Sustainability Forum @ IIML

Sustainability Forum @ IIML May 2014 Volume III Issue 2 Centre for Business Sustainability, IIM Lucknow Prabandh Nagar, Off. Sitapur Road, Lucknow- 226013 E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +91 522 2736987, +91 2736989 Business Sustainability News International Earth Hour: millions to switch off Entire marine food chain at risk from lights around the world rising CO2 levels in water By Jessica Aldred, for theguardian.com By Oliver Milman, for theguardian.com Millions of people around the world are expected to switch Escalating carbon dioxide emissions will cause fish to lose their fear of off lights in homes, offices predators, potentially damaging the entire marine food chain, joint Australian and famous landmarks at and US research has found. 8.30pm local time for an hour A study by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, James Cook University on Saturday to mark WWF’s and the Georgia Institute of Technology found the behavior of fish would be annual Earth Hour. “seriously affected” by greater exposure to CO2. Now in its eighth year, the Researchers studied the behavior of coral reef fish at naturally occurring CO2 mass participation event to vents in Milne Bay, in eastern Papua New Guinea. show support for environmental issues comes They found that fish living near the vents, where bubbles of CO2 seeped into London Eye and Southbank turns off the lights to support Earth the water, “were attracted to predator odour, did not distinguish between as the Intergovernmental Hour 2012. At 8:30pm local time, lights will be turned off around Panel on Climate Change the world to mark WWF’s Earth Hour. Photograph: Ryan odours of different prepares to launch its latest Gregory/Corbis habitats, and exhibited report in Japan on Monday, bolder behaviour than outlining how global warming will affect wildlife, food supplies, water and the fish from control reefs”. weather. The gung-ho nature of “It’s fortuitous timing that as millions of people take part in WWF’s Earth Hour, CO2-affected fish means the world’s leading scientists release the latest IPCC report, which highlights that more of them are the various impacts of climate picked off by predators change,” said Colin Butfield, than is normally the director of public engagement case, raising potentially and campaigns at WWF-UK. worrying possibilities in a “The significance of these two scenario of rising carbon A lemon damselfish finding shelter in coral. Exposure to CO2 will events is massive. Climate emissions. make it more adventurous, and endanger its life. Photograph: Bates change is the biggest More than 90% of the Littlehales/Corbis environmental threat facing our excess CO2 in the atmosphere is soaked up by the oceans. When CO2 is planet – it’s real, it’s happening dissolved in water, it causes ocean acidification, which slightly lowers the pH of right now, and we need to act the water and changes its chemistry. Crustaceans can find it hard to form shells in highly acidic water, while corals risk episodes of bleaching. This composite image shows the Sydney skyline illuminated fast.” shortly before the start of the 2012 Earth Hour (left), then Among the world’s famous The AIMS study found the diversity of fish at the CO2 vents was not influenced being darkened (right). Photograph: Torsten landmarks that will dim their by the extra carbon, but that fish’s nerve stimulation mechanisms were altered, Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images lights are the Empire State meaning the smell of predators became alluring. building in New York, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, “What we have now also found in our study of fish behaviour in this the Kremlin and Red Square in Moscow, the Bosphorus Bridge in Turkey and environment is that the fish become bolder and they venture further away from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. In the safe shelter, making them more vulnerable to predators,” said Alistair Cheal, UK, the Houses of Parliament, co-author of the research. Buckingham palace, Tower Bridge While fish at the vents faced fewer predators than usual, the consequences for and the London Eye will all dim fish in the wider ocean could be significant as more CO2 was dissolved in the their lights, with an estimated 10 water. million Britons expected to take part. “Continuous exposure does not reduce the effect of high CO2 on behaviour in natural reef habitat, and this could be a serious problem for fish communities in Launched in Australia in 2007, the future when ocean acidification becomes widespread as a result of WWF says Earth Hour has now continued uptake of anthropogenic CO2 emissions,” the study said. grown to become the world’s biggest environmental event, In Uganda, half a million trees were planted in an ‘Earth A report released last year, which had input from the University of Western mobilising people around a range Hour