Creating the Climate for Environment Sustainability
As the lurking dangers of global climate change become alarming, the Art of Living has taken up several holistic and multi-pronged initiatives to ensure environment sustainability. The goal of these initiatives is to take actions to protect the environment and encourage practices and lifestyles that nurture it. Combining awareness with effective actions, it has initiated several mass movements aimed at ensuring environment sustainability, which is one of the UN Millennium Development Goals.Mass Awareness DrivesRealising that one of the biggest environmental hazard today is the millions of people who live without the knowledge of climate and their surrounding environs, the Art of Living is engaged in educating them about the ecosystem and the way it is changing. There is a strong accent on awakening environment consciousness in all its programmes, especially for the youth and children. It also conducts mass awareness drives and cleanup campaigns in public places such as streets, parks and schools.
In 2008, the Art of Living, in partnership with Youth Serve America and United Nations Millennium Campaign, carried out a global environment project to mark the Global Youth Service Day. Hundreds of young people from 20 US cities planted trees, cleaned up beaches and raised awareness about global environmental issues, along with their counterparts from six countries.
Such mass awareness drives are conducted throughout the world all year around. Many of these drives have culminated in long-term adoption of public places by taking the responsibility of their upkeep. For example, Art of Living volunteers nurture Lake Herdsman Regional Park near Perth, Australia by weeding, planting, re-vegetating and cleaning up the environment. This has significantly helped in maintaining the eco-friendly character of the natural reserve, which is home to many rare species like the Motorbike Frog, Fairy Wren and Supreme birds.
In another innovative initiative, the Art of Living worked with Dubai Municipality to launch ‘Green Store Awareness’ campaign to cut down plastic bag usage by malls and promote eco-friendly alternatives.
In October 2007, it joined hands with other NGOs such as Trio-Chem for a project to develop Rishikesh in Northern India as a model environment-friendly town, which included cleaning up the Ganges River. The Art of Living is working simultaneously to prevent further pollution of this river and clean up pollutants.Misson Green EarthAs planting tree is considered one of the most effective ways of checking global warming, the Art of Living has been not only aggressively planting trees, but also encouraging the public to join in. This year, it launched a massive initiative christened ‘Mission Green Earth’ to encourage people to plant trees. The initiative, taken up in association with the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), envisages plantation of at least 100 million saplings between July 16, 2008 and July 2009 in different parts of the world. Already millions of trees have been planted all over the world with the involvement of everybody from school kids, to visually-impaired students to celebrities, ministers and politicians.
The trees are being planted in villages, wastelands, farms, along the river banks and coastal sides, hills, roadsides, railway track sides, private houses, public places, thermal stations, coal mines, military areas, educational institutions and office premises.
More than the number of trees, it is the number of people who have been encouraged to take action towards environmental sustainability that makes this project one of the biggest exercises against global warming. Between October 17 and October 19, 2008, 100 million people, who would have already taken the action of planting at least one tree, will stand up and take a public pledge in support of environmental sustainability.
This simple act of planting a tree is going to make a big difference to the global environment. Trees absorb and store the key greenhouse gas emitted by our cars and power plants, carbon dioxide (CO2), before it has a chance to reach the upper atmosphere where it can help trap heat around the Earth’s surface. Hence, it’s a sure-fire antidote to global warming. Trees also filter pollution from the air, recycle water and prevent soil loss.Magic of a TreeThe Art of Living has been promoting tree plantation for the last many years through its vast volunteer network. Tree plantation forms an integral part of its social intervention programme, 5H. Under this programme, millions of trees have been planted in thousands of villages in India. In 2005, the Art of Living distributed 100,000 plants in test tubes in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah during the World Environmental Week.
Taking a holistic view, the Art of Living’s plantation campaign puts special focus on identifying the right tree for the right location. Accordingly, it has been promoting the Laxmi Taru (simarouba glauca) tree in different parts of the world. This eco-friendly tree with a well-developed root system and with an evergreen dense canopy efficiently checks soil erosion, supports soil microbial life, and improves groundwater position. It also has the property to check overheating of the soil surface. The Art of Living has popularised this magic tree on a global scale. with plantations in countries such as the UAE, Oman and other West Asian countries. Across India, the tree has been planted in nearly 1,000 hectares of land.Reforestation in HaitiThe Art of Living is running a reforestation project in Haiti. The project was launched in 2007 to rehabilitate the environmental crisis in the country, where nearly 98 per cent of its forests have been cut down. The goal of this project is to plant and nurture 1.5 million trees.
