Environment

                                        Ashwani Kumar       1.1 Calotropis procera carried in Arid and semi arid lands which occupy one third of the earth's surface.  Indian arid zone occupies an area of about 0.3 million sq. km. 90 percent of which about 2,70,000 sq. km. is confined to north west Indian covering most of Western Rajasthan, part of Gujarat and small portions of Punjab and Haryana.  India with its vast expanse of wasteland unsuitable…

JATROPHA CURCAS: A POTENTIAL PLANT FOR BIO-FUEL Shikha Roy and  Ashwini Kumar Bio-Technology Lab Department of Botany University of Rajasthan, Jaipur - 302 004 Energy Plantation Demonstration project and Biotechnology Center. Email. msku31@yahoo.com     ABSTRACT: Jatropha curcas L. (Euphorbiaceae) popularly called Ratanjot is a small tree bearing oil-seed grown on wastelands or hedges in India and tropical America. It is thought to have originated in either Peru (where the only fossils have been found) or Mexico and has become naturalized throughout semi arid Asia and Africa.…

SOME POTENTIAL PLANTS FOR BIO-ENERGY     ASHWANI KUMAR AND AMIT KOTIYA Bio-Technology Lab,Department of Botany University of Rajasthan, Jaipur - 302 004 Energy Plantation Demonstration project and Biotechnology Center. Email. msku31@yahoo.com     ABSTRACT: The state of Rajasthan is situated between 23°3’N and 30°12’ N latitude and 69°30’ and  78°17’  E longitude. The total land area of the state is about 3,42,239 km2, out of which about 1,96,150 km2  is arid and rest is semi-arid. This arid and semi-arid wasteland is rich in biodiversity. During present…

BIODIVERSITY OF INDIAN DESERT AND IT'S VALUE.   Amit Kotia and Ashwani Kumar Biotechnology Lab, Department of Botany University of Rajasthan, Jaipur – 302004 INDIA   ABSTRACT       The state of Rajasthan is situated between 23º3’ and 30º12’ N latitude and 69º30’ and 78º17’ E longitude . The total land area of the state is about 3,24,239 km² , out of which about 1,98,100 km² is arid and rest is semi arid. The physical features are characterized mainly by the Aravallis and to the some extent by the vindhyan formation, and the Deccan trap. A major portion…

One of the biggest mistakes environmentally conscious people make is thinking that an 'organic' pesticide is somehow superior to an inorganic one.   The word 'organic' may be the most misunderstood word in western Civilization because there is no structural difference in complex, carbon-based molecules whether they were created in a lab or on a tree. Nature understands exactly what organic means, including what pesticides are designed to do.  Whether or not a small group of people consider them organic is irrelevant - you won't want to eat food treated with Pyrethrin even though it…

British start-up Novacem has developed a "carbon-negative" cement, meaning it absorbs more carbon dioxide over its life cycle than it emits. Cement is a big ol' polluter - with an annual production of more than 2.5 billion tons, Reuters says, conventional "Portland" cement is responsible for an estimated 5 percent of global CO2emissions, more than the airline industry. Yikes. Cement makers are investing in modern kilns and using as little carbon-heavy fuel as possible to alleviate some of their footprint, but the efforts haven't resulted in much of a reduction. Novacem took an extra step and…

Treelines are not responding to global warming the way previous projections said they should, according to the first global quantitative assessment of the relationship between warming and treeline advance published in Ecology Letters. The study tests the consensus that treelines have been globally advancing in response to the warming climate since 1900. Treelines are the elevation or latitudinal limits where trees are capable of growth or survival and are considered to be early indicators of climate warming because they are constrained primarily by cold temperatures. Summer temperature is…

A new process that cleans wastewater, generates electricity, and can remove 90 percent of salt from brackish water or seawater, was reported by an international team of researchers from China and the U.S. Clean water for drinking, washing, and industrial uses is a scarce resource in some parts of the world. Its availability in the future will be even more problematic. Many locations already desalinate water using either a reverse osmosis process -- one that pushes water under high pressure through membranes that allow water to pass but not salt -- or an electrodialysis process that uses…

The world's environment ministers, government officials, diplomats and campaigners are preparing for the biggest poker game of their lives - the COP15 conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. It's one of the most complicated political deals the world has ever seen but third world countries are holding the cards. In Environmental Research Letters, the paper 'Tripping Points: Barriers and Bargaining Chips on the Road to Copenhagen' lays bare the main tripping points – those political barriers and bargaining chips – which need to be overcome for countries to reach a consensus on how to…

When your famous exports are Italian mobsters, meatball hoagies, and the horrid track suit + gold chain look, and more recently corrupt mayors/rabbis, you pounce on anything that can give you a little boost. New Jersey is now second only to California in producing solar energy, now that its biggest utility company is outfitting 200,000 utility poles with solar panels, "part of the state's embrace of a try-anything strategy," the WSJ says. Instead of bemoaning what it doesn't have -- bright sunshine, high winds, empty land -- New Jersey has looked for places where solar capacity can be…