Cellphone Culture

There is no longer any argument that the universally ubiquitous cell phone has become as indispensable to our daily lives as clothes and pizza. Indeed, the cell has virtually acquired the dimensions of an extra limb, impossible to discard even if one wanted to. Isn’t technology wonderful? Well, not entirely.

The versatile gadget that comes in myriad shapes and sizes is becoming increasingly addictive with every new innovation. No self respecting 21st Century denizen would do without one, or admit to using it just to make and receive phone calls. It is used to watch television, share banal videos and text messages and arranging clandestine trysts. Moreover, it allows you to be constantly available.

And therein lays the rub. Why would we want to be instantly reachable at all times? What happened to quality alone time? Have we suddenly become so important that if a friend or relative is unable to contact us for an hour or two, it will signal the beginning of the apocalypse?

According to a recent study, the frequency of texting among Indian teenagers is rising alarmingly; and a third of teenagers with cell phones send over 100 text messages a day. Just think of the implications of this modern phenomenon. And please don’t mistake this for the technological version of passing notes in class. How many notes a day did we pass around; five maybe?

Apart from the obvious fact that it cuts significantly into the time spent on homework, social and extra-curricular activity, it is altering the very mindset and thought processes of our young people. One obvious casualty is quality; when one’s mind is programmed to send out a message every few minutes, it is a given that the majority of the texts will be perfectly banal. Then there is the stealth factor. Unlike old-fashioned phone calls to “unsuitable” members of the opposite sex, clandestine conversations can be carried on right under the noses of parents. And there is more sinister fallout to this. When it becomes a social compulsion to “say something” almost non-stop, indiscretions are almost inevitable. Family secrets, things told in strict confidence; tend to come tumbling out because, hey, you have to text about something.

There is nothing parents and teachers can do about this, of course, but grumble. As they have learnt to their cost, banning or restricting something only leads to it being used surreptitiously or, sometimes, open defiance.  After all, the ingenuity of kids, when they are determined to thwart authority, is legendary.

Some schools have ingeniously decided to adopt the old maxim, if you can’t beat them, join them. The Washington Times quoted a story about a school in Florida, where a Spanish teacher starts her class by asking the students to take out their cell phones. She then proceeds to send them text messages in Spanish. These could be simple tasks, like go the cafeteria, find something green and take a picture. You can call it a sort of treasure hunt. The messages gradually become more complex questions requiring answers to be texted back to the teachers. This innovative method has made her classes so popular that students are making an active effort to learn the language.

Others schools are taking advantage of the rapid increase in cell phone technology. Schools with budgets not large enough to provide individual computers for all students are encouraging them to use the new generation phones as computers to research stuff on the internet. When you consider that over 50 percent of teenagers today have cell phones, this gives them a tremendous reach.

But why blame the kids alone? Adults are equally addicted to the infernal machines. One of my pet hates is the self-important cretin who just has to answer his cell during a private dinner party; and then looks condescendingly on the rest of us inferior mortals without whom the universe can survive for a few hours.

To end on a lighter note, here is a static that is guaranteed to dampen the legendary male ego. A survey conducted a couple of years ago showed that – given a choice between giving up their cell phones and abstaining from cohabiting with men for a month – a quarter of the women asked plumped for the former. Face it guys. We’ve been demoted.-Garima 

Global Warning

Green house effect is the process where solar radiations (short wave radiation) from the sun reach the earth’s surface where it gets converted to heat energy (long wavelength radiation). Some of the energy is absorbed by the earth’s surface ad rest is reflected by the earth back to the space.

Global warming the consequence of increased green house effect.

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of earths near surface air and oceans    since the mid- 20th century and its projected continuation.   The average temperature of earth has increased more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1990.

The major cause of global warming is the emission of green house gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane etc in to the atmosphere. The major sources of carbon dioxide and other green house gases are the factories and power plants. These utilize a lot of fossil fuels like petroleum, coal etc and emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Another major source is vehicles. About twenty per cent of carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere is from vehicles. Building of buildings requires lot of fuel which emits a huge amount of carbon dioxide in to the atmosphere. Methane can absorb 21 times more heat than carbon dioxide. The major producers of methane are cattle, bacteria in bogs, rice paddles & also from manufacturing of fossil fuels. Also when fields are flooded, anaerobic conditions build up and methane is produced due to degradation of organic matter. Nitrous oxide is produced during nylon and nitric acid production, burning of organic matter and cars with catalytic converters. Also cutting of forests leads to global warming because the trees convert carbon dioxide to oxygen.

