SAVE SPACE - WE CAN THAN SAVE OUR MOTHER EARTH!

Since years, we keep harping over the Environment theme to save our Planet Earth from the hazards of   Pollution. The Keep city clean and Don’t cut Trees have become a prompt line and a buzz word with top priorities. Man has no right to play with nature. In God’s plan, man lives and dies, making way for the others. Natural calamities have remained mysterious and doomsday is predicted known as Kali Yug, whether true or not, the end of the Universe. Experimenting knowingly with the danger signs is a lesson yet to be learnt whatever the consequences befall. The Americans expose their sentiments with the fury, condemnation and disbelief in the aftermath of India & Pakistan’s Nuclear Tests previous years. The  British expressed  their shock and dismay over the tests but the question remains burning that if Nuclear Arms race is on the run, where would human life trail, maybe towards a man made destruction - all in a vision for superpower status! Yet the Struggle & Strife continues with War, Destruction & Nuclear Threats as years roll by unbalancing nature.

May God grant humans, the serenity to know, accept and face the challenges to fight nature and live in Peace, harmony and unity.  Let this be a Kidsfreesouls Message to all as the world observes June 5, World Environment Day.

-Editor, Kidsfreesouls

More Environmental Themes...

OZONE LAYER BEGINS TO RECOVER

The rate of destruction of the protective ozone layer in the upper reaches of the atmosphere is slowing. Scientists say it mirrors a decline in the use of certain man made chemicals. Using NASA Satellite observations, the scientists say the rate of the ozone layer depletion matches the drop in chloroflurocarbons used in refrigeration and air conditioning. The 1897 Montreal Protocols ratified by more than 170 countries requires that CFCs be phased our of production and use in developing countries by 2010. Industrialised nations stopped using them in 1996. Scientists said that it will take decades to repair the damage to the ozone layer, which helps protect the Earth from ultraviolet radiation from the sun. "Ozone is still decreasing but just not as fast", said Mike Newchurch, associate professor at the University of Alabama and lead scientist on the study. "We are still decades away from the total ozone recovery"

Ozone Day

On 19 December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 16 September the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, commemorating the date, in 1987, on which the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed.

2006, India will be celebrating Ozone day with following events:

Air India is organising a Children's Inflight colouring competition during the month of September.

The Directorate of Environment, Uttar Pradesh is planning to release a newsletter on the occasion of International Ozone Day.

The Gujarat Science City has dedicated a webpage for International Ozone Day. http://www.scity.org/shownews.asp?id=161

The celebrating Ozone day is a goal of continuing the awareness and monitoring of the condition of the ozone layer surrounding the Earth. The theme for this year celebration is Act Ozone Friendly - Stay Sun Safe!

The Gujarat Council of Science City is organizing an illustrative poster exhibition and slide-show on the above theme to mark the celebration.

As and when June 5, World Environment Day comes, (Or Ozone Day, 16th Sept) it reminds people of the seriousness of Global Warming, an increase in the earth's temperature due to the use of fossil fuels and other industrial processes leading to a buildup of "greenhouse gases" (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons) in the atmosphere. It has been known since 1896 that carbon dioxide helps stop the sun's infrared radiation from escaping into space and thus functions to maintain the earth’s relatively warm temperature. This is called the "greenhouse effect." The question is whether the measurably increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the last century will lead to elevated global temperatures, which could result in coastal flooding and major climatic changes, and have serious implications for agricultural productivity. Since 1850 there has been a mean rise in global temperature of approximately 1° C (approximately 1.8° F), but this rise could just be part of a natural fluctuation. Such fluctuations have been recorded for tens of thousands of years and operate in short-term as well as long-term cycles. Because of the difficulty of distinguishing human-made causes of carbon dioxide emissions from natural sources, efforts regarding their control have been slow in coming. However, the potential consequences of global warming are so great that many of the world's top scientists have urged immediate action, and have called for international cooperation on the problem.

Many scientists agree that warmer temperatures would cause rise in sea levels, the oceans when warmed up will occupy
more space. The glaciers and polar ice will begin to melt. Since humidity of the atmosphere increases with the temperature, more snow would fall on earth’s extremes. It is is predicted by 2030, the sea will rise by 150 to 300 mm endangering coastal town and cities around the world. The growing blanket of Carbon dioxide gas will become thicker and cause havoc. The Nuclear threat of explosions has yet posed another man made environmental imbalance and its after effects will have yet to be weighed as to the cause of temperature effects. Humans on earth can only pray for Green Environment and to do so is in their own hands.

BAN PLASTICS

Wanna be Eco Friendly? Take the first step to ‘Ban the Plastic’. Invention of Plastic dates back to 1860. A British scientist named Alexander Parks who called his invention ‘Parkesine’ discovered the Plastic in about 1860 when he was looking for a substitute for horns that were obtained from animals. He made it from cellulose and camphor which are natural materials obtained from plants. John Hyatt, an inventor from United States also discovered the same Plastic in 1868 when he was looking for substitute for ivory. Bakelite was the first plastic that was made from chemicals. It was invented by a Belgian chemist named Leo Backeland in the year 1907. This was the first artificial Plastic. Since years, Plastic has thus, become a major use.