In the 1970s, Japanese scientist Akira Miyawaki introduced a way to grow small forests quickly. His method is now used worldwide to turn empty lots and old parking areas into self-sustaining mini-forests.
Miyawaki planted over 40 million trees in more than 15 countries. Now, these tiny forests are growing all over the world, with hundreds in India and thousands in Japan. But as the method gains traction, a pressing question emerges: Is this truly the panacea for urban greening and urban forestry, or are we overlooking crucial ecological nuances?
Miyawaki grouped Japanese forest plants into four types: main tree species, subspecies, shrubs, and ground-covering herbs.
Here's how the method works:
The forests need maintenance only for the first two to three years. After that, the grove is allowed to develop naturally. The dense planting encourages rapid growth among the seedlings as they compete for sunlight.
Born in Okayama Prefecture in 1928, Akira Miyawaki's early research into weeds piqued the interest of German botanist Reinhold Tüxen. This led to the former’s departure for Germany in 1958 to further his studies.
There, Tüxen introduced him to the idea of potential natural vegetation, which became the foundation of Miyawaki's future work. Inspired by this idea, he returned to Japan in 1960 to document the country's native plant life. Despite centuries of human intervention, Miyawaki found reference points in the undisturbed forests surrounding Shinto shrines.
With the backing of Japanese corporations, Miyawaki’s method gained international recognition. In the late 1980s, Mitsubishi Corporation proposed the first project to restore a tropical rainforest in Malaysia, marking the technique’s expansion into Southeast Asia. Miyawaki's in-depth knowledge of the region's vegetation proved invaluable in this endeavour.
Collaborating with multinational companies to apply his method overseas led Miyawaki in 1999 to propose that “quasi-natural forests can be built in 15-20 years in Japan and 40-50 years in Southeast Asia.”
The forests grown in the Miyawaki fashion have several advantages compared to the traditional forests – but only when done right.
Shubhendu Sharma, founder and director of Afforestt, a native forest-planting firm that popularised the Miyawaki method in India, believes that most opposition to Miyawaki is against poorly executed projects. “Properly following the methods would yield results,” he said.
“Finding the native species in a region is a complex process. Many who say they practise ‘Miyawaki’ don’t take it seriously and go to a nearby nursery to identify the local species. Identifying the right species and the combination of plants that can go together is the crux,” he added.
The forestry technique has a fair share of experts and practitioners raising concerns related to the method:
While some laud the technique as a promising solution for areas with land scarcity and heightened air pollution, many argue that dense and impenetrable Miyawaki forests are not ideal for cities.
Many perceive that these patches of ‘forest’ in cities should be welcoming spaces for people and pets, encouraging interaction with nature while preserving local biodiversity. They should be open, inviting, and visually appealing, allowing plants to flourish naturally.
While creating green spaces in urban areas is the need of the hour, Miyawaki ‘forests’ cannot replace extensive native forests. Efforts must continue to protect and preserve existing forest ecosystems threatened by commercial activities and unsustainable practices.
Carbon is everywhere. It is found in all living things, and life on Earth would not be possible without this unique element.
Carbon is one of the only elements with four electrons in its outermost shell, except for silicon. This allows it to form strong and stable bonds, which are the building blocks of life. These include hydrocarbons, amino acids and other proteins. As a result, carbon-based compounds move constantly through living organisms, the oceans, the atmosphere, and the Earth's crust.
Due to its versatile nature, carbon can also drive changes in the atmosphere and tilt the scales of global temperatures, which now the world struggles with as global warming is no longer just a faraway threat.
Scientists say that life has existed on Earth for about 4.5 billion years; our ancestors have been pretty good at handling carbon, at least 99 per cent of the time. Whatever carbon comes out from different organisms and the atmosphere goes right back to the Earth's core. However, slowly carbon has been destabilizing due to excessive burning of fossil fuels and deforestation of large areas around the globe.
CO2 is also released naturally through the decomposition of plants and animals. Carbon dioxide is a very effective greenhouse gas—with the capability to absorb infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface. As CO2 concentration rises in the atmosphere, more infrared radiation is retained, and the average temperature of Earth’s lower atmosphere rises.
According to a 10-year research project undertaken by Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) since 2009, Earth contains 1.85 billion billion tonnes of carbon. Scientists say that if it were all combined into a single sphere, it would be larger than many asteroids.
Most of the carbon is located deep into the Earth's mantle, and only about one per cent of the total is available in the atmosphere. The carbon in the air, land, and ocean amounts to just 43.5 trillion tonnes, which is gradually changing, tipping the geological scales of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the environment in the other direction causing destruction. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a regulatory agency in the US, reports that Earth's temperature has risen by an average of 0.11° Fahrenheit (0.06° Celsius) per decade since 1850, or about 2° F in total. The rate of warming since 1982 is more than three times as fast: 0.36° F (0.20° C) per decade.
