The Amount of Food consumed is Wasted too.

Feeding the planet’s ever-expanding population while dealing with climate change will require a new way of thinking about agriculture. Current farming methods are depleting the earth’s resources and producing alarming quantities of greenhouse gases—agriculture operations currently produce 13 percent of human-based global GHG emissions. The environment is paying a huge price in biodiversity loss and deforestation, while the global economy leaks billions of US dollars per year on conventional agriculture’s economic side effects.

Turning agriculture a brighter shade of green will not only ease pressure on the environment and help cope with climate change, but will also create opportunities to diversify economies, increase yields, reduce costs, and generate jobs—which will in turn help reduce poverty and increase food security. Increasing farm yields and improving ecosystems services will be a boon to the 2.6 billion people who depend on agriculture for a livelihood, particularly in developing nations where most farmers live on small parcels in rural areas.

Huge gains can be made for a greener future by simply reducing agricultural waste and inefficiency. Nearly 50 percent of food produced is lost through crop loss or waste during storage, distribution, marketing, and household use. Some of these inefficiencies—especially crop and storage losses—can be addressed with small investments in simple farming and storage technologies.

Greening agriculture will require investment, research, and capacity building. UNEP’s contribution to this global effort includes the following innovative programmes

Do not Produce Waste.

 As countries’ economies grow, so does the volume of their garbage. According to estimates, some 11.2 billion metric tonnes of solid waste are currently being collected around the world every year, and the decay of the organic portion is contributing around 5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). What’s more, rubbish is becoming increasingly complex. The fastest growing waste stream in both developing and developed countries is electrical and electronic products, which contain hazardous substances that make disposal even more of a challenge. Human health and the environment are increasingly at risk, particularly when dumpsites are uncontrolled or volume becomes unmanageable. Illnesses and infections, ground water pollution, GHG emission, and ecosystem destruction are just some of the impacts of our overfilled global dustbin.

Turning the waste stream a brighter shade of green, however, can actually create economic opportunities. Managing waste, from collection to recycling, is a growing market, currently estimated at US$ 410 billion per year, not including the substantial informal segment in developing countries. Recycling, in particular, will grow with a greening of the waste sector, and actually creates more jobs than it replaces. Investment in greener waste management can produce many environmental and economic benefits, including resource savings, nature protection, and employment and business opportunities.

Of course, the best way to manage waste is to produce less of it, and minimizing waste is the first essential step towards greening the sector. The goal is to produce as little waste as possible, recycle or remanufacture as much as possible, and treat any unavoidable waste in a manner that is the least harmful to the environment and humans—or even as a source of sustainable energy.

AK-47

Nigeria: 2,000 feared killed in Boko Haram's 'deadliest massacre'

Amnesty International calls the killings ‘a disturbing and bloody escalation’ and a local defence group says its fighters have given up trying to count the bodies.

The latest to hit the world news channels but for  India. Here this news won't get highlighted or occupy  front page as the news from Paris did yesterday as reasons known to them. Because 12 is bigger than 2000 for them. Agreed. No issues.

The need of the hour is elimination of arms. Simple. To bring peace, war in the minds of people must go. For that people have to read and the History too is replete with wars and its horrors. Then how to bring in peace now.  None is ready to accept none. To take up a wrong cause there are millions; the right cause is patronized by only a minuscule persons. The huge imbalance causes severe friction,conflicts and loss of lives.

The world has eradicated  Blake,Cholera, Malaria,Small pox and many more diseases. What is the  problem for them to stop manufacturing arms? Not all nations do this. Only a few can do. And they are doing.With the sale of arms, they buy bread and survive. Can't the world stop this?

O.K. Not possible permanently.  Why not a moratorium on arms' production for a  year at least! Let us begin today.

Instead of asking warring groups to stop firing, let us stop manufacturing and selling them. If possible we can collect arms all types and destroy them- which may seem a far-fetched idea.

If we can eliminate deadly diseases, why not this deadlier disease called 'guns' that harm us?

"No gun has ever saved  a life. Stop their production"

Giving Life to the River that Gives Life to Us.

The River is as old as the earth. The civilization is as old as the humanity. Around 500 million people sustain their lives with the river. Millions of  pilgrims and millions of farmers use it  for bathing every day.  But to our surprise people  from some quarters  are questioning the new government why the Ganga is not cleaned up in 3 months? 

A River Rejuvenation Programme is essential to begin with.

It is a complex multidisciplinary  issue. It involves Engineering, Ecology, Planning, Hydrology and many more. 

• To start with a big awareness campaign has to be launched asking industrialists  or the devotees or Municipalities of the Gangetic region to desist from polluting the river or its tributaries. 
•  Factories of rural India or Modern India have to be moved out of the fragile regions or install recycle-rs and  no untreated industry/factory waste discharge or from the residential localities to be discharged without treating them.
• The farmers in the region must be asked to minimize the use of fertilizers and pesticides and desist from using the river for washing off all remnants of these harmful chemicals. 

