Mar30

Earth Hour 2012

Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature, also known as World Wildlife Fund) and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

Earth Hour was conceived by WWF and The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights. Following Sydney’s lead, many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008. Earth Hour 2011 took place on March 26, 2011 from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., at participant’s local time.

This year, Earth Hour 2012 will take place on March 31, 2012 from 8:30p.m. to 9:30p.m.

Green Dream Foundation & Earth Hour

Green Dream Foundation has joined hands with WWF India, 2nd year in a row to spread awareness for this event. Come, be a part of this global initiative and drive it in your school, college, workplace, residential complex, and around you!

In 2011, Green Dream Foundation associated with WWF India to observe this event in Delhi and its neighboring areas. Here’s a short video that we created then to instill a sense of awareness among the masses.

Green Dream Foundation participated in the Cyclothon organized at WWF India office on Lodhi Road, New Delhi. Pedal for the Planet is a cyclothon now organized for three consecutive years, by WWF to support their campaign Earth Hour. We even finished at the 20th spot (out of hundreds who participated). Here are some images.

To promote the awareness for this event, we organized a workshop at Ernst & Young offices in Delhi-NCR. We educated their employees about saving the planet and importance of this global event. Here are the pics from the event.

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Mar22

CSR LiveWeek 2012

Green Dream Foundation participated in CSR LiveWeek from March 20-21, 2012 – An assembly of India’s strongest, sustainable and social responsible brands, corporations, foundations and non-government organizations.

The CSR LiveWeek was India’s most exciting and comprehensive gallery & exhibition on corporate social responsibility. The event offered a perfect platform to all leading Corporations, Social Entrepreneurs, Philanthropists, and NGO’s – Non Government Organizations to showcase the social initiatives adopted & supported by them, increase brand awareness and network with over 400 participants from multi-disciplinary backgrounds and engaged in social practices.

The event provided us a platform to highlight our work to industry leaders and share innovative ideas with like minded people. Here‘re some pictures.

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Mar20

The Sun will illuminate the nights now!

Most countries these days are looking out for alternate energy resources, other than coal and petroleum which may exhaust in the near future. India seems to have found its refuge in the Solar way!

Solar Street Light

A solar street light installed in one of the villages in U.P.

Recently, I came across a news that UPNEDA (Uttar Pradesh New & Renewable Energy Development Authority) has installed solar street lights in 35 villages of the Allahabad district which was previously lacking proper lighting arrangements.

A solar light works on the basic principle of photo-voltaic conversion i.e. converting the solar energy to electrical energy which is then stored in a battery and used according to requirement. A total of 256 such street lights have been installed.

Numerous advantages come with the use of solar street lights. Except for the disadvantage of a high initial cost (INR 18,000), all we can think of are assets. Even the initial cost proves to be economic in the long run. Firstly solar energy is renewable, non-vanishing and non-polluting. The street lights can have up to 8 hrs of continuous operation. They are easy to install and very portable. The maintenance requirements are also negligible.

Rural India is showing a great interest in solar-run equipments as a consequence of the benefits observed. The government has provided solar cookers in some villages. Solar water heaters and solar lanterns are also in demand. So, the use of such eco-friendly apparatuses has opened up a plethora of options and more are to be explored.

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Mar15

Why some Gases Are Deadly Dangerous – Carbon Dioxide

The last post asked what we’d do if we had to make a choice between the environment and some of our life giving activities. It is a tough choice to make. At a certain point in time will we have to make that choice? Not if we modify our activities to benefit both – us and the environment.

This article tells us why certain gases like Carbon Dioxide are deadly dangerous for our health. It helps us understand why these gases shouldn’t be the end product of our activities.

Courtesy: Google Images

Carbon Dioxide is beneficial to everything living. It is necessary for plant life and photosynthesis. It is necessary for humans too as without CO2, the Earth would be too cold for life. This is how it heats up our planet. Carbon dioxide is completely transparent to sunlight and lets it pass through and strike the earth’s surface. The sun’s light and warmth are partly absorbed by Earth but partly reflected back as infrared energy that radiates back into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is not transparent to infrared energy and it traps the heat on the surface of the planet like a blanket. The other gases that trap this infrared energy and warm our planet are nitrous oxide, water vapour and methane. Together with Carbon dioxide these gases are known as the greenhouse gases.

