The first in the series is a 2 minute introductory tour with narration by none other than Al Gore, the most visible person in the fight against global warming.
The effort is in collaboration with the Danish Government, which is hosting the 15th Conference of the United Nations Climate Change Convention in December this year.
They have also announced that they will be launching a youtube channel specifically targeted at COP. At the channel, we can post our questions to the decision makers and these questions (videos) will be broadcast on screens placed around the conference area.
On Friday April 17, Oxfam India launched, with the Indi rock band Euphoria launched a special music video Payenge Aisa Jahan on climate change.
The aim of the music video is to create awareness among people at large about the perils of global warming and the resulting climate change. The launch also had farmers from AP and UP recite their real life stories – on how reckless industrialisation and commercialisation has changed their lives and livelihood.
An online climate change signature campaign at www.climatechange.com was also launched by the Oxfam ambassador and actor Rahul Bose. I logged in this morning to be a part but looks like the site is under construction. Anyhow, the campaign has been designed to create enough public pressure for the upcoming UN meeting in Copenhangen in December 2009.
Earth Hour is a good way to raise awareness of the issue of global warming and how our collective effort can save our beautiful planet. However, while a whole lot of people participated in the earth hour on 28th of March and switched off all non-essential lights for an hour from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm, it was weird to see the same people switch on a galaxy of lights immediately after and go about their business as usual. Well, is that what earth hour is all about? All hype and little substance? Do people participate just to sound ‘cool’ and ‘with it’ or do they really understand the meaning behind the campaign?
If negating global warming and saving the planet really mean the earth to us, then why don’t we make “consuming less” a way of life? Why do we need to switch on a sea of lights on the Vegas strip? Why do office building have most lights on even long after all staff has left? Why do hotels and restaurants have a sea of lights on all the time? Why do we keep our windows covered with blinds? Why don’t we use natural light? Why do we keep the AC on in our cars when the weather outside is pleasant enough? Why do we first stay all the time in air conditioned environs and then go for sauna and visit spas and gyms to sweat and get rid of toxins?
Will we take a break and ask ourselves why aren’t we doing something about the environment while we can? We shake our head, shrug and feel how one person’s (read my) consuming less will help while the rest of the world is hogging resources. Lets remember little drops of water make up the ocean…
Last night on my way to Gurgaon for an outing, I noticed all these beautifully lit up office complexes on the highway. They looked attractive from a distance, orderly lit and their interiors shining through the glass walls. It was all calm inside, not a soul could be sighted and one felt compelled to imagine the frenetic pace of activity therein during the day. And then it struck – why were all offices in these buildings so well lit up when there wasn’t a soul working at that time? Who pays for their electricity bills? What a sheer waste at a time when all companies are looking to cut costs!
And think of its repercussions on the environment. It is a colossal loss of energy. We all know there isn’t surplus energy in the country. Why keep thousands of lights switched on at night in offices where people work during the day or atleast not after 11pm? Can’t that energy be used to light up villages in the state that are often plunged in darkness?
At a time when everyone is trying to tighten one’s purse strings, at a time when we need to sit up and take notice of global warming and reduce unnecessary consumption and hence wastage, there is a lot one can save by following these very simple tips in the kitchen.
Given the fast paced lives we lead today, we tend to cook food and then store in the refrigerator for consumption later. Or we tend to use packaged food that we buy and store in the fridge. When we take out this food and put it in the microwave or on a kitchen stove, it takes up a lot of fuel to warm up the food. This can be saved on drastically if we take the food items out of the refrigerator well in advance and let them get to the room temerature before heating them.
Soak pulses in water well in advance before cooking. This will reduce cooking time and hence help save fuel.
After you are done with making chappatis, use the hot tawa to warm anything that you might have taken out of the fridge for heating. You will be surprised how much residual heat is still there in the tawa.
A few drops of oil or a small piece of butter, added when steaming pulses speeds up the cooking process. I have tried this while cooking dal, rajma and channa and it works.
Pollution – garbage from the cities flowing into the seas, including polythene bags.
Decreasing levels of O2 in seas, which in turn is causing the formation of ‘underwater deserts; in tropical oceans. When the oxygen levels are low, nitrogen can-not react with oxygen to form biologically available nitrate – needed by underwater organisms at the base of these fragile ecosystems.
Not just global warming but also higher costs for corporations. A recent report by McKinsey & Co. suggests that data centers are grossly under used leading to tremendous wastage of energy on a global scale and causing major cost inefficiencies at the corporation level. With one of the companies which they studied, they observed that a third of their 500 servers had utilization rates below 3%; and about 2/3rds had utilization rate below 10%. Wow, what a waste of power. If not for global warming, then atleast to pare their costs, companies need to work out processes to better manage their data center capacities.
McKinsey’s research brings up interesting findings like, almost every company can double its data center energy efficiency through better, cohesive data center management, better planning, and increased accountability. And this will lead to more efficient energy usage, cutting down in terms of both capital investments for setting up or expanding a datacenter (including expensive real estate) and recurring costs, and, a good level of reduction in CO2 emissions! Plenty of incentives to do what is necessary. And indeed I can’t help saying that common sense isn’t so common after all. While it would seem to be common sense to expand capacity only when the current set up is fully utilized, it appears that companies end up spending billions more than necessary because of poor management.
Several researches in the present times have focused on Global Warming. A recent report of such a research published in Science suggests that at least half of world’s population could face serious food shortages.
There is a greater than 90% probability that the lowest crop-growing-season temperatures in the tropics and sub-tropics will be higher than any recorded to date.
India to be among the worst hit areas. Higher temperatures will mean some of our crops can-not be cultivated. Or will face reduced yields.
Extreme warnings that have happened the world over in the recent past – like heat waves in Europe, hurricanes, droughts, floods could become the norm in the long-run.
Cities or countries could get wiped out because of rising sea levels, which would lead to a further shortage of agricultural land.
Does paint a scary picture, this report! However, while I am sure the scientific community will be doing its bit to ensure crop yields are not affected this much by rising temperatures, let this be a reminder to all of us to do our bit to preserve our beautiful planet.
Well, now that we are officially heading towards times when cost-cutting and reduction of overheads will be the key to survival, I thought it was a good opportunity to initiate some steps in our small office as well. I checked up with a friend who owns a mid-sized firm and they are well on their way to making such changes a way of life at his workplace. The good thing is that each of these measures also has the potential to reduce greenhouse emissions. Heres a partial list of what they have started doing:
Switching off computers when not in use. Atleast switching off monitors. Its a waste of energy if the system is on and not in use. And switching off computers when not in use, can pare energy usage by two-thirds.
According to an estimate by the research firm Gartner, PCs account for some 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions coming from IT & Telcom.
Reducing drastically on personal meetings with clients and vendors they have worked with in the past. And relying on phone and email for business communication instead.
Installing power saving flat screen monitors in place of the old TFT monitors. And boy, do they look good!
Switching off extra lights.
Allowing natural light to come in through windows. Earlier, the blinds were always drawn.
Well, now that we are officially heading towards times when cost-cutting and reduction of overheads will be the key to survival, I thought it was a good opportunity to initiate some steps in our small office as well. I checked up with a friend who owns a mid-sized firm and they are well on their way to making such changes a way of life at his workplace. The good thing is that each of these measures also has the potential to reduce greenhouse emissions. Heres a partial list of what they have started doing:
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