Letters

 
Published: Saturday 15 May 1993

Tax harmful inputs

I agree with the thrust of the arguments in "Paying nature's bill" (Down To Earth, February 15, 1993), but I would like more thought to be given to taxes on ecologically devastating inputs such as energy, fresh water and primary materials, which are easier to measure than pollutants. Also, a tax reform depenalising labour and penalising primary resources leads to much more visible macroeconomic gains than in the case of pollution control; moreover, considerable reductions in pollution are obtained as windfall profits from resource taxes.

Another point that needs to be considered is the gradual, long-term increase of taxes. If a society could manage to predictably increase energy and other primary resource prices by 5 per cent per annum (in constant dollars) for about 40 years, that society would have virtually no losses from price-related bankruptcies, while obtaining huge gains in efficiency and technological modernisation. Because high-efficiency technologies for domestic energy, water and materials use would by necessity be developed, the average cost to urban, end-consumers would rise only moderately. To achieve in a few years the same results in technological efficiency by price signals (or command and control instruments), these signals or regulations would need to be both brutal and intolerable.

To ensure long-term reliability of the signal, there should be broad, all-party consensus so that the strategy does not change with each election. The consensus would be based on all parties agreeing that the strategy is to the benefit of the entire society.

ERNST U VON WEIZSACKER, President, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Germany ...

MNC's plea ignored

Bayer (India) Ltd, which operates a manufacturing and storage unit in Thane (West), near Bombay, has petitioned the Supreme Court that as hazardous substances and gases are stored on the plant premises and because an explosion or a gas leak like the one in Bhopal in 1984, cannot be ruled out, no residential building should be allowed to be constructed within a one-km radius.

Despite this plea and a Supreme Court directive on February 24 that the status quo be maintained, high-rise residential buildings are mushrooming in the area

Whether Bayer poses a Bhopal-scale disaster deserves to be investigated immediately. Such a frightful disclosure by a multinational company before the country's highest court should not be taken lightly by the government.

PRASHANT TELANG, Bandra (West), Bombay ...

Incomplete data

The article "More snow cover means less rain" (Down To Earth, March 15, 1993) gives an interesting account of the complex interlinkages that affect the south Asian monsoon, but it is incomplete.

More recent research shows the Tibetan plateau, though largely arid, receives heavy snowfall in some winters due to an anomaly in jet stream winds that bring cold air currents southward from Siberia. This results, unlike "normal years", in a heavy blanket of snow covering the plateau till spring or early summer. Because snow has a high albedo -- reflection factor -- the sun's heat is reflected and cannot melt the snow, contrary to what the article states, till early summer.

What happens is this: Instead of heating up, a column of cold air builds up over the Tibetan plateau. Given the temperature of the surrounding air, cyclonic conditions are created, which means anti-clockwise winds build up around the plateau. As the monsoon advances over central India, it meets an opposing current of air flowing, roughly, from Kashmir to Assam, thus delaying and weakening its impact. Another way to look at it is that the smaller temperature differentials between Tibet and the Indian Ocean weaken the transfer of latent heat -- the monsoon -- between the two regions. In a normal summer, however, the plateau heats up like a giant pan, creating anti-cyclonic (clockwise) wind conditions around Tibet and the Himalaya, assisting the monsoon's spread over north and central India.

In an intriguing paper entitled "The Tibet Connection", Dr Elmar Reiter of the University of Colorado suggested a number of prvocative hypotheses: If, as scientific studies suggest, the monsoon was more regular a thousand years ago, could the reason be a more extensively vegetated Tibetan plateau? For shrubs and small trees would break up the white snow cover, quickening the snow melt process and acting like a giant thermostat to regulate conditions for a stable monsoon. Could de-veg. etation of the plateau be related to the declining altitude of the Himalayan tree-Iine?

Indian scientists and modellers are familiar with all this. In fact, Himalayan snow cover is one of the 16 variables used by the department of science and technology for early and largely accurate predictions of monsoon strength. A report by the administration of the Dalai ILama, Tibet: Environment and Oevelopment Issues, provides more nformation on the subject.

ANJEEV PRAKASH, New Delhi ...

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