Over 130 leopards killed this year: Report

LUCKNOW: The leopard deaths are continuing in the country. The anti-poaching cell of Uttarakhand forest department seized two leopard skins on Wednesday night from Chakrata in Dehradun district. There have been about 130 leopard deaths so far this year. Most of them have been reported from Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), the agency helping forest departments in UP and Uttarakhand in seizures and wildlife crime cases, estimates 81 leopard deaths from Uttarakhand alone this year. The agency's database also shows over 35 leopards reportedly killed by poachers. According to the figures released by the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) in 2008, the country did not have more than 11,000 leopards. The number is constantly going down. "Leopards live on the periphery of forests and that makes them more vulnerable," said a UP forest official.

Leopard conservation in the country is more or less clubbed with that of tigers, as quite a big number of leopards exist in tiger reserves. But no effort has been made to go for a leopard census to arrive at an exact number existing within and outside the protected areas. Conservationists feel this has affected the systematic protection of leopards.

Leopard faces the severest backlash from humans and grave threat from poachers. The declining prey base and shrinking habitat forces the big cat to venture out of the forest area. When it attacks humans and livestock, it faces a backlash. The experts are of the view that ill-will that rises in the human communities in and around forest areas, after leopard attacks them or their cattle, supports poaching and poisoning of leopards.

Leopard is a versatile cat which is not selective about its habitat. Maximum number of leopards are found in UP, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand forest department also seized a leopard cat skin and a Himalayan black bear gall bladder.

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Arctic sea ice shrinks to third lowest area on record

Arctic sea ice melted over the summer to cover the third smallest area on record, US researchers have said, warning global warming could leave the region ice free in the month of September 2030.

Last week, at the end of the spring and summer "melt season" in the Arctic, sea ice covered 4.76 million square kilometres, the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Centre said in an annual report.

"This is only the third time in the satellite record that ice extent has fallen below five million square kilometres, and all those occurrences have been within the past four years," the report said.

A separate report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that in August, too, Arctic sea ice coverage was down sharply, covering an average of six million square kilometres, or 22 per cent below the average extent from 1979 to 2000.

The August coverage was the second lowest for Arctic sea ice since records began in 1979. Only 2007 saw a smaller area of the northern sea covered in ice in August, NOAA said.

The record low for Arctic sea ice cover at the end of the spring and summer "melt season" in September, was also in 2007, when ice covered just 4.13 million square kilometres.

Mark Serreze, director of the NSIDC, said climate- change skeptics might seize the fact that Arctic sea ice did not hit a record-low extent this year, but said they would be barking up the wrong tree if they claimed the shrinkage had been stopped.

"Only the third lowest? It didn't set a new record? Well, right. It didn't set a new record but we're still headed down. We're not looking at any kind of recovery here," he said.

In fact, Serreze said, Arctic sea ice cover is shrinking year-round, with more ice melting in the spring and summer months and less ice forming in the fall and winter.

"The Arctic, like the globe as a whole, is warming up and warming up quickly, and we're starting to see the sea ice respond to that. Really, in all months, the sea ice cover is shrinking -- there's an overall downward trend," Serreze said.

"The extent of Arctic ice is dropping at something like 11% per decade -- very quickly, in other words.

"Our thinking is that by 2030 or so, if you went out to the Arctic on the first of September, you probably won't see any ice at all. It will look like a blue ocean, we're losing it that quickly," he said.

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Rotating Solar House Generates Five Times The Energy It Consumes

What’s cooler than a rotating house? One whose solar panels produce five times the energy the house uses. That’s pretty incredible, considering that even zero-energy structures are rare.

German architect Rolf Disch built the home, called Heliotrope, to follow the sun throughout the day. The structure features triple panes of thermally insulated glass to strike a balance between letting light in and keeping the house cooler inside.

A giant 6.6-kilowatt-capacity rooftop solar panel called the Sun Sail slurps up the rays of energy, pumping them into the home and grid. Solar thermal collectors on balcony railings act as water heaters and radiators. On cloudy days, the house can be heated with wood chips and solar thermal heating.

