January - Know yourself before you make the NEW new year resolutions  

What’s your nature? The right job needs the right kind of person. Depending on the kind of person you are — your personality type — you would be best suited for a particular kind of work. Check out the GT personality

Adventurous
You are: Stoic, determined, patient, romantic, calm, curious, physically tough, unflappable.
You Like: Adventure, travelling, outdoors, forests, trekking, wild creatures, rain, climbing mountains, camping, being alone.
You are good at: Biology, outdoor activities, keeping calm under duress, running long distances, dealing with bad weather, looking at a wild elephant in the eye.
You can become a: Wildlife biologist Zoologist Botanist Naturalist Forester Zoo Curator Vetinary doctor Biology School Teacher Environment Educator Organic farmer Rural community worker.

Creative
You are: Creative, imaginative, artistic, a dreamer, romantic, sensitive, liberal, cooperative, cordial, clever, perceptive, humourous, intutive.
You like: Colours, good design, outdoors, communicating, creative writing, art and craft, watching films, nature walks, engaging with social issues, travelling, studying liberal arts.
You are good at: Art and craft, drawing, photography, creative writing, painting, dreaming, communicating ideas.
You can become a: Filmaker, copy writer, graphic designer, artist, sculptor with a social concern who does development communication projects or works for NGOs. School Teacher Community worker Wildlife artist/illustrator Environment Educator Communication expert.

Inquirer:
You are: Systematic, logical, practical, organised, inquisitive, thorough, outward-looking, rational, studious, methodical, intutive.
You like: Building and fixing things, finding reasons behind phenomena, figuring out how things work, learning about new technologies, doing math, gadgets.
You are good at: Physics, mathematics, chemistry, fixing and repairing the plumbing or electrical gadgets at home, engineering fantastic structures with lego.
You can become a: Environmental engineer Bio-engineer Chemical engineer Meteorlogist Climatologist Toxicologist Water expert Appropriate technologist.

Communicator:
You are: Confident, intelligent, creative, gregarious, talkative, opinionated, alert, energetic, purposeful, forthright, sociable, eloquent.
You like: Reading, writing, thinking about the state of the world, politics, cultures, arguing, travelling to remote places, meeting people, stating your opinion, intellectual pursuits, current affairs, cities.
You are good at: Literature, history, languages, communicating, debating, oratory, demanding your rights, sensitive to injustice, interacting with all kinds of people.
You can become a: Documentary filmaker Environmental lawyer Newspaper/Magazine Journalist Urban researcher
Ecological Historian Development Consultant Communications Expert Government Official.

Idealist:
You are: Hopeful, selfless, romantic, radical, frank, political, rebellious, socialist, freethinking, restive, passionate, visionary, helpful.
You like: To help others, to express your concern at injustice, social and cultural histories, understanding human psychology, a sense of community, people with social concerns.
You are good at: Dealing with all kinds of people, working in a team, demanding your rights, living frugally, making the most of any given situation, strategising, writing letters, taking criticism, doing daring acts.
You can become a: Social Worker Environmental Activist NGO representative Rural Development Expert Public Interest Advocate Lawyer Communications Expert.

February - It is not a leap year. But we can leap frog. To new technologies.

Solar Energy
Currently, Bashonti and her counterparts in India and elsewhere appear to be the front runners on the sun route. They are actually translating sunshine into better incomes, healthier life, and lesser carbon emissions. A ray-volution!

Wind Energy
To some, the glistening blades of windmills on the horizon are an eyesore; to others, they are a beautiful alternative to conventional power plants. We say,for future energy needs, the answer
is blowing in the wind.

March - Holi hues and you

 Colour 

A rainbow of plants
Vegetable dyes. The most outstanding feature of the traditional textile business. The weaver-dyers mastered the art of making colours out of herbs and plants. They explored local forests for raw materials.

Jackfruit wood was used for a bright yellow.

Kala siris bark yielded brown and pea flowers produced green and blue.

Chayaveru gave Kalam kari textiles that pinkish red.

Harda was used for varying shades of yellow.

Haldi/turmeric was the brightest of all naturally occurring yellow dyes. Curcumin, a natural pigment, was extra cted by soaking haldi root in acidic solution.

Orange came from the flowers of gulmohur and safed kikar leaves yielded black.

Safflower yellow was also a very popular colour. Safflower contains a water-soluble yellow dye and an orange- red dye, which is soluble in an alkaline solution. Artisans colleced fresh flowers before they faded on the plant and the corollas were removed.

The yellow dye was extracted by washing the corollas for three to four days in acidified water, which dissolved the colour pigment. But the dyes that were most in demand were indigo and madder. How were these colours extracted?

Indigo Blue: The indigo plant was soaked in a vat or a barrel, which was buried underground to protect it from sunlight. The product was a pale yellow solution. This was paddled continuously for two to three days till a blue substance emerged on the top. This was then strained out and blue cakes were made out of it.

