Everything you wanted to know about Room Heaters..

Everything you wanted to know about Room Heaters : Blowers, Halogen Heater and Oil Radiators :

• Fan heaters use up oxygen and humidity. They are also the most power hungry. 
• Infrared heaters – which is what halogen heaters are, are the most power efficient, and have no impact on oxygen or humidity. Their heat is absorbed by objects in their line of sight – the human body, carpets and bedding etc. 
• Oil heaters cost more to run, are slow to heat up, and waste heat by continuing to warm a space after they are switched off as oil takes time to cool down. The heat generated by oil heaters is prone to rising up towards the ceiling further causing heat wastage. 
• Ofcourse oil heaters are the solution for people who find the light from infrared heaters annoying. 
• Only fan heaters would affect asthmatics as they distribute the air around the room, not infrared or oil heaters. 

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Oil-filled heaters are more commonly known as radiators. Although they are filled with oil, they are still powered by electricity. Electric current heats up the oil inside the heater to emit warmth through radiant heating.

A halogen heater is basically a type of infrared heater, but smaller in size compared to other infrared heaters. An infrared heater emits heat in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Halogens are a combination of nonmetallic elements which can heat up hotter than other heat conductors, on a lower level of energy. Halogen heaters heat faster, which further reduces energy consumption. This is because Halogen elements require a lesser amount of energy compared to other heat conductors like electric coils.

Rather than heating the air, as with convection from a fan heater, in radiant heating the infrared waves are absorbed by solid elements in the room, like your skin, pajamas, and bedding. These types of heaters offer an added benefit for those with sensitive skin. Convection heaters heat up the air in a room, drying out both the air and the skin of everyone in it.

Infrared heaters radiate infra-red light which strikes objects and heats them directly, heating the intervening air less. Oil filled radiators, work by heating the air in the room by natural convection.

In a study in Malta, infrared heating panels were found to heat a room faster than an oil-filled electric resistance convection heater. The study also found that walls retain heat with infrared heating, which allows them to remain dry, ensuring that mould has a 0% chance of spreading.

If you are heating a space which has ventilation, then a fan heater or radiator would be less useful than an infrared heater. Much of the heat you generate via convection will escape with the air in and out of the room.

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This net page speaks of the many health benefits of infrared heating :

Unlike convection heating, Infrared heating has clear health benefits for the human body. While convectional heaters produce the heat that warms up the air and surfaces, Infrared heaters heat objects and people directly. It creates a movement of heat in the body through optimum blood circulation and this way produces a sense of deep warmth.

Furthermore, Infrared heating is beneficial for people with health conditions such as asthma or bronchial ailments. Its unique heating method does not create air currents that increase dust circulation in the room. It also prevents unwanted humidity that causes mould to grow.

Fresh air is also essential for a healthy living environment. However ventilation comes at a price of creating heat loss, especially if it is combined with convectional heating system. Opposite to traditional heaters, Infrared heating products heat the objects and people, while convectional heating works on much higher temperatures and relies on hot air movement. It means that heat loss becomes greater, as hot air travels out through the vents and opened windows. Meanwhile, Infrared heating does not create air currents and in this way significantly reduces heat loss.

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The experience of this netizen with infrared heaters is useful for situations when you need instant warmth like in a bathroom during very cold months. He also points to the great economy in using such heaters, and the fact that they can last decades :

From personal experience, I always feel warmer in front of a radiative heater, and they certainly produce less noise pollution than fan heaters, so are more pleasant to be around. Both are more controllable than oil filled radiators, so you get heat out of them sooner after you need it and waste little heat when you no longer need it.

I find infra-red heaters particularly useful in bathrooms. Heaters like the following are (or were) common in UK bathrooms:



The way to use a heater like this is on demand.

I turn on my bathroom infrared wall heater before I get in the shower so it is up to full heat by the time I get out of the shower. The infra-red heat keeps me nice and warm in those crucial moments between stopping the hot water flow and towelling-off the rapidly cooling water. I then turn off the heater as I leave the bathroom, having wasted little electricity unnecessarily heating it.

I have never understood why people replace infrared wall heaters in bathrooms with fan heaters. I find that they can never warm up the air in the bathroom enough during the time you are showering so that you don't feel cold during towelling. I know that infrared heaters are seen as old technology, but they work very well, are as 'efficient' as every other electric heater and are far more reliable than fan heaters. I have never had a fan heater last for more than a decade, but the infrared heater in my bathroom has been working for over four.

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Keeping the heater on all night is not good for the quality of your sleep. For restful sleep, our bodies actually require the temperature to be cooler. A decrease in temperature at night signals to our brain that it’s time to sleep, while our brain perceives heat as a time for energy and alertness (like when your body heats up from exercise).

Turn your heater on before bed, and it can warm your room up enough for you to fall asleep comfortably. As the hot air dissipates, the resulting coolness will help your body stay asleep.

Runaway warming turning earth into a dead planet, can happen..

Earth heading towards irreversible 'hothouse' state: Study

Our planet is at the risk of entering an irreversible 'hothouse' condition - where the global temperatures will rise by four to five degrees and sea levels may surge by up to 60 metres higher than today - even if targets under the Paris climate deal are met, a study warns.

According to the researchers, keeping global warming to within 1.5-2 degrees Celsius may be more difficult than previously assessed. Human emissions of greenhouse gas are not the sole determinant of temperature on Earth. The study suggests that human-induced global warming of two degrees Celsius may trigger other Earth system processes, often called "feedbacks," that can drive further warming - even if we stop emitting greenhouse gases.

