project on IMPACT OF FESTIVALS ON WEATHER AND CLIMATE

IMPACT OF FESTIVALS ON WEATHER AND CLIMATE

 SUB THEME: WEATHER, CLIMATE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE

Team Members:                Teachers Incharge:

Amreen Kohli                      Ms. Jasmit Janeja

Amolika Saini                      Ms. Kultar Kaur

Shobhita Garg

Javteshwar Singh

Ansh Bangia

Sat Paul Mittal School

Ludhiana

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Words never can express Our deep sense of gratitude and indebtedness to Mrs. Bhupinder Gogia, Principal, Sat Paul Mittal School for her keen interest, able guidance, constant supervision and ever available help in the preparation of this Project.

We owe immensely to Dr (Mrs.) Geeta Dua, Head Senior School, Sat Paul Mittal School for her supporting attitude and polite dealing.

Words are not enough to acknowledge our heartful thanks to Our Teachers Ms. Jasmit Janeja and Ms. Kultar Kaur, their encouragement, constructive counseling and detailed suggestions in every phase of planning, working and writing of this manuscript.

With adnascent pleasure, we reiterate our gratitude and indebtedness to Dr. G.S. buttar (Head, Dept. of Agriculture Metereology, pau, Ludhiana) and Dr. S. S. Gosal (Dean, College of Biotechnology, pau, Ludhiana) for their cooperation and wise counsel, as and when required.

No words can suffice our feelings of immense gratitude to Our Parents For their constant support and inspiration.

Amreen kohli

Amolika saini

Shobhita garg

Ansh bangia

Javteshwar singH

  

Introduction

India is said to be “The Land of Festivals”. Right after monsoon comes the season of festivities, bringing a reprieve from daily grind, where different communities celebrate ritually diverse festivals. Each festival in India has multifaceted significance and is religiously marked by various practices. While festivals are an occasion to celebrate with great pomp and show, spare a moment to think about various eco-friendly means to celebrate these festivals. Some hazards caused due to these festivals:

1. Noise Pollution- Loudspeakers, fire crackers and loud musical instruments, appear to be the biggest culprits of noise pollution during festivals in our country. A study by WHO asserts that noise pollution is not only a nuisance to the environment but it also poses considerable threat to public health.
2. Water Pollution- Ganpati celebrations shortly followed by Durga Puja witnesses immersion areas littered with parts of idols. The mess created by bursting of crackers cannot be ignored as well. The materials such as plaster of Paris used in making idols add to water pollution. Paints used for decorating the idols, loaded with high levels of mercury and lead, increase the toxin levels of water bodies after immersion days. This definitely disrupts the water cycle.
3. Air Pollution- apart from releasing toxic gases, bursting of crackers also leads to air pollution. Diwali leads to an alarming rise in the level of poisonous gases that are added into the atmosphere. Apart from this it also affects the weather and climate of a region as we can witness the smog right after the Diwali celebrations.

In addition to Diwali the harvesting festivals also contribute a lot to the deterioration of the climatic factors. The burning of the husk right after harvesting leads to the formation of smog and it’s very difficult to breathe in the air

Objectives

1. To know about various festivals commonly celebrated in Punjab
2. To identify the ways through which these festivals are celebrated.
3. To identify the effect of these festivals on weather and climate.
4. To formulate practical ways for celebrating these festivals in an eco-friendly manner.
5. To generate awareness amongst masses so as to encourage them for practicing these ways.
6. To formulate practical ways for neutralizing the harmful effects caused by celebrations of the above mentioned festivals.

Work Plan

The project was planned as follows:

1. Preparation of the list of festivals celebrated in Punjab.
2. Collection of data regarding the means of celebrating these festivals.
3. Survey regarding the views of people on eco-friendly means of celebrating festivals.
4. Remedial steps which can be undertaken to celebrate festivals by eco-friendly ways.
5. Educating the masses so as to encourage them for adopting these means for healthy living.
6. Suggesting ways to neutralize harmful effects on environment due to celebrations of these festivals.

