Let us learn from the Bulls/waste managment

A bull eats the weeds  as we uproot them from our paddy fields
A bull eats the hay as we harvest the grains
A bull eats the chaff as we collect the rice
A bull drinks the washed water as we prepare to boil the rice
The bull  eats the rejected /wasted rice.
Taking everything we reject, the bull /cow helps us in so many ways
BE SELFLESS JUST AS THE BULL. 

Waste is Wealth

THE RICH MAN'S GARBAGE IS ALSO RICH. SOUNDS FUNNY. FACT. SCORES OF RAG PICKERS LOSE THEIR LIVES FIGHTING FOR THE 'RICH GARBAGE' GENERATED FROM HIGH END HOTELS/LOCALITIES. THE FIGHT INTENSIFIES ON THE EVE OF NEW YEAR OR DIWALI AS THE DANCING DRUNKEN YOUTH MAY LOSE A GRAM OF GOLD OR SILVER. WHEREAS THE MIDDLE CLASS NEIGHBOURHOOD FAMILIES WOULD BE SAVING even THE POLYTHENE FOR SELLING THEM LATER.

 REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE.

There must be a Waste Management Strategy set out by the Government

The Strategy’s two goals provide direction to local government, businesses (including the waste industry), and communities on where to focus their efforts in order to deliver environmental, social and economic benefits to all.  The goals are:

·         Reducing the harmful effects of waste

·         Improving the efficiency of resource use.

The Strategy’s flexible approach will ensure waste management and minimization activities are appropriate for local situations.

Local governments/bodies must play a lead role in waste management and minimization

Introduce Waste Disposal Levy and generate funds for waste minimization initiatives.

Educate the people in handling e-waste, glass/regular non bio-degradable waste and hospital waste

Reward the associations that perform better

Plan your new colonies as e-colonies  

Why waste minimization is important.

Every year, Indians send around 40 crore tonnes of waste to landfill that is over a ton of rubbish per household. 99.9 % of this waste is not reprocessed or recycled, and doesn’t break down over time.

Disposing of waste at landfills is a sign that we’re not using our resources efficiently, and are contributing directly to pollution.

To improve the environmental future of our nation, we need to start taking responsibility for the waste we produce by finding more effective and efficient ways to reduce, reuse, recycle or reprocess it. We need an Act to encourage waste minimization and decrease waste disposal. There are, and always will be, challenges in better managing waste but if we are all committed to the cause the effect would be phenomenal. Start bringing less packaging material in and automatically the waste out go will decrease. 

Gone are the days when you got your food on a banana leaf. Today every grain of food item/eatable is packed in polythene-even the Side dishes (curry/sambar) and both the bins are full   after a square meal (the stomach and the dustbin). Let us think before wee litter.

A LITTLE LOVELY LILY AND A LITTLE LAD

A little lily woke up in the morning,
To see  the shiny  sun smiling.
A tender kid walking on the banks,
Stopped to shook his head in joy.

The little lily loved the lad 
And longed to kiss his cheeks.
Days passed...
The pretty pond got no drops 
Dropped by the rain gods.
Dried and withered ,
The lily shivered in silence.

There came the little lad...
With loads of sad thoughts
His heart melted like ice
And tears welled his eyes and
Filled the pond with fresh rainwater.

The smiles are back on the both
And the fragrance was felt even 
Miles away from the pond.



   


   

IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

Buddh International – 5.125 kilometres. Race distance - 60 laps  = 307.249 kilometres. 16 corners in total. Average speed 210 km/h. A new circuit hosting a Grand Prix for the second time.

Aerodynamic set up – High downforce. Top speed 323 km/h (with DRS open) 310 km/h without.

Full throttle – 70% of the lap time. Total fuel needed for race distance – 161.6 kilos (high). Fuel consumption – 2.65 kg per lap (ave).

Brake wear - average.

