Environment

I was very happy to note that recently there were important meetings in India held at highest level and some movements of some groups to save Yamuna. What makes me wonder all these groups look towards some agencies for saving something ? if you are in front of a moving train will you apply to some agency to save ? Give some funds to save you from drowning ? Or if you are dying in Shara desert of heat and winds will you make proposal to be sent to some agencies and look for their grants to come to solve the problem . Save Ganga Project or save Yamuna project have consumed billions of rupees.…

Whether you are concerned about Mayans, a worldwide infrastructure collapse or an exploding supervolcano, science has some good news for your doomsday preparation - sunlight and a twist of lime are an inexpensive and effective way to quickly improve the quality of your drinking water. Researchers have found that adding lime juice to water while using a solar disinfection method removed detectable levels of harmful bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) significantly faster than solar disinfection alone.  Prepper concerns aside, this has practical application for in low-income…

The problem of microbial resistance is growing and the outlook for the use of antimicrobial drugs in the future is still uncertain. This problem can be reduced by controlling the use of antibiotic, develop research to better understand the genetic mechanisms of resistance, and to continue studies to develop new drugs, either synthetic or natural. The ultimate goal is to offer appropriate and efficient antimicrobial drugs to the patient. From centuries, plants have been a valuable source of natural products for maintaining human health (Kapoor, 1990). Many plants have been used because of…

India and China rank 123rd and 121st in pollution control respectively, reflecting the strain rapid economic growth imposes on the environment, according to the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI). The other day I travelled across India in train and was deeply pained to see dyeing industry right on the river banks besides washeman putting all the filth , huge drain was flowing just below the bridge on river Yamuna in Agra with Taj Mahal onlooking. Cant we put away our drainage system and save the rivers from ultimate death ? While going for famous evening arti of the River Ganges on…

Rice and wheat take a lot of water to grow and no one eats more than China.  That also means no one contributes more to global warming from irrigation than China - a whopping 30 million tons of CO2 per year just from the pumping systems China uses. Like everywhere, water usage has gone up in China with the surge in population. Groundwater used for crop irrigation in China has grown from 10 billion cubic meters in 1950 to more than 100 billion today. The pumping systems which support this immense irrigation network annually produce 33.1 MtCO2e (33.1 mega tonnes of carbon dioxide…

The old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  In this case, a picture is worth millions.  Millions of tons of carbon dioxide that could be saved if we stopped throwing food into landfills, that is. Food waste is a pet peeve of mine. Yes, we do it at my house, probably way too much, but there is only so much nagging one can do.  I don't have the yard space to do composting - yes, I know, smelly hippies will insist I do it anyway but it isn't always practical. However, there is a 100% chance is it better to put it in the garbage disposal than in the garbage, so I do…

ECOLOGY   Humans are the most successful consumer of resources that Earth has produced. Our success has altered our planet. Humanity is currently experiencing limits to further growth. We have consumed the easily developed resources across most of our world. We are now faced with more people consuming fewer resources at a higher relative cost. Unchecked this trend will create the same results as in past human history: famine, war and disease.   The combination of human population explosion, global warming, commercial fish depletion, ocean acidification, depletion of…

Even one year after the disaster at the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan, it is still unfolding. It was locally surpassing the severity of Chernobyl relatively soon in the first few weeks. Four out of the six facilities were already no more than a pile of radioactive trash just like Chernobyl and it was clear since then that the future will be also similar to that of Chernobyl: A radioactive monument, still for our grand children’s grandchildren to be concerned about. The Fukushima plant will have to be treated similar to the reactor site in Chernobyl. The blocks may have to be…

• Climate change is any long-term significant change in average temperature, precipitation and wind patterns. Climate change takes place due to emissions of greenhouse gases which causes environmental damage to any given area. .Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas and increasing the use of biomass for energy is an important option for reducing CO2 emissions. Photosynthetic organisms use solar energy to generate reducing equivalents and incorporate atmospheric CO2 into organic molecules. This helps in carbon sequestration. First generation biofuels - ethanol and…

Scientists have reported the discovery of the floor of the world's oldest forest. They are now piecing together a view of this ancient site, dating back about 385 million years and - because virtually all studies have to reference global warming these days - they note their research could shed new light on the role of modern-day forests and their impact on climate change. The recent discovery was made in the same area in Schoharie County, New York where fossils of the Earth's oldest trees, the Gilboa stumps, were discovered in the 1850s, 1920 and again in 2010 and were brought to the New…