Environment & Climate Change
Our environmental and climate change work group focuses on the interaction of people and planet. In the forefront of our endeavors are climate mitigation and adaptation, green energy and waste management projects taking into account the how people interact with natural environment and working on achieving both conservation of nature and better living.
Waste Management
The world is drowning in waste. This can be seen as a blight or a valuable resource that needs to be harvested to gain energy or recyclable resources from it. In order to recover waste and put it to some use, systems have to be established in order to make a cyclical economy a reality this involves the whole community from the private sector and industry who have to be incentivized to recycle and use recycled materials, to the municipalities who have to organize the collection, sorting, transport and education of the public, as well as the individual citizen who has to buy into the system of recycling and responsible waste management so that waste can be collected in such a way that it can be recycled or otherwise used as a resource.
The known waste management strategy is “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” Reducing waste generation and disposal requires an efficient waste management strategy. To enhance resource recovery, proper waste segregation is essential. Recycling, reuse, and recovery are important waste management strategies that ease the burden on landfills, conserve natural resources, and save energy.
Some practices for sustainable waste management are:
Waste prevention: This is the most important method of all the other strategies. It involves reducing the amount of waste generated in the first place.
Waste reduction: When you cannot eliminate the usage of waste in some cases, you can minimize waste generation with this strategy.
Recycling and reuse: This strategy involves collecting recyclable materials such as paper, plastic, glass, and metal and processing them into new products.
Incineration: This is a process that involves burning waste at high temperatures to convert it into ash.
Landfill disposal: This is a process that involves burying waste in landfills.
Composting: This is a process that involves breaking
Climate Change Mitigation
Climate change mitigation refers to efforts to reduce or prevent the emission of greenhouse gases. The most effective way to mitigate climate change is to reduce the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. This can be done by increasing energy efficiency, using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, and reducing deforestation.
Strategies for climate change mitigation:
Energy efficiency: This involves using less energy to perform the same tasks.
Renewable energy: This involves using energy sources that are replenished naturally such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal power.
Carbon capture and storage: This involves capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and other industrial sources and storing them underground.
Flood prevention measures: The flooding of rivers and coastal areas due to unpredictable weather events, rising sea levels and melting glaciers can be mitigated with dams and flood barriers.
Water conservation measures: Dams and irrigation channels as well as trees can be used to conserve water in areas which are already affected by dry hot weather.
Forest conservation: This involves protecting forests from deforestation and degradation as well as planting more trees and interspersing agricultural land with trees in practices such as agro-forestry.
Sustainable agriculture: This involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by improving soil health, reducing fertilizer use, and reducing food waste.