The Sun Sail itself rotates separately from the house, adjusting itself to the best possible position at all times. This gives it a 30% to 40% advantage in energy production over traditional rooftop solar panels.

The house is green inside as well. Waste water goes through a purification system for reuse, and rain water collects in a rooftop basin. The toilet system turns human waste into compost.

Is it nice to live in? Disch must think so, as he resides in the prototype himself. Two other Heliotropes have been built to date, each costing about $2 million to build.

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Redefining Education…in a Tree House

At some point or another every kid has dreamt of living in something like the Swiss Family Robinson’s tree house; even fictional children like Bart Simpson. I think I could have settled for going to school there. And—fantastical as it seems—that’s exactly what the Green School in Bali feels like.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Web and mobile technology remaking education, but in the middle of the jungle – within a cluster of bamboo buildings nominated for various architectural awards and furnished with hip, mondernist bamboo furniture – I found a place where cleantech was remaking the very concept of a school.

The toilets are almost all very comfortable compost toilets, the trash is all recycled with the organic matter going to a school pig slop where Balinese black sows make sure nothing goes to waste. Each grade has a garden that supplies organic food for lunches— including organic cacao in the summer months so the kids can make their own chocolate. The school is even experimenting with different methods of renewable energy including methane-extraction from the compost-toilets and a large water vortex that creates hydro-electric power without the environmental devastation that comes with building a dam.

There’s an inflatable classroom with a canvas roof and hip oval-shaped desks for when the weather gets too unbearable, and – why not?—a state of the art mud wrestling pit. As I wait for a Balinese latte at the coffee stand, a mother hen and her chicks peck across the soccer field like something out of a fairy tale. The third-grade’s pizza garden isn’t too far off in the distance, and even farther down the path last year’s tweens learned real-world math by building their own thatched bamboo clubhouse. And, of course, there’s school-wide wifi.

Of course all of this green stuff is just be a gimmick if it’s not backed up by high academic standards. To that end, the school runs according to the Cambridge international school standards, combining the benefits of an international school education, with the unique advantages the Green School’s environment offers.

Richard Branson was here to check out Green School last week, and before him famous guests included Ben of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, Donna Karen of DKNY and David Copperfield. You can understand why the Vegas illusionist would like a school that seems to have sprung up from nowhere in the middle of the jungle.

The everyday students range from poor Balinese kids on a scholarship to the considerably-more-well off kids of a guy like Allard Luchsinger —a multi-time European Internet entrepreneur who decided to take a year off with his family in Bali. Unlike transitions to Los Angeles and San Francisco, his kids were instantly happy here, Luchsinger says. It’s not hard to see why.

This seems a school that only a wild-eyed, half-hippy entrepreneur could dream up so I’m not surprised to hear there’s not one, but two, behind it. John Hardy moved to Bali in the mid-1970s and his wife Cynthia moved in the early 1980s. Together, they started a local jewelry business called John Hardy Jewelry that caught on, selling its pieces in high-end chains like Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus. In 2007, the company sold for undisclosed millions of dollars that go a lot farther when they are converted to Indonesian Rupiahs. (It takes just $100 to be a Rupiah-millionaire.)

Spurred by a desire to give back to the island that created their jewelry empire, the couple began dreaming about Green School. They put $5 million of their own money into the school, it opened in September 2008 and today it’s still largely reliant on donors and the Hardys themselves to keep the doors open. (Branson’s check is reportedly in the mail.) Meanwhile, the two have also opened a for-profit venture called PT Bamboo that makes the stunning sustainable bamboo architecture and furniture the showcased at the school.

Why should you care about a school in the middle of the jungle? Because that jungle shares the planet with us and Bali hasn’t always had the best track-record of environmental stewardship, having destroyed a good deal of coral with dynamite fishing in years past. Now, Green School is teaching locals a new way to think, plant and build, and is pushing the boundaries of clean-tech innovation that’s also beautiful, functional and comfortable. So frequently, we hear about emerging markets causing environmental problems, but Green School is another example of where an emerging market is creating the solution.





