SUNDAY FEATURE

Lucknow: Raja Ram Mohan Roy, known as the "Maker of Modern India", advocated the study of English, Science, Western Medicine and Technology. For this objective he established the Hindu College in Kolkata in 1817.  His progressive views were bitterly opposed by the orthodox Hindus. However, after some years his "unorthodox" views of advocating Westernized education prevailed and helped India become modernized.

Syed Ahmad Khan, born on 17th October, 1817 (the year of the establishment of Hindu College), founded the Muslim School in 1875 with the same ideas and objectives as that of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Sir Syed was also bitterly opposed by a section of Muslims. Both Syed and Roy, the great reformers of their times, were abused by religious bigots but undeterred, they did not surrender to them. In all his actions and beliefs of modernism, pluralism, religious unity and scientific temper, Sir Syed was a true follower of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Both hated bigotry and intolerance and fought hard against the social and religious decadence, ignorance and superstition. Both wanted to modernize India intellectually and spiritually. Yes they are the Symbols of Indian Renaissance and Makers of Modern India.

New Delhi: In a study commissioned by the Lancet, it has been found that nearly 9 million people died of premature deaths caused due to pollution. The vast majority of them were in developing countries such as India and China.

India however led the pack in the number of deaths beating even China in this metric with a whopping 2.5 million deaths.  Furthermore, 92% of the deaths occur in lower income families, reinforcing what we already know that the poor are most susceptible to pollution related diseases and deaths.

Pollution is a cause of lower economic growth. Pollution-related diseases cause productivity losses that reduce gross domestic product (GDP) in low-income to middle-income countries by up to 2% per year.

Ever since the Burari deaths were reported, it has set us all thinking and trying to find answers about what might have happened, what were the preceding events that made the entire family commit such an act? I too have been trying to understand the reason behind these mass deaths.

Mass suicides may occur for a number of reasons. People can be brainwashed to commit mass suicides. In such cases, the mind is in an extremely parasympathetic or relaxed state of mind and so becomes a suggestive mind, one which is more receptive to accept and act on the suggestions of others. A person who is in an emotional state of mind tends to be more receptive to ideas and suggestions of others and is therefore more suggestible.

In a landmark judgement delivered last Friday, the Supreme Court of India has allowed an individual to draft a living will specifying that they not be put on life support if they slip into an incurable coma.

The order was passed by a five judge Constitutional bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DipakMisra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, which said “Human beings have the right to die with dignity.”

Though the judges gave four separate opinions, all of them were unanimous that a 'Living Will' should be allowed, because an individual should not be allowed to continue suffering in a vegetative state when they don't wish to continue living, and know fully well that they will not revive. The Apex Court has set forth strict guidelines on how to execute the mandate of the living will.

New Delhi:  Coral reefs could start to dissolve faster than their growth by year 2100 as human-influenced climate change drives ocean acidification, an Australian-led team of scientists said.

Carbon dioxide, the main man-made greenhouse gas, forms a weak acid in water and threatens to dissolve the reef sediments, made from broken down bits of corals and other carbonate organisms that accumulate over thousands of years, it said.

The sediments are 10 times more vulnerable to acidification than the tiny coral animals that also extract chemicals directly from the sea water to build stony skeletons that form reefs, the study said.Corals already face risks from ocean temperatures, pollution and overfishing.

“Coral reefs will transition to net dissolving before end of century,” the Australian-led team of scientists wrote in the US journal Science. “Net dissolving” means reefs would lose more material than they gain from the growth of corals.

Climate change alters ocean chemistry leading to ocean acidification:

Much of the carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere dissolves into the ocean. In fact, the oceans have absorbed about 1/3 of the carbon dioxide produced from human activities since 1800 and about 1/2 of the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels (Sabine et al. 2004). As carbon dioxide in the ocean increases, ocean pH decreases or becomes more acidic. This is called ocean acidification.

With ocean acidification, corals cannot absorb the calcium carbonate they need to maintain their skeletons and the stony skeletons that support corals and reefs will dissolve.

Most studies show that acidification will be overwhelmingly bad for ocean life, also threatening creatures such as oysters, lobsters and crabs. Another study on Thursday, however, found that it might help the growth of some plants.

“An increase of carbon dioxide in the ocean theoretically could stimulate higher growth of kelp and seaweeds,” Kasper Hancke, a biologist at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, wrote in a statement.

                Already, ocean acidification has lowered the pH of the ocean by about 0.11 units. Moving the ocean's pH from 8.179 to a current pH of 8.069, which means the ocean is about 30% more acidic now than it was in 1751.

If we continue to produce carbon dioxide at the current rate, future atmospheric carbon dioxide will be high enough to lower ocean surface pH to 7.8 by the year 2100.

Therefore, the scientists predicts that if nothing is done to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, ocean acidification will increase and more and more corals will be damaged or destroyed and soon they all even vanished.

If coral reefs are lost, vital habitat will be lost too. The future health of coral reefs and many marine organisms depends on our ability to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions on a global scale.

 References:

https://www.hindustantimes.com

http://www.teachoceanscience.net

www.theconversation.com