Archives for June 2009

Three years back, the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh had close to 40 tigers. Today, one two tigers exist, not the original striped denziens of the forest, but two tigresses translocated from Kanha and Badhavgarh. It simply means that all the resident tigers have been wiped out. With poachers having a field day all these years, the tiger had no chance whatsover. What is more galling is the state governments apathy and total denial on the sordid state of affairs.

Just imagine. In 2008, the state principal chief conservator of forests had claimed in an environmental magazine that Panna was teeming with the country’s national animal. The denial and the charade survived till a tiger survey conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) just managed to zero in one tiger only.

The final nail on the denial coffin happened this month, when a special investigation team, headed by former chief of Project Tiger P K Sen, conducted an in-camera enquiry that established that Panna had no tigers. Left with no alternatives, the state forest minister has confirmed this sad fact bringing to end a saga of shameful proportions.

Where are we headed now? Sariska then. Panna now.. What next?

The headline can’t get any sillier than this, but history has proven that most of the amazing and most utilized innovations have been deemed stupid in the beginning. They were written off even before they were tried. Here is another one now.

Mom sense says – wear white shirts in summer to feel cool. Builders vouch for the fact that lighter color walls and roofs keep the air-conditioning costs low. Now it is the turn of environmentalists, scientist and global warming activists to go green with white. The latest green idea that is rocking the White house, tropical nations, Internet, and bloggers alike is to paint your roofs white.

An unbelievable scientific fact states that if 100 of the major urban cities switched to white roofs and pavements, it would offset 44 metric giga-tons of greenhouse gases, which have been trapping heat in the atmosphere and altering the climate on a potentially dangerous scale, since globally, roofs account for 25% of the surface of most cities, and pavement accounts for about 35%.

Now should that make us think, smile, roll our eyes, or just have a good laugh and toss it out of the window?

Not yet! According to TreeHugger, the Earth can reflect 29% of sunlight falling on it – also referred and measured as 0.29 albedo. With an albedo of 0.1, towns and cities absorb more sunlight than the global average. Painting all roofs white could nudge the Earth’s albedo from 0.29 towards 0.30, which could lead to 1 degree drop in global temperature. And this one degree drop almost cancels the global warming that has taken place since the industrial revolution.

How does painting your roof white help fight global warming?

• We all have learnt in school that light colors reflect and dark colors absorb. A dark roof absorbs light. This light heats up the roof. This heat in turn is radiated around into the atmosphere in form of infra-red rays. These infra-red rays are absorbed by the atmospheric gases and are re-emitted in form of infra-red light. This phenomenon plays a role in the increase in atmospheric temperatures and is linked to the Greenhouse Effect. Since atmospheric gases do not absorb too much visible light, these reflected light rays travel through the atmosphere and reach outer space. It does make sense to increase the amount of reflective surface to cause the light rays to travel through the atmosphere.
• The heated roof also radiates the heat energy into the building. This causes the internal temperature of the building to increase. We use air conditioners, coolers and fans to keep the room/ building cool. The higher the temperature, more energy is required to keep it cool. By painting the roof white or by installing light colored tiles, the sunrays are reflected back and the heat is not fully absorbed by the building.
• Therefore, paint your roof white or tiled in white in order to increase the amount of light reflected off your roof. If all houses and buildings in the world followed this practice, a lot of light would be reflected back, instead of being absorbed by the Earth.

Sounds like science fiction and far-fetched but it may be one of the most practical and easiest solutions to implement. If you have been thinking of solar power backups and CFLs, it might be a great idea to add a splash of white on the top and then compare your energy bills.

White Roofs and the Obama Connection

If you are still not convinced that white roofs help combat global warming effect, heavy endorsement for painting roofs white comes from no other than the Secretary of US Energy, of the Obama administration and a Noble Laureate in Physics – Steven Chu. In an interview Chu said, “If you look at all the buildings and make all the roofs white, and if you make the pavement a more concrete-type of color than a black-type of color, and you do this uniformly … It’s the equivalent of reducing the carbon emissions due to all the cars in the world by 11 years.”