India, a fast-growing economy, has seen a considerable jump in its carbon dioxide numbers. India recently submitted its Third National Communication (TNC) and Initial Adaptation Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2023. A report by the Down to Earth website noted that India’s net national emissions in 2019 stood at 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), a 4.56 per cent increase from 2016 levels and a 115 per cent increase since 1994, the TNC report reflected.
In this fight against climate change, the concept of carbon sequestration has emerged as a powerful ally. It could be our savior in mitigating the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and leaving a greener planet for our coming generations. At its core, carbon sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and securely storing it away to prevent its release into the atmosphere. This can be achieved through various natural processes or advanced technological solutions.
Breaking down the terminology ‘sequestration’ also means the act of separating and storing a harmful substance such as carbon dioxide in a way that keeps it safe. Britannica, the encyclopedia, notes that CO2 is produced due to excessive anthropogenic (created by humans) activities such as the burning of fossil fuels from its long-term geologic storage –coal, petroleum, and natural gas- and has pushed it into the atmosphere.
Creating ‘carbon sinks’ can help mitigate these challenges. These sinks can be natural or artificial, and they play a vital role in balancing carbon emissions. These sinks will act as reservoirs that can absorb and store CO2, thereby reducing greenhouse gasses.
Natural carbon sinks include forests, oceans, wetlands, grasslands, and soil. These ecosystems capture CO2 through biological processes such as photosynthesis, in which plants and other organisms absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it into organic matter. The carbon is then stored in biomass—such as trees, vegetables, fruits, flowers, and more. It can also be stored in the soil, where it can remain for varying periods, ranging from years to centuries.
With evolving technology, researchers are continuously on the lookout for newer ways to sequester carbon. Currently, there are very two clear distinctions, natural or biological and the other one being artificial sequestering. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), improved agricultural practices and forest-related mitigation activities can make a significant contribution to the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a relatively low cost. In simple words, growing more tree species that can hold more carbon in the ground can be a starting point—unfortunately, infrastructural development comes in the way. Researchers say we just don’t need a couple of hundred trees but dense forests and grasslands for this to truly be the solution and reduce our carbon footprint.
In the method of Geological Carbon Sequestration or Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) carbon is separated from other gasses contained in industrial emissions. It is then compressed and transported to a location that is isolated from the atmosphere for long-term storage. It is injected underground into geological formations such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs or saline aquifers, where they can be stored securely for long periods and later used.
A novel technology in the works is Coastal Carbon Capture which aims to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the deployment of carbon-removing sand, which increases the alkalinity of seawater, which in turn will enhance the capacity of seawater to absorb CO2. Through this, the carbonic acid to bicarbonate and the consequent and subsequent uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere would be increased in seawater.
While solutions are changing every day, climate action is not a one-time effort and needs strong commitment from policymakers that can be applied in a top-to-bottom fashion for a healthier planet.
Here’s a story: you’ve been eating too much junk and soon your clothes start feeling a bit tighter, each step you take down the road makes you puff and pant a little bit more, and finally your doctor reminds you of all the negative impacts these foods might have on your health. You decide to act, stick to a plan to cut down on junk, start cooking on your own, very careful of the calories you’re taking in. Two months down the lane, you see that you are starting to fit back in your clothes.
A story with a happy climax, ain’t it? Well, not so much.
While switching to veggies, cooking on your own, and keeping a check on the calories you consume are all good, most people tend to overlook some crucial questions: how are these so-called ‘healthy’ vegetables farmed? What are the inputs that are used to cultivate these veggies? And what are the impacts on consuming these ‘healthy’ foods?
In pursuit of answers to these pressing questions, numerous studies were undertaken. Their discoveries shed light on the presence of heavy metals in food production.
In a study conducted by the Environment Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI) by visiting 20 spots including high-end supermarkets, local markets, organic stores, and Hopcoms, it was found that the levels of cadmium, iron, and lead in our veggies are far above the permissible limit.
In a different study, a group of agriculture scientists from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), SOA University, and Birsa Agricultural University discovered that rice, pulses, and veggies around Narasinghpur block in Cuttack were packing higher levels of cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic than recommended.
Similar results were also observed in a study by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), which showed that the vegetables sold in Delhi and grown along the Yamuna floodplains had high doses of lead.
This calls for a deeper understanding of what goes into our foods and how they are farmed.
