Posts Tagged ‘water’

India Kuch Kar – Put a Stop to the Drop

Monday, May 23rd, 2016

Literate littering_A3

Water is a precious natural resource . Essential in every aspect of our lives . Growing population , climate change are putting a big pressure on this life essential resource .

Across India – in homes , offices , public spaces – we have considerable opportunity to save water by being vigilant and pro-active . Conscious effort to fix leaking taps will save liters of water that can help your neighborhood and city .

We cannot afford anymore to be indifferent to the water crisis in India and across the world . Individuals , businesses and governments will need to do everything they can to be water efficient .

In his #MannKiBaat yesterday Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the need to conserve water .

We invite our readers to save water in every way you can . And to spread the message . Pl feel free to share the above ‘India Kuch Kar‘ poster . You can download it from the post or from our twitter handle .

Thank you for choosing to make a positive difference.

 

Ocean of Change

Sunday, March 15th, 2015

water on Earth

 

As mankind we have trouble comprehending what’s going on at land . The oceans have consequently been ignored . On a planet that is 71% water – of which 96% is oceans – ignoring the oceans is not an option anymore .

A recent article by the National Geographic profiles the loss of Oxygen from the oceans and it’s consequent impact on marine life . We would encourage everyone to read it to understand in detail the rapid changes that are taking place in the oceans .

In the last several years there has been a growing understanding of the impact of disposal of waste and pollutants into the oceans. Marine life and birds either undergoing mutation or painful , untimely death as a consequence of mankind’s chosen way of life. The risk to marine life does not end there . Marine life need oxygen which they imbibe from water . Natural changes compounded by climate change are resulting in a rapid increase of low oxygen areas . This is pushing marine life closer to the surface , putting certain species at risk . Imagine if we had a sprawling city – but ALL of it’s residents had to live only in 3 neighborhoods . Something like that is happening in the oceans .

The discussion on this can easily degenerate to allocating how much of this is due to climate change . In doing so we will be deluding ourselves .

Our everyday choices as individuals , households , businesses are shaping the Planet . An Ocean of Change is needed to ensure sustainabilty for mankind and other species .

As individuals and households we can make a vast range of choices that reduce disposable waste which choke the planet . As businesses we have even greater responsibility to make choices that go beyond the next quarter results and nurture the planet. Produce responsibly , sell responsibly , buy responsibly . Let’s take good care of the one Planet that is our only Home .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Holi

Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

Clean Planet wishes you a Happy Holi

Wishing you a joyous , safe , colorful Holi .

The Green Job

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

 

 

We don’t get out of shape with 1 heavy meal . Nor did the environment become a crisis with a single action or even the actions of 1 nation alone. We can’t build muscle with 1 intensive workout at a gym . Neither can the environment be healed in a day .

Routine , everyday choices and actions by individuals , communities , governments , businesses have cumulatively created the challenges we face on the environment front.

We need to drop the ‘what can I do’ line of thought and the consequent inaction / status quo . Each one of us can make a difference. Together , we make change.

 

 

TV Off, Planet On!

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

Clean Planet supports HT’s – No TV Day initiative. It’s time to turn the box off and turn life on or like how we say it here – TV Off, Planet On! This could be a wonderful day to make the most of the outdoors, enjoy the weather and have a fantastic day out. Or you could choose to stay back home and do all the little things you love that make you happy. What would you rather do, other than watch tv today? Check out what folks have to say about what they’re about to do right here – www.notvday.in

Have a very happy No TV Day =)

 

Awesome 2012

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Decorate your wall board or desktop background with this earthy worthy calendar. Click on the link to the right to download a printable pdf or jpeg as per your screen size.

 

 
 

Now the Mediterranean…

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

So far we’ve read about the Pacific Garbage patch . Now enormous amount of plastic has been found in the Mediterranean sea.

Some 250 billion microscopic pieces of plastic are floating in the Mediterranean Sea, creating a biological hazard that reverberates up the food chain, says research supported by green campaigners.
Micro-sized plastic is an enduring hazard because it becomes mixed with plankton, which is then eaten by small fish that are then eaten by larger predators, says Expedition MED.

We’ve long suspected that the reason for plastic debris in sea not being widely reported elsewhere (other than the Pacific ) is not due to the absence of plastic but due to it not being tested.

The planet is meant to be a nurturing space for life forms. Not a dump yard for non bio-degradable / toxic / life threatening junk.

The peace of wild things

Friday, October 8th, 2010

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

- Wendell Berry

Nutrition is a bigger problem than hunger

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Incisive article by Swaminathan Aiyer.

…The big problem is malnutrition, not hunger. A recent survey revealed anaemia rates of 51-74% in women and small children. Of children under three, 47% were underweight and 45% stunted by global standards. Protein deficiency is a culprit.

How do we focus on nutrition rather than presumed hunger? Not through ever-rising subsidies on food. Sonia Gandhi wants subsidized grain even for better-off folk. This aims to provide electoral security for Sonia. Don’t confuse it with food security..

..Ajai Shankar, former industry secretary, has an excellent suggestion for self-targeting in food — mix wheat flour (atta) with soya flour, raising its protein content but making it less palatable. Richer folk will not eat this, but poor people will. Such protein fortification of atta could help reduce protein deficiency in pregnant women and children. Ajai Shankar also suggests offering brown, unpolished rice, which has more nutrition but is less palatable than white rice, and so will be self-targeted at the poor.

I would fortify atta with not only soya but iron (to combat anaemia), iodine (to combat goitre) and Vitamin A (to combat night blindness). This will cost very little extra, yet combat serious nutritional deficiencies. It’s not a silver bullet: other nutritional programmes need overhaul and strengthening too.

Brown rice has two drawbacks. First, it can be resold by shopkeepers to mills at a huge profit, so the PDS incentive for massive diversion will remain. Atta mixed with soya cannot be unmixed, and so eliminates diversion.

A bigger objection should be to rice in any form. Rice is the most expensive cereal, and guzzles the most water. It requires 22 irrigations per crop against eight for wheat. Rice cultivation is sustainable in high rainfall areas, but is environmentally disastrous in moderate-rainfall areas (Punjab, Haryana). It lowers the water table precipitously, so drinking-water wells and shallow tubewells of small farmers run dry, and some of them commit suicide.

Any food entitlements should be for basic food, not for the most expensive cereal. A right to rice is conceptually like Marie Antoinette’s right to cake. For centuries, poor Indians have eaten coarse grain (bajra, jowar) costing half as much as rice. If necessary, India can export rice to finance imports of twice as much coarse grain, which can then be fortified with nutritional supplements for the PDS. It will be self-targeting: richer folk will not buy it..

Sound suggestions . Will a govt that allows millions of tonnes of food grains to rot have the will to do something meaningful for the poor ?

Stop the water while using me

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Stop the water while using me – The message as the brand name  (soooo Clean Planet )

All products are made with organic and/or natural ingredients, packaged in biodegradable containers. The neat design of the package is a relief from the normal cosmetics which have reams of fine print and a rainbow of colors.

While we love the name what we like even more are the organic / natural ingredients and especially the biodegradable containers. Currently the plastic from cosmetic products is enough to turn the moon into a dump yard (of course after we’ve ensured that fate for planet earth ) . Biodegradable containers is a much needed idea for a whole range of products – cosmetics , food .