November 6, 2019 – Wise

SUSTAIN – Environment

Air Pollution is responsible for the premature deaths of approximately 7 million people worldwide each year, with about 4 million of these deaths occurring in Asia-Pacific, and 1.2 million in India alone.

How much pollution we breathe in is dependent on many factors, such as access to clean energy for cooking and heating, the time of day and the weather. Rush hour is an obvious source of local pollution, but air pollution can travel long distances, sometimes across continents on international weather patterns.

The theme of World Environment Day 2019 is “Beat Air Pollution”. Started in 1974, World Environment Day highlights various factors that affect the environment and the resultant destruction that is caused. It is a reminder to all citizens to become aware of the alarming factors and adopt sustainable measures to mitigate the damage already caused to our Earth and ensure that the future is made safer.

Air Pollution facts:

92 per cent of people worldwide do not breathe clean air
Air pollution costs the global economy $5 trillion every year in welfare costs
Ground-level ozone pollution is expected to reduce staple crop yields by 26 per cent by 2030

Human activity interferes with environment’s ability to regenerate and renew itself. Nobody is safe from this pollution, which comes from five main human sources. Household, Industry, Transport, Farming and Waste. These sources spew out a range of substances including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ground-level ozone, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, hydrocarbons, and lead – all of which are harmful to human health.

Household – main source of air pollution at home is the burning of fossil fuels. Lack of access to clean energy and safe equipment to cook, heat/cool and light homes causes indoor air pollution – affecting 3.8 million people worldwide.

While governments push for cleaner methods of cooking (LPG, biogas, electric, etc), adopting the most commonly available alternate resources that do not cause pollution is the responsibility of us, citizens. Avoiding usage of materials/products that contain solvents and propellants, release toxic aerosols, when inhaled lead to fatal illnesses (hairspray, paints, fabric protector, cleaning products, deodorants, room deodorizers, air freshening sprays, fumes from reused oils) – can control indoor air-pollution.

Industry – In many countries, energy production is a leading source of air pollution. Coal-burning power plants are a major contributor, while diesel generators are a growing concern in off-grid areas. Industrial processes and solvent use, in the chemical and mining industries, also pollute the air.

Alternate sources of generating power can be the single largest measure to help control industry related emissions. Industries that generate effluents need to treat at source and not store the harmful discharges that release lethal toxins into the atmosphere.

Transport – Globally, transport sector contributes ¼^th of CO₂ emissions. These emissions have been linked to nearly 400,000 premature deaths and double that figure to dementia. Almost ½ of all deaths of air pollution is directly linked to diesel emissions.

Conscious effort to reduce usage of personal vehicles, promoting use of public transport, adopting fuel-efficient vehicles, are few of the actions that can diminish transport emissions related pollution.

Farming – There are two major sources of air pollution from farming: livestock, which produces methane and ammonia, and the burning of agricultural waste. Methane emissions contribute to ground-level ozone, which causes asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Methane is also a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide – its impact is 34 times greater over a 100-year period. Around 24 percent of all greenhouse gases emitted worldwide come agriculture, forestry and other land-use.

There are many ways to reduce air pollution from this source. People can move to a plant-based diet and/or reduce food waste, while farmers can reduce methane from livestock by optimizing feed digestibility and improving grazing and grassland management and avoid burning of agricultural stubble.

Waste – Open waste burning and organic waste in landfills release harmful dioxins, furans, methane, and black carbon into the atmosphere. Globally, an estimated 40% of waste is openly burned. The problem is most severe in urbanizing regions and developing countries. Open burning of agricultural and municipal waste is practiced in 166 out of 193 countries.

Improving the collection, separation, and disposal of solid waste reduces the amount of waste that is burned or landfilled. Separating organic waste and turning it into compost or bioenergy improves soil fertility and provides an alternative energy source. Reducing the estimated one-third of all food that is lost or wasted can also improve air quality.

Other sources – Not all air pollution comes from human activity. Natural calamities and occurrences such as volcanic eruptions, dust storms and other natural events also cause Air pollution problems. Sand and dust storms are equally concerning. Fine particles of dust can travel thousands of miles through these storms, which may also carry pathogens and harmful substances, causing acute and chronic respiratory problems.

While it may be impossible to control natural disasters, human actions that aggravate such activities (mining, deforestation,

Our Environment has the capability to restore itself, for all natural causes of pollution. We, as responsible citizens, can take additional, simple measures that can help the environment in its efforts to clean the Earth.

Carbon sequestration by afforestation (a natural process by which pollutants are absorbed by trees and water bodies from the atmosphere) is a sure and cost effective means to mitigate air pollution and climate change, in addition to sustainable practices enumerated above. During photosynthesis, trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and later use it to build trunks, stems and roots; one tonne of carbon stored in a tree translates into 3.67 tonnes of carbon removed from the atmosphere and release of 2.67 tonnes of oxygen! Currently, forests store 45% of all land carbon. An estimated 35 billion tonnes of CO₂ are produced by human activities and natural processes are absorbing just half of it; the remaining contributes to climate change.

A study by IISc, estimates, cities account for 78% of carbon emissions, and urban forests act as carbon sinks; WHO recommends 9.5 sqm of greenspace per person in an urban environment. Native trees that last long and have high wood density (Banyan, Neem, Tamarind Madhuca, Arjuna…) along with native fast growing trees (Teak, Mahogany, Bakul, Gulmohur…) are ideal choices rather than exotic/introduced species. Eg: GEER (Gujarat Ecological Education and Research) found that a Teak tree can absorb 3.70 lakh tonnes of CO₂ in its lifetime of 50 yrs!

