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Think Ecological, Act Digital

2008-04-22T11:11:46+03:00

Tired of just reading about all the environmental damage that a modern lifestyle causes and wish you could do something about it? Here are a few simple things that even ordinary people could do to get their act together. All you need is a little smart use of technology that’s already available.

Information technology (IT) and the environment have not exactly been comfortable bedfellows. While the IT sector claims to be doing more than its bit for keeping the planet green (the colour was very much the theme at CEBIT 2008), environmentalists claim that all the talk about eco-friendly computers and cellphones is nothing but public relations hogwash. Whatever be the truth of that debate, the fact nevertheless remains that using a dollop of IT prudently can indeed take a load off the planet. And no, we are not asking you to enrol in online campaigns or to start writing militant ecofriendly blogs. Just a few simple steps and before you know it, you could be doing more than your bit for the environment, with minimum disruption of your everyday life.

Saying ‘no’ to snail mail!
Email is considered the ‘killer app’ of the internet. And well, using it thoroughly can not only speed up communication considerably, but also take a load off the environment. For one, you will not be using any paper at all—no envelope, no writing paper. For another, just think of all the fuel that will be saved as your letters won’t have to be transported from place to place via road, railway and aircraft. Top all that off with the fact that a lot of dangerous effluents won’t be released in the atmosphere thanks to your reliance on Messrs. Yahoo!, Google, MSN, Rediff, Indiatimes and other email providers, rather than the good old local postal service.

IM and bulletin boards, not memos
Many people consider instant messaging (IM) a major distraction in work but if used effectively, it can actually facilitate communication in the workplace. An instant messenger like Google Talk or Yahoo!Messenger can help get your message across a lot quicker without your having to engage a telephone line or sending a formal sounding memo. In fact, you can use the IM for communicating virtually anything and even for swapping files (digital ones, of course) in real time. Similarly, an online bulletin board is much more effective than a noticeboard on which bits of papers dangle perilously from pins. Just think of the amount of paper you would save, not to mention the pins (hey, every little bit counts). There are even virtual Post-It sticky notes, for God’s sake!

No disks please, we are digital!
Whether it is games, songs, software, video clips or even films, they can all be downloaded from different sites (perfectly legitimate ones too) from the internet. All you need is decent bandwidth, a credit card and some hard disk space. Not only will this save you the fuss of storing all those CDs and DVDs, but it will also have a huge impact on the environment as discarded disks are not exactly eco-friendly. And then there are the massive savings in terms of packaging—stuff that you often throw away anyway and which is seldom recycled. Yep, buying an iPod can actually benefit the environment.

Bytes rather than books
Almost everything that is in a book can
be found on the internet, whether in free or paid format. All you need to do is search a bit and if need be, loosen those purse strings from time to time. Yes, reading on a computer screen is seldom as comfortable as curling up with your favourite bestseller, but you might consider than investing in an ebook reader (like the famous Amazon Kindle) could help in saving dozens of forests, not to mention all the energy that goes into the publication process. And of course, browsing for books on the internet can be just as much fun as doing so in a bookstore.
Give your vehicle a break
If you are one of those who cannot resist hopping into your car (or whatever wheeler you possess) every time you have to do something, then just pause and see if it can be done online. A number of activities, ranging from banking to booking movie tickets to railways and airline reservations to paying bills of just about every sort can now be done online, from the comfort of your PC (and in some cases, even your cellphone). And of course, that means you will not only be saving time and wear and tear on your vehicle, but also help in keeping the hydrocarbon fuel deposits of the earth ticking over nicely.

Lock that printer
Yes, printouts are sometimes essential but there is plenty of research around to show that most people take printouts just because they can and not because they need to. If we had a dollar for every person who asks an email to be printed out so that he/she can read it, we would have been millionaires. The supremest irony is that almost everything that needs paper can be done digitally. Taking printouts just uses up energy, wastes paper, and of course, also results in empty toners and inkjet cartridges that are notoriously hard to dispose of. So do consider locking up your printer and chucking away the keys, and try to manage by reading off the screen (incidentally, have you noticed how big and clear monitors are becoming?). You will be amazed at how easily you can manage without it. And the planet will be grateful too!