Loss time for a Pit stop = 16 seconds

Total time needed for a pit stop: 21 seconds 

Fuel effect (cost in lap time per 10kg of fuel carried): 0.35 seconds (ave/high)

Forget the cost, what about the loss to the environment due to the Co2 release? In the name of sport should we kill this earth?   

CLEAN ENERGY SOURCES

As a  small child I'd be running around my village with a  tiny hand held fan made of  palm leaves. The leaves would rotate fast depending upon my speed of running and the wind velocity. Today  the world  is with the technology that can produce electricity reaping the winds. In other words man has learnt the art of making money even from the winds. Advantages in having turbines that run  on wind current:
They are  clean and green ,renewable, cheap  and the land can be used for cultivation. 

An energy crisis forced Denmark to start investing in renewable energy, particularly wind turbines. With grand scale financial backing from the state, Denmark´s wind turbine industry grew rapidly and the production of turbines as well as wind power soon became a major export for the country.Today the Danish wind turbine industry, led by Vestas and Siemens Denmark, is the world´s biggest and the industry employs around 25,000 people.

Wind turbine cooperatives

Apart from financial backing of the wind industry, another state initiative that helped wind power on its way was a tax exemption for families who generate their own electricity. This led to the wind turbine cooperatives of which the first were founded in the eighties. Families bought shares in the cooperatives, who in turn invested in community wind turbines. By 1996 there were more than 2,000 wind turbine cooperatives in Denmark and in 2004 more than 150,000 Danish families belonged to a cooperative. However, in recent years many cooperatives have been closed due to the inefficiency of small wind turbines compared to larger ones.

In India Tamilnadu and Gujarat are front runners in garnering the clean energy.But wind energy is seasonal and in off seasons the fans don't rotate and the energy generation reaches a mere zero making the dependents think twice before investing in this clean energy. Of course different wind zones serving different regions may be clubbed together with the main grid and the problems minimised.

BUY BICYCLES; BURY MOTORCYCLES.

'Bikes'  include the charming bicycles. Everyone knows it is 'earth' friendly and 'purse' friendly. But people prefer to cycle inside their homes on fitness bikes rather than on roads. The status conscious society often  looks at the vehicle of the man is on/in more than the man. However as we all together has brought the mother earth to her sick bed, the one option that may help her breathe better is -people returning to their bicycle days. Said easily, but we need dedicated cycle lanes in all our cities. Incentives offered for the  cycle users.


A humanistic, people-friendly city is first and foremost an accessible city, where mobility is possible for all. Many cities today are plagued by traffic congestion, and in densely populated city areas the fastest way of getting around is often on a bicycle, which is a highly efficient means of transport.


A steadily growing number of cities around the world are eager to become cities of bicycles, as part of an overall strategy on sustainable development and the desire to become green cities. The development of cycle path networks that can supplement the public transport system also makes a significant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions.

Cities of bicycles are very much people-friendly cities, and city planning that considers pedestrians and cyclists will form a significant contribution to the humanistic city of the future.
           Let us return now lest there may be no return.

Why Protect Antarctica

Antarctica is a remarkable continent. Remote, hostile and uninhabited, Antarctica is key to understanding how our world works, and our impact upon it.

Antarctica is important for science because of its profound effect on the Earth's climate and ocean systems. And the Antarctic has a crucial role to play in our understanding of global climate change. Locked in its four kilometre-thick ice sheet is a unique record of what our planet's climate was like over the past one million years.

Antarctic science has also revealed much about the impact of human activity on the natural world. The discovery in 1985 by scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) of the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica revealed the damage done to the Earth's atmosphere by man-made chemicals. As well as being the world's most important natural laboratory, the Antarctic is a place of great beauty and wonder. Its frozen wastes have fired the public imagination for generations, and around 30,000 tourists now visit the Antarctic each year to experience what life is like in the Earth's last great wilderness. However, Antarctica is fragile and increasingly vulnerable.

The UK has been a world leader in Antarctic science and exploration for more than two centuries. As the UK's national Antarctic operator, BAS has been responsible for most of the UK's scientific research in Antarctica for the past 60 years. BAS now operates five research stations, two Royal Research Ships and five aircraft in and around Antarctica.