1. Religious heads must propagate that devotees/pilgrims must follow the rituals that do not harm the river. 

• No need to leave lighted camphor on running rivers and the same can be done  on the river bank.
• No need to leave old clothes in the river and the devotees can  donate the same to the needy.
• Arrangements must be made to enable pilgrims to take showers before entering the river. ( Just as we do before entering a swimming pool)
• Banning the sale of shampoos, liquor (if possible) or small plastic sachets  for packing umpteen type of liquids would help preserve the environment
• Banning the production of poly packs and making people carry a jute or a cloth bag or charging the consumer more for poly covers would help reduce the pollution levels.
• There is nothing Spiritually Uplifting in sprinkling the ashes of dead bodies over white snow clad mountains or on running rivers.
• Throwing burnt, half-burnt or un-burnt dead bodies of humans MUST BE STOPPED IMMEDIATELY. 
• The custom of  taking a dip in the river waters was in vogue which acted as integrating India. 
• In the era of internet people prefer Virtual world over the real world. 

Apart from these planning,surveying and supervision cleaning of  the river bed and deepening of the river must be undertaken. Preparing detailed plans of rehabilitation would help reduce conflicts between the planners, implementer and stakeholders. 

Local residents must be encouraged to take part in the campaigns. The cost of these programmes must be kept low for sustained campaigns. 
The plans must be simple and dependable. 

The government must bring in an ordinance/ pass it in legislatures  to take over 30 minutes of air time from Radio/TV channels and a quarter page of space for magazines beyond 24 printed pages  and a little lower space from smaller magazines  for spreading all essential messages, especially the green campaigns.



Dead bodies being dumped in the river Ganga
Google Images

India!

“This is indeed India; the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a thousand nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition, whose yesterdays bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations—the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.”

—Mark Twain, Following the Equator, 1897 

“India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.” Mark Twain

Garbage Holiday

Garbage spread  for a photo opportunity. Scarcity for garbage! 


Any message is misunderstood here. Just  write ' India is a great nation'. Within 30 minutes you get a minimum of 100 down votes in the Holiest Newspaper ever conceived by Gods. Similar is the story of 'Clean India Campaign'. None asked none to go to the streets  and clean up for a second or a minute or life long. Just it is to stress the importance of Being and keeping our dwelling places and surroundings clean. It is shocking that the educated reply in the Holiest Newspaper ... how can one leave his job and be on streets... another Noble Laureate writing ... why, there are corporation workers...! 

The message is do not throw garbage on public places. It is simple. But people argue that they have got a right to pollute and they remind the advocates to keep  their hearts clean and not bother for the uncleanliness out side. Nobility indeed!  It is quite unfortunate that the people who were selected by the PM too misunderstood and have not  done anything concrete till. 

Most of us enjoy holidays. Some service providers  can't take rest as they are very essential. The people who clean our public places are given a day off every week. But we the residents do not hesitate to dump our garbage on this day too. Result is the overflowing garbage bin and the street dogs having a field-day and pulling them off, spilling  around the bin.

Though ideas are there and have been given in this blog too it won't reach the ears of the people to whom  they are meant and people who have little or no relevance to this topic would be appointed as ambassadors of Swacch Bharat who did a day's show and returned to their show business as ever.

• Let the packers/manufacturers have  the environment in mind before packing them
• Lazy People produce and lazier people use sachets of oil/powder/shampoos and so on. These are the killers of our water ways/sources and drains
• Desist from that. None wouldn't tell them to go for better packing. But we the users can avoid using these small killer packs which have destroyed most of our water bodies,drainage pipes, lands and oceans.
• Please do source segregation and find better ways of utilizing the biodegradable stuff.
• A five-ten minute work would save this earth for future generations.
• Those who do not have earth/land  to dump as they live in apartments closer to stars  can go for  bio-gas production and sell the manure
• Do not buy more. The televisions and the press would bring in lot of creative advertisements to persuade us to go on a buying spree.
• Open your valet only if it is absolutely essential.
• Do learn from the museums which house the ornamental dresses and crowns of our rulers of yesteryear s. ( Do not chase ads and purchase dresses for keeping them in future museums. Of course it may be possible for only  kings/queens)
• Where ever possible go out with a container for milk or other liquids and big cloth or jute bags for purchasing vegetables.
• Pl.refer earlier posts for more ideas.

The Products that help us grow more hair and keep it shining  we are losing this earth.

Welcome 2015

Let  our gardens bloom with flowers of  all hues,
Let  their fragrance reach every distance,
Let those flowers fill the hearts of  butterflies with pleasure,
Let there be a breeze that unites all races  and regions,
Let there be showers that open the inner eyes of all  'powers',
Let  the streams carry waters of sweet honey ...

LET THERE BE JOY IN EVERY CORNER OF THIS UNIVERSE
LET THERE BE JOY IN THE HEART OF EVERYONE!