Work from home, sweet home
For some people, bringing work home ranks high in the list of domestic sacrileges. Well, the fact is that it actually ain’t too bad if you do most of your work from home. Just consider the fact that you will be saving lots of fuel that you would normally have spent while travelling to and from office. Your working from home will also result in one less vehicle on the roads, and reduce the chance of gas-sapping jams and snarl-ups. And of course, your office will have to invest in one lesser PC, desk and chair, which in itself will do the environment a good turn.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s lots more you can do. But even if you manage this much, it will make a huge dent in pollution levels. A word of caution: all this is a lot easier said than done. It will need a fair bit of co-operation from your family and colleagues to get your tech-ecological act together. That said, the effort would be well worth it. After all, to borrow a famous brand’s line, this is our planet!

The Reuse of Refuse

2008-04-22T11:04:48+03:00

Individual Households, Housing Societies And Green Groups Across Mumbai Are Making Compost Out Of Garbage.

She picks up the loose end of her sari, wraps it tightly around her waist, hoists a bag containing the smelliest rubbish and empties the waste into a huge brick pit stamped with an auspicious vermilion swastika. She then whips out a bottle and sprays an organic liquid on the waste to make the stench vanish.
    She is Vandana, a rag-picker, who is now an important part of a silent revolution sweeping through the city;
it includes many individual households, housing societies and green organisations. These groups, working separately in different areas of the city, are now doing their bit for the environment by recycling garbage and making compost out of it. Vandana has an important role to play; she is one of the foot-soldiers of this revolution after being trained in the process of composting for sustainable zero-waste management.
    What these households and housing societies are doing ensures there is no dearth of manure for people who contribute to the greening of Mumbai. But the unasked-for service has a bigger meaning for the BMC; it helps the civic agency, which faces an acute shortage of land to dispose of waste.
    The silent movement now encompasses housing societies like Dariya Mahal on Nepeansea Road, Pestom Sagar in Chembur and various buildings in Khar, Santa Cruz, Marine Drive and Worli, where residents have taken it upon themselves to ensure that the garbage they produce is not dumped mindlessly; and, in most cases, it’s the housewives who have assumed this responsibility.
    Residents, in some cases, recycle the waste to produce organic manure themselves to make their gardens self-sustainable; in others, rag-pickers are outsourced from NGOs like FORCE or community-based organisations like Stree Ratna Prerna Mandal to segregate the waste and produce compost that is then either sold or given away free.
    Take, for instance, Dariya Mahal in the heart of South Mumbai. Residents have set up a waste-management committee, appointed V Bhatwaregakar the convener to oversee the execution and have created a compost pit in their garden. Five enthusiastic housewives made door-to-door visits to the around-120 households in the A wing of the society to raise awareness. “We even made powerpoint presentations, addressed the ladies’ club of our building and delivered circulars to each home,’’ volunteer Nalini Chugani said. But not everyone in the building has complied as the domestic help, who normally handles garbage, may not have been instructed properly in each home. Chugani would, at one point, supervise the collection of garbage herself and ensure that it was segregated at the household itself. And rag-picker Fazlu from FORCE, who is paid a monthly salary of Rs 1,500 by the society, sorts out the garbage that is not segregated at homes.
