Sunday, October 24, 2010

Global Warming

Wake up before its too late.... an Award winning abstract on the most alarming environmental issue ever to confront humanity.



Throughout its long history, Earth has warmed and cooled time and again. The beginning of the Industrial Revolution brought many new, exciting inventions into our lives to simplify our lives and made them more efficient. Before the Industrial Revolution, human activities caused very few gases to be released into the atmosphere, but now through the burning of fossil fuels, a large population growth and deforestation, humans are affecting the mixture of gases in the atmosphere. This mixture of gases in the atmosphere is causing the worldwide problem known as Global Warming.
Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released by people burning fossil fuels. It happens when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane) trap heat and light from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere, which increases the temperature. In response to the sun, the earth radiates energy back into space. Atmospheric greenhouse gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases, trap the energy leaving the earth and retaining it as heat, much like a greenhouse ceiling. This is a natural and necessary effect, without it temperatures on earth would be much lower than they are now and life as it is today would not be possible. The greenhouse effect makes the earth appropriate for people to live on. Without it, the earth would be freezing, or on the other hand it would be burning hot.
The problems that have arisen with the greenhouse effect have occurred due to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases. Models predict that as the world consumes ever more fossil fuel, greenhouse gas concentrations will continue to rise and Earth’s average surface temperature will rise with them. The impact of global warming is far greater than just increasing temperatures. Warming modifies rainfall patterns, amplifies coastal erosion, lengthens the growing season in some regions, melts ice caps and glaciers, and alters the ranges of some infectious diseases. Also global warming makes the sea rise, and when the sea rises, the water covers many low land islands. Already, the rise in global temperatures has resulted in cracks in the Antarctic ice shelf. Melting of even fraction of the volume of polar ice can result in flooding of many low lying areas around the earth. Other climate changes include floods, droughts, storms and exceptionally warm summers; this is a big problem for many of the plants, animals, and people on islands. The water covers the plants and causes some of them to die. When they die, the animals lose a source of food, along with their habitat. When the plants and animals die, people lose two sources of food, plant food and animal food. They may also lose their homes. As a result, they would also have to leave the area or die. This would be called a break in the food chain.
It is destroying many huge forests. The pollution that causes global warming is linked to acid rain. Acid rain gradually destroys almost everything it touches. Global warming is also causing many more fires that wipe out whole forests. This happens because global warming can make the earth very hot. In forests, some plants and trees leaves can be so dry that they catch on fire.
Many things cause global warming. One thing that causes global warming is electrical pollution. Electricity causes pollution in many ways. In most cases, fossil fuels are burned to create electricity. Fossil fuels are made of dead plants and animals. Some examples of fossil fuels are oil and petroleum. Many pollutants are sent into the air when fossil fuels are burned. We use these sources of energy much more than the sources that give off less pollution. Petroleum, one of the sources of energy, is used a lot. It is used for transportation, making electricity, and making many other things. Also when we throw our garbage away, the garbage goes to landfills. The garbage is then sometimes burned. This sends an enormous amount of greenhouse gasses into the air and makes global warming worse.
Another thing that makes global warming worse is when people cut down trees. Trees and other plants collect carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a greenhouse gas. With fewer trees, it is harder for people to breathe because there is more CO2 in the air, and we don’t breathe CO2, we breathe oxygen. Deforestation reduces this utilization of carbon-dioxide. Consumption of fossil fuels and house-hold fuels like coal, firewood also gives off considerable amount of carbon-dioxide. With fewer trees there is less air for us, and more greenhouse gases are sent into the air. This means that it is very important to protect our trees to stop the greenhouse effect, and also so we can breathe and live.
Prevention is always better than cure. It can be best carried out by checking atmospheric pollution. Deforestation should be stopped. Wood should be used as little as possible. Bricks houses should be encouraged as they retain less heat. Thus they are well suited to Indian climate. People are doing many things to try to stop global warming. One thing people are doing is carpooling. Carpooling is driving with someone to a place that you are both going to. This minimizes the amount of greenhouse gases put into the air by a car. Another thing that people are doing is being more careful about leaving things turned on like the television, computer, and the lights. Now, more people are even riding buses, walking to school, and riding their bikes to lower the amount of greenhouse gases in the air. Also development of more efficient vehicles would also result in less consumption of fuel and therefore less atmospheric pollution planting trees and recycling also helps. If you recycle, less trash goes to the dump, and less trash gets burned. As a result, there are fewer greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. LPG stove should be used which results in greater efficiency in fuel, utilization and less atmospheric pollution, Renewable sources of energy like solar energy and wind energy should be used more and more. Hydro-electricity is also of considerable use.

The abstract along with the .ppt presented by Varun Maheshwari and me i.e. Rachit Sharma won the 2nd prize in the Thapar University Annual Techfest "Aranya'".

Link: Kadzilla's Lounge




Image Link: Global Warming





Sunday, October 17, 2010

The great Indian wedding: a satire on the aries

I will share my views on organizing the so called "BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING". It was my daughter, Aries, marriage. And like any other father I was bit happy, a bit nervous, and somewhat perplexed of veni and vedi.

Let me reverse the pendulum, that would took you 2 weeks back. My daughter told me about her secret love and added that the groom family had just a week time for the marriage, after which they would be returning back to London, their home place.

This was the result of liberty and freedom which I gave to my daughter. Yet, a week time was bothering me much. Like every father, I too had a dream of  marrying my daughter with great pomp and show. But, just a week..oops. What can be done much? After consulting a Pandit we fixed the date. We had only couple of days left for ring ceremony. It was going to be a nasty hasty project.

We had lots of stuff left still to finalize; firstly we penned down all the guests name. Problem after problem were there, the biggest was that no offset company was ready to provide us with the wedding cards in a day time. Computer ji and Internet baba came to our rescue. Google Maharaj located an internet firm ready to help us.

Problems were still there, the next on line was that I was in dire need of a team which could help me in organizing the wedding. My wife came to my rescue, she handled the job to her relatives who cautiously took it. Please note, my elder brother stood with me throughout the pre and post wedding.

Here comes the bolt again, my elder had could not make it to the ring ceremony because of an official appointment. He assured me that he would be back for the wedding. Yet, it was the wedding, not a simple birthday party and I desperately needed the support, tension griped me. Till now my wife relatives were doing a decent job but suddenly on the ring ceremony they all collapsed as a team.

I was a fool to trust them; people from my wife side are all with some weird psychological disorders. Well the clocked struck 8pm and the guest started to pour in. My team told me that the food wasn't ready. Also, the idiotic cameraman forgot his camera rolls, adding to the disorder. And the event manager ran after seeing the failure of the team.

What can be done now? This question rang in my mind for hundreds of times. And got only one reply.. Finish of the event as fast as I can and make sure wedding goes smoothly. I called one of the guest, who was also my good friend and more precisely he owns a five star hotel. He solved mine food problem. I went to another guest, who was a professional cameraman for taking out the snapshots of the wedding. And I myself took charge as the event manager.

It was the D day now. Also, I was having the support of my elder brother who came back. We two took over all the charges. Day 1 had taught me about mismanagement. It showed me the failure of my wife team.  I, just like a student, corrected all my mistakes. I appointed a new team for the wedding on whom I had a blind trust. I took over the cameraman and my brother looked after the food.

Now its been 2 weeks since then and still people call me up and give their heartiest congratulation for the good management of the wedding. I am thinking of switching over jobs now.... who knows one day I can own an event managing firm.