Interesting Facts

Temperatures in Bangalore, says a recent IISc study, have gone up by 5 degrees over the past 3 decades mainly due to the drastic reduction of its green cover.

Did you know that every time you take your car or motorbike out, you suck out precious gallons of life-giving oxygen from the environment?

Or that hundreds of trees were felled to make room for your dream home and its immediate surroundings?

Or that the daily paper you read was printed on paper made from scores of chopped trees?

And that all this and much more is fast depleting our planet’s green cover resulting in disastrous global warming that makes it that much more hazardous for the coming generations.
Here are some interesting facts about what we do:
  Usage per month Annual CO2 emission (Tons) No. of trees to be planted annually to (partially) offset
Use of small car 1000 km 2.3 12
Medium car 1000 km 4.3 22
SUV/4W drive 1000 km 6.1 33
Electricity 250 units 2.25 13
Electricity 500 units 4.5 23
Paper (A4) 160 reams   10
Air Travel 1500 km 5.8 29

Obviously, there are many factors that need to be taken into account in calculating these figures. These have been arrived at the basis of average assumptions (for example, if the car is tuned badly, and gives lower mileage, the emission would be higher)

What can "I" do?

A. Reduce emissions as much as possible (Look obvious?)
1. Car usage
a. Use car pools
b. Use buses where possible (Bangalore has some very good ones – Volvo. Vajra, BIG 10 etc.
c. Walk or cycle where possible
d. If you have access to more than one car, use more of the one with higher efficiency
e. Many also advocate switching off the engine at traffic lights if the wait is longer than 30 seconds (we have timers in most major crossings in most metro cities)
2. Electricity
a. Switch of all lights, fans, air-conditioners etc. when not needed
b. Restrict use of air-conditioners to only those situations where the ambient is very uncomfortable
c. Be conscious and spread awareness
3. Paper
a. Do not print unless necessary
b. Reuse paper. Print on used paper for drafts
c. Print on both sides, where possible
d. Do not make more photocopies than absolutely necessary.
4. All of these will not only help reduce carbon emission, but also save costs
B. It is not always possible to cut out or reduce these. So,
PLANT MORE TREES.
It does not matter where the tree is planted. The impact is Global!
 
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