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YouTube’s top suggested oil spill clean up methods

The Gulf of Mexico is a mess and it’s going to take a massive clean-up effort। One method alone isn’t going to cut it alone and YouTube is full of solutions. Soon the Gulf of Mexico might full of hair, hay, pine shavings, fungus and nuclear waste.









<बी> ग्रीन्क्रोनोस

Eco House Agent – Encouraging the Utilization of Eco-Friendly Homes

The Eco House Agent (www.ecohouseagent.com) is an online resource providing information about the implementation of “eco-friendly” devices in homes. The main goal of Eco House Agent is to help people make their house eco-friendly, reduce the use of carbon fuels, and become carbon neutral. While the vast majority of people perceive becoming carbon neutral as a lifestyle-altering commitment requiring a great deal of dedication, it is a process that when done effectively, will not drastically reduce the convenience of their daily lives.

Eco House Agent provides simple tips for homeowners such as walking instead of driving to local shopping centers, turning off lights, washing clothes at low temperatures, taking showers instead of baths, and turning appliances off instead of on standby. Eco House Agent also suggests resources that can be installed and implemented in your house, including solar power, photovoltaics, wind power, rainwater harvesting, insulation, and going “off the grid”.

According to Eco House Agent, based on the growing number of governmental incentives for reducing your carbon footprint, the time to implement these new strategies is now. “Soon we will be forced to reduce our Carbon footprint The government is looking to introduce environmental policies to encourage people to be more “Carbon Neutral”. The Carbon Credit Scheme will attempt to reduce the amount of carbon households produce. A Carbon Credit will be given for units of energy The government will reward those who use less Carbon, penalising less energy efficient households.”

The Eco House Agent teaches readers how to install new eco-friendly sources of energy, such as solar power, Photovoltaics, wind and rain power; harvest rainwater; and how glazing, installing insulation, and damp treatment can be beneficial for your money and the environment.

The website also offers a forum where users can “post all your green thoughts on Solar Power, Photovoltaics, Insulation, Wind Power & Rainwater Harvesting and energy saving, carbon neutral house ideas, helping us all to reduce our carbon footprint and have eco friendly houses.

The following topics are touched upon in detail on the Eco house Agent website:

Solar power energy: Explaining the importance and usefulness of harnessing light from the sun, Eco House Agent also talks about solar hot water heaters and how they are an ideal alternative to ordinary oil and gas hot water heaters. Also, solar power can be used to charge batteries in laptops, cell phones, iPods, and rechargable batteries.

Recycling: The recycling section supplies the importance of recycling and what methods and situations recycling can come in handy and be beneficial for you and the environment. The Salvo recycling centre is mentioned as an excellent source of materials that can be reused, such as doors, tiles, radiators, windows, timber, and furniture.

Finally, another notable section of Echo House Agent explains the benefits of having an “organic baby”. According to the website, “The decision to have children is arguably the most life-changing decision you may ever make, not only to yourself but also to the planet. You only have to look at some of the statistics associated with having children and the overpopulation of the planet to also make it one of the most guilt inducing decisions you’ve made.”

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The US’s first offshore wind farm approved, to be located off the coast of Cape Cod

America might finally catch up to Europe and Asia with offshore wind farms. The US federal government finally green lighted a project today that will bring a 24 square mile 130-turbine farm to the waters 5 miles off the coast of Cape Cod in Nantuket Sound. It’s said to generate 75% of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantuket’s power requirement. Great, right?

Well even though it’s been approved by state and federal government, okay’d by both Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, the project is still controversial and bound to be tied up in the courts for years.

Everyone from local governments to the Kennedy’s to the coastal Wamponag tribe along with countless environmentalist groups are against the project. Their complaints range from killing the pristine view and therefore harming the tourism industry to violating tribal rights by prohibiting unobstructed views of the sunrise in the case of the Indians.

Needless to say don’t expect the wind farm to go up over night. It will be held up until every group either has its time in court or is bought-out. But hopefully when it does go up, it will clear the way for similar wind farms. It’s progress, people. Just get out of the way.

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