Causes and Effects of Climate Change

Reading Time: 15 minutes

The world is going through a time of global warming that has never happened before. Changes in rain and snow patterns, rising sea levels, more and stronger droughts, wildfires, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes are all effects of global warming. These effects, which are now obvious, are becoming more important and severe every year and are likely to change our lives and the lives of our children and their children in future. Climate change is one of the biggest threats that humanity is facing today.

The greenhouse effect is the main factor contributing to the planet’s warming. Some feedback mechanisms, such as the evaporation of water from the oceans and the loss of albedo effect on polar ice sheets, make the situation worse, leading to more global warming and possibly, in the not too distant future, an uncontrolled global warming disaster. In this article, we discuss the causes of climate change (mainly greenhouse effect) and some of the impacts of climate change.

Greenhouse Effect

The greenhouse effect was first thought of by Joseph Fourier in the 1820s. He thought that something in the earth’s atmosphere controlled the temperature at the surface of the earth. He was investigating the origins of historic glaciers and the ice sheets that once used to cover most of Europe. Decades later, Tyndall took Fourier’s idea and used an experiment set up by Macedonio Melloni to show that CO2 could absorb a lot more heat than other gases. This supported Fourier’s idea and showed that CO2 was the part of the atmosphere that Fourier was looking for. Many researchers tried to measure CO2 and warn the world about the increasing concentrations of CO2, but it was only in the 1960s, when C.D. Keeling measured the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and found that it was rising quickly, and that anthropogenic activities were to blame for it.

The greenhouse effect of water vapour is significantly greater than that of carbon dioxide. Also, the amount of water vapour in the air is about a hundred times higher than the amount of CO2, as a result water is responsible for more than 60% of the global warming effect. The temperature determines how much water vapour is in the air. When the amount of CO2 in the air goes up, the global temperature goes up by only a small amount, but that’s enough to cause more water vapour to be released from the oceans and get into the air. The biggest impact on the world’s temperature comes from this feedback mechanism. Interestingly, the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere is controlled by the concentration of CO2, which in turn determines the global average surface temperature. In fact, if there was no CO2 in the air, the planet’s surface temperature would be about 33°C lower than it is now.

The sun radiates energy on the earth with wavelengths that range from 0.3 to 5 μm. There is a lot of energy coming from the sun. It heats the atmosphere we breathe in and everything on Earth. At night, a lot of this heat energy is sent back into space, but at different wavelengths, which are in the infrared range from 4 to 50 μm. According to Planck’s Law of blackbody radiation, the temperature of a body affects the frequency of the heat it emits. When this energy leaves the Earth, it heats the molecules of greenhouse gases (like H2O, CO2, CH4, etc.) in the air. Let’s understand this using CO2 and H2O as examples. This heating process happens because the radiated Infrared frequency is in sync (resonates) with the natural frequency of the carbon-oxygen bond of CO2 (4.26 m is the asymmetric stretching vibration mode and 14.99 m is the bending vibration mode) and the oxygen-hydrogen bond of H2O. The CO2 and H2O molecules are heated because their bond vibrations are increased. When these molecules heat up, they transfer their energy to the other molecules in the atmosphere (N2, O2), maintaining a consistent temperature on Earth. The O-O bond in oxygen molecules and the N-N bond in nitrogen molecules both have vibrational frequencies that are different than the radiation frequencies, hence they are unaffected by the radiation that leaves Earth at night.

Global warming

There is overwhelming evidence from the scientific community that human activities are to blame for the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, and thus for the resulting global warming. This view is shared by each and every scientific group and research organisation focusing on climate change. The current rise in global temperature has been triggered by an almost 50 percent increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, from 280 ppm (before the industrial revolution) to 417 ppm in May 2020. Total atmospheric CO2 and it’s concentration value are the most reliable measurements of global warming we have right now. In 1960, the rate of increase of CO2 was less than 1 ppm per year. Whereas, right now it is 2.4 ppm per year.

This rate of change is the best way to tell if we are making progress in stopping global warming. At the moment, there are no signs that this is happening. In fact, the opposite is true. Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels, it would take a long time for CO2 levels to go down because the lifetime of CO2 is of the order of hundreds of years in the upper atmosphere. The most convincing evidence that the rise in CO2 is the most likely cause of global warming can be seen in graphs that show how the amount of CO2 in the air and the average temperature around the world have changed over time over the past several decades (see Fig. 1, Fig. 2). Over the past 60 years, the average temperature around the world has shown a similar trend as that of CO2 levels. The Average global temperatures from 2010 to 2022 compared to a baseline average from 1951 to 1980 can be seen in (Fig. 3).

Causes and Effects of Climate Change

Figure 1:Carbon dioxide concentration level.

Source: NASA satellite observations.

Causes and Effects of Climate Change

Figure 2:Global temperature variation.

Source: NASA satellite observations.

Causes and Effects of Climate Change

Figure 3: Average global temperatures from 2010 to 2022 compared to a baseline average from 1951 to 1980.

Source: NASA Data

Impact of climate change

One of the most pressing challenges confronting humanity today is climate change and how to minimize the damage it causes. It’s multifaceted, therefore solving it will require expertise in many disciplines like science, economics, society, governance and ethics. Consequences from global warming will be felt for generations, if not centuries. While it will be impossible to completely stop global warming, its growth rate is within our control. As the world’s temperatures continue to rise, it will have a negative effect on the world’s economy, energy supply, environmental quality, and health.

