Food for Thought !

Following are some of the activities that would add around 1 kg of CO2 to your carbon footprint:

• Driving your car for a distance of around 6 km
• Operating your computer for around 30 hours
• Use of 5 plastic bags
• Use of 2 plastic bottles


Some food for thought !

Basic Human Activities Leading to Carbon Emission

The chart below represents typical basic human activities that lead to carbon emission. (red pies reflect the primary foorprints and the green pies shows secondary footprints)

Food for thought !

War for water

Drying water, growing thirst. Will Asia’s new battles be fought over water?

Excerpt from an article in The Times of India today:

With about 20% of the world’s population within its borders, China’s water requirements are huge. However, it has access to only 7% of global water resources. With demand for fresh water expected to rise phenomenally within the next decade – and many of its lakes drying up – China has already hit the panic button and started eyeing rivers like the Brahmaputra.

Did I say this before: The next world war will be over water? Well, this is not my original thought, but the idea is fast gaining ground.

How much carbon can a country emit?

“US, EU have gobbled India’s emission pie”, is the title of today’s story in The Times of India. The story refers to a paper titled Equitable Access to Sustainable Development: An Indian Approach. According to the paper the wealthy western nations have “over-polluted” the atmosphere. The paper says that “countries have contributed differently to the problem of global warming. Hence their respective responsibilities to protect the climate system are not the same but are varying.”

I think, yes, developing countries like India may feel that emission restrictions on them are unjustified because every individual is required to a share of the global atmospheric carbon sink. However, it is time that we leave the squabbling alone and invest in developing environmentally friendly technology to replace the current fuel guzzling, carbon emitting one.

Did You Know...

• One Unit (1 Kwh ) of thermal electricity consumption emits 0.6 Kg of carbon dioxide?

• 1 Liter of Diesel consumption emits approximately 3Kg of carbon dioxide?

Why is Biodiversity important?

 Does it really matter if there aren’t so many species?

Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play. Imagine if the only food was wheat, roses were the only flowers in every bouquet, and dogs were the only animals in the zoo!

Also, greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms; and history tells us that healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters.