text:
We've curated our best editorial secrets and industry insights into a series of articles. They range from getting started through staying on track and grasping the publishing business. Put those fuzzy slippers on your feet, pull up a cushy armchair, and enjoy.
Contact Us Today for a
stuart@bookarchitecture.com
Fifteen (More) Examples of Series
Finish Your Book in Three Drafts (3D), the third book in the Book Architecture trilogy, came accompanied by a wealth of writing know-how in the form of 9 bonus PDFs. We are opening up the vault for the first time and publishing them here: one blog at a time. Behold, PDF #3.
The more series you expose yourself to, the more easily you will recognize series in your own work. As you identify your series, I suggest you give each one a name and then assign it a type: object, person, place, phrase, or relationship.
After you have collected all of the iterations of a particular series, you can describe the repetitions and variations which it undergoes in a single sentence and identify the question that the series asks and eventually answers.
Series work goes on everywhere, from children's books to classic literature, from modern fantasy to film. In the fifteen examples that follow (source materials are noted within each entry with a bibliographic record at the end), we will look at:
how an object becomes a symbol,
how a person becomes a character,
how a place becomes a setting,
how a phrase becomes a philosophy, and
how a shifting relationship becomes a dynamic.
We won't talk a lot about events, because these are all events. Think about that, plot people.
How an Object Becomes a Symbol
#1. Corduroy's Missing Button. This series defines the nature of the quest the teddy bear will go on in the children's book Corduroy. Corduroy's missing button initiates the story's action: Corduroy goes looking for his button. It then precipitates the turning point: Corduroy tries to pull a button o a mattress, slips, and breaks a oor lamp, thereby alerting the security guard, who returns him to his floor. The button also signals the story's ending, when Lisa sews it back on Corduroy's overalls while speaking about unconditional love.
#2. The T. J. Eckleburg Billboard. In The Great Gatsby, the billboard of the long-retired oculist Doctor T. J. Eckleburg presides over the stop on the train line between New York City and West Egg and East Egg. Nick narrates:
The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away… (p.24)
When the garage attendant, Wilson, has confirmed for himself that his wife, Myrtle, has been cheating on him with someone whom he doesn't yet know, he sees something different in those eyes.
"I spoke to her," he muttered, after a long silence. "I told her she might fool me but she couldn't fool God. I took her to the window"—with an effort he got up and walked to the rear window and leaned with his face pressed against it—"and I said 'God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing. You may fool me, but you can't fool God!'" (p.159)
Michaelis, a local businessman, is standing behind Wilson and sees with some shock that Wilson is:
…looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night.
"God sees everything," repeated Wilson.
"That's an advertisement," Michaelis assured him. (p.160)
As an object series, the T. J. Eckleburg sign becomes a proxy for nothing short of a character's religious understanding: Nick is an agnostic, Wilson a devout believer, Michaelis a disbelieving pragmatist.
#3. The Number of Members Facebook Has. In the film The Social Network, the founding and exponential growth of Facebook is shown in terms of the number of its members, the number of schools where it is popular, and eventually, the number of countries where it is available.
Here is a series grid that shows not only the repetitions but also the variations in the Facebook Members series. Variations are crucial so that the story feels dynamic instead of cookie-cutter. We touched on Facebook's number of members, colleges, and countries, but how about adding in a few more variants: the number of continents, who's delivering the news about the most recent growth spurt, whether that news is delivered by a character or is visually represented, whether it is aspirational or actual, and whether or not it means anything at all in the big scheme of life.
The Facebook Members series does a good job of helping us keep track of our progress through the film. It communicates the emotional tone of the moment, and it lets us build to the scene of the "Millionth Member Party" for the film's climax. It also lets us know what's at stake; as one of the taglines for the film reads, "You can't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies."
How a Person Becomes a Character
#4. Cameron Winklevoss, Gentleman of Harvard. Sticking with The Social Network, Cameron Winklevoss is one of two twins who row crew for Harvard—the "Winklevei," as Mark refers to them together. These brothers live in the upper echelons of society and epitomize everything Mark wants. Mark allegedly steals their idea for a website, which results in the founding of Facebook. But Cameron doesn't want to sue Mark until all other avenues have been exhausted, believing that that is not what a Gentleman of Harvard does. The Gentleman of Harvard series ends 80 percent of the way through the film when Cameron changes his mind: "Screw it. Let's gut the freakin' nerd."
#5. Yossarian's Naked Series. In Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22, the Naked series begins when the main character, Yossarian, is treating Snowden's eventually fatal wound; Yossarian strips down to help the tail-gunner, who keeps complaining, "I'm cold."
But then Yossarian leaves his clothes off. He goes to Snowden's funeral naked and escapes notice by climbing a nearby tree. Yossarian is still naked in the third iteration of the series when he lines up to get his medal for the Ferrara mission. His superiors try to explain to the general that a man was killed in Yossarian's plane over Avignon the previous week and had bled all over him, and that Yossarian is naked because his uniform hasn't come back from the laundry yet, that his other uniforms are in the laundry, and so is all his underwear.
"That sounds like a lot of crap to me," General Dreedle declared.
"It is a lot of crap, sir," Yossarian said. (p. 218)
The Naked series shows us a man at his breaking point better than a long discussion of a breaking point ever could.
#6. Is Snape Fighting for the Good Guys or the Bad Guys? This is such a complex series that it actually takes place over the course of all seven Harry Potter books in J.K. Rowling's series (conventional definition of series). In book five, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix—the one that my co-author, C.S. Plocher, and I studied in a chapter of Book Architecture (BA) —we finally get a glimpse at the suspicious Professor Snape's past and a partial explanation as to why Snape seems to have such an ingrained hatred for Harry, on account of Harry's father. Despite these developments in book five, this series pretty much stays consistent throughout all seven books, revolving around its main question: Is Snape fighting for the good guys or bad guys?
C.S. put together this series grid to show the repetitions and variations that this series undergoes over the course of the entire multi-volume narrative—which is a lot to keep track of and why a series grid is a great idea, so that you can stay ahead of the game.
How a Place Becomes a Setting
#7. The Weather Series in "The Ugly Duckling." If you don't know this story, you can get the gist just by following the iterations of the Weather series. In the first two, the innocence that accompanies newborn animals is reflected in the loveliness and gloriousness of the environment. The downturn in the events that affect the "ugly duckling" is mirrored in the deterioration of the next three iterations in the Weather series: it starts as a fierce wind, which turns into the kind of sheer cold that makes one shiver, and then finally the duckling becomes so weary he is frozen fast in ice.
You may believe that influencing the reader with such effects is manipulative—yet it is exactly these parallels that enrich the texture of a narrative, similar to the physiological effect of an evocative musical score in a film. We can feel the story at a sensual level, and when the weather improves in the last two iterations, it signals to us a change in the duckling's fate and the happy ending that will follow (Hint: He's a swan).
#8. Hall of Prophecy. For almost all of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the true nature of the Hall of Prophecy series is a mystery to both Harry and us. By the end of the novel, however, the series ends up being the most important one in the book—and arguably all of the Harry Potter books—as it finally reveals the inevitable outcome in the war between Harry and Voldemort.
Right from the beginning, Harry dreams over and over again of a locked door. He doesn't know why he's having these dreams or even what these dreams are about. Then, almost exactly halfway through the narrative, Harry has a dream that Mr. Weasley, who is sleeping in front of this locked door, gets attacked by a giant snake, and the dream turns out to be true. Soon after, Harry realizes that the door he's been dreaming about leads to the Department of Mysteries (although he's still unaware of the Hall of Prophecy inside of it). Harry is now aware that he's dreaming of a real place with real dangers, and he wants to know more—even though everyone around him is urging him to close his mind to it. The dreams continue without much change until 80 percent of the way through the novel, when Harry has a dream that Voldemort is in the Hall of Prophecy and is torturing Sirius, Harry's beloved godfather.
