Composting

Definition of composting

Process of biological conversion of biodegradable organic waste material into a stable end product by microbial activity is called as composting. The favorable conditions such as suitable moisture, temperature are needed for growing of microorganism. The composting process may be aerobic or anaerobic. When the composting takes place in the absence of air, it is called aerobic composting.

Principle of composting
Composting (where elements conductive for the process of breaking down of organic matter like air, moisture, micro fauna etc. are introduced) has been identified as the most efficient way of covering municipal organic waste into manure, thereby recycling nature's resource - nutrients. Aerobic composting is the most widely accepted way of communicating organic wastes. This can be carried out in several stages.

Aerobic Composting
Aerobic composting is the process by which waste is converted into compost in the presence of air. It is a simple method where vegetable waste and dead leaves are converted into manure.
The aerobic bacteria help in disintegrating the vegetable matter into smaller particles. During aerobic composting the water content in the vegetable matter which is more than 75% gets removed. Aerobic composting reduces the waste into nearly one tenth of its original volume. It takes about 2 months to 1 years (depending on the volume of garbage) for the garbage to get completely converted into manure. The simple process of aerobic composting is given by following reaction:-
Organic matter+O2+Nutrient---->CO2 + H2O + Humus +Resistant Organic matter.



Materials for composting
Things that are biodegradable can be composted because their molecular structure allows them to decompose rapidly. Non biodegradable items such as metals, plastics and glass take much longer to decompose and because of this, they are not used for composting. Other substances such as food scraps, paper, pruning, wood, and sawdust are readily composted. The decomposition of some other organic substances is toxic to the environment and thus limits what can be composed.

Reforestation

Reforestation is replanting of trees and protecting the forest reserves that already exists. This is an important factor that the people should be made aware of because Nepal is a country that IS heavily dependent on agriculture and goods farming is directly dependent on natural factors.

Trees are very valuable to the human race, economically and health wise. There are many reasons why we should have reforestation. On being mostly that we need forests to live, without which the carbon cycle cannot be completed, and without which there would be desertification. we must remember that forest do not grow as easily as they used to because of fires and other disasters. This is why many forests are planned and cared for. Most of us will never know how they form out because for a forest to completely grow, it needs within anywhere from 60 to 100 years to grow.
Trees not only bring rain but it helps prevent landslides too. This is the most important factor in a farming communities. During drought the amount of extra rain will be like blessing for the farmers.
Replanting of forests is very crucial ti the human race. The earth depends in many cycles, where one organization depends on the other because of what it does. We exhale carbon dioxide, which the trees intake and give us oxygen back during their photosynthesis.
This is the 21st century in which we are living. New technology are being developed for the betterment of the human life. But for the development of the society and the country we are using the resources too much and depleting the no. of trees being currently found in this world. We are doing every thing and remembering everything but slowly by slowly forgetting the importance of the forest and trees. So, Before i end this topic i would like you all individuals to remember not to cut down trees and try to plant as much as possible trees you can.

Change in climate and perception of people towards it

In this 21st century the problem related to climatic change had been of main concern. As mentioned in the previous article of Climate change and its impact on the human life, it had been made clear to us about the different reasons for climatic change, and its different impact on the human civilization.

The impact of this climatic change is seen in different sectors especially in farms. Farmers are too much affected by the climatic changes because of the untimely rainfall. Due to the untimely rainfall and unpredictable nature of climate it has become harder for farmer to plough any particular kind of crops which can be only be grown at a certain climatic condition. Like some crops like rice needs rainy season but it has become difficult to predict the exact time for the rainfall.

The effect of the climatic change is more seen in those countries which are agriculture based and posses very less access towards the technology. All the developed countries maintain some sort of way for plugging and irrigating their farms for crop and vegetable production but for those underdeveloped countries it is very difficult to irrigate. So, those farmers from those countries should mainly depend upon the rain water. But due to the change in the climate it has become very difficult for those farmers to grow any type of crops.

A survey done by myself during 2009-02 in the area of hilly side of Pokhera (Lwang, Sikhelekh, one of the tourism site of Nepal), I found that people whose main occupation was land farming and cattle farming have changed their occupation from farming to foreign workers. It is mainly due to the change in the climatic change and untimely rainfall; it had become very difficult for them to do the irrigation of crops. Not only this but due to global warming the snow caps are getting melted more faster then ever predicted so due to which the natural water stream has also been drastically disturbed(All the sources are slowly getting dried up).

Climate change and its impact on the human life

This is 21st century and during this century the most important topic is the change in the pattern of climate and the impact of the change in the human as well as plant and animal’s life. The main reason for the climatic change is increasing temperature, global warming, pollution, increasing population etc. As everyone knows clearly that the human civilization has developed from the caveman age to coin age and the process of development kept on increasing by reaching this modern 21st and will reach the age of robotics and so on. No matter which ever age do the human civilization reach it will keep on inventing new and improved technology for the effective and efficient utilization of human as well as non-human resources. Like everything has its own type of positive or negative impact on the human civilization. The positive impact will be the technological advancement for betterment of human life. And the negative impact is the environmental pollution and dettoriation of natural resources whether it may be raw materials, non renewable resources or renewable resources.

