Manav Govil

I had somewhat of a vague idea of what biomass power was before I started this challenge. I used to think it was a way to generate energy by using perennial plants and green. I had no idea how they generated energy using these greens, but I knew they used them. It turns out that biomass power is more fascinating than I expected it to be. 
The basic definition of biomass power is the use of perennial biomass feedstock for electricity generation and combined heat and power generation – a solution that replaces energy sources derived from coal, oil, and other natural gas power plants. Biomass substitutes these other energy sources. 
So the question arises, what specific biomass is the most environmentally friendly in terms of climate and energy impact? At first, scientists looked at corn. Corn fits the standard definition of a perennial crop, as corn has a lifetime of more than three years. However, many studies have shown that corn is not much better than fossil fuel energy sources for the environment. However, perennial grasses have naturally high productivity and need fewer chemicals and water than food crops such as corn. If these grasses are to be implemented into our energy-producing systems, we will experience a massive decrease in carbon emissions over the next few decades. Biomass power is a potent tool that can help us eliminate high-carbon output sources of energy and enable us to have the same output of energy, all the while producing less carbon.

I’d say that microturbines could potentially be installed on top of transition line towers. See, my community doesn’t have many tall buildings like the Eiffel Tower. However, it has a bunch of power lines. The towers that connect these power lines can act as bases for multiple microturbines each. These towers can then act as sources of the clean energy generated by the microturbines. That is the beauty of microturbines. They are small, making them easy to place at higher altitudes, and they produce clean energy or energy that does not involve the emission of greenhouse gases. Although they cost a lot of money to install, they are still a more environmentally friendly option than burning fossil fuels for energy.
Another place where we can put up microturbines could be on top of our houses. These turbines could act in place of solar panels. As my region is very windy, this would work, causing these microturbines to spin and produce energy constantly. If placed on top of houses, energy would continuously be available to the household. However, the roof of the house would look pretty comical.
Lastly, another place where we can place microturbines is on top of water towers. Of course, an external structure would have to be built to support the microturbines on top of the tower, but if we consider the height of the water towers, they would be the safest place to install microturbines.

Methane Digesters are fascinating ways to digest organic waste that can be dangerous to the environment. See, methane digesters are anaerobic microbes that digest organic waste that would otherwise emit large amounts of methane. Organic waste is made up of carbon and is most famously produced by livestock. See, livestock manure is known to produce and emit methane as it decomposes. Methane digesters prevent methane from being released from waste.
Methane released from manure is taken from the soil. Carbon exchange occurs between microbes in the soil and grass. Livestock then eats this grass and expel methane, releasing organic waste. Studies show that methane creates a warming effect that is 34 times stronger than carbon dioxide would over one hundred years.
To control this issue, anaerobic digesters were created. Anaerobic digesters are chock-full of methane digesters. Methane emitting organic waste is added to these sealed tanks. These microbes then produce two products after decomposition: biogas and digestates. Biogas is an energy source, while digestate is a nutrient-rich fertilizer. Biogas can replace fossil fuels for heating and electricity purposes, proving a cleaner way to obtain and use energy. Digestates are great to mix into your garden soil to grow fresh produce!
Now, what I have described above is the significant scale effect that methane digesters can have. Methane digesters are also used in our backyards and farmlands around the world. Anaerobic digestion use is increasing drastically as more people are getting educated regarding the positive effects these microbes have on crops and the environment. For example, digester gas, or gas emitted from organic waste decomposition via methane digesters on a small scale, is widely used as a source for cooking, lighting, and heating in China.
What I would like to happen is for India to introduce such methods. As an Indian myself, I have been to India many times in my life. Every time I go there, I get into traffic jams caused by a hoard of walking cows. Cows are worshipped in India, as they are supposedly blessed by one of our goddesses. Killing a cow is taboo. Therefore, cows end up increasing drastically in population size. And wherever a large influx of cows exists, there is a large amount of methane released from their manure. This correlates with the fact that India is one of the largest carbon-producing countries globally, and much of it can be blamed on the large population of cows. To solve this problem, the Indian government could invest in anaerobic digesters rather than killing the cows. These digesters would have a constant supply of organic waste due to the sheer quantity of cows, and energy will be more abundant than ever. This would also solve the electricity issue India has been facing for decades. The light randomly goes out in homes all across the country without any rhyme or reason. This would be a solution to that problem.