Harry races to the Hall of Prophecy, where he discovers that Voldemort has tricked him into coming. After a battle between the good guys and bad guys, Dumbledore finally reveals the prophecy and explains to Harry why Voldemort will never stop hunting him down. Although the Hall of Prophecy is "only" a series about setting, Rowling turns it into the reason and motivation for Harry's actions throughout the remaining two Harry Potter books.
#9. Gregor's Bedroom. In Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis, Gregor, the traveling salesman, wakes up one day to find he has been transformed into a giant dung beetle. He leaves his room only once more in his life. The repetitions and variations of the Gregor's Bedroom series include Gregor trying to get out, the general manager from his offce trying to get in, Gregor being chased back inside the one time he gets out, the door being locked from the outside, and his sister, Grete, trying to get in to rearrange the furniture—before she is rebuffed. The next time Gregor leaves his bedroom is after he dies, and the charwoman reports to the rest of his family that "there's no need for you to go worrying about how to get rid of that mess in there. It's already taken care of." (p.116)
How a Phrase Becomes a Philosophy
#10. "I've Always Wanted." In the story Corduroy, the lead bear reflects on the things he (thinks he) has always wanted no less than six times in a 28-page children's book.
When you start trying to find your series, all you have to remember is repetition and variation. What do you find repeated? The I've Always Wanted series jumps out at us through its sheer frequency. When we look closer, however, at not only the repetitions but also the variations of this particular narrative element, we see that the philosophy of Corduroy is communicated through the use of this phrase series.
If we read the book closely (or for the tenth time to an interested young party), we see that we go from "I think I've always wanted to climb a mountain" and "I guess I've always wanted to live in a palace" to "I know I've always wanted a home . . . and a friend" (italics mine). These repetitions and variations create meaning; if we had to define the theme of Corduroy now based on the direction of this series, I guess we could say that it's actually an anti-materialist screed about what's really important in this life.
#11. The Q & A Series. In the film Slumdog Millionaire, we meet Jamal, a young man from the slums of India who works a menial job
transporting tea to workers at a telemarketing center. Jamal ends up on the Indian version of the television game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" The progression of questions Jamal is asked during the quiz show, the ten iterations of the Q & A series, corresponds to the increasing value of the question asked.
The questions go in chronological order (see PDF #5), which helps us keep track of where we are in the film—how close we are to the end, basically, since Jamal keeps winning. The iterations are also fairly evenly spaced out, as you can see from the scene number (out of 197) in the grid below where the iteration appears.
#12. Is Mark an Asshole? Mark is Mark Zuckerberg, the genius but socially inept Harvard student behind the founding of the now mega-social media site Facebook in The Social Network. His girlfriend at the beginning of the film is Erica Albright, a student who attends Boston University (BU). In the first scene, they break up, and Erica offers Mark this clarification:
ERICA: You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole. (p. 10)
In the very last scene—nearly two hours later in the film—we get the second and only other iteration of this series. The scene involves Marylin, the second-year junior associate who advises Mark to settle out of court on both of the lawsuits that resulted from the explosive success of Facebook. She tells him:
MARYLIN: You're not an asshole, Mark. You're just trying so hard to be. (p. 163)
The second iteration in this series is more than 150 pages later in the screenplay (or 110 minutes of running time in a 120-minute movie), but it registers just as clearly as if the first iteration had been only a few pages before. There is no formula that I know of that teaches you to bookend two powerful iterations of a series this way, but it works for this film.
How a Relationship Becomes a Dynamic
#13. Erica & Mark. Erica (Albright) and Mark (Zuckerberg) are the ill-fated couple in The Social Network referred to in the previous entry. The very first scene of the film has them breaking up in a bar.
ERICA: I think we should just be friends.
MARK: I don't want friends.
ERICA: I was being polite, I have no intention of being friends with you. (p. 9)
Erica then disappears for half the movie. When they run into each other at a club, Mark tries to apologize but Erica isn't having it. In fact, she won't even get up from the table where she is sitting with her friends to talk with him.
ERICA: You called me a bitch on the internet, Mark.
MARK: That's why I wanted to talk to you. If we could just –
ERICA: On the internet. (p.78)
At the end of the film, even though Mark has become the youngest billionaire in the world, Erica—who is on Facebook—won't accept his friend request on Facebook. As the Beatles sing "Baby You're a Rich Man," Mark continually refreshes his computer screen, but each time he comes up empty.
When we put the running time in and chart each of the iterations along a series arc (for information about how to create such an arc, see PDF #8), we can see that the Erica & Mark series takes up the whole movie, with iterations at 0-5 minutes into the film's running length, 53-55 minutes, and 1:53 minutes to the end. Three iterations, that's it— that correspond exactly to the beginning, the middle, and the end of the film. This one series lends structure to the entire narrative.
#14. Pain and Aggression in "The Ugly Duckling." In "The Ugly Duckling," a Pain and Aggression series marks the main character's interactions with pretty much everyone he comes across. They either want to kick him in the water, fly at him and bite him in the neck, push him around, or peck at him. In these four iterations of the Pain and Aggression series, nothing of importance actually changes. Instead it is an example of how repetition without variation builds the internal pressure of the story, leading the reader to seek some narrative resolution. The relentlessness of the presentation leads us to the inevitable conclusion that suffering pain and inciting the aggression of others is the natural result of the ugly duckling's existence.
Once the repetitions have been clearly established in this way, the variations will have an even more powerful impact on the reader. The next variation occurs when the duckling is taken into the home of a peasant couple; when the children try to play with him,"the duckling thought they were going to ill-use him, rushed in his fright into the milk pan, and the milk spurted out all over the room." This is just like life; the ugly duckling has seen this scenario unfold one too many times. He now assumes that every creature he meets will want to attack him. My wife, who is a psychologist, would say that the ugly duckling had posttraumatic stress disorder, including the characteristics of "persistent re-experiencing of the traumatic event" and "avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma." The important thing for us to consider here is the twist in this series. Andersen knew what all good storytellers know—that each time an iteration is presented, there is an opportunity to evolve the series to which it belongs.
#15. Gregor and Grete. In the Gregor and Grete series in The Metamorphosis, we see Gregor's sister, Grete, going through a change and thus becoming a round character. After Gregor first turns into a monstrous insect, Grete is the only one to approach his condition with a lament. When Gregor can't seem to explain his predicament suitably to his general manager, he wishes Grete were there because she is clever and could have talked the man out of his fear.
She is the only family member who cares for Gregor, bringing him milk, which used to be his favorite drink, except now that he's an insect, he prefers two-day-old milk and old cheese, so she brings him that instead. She even moves the armchair back to where she knows he likes it after she is done cleaning his room.
She's really doing the best she can, until Gregor interferes with her plan to adjust the contents of his room. Gregor's mother, who hasn't seen him in weeks, is part of the moving team. When Gregor bursts out of hiding, his mother faints, which enrages Grete. She then raises her fist at Gregor with "a threatening glower." Her gesture of violence, along with shouting his name—the first time she has addressed him directly since his metamorphosis—shows her allegiance transferring to the side of their father—which, if you haven't read the novella, is not a good place to be. Remember, not all series have to improve. Even though "Americans love a tragedy with a happy ending," according to William Dean Howells, some series can deteriorate until the point of tragedy and then stop—that's it. Then it's up to us, as the reader, to make some sense out of that, so that the net effect is not tragic.
Fear of the Blank Page
The Five Reasons to Write a Book
How to Write an Intro People Don't Skip
Begin at the Beginning: in Media Res
Good Beginnings Ask Good Questions
The Five Definitions of Scene
Cut Up Your Scenes
The Series Arc
Finding Your Theme
Staying on Track
How to Write Something Good
Meditation For Writers
Imagination vs. Projection
Role of the Prompter
Writing Mantras for Your First Draft
Common Structural Problems
The Five Rules of Writing Flashbacks
Chronological vs. Narrative Order
How Not to End Things
Kill All Your Darlings
POVs Should Cost Good Money
Revising With the Iceberg
If You Quit, You're Done
Brainstorming Your Book's Support Materials
The Non-Attachment of Querying
How To Set Up A Book Tour
Performing Your Own Work


