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Emmeline Pankhurst was an English political activist and a leading figure in the suffrage movement in Great Britain. Her tireless campaigning in the face of police brutality and failing personal health made her an icon of British politics. Let us look at one of her most influential public addresses titled, "Freedom or Death"

On November 13, 1913, British activist Emmeline Pankhurst gave one of the most influential speeches of the suffragette movement titled, Freedom or Death" at a meeting of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association in Hartford, Connecticut. U.S.

On this day, the founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) took the stage to argue that women's liberation could only be achieved by civil war.

Sign of the times

One of the greatest political changes of the 20th Century was obtaining the vote for women; but behind this accomplishment lay decades of refusals by successive governments.

The long-standing campaign for women's suffrage began in 1865 but when years of peaceful protest and innumerable petitions failed to translate into political change, women took to the streets to rally for their right to vote. It was during this time that Emmeline Pankhurst. along with her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, came up with a public campaign of engagement and spectacle to gain media attention change public opinion, and influence the Parliament through (their motto) deeds and not words.

Freedom or Death

In her 1913 speech, Pankhurst addressed herself as a soldier on leave from the battle, since she was temporarily relieved from her prison sentence on account of what was popularly called the "cat and mouse act"

But her failing health could not derail her from utilising this occasion to speak on the need to fight against the injustices perpetrated on women by society. At the time working women she explained, were earning a meagre amount of two dollars a week: wives had no right on their husband's property and no legal say in the upbringing of their children. Girls were seen as marriageable at the age of 12 and divorce was considered to be an act against God: violence and assault on women rarely received any significant penalty, and above all, there was no legal framework that represented their gender in the constitutional setup. In this political environment, the right to vote, she insisted, was the first step towards getting political equality and attaining full citizenship.

The path to militancy Justifying the rise of the self-proclaimed militant suffragettes, she proclaimed "you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs" The double standard of the society that reveres men as the harbinger of change and women as creatures to be domesticated has forced us down this road. The history of politics is a testament to the fact that one has to be more noisy" and disruptive to gain the media's attention and see their grievances addressed.

Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913

 This 1913 law, also known as the cat and mouse act, was especially passed to suppress the women's movement and allowed for the early release of prisoners who were so weakened by partaking in hunger strikes that they were on the verge of dying. Addressing this legislative move by the Government, she said "There are women lying at death's door... who have not given in and won't give in... they are being carried from their sick beds on stretchers into meetings. They are too weak to speak, but they go amongst their fellow workers just to show that their spirits are unquenched and that their spirit is alive, and they mean to go on as long as life lasts...either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote." (excerpt from Freedom or Death)

World War-l

Less than a year after this speech World War I broke out. The government released all imprisoned suffragists to join the workforce and support the war effort. It was only after the Representation of the People Act was passed in 1918 that property-owning British women over 30 were granted the right to vote.

Key takeaways from the speech

1. One must never hesitate to fight for social good.
2.  Women's rights are human rights.
3.  Equality is the soul of liberty.
4. It takes courage to challenge the familiar and resilience to succeed.
5.  Actions hold more meaning than words.

DID YOU KNOW?

• The colour scheme for the Suffragette movement was purple, white and green which stood for dignity purity and fertility.
• Pank-a-Squith was a pro women's suffrage board game created by WSPU in the early 1900s. The game's goal was to avoid all the pitfalls of suffragette life and get the right to vote.
• The Museum of London holds the diary entries, letters and sketchbooks written on toilet paper, passed between imprisoned suffragettes and eventually smuggled out of the prison building.

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Vega became the first star other than our sun to be photographed. Visible in the summer sky of the northern hemisphere, Vega is a bright star located about 25 light years from our Earth. On July 16-17, 1850, The days when we could look up to see star-studded skies feel like they are numbered. Especially in cities, as the light pollution makes it impossible for us to enjoy the celestial show. Some stars, however, shine bright enough such that they can be seen even on a moonlit night or from light-polluted cities.

