Disappointed..but back again...

I begin this post more than a year apart with great disappointment and a recent experience which reminded me how things might look like in the future. Why disappointed? The recent outcome of COP17 at Durban just makes it clear that even though with such visible changes about the environment, countries are still willing to fight over petty things. Although some say that this conference did somewhat have a positive outcome but nonetheless it reminded me of a similar conference that was held two or three years before where all the countries were in a rush to come up with a decision and in the end a three-page document was created containing absolutely nothing solid about proper climate change mitigation targets.

For rich countries, climate change sure does not seem like a big issue considering the current economic crises, and I understand that but for LDCs its a major dilemma. Least to say that they are the worst affected; such countries are stranded in the middle of a ping-pong court, just bouncing from one side to another. Hence I come to the point that reminded of a personal experience that I had recently.
I live in a supposedly posh area in Dhaka, and in such an area it is expected to get continuous water, electricity and gas supply or just to say the basic utilities. I never had complains about any of these issues unlike places in Dhaka where you would to wait in line to get water from the water authority.

So I was having this water shortage at my place and I remember that every time I would wake up from sleep to head to office, I knew if i was lucky that I could get a nice proper shower but that was not the case. I remember when I switched on the tap, it was clear only drops of water would fall, so I would quickly find a bucket to save as much as I could. From whatever water I saved, I would brush my teeth and manage to have a shower.

When I would get back from office, I could not even wash my hands, since there was no water. It became more than a necessity to me than anything, and not for lavish purpose of taking a nice long bath, but doing the basic things, like brushing your teeth, having a shower, washing your clothes, all of these things. Later eventually we bought water bottles, so that we could at least manage the basic necessities. It then popped in my head that buying water was cheap in Dhaka, hardly less than a dollar, if I consider a 5 liter water bottle. I know abroad that water is expensive.
For Bangladesh, water crisis is a norm, where a majority of people are used to it. Although not many rich countries are accustomed to such situations, with the effects of climate change, things will change.

So I started to imagine that the water shortage I had in a week, not having enough water to do the basic necessities will become a usual activity in the future. Water will become an expensive commodity and the people rich enough will have money to buy whereas for those who are poor would not be able to afford it. It might begin first with water territory issues then slowly will lead to war and so many more issues, and water is just of many problems we will face with climate change.

Hence with all of this disappointment and rabbles going on inside my head, I came to a realize that I almost gave up on the fight for climate change and with such outcomes at COP17 just made it clear that, the fight must go on and should never give up…

Why did I create this blog?

A couple of days back my friend Bdgamers and I were talking about web hosting. As I mentioned in the previous posts that I will shift my blog to a new hosting which I will do in due time. I found out several green hosting companies that are providing green hosting services which can be found at Green-blog.org. When I told him about it he laughed at me for sometime. I was telling him it would be perfect since my blog being based on the environment and pollution and alternate energy. I also told him that several hosts will even plant trees on behalf of their clients. Then Bdgamers asked me what do I do to save our environment. He was telling me that I use the blog to tell people to do their part but I do not. When he said that I felt quite cross. I would not create a blog and tell people to do things will I sat and did nothing.

On the contrary I told him I do my best to protect the environment. He asked for examples. I said for instance I walk to a nearby supermarket rather than taking the car. In our country most people would take their cars but I did not. Every time I go to that market I walk there and back. Even sometimes I walk to the bank some distance away from my house whereas my dad, mum takes the car. For them taking the car is ok for their security and things that they are not that young. But still when ever I do an errand near the house I walk or take a rickshaw something that does not pollute. By doing this I reduce my carbon footprint.

I always throw the garbage in the bin rather on the streets. I carry the garbage with me till I see the bin. I am trying my best to reduce pollution and the purpose of this blog is to let people know that things are not looking good for us and for future generations. That there are new technology that can reduce the pollution and we must use it and promote its usage.Why future generations? We will only inhabit this earth till we live but if we leave a bad environment such as black smog sky, rising water levels after we die, the future generations will blame us. We are acting selfishly. We live under clear blue sky while they will live in dangerous conditions. We will see the nature as it was left to us while they will see disgust in nature because of pollution.

There are some blogs I have seen about Global Warming Awareness and Climate Change Awareness. Frankly to me all these awareness programs should have been done some 20 years ago. Now is the time to take action. We must take action what ever the cost.

Several parts of the planet have already started feeling the affects of global warming. Countries like Bangladesh, where I live, the weather patterns are changing so rapidly. Two weeks extremely hot and suddenly rain showers that last for 2-3 days. Then suddenly you see a speck of light and in the next hour rain then it stops suddenly and again.

Even Europe are feeling it. I saw in a news article two days ago that some 500 people in Hungary were killed due to heatwave. In Britain flash floods are occurring in certain parts whereas Africa is dry as a bone.

People still deny it, they find anything to do will the environment boring. My English teacher thinks so too. These ignorant people do not care what happens to anyone. These people are selfish and only care about themselves. I may sound rude but it is the truth and it hurts. Those who deny please remember that your future generations are going to blame you and only you will feel guilty about what you have done.