    The waste does not attract flies and doesn’t smell at all because of the use of lime. The manure that is produced is used to maintain the building garden and the remaining, locked up in the society office, is either sold or given away to those interested in gardening.
    Rag-picker Rajshri, who recycles garbage at Geetanjali Envirotech at Vile Parle, says she loves her job. It is an open space converted into a small-scale composting site by Dahisar resident Ragini Jain. Rajshri and three others collect garbage on a daily basis from nearby buildings and recycle it. Every kilogram of the manure produced from the waste is sold for Rs 4. Rajshri doesn’t use cowdung and lime for composting but uses an organic liquid called GE Culture to induce decomposition. Scooping powder-like manure from a gunny sack, which smells like pure earth, Rajshri points to a four-foot tree that is only a year old. “Trees grow fast and become healthy with this manure,’’ she smiled. Kishore Kumar, who supervises Rajshri and the three others, says his family initially thought he was a fool for having chosen this job but has now realised how this is also a profitable business.
    Thirty-seven-year-old Dayanand Jadhav, whose community-based organisation — the Stree Ratna Prerna Mandal — has been the recipient of the prestigious Urban Edge award for green initiatives, said there was some resistance to waste management. “We tend to believe that garbage is something to be looked down on. There is no problem as long as it’s in your house but, the minute it is packed in a bag, it becomes intolerable,’’ he said. The organisation, which has around 42 volunteers who are mostly rag-pickers, provides them masks and gloves to motivate them.
WHAT IS COMPOST?
Compost is a nutrient-rich, natural fertiliser and soil-conditioner that is produced after the breakdown of biodegradable organic matter.
HOW IS IT PRODUCED?
Compost can be produced by the use of bacteria or earthworms (the second method is called vermicomposting). YOU CAN ALSO DO IT Making compost from garbage is an easy enough process that can be done even on your balcony
COMPOST FROM BACTERIA
    You will have to place a layer that will act as the base for the process; this base can be anything, ranging from an alumimium sheet to even a glass top.
    Now place the wet garbage on this bedding, which has to be sprayed with an organic liquid called GE Culture or vermiculture microbes that are available in the market to facilitate decomposition; alternatively, you can even use cowdung.
    You will have to churn the waste with a spade at least thrice a day and top it with a layer of dry leaves (but this is not necessary if you use cowdung). Add fresh garbage on the top daily.
    There will be no smell and no flies if you are using the spray; you may also use lime to keep away the flies.
The compost will be ready in 25 to 60 days.
    You will have to extract the powder-like manure with a sieve (with bigger holes than the type used in the kitchen); this manure will be the topmost layer of the compost system. COMPOST FROM EARTHWORMS (VERMICOMPOSTING)
    You will have to put the worms on the bedding (of whatever nonbiodegradable material like metal or glass) and then put the garbage on top.
    The worms then start decomposing the organic matter from the bottom, moving upwards to the newer feed.
The manure is believed to be ready when the worms deposit their own waste on the top layer.
You will have to remove the manure in a similar process (described above).