The consequences of global warming can be fatal to the humanity and earth like increase in ocean level. This may lead to sinking of islands. As few days back a disputed island between India and Bangladesh- ‘New Moore Island’ sank. It was two meters above the sea level. In a single year Greenland has witnessed 32 glacial earthquakes between 4.6 And 5.1 on the Richter scale. Tundra is in danger of melting. Also due to global warming there are changes in the climate patterns. In India, this march the temperature was much higher than average temperature. This has lead to early blooming of flowers and may lead to decreased productivity of wheat this year.

Many efforts have been made to tackle global warming. Kyoto agreement has been signed up by many nations to reduce the emission of green house gases.

The problem of global warming can be tackled by new technologies. Solar energy is a renewable and non polluting source of energy. Solar energy can be trapped using solar panels, solar cookers etc.

Wind power can be utilized to run turbines which generate electricity. This saves coal as it is used to produce electricity. Also the land between turbines can be used for agriculture, grazing etc.

Replacing burnt-out incandescent bulbs with fluorescent lamps can also lead to reduced carbon dioxide emissions. Enhanced natural sinks requires increasing the biological absorption of carbon. Natural carbon sinks can be enhanced by creating forest plantations, such as pine stand in Angus, Scotland. Carbon capture and storage can be used by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as factories, power plants etc.

The 21st century might see temperatures rise of about 3 to 8 degrees, shifting climate patterns, glaciers contract and seas rise several feet. Global warming can be the biggest threat for the mankind in this century. -Jasvinder Banga
TOO MUCH WASTE

All of us open biscuit or chips packets, eat the contents and casually discard the plastic covers without giving a second thought to where they might go or what might actually happen to them. Once the dustbins in our houses are full, we empty them out onto the streets or hand them over to men who drive garbage trucks, but where does all of it really go after that?
Usually, waste goes to large, empty yards on the outskirts of cities. In Chennai, a lot of the waste gets dumped at the Palikaranai marsh, a fresh water swamp. It is declared as a reserve forest area and is home to many flora and fauna. But the dumping of solid waste and the discharge of sewage are causing the marsh to shrink. Additionally, the people who live around the marsh are also badly affected. The toxic waste is extremely hazardous to their health. Children from these slums are often born with birth defects and the people develop numerous other diseases inhaling these substances throughout their lives.
The problem of waste is not only limited to where the waste is finally dumped, but also to the treatment of those made to segregate it. Rag pickers are usually children from a poor economic background, and anyone will spot them digging into the street dustbins trying to gather and segregate waste. A lot of these children handle the toxic substances without being given any gloves, and they are therefore highly susceptible to harmful diseases. Rag pickers are also treated badly by the government and the general public, and are hardly paid enough; yet they do such an important job for society.
Dumping of waste carelessly obviously impacts the environment and the people in a big way; yet it is quite hard for us to come up with an easy solution as to where it would all go. However, we can try to minimize the amount of waste produced as much as possible. Very simple tasks like carrying cloth bags while going grocery shopping instead of accepting the plastic ones given in stores, or attempting to reuse items like glass bottles or plastic containers instead of discarding them after one-time use can help reduce the amount of waste each individual house produces by quite an amount. Individuals can segregate their own waste in their houses into bio-degradable and non-biodegradable items. Kitchen waste (like vegetable peels) can be combined to form manure, which is very rich for plants.
There are solutions for improvement that can be implemented in the whole city as well. For instance, large colour-coded bins can be placed in each area. These bins can be for plastics (recyclable and non- recyclable), organic waste, paper, and so on. The people who collect the waste or the residents themselves can come and discard their waste in the appropriate bins, which makes the rag pickers’ job much easier. The Chintan model of waste disposal, which has worked out very well in Delhi, can be implemented in a whole city. It primarily focuses on rag pickers segregating the waste for individual households. The working conditions of the rag pickers are also taken into consideration.
Unfortunately, many don’t see the importance of this issue. It is easy to be ignorant of what directly does not concern us. But in addition to impacting the environment and the welfare or rag pickers or people who live around these dump yards, waste can also affect us. If water bodies and ground water is polluted, the water that reaches our taps is going to be contaminated. The lifestyle trends of today emphasize more and more on the concept of ‘use and throw’ and the amount of waste being produced is so much more now than it was many years ago. It is essential for us to stand up and take responsibility for our environment by doing what little we can do at an individual level.
-Niyantri Ravindran (articles adapted from-theviewspaper.net)