VOTE EARTH - 60 min Earth Hour

GDN, Bahrain, Friday 27th March 2009
Bahrain businesses and residents were yesterday urged to mark 'Earth Hour' with the rest of the world by turning off the lights at their homes and establishments between 8:30pm and 9:30pm tomorrow (28th March 2009).
The Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife is spearheading the initiative by taking a similar step during the same period.
"We hope to send out a message about reducing a gas emissions from power stations, particularly Carbon-di-oxide, which is considered one of the main gases that largely contribute to climate change," said a comission spokesman.
Earth Hour 2009 is an initiative by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to combat climate change.
Business, residents and students in Bahrain as well as the rest of the world have committed to turning off their lights to symbolise a 'Vote for Earth'.
Those making the effort to switch off their lights are voting for a safe environment, while those who don't are seen to be voting for 'Global warming'.
Earth Hour was launched in Sydney, Australia, two years ago in an effort to send a powerful message that people have the power to make a positive impact on their environment.
The event aims to have one billion people switching off their lights for an hour. The results will be calculated and presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 7.
According to the Earth Hour website, more than 3,000 cities, towns and municipalities in 84 countries will take part.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) is among the companies in Bahrain urging people to join the initiative. PwC global chief executive officer Sam Di Piazza said there was no value in preaching to others unless you practise yourself.
"Around the globe the people of PwC are committed to playing a leading role in achieving a sustainable future.
"We take responsibility for our actions and promote responsible business practices, support the growth and development of our people and communities and seek to minimise our impact on the environment."
Chief executive Boris Uhlig of the recently launched Recycling for Charity said they were keen to join the campaign.
"We are asking people to vote for Earth by switching off their lights and embrace the power to help the environment."
"Something as simple as a candle-lit dinner with family or friends or looking at the stars makes a bold statement that one person committed to reducing energy consumption can make a difference, but millions working together can change the world."
Bahrain International Circuit hopes sports fans receive the message and joins the campaign.
"As the first circuit in the world to have an active environmental programme with the Unep, we are delighted to see many more establishments follow suit to enhance the country's commitment to the environment and community," Chief Executive officer Martin Whitaker said.
Coca-cola Bottling Company Bahrain public relations manager Leila Rajkumar said the plant would spend a whole week celebrating Earth Hour.
"We will make climate change education presentations to all employees. We will urge the plant's 250 emloyees to incorporate Earth Hour into their homes.
"Conservation of water, being one of our key environmental goals, we will host events to identify measures to reduce waste of water as an integral routine in our daily lives."
Standard Chartered Bank supported the campaign for the second consecutive year. Staff in Bahrain and the Middle East, participated by switching off computers before leaving their desks yesterday, with the aim of making a powerful statement about energy consumption in the region.
Bank regional chief executive officer Shayne Nelson said it could make a credible difference to the environment and staff should take a sustainable approach to tackling climate change.
"We encourage our staff to lead by example, by symbolically switching off and unplugging all non essential equipment and lights in office and at homes."
"In our capacity as advisers, lenders, investors and insurers we recognize the instrumental role financial institutions play in catalysing the shift to a low crbon economy."
St. Christopher's school students tok a pledge to turn off their lights, wherever they are tomorrow night. Year Nine student Devi Nair recently gave an assembly speech to her peers, urging them to support this 'amazing idea.' Head teacher James Moncur said Earth Hour was a simple way of making a positive contribution to protecting the planet. He said he was proud of the students' high level of awareness and determination to become actively engaged in he effort to protect the environment.
(KIND NOTE: Though Earth Hour concept apparantly and directly seem to have no significant reduction in carbon emission globally, it can be a head start for more serious steps which would be initiated further by many organisations and individuals. Propagation of this event would easily create wide awareness all over the world. So, I hope we also should get along with this campaign and support and spread the word as far as possible. http://vgogreen.blogspot.com)

2nd Monthly challenge

I believe most of you would have tried our first monthly challenge and would have found out for yourselves some remarkable changes in your life style (Greener life style). Though those challenges we took up for the first month was very simpler ones, they would have brought in a lot of changes in your energy consumption statistics. If you people have worked out by noting the statics of the energy you have saved last month by trying out the practices, i request you to post in your observations and learnings. Whatsoever, i think that we have got into the vibe of being green and have started feeling greener.

