The Bangalore Tree Planting Group -- Facebook based group


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Networkers plant trees

Meet a young, enthusiastic band of green warriors on Facebook using the website to spread the word on tree planting in the city. 
Bangalore has seen a considerable loss of green cover and some young citizens are looking at contributing their mite in an effort to restore the city to its former glory.
The Bangalore Tree Planting Group was started just a couple of weeks ago on the social networking site Facebook to mobilise support for an initiative to plant trees across the city. Already, the group has as many as 307 members and now the whole group is gearing up for a community tree planting session by the end of this month. The idea is to plant around 1,000 trees all along Koramangala Intermediate Ring Road. 

GREEN START 

It all began with three young socially responsible persons —- Rajesh Golani, an IT professional, Karthik Ponnapa, a marketing professional and Raghu Tenkayala, a law student. 

When the disappearing greenery started to bother them, they decided to do something about it. 

So they got together and started mobilising support for the initiative. Mind you, they are not a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and are doing this because of a concern for the environment and the city they live in. 

“Fortunately, all three of us have some background in volunteering with NGOs and that is why this is not new terrain. We are not a voluntary organisation, at least not yet, but only concerned citizens wanting to help in some way to increase the green cover in the city,“ says Karthik, who has volunteered with NGOs working in the field of education. 

While Rajesh is associated with an organisation called NGO Post and writes every month for the NGO magazine Sattva, Raghu is into environmental issues and has taken up tree planting earlier.

“It’s great to see the kind of response that we got. In the first week of starting the group on Facebook, we had 200 people joining in. Now, we have 307 volunteers. The idea is to get people to sponsor a tree (which would cost around Rs 100) and to work with the forest department to plant trees, while also having an infrastructure in place to take care of them,“ Karthik said.

Meanwhile, support is pouring in through Facebook. These are some of the comments posted on the wall of the group:
“How much water does one tree need, say, on a weekly or daily basis?“ 

“Was wondering if we could use gray water for trees ?“

“Hey, am waiting to go plant trees man! Never planted one in my life. Let’s go, let’s go.“ 

HELP AT HAND
Bangalore Tree Planting has got the necessary permission from the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and the forest department which will also be providing the trees for the planting session. “The forest department has been very forthcoming and we will be buying trees from them. Since they have the expertise, they are also helping us to identify the plant species that would be suitable. We have decided to plant young trees that are six to eight feet long since they are more likely to survive compared to saplings,“ he added.

The group will get water tankers to water the trees periodically and they have also tied up with Domlur Resident’s Association to help with the watering. 

The trees will be planted all along the Koramangala Intermediate Ring Road divider, from Ejipura Junction to the start of the flyover.
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This gave a an idea, how to gather like-minded people at one people. I have started my ORKUT Community based on this post "We care 4 our Hometown, DMM".

This could be my platform for my next activities... Hope the best... Happy Diwali...
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Tree Planting at four venues in Bangalore on Nov 1st, 2010


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Tree Planting at four venues in Bangalore on Nov 1st, 2010
On 1st November 2010, treesforfree will be celebrating the 5th Anniversary by planting 1000 saplings in 4 different places around Bangalore. We request all of you to take time off , come with your family and plant saplings in places convenient to you.
The places kept ready are:
1. MLA Layout, Kalena Agrahara on Bannergatta Road. Take left turn before Gottigere. Contact person Vinod Krishna 9945396345 and treesforfree Volunteers David 9986452888 and Usha 0620226202. This is a residential layout and 140 saplings will be planted at 9.00 am with tree guards.
2. Ben Enclave, on Hennur Bande Road. Ben Enclave board come to the left on Hennur Bande Road b efore the overhead railway line. We will be planting 100 nos. saplings in this residential layout at 10.30 M with tree guards. Contact person Kingston 9945515221 and treesforfree vol. Prem 9035766908.
3. Soundarya Nagar, Siddedahalli, Nagasandra Post,Bangalore 560 007. This residential layout is off Hesargatta Road, Off Tumkur Road. Take left turn to Soundarya Nagar at Borewell stop before the Airforce Stn., Arch. Contact person Mr Stallion (Monu) 9738128550 and treesforfree volunteers Clement 9845782438 and Subha Bail 9886556894. We will be planting 160 saplings with tree guards at 10.30 am .
4. 600 nos. fruit tree saplings like Mango, Sapota, Jamoon, etc., will be planted by treesforfree at 10.30 am for the farmers of Rachapura and Hirekattigenahalli, Kaiwara obHHobli, Chintamani Taluq, Chikkaballapur Dist. This is about 75 kms from Bangalore. On Old Madras Road, 100 Mtrs after Hoskote signal, take left to Chintamani Road. This leads to Kaiwara(approx.. 40 kms).From Kaiwara Cross, go straight and take right at Petrol Pump. Rachapura is 7 kms. From Kaiwara Cross. Contact persons: Venkatesh 9845858166, treesforfree Trustee Vinod Eshwar Lal: 9980013488.
Love and Peace,
Janet
President
www.treesforfree.org
http://treesforfree.blogspot.com/
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Nintendo, Microsoft Ranked Last in New Greenpeace Report


