Rich world ‘fails’ U.N. scheme on Amazon park

• In a major example of how the rich world countries are refusing to put their money where their mouth is on climate change, a major U.N.-backed initiative that would have kept fossil fuels underground in the pristine forests of Ecuador has collapsed.
• three countries sharing the Amazon region — Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador — were discussing plans to improve monitoring of the world’s biggest rainforest, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced that his country was giving up a conservation scheme that would have paid the country not to drill for oil in the Amazon’s previously untouched parts of Yasuni National Park — the most diverse natural zone in the world.
• The far-reaching decision that would lead to the demise of the planet’s most creative and ambitious approach to biodiversity conservation, social development and climate change immediately sparked a fiery debate on the future of the world’s biggest eco-system,
• With only $13 million so far in actual donations, he said he had been forced to abandon the fund as “the world has failed us”.
• Mr. Correa, who had launched the scheme in 2010 with the aim of raising $3.6 billion, almost 50 per cent of the value of the reserves in the park’s Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil field, over 13 years.
• At that time, the ITT Initiative, as the project is known, was welcomed as an alternative to the efforts of the United Nations to deal with climate change and biodiversity loss as it promised to the keep carbon in the ground in a 2,00,000- hectare corner of the park and, in the process, help to redistribute wealth from rich nations to the developing world and wildlife.

Lip service

• But in the past two years, the leaders of developed countries often paid lip service to the project and Hollywood stars appeared for photo-ops in the jungles with thick vines, exotic plants, rare birds and endangered reptiles, but Ecuador’s pleas for funds to stave off local economic pressures fell on deaf ears, even as developing nations like Indonesia and Chile donated a few million dollars to the project.

• Now, a coalition of environmental and indigenous groups is vowing to keep the Ecuadorean government and oil companies out of the area, which is home to at least two isolated tribes. “The government doesn’t have the right to dissolve the Yasuni-ITT Initiative because this doesn't belong to them,” said Esperanza Martinez, the president of the Accion Ecologica environmental group.

• In the region, the collapse of the fund is being seen as a major setback in fight against climate change and efforts to save the Amazon rainforest. Ecuador, which is also home to the Galapagos Islands, is the only country in the world to have recognised the rights of nature in its Constitution.

Turning out to be rocket science

• Once again, a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is on the launch pad at Sriharikota. This launch will be crucial — after two successive failures of the rocket, the Indian Space Research Organisation can ill afford one more troubled flight.
• Moreover, the space agency needs to demonstrate that, after 20 years of effort, it has now mastered cryogenic technology.
• The GSLV retains the first two stages of its predecessor, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
• In order to carry heavier satellites than the latter, the third stage of the GSLV uses cryogenic propulsion.
• Running on liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, a cryogenic engine offers greater energy efficiency than those that use other propellants.
• The improved efficiency means that the upper stage can carry less propellant, with the weight saved translating directly into more payload.
• ISRO tried to purchase cryogenic technology from what was then the Soviet Union, but the deal that was signed in 1991 ran into trouble after the U.S. imposed sanctions.
• Russia, which inherited the deal after the breakup of the Soviet Union, backed out of providing the technology but agreed to supply seven flight-worthy stages for the GSLV.
• Left with no option, ISRO began the Cryogenic Upper Stage Project in April 1994 for developing an indigenous version of the Russian cryogenic engine and stage.
• While this technology development was in progress, it could fly the GSLV with Russian-made stages.
• The GSLV, equipped with a Russian cryogenic stage, first flew in 2001. However, unlike the PSLV, which shook off the failure of its first launch and went on to notch up 23 consecutive successes, the GSLV has been trouble prone. In its seven flights so far, three were outright failures and another two suffered serious problems.
• In April 2010, the GSLV flew for the first time with an indigenous cryogenic stage.
• Close to five minutes after lift-off, the cryogenic engine came to life but only very briefly. With thrust from that engine failing to pick up, the rocket soon tumbled into the sea.
• The Russian cryogenic engine and stage design is complicated.
• Booster turbopumps installed at the bottom of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks maintain a steady flow of propellants to the main turbopump.
• Analysis of the data radioed down by the rocket during its April 2010 flight showed that the booster turbopump supplying liquid hydrogen had caused the problem.
• The turbopump had started up normally and attained a maximum speed of 34,800 revolutions per minute. But its rotation slowed after less than one second and stopped soon afterwards.
• The review led to a tightening of manufacturing tolerances for the booster turbopump’s parts as well as more stringent procedures for its assembly.
• Extensive testing has also been introduced, including of the fully-assembled turbopumps.
• The starting sequence for a cryogenic engine is a complex process, involving split-second timing.
• The cryogenic engine as well as the stage’s two small steering engines were tested briefly under simulated high-altitude conditions at ISRO’s Mahendragiri facility in Tamil Nadu to ensure that their ignition went smoothly.
• In its forthcoming mission, the GSLV is carrying GSAT-14, a communication satellite weighing close to two tonnes.
• The rocket could launch seven more spacecraft over the next four years, according to ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan. This could include four communication satellites, a meteorological satellite identical to the Insat-3D that was launched last month on Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket, the GISAT remote sensing satellite as well as Chandrayaan-2, the country’s next lunar exploration mission.
• The cost of launching Insat-3D on Ariane 5, not including insurance, came to $82 million (Rs.490 crore), Dr. Radhakrishnan told this correspondent. The ‘marginal cost’ of each GSLV — that is, the additional expense the space agency incurs on the launch vehicle but which does not include all the organisational costs and investments for supporting the mission — came to about Rs.200 crore.
• However, the current version of the GSLV will probably not be able to carry communication satellites weighing more than about 2.2 tonnes. ISRO has already launched several considerably heavier communication satellites aboard Ariane rockets. The Department of Space’s latest annual report shows eight more communication satellites being launched abroad over the next four years, including the GSAT-7 that will fly on the Ariane 5 later this month.
• ISRO is in the process of developing a more powerful rocket, the GSLV Mark-III, that will be capable of carrying four-tonne-class communication satellites. The rocket’s giant solid propellant booster and its big liquid propellant stage have already been successfully tested on the ground. But an entirely new cryogenic engine and stage have also to be prepared.
• Test firing of the GSLV Mark-III’s cryogenic engine would start soon and the intention was to have the entire vehicle ready for its first developmental flight by 2016-17, according to the ISRO chairman.

Balancing vigilance and privacy

• The Indian state is arming itself with both technological capabilities and the institutional framework to track the lives of citizens in an unprecedented manner.
• A new Centralised Monitoring System (CMS) is in the offing, which would build on the already existing mechanisms.
• Civil society groups and citizens expressed concern about the government’s actions, plans, and intent at a discussion organised by the Foundation for Media Professionals, on Saturday.
• The implications are enormous. The data is often used for purposes it is not meant for, including political vendetta, keeping track of rivals, corporates, and digging out facts about a citizen when he may have antagonised those in power.
• India’s intelligence apparatus, said a core problem was the absence of any auditing and over sight.
• “There needs to be a constant review of the number of calls, emails under surveillance, with questions about whether it is yielding results.
• This framework, citizens and civil liberty groups worry, is under threat with governments appropriating and usurping authority to conduct unprecedented surveillance. Citizen groups, technology and privacy experts came together globally to draft the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance.

Sources: Various News Papers & PIB