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.

To send this eCard, click on the above image or visit Vacsons Nature cards.

The above photo - of his charming son, was contributed by Senthil Ganesh, a globe-trotting IT pro and avid photographer.  Shot naturally at the Beijing Zoo amid greenery and with the child’s full hearted smile, it inspired the message - we really have to
wake up and take an active interest in Nature and its and its conservation to leave an inhabitable and life sustainable planet for our children.

If you are a Nature lover or concerned about the environmental situation in the world today, do forward our eCards to as many as you can…this is the least we can do to spread awareness. The other thing you can do is:

SEND US YOUR NATURE PHOTOS

Email us photographs that you had taken while on tour or vacation or on a picnic etc.  Preferably of Nature or cute photos in natural surroundings. Just take a look at our previous eCards to get an idea.  We are not looking at award winning or stunning photography, all we need is warm and simple photos taken by simple folks, like you and me with basic cameras.

Also enclose a short writeup about yourself, where the photo was taken and what inspired the moment. We’ll convert your photo into an ecard and also give you credit beneath the photograph. If you want to include your email address or blog url or your website url, please do so by all means. We’ll include it in the eCard.

Email the photos to advaitin at gmail.com.

- Your photos will not be misused or copyright-infringed in any way. It’ll only be used to create our ecards with full credits given to your photo.

- When your photo has been converted to an ecard, we will email notify you. Due to a large number of photos, it might take some time when your photo’s turn comes to be converted into an ecard.

Send the above eCard to a friend and spread Environmental awarenes, click on the above image or visit Vacsons Nature cards.

The above photograph was taken at home after a visit  to a supermarket, threw a surprise in the form of a coconut being sold packaged and all.  This led to the thought expressed in the ecard above.

If you are a Nature lover or concerned about the environmental situation in the world today, do forward our eCards to as many as you can…this is the least we can do to spread awareness.

To send this eCard,  click on the above image or visit Vacsons Nature cards.

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.