By the way, this month we'll get into little more complicated challenges. I'll keep my points rather short and sweet as we all have already got the whole idea of what we're doing exactly in consecutive months. This month we're gonna:

1. 'Eat Local': Try to consume local food stuffs and other locally manufactured or produced goods. You might ask me what is the exact relevance of this to being green. If you think deep, there's a strong relevance. If you go for local produce, you indirectly reduce a lot of energy and resources spent on transportation and other such stuff. Consuming local products also encourage small producers from your local towns or villages.





2. Water harvesting: This month plan your budget to install a rain water harvesting system in your house.

Need for Water Harvesting in India India has 18% of the world's population but only 4% of its fresh water and just over 2% of its land area. Many of the country's groundwater aquifers are already in critical condition. Available per capita water supply has declined since 1975 and water demand is set to exceed all usable sources of supply by 2050. India 's limited freshwater supplies are being steadily depleted through mismanagement and waste. Unless water resources are better conserved and used more efficiently, the IPCC has warned, the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus could be reduced to seasonal rivers by 2035. Many of its nearly 900 million people suffer severe water shortages, in part as a result of uneven availability of water. Most rainfall comes during the monsoon season, from June to September, and levels of precipitation vary from 100 millimeters a year in the western parts of Rajasthan to over 9,000 millimeters in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. Floods and droughts are both common throughout the country.(8) In spite of higher average annual rainfall in India (1,170 mm, 46 inches) as compared to the global average (800 mm, 32 inches), India does not have sufficient water.

A rain barrel can collect a sufficient amount of water, provided it is emptied every time it rains. If you empty the barrel once everyday (during the rainy season), a 50 sq.m space on the roof connected to a 500 litre rain barrel can collect nearly 23,000 litres of rainwater in a year, under Bangalore conditions. Similarly a 1000 litre rain barrel can collect nearly 35,000 litres of water in a year. In many parts of Kerala with over 100 days of rain annually, a 500 litre can collect around 40,000 litres!
The space required for a rain barrel itself is four cubic feet. On average, installing a rain barrel of 500 litres should cost about Rs 2500. A 1000 litre rain barrel would cost approximately Rs 4300.
Every rain barrel has a tap and an overflow outlet. The water collected in the rain barrel can be used to recharge open wells or bore wells. Using a hosepipe and a Zero-B type filter, the tap can be connected to the bore well or sump tank for domestic usage. A Zero-B filter costs about Rs 60. Overflows from rain barrels can also be used for recharging the ground. (According to Rainwater Club, Bangalore)

Rainwater harvesting is not that complicated as you imagine. With the help of locally available pipes, a plastic drum and a cloth or sponge filter will do the job.
Slum dwellers from Chamrajpet (Bangalore) are all set to build around 200 rainwater harvesting systems with the help of a local NGO. Why dont we give it a try?

Learn more about rain water harvesting from some of the web links mentioned below; do your own research along with that and lets take it as an important task to be achieved this month. Trust me, you're gonna save a lot of water than you would have imagined...

http://www.indiawaterportal.org/tt/rwh/case/rainwater_rooftop.html
http://akash-ganga-rwh.com/RWH/WaterHarvesting.html
http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/whatiswh.htm

You dont have to stop at installing a rainwater harvesting system at your home. You can try to inspire others around you to do it too. People generally tend to follow the words of the ones who are close to them and ones whom they believe to be reliable. So encourage rain water harvesting and save water and thus our environment.