Madder Red: Red dye was obtained from the madder plant. Its roots were washed and dried and ground into powder. This was then mixed with gum or water to obtain a deep red hue.

In the 19th century, Turkey red, a brilliant crimson shade, was extre - mely popular. In fact, all madderdyed fabrics did brisk business.

It is believed that the term "blue collar" worker is derived from indigo workers, who wore the cheap blue cloth.

April - Summer Job   

Recycling of Paper
Recycling of paper is something which most Indian households practise by selling old newspapers to the raddiwalla. But you can do more — reuse and recycle — like making rough pads from unused sheets of old notebooks, writing and photocopying on both sides of the paper, reusing used envelopes by folding them inside-out. If you enjoy making things, here is a recipe by which you can make your own recycled paper!

You will need

• Two-and-a-half single news paper sheets
• A whole section of a newspaper
• Blender/mixie
• Big square pan at least 3 inches deep
• Piece of window-screen — wire mesh (jali) or sieve that fits inside the pan.
• Measuring cup.
• Wooden plank the size of the newspaper’s front page.
• Five cups of water

What to do

1. Tear the two-and-a-half pages of newspaper into tiny pieces.
2. Drop them into the blender/ mixie.
3. Pour five cups of water into the blender, cover it and churn the mixture until it becomes pulpy.
4. Pour about 1 inch of water into the pan.
5. Pour the blended paper pulp into the measuring cup.
6. Put the screen into the pan.
7. Pour one cup of paper pulp over the screen and spread it evenly in the water with your fingers until it turns mushy.
8. Lift the screen and let the water drain.
9. Open the newspaper section into the middle.
10. Place the screen with the pulp into the newspaper and close the newspaper
11. Carefully flip over the newspaper section so that the screen is on top of the pulp. This step is very important.
12. Place the wooden plank on top of the newspaper and press to squeeze out excess water.
13. Open the newspaper and take out the screen
14. Leave the newspaper open and let the pulp dry for at least 24 hours.
15. Check the next day if the pulp has dried and carefully peel it off the newspaper.

Now you have your very own homemade recycled paper ready.
(Courtesy : DEAN programme, Development Alternatives)

July - Are you a 'rain saver'?   

Water harvesting - how you do it

There are 3 things to do when harvesting rain.

1. Mark out an area that will be the catchment where you'll 'catch' rainwater. Keep it as clean as possible.
      
2. Make sure the water flows underground as soon as
   possible so that it doesn't evaporate.
       
3. Screen out the junk before you collect it. These simple drawings show how even a multi-storeyed building can catch rain and store it, as well as put water back into the water-table. Please remember that this water should not be used for drinking and cooking without proper treatment.

August: People of the nation vs animal of the nation   

 Leaving locals out... a no-win strategy
The question that is really worrying the tiger-watchers is how did the villains get into these protected zones? Especially when Project Tiger is built on the Western concept of the ‘core-buffer’ strategy — which means that the entire forest area in a Project Tiger location was cleared of ‘human interference’! This included the local communities which had, for generations, used this area for earning their livelihood.

The answer lies in the strategy itself! In India, unlike in most western countries — forests cannot be separated from human beings, because they depend on each other for survival. Do you know that thanks to this ‘exclusion’ drive of the government more than four million people living in and around the fringes of the protected areas have lost their right to enter the forests? And to collect mahua flowers, sal and tendu leaves, resin, lac, and fuel wood —and a hundred other things that provided their daily meal?

So the villagers who used to rush to douse a forest fire, and beat up outsiders who dared to hunt down wild animals, cannot care less now. Worse still, many have grown actively hostile to the tigers, who they hold directly responsible for their own sorry state. Instead of driving them out, the local people who have intimate, invaluable knowledge of the jungle, actually lead the poachers into a tiger’s den. At least, they are ensured a reward for this!

By leaving the locals out, the government has created deadly enemies out of those who once were the tiger’s most valiant allies! What a pity, and what a waste….

September: How did environment get into your text book?  

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.

October: EE? What's 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.

November: This Diwali gift a tyre 

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

December: Presenting your emission itinerary   

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:

Walking

Cycling

2-wheelers

3-wheelers

Diesel Cars

Petrol Cars

Mini Buses

Large Buses

Diesel Train

Electric Train

Planes

Km

_______ X

_______ X

_______ X

_______ X

_______ X

_______ X

_______ X

_______ X

_______ X

_______ X

_______ X

Emissions/km*

3 gms

3 gms

28 gms divided by no. of passengers

78 gms divided by no. of passengers

208 gms divided by no. of passengers

223 gms divided by no. of passengers

300 gms divided by no. of passengers

515 gms divided by no. of passengers

50 gms (Average per passenger figure)

29 gms (Average per passenger figure)

180 gms (Average per passenger figure)

Total Emissions

= _____________

= _____________

= _____________

= _____________

= _____________

= _____________

= _____________

= _____________

= _____________

= _____________

= _____________