In an earlier post, I had talked about building and tending to my family garden. What might surprise everyone is that we made the soil for our garden. The other day, our friend gave us some of her compost. We then bought some moss peat from the store and got some black-leaf mulch, which is very popular to put in gardens in New Jersey. We mixed the compost, black-leaf mulch, and moss peat and formed our soil. The compost contributed to the microbes that would interact with the saplings and act as natural decomposers. The mulch, which is what this post is about, retains water to avoid water runoff. The black-leaf mulch, though, is not your average mulch. This mulch does not retain water very well. Now, you might be thinking, isn’t that counterproductive? The reason why you are adding mulch is to retain water. If this mulch does not do what it is supposed to do, why add it to the soil? To clarify, this mulch does retain some water but compared to other mulches, it does not do so well. We used this mulch because our region tends to get a lot of rain. The plants outside get enough water every single day, and this mulch does enough to hold on to that water for the plants and microbes to use on days it doesn’t rain. If we were to use a stronger mulch for our garden, the saplings might drown in their soil.
Our landscape, however, uses a different kind of mulch. We use shredded bark mulch for our landscape, giving in the reddish color from afar. This mulch is best used on slopes and decomposes very slowly, allowing for adequate water retention. Our landscape is an uneven surface, so it is easier for water runoff to occur. That is why we needed to put stronger mulch on the landscaping. Now that I think about it, the landscaping at most of the houses around here has this kind of mulch. I tell you, if it weren’t for this Eco-Challenge, I would never have any reason to put in this much interest on mulch. If you think about it, mulch can save our homes from floods. Like I said before, it rains a lot in New Jersey. I remember around the time my family just moved into our house, we had a large flood. As the neighborhood developed, though, flood rates decreased drastically. Now, the sewer systems have not changed for decades, but landscaping has increased over time. I’m willing to bet that mulch is one of the prime reasons why I still have a dry basement!

I didn’t realize that eating mindfully was a thing before taking on this challenge and let me tell you, it is fantastic. The other day, while eating my eggs, I decided to look up from my phone and noticed a praying mantis outside our window. Fascinated by the fact that I needed an Eco-Challenge to tell me to look at my surroundings, I started to do so even more. At first, I began to notice the small things in my dining room. The cuckoo clock had stopped working. It needed to be reset, but I guess we all forgot. The roses on the table had wilted. They’ve been there ever since the quarantine had started. Then I saw my sister, who was engrossed in her phone. She hadn’t even touched her food! After I finished my eggs, I reset the cuckoo clock, got new flowers from outside, and annoyed my sister to the point that she would look up from her phone and talk to me.
However, that’s when I realized that I wasn’t eating as mindfully as I should have been. I took a look at what I was eating. What was this crunchy texture that entered my mouth every time I checked my email? I looked at it carefully and realized that I was eating white bread instead of the wheat bread I usually eat. I was appalled! I could not realize that I was eating white bread? I shut off my phone and ate the rest of my eggs and toast, simply admiring the flavor.
The next day, I was determined to make my mindful meals more fun. I decided to cook my eggs. Now, this may seem trivial to all of you, but it wasn’t for me. This was the first time I cooked something for myself on the stove, and I am no longer ashamed to admit it! What came out of my first cooking adventure tasted terrific! I cooked two eggs sunny side up. The yolk was only slightly melty, and in fact, delicious (don’t worry, everything was cooked). I then toasted some white bread (it was the only bread we had) and spread our homemade butter. My sister made me some cold coffee, and I thanked her, but then we started arguing that she put a plastic straw in the coffee when we have metal straws. I am attaching my masterpiece to this post and encourage everyone to consider eating mindfully. You will never guess what you might discover about your food, your environment, and yourself.