text:
Starkiller Base Firing in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
Home /Movie Tech/Gadgets & Tech/Starkiller Base Firing in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
Gadgets & Tech |
The Rebellion has given way to a new Galactic Republic, but there is a specter of evil looming in the galaxy; the First Order, a malevolent force that has built a planet-sized superweapon capable of destroying entire planetary systems from across the galaxy. The Starkiller gets its energy from harvesting entire suns, moving from one solar system to another to feed this massive weapon of terror.
"Today is the end of the Republic! The end of a regime that acquiesces to disorder! At this very moment, in a system far from here the New Republic lies to the galaxy while secretly supporting the treachery of the loathsome Resistance. This fierce machine which you have built, upon which we stand, will bring an end to the Senate! To their cherished fleet! All remaining systems will bow to the First Order! And will remember this… as the last day of the Republic!"
― General Armitage Hux
Starkiller Base was several times larger than the Death Stars and could destroy more than one planet at a time, its first target being the Hosnian system, the seat of the New Republic's Senate.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was produced, co-written, and directed by J. J. Abrams. It is the first installment in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following the story of Return of the Jedi (1983), and is the seventh episode of the nine-part "Skywalker saga". The film's ensemble cast includes Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.
Set 30 years after Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens follows Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, and Han Solo's search for Luke Skywalker and their fight in the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa and veterans of the Rebel Alliance, against Kylo Ren and the First Order, a successor to the Galactic Empire.
Starkiller Base Firing in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
Starkiller Base Firing
We like:
A rollicking adventure populated with beloved, familiar characters and some intriguing new ones.
The movie has some spectacular visuals.
The Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth
Captain Jack Sparrow Arrives in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Exoskeleton in Elysium
The Med-Bay in Elysium
6 Accurate Technology Predictions in Minority Report
The Ericsson Phones in the James Bond Franchise
The Ghetto Blaster in James Bond: The Living Daylights
Zola's Computerized Consciousness in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
India in International Climate Negotiations
Chequered Trajectory
(p.187) 11 India in International Climate Negotiations
D. Raghunandan
A popular view of India's role in climate negotiations is that it has successfully protected its interests in avoiding emissions control obligations while representing the positons of developing countries. A more critical appraisal shows that Indian creativity in shaping the agenda in pre-Kyoto years was replaced by foreign policy objectives, particularly its aim of advancing a strategic alliance with the United States (US). A negotiating position driven by a scientific understanding of its domestic vulnerabilities would have reinforced Indian support to the positions of developing countries, and might have yielded a different outcome in Paris. The architecture, as it stands, is a low-ambition emissions control regime that favours developed countries by diminishing notions of historic responsibility and equity.
Keywords: foreign policy, climate negotiations, equity, historical responsibility, developing countries, Paris Agreement, NDCs
India's stance at and approach towards the international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have evolved through several phases. Officially, India proclaims that it has staunchly guarded its national interests, warded off incessant efforts by developed countries to impose emissions control obligations and other onerous burdens on India, and acted unswervingly in favour of developing countries (Ghosh 2012). This claim has been broadly accepted, even if grudgingly, by sections of academics, the media, and even by activists or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in India, especially in the face of intransigent behaviour by the United States (US) and other developed countries. However, such a portrayal betrays a confirmation bias towards a hypothesis often proffered by key official interlocutors themselves, and also misses some discernible shifts in the negotiating framework and possible explanations for them. A more critical appraisal of India's (p.188) stance and floor tactics would reveal a rather less praiseworthy and more inconsistent position, often not matching official rhetoric and self-perception.
Starting from a proactive and creative early phase, notably during the formulation of the UNFCCC, India's perspective and tactics shifted to a relatively quiescent posture. As the Kyoto Protocol (KP) gradually took shape and came into force, India further moved to somewhat peculiar interventions looking to game the negotiations process, but in effect contributing, along with other countries, to considerable damage to the integrity and effectiveness of the Protocol. As negotiations moved to defining and shaping the architecture of the second phase of the KP, India floundered between striving to stave off US and other developed country pressures to take on emissions reduction commitments and seeking to advance a strategic alliance with the US. In the lead up to, and at, the Copenhagen and Cancun summits, where the foundations of a new, post-Kyoto emissions control architecture were laid, India made a paradigm shift by committing to a voluntary emissions reduction pledge, but failed to leverage this momentous change to elicit emission cuts by developed countries. India, thus, ended up at Paris meekly accepting a US-engineered architecture with deleterious consequences for the earlier hard-won equity between developed and developing nations, for adherence to the requirements of science for controlling climate change, and for its own national interests with regard to domestic climate vulnerabilities and impacts.
In particular, India did not build its own capacities in understanding climate science or formulate its negotiating positions based on that understanding. India approached the climate negotiations as primarily a problem of foreign relations, rather than as a forum to deal with and help tackle its serious vulnerabilities to climate impacts. In later periods, India mistakenly forged an alliance with developed countries, especially the US, at the cost of traditional allies in developing countries, especially Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs), and was slow to realize the import of its own economic development at the turn of the millennium, especially how this was perceived by other developing countries, and make suitable adjustments to its negotiating position. Through all these phases, India adopted a defensive and reactive posture—fending off (p.189) pressures from developed countries—rather than a proactive one projecting its own core concerns regarding climate change and pressing for enhanced actions by developed countries. Consequently, serious questions arise as to whether, or to what extent, India's negotiating position truly promoted outcomes enabling the country to better deal with the serious challenges it faces due to climate change, and advance its own vital developmental interests along with those of other developing countries.
India has paid insufficient attention over the years to its own vulnerabilities to climate change. The serious impacts these may have on India, and South Asia in general, have been made clear in successive assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), especially in the Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports. India's own Second National Communication (otherwise known as NATCOM 2) to the UNFCCC in 2012 and a series of studies commissioned by India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) under the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA 2010) contain the hitherto most authoritative estimates of climate impacts in India over the near to medium term, and some projections for the longer term till the end of the century.1
As a brief snapshot, India has close to 18 per cent of the world's population and, despite the much-hyped rapid economic growth in recent years, carries a huge burden of poverty and underdevelopment, with human development index rankings similar to LDCs in most indicators. Agricultural production in India is expected to be badly affected in both quantity and quality by changes in climatic patterns, variations in rainfall, and shift in onset and withdrawal of monsoons (MoEF 2012).2 About 65 per cent of its people live in rural areas, are mostly poor and dependent on agriculture, with over 60 per cent of the cropped area being rain-fed and highly climate sensitive. India's long coastline has many heavily populated towns and cities along it, (p.190) all facing threats from sea-level rise and coastal erosion. The already most marginalized sections of its people are also the most vulnerable to climate impacts.
Whereas India may not be among the 'canaries of climate change' facing an existential threat like small island states, it is, along with other South Asian nations, among the most severely affected regions of the world (Hijioka et al. 2014). Like the island states and LDCs, India too therefore has a vital interest in working assiduously towards minimizing temperature rise and related climate impacts. Unfortunately, India's climate vulnerabilities were never major drivers of its climate policy, nor were they allowed to significantly shape India's negotiating position. If India's stance had indeed been based on the science, that is, on limiting global temperature rise and on emission cuts required to achieve those goals, and had been domestically rather than externally driven, it may well have evolved very differently, possibly even leading to a different outcome of the negotiations.
Early Phase: Major Contributions from 1990 to 1992
During the early 1990s, when the Convention was being shaped, India indeed championed the cause of developing nations, who were waging highly asymmetrical battles against developed countries that were armed with scientific data and were seeking to build a case for shifting responsibility for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on to developing countries. As explained later, strenuous attempts were made, particularly by the US, to drag various red herrings through the deliberations, taking advantage of a perceived lower level of scientific knowledge among developing countries.
One of these was the erroneous, yet for a while vigorously pursued, argument that methane emissions from rice paddies and from cattle and pig rearing—widespread in India, China, and other populous regions of Asia—were the major causes of climate change and should therefore be the focus of mitigation efforts. India and many observers saw this as an attempt to divert attention away from the predominant warming role of fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide (CO2), historically emanating mostly from industrialized nations. A team of scientists from India conducted intensive (p.191) studies of emissions from paddy fields and, combined with other science, successfully refuted this contention (Parashar et al. 1996; Ramachandran 2012),3 thereby also establishing that India and other developing countries were alert to such tactics and had the capacity to deal with them scientifically.
Developed countries further argued that developing nations had large and growing populations and therefore, it stood to reason that they would discharge higher quantities of GHGs. The official Indian delegation, assisted by significant NGO contributions, specifically by Sunita Narain and the late Anil Agarwal of the Centre for Science and Environment, saw this as a politically motivated campaign and worked to correctly anchor the discussions to per capita rather than total national emissions, and to the historical responsibility of developed countries whose enormous past emissions since the industrial era had triggered climate change (Agarwal and Narain 2012). These Indian interventions, along with substantive contributions to the language of the text, particularly equitable burden sharing in reduction of emissions, played a crucial role in the formulation of key elements of the Convention. These also formed the basis for major UNFCCC principles, such as demarcating between developed and developing countries based on common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR&RC), and for the emissions control architecture under the consequent KP (Chapter 8).
However, once these battles were effectively won, India did not sustain this intensity of involvement in making substantive contributions to climate science and to operational formulations relating to the emissions control architecture. Little work was done in research and academic institutions in India to understand the impacts of climate change in the subcontinent and how resilience to them could be built, or to examine possible strategies to mitigate emissions globally and domestically. These deficiencies were in part due to weaknesses in institutional capacities, particularly in climate science and related policies, and in part due to the official perspective of (p.192) the international climate negotiations, which were viewed mainly as an extension of India's diplomacy and subservient to larger foreign policy objectives. Whatever the reasons, the result was that India ceded substantial ground to developed countries in setting the future agenda, with serious consequences for outcomes.
Treading Water: 1992–7
In the period after formulation of the Convention and the delineation of the KP, roughly 1992–7, which had seemingly laid out the basics of the international emissions control architecture and the respective responsibilities of developed and developing countries visualized as clearly demarcated binaries, India transitioned from its earlier activist phase into a phase of relative quiescence. In the opinion of this writer and several others, the official Indian position during this period gradually ossified into stonewalling of persistent developed country efforts to breach the developed–developing firewall, and belabouring concerns about funding and transfer of technology from the developed countries (Vihma 2011). Undoubtedly, these issues were and remain important. However, fixating on these issues meant that India did not adequately prepare for, and was unable to mount, effective evidence-based campaigns to address the critical issue of inexorable global warming and to press developed nations to raise their emissions reduction commitments. This inability by India and other developing countries to take a lead in framing key issues at the negotiations left the field open to the US and its allies to set the agenda and, over time, build alliances with groups of developing countries to the detriment of Indian interests.
