The Civil Analyst

Did you know that every year thousands of golf balls are lost in our planet's waterways? This probably does not surprise anyone who plays golf. What harm could a little golf ball do anyways? Well, new studies are coming to light that the little golf ball is a big problem. As they break down they release their contents into the ecosystem. A modern golf ball is made from the following: thermoplastics, zinc oxide, zinc acrylate, benzoyl peroxide, heavy metals, polybutadiene, and other secret combinations of exotic materials not disclosed by the manufacturer. These are not good for the planet! Don't forget about the plastic portion of the ball either. As it breaks down the plastic turns into microplastics. From the deepest depths of the ocean to the snow of the Artic microplastics have been found by pollution researchers to invade every corner of our planet. The size of the current microplastic pollution problem is huge! Estimates are between 15 trillion and 51 trillion microplasti

  Recently, Tesla has launched their electric cars in the Indian market. Though there has been a mixed reaction by the Indian consumers because of the price of the cars and lack of charging facilities. It is expected that Tesla will find it difficult to compete with the Diesel and Petrol variants as well as Indian electric car manufacturers. Talking about electric cars in order to curb environmental pollution and encourage people to switch to eco-friendly transportation mode, the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways of India has approved a proposal to levy a ‘Green Tax’ on old vehicles. Experts argues that, charging taxes on vehicles that cause environmental pollution will decrease environmental loss in a cost effective manner by encouraging behavioural changes among people. The Green Tax can be seen as a measure to strengthen India’s commitment to the Paris Agreement of 2015. As per the agreement India has targeted to reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35%

  The Government of India has notified an ordinance to constitute a Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region (NCR) and its adjoining areas. The ordinances also disbanded the Supreme Court appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) that was setup in 1998 for curbing air pollution in the NCR Key Mandate of the new Commission The new commission will supersede all existing bodies including the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) as well as state governments in matters of air pollution mitigation. Though, the powers of CPCB and its state branches will continue. However, in case of any dispute or a clash of jurisdiction the commission’s writ will prevail specific to matters concerning to air pollution. It has been witnessed that during winters the problem of air pollution becomes worse due to the practice of stubble burning in the adjoining states such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and western part of Uttar Pradesh. A regul

  Three oxygen atoms when bound together forms ozone (O 3 ). It is very unstable and highly reactive relative to oxygen and often used as a bleach, a deodorizing agent, and a sterilization agent for air and drinking water. Ozone can be ‘good’ or bad for health and the environment depending on the place of its occurrence. Stratospheric ozone( at an altitude of 25-30 Km) is good because where it is found naturally and acts as a protective radiation shield for living organisms on earth. It strongly absorbs ultraviolet light in the region 220-330 nm and thereby protects life on earth from severe radiation damage. Ozone found in tropospheric region is termed as bad ozone or ground level ozone. When nitrogen oxides (NO x ), volatile organic compound (VOCs) (emitted by cars, power plants, refineries, chemical plants etc.) and sunlight reacts together to form various secondary pollutants, which are also known as photochemical oxidants. One of the most abundant photochemical oxidants is ozone

  One of carbonaceous gas in the earth atmosphere which takes part in global carbon cycle is Carbon Monoxide. Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a colourless, tasteless and odourless gas which is 96.5% as heavy as air and insoluble in water. Its molecular weight is 28.1 with a boiling point of -191.5ºC and melting point of -205ºC. However, it is not uniformly distributed on earth but can be transported long distances and remains in the atmosphere for a longer duration with an average residence time of 36-110 days. Some basic chemical reactions that yields CO are-       I.         Incomplete combustion of fuel: 2C + O 2 à 2CO     II.         Reactions between carbon dioxide and carbon containing materials at very high temperature such as in blast furnaces: CO 2 + C à 2CO    III.         Dissociation of carbon dioxide at elevated temperature CO 2 ó CO Sources and Sink of Carbon Monoxide in the Atmosphere There are two types of sources of CO in the atmosphere which are natural so

Now a days, oceanacidification has become a major problem and it is growing rapidly. Ocean acts as a natural carbon sink and absorb more than half of the CO 2 emitted in the atmosphere. Earlier, scientists thought that this might be beneficial for the planet to reduce the Greenhouse effect , as it leaves less carbon dioxide in the air. Moreover, they didn’t care about rising acidification in the Oceans because they thought that rivers carried enough dissolved chemicals from rocks providing buffer to ocean’s pH . Unfortunately, this is not the case as carbon dioxide is dissolving into the oceans so rapidly that this natural buffering has not been able to keep up, corresponding to rapidly decreasing pH in ocean’s surface waters. As those surface layers slowly mixed into deep water, the entire ocean is affected. Taking into account the great diversity of life in the oceans, increased acidification can harm the marine life in different ways. There are various effects of ocean acidificati

71% area of the earth is covered with water and around 97% of it is stored in oceans. Oceans act as a natural sink for carbon dioxide gas, absorbing 30% of CO 2 released in the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels. Since industrial revolution our oceans have absorbed approximately 525 billion tons of CO 2 from the atmosphere. Presently, oceans are absorbing around 22 million tons of CO 2 per day causing drop in oceans pH level by 0.1 units. The pre-industrialization pH of the ocean water was 8.179 units which dropped to 8.1074 units in the 20 th century and at present it is 8.069 units resulting 30% more acidity in the world’s oceans. Scientists has warned that ocean acidification is rapidly progressing roughly 10 times faster than any time in the last 55 million years. What is Ocean Acidification? The ongoing and consistent drop of pH level of ocean water is referred as ocean acidification, which is mainly caused by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from the atmo