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“The generation that destroys the environment is not the generation thatpays the price. That is the problem.”
Wangari Maathai02 ENVIRONMENT
DON’T GIVE YOUR CLOTHES FORLAUNDRY AFTER USING IT ONCE:A single load of laundry generates600g of CO2, even if you wash at30°C and dry it on the washingline. Tumble drying triples this.But the United NationsEnvironment Program and Levi'sJeans both agree you can weartrousers and skirts at least fivetimes before washing them. Thesame goes for wool and syntheticsweaters, jackets and sweatshirts.DAILY MIRROR
FROM SOLAR CARS TO FAKE MEATbest new techfor environment
Often cited as a window into the future, the annual ConsumerElectronics Show (held in Las Vegas) parades countless cutting-edge innovations and crazy gadgets. Among the giant TVs andcute robots that draw huge crowds to the mega conference – nowin its 10th year - technology that aims to solve social orenvironmental problems is also on show. From clever farming tofake meat, here are some of the best inventions for helping usconserve our environment in myriad ways:
Developed over a decade by machine learning researchersat the University of Washington and Belkin International,Phyn’s proprietary leak detection technology utilises highdefinition ultrasonic sensors to sample the pressure in yourplumbing system 240 times every second. This produces anunparalleled view of the unique signatures of each fixture inyour home. REUTERS
Phyn: Detects indoor water leaks
AcquaTap: Pulls drink-able waterout of thin air Exaeris, the US-based companyshowcased itssolar-poweredAcquaTap. Thedevice extracts upto five gallons ofclean, drinkablewater a day fromthe atmosphere,allowing it to gen-erate water any-where, even indrought and disas-ter areas.
Swiss groupFarmer Connectand software giantIBM launched a‘Thank MyFarmer’, a mobileapp usingblockchain tech-nology so thatcoffee drinkerscan trace theirbeans and supportthe smallholderswho grew them.
Thank MyFarmer app:Connects con-sumers to cof-fee producers
Aiming to make farming moresustainable, Taiwanese compa-ny AgriTalk Tech’s AI sensorand monitoring devices collectreal-time data – from soil tem-perature to atmospheric pres-sure – to help farmers.
AgriTalk: IoT for farming
With air pollution on therise, Brooklyn-basedstartup Ao Air hasdevised a transparentface mask whose bat-tery-powered fans bringin clean air to the wear-er, free from pollutants.
Atmos: Cleans the air your breathe
With sales of sports utility vehicles rising, LosAngeles-based electric car company Fisker show-cased the Ocean, an electric version with a solarpanel on the roof and vegan interiors.
Fisker Ocean: Comes with solar panels
A smart hydroponicindoor farm systemmade by a South Korea-based IoT company calledn.thing. The system isautomated, and modularto work in a number ofdifferent settings.
Plantycube: Forsmart hydroponics
Redefining the valuation oftrees, often felled to makeway for road, rail and oth-er projects, the Supreme
Court said the time had come to cal-culate environmental cost of treesby taking into account the volumeof oxygen they contribute to theatmosphere in their lifetime.
A bench of Chief Justice S ABobde and Justices B R Gavai andSurya Kant said, “Why do au-thorities, while computing envi-ronmental compensation, not takeinto account the volume of oxygena tree would release into the at-mosphere in its lifetime? Look atthe amount of oxygen generated bya single tree in its lifetime. Value ofoxygen generated by a tree in its life-time should be taken into accountin determining damage to environ-ment caused by its felling.”
The CJI-led bench made this ob-
servation while dealing with a pe-tition filed by the Association forProtection of Democratic Rights,which has challenged a Calcutta HCdecision permitting the West Ben-gal government to cut 356 trees forconstruction of five railway over-bridges (ROBs) at Kazipara, AshokNagar, Habra-I, Habra-II and Bon-gaon and expansion of NH-112, orJessore Road.
Appearing for the petitionerNGO, advocate Prashant Bhushansaid many of these 356 trees identi-fied for felling were heritage treesand were over 80 years old.
Human lives more precious than treesAccording to scientists, globalwarming will lead to increase oftemperature by seven degrees Cel-
sius in 50 years, which will wipe outthe human race on earth. Trees andincrease in green cover are the onlymeans to combat global warming.The state government must consid-er alternatives, including under-passes and changing alignment ofroads, to avoid felling of preciousheritage trees,” he said.
For the Mamata Banerjee gov-ernment, senior advocate A MSinghvi said ROBs were a necessi-ty as these five stretches had wit-nessed 700-odd deaths in the last fouryears. “The government, mandatedunder law to plant twice the num-ber of trees it fells for a project, isplanting five times the number oftrees. Against a requirement of 700-odd trees, the government is plant-ing 1,780 trees. Human lives are moreprecious than trees. Look at the hugenumber of human lives the ROBswill save,” he added. TNN
Time tocalculate valueof a tree byvolume ofoxygen it gives,suggests SC
Every drop of rain water trick-ling down Tyllod Khongwir’srusty tin roof and into herhouse is collected — even
though she lives in one of the wettestplaces on earth. The widowed moth-er-of-eight lives in Meghalaya, a re-mote state in India’s northeast, whereheavy rainfall no longer equates to anabundance of water. It was not alwayslike this. “We had plenty of waterthroughout the year earlier becausethere were a lot of natural springs andit rained so much,” Khongwir recalls.
Erratic changesToday the natural springs and aquifersof the area are dwindling — so resi-dents must save what they can, whenthey can, and by whatever means theycan. Meghalaya is a stark example ofits dual conundrum of having bothtoo much and too little water.
Climate change is bringing erraticweather — flood and drought, some-times in the same area. Scientists saythe monsoons now bring less rain intotal, while the demand for water in-creases as the population, economy,and industry grows. The rains comein increasingly violent deluges, butwith little storage options, most of therain is lost as run-off.
Every drop counts Meghalaya is among the greeneststates in India but it has rapidly lostits rich rainforests over the last fewdecades. According to the Global For-est Watch, the state has seen a 10 per-cent decrease in tree cover equivalentto 65.5Mt of CO2 emissions since 2000.Meghalaya is also home to two of thewettest places on earth. Khongwir’svillage, Cherrapunji,once held the
record — at its wettest, in 1861, it re-ceived almost 23 metres (75 feet) in ayear. Now it registers around half that.
Mawsynram village is now offi-cially recognised as the wettest placeon earth with close to 12m of rainfalling each year, but even there vil-lagers say everything is changing.
“We never learnt to save water be-cause there was so much water allaround,” says Miralin Kharchandy, alocal school principal, adding: “Thisyear we just had two weeks of veryheavy ran.”
Meghalaya authorities are nowworking with communities to build
rainwater reservoirs for each area.Headman Tarcisius Dhkar ex-plains: “Since the villagers playa role in building and main-taining these reservoirs, theyfeel a sense of ownership. They
use water more responsibly.” AFP
MEGHALAYA: World’s wettestplace is slowly going dry
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Impossible Foods, a US-based fake meat startup that created Impossible Burger 2.0, unveiled a plant-based pork replacement called ImpossiblePork. Their aim is to curb environmental and animalwelfare concerns engulfing the global meat industry.
Impossible Pork: A plant-based pork replacement
Photo: Getty images
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