As well as conducting globally important science, BAS helps protect Antarctica's pristine environment. It fulfils this stewardship role by working to the highest environmental standards in all its operations and by playing a leading role in the Antarctic Treaty – the world's most successful international agreement. The UK was the first nation to sign the Treaty's Protocol on Environmental Protection, which commits Treaty parties to the environmental protection of Antarctica – a continent that few of us will ever visit, but on whose continued health we all depend.

Clean Fleets for a Cleaner World

• PROBLEM

Cars, trucks and other road transport vehicles, while essential for commercial and humanitarian work, exert a considerable adverse impact on the environment. Estimates are that road vehicles consume more than a third of the world’s supply of petroleum and contribute nearly one-fifth of global carbon dioxide emissions. These vehicles are also a significant source of air pollution which can adversely affect human health and the environment. In urban areas, about 70 per cent of air pollution comes from road vehicles.

SOLUTION
Public, private and non-governmental organizations use vehicle fleets in their work. Adopting clean fleet management programmes helps them contribute to alleviating the harmful impacts of road transport.
In collaboration with TNT, UNEP’s partnership to help build capacity for clean fleet management developed the "Toolkit for Clean Fleet Strategy Development" to support fleet managers in cleaning up their vehicle pools. In November 2006, TNT Turkey used the toolkit to help it design a clean fleet strategy. Its goal was to cut carbon emissions by six per cent by 2011. By early 2008, it had already surpassed its goal, even though it had increased its fleet from 262 vehicles to 313. Some 80 drivers have been trained in environmentally friendly safe driving techniques while 122 vehicles (or 41 per cent of the fleet) have been replaced with cleaner models, including hybrid electric vehicles. Monthly carbon dioxide emissions have dropped by 15 per cent, and fuel consumption by 16 per cent, resulting in savings of 100,000 euros in 15 months. The toolkit has helped organizations, ZOOM especially in emerging economies, to develop and adopt clean fleet programs.

IMPACT

More than 500 people from 200 public, private and non-governmental organizations in 57 countries have been trained on the use of the toolkit. Some of the participants, and the strategic partners, have also been trained as trainers. A number of organizations, including Sinar and Hiba Utama in Indonesia, Maynilad and Meralco in the Philippines and TNT in Turkey, have developed plans to clean up their fleets. In November 2006, TNT Turkey used the toolkit to help it design a clean fleet strategy. Its goal was to cut carbon emissions by six per cent by 2011. By early 2008, it had already surpassed its goal, even though it had increased its fleet from 262 vehicles to 313. Some 80 drivers have been trained in environmentally friendly safe driving techniques while 122 vehicles (or 41 per cent of the fleet) have been replaced with cleaner models, including hybrid electric vehicles. Monthly carbon dioxide emissions have dropped by 15 per cent, and fuel consumption by 16 per cent, resulting in savings of 100,000 euros in 15 months.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change has long-since ceased to be a scientific curiosity, and is no longer just one of many environmental and regulatory concerns. As the United Nations Secretary General has said, it is the major, overriding environmental issue of our time, and the single greatest challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a growing crisis with economic, health and safety, food production, security, and other dimensions.

Shifting weather patterns, for example, threaten food production through increased unpredictability of precipitation, rising sea levels contaminate coastal freshwater reserves and increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, and a warming atmosphere aids the pole-ward spread of pests and diseases once limited to the tropics.

The news to date is bad and getting worse. Ice-loss from glaciers and ice sheets has continued, leading, for example, to the second straight year with an ice-free passage through Canada’s Arctic islands, and accelerating rates of ice-loss from ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Combined with thermal expansion—warm water occupies more volume than cold—the melting of ice sheets and glaciers around the world is contributing to rates and an ultimate extent of sea-level rise that could far outstrip those anticipated in the most recent global scientific assessment.

