The DORMANT volcano

The term Volcano emerges from the word Vulcan, the Roman god of forging and metal works, also known as Hephaestus of Greek mythology. But the volcano I will be talking about is very different than what we have in our prejudicial notions, but none the less dangerous than the one which knocked the living daylights out of Pliny the younger when it burst forth. You will be surprised at the picture:

Well, if you are surprised, then I am happy. Burning leaves leave burning holes in our atmosphere. Yes, people might question my sanity, but a poet’s mind that I have, never allows my conscience to ignore such details.

In India particularly where I live, people burn fallen leaves, everyday in fall, in amounts of thousands of burning heaps. Considering the population of India, you can foretell the amount being burned in front of their houses. I have seen much of this, and it is so irritating to watch them burn under a tree destroying the one that they came from. Why is this enmity? I have no idea.

  

Every morning when I wake up, I try to breathe in the fresh air, so free of pollutants and full of bright shining dew. But it is ugly to know that you need to wake before the sun in order to breathe the good one, for apparently it has been fouled by fuming heaps of burning leaves. And then comes the vehicular traffic and a day in India full of pollutants ensues. No breathers. We are trying to catch up to China aren’t we? Aren’t we trying to exceed in economic growth, basking in glory that we were least affected by the recession in global markets?

Aren’t we trying to make money and hoard it, so that we can hope to bribe God with it? It ain’t gonna work mate. No shortcuts in front of god.

Leaves, dead or alive, have been there before our ancestors learned to speak in words. In fact, it has been the first of firsts that propagated life on dry land. Yet, I don’t know why, we still are so intent to destroy them after they die. Why? Are leaves such a big nuisance? What bad have they done that we punish them, and burn them, and cut their bearers from the stem? Leaves give a natural comfy touch to whatever they cover, like a redwood forest in autumn, has inspired so many poets and authors to write memorabillia about them, notably P.B. Shelley, in his poem The West wind. However, we still try to destroy this poet’s important equipment of imagination.

Apart from these romantic ideas, burning leaves leaves the atmosphere with unhealing wounds. They, how many times have our good scientists repeated this, give away Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and when they are burned in heaps, Nitrogen dioxide. It happens so because, in heaps, the temperature at the centre can well exceed 1000K, and at such temperatures, Nirtogen can combine with oxigen to form Nitrous oxide, and Nitrogen dioxide. These oxides, as we know, are acidic in nature and float up in the atmosphere and condesnse along with water to make HNO₃, Nitirc acid. It causes acid rain, and destroys a myriad of things

 My countries pride, the Taj mahal, has lost its sheen, and its credit goes to these nonsense of burning leaves, and industries too.

And this is just the beginning, my friends.

We should try and limit whatever we can of the pollution, the foulery, that we do to the earth. Be it restricting the use of cars, or you know, using the bicycle while going to the supermarket, and the sort, but we must do something.

Leaves are an important part of compost, and leaf mold. The dead leaves can be used to grow more trees in a healthy manner, because all biodegradable substances can oxidise to from “compost”. Thus, if every individual can make a small compost pit, or give away the raw materials, which of course include that of dead leaves, then he makes an important contribution for Earth, not against it. It no only generates more compost for agriculture, it also makes an industry, where people can find work, and live.

So, I ask you all in a humble voice, unite against this evil! Make use of the gifts of nature! Join in with me to tell people about this problem, and explain the uses and the good things of composting and collecting dead leaves. Don’t burn leaves, and don’t allow them to be burned, except in areas where forest fires take place.

It doesn't in my backyard.

There are 6 billion people on the planet earth. If each collects even a 100 gram leaves, it gives us more than 6 million tonnes of compost every year. More trees. MORE LIFE!

Join me in this voice!

See for yourselves:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost   

Flopenhagen

The Cop15 Copenhagen summit got over very recently at Copenhagen, capital of Denmark.

