Plastic shopping bags and the environment

The environmental issues associated with plastic shopping bags have featured in the news in the last couple of months, following the apparent success of the plastic bag tax in Ireland in reducing the number of plastic shopping bags that are used in that country. While this approach has also been suggested for addressing the problem in Australia, the government will examine a number of options before deciding on a management plan. In the meantime, the best thing we can do for the environment is simply reuse, or better yet, refuse a plastic bag when we go shopping. Easy!

Plastic shopping bags have a surprisingly significant environmental impact for something so seemingly innocuous. As well as being an eyesore (next time you are outside, have a look around - you'll be amazed at the number of plastic bags littering our streets and waterways), plastic shopping bags kill large numbers of wildlife each year. In the water, plastic bags can be mistaken for jellyfish by wildlife. This makes plastic bag pollution in marine environments particularly dangerous, as birds, whales, seals and turtles ingest the bags then die from intestinal blockages. Disturbingly, it is claimed that plastic bags are the most common man-made item seen by sailors at sea.

The biggest problem with plastic bags is that they do not readily break down in the environment, with estimates for the time it takes them to decompose ranging from 20 to 1000 years. One of the disquieting facts stemming from this is that plastic bags can become serial killers. Once an animal that had ingested a plastic bag dies, it decays at a much faster rate than the bag. Once the animal has decomposed, the bag is released back into the environment more or less intact, ready to be eaten by another misguided organism. The incredibly slow rate of decay of plastic bags also means that each bag we use compounds the problem, because the bags simply accumulate.

Plastic bags also clog drains and waterways, threatening not only natural environments but also urban ones. In fact, plastic bags in drains were identified as major factors in the severe flooding in Bangladesh in 1988 and 1998. This has resulted in a ban on plastic bags being imposed there early in 2002.

On top of the significant environmental costs, widespread use of plastic bags is also costly in terms of dollars and cents. Apart from the price of the bags themselves, which is four to six cents each, a great deal of money goes into collecting the bags (ie cleaning up!) once they've been discarded.

PRODUCTION OF PLASTIC BAGS:-
Plastic bags are made from ethylene, a gas that is produced as a by-product of oil, gas and coal production. Ethylene is made into polymers (chains of ethylene molecules) called polyethylene. This substance, also known as polyethene or polythene, is made into pellets which are used by plastic manufacturers to produce a range of items, including plastic bags.

You have probably noticed that there are two types of plastic shopping bags - the lighter, filmy bags you get from supermarkets and other food outlets, and the heavier bags you get from other retail outlets, like clothing stores. The supermarket bags are made from high density polyethylene (HDPE), while the thicker bags are made from low density polyethylene (LDPE). Unlike HDPE, LDPE can not be recycled.

While plastic bags may not be the most high tech application of plastics technology, it is certainly one of the most prevalent. According to Clean Up Australia, Australians use in excess of 6 billion plastic bags per year. If tied together these bags would form a chain that is long enough to go around the world 37 times. More than half of these bags (3.6 billion) are made from HDPE.

Alternatives:-
There are a range of alternatives to plastic bags. Some retailers save the cardboard cartons that stock is packaged in, so customers can use them to pack their groceries. Others may offer paper bags. Some major supermarket chains have string or calico bags available for sale at a very small price. These bags can be kept in the car and used again and again. The advantage of calico bags is that they are stronger than the plastic bags, and also much easier to carry. It takes a little thought to get used to bringing your own bags, but it is an easy habit to fall into and it is such a relief not to have to pack the groceries away, and then find room to pack away the plastic bags as well!

There are of course situations where you can't beat a plastic shopping bag, such as when buying meat or "messy" items. Thankfully, technology is catching up with the need for a replacement for polythene bags. It was recently reported that supermarkets in Australia will introduce biodegradable bags made from tapioca starch in April 2003. These bags will look and feel like polythene bags but will decompose in three months.
So next time you go shopping, hold your head up proudly as you reuse or refuse a plastic bag. You may not be in a rubber dinghy chasing a whaling boat or pursuing ivory poachers, but you have made a contribution to the future of the planet.

Dibru-Saikhowa orchids in peril

Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, which greets visitors with exotic and rare orchids in April, is being robbed of its colours by smugglers.