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Nintendo, Microsoft Ranked Last in New Greenpeace Report

Environment oriented organization Greenpeace has released the latest edition of its “Guide to Greener Electronics”, which takes a look at consumer electronics companies and their practices linked to the environment and ranks them in order to influence the purchase choices of potential customers

Japan based console manufacturer and game maker Nintendo has again been ranked last.
The company is judged to have increased its carbon emissions, despite pledging to limit them, and is criticized for having no actual policy on electronic waste.

Microsoft, another company which makes home gaming consoles and also publishes games, is just one position above Nintendo, having lost one position since the last report because it has failed to abide by a commitment to eliminate “BFRs and PVC by the end of 2010”.

Sony, the other company that creates both handheld and home consoles, has managed to score much better than its rivals, taking sixth place in a tie with both Motorola and Panasonic.

The top rated company in the “Guide to Greener Electronics” is Nokia, the well known phone manufacturer, which managed to edge out Sony Ericsson in second place and Philips in third.
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Most of the people in world suffer from the irresponsibilty of few people. Lets try to get out of the batch of few people... We can not Reduce the usage of electronic gadgets because everyone wants to reap the benefits of technology. And Reuse is almost not possible because of the nature of electronic goods... We can pledge to Recycle them and avoid products from Malicious companies -- prasad Mrln...
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Optimizing C and C++ Code


Optimizing C and C++ Code
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Lake Tanganyika Heating Up, Warmest In 1,500 Years


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Lake Tanganyika Heating Up, Warmest In 1,500 Years

Lake Tanganyika in east Africa is getting warmer, say geologists from Brown University. Reporting this week in the journalNature Geoscience, the researchers say the lake has experienced unprecedented warming, rising 2 degrees over the past 90 years, making it the warmest it has been in 1,500 years. Warming surface water will affect levels of phytoplankton upon which fish depend, as it has in the past, the researchers say. 

Jessica Tierney, lead scientist on the project and currently a post-doctoral researcher with National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate and Global Change program, analyzed core samples from the lake floor to deduce lake surface temperatures over the past 1,500 years.
                                  
Lake temperatures have fluctuated in the past but this warming is unprecedented. “The warmest it’s ever gotten was 24.3 degrees Celsius. It’s never happened to the degree it is happening now,” says Tierney. Lake Tanganyika last reached 24.3 degrees Celsius during a warm period between 600 and 900 years ago. It is currently 26 degrees Celsius, or 78.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

To track the temperature change, Tierney and her colleagues looked in the sediment for molecules called glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (GDGTs). These molecules come from Archaea, ancient single-celled organisms that change their membranes in response to the water temperature. This proxy – called a paleothermometer – has been used to reconstruct ocean surface temperatures and was within tenths of a degree when compared to direct temperature readings of Lake Tanganyika.

In addition to reconstructing lake temperatures, the researchers used the core samples to infer past levels of phytoplankton. Diatoms, a common phytoplankton, encase themselves in silica shells and when they die the shells fall to the lakebed. By measuring levels of biogenic silica – silica from biological sources – the geologists can estimate the levels of phytoplankton across time. Whenever lake surface temperatures rose, the researchers saw phytoplankton levels drop. 

Warming surface temperatures make it harder for water below 100 meters to circulate and bring up the nutrients phytoplankton rely on, like nitrogen and phosphorous, says Tierney. Lower phytoplankton levels will hurt Lake Tanganyika’s supply of sardines, sleek, perch and cichlids, already declining due to overfishing.

According to a 2001 report from the Lake Tanganyika Biodiversity Project – an international project run by the nations bordering the lake and advised by international agencies like the UN – over 4 million people depend on the lake for food and water and fish make up a substantial portion of the local diet. The four countries bordering the lake are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia. Lake Tanganyika is the second largest lake in the world, by volume.
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