In addition to large trees, shrubs, plants, and grasses, as also water bodies help in reducing air pollution. Along with sustainable personal practices, every person must aim to plant at least 10 trees, to mitigate own causes of carbon emissions and help clean Our Earth.

Short videos: Air Pollution 101 | National Geographic

Awareness is a start – Action is the result!

compiled from various online sources and books, including UN-Environment’s greeningtheblue.org

SUSTAIN – Health

Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root word ‘yuj’ which means ‘join’ or ‘unite’. It’s the union of body, mind and soul.

Health is a positive notion. Positive health is a jubilant and energetic feeling of well-being, resulting in freedom from illness and disease. Yoga is a method, a holistic system that aids in enhancing positivity and wellness of a person. It helps in developing strength, stamina, endurance and high energy at physical level. It also empowers oneself with increased concentration, calm, peace and contentment mentally, leading to inner and outer harmony.

There are various techniques to follow and perform – Pranayama (breathing), Asana (postures), Kriya (cleansing), Dhyana (meditation), and other higher forms of practice. Each of these can be performed at various levels, for starters, we will look at simple steps that’s easy and doable daily.

Pranayama – A breathing technique that focuses on increased oxygen inhalation and carbon-di-oxide exhalation. There are three phases of Pranayama – puraka, rechaka and kumbhaka. Puraka is controlled inhalation; rechaka is controlled exhalation and kumbhaka is controlled retention of breath. It is said that an average person uses only 30% of the lungs’ capacity. This can easily be doubled by practicing Pranayama; sustained long-term practice can improve furthermore. This internal cleansing increases positivity / mental wellbeing and lowers blood-pressure.

Asana – Postures, that help in keeping body fit and to develop strength, flexibility and balance. Asanas number in hundreds – each one with specific purpose to gives stability and comfort, both at physical and mental level. Regular practice of Asanas are believed to help the heart and eliminate diseases caused by being sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle choices.

The most commonly performed set of asanas is Surya Namaskar (sun-salutation). These are detailed here below, Page 2 onwards.

Kriya – means Action, directed at specific organs of the body that cleanses and detoxifies each of them. Shatakarma, or six cleansing processes (viz, Neti, Dhauti, Basti, Trataka, Nauli, Kapalabhati and Agnisara) using air, water and the organs themselves as a tool. Kriya requires to be practiced after obtaining training from a learned Guru, an expert in yogic practices.

Dhyana – means concentration; to increase awareness and strength of the mind by focusing one’s thought. By concentrating on one point, regularly, the mind is trained to be stable, eliminate negative emotions like fear, anger, depression, anxiety, and increase clarity of thought and will-power.

Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation is a set of 12 powerful yoga asanas (postures) which is a great workout method, an excellent way to stay fit. All you need is willing mind and a mat!

Ideally done at sunrise, facing east, these asanas can be done at your own pace, each with its own benefit. The 3-speed variations can help you get optimum benefits of Surya Namaskar:

Slow pace : to stay fit and keep the body flexible

Medium pace : useful for toning your muscles and improve metabolism

Fast pace : an excellent cardiovascular workout and aids in weight loss

Now let’s learn the Surya Namaskar –

1. Pranamasana Om Mitraya Namaha	The Prayer Pose Pranamasana is the start of Surya Namaskar. Join your feet and stand upright balancing your weight equally on both feet. Bring your palms in front and combine so that they touch your chest. Close your eyes. And let your body relax. While you inhale, raise your arms from the sides. And as you exhale, join your palms together in front of your chest as in praying. This is the Pratham Namaskar or first salutation towards the sun. Relaxes body and mind.
2. Hastauttanasana Om Ravayé Namaha	The Raised Arms Pose Keeping the palms joined in the previous prayer position, breathe in and lift your arms up and bend backwards slightly. Arms shoulder-wide apart. This posture is to loosen up by stretching the entire body. Stretches the chest and abdomen, lifts energy up through the body.
3. Padahastasana Om Suryāya Namaha	The Hand-to-Foot Pose While standing upright, breathe out, and bend forward from the waist. Go down and touch the ground but keeping your spine straight as much as possible. Do this as your exhale slowly and completely. Massages abdomen, increases digestive power and blood flow to brain, stretches spine, thigh muscles
4. Ashwa Sanchalanasana Om Bhānavé Namaha	The Equestrian Pose Now breathe in, and stretch your body parallely to the ground. Keep your hands to the side, and bring your right knee towards the right part of the chest and let your left leg stretch behind. Look up. Stretches quadriceps, pelvic muscles and spine, stimulates abdominal organs, increases mental prowess
5. Dandasana Om Khagāya Namaha	The Stick Pose As your inhale, fling your right leg also backwards aligning your entire body parallely to the ground. Improves posture, strengthens back muscles and spine, stretches shoulders and chest.
6. Ashtanga Namaskara Om Pūshné Namaha	The Eight point salute Stay in Dandasana, gently bring down your knees towards the floor and exhale. Now bring your chin to rest on the floor, keep your hips elevated in the air. Hence, your eight parts (two hands, two knees, chin and chest will rest on the floor while your hip stays elevated in the air). Develops the chest, and strengthens arms and legs.
7. Bhujangasana Om Hiranya Garbhāya Namaha	The Cobra pose. This is simply aligning your chest and torso 90 degrees to the ground, keeping your legs and mid-section flat on the ground. Make sure you use your hands to support your body and are not tempted to transfer your entire weight onto them. Relieves tension in back and spine, stimulates and expands chest and conditions abdominal organs
8. Parvatasana Om Marichaye Namaha	The Mountain Pose Keep your palm and feet where they are, and slowly raise your mid-section – hips and abdomen. Breathe out as you stretch your legs, spine and arms. Strengthens legs and arms, stretches calf and spine muscles, and relieves varicose veins.
9. Ashwa Sanchalanasana Om Ādityāya Namaha	The Equestrian Pose Now from Parvatasana, return to the ashwa sanchalanasana. But this time, we do the opposite of what we did in the 4th step. Procedure- Bring your right foot forward, while resting the left foot behind, at its original position. Stretches quadriceps, pelvic muscles and spine, stimulates abdominal organs, increases mental prowess
10. Pada hastasana Om Savitré Namaha	The Hand to foot pose Now slowly bring your left foot forward, next to the right foot as you exhale. Keeping the position of your hands intact, lift yourself up to slowly enter Hasta Padasana. Massages abdomen, increases digestive power, blood flow to brain, stretches spine.
11. Hastauttanasana Om Ārkāya Namaha	The Raised Arms Pose Now inhale, raise your hands upward, and bend backward to enter Ardha Chakra Asana, or Hasta-Uttana asana. Massages abdomen, increases digestive power, blood flow to brain, stretches spine.
12. Pranamasana Om Bhaskarāya Namaha	The Prayer Pose Finally, exhale and stand in a relaxed manner in the namaskara mudra. Feel the positive vibrations in your body.