For the EMPRI study, the researchers took a close look at 10 veggies including brinjal, tomato, capsicum, etc. to see if they were carrying any heavy metals.
Turns out, some of these veggies were breaking the iron limit, pegged at 425.5 mg/kg. For example, beans from the organic shops had 810.20 mg/kg of iron! Coriander and spinach weren't far behind. Even the onions from Hopcoms had more iron than expected, with 592.18 mg/kg.
And it wasn't just iron causing trouble. Cadmium levels were supposed to be low, like 0.2 mg/kg. But brinjal from a supermarket in BTM Layout in Bengaluru had a whopping 52.30 mg/kg of cadmium! Coriander, spinach, and carrot weren't far off either.
The study also revealed a higher concentration of heavy metals in leafy vegetables. This appears to be linked to the increased transpiration rate of leafy greens. Transpiration is the process by which plants release water vapor through their leaves.
Given that the majority of Bengaluru's vegetables originate from neighboring districts such as Kolar, Chikkaballapur, and Bengaluru Rural, there has been a heightened focus on the project that pumps secondary-treated sewage water to these areas.
When farmers use wastewater, they're inadvertently loading up their crops with heavy metals. It's like the veggies are soaking up all the toxins from that water, leading to higher concentrations of heavy metals.
The NGT had also registered a suo motu case after news reports came out regarding heavy metal contaminated food in Bengaluru.
Before we discuss the harmful effects of these heavy metals, let us understand what they are.
Heavy metals are dense metals with high atomic weights or numbers. They include common elements like iron, copper, gold, and aluminum. While some heavy metals are essential for life, others can be harmful when they enter the environment through industrial activities.
Cadmium, notorious for its adverse effects on the liver and lungs, can also compromise the immune system. While the body typically eliminates cadmium ingested through food, elevated levels can accumulate in the kidneys, leading to impaired function.
Excessive consumption of lead can result in severe health issues, including neurological damage.
Although iron is essential in moderate amounts, excessive intake can lead to complications such as anemia. Furthermore, high doses of iron may interfere with the absorption of other vital nutrients like zinc and increase the risk of liver cancer and heart disease.
Cleaning vegetables thoroughly with portable water removes external metal contamination. Soaking them in a 2% salt solution and washing again aids in eliminating contaminants.
Cooking vegetables with ample water helps leach out internal metal traces. Consuming antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables like gooseberries, oranges, lemons, strawberries, tomatoes, and blueberries counteracts metal contamination effects by reducing free radicals.
Blanching fruits before juicing and vegetables before adding to salads reduces heavy metal presence.
And beyond all, knowing more about your food, what goes into cultivating them, where it was cultivated, and switching to trustable organic brands could hold the key to a healthier future.
The latin word “makros” (meaning large) and “nutriens” (to nourish) make up the word macronutrients, and it’s not because the nutrients themselves are large!
The reason they are called macronutrients, is because they are the nutrients required by our body in high quantities in order to be able to function properly. They perform many functions such as maintaining the body and cell structure, and providing energy.
Today, we’ll talk about macronutrients and why we need them.
Macronutrients are a class of organic compounds that include fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Even fiber and water are considered to be macronutrients. While they are required in large amounts by our body, they are also required in specific quantities.
Each macronutrient plays a different role in our body. Fats are needed for creating cell walls, are an important source of energy, and insulates your body from the outside world.
Carbohydrates provide fuel for your body, and an estimated 45% to 65% of your energy needs for day-to-day activities come from carbohydrates. However, they can also cause spikes in blood sugar level.
Proteins are important for tissue structure, making hormones, regulating metabolism and plays a role in the transport system.
So we can see that all of these are important, to the functioning of life itself, and are fundamental to many processes. In fact, all animals and plants have some macronutrient requirements to be able to function properly, though their needs may differ from ours.
We find macronutrients in all food - although it’s important to remember that it can also be present in unhealthy quantities in some foods. Colloquially, we call these “junk” or “unhealthy” foods. Foods such as ice creams and cakes may be high in carbohydrates (in the form of sugars) and fats, while very low in protein, whereas snacks such as chips might contain high amounts of fats and sodium, which affect the heart.
Ideally, we should try to get about 20-35% of our daily calories from fats. There are different types of fats, however, such as monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, saturated fats and trans fats. It is important to do your own research and read more about these topics to stay informed, but in general monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are considered to be “healthy” fats. Too much saturated and trans fats can cause health issues including but not limited to high cholesterol, which in turn can lead to strokes, heart attacks and vascular dementia.
Some sources of healthy fats are:
Monounsaturated fats: Olive oil, peanut butter, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, peanuts and pistachios.
