Use and throw plastics, but where does it go!

The latest products that we use are mostly packaged products, mostly made up of plastics. The polythene bags that we use in our everyday life for convenience and then dump it in our garbage bags, which again is made up of polythene, lands up in a dump. Just have a look below of how a small scale polythene dump look like.





These plastic/polythene takes thousands of years to degrade. We use it for just few hours or minutes and throw it. We keep on doing it, and while I write now, there must be some tons of plastic being dumped your vicinity, which of course can not be seen now, but the effects of it cannot be concealed.

Well now what to do? Just few simple steps from our side

Minimize the use poly bags

Carry a poly bag(i.e if you already have one else jute bag or cloth bag) when you visit to your local grocer

Keep using the poly bags you already have to make sure that it does not add up to that dump

Spread awareness to the mass

Following the above would not show any direct effect and the earth would not all of sudden start looking green and clean, but at least would not make it more dirty and polluted.

The problem of global warming, polluted water, plastic dumps, has evolved over the years and is a serious problem. It cannot be handled so easily, the solution cannot be that simple at all. But we need to do something towards the problem. So we just take few baby steps and I am sure these would definitely help us to at least contribute our bit to fight the problem.

Melting Glaciers

1950


























2001

So where do we see ourselves few years from now? The above picture was taken in 2001(source discovery.com), and now its already 2009. What would be the state of the glacier now? Is it still there? Perhaps yes, but will it be still there in few years to come? The above pictures are of Alaska glaciers, which is receding at twice the rate previously thought!

Ice plays a very important role in reducing the heat in this earth, as ice reflects almost all of the sun light back. And water does just the opposite, water absorbs most of the sunlight.

The meltdown in Alaska or anywhere in the world is not going to be local, it is global, the changes over there is experienced all over the world.

Birds Dissapear Due to Global Warming

The global warming has not spared even the birds and many other species too. So well, what difference does it make if the birds are there or not??? Well, to have a balanced ecosystem we need to have all the species to be there, and birds are one among them. We might not see a direct relation between their existence and our survival, but in reality there is.

Chennai, till recently home for sparrows, has seen the bird fast disappearing from the metro, apparently due to global warming as the city has witnessed a significant rise in temperature over the past century. Read on below to find more.

Data collected by the Regional Meteorological Office (RMC) here has revealed that from 1906 to 2008 there was a 'significant rise' in the average temperature in the city during summer.

The centre analysed weather data in the months of March, April, May and June. The temperature variation chart showed an increase of 1.8 degrees Celsius in the mean temperature in March -- meaning that the average temperature of 32.2 degrees Celsius in March 1906 had risen to 34 degrees Celsius at present.

The changing pattern of Chennai's weather assumes significance as a recent survey by an NGO found that the sparrows, which existed in large numbers in the city about 20 years back, had totally vanished due to the rising temperature.

Met officials said the mean temperature in April has risen from 34.1 degrees Celsius to 35.6 degrees Celsius over the past 10 decades, a rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Mean temperatures in May and June remained constant at about 36-37 degrees Celsius.

Global warming causes 150,000 deaths a year!!!

Hi,

The following article I found it on the internet, sharing here might help us to think a bit more seriously.

Global warming is not only a threat to our future health, it already contributes to more than 150,000 deaths and 5 million illnesses annually, according to a team of health and climate scientists at the World Health Organization and the University of Wisconsin at Madison—and those numbers could double by 2030.
Research data published in the journal Nature show that global warming may affect human health in a surprising number of ways: speeding the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever; creating conditions that lead to potentially fatal malnutrition and diarrhea; and increasing the likelihood of heat waves and floods.
Scientists believe that greenhouse gases will increase the global average temperature by approximately 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. Extreme floods, droughts and heat waves, such as Europe's 2003 heat wave, are likely to strike with increasing frequency. Other factors such as irrigation and deforestation can also affect local temperatures and humidity.
According to the UW-Madison and WHO team, other model-based forecasts of health risks from global climate change project that:
• Climate-related disease risks of the various health outcomes assessed by WHO will more than double by 2030.
• Flooding as a result of coastal storm surges will affect the lives of up to 200 million people by the 2080s.
• Heat related deaths in California could more than double by 2100.
• Hazardous ozone pollution days in the Eastern U.S. could increase 60 percent by 2050.


Well the problem has already gone worse and is quite big to tackle, but if we think that what can we do for such a huge problem? We can’t help it anyway! Then just to remind that we individuals have taken choices earlier, which is why we are here at this situation, and we individuals have to take choices again to save us from this slow poison which is killing us bit by bit and growing minute by minute.

Let us from now try to minimize our consumption, before it gets too late, where we are forced to do so. Let’s live a more energy-efficient life!


I am sure none of us would ever want to be a part of the 150,000 people dying due to global warming every year!

Hot January!

Hi,

Till now heard a lot about global warming and all that stuff, felt a bit also. Like the summers are getting hotter, winters are not that cold anymore. But if my memory serves me correct, I have never turned a fan on and slept in the night during the month of January. Not the entire January though, but I am talking about yesterday night. In India the climate for the months, Dec & Jan has been pretty cold rather I would say chilled. At least one needs a warm clothes, blankets etc. I am not talking about coastal areas where the climate might not be that cold. People from coastal areas can throw some light on this. But sleeping in the night with a fan on in January is unimaginable, a few years back, or should I say till last year or so.

Now the experience that I just mentioned above is not based on any complex statistical inferences, it is just my personal experience. I am sure using science the things can be better explained, and would be really alarming.

So now what? The point is now that we as an individual is experiencing the changes in the climate, we do not need to wait for some scientific or some other explanation to prove it right. Nor we should to wait for the scientists, the government, environmentalists or the NGOs would do something to protect us from this global warming effect. I am sure they will, after all they also belong to the same planet and same species. But they are bit busy with other things for our betterment and we should respect that too.

At the same time we as an individual are equally responsible to protect us, our loved ones and the future generation who will carry the environment that we create today. We need to do our valuable bit which are reachable by us like

Save electricity where ever we can
Save fuel where ever we can
Save paper to save trees where ever we can
Plant a plant where ever we can
Get aware of technological effects on ecology before subscribing to it where ever we can
Avoid e wastes as much as we can
Spread these small solutions and come up with new ones to save this planet as much as we can

The environment is at that stage today that the adverse effects are being felt right now by us. Just imagine a few years down the line.

Are we ready to face it? Will our motherly earth be that comforting to us then?

We might be alive but can we survive?