So far, some of the effects of climate change are –

  • Earth is getting warmer: As temperatures rise, days of extreme heat that used to happen once every 20 years may now happen every 2 or 3 years on average With the exception of June, 2016 was the warmest year on record from January to September (NASA, 2020c). Since 2005, 10 of the warmest years in the record-keeping period of 140 years have happened. Six of the hottest years on record occurred in the past six years (IPCC, 2018).
  • Oceans get warmer: Over 90% of the warming that has happened on Earth in the past 50 years has happened in the oceans (NASA, 2020c). Rising sea levels, ocean heat waves, coral bleaching, severe storms, changes in marine ecosystem, and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets around Greenland and Antarctica are all caused by warmer oceans. The waters were warmer last year than they have ever been since measurement of ocean temperature started more than 60 years ago.
  • Ice Sheets are shrinking: Between 1993 and 2016, the Greenland ice sheet lost an average of 286 billion tonnes of ice per year. During the same time period, the Antarctic ice sheet lost about 127 billion tonnes of ice per year. In the last ten years, the rate of ice mass loss in Antarctica has tripled (NASA).
  • Glacial retreat: Most of the world’s glaciers are melting, including those in Africa, Alaska, the Alps, Andes, Himalayas, and the Rocky Mountains. Most of the sea level rise in the last few decades has been caused by glaciers and ice sheets melting. The melting of glaciers is a major threat to ecosystems and water supplies for people in many parts of the world.
  • Sea level rise: The sea level rises when the oceans get warmer and glaciers and other ice start to melt. When the water in the ocean gets warmer, it expands. This makes the sea level rise even more. In the last 100 years, the sea level rose about 20 cm around the world. In the last two decades, the rate of growth was twice as fast as in the last century, and this rate is getting faster. Flooding is getting worse and happening more often in many places.
  • Increased frequency of extreme hydrological and meteorological events: Since the middle of the last century, there have been more events with record high temperatures and heavy rainfall. Since the early 1980s, hurricanes have been getting stronger, happening more often, and lasting longer. As the oceans continue to warm, hurricane storms will get stronger and rain will fall at a faster rate.
  • Oceans are getting more acidic: Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the surface waters of the oceans have become about 30% more acidic. The cause of this increase is that humans are releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which causes more of it to be absorbed by the oceans. Carbon dioxide is being taken up by the top layer of the oceans at a rate of about 2 billion tonnes per year.

Future Scenario

According to reports made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average global temperature is on track to rise by 3°C by the end of this century. Their goal is a maximum of 1.5°C, but reaching that goal will require “rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all parts of society. To reach a goal of 1.5°C warming, greenhouse gas emissions will need to be cut by 45 percent below what they were in 2010 by 2030. And, as we’ve already said, even if all of these emissions stopped right now, the world’s temperature would still rise for decades because of the long lasting effects of the atmosphere and oceans. Climate change affects the quality of our environment, our food supplies, our susceptibility to diseases and other health problems, and our ability to make money. Most of these effects are being felt and will continue to be felt more in the future and sadly more by the poor than by the rich.

Causes and Effects of Climate Change

The world is going through a time of global warming that has never happened before. Changes in rain and snow patterns, rising sea levels, more and stronger droughts, wildfires, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes are all effects of global warming. These effects, which are now obvious, are becoming more important and severe every year and are likely to change our lives and the lives of our children and their children in future. Climate change is one of the biggest threats that humanity is facing today.

The greenhouse effect is the main factor contributing to the planet’s warming. Some feedback mechanisms, such as the evaporation of water from the oceans and the loss of albedo effect on polar ice sheets, make the situation worse, leading to more global warming and possibly, in the not too distant future, an uncontrolled global warming disaster. In this article, we discuss the causes of climate change (mainly greenhouse effect) and some of the impacts of climate change.

Greenhouse Effect

The greenhouse effect was first thought of by Joseph Fourier in the 1820s. He thought that something in the earth’s atmosphere controlled the temperature at the surface of the earth. He was investigating the origins of historic glaciers and the ice sheets that once used to cover most of Europe. Decades later, Tyndall took Fourier’s idea and used an experiment set up by Macedonio Melloni to show that CO2 could absorb a lot more heat than other gases. This supported Fourier’s idea and showed that CO2 was the part of the atmosphere that Fourier was looking for. Many researchers tried to measure CO2 and warn the world about the increasing concentrations of CO2, but it was only in the 1960s, when C.D. Keeling measured the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and found that it was rising quickly, and that anthropogenic activities were to blame for it.

The greenhouse effect of water vapour is significantly greater than that of carbon dioxide. Also, the amount of water vapour in the air is about a hundred times higher than the amount of CO2, as a result water is responsible for more than 60% of the global warming effect. The temperature determines how much water vapour is in the air. When the amount of CO2 in the air goes up, the global temperature goes up by only a small amount, but that’s enough to cause more water vapour to be released from the oceans and get into the air. The biggest impact on the world’s temperature comes from this feedback mechanism. Interestingly, the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere is controlled by the concentration of CO2, which in turn determines the global average surface temperature. In fact, if there was no CO2 in the air, the planet’s surface temperature would be about 33°C lower than it is now.

The sun radiates energy on the earth with wavelengths that range from 0.3 to 5 μm. There is a lot of energy coming from the sun. It heats the atmosphere we breathe in and everything on Earth. At night, a lot of this heat energy is sent back into space, but at different wavelengths, which are in the infrared range from 4 to 50 μm. According to Planck’s Law of blackbody radiation, the temperature of a body affects the frequency of the heat it emits. When this energy leaves the Earth, it heats the molecules of greenhouse gases (like H2O, CO2, CH4, etc.) in the air. Let’s understand this using CO2 and H2O as examples. This heating process happens because the radiated Infrared frequency is in sync (resonates) with the natural frequency of the carbon-oxygen bond of CO2 (4.26 m is the asymmetric stretching vibration mode and 14.99 m is the bending vibration mode) and the oxygen-hydrogen bond of H2O. The CO2 and H2O molecules are heated because their bond vibrations are increased. When these molecules heat up, they transfer their energy to the other molecules in the atmosphere (N2, O2), maintaining a consistent temperature on Earth. The O-O bond in oxygen molecules and the N-N bond in nitrogen molecules both have vibrational frequencies that are different than the radiation frequencies, hence they are unaffected by the radiation that leaves Earth at night.