There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed. Ecosystems as diverse as the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic tundra, for example, may be approaching thresholds of dramatic change through warming and drying. Mountain glaciers are in alarming retreat and the downstream effects of reduced water supply in the driest months will have repercussions that transcend generations. Climate feedback systems and environmental cumulative effects are building across Earth systems demonstrating behaviours we cannot anticipate.

The potential for runaway greenhouse warming is real and has never been more present. The most dangerous climate changes may still be avoided if we transform our hydrocarbon based energy systems and if we initiate rational and adequately financed adaptation programmes to forestall disasters and migrations at unprecedented scales. The tools are available, but they must be applied immediately and aggressively.

THE CAMPAIGN

  Welcome To

GO GREEN  INDIA CAMPAIGN   

   
-A Mass Movement to Mobilize Men to Save Our Planet              

"To  her fair works did Nature link              

The human soul that through me ran;              

And much it grieved my heart to think              

What man has made of man."         

-Visionary Poet William Wordsworth         

Aim: To create an awareness among the people about the fragility of our planet earth and initiate actions that prevent
activities endangering the environment and launch measures that strengthen the ecosystem

Goal Cry: Nurture Nature For Your Future

Centuries back William Wordsworth lamented that
man has disassociated himself from Nature and the other fellow creatures and is hence responsible for his miserable plight. The poet is not to be seen as an admirer of Nature but a worshipper who believes that Nature has a soul that is
living and there is a link between the soul of Nature and that of all other living beings. But, unfortunately man has failed to see the link and has been indulging in misdeeds that affect this vital link.

Hence care for this Earth is in the air for quite sometime. But the 'machine led man' is misled and is mired in a 'material
dustbowl'. Greed is seen in his every deed and there is no end indeed. Let every one of us put just one step ahead and let the step  it be for caring this Nature.

 

Environmental technologies

Environmental technologiesare any technology, that either directly or indirectly improves the environment. It includes technologies for limiting pollution with the held of cleaning, more environmentally friendly products and production processes, more efficient energy and ressource management as well as technological systems that reduce the environmental impact. Examples include e.g. technology flue gas cleaning, wind turbines, water treatment, enzymes for animal feed and washing powder, biofuel production, energy-efficient pumps and substitution of chemicals with moreenvironmentally friendly solutions.

The Millennium Development Goals

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In the year 2000, 189 world leaders sat down together and formulated the UN’s Millennium Declaration, and they defined eight goals that were to safeguard a dignified, sustainable future for the population of the whole world. Since then the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have formed the benchmark for international development cooperation and thus also for Denmark’s work with development cooperation.

The eight development goals

The point of departure of the Millennium Development Goals is the desire to provide better living conditions for the poor population of the world before 2015. In concrete terms, the eight goals are:

1. Halve poverty and hunger in the world
2. Basic schooling for all
3. Increased gender equality
4. Reduce child mortality by two-thirds
5. Reduce maternal mortality by three-fourths
6. Fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Safeguard the development of a sustainable environment
8. Increase cooperation on development assistance, trade and debt remission

The MDGs are continuously monitored

Every year the General Assembly of the UN is presented with a status report showing progress achieved in meeting the MDGs, and similar reports are drawn up at national level with the support of the UNDP and the UN’s other country offices.
The first seven goals oblige the developing countries mainly to ensure that the goals are incorporated in their national poverty strategies and finance legislation.
The eighth MDG commits countries of the world to establish a global partnership. This includes the countries contributing to the realization of the goals through financial and technical assistance.

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why black background??

A black background consumes less power compared to white background.
This gives me immense pleasure as I save a few watts in energy consumption of the viewers viewing this site

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Our lifestyle is placing increasing pressure on the environment. Today we have to work extensively with the opportunities innovation and management of human resource use that can contribute to the environment and sustainable development.