This is one set of Surya Namaskar Asanas – best done outdoors, early morning. Ass you can see, each asana has a mantra for the Sun; chanting of the mantra is said to be beneficial, though, is optional.

Twelve repetitions of this holistic exercise are said to yield maximum benefit, i.e., build strength and increase flexibility. Researchers estimate that 30 mins of Suryanamaskar can burn ~400 calories!

Resting after 6 sets, in sukhasana (sitting down cross-legged) is advised for people with poor fitness and elderly. People with any medical condition may consult a doctor before starting to do brisk yoga asanas / surya namaskar.

SUSTAIN – Act Right

Reigning the monster

Come October 2, 2019 – Government of India is all set to ban single-use plastic in major cities, towns and villages, that rank among the world’s most polluted.

Items such as polythene bags, cups, tumblers, plates, 500ml bottles, straws, sachets, forks, knives and cotton ear buds, are all single use plastics. The ban on the first six items will clip 5% to 10% from India’s annual consumption of about 14 million tonnes of plastic, according to GoI estimates; curbs will also be on e-commerce companies to limit plastic packaging that makes up nearly 40% of the plastic industry. Cigarette butts also are on the anvil – yes, butts contain cellulose acetate, a plastic (not cotton) filter that’s not biodegradable and contains carcinogens from tobacco.

Solid waste management remains a grave challenge given the population and geographic spread; ~25,940 tonnes of plastic waste is generated daily of which 10,000 tonnes remains unsegregated ending up in landfills. In the last decade alone, the world has produced more plastic than in the last century.

Silent killers

While the global focus is on larger single-use-articles, items such as toffee/chocolate/biscuit wrappers, tetrapaks, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, razors, sachets that pack anything from chips to tobacco to tea/coffee powder / milk/oil/detergent/condiments/handwash/, even kids toys, footwear and plastic business cards, are silent killers tossed away without realizing their potential to damage our environment as much as plastic bags / straws. These articles were found to be the major cause of floods at various places in 11 states during recent monsoons, choking the storm water drains and sapping earth of permeability. Mumbai realized way back in 2005 when 315 people were killed due to stagnant water borne diseases following heavy rains and banned plastic bags but not enforced. Delhi followed suit in 2008, never enforced. It’s the same story in Bangalore, Shimla, Tirupati, Pune, Hyderabad, Kozhikode, and all over.

Returned with thanks

Plastics when discarded comes back to us. WWF’s research found that we consume ~250 gms every year. The plastic, the non-biodegradable material disintegrates into micro-particles. These particles leach into streams that water field crops, in our tap-water, and enter salt and aquatic animals from oceans, ultimately ending up on our plate. To know how much plastic we consume, watch yourplasticdiet.org.

The clothes we wear contain upto 60% of synthetic fiber, and estimated that a single load of weekly laundry wash+dry could release 700,000 fibers into water, detergent based pollution is a bonus Polyester fabric recycles once along with PET bottles into polyester yarn; the strands don’t hold well in more recyclings – ending up in landfills or burnt.

Oceanic choke

Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now dwarfed! Increasing evidence shows that all the oceans of the earth are polluted with discarded plastic items. The ocean with the largest amount of plastic is the North Pacific, followed by the Indian Ocean, the North Atlantic, the South Pacific, the South Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Altogether, the 5 trillion pieces of plastic waste in our oceans weighs as much as 268,000 tons, which is equivalent to 38,000 African elephants. Indian Ocean ranks a high 2^nd with 1.3 trillion pieces estimated.