The Copenhagen Accord, accepted and acknowledged by many countries, was the outcome of it. Let us inspect on it.

Having read the Copenhagen Accord, I came to some conclusions which are:

It does not legally bind whatever it says. Countries can violate it without sanctions.

It does not assure the world or any country as to how and where the funds it proposes would go.

It does not indicate the reduction in per capita emissions.

However it does have some merits.

The Accord recognizes the importance of afforestation to control emissions. Hm.... Perhaps someone else was shouting hoarse at the same thing for many more years.

It also establishes a Technology Mechanism to accelerate the development of sustainable technologies. I think this is the only good outcome from the COP15.

It does not specify the peaking limits of many countries.

If peaking limits were only reduced , for the currently developed countries, to levels of the now-developing countries, the world would be a happier place.

Thus is how the Copenhagen Summit resulted; it was an utter failure. It failed the hopes of many people who thought that now would be time when eveything else would be resolved. But it didn't turn out that way.

Except for the Afforestation adress there was nothing more to take not of. Where is the mechanism? Where to invest? How much more time? Nothing was specified.

Such outsomes in meeting may only result in more loss of time. A more equitable method and mechanism needs to be developed in this regard.

No wonder this dampened the spirits of many climate activists, I am certainly not very happy with it. That is why perhaps it is now being called "Flopenhagen".

Ministocracy

In India, the world marvels at a great democracy; but such democracy-maniacs, and you can count me in them too, are in for a true shock. It appears, as evidently as sunlight on a sunny day, that India is more of a ministocracy.

See, in India, we don't run the government. The government runs us, i. e. drives us mad. In India, it is not by the people, for the people, to the people. It is rather by the people, to the ministers, for the ministers. At least that is what the boiling underbelly of the Indian bourgeoisie says: we elect ministers, but they suck.

Just come to Nagpur this winter and you will see why.

Nagpur is a city in central India, without much of a fanfare, but it stirs when our derisory ministers come and our local babus (or local bhaus), which literally means our great Administrators, wake from their slumber and realise that the city is a little to bad in condition to welcome them. So they start work in hectic schedules that leave the citizenry baffled and add to woes of already congested roads and make them even more congested.

In short, whatever they do, only increases the troubles.

I know what the people think about them: ludicrous paunch-displays. But I don't know what misconception they have about themselves; perhaps they think that they are some sort of elite.

Let me tell you, that the the word minister is known from c.1300. It literally means "one who acts upon the authority of another". It come from Old French ministre meaning "servant" and Latin minister or ministri meaning "servant or chiefly priest's assistant " . From early 16th century it means subordinate or a subordinate to the crown.

In general, this displays what actually the word means, and those who are attested to the word must do. They are the servant of the people, serving for the well being of the society and of the people who have entrusted the administration of their country to the hands of the individuals.

Any common man would know how that administration is: corrupt, inefficient, illegible, and ridiculous.

However, this is not to mention the way they take on the various issues of the country.

A few months ago, a book by Mr. Jaswant Singh, Jinnah : India-Partition-Independence, caused so much furore, that our ministers lost sleep and shouted hoarse debating the legitimacy of history. But they were all blissfully asleep every other time. This is indeed a grave problem to our ministocracy: everything for the ministers, yet highly inefficient.

How highly inefficient?

Greatly, tremendously, incredibly inefficient. I mean, would you call a government who could not ascertain a way to mitigate the problem of electric power shortfalls? Who are blatantly biased towards their own communities? NO!

It has been over 2 years now, that Maharashtra region is facing load shedding power cuts - yet there is no respite.

Only some political ministers are good, take the case of Mr. Devendra Fadnavis. He is a little know MLA from Nagpur, but I like him! He takes up the necessary steps and agitations that we expect out of a man like him! WE NEED PEOPLE LIKE HIM!