Impact of Festivals on Weather and Climate

Fireworks display during festive celebrations can cause acute short term air pollution. Deepawali –the festival of light– is celebrated in India, every year during October or November with great fireworks display. Fireworks contain chemicals such as potassium nitrates, potassium chlorate, potassium perchlorate, charcoal, sulfur, manganese, sodium oxalate, aluminum and iron dust powder, strontium nitrate, and barium nitrate. These firecrackers when burnt can release various gaseous and particulate air pollutants and toxic metals to significant quantity and degrades the air quality as a whole. Attri and coworkers reported display of fireworks could produce ozone (O₃), a strong and harmful oxidizing agent, at the ground level without the participation of NO_X. In Thiruvananthapuram, India a study about the effect of firework display during Deepawali on the mass concentration of atmospheric black carbon reveals over 3 times increase compared to normal days. Weather and climate are key environmental factors which determine the state of natural environment, which influences the human being in to a large extent. In brief, weather and climatic condition determines the state of natural environment in relation to land, soil, water, flora and fauna, etc. Natural state of environment creates foundation for human livelihood practices. The natural environment and associated livelihood practices leads to formation of different social groups and traits of belief, values, norms and knowledge system. These together structure the society and form the cultural system at large and mould human way of life in terms of life style. When this life style is less energy and material intensive its impact on natural state of environment is minimum; so pressure of human activities on weather and climate are less. On the other hand, when it is more energy and material intensive its negative impact on natural state of environment is more and have more pressure on weather and climate through its activities. In many cases the social and cultural practices develop specific knowledge system through which people of this societal group try to assess the weather and predicting its nature traditionally to plan their day to day activities. In this sub-theme, it is planned to review, assess, and validate such social and cultural practices to know about the inter-woven relationship among weather-climate-society and culture, and impact of socio-culturally defined lifestyle on weather & climate.

Methodology

In the present project, attempt has been made to get an idea regarding the awareness of eco-friendly means of celebrating festivals in our country. We worked specifically on four festivals namely, Holi, Diwali, Ganesh Puja and Baisakhi. To start with we collected some data regarding the pollution levels during Diwali (Nov.2011) from Metereology Department of PAU, Ludhiana.(Appendix II )

Thereafter a survey sheet was designed (Appendix I), to collect the data on the awareness of people on eco-friendly means of celebrating festivals. Once the data was collected, the team members did the data analysis.

Thereafter, following remedial steps were designed by our team:

1. Our team members worked together in preparing an eco-friendly Ganesha idol- To prepare eco-friendly Ganesha we used clay which is a biodegradable material and hence completely dissolves in water, thereby preventing any kind of loss to the environment. It also ensures that the religious sentiments of the people are not hurt and maintains the cultural sanctity of the festival.
2. Celebrating Green Lohri- Some eco-friendly measures to minimize the environmental damage due to the burning of woods are, 1. By collective arrangements of bonfires instead of scattered bonfires in small groups by the individual communities. It would not only be a great fun, but eco-friendly. 2. By celebrating Lohri by organizing house hold parties instead of the big bonfires. 3. By simple micro-scaling the celebrations i.e. by using less woods and inflammables in the bonfires. 4. By discouraging people to add more and more logs of woods to the bonfire unnecessarily. 5. By using the dry woods only rather than using dry leaves and fresh branches because burning of dry leaves and fresh branches adds toxic gases to the environment. 6. By not throwing the food items in the bonfire. In fact the food items could be distributed among the poor and needy people. 7. By following the rule of compensation. It means if we are burning some wood obtained from the trees, we should compensate the same by planting at least same amount of saplings.