Vega is one such star visible in the summer sky of the northern hemisphere. The brightest star in the constellation Lyra, it is also known as Alpha Lyrae. The fifth-brightest star visible from Earth, it is also among the closest of all bright stars at about 25 light years away.

The Summer Triangle

Along with two other stars - the distant Deneb and the fast-spinning Altair-the blue-white Vega forms an asterism known as the Summer Triangle. These three stars are usually the first to light up the eastern half of the sky after sunset.

Beginning around June and until the end of the year the Summer Triangle pattern can be discerned in the evening every day. Vega, which sinks below the horizon for just seven hours each day, can actually be seen on any day of the year. At mid-northern latitudes on midsummer nights, Vega is usually directly overhead.

The blue-white light of Vega is so bright that it has been observed through the centuries. Be it the Hindus, Chinese, or the Polynesians, the star features prominently in many ancient cultures. Its name, meanwhile, comes from the Arabic word wagi, which means "falling" or "swooping"

First to be photographed

The brightness has meant that Vega has remained relevant in modern times as well, notching up a number of firsts. The first of those firsts came in 1850, when Vega became the first star to be photographed, other than our sun.

On July 16-17, 1850, a 15-inch (38 cm) refractor at the Harvard College Observatory was employed to capture it. Harvard's first astronomer, William Cranch Bond, had been dabbling with celestial photography at the behest of John Adams Whipple, an American inventor and photographer. Using the daguerreotype process, the duo achieved a 90-second exposure of Vega that yielded the first photograph of a star other than our own. Bond and Whipple, in fact, kept at it and their daguerreotype of the moon the next year created quite a stir at the international exhibition held in London's Crystal Palace.

Spectrum of a star

A couple of decades later, Vega was again central to another first. Henry Draper, an American doctor and amateur astronomer, was a pioneer in astrophotography. He chose Vega as his subject when he created the first spectrographic image of the star in 1872. Breaking down Vega's light to reveal the various elements making up the star, Draper had taken the first spectrum of a star other than our sun.

Late in the 1990s, Vega rose to prominence once again after American astronomer Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" was made into a Hollywood movie. As the movie showed an astronomer discovering a signal appearing to come from Vega while searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, the star captured popular imagination.

Vega's blue-white light indicates surface temperatures of about 9,400 degree Celsius, much hotter than that of our sun (4,000 degree Celsius). Vega's diameter is nearly 2.5 times that of the sun, while its mass is also more than twice that of our sun.

Vega is only about 450 million years old, making it a youngster when compared to our sun, which is 4.6 billion years old. Despite Vega being a 10th of the sun's age, both stars are classified as middle-aged as they are halfway through their respective lives. This means that while our sun will run out of fuel only after another 5 billion years, Vega will burn for only another half-a-billion years.

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Found poems are simply the literary equivalent of a collage. Created by assembling borrowed text from published newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, letters, speeches, poems, and sometimes even documents like tax forms or medical reports, this poetry recycles words by giving them a new meaning and context.

This mode of writing not only makes poetry accessible but also gives a fresh insight into evocative writing.

The origin story

According to the former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, the cento (Latin for patchwork) which belongs to the third Century, may have been the original found poem.

A cento-poet often refashioned lines from the works of various revered writers like Homer and Virgil to create a unique verse. The Greeks and Roman assembled centos to pay homage to the literary idols of the past.

Types of Found Poetry

Found poetry can be further classified into blackout poetry, erasure poetry, and cut-up poetry.

Blackout poetry is created by blacking out or blotting certain lines and phrases of an existing article, short story or poem using a pen or a black marker to reinterpret the original work. Contrary to this, erasure poems are created by erasing, clipping out. or obscuring certain lines or words of a printed text using a light coat of white paint.

Cut-up or Remix poetry is curated by literally cutting out words from source materials and rearranging them to create a unique meaning.

