 Namaste Panditji...
 I am a
student from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow. I would like to know the
following:
Do you have a branch in
Lucknow?
As part of your awareness
campaigns, do you visit campuses? If so, I would like to explore the possibility of
organising some event at IIM-Lucknow for our students and other members of the IIM
community.
As a student in Lucknow, what contribution
can I make?
Tejaswini Tilak
IIM-Lucknow
Dear Tejaswiniji,
CSE does not have a branch in Lucknow. We however have a very active volunteer programme
where students from your institute can also participate, in case there is research work to
be done in Lucknow. Check out our website: www.cseindia.org
Yes, we do have campus awareness programmes for schools and colleges and can definitely
have one for the students in your institute, perhaps a one-day workshop in which we also
inform you about volunteering possibilities.
I am a regular subscriber of Gobar Times. I want to know more about "Kyoto
Protocol" and "Fuel injecting technology".
Sudhir Kumar Rana
Via internet
Dear Sudhirji,
Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement signed in 1997 to reduce emissions of
greenhouse gases (GHGs). It says that industrialised countries should reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions to a certain percentage below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
US is the largest emitter of GHGs but does not believe in the Kyoto Protocol and refuses
to ratify it. India, along with many European and other countries have done so.
 Now for your second question.
Vehicles run by burning fuel. This fuel is injected into a combustion chamber where it
burns with the help of air (oxygen). More efficient the mixing of air and fuel, more fuel
efficient is the vehicle and lower the emissions. Efficiency increases when the fuel is
injected from a number of points instead of just one (multi point fuel injection or MPFI),
as it breaks up the flow into droplets and increases the surface area, helping the
fuel to mix with air much better.
In the Times of India on June 5, world environment day, GAIL (Gas
Authority of India Limited) said that use of plastics should not be stopped and that
plastics helped save trees. Do you agree? B’cos I don’t think so.
Shruti, Varanasi
via email
Dear Shrutiji,
You are right. GAIL urged us to use plastics so that 20 million trees matured over 10
years would be saved from being used, specially for packaging purposes. I found it very,
very funny. According to the advertisement, plastic has a personal fight with paper.
But I have seen plastics replacing a lot of traditional material apart from paper. For
example, earthen surahis by plastic cups, coir ropes by plastic ones, earthern water pots
by plastic pots, and so on. Sudarshan Rodriguez of Reef Watch Marine Conservation says,
"Plastic entanglements are killing up to 40,000 seals a year resulting in a four to
six per cent drop in seal population. Animals like sea turtles and sea birds drown or
strangle from getting tangled and even die from eating discarded plastics and other
garbage. Balloons have been the cause of death of animals like sperm whales."
Dr. Asad Rahmani, Director, Bombay Natural History Society wonders how GAIL intends to
dispose off plastics without letting out poisonous dioxin.
Using less paper does not equal using more plastic, as GAIL would like us to think.
Replacing paper with a non-biodegradable material borne out of petrochemicals, stuffed
with toxic additives is certainly no way at all. In fact the plastic producers should
be the ones who also takes it back after use. The polluter must pay! |
