Enlightened EducationScience and Natural Wisdom

SCIENCE> PEEL THE ONION >ATOM Science till now > single aspects of Nature:Mechanics-Gravity >Newton, Laws of heredity > Mendel

Holistic Aspects of Nature – Life - the Living planet is what we need to understand

Science is about the known – a lot is knownBut much more is unknown in the matrix of life on the planetHow do we deal with this? Natural wisdom

By: Vikram SoniUGC Professor, National Physical LaboratoryCentre for Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia& Natural Heritage First

PART I What we are and How we got here EVOLUTION ON EARTH

Beginning > No Life > Atmosphere 98% CO2 ( like Mars , Venus today)Sun Now > 30% hotter > Temperature constant > Greenhouse C02 must be shed

-3 billion yrs Blue Green Sea Algae > PHOTOSYNTHESIS > O2 >Oxidized iron on seabed > stromatolytes reefs > O2

-500 Million years.> Plants go ashore > Regular Photosynthesis ( CO2 +H2O > sugars..+ O2) >new species - fleas , Ants and us > O2 Breathers > give out CO2 > make the cycle

-Decay of Organic matter > methane > CH4 +2 O2 > CO2 +2H2O

-Nature invented new species-Coral, algae,crustaceas > shells fall to the bottom of the sea > white cliffs we see today-> Greenhouse C02 was taken out by them - -The carbon cycle -Global warming Steady .03% CO2 Now .04% CO2

PART I THE LIVING SCHEME IN NATURE

LIVING ORGANISMS MAINTAIN A STEADY STATE –Normal Body Temp.Regardless of the outside TempA Rock goes to Temp EQUILIBRIUM with the Outside = NO STEADY STATE Start with a species > waste > need another species to feed on waste…….>tillcycle closes. CYCLES - NO WASTE

Fundaments Natural WisdomNatural cycles – one for each element > created through many species – biodiversity maintains balance - THE STEADY STATE

GLOBAL WARMING is about a 2C CHANGE IN THE BODY TEMP OF EARTH

II WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING

The Market Economy WORKS ON MORE PROFIT

TECHNOLOGY > more products > more sales ( TV Internet…) >More profit >nonstop > RUNAWAY

Beginning > Local village markets > Town and country > District>National > BIGGER AND BIGGER > GLOBAL ECONOMYTODAY Scale of Market and Industry LARGER than the scale of the planetUNLIKE NATURE THIS --> WASTE MOUNTAIN

GLOBAL ECONOMY FUELS MORE CONSUMPTION BUT DOES NOTACT AS A SAFETY NET – like the air in nature – forest fireAll technolgy has been injurious to the planet??? Something is off

LOSS

II WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOINGLOSS1 Billion people have already finished 1/3 of species and natural resource of The earth . WHAT IF 6 BILLION WENT ON THE SAME DIET

World Situation At the planetary level, we have a huge crisis concerning the air, water and

lands - their composition and species (1/3 of all species already extinct),. The crises have arisen from excessive production and waste accmulation

The crisis is in the form of:

• Climate Change

• Reduction in forest cover and soil degradation

• Vanishing fresh water reserves

This is making all the responsible world governments sit up and do something, notably with the exception of U.S.

So it is clear the ideology and scheme of living that we have been pursuing is flawed and inadequate.This is an immediate question – Politics,Education, Values.

II WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING

INDIA

Some concerns;

• Glaciers melting

• Water storage capacity going down as forests shrink

• Population up by 4 times since independence

And we are developing at a huge pace to catch up with U.S , where energy consumption is over 20 times ours.

• U.S. area is 3 times India’s, U.S. population is quarter of India’s. So amount of natural resources available with U.S is 12 times per

capita compared to India.

• We are becoming conspicuous consumers So we are going to finish these resources much more than12 times faster than U.S. - DANGER

II WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING

- Delhi URBAN Natural Resource

In developing countries cities are urbanizing at an unsustainable pace, way beyond their carrying capacity., in terms of everything:

• Natural resources, water, waste disposal, traffic, shrinking open spaces etc.

• WATER

• For these mega cities in the developing world it is no longer a question of importing an essential resource like water, the water is just not there

• New York, gets its water from the Catskills forest, which is 150

kilometres away. Delhi does not have such an option

 

Water Resource - Delhi

• The sustainable carrying capacity of Delhi is about 8 million - less than half its present population! (“Water and Carrying Capacity of a City; Delhi, Vikram Soni, published in Economic and Political Weekly, Nov. 8 2003,)

• The study finds that a third of the city’s water is imported from the Ganga and the Beas and further import of water from these heavily agricultured river basins will lead to intense conflict.

• It also found that the secondary (non potable) recycling of water is not a realistic option, as the cost per person will be close to 1/3 the annual per capita income

• This makes it urgently necessary to examine the issue in depth- especially the preservation of local water resource.

III WHAT WE NEED TO DO ‘PRESERVE AND USE’ SOLUTIONS

Living Natural Resources Evolutionary

Resource millions of year to make Loss: Irreversible Cannot be made by

technology Natural Cycle Tech all waste recycled

Natural wisdom

1. Value of Local Living Natural Resources2. New Non Invasive Preserve and Use

solutions

Delhi Yamuna Flood PlainsArea - 97 sq.kms on map

Soil Composition - Sand and silt

Water holding capacity - 40% of its volume (see experiment)

Depth of sand and silt layer - 30-40 metres approximately

Specific Yield - 20% of gross volume of aquifer

Total water yield potential - 0.6 billion cubic metres (almost 3/4

annual water needs of Delhi)

Economic Value – over Rs. 6,000 crores per year of permanent annual

non invasive use (estimated at cheapest tanker value of water or recycling cost)

THE SAME APPLIES TO THE RAVI FLOODPLAINS IN LAHORE

The huge floodplain between the Chenab and the Ravi is much wider (10’s of km) than the Yamuna floodplain and is over 100meters deep and has a higher yield than the Yamuna!

RidgeTotal area ~150 sq. kms (only 77 sq.kms notified, need to

notify the restURGENT)Recharge Potential- @ 40% (25 cm) of rainfall (60 cm

per year) for 80 Sq kms of ridge, it comes to 20 MCM (20 billion liters)

Delhi’s Ridge provides pure natural mineral water. At Re.2 per litre (1/15th the cost of regular mineral water bottles!) It is worth Rs. 4000 crores or ~ $1 billion a year.

80%

Organic WaterOrganic Water

• Aquifer Pollution

• River Pollution : Industrial, city sewage, agricultural wash

Deep Underground Aquifers

Emergency Reserves

‘Preserve and Use’ the ridge, the river for great economic benefit.

Protect the basic quality of life for us and future generations.

This site is one of its kind - a comprehensive site on urban natural resource It details areas of great natural resource value and equips the citizen to understand and evaluate them. It gives new, creative, perennial and non invasive solutions to secure the water, air, forest of cities, worth billion of ‘dollars’. All these resources are forever and once lost are lost forever.

It is the one way – preserve and use this resource- to secure a sustainable future for the cities and their citizens. It is a ground level answer to Climate Change.

Proposal: Integral Heritage 1. Like all the built heritage we must identify all the natural heritage sites and put them on a

conservation list.

2. Natural Living Resource Site – See Naural Heritage First Site

1 Mapping using Google Maps

2 Knowledge Base Publishes material on new ‘Preserve and Use’ solutions

3 Visual Film Clips and Power Points Public Outreach for building awareness

P.S- At present we, in Delhi are reeling under the blatant violation of all land laws for the last three decades.