Global warming

There is overwhelming evidence from the scientific community that human activities are to blame for the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, and thus for the resulting global warming. This view is shared by each and every scientific group and research organisation focusing on climate change. The current rise in global temperature has been triggered by an almost 50 percent increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, from 280 ppm (before the industrial revolution) to 417 ppm in May 2020. Total atmospheric CO2 and it’s concentration value are the most reliable measurements of global warming we have right now. In 1960, the rate of increase of CO2 was less than 1 ppm per year. Whereas, right now it is 2.4 ppm per year.

This rate of change is the best way to tell if we are making progress in stopping global warming. At the moment, there are no signs that this is happening. In fact, the opposite is true. Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels, it would take a long time for CO2 levels to go down because the lifetime of CO2 is of the order of hundreds of years in the upper atmosphere. The most convincing evidence that the rise in CO2 is the most likely cause of global warming can be seen in graphs that show how the amount of CO2 in the air and the average temperature around the world have changed over time over the past several decades (see Fig. 1, Fig. 2). Over the past 60 years, the average temperature around the world has shown a similar trend as that of CO2 levels. The Average global temperatures from 2010 to 2022 compared to a baseline average from 1951 to 1980 can be seen in (Fig. 3).

Causes and Effects of Climate Change

Figure 1:Carbon dioxide concentration level.

Source: NASA satellite observations.

Causes and Effects of Climate Change

Figure 2:Global temperature variation.

Source: NASA satellite observations.

Causes and Effects of Climate Change

Figure 3: Average global temperatures from 2010 to 2022 compared to a baseline average from 1951 to 1980.

Source: NASA Data

Impact of climate change

One of the most pressing challenges confronting humanity today is climate change and how to minimize the damage it causes. It’s multifaceted, therefore solving it will require expertise in many disciplines like science, economics, society, governance and ethics. Consequences from global warming will be felt for generations, if not centuries. While it will be impossible to completely stop global warming, its growth rate is within our control. As the world’s temperatures continue to rise, it will have a negative effect on the world’s economy, energy supply, environmental quality, and health.

So far, some of the effects of climate change are –

  • Earth is getting warmer: As temperatures rise, days of extreme heat that used to happen once every 20 years may now happen every 2 or 3 years on average With the exception of June, 2016 was the warmest year on record from January to September (NASA, 2020c). Since 2005, 10 of the warmest years in the record-keeping period of 140 years have happened. Six of the hottest years on record occurred in the past six years (IPCC, 2018).
  • Oceans get warmer: Over 90% of the warming that has happened on Earth in the past 50 years has happened in the oceans (NASA, 2020c). Rising sea levels, ocean heat waves, coral bleaching, severe storms, changes in marine ecosystem, and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets around Greenland and Antarctica are all caused by warmer oceans. The waters were warmer last year than they have ever been since measurement of ocean temperature started more than 60 years ago.
  • Ice Sheets are shrinking: Between 1993 and 2016, the Greenland ice sheet lost an average of 286 billion tonnes of ice per year. During the same time period, the Antarctic ice sheet lost about 127 billion tonnes of ice per year. In the last ten years, the rate of ice mass loss in Antarctica has tripled (NASA).
  • Glacial retreat: Most of the world’s glaciers are melting, including those in Africa, Alaska, the Alps, Andes, Himalayas, and the Rocky Mountains. Most of the sea level rise in the last few decades has been caused by glaciers and ice sheets melting. The melting of glaciers is a major threat to ecosystems and water supplies for people in many parts of the world.
  • Sea level rise: The sea level rises when the oceans get warmer and glaciers and other ice start to melt. When the water in the ocean gets warmer, it expands. This makes the sea level rise even more. In the last 100 years, the sea level rose about 20 cm around the world. In the last two decades, the rate of growth was twice as fast as in the last century, and this rate is getting faster. Flooding is getting worse and happening more often in many places.
  • Increased frequency of extreme hydrological and meteorological events: Since the middle of the last century, there have been more events with record high temperatures and heavy rainfall. Since the early 1980s, hurricanes have been getting stronger, happening more often, and lasting longer. As the oceans continue to warm, hurricane storms will get stronger and rain will fall at a faster rate.
  • Oceans are getting more acidic: Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the surface waters of the oceans have become about 30% more acidic. The cause of this increase is that humans are releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which causes more of it to be absorbed by the oceans. Carbon dioxide is being taken up by the top layer of the oceans at a rate of about 2 billion tonnes per year.

Future Scenario

According to reports made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average global temperature is on track to rise by 3°C by the end of this century. Their goal is a maximum of 1.5°C, but reaching that goal will require “rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all parts of society. To reach a goal of 1.5°C warming, greenhouse gas emissions will need to be cut by 45 percent below what they were in 2010 by 2030. And, as we’ve already said, even if all of these emissions stopped right now, the world’s temperature would still rise for decades because of the long lasting effects of the atmosphere and oceans. Climate change affects the quality of our environment, our food supplies, our susceptibility to diseases and other health problems, and our ability to make money. Most of these effects are being felt and will continue to be felt more in the future and sadly more by the poor than by the rich.