Mountains too…

Himalayas, the majestic sentinels of India are ridden with plastic waste, 94% of which is single use plastic / packaging. ‘The Himalayan Cleanup’ was carried out in 12 mountain states of India on May 26, 2018 (Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh), involving ~15,000 volunteers of 200 organisations in 250 critical sites. In 2014, trekkers from Nepal removed ~25 tons of trash and 15 tons of human waste, and its increasing year on year.

We can!

Next time you go shopping, try these simple alternates – carry a cotton bag, a metal/glass water-bottle, use public transport, avoid munching on toffees/chips or sipping a tetrapak juice – if you must, hold on till you find a trash can. Look around to buy unpacked-clean groceries, buy natural fiber material / clothes, return plastic packaging from products you buy even from brand stores, its cool! Travel responsibly – carry a trash bag, do not throwaway disposables or broken / unusable items, carry water.

Sustainable Living

Adopting a sustainable lifestyle needs commitment – to explore, experiment, learn, practice continuity and above all, loving. Because beyond all of the frightening news; beyond the frustrating politics; beyond the failed national laws and international agreements, there is one question – how do you want to live your life? We can choose to feel defeated, helpless and frustrated; or choose to be grounded, purposeful and hopeful.

Love for all beings living, and thus living sustainably, requires a complete change in lifestyle, achievable by small simple steps – through the clothes we buy, the energy we use, the food we eat, even the toothpaste we brush our teeth, the soap we bathe with. We have learnt to adopt products and practices without realizing their impact; now that we know, it’s easy to re-adopt to earlier safe practices and clean products.

Every choice we make impacts others – through its creation, its distribution, its use and its disposal. Most likely we’ll never know – or even see – who we are impacting. But they are out there, nonetheless, suffering – or thriving – based on our choices.

– Facts and figures collected from across wide web world. Credits at respective places.

SUSTAIN – Deep Thoughts

Gandhiji believed that India had a definite mission to fulfill, he said “An India, awakened and free, has a message of peace and good-will to a groaning world.”

Gram Swaraj

India is made of villages, but our intelligentsia has neglected them… village life must not become a copy or appendage of city life. The cities have to adopt the pattern of village life and subsist for the villages. We must identify ourselves with the villagers who toil under the hot sun beating on their bent backs and see how we would like to drinks water from the pool in which the villagers bathe, wash their clothes and pots, and in which their cattle drink and roll. Then and not till then shall we truly represent the masses and they will as surely as I am writing this, respond to every call.

Laying down the duties of the village worker who naturally occupies the pivotal position in the planning of Village Swaraj of Gandhiji’s conception, he says that the village worker will organize the villages so as to make them self-contained and self-supporting through agriculture and handicrafts, will educate the village folk in sanitation and hygiene and will take all measures to prevent ill-health and disease among them and will organize the education of the village folk from birth to death along the lines of Nai Talim (Nai Talim/New Education, was popularly and correctly described as education through handicrafts, vocational skills that earn gainful livelihood). India lives in its villages, and development of villages will be critical if we want to close the gap between the “haves and have not’s” for better human development.

The cities are capable of taking care of themselves. It is the villages we have to turn to. We have to disabuse them of their prejudices, their superstitions, their narrow outlook, and we can do so in no other manner than that of staying amongst them and sharing their joys and sorrows and spreading education and intelligent information among them. The moment you talk to them (the Indian peasants) and they begin to speak, you will find wisdom drop from their lips. Behind the crude exterior you will find a deep reservoir of spirituality. I call this culture-you will not find such a thing in the West. You try to engage a European peasant in conversation and you will find that he is uninterested in things spiritual. In the case of the Indian villager, an age-old culture is hidden under an entrustment of crudeness. Take away the encrustation, remove his chronic poverty and his illiteracy and you will find the finest specimen of what a cultured, cultivated, free citizen should be.

The village movement is as much an education of the city people as of the villagers. Workers drawn from cities have to develop village mentality and learn the art of living after the manner of villagers. This does not mean that they have to starve like the villagers. But it does mean that there must be a radical change in the old style of life? While the standard of living in the villages must be raised the city standard has to undergo considerable revision, without the worker being required in any way to adopt a mode of life that would impair his health. To serve our villages is to establish Swaraj. Everything else is but an idle dream.

No movement or organization having vitality – dies from external attack. It dies of internal decay. What is necessary is character above suspicion, ceaseless effort accompanied by ever increasing knowledge of the technique of the work and a life of rigorous simplicity. Workers without character, living far above the ordinary life of villagers, and devoid of the knowledge required of them for their work, can produce no impression on the villagers.

I know that the work (of shaping the ideal village) is as difficult as to make of India an ideal country… But if one can produce one ideal village, he will have provided a pattern not only for the whole country but perhaps for the whole world. More than this a seeker may not aspire after.

We stand today in danger of forgetting how to use our hands. To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves. To think that your occupation of the Ministerial chair will be vindicated if you serve the cities only would be to forget that India really resides in her 7,00,000 village units. What would it profit a man if he gained the world but lost his soul into the bargain?

A man whose spirit of sacrifice does not go beyond his own community, himself becomes, and makes his community, selfish. The logical sequel of self-sacrifice is that the individual sacrifices himself for the community, the community for the district, the district for the Province, the Province for the nation, and the nation for the world.