forest’ and helped to help offset deforestation. Australia’s Oceans Institute, found global warming could cause oceans to of issues from deforestation to Photograph: WWF become 170% more acidic by the end of the century, the fastest rate of ocean energy efficiency. Last year saw more than 7,000 towns and cities in 154 acidification in the past 300 million years. countries take part. <ReadMore> <ReadMore> Sustainability Forum @IIML 1 Business Sustainability News International Flat roofs may be the answer to managing urban floods Tips: Using gravity to store rainwater on flat roofs could be a sustainable way to mitigate flooding, There are frequent articles in newspapers, writes Jonathan Ward magazines and discussions on electronic media By Jonathan Ward, Guardian Professional about limited natural resources, pollution, rising All sorts of causes are being blamed for the temperatures, climate change and these have current flooding in the UK: lack of dredging, certainly affected human being positively. poor management of catchment areas, Though not much has been done in this construction on flood plains and paving direction but the initiatives are being taken by over front gardens to name a few. scientists, engineers, policy makers, innovators and they are quite encouraging. The technology One thing is for sure – we will be paying a and better practices are being developed. To lot more attention to the topic given the start with, initiatives should be taken in our current experience. Wetter winters are homes. To contribute in these efforts we are predicted in our changing climate, with a providing few tips just to remind and request certainty of more extreme events, which every responsible citizen to bring these into means that we need to look at more habits. sustainable, affordable and quick-win solutions for flood mitigation. Use fuel efficient stove or wick stove, this As recent weather events in UK have shown, we need more sustainable, quick-win We know how to address floodwater will avoid depositing of carbon on utensils solutions for flood mitigation. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images problems in new developments and how to and save fuel too. attain sustainable credits. Large Light the stove only after all preparations underground storage tanks with specialist flow control regimes allow us to minimise the impact of have been made, and the vessel is ready to stormwater flows on the downstream drainage system. be put on the stove. Collect all the required Sometimes, because of the level of the sewer, we need to pump the stored water – adding to the cost and articles for cooking nearby so that you don’t complexity of the system. And all this is expensive; not a great message for these cash-strapped times. have to reduce the flame and go to fetch Recent experience has also shown us that it can be ineffective when inundated by a larger flood. articles. However there is a simple and cheap alternative that makes use of a free resource that we often neglect: While cooking, use wide bottom vessel with gravity. Gravity offers a simple and cheap way to attenuate stormwater flows – by storing water temporarily lid or a pressure cooker. It will be further on a flat roof. Attenuating roof drains which store stormwater on a flat roof at a depth of just three inches can beneficial if pressure cooker is used with reduce the impact of even a big storm. separators. The water will drain away slowly over a few hours, without affecting the downstream drainage system. The only additional costs are for slightly higher waterproofing details and a simple insert in the roof drain. Take out refrigerated articles that are to be cooked in advance so that they attain room Worried about flooding into the building? No problem – simply provide extra overflow drains. And can the temperature automatically without use of structure take it? The weight of the water is less than the weight of a heavy snowfall. As most roofs are designed for snow, the roof will be strong enough already. any type of fuel. With modern waterproofing solutions carrying long warranties, roofs can be designed flat, so very little needs Pre-soak cereals and pulses for sometime to change in the design. If the load-bearing before cooking. This will reduce the cooking capacity of an existing flat roof is known, time as well as the fuel consumption. then it can be retrofitted to cope with Use minimum quantity of water, only stormwater. In the case of new builds, it's sufficient enough for cooking. Thus you will particularly cost effective because it saves save fuel and will also save nutrients from expensive ground works. draining along with excess water. And when it comes to existing housing or Once the item starts boiling reduce flame by commercial buildings, it's possible that a building owner could claim a payment for bringing the burner knob to the simmer upgrading a roof.

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