And if you still have questions, we should be on the same page. It is normal to have knee-jerk reactions to radical and practical ideas. It is normal to question the validity of a new thought wave and to analyse if it really makes sense. A lot of questions ranging from what happens if too much light is reflected back into space, the use of toxic paints, aesthetics, to driving problems are being discussed.

I came across this thought-provoking and hilarious debate  (read comments) on this topic on the Telegraph Website where the reader’s reactions ranged from extreme ridicule to sombre acceptance.

We are pleasantly surprised and amused for sure. But any little step towards stabilizing the global temperatures means saving many forms of life on earth and many delicate ecosystems whose worth is incalculable.

Before you write off this idea, give it a serious thought. For it is time for basic simple solutions to combat the grave problems we and our future generations face.

Yesterday the first pre-monsoon showers hit us. The temperature dropped a whopping 10 deg C in a single day. We had the air cooler on till the previous night. Yesterday night, we had to reduce the speed of our ceiling fan. What a contrast!

As the hottest summer in the past 5 years came to an end, I felt the need to pen my observations and thoughts. It seemed all the more apt considering all the hype about the World Environment Day on June 5th.

For once, I was at home throughout the month of May. No vacation. No office trips. Every morning I woke up to the 100 W sun. Watched each day get brighter and hotter, culminating in the peak white hot 2pm sun. And observed how people residing around my (upmarket) colony dealt with the summer heat. In simplicity, this came down to a tale of two trees – or two Neem trees to be precise. One in the vacant land next to my house and the other in a vacant land opposite to my house.

Both the trees were fully matured providing a sizeable cover of at least 20 feet radius.

One sheltered life; the other died gasping for air. Died because the sophisticated people living next door could not care less about what happened to her.

Because people like them owning property worth a crore of rupees would not pay 200 rupees a month to have their trash, generated by consuming items worth Rs20000 a month, collected by the organized garbage disposal bundi. Because their servants dumped their trash in the vacant land under the neem tree. Because they could not bear the sight and stench of this trash and burned it under this tree. Because the flames of this burning junk of blatant consumption licked the branches of the neem tree.

Because the carcinogenic fumes of burning plastics throttled the pure scent and medicinal leaves of the neem tree. And because they did it not once but continue to do it day after day as the apathy of others and the inaction of the authorities gives them a license to kill. And because they could shut their windows, draw their curtains and turn on the air conditioning and not have to see, smell, hear, taste or feel the decay of death. They park their cars under the now dead bark of the tree. But does it matter? Not at all, the drivers turn on the AC and chill the car before these upstanding members of our society and media darlings get in and move around spreading their message to the fawning masses.

And what of the tree which lived. She lived because she was protected by people. By a fence erected by us who wanted to protect her. By allowing nature – sunshine, rain and autumn to take its due course as it has always done since life on earth began. Tired road sweepers sit under her to eat their lunch in otherwise sweltering heat.

The salesman making house calls catches a few minutes of cool before moving ahead. Cars lie with their open windows wallowing in her shade and the cool breeze. Bulbuls, doves, sparrows, parakeets and the lone kingfisher swear by her twittering and calling in the high branches every morning. And we who are fortunate to partake apportion of her bountiful shade – survive summer after summer without air-conditioning.

 It is not one dead tree or one fire that this story is about. It is about hundreds of such trees and fires burning in colonies all over our cities and across the country. About thousands of air conditioned houses and cars in addition to the fires which are all contributing tonnes of carbon dioxide to our atmosphere – which the world now calls Global Warming.

A simple neem tree can do more to fight global warming than a hundred petitions, causes, socialite discussions and debates. All we have to do is allow it to live life as it has always done – let nature run its course as mandated by GOD.