I sincerely hope that people like him would come to the foray Indian politics. That is needed. Our current lot are tried, tested and failed; we need a younger and vibrant lot, crying hoarse on global warming and sustainable development, than a silly old Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

Tell them! That this is not the way! This is not the way! Make India a Democracy!

Henry's Handball

Well, there goes controversy again. Thierry Henry, arguably a legend of our times, handles the ball like the prince of Football once did, back in the magical days off 1986. But he question comes, whether he was a villain or a victim?

Whether or not history and millions of passionate fans would ever forget Mr. Henry for his , eh.. mishandling of the situation.

Diego Armando Maradona, as believed by many to be the best player ever to have touched the ball, shunted his slam dunk past Peter Shilton in the 1986 Quarter Final against England. It is perhaps one of the most famous (or infamous) moment in the History of football. But his goal stood the tests of time, or perhaps for the reason that the next goal Maradona scored was to be called the " Leg Of God "

Maradona go the ball from Enrique, then cuts open the England defence and feints the Keeper to the back of the net... oh yeah, the best solo ever.

Perhaps God played twice that game on Maradona's side.

But this case is entirely different from the ferocious Maradona pouncing on the ball with his bare hands; Thierry Henry didn't cheat so blatantly!

If people would look at the replay, all in real time, there was hardly any time lag between his hand and his cross. Perhaps he was expecting the whistle to blow; he was waiting the whistle to go, as people score from offside and then the whistle goes.

If it doesn't, you don't nudge on the "advantage" the referee gave.

But, as genuine sportsman, I would have like it better from the french to have told the referee immediately, but then again: would you have done the same?

It is easy for us to say it with confidence, that yes, of course, we are saints come back, and we won't accept a trice of cheat-dirt. But, consider this situation: you are carrying the burden and expectation of more than 10 million fans, wearing the honours of a proud Footballing country, and you have the reputation of your carreer; would you still have done it?

Would you still have asked for a rematch?

I agree with Henry, he didn't mean it: it all happened in the heat of the game, where our rationale is very ill balanced.

But now, when all things have been said and done, I think FIFA should have a replay of the match. It is essential for a healthy relation between two countries, and for the broken and hurt pride of sporting men; it is good for the benefit of football.

Let this shameful incident be dusted but not forgotten!

Impact of Climate change on Economy

Currently the world is in severe economic crisis, triggered by the failing liquidity in the major banks of the world. The immediate outcome of this was evident on the stock markets. This is perhaps one of the largest stock market failures since the Great Depression.

However, the stock market crash is but a trifle in front of the economic disaster that is awaiting us in the near future.

Can you think about a world sans oil?

Oh well, that is the thing that is happening.
Alas, exploitation of natural resources is something that is happening. However, people have stepped forward and discussed on this issue.
Yet there is an imminent threat, known as global climate change. It is also a result of a phenomenon known as global warming, just as the stock market crash has been the result of failing banks.

The Ecology department of the state of Washington projects the following:
The economic effects of climate change in Washington will grow as temperatures increase.

• Direct costs of fighting wildfires may exceed $75 million per year by the 2020s. This is a 50 percent increase from current costs and does not take into account the costs of the lost timber value.
• Water conservation costs to offset the decline in guaranteed water of Seattle's water supply due to climate change impacts could exceed $8 million per year by the 2020s and $16 million per year by the 2040s. Eastern Washington communities in Spokane and Yakima will face similar impacts.
• Public health costs will increase due to smoke related health problems like asthma from wildfires.
• Tourism and recreation losses related to forest closures and smoke intrusion from wildfires could increase in some locations. An increase in flooding will also affect this area of the state's economy.
• Hydropower revenues may be affected as water management changes in response to rising temperatures. University of Washington researchers suggest at most a 5% loss or $166 million per year.
• Consumers could face water price increases in some basins. Water conservation costs about $680,000 per million gallons per day.
• Dairy cows are affected by higher-than-optimal temperatures. Dairy revenues in two counties may decline by as much as $6 million per year by the 2040s.
• More frequent droughts in Yakima may cause crop losses. While drought does not occur every year, the averaged losses may increase by $66 million for Yakima. Other agricultural areas statewide are likely to be similarly effected.
• New sea level rise projections could trigger costly re-design of long-term investments in shoreline protection such as Seattle's Alaskan Way seawall increasing its cost by $25 to $50 million. A 2-foot rise in the sea level will flood 35,848 acres and affect 44,429 people in the Puget Sound.
• Flooding due to more intense rainstorms, impacts on public health due to heat and vector-related illness such as West Nile virus, and impacts on snow sports as well as salmon and other fisheries are likely to increase as the climate warms up.
• Cumulative economic effects are usually larger than the sum of obvious individual sector effects, such as those listed above. This is because of interactions between industries and economic sectors which depend on each other. As one industry declines, another may follow.