How to Build a Forest in your Backyard – The Miyawaki Method

Reading Time: 8 minutes

by-
Naman Mathur – CEV Member
Mechanical Engineering (NIT Surat)

Let us start this blog with a little off-topic. 

Have you seen the growing trend of JCB Construction…?
Have you ever thought, why such a hype for something which is pretty usual to find? 

It’s just a machine. Memes on JCB Construction does nothing but exposes the dark side of our earth, i.e. we have affected our environment a lot with the introduction to The Concrete World. Cities and nations tend to wear these new skyscrapers and structures as a badge of honour of development. We people too acknowledge cities like Singapore, New York and Mumbai as ‘Very Developed Cities’ giving them a misconception that development links only with giant concrete construction. But there needs to be a change in thinking which associate development with Construction of Forest.

‘Construction of Forest’ seems like a foolish concept as we caught the wrong feeling of the definition of a forest. People think the forest is an isolated piece of land where animals live together. But I believe the wood can be an integral part of urban existence. For me, a forest is a place so dense with trees that you can’t just walk into it. It doesn’t matter how big or small they are. It can be a big spread of land with acres and acres of trees, or it can be just a piece of land in your backyard. Size doesn’t matter in the functioning of the forest. Most of the world we live in today was a forest. This was, of course, before the human intervention. We built up our cities on those forests, forgetting that this motherland belongs us equally as the other 8.4 million species on the planet. We constructed a concrete world on our forests, and we all know its consequences. Global Warming, Climate Change, Depletion in groundwater, Soil Erosion and what not! 

 

Conferences and discussions are held often in understanding the issue of Global Warming, and Climate Changes with the experts stating the fate human world will have to face if we don’t do something and avert this problem. But one of the most crucial pressure point of this problem, that even the experts fail to reflect on is the sense of self-motivation towards a better environment. With the growing number of events regarding environmental awareness and social awareness, a considerable amount of people has got the gist of the issue. But a huge percentage of people fail to have that feeling to work for a better environment. We, humans, are born a little selfish. Thus, we are very inactive to find a solution to environmental issues.

 

So I think to avert the wrath of nature we need to think out of the box towards a little more conventional thought process. Just like our ancestors built a concrete world on our beautiful nature land, we now need to construct natural world back on this concrete world. Miyawaki Method of Afforestation is one such measure which if implemented and maintained adequately can be the stepping stone to a better environment. In this method, we are constructing forests on the concrete world. It also promotes the idea of the Natural Development of a Place.

ORIGIN OF MIYAWAKI METHOD

Miyawaki Forest was pioneered by Japanese Botanist Akira Miyawaki, who is an active world-renowned specialist working towards the restoration of the natural vegetation on degraded lands. Miyawaki showed that natural Japanese temperate forest should be mainly composed of deciduous trees – while in practice, conifers often dominate. Deciduous trees are still present around tombs and temples, where they get protected from exploitation for religious and cultural reasons.

How to Build a Forest in your Backyard - The Miyawaki Method

 

As his research progressed, he found that forest vegetation of Japan has declined due to the introduction of alien species by man. He immediately felt the need to take charge and stop this human interference into nature.

 

Difference between Miyawaki Method and Conventional Method of Afforestation

Consider Miyawaki Method as a more advanced version of any conventional method of the plantation. Miyawaki Method takes into account features like nutrients in the land, native plantation of the area and other scientific backgrounds of the site. Conventional Method ensures just one tree per square foot opposing to thirty trees per square foot. Limited species are available for the old method while 25-50 species are available for multi plantation method of Miyawaki Method. Miyawaki Forests, also known as Multi-Layer Forest, are self-sufficient forests after 3 -4 years while extensive maintenance is necessary for growth in the usual way of the plantation. So clearly Miyawaki Method, though a little complex can be very useful and better than the conventional method.

 

Process of Miyawaki Method of Afforestation

This article shares the primary impressions to create small forests in small urban spaces, as little as 30 square feet. If followed effectively, these steps can ensure you of creating a natural, wild, maintenance-free, native forests.

How to Build a Forest in your Backyard - The Miyawaki Method

 

STEP 1. Soil Analysis and Quantify Biomass

Soil Analysis helps in getting information about properties like water holding capacity, water infiltration, root perforation capacity, nutrient retention and credibility. Also check if the texture is sandy, loamy or clayey.

How to Build a Forest in your Backyard - The Miyawaki Method

Requirements for the soil
  1. Nutrients are essential in the ground for the healthy growth of the forest. Preferably organic fertilisers like cow manure and vermicompost. Cow Manure is found easily in dairy farms, but Vermicompost is provided small amounts of nutrients over a long period.

  1. This method of afforestation requires a considerable amount of water. So it is essential to maximise the utilisation of water. So we use water retaining materials like coco-peat or dry sugarcane stalk.  

  1. Proper air is essential for the roots to grow as they’re the base of the trees. So perforation is a requirement in the Miyawaki Method of Afforestation. Rice Husk, Wheat Husk, etc. can be used as perforator materials. 

  1. At the age of 6-8 months, when the plants are young, direct sunlight can make the soil dry and make conditions difficult for the young sample. So Mulch is used to insulate and protect the soil. Options include rice straw or corn stalk.      

 

 STEP-2 Selection of Tree Species
  • Plants are area and climate-specific in nature. So in this method, we need first to study the native plant species of the area given.

  • For this method, the forest must contain trees of different heights, age and nutrients. Ideal height varies from 50 to 80 cm.

  • Major Species: 5 major native species should be found that are commonly found in the area which will constitute 50-60 per cent of the forest.