Thrashing About: 1997–2005
This quiescent period was followed by a phase in which, to continue with the swimming analogy, India was not steady in the water but rather flailing about without strategic purpose or direction, other than to ward off pressures to reduce its emissions. In the period between the KP being agreed and its ratification by the requisite number of countries for coming into force (roughly 1997–2005), India flirted with, if not embraced, several positions that detracted (p.193) from the main global goal of limiting global warming by ensuring commensurate emissions reductions by developed countries, which would of course also help ameliorate climate impacts in India. These positions cumulatively conveyed an impression that India was evasive on important issues relating to this goal. Despite its championing the cause of developing countries, India showed during this period that it was not averse to tactical alliances with the US and other developed countries if these seemed to serve some short-term geostrategic purpose, even at the cost of ignoring the science and accepting reduced emission cuts by them.
During this time, many countries colluded, both directly and indirectly, with endeavours by the US and some allies to defang the KP by lobbying for case-specific treatment, newly introduced mechanisms for accounting of emissions reduction, and other special provisions, as the price for ratifying the Protocol, causing an immense setback to the battle against climate change (Sprinz 2001). Regrettably, India too joined this trend of countries gaming the negotiations process in an attempt to gain benefits for themselves at the cost of the integrity and effectiveness of the KP itself.
For instance, offsets were built in to the KP which permitted developed countries to take on mitigation measures like afforestation in developing countries that could be discounted against the formers' own emissions reduction obligations, giving them a less expensive way of supposedly reducing global emissions, albeit with uncertain outcomes. Similarly, a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was introduced, ostensibly to facilitate introduction of energy-efficient or other emissions-saving technologies by developed countries in developing nations, allowing the former to trade 'carbon credits' and offset these against their own actual emissions. Special concessions were given to countries such as Australia, Canada, and others because of their high dependence on coal. Also, Russia, which threatened to not ratify the KP and thus prevent it from reaching the required 55 per cent of global emissions, extracted huge allowances for emissions 'avoided' due to the severe economic downturn in post-Soviet times, derisively termed 'hot air' by critics. To all these, India was either a silent spectator along with many other major players or even went along with specious proposals such as offsets and CDMs, perhaps in the hope of some financial gains (Raghunandan 2002). Some (p.194) companies in India did make considerable amounts from CDMs, but the quantum of emissions actually saved has remained questionable (Dutt 2009).
In another controversial move in the context of the times, India joined a perhaps well-intentioned but counterproductive chorus in the negotiations to shift focus to adaptation rather than mitigation—the idea being to draw attention and funding towards addressing climate impacts in developing countries. Unfortunately, this contributed to a drop in attention to the core issue of continuing high emissions by developed countries and the urgent need to take preventive action.
The US, of course, did the most to weaken the KP, maintaining that it would not join any global compact that exempted developing countries, particularly major economies such as India, China, and Brazil, and finally dropped out of Kyoto altogether soon after George W. Bush took over as president in 2001 (Reynolds 2001). When all 164 remaining countries decided to stay in the KP despite the US departure, it was hailed as a great victory against big odds, but the US continued shaping the global emissions control negotiations towards outcomes it preferred.
Various other countries, both developed and developing, played a role in this charade. At the 8th Conference of the Parties (COP 8) in Delhi, for instance, following which India held the COP presidency till the next year, India played a particularly lamentable role. While the European Union (EU) deplored the US position of withdrawing from the KP on the one hand, it advanced the US agenda on the other by raking up the developed–developing divide, which had been resolved earlier in the face of the US onslaught and in united defiance of its withdrawal. The EU pushed for developing countries to begin defining obligations they would take on, even though the agreed time to do so was many years later when discussions on a post-Kyoto arrangement were scheduled to begin. In a clearly orchestrated move, Saudi Arabia, long a climate denier, incredibly led an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) charge defending developing countries and sharply polarizing the conference. The Indian prime minister's inaugural address had also harped on this theme, defying delegates' expectations that the conference would discuss (p.195) substantive issues relating to implementation of the KP and filling in the blanks from the previous COP.
The Indian draft declaration summing up the conference was also too clever by half, full of platitudes and high-sounding sentiments, but avoiding the main issues exercising the delegates. The draft, shockingly, did not even mention the KP, ostensibly on the grounds that it had not yet entered into force, even though its substance was precisely the subject of discussions at the conference. It also did not mention the word 'mitigation', emphasizing India's liking for a focus on adaptation rather than emissions reduction, much to the delight of the US and its allies. Many observers noted that the draft also stressed aspects extrapolated from the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development, revealing India's preference for looking at climate change as an extension of sustainable development. Ultimately, the draft showed India's customary penchant for wordsmithy as opposed to substance, supposedly conveying a consensus that did not exist. In a huge blow to India's prestige, this draft was summarily rejected by the conference (Raghunandan 2002). An informal gathering of observers and NGOs awarded a 'worst performance' award to the US, Saudi Arabia, and India for derailing the conference. Great company indeed!
India's US Dalliance and Paradigm Shift: 2005–15
In the late 1990s and into the new millennium, India and some other large developing countries witnessed high gross domestic product (GDP) growth, adding to the major geopolitical changes prompted earlier by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the East European bloc. The spectacular economic growth of China and its rising international influence also helped shape new alliances and groupings. The US and other developed country powers sought to draw the so-called 'emerging economies' into their orbit on major geopolitical and economic issues of the day, including climate change.
India, which was also recasting its foreign policy in the post-Soviet era, was now avidly pursuing a strategic alliance with the US. This new Indo-US relationship was beginning to find concrete expressions in efforts towards a far-reaching defence agreement and a path-breaking nuclear deal, seen in India as a watershed moment for its (p.196) international relations and enhanced standing. India, therefore, saw advantage in going along with the US at various international forums, especially, of immediate relevance here, in relation to climate change (for a more detailed discussion on this aspect, see Raghunandan 2012). India's own GHG emissions were by now quite substantial in absolute terms, although not in per capita terms, and were drawing international attention as the world's third or fourth largest among nations. Taken together with its new-found economic rise and aspirations of global leadership, these growing numbers made it increasingly difficult for India to persist with its earlier position of claiming to be at par with other developing countries and hence under no obligation to take on emissions reduction commitments, despite the fact that India continued to carry an enormous poverty burden and development deficit. Meanwhile, other large developing countries such as China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Indonesia were also now indicating that they were not averse to reducing their emissions by differing degrees.
Significant changes were also taking place in Indian domestic public opinion after the release of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) in 2007. Influential sections of civil society and academia advocated, for the first time, that India should now offer to reduce its emissions growth rate, not because it was a part of the problem of climate change primarily caused by the historical emissions of developed countries, but because it wanted to be part of the solution. The IPCC AR4 had indeed stated that even if developed countries made the deep emission cuts called for in the report, large developing countries too would have to ensure that their future emissions 'deviate below their projected baseline emissions' (Metz et al. 2007; emphasis added). For example, a group of academics and civil society actors (including this author) suggested that India offer to reduce its emission flows below the then current trajectories as its contribution to the global effort, despite being a developing country with huge climate vulnerabilities and developmental needs (Progressive Climate Policy Campaign-India 2009). Importantly, the suggestion was that this offer be made conditional upon developed countries committing to the deep emission cuts called for, which would have thrown the ball in the developed countries' court and put pressure on them. India, it was felt, had the economic strength and technological (p.197) capability to take on such a posture so as to contribute to the global effort, while still retaining the ability to deal with domestic developmental priorities. It was further argued that such a position by India would enable it to reconcile the apparently contradictory pulls exerted on its negotiating position by its economic growth and technological capability on the one hand, and its low per capita energy consumption and development deficit on the other, while potentially changing the dynamic in the climate negotiations.
All these factors combined to see India making a paradigmatic shift in its international negotiating position on the eve of the Copenhagen Summit, and committing itself to reducing its emissions intensity by 20–5 per cent by 2025, overcoming its earlier rigid stance on the hard differentiation enshrined in the KP between developed and developing countries. As discussed later, however, India was unable to leverage this dramatic shift to secure deeper emission cuts by developed countries, or even to enhance its own international prestige.
In a series of G8 summits, starting with Heiligendamm in Germany in 2007, major 'emerging economies' were invited to sit in at the high table of global powers. These summits discussed various economic and other challenges facing the international community, including climate change. At these summits of the 'G8+5', which soon morphed into the Major Economies Forum (MEF) and then into the G20, India, clearly enjoying its new-found 'big boy' status and perhaps also driven by hubris, allowed itself to be herded into a set of US-led formulations on climate change. These formulations fundamentally changed the prevalent international emissions control architecture and the UNFCCC understanding of equity between nations as manifested in the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) (Raghunandan 2012).4 They also provided the essential building blocks for the language of declarations adopted at the climate conferences at Copenhagen (2009), Cancun (2010), and Durban (2011), which formed the core of the new climate architecture ultimately adopted at Paris in 2015. These building (p.198) blocks included the global goal of limiting temperature rise to 2°C (with ambition to address 1.5°C added at Cancun), an agreement on mitigation efforts to be made by all countries with, however, some differentiation for developing countries, scant mention of the deep cuts to be made by developed countries, and playing down of historical emissions.
The 'single framework' clubbing together developed and developing countries under a common umbrella, long desired by the US, was introduced at Copenhagen and formalized in Cancun, pushed mostly by the same countries, with the addition of a 'pledge and review' system of voluntary emission reduction commitments. This latter system, while maintaining some differentiation between developed and developing countries by allowing for differing degrees or phasing of emissions reductions pledged, in practical terms gave much greater leeway to the former. The omission of historical emissions from any calculus for arriving at fair and equitable national actions by developed countries was particularly egregious, especially since the role of historical emissions by developed countries in contributing to climate change had been well recognized in the UNFCCC and IPCC reports. Further details of the significance of the emissions control architecture agreed at Paris are discussed in Chapter 12 in this volume.
