Environmental Issues
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Climate change is a major environmental concern in today's world. Some drastic natural changes like unpredictable rainfall, rising sea level and melting glaciers may have disastrous consequences.
Emission of green house gases, caused by certain human actions, raises the earth's average temperature. This global warming has several ill effects including major alterations in the ecology.
Pollution is essentially the contamination of water, soil and air by substances destructive to life and environment - they include oceanic oil spills and seepage of industrial waste in rivers.
Hazardous waste constitutes industrial or household waste that carry immediate or long-term risks to life and environment. It needs special handling for detoxification or safe disposal.
Deforestation is the removal of a forest land for agricultural or urban use. Whether naturally occurring or human induced, it invariably disturbs the ecosystem of a place and leads to soil erosion.
Since the world has a limited supply of fresh water, that is steadily declining due to natural and human factors, there can be a scarcity of water resources relative to human demand in future.
Many of the conventionally-grown food products are often sprayed with toxic chemicals (pesticides) to protect them against pests - chemicals that are potential health hazards.
Green Dilemma
Pixels or Paper ?!!
Is "going paperless" really an eco-friendly option? Paper may entail chopping trees, but electronic gadgets create toxic e-waste. So should we draw our cheques or use online banking? Should we buy books or look for ebooks? Should we buy newspaper or read its website?
Green Conflict
Industrialization vs Conservation
Economic progress is not possible without industrialization. But fuel combustion and chemical emissions that industrialization brings in its wake, are a great threat to our environment. So where do we draw the line?
Carbon Footprint
The term Carbon Footprint means "the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event or product". For simplicity's sake, it is often estimated and expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent of other GHGs, emitted.
Carbon Footprint is measured by assessing the GHG emissions of an individual, organization or country. Knowing the magnitude of Carbon Footprint helps in devising strategies to reduce it.
When special projects,like renewable energy or reforestation ,are undertaken to systematically reduce the impact of Carbon Footprint, it is called Carbon Offsetting.