Polyunsaturated fats: Salmon, mackerel, walnuts, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds.
Carbohydrates are sugars, and they are not bad for our health in moderation. They are classified into 4 main groups - monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. The classification depends mostly on the structure, as shown in fig.2.
A lot of staples serve as primary sources of carbohydrates- for example, wheat, rice, corn and all grains. Dairy products are also a good source of carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates make up the bulk of our calorie intake, and ideally we would hope that around 55% of our energy needs are met by carbohydrates, although this proportion might vary slightly from 40% to 65%.
Foods rich in carbohydrates in our daily life include breads, pasta, noodles, legumes like dried beans, sugary items such as candy, desserts, cakes, and cookies, as well as starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn, and peas.
Proteins, or amino acids, are one of the fundamental building blocks of life. They make up much of the structural and functional components of the cell, which is why they are found everywhere. While proteins can be found in all living things, they are present in different forms and proportions as to what we need. The general amount of protein in your diet depends, and varies from about 10% to 35%, but in general, is slightly lower than the amount of carbohydrates consumed. There are two general classes of proteins when talking about nutrition, essential amino acids and nonessential amino acids. The main difference is that essential amino acids must be supplied to the body through its diet, since they cannot be made by the body directly. Nonessential amino acids on the other hand, can be made by our body, thus the need for dietary supply is lesser.
Some examples of foods rich in protein include meats such as poultry (chicken, turkey, duck etc.), fish, dairy, eggs and legumes (lentils, peanuts, peanut butter, green peas, and so on).
Now that we know what the different macronutrients are, we can think about what we eat on a daily basis by qualifying them into these categories. It is important to note that no food is a superfood - no single source of food will give us all of the different categories of macronutrients, but it is important to maintain a balanced diet and keep in mind that a doctor might be able to help and recommend a specific diet if there are issues.
While not mentioned explicitly, water and fiber are also important macronutrients, so remember to drink water!
Have you ever wondered about the invisible cycle that sustains life on Earth? It's a delicate dance between the atmosphere, living beings, and the soil beneath our feet. Every breath we take, every tree that sways in the wind, every creature that burrows underground – they're all part of a complex choreography, with carbon as the leading player.
Carbon is sequestered in the soil through biological processes. The sequestration of carbon is a continuous process: plants photosynthesize and capture carbon from the atmosphere, but they also respire – a process almost every living being undergoes, in which carbon dioxide is a byproduct. But what does all this mean? Is carbon sequestering in the soil a good thing or a bad thing?
Carbon is present everywhere on our planet. According to the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO), the Earth contains about 1.85 billion billion tonnes of carbon, with only 0.02% present in its crust. It's not an infinite resource, and carbon needs to be recycled and stored, much like the water cycle – there is also a carbon cycle. For decades, research has emphasized the importance of soil in agriculture and organic farming, stressing the need to naturally replenish minerals like carbon, nitrogen, and other essential micronutrients. However, this article focuses on the carbon cycle's significance in the soil ecosystem.
We all know carbon is essential to life – a major building block in our bodies, forming compounds like proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and energy stores. But how does it move through the environment? We cannot directly extract carbon from the air, so we need sources to trap it – carbon sinks.
A carbon sink absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases. By this definition, plants, soil, and the ocean are all carbon sinks. The opposite, a carbon source (like cars, planes, and boats burning carbon), releases more carbon into the atmosphere than it absorbs. This isn't necessarily harmful – carbon sources are essential for completing the cycle. However, human activities' scale could lead to drastic changes like global warming and disruption of pre-existing cycles.
When plants and animals die, organisms like fungi break them down and decompose them into their constituent minerals. These varied organisms use processes to break down cells and digest them externally, leaving carbon ready in organic forms to dissolve into the soil (Fig.1).
The carbon cycle keeps carbon cycling through the atmosphere. Any living organisms have only "borrowed" from this cycle and will eventually become part of other organisms. Life leads to more life. In the soil context, fossil fuels are essentially carbon (hydrocarbon) reserves that can be utilized as energy stores. They represent carbon stored from organisms that died hundreds of millions of years ago, preserved by being buried in soil or underwater.
More readily available carbon sources for living organisms include wood, grasses and most plants. Since plants are sinks, they store carbon, which gets released into the soil as SOCs (Soil Organic Carbon). Humus – dead and decaying matter – is crucial because it stores carbon and other essential minerals. When these minerals are passed on to cows, humans, and other plants, they break them down and respire, a process that produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct. This atmospheric carbon dioxide is then exhaled into the atmosphere, and the cycle repeats.