Strategy for Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is about finding ways to develop environmental, financial, and social resources that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

3 core principlesof sutainable development :

• Commit and motivate all actors to take responsibility for a sustainable development

• Develop innovative and environmentally friendly solutions

• Take long-term global consequences into account

The Strategy for Sustainable Development brings forward goals and specific initiatives for the following 9 areas:

• Globalization as a benefit for all

• Climate change

• Nature for the future

• Green innovation in

• Well functioning urban areas

• Better health for all

• Knowledge, research and education in an innovative society

• Man as a resource

• Responsible, long-term and sustainable economic policy

HUMANITY AT CROSSROADS

As a student of an elementary school in a hamlet of just forty houses in a remote village in Tamilnadu me and my classmates , on orders from our teachers used to go to the nearby villages which were two to three miles away from my village to bring lunch or to get post-cards or inland letters from the sub-post office or to collect chocolate pockets from the village panchayat president’s house on the eve of independence day or the republic day . On a few occasions we had to deliver some bags of noon-meal items (corn-flour/imported oil supplied through the CARE programme, the pioneering dream project of K.Kamaraj as CM of TN). At times we had to wade through knee deep waters and walk along the grassy bunds of green paddy fields. In case of rains we had to drench as umbrellas were a luxury then for us. A few streams are to be crossed on way and in the months of October and November the Jungle Rivers would be in spate. Holding the hands of the passerby we had to cross those small rivers.


But to run these errands there would be a stiff competition among my school mates. Only the lucky ones would get a chance to explore the outside world. After the lunch, in the afternoons we would take turns to cool our teachers with the help of palm leaf fans as the village had not seen the electricity. The teachers were mostly from the southern districts and never our parents had questioned our teachers for assigning such works to us. All this happened when we were hardly eight or nine year old.

Now after three decades I turn back and wonder what I lost as a child and what my child has gained today. He goes to his school by a bus and his teachers are not asking him to go elsewhere. But is he safe in this concrete jungle and moving metals?

Not a single day passes without a blown up report on a ‘killer bus’ or a ‘killer van’ driven by a ‘killer driver’ crushing a child. A TATA or an Ashok Leyland school bus metamorphoses into a new avatar all of a sudden. Either the bus is burnt or stoned and damaged beyond recognition. The driver, if he is lucky survives or otherwise succumbs. Calls for the arrests of all concerned are made and yet another incident engulfs us. These are not the signs of a mature society.

School kids running behind moving buses with their loaded school bags, hanging on to the foot boards precariously and overcrowded buses are a common sight here. Children packed like sardines and sitting dangerously on the sides of the driver seat in an auto is a regular feature for decades now. Nowhere in the world have you seen kids reading books seriously while they sit on the fuel tanks, as the father or mother riding a moped on a highway. It is not an uncommon sight altogether to see a parent talking over his /her mobile while the kids are on the vehicle.

It is also a fact hundreds of children lose their lives when the vehicles are driven by their own parents and hundreds of parents lose their lives as they travel on our killer roads. When lakhs of men lose their lives on our Indian roads insulating our kids alone from such tragedies is impractical. Of course the parent too has to survive to give a quality life to his kid. This problem of road rages can’t be treated in isolation. What is required is a missionary zeal from all concerned to minimize these avoidable mishaps.

Let us realize roads are neither parking lots nor shopping complexes. They are purely meant for journey alone. Don’t park your vehicles on the sides of roads and boycott shops with no parking space.

Most of the accidents are due to rash driving and drunken driving. The families with people of ‘drinking habit’ have to accept them and allow them to drink at homes as in western nations. Drinking is no more a social stigma and no need to hide this ‘great secret’ from our neighbours. You may want to protect your kids from the vice but others have to protect their lives. ‘Drinking habit’ may be an ‘evil’ for Gandhi ji but a ‘drunken driver’ is an ‘evil’ for the society. Allow them not to ride on roads under the influence of alcohol.

A two wheeler is meant for ‘two’ only and not for a whole family. Admit your wards in a nearby school. Don’t make your kids a ‘yatri’ every day. Search not for a reputed school and realize all our reputed men today came from non-descript local schools. Do take all precautions in your interest and in other’s interest.

