inverter

Do you ever think about the good old modest inverter at your home. I some times do. It makes me feel as though my inverter defines my energy usage pattern. Here's how:

Scene 1: No power cut

My TV is on, my DTH machine is on (although I am playing games on my Play station). I want the convenience  of sitting on my bed and switching between my game and TV. The light of the other room is on and so is that of the loo. I forgot to switch them off and now I don't want to get up.

Earlier I was using my laptop and it is still plugged to the power. The computer is on too (a movie is getting downloaded). 

Scene 2: Oh shit! there's a power cut

Suddenly all comfort has vanished. I spring up from my bed and....

Hey the light in the other room is on. Switch it off.

Do I have to tell you about the loo too. switch it off.

I think that will be enough. The power will be back soon.

Scene 3: Half an hour later. Beep Beep. Inverter is not taking all the load

I jump again. 

Unplug the laptop from power.

Beep stops. Thank God

That's enough. The power will be back soon.

Scene 4: Half an hour later. Beep Beep Beep. Inverter is low on battery

Another jump

Turn off the Play station.

Turned off

Still beeping, still beeping

Turn off the computer

Beeping stops

That's enough. The power will be back soon.

Scene 5: Half an hour later. Beep Beep Beep Beep. Inverter is not taking any load, low on battery

Another spring, another jump

Turn off the TV.

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep

The inverter is dead. 

Now we must sit in the heat

Well it was not enough. The power will not be back soon.

If only we had switched off all the unnecessary equipments earlier, it could have lasted longer.

This inverter teaches me something. It is trying to give me some sign. If only I switch off all the unnecessary equipments when there is power too, all of us will have more power. Our power system will not be low on power and won't beep to say low battery.

We get so alert when our home is on inverter, why not get alert other wise also as our earth is on inverter?

Lets try to remember the inverter always and switch off the unnecessary switches to let the inverter last longer.

Earth Hour@ Sanrakhan, in news: अर्थ आवर@ संरक्षण, ख़बरों मै

Sanrakshan's Aditi Mehandiratta was widely quoted in media, just before the Earth Hour, for her comments on the need for individual awareness and human incentives for combating climate change. 

 संरक्षण की अदिति मेहंदिरत्ता के द्वारा अर्थ आवर के पहले दिया गया कथन मीडिया द्वारा कवर किया गया। 

 Here are excerpts of the news:
 However, several other groups in India have also shown a keen interest on the occasion in creating awareness in the masses regarding the dire need to preserve natural resources.
"Climate change is a discrepancy created by persistent human exploitation. Hence, its cure lies only in a consistent and united human initiative...individual awareness and action is the key to combat climate change," says Aditi Mehndiratta, head 'Sanrakshan', nature conservation initiative of an NGO.
"The NGO has inspired lakhs of beneficiaries not only in India but across the globe to switch all their lights and electrical appliances. Along with this our followers would also sit in divine meditation on Earth Hour and pray for the strength of Mother Earth," adds Mehndiratta.

The news piece:
http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/earth-hour-2010-aims-to-surpass-last-years-target-18509.php

http://www.zeenews.com/news614400.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/Earth-Hour-2010-aims-to-surpass-last-years-target-WWF/articleshow/5730327.cms

http://news.outlookindia.com/printitem.aspx?677915

http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/4437.html
http://sify.com/news/earth-hour-2010-aims-to-surpass-last-year-s-target-wwf-news-national-kd0rkgecifc.html?tag=Earth
http://meghalayatimes.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9910:millions-to-go-dark-for-earth-hour-today&catid=46:cfm&Itemid=60
http://punenvis.nic.in/News_2010/March/Mar38.htm
http://flashnewstoday.com/?p=19685
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_earth-hour-2010-aims-to-surpass-last-year-s-target-wwf_1363690
http://www.udayavani.com/showstory.asp?news=0&contentid=755627&lang=1
http://www.etrendsmag.com/earth-hour-2010-aims-to-surpass-last-years-target-wwf/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=71792808816
http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=351047447032&share_id=389613630338&comments=1

world water day@ sanrakshan in news: विश्व जल दिवस@ संरक्षण, अखबारों में चर्चा

Sanrakshan had organised events all across India on the World Water Day 2010 all across India. Here are some clippings of the event picked up by the media.
विश्व जल दिवस पर संरक्षण द्वारा आयोजित देश व्यापी समारोहों की अखबारों में चर्चा।
World Water Day 2010: विश्व जल दिवस, २०१०

When thousands switched off their lights and meditated for mother earth....