According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, about 45% of carbon in forests is stored mostly in the SOM (Soil Organic Matter) and in living biomass (Fig.2). Only a small fraction is stored in dead wood and litter, meaning it's constantly being used by plants and soil organisms. Plants take in this carbon as SOCs. In agricultural areas, SOCs have been found to be lower than in natural ecosystems, as agriculture leads to the release of 50 to 100 Gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere. This is largely due to decreased plant roots and increased soil erosion. However, studies show that plants growing in higher CO2 concentrations will fix more carbon through photosynthesis, thus producing greater biomass.
Increased atmospheric CO2 also leads to global warming, reducing soil water availability and limiting photosynthesis. The increased temperature also accelerates SOM decomposition, releasing more carbon from the soil into the atmosphere, creating a feedback loop where higher temperatures lead to more SOM decomposition.
Without soil's carbon sequestration, we would have much higher atmospheric CO2 levels, making it vital to protect soil and forests – not just the number of plants and animals, but also their diversity, which plays a role in how much carbon is stored in the soil. When we plant crops, we create a debt.
Soil is vital to our survival. Research shows we can even try using agricultural land as a carbon sink by planting perennial crops with deeper roots that help the soil store more carbon.
Soil can't hold on to carbon indefinitely, but it can keep it for some time in rotation – forests can grow more, develop more niches for plants, and develop whole ecosystems by increasing the amount of trapped biomass.
Our body is made up of many different compounds. We need vitamins and minerals to function, some in large amounts and some in small. The reason we might need them varies, and in the case of micronutrients, we need them in small quantities mostly because our body cannot normally produce them by itself.
The vitamins and minerals needed by our body to function in day-to-day activities are called micronutrients. They are needed in small amounts, however their presence is critical to the functioning of many systems in our body.
For example, in times when pirates used to sail the seas, scurvy was a prevalent disease in them, (and, in fact, in many sailors who stayed far from land) because of the lack of vitamin C in their diet. Scurvy showed symptoms after a month, including sailor’s teeth falling out, joint swelling up, and delirium. This is because the collagen in their body could not be replaced, which is a protein that is essential for our body structure - around 30% of our body is made of collagen. Another interesting thing to note is that all of our old scars would start opening up if we had scurvy, because the collagen holding them together would degrade. Thankfully in the modern world, we have many sources of vitamin C, so scurvy is very rare. Symptoms only begin to show after a month, so drink some lime juice or eat some oranges!
They are classed into two categories - vitamins and minerals. Vitamins are the organic compounds that are produced by plants, animals or microorganisms which can be broken down by our body. Minerals, on the other hand, are inorganic substances, cannot be broken down further, and usually are present in the soil or water.
Now that we know what micronutrients are, we can discuss some of them and why they are important to us.
The answer is simple! To keep our body working optimally, we need to include them in our diet. They serve a few important functions in our body. A few examples are vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, magnesium, and zinc which all play an important role in the functioning of the immune system, although in multivitamins, might exceed the daily recommended dosage.
Vitamin A helps to form healthy skin and maintain our teeth, also helping out our musculo-skeletal system. It is commonly called retinol, since it makes up the majority of the pigment in the eye. Deficiency of vitamin A can cause night blindness in people.
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that has been shown to keep the calcium and electrolyte level in our muscles stable, so as to not cause involuntary muscle spasms. It can also be synthesized or created by our own body using sunlight!
For a long time, the existence of vitamins and minerals were debated. Using the example of scurvy, it was discovered that hexuronic acid (vitamin C) deficiency was causing scurvy only in 1753 by James Lind, in his book “A Treatise of the Scurvy”. In fact, when the British figured out that vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy, they started storing citrus fruits on board. The American sailors, not believing that vitamin C deficiency caused scurvy, called them “limeys”.
Vitamin A was discovered in the year 1913 by the English biochemist Frederick Gowland Hopkins, and was the first vitamin to be discovered. He won a Nobel Prize in 1929 for this discovery. After it was discovered, more scientists began to observe these compounds present in organisms, that were neither fat nor protein, but were needed to sustain a certain quality of life - that were only required in small quantities. These compounds came to be known as micronutrients, and the discover of many vitamins and their functions in our body has helped to better nutrition throughout the world and prevent deficiency diseases such as beri-beri (caused by vitamin B1 deficiency), pellagra (caused by vitamin B3 deficiency) and scurvy (caused by vitamin C deficiency).
Through centuries of trial and error, we have figured out the workings of the micronutrients in our body and although we know the cure for deficiency diseases, they continue to be common in many developing parts of the world.
Please try another keyword to match the results
