’ smogs hanging over Beijing, Tianjin and surrounding areas.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) admitted that large amounts of organic nitrogen compounds were detected in Beijing smog in January.
Observers called it airpocalypse.
But it is not only air and pigs; the issue is compounded by Government policies. China’s State Council (Cabinet) recently published the blueprint for the nations’ energy sector for the years 2011-15. An eight-year old ban on five megadams on the Nu River (also known as Salween) was lifted, totally ignoring environmentalists’ concerns about geologic and seismic hazards, loss of biodiversity, hazardous resettlement, as well as serious impacts on downstream nations.
Katy Yan, China Program Coordinator for the environmental NGO International Rivers stated: “China's plans to go ahead with dams on the Nu, as well as similar projects on the Upper Yangtze and Mekong, shows a complete disregard of well-documented seismic hazards, ecological and social risks”.
When in 2003 13 dams on the Salween were first planned, then Premier Wen Jiabao, a geologist by profession, put his foot down and stopped the work.
Now, the dam lobbies, particularly the Huadian Corporation have managed to convince the State Council to agree to proceed with the projects; particularly the Songta Dam, the highest upstream dam in the cascade located in Tibet which is to be completed during the 2011-15 period.
Ben Blanchard of Reuters wrote: “China expects 60,000 people to lose their homes in the remote southwest if a series of four dams along the country's last free-flowing river gets the go-ahead.”
The most ironical part is that the river is supposedly protected by UNESCO.
Defenders of ‘development-first’ can always argue that it is nothing compared to the massive Three Gorges Dam which cost China US$ 59 billion and for which, during the 17 years it took to complete the project, 1.3 million people were relocated.
What is frightening is that Beijing has now decided to ‘urbanize’ China. The priority for the new leaders is to shift people from the countryside to cities in order to sustain economic growth which last year ‘stagnated’ at 7.8 %, a 13-year low. Though many warned that China's urbanization can only fuel social unrest and more pollution, the government hopes that 60 % of China's 1.4 billion population will be urbanized by 2020.
It is a ticking time-bomb as most of the recent violent clashes in China occurred over expropriation of farmland for development and pollution.
Xi Jinping, the Chinese new President in his inaugural speech told his countrymen that he will put “arduous efforts for the continued realization of the great renaissance of the Chinese nation and the Chinese dream”.
Xi also touched on corruption which he has called a threat to the party’s grip on power, and urged delegates to “oppose hedonism and flamboyant lifestyles”.
He also pledged to fight corruption, saying that the government had an “unshakable resolve” to do so, adding: “Clean government should start with oneself. Since we have chosen public service we should give up all thought of making money.”
As the adynaton says, ‘when pigs fly’, many things will happen. One can just hope that environmental issues will be tackled before the pigs start flying.
What about India? For over 30 years I have heard that the Ganga and the Yamuna rivers will soon be clean. But the problem is not cleaning the rivers or the air, it is to stop polluting. As long as wealthy well-connected businessmen continue to pour their waste into the ‘sacred’ rivers of India, the question of cleaning them is pointless.
Let us not wait for the cows to fly!

Will Propaganda save China?

Li Changchun is a powerful man; he is no. 5 in the Standing Committee of the Politburo of CCP. 
One of his objectives is to 're-popularize Chinese-style Marxism'.
As Chairman of the CPC Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilization, Li is also de facto responsible for China's propaganda machinery and the Party's media relations. 
His idea is to “enhance public faith in the country’s political theory amid social conflict and to answer the public’s doubts, reach a consensus and generate strength”.
He has little chance to succeed.
Take one example, you will understand why.
The city of Shifang, in Sichuan Province recently witnessed serious protests. The reason? The building of a heavy-metals refinery in town. It began by a crowd assembling outside the gates of a municipal government building, but soon the events turned soured. The New York Times reported:

Things then turned bloody as local security officials began muscling up on the crowds. In the end, there were arrests, tear gas, stun grenades, riot police, guns, batons, blood.

Reuters quoted a microblogger: "The government has repeatedly squandered the people’s patience. It is time for us to be independent.”
The New York Times added:

The police warned that anyone using the Internet, cellphones or text messages to spread news about the protest would be 'severely' punished. But there was a flood of photos and microblog posts, plus some video, and a widely circulated piece from Han Han, perhaps China’s most famous blogger.