A strong proponent of the cut-up approach, American writer William S. Burroughs once said "All writing is in fact, cut-ups. A collage of words read, heard and overheard. What else?"

Found poetry rose to prominence in the 20th century due to its shared similarities with the pop art of artists like Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp. It combined literature and visual art to represent the plurality of language.

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So much of our oceans is still unexplored and remains a mystery. In fact, it is safe to presume we know more about the surface of Mars than about Earth's seafloors! But whatever  we little know of life in ocean depths is intriguing, fascinating, and incredible. The deep oceans are low on sunlight and plants but high on pressure, and yet, several creatures call this space home. Here's a glimpse of how they have adapted to life in unforgiving conditions.

Colours that help

 Since they dwell in open waters without plants or rocks to hide under to safeguard themselves from predators, many creatures benefit from disguise. Some of them are red. rendering them difficult to spot since red light does not penetrate those depths. Some others are transparent, again tough to spot. Many others are bioluminescent, a good tool to confuse predators.

Heard of sea snow?

Since ocean depths hardly have any plant, finding "live meal" is a tough task. Apparently, the duration between two live meals can be even up to three weeks for a marine creature! That's where marine snow or sea snow comes into play. When no live meal is available, the next best thing to turn to is the dead. Organic particles from the surface waters - disintegrated bodies of animals and plants, mingling with fecal matter-drift down in what is known as "marine snow".

What is chemosynthesis?

At the cracks between oceanic plates are hydrothermal vents - these are the hot springs on the ocean floor. These vents send out chemical compounds such as hydrogen sulphide. These chemical compounds are used for preparing food - much like sunlight is used in photosynthesis. This process used by microorganisms such as bacteria to create food (such as glucose), is called chemosynthesis.

Though humans still don't have a complete understanding of ocean depths, we're definitely leaving our mark there- and, sadly, not in a good way. With global warming, over-fishing, and pollution, we're changing the composition of the oceans they are acidifying, and hosting crustaceans with microplastics, as far deep as the Mariana Trench, the deepest location on Earth.

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Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, delivering his Tryst with Destiny speech on the eve of independence. It is considered to be one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century.

Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru is remembered as an author, humanist, and a charismatic central figure of the Indian freedom struggle. His conscious efforts in promoting values such as secularism and universal brotherhood during his tenure as the first Prime Minister of independent India made him a true democrat. Let us go back to his iconic first official address titled, "Tryst with destiny."

Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his speech titled Tryst with Destiny on the eve of india's independence on August 14, 1947, from the ramparts of the historical Red Fort in Delhi to the Indian Constituent Assembly in the Parliament. The address was simultaneously broadcast on the radio to the millions of citizens who had toiled and waited for the dawn of freedom.

Nehruvian thought

Nehnu was the embodiment of the vision our nationalist leaders had of independent India. Neither on the political stage nor on moral stature was his leadership ever challenged. He was one of the great leaders of the national movement who not only campaigned for the country's freedom but also ushered it into modernity. Historians recall that there were four focal foundational principles that attributed to this shared vision of post-colonial India according to the spectrum of people who participated in the freedom struggle. These principles were iterated by the first Prime Minister of the nascent nation in his August 14 address.

Sovereignty at the stroke of midnight

Giving a vocal expression to the longing and the self-determination of the Indian people, Nehru declared Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge… At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, india will awake to life and freedom Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India (excerpt from Tryst with Destiny)

A democratic nation

The Gandhian philosophy of Sarvodaya or universal upliftment was one of the non-negotiable tenets of the freedom movement. In his first address as the appointed leader of India. Nehru paid homage to Gandhiji by saying. On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation who held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility (excerpt from Tryst with Destiny)

Celebration of diversity

-All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action. "(excerpt from Tryst with Destiny)

Nehru believed that in a country like India which is home to people with different faiths and religions, no real nationalism can be built except on the basis of secularity.

