Category Earth Sciences

Is there anything that people can do to save the planet?

We depend on nature for everything from air, water, food and shelter to sources of energy to run our factories and businesses. So, conserving nature and preserving its biodiversity must be our priority. Here are ten simple tips to do your bit for the planet.

1. Plant trees

Trees are carbon sequesters and increasing the tree cover is perhaps one of the easiest ways to conserve nature. A tree can absorb approximately 25kg of CO2 per year. So, plant a tree to mark this day. Make it a tradition to plant a tree during prominent or celebratory occasions of your life. It can be your birthday or when you finish your academic year or any moment you feel is worth celebrating. If you do not have enough space in your home, see if you can adopt your friend’s yard or make use of the space managed by your area’s residents’ association. Where you do it, make sure that the plant is taken care of Encourage friends and family to take up the practice as well.

2. Conserve energy

 We derive our energy from nature. Everything that is manmade runs on energy obtained from nature. Quite often, a lot of energy also goes to waste. By changing a few habits you can help save energy at home. These include small actions such as turning off the lights (when not in use or when you can depend on daylight), unplugging appliances when not in use, not charging your phone overnight, turning off your faucet when you aren’t using water, taking less time in the shower, reusing waste water in the kitchen gardens and so on. This will help reduce carbon footprint and in turn help in conserving nature. PHOTO: UNSPLASH IMAGES

3.3Rs

The 3Rs of “Reduce”, “Reuse”, “Recycle” is perhaps one of the ultimate mantras for nature conservation. These three small words will help manage waste, save the ecosystem, prevent marine animal casualties and address climate change. The first step is to reduce the waste you generate. This will ensure that less waste ends up in landfills or oceans. Effective waste segregation is the key to this. This helps recover materials for recycling and composting. Reuse articles that you can. And lastly, recycle. This helps prevent soil and water pollution. PHOTO: UNSPLASH IMAGES

4. Use public transport

 One of the major polluters is the global transport sector. It is responsible for approximately one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, according to experts. And 95% of the world’s transport energy is still obtained from fossil fuels. Personal transportation adds to the probelm, adding to the greenhouse emissions. The easiest way to avoid this is by switching to public transport. If this is not a practical solution every time, you can still choose public transport twice or thrice a week or during specific hours. This, when done on a regular basis, can significantly help reduce carbon emissions. Alternately, switching to green modes of travel such as a bicycle can help prevent your carbon footprint.

5. Stop using single-use plastics and disposables

 Single-use plastics and disposable cups and utensils have infiltrated our day-to-day life and upended it. Those disposable grocery bags and disposable utensils you use eventually ends up on the earth, polluting our soil. oceans, and marine life. These disposables can easily be replaced with environmentally responsible counterparts. Make a commitment to take out at least one disposable article from your lifestyle. Perhaps. carry a cloth bag to the supermarket instead of asking them for a plastic one. Maybe switch out your lunch box for one made of metal. This can be a good start. And slowly you can make a lifestyle switch by eschewing other disposables. PHOTO: UNSPLASH IMAGES

6. Eat less meat

It is estimated that 80% of forest loss is caused by the conversion of forest land to agricultural land. It leads to habitat destruction and loss of our green cover. Eating less meat can help prevent this and preserve biodiversity and the ecosystem. Since we all have our food preferences, it may not be easy to switch to vegetarianism or veganism. But you can be more aware and mindful of the food on your plate and choose to eat less meat. For instance. you can limit meat consumption to one or two days a week or reduce the number of meals with meat. PHOTO: UNSPLASH IMAGES

7. Use windows and not AC

 Our world is heating up and the surging heat has made us all dependent on air conditioning, the demand for which is increasing by the day. Did you know that air conditioners are also a contributor to the climate crisis? They consume more electricity than any other appliance in your home and consume about 10% of global electricity (along with electric fans). So next time, when possible, open the windows and let the cool breeze in.

8. Explore thrifting

 Fast fashion is one of the greatest threats to the environment. Did you know that it takes about 2,700 litres of water to make just one t-shirt. Or that a pair of jeans requires 7,600 litres of water? With a consumer base that updates its wardrobe according to trends in the fashion industry, the damage to the planet has been exponential. This trend depletes natural resources and harms the planet. This is where thrift shopping comes in. Anyone who has had an older sibling would be no stranger to using their toys, books, or school paraphernalia, thus giving the article a fresh lease of life. This is the concept of thrift shopping. It means using hand-me-downs or second-hand articles. It applies to all forms of merchandise such as clothes, games, toys, shoes, books, appliances, furniture, and so on. It’s time to break the cycle of single-use apparel or appliances and shop at thrift stores. Also, remember to let your friends and family know you are using a thrifted article and the positive impact your move has on nature’s conservation.