That this was a well-thought-out stratagem pursued over many years by the US was made clear after the Copenhagen Summit by no less than then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a signed opinion editorial (op-ed) article (Clinton 2009). She averred that the Obama administration's position at Copenhagen was no aberration, represented continuity from the Bush era, and that the US indeed saw itself, China, and India as part of the same club and therefore wanted a single framework for all of them. Clinton wrote that success at Copenhagen required that 'all major economies, developed and developing, need to take robust action to reduce their carbon emissions', that 'they agree to a system that enables full transparency' (that is, commitments by India and China too should be subject to verification as with developed country targets), and that the US had taken the lead to bring developed and key developing countries together to tackle climate change through initiatives such as the 'Major Economies Forum … (p.199) and agreements at the G-20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation' meetings.
The almost unidimensional approach by India to international climate negotiations, focusing on alignment with US positions as part of a reoriented foreign policy seeking a strategic alliance with the now sole superpower, also led India to neglect its traditional associations with developing countries and fail to incorporate their concerns into its negotiating position. Additionally, India had not fully appreciated the substantial shift evolving in the positions of many developing nations, especially LDCs, SIDS, and countries in Africa, whose voice it had earlier effectively championed during the KP negotiations. These countries now viewed climate change as posing an existential threat and were pushing for urgent action to counter it. Further, they now increasingly saw large developing countries, including India, as part of the problem, and these perceptions were shrewdly capitalized on by the US, the EU, and others to push for larger emission reduction commitments and other concessions by large developing countries, including by cynically accepting a more ambitious 1.5°C goal even while pulling back from commitments conforming even to a 2°C pathway and from financial and technical assistance to developing nations.
India too faced serious climate impacts and could have made common cause with the LDCs and the island states, but could not find a way to reconcile this with its own high economic growth and concomitant growing emissions, along with its desire to be part of the 'big boys' club'. India was, therefore, badly affected by the aforementioned shift in position by a large group of developing countries. In the run-up to Copenhagen, China, Brazil, and many others had, as noted earlier, already declared their willingness to take on mitigation obligations, leaving India as a virtually lone hold-out among nations with large emission flows. India's isolation was brought home sharply at the Durban COP in 2013 when India found itself under attack from both developed and developing countries when it refused to accept language calling for legally binding commitments, exposing itself to immense pressure and opprobrium (Raghunandan 2011), as well as to the however incorrect perception, poignantly voiced by Grenada's lead delegate and spokesperson for the island states, that India was conveying that 'while they develop, we die' (Black 2011). (p.200)
India's foreign relations-driven climate policy had also led to a blindness to the science. While India and other developing countries had substantially shifted ground in the run-up to and in the Paris Agreement itself, they had also collectively allowed the 2°C goal to be given short shrift and let the US and other developed countries off the hook. The latter did not take on the deep emission cuts demanded by science and by the IPCC assessment reports and other studies. They were allowed to ignore their historical emissions in working out future responsibilities, and were thus permitted to continue occupation of atmospheric space. This left little atmospheric space for the developing countries to use for their medium-term future development (Kanitkar et al. 2013), having already ceded much of what space they could have had by taking on emission reduction commitments in Paris.
India continues to labour under multiple, seemingly conflicting demands on its negotiating position. India has low per capita emissions, poverty burden, and development deficit, yet its current economic growth results in relatively high annual emissions. Its traditional alliance with developing countries along with a shared, pressing concern about climate impacts demands more urgent, effective action to reduce global emissions, especially by developed countries, yet it wants to play a leadership role on global issues, including climate change, in the company of leading developed nations. It retains focus on its original, defining stance on equity between nations based on historical per capita emissions and resisting pressures to take on unfair emission reduction demands, yet it seeks to be flexible about an increasingly unsustainable firewall between developed and developing countries. The tension between these imperatives is reflected in India's stance in the negotiations and, certainly to the discerning eye, also in India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution within the framework of the Paris Agreement (Dubash and Khosla 2015; Raghunandan 2015).
In the final analysis, the global agreement finalized at Paris met neither the requirements of science nor the needs of international equity, that is, for developed and developing countries to shoulder a (p.201) 'fair share' of the emissions reduction burden. On its part, India did not adopt a science-based approach, which would have led to a better appreciation of the threats it faces from climate change, minimizing which would then have been the main goal. A domestically driven perspective focusing on climate impacts on the subcontinent, rather than one driven by foreign relations considerations, would also have lent urgency to the need for an effective global compact to limit global warming. A better floor strategy in the negotiations—placing less reliance on cozying up to the US and other developed countries and consistently standing with other developing countries, as warranted by India's poverty burden and development deficits—would also have served India better. Crucially, India also failed to factor in its own economic growth story and could not find a way to reconcile this with its traditional position favouring the Kyoto firewall between developed and developing countries. Had India's negotiating position not been this mixed bag of early creative interaction followed by vacillations, missed opportunities, misplaced alliances, and a failure to capitalize even on a belated paradigm change, its role in shaping the global emissions control architecture would have been quite different and might even have engendered a different outcome. As things stand, the Paris Agreement is a low-ambition emissions control regime, with an architecture favouring developed countries and distributing the burden unfairly among 'all countries' by ignoring historic responsibility, while allowing developed nations to substantially defer enhanced commitments under the KP till the new commitments kick in.
However, the story does not end with the Paris Agreement. There is still much work to be done, now and in the coming years, on many important issues. The issue of dealing with the higher-ambition 1.5°C goal is yet to be dealt with in an effective manner, yet with sensitivity towards the perceptions of the island states and LDCs. The anticipated upward revision of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) is to take place in 2020, and unless some meaningful science-based metric is worked out to incorporate historical emissions of developed countries and as to how different countries should make upward revisions in such a way as to ensure adequacy to meet the 2°C goal, the world may again well be left with another ineffective set of voluntary pledges. The global stocktakes in 2025 and (p.202) beyond also loom, and these again will not meet requirement unless the vexed issue of adequacy is tackled. India will undoubtedly face many challenges in the years ahead, not least the pressure of taking on ever-greater mitigation burdens, and many of the old dilemmas will continue to vex India. However, lessons from the negotiations thus far, if learned well, could prove useful, and India would do well to approach the negotiations differently than in the past, focusing on broader outcomes rather than on daily skirmishes. India's national interests, given the severe climate impacts it is likely to face in the years to come, demand no less.
India will also face enormous challenges on the domestic front. India's NDC commitments are at present relatively modest, which, it must be said, is acceptable in the face of shamefully low emission reduction commitments by developed countries. In the longer term, these commitments will need to be approached with far greater cohesion and more cross-sectoral perspectives than hitherto, especially addressing issues of domestic inequities, rather than being based only on a concern for satisfying international audiences. Both the international negotiations and the low-carbon pathways within India will require a chiefly domestic starting point.
Agarwal, Anil and Sunita Narain. 2012. 'Global Warming in an Unequal World: A Case of Environmental Colonialism (Selected Excerpts)', in Handbook of Climate Change and India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 81–9. Available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203153284-16.
Black, Richard. 2011. 'Climate Talks End with Late Deal', BBC News, 11 December. Available at https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-16124670; accessed on 10 June 2019.
Clinton, Hillary Rodham. 2009. 'The U.S. Is on Board', The New York Times, 14 December. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/opinion/15iht-edclinton.html; accessed on 10 June 2019.
Dubash, Navroz K. and Radhika Khosla. 2015. 'Neither Brake nor Accelerator', Economic & Political Weekly, 50(42). Available at https://www.epw.in/journal/2015/42/commentary/neither-brake-nor-accelerator.html; accessed on 10 June 2019.
Dutt, Gautam. 2009. 'A Climate Agreement beyond 2012', Economic & Political Weekly, 44(45): 39–49. (p.203)
Ghosh, Prodipto. 2012. 'Climate Change Debate: The Rationale of India's Position', in Handbook of Climate Change and India: Development, Politics and Governance, pp. 157–67. Oxford University Press.
Hijioka, Y., E. Lin, J.J. Pereira, R.T. Corlett, X. Cui, G.E. Insarov, R.D. Lasco, E. Lindgren, and A. Surjan. 2014. 'Asia', in V.R. Barros, C.B. Field, D.J. Dokken, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, T.E. Bilir et al. (eds), Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, pp. 1327–70. Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA). 2010. 'Climate Change and India: A 4x4 Assessment—A Sectoral and Regional Analysis for 2030s', Report No. 2. Available at http://moef.gov.in/indian-network-for-climate-change-assessment/; accessed on 10 June 2019. (p.204)
Kanitkar, Tejal, T. Jayaraman, Mario D'Souza, and Prabir Purkayastha. 2013. 'Carbon Budgets for Climate Change Mitigation—A GAMS-Based Emissions Model', Current Science, 104(9): 1200–6.
Metz, Bert, Ogunlade Davidson, Peter Bosch, and Leo Meyer (eds). 2007. Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). 2012. India—Second National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. New Delhi: MoEF, Government of India. Available at http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1467-9388.1992.tb00046.x.
Parashar, D.C., A.P. Mitra, P.K. Gupta, J. Rai, R.C. Sharma, N. Singh, S. Koul, et al. 1996. 'Methane Budget from Paddy Fields in India', Chemosphere, 33(4): 737–57.
Progressive Climate Policy Campaign-India. 2009. 'India's Position on Climate Change: Statement Submitted to PM', Progressive Climate Policy Campaign-India (blog), 21 November. Available at http://progressiveclimatepolicycampaign-ind.blogspot.com/2009/11/indias-position-on-climate-change.html; accessed on 10 June 2019.
Raghunandan, D. 2002. 'Flop-8: Climate Conference in Delhi', COP-8 blog, Delhi Science Forum, 10 November. Available at https://delhiscienceforum.net/flop-8-climate-conference-in-delhi-by-raghu/; accessed on 10 June 2019.
———. 2011. 'Durban Climate Agreement: The Morning After', Delhi Science Forum (blog), 19 December. Available at http://www.delhiscienceforum.net/environment/445-durban-climate-agreement-the-morning-after.html; accessed on 10 June 2019.
———. 2012. 'India's Official Position: A Critical View Based on Science', in Handbook of Climate Change and India, pp. 170–6. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
———. 2015. 'India's INDC', Delhi Science Forum (blog), 14 October. Available at https://delhiscienceforum.net/indias-indc-for-paris-climate-summit/; accessed on 22 July 2019.
Rajamani, Lavanya. 2011. 'Deconstructing Durban', The Indian Express, 15 December. Available at https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/deconstructing-durban/; accessed on 10 June 2019.
Ramachandran, Kaushalya. 2012. 'Assessing Agricultural Vulnerability Due to Climate Change Using NDVI Trends', ResearchGate, Hyderabad. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2157-7625.S1.003.
Reynolds, Paul. 2001. 'Kyoto: Why Did the US Pull Out?', BBC News, 30 March. Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1248757.stm; accessed on 10 June 2019.
Sprinz, Detlef. 2001. 'Summary Notes of the 7th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change', 27 November. Available at https://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/sprinz/doc/UNFCCC_COP_7.Summary.27Nov2001.pdf; accessed on 22 July 2019.
Vihma, Antto. 2011. 'India and the Global Climate Governance: Between Principles and Pragmatism', The Journal of Environment & Development, 20(1): 69–94. Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496510394325.
(1) Some people may argue that other studies show different and more accurate estimates. However, as with the IPCC assessment reports, I have preferred to go with the NATCOM and related studies (in INCCA 2010) as the most reliable evidence at hand, unless established otherwise in a fairly conclusive manner through widely accepted peer-reviewed studies.
(2) The climate impact data in this section are taken from MoEF (2012).
(3) Later studies showed that this early research had underestimated methane emissions, but this does not take away from the fact that methane emissions are still a small fraction of CO2 emissions and an even smaller fraction of total GHG emissions.
(4) See even more detailed accounts following the G8 summits at Heiligendamm, L'Aquila, and Toyako in blogs by the author. Available at www.delhiscienceforum.net. See also Chapter 7 in this volume.


