NOW OR NEVER
Have you heard of the story of a boiling frog? A frog when placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it would not realise the danger and would get slowly cooked to death.
Similarly, we do not react to threat that is to occur, even if we are aware of it. And by the time we are in actual danger and try to react, it would be too late. The same can be applied to our response towards global warming.
Earth is warming like never before. The last seven months smashed temperature records emerging as the hottest periods ever. Countries around the world witness extreme climatic conditions and consequent damages to life and livelihood. One would not require any more evidences to come to terms with the fact that global warming and climate change are happening right now; right here and that they are not things of the future. Scientists call the situation ‘a climate emergency’ and warn that we are running out of time to bring emission under control.
While it seems terrifying, we can take comfort in the fact that 177 countries have acknowledged the impending danger and have signed the Paris Climate Deal aimed at holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
Meanwhile, we, as individuals, can do our bit to take care of Nature and Earth in our own simple way. And what better time to start than on the World Environment Day!
THE THEME
(FILES) This file photo taken on June 29, 2015, shows Indian forestry officials as they stand near the carcass of a one-horned rhinoceros which was killed and de-horned by poachers in Burapahar, a range of the Kaziranga National Park, some 250kms east of Guwahati. Indian police said May 3, 2016, that they have arrested four forest guards on suspicion of helping to cover up rhino poaching in a national park visited by Britain's Prince William and his wife last month. The arrests relate to an incident last year, but came as wildlife officials said a gang of poachers armed with automatic weapons had killed another rhino on May 2,in the Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam. / AFP PHOTO / -
What can you do?
* Avoid products made of animals’ body parts.
* Accept the fact that animals are better off in their own natural habitat.
THREATS AND EFFECTS
Most environmental problems have cascading effects with one issue leading to the other and some are also interconnected. It is to be noted that most of the damages are anthropogenic.
Hazardous gases
Greenhouses gases including water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and ozone, are responsible for trapping the heat from escaping the Earth’s atmosphere. They absorb and emit radiation. Since the industrial revolution, atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has been surging. The emission is a direct result of human activities such as burning of carbon-based fuels – the fossil fuels - such as coal, oil and natural gas along with deforestation and animal agriculture.
Melting Ice and rising sea level
Sea level is rising – more rapidly than ever. Oceans observe 80 per cent of the heat added to the atmosphere. As the sea water warms, it expands in volume. The melting of land ice (glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets) due to increase in Earth’s surface temperature, also contribute to the rise. Rising sea level inundates low-lying areas, converts wetlands to open water, erodes beaches, worsens flooding, and increases the salinity of estuaries.
FILE - In this July 21, 2011 file photo, an iceberg floats in the sea near Qeqertarsuaq, Disko Island, Greenland. Global warming is shifting the way the Earth wobbles on its polar axis, a new NASA study finds. Melting ice sheets, especially in Greenland, are changing the distribution of weight on Earth. And that has caused both the North Pole and the wobble, which is called polar motion, to change course, according to a study published Friday, April 8, 2016, in the journal Science Advances. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
Rapid loss of sea ice is affecting the animals the most. For instance, a 2011 study found that bear cubs in the Arctic are unable to find food as they have to swim longer distances and they die as a result. Meanwhile, penguins in the Antarctic, which are dependent on sea ice for breeding, are shifting the season.
Our cities suffocate
India has witnessed a huge rise in asthma in the past decade, especially among children, due to a spike in environmental pollution, experts have said. Beijing and Delhi were listed as two of the worst polluted cities in the world. While China ordered to close hundreds of pollution-causing factories in 2016, Delhi experiments with car restriction schemes to tackle pollution. Down south, a combination of factors including contamination in water led to fishkill in the lakes of Bengaluru.
Light pollution, which we hardly recognise as a problem, has the potential to disrupt biological rhythms and interfere with the behaviour of nocturnal creatures. Dumping of plastic materials, which find their way into the ocean, is chocking turtles and fishes to death.
Water, water, nowhere
BUNDELKHAND, UTTAR PRADESH, 29/04/2016: Scene of a dried pond at a village in district Hamirpur of drought-hit Bundelkhand area in Uttar Pradesh. Due to the acute water crisis and extreme heat condition, farmers did not dare to grow crops in the region. Hundreds of animals died because of lack of natural lakes and wells. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt
Water scarcity is a global issue. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. It is the direct result of climate change, pollution and population growth. While some regions have inadequate natural water resources to meet their demand, others suffer due to poor management of the available water.
India is reeling under severe water crisis and rural distress as the country faced two consecutive deficient monsoon seasons in 2014 and 2015. But the worst is yet to come, according to a study. It says more frequent drought monsoons are expected to come India’s way between 2020 and 2049. Drought is not a problem of the third world countries alone, even planned states like California have been facing drought for five years in a row.
Vanishing green cover
Bangalore, Karnataka: 07/02/2016: Wild Leopard which entered Vibgyor School premises attacking a member of the rescue team during rescue operation at the school premises in Bengaluru on February 07, 2016. Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar.
About 30 per cent of Earth’s land area is covered by forests. Between 2000 and 2012, 2.3 million square kilometres of forests around the Earth were cut down. Forests are increasingly being converted to farms and are cleared for urban use and grazing by livestock. Tees are also cut down for use as fuels. Without sufficient reforestation, deforestation can result in habitat loss, human-animal conflict, biodiversity loss and aridity. Only 6.2 million square kilometres remain of the original 16 million square kilometres.
FOSSIL FUELS
Fossils fuels are the world’s primary energy source. They include petroleum, coal and natural gas. Carbon is the basic component of fossil fuel and their burning produces the greenhouse gas – carbon dioxide, which ultimately causes global warming. It has been found that 21.3 billion tonnes of CO2 is released per year due to burning of fossil fuel. 86 per cent of the energy used in the world comes from fossil fuels.
INNOVATION IN ENERGY
We have tapped every option we can to generate energy from sources other than fossil fuel —nuclear, hydroelectric, geothermal, solar, tidal, wind, wood and waste. We have been successful too. Recently, Germany hit a new high in renewable energy generation using solar, wind and water. It generated so much power, that it had to pay people to use up the surplus.
But that’s not enough. Our population grows, so does our energy requirement. We need constant innovations and trials to tap other possibilities. Let’s take a look at three recent ideas that took the world by surprise.
From a revolving door
A Netherland based café installed an energy generator in its rotating door. So every time someone walked in for a cup of coffee, the door would generate a bit of power, harvesting the kinetic energy. The energy thus derived may be low, but every bit counts.
From a dance floor
Using the same principle, Energy Floors, a dance floor that converts kinetic energy of dancing people to electricity, is widely been used. This dance floor uses human movement as source of energy. The generated energy can inturn be used for the appliances in the dance floor itself. Installation of such devices are catching up.
From a football
Students from Harvard University created a football that can charge a mobile phone. Dubbed the "Soccket" ball, it uses basic technology to create and store electricity. When the ball is kicked, it moves around a magnet inside a coil and charges a super capacitor. Where normal balls have a valve to add more air, the Soccket ball has a plug socket that is compatible with a DC adaptor. It can allow a light bulb to a mobile phone to be run from the energy stored inside.
BE THE CHANGE
ISBS
•Reduce waste. Think before buying and before throwing away things.
•Try to reuse and recycle
•Use paper on both sides, because trees are cut to make papers.
•Do not waste water. Close taps properly and use water judiciously
•Turn things off when not in use
•Walk or cycle whenever possible. Try carpooling to school
•Use public transportation
•Avoid plastic bags
•Dispose trash properly
•Plant trees and try your hands at gardening
• Volunteer at a green movement
ISBS