A pro-poor orientation

From the early nationalist days, the poor were at the centre of imagination when one thought of a liberated India Dadabhai Naoroji in his book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India elaborates on how colonialism relied on corruption and wealth inequality to sustain itself. He exclaimed that a devastated economy inhibits political independence. Therefore, aligning with the common consensus, eradication of poverty was seen as a fundamental move to exercise literal autonomy as India stood on the cusp of freedom

These sentiments echoed in Nehru's statement. "The service of India means. the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and poverty and disease and inequality of opportunity. To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India: to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman. There is no resting for any one of us till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be" (excerpt from Tryst with Destiny)

Nehru came into power when the flames of violence were burning across the country following the tragedy of partition. But even in these unsettling circumstances, his insistence on retaining democracy and the idea that in a country no leader should be bigger than its people. Constitution and State is what makes him one of the most celebrated leaders of the 20th Century.

DID YOU KNOW?

1. Before immersing himself in India's freedom struggle, Nehru was training to be an advocate.

2. In 1937 Nehru anonymously published an article in the Modem Review journal of Calcutta under the pen name Chanakya criticising himself as "some triumphant Caesar passing by, who might tum into a dictator with "a little twist. He did this to encourage the people of the nation to hold their leaders accountable.

3. Nehru's close associates say that in his last moments, a note with the following lines from Robert Forst's poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening lay on his side.

"The woods are lovely dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to before I sleep."

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Whether it is the possibility of making contact with alien life, or the mere thrill of the unknown, UFOs have always intrigued us.

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a UFO! Unidentified Flying Objects or UFOS are exactly the stuff that legends are made of, and have since time immemorial held people in its thrall. From conspiracy theories of their sightings, portrayal in books and movies, their link to alien invasions, and more, have ensured that the topic has remained relevant even with the change of governments and lapse of time.  Naturally, a day dedicated to these mysterious flying saucers was just waiting to happen. Earlier, June 24 was allotted as the day of celebration, for, according to aviator Kenneth Arnold, it was on that day that nine unidentified objects had flown over Washington in the 1990s. However, July 2 was officially allotted as World UFO Day to commemorate the supposed UFO crash incident that occurred in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.

The Rosewell Incident It famously refers to the 1947 recovery of balloon debris from a ranch near Corona, New Mexico, by U.S.Army Air Forces officers from the Roswell Army Air Field, and conspiracy theories which emerged decades later, claiming that the debris involved a flying saucer and that the truth had been hushed up by the US government.

Throughout 1947, people across the U.S.. and other countries had been reporting sightings of strange objects in the sky and claiming that. they were alien-piloted spacecrafts In the midst of this the flying saucer furore, in July that year, some unusual material fell on the ground near Roswell. Soon after, an information officer at the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued an unauthorised press release stating that a flying disk" had been retrieved from a local ranch. The Roswell Daily Record immediately printed the story headlined "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region"

The officer was admonished and the Army duly retracted the statement and said that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon. While the incident slowly died down, it eventually laid the ground for several hoaxes in the future.

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Love the thrill of watching a butterfly flutter by? The excitement of discovering the name of a tree species? Understanding how living beings evolve? If you're a wildlife lover, here are four career options you can explore.

Marine biologist

What to study: BSc in marine biology or a related field such as oceanography, marine science, or earth science, followed by a Masters.

What the job entails: Marine biologists study animal, plant, and microscopic life in oceans. But this does not mean they're always into deep-sea diving! They work with samples in research laboratories for any discoveries, and also prepare reports worthy of publication.

Benefits: In addition to closely observing all kinds of marine creatures, they could be a changemaker. Apparently, a little more than three-fourth of all life on our planet is found under the ocean surface. And since they are also indicators of the changes around us - such as pollution and climate change - marine biologists could be the one to announce this to the world, nudging citizens to be responsible and protect our world.

Challenges: While not always, field work - in oceans - can be physically demanding, due to being in water for a long while, lugging heavy equipment, etc. The location could be remote, affecting one's social life for long periods of time.