Manav and Mother Earth

Long ago There lived a king named Manav. One day his subjects came to him and said ''We have no food, and we can't work without food."
''What has happened to all the food?" asked the king.
"The Earth has swallowed all the seeds and is not letting anything grow" said his subjects.
King Manav was angry with the Earth. He shot an arrow at the Earth to punish her. Mother Earth was frightened and she took the form of a cow and ran away with her tail between her legs. The king chased her from place to place. He would not give up. Finally, Mother Earth fell at king Manav's feet.
"If you are righteous, why are you trying to hurt me? What harm have I done?" asked Mother Earth.
"Why are you depriving my people of food?" asked the angry king.
"When ill-hearted people became powerful, no one protected me", said Mother Earth, "I have been ill-treated and exploited for decades by polluting my soil by harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides; by mass deforestation of dense forests for selfish human needs; I have been separated from my close companions called wildlives who help me keep up the ecosystem in balance; by getting rid of insects and buterflies which help in pollination, its you people who have stopped the germination of dense lot of crops and plant species. Because of human community's ignorance and careless attitude, I have been devastated for hunreds of years. Plant and animal species like Dodo bird, Quagga (Half Zebra half horse-extinct since 1883), Caspian tiger (since 1970) are already extinct due to human activities which has caused a lot unbalance in food chain in our ecosystem. Still you guys are continuing to exploit wild animals for commercial purposes which are going to be extinct say Wild Panda (just 1200 numbers left), blue whale and Orang-Utans. Bearing all these troubles caused by you am still managing to offer you with all possible food, medicines and other resources. Now tell me king Manav what right do you have to question me?"......
The noble king's views were broadened by Mother Earth. He realised his mistakes and apologised Earth on behalf of his subjects. He said we humans have forgotten your generosity. Now I understand that we ourselves are responsible for even the global warming scenario which is gradually making the Earth an unsafe place to live in. I promise you now onwards to take care of you Mother Earth and will make you a safe haven forever.
We should all live by king Manav's words and take care of our Earth ourselves by making it more friendly, safe and green! Don't you think so?

ALBA, Bahrain goes Green!

ALBA goes greener with $66m

Manama: According to GDN (Gulf Daily News, 8th Jan 2009), ALBA, the largest modern aluminium smelter in the world has announced that it had completed a $66m (BD 24.9m/ Rs.3213m) project to make its power stations more environmentally friendly. Power general manager Mahmood Asghar said gas turbines had been retrofitted with new low nitrogen oxide (NOx) burners to reduce emissions, which were now better than those required by international standards. This project is one of the largest of its kind in Asia and the Middle East, following its implementation by a German company. It was implemented in phases with co-operation of Alstom power service.

START SMALL

Just calling ourselves "Green" is of no use unless we take some step towards making our life and our world green. Though we start up with small practices it will tend to grow as we get used to those sustainable practices in due course.

By the way, for the people who have no clue of what we are talking about, let me introduce what
does it all mean to being "Green". In simple terms being green is to be 'eco-sensitive'. That is, we take care that we save our nature (Plant and animal species), the energy sources we use up (Fuel, electricity etc.) and other natural resources for the future. Use resources as required and remember 'only as required'. By doing this we will save our planet from global warming and we will protect our endangered species like Orang-utans of Indonesia which are invaluable to us.

Now, thats all right. More than to discuss on the facts and statistics which most of us already know or which you can easily know by a little research over the internet, we shall make this forum a practical one by taking up a "Green practice/activity" for a certain period of time as a small challenge and will share our experiences on this blog: vgogreen.blogspot.com
The best part is, most of the sustainable/green solutions are even light on our pockets; that is these practices are mostly money saving too. So lets begin taking up some challenge and have fun! As the saying goes 'Tiny drops of water makes an ocean', i believe our small efforts will contribute for a big change. All we have to do is get started.

There are so many changes we can undertake. To name a few which can be easily taken up for a start, we shall practice the following for the FIRST MONTH:

• Replace the incandescent bulbs (Consumes lot of energy) in our house with energy saving CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamps). For

people who would like to know why do we
have to do this can read the side bar
(excerpt from wikipedia.com

• Look for recyclable goods when you go out for shopping next time. You can also use a paper or organic/biodegradable gunny bags to carry your purchase. Refuse to buy polythenes and plastics and ask for recycled glasswares. Why do we have to go for 'Recycled'? Because it saves energy and resources required to produce new ones. You'll save a lot of trees when you use recycled paper. Have you any clue that it has been estimated that recycling half the world’s paper would avoid the harvesting of 20 million acres (80,000 km²) of forestland. Be proud to be a part of saving our trees!

• Switch off all your appliances (TV, lights, fan, A/C etc; dont even keep your cars idle) when not in use. Keep track of the number of minutes you saved by noting in a scrap book for this month and you will be glad to have saved a lot of energy by the end of this month (Feb 2009).

These are small measures which you might feel silly now. But trust me, keep tracks and records of all the energy you save this month (You can refer the internet for stats), you will be glad. I hope we will carry out this challenge for the month of february and i expect more people to gather on this discussion and participate actively. We'll get on to a new set of eco-challenge next month after successfully getting used to these. Meanwhile keep going through my successive posts on being "Green" on this blog. Your suggestions are most welcome!
HAPPY GO GREEN!