Green Options

Monsoon - said to be India’s true Finance Minister and an indicator of the country’s water and livelihood security - has had a delayed arrival this year.

And when it came, it has been more variable than ever before in recent recorded history. Drought and floods have hit the country and put it under a great water stress. The situation is being monitored very closely and the Indian Government is ready with a contingency plan.

Two states have been declared drought hit and the Indian Agriculture Minister has expressed his concern over food production this year. Water wars have already begun in the country that has otherwise been giving a good fight to the global financial crisis. Not sure if its climate change or a result of rapid urbanization, or both, but India certainly needs to do a lot to secure its water resources for today and tomorrow.

President-elect Barack Obama did not send representatives to the APEC Global Climate Summit but he recorded this message promising “a new chapter of American leadership on climate change.”

The 21 economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which represent more than half of the world’s productive power, assured the world yesterday (Sunday) at the end of a 2-day summit in Lima, that the global financial crisis can be quelled in 18 months. But how they expect this to happen - or how their governments can help remains to be seen.