Cleanliness and Sustainability

Mahatma’s oft quoted statement is – “Earth has enough resources for everybody’s need and not for anybody’s greed.”

Gandhiji realized the importance of living close to earth as part of ecosystem. All the buildings here in the Talimi Sangh (Sevagram) are built of local material and with the help of local artisans. We have thereby established a living link between ourselves and the people. That by itself is an education for the people and constitutes the foundation of our future educational work. If you thoroughly assimilate this ideal of simplicity and its importance in the New Education, you will have justified your training here. You will then appreciate your work. That work consists of cleaning up. No dirt could be found anywhere on the ashram ground. All rubbish was buried in pits; peelings of vegetables and left-over food was dumped in a separate manure pit and composted. The night-soil, too, was buried and later used as manure. Waste water was used for gardening. The farm was free from flies and stink though there was no puckka drainage system.

Cleanliness of the mind and body is the first step in education. Prayer does for the purification of the mind what the bucket and the broom do for the cleaning up of your physical surroundings. That is why we always commence our proceedings with prayer. No matter whether the prayer we recite is the Hindu prayer or the Muslim or the Parsi, its function is essentially the same, namely, purification of the heart. God has innumerable names but the most beautiful and suitable in my opinion is Truth. Let Truth, therefore, rule every action of our life, be it ever so insignificant. Let every morsel of food that we eat be sanctified with His name and consecrated to His service. If we eat only to sustain the body as an instrument of His service not only will it make our bodies and minds healthy and clean, the inner cleanliness will be reflected in our surroundings also. We must learn to make our latrines as clean as our kitchens.

As with the individual so with society. A village is but a group of individuals and the world, as I see it, is one vast village and mankind one family. The various functions in human body have their parallel in the corporate life of society. What I have said about the inner and outer cleanliness of the individual, therefore, applies to the whole society. In the mighty world, man, considered as an animal, occupies but an insignificant place. Physically, he is a contemptible worm. But God has endowed him with intellect and the faculty of discrimination between good and evil.

Khadi

Khadi to me is the symbol of unity of Indian humanity, of its economic freedom and equality and, therefore, ultimately in the poetic expression of Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘the livery of India’s freedom’, said Gandhiji. Moreover, Khadi mentality means decentralization of the production and distribution of the necessaries of life. Therefore, the formula so far evolved is, every village to produce all its necessaries and a certain percentage in addition for the requirements of the cities.

Production of Khadi includes cotton growing, picking, ginning, cleaning, carding, slivering, spinning, sizing, dyeing, preparing the warp and the woof, weaving, and washing. These, with the exception of dyeing, are essential processes. Every one of them can be effectively handled in the villages as is being so handled throughout India. Imagine the unifying and educative effect of the whole nation simultaneously taking part in the processes up to spinning! Consider the levelling effect of the bond of common labour between the rich and the poor! The message of the spinning wheel is much wider than its circumference. Its message is one of simplicity, service of mankind, living so as not to hurt others, creating an indissoluble bond between the rich and the poor, capital and labour, the prince and the peasant.

In Hind Swaraj, he wrote of industrialization at odds with moral values: “The incessant search for material comforts and their multiplication is an evil. I make bold to say that the Europeans will have to remodel their outlook, if they are not to perish under the weight of the comforts to which they are becoming slaves.” Further, with a prophetic vision, Gandhiji warned: “A time is coming when those who are in mad rush today of multiplying their wants, will retrace their steps and say; what have we done?” This is true of climate change and the disasters that the world is facing today due to environment-damaging products and unsustainable activities.

Gandhiji said, “Let’s start with ourselves. I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you have seen and ask yourself: If the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he be able to gain anything by it? Will it restore to him control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and yourself melt away”.

We need to recollect these words of the Mahatma every moment. We can learn to live simply so that others can simply live – sharing more and consuming less for the simplified life. Instead of asking the question, why should I, let us ask the question, why should I not? A drop from the ocean perishes without doing any good. As a part of the ocean, it shares the glory of carrying on its bosom whole fleets of mighty ships!

– Excerpts from Young India, Harijan, various letters and conversations between 1925~1946, compilations in a book Village Swaraj, published by Navjivan Trust.

Green is Good

Well, its no rocket science that Green spaces are good – not only visually, but also for the mind. an early morning walk is a refreshing start, an evening stroll soothes tired eyes and body. However, a new study uses satellite and demographic data to show how the prolonged presence of green space is important for a healthy society.

In a nationwide study, researchers from Denmark’s University of Aarhus found that childhood exposure to green space—parks, forests, rural lands, etc.—reduces the risk for developing an array of psychiatric disorders during adolescence and adulthood. The study could have far-reaching implications for healthy city design, making green space-focused urban planning an early intervention tool for reducing mental health problems.

The impact of green space throughout childhood is significant. Exposure to green space is comparable to family history and parental age when predicting mental health outcomes. Only socioeconomic status was a slightly stronger indicator.

In India, most of us have grown with some greenery around us, especially those areas nearer to the umpteen mountain ranges like, the Western Ghats, the Sahyadris, and to a lesser extent, the Aravallis up north. every village has at least a Neem or a Peepal tree, with some fruit trees like Mango, Jamun and plants like Tulsi, Mehendi as also climbers like Jasmine.