  • Supporting Species: Other common species of the area will constitute 25-40 per cent, and other minor species will make up the rest.

 

STEP-3 Forest Designing
  • Proper planning is essential to increase the efficiency of several growing trees and to maximise the use of resources.

  • A master plan is designed to identify the exact area for afforestation to get an idea of the materials required for the method.

  • Also, to ensure that we don’t wastewater in the process, we need to plan water usage as well based on daily water access, backed by borewells and tanks.

  • If the project is big enough, we also need to identify spaces for materials, sapling, equipment, etc.
 
STEP-4 Area Preparation
  • The site should be effectively inspected to ensure the feasibility of the project. Proper fencing should be constructed to make sure that no cattle can damage the growth of the forest.

  • Weeds and debris should be removed and disposed of effectively. Ensure pulled out weeds are disposed of away of the site, else they may grow.

  • Facility for watering the plants should be installed. The requirement of water is around 5 litres/sq metre per day.

  • The site should get proper sunlight for minimum 8-9 hours a day for better growth of trees.

  • The slope of the land should be such that the water and nutrients are spread across evenly.

  • The area can be divided into parts, if the site is big, for proper monitoring and maintenance of the forest.

 

STEP-5 Tree Plantation
  • This might be the most important step of the Miyawaki Method of Afforest.

  • First, dig the soil up to 1 m depth on the land. Then again put the half of the dug soil back into the pit uniformly. This is to increase the perforations in the soil, and it loosens the soil too.

  • Also, mix the biomass with the soil to increase the nutrient count in the land.

  • In Miyawaki Method all the samplings should be planted together on the mound, rather than the conventional method of digging individual pits for the sampling.

  • To ensure the forest grows in three different layers- Shrub, Sub Tree and canopy, we need to plant the saplings in a specific manner.

    How to Build a Forest in your Backyard - The Miyawaki Method

  • Try not to place two similar trees next to each other and also ensure not to form any specific pattern while planting plants. Remember, the goal is to form a random plantation to get a dense group of trees.

  • Mixing materials like perforator and water retainers should be well mixed for each mound.

  • After the saplings are planted, proper mulch should be evenly laid out on the soil in a 6-8 inch layer. Mulch needs to be tied down with the use of bamboo ropes so that they don’t fly around.

  • As discussed earlier, watering should be performed effectively with about 5 litres per square metre.

 

STEP-6 Maintenance and Monitoring for the Forest
  • Plants are very sensitive at a young age. So the samplings should be monitored at least for the first 8-12 months, once every 1-2 months. If any changes are required in the early stages, improvisation is inevitable.

  • Watering every day is the base of the method. If there are some issues in the watering process, the whole project can be jeopardised.

  • It is very important to keep the forest weed-free for the first 2-3 years, and then it is self-sufficient to keep the weeds away. Maintain the forests clean and free from plastic, paper, etc. as we are growing a natural forest.

  • Also, one important step at Miyawaki Method of Afforestation is that there should be absolutely no use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers to kill the pests. Leave the pests untouched. The forests will slowly build its own mechanism to keep itself healthy.

  • Never remove the organic fallen leaves on the land as they can be useful to kill the soil microbes and also increase the nutrient level of the forest land. Never cut the forest in any manner.

How to Build a Forest in your Backyard - The Miyawaki Method

 

Conclusion

Miyawaki Methodology has been hugely successful, with over 17 million trees planted in 1700 locations across the globe. Such forests are multi-layered forests and mimic the densest parts of native undisturbed forests. In comparison to the conventional woods, Miyawaki forest can grow ten times faster, be 30 times denser and 100 times more bio-diverse.

How to Build a Forest in your Backyard - The Miyawaki Method

 

 ‘Construction of a Forest’ doesn’t seem too vague now after all. If Miyawaki Methodology executed effectively, we could grow a forest in our backyard or any other suitable land in this urban concrete world to take a step closer to a better world.

NUCLEAR FUSION: How much it takes to mimic a star ?

Reading Time: 10 minutesThe greatest stuff that matters more than anything else for humans is the source of energy to run his dear machines. In fact, he is far more hearty and concerned about food for his machines than himself. This hunger had led him to exploit coals, gas, petroleum and in some amount the nuclear and renewable sources to meet his ever-increasing needs. There is absolutely no doubt that the standard of living of each human on earth should be equal and magnificent, this comes on the cost of energy expenditure. The point of concern is that whatever ways he has devised has many issues associated with it, the limited amount and harmful effects on the environment are the most depressing. The coal mines and oil wells in the near future will definitely exhaust. Imagine where would we stand if we have no source of energy for our hungry electric motors, IC engines, etc. The production of energy in a conventional way is fast approaching to its ends along with it causing hostile climate changes, the scary nightmare for us.

Now just imagine the deployment of a source to meet the energy demand that tends to provide humans for thousands of years, in fact, millions of years of service and also has almost negligible effect on our environment, just imagine the peace and prosperity of humans on earth, there would be heaven, no wars, no one deprived.

And I am not just asking you to imagine instead believe it. This feat if humans establish than it would surely be his greatest achievement.

You have guessed it right the NUCLEAR FUSION, creating miniature stars on earth. Yes this seems impossible surely, we have been failing at it from tens of decades but this is the reason why human rules on earth because “he believes in believing and achieving”.NUCLEAR FUSION: How much it takes to mimic a star ?Basically, this blog intends to discuss the phenomenon of the nuclear furnace of the universe and endeavor required to mimic it on earth. We will discuss in somewhat detail the classical physics and the quantum physics behind the process, and what exactly we need to do to get the sun here on earth, the advantages and the work done and the reason for failure till now thereby quenching our thirst of curiosity regarding this topic.

