Cleanliness and environment

Its like `samosa' and `jalebi' that are increasingly being discourage for human consumption as both are fried and `samosa' may be put in warm oil again if remains unsold for next day or when cooled. However question may be raised that some may loose livelihood as road side stalls selling similar items may be stopped. They may come at relatively lower prices. Similar thing can be seen with FGDs in coal-fired power plants as their installation potentially increase the electricity price unaffordable to many. In remote areas coal-fired power plants maynot be subjected to mandatory requirement to have FGDs. One may like to be efficient in electricity use but how much efficient - better to switch to cleaner fuel option. Now along with CO2, methane emissions (such as from biodegradable wastes) can cause warming and contribute to climate change. World is awash of natural gas and is a bridge fuel to accelerate towards net zero emissions. more  

India's poor pays. https://www.dailypioneer.com/2025/columnists/india-pays-as-the-west-neglects--the-price-of-global-warming.html India Pays as the West Neglects: The Price of Global Warming Friday, 25 July 2025 | Acharya Prashant "As wildfires rage and floods rise, climate change is no longer a future threat — it’s our lived reality. There is global imbalance, India’s unjust burden and the urgent need for an inner transformation to truly heal our planet We hear news at regular intervals about burning wildfires, shrinking glaciers, drowning cities and farms turning to dust. It should be very obvious that climate change no longer remains a distant threat; it’s here, undoubtedly. Each season, we are seeing climate excesses. The signs are clear, the science undeniable, yet for some reason we keep looking away. The recent floods in Texas didn’t come out of nowhere. The Gulf waters had been warming quietly for months, feeding storms with unusual strength. At the same time, cities kept expanding, pouring concrete over wetlands and choking the land’s natural breathing space. Drains were rerouted, soft earth was buried, and when the rains finally came, the water had nowhere left to go. Streets turned to rivers, homes vanished, and life came to a standstill. This wasn’t nature acting blindly; it was nature responding, almost patiently, to years of human excess. Yet even now, as the connection between our ways and these disasters grows clearer, the world’s most powerful nations continue to choose convenience over conscience, just when wisdom is most needed. The restart of the US presidency earlier this year began with a withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, signalling a step back from global climate efforts. It wasn’t just a policy shift; it sent a clear message: the planet could wait if politics or profit got in the way. Digging deeper for oil and gas took precedence over lower emission alternatives. One of the most vulnerable areas of the planet, the Arctic, was not exempt. Short-term gain took precedence at a time when the world needed direction and care, which exacerbated the crisis. The US holds just 4 per cent of the world’s population but is behind around 25 per cent of excess carbon in the atmosphere. When a nation with that kind of power turns to a wrong direction, the whole world feels it. And it’s not just the US, nations like China, Russia, Gulf Countries and many European countries too are emitting far more per capita than they should. When these powerful nations step back from responsibility, climate change becomes an even greater crisis. And the danger isn’t just rising temperatures from regular industrial activity. As nations chase control of territory over ecological balance, climate breakdown and wars begin to feed each other. War harms the planet too; two weeks of conflict can emit a year’s worth of carbon. In such a world, climate goals become distant, and global warming moves faster than we can keep up. Powerful nations refuse to act Even with the facts of such disproportionate emissions being clear, the powerful nations often turn a blind eye to this disparity. This silence is not ignorance; it is calculation. We often assume that people at the top don’t act because they don’t understand. But that’s rarely the case. They understand, perhaps even better than most, but their interests are tied to the very structures that fuel the crisis. Climate change today is not just a planetary emergency; it’s also an economy, a career path, and an institution. Massive funds are channelled into both climate action and denial, and entire industries survive on keeping things just the way they are either by promising high-tech solutions or by denying there’s a problem at all. When you try to speak truth into such a world, it often feels like no one is listening. But it’s not that they can’t hear, it’s that they’ve chosen not to. Because to truly listen would mean letting go of the very things they’re clinging to. And the weight of this denial by the rich nations is mostly carried by the poor ones." (The writer is a philosopher and teacher of global wisdom literature. He is the founder of the PrashantAdvait Foundation and a bestselling author) more  

Indian forests face decline in photosynthetic efficiency. Soil drying and enhanced evaporation under warmer temperatures are contributing to lower photosynthetic efficiency and lower water use efficiency of Indian forests. Forests ability to cut carbon emissions is getting considerably lower - a condition that can be termed as deteriorated forest health. Data on soil moisture and heat stress indicate a rise in temperature. Evidently other carbon emission cut methods are required as increase in greencover is not the only solution. more