Japan’s answer to rising paper cost: E-paper

2008-04-22T10:48:46+03:00

Bend it, write on it, read it — just don’t try to fold it into a paper plane.
Electronic paper is Japan’s answer to rising raw material costs, depleted resources and booming demand for printed matter from emerging markets such as China and India.
At a high-tech fair in Tokyo this week, Japanese firms showed the latest versions of what is still considered a niche product, ranging from thick, sturdy readers to thin displays that look like plastic sheets and can be bent.
E-Ink, which manufactures Sony’s Reader tablet, says consumers will eventually embrace the energy-saving technology as the cost of paper and fuel goes up. Japan, known for its beautiful hand-made paper as well as its cutting-edge technology, has already been trying to combine the two.
Firms such as Fujitsu and Sony use electrophoretic displays, or EPD, for everything from watches and mobiles to electronic readers. The display sends electronic charges along a grid embedded in the e-paper which cause tiny black and white particles to move, creating text and images.

Fuel choices and finger-pointing

2008-04-22T10:34:35+03:00

The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels.
    But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.
    In some countries, the higher prices are leading to riots, political instability and growing worries about feeding the poorest people. Food riots contributed to the dismissal of Haitis prime minister last
week, and leaders in some other countries are nervously trying to calm anxious consumers. At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West.
    Many specialists in food policy consider government mandates for biofuels to be ill advised, agreeing that the diversion of crops like corn into fuel production has contributed to the higher prices. But other factors have played big roles, including droughts that have limited output and rapid global economic growth that has created higher demand for food.
    That growth, much faster over the last four years than the historical norm, is lifting millions of people out of destitution and giving them access to better diets. But farmers are having trouble keeping up with the surge in demand.
    While there is agreement that the growth of biofuels has contributed to higher food prices, the amount is disputed.
    Work by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington suggests that biofuel production accounts for a quarter to a third of the recent increase in global commodity prices. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicted late last year that biofuel production, assuming that current mandates continue, would increase food costs by 10 to 15%.
    Ethanol supporters maintain that any increase caused by biofuels is relatively small and that energy costs and soaring demand for meat in developing countries have had a greater impact. “There’s no question that they are a factor, but they are really a smaller factor than other things that are driving up prices,’’ said Ron Litterer, an Iowa farmer who is president of the National Corn Growers Association.
    He said biofuels were an “easy culprit to blame’’ because their popularity had grown so rapidly in the last two or three
years. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, called the recent criticism of ethanol by foreign officials “a big joke’’. He questioned why they were not also blaming a drought in Australia that reduced the wheat crop and the growing demand for meat in China and India.
    “You make ethanol out of corn,’’ he said. “I bet if I set a bushel of corn in front of any of those delegates, not one of them would eat it.’’ The senator’s comments reflect a political reality in Washington that despite the criticism from abroad, support for ethanol remains solid.
    Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, said he had come to realize that Congress made a mistake in backing biofuels, not anticipating the impact on food costs. He said Congress needed to reconsider its policy, though he acknowledged that would be difficult.
    “If there was a secret vote, there is a pretty large number of people who would like to reassess what we are doing,’’ he said.
    According to the World Bank, global food prices have increased by 83% in the last three years. Rice, a staple food for nearly half the world’s population, has been a particular focus of concern in recent weeks, with spiraling prices prompting several countries to impose drastic limits on exports as they try to protect domestic consumers. While grocery prices in the United States increased about 5% over all in the last year, some essential items like eggs and milk have jumped far more. The federal government is expected to release new data on domestic food prices Wednesday, with notable increases expected.
    On Monday, President Bush ordered that $200 million in emergency food aid be made available to “meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere,’’ a White House statement said.
    His spokeswoman, Dana M Perino, said the president had urged officials to look for additional ways to help poor nations combat food insecurity and to come up with a long-term plan “that helps take care of the worlds poor and hungry.’’
    Skeptics have long questioned the value of diverting food crops for fuel, and the grocery and live- stock industries vehemently opposed an energy bill last fall, arguing it was driving up costs.
    A fifth of the nation’s corn crop is now used to brew ethanol for motor fuel, and as farmers have planted more corn, they have cut acreage of other crops, particularly soybeans. That, in turn, has contributed to a global shortfall of cooking oil. Spreading global dissatisfaction in recent months has intensified the food-versus-fuel debate. Last Friday, a European environment advisory panel urged the European Union to suspend its goal of having 10% of transportation fuel made from biofuels by 2020. Europe’s well-meaning rush to biofuels, the scientists concluded, had created a variety of harmful ripple effects, including deforestation in Southeast Asia and higher prices for grain.
    Even if biofuels are not the primary reason for the increase in food costs, some experts say it is one area where a reversal of government policy could help take pressure off food prices. C Ford Runge, an economist at the University of Minnesota, said it is “extremely difficult to disentangle’’ the effect of biofuels on food costs.
    Nevertheless, he said there was little that could be done to mitigate the effect of droughts and the growing appetite for protein in developing countries. “Ethanol is the one thing we can do something about,’’ he said. “It’s about the only lever we have to pull, but none of the politicians have the courage to pull the lever.’’ But August Schumacher, a former under secretary of agriculture who is a consultant for the Kellogg Foundation, said the criticism of biofuels might be misdirected. Development agencies like the World Bank and many governments did little to support agricultural development in the last two decades.