THE PHYSICS OF NUCLEAR FUSION

Atoms are fundamental building blocks of matter, they comprise of a nucleus and the electrons orbiting around it. The nucleus, volume wise is very small, a grain in a room if compared but carries the 99.999% mass of the whole atom. The nucleus is made up of particles called hadrons the protons and neutrons. Refer to the standard model for particle classification.

Protons have unit positive electric charge and neutrons are neutral. Since the protons are very close thus electrostatic force must be repelling with huge magnitude, but we know nucleus do exist hence we can easily conclude that some stronger attracting force must be there to bind them together, the force should be enormous as well as very short range, otherwise there would be no discrete matter at all. These forces are named nuclear force and they are characteristics property of both protons and neutron.

So as result of work done by strong nuclear force against electrostatic repulsion, a large amount of energy is released when a nucleus is formed, this energy released from the formation of a nucleus is called binding energy. You can see that more the number of nucleons are there more the energy is released but this hold true only up to nucleus which contains less than 56 nucleons, as nuclear force gets weaker exponentially with increasing distance.

NUCLEAR FUSION: How much it takes to mimic a star ?

So we can analyze that to tap this enormous binding energy we have to synthesize nucleus, there are two techniques to make this happen:

  1. Either you make a naturally available bigger nucleus unstable by some process and forcing it to decay into daughter nuclei and hence releasing the corresponding binding energies of more stable daughters, this method is called the NUCLEAR FISSION, the concept behind current nuclear power plants.
  2. The other more difficult way is to force already highly stable smaller nuclei together to form an unstable nucleus which again decays into more stable nuclei and releasing significant binding energies, this method is called NUCLEAR FUSION, the concept behind future nuclear power plants.

The complication in the second case can easily be spotted. To make a bigger nucleus unstable is far easier than to force two smaller stable nuclei to form an unstable nucleus because nucleus greater than 56 atomic number are having less binding energy per nucleon hence firing it with a neutron or something can easily make it lose its stability. Whereas forcing two nuclei to fuse, is certainly a tedious job on earth at least. We have to overcome the great electrostatic force as they approach closer to form a new nucleus, but the unstable nucleus decay to products that will have much higher binding energy, as graph increases linearly till atomic number < 56.

WHAT QUANTUM SAYS?

Before I start this section let me make you one thing clear, strictly saying “NO ONE ON THIS EARTH IS ALLOWED TO ASK THE QUESTION WHY, WHEN PHYSICISTS ARE DESCRIBING HOW NATURE WORKS!!!”, we have to just follow through their theories because it is the way it is. We just have to check if their theories actually fit into the phenomenon or not, that is the aim.

Quantum description of nature is seriously very hard to understand and far harder to sing it to others. However weird and virtual quantum theory appears, it is the reason behind this technological era and also future “the quantum computers!”, won’t go off topic.

Quantum describe particle not as like definite point. Instead, it says that particles are mere disturbances in their corresponding field and describe them mathematically as wave function or probability functions. Classical mechanics strictly deny this process to occur as electrostatic force tends to infinity as distance tends to zero, but quantum says that it can happen, there is a probability. This is called the quantum tunneling effect.

Wikipedia says: “Quantum tunneling is the phenomenon where a particle passes through a potential barrier that is classically unsurmountable ”.

Schrodinger equations when solved and analyzed, it indicate that the nucleus has a probability that it can fuse with other nucleus and this probability goes on increasing as the kinetic energy of colliding nuclei increases. They explain it like the overlapping of the waveforms that represent the two nuclei.

Again you have to agree with this description because here is series of examples of the applications of quantum tunneling: nuclear fusion in stars, tunnel junction, tunnel diode, tunnel field-effect transistor, quantum conductivity, scanning tunneling microscope, quantum biology, etc.

PHENOMENON IN STARS

Nuclear fusion can be called the ultimate source of energy of the universe. Stars are powered by this and virtually all the atoms (elements) are produced in this process which is also called stellar nucleosynthesis. The type of fusion reaction followed depends on the mass of the star, the pressure, and temperature of its core.   

If we consider our own star the sun then it utilizes the nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium at 14 million kelvin core temperature. 620 Million tons of hydrogen per second fuses to form 606 Million metric tons of helium each second. The net rate of mass-energy conversion is 4.26 million metric tons per second, which produces the equivalent of 38,460 septillion watts (3.846×1026W) per second, this really very hugeeeee!!!!!!

NUCLEAR FUSION: How much it takes to mimic a star ?

STAR MIMIC :

THE DEUTERIUM-TRITIUM REACTION:NUCLEAR FUSION: How much it takes to mimic a star ?

We are looking for this reaction because it is the most feasible and reactants are easily and abundantly available. Considering the fueling up of smaller atoms with kinetic energy to break the Coulomb barrier, scientists have chosen single proton species to bang together. The reaction deuterium-tritium seems to be a perfect choice.

NUCLEAR FUSION: How much it takes to mimic a star ?

The DT rate peaks at a lower temperature (about 70 keV, or 800 million Kelvin) and at a higher value than other reactions commonly considered for fusion energy on earth.

FUELS:

  1. Deuterium: 1 in 5000 of hydrogen in seawater is deuterium (a total of 10^15 tons). Viewed as a potential fuel for a fusion reactor, a gallon of seawater could produce as much energy as 300 gallons of gasoline.
  2. Tritium: is little problematic. It is radioactive with a half-life of about 10 years hence no source of tritium is present on earth. This is obtained from breeding lithium with is abundant. Sometimes I just remain awestruck by the efforts and adventures of humans, it has been planned to establish a mining factory on the moon and transport helium isotope to earth via rockets in the future.