While poachers pose a constant danger to the fauna of this bio-diversity hotspot, which is located on the south bank of the Brahmaputra and straddles Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts of Assam, orchid smugglers are now putting its flora in peril too.

According to reports, several gangs entered the flood-ravaged park recently to collect the wild orchids, which start blooming in January, are in full blossom in April and cascade down the trees till June. The collectors take advantage of the inadequate security in the park as well as floods, which force the guards to desert the camps in the interiors.

River licks at Dibrugarh door!!!

A rain-powered hungry Brahmaputra is gnawing at Dibrugarh’s threshold, raising fears that the river may lick the town in no time.
Just 3km from here the river has been swallowing meter after meter of land in Nagagholee since last Sunday, threatening to erode the Oakland-Nagagholee-Maijan-Dibrugarh dyke.
If the river manages to touch the dyke, it will threaten the existence of Dibrugarh town, and even Mohanbari Airport.

The way the river is eroding the area, it might take just another day or two for the river to divert its channel towards the Dibrugarh main town through Mijan and Assam Medical College and Hospital. As erosion continues unabated, the authorities of Greenwood tea estate in Nagagholee have begun shifting people from the area.

Till now we have shifted around 250 families from the locality as their land has been washed away or in under threat of being wiped out any minute.

Before 2012 Or After 2012

As the dust settles down on the Iceland volcano and fights resume over Europe, those who travel frequently ask the question:How long will it be before the volcano starts erupting again? Iceland's volcano are known to be unpredictable, and there is a chance that this one keep blowing ash intermittently for a year.

Vulcanologist say that volcanoes will keep erupting in many places around the world, sometimes violently and some times less so. Once in a while-probably once in a century-a volcano will erupt with major force, throwing enormous qualities of ash into the atmosphere and impacting world climate significantly. A truly catastrophic eruption takes place less frequently- may be once in a few millennium-decimating large continents and plugging the world into a serious crisis for a while.

The Iceland volcanic eruption, near Eyajafjalla-joekull glacier, is a reminder that such eruptions, is a reminder that such eruptions, although rarer than earth-quakes, can have global consequences and need to be watched. Luckily for us, Volcanoes , unlike earth-quake give warning. The magnum has to come up and this process deformes the ground.
A volcano that is about to blow also tends to spew gases and produce earthquakes. "A volcanic eruption is often preceded by a swarm of earthquakes, sometimes a thousand small ones". Such earthquakes are not noticed by people but seismographs often pick them up.

Fortunately for us, prediction of volcanic eruptions has improved dramatically in recent times. Seismographs around the world pick up charges in seismic activity. Satellites can notice any ground deformation that precedes eruption."Satellites can monitor volcanoes around the world,"- This is useful because there is no ground observation for volcanoes in many countries.

Techniques such as interferometry can now pick up the tiniest of ground deformations around the world, provided we look when they happen. There is a rule of thumb in volcano logy: the longer the duration between two eruption, the more violent the eruption is likely to be. A big eruption is likely to happen at a place that has not seen eruption for a long time."- So, we need to build redundancies and not rely on one mode of transport.
Be that as it may, how do we make society take the threat seriously?

Man V/S Wild

The Nature has always made species to struggle for life. Thus, through Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection we all know that the better fitted species survives by struggling between the intermediate one. But among all of the species,Human-beings are most sensible and the most powerful one with the highest cranial capacity. But still we lack our Humanity to get fitted on the top of the table. Human's have always been playing a -ve (negative) influence in Nature by relatively destroying its own ecosystem by killing different animals just for sake of fun & money. We can get a better picture when we read the daily magazines & News papers, where we can see how long humans have gone to fulfill there basic needs of Life.Government though makes rules- But who follows it???, No one.... We have been an Evil to our lower vertebrates. Cant we imagine when in TV we see the adds of indiscriminate killing of our National Animal- Tiger are been striped out from there roots. Just 1411 are left in India- though its our National property. yet, the killing continues. We must wake up and protect this Evil from costing further damages. So, that the Tigers could also live a free life as us. The Government must take serious steps on the activities of the poachers and lie heavy meant rules for the killing of animals. Otherwise the days are not so far that 1411 would convert to 1 left. So, just protect your nature and do the needful.