Over 30,000 acres of land have been secured for the purpose. This project, being implemented in collaboration with International Association for Human Values and Friends of Petite Anse, has yielded a very significant outcome in making the people of Haiti realise the dangers of economical imbalance they have created. Along with the 98 per cent deforestation, 70 per cent of the land has become uncultivable, making Haiti's environment one of the most devastated in the world.
To ensure a sustainable reforestation project, the Art of Living is training local youth in leadership skills and making them partners in the project. This has helped in establishing permanent reforestation projects in partnership with local farmers and grassroots organisations.Chemical-Free FarmingAnother initiative of the Art of Living that is making a profound contribution to the cause of environment sustainability is its campaign to promote and popularise chemical-free agriculture. It has launched awareness programmes to encourage people to return to traditional methods of farming and eliminate the use of harmful chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
Chemical-free farming is seen as the only way to check degradation of soil quality. Excessive use of fertilisers have pensioned the soil, not only reducing yield but also making produce grown on them poisonous for human consumption. Also chemical-free farming is complementary to environment sustainability as it reduces the demand on natural resources such as water. Several studies have also shown that natural farming (without fertilisers and pesticides) not only leads to enhanced yield, but also supports healthy lifestyles.
To spread this practice, the Art of Living has trained thousands of farmers in India and abroad. It also runs an internship programme at its European centre in Germany to educate youth about natural farming.Harvesting Water for the Rainy DayWater shortage is considered the most dangerous outcome of environment degradation. The Art of Living has responded to this crisis by training thousands of villagers and youth to take up water-harvesting projects in their communities. Apart from conserving water for use during the dry period, the initiative also reduces the possibility of flash floods. In the absence of any harvesting mechanism, excess rainwater during monsoon flows away and hence the farmers are forced to turn to groundwater sources for irrigation and other purposes during the dry days. This amplifies the use of groundwater supplies and lowers the water table drastically.
Several villages in India where the Art of Living works have indigenous mechanism for rainwater harvesting, thus creating a grassroots model for environment sustainability. Using this mechanism, the Art of Living turned Kapsi, a drought-prone village in Maharashtra, India, water surplus. Similarly, it is also engaged in restoring indigenous water supply mechanisms in rural India by harnessing village ponds, etc.Healthy Body, Healthy Environment The rural practice of cooking food on wood-fired stoves (chulas) is not only a health hazard, but also a great source of air pollution. To address this, the Art of Living has pioneered the concept of smokeless chulas. It has designed an improvised chula and is engaged in training people in villages to popularise this concept. It not only consumes lesser woods, but can also be fired using other materials such as sawdust. Through the 5H Programme, the Art of Living is also popularising biogas plants (cow dung) as a source of biofuel. Biogas, thus produced, is used as a low-cost fuel for any heating purposes such as cooking. These simple but grassroots initiatives are also reducing deforestation as wood for cooking is the main reason for deforestation in tribal and rural areas. Healthy Mind, Healthy Environment The Art of Living’s commitment to environment is so deep that it doesn’t stop with the physical environment. Giving the issue of pollution a wider dimension, the Art of Living is addressing emotional pollution through stress. Emotional pollution stimulates negative emotions in the subtle mind and disturbs the harmonious existence between people and environment. If one person is angry and agitated, the anger and agitation rubs off onto all those who he comes in contact with. Through its various programmes, the Art of Living is working to reduce stress and greed, which is the greatest pollutant. Man’s greed to make quick profits, obstructs the preservation of the ecosystem. Emphasising that the purpose of development is to build a healthy and happy society, the Art of Living’s initiatives attend to the human psyche which causes pollution, whether physical or emotional. Deriving Synergy In addition to taking up direct initiatives to ensure environmental sustainability, the Art of Living is also engaged in building platforms for collective actions. In January 2008, it hosted an action-oriented confluence of over 200 non-profit organisations working in the area of environment sustainability. About 600 delegates from these organisations deliberated on the ways and means of facing the challenges of environmental sustainability together.
Through its multi-faceted initiatives, the Art of Living is showing the world that damage to ecosystem is not an inevitable by-product of technological progress. All its initiatives place protection of ecosystem alongside sustainable development.

