Showing posts with label articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label articles. Show all posts

Monday, June 10, 2013

Alternate energy, may not be alternate any more


In my usual scourging on the net regarding environmental issues, I came across an article of The Economist which is couple of months old nonetheless and as I read through it, it made it realize that the term we use "Alternate energy" may not be alternate any more.

When scientists were giving presentations, seminars about the need of shifting the use of fossil fuel into alternate fuels around the late 80s, it definitely took time for it pick up. Currently the use of solar and wind energy have increased significantly over the last 10 years, powering a small portion of national girds of many countries. Initially costs of these were quite high, and not preferred such an example would be of solar energy. The entire process of harnessing the Sun's energy and converting that into electricity was very expensive but now with prices coming down ( notable because of research, production costs coming down) , it has become a common household item.

Ok so as the article goes, solar and wind energy cannot be termed as alternate energy source anymore. Why? Its because as I mentioned, they are now powering major countries. Germany is now mostly dependent on solar and wind if not fully but with its nuclear programs being shut down by 2020, these two sources of energy will eventually become its main contributor of power.

Anyways read the article here.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

As bloggers all over the globe join in the global movement to make the stance in climate change, Blog Action Day has targeted this year to select Climate Change as this year's topic. Currently there are some 8,872 blogs registered for this movement and 148 countries involved. Also as October 24th nears , the International Day of Climate Action, this is just adds to it.

In Bangladesh, recently they initiated a project to offset climate conference emissions where all outdated brick kilns are to be replaced which will reduce 50,000 tonnes of CO2 hoping to make the COP 15 carbon neutral.

Some southern regions of Bangladesh are losing ground due to the rising sea-levels. Now according to current CO2 emissions of 400-450ppm of C02, it is expected that sea-levels would rise by 25-40m. So that would mean most of Bangladesh would be under-water. For a developing nation which highly depends on its agricultural output, rising sea-levels will reduce agricultural land to a minimum. This resulting in food crisis. As poverty is still a problem, inflation in this sector will create, one of the largest hunger nation.

Aside from the food problem, habitable land will reduce making living for over 162,221,000 people quite impossible. It is quite noticeably that weather patterns in Bangladesh have changed. Our monsoon season has shifted forward by a certain time. In fact this year 2009, our popular Kal Bohshaikh was shifted by more than 15 days. Kal Boishaikh is basically the time when the monsoon season begins which is sometime in April.

Also we hardly have any winters. The winter of 2008-2009 only lasted over a month which started late-December and ended sometime in early February. Surprisingly also before it would not rain in the winters, it would remain dry. However as I noticed it over 12 years starting from 1997 to 2009, there is a tendency of rain in the winters for the last 2 or 3 years.

For us Climate Change is already in motion, we are facing it and in the near future it will become worse. Even though our CO2 emissions are in the thousands, we still need to be prepared. As a low-lying country, floods are really not a big deal. It is kind of a norm and people are used to it. But in the near future, floods will become devastating, even for us it will be difficult. As we lack infastructure it will be very difficult to sustain regular flooding. It is estimated that it would cost $100bn to tackle climate change and most of the money will go into water protection systems but we would require more than that. As it is impossible for our country to generate that much money, we would then become highly dependent on foreign aid, thinking about it we are already dependent on foreign aid.

In order for Bangladesh to avoid from becoming like Maldives, I request all UN officials, diplomats,delegates to make the right decision. This is such a decision, that the fate of the entire world is in your hands.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Steel is being replaced by Bamboo

As companies and governments are heading towards renewable energy and eco-friendly products even building construction is heading that way. New buildings are constructed with a new name termed "Green Buildings". It looks like steel and concrete could become old news as they could be replaced by bamboo. Bamboo is now being used to construct buildings like luxury homes to churches and many more. In Bangladesh, bamboo is used for reinforcing buildings while construction, that is before steel rods or concrete is poured, so its quite strong.

To know more visit the article here


Save the environment, Save the world

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

A man and his family making a difference

A man making a difference, a quest if you call it, but to me these are the people who care for the environment and I am proud to say that he is a HERO. He has called himself the No Impact Man and has certainly hit the net by his no No Impact life. Colin Beavan aka No Impact Man decided to play his part to go green and for some going green is like saying "I will do those things later, leave it on the table" but he took it on by brute force. He and his family has changed their way of living. Having no electricity in their house (an apartment in Manhattan), roams around New York City by bicycles. He has literally by definition tried to stop his entire life and changed it so that his actions to do not harm the environment.

Anyways he has been interviewed by BBC and you can visit the article here. He also has a blog called the No Impact Man, so go and check it out.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

McDonalds goes green

Fast Food franchise McDonalds plans to recycle its cooking oil into bio-diesel. Yes, the same oil used to cook the delicious and sumptuous Big Mac and french fries. Firstly what is bio-diesel? Its comes from bio-fuel which invidently comes from bio-mass. Anyways bio-mass is recently living organic matter or its by-products.
To know more visit the article at The Australian.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Some articles

These 2 articles are from BBC all referring to climate change

BBC NEWS

BBC NEWS

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Coral reefs are decreasing in number due to warming

A study conducted recently indicates that warming of oceans could lead to the extinction of coral reefs. In 1998 some 16% of the world's coral reefs would lost in just one year. The lost of these reefs caused ecological unstability as some aquatic species depend on coral reef to provide food and shelter.

To understand more go to

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4772715.stm

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Pollution could kill off human race

Pollution is causing genetic mutations which could clear the Earth of all human race according to a leading scientist. Pollutants from exhausts are causing damaging mutations in our DNA. To read more go to http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=703372006

Friday, May 12, 2006

Penguins found dead in Argentina

More than 100 Magallen penguins weer found dead in the coast of Argentina. The reason: the penguins were covered with oil. There is no clue from where the oil came from. A rescue team is set up to save the other penguins who are also covered with oil. To read more go to

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4763747.stm

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Clear human impact on climate

BBC published this article relating to how climate change is due to human impact
Here is the link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4969772.stm

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Cleaner air makes brighter skies

Read this article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4520831.stm

Europe's pollution hotspots shown

Dutch scientists are mapping pollution hotspots around Europe and rest of the world. Read this article to know more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4512464.stm

Deep disposal on nuclear waste

Uk is planning to dispose its nuclear waste deep underground. To know more go to
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4949096.stm

Spacecraft seeks climate clarity

Two satellites Cloudsat and Calipso was launched on Friday to monitor the atmosphere. To know more read this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4944058.stm

Saturday, March 11, 2006

BBC articles

I was checking through pollution and other such activities when i came across several articles.
The first article story is "Polar ice sheets show net loss" the link is http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4790238.stm

Then there is another and its headline "CO2 the highest in 650,000 years". Its link is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4467420.stm

Lasting " Water builds the heat in Europe". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4419880.stm

Check out the links.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Another BBC report

This report is quite interesting. I will give a shorter version of it. Technically a study was done involving England's nature. Nature in the sense that in a fixed amount of time certain aspects must be accomplished such as preservation of wildlife, forests, rivers and many more relating to nature.

To get the full report, go to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4733788.stm