27th March 2010, some 120 cities dimmed down for an hour, with the pledge of enlightening our common future. Struggling to find solution to global climate change, once again global community raised a common voice to stand united against the most crucial environment discrepancy.

Going with the WWF mantra of switching off lights to mark support against climate change, Sanrakshan, DJJS also extended its support to this global call, in our own unique way.

Climate change an environmental discrepancy created by prolonged indiscriminate and unforeseen human action. Fading human- nature relationship of mutualism and growing disconnect with environment stand as major road blocks in finding sustainable solutions to this raging issue. Realizing the philosophy of Sanrakshan, we supported earth hour to reiterate the gravity of the issue and re- ignite compassion for nature, prompting individual action against climate change.

Building upon the traditional science of dhyan complementary to the modern science of energy, we contributed to the initiative by observing an hour of meditation across its centers in India. An hour of silence, an hour of introspection, an hour of prayer for mother earth....across India millions of DJJS followers and associates sat in silence, practicing the eternal technology of consciousness to re- energize the element of divinity running across the creation and heal the world.

an hour of introspection:come join us

We welcome and request everyone to join us at the Earth hour for an hour of self-reflection.

Date: 27th March 2010

Time: 8:30 to 9:30 PM

Location: your home and mine

celebrating life: world water day

Hey everyone. Have you been noticing the blue World Water Day logo on the blog.

We hope that you are aware of its meaning. Here is some information for those of us who still do not know about it.

Water or the growing scarcity of its usable for is becoming a bigger concern day by day. But then why care? We need to care because water is the single most important entity that makes life possible on Earth (even more important than oxygen). That is so because even if you don't have oxygen on the planet, you can extract it from water (H2O), considering water is there. Keeping this in mind presence of water on this great planet is somthing that we should celebrate (and appriciate).

United Nations has decided to celebrate the 22nd of March' 2010 as World Water Day. Lets at least keep one day to bring change in our lives for the long term benifit of our mother (Earth) and its sons/daughters (Us). Keeping the busy life schedulde of most of us Sanrakshan has thought of celebrating water on 21st of March (Funday-Sunday). We request and invite you to join us to celebrate somthing that has made our life on Earth possible.

See you all there.

footprint.......why should i be bothered

As promised in the earlier post, here we are with some information on 'how does foot printing help the environmental cause and how you can get involved'.

Remember how we talked about standing on a beach in Goa and seeing the size of our feet. Just imagine how you would have been able to choose those beautiful and stylish shoes if you didn't know what size your feet were. So, what you will do is that you will buy random shoes and test them out at home. Some will be useful and some useless. What happens to the useless? The are just junked.

Same analogy can be employed in case of 'environmental footprint'. If you don't know your 'environmental foot' what kind of resources will you use? You will use (or at least try to use) random resources that catch your fancy. Some of them can be categorised 'can't do without' some 'can do without but like it'. Basically, some resources we need and some we don't (or don't need as much). So, what happens to the resources that we don't need? They are junked. This may be food, water, electricity, heat or any other resource that we use. Some of use run water through a pipe while we can wash our car with a bucket (or a couple of) of water. We run our ACs at minimum temperature and sleep in a blanket. We travel on SUVs (with 2Km/l average) while we have small cars (with 16-18 Km/l) average. In fact we travel in a car while we have the world's best metro trains.

Anyway, if we knew the effect that our resource consumption is having on the environment, we might think and act in a more sensible manner. So, by calculating our footprint we can understand how much water we use, what effect our energy use is having on the environment and other similar issues. So, sum it all its very important that we chose only the right size shoes (the one that we buy out of need and not greed) and to choose those we need to know the size of our feet (our footprint).

Now, to the next question. how can you get involved?
Simply by living a sustainable lifestyle. Each one of us can assess our footprints and try to keep it (or reduce it) to a minimum level of need. There are several websites which can help you do that. All of them may have a different methodology and hence your footprint may vary in each one but the may help you get an indication about you lifestyle and the need of reduction.
Here are a few websites (we will try to add a good widget for the purpose on the blog in the coming days):

• http://ecoguru.panda.org/#/home
• http://www.myfootprint.org/
• http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/home

If you take the help of 'google god' you will be able to find many more such sites. Please let us know if you stumble upon something good.

Meanwhile, lets get our sizes measures and buy only the right shoes. Lets not leave behind us a junk pile of shoes for our kids to figure out.

footprint.....whatever is that !!!!!