The study considers ten natural feedback processes, some of which are "tipping elements" that lead to abrupt change if a critical threshold is crossed. These feedbacks could turn from being a "friend" that stores carbon to a "foe" that emits it uncontrollably in a warmer world.

These feedbacks include permafrost thaw, loss of methane hydrates from the ocean floor, weakening land and ocean carbon sinks, increasing bacterial respiration in the oceans, Amazon rainforest dieback, boreal forest dieback, reduction of northern hemisphere snow cover, loss of Arctic summer sea ice, and reduction of Antarctic sea ice and polar ice sheets.

These tipping elements can potentially act like a row of dominoes. Once one is pushed over, it pushes Earth towards another. It may be very difficult or impossible to stop the whole row of dominoes from tumbling over.

Maximising the chances of avoiding a "Hothouse Earth" requires not only reduction of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions but also enhancement and creation of new biological carbon stores through improved forest, agricultural and soil management, and technologies that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it underground, researchers said.

Scientists noted that the Earth has never in its history had a quasi-stable state that is around 2C warmer than the preindustrial and suggest that there is substantial risk that the system, itself, will 'want' to continue warming because of other processes—even if we stop emissions. Earth will itself become a primary source of greenhouse gas emissions. It can come to a point where nothing humans can do will help mitigate the changes. They would then be unable to live near the equator, and would be forced to migrate to the poles to survive.

Even if the world ceased all carbon emissions by 2050, that’s still not enough to stop the feedback loop from cascading into the nightmare scenario outlined in the study. “If the 2 degree threshold is crossed, the resulting trajectory would pose severe risks for health, economies, political stability, and ultimately, the habitability of the planet for humans.

Today, we emit 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year from burning fossil fuels. But roughly half of those emissions are taken up and stored by the oceans, trees and soil. Scientists fear that if we reach a certain temperature threshold, some of these natural processes will reverse and the planet will become a self-heater. That means, forests, soil and water will release the carbon they're storing.

Nature has feedback mechanisms, such as a rainforest's capability to create its own humidity and rain, that keep ecosystems in equilibrium. If the rainforest is subject to increasing warming and deforestation, however, the mechanism slowly gets weaker.

When it crosses a tipping point, the feedback mechanism changes direction, and the rainforest morphs from a moisture engine into a self-dryer. Eventually, the rainforest turns into a savanna and, in the process, releases carbon. This, in turn, can become part of a cascade that would influence other processes around the world.

While the biggest impacts of all this may not be felt for hundreds of years, once it starts, we won't really be able to do anything about it - so experts say it's important we take steps now to stop the 'Hothouse Earth' situation from happening.

The IPCC said in one of the reports because of model and other uncertainties we cannot preclude the possibility that the enhanced greenhouse effect has contributed substantially to past wanning - not even that the greenhouse gas induced warming has been greater than that observed, but is partly offset by natural variability and/or other anthropogenic effects.

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Planetary geologists think there is good evidence that Venus was the victim of a runaway greenhouse effect which turned the planet into the boiling hell we see today.

But that raises an important question: is it possible that we could trigger a runaway greenhouse effect ourselves by adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere?A similar catastrophe is almost certain to strike Earth in about 2 billion years, as the Sun increases in luminosity.

According to the climate scientist James Hansen, that’s a distinct possibility. A couple of years ago, he wrote: “If we burn all reserves of oil, gas, and coal, there’s a substantial chance that we will initiate the runaway greenhouse. If we also burn the tar sands and tar shale, I believe the Venus syndrome is a dead certainty.”

The fear is that adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is warming the planet and increasing evaporation from the oceans. The extra water vapour, itself a greenhouse gas, causes more warming and more evaporation in a vicious cycle of temperature increases that eventually result in the ocean boiling away.

The heroic story of how one New York hospital coped with Superstorm Sandy..

Superstorm Sandy made landfall on the evening of October 29, 2012. The storm caused severe flooding, power outages, and billions of dollars in damage to New York City and surrounding areas. The storm forced the evacuation and closure of Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States and the primary teaching site for the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine.

In its long history, Bellevue has survived natural disasters as well as blackouts, plane crashes, terrorist attacks, the height of the AIDS epidemic, and the associated resurgence of TB in the city. Before Superstorm Sandy, none of these events forced the evacuation or closure of the hospital. 

In this context, one can imagine the significance of a storm that forced the hospital to evacuate and remain closed for several weeks. Although the size and strength of Superstorm Sandy were unprecedented, the outcome could have been much worse if the preparedness of the staff at Bellevue had not been tested and refined during Hurricane Irene, 1 year before Sandy.

Hurricane Irene approached New York in August 2011. Aside from the winds and rainfall, the main concern was the storm surge that could potentially flood parts of the city. Before the storm arrived, Manhattan was declared in a state of emergency, and mandatory evacuation of low-lying areas was ordered. Although the city’s hospitals were well prepared to accommodate victims of external disasters, this situation forced them to evaluate their readiness for flooding and possible loss of power. 

Bellevue’s internal examination revealed that its power supply was its most significant vulnerability. If the hospital was to lose main power, it would depend on backup generator power. The generators, located on the 13th floor, would not be directly affected by flooding. However, the generator’s fuel pumps, located in the basement, would fail if submerged. This would result in a total loss of power to the hospital.

To address the vulnerability of the backup generator fuel pumps, they were encased within protective structures and sealed by submarine-style doors. This intervention would, it was thought, allow the pumps to continue functioning even if the basement flooded.