L’Aquila (Italy)- INDIA S VIEW ON CLIMATE CHANGE AT SUMMIT

L’Aquila (Italy), July 8: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today stepped in to articulate the developing world’s concerns on climate change and the global financial crisis after Chinese President Hu Jintao left the G8/G5 summit abruptly to tackle a domestic crisis.

“As responsible members of the international community, we recognise our obligation to preserve environment. But climate change cannot be addressed by perpetuating the poverty of developing countries,” Singh said. This is a sharp retort to the developed nations’ goading to the developing countries on their compliance requirements.

Speaking after a meeting of G5 leaders (China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and India) at L’Aquila, Singh also foregrounded the concerns of the developing world arising out of the economic downturn.

“The developing countries have been worst affected by the weakened global economy.... We will stress tomorrow the importance of maintaining adequate flow of finance to the developing countries and also of keeping markets open by resisting protectionist measures,” the Prime Minister said.

The G5 leaders are scheduled to hold summit sessions with G8 leaders beginning tomorrow. There are apprehensions, some of them playing out already in the West, that the downturn will be used as a shield to raise more protectionist barriers.

At a joint media conference, the G5 leaders strongly echoed the views of Singh on both climate change and protectionism.

In an evocative message to the West, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said: “We know who is liable for more pollution. The rich countries must agree to contain greenhouse gas emissions. We, developing nations, do not want to be treated as second class citizens of the world. We, too, want to go to the top floor.”

A G8-backed proposal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is believed to have been opposed by China and India; the move implies huge emission cuts by the developing nations which claim that halving emissions would impede their industrial and economic growth.

The developing world, vanguarded by India and China, has been arguing that the rich nations must first set and achieve far higher emission reduction targets and afford the developing world newer renewable energy technologies.

Reuters said a draft document by 17 major economies, including India, dropped any reference to halving target and aimed instead for agreement on the need to limit the average increase in global temperature to 2°C since pre-industrial times.

The developed and developing nations are running against time on agreeing to new operational regimes on environment — the Copenhagen Conference on climate change is scheduled for December — and both sides were looking to the L’Aquila summit to provide some signal, if not determine the direction in which negotiations are headed

L'AUILA SU,MMIT- ITALY- CLIMATE CHANGE-SRI.MANMOHAN SINGH

Dr. Singh explained to Mr. Brown the Indian perspective on climate change and also handed him a note prepared in a question-and-answer form setting out the Indian position. India expects the industrial nations to come out with a stronger and specific commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as the mechanisms to fund the adoption of green technologies by the developing countries. In addition, it has sought the loosening of the intellectual property regime to enable developing countries to obtain green technology without paying high licensing fees.

The Prime Minister also suggested that India and the United Kingdom could jointly take a leadership role in the development of green technology projects. He invited the U.K. to participate actively in the New Delhi conference organised by the United Nations that ai

DRUG MAFFIA

Pfizer Violated Own Rules to Hide Depression Drug Studies

Pfizer is accused of “deception through concealment” and “cheating” in failing to disclose nine of 16 trials of an antidepressant, Edronax (reboxetine), in Germany. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care slammed Pfizer in a press release titled: Pfizer conceals study data; Drug manufacturer hinders the best possible treatment of patients with depression Essex Pharma was also noted for not being completely upfront about its antidepressant, mirtazapine, and the Institute praised GlaxoSmithKline in the same set of statements for providing a full database of studies for bupropion XL. Pfizer’s refusal to disclose its studies violates its own published policy about studies. That policy states: In all cases, study results are reported by Pfizer in an objective, accurate, balanced, and complete manner and are reported regardless of the outcome of the study or the country in which the study was conducted.

GLOBAL WARMING AFFECTING BIRDS,WILD LIFE AND HABITATS

How does global warming affect birds, other wildlife, and their habitats?

All organisms depend on their habitats for food, water, shelter, and opportunities to breed and raise young. Climate changes can affect organisms and their habitats in a myriad of ways. In fact, global warming impacts all life on earth, from individual organisms to populations, species, communities, and ecosystems. It can alter behaviors, population sizes, species distributions, plant and animal communities, and ecosystem functions and stability. How strongly different species will be affected varies, depending on differences in their ecology and life history. Species with small population sizes, restricted ranges, and limited ability to move to different habitat will be most at risk. Similarly, different habitats and ecosystems will be impacted differently, with those in coastal, high-latitude, and high-altitude regions most vulnerable.

When it comes to global warming, birds are like canaries in the coal mine, showing us that temperature increases are reshaping our ecology in potentially dangerous ways. According to a 2009 Audubon report, nearly 60% of 305 species found in North America in winter have been on the move over the last 40 years, shifting their ranges northward by an average of 35 miles, and in some cases by hundreds of miles.

Global Warming

The average facade temperature of the globe has augmented more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900 and the speed of warming has been almost three folds the century long average since 1970. This increase in earth’s average temperature is called Global warming. More or less all specialists studying the climate record of the earth have the same opinion now that human actions, mainly the discharge of green house gases from smokestacks, vehicles, and burning forests, are perhaps the leading power driving the fashion.