Researchers are still working out exactly why green space is so beneficial, but it clearly provides health benefits across the population. It can encourage exercise, provide spaces for socializing, decrease noise and air pollution, and improve immune function by providing exposure to beneficial microbiota. It also can help with psychological restoration; that is, green space provides a respite for over-stimulated minds.

Green space most strongly protects against mood disorders, depression, neurotic behavior, and stress-related issues, the study found, signaling that psychological restoration may be the strongest protective mechanism that green space offers. The effect of green space is also dose-dependent, meaning those who have longer exposures to green space have greater mental health benefits.

It is an already established fact that green spaces mitigate climate change risks posed by urbanization; now this research based on Denmark’s demographics, adds impetus to the need to increase green cover, necessarily native trees that require low maintenance and live long. Additionally, adopting an environment friendly lifestyle, using products made from sustainable materials, less reliance on fossil fuels, making buildings that are kind to our earth and not reflect heat to atmosphere, could not only benefit, may actually start reversing the mal-effects of 250 yrs of industrialization.

Denmark currently has ~15% of forest cover, down from more than 40% before industrialization. Further extensive initiatives for urban greening and support from Govt for increasing green cover is ensuring that their population stays stress-free for generations to come.

India’s ~21% forest cover is slightly better, but much lesser than the world average of 30% and even the 33% recommended by our National Forest Policy. Considering the density of population and rapid urbanization, sincere efforts to increase green cover by the Govt as well as public is necessary. PM’s advice to each Indian citizen to plant 5 trees, if done, would aid restoring urban greenery, while Govts’ ambitious plan to plant 125 crore trees would start the re-greening of semi-urban and rural areas across India.

The research by Kristune Engemann and others was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is the largest epidemiological study to document a positive connection between green space and mental health. This original article was published by NASA’s Earth Observatory online.

SUSTAIN – Light, Sound, Action

Winter is setting in, and during this season air pollution rises to dangerous levels, energy and food wastages increase exponentially, plastic packaging including debris litter the roads and several children, sick elderly and animals suffer. That’s how we have celebrated our festivals. But this time around, let’s do it with a difference.

The title of this piece actually meant – more LIGHT, less SOUND, alternate ACTION!

We celebrate our festivals with vigour, we also add a lot of waste and freely contribute to air pollution. Given the poor quality of air that we breathe every day, it may come as no surprise that the WHO has categorized air pollution as the sixth biggest cause of deaths in India, triggering an alarm, The air quality in NCR has turned “very poor” and with the onset of festive season, and it is expected to get worse in the days to come, mitigated somewhat by stop-gap measures by local Govts.

Deepavali is the festival of lights – literally, a series of lights. Its not clear when the tradition of bursting fire-crackers started, but its manufacturing began in 1900’s at a small town called Sivakasi in TN. By the 40’s it was a flourishing industry, and in 2010 when NCR discovered crackers as a main air pollutant during early winters, there were more than 650 units churning out crackers of every shape, size, sound and lights! The industry of ~3k crore turnover employing 25k local people of which >60% are women, is grappling with the rapid changes and regulations. Of course, the town also makes majority of matches, supports defense requirements, and has a thriving printing industry.

Avoid crackers – This festival season, reduce your contribution to poor air quality by avoiding crackers. If this seems hard to follow, then green firecrackers are the one to blow. Low on emissions and within permissible sound limits, these have lesser polluting particles and are less harmful. Light diyas, made of clay using ordinary oil and cotton wick; ditch the candles.

Celebrate together – Another thing to do this festive season is to opt for a community celebration. The Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) could take a lead and celebrate together, instead of separately at homes; and that’s the way it still happens in our villages so we, the city folks, should go back to our roots and emulate. The intangible benefits are many. It will bring the entire neighbourhood together, help people bond better with each other, and make the festive joy grow manifold.

Colour Right – A recent UN Environment Programme study found out that the contribution of indoor air pollution to ambient air pollution in India is estimated to vary between 22% and 52%. Believe it or not, some of it is contributed by the indoor air paint. So if you are planning to get your house painted, then opt for eco-friendly, zero VOC paints. These use water-based solvents and help reduce or eliminate the release of volatile organic compounds in the indoor spaces, apart from being renewable, are available in a variety of colours, durable, and are long-lasting.

Wanton Waste – Waste management crisis affects all our cities and towns, which is taking a serious toll on our environment, economy and public health; inadvertently, we add to the waste woes in some measures. By 2050, India will need a landfill, the size of Delhi for waste disposal! This time around, let’s practise the 6R principle.

REDUCE – Waste not, want not is one principle to live by because if you use what you have wisely, sparingly and completely, you will be less likely to find yourself in need of anything. Even though the ban on single-use plastic and thermocol is in vogue, but implementation is deferred; one must avoid using plastic in any form and carry a cloth or jute bag instead when we go shop-hopping.

REUSE – Be thoughtful while selecting gifts; keep it sweet and simple. Go for potted plants; they beautify the place and also cut down indoor pollution. Use paper wraps, or cloth to wrap gifts, and add some sparkle or tie a lace around to give it a festive look – avoid shiny colourful paper made of plastic. Donate unused items.

RECYCLE – Or upcycle as much as you can. Don’t throw away earthen lamps after one time use; instead, keep them for next time. Use natural colour powders or flowers for rangoli and decor.

