Join the “largest voluntary power down in history” in the fight against global climate change.

Individuals and businesses will turn of non-essential lights and appliances for one hour between 8.00pm to 9.00pm on Saturday March 29 to show how people can make a difference to climate change.

Earth Hour, the brainchild of the WWF which began in Sydney, Australia in 2007, aims to traverse more than 25 cities across 14 time zones.

“Earth Hour will clearly demonstrate the connection between energy usage and climate change, showing that we as a broader community can address the biggest threat our planet has ever faced.”

Action includes turning off mobile phone chargers when not in use, switching off TV or CD players at the wall rather than leaving it on standby, extinguishing unused lights and shutting down office and home computers.

(Compiled from: Dubai to dim lights for Earth Hour)

Came across this short news snippet about eco-friendly cremations in Australia in today’s morning newspaper. A Google search revealed that this practice is being adopted worldwide including India. Definitely an important step for the future of our planet.

As a writer for this BNT blog, a cause which I believe in and endorse 100%, I was invited by Dr.Chandrasekaran (my uncle) to witness and record the ‘Car Air-condtioner experiment. This was on 8th December 2008. I was on holiday, visiting my hometown of Sivakasi.

The Rationale Behind the Experiment

The rationale is that car air-conditioners, apart from pumping in cool air also, let in traces of carbon monoxide.

And during the monsoons, specially in some Indian cities, the roads get flooded and the car exhaust is sometimes immersed under water.

This blocks the exhaust and the fumes get recycled back into the car and poisonous carbon-monoxide exits through the car air-conditioners…and with all the car windows closed, can also cause the passengers’ death.

This actually happened to 3 software engineers in Chennai (Madras) in the south of India, the capital city of the state of Tamil Nadu (read “When air and water, conspire to kill“, The Hindu, 31 Oct 2006).

An excerpt from the report:

“…

How does CO kill?

Carbon monoxide, or CO, is one of the gases emitted by your car’s exhaust system. It is completely imperceptible to the human senses, being odourless, colourless, tasteless. And this poison is doubly deadly, as it gets absorbed into the bloodstream quickly — the haemoglobin in blood has a much greater affinity for this gas than oxygen, forming a strong bond that is devastating in nature — it starves organ tissues in the human body of vital oxygen. Symptoms of CO poisoning are things you’d shake off as the result of a stressful, long day at work — headache, dizziness, nausea and fatigue. And then you might decide to sleep it off for a while… …”

The Experiment Setup

Quite a simple premise…the idea was to put a bird in a cage, a flower and a betel leaf into a running parked car with all the windows up and the air-conditioner on. A CO measuring metre was put inside alongwith the other props. The exhaust pipe of the car was fed into a rubber tube, which in turn was dipped into a bucket filled with water. This was to simulate the flooded road effect, where the car exhaust pipe is drowned.

I tried to photograph the setup from outside the car…you can see the reflection of the houses in the photo above.

The Experiment - Control setup

First, the “Control” setup (without BNT Sticker), where just the bird, flowers, betel leaves and the CO metre were placed in the car. The car a/c was on, the car engine was running and the exhaust was dipped into the bucket of water.

Here, after 10 mins of the car running, the bird’s feathers ruffled and the bird which was actively jumping around in the cage bird, drowsily crept into a corner and was still.

The fresh flowers and the betel leaves too, showed signs of decay.

The reading on the CO metre was taken. It showed 208.

With the intent of not harming the bird, the car door was opened and the engine stopped and all the doors were opened to let in fresh air to prepare for the next stage of the experiment.

The Experiment - With BNT Sticker

The BNT Sticker was stuck just above the car a/c on the dashboard and the experiment repeated.

The bird kept actively leaping about in the cage.

The flowers and leaves too looked and stayed fresh.

CO reading showed 0!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. But the bird’s reactions were very clear.

The drawback was that I couldn’t get more clear pictures due to the reflections on the windscreen. We agreed that next time we should get a professional videographer and see if it was possible to place a video camera inside the car itself.

Here is the video i mentioned….

Do get some BNT stickers and spread the word. You will be supporting our research in bringing natural technologies to the fore and helping the cause of our planet’s environment.

As the ancient practice from the temples of South India goes, a Neem and Peepul tree are always planted intertwined at the back of the temple (the Peepul tree is the one under which the Buddha had gained enlightenment).

This provides a natural source of health enhancing Nitric Oxide to worshippers who circumbulate the temple.

Trees of Enlightenment – Ancient Technology from Ancient South Indian Temples - Harnessing natural Nitric Oxide Power from the Neem and Peepul Tree

With all the talk about Global Warming gaining ground and the increasing pollution in our everyday lives, it’s time we got proactive and started taking active care of our health.

Let’s Together Beat Global Warming and bring Nature back into our Lives with Nitric Oxide and BNT Stickers