Farewell Shadow

2008-04-22T10:32:40+03:00

2001 - 2008

One day you are with us, the next day you are gone. With deep sorrow we announce the demise of our pet dog Shadow. A victim of snake bite. We will miss you and your ever active presence.

Farewell dear friend we will always miss you!

10 Things to Help the Planet — and your pocket book

2008-04-22T10:14:58+03:00

1. Replacing three light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs could save $60 per year.

2. Using a clean air filter can improve your vehicle's gas mileage by as much as 10 percent.

3. Keeping the car tires properly inflated could save another $840 per year. Check the pressure monthly.

4. Running your dishwasher only with a full load could save $40 per year.

5. Setting the thermostat 2 degrees cooler in the winter and 2 degrees warmer in the summer could save $98 per year.

6. Washing and rinsing clothes in cold water only could save about $100 each year.

7. Buying loose cereal in bulk (as opposed to prepackaged boxes) once a week could save as much as $110 a year.

8. Going solar could mean up to $2,000 in savings from Uncle Sam. Tax credits for certain solar water heating and photovoltaic systems are available for systems put in place between Jan. 1, 2006, and the end of this year.

9. Taking shorter showers could save $99 per year. A low-flow showerhead could yield another $150 in savings.

10. And for those who can stand it — and you know you can stand it — lowering the water heater temperature to 120 degrees, from 140 degrees, can cut heating costs by 6 to 10 percent.

Sources: thedailygreen.com, stopglobalwarming.org, thegreenguide.com, energystar.gov

New ways to store solar energy for a ‘rainy day’

2008-04-22T10:11:40+03:00

Solar power, the holy grail of renewable energy, has always faced the problem of how to store the energy captured from the sun’s rays so that demand for electricity can be met at night or whenever the sun is not shining.
    The difficulty is that electricity is hard to store. Batteries are not up to efficiently storing energy on a large scale. A different approach being tried by the solar power industry could eliminate the problem.
    The idea is to capture the sun’s heat. Heat, unlike electric current, is something that industry knows how to store cost-effectively. For example, a coffee thermos and a laptop computer’s battery store about the same amount of energy, said John O’Donnell, executive vice-president of a company in the solar thermal business, Ausra. The thermos costs about $5 and the laptop battery $150, he said, and “that’s why solar thermal is going to be the dominant form.”
    Solar thermal systems are built to gather heat from the sun, boil water into steam, spin a turbine and make power, as existing solar thermal power plants do — but not immediately. The heat would be stored for hours or even days, like water behind a dam.
    A plant that could store its output could pick the time to sell the production based on expected price, as wheat farmers and cattle ranchers do. Ausra, of Palo Alto, California, is making components for plants to which thermal storage could be added, if the cost were justified by higher prices after sunset or for production that could be realistically promised even if the weather forecast was iffy. Ausra uses Fresnel lenses, which have a short focal length but focus light intensely, to heat miles of blackpainted pipe with a fluid inside.
    A competitor a step behind in signing contracts, but with major corporate backing, plans a slightly different technique in which adding storage seems almost trivial. It is a “power tower”, a little bit like a water tank on stilts surrounded by hundreds of mirrors that tilt on two axes, one to follow the sun across the sky in the course of the day and the other in the course of the year. In the tower and in a tank below are tens of thousands of gallons of molten salt that can be heated to very high temperatures and not reach high pressure.
    “You take the energy the sun is putting into the earth that day, store it and capture it, put it into the reservoir, and use it on demand,” said Terry Murphy, president and chief executive of Solar-Reserve, a company backed in part by United Technologies, the Hartford conglomerate.
    Power plants are typically designed with a heat production system matched to their electric generators. Murphy sees no reason why his should. His design is for a power tower that can supply 540 megawatts of heat. At the high temperatures it could achieve, that would produce 250 megawatts of electricity, enough to run a fair-size city. It might make more sense to produce a smaller quantity and run well into the evening or around the clock or for several days when it is cloudy.