Imagine going outside and feeling like you’ve walked into a microwave. Scary, right? That’s not some wild sci-fi plot — it’s our possible future if we don’t take care of our ozone layer. Every year, on 16 September, we observe World Ozone Day to remember this invisible shield so vital to our survival, and how our every act can either protect it or hurt it.

The United Nations declared World Ozone Day to be observed on 16 September in 1987 when the Montreal Protocol, the first agreement to phase out ozone-depleting substances, was signed. This is a renewal of commitments towards safeguarding the ozone for generations to come.

You must be thinking, “What’s the big deal about the ozone layer?” Well, this thin, watery gas high up in the atmosphere protects the Earth from the harmful UV Rays of the sun – like sunscreen. These UV rays can cause skin cancers and cataracts, damage crops and disrupt the marine ecosystem.

Get the digital edition of the September 2024 issue to read the full article.

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Plants have intrigued people for thousands of years. They provide aesthetic beauty as well as materials for our basic needs. Moreover, the application of plant sciences improves the yield and supply of medicines, foods, fibres, building materials and other plant products.

What’s this career about?

Botany can be a rewarding career option in India for those who have a passion for plants, the environment, and research. Botanists study all aspects of plant life, including their structure, growth, genetics, and interactions with the environment.

They could be: identifying, recording, monitoring or breeding a plant species or searching for a new species, studying plant populations at a number of sites across different locations, to investigate the effects of pollution, drought or agricultural pests, studying plant cells, structure and function, extracting any useful chemicals, working in conservation, protecting plant life in a local area, promoting public awareness through activities or managing plant collections at a botanic garden, using specialist laboratory equipment and techniques such as electron microscopes, digital imaging analysis and satellite imaging, exploring the use of plants in medicine; for example, finding out if a plant has anti-bacterial or anti-oxidant properties, studying plant evolution or genetics, collecting and analysing data, writing reports and making recommendations based on the results of experiments or observations.

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You’ve probably heard about carbon offsetting, where companies or individuals can pay to remove carbon dioxide from the air to “cancel out” their emissions. But as we consider the next steps for our country, there are some important questions to consider: how exactly does it work and can we trust it? Is it actually helping the climate?

The idea behind carbon markets is simple. Companies that pollute can purchase ‘carbon credits’ from environmental projects that absorb or avoid releasing CO2, like planting trees or installing renewable energy. One credit equals one ton of CO2 removed from the atmosphere.

While this approach seems straightforward, investigations have revealed the risk of greenwashing — creating the misleading impression that a product or service is “environmentally conscious”.

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In a bid to tackle river and ocean pollution in India, Hong Kong-based marine technology start-up, Clearbot, is launching a fleet of larger solar-powered autonomous boats.

Clearbot previously deployed 13 boats capable of collecting up to 250 kg of plastic waste daily for projects in Hong Kong and India. Each of their new self-driving electric boats collects approximately 500 kg of plastic waste and other debris from the river and ocean. The boats collect waste from the surface of the water and deposit it in designated areas for collection and recycling.

Founded by University of Hong Kong graduates in 2019, Clearbot harnesses solar power for its fleet, thus eliminating carbon emissions associated with conventional diesel-powered vessels that traditionally perform these tasks.

India contributes approximately 13 per cent of global ocean plastic. With at least 11 million tonnes of plastic entering oceans annually, initiatives like Clearbot’s represent vital steps toward alleviating environmental degradation.

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D2C startup, BECO, develops and manufactures 100% natural and plastic-free consumer goods in the kitchen, home, and personal care space. Founded by Aditya Ruia, Anuj Ruia and Akshay Varma, BECO makes a sustainable lifestyle easily accessible to all Indians. It provides affordable and eco-friendly alternatives to single-use products such as napkins, toilet paper, tissue rolls and more. BECO recently launched its first-ever 94% plastic-free and 100% recyclable tetra-pak packaging for cleaning solutions.

In this exclusive interview, BECO’s co-founder, Aditya Ruia, talks to NEHA KIRPAL about their process, products, and plans for the future.

Tell us how you develop and manufacture natural and plastic-free consumer goods.
AR: As a sustainable brand, we want consumers to slowly eliminate non-biodegradable items from their homes. Our products, like tissue rolls, kitchen towels, and other normally plastic goods such as toothbrushes are made from bamboo. Bamboo is a strong, durable fibre that is a better alternative to trees that are felled for paper. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on the planet. We source the raw material from North East India.

In terms of kitchen and personal cleaning solutions, we identify non-toxic chemicals. This ensures that all our products are biodegradable and compostable. The biggest benefit of using non-toxic chemicals in cleaning products is that they prevent health issues for those handling them.

Tell us about your affordable and eco-friendly alternatives.
AR: Single-use plastic is one of the largest reasons for environmental degradation. The genesis of BECO goes back to a time when the three of us were part of a beach clean-up drive in Mumbai. We discovered a plastic wrapper, which belonged to a chocolate whose circulation was discontinued back in the 1990s. We wanted to address the pain point afflicting Indian consumers: lack of awareness and availability as well as the ill-affordable options. Starting BECO was our response to this gap.

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Greetings, eco-champions! I’m Agastya Karan Seth, a 16-year-old Grade XI student at The Shri Ram School, Moulsari, Gurugram, on a mission to combat the deceptive menace of greenwashing through my initiative GreenWatchers: Gaming for Transparent Sustainability. Let’s dive into the world of greenwashing, understand its impact, and explore how we can collectively drive positive change.

