Altering Climate

Category: Awareness

Zero emissions Day

Awareness / Climate Change

Zero Emissions Day and its significance in today’s world

Zero Emissions Day – September 21,  which is aimed at putting Global 24 hours prohibition on the consumption of fossil fuels. The day started on March 21, 2008, with the launch of a website calling for “A Global Moratorium on Fossil Fuel Combustion on September 21” in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The idea behind it was to give a rest day to emissions and the environment. It is up to us to take care of our planet at especially at this point when the emissions are at an unprecedented level. Zero Emissions Day provides us with the opportunity to benefit everything and everyone on our planet.  Let us understand first what...

Flooding in gurugram

Awareness / Climate Change

What are the reasons behind flooding in Gurugram?

Considered as cyber city or millennium city. Gurugram is among the most developed regions of India. It is also known as “the Technical hub of North India”. Gurugram was not always like this, it is the result of rapid urbanization and development that has taken place in the last 25-30 years.  Recently, underpasses and roads were completely submerged in water when it rained heavily. This is not the first time when Gurugram was flooded after rain. It happens every year. So, let us look at the reasons behind it. 1. Blocking of Natural Drains: Gurugram is built on Natural drains. Older maps show that the area had several natural drainage lines...

Graviky Labs

Awareness / Climate Change

Graviky Labs – making the best use of Air Pollution!

“Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting.” – R. Buckminster Fuller Worldwide ambient air pollution accounts for: 29% of all deaths and disease from lung cancer 17% of all deaths and disease from acute lower respiratory infection 24% of all deaths from stroke 25% of all deaths and disease from ischaemic heart disease 43% of all deaths and disease from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease The major pollutant that causes air pollution is Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), it affects not only our lungs but the overall health of the body including mental health.  About Graviky Labs:  Graviky Labs is a Bangalore based startup that upcycles carbon from various...

Earth Overshoot Day

Awareness / Climate Change

Earth Overshoot Day meaning and significance!

What is Earth Overshoot Day? It was previously known as Ecological Debt Day. It is a calculated illustrative calendar date on which humanity’s resource consumption for the year exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that year. The term “overshoot” symbolizes the level by which the human population overshoots the sustainable amount of resources on Earth. From the economic point of view, EOD represents the day on which humanity enters environmental deficit spending.  It is calculated by the Global Footprint Network, which is a campaign supported by many other nonprofit organizations.  How Earth Overshoot Day is calculated? Global Footprint Network first calculates the number of days of that particular year that...

Population Control - the most effective way to reduce carbon emissions.

Awareness / Climate Change

Population Control – the most effective way to reduce Carbon Emissions!

Currently, more than 80 million people are added a year to our global population. As per the UN, without any action to control the population there will be 2 billion more people by 2050, and 3.5 billion by 2100. Having one fewer child reduces 58.6 tonnes of CO2-equivalent per person. Why population control matters/ How population control reduces carbon emissions? Population control and climate change are inextricably linked. Every additional person increases carbon emissions — the rich far more than the poor — and increases the number of climate change victims – the poor far more than the rich. With climate-changing at an unprecedented rate, population control is very important. As the...

3D printing - a technology that can build house and make food sustainably

Awareness / Food

3D printing – a technology that can build a house and make food sustainably

It is estimated that 150 million people are homeless worldwide. Habitat for Humanity estimated in 2015 that 1.6 billion people around the world live in “inadequate shelter”.  Food is responsible for approximately 26% of global GHG emissions and 31% of total food emissions come from livestock and fisheries. What is 3D printing? Also known as Additive Manufacturing.  3D printing is a process of making solid objects from a digital file. A digital model is turned into a physical three-dimensional object by adding one material layer at a time until the object is created.  It is the opposite of subtractive manufacturing which involves cutting out/ hollowing out a piece of metal or...

Coronavirus Recovery

Awareness / Climate Change

Why Green Recovery from Coronavirus is necessary?

The world has turned upside down in 2020 by a virus called Coronavirus. Everything is halted, countries are under lockdown, people are dying, and many other unprecedented happenings are taking place.  This is the biggest threat to humanity since World War II. It is very immoral and shocking that it took a pandemic for us to realize that how beautiful our mother earth is. We have forgotten the beauty of nature. Air and water are so pure that our generation has not seen in a whole lifetime. In India, smog has dropped to a 20-year low. Himalayan mountains can be seen from hundreds of kilometers after many decades. The Ganga water...

I have see the future & it is very scary!

Awareness / Climate Change

I have seen the future and it is very scary!

While watching “The Dark”, a show on Netflix based on time travel. I wondered what would it be like, in reality, to travel to the future and past.  Using a similar kind of time machine as shown in the show, I traveled to the future in the year 2050 to see how does our world will look like. The following portrayal of the future is adapted from the book – “The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis” by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac. An assumption is made that beyond the emissions reductions registered in 2015, no further efforts were made to control emissions. Let us see how does our future...

Climate change impact on Respiratory Health

Awareness / Climate Change / Health

Climate Change Impact on Respiratory Health

An estimated 6.5 million deaths are associated with air pollution every year. Air pollution is a contributing factor in 1 in every 3 deaths from lung cancer, stroke, or heart disease. 92% of people worldwide do not breathe clean air. 87% of deaths from outdoor air pollution occur in low- and middle-income countries. And the number of deaths are going to increase with more changes in climate. What is Respiratory Health? Respiratory health in layman language is absence of any respiratory diseases. So now the question arises what are respiratory diseases? Respiratory Diseases – diseases that affect the lungs and other parts of the respiratory system.  They can be caused by...

Climate change and mental health

Awareness / Climate Change / Health

Climate Change Impact on Mental Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates an increase of 250,000 excess deaths per year between 2030 and 2050 due to the “well-understood impacts of climate change”. The impacts include heat-related morbidity and mortality, an increase in vector-borne diseases (e.g. dengue fever, malaria), an increase in respiratory illness, etc. But the impacts on mental health due to climate change are often overlooked. In this article we will get to know about how mental health is affected due to climate change and what can be done to prevent it.  Let us first look at what exactly mental health is. What is Mental Health? As per Wikipedia, Mental Health is the level of psychological...