On the 5th of June, the 15 world will celebrate the World Environment Day 2015. Globally, all nations are seriously working on measures to be taken to reduce generation of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The next global conference on Climate Change is being held at Paris in December this year. The IPCC has, in its last report, said that unless efforts are made to reduce use of Fossil Fuels to ZERO by 2050, the world will keep facing increasingly intense climatic events.
However, citizens can do a lot on their own to reduce the generation of GHGs in their own neighbourhood.
Tree Plantation - trees play a very crucial role in maintaining CO2 / Oxygen balance in the nature. They are the most cost effective solution to reduce pollution & improve air quality. They absorb CO2 & release Oxygen.
However, trees are rampantly cut across the cities. Every year, there is a "Tree Plantation" drive asan annual ritual, with minimal survival rate. What is required is tree plantation drive with aim to ensure maximum survival of trees.
The aim should be to plant native tree species for better survival rate. In 5 to 10 years such a drive will start showing results. It is slow, but long lasting & effective. It also provides habitat to native birds & wild life.
Water Management - Water is an all important natural resource. This planet cannot survive without this resource. However we have polluted this source drastically. Our "use, pollute & discard" attitude towards water needs to be changed. Unsustainable extraction of ground water is reducing the water table at alarming rates. Recharging of ground water through rain water harvesting will help improve the water table. This will reduce citizens dependence on tanker water.
Reduction of 1 water tanker a day per bore / open well will help reduce about 8 Kg of CO2, considering use of 3 liters of fuel for 20 kms each round trip. India has thousands of cities, towns, villages dependant on water tankers for their daily water need. These places have thousands of bore / open wells. Even a single tanker reduction at each one of these bore wells across India will reduce tonnes of CO2 generation in the country. Similarly as the water table rises the electrical energy required to draw the water will also be less. Saving of 1 Kwh of energy will help saving of about 0.5 kg of CO2 . In our society in Viman Nagar Pune our daily dependence has reduced to ZERO from 3 tankers, saving about 26,400 Kgs of CO2 per year. Pune has about 7000 bore wells - imagine the impact on city’s environment if every bore well has recharge system in place. A rough calculation shows a reduction of 56 tonnes of CO2 generation daily. This is only considering ONLY ONE TANKER reduction per bore well per day.
Use Of Vehicles - Pune city has 25 lakh registered vehicles. Hundreds of vehicles are added every day. The city air is highly polluted. These vehicles not only pollute our city but also add to our traffic problems. Even if we consider that only 50 % of these vehicles are on road every day it amounts about 12 lak vehs. If their running is reduced even by ONE KM per day it amounts to 12 lak kms. Considering 10 kms to a liter of fuel it means daily 12,000 liters of fuel saved per day. This will remove 30 tonnes of CO2 from city environment, also it will reduce considerable amount of traffic problems. Car pooling must be encouraged by the Government.
Solid Waste Management - As per Supreme Court directions every house hold must segregate kitchen waste as DRY & WET garbage & dispose of wet garbage in the society / residence area. Decomposing wet garbage generates more dangerous methane oas. Composting of wet garbage will reduce release of methane into the city’s air. In our society we have been composting our wet garbage since 2010, thereby eliminating use of landfills, and reducing methane.
Use Of electrical energy saving measures - By simply changing our 40 watt tubelight with a 10 watt of CFL bulb will reduce considerable amount of electrical energy. Every 1 kwh energy saving will help reduce 0.5 Kg of CO2 generation. In our society we replaced our 135 tube lights with 85 CFL bulbs of 10 watt capacity. This has helped reduce our monthly energy bill reduction from Rs 20,000 to about Rs 14,000/- per month.
All these steps can easily be done by every citizen like you & I. If we could successfully recharge ground water through rainwater harvesting systems, dispose 35 kgs of wet kitchen waste daily through composting & using energy saving measures to reduce electrical energy consumption, so can you.
This way, not only can we save our city environment but we could also become a model city for the India . If every city, town & village in the country implement these cost effective & easy to do measures, it will help India's war against global warming in a big way.