For some reason I find life precious something that I feel I must protect if under harm no matter how many lives are on the stake I feel I must save them. A responsibility.

WE MUST PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT!!! WE MUST TAKE ACTION!!!!

Many of you will laugh at what I have said but those who care it is upto you to help and save what we have left.

Innovative energy source

Everything on this planet produces waste, what every species but as we humans are the dominate of the species we produce a lot a waste. As our oil reserves shrinks we must find an alternative source of energy and waste is the best source of energy. It is produced on a daily basis. Its kind of sick to think like that but it could one day become our only hope of survival. It is also renewable so it has some economical advantage. Maybe the conversion of these wastes to renewable energy may cost a lot but in the end it worth the risk.

The GreenHouse Effect 3

There is an effective scheme to preserve tropical forests. It is called debt-for-nature exchange or debt swap. The scheme recognises that many of the countries which are cutting down forests are struggling to repay foreign debts and are desperately in need of the revenue they will get for timber. In debt-swap a rich country agrees to cancel a debt from the poor country if that country will agree to conserve a certain area of forest in exchange. Cameroon and Madagascar in Africa and Costa Rica and Bolivia in South America are some of the countries that have benefited from the scheme. The whole world will benefit if the scheme expands.

The Greenhouse Effect2

Before the Industrial Revolution the carbon dioxide concentration was 280-90 ppm now it is 340ppm. By 2100, if the burning of fossil fuels continues at its present level, the concentration of carbon dioxide will have doubled. Climatologists estimate that doubling the carbon dioxide concentration would increase mean temperatures by 2-3 degrees Celcius. They also predict that increase would be greatest at high latitudes(near the poles) with Russia warming up by say 3 degrees Celcius, North America by 1-2 degrees Celcius and some countries like Japan, India and Spain showing little change in temperature.

Plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to use in the photosynthesis, Unfortunately, the world's forest cover is being drastically cut. In Brazil, the Amazon rain forest once covered 3 million square miles. As the region has been developed for agriculture and mining, 20% to 25% of the forest has been destroyed and a further 20% has been seriously disturbed. When felled trees are burned to rot, carbon doxide and other greenhouse gases are released. The same kind of deforestation is going on in some African countries, Indonesia, India and the Philippines. The loss of trees may already be making the Earth warmer.

Methane is another greenhouse gase. Methane enters the atmosphere from a number of sources. A single termite mound can emit about 5 litres of methane per minute. Swamps, rice fields, leaking North Sea gas pipes and herds of cows all send methane into the atmosphere. CFC's are powerful greenhouse gases.

A temperature increase of 0.5 degree Celcius has been observed since the beginning of the century. This may not sound alarmingly but scientists expect any greenhouse warming to be masked for quite a time by the enormous capacity of the oceans to absorb heat.

To be continued.......

The Greenhouse Effect

The mean temperature of our planet is fixed by steady state balance between the energy received from the Sun and an equal quantity of heat energy radiated back into space by the Earth. If disturbances in either incoming or outgoing energy is upset this balance, the average temperature of the Earth's surface will drift to a different steady state value. The resulting changes in the Earth's climate could upset food production, create deserts,raise the level of oceans or start a new ice age. One mechanism for resulting the Earth's temperature is the greenhouse effect.

Some of the things i am going to explain is going to be difficult but please bear with me.
The Sun emits radiation in a band of wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared( UV to IR, 200nm to 3000nm) with a maximum in the visible spectrum at 500nm. This radiation passes through the atmosphere of the Earth with very little absorption. When this radiation reaches the Earth, it warms the ground or sea. The warm surface of the Earth radiates energy outwards at the longer infrared wavelengths. Unlike sunlight, infrared radiation cannot travel freely through air. Infrared radiation is absorbed by water vapour, carbon dioxide, ozone and other gases in the lower atmosphere , warming up the lower layers of the atmosphere, which radiate some heat back to the ground and some into space.

The warming effect of carbon dioixde and water vapour has been named the greenhouse effect. The effect is compared with the glass of a greenhouse, which lets sunlight enter and prevents infrared radiation from leaving. ( Actually in addition to reflecting infrared radiation , real greenhouses trap heat mainly by preventing warm air from escaping by convection.)

There is more water in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, so most of the greenhouse effect is due to the presence of water vapour. The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon. Without it, the Earth would be uninhabitable. It is what keeps us from being a frozen planet. If gases such as carbon dioxide did not trap the Sun's energy , the Earth's mean temperature would be about -20 degree Celcius rather than its current 15 degree Celcius.


To be continued.......

The Ozone layer2

The decrease was later found due to the presence of CFC. It was then used as refrigant, aerosals and thermal insultions. Being chemically unreactive they would pass through the troposphere to the stratosphere where the UV light causes them to break forming chlorine oxide. Satellites detected that the ozone layer were eaten away due to the presence of chlorine oxide.

