Hello everyone,Personally, I find this is achievable. I know that this action group is started to check if the goals are reached. I am going to talk about how we can help the government achieve the same. So it is a slight digression to the original topic.This can be done at various level.Level one is the individual level. Level two is the local community ( comprising of the streets or apartments). Level three is the district. Level four is the State and level 5 is the Country on the whole.In the level one, we set some personal goals towards reducing carbon footprint. After the advent of IT, computers and other various gadgets are putting pressure on energy requirements. For instance, a family of 4 having 4 mobiles requires charging at the least half an hour in a day. When we take the entire country the requirement is large. Of course, I am not advocating to stop using mobiles. I am only requesting that reduce the time. One can use internet for half an hour a day for recreational purpose but not more that that. By this, you reduce your energy requirements. Similarly, try to reduce the electronic gadgets you use. In 1980, we all could survive without them, so it is possible if only we tried little bit more. You can take resolutions not to use plastic. Always use jute bags or cotton bags when you go for shopping. In the level two we can work as community. For instance, if you take bike or car to office. Find out if anybody else from your office travels from the same place or a nearby place in bike or car. You c-an discuss with them and you can travel with that person every day. You can alternate with your friend. This reduces the petrol requirement and thus money is also saved. Me and my friend used to travel 40 km every day. We use our bikes alternatively, and thus we saved a lot of money. From my personal experience, I think this is a good idea. The best would be to take bus or train, but given the traffic and the crowd, I dont know if it is possible every day for everyone. In the same level two, all of your street members or apartments members can use vacant spaces to plant trees. If you plant on the corners of your street or inside your apartment, you increase the greenery, the plants purify the air and also at as a carbon sink. The entire community can take are of the trees. Simillary college students an also join together and plant lot of trees in your campus. A three year or four year stay in your campus enables you to take care of the tree samplings. Once the trees grow they dont need some one to take care.Those who are working in IT can actually contribute a lot. Lot of us waste money on paper to have details and records. This is especially seen in villages and towns where computerisation is not done. One can donate old computers and digitilise their data base and teach them how to use the computer. Even if two or three ppl join they can make one school or one shop in a remote town go paper less.The next level is the district level. This is the toughest as it requires the govt authorities to co -operate with you. Now if you are lucky and if you have nice ppl in govt. with their permission you can help in the cleaning of the lakes or park or plant more trees. When you do this please take with you people from NGO who are ready to work with out pay. You can plant trees in the compound of lot of buildings. The next level is the state level. If the state decides to ban plastics it would be of great help. Karnataka has banned plastic and any one who take carry bags will not be fined rs 500. If Karnataka can do it other states too can. Every shop in Karnataka now gives a jute bag rather than plastic. Simillary if the state transport decides to have more busses probably at a cheaper rate then at lest some of them will for go self travel. Like in Tamil nadu you can travel almost 20 km within 30 rupees but the same in Karnataka will be like 100 rupees up and down so people would even prefer self-travel.At the country level one as to elect ppl who believe in science and technology.We need to harvest wind energy, tidal energy, solar energy and nuclear energy to the best. Unfortunately, citizens are not educated about the same. When government sanctioned the Koodankulam nuclear plant in tamil nadu there was a false propaganda that it will destroy environment. This halted the program a little and finally with great difficulty Govt pushed it forward.Similarly the Government should make solar power compulsory for all engineering colleges IT firms, and big big industries. There is a research center in Bangalore which has installed solar panels on its terrace. The amount of electricity they generate is more than what they need and thus they give the surplus to Bangalore electricity board. I have been in the research institute, there are over 200 staff who use fan light and computer at the least 16 hours a day and still, they don't have to depend on BBMP but, infact give the surplus. If IT firms decide to do this, they will be doing a big service to the society. You may even recover the installation cost in two or three years. Those interested can contact NIAS which is in Bangalore. Similarly colleges can also benefit, from this. The electrical and electronics laboratory can also be run with the surplus. Regarding industries I don't know if solar power itself can do the job, however solar power can be still used to power the individual's cabins etc. Similarly an entire apartment or a complete street can join hands and do it. Since installation requires some money. One can contact NGO s to fund them. If few of them do this. They can be a very good example to others.From my opinion, if we all join hands and work together this can be achieved. This is to save the world so that we can have better future for out children.
Thanks for reading.