Sandy was expected to bring a storm surge of approximately 11 ft. As a reference, flooding would begin when the storm surge reached 6.7 ft.

In preparation for the storm and the planned suspension of public transit, many staff members, including ICU leadership, arrived before the storm. They came prepared to stay for the duration of the event.

At approximately 9:00 p.m., there was a brief loss of power, followed by a return of emergency lights and outlets. The hospital was now operating on generator power. Millions of gallons of water were rushing into the basement, which had been dry less than 2 hours earlier. 

Although some elevator service should have remained while on generator power, water could be heard rushing into the elevator pits and all elevator service was lost.

Cell phone service was inconsistent, but landline telephones remained functional at that time. 

At 10:00 p.m., the mechanisms protecting the generator fuel pumps failed. The pumps were now submerged, and all power would be lost when the generators ran out of fuel. This was likely to occur in the next two hours. 

High-tide arrived at 10:30 p.m. and brought a massive 14-ft storm surge, well above the predicted 11-ft surge. The view from any window in the ICU revealed that the hospital was completely surrounded by water. 

While we were working under the assumption that generator power would be lost, National Guard troops and hundreds of hospital staff members, ranging from hospital administrators to custodial workers, began carrying fuel from the ground up to the generators. They were able to form a continuous brigade, standing shoulder-to-shoulder up 13 flights of stairs. They passed the drums of fuel up to one final person, who carried the drum up a small ladder and poured it into the generator fuel tank. In the end, this brigade worked through the night and the following day and managed to supply the generators with enough fuel to last approximately 72 hours. This tremendous effort prevented the hospital from being thrown into total darkness, and protected countless patients from harm.

Soon after avoiding a power blackout, we suffered a communication blackout. Cellular networks were either damaged by the storm or overwhelmed with traffic. Our medical center e-mail server had gone offline. Hospital landlines, including the emergency phones, had been damaged by the flooding. Two-way radios had been distributed for emergency communications, but there were too few to handle such a massive coordinated effort. Essential information could be exchanged between the ICU and the command center only by sending messengers up and down 10 flights of stairs.

At midnight, because of the high likelihood that wall oxygen would be lost, National Guard troops began carrying H-cylinders of oxygen, each weighing 180 pounds, from the ground floor to the 10th floor. Many of these cylinders were carried up the stairs by teams of two National Guardsmen, providing a short-term supply of oxygen if central oxygen were to fail.

At daybreak on Tuesday, October 30, the view from the ICU confirmed that the rain had lightened, the wind had died down, and the floodwaters had begun to recede. Although it became easier to see what the storm had left behind, it became more difficult to see what lay ahead. Main power could not be restored in the near future and the generators were running on a limited supply of fuel. Without a reliable power source, we could not care for our patients indefinitely. Evacuation would be necessary. This enormous project would have to be achieved while conditions within the hospital were rapidly deteriorating. Vacuum power had been lost and patients were being suctioned via syringes attached to suction catheters. Food and water supplies were running low. Trash began filling the hallways. All 1,000 toilets could only be described as unusable, and staff members were forced to use bedside commodes in empty patient rooms. Many members of the hospital staff, despite these conditions and their concerns about their own homes and loved ones, chose to stay and assist with the evacuation.

The first patients to be evacuated, those on mechanical ventilators or requiring dialysis, were prepared for transport and carried downstairs by anyone willing to help. This included physicians, nurses, medical students, and ambulance crews. Although inspiring, the efforts were inefficient. Some patients, weighing as much as 185 kg, could only be carried by two teams of National Guard troops working in shifts and would require hours to successfully evacuate.

By midday on Wednesday, October 31, the conditions outside had greatly improved. News of our situation had spread, and ambulance crews poured in from all over the country. They represented Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, and many others. At the same time, more than 300 additional National Guard troops arrived to assist in the evacuation. With this additional help, the pace of the evacuation changed. The huge number of ambulance crews was able to mass in the lobby, while the National Guardsmen would carry the patients down the stairs. By 9:00 p.m., up to 30 patients were being evacuated each hour. The last ICU patient was transported out at 10:00 p.m. (Figure 8). The ICU staff, many of whom had been working for nearly 96 straight hours, erupted in applause, hugs, and tears of joy.

Evacuated patients were sent to receiving facilities with as much information as possible. As many computers were not reliably functioning during the evacuation, written notes were sent with some patients. Some of the patients with resistant TB were receiving second- and third-line medications. To avoid any interruptions in therapy, supplies of these medications were sent with the patients. In the hours following the evacuation, we learned that some patients arrived at receiving facilities without accompanying records and staff spent many hours ensuring that the accepting facilities had received adequate information to safely care for the evacuated patients. In the end, more than 700 patients were evacuated within 48 hours and no deaths or serious adverse events were reported. 

Some things could have been done better. Although the vulnerability of the hospital’s power supply was recognized, the multiple other systems affected by flooding of the basement were not fully appreciated by ICU leadership. As such, we were not optimally prepared for interrupted communications, a limited water supply, a loss of central vacuum, or the loss of all elevator service. 

Acknowledgement : Fully excerpted from https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1513/AnnalsATS.201212-116OT

Indian Railways are in loss of 30,000 crores a year..

The flawed and anomalous fare and freight structure has brought about serious distortions in the country’s transport domain.

While Indian Railways suffers huge losses (over ₹30,000 crore annually) in its passenger business, it has allowed competing modes to wean away large volumes of freight in bulk as well as non-bulk segments, causing much damage to the economy and environment.