MUSIC CAN MOVE

As u listen to the music…


Get drunk by the splendor of melody,

Drink the same red wine of your Keats  and Words Worth

Walk on the grass, holding the glass,

Enter the caves men ever entered,

Stop the waves from making any blast, lest your lover lose her sweet dreams,





Climb on the cliffs, to witness the valleys profound in beauty,

Fly with the stars to far-flung lands,

Clutch the moon to gift your lone sweet heart,

Get drunk full by the beauty of the vales,

Go with the clouds to slake the thirst of distant lands,

Let the gentle breeze freeze your craze,

Cut your worries, if any, with the shining sun’s sharp rays,

Let the cuckoo long for your song,

Ask the peacocks dance to your tunes,

Stop the waves from making any noise, lest your lover lose her endearing dreams

Let not the world carry your saddle,

Carry the world as a bird carries its fluff,

Don’t long for any golden gifts

When the all full world is under your feet and before your eyes,

Listen to the melody, my dear friend…

RETTAVAYAL S KRISHNASWAMY

Seeds

One can count the seeds in a fruit,


Can anyone count the fruits in a seed?

Bear in mind, poetry ‘is a seed.

PESTICIDES

Our Indian farmers should have ample opportunities to choose more environmental friendly pesticides for control of pests and weeds. This could be pesticides based on plant extracts or micro organisms.

GO GREEN CAMPAIGNS- MYTH OR REAL

There are people who feel the talks on ‘global warming’ or on ‘climate change’ are mere ‘fashion’ and nothing in ‘real’ is affecting us. They are unwilling to accept the dialogues on ‘rising levels of sea waters’ and ‘melting of glaciers’. The opponents to the climate change champions believe ‘the melting of glaciers is a natural phenomenon and no big land mass has submerged so far due to the rising sea levels. The lop-sided monsoons or flash floods in different parts of the planet are the normal deviations’.


Yes, their arguments have got substance. But one should realize none is expecting a deluge immediately after planting a million of saplings or all our mountains sporting frozen ice. Also none predicts a ‘doom’ for all of us in the very near future. But can’t they realize that they have started to purchase water? Aren’t they aware that ‘pure air’ finds a place in every new ‘home’ advertisement? Is it possible to survive in a city without an electric fan? Do we have a pure river in any of our cities?

The earth we inhabit is millions of years old. Man is on a rampage only in the past two centuries. The industrial revolution and the advancement in science and technology have made men live longer but the process of decay of the earth’s environment is being accelerated. An un-watered small plant may die in a day or two; without water to its roots a banyan tree may survive a little longer. The earth is a very big banyan tree. It would take some more time for the man to destroy the earth completely.

Friends, the question is not the man’s survival alone. He has survived a nuclear holocaust and may survive more severe consequences. But the survival of the planet earth is in question. Man drills pipes for miles and empties the crude oil leaving a hollow earth. He has been demolishing mountains, spoiling the sea water and has succeeded in killing of millions of fresh water bodies and rivers across the world. He is polluting the untouched glaciers in the name of tourism and exploration and leaves behind trash that lay there forever. The ever rising concrete jungles and the choking carbon emissions are a pointer to prove that ‘man is on a mission’! It is but true that man has got technology to ward off acid rains and filters to fill his lungs with pure oxygen. He may take water from air and use air as fuel. Like this man will go to any extent and do anything for his survival. But some questions arise: ‘Is he the sole owner of this earth? And, how would the other occupants of the earth (flora and the fauna) protect themselves from the dangerous developments, which are consequences of man’s exploitations? How would the life of a man be to live all alone without a single piece of grass or grasshopper? (We know he is readying to go to the moon or Mars.)

Let us remember the earth we live in are not an ‘inherited one’ but a ‘borrowed one from our future generations’. Those who want to pass on a ‘beautiful earth’ to our future generations do join us to save the ‘earth’ and its occupants. Contribute your time and thought. Let it be in any small way. But let there be a way for our future.