Gobar Times Magazine (Environment for Kids Monthly) - Centre for Science and Environment

Gobar times: Environment for Beginners

C O V E R S T O R Y

Best of Yesteryears

Environment Education for all

The 19th century

Visionaries interested in the natural sciences urged people to get more intimately acquainted with the elements of nature. They also began to ring the alarm bells, calling for a halt to the destructive trends of urbanisation and industrialisation.

The 20th century

The 1960s

Natural sciences combined with geography, history, economics and anthropology led to the re-emergence of what experts called 'the science of our home or the domestic economy of dwelling house Earth: ecology'.
Various associations and societies for the defence of nature were established.
1961: Creation of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) by the World Conservation Union (IUCN, established in 1948).

The 1970s

Emergence of non-governmental organisations, like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, with environment as key agenda.
Establishment of government ministries for the protection of nature and the environment in many countries.
October, 1970: the US President Richard Nixon signs the first Environmental Education Act into law.
1972: the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, that came up with a set of recommendations on EE, which was then acknowledged to be a tool in solving environmental problems.
1975: the International Environmental Workshop in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, resulted in the Belgrade Charter. The Charter defines the goals and objectives of environmental education.
1977: the Belgrade Charter further refined at the Intergovernmental Conference on EE in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. It explicitly stated the objectives of environmental education as: awareness, knowledge, attitudes, skills and participation.

The 1980s

Proposals for sustainable development emerge.
Two major accidents — explosion of a pesticide plant owned by a US corporation, Union Carbide, in Bhopal (1984), and the Chernobyl disaster (1986) - shook the international community.
1983: Work initiated by the International Commission on the Environment and Development (of the UN).
1987: the Brundtland Commission Report appeared. The existence of a growing hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic confirmed.
End of 1980s: the Exxon Valdez spills 240000 barrels of oil into the sea on the coast of Alaska, resulting in greater need for EE.

The 1990s

1991: The Gulf War breaks out, and ends with great loss of human life and environmental catastrophe.
June 1992: The Earth Summit is convened in Rio de Janeiro by the United Nations to debate the contemporary crisis and its environmental aspects. A planetary action plan is conceived under the name of Agenda 21. Chapter 36 establishes the key role of education in solving problems generated by the crisis.
September 1992: the US, Mexico, and Canada sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Environmental Education. These major trends of the past, the social protests, the environmental problem solving, the planetary crisis and the global management, and the effects of globalisation mark the course of Environment Education.

EE? Whats that?

In India, work towards integrating environment in school curriculum, began to take shape only in the late 1980s. In 1986 the National Policy on Education stated, "There is a paramount need to create a consciousness of the environment". Still the pace was slow and schools taking interest in spreading awareness were few and far between. Then the Indian Supreme Court, decided to takeaction. On December 2003, it issued a directive stating that Environmental Education should be taught as a compulsory subject at all levels of education. And directed the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to draw a model syllabus for it by April 14, 2004.

RE-TYRE YOUR FURNITURE

Imagine an entire house with furniture made of tyres and tubes! Sofas, high stools, centre tables, office chairs, coffee bars, clocks, mirrors, painting frames – you name it, it’s all there with Rama Anand of RA Innovations. Rama came up with this brainwave six years ago when she was trying to dispose off four of her used car tyres. This type of furniture is cost-effective (almost half the price of wooden furniture), durable, strong and can last a lifetime. But furniture made of used tyres? Won’t that be dirty and smelly? Not really. They are first treated with chemical solvents to get rid of all dirt and then washed several times to do away with their rubbery smell. The result is innovative environment friendly furniture.

Environment friendly did you say? Well, getting rid of millions old tyres the world over is a big problem. They do not biodegrade quickly, occupy too many landfills and release thick black toxic fumes and chemicals into the air when burnt. Converting them into furniture kills two birds with one stone. After winning many awards, Rama is now trying to popularise the concept in public places such as playgrounds.

For more information, contact
Rama Anand, RA Innovations, G 194, Western Avenue, W-13, Sainik Farms, New Delhi 11006, Phone: 011-26514142/143

This holiday, keep track of your: greenhouse miles

So you’re happy that you’re travelling to faraway places this summer. Plane and train rides are fun. But travel and tourism contributes to global warming. Travelling the same distance by train produces a third of the carbon emissions of air travel.

Contribution of air travel to global warming:
Return flight	Sustainable carbon years
London to Madrid	0.25
London to New Delhi	1
London to Sydney	2.5
New York to Kathmandu	1.8
Frankfurt to Lima	1.5
	www.chooseclimate.org

A 'sustainable carbon year' is the fossil fuel a person can use for all purposes (lighting, heating, transport, cooking, etc) in a year without contributing to global warming, if everyone on earth used fuel equally. A score over 1 is unsustainable. This figure is for carbon emissions only. Use the following chart to calculate your total carbon emissions at the end of your travels, and try and see how much your holiday added to global warming:

Transport	Kms		Emissions/km*	Total Emissions
Walking	________	X	3 gms	________
Cycling	________	X	3gms	________
2-wheelers	________	X	28 gms divided by no. of passengers	________
3-wheelers	________	X	78 gms divided by no. of passengers	________
Diesel Cars	________	X	208 gms divided by no. of passengers	________
Petrol Cars	________	X	223 gms divided by no. of passengers	________
Mini Buses	________	X	300 gms divided by no. of passengers	________
Large Buses	________	X	515 gms divided by no. of passengers	________
Diesel Train	________	X	50 gms (Average per passenger figure)	________
Electric Train	________	X	29 gms (Average per passenger figure)	________
Planes	________	X	180 gms (Average per passenger figure)	________
			GRAND TOTAL	________

Note: * These are very rough figures. The exact figure will depend on the type, make, maintenance and sophistication of transport used, which differ greatly in different countries. But they are good indicators.

Tree plantations absorb at the rate of 1587 kilogrammes of CO₂ per acre per year. So if your trip has generated 1587 Kgs of CO₂, then it’ll take one acre of trees one year to get rid of that much CO₂.

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