INPUT AND OUTPUT ENERGY:

In this reaction, deuterium and tritium isotopes of hydrogen are first ionized to become bare nuclei. The calculated coulomb barrier is  0.1 MeV. After crossing this limit the immediate result of fusion is the unstable 5He nucleus, which immediately ejects a neutron with 14.1 MeV. The recoil energy of the remaining 4He nucleus is 3.5 MeV, so the total energy liberated is 17.6 MeV. This is many times more than what was needed to overcome the energy barrier hence the result is net energy output.

NUCLEAR FUSION: How much it takes to mimic a star ?

PROCESS STEPS:

  1. Stage one heating: once the atoms are heated above its ionization energy, its electrons get stripped away, leaving behind an ion.
  2. Stage two heating: continues until the Coulomb barrier is not reached. The result is an extremely hot cloud of ions and electrons. This is known as another state of matter, the plasma. The state is electrically and magnetically responsive due to separated charges. Many devices take advantage of this to control plasma.

Plasma is thus magnetically and electrically responsive. In bulk its modeling is done using the science of magnetohydrodynamics, this is the combination of the motion of fluid governing equation the Navier Stokes and electric and magnetic field behavior governing equations called Maxwell’s Equations.

Now the problem is how to confine the extremely hot plasma. There doesn’t exist any material which can stand firmly at 300 Million kelvin, that doesn’t degrade by the constant bombardment of high energy neutrons and other particles.

WHAT IS THE MECHANISM?

There are two famous approaches to do this:

1. MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT

2. INERTIAL CONFINEMENT

  1. Magnetic confinement: We know that plasma is charged with help of strong superconductor magnets they can be hanged up in the vacuum without actually touching the walls of the container. This concept is called magnet mirroring. 

 

ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), in Latin ITER, means”a way”, a prestigious organization having headquarters in France established in 2007, its members include India, US, Russia, China, Japan, Korea, and the Euratom. Its purpose is to research and demonstrate the technological and feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purpose. The ITER employs a mega machine called tokamak. The stellarator is also one of this kind. Here is an awesome video to make the mega monster easy to understand:

2. Inertial confinement: Fusion is achieved by compressing and heating fuel pallet. Mega Intense laser beams rapidly heat inside surface of hohlraum. The fuel is compressed by rocket-like throw-off of the outer surface material. Finally, the fuel is ignited at a temperature of about 100,000,000 degrees Celsius. And the NUCLEAR FUSION occurs producing far more energy than taken by the laser system in the beginning.

NUCLEAR FUSION: How much it takes to mimic a star ?

Just as ITER pioneers the magnetic confinement the NIF (National Ignition Facility, California, US) leads the way in inertial confinement fusion. Here the short clip on that:

DISADVANTAGES:

  1. Tritium is radioactive and also difficult to retain completely. Hence some amount of tritium would be continually released. The health risk posed is much lower than that of most radioactive contaminants, because of tritium’s short half-life (12.32 years) and very low decay energy (~14.95 keV). It also doesn’t accumulate in the body (its biological half-life is 7-14 days).
  2. The cost involved is enormous in research, instead if we invest in proven technologies then it would be the sure shot. Investment in the nuclear fusion is billion-dollar dollar gamble surely.
  3. In my opinion just as human discovered vaccines which in turn increased the average human life and hence population on earth banged in numbers, in same way limitless energy would cause the steep rise in population, the economy would entirely be changed because markets would no more depend on the rates of oil.

ADVANTAGES:

  1. The half-life of the radioactive waste is quite less as compared to the fission wastes which have thousands of years as half-life more over less toxic than emissions from fossils fuel burning.
  2. The energy supply would be uninterrupted and provide service to humans for millions of years!
  3. No greenhouse gas emissions, no global warming and zero environmental concerns in any way round (air, water, and land).
  4. No hike in energy supply cost around the fiscal year.
  5. Those importance processes which are high energy intensive can be carried at low cost like desalination of seawater for the availability of fresh drinking water.

CONCLUSION:

Here is a quote from one of the greatest physicist of the 20-th century:

NUCLEAR FUSION: How much it takes to mimic a star ?

So, there is no doubt that it was the feats of our earlier scientists and engineers who led us to where we are today and it is we who will decide the future of human civilization, and we must be happy that we are putting the efforts at an incredible rate, and till then we have to make sure that we too at individual level are playing our assigned role in this universe of the “ALMIGHTY”.

“You have patience level 10 if you have read the whole article because it is quite lengthy although keeping it short has been tried “-Rahul

Thanks for your time and patience.

Keep reading, stay blessed!

TEAM CEV

A Revolutionary change to Next Gen Plastic – Edible or Biodegradable Plastic

Reading Time: 6 minutesCan you imagine the world without plastic?

The controversy over the use of plastic has been an essential issue more than decades. However, though most of people know using plastic products like water bottles, polythene, cutlery etc is deleterious to our environment, unfortunately, it is still more convenient to buy a plastic container. Nevertheless, wastes generated from producing plastics are definitely over the expectation. Producing plastic is one of the major adversaries of Earth.

According to reports 564 billion plastic water bottles are consumed globally every year. Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. On average we only recycle one plastic bag in every 200 we use.