Guess that is why CFC usage was ban.

The Ozone layer

In the stratosphere (upper atmosphere) there is layer of ozone which protects us from ultraviolet rays from the Sun. This layer also protects the oxygen present in the troposhere(lower atmosphere).

Ozone is destroyed by chemical reactions with a number of substances that occur naturally in the stratosphere e.g. nitrogen oxides (from microbes and the combustion of fossil fuels) and methane( produced by microbes from in swamps). Increasing man-made substances are now attacking the layer.

The decrease in the ozone layer was first discovered in 1983, when scientists with the British Antarctic Survey observed that the concentration of ozone in the strastosphere decreased rapidly over Antarctica each spring to be replenished by the end of November.


To be continued......

Acid Rain Flow Chart

Acid Rain

Well today i will be talking abt acid rain and which countries are having an effect. Rain is naturally slightly acidic. Naturally acidic because it reacts with carbon dioxide in the air to form carbonic acid. Natural rain- water has a pH of abt 5.6 . In central Europe, rain-water is more acidic with a pH of abt 4.1 and on the fringes of Europe example Ireland and Portugal, rain-water has pH of abt 4.9. Rain from individual storms can have a pH below 3. Rain water below 5 is known as acidic rain.

Acid rain is now thought to be the cause of the extensive damage to Europe's trees and to the death of fish in lakes of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Wales, Scotland and other countries. Europe shows worst signs of damage by acid rain but it is becoming a global phenomenon due to the presence of greenhouse gases.

Thousands of lakes which once stocked fish are now dead. Death of fish is normally due to aluminium poisoning. Sulphates present in acidic rain combine with aluminium to form a product which interferes with fish gills. Basically clogging it hence the fish die by the lack of oxygen.

One of the chief culprits in the formation of acidic rain is sulphur dioxide. Natural sources like volcanoes, sea spray, rotting vegetation and plankton send sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere.However most of the sulphur dioxide comes from the burning of fossil fuels. Over Europe 85% of sulphur dioxide come from fuels.

Fossil Fuels

Most of the energy used in the world comes from the combustion of organic compounds, such compounds are fossil fuels. They are finite resources and when we have used up Earth's reserves no more will be formed. We use fuels as if there is unlimited reserves but they are not. Although they have many advantages but the disadvantages are taking a toll on our ecosystem. These fuels contain sulphur which when reacts with oxygen and water they form acidic rain. However the biggest drawback is the formation of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas.

Catalytic Converters

Carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons are present in vehicle exhaust gases as a result of the incomplete combustion of fuel in the engine. Oxides of nitrogen are present in the air is at the temperature of the car engine.
The exhaust gases are passed through a catalytic converter a pipe containing a solid catalyst, plantinum and rhodium. The converter cannot remove oxides of nitrogen.
An engine can be fitted with a three-way catalytic system which can both oxidise fuel, carbon monoxide and also reduce oxides of nitrogen.
Lead poisons the catalyts in the converter.It destroys the catalytic action. Hence unleaded petrol must be used when using a catalytic converter.

Chemistry- The Car3

The simultaneous production of overoxidised pollutants,nitrogen oxide, and underoxidised pollutants, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, makes it difficult to clean up the exhaust with a single chemical treatment. The production of each major pollutant depends on the air/fuel ratio. A rich mixture(with less air than the ideal ratio) leads to the formation of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. A lean mixture (with excess of air) leads to the formation of nitrogen oxide. Altering the air/fuel ratio merely trades one set of pollutants for another.

Nitrogen oxide:
This oxide is a pollutant which attacks the ozone layer. It also contributes to the photochemical smog (i will explain this later) and to the formation of nitric acid in acid rain.

Carbon monoxide:
This is a poisonous gas. Hydrocarbons by themselves cause little damage, but in the presence of sunlight react with oxygen, ozone and oxides of nitrogen to form photochemical smog. One solution to the problem of pollution by vehicle exhausts is the catalytic converter.

Chemistry-The Car2

The petrol engine powers most of our motor vehicles. The burning of fuel in the cylinder after ignition by the spark is sudden and intense. The temperature soars about 2800 Celcius and some nitrogen and oxygen in the cylinder combine to form nitrogen oxide. As the piston is pushed of the cylinder, the combustion gases expand and cool in less than a hundredth of a second. The heating-cooling cycle occurs so rapidly that much of the fuel is not completely oxidized to carbon dioxide and water. Some carbon monoxide is formed and some hydrocarbons remains unburned.

To be continued

Chemistry-The Car1

Two hundred million motor vehicles are travelling the roads of the world. They are covering 2 million million miles a year and burning 70 billion litres of petrol. From their exhausts come 40 million tonnes of carbon monoxide, 4 million tonnes of nitrogen oxide, 4 million tonnes of hydrocarbons and 0.2 million tonnes of lead. These pollutants are discharged at the street level where people cannot avoid inhaling them.

To be continued