Applications invited

British Council India invites application for the International Climate Champions 2010 Programme. It is aimed at youth in age category 18 – 23 who has an active interest in environment and climate change.

As a  British Council International Climate Champion, one will raise awareness , address impacts through a project and contribute to the growing international consensus on the need to tackle climate change. The British Council will support the chosen candidate with training and guidance , opportunities to meet with decision makers , to network at local, national and international levels.

Applicants should be an Indian citizen between 18 and 23  years of age as on May 31 , 2010 and should have a climate change project idea. Download application form and send it to lcf.projects@in.britishcouncil.org on or before May 15

Source : The Hindu Dated 13/4/2010.

Join the 'Earth Hour'

This Saturday, the symbols of our civilization, iconic buildings and landmarks from India to Australia to America, will stand in darkness, to help bring to light one of the biggest challenges of our generation-- Climate Change.

The 'Earth Hour' that began as a show of solidarity against climate change has today become a global movement. It brings together a whole generation of humankind, from across the world and across all walks of life, in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common - our planet. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future.

Join the 'Earth Hour' by switching off all lights this Saturday - 8.30 PM - 9.30 PM. Just for one hour.

 

For more details please visit  www.earthhour.in

World Water Day - A thought after 50 years.

Here is a narration of story that may take place after 50 years in this earth.On this World Water Day read it carefully.

My name is Water.My parents put this name to me in calculation that it will be a strange name and strange substance on one day.And that day had came.Today it is 2060 March 22, another World Water Day.

On this day there is no water in earth.I am only 60 tears old now.But you will not believe me .You will say that I had hit a century and still not out as a burden to earth.

When I was 10 years old this day was celebrated in my school.I still remember that day.My headmaster asked me to write an article on this and to put it in School's blog.I wrote it and it got a lot of appreciations from all over the world.In that days I used to bath in ponds in my house.Also there was a river near to my house where also I used to bath at evening.The fresh flowing water of river and cool water of pond were some magnificient scene.

There were a lot of ponds and wells near to my house.People were happy to share water with those poor people who had no wells and ponds.At evening all went to bath in river and to enjoy the breeze.The path to river and all roadsides were full of trees with high canopy.

Ladies used to bath oiling their long hairs and cleaning it with leaves and flowers of shoe flower.People used to bath twice daily.All the houses were adorned with flowering plants and leafy plants.I used to water them daily.All this was the story of fifty years back.And today the story is too worse.I wish to share it also here.

I hadn't bathed for about five years now.I just took an oil bath.You know what is it? A piece of cloth will be socked with oil and it will be rubbed all over the body.Both my kidneys are going to fail due to lack of water drinking and I will become a memory soon.

Today ladies have no long hairs.They can be seen only in old photos.All are like bald headed now irrespective of male and female.Due to scarcity of water it is impossible to clean head and hairs.So the only way is to shave it fully.So all adopt this method.

 You will wonder to know that only some countries have water deposits now .They had put a large amount in their budget for protecting it and the country also.The waterless countries are constantly threatening them about an attack to get water from there.Around a pond or well about 50 soldiers are constantly rounding with most modern arms.

I was asked to drink 8 glasses of water daily.Now I am not allowed to drink more than half a cup of water.Hence my skin had turned dry and scaly.Almost all are suffering from skin diseases.There is no solution for this.Being treeless areas there is no shade, no oxygen and no fruits.The average life span of human had shortened to 40 years.Living 40 years is too much difficult also.

What to do now?I had no idea.Water cannot be synthesised in laboratories.Can you see a heap there ?It was the river that I mentioned earlier.All the warnings were given in my childhood days.But we didn't care.Now the only way is to experience it.On next World Water Day I may not be here to put such a post.

Ice deposits on moon – Chandrayan Strikes again.

The Miracles by Chandrayan – 1 , the first moon mission of India launched on 2008 October 22 continues. Months ago Chandrayan – 1 identified the presence of water in moon. American space agency NASA’s ( National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), one of the instruments on board of Chandrayaan-1, had recognised that water was getting formed even in the sun-lit regions of moon. That was a wonderful observation after reporting some failure of Chandrayaan-1.

