Save the World. Save the Environment

While the Industrial Revolution has transformed the world from the stone age to what we see today, it is important for the industries of the world to keep an eye on their practices and advancements.

Let us not have the Industrial Revolution take us back to the stone age!

Let's save the environment with safer industrial practices and standards. Let's make the world a safer place to live. Click here for a larger picture.

IBM Global Truck Study - Insighful One..

10,000 hybrid trucks would reduce diesel fuel use by 7.2 million gallons per year

In an attempt to help the world turn Greener and help Truck Manufacturers transform their businesses, this study revealed three stunning findings as external forces to the Truck industry -

1. Technology - 71% of respondents feel so. Telematics will play a key role here.
   
2. Globalization - 54% of the executives feel so. This once happened to the light vehicle manufacturing industry - It's going to be a tough battle!
   
3. Sustainability - 48% of respondents feel so. With environmental and human safety regulatory bodies working hard to to bring in safety norms, this is going to be an area for the Truck industry to seriously look at.

A total of 91 executives across 13 countries were interviewed to complete this study. More information can be sought here.

Run alongwith the Sun...around the city

Here is something I want to do - Start running when the sun rises, and stop running when the sun sets! The intention is to spread the awareness of energy conservation and the usage of renewable energy resources like the Sun.

I plan to do this sometime in October this year. Anyone wants to run with me? We can do a relay. Interested? Write to me NOW!

And for those of you who want to sponsor, please do write to me!

An Innovation that elongate Earth's lifespan!

Innovation Matters when it results in something that can elongate earth's lifespan. In other words, an innovation that positively contributes to the earth's deteriorating environment (the one caused by Global Warming), would be the one that matters the most.

In my earlier article The Global Thing, I'd suggested some pointers that will potentially help in alleviating the every deteriorating enviroment of earth due to Global Warming. While reading BusinessWeek, I came across an innovation by a Swiss engineer, who has developed a "Zero-Pollution Car"! A car that refuels at solar-power pumps! This is precisely the need of the hour.

Working in a skunkworks in Switzerland, researchers have developed the Hy-Light, a fuel-cell car that drives 80 mph and refuels at a solar-powered pump. Working for the tiremaker Michelin, Varenne, who heads a group of researchers, has developed a real car - not a concept car - that can run on hydrogen cells and refuel at solar-powered pumps.

The Hy-Light is a car built around a hydrogen fuel cell, meaning it generates electricity through a basic chemical reaction involving hydrogen and oxygen. The gases are stored in two specially developed tanks (the hydrogen is pressurized and its tank can withstand the direct shot of a Swiss Army rifle!).



The fuel cell used in the Hy-Light prototype was developed by the Paul Scherrer Institute, a leading Swiss research center. What sets it apart from most other automotive fuel cells (such as the one in the GM Sequel) is that it uses pure oxygen from a tank. Most fuel cells suck oxygen from the surrounding air, but that approach requires an onboard compressor and a system for controlling air quality—all of which lowers the efficiency of the power system. According to Varenne, the Hy-Light method increases the efficiency of the fuel cell by almost one-third. Michelin is now working on the next iteration of the fuel cell.

Electric motors have an advantage in that they can become energy generators. In the case of the Hy-Light, when the car slows down or the driver brakes, the kinetic energy produced by the vehicle's motion is captured and stored, to be released when the driver accelerates. The energy is stored in supercapacitors: an ingenious compromise between a battery (which can store a lot of energy but isn't good at delivering bursts of power) and traditional capacitors (which offer phenomenal power but little storage). Made by Maxwell in Switzerland, this technology increases the car's power for acceleration without increasing its energy consumption.

The Global Thing

I'm not going to talk about either Globalization or Global Enterprises, but about another Global "something" that will potentially result in a Global "nothing". Yes, I'm referring to Global Warming...

People have talked about this a million times in a million places, but nothing has ever happened...
Its been discussed in multiple forums, but there are still a group of scientists who dismiss saying that "There is nothing called Global Warming" or "Don't believe in this 'Global Warming' thing...its just a rumour, and its not proven"; Politicians dismiss this saying "We are working towards a solution!".

The United States and China are the top contributors to the Global Warming that is taking place, and they seem to least react to this alarming situation. The foremost reason being that these countries are using some of the most ancient technologies at factories and other establishments, that significantly contribute to the temperature rise.

India is no less! ....we will soon catch up with these big countries in contributing to the creation of a monster called "Global Warming". Recently, in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India, the chief of DMK celebrated his "50 years in politics" by lighting up the city...to such an extent that it Chennai looked like Las Vegas. This is the worst way one can destroy the earth!

I see it as a responsibility of every human being on planet earth to consciously change this deteriorating situation. Here are a few tips that we, as a world citizen should do to make earth a better place to live for our future (and possibly us) generation :

1. Buy vehicles that offer good mileage - This reduces the amount of waste fuel
2. But electronic appliances that consume lesser power
3. Dispose waste materials (not plastic!) dumping them in deep pits - Not burning them!
4. Avoid the use of Plastic bags
5. Plant a lot of trees around where we live - Plant and water one tree per month!
6. Save electricity - Use electrical appliances as required - Avoid using them when not really needed

These are some points that I can think of. Should you have more points, please email me.

Thanks....and look forward to your cooperation!

The Warm World #1 - An article on Global Warming

Standing at the edge of the flat world is the moment one would never want to see. But thats what we are marching towards. The scientists are certain that our climate is changing. The question that is on everyone's mine is - "What could steer us into this nightmare disaster - and when will this happen"

I've been reading a lot of articles on Global Warming ever since I heard that for the first time. We've seen a lot of movies with Global Warming as the theme - Water World, The Inconvenient Truth are some of them. I was speaking to Ram Viswanathan yesterday, when he recommended the latter movie, and said it was taken well. No doubt, this movie won the Best Documentary award at the Oscars.

The Green House Effect is the reason for the warming of the earth surface. It is the process in which the emission of infrared radiation by an atmosphere warms a planet's surface. A diagramatic representation of the Green House effect is as shown below..

Here is the link to an animation from UCSD (a part of the Earthguide project) that helps us to understand the notion of Global Warming and the Green House Effect.

Stepping on to the main subject of my article, its all about the increase in earth's temperature over the years. If the world's top climate scientists are right, by the end of this century, the earth will have warmed by about 3 degrees Celcius. This Global Warming is largely owed to human actions. But, the future temperatures prediction is largely uncertain. If we are lucky, the actual warming may be only 2 degrees Celcius. If not, it could be as high as 6 degree Celcius.

This uncertainity being due to a non-linearity in the climate system. It is understood that scientists have been observing ice cores which has enabled them to trace temperatures for over 750,000 years back from the present day. Such observations show that dramatic changes has happened rapidly from the ice-age to heat or back, possibly in just a few decades! In short, the changes in temperature observed was not something that happened gradually, but in huge jumps.

This is a worrying fact because it makes the climate system more and more difficult to predict. Instead of the predicted 3 degree Celcius change, it could lead to a sudden climatic disaster - even within the next few decades!

There are a lot of factors that act as a proof to the deteriorating climate. Will be discussing each one of them in my upcoming articles.