This was an easy challenge to complete! I have been a vegetarian my entire life. I love eating fruits and vegetables and eating and cooking eggs, eating cheese, and drinking milk. It used to be pretty difficult to be vegetarian in the early 2000s. When my family and I went out to eat, we had to constantly specify that we are vegetarian and do not put in any meat in our food. Even so, we would get restaurants serving us chicken in salads, bones in soups, and fish. Some restaurants were so sneaky that we never actually knew we were eating meat. Take Olive Garden for example. The ingredients for minestrone on the menu indicated that it was a vegetarian option. Even the waiters said so. However, it came out that the minestrone used a non-veg stock. They later changed it to a vegan stock due to negative public opinion, but it was frustrating to find out that my favorite soup was a soup that I should not have been eating.
Many people also don’t realize that many snacks and candies contain meat. I’m talking about gelatin. Gelatin, found in marshmallows, gummies, and Jell-O, is made of crushed unused animal products. I remember chewing on a rice Krispy when a friend told me about it, and I immediately spit it out!
However, once veganism and vegetarianism became more aware, it became safer for us to eat out in restaurants. There was still the occasional oyster sauce in the Tom Kha soup, but other than that, we no longer need to be as wary outside the house. The reason why I am vegetarian is because of my religion. My family practices Hinduism, which similar to Jainism, is vegetarian. Cows are holy in India, so no Hindu would ever touch beef. However, the new generation is getting less and less strict regarding cultural and religious practices. Many of my Hindu friends and cousins eat meat (not beef though). If I wasn’t informed regarding the inhumane practices that killed livestock, I would have been non-veg.
I’m proud that I’m a vegetarian. I never developed a taste for meat because I never had it. The other day, I tried eating an impossible burger, and I just couldn’t swallow it. Every fiber of my being rejected the beefy flavor. That said, I’m glad that I can eat whatever I want, and continue to reduce my carbon footprint at the same time. I encourage others to also participate in this challenge, as we are at a point where many meat substitutes decrease our carbon footprints and lead us toward a brighter future.

Ever since I joined Drawdown, I have been fascinated by the many of the activities we can do to fight against climate change. This activity surprised me, even though it really shouldn’t have! My house has regular landscaping around it, but my family and I never actually grew a garden. Buying vegetables from the market can get expensive, and who knows where they were outsourced from? That’s why, three weeks ago, my family and I decided to start a garden. We made two gardens: one that would grow larger vegetables like cucumbers, carrots, and onions, and another that would produce more medium-sized vegetables like green and red peppers, coriander, eggplants, and more. The seeds have recently started sprouting, and we are all so excited to dig into our home-grown veggies!
Making the garden was not as hard as I imagined it would be. Lucky for us, New Jersey has excellent topsoil. That’s why we embedded one of our gardens into our backyard. We then mulched that garden. The other garden that is growing peppers and such needs more care, so my father and I built an elevated wooden structure that would hold the dirt for our plants. After that, we tried to fence the on-the-ground garden, but the dang rabbits would keep on breaking in and eating our crops. We made sure to lock up our fence to keep the rabbits from coming in, and so far, it’s been a success! But if you think about it, the crops that grow on this land technically belong to the animals that inhabit it. The reason why the deer population is so large in New Jersey is that they have an unlimited source of food (or landscape) and the absence of predators (wolves were removed due to the influx of houses). To keep wildlife away from food that we want to eat, we must build fences. I can’t help but feel a bit guilty, though. We humans took their land and are restricting them from eating food that belongs to them.
Regardless, we tend to our garden every other day, and it has been a fun bonding experience for the entire family!

My household is usually a very hectic place. My father is in and out of the house, working his many jobs to support our family. My mother arranges public events for our community and is the general homemaker of the family. My sister and I usually go to school. Unfortunately, our lives never actually collided with one another until the pandemic hit. All of us were forced to stay in one home, and we were finally making time to sit at the dinner table as a family, go for walks and connect.
This transition sparked our interest in incorporating new aspects into our lifestyles, one of which was fruits. Now, my mom made Indian food at home. Eating beans, rice, and veggies are great! Of course, we used to get the occasional Taco Bell when we felt like it. However, we would constantly double up on dessert after lunch and dinner and grab cookies as a mid-day snack. After taking a close look at our diets, we decided that it would be better to have a more natural approach to indulge our sweet tooths.
After the farmer’s market opened up, my mom and I drove down and bought many apples, blueberries, pineapples, watermelons, and more. My dad missed some of the fruits he used to eat as a kid, so he went to the Indian store to get some Mangos and Guavas. At first, these fruits replaced our snacks and desserts, but slowly and surely, they took up our meals. Whenever I am in a rush for class, my mom cuts up many fruits, and I call that my lunch! Mindfully eating these fruits was more energizing than I realized, and it felt great supporting local businesses that cultivated and grew these fruits. Eating healthier has made me feel healthier. I want to encourage everyone to eat more fruits rather than sugary snacks. A more nutritious diet does make a difference in our daily lives!