Wildlife photographer/ filmmaker

What to study: For both photography and filmmaking, there are degree and short-term courses offered both in India and abroad.

What the job entails: As is evident from the job title, one photographs or shoots films about wildlife. It also involves team work, constant learning, being aware, fit, resilient, quick to adapt, among others.

Benefits: Watching wildlife, learning about them, and enlightening the layperson. Though it is not a 9-to-5 job, it has the potential to be lucrative. Professionals can even be part of wildlife magazines or television channels. And, there is recognition. going by the growing number of awards presented to wildlife photographers and filmmakers globally. But, do they match the reward of watching Nature up-close?

Challenges: While the technicalities of shooting a picture or film/ documentary can be learnt through professional courses offered across the globe, certain aspects are learnt on the job. For instance, patience and acceptance. Nature is what it is one has no control over timing the blooming of a flower or a tiger snagging its prey. Sometimes no matter how much one is prepared, the result may not be what one wants.

Wildlife rehabilitator

What to study: While a degree in biology or ecology is seen as necessary, the subjects covered could include ornithology, mammalogy, animal behaviour, etc.

What the job entails: Wildlife rehabilitators care for and treat injured, orphaned, or displaced wildlife. Their aim is to ensure that the animals are healthy and prepared appropriately to finally return to the wild.

Benefits: In addition to saving and protecting wildlife, they play a huge role in rescuing animals during natural disasters and also educating people about wildlife. Their role helps reduce human-wildlife conflicts, and create a sense of responsibility among people towards wildlife.

Challenges: In this line of work, it is not possible to save every animal one rescues. It is important to understand that sometimes, an animal's life is beyond one's control.

(Natural History) Museum curator

What to study: Masters in biology, ecology, museum studies, etc. Some museums may require doctoral studies in related fields, in addition to work experience.

What the job entails: As with most other jobs, this one too spans a wide range of responsibilities. However, what is particularly vital is that the curator possesses the wisdom and necessary skills to gather, understand, and put together a dynamic collection of relevant specimens that can be viewed on a regular basis or specifically presented in highly stimulating and themed exhibitions.

Benefits: The greatest take away from the job could be the pleasure of learning. and working with a rare and an incredible variety of specimens, some of which could go back even centuries. And, of course, the opportunities to interact with curious visitors who may share the curators joy in natural history.

Challenges: If the museums are small, one is likely to take on several responsibilities, as mentioned earlier. This, of course may mean longer working hours but a richer learning experience too. Since many of the specimens will be very old and fragile, extra care is required in handling them.

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World War I, or the Great War (1914-1918), fractured the American worldview in ways that were beyond imagination. Many young Americans were in a state of shock after having witnessed death and destruction on such an unparalleled scale. The country that they once knew, as a safe haven built on tenets such as patriotism, faith, and morality (prior to the war) had fallen. All that remained was the population that felt lost, hopeless, scattered and at odds with the old norms of the society.

These sentiments pervaded many cultural aspects of change in the 1920s, including literature. Writers could no longer relate to the subject matter or the themes of the texts produced before the war. Although the term Lost Generation' was introduced by Gertrude Stein, a modernist American writer who made Paris her permanent home, it only gained popularity after Emest Hemingway included it in the epigraph of his novel The Sun Also Rises (published in 1926).

As the story goes, Stein came upon the term when an auto mechanic upset with his young employee's unsatisfactory work on her car, referred to the nation's youth as a lost generation, difficult to prepare for work or focus

The Lost Generation, therefore, referred to that group of men and women who came of age during the First World War and felt disillusioned in the unfamiliar post-war world.

In literature, the Lost Generation was a group of American writers, most of whom immigrated to Europe and worked there from the end of World War I until the Great Depression.

A bohemian lifestyle of travel among intellectuals felt more appealing than remaining in a place where virtuous behaviour no longer existed, faith in religion was broken, and a connection to morality was questionable at best. So, the expatriate writers living in Europe wrote about the trials and tribulations of this Lost Generation, while, being a part of it themselves.