In his Railway budget speech for 2015-16, Minister Suresh Prabhu pleaded for “a regulation mechanism independent of the service provider” for “orderly development of infrastructure services, enabling competition and protection of customer interests”.

Instead of “only a tariff regulator” in tune with the recommendation of the National Transport Development Policy Committee 2014, also reiterated by the Bibek Debroy panel 2015, he drew up a blueprint for the expanded mechanism “which will be entrusted with making regulations, setting performance standards and determining tariffs. It will also adjudicate on disputes among licensees/private partners and the ministry, subject to review in appeal”.

That was the genesis of the NDA-led Cabinet decision in 2017, for the formation of the Rail Development Authority of India (RDA).

The RDA’s recommendatory role with regard to tariffs has elicited apprehensions that political considerations may still prevail over attempts to rationalise rail tariffs. Although its role is only advisory, the process is expected to free the railways from politicisation of its businesses. “In cases where the Government does not accept the suggested tariffs, IR would need to be compensated either through allocations in budgetary support or other mechanisms,” explained a senior official.

Set up as an independent body to be formed through an executive order of the Government and be subsequently strengthened by legislation, the RDA with an initial corpus of ₹50 crore will have a five-year term and will be empowered to engage experts.

The RDA is expected to enable the sector to move towards market-determined tariffs, full recovery of costs and reduction of cross-subsidies.

The Poor Quality of Railway Stations in Mumbai..

Now for a not so flattering side.. Railway contracts for electrification awarded between 2013-14 and 2015-16 were, on average, delayed by nearly three years, leading to a cost overrun of Rs 638 crore.

Cleanliness and hygiene were not being maintained at catering units at stations and in trains.

After the Elphinstone Road incident, railway authorities finally shifted their focus on improving station infrastructure – building new foot over-bridges, widening existing ones, etc. Until then, station development meant beautifying ticket booking offices, providing water coolers, installing ticket vending machines, providing ATMs, and improving waiting rooms, among other such changes. And these revamps, too, were done only at major stations, while smaller stations would be ignored. After the stampede, the Railways not only began to upgrade infrastructure that would make commuting easier for citizens, but also removed illegal hawkers, stalls and other such obstructions that were hindering the movement of commuters.

Unfortunately, the railway administration has always acted only after outrage over mishaps. The exercise to increase heights of platforms was undertaken after the Monica More incident, in which the 16-year-old lost her hands after she fell in the gap between the train and platform at Ghatkopar station. Similar is the case with makeover of the Elphinstone Road and Parel stations. “Railways has not improved circulating area of any station where passengers facing maximum troubles. It is putting solar lamps and LEDs, beautifying booking windows or providing ATVMs. It is not doing what the passengers want, but only things that will bring revenue or savings,” said Shailesh Goyal, passenger activist.

At several stations, the public toilets are unusable. Also trash generated at stations is thrown at the end of the platforms and burnt there.

In the past few years, railway authorities have begun installing escalators and lifts at railway stations, but activists says these are not properly maintained. “There are instances when the escalators stop midway and commuters have to walk. The elevators are in bad condition and not maintained at most stations. We have been raising the issue with railway authorities, but in vain,” said Subhash Gupta, president, Rail Yatri Parishad.

The Railways have announced plans to develop some of the suburban stations, but they are yet to materialise. There was a plan to develop CSMT and Thane stations as ‘World Class stations’, having budget hotels, commercial complexes, but even after 10 years, nothing concrete has happened.

The Metro stations on the Ghatkopar-Andheri-Versova line could act as a benchmark for the Railways. These stations are clean, have proper signage, controlled access system, ticketing facilities, good passenger addressing system, food and beverage stalls and other commercial stalls along with a lot of circulating area.

Even Cidco has developed stations in Navi Mumbai in the 1990s that are ideal for commuters. The stations are spacious, have ample parking space outside, there are proper entry and exit points and the stations are integrated with other modes of transport – with bus, auto and taxi stands on the station premises.

Passenger activists feel the Railways can learn from the Metro and Cidco authorities to make commute better for Mumbaiites too.

Some Good Developments in the Railways..

The NDA government spent the past four years on long-term infrastructure building in railways. Laying of second, third, and fourth lines on busy routes to enhance network capacity, and bringing in Northeast connectivity through broad-gauge conversion have been priorities. Electrifying routes also got a major thrust. For all this, the Railways for the first time opened itself up to borrowing funds from outside.

So, if during UPA-II, the Railways could spend Rs 2.3 lakh crore on capital works, the present government has so far spent Rs 3.82 lakh crore on infrastructure creation. If 7,600 km of broad gauge lines were opened for use in UPA-II, around 9,500 km has been commissioned between 2014 and March 2018. Replacement and maintenance of old tracks — even if at the cost of efficient mobility — has taken a front seat.

After a string of accidents and heavy casualties since 2014, the year 2017-18 saw the number of accidents falling to 73 — the least ever. The Finance Ministry, too, loosened its purse strings. The Gross Budgetary Support for the current year is Rs 55,000 crore. This is also because the NDA government has done away with a separate Railway Budget.

Customer service has undergone a major change. The Railways has built a robust customer-interface ecosystem across social media platforms. Real-time complaint redressal is now just a message away. Instances of people getting diapers or medical help delivered on moving trains with just a tweet are part of this success story. Since Goyal and Ashwani Lohani, Chairman of Railway Board, took over eight months ago, several priority projects have shaken off bureaucratic sloth. One of them is the Railway University project. After three years of being on files, it will finally start in August.

