By Payal Mitra
The reality of how we have been insensitively and incessantly hacking earths resources to extinction for our never ending needs has been lying threadbare for quite some time. With world population exponentially exploding faster than land, food, power, infrastructure and employment can catch up, it is time we allow the urgency and severity of the problem to sink in and proactively find solutions for sustainable development. Thankfully, some insightful and rather smart people have started doing just that.
There’s more to Finland than just Nokia
Enter the underground city of Helsinki, Finland. For most of us, our only tie and introduction of this country would be Nokia. But there is so much more. The capital has used an innovative way to direct its urban expansion, thanks to its expanse of cooperative bedrock down below. Other than an extensive transport network, it boasts of huge shopping centres, swimming pools, and several other pieces of infrastructure, several stories down. It has huge underground storage facilities and an extensive water pipe layout, providing hot water to all homes, all underground. The most fascinating aspect was its innovative data centre. Data centres such as those run by Google already use around 2 percent of the world’s energy, with half of its power consumption being used to cool their computers. Their demand for power is rising fast with the trend to outsource computing.
What this green data centre at Helsinki does is use sea water to cool down the machines and then uses the heat generated by these machines to heat up the homes of Helsinki. Ingenious.
The inspiring case of Singapore
Another smart innovation is the setting up vertical farms, as done in places like Singapore, where population density is spectacularly high resulting in mass urbanisation, and little land for agriculture. Due to the growing pressure of the food needs of its citizens, vertical farms, a novel method has been employed. It consists of huge transparent frames with vegetation growing along its height and requires lesser water and energy to maintain as compared to the traditional farming methods, giving upto ten times more productivity. Such initiatives can potentially solve our food security problems.
In Israel and Qatar, efforts at greening the deserts are in full swing, and have already proved successful to some extent in Israel.
China has its own green plans too
Meanwhile, China, the most populous country in the world, has plans underway for an eco-city outside Chengdu. Designed according to the specifications of Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co., the master plan calls for 80,000 residents to live and work within a half-square mile circle in which any point will be at most a 15-minute walk away, and each house will be within two minutes of a public park. Trains and mass transit will connect the city to Chengdus core as part of the firms plans to restrict cars and dramatically reduce the citys carbon footprint. Buildings will be designed to effectively use wind power and a host of techniques and technologies are to be deployed to holistically address waste, water, and energy in a manner designed cut landfill by 89%, wastewater by 58%, and energy by 48% compared to a typical Chinese city its size.
Can you imagine the amount of carbon footprint this could potentially reduce? How much more efficiently it could use its resources to house its vast population as compared to present demands on land, water, power and the likes?
The case of Bihar
Closer home, there too have been some remarkable attempts at harnessing renewable sources of energy. For instance, in Bihar. While the city of Patna is fully powered, vast parts of Bihars rural areas lie in darkness with no access to electricity. A unique venture, The Husk Power systems, is a start-up which provides electricity at nominal rates to thousands in the villages. It cost-effectively generates electricity using a biomass gasifier that creates fuel from rice husks, which are otherwise agricultural waste products.
Such innovations are extremely ingenious, fascinating, and also heart-rending, to know that someone has the future of the planet and our generations in mind. It is time to pick up the cue and proactively involve ourselves in such attempts at sustainable development, spread awareness and compel governments worldwide to change policy and take up such green projects, before we reach the clichéd point of no return.
Payal is a second year student at St. Stephens College, Delhi, pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. When she is not trying to make sense of endless equations and the most complex theories, she is an avid reader who likes to believe that she has a strong liking for the world outside physics too. She has a knack for finding problems, and fervently prays for a brainwave to their solutions someday. She hopes to help reflect change in society, wherever possible. For any comment, please email her at: payal.mitra@hotmail.com