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By
Sudharsana Iyengar 9
Hello everyone,Personally, I find this is achievable. I know that this action group is started to check if the goals are reached. I am going to talk about how we can help the government achieve the same. So it is a slight digression to the original topic.This can be done at various level.Level one is the individual level. Level two is the local community ( comprising of the streets or apartments). Level three is the district. Level four is the State and level 5 is the Country on the whole.In the level one, we set some personal goals towards reducing carbon footprint. After the advent of IT, computers and other various gadgets are putting pressure on energy requirements. For instance, a family of 4 having 4 mobiles requires charging at the least half an hour in a day. When we take the entire country the requirement is large. Of course, I am not advocating to stop using mobiles. I am only requesting that reduce the time. One can use internet for half an hour a day for recreational purpose but not more that that. By this, you reduce your energy requirements. Similarly, try to reduce the electronic gadgets you use. In 1980, we all could survive without them, so it is possible if only we tried little bit more. You can take resolutions not to use plastic. Always use jute bags or cotton bags when you go for shopping. In the level two we can work as community. For instance, if you take bike or car to office. Find out if anybody else from your office travels from the same place or a nearby place in bike or car. You c-an discuss with them and you can travel with that person every day. You can alternate with your friend. This reduces the petrol requirement and thus money is also saved. Me and my friend used to travel 40 km every day. We use our bikes alternatively, and thus we saved a lot of money. From my personal experience, I think this is a good idea. The best would be to take bus or train, but given the traffic and the crowd, I dont know if it is possible every day for everyone. In the same level two, all of your street members or apartments members can use vacant spaces to plant trees. If you plant on the corners of your street or inside your apartment, you increase the greenery, the plants purify the air and also at as a carbon sink. The entire community can take are of the trees. Simillary college students an also join together and plant lot of trees in your campus. A three year or four year stay in your campus enables you to take care of the tree samplings. Once the trees grow they dont need some one to take care.Those who are working in IT can actually contribute a lot. Lot of us waste money on paper to have details and records. This is especially seen in villages and towns where computerisation is not done. One can donate old computers and digitilise their data base and teach them how to use the computer. Even if two or three ppl join they can make one school or one shop in a remote town go paper less.The next level is the district level. This is the toughest as it requires the govt authorities to co -operate with you. Now if you are lucky and if you have nice ppl in govt. with their permission you can help in the cleaning of the lakes or park or plant more trees. When you do this please take with you people from NGO who are ready to work with out pay. You can plant trees in the compound of lot of buildings. The next level is the state level. If the state decides to ban plastics it would be of great help. Karnataka has banned plastic and any one who take carry bags will not be fined rs 500. If Karnataka can do it other states too can. Every shop in Karnataka now gives a jute bag rather than plastic. Simillary if the state transport decides to have more busses probably at a cheaper rate then at lest some of them will for go self travel. Like in Tamil nadu you can travel almost 20 km within 30 rupees but the same in Karnataka will be like 100 rupees up and down so people would even prefer self-travel.At the country level one as to elect ppl who believe in science and technology.We need to harvest wind energy, tidal energy, solar energy and nuclear energy to the best. Unfortunately, citizens are not educated about the same. When government sanctioned the Koodankulam nuclear plant in tamil nadu there was a false propaganda that it will destroy environment. This halted the program a little and finally with great difficulty Govt pushed it forward.Similarly the Government should make solar power compulsory for all engineering colleges IT firms, and big big industries. There is a research center in Bangalore which has installed solar panels on its terrace. The amount of electricity they generate is more than what they need and thus they give the surplus to Bangalore electricity board. I have been in the research institute, there are over 200 staff who use fan light and computer at the least 16 hours a day and still, they don't have to depend on BBMP but, infact give the surplus. If IT firms decide to do this, they will be doing a big service to the society. You may even recover the installation cost in two or three years. Those interested can contact NIAS which is in Bangalore. Similarly colleges can also benefit, from this. The electrical and electronics laboratory can also be run with the surplus. Regarding industries I don't know if solar power itself can do the job, however solar power can be still used to power the individual's cabins etc. Similarly an entire apartment or a complete street can join hands and do it. Since installation requires some money. One can contact NGO s to fund them. If few of them do this. They can be a very good example to others.From my opinion, if we all join hands and work together this can be achieved. This is to save the world so that we can have better future for out children.
Thanks for reading.