the no knowledge Aussie view of India ...

How backward is Australian  climate politics?  Here, the absurd racist rubbish – wrote one on twitter ….. it is about a cartoon published in  Murdoch's national newspaper - The Australian  which is in its  50th year since its launch in 1964.  Let us laugh this away ~ they know nothing about India or the outside World !

Almost 200 countries signed historic pledge to hold global temperatures to a maximum rise of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – a  historic, legally binding climate deal that aims to hold global temperatures to a maximum rise of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, staving off the worst effects of catastrophic global warming, has been secured. The culmination of more than 20 years of fraught UN climate talks has seen all countries agree to reduce emissions, promise to raise $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries adapt their economies, and accept a new goal of zero net emissions by later this century. Formally adopted in Paris by 195 countries, the first universal climate deal will see an accelerated phase-out of fossil fuels, the growth of renewable energy streams and powerful new carbon markets to enable countries to trade emissions and protect forests.

As the final text of the agreement was released, the French president, François Hollande, said: “This is a major leap for mankind. The agreement will not be perfect for everyone, if everyone reads it with only their own interests in mind. We will not be judged on a clause in a sentence, but on the text as a whole. We will not be judged on a word, but on an act.”

…… down under – the Australian cheaply published a cartoon depicting starving Indians chopping up and eating solar panels sent to the developing nation in an attempt to curb carbon emissions has been condemned as “unequivocally racist”. Drawn by the veteran cartoonist Bill Leak, Monday’s cartoon was his response to the climate deal signed in Paris at the weekend. 

Amanda Wise, an associate professor of sociology at Macquarie University, said in her view the cartoon was shocking and would be unacceptable in the UK, the US or Canada. “This cartoon is unequivocally racist and draws on very base stereotypes of third world, underdeveloped people who don’t know what to do with technology,” Wise told Guardian Australia.  “India is the technology centre of the world right now and has some of the most high-tech industries on the planet in that part of the world. The underlying message is that people in developing countries don’t need all these technologies to do with climate change – they need food.

“But actually it is people living in poverty that will suffer the most through food security, sea level rises, dropping of the water table.” Wise said: “I don’t know too many places in the world where you would get away with that to be honest. In the UK and the US there would be an incredible outcry. It is appalling.

“This is really old imagery he has drawn on. Thin, starving people wearing turbans, who are so starving they are going to chop up solar panels. That is 1950s symbolism. We have moved on. The rest of the world has moved on. “In Australia people from India are the second largest migrant group and they are coming here on skilled visas.” The Australian’s cartoon has provoked anger in India. “This only demonstrates the … provincial ignorance of both the journalist, cartoonist and publication,” said Shoma Chaudhury, editor of Catch News and a well-known local journalist.

“India has not only been a sophisticated negotiator on climate change, insisting ‘developed’ nations pay their dues for destroying the planet, it has also voluntarily started adopting renewables like solar energy in hundreds of villages. It has not needed to be browbeaten into climate intelligence or consciousness, unlike many developed nations. “In truth, the bewildered farmers in Leak’s cartoon could probably teach him a thing or two about solar panels, while treating him to the indisputable pleasures of mango chutney.” [largely reproduced from The Guardian UK]

What Leak might not have read is the news in Huffington Post that a  town council in North Carolina rejected plans to rezone land for a solar farm after residents voiced fears it would cause cancer, stop plants from growing and suck up all the energy from the sun. Two citizens reportedly made the allegations at a Woodland Town Council meeting in Northampton County, northeastern North Carolina. 

Bobby Mann said the farm would "suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not come to Woodland," the Roanoke-Chowan Herald-News reports. Retired science teacher Jane Mann feared the proposed solar ranch could hinder photosynthesis -- the process of converting light energy from the sun into chemical energy for fuel -- in the area and stop plants from growing.  She added that no one could tell her solar panels didn't cause cancer. Other residents feared the effect it would have on the price of their homes.

Councilors were voting on whether to redefine agriculturally designated land off U.S. Highway 258 for manufacturing. Strata Solar Company representative Brent Niemann told the meeting the only sunlight used would be that which fell on the panels directly. "The panels don't draw additional sunlight," he said. Woodland Town Council turned down the proposal, effectively stopping the company from building the planned renewable energy ranch. The council later voted to put a moratorium on future solar farms in the area, the Herald-News reports.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

15^th Dec 2015.