The gases append to the planet's normal greenhouse effect, permitting sunlight in, but stopping some of the ensuing heat from radiating back to space. Based on the study on past climate shifts, notes of current situations, and computer simulations, many climate scientists say that lacking of big curbs in greenhouse gas discharges, the 21st century might see temperatures rise of about 3 to 8 degrees, climate patterns piercingly shift, ice sheets contract and seas rise several feet. With the probable exemption of one more world war, a huge asteroid, or a fatal plague, global warming may be the only most danger to our planet earth.

Global Warming Causes As said, the major cause of global warming is the emission of green house gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide etc into the atmosphere. The major source of carbon dioxide is the power plants. These power plants emit large amounts of carbon dioxide produced from burning of fossil fuels for the purpose of electricity generation. About twenty percent of carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere comes from burning of gasoline in the engines of the vehicles. This is true for most of the developed countries. Buildings, both commercial and residential represent a larger source of global warming pollution than cars and trucks.

Building of these structures require a lot of fuel to be burnt which emits a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Methane is more than 20 times as effectual as CO2 at entrapping heat in the atmosphere. Methane is obtained from resources such as rice paddies, bovine flatulence, bacteria in bogs and fossil fuel manufacture. When fields are flooded, anaerobic situation build up and the organic matter in the soil decays, releasing methane to the atmosphere. The main sources of nitrous oxide include nylon and nitric acid production, cars with catalytic converters, the use of fertilizers in agriculture and the burning of organic matter. Another cause of global warming is deforestation that is caused by cutting and burning of forests for the purpose of residence and industrialization. Global Warming is Inspiring Scientists to Fight for Awareness.

Scientists all over the world are making predictions about the ill effects of Global warming and connecting some of the events that have taken place in the pat few decades as an alarm of global warming. The effect of global warming is increasing the average temperature of the earth. A rise in earth’s temperatures can in turn root to other alterations in the ecology, including an increasing sea level and modifying the quantity and pattern of rainfall. These modifications may boost the occurrence and concentration of severe climate events, such as floods, famines, heat waves, tornados, and twisters. Other consequences may comprise of higher or lower agricultural outputs, glacier melting, lesser summer stream flows, genus extinctions and rise in the ranges of disease vectors. As an effect of global warming species like golden toad, harlequin frog of Costa Rica has already become extinct. There are number of species that have a threat of disappearing soon as an effect of global warming. As an effect of global warming various new diseases have emerged lately. These diseases are occurring frequently due to the increase in earths average temperature since the bacteria can survive better in elevated temperatures and even multiplies faster when the conditions are favorable. The global warming is extending the distribution of mosquitoes due to the increase in humidity levels and their frequent growth in warmer atmosphere. Various diseases due to ebola, hanta and machupo virus are expected due to warmer climates. The marine life is also very sensitive to the increase in temperatures. The effect of global warming will definitely be seen on some species in the water. A survey was made in which the marine life reacted significantly to the changes in water temperatures. It is expected that many species will die off or become extinct due to the increase in the temperatures of the water, whereas various other species, which prefer warmer waters, will increase tremendously. Perhaps the most disturbing changes are expected in the coral reefs that are expected to die off as an effect of global warming. The global warming is expected to cause irreversible changes in the ecosystem and the behavior of animals.

A group of scientists have recently reported on the surprisingly speedy rise in the discharge of carbon and methane release from frozen tundra in Siberia, now starting to melt because of human cause increases in earth’s temperature. The scientists tell us that the tundra is in danger of melting holds an amount of extra global warming pollution that is equivalent to the net amount that is previously in the earth's atmosphere. Likewise, earlier one more team of scientists reported that the in a single year Greenland witnessed 32 glacial earthquakes between 4.6 and 5.1 on the Richter scale. This is a disturbing sign and points that a huge destabilization that may now be in progress deep within the second biggest accretion of ice on the planet. This ice would be enough to raise sea level 20 feet worldwide if it broke up and slipped into the sea. Each day passing brings yet new proof that we are now in front of a global emergency, a climate emergency that needs instant action to piercingly decrease carbon dioxide emissions worldwide in order to turn down the earth's rising temperatures and avoid any catastrophe.