As mentioned above about human civilization we conclude that as human civilization has developed from caveman age till the modern age new and new improved technology have been constructed , but on the contrary it has also resulted in the depletion of natural resources like petroleum products, forests, water resources, minerals, soil, air etc. Not only this but also the depletion of atmosphere is also done which resulted the depletion of ozone layer(which prevented us from different types of cancers caused due to the exposure of human and animal’s to the UV rays of the sun).
As we know that the human being is over-utilization of petroleum product and excess use of too much CFC producing equipments has resulted in the increase in the level of co2. This increase in the level of carbon dioxide and other type of pollution produced by the industrial sectors has increased the tendency of melting down of all the snow of mountain caps, glacial lakes not only this but also the melting down of Big icecap of the both poles (north and south) have resulted in the increase in the level of ocean water.
As we know that everything has been in balance by the balanced proportion of one element with another. It is the rule of nature. It is also applicable in the case of ocean water which contains 50% of pure water and 50% of salinity in it. Due to the balanced proportion of water and salt level in ocean water all the condition of the natural balance was in equal proportion. But due to the mixing of the melted ice water in the ocean have resulted in the increase in level of water in the ocean and the balance between salt and water in ocean water have been disturbed. Due to this the pressure belt also shifted from one position to another resulting the untimely rainfall, bad weather condition or the change in the climatic condition everywhere in the world.
Due to the mixing of icy water in the ocean water not only the change in the climatic condition is seen but also the ocean water has also increased resulted in the disappearance of small island countries. Not only this but also the problem of tsunami and Katrina has been occasionally been seen now a days.

A defination of environment

Environment, generally refer to the surrounding environment and its components which surrounds us , including all living as well as non-living things .The natural environment and its concept can be differentiated by its component:

* A unit of ecology which functions as natural system without Man's disturbance, which includes all types vegetation ,animal, microorganism, atmosphere, rock , soil, and Natural activities which occurs within their own boundaries.

* Universal natural , Physical phenomena & resource which lacks clear-cut boundary,i.e; climate, air, and water, as well as Electric charge, radiation, magnetism, and energy, that not originated from human activities.

We the human civilizations are the greatest gift of the environment in the whole. But this gift has been misusing the environment itself by polluting it. It presumes itself as the supreme of all creatures found in the mother earth and shows its supremacy by constructing sky touching buildings, destructive weapons, Depleting natural resource’s source by excess utilization of the natural resource, i.e.; “air, water, soil, mineral resources, forest”, showing its control over the poor and helpless creature. It has grown from few groups to huge sizes, from small place to big countries and cities. Where ever they go they show the movie of destruction instead of construction.

For each n every creature the environment is important because their existence fully depends on the existence of the environment. No any creature can sustain without the environment. But due to human activities of polluting more n more environmental resources the problem of global warming has aroused rapidly. Due to the increasing global warming it has drastically changed the environment of today’s world. To know more about this we can see the following information.

· Nepal's environment has suffered the effect of consequent soil erosion and deforestation, agricultural encroachment, & contaminated water supply. Between the 1960s till 1970s, forestlands declined by 8% (30% - 22%) of the total area, mainly because of the need of timber for firewood, which supplied more than 90% of Nepal's fuel’s requirement. Moreover, it’s estimated for the erosion to cause the loss of 240 million cubic meter of topsoil every year.

· During 1957 every forest of Nepal were nationalized. But the effort of reforestation been to its minimal level. In 1980s, a forest conservation program started which included the nurseries of trees in village, free distributions of seeds, and provision for wood-burning stoves. However during 1985 the rate of deforestation averaged to 324 sq mi per year, whereas reforestation was only for 4,000 hectares each year. There was an additional 14.4% loss of forest from 1983-1993. The FAO estimated that at this rate by 2015 the forests of Nepal will be completely wiped out.

· Water and air pollution are significant environmental problems in Nepal. According to U.N.'s sources, the nation produced 3,300 tons of hydrocarbons ,18,000 tons of carbon monoxide and per year. Roughly the nation's one-third city inhabitant & two-thirds of all rural dweller do not get pure water for drinking which has created health hazard.

· During 2001, 28 mammals, 27 bird, as well as 7 plant species in the verse of disappearance (extinction). Some of the endangered species found in the Nepal are the snow leopard, One horned rhino, Asian elephant, Royal Bengal tiger, pygmy hog, swamp deer, gavial, Assam rabbit, wild yak, and chi pheasant.