The induction of modern, engine-less train sets, the first proper rolling stock upgrade since the LHB coaches in India, will happen later this year. Total conversion to LHB from conventional coaches has picked up pace. More stations are getting free WiFi coverage. Modi has asked Railways to review its 100 per cent electrification process, and the yearly target is being actively pursued.

We need to Redress the Decades of Neglect of the Indian Railways..

In end 2017, the chairman of the Railway Board, Ashwani Lohani said that he accumulated deficit in upkeep of infrastructure due to "decades of neglect" is taking a toll on the Indian Railways.

While the investigation into a nov 2016 train derailment was still underway, railway experts said it was most likely caused by tracks that had deteriorated over the years.

Most railway tracks are checked every day with ultrasonic detectors that can spot changes in track conditions. This is followed by visual inspections, railway managers say.

But with many jobs vacant, some lapses in checks should be expected, they warned.

For years, it’s been clear that Indian Railways are badly hobbled by funding shortfalls, aging tracks, outdated signaling, and communications systems and a traffic volume that has pushed these systems beyond their limits. Successive governments have starved Indian Railways of funds, denying it key resources to upgrade critical equipment and pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy.

USD $3-4 billion was needed simply to replace old equipment. Instead, the government approved a mere $485 million in the 2016 budget. Therefore, the much-required replacement of old assets is postponed — knowingly compromising safety.

‘‘When we can barely manage train speeds as they are at present, such talk of building bullet trains on which billions of dollars are to be spent is illogical,’’ said Basudev Acharya, a former lawmaker who headed a parliamentary committee overseeing railway operations.

‘‘What needs immediate fixing is to ensure adequate funds for maintenance of the existing stock and, most importantly, filling up vacancies among safety workers,’’ Acharya said.

Railway workers say decades of funding crunches have taken their toll. Passenger trains in India run at slow speeds, averaging around 30 miles an hour, while freight trains are even slower, averaging half that.

‘‘Even at such low speeds we have a high number of deaths in railway accidents. Can you imagine the toll if the speed were any faster?’’ said N.B. Dutta, a railway locomotive driver and president of the All India Loco Running Staff Association, a train operators’ trade union.

Successive governments have failed to implement the recommendations of state-appointed committees on rail safety.

In Jan 2019, there was 60 per cent vacancy in staff for inspection and maintenance of railway bridges. There existed no separate protocol for inspection and maintenance of bridges which were 100 years old or older. The Standing Committee on Railways felt this is a grave lapse on the part of the ministry in ensuring safety of rail traffic.

The parliamentary panel said against the total bridge population of 1.4 lakh, the railways has approved the rehabilitation of a minuscule number of bridges, which was "not proportionate to the number of bridges requiring upgradation".

India's success story with acquaculture..

Aquaculture now dominates the fish people eat, providing 53 per cent of the total recorded by the FAO in 2016, the latest data available (excluding fish not used as human food). Farming also dominates the fishing economy, providing two-thirds of the $362 billion earned from sales at the dockside.

Pothumarru in Andhra Pradesh is credited with spawning commercial aquaculture in the state in 1980. Today, acquaculture contributes more than half to india's fish production.

A farmer could earn around Rs 1 lakh from an acre annually, growing two batches of carps, says B Seshagiri, chief scientist at the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture in Vijayawada.

A whole industry has cropped up around aquaculture. The busiest road in that village is lined with shops selling a range of aquaculture-related products like probiotic pellets and oxygen generators.

However, there are limitations to growth in aquaculture as it is practised in most parts of the country. So the National Fisheries Development Board, set up in 2006, is pushing the culture of growing fish in cages and pens in reservoirs and lakes.

Following Andhra’s success in commercial aquaculture, other states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha are promoting it as an alternative to crops.

Seshagiri believes farming Indian major carps is stable and sustainable. However, We don’t have the infrastructure to monitor the aquaculture industry.

We are making the fish in our oceans handicapped...

Fish are losing their sense of smell as rising carbon emissions turn the water they live in, to acid.

A study in 2018 July has revealed that as levels of carbonic acid in seawater rise, sea bass lose up to half their smelling capacity. Surges in atmospheric carbon dioxide increase ocean acidity as the gas dissolves in water. 

The findings are significant as these fish rely on smell to do everything from finding food and potential mates to detecting predators in their vicinity.

The scientists compared the behaviour of young sea bass at current carbon dioxide levels to the levels expected at the end of the century, when oceans are predicted to contain up to two and a half times the levels of the gas seen today.They noticed big changes in the behaviour of the fish inhabiting the most acidic water. Not only did the bass swim less, they appeared not to notice the presence of predators.

Previous research has indicated that besides directly affecting fish noses, carbon dioxide harms fish nervous systems and disrupts the processing of information in their brains.

Having to cope with two different problems caused by carbon dioxide, rather than just one, may reduce the ability of fish to adapt.

Other studies have suggested that as seawater becomes more acidic, it will erode the hearing ability of fish and make them unable to hear approaching predators.

India's Fishing Sector is in Trouble..

Seafood exports from India are passing through a tough phase due to dwindling catch from capture fisheries and tougher quality inspection in importing countries. 

India is the second largest fish producer in the world after China and accounts for nearly 6 % of global fish production. According to an article in the Financial Express, the sector supports 4 million fishermen.

However, Greenpeace said in 2015 that fishing supports the livelihood of over 15 million people

Marine products are India’s single largest export, amounting to over RS 45,000 crore in 2017-18. 

