The UN says to reduce meat consumption to curb global warming

“An American helps more in controlling global warming by going vegetarian than by switching their car to a hybrid Prius.”

By reading the article and by looking at the facts, I agree with the statement of the UN, that by reducing our consumption of meat, we would be able to contribute more towards controlling the climate change. Many people are aware of the various reasons contributing to environmental degradation like- overuse of fossil fuels, deforestation, and pollution by petrol and diesel run automobiles. But what most people do not know or fail to realize are the huge consequences that as trifling a habit as eating meat can have on the nature.

Like the fact that livestock farming generates 18% of the worldwide greenhouse emissions- in comparison with the lesser 13% accounted by the world's cars, planes and other vehicles. Rearing animals requires land which results in trees being cut down to make space for farmland to grow animal feed. In addition, it is estimated that some 70% of former forest cover has been converted into grazing areas- deforestation not only heats the planet as there is nothing to absorb the carbon dioxide, but it also deprives us of all the other benefits.  Even taking into consideration “grazing”, one can say that overgrazing is widespread, which eventually leads to soil erosion. Then there's manure — all the animal waste generates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that has 296 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide.

Also, the continuous consumption of meat has resulted in increased demand, which has meant an increase in the need for animal feed- for which people from our own kind has had to suffer. Much more of the world's grain production is actually fed to livestock than to humans.

Apart from the motivation to help conserve environment, there are numerous other incentives that can be provided to an individual to cut down on meat eating. Like, the health risks one has to face can be seen in the increasing waistlines, especially in the US, as well as in the escalating threat of heart problems.

It can be argued that we can do or take up a lot of other things and activities to help the earth to not encounter its doomsday.  Yes, we can cut down our dependence on fossil fuels and switch to more eco-friendly or CNG run cars. Yes, we can make and pass legislations against deforestation and move towards utilizing renewable resources. But as we wait for these alterations to occur, we need some personal changes and a good example would be to shrink the amount of meat we eat. Rather than trying to stop eating meat at once, what people can do is focus on cutting the consumption down every day.

As responsible citizens of the world we should be asking ourselves that is it worth it to continue eating meat everyday at the expense of nature? Well, I asked myself and said NO.

Is the Indian Embassy field biologically diverse?

I think the Indian embassy field is biologically diverse. On adding up the data of all the biology classes, we found the number of different species to be 56 and the number of individuals of the species to be 193. I support my statement with taking into consideration the aspects of classifying something as diverse.

• I have found that the field species has richness( that there are multiple individuals of the species found) as well as  evenness( because largely, there are the same number of individuals every species, with some exceptions).
• The Simpson's Index points out that the field is diverse, as the probability comes out to be 0.095 which is closer to 0.
• The Simpson's Index of Diversity is 0.905, which is closer to 1 than to 0, indicating the probability that two individuals randomly selected from a given sample will be from different species.

Taking into consideration these factors, i can say that the Indian embassy field is considerably diverse.  

Measurements of my plant

I have found out the name of my plant: it's scientific name is "Agave attenuata" and it belongs to the family of "Agavaceae". It is commonly known by various names such as "fox tail agave", "lion's tail", "swan's neck", "elephant's trunk".
It is so called because of a feature of it. Each agave stem grows a flower spike, usually in about 10 years. The flower spike looks something like this:

Agave attenuata is native to the plateau of central Mexico(from Jalisco east to Mexico) and generally grow at elevations of 1900 to 2500 m.
Because of a good location of my plant in the campus, it receives an ample amount of sunlight, especially during midday.

In our last class, i did some measurements regarding my plant:

• I found the stem height to be 110 cm and the height of the plant including the stem and the leaves to be 182 cm.
• The diameter of the stem at breast height(DBH) is about 11.5 cm.
• I measured the canopy from two sides: if we visualize it, the part left of the stem is about 76 cm while the part right to the stem is 28 cm.
• We also had to measure the soil temperature by sticking in the thermometer, connected to a reading device, at various points in the soil surrounding the plant. However, in my case, the soil around my plant was quite hard, which made it difficult to push in the thermometer, so, i found out the soil temperature at only one point, which came out to be 20.9 degree Celsius.
• I also found out the light penetration through the leaf of the plant through the appratus set up out in the sun which included the light sensor and the reading device. I did it using the fresh leaf and the dry leaf:

 Fresh leaf: initial light when there was no leaf on the sensor=56930
              light passing through when the leaf was placed on top of the sensor=1392
Percent difference=56930-1392/56930
                           =0.9755*100
                           =97.6%(at the middle of the leaf)
Dry leaf: initial light when there was no leaf on the sensor=57449
              light passing through when the leaf was on the sensor=976 lux

Percent difference=57449-976/57449
                           =0.9830*100
                           =98.3%(at the middle of the leaf)


 pH  of the soil: additionally, i found the pH of the soil.

The pH( the "p" stands for "potenz" in German and the "H" stands for the "hydronium ions") is the measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. It is measured on a scale from 0(very acidic) to 7(very basic), if the pH of a substance is 7 then it is classified as neutral, while if it is less than 7, it is acidic and if it is more than 7, it is termed basic. As we move farther away from 7, the acidity or basicity increases.
We can use a pH indicator to measure the pH of a solution. It is basically a chemical compound that is added in small amounts to the solution, which causes a colour change in the solution,depending on which the pH is determined. Below is a pH colour chart:

 

 

 Measuring the pH level of the soil is important before plantation because it intimates what type of plants can be grown. Plants grown in inappropriate pH will fail. In addition, the availability of nutrients changes with the pH. For example, if the pH of the soil is more than 5.5, then nitrogen is made available to the plants, while on the other hand, phosphorous is made available to plants when the pH is between 6 and 7. If the acidity level is high, then it can be corrected by adding lime and if the basic level is high, then it can be lowered by adding sulphur.

 I measured the pH of my soil sample by adding 20g it in water and letting it sit for about 20-25 minutes. After the particles settled down, i put an electrode into the water portion above the soil and determined the pH, which came out to be 6.52.

So, these are some of the aspects that i measured about plant.