text:
Chroustov ist der Name mehrerer Orte in Tschechien

Chroustov, Gemeinde im Okres Nymburk
Chroustov, Ortsteil von Úhlejov, Okres Jičín
Chroustov, Ortsteil von Třebeníce, Okres Třebíč
Chroustov, Ortsteil von Bohdalov, Okres Žďár nad Sázavou; siehe Chroustov (Bohdalov)
Chroustov, Ortslage von Radim u Kolína, Okres Kolín

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We cannot tell you which launch site we will be using on any particular day, until we know which way the wind is likely to be blowing! Please do not call the office. This information will only be available on our weatherline when you call in to check flight information. We expect our passengers to be prepared to fly from whichever venue is being used on the day. With the exception of flights meeting at around rush hour, our sites are all within 20 minutes or less driving time of each other.
Click on the maps below if you would like to see an interactive Google Map with directions and average travel times from your start point.


The elephant lumbered toward the temple amid buses and rickshaws and street sweepers, blessing children and supplicants along the way. His ungainly enormity is revered in India, as the Hindu elephant god, Ganesha, is revered – as a benefactor, a bestower of blessing and bounty, a deity inspiring love and devotion.
The trunk of this elephant curls out to receive money, which he lifts directly to the man on his back, or peanuts which he keeps for himself; it nuzzles a salty palm, blows on a baby's face, or drapes kindly across a devotee's bowed head. His ears flap at the flare of horns; his tail swings at flies and motorcycles; and when he lowers his head and moves straight toward me, I can't help it. I skitter fast.
Spencer has gripped a camera in readiness since we, and a few others, started our travels together in India. But with that pink question mark unfurling in his face, he seems to have dropped the camera instinctively and become an exclamation mark at the end of the question!
I've got to say: this is the way I want to greet the holy, like Spencer. Always surprised, because, after all, I never know when holiness, in the unexpected noon of a normal day, will flare out like a trumpet. And laughing, because what could be a better way to greet something so enormous and beneficent? And empty, open handed. Because the Mystery wants to kiss our cupped hands, and breathe upon us some unexpected blessing, and ask us to give up the small lens through which we see the world. And live, then, like a mark of exclamation.
~ by Susan on 03/05/2012.
Here's to living like a mark of exclamation!
That was a fabulous story.
What a wonderful story, and lesson. Would that many more citizens of SC&USA could/would take time and invest their resources to gain such experiences….. Ours would be a different country and life.


text:
package CalculatorApp;

import junit.framework.Test;
import junit.framework.TestCase;
import junit.framework.TestSuite;

/**
 * Unit test for simple App.
 */
public class CalculatorTest
    extends TestCase
{
    /**
     * Create the test case
     *
     * @param testName name of the test case
     */
    public CalculatorTest( String testName )
    {
        super( testName );
    }

    /**
     * @return the suite of tests being tested
     */
    public static Test suite()
    {
        return new TestSuite( CalculatorTest.class );
    }

    /**
     * Rigourous Test :-)
     */
    public void testCalculator()
    {
        assertTrue( true );
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


That is not good news for "Bealport."
Jeffrey Lewis's "Bealport: A Novel of a Town" is a measured study in contrasts: an inventively structured work of fiction that also taps into the longstanding tradition of socially relevant fiction. Lewis takes a host of bold structural risks in telling this story, but its meat is the way in which economics and institutions by turn support and frustrate those who depend upon them. "Bealport" is arranged in an unpredictable, tautly episodic manner, but it shares primal concerns with notable works by John Steinbeck and Emile Zola – as well as an impassioned cry against injustice of all forms.
"Bealport" the novel and Bealport the town both center on a shoe manufacturer called Norumbega. For over a century, the company has been at the heart of this small Maine town: providing its residents with employment and contributing to its sense of identity. A private equity firm, Madrigal Partners, purchases it, and initially the townspeople are cautiously optimistic: Roger Keysinger, the investor behind this maneuver, seems genuinely interested in the business – and it doesn't hurt that he gives the factory employees a raise to begin this new era of the business. Readers, and anyone familiar with the usual trajectory when a private equity firm buys a business, will likely be more skeptical. "Bealport" isn't so much a tale of suspense as it is a gradual progression towards a bleak finale that's all too visible.
"Bealport: A Novel of a Town." By Jeffrey Lewis. Haus Publishing. 232 pages. $22.95.
Lewis, who splits his time between homes in Castine and Los Angeles, opens the novel with a series of vignettes that lay the groundwork for what's to come. A dissolute man in his mid-30s, Billy Hutchins, returns to Bealport after a failed attempt at life in California; in the opening scene, Billy's family-man older brother Gary takes part in a demolition derby. "First prize was five hundred dollars," Lewis writes. "You could keep a car on the road for five hundred dollars." It's a potent image, this sense of breaking elements of one's world apart, all for the sake of an amount of money that will only allow you to make it to the next week to destroy a car all over again. It's a telling note on which to open the novel, and one that establishes both the mood of desperation felt by many of the novel's characters and which foreshadows the collisions – both literal and emotional – that loom for many of them.
Another early chapter puts the purchase of Norumbega in context, as the Rev. John Quigley turns down an offer from two representatives of a technology company to place a cellular transmitter in the tower of the Congregational Church over which he presides. "He had done it because the town was already saved," Lewis writes. "He had done it because Madrigal Partners was investing in Bealport." Though he has secrets of his own, as nearly every character in this novel does, Rev. Quigley gradually emerges as one of the novel's more admirable figures, attempting to find the right balance between sustainable economics and his own principles.
Sometimes, this gives way to more idiosyncratic takes on the region's retailing: "Martha was a huge fan of the Bangor Target store, though she was made uncomfortable by that phony French slanging of the name that everybody, and particularly Dawn Smith and Ging Richards, were putting out there as though it was so cute and clever. Martha took it to be French-Canadian, anyway." Moments like these also allow for some humor to creep into the proceedings, which is welcome. This is a slow-motion tragedy, both personally and sociologically; a few moments of levity serve as a counterpoint.
At times, Lewis will pause the action and delve into the city's past: the history of the island on which it's situated, a long-running dispute over the repair of a bridge, the process of how Norumbega goes about making a shoe, and how the different departments each contribute to the final product. These quietly specific scenes help to make the setting feel more unique. Even as some of its characters can take on archetypal qualities – the chapter in which Billy appears is titled "The Return of the Prodigal Son" – the particulars keep "Bealport" from feeling like an overly broad take on the decline of manufacturing, widening class divides and the ominous fate of labor in the United States.
Though Lewis's tone is measured, plenty of righteous anger lies just below the surface. It's the little details that make this novel sing, however – and it's what makes its conclusion that much more crushing, however inevitable.
New York City resident Tobias Carroll is the author of the novel "Reel" and the short story collection "Transitory" and has reviewed books for Bookforum, the Star Tribune and elsewhere.


