Planet> Global warming – no laughing matter

Image: This is our only hope - this dies, we die.
Image by: woodleywonderworks

Text by: Tanya Munshi

If your doctor told you, that you had a few more days to live - what would you do? Give up or live to the fullest? If he told you, that if you took care of your health, you may survive, then? Similarly, if we came to know that our planet has a few more days to exisit, what would we do?

Recently I met up with a friend and we got discussing the issues about global warming and the shortage of fresh water supply that has hit Mumbai. We were talking about how certain portions of Mumbai and other parts of the world would come under water due to the melting ice caps. I was startled to hear her view when she said, “Oh, there’s a lot of time for that to happen. Who's bothered now.”

To which I instantly replied, “But I am concerned, if not for me, what would my children grow up to see!”

This made me realize that it’s not her alone but plenty of people around the world who hold similar views, “there’s lot of time for the crises to start” – the fact of the matter is, it has already begun. The rising fuel prices and food grain prices are just the tip of the ice berg. We haven’t even begun thinking ahead.
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Adverts – do they help in saving the environment?
Just by having glossy billboards and advertisements on television, it doesn’t really help as they are not really telling the people on how to go about saving the planet. The ads just tell us, ‘Save the Planet’ and not how. Some go a little far by telling us, ‘Plant more trees’ – but in a space starved city like Mumbai, where is an average Mumbaiker going to plant a tree? As it is several mangroves and trees have been erased to make place for larger luxury apartments and wider streets. Luxury apartments will arise because there is a demand for it, but I have failed to see how wider roads have helped us, as the number of cars keep increasing in a single city like Mumbai. Come to think of it, Mumbai is yet to adopt rainwater harvesting in a big way let alone starting terrace gardens, that can bring back the greenery and keep a check on the pollution in our city.

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Tip - Install rainwater harvesting units and start terrace gardens, use vermicompost from vegetable waste, dried leaves and flowers as manure. This will solve the issue of garbage disposal.

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Lights off!
Whenever I drive back home late night, I find most of the malls, supermarkets, billboards and even small sign posts have all the lights on. Who needs that kind of light every night? I think apart from street lights, hospitals, police stations, fire stations and day and night chemists, and ATMs, no one (especially commercial establishments like malls) should be allowed to keep lights on all the time, especially at night. It’s an utter waste of electricity.

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Tip - Start a rule, ‘Lights off after 10pm” (for commercial establishments), just the way we have “Loudspeakers off after 10pm” – this will be an answer to the power shortage in the cities.

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Malls - the biggest energy wasters
The malls are the biggest energy drainers. I have nothing against them; it’s just that they have to know how to use energy more efficiently and not waste electricity. Visit any store in a mall, and you will find several lights illuminating the store. A few smart lights can do the trick instead of using so many lights. Walk on the corridors of the malls and look up to the ceiling and see how many lights are switched on. Even if the malls switched on every alternate light or every third light in a row, it can work just as well.

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Tip - Have glass windows in the long corridoors that can be opened when required. Glass windows will allow sun light to peer in, that can create a natural lighting affect inside the malls.

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Water
During evening walks, I have noticed several homes washing their front porch with water daily. I cannot comment much on the double standards we Indians have when it comes to pollution and cleanliness, but I hate anyone wasting water like that. Several people in India walk for miles to fetch one pot of drinking water, while some mercilessly use it to wash their front porch every other day. Yes, we have to keep our front porch clean or wash the bathrooms almost every day, but I have tried the experiment myself and it has worked well for me.

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Tips -

• Wash your bathrooms on alternate days, especially if you’re the kind who likes to wash his/ her bathroom daily. If you can span it a little longer – once in three days, nothing like it.
• Wash clothes alternate days, if you have a washing machine or having a helper to do it. If it’s your helper, then request her to use limited amount of water and not waste it. Adjust the water level in your washing machine, so it does not use extra water.
• Try and reuse water. For example, after you have used the water to wash vegetables during cooking, then don’t just dunk it in the sink. Pour it into your plants if you don’t have plants then use that water later to wash your kitchen sink. But reuse it. That’s the main thing.
• Teach your kids and other family members to not waste water, especially while brushing or shaving. Sure, you may be received with a few mocks or smiles, but it’s worth the effort.

