Artificial glaciers and Chewang Norphel

Glacier Man

CHEWANG  NORPHEL

 A retired civil engineer battles climate change in the Himalayas, building artificial glaciers that provide irrigation water to mountain villages

At more than 4000 meters above sea level in the trans-Himalayas, the air is so thin that it can be a struggle simply to breathe. Yet Chewang Norphel is almost jogging across the boulder-strewn landscape, with goatlike agility that belies his 80 years. Tonight, he will sleep in a tent 1000 meters higher up, at temperatures that dip 10°C below freezing, so as to continue his work in the morning. And what unusual work it is: Norphel makes glaciers. He takes a barren, high-altitude desert and turns it into a field of ice that supplies perfectly timed irrigation water to some of the world’s poorest farmers.

 So far, Norphel has built 10 artificial glaciers, which sustain crops that feed some

 10,000 people. It’s become his obsession. “When it is ver y cold and ver y diff icult work, I have to remain  focused. All I can think about is making the most successful glacier.

He was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India, in 2015

He spends his time at home tending to his garden along with his wife. Most of his household consumption vegetables & fruits are sourced from here. He has also developed an underground storage place to store vegetables. This natural preservation can keep onions fresh for over 9 months!

 

RIP Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

This is the oath taken and encouraged to be shared by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, which he stood by his entire life. It is the testament to his life and his dedication to science and environment! RIP Dr. Kalam                                                        
1)  I realize that every mature tree by photosynthesis absorbs 20 kgs of Carbon dioxide every year. By the same process each tree lets out about 14 Kg of Oxygen every year.
2)  I will plant and nurture ten trees and will ensure my parents, my sisters and brothers plant trees and my neighbours also plant ten trees each. I will be an ambassador for tree mission in my locality.
 3)  I will keep my house and its surroundings clean and use products which are bio-degradable to the extent possible
 4)  I will promote a culture of environment friendliness, through recycling and conservation of water and other recyclable materials both at home and school.
 5)  When I take a professional career, I will take decision with respect of organizational  processes which protects the environment and preserves the bio-diversity.
 6)  I will encourage the use of renewable energy to the maximum extent possible.
 7)  I will spread the awareness about the need to preserve the environment in my home, in my      locality and among my student friends.
 8)  I will engage the water conservation, especially by rain water harvesting and spread the message in my family and friends.

World Nature Conservation Day 2015

Celebrated on July 28 each year, World Nature Conservation Day recognizes that a healthy environment is the foundation for a stable and productive society and to ensure the well-being of present and future generations, we all must participate to protect, conserve, and sustainably manage our natural resources.
We all depend on natural resources like water, air, soil, minerals, trees, animals, food, and gas to live our daily lives. To keep the balance in the natural world, we must also help various species to continue to exist. A report from the global conservation organization World Wildlife Foundation suggests that since 1970, the pressure that we exert on the planet has doubled and the resources upon which we depend have declined by 33 percent. Despite the efforts put into conservation by organizations and conservation activists, their work has been undermined by those who have interests.
Conservation of nature is very important, with scientists warning of mass extinctions in the near future. Many nature documentaries show resources that are being wasted. We have made this planet a world of steel and concrete to sustain humanity but at the cost of other species, and it has become more imperative upon us to conserve these resources that are vital to human survival. Trees and plants consume carbon which has increased the planet's temperature, increased storms and sea level rises and freshwater glacier melting that threatens lives. Glaciers are connected to rivers and lakes which we depend on for drinking water through city/town/community services (where did you think your water came from?). Birds, bees and other insects pollinate the plants we need to eat to stay healthy nutritionally. Factory foods provide reduced quality in favor of the financial incentive. Children who spend time exercising their senses in nature have been shown to increase their skills at a faster rate than those who don't. Our planet provides us with all of the resources that modern exploitation have given us, through wood, medicine, water, plants and animals to eat, metals, vitamins, minerals - yet it's exploited for money with systems of varied complexity. Nature has given us SO much. If we don't conserve, we lose these precious privileges to exploitation and abuse of resources.
The natural world is facing an increasing threat from unsustainable practices and the challenge is how to preserve and conserve nature in the process of achieving sustainable development. The state of nature has an impact on human survival, local and global economics, community life, human health and wellbeing.
On this day, let us make a conscious effort to contribute to the local, national, and global efforts in conserving nature and the benefits they provide for the present and future generations.

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दुर्मिळ चिंताजनक प्रजाती पैकी व्हेल माश्याचा मृत्यू

जून महिन्यात अलिबाग तालुक्यातील रेवदंडा  येथे दुर्मिळ चिंताजनक प्रजाती पैकी  ४२ फुट व्हेल माश्याचा दुर्दॆवि मृत्यू झाला . त्याचा मृत्यूच्या दुर्दॆवा पेक्षा आमच्या कडील काही महाभाग त्या मृत्यू पावलेल्या माश्याचा शरीरा बरोबर आपले  सेल्फी फोटो काढून आपल्या अडाणीपणाचे,अज्ञानाचे प्रदर्शन करण्यात धन्यता मानत होते.  पण अश्या अडाणी अज्ञानि समाजाला नम्र विनंती आहे कि आपल्याला निसर्गाप्रती काही करता येत नसेल तर किमान पक्षी असले उद्योग तरी करू नकात जेणे करून इतरांना तुमची लाज वाटेल आपलं म्हणण्यास. 