text:
The Books I Read in January 2021
A new year and a new reading challenge. I would love to aim to beat last year's number of 78, but part of me doesn't want to reach anywhere near it.
I'm hoping that the world resumes to some sort of order in 2021 and that I will be too busy living life to be reading 24/7. So I'm going to again aim for 52 books in 52 weeks. A hefty challenge that I didn't even attempt at the start of last year, but now that I've got the reading bug, I'm hoping to hit it.
Keep up with the books I'm reading in real-time over on Instagram at @ocbookshelf.
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life. It's a life he once had, long-since buried but buried secrets have a habit of catching up with you and nobody can outrun their own past.
My rating: ★★★
I really enjoyed the concept of this book and at times wished the character really had known Shakespeare and met F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. I just don't think the ending of the book was the best and didn't build to the climax I was expecting. It was interesting to read about the different eras and about old London, which makes me want to read more historical books rather than so much modern fiction.
I've been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.
Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life's challenges – how to get relative with the inevitable – you can enjoy a state of success I call 'catching greenlights.'
My rating: ★★★★★
Alright, alright, alright. I was already obsessed with Matthew McConaughey, but now even more so. What a book.
Greenlights is a memoir and also, isn't. It details McConaughey's life, from growing up, his family life, his travels around the world, his acting career and his wife and children. It also reveals everything that life has taught him and what he can pass on from the most important moments of his life.
The book also features a lot of McConaughey's writings and poetry, musings and words of wisdom. There is a lot to learn in this book and a lot to think about. One thing all of us can take away is that live is for livin, not just existing. You'll know why I left off the 'g' when you read his book.
When Addie LaRue makes a deal with devil, she trades her soul for immortality. But the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone. Addie flees her tiny home town in 18th-Century France, beginning a journey that takes her across the world, learning to live a life where no one remembers her and everything she owns is lost and broken. Existing only as a muse for artists throughout history, she learns to fall in love anew every single day. Her only companion on this journey is her dark devil with hypnotic green eyes, who visits her each year on the anniversary of their deal. Alone in the world, Addie has no choice but to confront him, to understand him, maybe to beat him.
Until one day, in a second hand bookshop in Manhattan, Addie meets someone who remembers her. Suddenly thrust back into a real, normal life, Addie realises she can't escape her fate forever.
I don't know if it's because I recently read a time-travelling/time-hopping book about someone that was immortal and didn't age, but I just really couldn't get into this book. I had heard SO many great things, and was so excited to finally get to read the book, but it just didn't live up to expectations for me.
Maybe a little over-hyped for me, but then again I could have been making too many comparisons to How To Stop Time, but the book is 500+ pages long and it just wasn't the five-star bestseller that I was expecting.
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
You no longer need to work nine-to-five in a big company to pay the mortgage, send your kids to school and afford that yearly holiday. You can quit the rat race and start up on your own – and you don't need an MBA or a huge investment to do it. The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau is your manual to a new way of living.
– Earn a good living on your own terms, when and where you want
– Achieve that perfect blend of passion and income to make work something you love
– Take crucial insights from 50 ordinary people who started a business with $100 or less
– Spend less time working and more time living your life
My rating: ★★★★
A relatively short book but filled with a lot of great information. The book showcased many examples of businesses that started by accident, that started by transferring online or by turning a hobby into a full-time job. I personally felt quite inspired by the book and took some things away that I can implement into my own projects. The overall message from the book that I took away was that a lot of these entrepreneurs were working in very high-paying jobs but took large pay-cuts to work in their hobbies instead, because money doesn't equal happiness. Especially when it's in a job that you plan to do for the rest of your life. Often, it is worth the risk to do something you love and put all of your passion and energy into it.
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the unsolved murder of a preteen girl and the disappearance of another. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.
A very twisted tale which is exactly what Gillian Flynn is known for. The author of Gone Girl, Flynn is famous for suspense crimes with a lot of twists and turns, and Sharp Objects did not disappoint on that front. I was almost disappointed as nearing the end I thought it far too easy to have guessed the murderer in this case, but a very sharp twist in the final pages reassured that Gillian Flynn is a great author and that I need to read more of her work.
Ladies Get Paid by Claire Wasserman (Gifted)
Filled with Claire's personal stories and straightforward advice, this is a must-read for anyone who wants to take their career to the next level. If you're looking to get a raise, navigate a promotion, or break the glass ceiling, Ladies Get Paid will show you how. Part how-to guide, part manifesto, Ladies Get Paid encourages the self-advocacy and activism that will help you close the gender pay gap and take the power back in your career.
I've been questioning my own career of late; am I where I want to be right now? Is this what I want to be doing for the next year or more? Does this job fulfil my passion? Reading this book made me realize that I shouldn't settle for what I don't deserve when it comes to my career, and as a woman, I need to speak up in the workplace and make sure that I am treated as an equal to my male counterparts. Ladies Get Paid features different stories from various women in the working world who faced discrimination, toxic managers, salary-bias and racism. We are in the year 2021. Women before us fought for us to be at the same table as male CEOs and Executives, yet we still represent such a small percentage of this number. Progress still needs to be made and we cannot settle for less than we deserve.
32-year-old Nina Dean is a successful food writer with a loyal online following, but a life that is falling apart. When she uses dating apps for the first time, she becomes a victim of ghosting, and by the most beguiling of men. Her beloved dad is vanishing in slow motion into dementia, and she's starting to think about ageing and the gendered double-standard of the biological clock. On top of this she has to deal with her mother's desire for a mid-life makeover and the fact that all her friends seem to be slipping away from her…
My rating: ★★
Ok. We have lots to talk about. I loved Dolly Alderton's debut novel, Everything I Know About Love and expected more great things from this second novel, Ghosts. I had heard great things and seen many great reviews. However, I just didn't get the hype whatsoever. I felt that the book was a little all over the place with so many random storylines and plots – the part with her downstairs neighbour in the last 30 pages – where did that come from?? What happened to Max? What was the ending with her dad? I have so many unanswered questions. I hate to say that I just really didn't enjoy this book – would love to know your thoughts if you've read it!
The Books I Read in April 2021
Five Books I've Recently Read | Chapter 13
Five Books I've Just Read | Chapter Five
The Books I Read in October 2021
I'm 23, Shouldn't I Be A CEO By Now?
Four Ways Your Blogging Hobby Can Make You Money


Mark Ziebold is an attorney at Family Office Law and helps clients address Estate Planning & Probate legal issues. He also assists clients regarding Tax: Consumer and Business / Corporate issues.
Rising Stars is a designation of top-rated practicing attorneys selected through extensive evaluation. He was awarded this distinction for 2010 - 2012, 2018 - 2019.
Mark Ziebold graduated in 2003 from Chapman University School of Law.
Mark Ziebold was admitted to practice law in 2003. He represents clients in the Costa Mesa area.


First held in 2012, our annual Celebration of Business has grown to be one of the region's biggest and grandest business exhibitions. We are pleased that our efforts in this regard continue to receive great interest from our membership of over 1,200 from local businesses and individuals. As well as our regular programme of events, support for Ely Foodbank and our established mentoring scheme at Bishop Laney Sixth Form, we are now delighted to be championing an initiative for students to experience 'business-style' interviews to develop their understanding of the employment process and improve performance.
A defining characteristic of ECBG is its commitment to make all of its events accessible for all, so that ability to pay is no barrier to participation. Whilst ECBG makes no charges for membership it does seek sponsorship from participating organisations and individuals to cover its costs. In exchange, businesses are given the unique opportunity to promote their brand at networking and exhibitions within the awe-inspiring Ely Cathedral. Sponsors are exposed on newsletters, event brochures and marketing communications.