You have to see what best works for you. Yes of course, families who have children or babies need to wash clothes more often, in that case try and work out some formula that works best for you and the planet.
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TV serials and soaps
I am not a fan of Ekta Kapoor but I still want to write to her. Her soaps are/ were by far one of the most watched and popular all over the country. She has a huge fan following from every social stratum. I hope she reads this blog soon and realizes the importance of saving the planet, issues about global warming etc and weaves these messages into her serials. Just imagine, if Tulsi from “Saans bhi kabhi bahu thi’ mentions to one of her bahus or to Ba to turn off the tap or switch off lights and fans in rooms that are not required, then I think it would do wonders in spreading the message.
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Bollywood and the Environment
I am not zeroing down on Ekta Kapoor alone, I would like actors like Aamir Khan or Shah Rukh Khan to join the bandwagon keeping aside their professional or personal rivalries and get down to creating awareness amongst the people to do something for their planet. Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan are powerful personalities whom we all admire, and if they take up the cause for the environment I think would be great. If Amitabh Bacchan could help in eradicate polio by appearing in anti-polio campaigns, then imagine what magic Amir or Shah Rukh could create in their respective ways!
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Tip - Bollywood is a strong tool to reach out to the masses. If 'Taarey Zameen Par' could educate us about dyslexia, 'Chak de India', about hockey as a sport and women sportspersons, then imagine what can a film on the natural environment do to bring about a change in our world? We could have a Munna Bhai preaching environmental conservation, just the way he preached Gandhigiri and why not?
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Sports and the Environment
If the IPL matches or players donated even 1/4th of their earnings to the effort of planting more trees, animal and plant conservation drives – that’s another magic in the making. By far, today, cricket is one of the most prosperous business ventures today. You win or loose, you still win. So, why not give something back to the society from where you came?
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Go beyond
Just by wearing t-shirts, lighting a candle and participating in a peace march for one day does not create awareness as we are too busy with our daily lifestyle and tend to forget. Actions like planting more trees, saving water, car pooling, alternate days of driving your car/ scooter or bicycle days should be a part of our daily lifestyle and not only for the Page 3 crowd to do it for one day and we poor citizens pour our heads into Bombay Times to see who wore what mini skirt or a see-through dress in which party.
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Corporate and Universities
The list is endless, but then efforts put in by people should be endless too. Unused corridors, passageways, staircase should have fewer or smart lights. Campuses can use solar lamps to light up their premises. All corporate firms should have a line of chartered busses for all employees, this will save fuel consumption from several usage of cars or bikes and scooters. CEOs should set the example by traveling in chartered buses too. Come on, crisis hits everyone with the same force, crisis will never differentiate between a CEO or a humble peon. This is where everyone has to join the bandwagon to save their beloved planet.

Would you want to leave a messy world for your children to live in? The choice is yours.

Earth> Handy Eco-Tips

Text by: Tanya Munshi
Make notepads out of rough/ old/ printed papers. Don’t throw them in the bin, use the blank sheets for your kids’ math practice, drawing sheets or rough books.

Have a white board installed in your house, any important message for the day can be written on that for everyone to see, instead of cutting out pages from a notepad.

Use old visiting cards as gift tags. Paint, or stick coloured paper on the printed side and use them as gift tags on gifts and bouquets.

Recycle previous greeting cards or birthday cards to make your own new cards. Cut out the pictures, stick it on card paper and with felt pens and paints add your personal touch.

Revamp sweet boxes, chocolate boxes or shoe boxes as a gift box. Stick coloured paper, add glitter and make them into pretty looking gift boxes or give it to your daughter to keep her trinkets like hair bands and hair clips.

Never keep your electronics in the sleep mode as that consumes a lot of electricity. Switch of your television set, stereo system, microwave ovens, washing machine & blender when not in use.
Did you know that recycling a 3 ft pile of newspapers can save one whole tree. So just imagine, if you re-use newspaper as paper bags or gift wrapping paper, how much of a difference it can make! Paint; add hand prints, stick dried leaves or flowers on newspapers to make creative wrapping paper for presents.