Dombivali Library keep many rare environmental books | Loksatta

Dombivali Library keep many rare environmental books | Loksatta

Waste Dumping in Mumbai

• In 2011-12, Mumbai alone accounted for 6.11% of total waste generated in India

Ø  630 grams daily estimated waste generation by each resident in land starved Mumbai

• Current operational landfills:

Ø  Deonar (6000 MT daily) 20 m beyond Airport Authority of India’s prescribed limits
Ø  Mulund (4000 MT daily)
Ø  Kanjurmarg (500 MT daily, 3000 MT capacity)
Ø  Gorai dumping ground scientifically closed in June 2009

• 12 MT Biomedical waste is incinerated at Deonar plant daily

• High-level emission of greenhouse gases (methane), recurring fires, stench and diseases

• Estimates suggest Rs 60,000 crore industry with 10-15% growth potential every year

• Bioreactor being constructed at Kanjurmarg for methanisation of biodegradable waste, scientific closure of Deonar in phases proposed

Study identifies 6th mass extinction event, lists human activity as primary cause

After years of warnings from ecologists about the dangers of biodiversity loss, a new study has quantified an ongoing mass extinction event — the sixth in our planet’s history — and suggests humans are largely to blame.

The paper, published June 19 in the journal Science Advances, takes a “conservative” approach to measuring the extent of the situation because previous estimates have been criticized for overestimating the severity of the extinction crisis.

The primary researchers — from institutions such as UC Berkeley, Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico — compared current extinction rates with a normal baseline rate of two mammal extinctions per 10,000 vertebrate species per 100 years. Based on this measure, about nine vertebrate species should have disappeared from the earth since 1900. But the paper’s “conservative” extinction count stands at 477, which should have taken as many as 10,000 years to occur.

Paul Ehrlich, senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and co-author of the study, notes that the species extinction rate is the highest it has been in 65 million years.

“We’re essentially doing to the planet what the meteor did that took care of the dinosaurs,” he said of the data’s implications.

Seth Finnegan, an assistant professor in UC Berkeley’s integrative biology department who specializes in mass extinction, said the researchers’ study contrasts with other studies that tend to estimate modern extinction rates indirectly. For example, some measure areas of destroyed habitats and then extrapolate extinction predictions based on how many species are believed to exist in those areas.

“This study doesn’t take the inferential approach,” he said. “They are tallying up well-documented, well-observed extinctions of mammals.”

Though extinction can occur because of a variety of environmental factors, the study emphasizes humans’ effect on the alarming rate of species loss. According to Finnegan, industrialization has “drastically accelerated humans’ impact on Earth’s ecosystems.”

Co-author Anthony Barnosky, a campus professor of integrative biology, cited a high per-capita use of fossil fuels and the over-exploitation of ecosystems for economic gain as major contributing factors.

“In one or two human lifetimes, we are the ones wiping out what evolution took millions of years to create,” he said.

In addition to being the driving force behind the sixth mass extinction, humans will ultimately face “high moral and aesthetic costs” in as little as three lifetimes, according to Barnosky. Crucial ecosystem services, such as crop pollination and water purification, will suffer if high rates of extinction persist, the study says.

Considering that it took up to millions of years for the planet to rediversify after the previously recorded mass extinctions, the study says, these consequences would be effectively permanent on human time scales.

Ehrlich said that some conservation efforts could potentially slow the process of mass extinction but said he agrees with the study’s conclusion that “the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.”

“Conservation biologists are hard at work trying to stop it,” he said. “But there’s not a hope of changing this in the long run if human populations keep increasing and we maintain a pattern of perpetual growth on a finite planet.”

What’s happening to honey bees?

What happens if all bees die?

Big Five mass extinction events

Although the Cretaceous-Tertiary (or K-T) extinction event is the most well-known because it wiped out the dinosaurs, a series of other mass extinction events has occurred throughout the history of the Earth, some even more devastating than K-T. Mass extinctions are periods in Earth's history when abnormally large numbers of species die out simultaneously or within a limited time frame. The most severe occurred at the end of the Permian period when 96% of all species perished. This, along with K-T, are two of the Big Five mass extinctions, each of which wiped out at least half of all species. Many smaller scale mass extinctions have occurred, indeed the disappearance of many animals and plants at the hands of man in prehistoric, historic and modern times will eventually show up in the fossil record as mass extinctions. Discover more about Earth's major extinction events below.

Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction

The third largest extinction in Earth's history, the Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction had two peak dying times separated by hundreds of thousands of years. During the Ordovician, most life was in the sea, so it was sea creatures such as trilobites, brachiopods and graptolites that were drastically reduced in number.


Late Devonian mass extinction

Three quarters of all species on Earth died out in the Late Devonian mass extinction, though it may have been a series of extinctions over several million years, rather than a single event. Life in the shallow seas were the worst affected, and reefs took a hammering, not returning to their former glory until new types of coral evolved over 100 million years later.

Permian mass extinction

The Permian mass extinction has been nicknamed The Great Dying, since a staggering 96% of species died out. All life on Earth today is descended from the 4% of species that survived.

Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction

During the final 18 million years of the Triassic period, there were two or three phases of extinction whose combined effects created the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction event. Climate change, flood basalt eruptions and an asteroid impact have all been blamed for this loss of life.

Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction

The Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction - also known as the K/T extinction - is famed for the death of the dinosaurs. However, many other organisms perished at the end of the Cretaceous including the ammonites, many flowering plants and the last of the pterosaurs.

Blue Mormon has been declared as the State butterfly of Maharashtra

Papilio polymnestor, which is commonly known as Blue Mormon, has been declared as the state butterfly by the Maharashtra government on June 22. Maharashtra has also become the first state to have the second largest butterfly, found in India, as the State butterfly.

The decision was taken at a meeting conducted by the State Wildlife Board in Mumbai. The meeting was chaired by Finance and Planning Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar. Earlier, the State of Maharashtra had also considered Giant Squirrel as the state animal and Green Pigeon as the state bird.

Here are some facts on the State butterfly of Maharashtra, Blue Mormon:

It has velvet, black wings with bright blue spots

It is the largest butterfly in India after the Troides minos commonly known as the Southern Birdwing

It is only found in Sri Lanka, the western ghats of Maharashtra, South India and coastal belts of the country

Out of the total number of butterflies in the country, only 15 percent are found in Maharashtra. To conserve butterflies in Maharashtra, Blue Mormon was declared as the state butterfly

The population of Blue Mormons is not threatened. Although the Blue Mormons can be seen throughout the year, they occur more commonly in the monsoon or after it

The most number of Blue Mormons are found in Sri Lanka because the country has availability of the most number of food plants

The butterfly is most common in evergreen forests

The pupa of this butterfly is very large in size

Blue Mormons usually like to sit on the Ixora flower species.

SUSTAINABILITY DEVELOPMENT

Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care .

 

 

 

 

 

 

“World Environment Day” (5th June) 2015

 

Environmental facts

·        Pollution kills over 1 million seabirds and 100 million mammals every year.

·        Garbage dumped in the ocean every year is approx.7 billion kilograms, plastic being the major constituent. Greenhouse gas emissions are also causing acidification of oceans.

·        People in high-density air pollution area have 20% higher risk of contracting lung cancer than people in less polluted areas. The smog disaster in London in 1952 killed over 4000 people in a few days due to high concentration of pollution.

·        80% of urban waste in India is dumped in the river Ganga.

·        There are 500 million cars in the world and this is projected to rise to 1 billion by 2030, effectively doubling the pollution.

·        Composting and recycling worldwide prevented 85 million tons of waste from being dumped in landfills in 2010.

·        Recycled glass can reduce air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50%

·        Antarctica is the cleanest place on earth, protected by anti-pollution laws.

·        Children contribute to only 10% of world’s pollution but are prone to 40% of global disease.

 

World Biodiversity Day — 22nd May

WORLD BIODIVERISTY  AT A GLANCE (2002)
			Numbers		Percentage
Bacteria			10000		1
Protoctista			80000		5
Plants			270000		16
Fungi			72000		4
Mammals			4630		0.5
Birds			9750		1
Reptiles			8002		0.8
Amphibia			4950		0.5
Fish			25000		2
Insects and Myriapods			963000		58
Arachnids			75000		5
Molluscs			70000		4
Crustacea			40000		2
Nematodes			25000		2

Source : Wonders of the Indian Wilderness by Erach Bharucha

 

Environmental  Facts

India has just 2% of world’s land mass but accounts for 8% of world’s biodiversity.

India has some of the wettest, driest, hottest and coldest region on the planet. Two biodiversity hotspots are the Western Chats and the East Himalayan region.

 

11% of  plant  biodiversity  is found  in  India, with  over 15,000 species  of flowering  plants.

 

India has 2546 species of fishes, 198 species of amphibians, 423 species of mammals, 1331 species of birds, 408 species of reptiles and over 50,000 varieties of rice.

 

33% of species are endemic to the India, which means they are not found anywhere else in the world.

 

929 species in India are threatened today. Only 1% of the vast coastline is protected (75 km of 7516 km), the rest is vanishing due to unplanned development work and fisheries.

 

Every 20  minutes a species  is  becoming  extinct  in the  world. The next  could  be from India.

 

Hopefully this awareness can encourage everyone to priorities sustainability in their day-to-day life and in growth & development activities.