Thursday, June 5, 2008

Happy World Environment Day!!

I had been wanting to start a blog on global warming for quite some time now, but was not finding the right मुहूर्त for it may be. And, unknowingly, I found an article in TOI about the BMC having some special programs for the World Environment Day on the 5th of June. This was the best time to start a blog which I had been waiting for. I chose this title because Lord ShriKrishna himself was the architect of the rocky and barren land given to Pandavas, and transformed it into the best place on earth.

My prime intention for this blog is to have a collection of my efforts, thoughts or articles I find which I can implement in my daily life to put in my share to save the globe from warming further. The need spurted when I bought an A/c recently and felt very guilty for harming the environment. I thought I should do something to neutralize the harm I am causing to the environment, which is called carbon offsetting in the corporate world. My first idea was to plant trees every year as much as 1/1000 the cost of the a/c. e.g. if I purchase an a/c worth Rs. 10,000, I should plant 10 trees every year, simple isn't it? You all may have different ideas of such offsetting, and I beg to please let me know of those through comments on this blog.

We had a "Green Day" in our office today, where all were requested to wear any shade of green (though the actual % of people who did that was hardly 5% which shows the general enthu amongst public to care for the environment). We also circulated this email poster to show how we can be more eco-friendly by following 5 simple steps in office, and this can be done in any office.

Of this, turning off the monitor when not in use is something which can be done by all the pc users, be it office or home. The reason to do this is explained below -

Earth and Monitor

Did you know? The average desktop PC wastes nearly half of the energy it consumes as heat. This wasted electricity translates to higher electricity bills and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Fun Fact: Using power management features on your computer can save nearly half a ton of CO2 and more than $60 a year in energy costs.

What you can do: Making some simple changes to your computer’s power management settings is an easy and inexpensive way to make a difference in your environmental impact. With a few mouse clicks, your computer can be set to automatically go to “sleep” when it’s not in use.

I sincerely request all you readers to follow this simple yet powerful measure to put in our share for saving the globe. Leadership in saving global warming is a hot topic in the world politics today, and India is one of the leaders with the First LEED Platinum rated Green Building in the world built in Hyderabad in 2004. This is the CII business center and LEED is US's green building rating system. So, it is a proud thing to support the green effort for all Indians, and non-Indians too. Your own experiences in the form of comments are most welcome on this blog.
Happy World Environment Day!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

read yr blog(s). good stuff with the global warming. though i don't know how much u can write abt it without actually being completely involved. u can't be completely involved unless u r a scientist combatting global warming :). as normal ppl there is just so much we can do but i guess spreading the awareness is a good thing. so keep it up.

Sachin said...

:) thanks. well, complete involvement will happen slowly and thats what i want to put in there - how i achieve complete involvement. i too thought as u did, but looking at the efforts been taken at the corporate level, atleast in my office, i think it will happen only if each one of us has the attitude and urge to do it. the main thing is the seniors got the message and our senior engineer was telling all to shut off their monitors during lunch, loud and clear.

Anonymous said...

the thing is everyone is very wrapped up in their personal (mis)fortunes and they think they have the worst things to deal with people don't realize that it takes very simple things to make a difference.

Sachin said...

exactly thats what i want to propogate ppl are reluctant coz they feel it will come in some form of sacrifice which no one likes. but u r right it takes very simple things to do it.

Vidhya said...

Nice..I was just talking to J today about global warming and how it scares me that we r not doing enuf..
J I think normal ppl are the ones who can do the most...Coz we form the bigger chunk of the global population :)..And if each one does his or her share it will make a big difference...Rajesh and me have started taking our own bags to the grocery to avoid wasting paper/plastic bags..We also try to disconnnect all electric devices when not in use..