Get your environmental star rating

Switching to energy-saving light bulbs

A compulsory environmental star rating is to be introduced for all Government and private schools in Sri Lanka with the approval of the Ministry of Education. This is an initiative of the Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association as yet another key step in its endeavour to raise awareness among all schoolchildren of the impact and consequences of global warming. It also aims to encourage the next generation to take responsibility for the environment.

The project commenced in October in schools in the Colombo District and would be extended to schools in the provinces in phases. A series of workshops and seminars would take place around the country to educate school principals, teachers and students on this programme.

The workshops would be organised to build awareness and educate students on the actions to be taken to reduce energy consumption. These include switching to energy-saving light bulbs and switching off computers and other electronic equipment, fans and bulbs when leaving the room.

Electricity and heat are responsible for 24.5 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing energy consumption is therefore a key factor in preserving the environment.

Other key areas which would be focused at the workshops are conservation of water, increasing tree growth and recycling. Some of the actions to be carried out under the conservation of water would be using a watering can in the school garden instead of a hose-pipe and rain water harvesting. Recycling efforts would include using both sides of paper, buying re-usable items rather than disposables, re-using and repairing items such as classroom furniture instead of buying new ones and using recycling bins.

Global warming threatens kangaroos

Australian scientists have issued another warning concerning global warming, saying kangaroos face possible extinction this century as temperatures rise. Researchers at James Cook University suggest that an increase in average temperature of only two degrees Celsius could have a devastating effect on Australia's kangaroos.

"Our study provides evidence that climate change has the capacity to cause large-scale range contractions, and the possible extinction of one macropodid (kangaroo) species in northern Australia," researchers Euan Ritchie and Elizabeth Bolitho said.

The scientists said they used computer modelling and data from three years of field observations to predict how expected temperature changes during the next half-century might affect kangaroos.

They found a temperature increase as small as a half-degree Celsius might significantly shrink kangaroos' geographic ranges and an increase of just two degrees might shrink the ranges by as much as 48 per cent. A six-degree increase, they said, could reduce range sizes by 96 per cent.

-UPI
 

The day to remember our gallant soldiers
 

If you happen to travel to Colombo today, to the area around the Vihara Maha Devi Park, you would notice a special event taking place at the Cenotaph War Memorial located nearby. You would notice many people including service personnel, war veterans and the public laying down poppy wreaths at this memorial.

What is this special event? Of course, it’s Remembrance Sunday or Poppy Day. This is the day when many countries in the world including Sri Lanka remember their war-dead. In Sri Lanka, the main events of the day are organised by the Sri Lanka Ex-Servicemen’s Association, which has a membership drawn from the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Many countries organise special events to remember their war heroes. These include Veterans’ Day in the USA, Armistice Day in France and Remembrance Day in Britain. November is considered as the Month of Remembrance by most countries, especially those who took part in the First and Second World Wars.

The British Remembrance Day is always held on November 11 to commemorate the day that World War I ended in 1918, with the signing of the Armistice Treaty in Northern France. Fighting stopped at 11.00am on this day, and a two-minute silence is observed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to commemorate this. All movement stops at this time so that everyone may concentrate on the remembrance of war heroes.

The nearest Sunday to the 11th is called Remembrance Sunday, when ceremonies are held in honour of those involved in wars, and wreaths are laid on war memorials. A two-minute silence is followed by a bugler playing ‘The Last Post’.

The poppy is considered the flower of remembrance. It’s more than a symbol - it is a source of hope and aid to many. Poppies, which are made by hospitalised soldiers in memory of their fallen comrades, are sold to the public around this time.

All proceeds from the Poppy Day sale are used to provide welfare and other facilities for disabled soldiers and dependents of dead servicemen. The red poppy was adopted as the symbol of remembrance because it was widespread on the battlefields of Europe after the First World War. Its petals symbolised the blood left by soldiers, and came to be associated with remembrance.

Our country is also going through a decade-old war. This has robbed the lives of many armed services personnel, who were in the prime of their youth. On this day, it is our duty to remember and honour them - the brave Sri Lankan soldiers and Police personnel who paid the ultimate sacrifice to provide a safe and secure country for the rest of us!

Open air elephant home at Lunugamwehera

We have been hearing a lot about the human-elephant conflict lately. This has robbed the lives of and injured many beings, both elephants and humans.

As a solution to this conflict, the first ever open air elephant home is now being set up at Lunugamwehera. An area of the Lunugamwehera National Park, which is of 4,000 acres in extent, has been allocated for this purpose. A canal for the park is currently being set up while an electrified fence is also being established to confine the elephants to the home.

Life may stem from volcanic eruptions

U.S. space agency-funded research suggests lightning and gases from volcanic eruptions could have given rise to the first life on Earth.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists, along with researchers at Indiana University reached that conclusion after re-analysing samples from a classic origin-of-life experiment conducted in the early 1950s.

"Historically, you don't get many experiments that might be more famous than these; they re-defined our thoughts on the origin of life and showed unequivocally (clearly) that the fundamental building blocks of life could be derived from natural processes," said the study's lead author Adam Johnson, a graduate student with the NASA Astrobiology Institute team at Indiana University.

"This research is both a link to the experimental foundations of astrobiology as well as an exciting result leading toward greater understanding of how life might have arisen on Earth," said Carl Pilcher, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the space agency's Ames Research Center.

The study that included James Cleaves of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Antonio Lazcano of the National Autonomous University of Mexico is reported in the journal Science.

UPI