Higher sea surface temperature, lack of food in the sea near the coast and over-exploitation of the sardine population is said to be the reason for the decline in sardine landing, sources added.  

Warmer water is less ideal for the growth of phytoplankton, the basis for the marine food chain. A decrease in the amount of phytoplankton can ripple through the entire food chain, so fish stocks are moving elsewhere in search of food. In addition, warmer water contains less dissolved oxygen. And as oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the water becomes more acidic.

Scientists have found that warming waters have driven sardine further north and mackerel from the surface to the sub-surface, while breams have shifted their breeding to the
cooler months. Depleted fish stocks also cause local fishermen to travel further in search of fish.

Studies have said the fishing pressure on the stock in near shore waters has gone up considerably and signs of over exploitation of species is becoming increasingly evident. Further increase in effort in the coastal sector would be detrimental to sustainable yield. Around 90 per cent of India’s fish resources are at or above maximum sustainable levels of exploitation, Greenpeace said in 2015.

Greenpeace's report said that the overexploitation is an outcome of destructive fishing techniques and overfishing resulting from bottom trawling and government subsidies for mechanised fishing.

Severe storms like Ockhi (in Nov 2017) are predicted to hit the region more frequently in the years to come. Human-caused warming linked to greenhouse gases is the likely culprit. These storms are sustained by energy from warm ocean water. And the Arabian Sea is warming. In fact, it’s warming 0.5 degrees Celsius every decade, faster than the global average rate of 0.11 degrees Celsius.

Studies say it is essential to develop value added products for Indian domestic and export markets.

The FAO reports that 35 per cent of global catches are wasted. About a quarter of these losses are by-catch or discards, mostly from trawlers. But most are due to a lack of knowledge or equipment, such as refrigeration or ice-makers, needed to keep fish fresh.

Life Forms are Moving Polewards..

“The velocity of climate change,” is the speed at which zones of suitable climate move across the landscape.

We depend upon natural ecosystems to purify our air, soils, and water, to control pests, to limit erosion, to break down waste that we dump into the environment, and even to stabilize the climate. In general, when the climate warms, species need to move poleward (towards the north in the northern hemisphere and towards the south in the southern hemisphere) to maintain a constant temperature environment. In flat landscapes, the speed a critter needs to move across the surface to stay in a zone of constant temperature can be relatively high. On the other hand, species that live on the slopes of mountains can move upslope to stay at the right temperature; often the speed they need to travel is much less than those for flat-land species, because in steep terrain temperatures can drop quickly a short distance up hill.

Historically the main focus of conservation has been the establishment of protected areas where negative human impacts are restricted. But with climates on the move, many plant and animal species will be tracking their preferred habitats right out of the very areas designed to protect them. Establishing corridors among existing protected areas to give plants and animals landscapes through which they can move is increasingly recognized as a crucial step in conserving biodiversity.

The projected rate of ecosystem change is large in many cases compared to the ability of species and systems to migrate. For the tropical and subtropical broadleaved forest ecosystems characteristic of much of South and South East Asia, the average velocity is about 0.3 km per year. For some species, however, such shifts may not be possible, putting them at risk of extinction.

The state-of-the-art models of global ecosystems project an increasing risk of severe terrestrial ecosystem change with increasing global mean temperature. The area affected increases rapidly with warming. The affected surface increases almost four-fold between warming levels of 2°C and 3°C. The most extensively affected regions lie in the northern latitudes, where current climate conditions would find no analogue in a warmer world. These changes, resulting in shifts in the variability and mean values of carbon and water stock and fluxes and, in some cases, vegetation composition, would pose a major challenge to the survival of plant and animal species in their current habitat.

Over half the world's population depend on fish as an important food source, or a way of making a living - most of these people living in developing countries. To cope with rising temperatures, marine animals are trying to migrate pole-wards, or die. The impacts on the world population will be profound. By 2050s there will be large losses and local extinctions across tropical regions. Migrating animals also cause havoc to the new ecosystems they move to.

Species are seen to be moving poleward in studies around the world. The greater the warming in any given region, the farther its plants and animals have migrated. A 2011 study found that on average, species migrated uphill 36 feet per decade and moved away from the equator — to cooler, higher latitudes — at 16 kms per decade. The rates are two to three times those estimated by the last major migration analysis, published in 2003.

For most of the 20th century, North American rodents called pika moved upslope at an average of 43 feet per decade. But since the late 1990s, the critters scurried upward far faster, climbing 475 feet per decade.

Likewise, on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, moths are flapping higher and higher to escape the heat, an average of 220 feet in altitude in the last four decades.

Mosquitoes that can carry malaria, dengue fever and other tropical diseases have expanded their ranges in recent decades. In 2009, mosquito-borne dengue fever returned to the United States after an absence of nearly 75 years.

A tally of more than 4,000 species from around the world shows that roughly half are on the move. The ones on land are moving an average of more than 16 kms per decade, while marine species are moving four times faster. This is occurring even though sea surface temperatures are warming three times slower than land temperatures. Phytoplankton, zooplankton, and bony fish showed the largest shifts.

"We're talking about a redistribution of the entire planet's species," says the lead author of a new study in Science.

To compensate for the temperature effects of climate change terrestrial species will have to migrate on average 50-60 kilometers towards the poles for every 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming. In mountains each warming of 0.5 degrees requires species to move 100 meters further uphill, in order for full populations to remain in their respective climatic zones and not to lose habitat.