9. Embrace minimalism

 Minimalism is a lifestyle choice where you make mindful, deliberate choices of buying only what you truly need. As such you make do with less and avoid overconsumption, which is one of the major contributors to the exploitation and depletion of natural resources. By consuming only what’s essential for your living, your ecological footprint gets reduced. Thereby, the individual environmental impact is limited. Replace consumerism with eco-minimalism. PHOTO: UNSPLASH IMAGES

10. Spend time volunteering

 One way to help conserve nature is to help organisations that are working in the field directly. You can do this by volunteering your time and services at non-profit environmental organisations. These organisations run on donations and they are always on the lookout for people who can help them. Here you may get to actively participate in the community and work on projects aimed at conserving nature and get on-field experience.

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WHERE IS THE TROPOSPHERE THE THINNEST?

The troposphere can be found between the ground and an altitude of 7 to 20 kilometers (4 to 12 miles). The lesser thickness is found at the Polar Regions, since colder temperatures lead to a decrease in gas volume. The vast majority of the world’s weather is formed in the troposphere and this layer also contains 80 percent of the atmosphere’s mass. The temperature within the troposphere drops with altitude, since it is essentially being warmed by the ground. The pressure also drops within the troposphere as altitude increases, and this explains why mountaineers require oxygen masks.

Credit: Sciencing

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WHAT ARE STROMATOLITES?

Primitive life forms may have first appeared on Earth about 3800 million years ago. These bacteria lived in the oceans and built up solid mats of calcium carbonate, also known as lime. The deposits from the bacteria are known as stromatolites.

Stromatolites are living fossils and the oldest living lifeforms on our planet. The name derives from the Greek, stroma, meaning “mattress”, and lithos, meaning “rock”. Stromatolite literally means “layered rock”. The existence of these ancient rocks extends three-quarters of the way back to the origins of the Solar System.

With a citizen scientist’s understanding, stromatolites are stony structures built by colonies of microscopic photosynthesising organisms called cyanobacteria. As sediment layered in shallow water, bacteria grew over it, binding the sedimentary particles and building layer upon millimetre layer until the layers became mounds. Their empire-building brought with it their most important role in Earth’s history. They breathed. Using the sun to harness energy, they produced and built up the oxygen content of the Earth’s atmosphere to about 20%, giving the kiss of life to all that was to evolve.

Living stromatolites are found in only a few salty lagoons or bays on Earth. Western Australia is internationally significant for its variety of stromatolite sites, both living and fossilised. Fossils of the earliest known stromatolites, about 3.5 billion years old, are found about 1,000km north, near Marble Bar in the Pilbara region. With Earth an estimated 4.5 billion years old, it’s staggering to realise we can witness how the world looked at the dawn of time when the continents were forming. Before plants. Before dinosaurs. Before humans.

Credit: bbc.com

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WHAT IS THE TIMELINE OF LIFE ON EARTH?

Just as the day is divided into hours, minutes and seconds, geologists divide Earth’s history into time periods. The longest divisions are aeons, which are billions of years long; the shortest are chrons, a few thousand years long. In between come eras, periods, epochs and ages. Scientists divide the last 590 million years into three eras: the Palaeozoic (meaning ‘old life’), Mesozoic (‘middle life’), and Cenozoic (‘new life’).

Humans have only been a species in the most recent chapter of the history of Earth. The Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago, when the sun in our solar system first formed, creating enough gravitational pull to spin planets into orbit. But how do scientists know how old the Earth is if humans weren’t around back when it was formed? When was life first formed on this planet? And what are the paths that life has taken so far over the course of that existence? This lesson will teach about the ages that make up the history of life on Earth, and explore the many changes and forms life has taken in its time on this planet.

Timeline of Geological Eras

The geological timeline of Earth is nearly identical to the history of life on Earth, apart from the Hadean Era. This is because the geological timeline, or the order of geological events, such as oceans forming, volcanoes erupting, how long deserts lasted, and tectonic plate movement, all happened in sequence with the life that has existed on this planet. The history of both life and the geological timeline is arranged within 5 subgroups, arranged from the largest span of time to the smallest: eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. To understand the timeline of life that has existed on Earth, it is important to understand how scientists determine the age of both rocks and the remnants of living things, otherwise known as fossils.

Because humans were not around 4.6 billion years ago to record the beginnings of our planet, scientists must rely on evidence from geological and fossil records in order to determine the relative age of both the planet and the life that exists here. Both the geological timeline and the age of life are determined in much the same way. Modern scientists rely on what is called radioactive dating to determine an accurate and precise age of both rocks and fossils. Radioactive dating measures the rate of decay of an element in a rock or in a fossil. Carbon-14 is typically used when dating fossils because all living things are carbon-based, and the flow of carbon can be tracked through the carbon cycle. For geological objects such as rocks and minerals, Rubidium-87 and Potassium-40 are often used. By knowing how long it takes for molecules in an object to decay, scientists can calculate when the object’s half-life is. The half-life of an object refers to the amount of time it would take for half of an amount of a substance to radioactively decay, or break down. If the half-life of an object is known, it is possible to calculate when the object was first created, when no decay is evident.

Credit: study.com

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