Greenwashing: The Wolf in Eco-Friendly Clothing

Picture this: Companies dressing up in eco-friendly attire while hiding harmful practices underneath. This is the art of greenwashing — a tactic that misleads well-intentioned consumers into supporting businesses that don’t truly contribute to sustainability. They do this by not disclosing the impact of their operations on the environment, a practice sometimes called “green-hushing”, or by making false, vague, exaggerated claims or by using deceptive images and symbols that make us believe we are supporting sustainable industries. The consequences are severe, as our choices shift support away from genuine eco-efforts and unintentionally contribute to the problem. This is where awareness becomes paramount.

Journey Towards Sustainability One Conscious Decision at a Time

GreenWatchers.in is a web-based tool for revolutionizing our understanding of, and hence our approach towards, sustainability. It features a game where players navigate a sustainable world, confronting challenges, collecting points, and, most importantly, exposing false sustainability claims. The eco-conscious journey equips you with an electric vehicle to navigate through your path to sustainability.

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Ellyanne Wanjiku Chlystun Githae, a 13-year-old environmentalist from Nairobi, Kenya, is Africa’s Youngest Climate Change Ambassador and has been honoured as Kenya’s Youngest Mashujaa.

Ellyanne’s interest in environmental protection was sparked at a young age, having been nurtured in an area renowned for its varied ecosystems and natural beauty. At 4 years of age, in kindergarten, she did a project on ‘heroes’. That’s when she first found out about Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai’s impactful quote, “You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself, that values itself, that understands itself,” left an indelible mark on Ellyanne, shaping her understanding that the mind governs both body and mindset.

Ellyanne considers herself fortunate to have mentors who supported her in an unusual career path. Her mother motivated her to pursue environmental work even though she was not very knowledgeable about it.

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The U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP28) was held in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December 2023 with 197 countries’ representatives. COP aims to resolve the causes of climate change and global warming.

On 11 December 2023, as countries clashed over an agreement to phase out fossil fuels at COP28, Licypriya Kangujam, a 12-year-old Indian climate and environmental activist, stormed onto the stage, waving a placard above her head that read, “End fossil fuels. Save our planet and our future.” The audience applauded her most appealing speech, which stirred an urgency to address environmental issues on a global platform. However, she was escorted away and expelled from COP28.

The teen protestor springs from Manipur, a small carbon-negative state in India, and studies in Grade 7 at Ryan International School. She fights to save the planet and its future. Growing up in Odisha, her life was struck by Cyclone Titli in 2018 and Cyclone Fani in 2019, leaving her loved ones homeless, orphaned and lifeless. She then moved to Delhi but was trapped by its high air pollution and heat wave crisis. All these incidents turned her into a child climate activist.

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The 50th World Environment Day is around the corner, and it’s time to take a closer look at a critical issue that affects all of us: plastic pollution. It’s hard to fathom, but humanity produces a jaw-dropping 430 million tonnes of plastic each year. Even more concerning is that two-thirds of this plastic is made up of short-lived products that quickly become waste, contaminating our land and oceans and eventually entering our food chain. It’s crucial to join forces and address this crisis to protect the planet for future generations.

The painful reality of mountains, beaches and land being transformed into rubbish dumps due to plastic waste accumulation is becoming more prevalent. The mounting levels of plastic pollution are threatening the survival of life. Plastic is often mistaken for food by animals, which can cause harm to their health as well as ours. It is absolutely imperative to take proactive measures to prevent this situation from spiralling out of control. Failure to do so could result in catastrophic consequences for the environment, human health, and the Earth’s natural beauty.

But fear not! The situation isn’t all doom and gloom. Working together makes it possible to effect change and overcome this crisis. The 50th World Environment Day offers the perfect opportunity to raise awareness, initiate action and explore solutions to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.

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On the Origin of Species

The reflection on the universe leads us to its amazing variety and harmony. There have been any number of efforts to find the truth about how it originated, and we have the Big Bang Theory now for almost a century, which at best, is an effort at explaining it and not an established fact. We have versions with metaphysical roots like the Hiranyagarbha (Golden Womb) Theory of Rigveda 10:121 and Purusha Suktam of Rigveda 10:90 or the Golden Egg Theory in several cultures. I am more familiar with the Judeo-Christian tradition (Torah and Bible) creation narrative which offers a very interesting story of the origin and diversification of the universe. The narrative apparently tries to establish the proven role of humans as stewards responsible for the upkeep of this diversity with the command to ‘till and keep’. As the planet faces unforeseen cataclysmic events in the form of cyclones, typhoons, tornados, blizzards, torrential floods, unprecedented snow, heat waves, increasing melting of the polar glaciers, and a resultant threat to the planet and its diverse dwellers, we are faced with five-fold challenges:

1. The planet and its dwellers, including humans, require biodiversity to live peacefully on it.  
2. The diversity is to be understood, assessed, appreciated and protected for the benefit of the present generation and for posterity. 
3. While humans have great power to mould and manipulate diverse beings on the planet, after the point of balance is lost, no human technology or effort can withhold the disasters that entail, which would affect humans as well, increasingly without distinction. 
4. Humans have the great potential to protect and recreate, and thus be truly co-creators and saviours with the Creator, to re-establish harmony by restoring biodiversity. 
5. In the context of the all-pervasive and almost unretractable human interface with every aspect of planetary diversity, the great human responsibility is to cautiously and discreetly attend to the diversity of the species and systems, in promoting as well as regulating them, reviewing every step taken in this realm. 

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