The most famous writers of the Lost Generation include Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, and T.S. Eliot.

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A type of algae, kelp is crucial for thriving ecosystems the world over. However, kelp forests are shrinking. But, why? Let's find out

Most types of seaweed or marine algae grow along the coasts in shallow waters, where they can attach themselves to rocks, shells, or the sea floor. A root-like part called holdfast anchors them firmly and prevents them being washed away by strong waves or currents. A soft, flexible stem-like frond with outgrowths similar to leaves emerges from the holdfast. Though they carry out photosynthesis, algae are not plants as they don't have true roots, stems, leaves, or flowers. Marine algae can be green, brown, or red in colour. Red algae are delicate and feathery and prefer warm tropical seas. Small green algae are found everywhere in shallow waters. Brown algae called giant kelp grow in cool waters at depths ranging from 15 to 40 mt.

Extraordinary ecosystem

A kelp forest is one of the most valuable and productive: ecosystems on Earth. Kelp forests are found all over the world-the west coasts of North and South America, the southern tip of Africa and Australia, and off islands near Antarctica. In North America, kelp forests are found on the Pacific Coast from Alaska to California. A forest of kelp is home to a variety of creatures. They live and forage for food among its broad blades. The kelp provides shelter not only from predators. but also from storms. Mammals and birds that thrive in kelp forests include seals, sea lions, whales, sea otters, gulls, terms, egrets, and herons. Sea otters have an especially beneficial bond with kelp. Mother otters wrap their babies in kelp to keep them from drifting away while they go hunting. Adult otters also find the dense kelp canopies a secure place to snooze. The otters return the favour by eating sea urchins that dine on kelp. Kelp forests can shoot up in no time, growing up to 30 cm a day. Some species attain heights of over 45 mt!

Kelp farming is a big part of the billion-dollar global seaweed-farming industry. Kelp renders sea water less acidic. This enables kelp farmers to raise shellfish, which require low acidity. Kelp and mussels are grown on floating ropes, which also support baskets of scallops and oysters. One kelp farm can produce 40 metric tonnes of kelp and a million shellfish per hectare per year! As with other species of seaweed, kelp is used in many products,) including shampoos and toothpastes, as well as a wide range of foods such as salad dressings, puddings, cakes, dairy products, and ice cream. It is also employed in pharmaceuticals and in the manufacture of fireproof and waterproof textiles.

Urchin attack

The waters off the coast of northern California are home to lush forests of bull kelp. Since 2013, the population of purple sea urchins that feast on the kelp, has exploded, destroying almost 90 % of the kelp forest. Sea stars prey on purple urchins and keep their numbers in check. However, a mysterious disease killed off huge numbers of sea stars, leaving sea urchins to thrive. Sea snails (called red abalone) and red sea urchins, both of which are raised for meat and feed on bull kelp, died from starvation. Commercial red sea urchin and red abalone fisheries located on America's northwestern coast have closed down as a result.

Fact file

• Kelp forests are the ocean's lungs just as trees are the Earth's lungs. They absorb carbon dioxide and give out oxygen.

• Warming seas along the Australian coast have wiped out huge swathes of kelp forest.

•Extremely hot weather is harmful to kelp forests. Strong storms can wipe out large areas by uprooting the plants from the sea floor.

• There are 18 species of edible kelp, including kombu widely used in Japanese cuisine.

•Kelp is rich in calcium and Vitamin K.

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Waste management corresponds to the process of managing unwanted waste items. This includes collection, transport, processing or waste treatment, recycling, and disposal. Mainly done for waste produced by human activities, it started off in an effort to reduce their effect on human health or local aesthetics, but now addresses their effect on the natural world and environment at large as well. Wastes can be generated domestically, industrially, agriculturally, and commercially, among others, and its management can involve solid, liquid, or gaseous substances with different methods for each.

The aim of waste management is to reduce the dangerous effects of such waste on the environment and human health. A big part of waste management deals with municipal solid waste, which is created by industrial, commercial, and household activity.