text:
Countries of activity
Access to areas of activity
ACCESS TO COUNTRIES OF ACTIVITY
acciona.org
1,000 households have access to the EncASa Oaxaca electricity basic service
Publications & interviews
Others talking about us
The Energy & Water Foundation
Parque Empresarial La Moraleja
28108 Alcobendas (MADRID, SPAIN)
The EncASa Oaxaca 2018 project achieved its goal of 1,000 families having access to the electricity basic service, together with about 140 households participating in the water, sanitation and cook stoves pilot, which is going to end soon.
We carry out this initiative within a public-private partnership for development with the Government of the State of Oaxaca, AECID –the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation– and its Mexican counterpart AMEXCID.
The EncASa Oaxaca 2018 project started with the aim of bringing access to the electricity basic service to 1,000 rural Oaxaca households –in addition to the 7,500 benefited with Luz en Casa Oaxaca programme– and access to drinking water, appropriate sanitation and improved cook stoves to more than 50 households. Today, the supply of third generation solar home systems (3GSHS) giving access to electricity has ended and the mentioned pilot is on its final stage having about 140 families participating in it.
The electricity basic service provided with those 3GSHS offers, daily, more than 6 hours of electric lighting, mobile charging and about two hours of operation of compatible high-efficient devices. These apparatuses are on sale in the 7 Centros Luz en Casa owned by local entrepreneurs who, in addition, give repair and advice services in their shops located in strategic localities of the state. In this way, besides the 31,000 users of Luz en Casa Oaxaca, 3,800 people from 62 districts benefited with EncASa Oaxaca 2018 can be serviced around the 8 Oaxaca regions, in isolated rural areas with a socio-economic level of extreme poverty and without any expectation of having the conventional electricity service.
Every family with the EncASa Oaxaca service has available 2,200 h per year of electric lighting that provides more time to working, studying, family meeting…, which is also favoured with avoiding going to buy alternative energy products, such as candles or batteries that are also avoided to be thrown away in the environment. In addition, the clean & efficient lighting minimizes risks of lung and eye diseases due to not enough lighting and smokes generated by kerosene lamps or firewood. That is, the electricity offered by EncASa Oaxaca impacts positively on the three dimensions of the development: economic, social and environmental.
The EncASa Oaxaca 2018 project is carried out through a public-private partnership for development formed by acciona.org, the Government of the State of Oaxaca, AECID –the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation– and its Mexican counterpart AMEXCID. This initiative expand the rural electrification action of the Luz en Casa Oaxaca programme that, between 2013 and 2016, provided 30,000 people with access to the electricity basic service they have today. It also brings access to reliable and affordable water, sanitation and cooking systems to remote communities.
acciona.org and the Sustainable Development Goals
The access to basic services provided by EncASa Oaxaca impacts positively on the economy, society and environment of the beneficiaries of this action, which is aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) included in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda.
At acciona.org we work to bring access to energy, water and sanitation to very low-income people who live not being included in any plan of extension of those service, for which we apply technological and managerial innovation criteria. Thus, we contribute to achieve the SDG directly related SDG6 on water & sanitation, SDG7 on sustainable & affordable energy, and SDG9 on resilient infrastructures and promotion of innovation. That contribution is part of the ACCIONA commitment to the SDG's.
We also favour the achievement of other SDG's through the positive impacts of our activity resulting in reduction of poverty, improvement of health, education, equality, work, etc., as well as through the collaborative view with which we execute our actions, such as the public-private partnership for development that carries out EncASa Oaxaca.
More info: https://acciona.org/mexico/encasa-oaxaca/encasa-oaxaca-18/
12YEARS OF ACTIVITY
14,260HOUSEHOLDS BENEFITED (2020E)
9ONGOING PROJECTS
At acciona.org we work to bring access to energy, water and sanitation to people without prospects of having covered those services by traditional means, contributing in this way to the Sustainable Development Goals. More about acciona.org
Contents under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Do you want to keep inform about acciona.org's activities?
I accept the conditions defined in the Information on data protection
You must accept the conditions defined on the Privacy Policy
An error had ocurred during the e-mail registration. Verify the e-mail format is correct or ask the administrator.
Thanks for registering in our site.
Please specify an e-mail address.
Information on data protection
In compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on Data Protection and with other Data Protection regulations in force, you are hereby informed that your personal data shall be processed by Fundación acciona.org, (hereinafter "FUNDACIÓN"), whose identification data are as follows: registered at Registro de Fundaciones Asistenciales del Ministerio de Educación, Política Social y Deporte con nº 28-1544, and actually nº 917SND at Registro Único de Fundaciones de Competencia Estatal del Ministerio de Justicia; Tax ID No. (NIF): G-85577732; Address: Avenida de Europa, 18, Parque Empresarial de la Moraleja, 28108 in Alcobendas, Madrid, email: protecciondedatos@acciona.com; in order to send you information, through the subscription to our Newsletter through electronic means, regarding our services, products, activities and news pertinent to its activity sectors, and of its organization, which are specified on the Web Site (https://www.acciona.org/contact), as well as those of other companies that comprise the Acciona Group, which can be consulted on the Web Site at www.acciona.com/shareholders-investors/financial-information/annual-accounts/.
The consent given by the data subject by indicating that they have read and accept this data protection information comprises the legal grounds for processing the data. If the party fails to provide the required data the subscription request cannot be satisfied. The data shall be stored until the elimination thereof is requested.
FUNDACIÓN uses the platform MailChimp to send commercial communications and the newsletter. Sending these communications by using this tool entails the international transfer of data to the American company The Rocket Science Group LLC. This transfer is made under the scope of the EU-US Privacy Shield agreement. - Further information is available at the following link:
www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG&status=Active
Other data transfers are not anticipated, except where required by law.
The data subject can exercise their rights of portability and to access, correct, eliminate, restrict and oppose the processing of their data before Acciona, S.A. by writing the Department of Data Protection located at Avenida de Europa, 18, 28108, in Alcobendas, Madrid or by sending an email to the following address: protecciondedatos@acciona.com. In either case, the data subject must enclose or attach a copy of their National ID (DNI) or other ID. Furthermore, at any time the data subject may withdraw the granted consent by contacting the aforementioned address and file a claim before the Supervisory Authority (the Spanish Data Protection Agency www.aepd.es).
You can find more information in our Privacy Policy on our Web Site.


Fig. 4. Comparison of the Multiple Alignment program of the translated human EST contig sequence (HUM) and the yeast MRS4 protein sequence. Boxes indicate the blocks of homology between human and yeast sequences. The two blocks previously identified by the BLAST search (see Fig. 2) are framed again. A third block of homology is also shown. The homology between the human and the whole yeast sequences is 45.8%; it corresponds to 55.6, 53.1, and 43.5% in blocks 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
(retrieved by BLAST searching, using the yeast MRS4 protein) are the HTO15 protein (accession number NP.057696), the hypothetical protein FLJ10618 (accession number NP.060625), and the CGI-69 protein (accession number NP_057100), which present, respectively, 60, 41, and 46% similarity and 40, 25, and 27% identity with the yeast MRS4 sequence. The sequence alignments presented in the scrolling screen show a stretch of homology between the yeast MRS4 protein and the human HTO 15 protein, but this is not observed for the hypothetical FLJ10618 protein or the CGI-69 protein, which should lead one to be cautious with this homology. Nevertheless, these three proteins are mitochondrial carrier proteins, as indicated after clicking in the corresponding GenBank number. Looking for information about the HTO 15 protein reveals that this protein is the mitochondrial solute carrier (UniGene Hs.300496) that we previously noted in the first step of the BLAST search. Alignment of the yeast MRS4 protein and the human HT015 protein reveals 42.1% homology (not shown), which is slightly less than the homology between the yeast MRS4 and our EST-deduced amino acid sequence. At this step, no other available data allow us to know which of the EST-derived amino acid sequences, or which of the HT015 proteins, is the real MRS4 homolog; only complementation studies in yeast might answer this question. Since December 2000, the complete sequence of the human homolog of yeast MRS4 has been identified (UniGene Cluster Hs.326104, Genbank AAK49519) and matches the partial protein sequence retrieved by the method described here.
Bench work is then absolutely required to check the in silico cloning before claiming to have identified a human cDNA. Oligonucleotide primers must be designed from the genomic or EST contig sequence to perform PCR or RT-PCR followed by sequencing in order to correct eventual mismatches and gaps.
In the selected case of MRS4, BLAST searching retrieves several ESTs showing significant homology scores. However, in some cases, no human homologous sequences can be identified. As most ESTs have been obtained by sequencing the 3' part of mRNAs, the 5' part of large mRNAs is often lacking. Consequently, this identification strategy may be inefficient if the C-terminal regions of the known gene from the model organism and its human counterpart present low levels of homology. This can result either from interspecies differences in protein equipment or from loss of particular functions of one given protein during evolution. Another explanation may stem from a low degree of sequence conservation between species. Finally, the absence of a human ortholog in the EST database of a gene identified in a model organism may also be due to a low transcription level of the corresponding gene, as the EST database is a qualitative and quantitative picture of the genome transcriptome.


FREE standard shipping applies within Australia when you spend over $99. For orders under $99, shipping charges (in most cases a $9.95 flat fee) will apply.
We aim to dispatch all items within 1 business day.
When we dispatch your item(s) you will receive an email confirmation. This email includes the freight provider we have used and a unique number that allows you to track your purchase.
All orders can be tracked via the chosen carriers website.
If you are having difficulty with receiving your delivery contact us by email at info@amblerdirect.com or call us on (02) 6025 1258, we want to help you every step of the way.
Delivery times will vary depending on your location. Express Post is offered within Australia on eligible items at an additional cost.
For standard delivery allow 2 – 7 business days for your order to be delivered. If you are in a rural or remote area, it may be an additional 1 – 2 business days.
What happens with non-delivery or lost parcels?
If you have still not received your parcel and your tracked parcel is showing as delivered, on the chosen carrier's website, a card should have been left informing you where it is. The card should provide details on where and how to pick up your order or to rearrange delivery.
If you require further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us and our customer service team will advise you further or initiate an investigation with the carrier on your behalf.