It is very important to take into account the fact that the figures given here are just for the state of Washington. Therefore we can assume the impact of it on the world.

Due to the ever increasing temperatures, the global climate can change and will be impossible to stop after a 20 years or so.

We have to start now!

Change of Attitudes

I was recently talking to my friend at school. She was saying about her birthday gift. She was to have a Honda Activa. It is actually a vehicle, a scooter.

Well, she is only 16.
She can and should drive.

But when I Asked her about why did she not take an electric vehicle, she answered,"What! Electric Vehicles! No way! I'd rather walk than drive that."
Well, it is not her fault. She reflects what most people in India think about Eco-friendly technologies.

Speed matters more than the Earth.
I was talking with a person i know very well. He drives a Pulsar 220 motorbike. I asked him why did he not take an electric vehicle when he easily could take ten of them, and that to powerful ones. He answered that,"I won't get speed and acceleration with that. No way! 40 to 60 kmph, nope, thats not what i want. I want Speed."
When i reminded him that he is not Valentino Rossi and does not get any money after winning a race but a punishment from the traffic rules, he lambasts me.

Imagine, Speed more important than the Earth.

Style
Electric Vehicles do not look cool.
Stupidity.
It is foolish thoughts, after seeing some of the more stylish vehicles produced from Honda and Mercedes.


But what can a person do?
Even if after all the things being said they don't understand then what can the activist do?
And then they blame us.
They blame us for unnecessarily taking up issues to disturb them. Then, they blame us for all the lack of initiatives to save the Earth.
I have only one thing to say for them.

Rise People, Rise;
Rise from you drunken stupor;
Save the World
Change your Attitudes

Arctic circumnavigation..........

Well!
That's now a fact. for the first time in history can we circumnavigate the arctic ice cap. If you don't believe it then look for yourself:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/for-the-first-time-in-human-history-the-north-pole-can-be-circumnavigated-913924.html

let us all first start with a geographical description of how the north polar ice cap is. Starting from the Bering bay, ice is found all over the arctic ocean except for some places like the Bering strait. But truly, never was it expected to find no ice in the Baffin island, nor was it expected that ice will melt within the 80 latitude zone. The Independent revealed that:

"But it is the simultaneous opening – for the first time in at least 125,000 years – of the North-west passage around Canada and the North-east passage around Russia that promises to deliver much the greatest shock. Until recently both had been blocked by ice since the beginning of the last Ice Age."

Strange but true, as this situation was not expected before 2050. Just imagine! 2050! And we have got this 42 years before. Again, from The Independent :

"Many scientists now predict that the Arctic ocean will be ice-free in summer by 2030 – and a landmark study this year by Professor Wieslaw Maslowski at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, concluded that there will be no ice between mid-July and mid-September as early as 2013."