REFURBISH – In the festive sale-season, there’s a clamour to buy new electronic products, and we do it without a thought to the e-waste generated. Indians create of e-waste of ~2 million tonnes per annum (TPA), of which ~440k TPA is recycled. If you’re buying a new gadget, exchange with an old one to reduce e-waste; better, donate to someone needy.

REFUSE – Another sure way of reducing waste generation as a consumer is to go local. Step out, use public transport, buy from shops instead of doing it online because what’s on offer with a huge discount comes at a high environmental cost. Around 43% of plastic is used for packaging in India, and most are single-use. The bubble-sheet, cling-wrap, styrofoam and thermocol used in packing are not bio-degradable. Buying from the local market could be tiring, but can be enjoyable family time, while reducing carbon footprint.

REDESIGN – Festivals mean get-togethers, and a lot of meet, greet and eat with family and friends happen. So if you are inviting people over for a meal, avoid the disposable cutlery — plastic and thermocol — as these end up in landfills, choking drains, adding filth on our roads and kill our water bodies. This time, go green. Dump the idea of using plastic straws and buy steel or bamboo ones. Borrow cutlery from a local plate bank (eg: adamyachetana and others) that offer steel ones for a nominal charge. Just use, wash and return. If this doesn’t sound good, then buy tableware made of areca, sugarcane bagasse, bamboo or from palm, banyan or sal leaves. The tableware made of these materials is biodegradable and eco-friendly so they do not harm the environment. Or better go the traditional way and serve food on banana leaves.

LIGHT RIGHT – This festive season avoid the ritual of firing sky lanterns. The light ain’t right even though it is made of rice paper, and string. It is because the wires in these sky lanterns take years to break down and are an environmental hazard. Bright LED’s used as serial sets are cheap, imported from neighbouring countries are not tested for domestic use hence posing a hazard. Little colourful candles come in tin containers, which are so tiny that they don’t get into the recycling channel.

Soaking in the festive spirit, let’s each one of us take a small step towards making India a circular economy like other developed countries across the world. We can do it in some measure by buying local, eliminating waste and the continual use of resources or in other words by becoming resource-efficient, minimising waste generation, converting waste into useful products, maximising resource recovery and recycling for landfill-free cities. Let each one of us start, and maybe our concerted efforts will pave the way for a cleaner today and greener tomorrow.

~adapted from an article by teri

SUSTAIN – 4Rs

Everyone produces waste – an estimated 600 times of our body weight in a lifetime, that’s an awful lot!

Throwing things away is a bad habit; recycling them is desirable. Most things that you throw away can be recycled and turned into new products—although some are easier to recycle than others. When you throw stuff away, you might be very glad to get rid of it! Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the story. The things we throw away have to go somewhere—usually they go off underground in a landfill or burnt in an incinerator, either ways its bad – landfills leach harmful chemicals which pollutes soil, water and air; incinerators produce smoke/gas that pollute the environment and sometimes punch a hole in the Ozone layer above us, half the way to space.

What we really need to do is think harder about how we produce waste and how we dispose of it. It will always be better not to produce waste in the first place than to recycle it, so reducing the need for things is always the best option.

Less is more!!

4Rs – Refuse, Reduce, Recycle, Reuse.

Refuse – Think before buying, do the need-vs-want analysis.
Reduce – Consume in right quantities, be it food, clothes, electronics, appliances.
Recycle –
Reuse – Before disposing, try to use until it wears out

Think carefully about what you use, where it comes from, and where it goes. Try to reduce, reuse, and recycle if you possibly can—and in that order! Be a thoughtful consumer, not a reckless one, and you’ll be doing your bit to save the environment.

Maybe you have real doubts about the positive impact of recycling. Maybe you think it is only “hippy” stuff. Maybe you have a school report due, if so sorry about the previous allegations.

This page aims to show you the many ways recycling helps us and the environment.

Turns out there are many reasons to recycle other than the good feeling you may get from doing it. Recycling saves landfill space, conserves resource, saves energy and saves water. Recycling is only the tip of the environmental ice burg; reducing your waste and reusing what you have will always be better. However, you may be surprised how much of an impact recycling really has.

Here is a quick run down on the impacts on the environment based on the materials. These numbers were taken from a 2005 US Senate report:

Paper:

Newsprint

One ton of recycled newsprint saves 601 Kwh of energy, 1.7 barrels of oil (71 gallons),10.2 million Btu’s of energy, 60 pounds of air pollutants from being released, 7,000 gallons of water, and 4.6 cubic yards of landfill space.

Office Paper

Recycling one ton of office paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 463 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, and enough energy to heat an average home for six months trees. Further, manufacturing one ton of office paper using recycled paper stock can save 3,000 to 4,000 kilowatt hours versus making that amount using virgin materials.

Plastic:

One ton of recycled plastic saves 5,774 Kwh of energy, 16.3 barrels of oil, 98 million Btu’s of energy, and 30 cubic yards of landfill space.

Glass:

One ton of recycled glass saves 42 Kwh of energy, 0.12 barrels of oil (5 gallons), 714,000 Btu’s of energy, 7.5 pounds of air pollutants from being released, and 2 cubic yards of landfill space. Over 30% of the raw material used in glass production now comes from recycled glass.

Metal:

Aluminum

Recycling of aluminum cans saves 95% of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from its virgin source. One ton of recycled aluminum saves 14,000 kilowatt hours (Kwh) of energy, 40 barrels of oil, 238 million Btu’s of energy, and 10 cubic yards of landfill space.