Re-use plastic bags as garbage bags or for packing.

We can pass this tip to the road construction companies - recycled glass bottles are handy for making roads and tiles.

Did you know that recycled paper uses 60% less energy and water to make than new paper.

Make party hats for your kids from used or old aluminium foil.

Add vegetable peels, dried flowers to your flower pots or gardens. This makes a good manure for your plants.

Earth> How to Save Our Planet

Image: A humble lantern

Image by: Tanya Munshi

Text by: Tanya Munshi

Saving the environment and caring for nature are not as difficult as it seems to be. It’s not only the government’s responsibility to enforce laws and create policies to save our natural resources. It’s our responsibility too.

We can achieve greater results in terms of protecting our natural resources and caring for our environment if each one of us takes a stand. Saving natural resources can start from a simple act of closing the taps when not in use and switching off extra fans and lights when we don’t require them. Just imagine, in a billion plus population of ours, if each one of us practices some easy and simple processes, we can make a drastic and a positive change to save our natural resources like water, flora and fauna. Saving electricity too in turn can offer us great relief in the future.

By following these simple acts of conserving our resources, we can make the world a better place for ourselves and for our children. Just imagine, if we indiscriminately waste water, electricity and don’t bother about planting more trees, we’ll only be creating more problems for ourselves and for our children. Is it fair to leave them a world so messy that our future generations are left to suffer?

Here are some easy tips to start saving for our future. If we can save money for a rainy day, then why can’t we save water, electricity and our forests?

1. Involve everyone around you
The best way to bring about any positive change is to start creating awareness in your neighbourhood. If you live in a building society or a colony, then the society members can hold a workshop or a seminar with the help of a power point presentation that will educate young and old about the need to save water, electricity etc. Involve your maids as well. Ask them to attend one of these workshops in your neighbourhood so that they too can practice these methods both at work and home.

2. Create laws/ Do's and Don'ts
Just like most building societies have specific laws, you can create some laws that will ensure that no one wastes water. For example, some building societies have a law that fines Rs. 500/- to those residents who leave their taps on or forget it to shut it for hours. Such laws ensure that each one of us is responsible and never waste water.

3. Waste management
The biggest problem that we are facing today in our world is garbage dumping and waste disposal. Consult a waste management specialist or vermiculture specialist who will show you how to create manure for your plants and gardens from kitchen wastes. Whether you have a garden or you live in an apartment block, you can dispose off waste that will in turn prove beneficial to you. You can separate dry and wet waste in two separate dustbins in your home. Send the plastic and glass items to the regular garbage collector, while use the wet waste such as – dried leaves, flowers, vegetable waste, tea leaves, non-vegetarian waste and waste paper to the gardener. This solves a huge problem of waste disposal.

4. Vermiculture
Vermiculture is the process where earthworms feed on organic waste or disposal of organic waste and breed in it. This further creates vermicompost a form of organic manure that comes in handy for plants and trees. By organic or biodegradable waste we mean - kitchen wastes such as vegetable peels, fruits, egg shells, tea leaves, cooked/ uncooked food, leftovers, non-vegetarian wastes like chicken or meat bones, dried leaves, grass, cardboard, paper and carton waste. Remember, whatever goes into forming a vermicompost has to be 100% recyclable, with more than 60% solid waste from a residential/ hotel building.

You can contact Vermigold on-site waste management system that is approved by the Govt. of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF), that gives permission for disposal of solid waste that is environmentally safe.

Vermigold Ecotech Pvt Ltd
11, Garden Homes, c.d. Marg, Khar - West
Mumbai - 400052
India
E-mail: info@vermigold.com

5. Say no to Plastic Bags
Do you know that plastic bags take more than 10 years to decompose? So why take up something that will pollute our surroundings for years? The next time you go shopping carry your own cloth bag. Newspapers are available in plenty around us; get your kids to make some nice paper bags, where they can add their creative touch to them. Take out your jute, cloth or paper bags when you go shopping. Yes, shopping for veggies can be painful if there is not plastic bags available. But if you carry those large ‘big shopper’ bags with you, you can ask the vegetable vendor to drop the veggies in them. You can make your building a 'No Plastic Zone', where the residents of the building will be encouraged to use cloth/ paper bags. This is also a good option for commercial establishments too.

6. Trees and more trees
There’ll always be a paucity of space, but it should not deter us from planting more trees. Take an initiative with your building/ office members where you plant more trees along the lanes of your locality if there aren’t any. Use the vermicompost as manure to keep these plants healthy.

7. Switch off extra lights and fans
This is quite a difficult habit to break – switching off extra fans and lights when not required. Think of several places within our country that go without electricity for hours or even days. Just because something is readily available to us, doesn’t mean we waste it.
Your company/ residential area/ building apartment can install solar lamps to light up the drive way, the building campus, gardens and lanes of your locality. The initial investments may seem high, but it’s all worth it to prevent severe power crunch in the future. Install solar water heaters where ever possible that will reduce considerable amount of load on the power supply.

8. Rain water harvesting
As the years go by, the rains are becoming scarce and inadequate. Poor rains lead to poor crops, shortage of food and there will not be enough water to create hydro-electricity that will lead to more power cuts. It is all a ripple effect and we are affected by it.
That’s why it is a wise thing to get your society members to pool in and install rain water harvesting units in your buildings or in your own house/ office. By saving rain water, we can reduce the demand and pressure on the ground water that is fast depleting or becoming saline. In fact, some states and cities in India have compulsory rain water harvesting units, that helps the people to survive through the summers.

You can contact agencies like: http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/
The Urban Rainwater Harvesting is conducting advanced course for working professionals from January 19-23, 2009. Here you can learn the science, techniques and policies on urban rainwater harvesting. Practical exercises and field visits to prepare you to find solutions to the urban water crisis

For more information on rain water harvesting visit:
http://akash-ganga-rwh.com/RWH/WaterHarvesting.html

9. Car Pooling
But obviously, if all of you go in different directions to work, study or recreation, this option may not work for all. But if you’re living in a neighbourhood where your kids go to the same school but in individual cars or if you and your friends decide to go out shopping or for lunch, you can easily opt for a car pooling system. If you, your kids or your husband take the school/ office bus or vehicle to commute, then it’s a wonderful thing to do. This not only reduces traffic jams, but also saves fuel, creates lesser carbon emissions and pollution.

10. Work from Home
Working from home is one of the best options in today's scenario. It cuts down on your fuel cost, you spend less time in traffic, it reduces fuel emissions (pollution) and most importantly it saves time.

11. Cycle for health and for the environment
Make cycling a popular sport in your neighbourhood. You can opt to walk or cycle short distances, instead of taking the scooty or your car. Cycling will give you the much needed exercise and at the same time it is very eco-friendly.

12. Fix leaking taps immediately
A lot of homes go without fixing leaking taps without realising what a fatal crime it is to waste precious potable water. If drop by drop makes an ocean, then every leaking tap can in turn lead to severe water shortage for all of us. It is estimated that water that is lost from a single leaking tap every second is more than 3,000 litres.

13. Recycle water, paper
Water:
~ If you use water to wash vegetables, then don’t just dunk the water into the sink. Use this water to water your plants or clean the kitchen sink at the end of cooking. The water that is left after making paneer or cottage cheese at home, use that to knead dough for chapattis or preserve it in the refrigerator to re-use to make paneer again.
~ Water your gardens or plants in the morning, so that the plants get enough water and do not loose it to evaporation.
~ A lot of people are in the habit of washing their drive way or front porch with water every day or evening. You can substitute by cleaning the area with a broom and wash the area with water twice or thrice week.
~ Wash your bathrooms on alternate day or once in two days.
~ Use your washing machine on alternate days or once in two days in full load.
We have to get wiser in terms of usage of water.

Paper
~ The envelopes, pamphlets, loose print out sheet that you don’t need anymore, clip them together to form a rough notepad or a rough book for your kids.
~ These notepads come handy in the kitchen to jot down shopping list, or phone numbers if kept next to the phone.
~ Newspaper can be converted into shopping bags and garbage bags.

Whatever it is, the key point here is to not waste, but to reduce waste by recycling all that is readily available around us.