So if carbon dioxide does so much for us, why is it considered bad?

It isn’t carbon dioxide that is bad. It is just the excess carbon dioxide that has been released into our air due to human activity.

For millions of years living vegetation has provided the balance by mopping up the excess CO2 during photosynthesis. But in recent years the cutting down of our forests has drastically reduced vegetation and as a result, there aren’t enough plants to mop up the excess CO2 from our air.

Also, we use a lot of fossil fuels like coal and oil which have been buried deep into the Earth for millions of years. In the last few hundred years our level of dependence on these fossil fuels has increased exponentially. We bring up these fossil fuels from deep inside the Earth and burn them for our factories, as petroleum for our automobiles, as oil or coal to heat up our homes and to cook. The carbon that is trapped inside these fossil fuels reacts with oxygen from the air to produce the heat we need. One of the by-products is carbon dioxide which is released into our air.

The number of people breathing our air has increased a million fold too due to increases in population.

Now the problem is obvious – for the above reasons, too much carbon dioxide is thrown into our atmosphere but not enough carbon dioxide is being removed.

How excess Carbon Dioxide affects the Earth

  • With more and more infrared energy radiated back from our Earth trapped under the increased level of carbon dioxide, Earth is becoming warmer. This in turn causes changes in climate, currents, melting glaciers and ice caps. If enough ice melts, it could raise the sea level around the planet and low-lying coastal areas would become completely submerged.
  • It disrupts our ocean currents which are caused by warm and cold waters meeting and mixing. With glaciers heating up and melting due to excess CO2 in the air, the difference between the cold and warm waters is greatly reduced.
  • It increases the acidity of the oceans, which may interfere with the amount of oxygen that ocean life produces (the oceans are a far more important source of oxygen than all the plants on land).

By affecting the Earth, excess carbon dioxide harms everything living.

How excess CO2 directly affects humans

  • Increased levels of CO2 in the air causes nausea, dizziness, headaches, blurred vision, stiffness and a terrible odour. These reasons alone are worth human beings monitoring their activities to keep the level of CO2 in the atmosphere at the normal of 350 to 450 ppm. Right now it is too much more.

This article is a part of the the main series: Life Giving Activities or the Environment – Do We Have To Make A Choice?

Also published on KM’s blog here: http://nevermindyaar.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-some-gases-are-deadly-dangerous-co2.html

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Mar11

Why Some Gases Are Deadly Dangerous – Carbon Monoxide

This article tells us why certain gases like Carbon Monoxide (CO) are deadly dangerous for our health. It helps us understand why these gases shouldn’t be the end product of our activities.

How do human activities like burning coal emit carbon monoxide? Ideally, burning coal should give carbon dioxide and water. If you have a camp fire in the open air, there will always be enough oxygen to make the fuel burn completely, so you don’t have to worry about carbon monoxide. But, if you share the oxygen you breathe with too many appliances and people – for example, in an enclosed, crowded place or on crowded roads chock full of traffic and people, there isn’t enough to go around.

Courtesy: Google Images

That is when coal or wood burns inefficiently; there is partial oxidation and instead of carbon dioxide or CO2, Carbon monoxide or CO is one of the end products.

CO is also naturally produced in volcanoes and forest fires.

Who is at risk? 

Anyone who works or lives in a very small or enclosed space, sharing it with many others, is exposed to harmful levels of carbon monoxide. People who work in factories, blast furnaces, who are in their vehicles in traffic – like drivers and traffic police, fire fighters and people who use coal and wood burners are at risk. In short, everyone in India is exposed to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.

  • When it enters the bloodstream, CO reacts with the haemoglobin in our blood and forms carboxyhaemoglobin. This reduces the ability of haemoglobin to transfer oxygen to various parts of our body.

CO causes:

  • headaches, fatigue, dizziness, drowsiness, or nausea.
  • Exposure to elevated carbon monoxide levels can cause impairment of visual perception, manual dexterity and learning ability

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning may occur sooner in those most susceptible – young children, elderly people, unborn babies, people with lung or heart disease, people at high altitudes, or those who already have elevated CO blood levels, such as smokers.

This article is a part of the the main series: Life Giving Activities or the Environment – Do We Have To Make A Choice?

Also published on KM’s blog here: http://nevermindyaar.blogspot.in/2011/05/why-some-gases-are-deadly-dangerous-co.html

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Mar10

The Green Dream (Poem)

When the greenery was perishing

And human greed was fast leading to destruction,

When man saw nothing but self

When peril was reaching the horizon.

When the ice bergs started melting

And threatened to drown life,

When murdering animals became a trend

And danger hung over our necks like a knife.

When all but some played sinister

And wanted nothing but pleasures,

Selling tusks, animal skin and bark

for money, for materialistic treasures.

There emerged earthly angels

Thriving to make a modification,

To give back nature what she gave us,

Love, care and lots of affection.

They came to make life better,

To answer nature’s agonized scream.

To spread word about the environment

arose the noble Green Dream!

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Mar09

Organic Farming – The Key is Compost!

Organic farming can be considered the most conventional of all farming methods. The harmlessness of the methods involved, is what takes it to the top of the list. Various methods of organic farming have been practically implied in the fields and have been a success. A similar success story that I came across, is that of the tribal farmers in the Dahod district, Gujrat. A non profitable organization, N M Sadguru Foundation has been teaching organic farming to the tribes in the area. This basic change in agricultural techniques has resulted in immense improvement in the tribal world.

A use of compost pits can be seen in all the fields. Compost is the key to organic farming, and the tribes seem to know that very well! Compost pits or tanks of dimension 10 x 4 x 1 feet have been constructed, which contain organic farm waste like weeds, grasses, leaves and earthworms to degrade them. These pits are covered with a wet cloth throughout the day to provide humidification. The earthworms digest and degrade the organic matter and convert it to form usable by plants i.e. manures. This organic manure provides innumerable advantages over the synthetic fertilizers used. The flavor, size and quality of the fruits are enhanced largely. Yield of the plants increases to almost double fold. Even an increase in the shelf life of the plants has been observed.

This small but effective change in the kind of manure used has drastically developed the economic standards of the tribal society. Their income has increased; they have been able to send their children for higher studies. Their living standards have improved to a great extent. Moreover, the use of compost has benefitted the environment as well. Now no toxicating artificial fertilizers are present to erode off the fields and pollute the rivers. So, what I came across is a great example of how small changes can make a big effect, if implied well!

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Mar06

Life Giving Activities or the Environment – Do We Have To Make A Choice?

Some of our life-giving activities involve burning fossil fuels like coal and oil so we can cook, keep warm, travel and transport goods made in factories to our shops and ultimately, our homes. This is our way of life. Unfortunately, this wonderful way of life is under threat from the very activities that have made life easy so far.

Why are these activities adversely impacting our health and the environment?

Very often, it isn’t the activities per se. It is the by-products of our activities that are the culprits. To date what we’ve been doing is taking a resource, using it to make whatever is useful and ending the process there. We haven’t had to think about what by-product we’ve created. All too often this has been a pollutant – poisonous for our health and the environment.

Previously, it hasn’t made such a huge difference to the quality of our environment. In recent years, the volume of human activity has increased so much, it is releasing too many of these by-products (pollutants) into our environment. The World Health Organisation has set safety standards for these pollutants. According to WHO, these pollutants cannot exceed a certain level in our air, soil or water. Besides WHO, our government has set safety standards and maximum allowable limits too. But where enforcement and implementation are concerned, our government is extremely lax.

We obviously cannot stop our activities but what we can do is complete the cycle of taking a resource from the earth, the atmosphere and waters we live off by giving back a reusable resource, instead of poisonous ones as the end product of our activities.

To answer the question in the title to this post, “The Environment or Life Giving Activities?” it makes sense to say, BOTH.

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Let’s take resources from our soil, air and water as long as we give back re-usable resources. Giving back pollutants is not an option any more as eventually pollutants will choke the life out of everything living.
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Why, and to what extent are these pollutants dangerous for our health and well being?

The following series of articles is to help us understand why they are deadly dangerous for our health and how they are created by us humans. Click on each gas mentioned below to understand what human activities create so much of it and how it adversely affects us.

Also published on KM’s blog here: http://nevermindyaar.blogspot.in/2011/06/environment-or-life-giving-activities.html

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