Steel

One ton of recycled steel saves 642 Kwh of energy, 1.8 barrels of oil, 10.9 million Btu’s of energy, and 4 cubic yards of landfill space.

How does Recycling Save Landfill Space?

This is the easiest to understand. Everything you throw in the trash will end up buried in a landfill. In Santa Barbara County, while different recyclables are separated from each other, trash is not separated into different recyclable materials. Some Examples:

How does Recycling Save Resources?

Paper and cardboard come from trees, plastics from oil, metals from rocks called ores and glass from sand. Recycling means that we don’t have to chop down, extract or mine to collect more raw materials for making the things we use every day.

The US EPA and other sources give us these estimates for resource savings for one ton of these materials.

One ton of paper recycle saves 17 trees [EPA].

One ton of plastic saves 16.3 barrels of oil [Stanford].

One ton of aluminum saves 4 tons of Bauxite Ore [MadeHow.com].

One ton of glass saves one ton of mixed limestone, soda ash and sand [EPA, Stanford].

How does Recycling Save Energy?

This is most clear from the resource question above. Take a look at Aluminum. It takes 4 tons of Bauxite ore to make one ton of aluminum. That bauxite has to be mined, transported, crushed, mixed with caustic soda, heated and separated from impurities. After that the separated material is smelted, which basically means being heated to extremely high temperatures, to separate the aluminum. Recycling an aluminum can requires that the can be transported, separated from commingled recyclables, and melted. Not only does the melting take a lot less energy, you aren’t dealing with all the other processes you needed to do to separate the aluminum from bauxite! Take a look at MadeHow.com for more information about aluminum production.

This general rule applies to most materials: manufacturing them out of raw resources takes more energy than using a recycled product.

One way to look at this is to see how far an object could be transported before the energy recouped from recycling is lost. This information was taken from an article published in Resource Recycling in 2009. Researchers used the EPA WARM model to calculate how far you can ship goods by truck, rail and freighter ship before you don’t have any energy savings from recycling them. Lets look at a few materials shipped by truck, the least effiecient method of transportation.

Glass – 2,000 miles by truck

Plastic #1 (PET) – 10,000 miles

Newspaper – 21,000 miles

Aluminum – 103,000 miles

Circumference of the Earth – about 24,900 miles.

What does it mean? You can send aluminum around the world 4 times on a big rig truck and you will still save energy by recycling it. You can’t actually do that, since your average big rig can’t drive on water, but if you switch to train or frieghter ship, the effieciency gets even better.

Facts and figures collected from across wide web world. Credits at respective places.

SUSTAIN – Festivities

Festivals are a time for cheer, of colour and lights, to celebrate, and prayer, meeting friends, visiting relatives, exchange of pleasantries and good tidings. Festivals are also occasions for gifts – shop to own, to give and receive, and feasting (from its Latin origin festum); of late, holiday travel.

In India, we celebrate national festivals as a mark of respect to the nation, its leaders, notable personalities and religious festivals that mark a certain event in history, astronomy, mythology according to diverse local beliefs across the country.

In all these festivities, one common aspect is iconography – illustrations with respect to the event, commemorating or depicting an idol, a person, a symbol, as aids to draw attention, and related rhythmic chants, melodious songs, in their glory – some festivities more elaborate than the rest.

Gradually, over time, grandness has pervaded celebrations sidelining the very purpose of the festival itself, which seemingly enhances self-worth of the participants in the effortful game of one-upmanship.

Hundred thousand crores worth business is estimated during the 65+ festivals, both small and large, celebrated in India, while just three festive months, September, October and November together accounted for 75% of that figure during 2016-17. Of course this translated into employment opportunities for close to 5 lakh people across the country. Many companies in the FMCG, Auto and retail companies, online and walk-in, rustle upto 50% of their yearly sales in one quarter. Holiday travel, tourism and related businesses worth ~15 lakh crore is another bonus to the Indian economy!

The effect of excesses on the environment is evident – gypsum from idols choking water-bodies, waste of all forms (plastic–decorations, packaging, wraps, single use cutlery, water-bottles and animal remains and biowaste, waste oil, leftovers, paper and plastic cups, waste from electrical, plumbing, temporary structures, even billions of staples and the like) which hardly get segregated and hence not recycled along with other unrecyclable items, blocking storm-water-drains and dumped in landfills for posterity. Disposables in tourism similarly takes a toll on the exotic destinations, leading to our hills and seas, plains and forests ridden with plastic and various types of throwaways.

An eye on the environment, and eco-friendly festivities can enrich the celebrations multifold, sustainably, for years to come. Avoiding use of plastic in decorations in favour of natural and innovative ideas, resisting colourfully chemical painted idols made of plaster-of-paris / gypsum – for idols of clay and biodegradable materials, buying flowers, fruits, clothes, and all materials that are locally made/available, limiting consumption to the essentials (which is not only good for personal health+fortune but also the environment), conserving natural resources like fossil fuels, are just some of the individual sustainable initiatives causing least trouble to environment around us.

Let’s start from ensuring that our immediate neighbourhood is inclined to preserve nature in the way it is, and wherever restoring to its original, which in turn should dovetail into larger communities, localities, cities, and ultimately, the nation.

Enjoy, we must. Every living day is a reason to be cheerful, to Celebrate Life!

Happy Holidays!