The Chinese Global Times had to acknowledge that thousands local people,  strongly against the project, had come down in protest in the streets. The government newspaper added that "projects involving environmental concerns are always sensitive topics in people’s eyes around the world.”
More interesting, the Huanqiu, the Chinese language counterpart of the Global Times, commented: "such student actions should not be encouraged, particularly regarding social unrest and political conflict."
According to Chinascope website, the Huanqiu criticized "the interpretation of the government’s decision to shut-down the smelter as a victory for the common people. Such a stretched interpretation is merely the wishful thinking of some people and not a reality in Shifang.” 
The Huanqiu commentary warned local and higher governments that they should not be fooled by such political fantasies and should not divert their focus from a proper aftermath of reflection and remedial action to vigilance for this 'revolutionary' trend. 
Revolutionary or not, revamping Marxist thinking and repackaging it for popular consumption is an impossible task. At the age of Internet, social networks and microblogs, it is difficult to fool people and stop them expressing their genuine grievances.
Deng Xiaoping always advised to 'Seek truth from facts'. This was part of his Socialism with Chinese characteristics, to be applied at that time, to economic reforms.
The Chinese people have learned from his words. 
Propaganda is just not enough. Li Changchun should have discovered this long ago.
As this article of the China Brief, the author says: "The CCP remains central to so much that some underlying justification is still required. If socialism without Chinese characteristics or Chinese-style Marxism are insufficient, disregarded or up for challenge, then the current government could find itself facing more serious problems."
It is certainly not in bluffing people that problems like corruption or pollution will be solved. Propaganda or not.

Re-Popularizing Marxism: Li Changchun’s contribution to reform
Peter Mattis
China Brief
Volume: 12 Issue: 13
July 6, 2012

On the eve of the 91st anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), propaganda czar Li Changchun gave a speech to a political theories seminar emphasizing the need to re-popularize Chinese-style Marxism. Li, a Politburo Standing Committee member, argued the task is necessary to “enhance public faith in the country’s political theory amid social conflict” and “to answer the public’s doubts, reach a consensus and generate strength” (Xinhua, June 29). Li’s speech is part of a continuing series of exhortations to revamp Marxist thinking and repackage it for popular consumption. Even though it is difficult to believe an increasingly pluralistic and information-saturated Chinese society will renew its faith in CCP ideology, the effort is nonetheless important for the CCP to maintain power on its own terms.
Li’s speech is an implicit admission that the latest campaign starring Lei Feng, a Mao Zedong-era propaganda icon known for his selflessness, has failed to rekindle the proper spirit among the populace since it began in February—or at least that the campaign is insufficient. The difficulty lies in finding another way, because two of China’s most important indigenous political frameworks, Confucianism and Maoism, are potentially dangerous to the CCP (“Another Lei Feng Revival: Making Maoism Safe for China,” China Brief, March 2). Clearly, the problems with popularizing socialism with Chinese characteristics are not new to Li or other members of the leadership. For example, speaking to the CCP Central Compilation and Translation Bureau in February, Li hailed the theorists’ efforts at “sinicization and popularization” of communist ideology. Li’s justification for strengthening ideological research—“to provide  advice to the country’s decision makers”— suggests observers should not so readily dismiss the importance of this subject (Xinhua, February 13).
Many observers believe the party has substituted nationalism for ideology as the foundation for the party’s continuing leadership; however, the CCP remains central to so much that some underlying justification is still required. If socialism without Chinese characteristics or Chinese-style Marxism are insufficient, disregarded or up for challenge, then the current government could find itself facing more serious problems. For example, the party cannot use nationalism as a substitute for its ideological reasoning that places the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) under the CCP’s control. Nationalization, de-politicization and taking the party out of the army are the three dangerous ideas that the PLA has been beating the propaganda drum against over the last six months (People’s Daily, June 25; PLA Daily, June 17, May 15, March 19; China Daily, March 13). While there could be a number of reasons for the propaganda, it also could be the natural reflection in the military of a society disenchanted with communist ideology. The PLA, however, is still the ultimate guarantor of government power.
Perhaps just as critical for the Chinese government, the CCP has positioned itself as the inheritor of Sun Yat-Sen’s democratic legacy—even if it has emphasized nationalism and people’s livelihood (minsheng zhuyi) over democracy (minquan zhuyi) (Red Flag, June 27; Outlook Weekly, October 9, 2011). This is why Zheng Ruolin, a correspondent for Wenhui Bao, could state boldly “Democracy has been broadly accepted as an idea” (Global Times, June 20). This point has been echoed in many places, including the 17th Party Congress political work report and a Central Party School book China and Democracy published in 2011. The continuing recurrence of democracy in important places indicates democracy is far more important than a mere rhetorical device, but relates to a serious intellectual contest that Li’s propagandists must confront. The government-approved, CCP-mediated democracy, however, rests on the vitality of socialism with Chinese characteristics—as Hu Jintao wrote “Developing the democratic politics of socialism is our party’s consistent objective of struggle” [1]. Democracy may be a CCP object, but it is delimited within a one-party system with the CCP at the center, on the party’s timeline and with structural political reform taking a backseat to economic development and stability (Red Flag, June 12, March 26; People’s Daily, April 9; PLA Daily, April 1) [2].
Although it is easy to dismiss the importance of Li Changchun’s call to popularize CCP ideology, the underpinnings of the CCP-led Chinese state depend on acceptance of Chinese-style Marxism—or unwavering popular faith in the CCP’s ability to govern. Regardless whether Li’s efforts and those of whoever succeeds him at the 18th Party Congress this fall are successful, the point is that the CCP is not satisfied with relying on coercion and competence to maintain its power. Beijing seeks to restore popular confidence in the system itself and Li is leading the intellectual charge while others focus on improving cadre performance.