The unprecedented rate of global temperature increase means that species need to migrate at rapid rates. Couple this with the destructive effects of agriculture and urbanisation, leading to the fragmentation and disconnection of natural habitats, and migration to a suitable refuge may no longer be possible for many species.

While evidence for the combined effects of habitat fragmentation and climate change is currently scarce, and the full effects are yet to be realised, the predictions are dire. For example, modelling the twin impact of climate change and habitat fragmentation on drought sensitive butterflies in Britain led to predictions of widespread population extinctions by 2050.

The Story of Jowar..

Jowar is the most important food and fodder crop of dryland agriculture. 

With current management practices, the jowar monsoon crop is projected to decline by 16 percent in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka by 2020. 

Jowar is eaten by poor people and its ability to withstand even low rainfall and considerable drought has made it an important crop. It is preferably grown on lighter and poorer soils where other food crops like wheat and gram cannot be grown. 

Jowar also serves as an important source of animal feed and industrial raw material. Green and dried fodder is the most important roughage for feeding cattle throughout the country. Millet fodder sells for the same price as millets because they raise milk yield.

Jowar uses 70 % less water than other crops. Millets can do without chemical fertilisers and even if a farmer were inclined to apply them, the crops will not respond well in situations of water scarcity. Pest attacks can be warded off with natural concoctions.

Millets have low glycaemic value, which means they release energy slowly and therefore keep blood sugar levels stable. Besides, they are nutritious. According to the National Institute of Nutrition's food composition tables, 100 grams of ragi have 364 milligrams of calcium, three times as much as the 121 mg found in buffalo milk. They are also rich in fibre.

Jowar is high in proteins, dietary fibres, b-complex, amino acids, folic acid, vitamin e, iron, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, zinc, potassium, calcium.

Using products made from recycled material saves a lot of greenhouse emissions..

Recycling of paper, plastic, glass etc. reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons, that contribute to global climate change. 

Recycling just one glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for four hours. 

Manufacturing with recycled aluminum cans uses 95 percent less energy than creating the same amount of aluminum with bauxite. 

Calculated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions saved due to recycling were as much as 8 tonnes of CO2 equivalent for 1 ton of aluminium cans and aluminium foil collected for recycling.

The avoided GHG emissions from the recovery of high frequency materials such as LDPE, PET, textiles and steel cans are also notable. 

In general, reusing plastics saves nearly 40 % GHG emissions compared to using virgin plastic. Even recycling of paper saved half a ton of CO2 equivalent GHGs per ton of recycled paper. 

Composting and recycling rates in California state of America are at about 48%. The state hosts 4,300 recycling and reuse establishments that employ over 84,000 people.

The products made from recovered material can either serve the same purpose (e.g. from bottle to bottle) or fall into a different category of application than the primary product (e.g. from glass to fibre).

India still does not recycle 40 % of its plastics. The plastics mixed with wet wastes also keep india from composting. 

How every aspect of our lives is being made poorer by climate change..

The relative impact of climate change will be far different in the developed and developing worlds. A study examined the relative impact of climate change in the context of a single infrastructure element, paved and unpaved roads. Roads have a significant impact upon communities in terms of maternal health, level of education, poverty, gender equity, economic development and transport.

The potential degradation of roads due to climate change presents a significant economic threat, particularly in developing countries. Roads are a lifeline to alleviating poverty since investment in access to rural areas and transport improves the living conditions of the poor.

The potential for road damage and the inability to invest in new road infrastructure could impact the economic stability of communities.

The critical question that needs to be addressed is how climate change affects countries in terms of their ability to absorb the predicted costs.

The study found that a developing country - Bolivia could treble its paved road network by 2100 if expenditures were not diverted to adapting to climate change. However, in comparison, a developed country - Italy's paved road network expansion would be impacted only 4 %. Values in similar range were found for other countries studied. 

The study also showed the difference between adapting to climate change and foregoing adaptation. For example, if Bolivia foregoes adaptation, then it will incur approximately $310 million of impact versus $138 million of impact if adaptation policies are put in place. Similar percentages of savings of adapting to climate change vs. not adapting are obtainable for other countries studied.

Relative impact can also be analysed in terms of expenditure percentages. In the study, the developed countries never exceed 1% of expenditures for climate adaptation in any decade of the 21st century. In contrast, the developing countries regularly experience double-digit expenditures during each decade.

The lower-income countries suffer from a dual issue. First, these countries cannot afford to expend as much resources as is required on their road infrastructure. For example, Bolivia expends just 0.36% of GDP or $163 million on roads while Japan expends 4.33% of GDP or $179 billion on its road infrastructure. To compensate, many lower-income countries depend on unpaved or gravel roads as the basis for the country infrastructure.

This lack of spending leads to the second related issue, the dependence on the roads in place. Since the road network in lower-income countries lacks the density (0.06 km/km2 in Bolivia) of that found in higher-income countries (3.16 km/km2 in Japan), communities are overly dependent on the minimum number of roads in place. Thus, the value of each road in terms of dependence is higher where the road network lacks sufficient density

A stark illustration is here in these figures : in 1997, all of Africa (excluding South Africa) had 171 000 km of paved roads, about 18% less than Poland - a single, middle income country of Europe.
In summary, the total expenditure on climate change was found to not reflect the relative impact of climate change on the selected countries, as developed countries spend far more on road infrastructure - but the impact of climate change on their road network will impact their economies much less. Rather, the opportunity to further develop road infrastructure is the measure which reflects the importance of the expenditure shift to the selected countries.

