Beauty Destroyed by the Beast

I shot this picture at a granite quarry close to Bangalore. Sited enroute to the Bengaluru International Airport, this mountain has been quarried since the past over 30 years. The exploitation of nature continues full swing with modern technologies and vehicles such as the lorry pictured above. In my opinion the title reflects the image. I am pretty sure before quarrying started to batter the rocks on this mountain it was a place of great beauty and serenity. Now thanks to greedy human beings the mountain is almost gone, and what remains is an ugly facade of broken rock, dust and the residue of pollutants emitted by the vehicles, and equipment used to destroy the rocky cliff.

Nature Reigns! But.....

Public parks in Texas are generally vast sprawling locations with good tree cover, walking trails, lake, etc. These are havens for several species of wildlife such as snakes, hare/ rabbits, bob cats, etc. But these havens are being destroyed slowly by a species of bugs... litterbugs... this species is very intelligent, and aware but some members just don't seem to care and spread their litter everywhere irrespective of whether it is a tranquil park or a freshwater stream. The pictures below explain everything.

Technology that converts watewater sludge into soil-enrichment products!!!

The biggest threat that is posing a great challenge to earth and the humanity inhabiting the planet is hazardous wastes that are produced as a result of human activities. With the evolution of human race our lifestyle, nutrition, and professional needs have spurred us to exploit earth's natural resources more and more. Over the years this exploitation has led to the depletion of vital resources such as fresh water, fertile soil, minerals, oxygen, etc.

Of course when humans can destroy, there are those who think of rejuvenation also. There are scientists and organizations in various parts of the world that are working towards researching and developing technologies that help minimize waste, convert hazardous wastes into productive material. One such entity is http://www.nviro.com, the home page of N-Vitro International Corporation. This research organization is involved in developing and licensing technologies that convert waste water sludge and other bio-organic wastes into bio-mineral agricultural and soil-enrichment products.



This technology is useful for municipalities and private companies. The processes use lime and mineral-rich combustion byproducts to treat, pasteurize, immobilize and convert the wastes into useful products. In a very short time since its promotion the company has attained a sales revenue of over $40 million. In October 1993, the company went public with underwriting by Robertson Stephens, Raymond James, Oppenheimer & Co., and Paine Webber.

India's National Flower comes under attack!!

Everything that is ancient, historical and related to Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism in India seems to be wrong in the opinion of scientists, secular politicians, forward thinking individuals. The media takes pleasure vicarious pleasure in bashing Hindus and Hindu practices at every possible pretext. Well this time it is India's National Flower and one of the most auspicious flowers for Hindus that is coming under attack. I read this newsreport on Times Of India in which the newspaper's reporters state that cultivation of Lotus plants are responsible for death of several tanks in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.

According to the article the lotus flower has become a menace in Kanyakumari, causing havoc to dozens of ponds and tanks depleting the ground water and thus leading to unbalancing the fragile ecology of the district. And these facts were revealed by none other than the Chairman of Nature Trust and a former principal scientist of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, R S Lal Mohan.

Since it comes from an eminent scientist I would say these findings might be true. But with Sonia Gandhi at the helm of the central government and a pro-Christian, anti-Hindu government in place in Tamil Nadu, I wonder if the research has been fixed?

The newsreport goes further to say that there were 3,500 tanks in the district during 1960s and about 1,050 had perished due to weeds and that weed is Lotus. I never knew that Lotus was a weed, and why does the eminent scientist refer to this as a weed and say that it has been cultivated in the same breath. When a plant is cultivated it ceases to be a weed, this is common sense. Weeds which destroy lakes are species of Water Hyacinth which thrive on surface of water and destroy lakes by cutting out oxygen supply. Lotus leaves also cover surface of water but they don't grow so dense and thickly as Water Hyacinth.

I wonder why scientists, governments, politicians, missionaires always tend to pick on Hindu practices, icons and beliefs constantly?

Flickr

China's Lies: Worthy of a Olympic Gold Medal

At the recent Dragon Boat, Kite and Lantern Festival, I was given this booklet: "Green Olypic Games" - Beijing's Promise by someone trying to propagate the wonderful things Chinese government had done in a step towards saving and cleansing Beijing's environment for the 2008 Olympics. The book first printed in 2007 (400,000 copies) by the Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, China, has been widely circulated across the world makes quite an impact on the lay reader. Unless otherwise well-informed any reader of this book will immediately turn an ardent admirer and supporter of China. Printed in soothing colour combinations with beautifully composed, evocative pictures the book comprises of five parts each dealing with a different aspect of China's eco-friendly initiatives: Green Olympic Games; The Green Promise; Green Actions; Green Services and Green Personalities.

The book starts off with lofty statements of Beijing's promise to provide a Green Olympic Games to the world. How the Chinese government decided to close down huge polluting enterprises such as the Beijing Coking Plant which is the main provider of raw material for Beijing's energy supply. The company which employed 10,000 people was closed down and here is one place where the people who actually lost their jobs saying that it was a good thing to close down the factory. "Now for the sake of the city's environment, we are moving, and it hurts but it's for the good of the society," says factory master Zhang Xiwen who perhaps retained his job or maybe not. This is not stated in the book.

After going through the book and its lofty world-saving statements, I rubbed my eyes in disbelief and to make sure what I knew was true and the book was just propaganda I did some research on the internet and was shocked by what I found. Here are some facts about China's pollution statistics:

"China has probably already overtaken the US as the world's leading emitter of CO2, and the country's ecosystems are displaying climate change's consequences: Arid northern China is drying out, the wet south is seeing more and more flooding, and, according to a June 2007 Greenpeace report, 80 percent of the Himalayan glaciers that feed Asia's mightiest rivers could disappear by 2035. Such a development would jeopardize hundreds of millions of people who depend on the rivers for their livelihood." - Writes CS Monitor
"The World Bank reports that 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in China" - Wikipedia
According to World Health Organisation, 760,000 people die prematurely each year in China because of air and water pollution.
In 1997, the lower Yellow River did not flow 230 days out of the year, an increase of over 2000% since 1988
15 to 20 percent of higher plant varieties in China are endangered. 40,000 species.

There are lots of statistics available about China's role in polluting the air, water and soil of this earth. Searching the internet will yield loads of information. Some sources I have used to compile this blog are given below.
And the Reality
As I said earlier the reality in China is quite different. Here are some pictures of AP which reveal the bleak environmental scenario in China. They are self-explanatory.

"Guangzhou: Illegal motorbikes confiscated by police in an effort to curb air pollution await destruction at a recycling company". How much pollution this recycling effort will cause is completely out of focus of the world.

Lanzhou, Gansu province: A resident takes a water sample from the polluted Yellow river". The river color looks red, as if full of blood, but it is full of chemicals and according to scientists it would probably take a few centuries to make the water usable for any purpose.

This image from Reuters struck a terrible chord with me on China and the life of China’s next generation. This is a photo of a man cleaning up dead fishes, over 120,000 pounds of dead fish in Wuhan, Hubei province that died due to pollution and the weather. China must do all it can to control this dangerous spread in pollution, before we know it, it will devour our country.

Great Propaganda
Indeed one must admire and learn from Chinese government about good public relations and propaganda. They have printed 400,000 copies of this book and are distributing it across the world, especially in the developed world as publicity material so there will be no voices of dissent about China. The packaging and production of the material is so slick and smooth that one will definitely fall for it.

Sources of Information for this article:
CS Monitor
Water and Environment
Mother Jones.com
Econbrowser.com
Wikipedia
China's Pollution