Alas, some day will come when there will be no ice on the top of the world. Polar bears shall swim in hope of a home. But that will only be a false hope. No ice, just as it was projected in his documentary for global warming, "An inconvenient truth", by Al Gore.
Days will come when Antarctica will also melt, and the dramatic effects of it will be felt worldwide.
Days will come when all of New York will be under water. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, Sydney shall all be underwater. Those who quaff all these off by saying, "Rubbish", think again. This was projected in 2005, along with the fact that arctic will sport no ice during the summers.
All that has been projected is coming true, but at a level more alarming than before. Even as I write, a boy starts his motorbike, and like a fool accelerates it standing on neutral. His massive 500 cc engine roars. And he does all this just to impress a girl living next door.
Really!
Sometimes I feel what is it to them? What if there is no ice at the north pole? What the damn do they care about polar bears. Yet he was telling me some days ago how the rains haven't been upto the mark in Nagpur and how it wreaked havoc in West Bengal. He said, "yaar! Barish to pagal ho gayi hai ( Man! The rains have gone mad)".
I tried to explain him the gravity of the situation to which he answered, "Bore mat kar (Don't be a bore) "

Well, there you go. Similar to him are the shipping companies, who will use it to speed up the trade between the two continents of North America and Asia.

God, save us! Apocalypse is not far away if this continues.
Such incidents will continue to happen, and happen for a long time if don't change our habits. Such incidents bend our attention towards our dear mother nature. She needs care and attention in such a time of distress.

Let us help her. Let us all be good sons and daughters of mother Earth.

Global Warming: Doomsday

I was watching Albert Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.
I don't know how many of those people have actually seen the film, but it is worth a watch. It indeed was a very informative experience for me, and something which set my brain thinking. My intention is only to put forward my thoughts, on this delicate subject.
What it is to a dog on the streets, this talks of Global climate change?
What is it to a horse which knows nothing but to run wild?
Nothing.
Perhaps, nothing.
But the world is changing. We know it is changing because of everything that is happening in it. We know it. It is in the air and it is around us : the world is changing. Fiercer storms, powerful showers, cloud bursts, drought, floods, etc. We know, for we see it.
So whose responsibility is this?
Dog's?
Horse's?
Or the ones who see it happening. Us?

We know the answers. Us. OK. So what? All the person's are shouting for this, Boring Blog! What's new?
I don't know. Nothing's new in this. But I wish it was new. IF it is old then why haven't people actually have done something? The world's going to end, be it in 30, 40 or 50 years. This won't be a world which I know. Pollution, Storms, Droughts and what not will happen when my heirs will come on to be. Gore says very well
"My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It's not a political issue; it's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it."

We must change it because we know what is happening. Mahatma Gandhi said, "This world has everything for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed"

Just imagine, this world will have its temperature raised above 51ºC where I live. Glacier's ice will no longer be there. No more polar ice caps, no polar bears or penguins nestling inside their mother's for warmth (they will have lots of "warmth ", I am sure).
When I went to Badrinath a few years ago, I saw beautiful picture filled with snow. I asked the owner of the inn in which I was staying where exactly was this. What he answered was strange. He said , "It is Badrinath. 35 years ago"
Startling, because now Badrinath sports of no glaciers.

IN the last 650,000 years, levels of carbon dioxide have increased by astronomical leaps and bounds: by a whopping 1500% times! The last 18 years has had the 10 most hottest years on Earth since it was made. We have also the most powerful storms in the history of Mankind in the last few years.
It is only in our hand if we wish to reverse it or not. The most essential need is the will act.
I list here three things that a person could do to help:
1. Walk or use a bicycle to near distances
2. Please use Electric vehicles if one is available near you
3. Learn to use eco-friendly practices, and put them into practice

I ask all people reading this Blog to follow this 3 principles
Hey, it is important.
I write this because I want something, which without your collaboration is impossible. I want my children to see a world which is not heating up. I want my children to see glaciers. I want them to see the most beautiful ice caps of this world, and the polar bear, and the penguins. I don't want to show them storms and droughts.

I want them to see the Earth

I want to show them life.

Help me.
Save the world.