Waste management practices are not uniform among countries (developed and developing nations); regions (urban and rural areas), and residential and industrial sectors can all take different approaches.

Proper management of waste is important for building sustainable and liveable cities, but it remains a challenge for many developing countries and cities. A report found that effective waste management is relatively expensive, usually comprising 20%–50% of municipal budgets. Operating this essential municipal service requires integrated systems that are efficient, sustainable, and socially supported. A large portion of waste management practices deal with municipal solid waste (MSW) which is the bulk of the waste that is created by household, industrial, and commercial activity. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), municipal solid waste is expected to reach approximately 3.4 Gt by 2050; however, policies and lawmaking can reduce the amount of waste produced in different areas and cities of the world.[8] Measures of waste management include measures for integrated techno-economic mechanisms of a circular economy, effective disposal facilities, export and import control and optimal sustainable design of products that are produced.

In the first systematic review of the scientific evidence around global waste, its management and its impact on human health and life, authors concluded that about a fourth of all the municipal solid terrestrial waste is not collected and an additional fourth is mismanaged after collection, often being burned in open and uncontrolled fires – or close to one billion tons per year when combined. They also found that broad priority areas each lack a "high-quality research base", partly due to the absence of "substantial research funding", which motivated scientists often require. Electronic waste (ewaste) includes discarded computer monitors, motherboards, mobile phones and chargers, compact discs (CDs), headphones, television sets, air conditioners and refrigerators. According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2017, India generates ~ 2 million tonnes (Mte) of e-waste annually and ranks fifth among the e-waste producing countries, after the US, P.R. China, Japan and Germany.

Credit :  Wikipedia 

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Rainforests are regions that consist of several tall trees, most of which are evergreen ones, and receive a large quantity of rainfall. They play an important role in taking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and so, are often referred to as the lungs of the planet. They host an impressive variety of wildlife, and also influence weather patterns elsewhere in the world. All continents except Antartica house rainforests. The Amazon in South America is the world's largest rainforest.

Tropical rainforests are home to 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, all squeezed into a narrow strip of equatorial land. They are also home to millions of human beings that have been a part of forest ecosystem for thousands of years. While tropical rainforests are perhaps the most iconic, temperate rainforests are equally diverse and beautiful. Together, rainforests offer a gallery of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring places and creatures on Earth.

Since the beginning of history, humans have relied on rainforests, finding in them a steady supply of wood, plants, and animals, as well as fruits, fibers, grains, medicines, cloths, resins, pigments, and other materials. As millennia passed and many human communities moved farther away from the forest, our reliance on the forests did not weaken. Major trade routes, and even empires, developed to control the flow of the rainforest’s treasures.

Today, most of the industrialized world senses little connection to the rainforest, living in large, busy cities far away from these fertile ecological powerhouses. We forget that the forest regularly saves our global food supply by offering new, disease-resistant crops. We forget about the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of trade in timber, non-timber forest products and forest-derived pharmaceuticals. We forget about things that are ultimately beyond value: the livelihoods of millions of forest communities, a stable and livable climate for us all, the existence of most of our fellow species, and simple things we take for granted, like regular rain and clean air.

In tropical nations, many developing and debt-ridden, the forest is cleared in the hope of securing an economic future. Huge industrial interests—such as timber, agriculture, and mining—see an endless, profitable supply of cheap resources just waiting to be taken. Meanwhile, family farmers and loggers feel they have no option but to deforest in order to feed their families. However, innumerable studies and recent history show that little security can be found in tropical deforestation.

Thus far, our human family has erased half of our original endowment of rainforests. Our world is now facing a sixth mass extinction—the greatest extinction crisis since the fall of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The future of over half of Earth’s plants and animals—and hundreds of human cultures—will be determined within the next few decades. Since our lives are so dependent on the forest’s bounty, our future is at stake as well.

Credit : Rainforest aligns 

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