'Footprint' is a word that is now being popularly used by environmentalists working in all the various fields. While this has become a common usage in the academic circles, the common man (and woman) is slowly getting the hang of the word.

So, to answer the query, 'what is footprint' that came to us, we are writing this post.

Imagine standing on a beach in Goa......

As you step away from the location

You can see what you have left behind. A pair of feet on the sand. This footprint on the sand signifies the amount of land that you used to stand. It is the amount of land resource that you need.

What does that mean in the perspective of the environment? It simply means that your 'environmental footprint' signifies the amount of resources that you use during the course of your daily lifestyle. This is the print of your feet on the environment or the nature around you.

Now a days footprints are being taken into account for all the various resources we use. So, you can have a 'carbon footprint' for the amount of Green House Gases that you emit due to your activities like power usage, travelling, cooking etc. You can have a 'water footprint' for the amount of water you use in your daily life. 'Footprints' can be calculated for Industries, Households and even Individuals.

How does foot printing help the environmental cause and how you can get involved will be taken up in the subsequent posts.

an hour for the Earth

You must have noticed the 60 EARTH HOUR banner on the blog. Let me take a moment to talk about that. Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour emerged as a bigger movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the, Sydney Harbour Bridge, The CN Tower in Toronto, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

What is the cause? Its the one recent cause that binds us all, one recent threat that threatens us all, its Climate Change. Earth Hour signifies a stand against the energy wastage (in my view), which is one of the biggest causes of increase in green house gasses and thus Climate Change. If we only use as much as we need, the Earth can be a better place.



This year Earth Hour is is being organised globally on the 27th of March Saturday (a holiday after that). A little effort from all of us can go a long way in changing a lot of things.

Lets get together and organise Earth Hour in our localities and Vote for Earth. Sanrakshan is also planning to get some events together for the Earth Hour. Please let us know of your thoughts, ideas, suggestions on that.

Save Water, Save Holi!!!

As we eagerly await the Indian Festival of Colors - Holi, we would like to share a bad news and a good news with you.

Bad News: Our very beloved festival also stands threatened from us the humans.

How???
Indiscriminate exploitation of the natural resources and an unending interference with natural systems have left our human evolved systems threatened by our own actions. Nature is the common element threading the diverse beads of cultures and traditions across societies. However, today this natural element stands disrupted by our modification. Today we stand amidst a water crisis which threatens existence of life. Over 1.1 billion people in this world live without clean drinking water. And yes our very own festival Holi, an occasion which marks the turn of seasons stands threatened of losing its existence.

Though colors form the attraction of the festival but water adds the element of wit in the festival. All the fun and energy of this festival is now at stake of our own actions. If we continue to be ignorant about our usage of water and don't use it judiously then we may be responsible for depriving our future generations from the culture and fun we inherited from our ancestors.

Ignorance today can lead to an endless guilt and dis-satisfaction. Choice is ours and need to be made today.

Good News: We can still make a difference

'You' can Save Holi and have all the fun by simply making a green choice of using edible/ herbal colors over the commonplace chemical colors.

3 ways in which edible colors help you save water:

1. Preparation of these colors involve minimal direct usage of water and often rely on physical processes of mechanical powdering and mixing of ingredients like dried flowers, arrowroot, turmeric etc.
2. Unlike the chemical colors which demand use of water, these colors can be used in the dry form to leave you with colorful and natural impressions of Holi
3. Buckets of water which you drain in the bathroom struggling to get rid of the chemical colors can be saved by using these natural colors which are fun while playing and even after Holi is over.

Hence, to relive the fun of Holi year after year, make a difference by playing a water neutral holi. It doesn't costs you much but draws you an endless satisfaction of doing your bit for your fellow beings and your own planet.

Story of Environmental Crisis Part I- Human Malfunction

Earth is home to over 1.5 million species. These diverse species are webbed together intricately within the laws of nature to sustain the cycle of life. Waste of one kingdom is food for another, resources of nature a positioned in a manner to sustain and satiate the distinct and vital needs of each species. Today this innate balance of life has been disrupted by single most powerful species on this earth – The Humans. Resources which were once abundant and sufficient for sustaining all forms of life are now delimited by increasing human demand. Consequently, humanity today is faced by serious water crisis, ever growing air pollution, massive deforestation, an overall ecosystem disruption and encompassing issues like climate change.

Not only this, the human created systems which form yardsticks of development also stand vulnerable as a consequence of disruption of natural systems and limiting resources.