Now another instrument on board of Chandrayaan-1, had discovered huge deposits of ice in the north pole of moon. More than 40 craters with ice deposits had discovered in the moon’s North Pole by Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR) of NASA. Both the poles of moon are permanently shadowed regions and are cold. So scientists guessed that these areas will have high ice deposits. Mini-SAR’s mission was to explore this guess. When the pictures caught by Mini-SAR analysed the miracle that world expected came out. The craters have a diameter varying from 2 kilo meter to 15 kilo meters. It is estimated that about 60 crore metric tone of ice deposits will be there in moon.

Mr. M. Annadurai’s ( Project Director, Chandrayaan-1 and 2 ) response on the discovery of this ice craters was as follows.

“A positive direction for future explorations with respect to lunar resources and pursuit of pure science. We are seeing a large number of craters . That gives an indication of a good quantum of polar ice on the moon. Earlier, we had seen the physical phenomenon of water getting formed in one region. We are now seeing water getting retained in another region as ice deposits. This is called volatile transportation. These discoveries indicate that we had a good combination of instruments on board Chandrayaan-1. They could not have been made by other optical instruments which need sunlight to see what is there.”

The findings of Mini-SAR have published in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters. The team behind the findings consist scientists from 13 agencies over U.S. and India. The Indian Scientists include Chandrayan – 1 principal scientist Prof. J.N. Goswami , Director of Ahmedabad Physical Research Laboratory and Mr. M. Chakrabarti of the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad.

The immediate response by Prof. J.N Goswami was “an interesting and new result.”.

“ It is quite interesting from our perspective. We thought it would be there, and it is there. I am confident that whatever signals we are getting are correct.

We are now finding it in solid form. So this is very important. Water is an important resource if people want to go to the moon ” Prof. Dr. Goswami added.

Prof. Paul Spoodils, the principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, U.S.A says “the pictures and data receiving from Mini-SAR, M3 and LCROSS are a clear indication of water creation, migration, deposition and retention are occurring on the moon ”

“The new findings add to the growing scientific understanding of multiple forms of water on the moon,” the release in Geophysical Research Letters said.

The 11 scientific instruments that flew on board of India’s Chandrayaan-1 include the Mini-SAR , Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) all by NASA.

The discovery is a golden quill on the cap of Indian Space Research Organisation (I S R O )also as it is the brain behind Chandrayan – 1. As an Indian all of us are proud on this discovery. We can expect more and more miracles by our proud Chandrayan series in future.

Global Warming melts Hills of Sikkim

A British team that conducted an expedition to Gokhala Green lake of Sikkim (A North Indian state) had reporteda stunning news to world - The snowy hills of Northern Sikkim is found to be melting for years due to Global Warming.


The team reported that the hills like Tsemu,Thonksong and Taloong had been getting morphed forthe last 80 years.The team compared the file photoes of an expedition to Taloong hill conducted in 1930 with the present one.It is found that the hill had shortened about 70 meters down within 80 years!!!


There was a snowy layer connecting the Thonksong and Taloong.Due to Global Warming this connection has been lost.The old pictures of these hills reveal that once all of them were connected.This points to the future threat of Global Warming.Industrialisation and Tourism development activities also had added momentum to this problem.


The Science and Technology Department has been observing the phenomenon through remot sensing with the help of satellites.Sikkim Government had posted a commission to study the problem with Prof: Syed Iqbal Hasnain as its head.


Over 75 snowy hills are there in Sikkim.The melting of hills had caused to low down the water level of rivers like Teesta and Ramgith.

The inauguration of "Our Tree" (An environmental campaign by Kerala Government) Program at Govt.Engg.College , Wayanad by Principal Dr.Kuncheria P Isaac

Victorious Hundred Crore Tree Program.

The program launched by UN to prevent Global Warming namely "One ഹുന്ദ്രേദ് Crore Tree Planting" had proved to be a great success with all support from all over the world.The program aimed to plant one hundred crore trees.But within 18 months of launching the program more than 200 crore trees have been planted, said the Nobel Prize laurate and Kenyan Green Belt Program head Prof:Vangari Mathaayin a press conference.

Due to the high response from all over the world the project had redefined its aim to plant 700 crore trees.Individuals,Government and Non-Government agencies,Different clubs ,Institutions are requested to participate in this program and donate your part.

So come....let us plant at least a tree for nurturing our nature.