Dear Pandit ji, The Gobar Times - Green Schools award was announced on November 27, 2006. Here's what some of the winners had to say about their experience... Dear Pandit ji We won the first prize in the Gobar Times - Green Schools award. We are highly grateful to you for giving us such distinction. Press reporters, higher authorities and people from all over India are visiting our school and appreciating us. The Green School Programme students' audit teams of our school are always engaged in different activities to uplift the school and the village. Thank you. Baljeet Kaur Government Sr. Sec. School Boor Majra, Ropar Dear Pandit ji We are glad to have participated in the Gobar Times - Green Schools Programme. It has focused our minds on creating ultra-low carbon technologies and organic farming. All in harmony with nature. However, it was also clear that the GSP was designed for conventional urban schools that require a lot of electricity to sustain them. The electricity board supplies electricity that in turn, causes pollution and global warming. The only way forward in India is for each school and community to produce its own electricity in a decentralised manner, from solar photo-voltaics and solar hot water systems. Wind, micro-hydro and biogas can also provide the energy we need to improve our lives; on condition we understand that electricity especially is a precious, limited resource. The GSP needs a radical rethink bearing in mind that the westernised high-carbon profligate, technological model is destroying the planet. All human beings must recognise the value of living in harmony with nature that our traditions always recognised. Here in India we can do it, if we care. Brian Jenkins Sholai School, Kodai Kanal Dear Pandit ji It was an exalted moment for us to win the third position among the top performing schools in the country, and 'The Best Green Teachers Team' award as well. The Green Schools Programme has made students look beyond books. Students got to know new environment related practices and concepts. By using statistical summation, they analytically realised how flora and fauna are adversely affected by the increasing load of pollution, how to harvest rainwater, to segregate waste, and so on. We hope with our coadjutant cooperation our Eco Club would emerge as the best. Priyanka Gulati Evergreen Public School, Delhi Dear Pandit ji The Gobar Times - Green Schools award gave the Green Schools Programme a sense of thrill and adventure! The information, facts and figures, text, cartoons, and caricatures of the GSP Manual, presented in an unconventional format, comes across as friendly and relatable. GSP is a concrete and workable action plan. It has the capacity to change our perception of environmental studies and the conservation processes . Neena Singh Sister Nivedita Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Delhi

Dear Pandit ji
I read Gobar Times in our Vidyalaya library. It is my best magazine. I want to know about how Hydrogen is used to run cars? How the system inside the car works? And what products release it?

Sabita Rana
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,
Cuttack, Orissa

Dear Sabita Rana ji,

Dear Pandit ji

Thank you for appreciating our work.
Hydrogen cars use hydrogen as their primary source of power for locomotion. Hydrogen acts as a carrier, similar to a battery, and not like an energy source such as fossil fuels. Hydrogen can be derived from both renewable and non-renewable energy sources. It can be obtained from water by the process of electrolysis, or splitting water molecules using electricity.
There are two methods of using hydrogen in cars: combustion and fuel-cell conversion.
In combustion, the hydrogen is "burned" in engines in the same method as in traditional gasoline (petrol) cars to run on gaseous hydrogen.
The use of fuel cells and electric motors is more energy efficient than a traditional engine. Hydrogen reacts with oxygen inside the fuel cells to produce electricity, which powers the motors. It also produces water and waste heat.
The range of fuel-cell-powered cars depends on the amount of
fuel in the storage tank. Two primary ways of hydrogen storage are metal hydrides
and compression. A recent development is Carbon-adsorption systems. These are refrigerated and pressurised tanks that can store massive amounts of hydrogen. Over 7 gallons of hydrogen can be stored in a single gram of this new material, allowing nearly 5,000 miles from a single tank!
Emission from fuel-cell-powered hydrogen cars is very less. They produce less carbon dioxide than gasoline cars if emissions throughout the entire fuel cycle are compared. But, combustion engine cars are not entirely emission-free. Hydrogen has often been called the 'perfect fuel'. But the production costs are too high to replace petrol cars in the near future.


Dear Pandit ji
What is sponge? Is it similar to the sponge we use at home?

Priya Dutt
Via e-mail
 

Dear Priya Duttji
Sponges are animals of the phylum Porifera, and represent the simplest of animals. They have no true tissues (parazoa), lack muscles, nerves, and internal organs. They are filter feeders, which means that they pump water through their bodies to filter out particles of food matter!
The sponges we use are skeletons of these animals. The animal matter is removed by maceration (process to separate bone from flesh by letting the tissue rot) and washing.
Commercial sponges are derived from various species and come in many grades, from fine soft "lamb's wool" sponges to the coarse grades used for washing cars. The loofah (or luffa sponge) that is commonly sold for use in the kitchen or shower is not related to any animal sponge. It is derived from the locules of a Pepo fruit (Cucurbitaceae).
Rubber, plastic and cellulose based synthetic sponges have significantly reduced the use of animal sponges. The synthetic sponge products can be up to 10 per cent more effective at retaining liquids, as compared to a natural sponge.
 

Dear Pandit-ji
What is restoring the Aral Sea?

Christine
Via e-mail

Dear Chritine ji

Since the 1960s, the Aral Sea has been shrinking. The rivers that feed it, Amu Darya and Syr Darya, were diverted for irrigation. It is also heavily polluted.
The continuous shrinking split it into two separate bodies of water: the North and the South seas. An artificial channel was made to connect the two bodies, which failed as the two seas continued to shrink. The South Aral Sea further divided into eastern and western basins.
Work is being done to restore, in part, the North Aral Sea.
Irrigation works on the Syr Darya have been improved to increase its water flow. In 2003, the Kazakh government announced a plan to build a concrete dam, Dike Kokaral, separating the two halves of the Aral Sea. It was completed in 2005.
Since then the water level of the North Aral has risen, and its salinity has decreased. As of 2006, some recovery of sea level has been recorded. Its level has risen to 125 feet, from less than 98 feet!
The restoration reportedly brought back the long absent rain clouds and possible microclimate changes, bringing hope to agricultural sector. Economically significant stocks of fish have also returned. The sea that receded nearly 100 km south of the port-city of Aralsk is now a mere 25 km away!