Though we may not acknowledge, the impact of these disruptions on our daily living but certainly each of us is at the receiving end of these environmental disruptions. However, a linkage more vital than this is, the causal influence of human action that has lead humanity to this day. Humans have shared a close relationship with nature since time immemorial, sometimes, getting influenced by nature and at the same time influencing it in turn. Over the years this relationship has underwent a dramatic change from a symbiotic to that of an exploitative, consequence being the fading harmony and balance between human systems and natural systems.

The systems which we have evolved and the development which we take pride in are built upon the extensive services drawn from natural ecosystems. The questions which we have reached in this ignorant process of resource consumption, find answers in our actions. Self – centered and consumerist approach of man has led to an unprecedented resource crunch which can lead to complete devastation of life. We have proven our ability to change the face of earth, though in a negative sense, in the past and today again we need to bring a change in our own attitude and actions to see a conducive, sustainable change.

The human malfunction and its consequences can only reach a positive end if we the humans awaken to our responsibility to take care of our very own planet.

Only we can make a difference!

the year of biodiversity

United Nations has declared 2010 as the year of biodiversity. This as said by the CBD (Convention on Biodiversity), ' it is a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives'.

But what is Biodiversity. In the simplest terms, it can be understood as variation (diversity) of the life form (bio). The measure of biodiversity is often geographical or temporal. It means we can measure biodiversity at our local, ecosystem, country or global level.

Biodiversity has been under threat for a long time due to human activities. Destruction of habitat, hunting, deforestation, Climate Change are some of the many threats being faced by the biodiversity. Hence, the UN has decided to celebrate 2010 as a celebration of life and has declared it as the international year of biodiversity.

CBD defines 4 reason for declaring 2010 as the year of biodiversity:



However, its upon us now to respond to the invitation of UN & CBD (they have invited the world to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity). The simplest (and the most complex) way to respond to this invitation is to make our lives sustainable. Use only as much as we need. Recycle, Reuse and Reduce paper (using cell phones will not solve the problem). Be considerate towards towards other species.

Think.....before doing anything.

As a small initial contribution to this cause, we have put the 'species of the day' widget on the blog. The widget updates the picture of an endangered species everyday and if you click on the picture you can know more about the species. It is brought to us by IUCN. Have fun and let others have fun.

The heat is on

I wished to talk something about the Atmospheric CO2 widget that we have put on the site. It is just to keep reminding us of how much change we are making to the environment and far we are going away from the actual composition that 'God' had created.

We being the most dominant species of the Earth are bound to have some impact on it. We are the most powerful and can control various things (but of course not nature, it will always fight back). But sometimes this power gets on our head and we forget our responsibilities. Remember the movie Spiderman and the famous dialogue 'with great power comes great responsibility'. So, just to remind what our great power is doing and what great responsibility we have at our hands, we have added this widget.

It shows the changing CO2 concentration for last few years and the trend currently is invariably a rising one. The data has been feeding into this widget comes from very credible sources like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA), USA and Mauna Lao Observatory (from where the Keeling curve originated; we will tell you about it in later posts).

So, just keep an eye on the CO2.

Breaking News

Some people say that the world is coming to an end. We human beings have taken more than our fair share and are not slowing (let alone stopping) even now. We will face big disasters and huge consequences. We will destroy the Earth and all the beings on it (including of course ourselves).

Well news to all those people.

The world is not coming to an end. Agreed that we have taken more than our fair share and are not slowing. But the crucial thing to understand is that, the Earth will never be destroyed. What will be destroyed is, a species called Homo sapiens (ironically in Latin it means 'wise man'). Yes, with our happy harvesting of the natures resources (which of course are limited), a day will arrive when no more will be left and sooshhhh in a wisp of air what will be gone from the face of the Earth will be a species called Homo sapiens.

Well, all this sounds too dramatic. Doesn't it. It actually is dramatic. The truth as I see is that the 'wise man' will not be destroyed and neither will be his mother 'the Earth'. But for this there is of course a pre requisite. The 'wise man' need to stand up to the occasion. He needs to grow a spine (quite literally currently we are acting spineless) and he needs to get together with is mother (rather than being against her).

An understanding from our side (all the sapiens) and execution of some mindful actions can go a long way in saving the sapiens. This is what we will try to promote here. With your support and understanding we hope to the contribute to the construction (and reduction of destruction) of the 'mother' and ultimately the 'son'.

Lets join hands to reduce our feet.......