It is not easy to attach any particular events to global warming, but studies prove the fact that human activities are increasing the earth’s temperature. Even though most predictions focus on the epoch up to 2100, even if no further greenhouse gases were discharged after this date, global warming and sea level would be likely to go on to rise for more than a millennium, since carbon dioxide has a long average atmospheric life span. You Can Help Fight Global Warming
Many efforts are being made by various nations to cut down the rate of global warming. One such effort is the Kyoto agreement that has been made between various nations to reduce the emissions of various green house gases. Also many non profit organizations are working for the cause. Al Gore was one of the foremost U.S. politicians to heave an alarm about the hazards of global warming. He has produced a significantly acclaimed documentary movie called "An Inconvenient Truth," and written a book that archives his advice that Earth is dashing toward an immensely warmer future. Al Gore, the former vice president of United States has given various speeches to raise an awareness of global warming. He has warned people about the ill effects of Global warming and its remedies.

But an interesting side of the global warming episode is that there are people who do not consider global warming as something that is creating a problem. Skeptics of global warming think that global warming is not an ecological trouble. According to the global warming skeptics, the recent enhancement in the earth's average temperature is no reason for alarm. According to them earth's coastlines and polar ice caps are not at a risk of vanishing. Global warming skeptics consider that the weather models used to establish global warming and to forecast its impacts are distorted. According to the models, if calculations are made the last few decades must have been much worse as compared to actually happened to be. Most of the global warming skeptics believe that the global warming is not actually occurring. They stress on the fact the climatic conditions vary because of volcanism, the obliquity cycle, changes in solar output, and internal variability. Also the warming can be due to the variation in cloud cover, which in turn is responsible for the temperatures on the earth. The variations are also a result of cosmic ray flux that is modulated by the solar magnetic cycles.

Global Warming Skeptics
The global warming skeptics are of the view that the global warming is a good phenomenon and should not be stopped. There are various benefits of global warming according to them. According to the skeptics, the global warming will increase humidity in tropical deserts. Also the higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere trigger plant growth. As predicted, due to the global warming the sea levels will rise. But this can be readily adapted. Another argument of global warming skeptics is that earth has been warmer than today as seen in its history. The thought is that global warming is nothing to get afraid of because it just takes us back to a more natural set of environment of the past. Animals and plants appeared to do just fine in those eras of warm climate on the earth. According to few skeptics, the present chilly climate on the earth is an abnormality when judged over the geographical scale. Over geologic time, the earth’s mean temperature is 22 degrees C, as compared to today's 15.5 degrees C.

OZONE depletion

Summary
Like an infection that grows more and more virulent, the continent-size hole in Earth's ozone layer keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Each year since the late 1970s, much of the protective layer of stratospheric ozone above Antarctica has disappeared during September, creating what is popularly known as the ozone hole. The Antarctic hole now measures about 9 million square miles, nearly the size of North America. Less dramatic, still significant, depletion of ozone levels has been recorded around the globe. With less ozone in the atmosphere, more ultraviolet radiation strikes Earth, causing more skin cancer, eye damage, and possible harm to crops.

What is ozone? How did researchers discover its role in Earth's atmosphere and the devastating consequences of its depletion? The following article, adapted from an account by Dr. F. Sherwood Rowland, a pioneering researcher in the field who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work, attempts to answer these and other questions. In doing so, it dramatically illustrates how science works and, in particular, how basic research--motivated by a desire to understand nature--often leads to practical results of immense societal benefit that could not have been anticipated when the research first began.
This article is available in Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish.

To access the full article: Click Here

Art of Living launches Mission Green Earth

Friday, October 03, 2008: The Art of Living on Friday launched Mission Green Earth, in collaboration with the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC).The mission aims to help the country achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by working against global warming.“We should leave a better planet for the generations to come. This is the year when we really stand up and take action,” said Swami Sadyojathah of Art of Living.

The fight against environmental pollution is inclusive of issues like sanitation and deforestation.Talking about sanitation, Lizette Burgers of UNICEF, who has been working for sanitation in India for the past four years, said: “I always feel that inside purity should reflect in outside purity and beauty,”Von Hildebrand of World Health Organisation (WHO) supported her cause and said that sanitation is not only important to keep environment healthier, it is also important to protect our children from diseases.

To fight against deforestation, Art of Living has launched an initiative to plant 100 million saplings in a year.Many of the city's top schools like APJ School, Saket, Ramjas, Gyan Bharti and DPS, Mathura Road, are participating and partnering in the drive to plant trees.The panellists also felt that it was time to put regulations against faulting nations to protect environment.“Industrialised countries thought that we can throw our smoke in the air but now it is coming back to us. We really need to put legal actions against such acts. We are not in a position to let people do it by choice,” Hildebrand pointed out.

Most of the governments of the world pledged to achieve Millennium Development Goals by 2015 so that we have a better world and nobody lives in poverty anymore.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service