50% of plastic is used once and then thrown away so I feel there is an urgent need to find ways to replace some of the unreal amount of plastic we make, use and throw away each day. The BPA (Bisphenol-A) substance can make it hazardous to human health. It also involves energy-intensive processes that use a lot of raw materials. Polyesters like PET can be broken down through hydrolytic degradation and the ester linkage can be cut by a water molecule, but this reaction proceed differently in case of acidic or alcoholic condition under temperature 200-300 °C. Based on this PET is considered as non-biodegradable material which will take more time to decompose such as 450 years. According to the National Association for PET Container Resources, the recycling rate for PET has held steady at 31%.

A Revolutionary change to Next Gen Plastic – Edible or Biodegradable Plastic

Using plastic bottles also produces negative effects on health and environment also. Plastic drinking bottles contain many chemicals, which are harmful to human and animals’ body. Even though plastic drinking bottles are recyclable, most end up in landfills or as litter.

With the advancement in the technology, researchers have now come up with an edible water bottle (water ball) which has capability to set an end to plastic packaging requirements. A water ball is new way of packaging a liquid, say water, that proposes an alternative to the plastic bottle. The edible or consumable water bottle is a blob or drop-like water container which is made from sodium alginate gel. The biodegradable blob is created to make a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bottles. The water ball encloses a small volume of water in a membrane which is made from brown algae and calcium chloride.

The water ball is prepared by dropping ice (frozen liquid) into separate solutions of calcium chloride and brown algae and membrane form around it. This process is called as spherification process. The technique of spherification, of shaping a liquid into spheres which visually and texturally resemble caviar born in 1946 is disclosed in US Patent 2403547. Using the culinary technique of spherification, the water is enclosed in a double jellylike membrane. The technique consists into apply sodium alginate (E-401) which is natural product of the brown algae and calcium chloride (E-509) in a concrete proportion in order to generate a jellification on the peripheral of the liquid. Calcium deposited on the membrane creates hardened membrane, and hard shell in the manner of an egg shell. The final package is simple, cheap resistant, hygienic, biodegradable and even eatable. The edible water ball is tasteless, although flavours can be added to it.


A Revolutionary change to Next Gen Plastic – Edible or Biodegradable Plastic

A Revolutionary change to Next Gen Plastic – Edible or Biodegradable Plastic

A seaweed-tech start-up based in London Skipping Rocks Lab has actually implemented this concept and come up with a bio-degradable, edible water bottle (water ball) and the ball is named as “Ooho“. The water ball is a spherical packaging made of seaweed, entirely natural and biodegradable. The edible container can be consumed directly. A layer of edible container can be unwrapped off to keep the peripheral clean for consumption. The water ball will replace millions of plastic bottles thrown away every year.

Another common ecological problem in the fast food industry- the use of plastic cutlery. The problem with use of plastic cutlery is the issue of disposability. People just throw them away and they get buried in landfill and do not degrade if it’s a normal plastic.

Chemicals such as bisphenol A and pthalates leaching into food and drinks. Among all the other plastic substances that get into our food, BPA stands out for its ability to disrupt the functions of hormones- especially estrogen. Pthalates have also been known for causing reproductive problems for men.

The interesting over here is not the facts about the harm of plastic leaching into food, it’s the fact that we all are aware of this but are not taking any action.

The most innovative, revolutionary alternative – Edible Cutlery!

 A Revolutionary change to Next Gen Plastic – Edible or Biodegradable PlasticYou can have the spoon and eat it too! The spoon is just not edible but also nutritious. Edible cutlery offers an interesting alternative to the non-biodegradable plastic ones. “Sale of plastic cutlery, growing at a rate of about 30 per cent, is generating significant non-biodegradable waste and contributing to overflowing landfills. Edible cutlery is the only solution that provides the same convenience of disposable forks, spoons and chopsticks,” says Narayana Peesapaty, managing director of the Hyderabad-based start-up BK Environmental Innovations Private Limited, which developed edible cutlery by baking a mix of sorghum (jowar), rice and wheat flour. A splash of colour is added to the cutlery by including spinach (green), beet root (red) or carrot (orange) pulp to the product mix.

Let’s compare:

Plastic CutleryEdible Cutlery
PriceLowLow
ConvenienceHighHigh
DisposalEasy from a personal point of view but with harmful consequences for the environmentEasy, one can eat the spoon or let it out to decompose, decomposes in 4-5 days
TasteLeaves a bad taste when used during food consumptionServes the purpose of a nutritious millet bread or biscuit added to your meal
HealthBecause of the chemicals it contains and which leach into food, it can lead to cancer, damages of the nervous tissue and hormonal disruptionsBeneficial when consumed after one finishes his/her meal as one spoon contains fibre, iron, protein, calcium, etc.
Consequences for the EnvironmentTakes more than 800 to decompose, polluting streets, landfills and oceans and poisoning marine life and stray animalsTakes 4-5 days to decompose.

Although, a need of lot of research is required in this field. There are people out there making efforts to lessen plastic’s detrimental effects on the environment. Above here are just few ideas that give us hope for a plastic-free future.

There is a huge realization today that we are damaging our planet in many ways, plastic being a main culprit. More and more efforts are being made by eco-conscious individuals and scientists to find alternatives. Anyone can easily create the difference and chances and the others will follow along.

“Plastic is ubiquitous in modern society and seemingly unavoidable. But is it worth risking the lives of marine species, the health of the oceans and our own future in the name of convenience? By taking steps to minimize everyday plastics in our lives, we can crush plastic at the source and give marine life a fighting chance,” said Nil Zacharias, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of One Green Planet.

If we all try to identify where we use plastic and actively look for alternatives, we can drastically cut down on the amount of plastic pollution that finds its way.

You can also join hands to create a plastic free world for our succeeding generations.

 

 

Blog by:

Sanidhya Somani.

2nd Year, Electronics and Communications, SVNIT.

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