Southern Star-May2023 English

It has been noticed that Global Warming has occurred many times on the Earth, followed by an Ice Age. There is an Universal rule, that Information is never destroyed. It is stored by one way or another, in the Universe. E.g. if a tree is cut across , circular striations are seen on the cut surface, which give information about the conditions on Earth about 8000 years in the past. If we drill through the Ice Cap of Antarctica to the depth of 2 miles, we get information of the atmospheric conditions on Earth up to the 2,50,000 years in the past. From the sediments on the floor of Oceans, we can obtain information about the conditions on Earth at about 3 million years in the past. According to the information gathered from the above sources, we can deduce that, Ice Age occurred on Earth for five times until now. Every Ice Age lasted for approximately 100,000,years ,followed by Global Warming. That means until now Earth experienced Global Warming for 5 times .

One of the causative factors for Global Warming is Green House Gases. They are, CO2,Methane, Nitrous Oxide, moisture in the atmosphere etc. These gasses act as a blanket around Earth making Earth hotter. Another factor is the Sunspots. They occur cyclically between 11 to 260 years. Solar flares happen near Sunspots ejecting lot of energy which causes temperature rise on Earth. Every 2100 years, Earth's axis and it's orbit around Sun changes, so that, Earth comes nearer to Sun, causing temperature rise on Earth. After 100,000 years Earth's orbit around Sun changes from circular to oblong. This brings Earth nearer to Sun for some time causing the temperature rise on Earth. Current temperature rise on Earth might have happened due to Green House Gasses.

Among the Green House Gasses, CO2 is the biggest culprit. CO2 is exhaled by humans, vegetation and other animals. Systematic agriculture started around 11000 years ago. Agricultural burning of fields creates lot of CO2. After Industrialization many factories were built. Smoke emitting from the chimneys after burning of coal and other fuels, use of Petrol, diesel in internal combustion engine etc. releases plenty of CO2 in the atmosphere. Approximately 186billion tons of CO2 is released in the atmosphere every year, out of which humans are responsible for 6 billion tons personally. 90 billion tons are released by other animals and vegetation. Remaining 90 billions of CO2 is produced by volcanoes, purification of fallen leaves etc. We can conclude by above figures, that humanity is responsible for the minor part of CO2 emissions. In the atmosphere ,CO2 lasts for about 10 years and is absorbed by vegetation and sea.

Methane gas is mainly generated in the stomach of animals and their droppings. Though number of wild animals is going down, domestic animals are increasing in their number, causing Methane gas emissions. Nitrous Oxide gas is produced by the proliferating Industry and is having adverse effect on the atmosphere.

Even if the temperature on the Earth increases by 2 to 5 °c., consequences will be bad. There might be torrential rains with flooding at some places. On the other hand deserts might be formed at other places. Around 6000 years ago there was plenty of water at Sahara in Africa. Now Sahara is the largest desert on earth. Last Ice Age ended about 10,000.years ago. Since then Earth temperature has risen by 0.6 to 0.2 °C. Global warming will melt ice on North and South Pole, which will increase the sea level by 300 ft. Consequently all land on Earth up to the Hight of 300ft.will be immersed under water. About 10,000 years ago continents on earth were joined by land bridges. Africa was joined to Arabia near Somalia. Arabia was joined to Asia near Iran. South East Asia was joined to Indonesia. Siberia was joined to North America across the  Bering strait. Humans spread all over the world by crossing these land bridges. Now all of these land bridges are under water.

After going through the article untill now, there is bound to be a question mark in the minds of the reader, about the relationship between Global Warming and Ice Age. Average temperature of the earth is about 22°c.Ocean currents are responsible for maintaining this temperature. Commonly these currents flow from North and South Poles towards equator. Air in polar regions is cold because Sunrays fall slanted on the surface. Because of the cold air adjacent to the surface of the ocean, surface temperature of sea water is also cold. Cold water being heavier, sinks to the bottom of the ocean. This phenomenon acts as a pump. As sea water always remains at the same level, warm water from equator takes place of the cold water of the polar region. Cold water of the polar region, which has sunk to the bottom of the ocean, flows towards equator to replace the warm water of the equator. Thus an ocean current is formed between equator and polar region. This action maintains the ocean temperature at moderate level at both regions. Thus an average temperature of the earth at 22°c is maintained.

If this cycle is broken, then global temperature increases, due to which ,not only polar ice caps melt but the ocean surface also becomes warmer. Therefore the surface water remains lighter and does not sink at the bottom of the sea. Consequently the Pump stops working and warmer water from equatorial region does not flow towards Polar region. At the same time, as this circulatory movement of the water comes to standstill, cold water from Polar region stays where it is. Over a period of time water at the Polar region becomes colder and colder. As an effect, ice forms over the water and land. As ice reflects the Sunrays, air at the Polar region also does not get warm. As a result a vicious cycle starts and more and more region comes under the ice, initiating an Ice Age.

First Ice Age on earth occurred 2.4 to 2.1 billion years ago. Second 710 to 640 million years ago. Third 460 to 430 million years ago. Fourth 350 to 260 million years ago. Fifth and the current Ice Age has started 40 million years ago. During current Ice Age Earth was covered by ice up to the 41°latitude in the Northern Hemisphere. New York was under the ice up to the Hight of 2000 ft. An important land mark event happened in human history during this time. Human beings migrated to Africa and South Asia, which were warmer, from Europe and North Asia which were colder.

As humans are intelligent and conscientious they are always conscious about the survival of their species. But for the nature every life is equal. The life has been destroyed and regenerated repeatedly on the earth and sometime or another human species also will face the same fate. Even then human strive to survive with the help of their intelligence, knowledge and technology.

The End

The Expo had 55 stalls of renowned organizations imparting training in various skills as well as of successful Start-ups.

In the amphitheater at the venue, there were talks, panel discussions and presentations on various aspects of Skilling and Start-ups. Renowned personalities like Bharat Dabholkar, Dr. Deepak Bhajekar, Mukesh Malhotra, Praful Talera, Pradeep Lokhande others inspired the students with their speeches. Panel discussions on Incubation, Starting a successful business, Branding etc, involved leading industry experts who guided the students on how to acquire necessary skills, how to start a business and make it successful etc. RCPS partnered with Laghu Udyog Bharati in this exercise.

A Business Idea contest was also organized for college students, in which 50 entries were received. Out of these, 5 groups were shortlisted, who got an opportunity to present their ideas to a panel of VC Companies who regularly invest in start-ups. The best three entries were given cash prizes of Rs. 15000, 10000 & 7500.

RCPS conducted a promotion campaign through newspapers, hoardings at important locations, auto rickshaw panels, college promotions and social media, which helped in creating a positive public image and also attracted students in large numbers to the expo.

Rotary Club of Pune South plans to make this their signature project during the coming 5 years and take it to the next level.

The efforts, put in by Sandeep, Abhijit, Milind, Raghavendra, Subhash, Ravindra, Nandinee, Yamini, Anjali and all the team members who actively participated, were seen everywhere.

The icing on the cake was the informative and motivating speeches by the eminent speakers.

This project should feature as our flagship project every year. I am sure, if informed to PM through proper channel, it will get a place in his "मन की बात"

I congratulate all those, who worked whole heartedly and tirelessly for this project.

Kindly excuse me, if I have missed out any name due to my ignorance.

Regards,

Rtn. PDG Arun Kudale