Tamanna Mohapatra

Even I hadn’t  heard this term till recently.. Biomimicry seemed a very interesting concept and it promised to be an exceptionally interesting presentation as the host described it as ‘business learnings from nature’..So off I went on a cold and rainy evening to the NYU law university (which by the way is a very beautiful building in a equally beautiful campus). So what exactly is biomimicry– according to the most popular definition, in it’s simplest definition: Biomimicry is

The beginning scenes of the movie ‘blue gold’ show a man walking through a desert for days on end and finally dying in the desert for not lack of food, sleep or rest but severe lack of water! Now I can’t open any tap without having flashbacks of that scene come to mind. It’s true..although two thirds of our planet is comprised of water, we (at least some one we know in some country) are already facing straining water shortages which will reverberate and include us all..UNLESS

I am a member of my local Sierra Club chapter and am quite proud of that fact…till I read this lengthy but biased article written by a very good writer. Here’s the article..read it, you might enjoy it if you are cynical, capitalistic or both.. For those who would rather take my word for it than read it; first thanks! He’s basically trashing all environmental organizations that have any kind of corporate partnerships saying that profits and non-profits shouldn’t work together.

I learnt a lot from my NYU course on food policy and food crisis.  Seeds and the controversy behind them was one of those things: It seems that not many of us are aware where our food comes from these days and happily assume it must be safe and edible. Well, it might be edible; but I am not sure how safe we can call it. A lot has to do with a concept called ‘substantial equivalence’. I believe Michael Pollan’s book: An omnivore’s dilemma introduced me to this term. What it me

All books I read or websites I visit that talk about doing your part to save the planet have really great ideas on them..Some are simple ones like recycle more, use less toxics, drive better. Some are a little more complicated but still doable such as composting, fix your appliances, ride a bike vs. car as much as possible. Being one of those who truly believes in the power and impact of fellow citizens, I feel really motivated when someone follows my example and use a recycl

That was the title of the 3rd in a series of 8 conferences sponsored by Columbia University alumni association. I was particularly interested in attending yesterday’s session because a very special someone was giving the Keynote speech. Therefore when I got to the venue, there was a long line of attendees who had braved the bad weather, cold and rain to be there for the same reason as me..listen to Prof. Jeffrey Sachs speak. Prof Sachs is well known to most people with even a

I bought this book amongst the numerous books displayed at the 2009 Netimpact conference. Probably the word ‘strategy’ and the fact that it was written by a former Sierra Club President is what made me pick this particular book. I must say, it was a very interesting reading and I finished in a record 5 days. Of course, the fact that 2 of those 5 days were spent flying transatlantic and another 3 days recovering from a neck injury may have helped! But never the less, I would r

Recently I watched BBC cover a report on water pollution in China. “Pollution from a broken oil pipeline in northern China reached one of the country’s major water sources – the Yellow River”, state media say. Contrast this to what happened in Bhopal, India 25 years ago: Since 1984, 20,000 people lost their lives in Bhopal, India after a chemical gas spill from a pesticide factory. More than 40 tons of methyl isocyante (MIC) gas created a dense cloud over a resident populatio

In December, I worked with our local netimpact chapter (netimpact.org) to organize a sustainability panel at the Rutger’s University Camden campus. One of the panelists was from Dupont; the chemical/engineering company. I didn’t know much on companie’s sustainability efforts and therefore decided to take Dupont as an example and study their sustainability efforts. So here are some interesting things I found out: 1. They have fixed goals to be achieved by 2015. So both measura

My friends sometimes give me a lot of flack for owning a Honda CRV. They say, “How can you speak about environment when you yourself drive a gas guzzler’. I admit my car is not a hybrid (which by the way partially runs on electricity generated by coal) but I don’t think it’s a gas guzzler either. Besides, I do the best thing to save gas which is restrict my driving. The reasons are not very altruistic though; I just don’t enjoy sitting behind wheels, in traffic, being over at

Waste or interesting products: depends on your perspective! At a recent environmental film festival I watched a documentary called ‘garbage moghuls’. It was about the trenton, nj based company terracycle. They are no doubt doing good work by making green from green. They take semi-garbage (mostly from landfills) and make useful products out of it. So chips ahoy packaging, lays packing, seat belts, hoarding materials etc all are transformed into notebooks, napkin holders, phot

I am spending my MLK long weekend visiting friends at South Carolina..the trip was made in honor of my best friend’s mom who’s recovering from surgery. My best friend’s elder sister’s going to have a baby in about 10 days..so you can imagine how tiring the situation at home is..and they have us two to help!! We visited the hospital to pick up my aunt and I noticed how they don’t recycle anything at the hospital; no plastic food containers, bags, water bottles etc. At home bec

I took the bus from NYC to Boston which is always better than either driving (even with a full car) or taking the train. I had a really good time in Boston which included watching a movie, visiting a sports bar, meeting friends for indian food one day and sushi the next. (I met both friends after 7+ years)..thanks to facebook and twitter I also visited my chapel at Kenmore Sq. I stayed over there for lunch and was happy to see that they had started recycling the paper plates

I think about two years ago I bought my younger niece a really neat book titled ‘101 things to do before you turn 13!’ Although mostly US focused, it had cool stuff one could do anywhere in the world..probably both kids and adults. Being the outdoor kind, I try to inspire and implore them to enjoy the same. My younger niece is pretty game to try anything new (just like me!)..so this year we decided to revisit the book and list all the remaining 51 things we need to do/see/vis

I have been eager to try both these concepts out; it sounds so green and romantic..turning waste into something useful. But first, I’ll have to learn about it. What better way than to research and blog on it.. Here’s  some information from Sierra Club on Composting:Composting is just as important as recycling. As food and other organic waste decomposes anaerobically in the landfill, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas that’s more than 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide. B

There was sooo much hula hoo regarding Climate change talks held in Copenhagen last year. Environmentalists were hoping for big publicity and even bigger changes to be announced through it. None of that happened. I was on vacation in India and all I heard was that it was an utter failure. So what exactly did happen there and what went wrong? I decided to read a few reports and get my own summary. Here’s the official report and the key points from it: United Nations Framework