Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Monday, 29 October 2012
Friday, 26 October 2012
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Monday, 22 October 2012
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Science Express - Biodiversity Special
Schedule (5 June 2012 – 22 December 2012)
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*15 Aug: Holiday – Independence Day
% 02 Oct: Holiday – Gandhi Jayanti
$ 08 Oct: Technical Holiday for Maintenance
@13 Nov: Holiday – Diwali Festival
The schedule is subject to change.
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Tips for Saving the Environment
10 Really EASY & INEXPENSIVE things we can all do.
We can make a difference.
Homes comprise 21% of our carbon emissions.
Transportation comprises 33% of our carbon emissions.
Business contributes 17% of carbon emissions.
Industry produces 29% of carbon emissions.
We can be more energy efficient, save money, & reduce carbon emissions.
1. Change your light bulbs to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs).
Replacements for 60W, 75W, & 100W bulbs are easily found. Walmart, Lowes, & Home Depot also carry spotlights and floodlights, but you may need to buy an adapter so they will fit. The adapters are very inexpensive. You can also change the old fluorescent tubing to CFL tubing, but you will need to change ballasts.
Replacing just one bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. The life of a CFL is 5-7 years. CFLs do not emit heat as the incandescents do. They must be disposed of properly as they contain mercury. Home Depot will collect and dispose properly.
Dimmer switches for CFLs can be found at Walmart.
Try solar for outdoor lighting. The lights are inexpensive and then they cost nothing to operate.
2. Turn down the thermostat on your hot water heater. Buy a hot water heater blanket. The blanket costs approximately $20, available at Home Depot or Lowes. You save both energy & money.
3. Turn your thermostat up 2 degrees in summer and turn it down 2 degrees in winter. Save on your utility bill.
4. Turn off lights as you leave a room. (Myth: It takes more energy to turn on & off lights than to leave them on for short periods of time.)
5. Turn off fans when you go out. (Myth: Fans cool your home.) Fans do not cool. Fans merely circulate air. You do feel 4 degrees cooler from the fan’s breeze.
6. Weatherstrip & caulk around doors and windows. Caulk holes around plumbing. Your home will be more energy efficient.
7. Recycle. This one is so easy. Every other week the City of Garland collects aluminum, plastic, & glass in the red bins. Newspapers and magazines are picked up at the same time. Every city has a program.
Many public schools are beginning recycling programs and involving the community.
8. Buy recycled products. Save our trees by purchasing recycled paper products, particularly copy paper, paper towels, & toilet paper. Shop Office Depot & Tom Thumb.
9. If you have a choice, avoid products with a lot of packaging. What a waste.
10. Vehicles:
Check the air in your tires. Keeping tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. .
Don’t sit & idle. 10% of all our fuel is wasted on idling. After only 10 seconds, you use less gas to turn the ignition off.
Vehicles built in the last 3 years. Some newer model cars and trucks are compatible with ethanol. Check with your local dealership.
Spread the word. Encourage your friends & family.
(For more info on making your home more energy efficient, see Green Building & Retrofits on this website.)
Important Quote
" The phrase "conquest
of nature" is certainly one of the most
objectionable and misleading expressions of Western languages.
It reflects the illusion that all natural forces can be entirely
controlled, and it expresses the criminal conceit that nature
is to be considered primarily as a source of raw materials
and energy for human purposes."
From -A God Within by René Dubos
objectionable and misleading expressions of Western languages.
It reflects the illusion that all natural forces can be entirely
controlled, and it expresses the criminal conceit that nature
is to be considered primarily as a source of raw materials
and energy for human purposes."
From -A God Within by René Dubos
The Rainforest
| Eco-Joke |
| Why can't you play cards in the jungle? |
| Answer: Because there's too many cheetahs! |
- In Peninsular Malaysia, more tree species are found in 125 acres of Tropical Forest than in the entire North America.
- In Peru a single bush may contain more ant species than in the British Isles.
- A study has shown that there are possibly over 30 million species of insects dwelling in the canopies of tropical forests.
- 63,000 square miles of Rainforests are being destroyed each year.
- Rainforests higher than 3,000 feet above sea level are called cloud forests.
- Already over half of the world's tropical forests have been lost.
- Madagascar is the home to a rainforest where 60 percent of it's 12,000 different plant species are unique to that island.
- When you visit a pharmacist, one in every four purchases will have come from a tropical forest.
- Medicine produced in tropical forests bring in commercially 30 billion dollars a year.
- Large areas of South and Central America are cleared and burned for cattle ranching. This is so that farmers can provide cheap beef to consumers in the West.
- Every year approximately four billion tons of carbon accumulates in the air each year, about 30% of this comes directly from the continued burning of the rainforests.
- More than anything else, rainforest is destroyed by peasant farmers. However, the responsibility for this lies largely with the governments who fail to promote land reform and sustainable agricultural practices as an alternative to forest clearance.
- Greater than a quarter of our rainforest is in Brazil
15 Facts About the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment And What You Can Do About It
- Forests store 50% of the world's terrestrial carbon. (In other words, they are awfully important "carbon sinks" that hold onto pollution that would otherwise lead to global warming.)
- Half the world's forests have already been cleared or burned, and 80% of what's left has been seriously degraded.
- 42% of the industrial wood harvest is used to make paper.
- The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among United States manufacturing industries, and contributes 9% of the manufacturing sector's carbon emissions.
- Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste (and one third of municipal landfill waste).
- Municipal landfills account for one third of human-related methane emissions (and methane is 23-times more potent a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide).
- If the United States cut office paper use by just 10% it would prevent the emission of 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases -- the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road.
- Compared to using virgin wood, paper made with 100% recycled content uses 44% less energy, produces 38% less greenhouse gas emissions, 41% less particulate emissions, 50% less wastewater, 49% less solid waste and -- of course -- 100% less wood.
- In 2003, only 48.3% of office paper was recovered for recycling.
- Recovered paper accounts for 37% of the U.S. pulp supply.
- Printing and writing papers use the least amount of recycled content -- just 6%. Tissues use the most, at 45%, and newsprint is not far behind, at 32%.
- Demand for recycled paper will exceed supply by 1.5 million tons of recycled pulp per year within 10 years.
- While the paper industry invests in new recycled newsprint and paper packaging plants in the developing world, almost none of the new printing and writing paper mills use recycled content.
- China, India and the rest of Asia are the fastest growing per-capita users of paper, but they still rank far behind Eastern Europe and Latin America (about 100 pounds per person per year), Australia (about 300 pounds per person per year) and Western Europe (more than 400 pounds per person per year).
- The Forest Stewardship Council's certification of sustainable forestry practices is growing, with 50% of the paper product market share and 226 million acres accounted for. Advocates say the demand for recycled paper and sustainably harvested pulp from consumers, advertisers, magazine makers and other users of paper will yield the fastest reforms of the industry.
Monday, 1 October 2012
Saturday, 29 September 2012
- Take your family to the park and talk to them about the joy of being in green, clean, preserved places.
- When you are outside, pick up your rubbish and teach your kids that, just as they do not litter at home, they should act the same in our "global home".
- Have a garden and teach your kids to care for the garden. If you live in an apartment building, have pot plants and take care of them.
- Every year, plant new things in your garden.
- When you go camping, put out your fire properly. Be careful with cigarettes and fire in the bush.
- Have a compost bin and put your organic waste in it.
- When you fish, make sure you follow the rules of fishing. The rules are there to protect the fish, but in the long term, they protect the people.
- Turn off the lights when they are not needed.
- Avoid long showers.
- Use water-saving appliances. Consider the water rating before you buy.centre for science environment
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