Developing countries will be forced to transfer a significant amount of annual expenditures to offset the effects of climate change on road infrastructure. This poses a question whether they can continue on a designed development path rather than being forced to reduce or abandon these plans due to the need to redirect funds to climate change adaptation.

Acknowledgement : The blog post above has been sourced from this article.

Did you know Bangkok is predicted to largely be under water by 2030 ?

Bangkok faces a problem of skyscrapers pushing down on water-depleted soils. A study released by the city government in 2015 predicted it could be entirely underwater within 15 years. Bangkok has taken some action to preserve groundwater, such as the Ground Water Act of 1977 that restricted the amount of groundwater extracted. The city is now sinking at a slower rate than before, and water is being pumped back into the ground, but it is not enough to save the city from rising seas.

“The most rigorous solution and the best one is to stop pumping groundwater for drinking water, but then, of course, you need a new source of drinking water for these cities. But Tokyo did that and subsidence more or less stopped, and in Venice, too, they have done that."Other recommendations include the construction of a seawall to protect the greater Bangkok area from rising seas, estimated to cost 14 billion U.S. dollars.

As a demonstration for innovative ideas, an 11 acre park has been built in bangkok to collect floodwaters. The architect of this park says : “We want to re-introduce permeable surface back into the city, through a network of public green spaces projects, like small parks, urban farms, and canals. Urban porosity is critical to managing water stress in Bangkok." Another park, three times as large, is also under development.

The Park is also a welcome glimpse of grass in a metropolis that has just 3.3 sq m of green space per resident. That compares with 27 sq m in London and 66 sq m in Singapore. In fact, in the past 20 years the amount of green space in Bangkok has dropped from 40% of total land to less than 10% – exacerbating flood risk.

The city government of bangkok says it is building flood barriers and underground tunnels, and canals are being dredged and expanded. A “green zone” east of Bangkok is already used to retain water for the city. Since 2013, he says, flood concerns have been better addressed by building regulations. There must now be space for water to absorb into the ground of new-builds.

Attention was drawn to Bangkok's vulnerability after the 2011 flood event, which cost the nation US $46 billion in repairs and rehabilitation. More than 800 deaths were recorded and 13 million people were affected by the flooding.

A warning for other poor countries..

A worldbank report in 2012 showed how Yemen (a country below Saudi Arabia in the Middle East) typifies the future impact of a warming world - groundwater levels were plummeting by six meters a year in some parts. In the capital Sana’a, people have piped water once a week at most. Otherwise, they have to buy it, and for the ordinary worker, it’s pricey.

The Yemeni government had earlier enacted policies that actively encouraged the depletion of the existing water supply, including subsidizing cheap diesel and funding irrigation for water-heavy cash crops.

A recent National Geographic article was headlined : ‘The World has left Yemen to Die’. It is not an exaggeration - Half the population of Yemen – 14 million of the total 28 million, are in a pre-famine condition in 2018. 19 million Yemenis don’t have access to clean water and sanitation.

A war among rebels and a weak government with absentee leader has dragged on for four years with outside support. The war is a continuation of a long-standing conflict between the Yemeni government and marginalized northern tribes, which escalated thanks to a gradual decline in the legitimacy and competence of the central government

We may not remember India's ties with Yeman that well : In 1839, Aden became part of the British Empire and was administered by the Bombay Presidency. A garrison of Indian soldiers was established in Aden and the Indian Rupee was made the official currency. In 1855, a fortnightly steamer service with Bombay was initiated.

It was in Aden in Yemen, that Dhirubhai started his entrepreneurial journey. Even the name of his company - Reliance, is based on the name of the store of his friend in south Yemen that he opened there in the 1950s.

India had actively supported Yemen’s independence from the British and was one of the first countries to recognize Yemen in 1962.

During an earlier civil war there in 1994, Indian doctors and nurses were perhaps the only expatriates who stayed behind and rendered humanitarian services to the people of Yemen.

Yemen's foreign trade, which once represented more than 80% of GDP, died out with the civil war, reaching a mere 28% of GDP in 2016. India had been one of the countries with whom Yemen had strong trade links. The Bank of India had opened a branch in Aden in 1950 which was incorporated into the National Bank of Yemen in 1970.

In 2015 after the outbreak of the current war in Yemen, the Indian Armed Forces evacuated 5000 Indians and a 1000 people of other nationalities from Aden, Yemen's port.

Beat It !

"Beat It" has been cited as one of the most successful, recognized, awarded and celebrated songs in the history of pop music; both the song and video had a large impact on pop culture. The song is notable for its famous video, which featured Jackson bringing two gangs together through the power of music and dance. The album thriller in which this song features, became the best selling album of all time.

"Beat It" was composed by Michael Jackson. "Billie Jean", another song by Jackson, and "Beat It", occupied Top 5 positions at the same time, a feat matched by very few artists. The music video for "Beat It" helped establish Jackson as an international pop icon.^[33][34] The video was Jackson's first treatment of black youth and the streets. Both "Beat It" and "Thriller" are notable for their "mass choreography" of synchronized dancers, a Jackson trademark.^[35]

The video, which cost Jackson $150,000 to create after CBS refused to finance it,^[30][36] was filmed on Los Angeles' Skid Row—mainly on locations on East 5th Street^[37]—around March 9, 1983. To add authenticity to the production but also to foster peace between them, Jackson had the idea to cast members of rival Los Angeles street gangs Crips and Bloods.^[38] In addition to around 80 genuine gang members,^[36] the video, which is noted for opening up many job opportunities for dancers in the US,^[39] also featured 18 professional dancers and four breakdancers.