3.      Formulation of measures to get rid of the harmful gases emitted from the fire crackers- Our team worked on the following remedies for getting rid of the harmful gases emitted by bursting of the fireworks:

(a)   Road surface purifies air by removing nitrogen oxides (NOx)- This is a neat idea that helps to solve a real pollution problem by automobiles. The air purifying concrete (Appendix III)contains titanium dioxide, a photocatalytic material that removes the nitrogen oxides from the air and converts them with the aid of sunlight into harmless nitrate. The nitrate is then rinsed away by rain. These stones also have another advantage: they break down algae and dirt, so that they always stay clean. Structures made or covered with materials containing the titanium oxide enable the reduction of various pollutants in the atmosphere. Among these are particulate matter, polycondensed aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and sulfur monoxide which in urban settings are mainly emitted from cars and air heating units. The cost for the same is around Rs.77/Kg.

      Preparation of Ti containing paint

Titanium(IV) isopropoxide, TIP, (Aldrich) can be used as the titanium organometallic precursor. Two liquid solutions are prepared: – Solution 1: 30 ml of TIP can be mixed with 23.2 ml of absolute ethanol by dropping in an ice bath. – Solution 2: 23.2 ml of ethanol + 2 ml HCl (35 weight%) + 1.8 ml water. The solution can be mixed in an ice bath. 10 ml of the solution 1 and 1 ml of the solution 2 can be extensively stirred for 10 minutes, and then 7 ml of ethanol can be added. Obtained sol can be stored at -6 °C. The sol can be deposited on the 􀂿 red brick surfaces by means of painting. The layers are dried at room temperature during 24 hours, and then calcinated.

(b)   SO₂ Scrubbers- Sulfur dioxide is a reactive gas – so when it meets other gases within the earth’s atmosphere, a fine, secondary particle forms. Emissions from the bursting of fireworks contribute to the formation of fine particles. An abundance of these fine particles or SO₂ within the atmosphere could impact our health and the environment. An SO₂ scrubber system(Appendix IV) is the informal name for flue gas desulfurization (FGD) technology, which removes, or "scrubs," SO₂ emissions from the exhaust of coal-fired power plants. A scrubber works by spraying wet slurry of limestone into a large chamber where the calcium in the limestone reacts with the SO₂ in the flue gas.This system finds its applications in various industries, but we suggest that if a similar system is used for cleansing of the environment, it can be really beneficial. The overall reaction for SO₂ removal in the limestone slurry scrubber can be written as:

          SO₂ + CaCO₃ → CaSO₃ + CO₂

          When oxidation is included the reaction becomes:

          SO₂ +¹/₂O₂ +CaCO₃→ CaSO₄+ CO₂

(c)    Certain plants help in reducing air pollution by absorbing harmful gases from the air around us- Our team members not only created awareness about these plants, but we also planted them in our school premises, as well as in different localities of Ludhiana. The list of these plants and their benefits are as follows:

Name of the Plant	Benefits
Ghritakumari Aloe vera	Eliminates emissions from most toxic materials
Bottle Brush (Callistemon lanceolatus)	Remove air pollution primarily by uptake of pollutants via leaf stomata (pores on the outer “skin” layers of the leaf). Some gaseous pollutants are also removed via the plant surface.
Chandani (Tabernaemontana divaricata)	Remove air pollution primarily by uptake of pollutants via leaf stomata (pores on the outer “skin” layers of the leaf). Some gaseous pollutants are also removed via the plant surface.
Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea glabra)	Sunken stomata, thick cuticle, small and dense cells and suberised cell walls are in favor of reducing pollutant entry into leaves and cells
Marigold (Taegetes erecta)	Remove air pollution primarily by uptake of pollutants via leaf stomata (pores on the outer “skin” layers of the leaf). Some gaseous pollutants are also removed via the plant surface.

4. Preparation of eco friendly fireworks- We mixed 3 parts of sodium nitrate and 2 parts of sugar. The mixture was then heated till it caramelizes attaining peanut butter coloration. Thereafter the mixture is placed in a mould and a wick is inserted in it. After drying we get an eco friendly cracker. To make it even better we intend to add smokeless powder in the mixture.
5. Preparation of organic holi colours: Organic holi colours help us to prevent environmental degradation (Appendix V)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Analysis of the survey done by our team revealed the following data (as represented through pie charts):