TACKLING ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES THROUGH INNOVATION

Various regions have different type climatic conditions with respect to their geographical locations on earth such as Tropical evergreen regions are in equatorial region receiving abundant rainfall and sunlight throughout the year, tropical region where southern part of India lies, temperate regions where European countries are present as well as polar regions. Every region has its own extreme conditions such as desert areas of middle-east and flood conditions occurring in areas of heavy rainfall. At present, heavy exploitation of natural resources has led to disturbed ecological order. This has also led to increase in pollution of various types such as water, air. All these changes have alarmed the world community and efforts have been made to prevent these disastrous changes that can have devastating effect on large population. 

Recently India participated in Conference of Parties popularly called as COP26 at Glasgow, Scotland. India pledged to become net zero green house gas emitter by 2070. Similarly other countries also iterated their pledges to decrease their carbon emission by significant amount. If we closely observe on how these pledges will be completed, the answer can be found in Intellectual property along with other methods on reducing and reusing. 

Some important inventions that are today playing major role in coping with extremities of environment are:

1. Desalination plants had been developed that are widely used in middle eastern states such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq that have large desert area. It was first developed by Ukrainian- Israeli chemist Alexander Zarchin who obtained its patent in 1964 and in 1965 founded IDE technologies.
2. Solar cells have been invented back in 1954 by Russian Bell labz which obtained its US patent. It had efficiency of 6% conversion using direct sunlight but now the improvement has taken place in this field of solar cells and with increase in efficiency solar panels are been established in countries in tropical region that receive abundant sunlight thus transitioning from conventional fuel to renewable fuel for energy production.
3. Similarly Windmill was invented in America by Daniel Halladay in 1854 and was used for drawing water from well. Improvement has led to electricity production using wind speed, therefore many wind mill fields are being developed in regions which witness fast speed winds throughout the year such as in mediterrainean region. It has also been effective in reducing dependence on conventional sources and decreasing carbon production in atmosphere.
4. FAME- Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of electric vehicle is scheme that government of India is promoting to decrease dependence on petrol and diesel that are prime source for release of green house gases. Data shows that there has been increase in number of patents with respect to parts of electric vehicle in which Toyota company tops followed by Ford and Honda. 
5. In India during the beginning of winter, farmers in western part of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab burn paddy crop residues that results in air pollution by multiplying with pollutants already in air. So bio decomposer technique recently invented by Indian Council of Agricultural Research named as PUSA decomposer was developed and Delhi government insisted on its use to decompose the stubble and prevent burning of stubble by farmers.
6. Waste water treatment plants were developed in 18^th century by Robert Thom in Scotland first and have been subsequently modified when the pollution level in water streams increased resulting in disturbance of water ecology. Therefore need was felt to treat the water from factories that are being released in river bodies so that pH of river bodies is maintained and ecology as well as aquatic life is conserved.
7. In order to develop sustainable commercial farming the concept of AQUAPONICS has become very famous nowadays. This idea was developed by James Rackocy where farming as well as fish production can be done simultaneously. This would help in overuse of land resources and overfishing in water. Various similar ideas for commercial farming have been developed such as HYDROPONICS which helps in water conservation with respect to conventional farming. 

The list is long and exhaustive and keeps on increasing every day with new inventions that can be of potential use with respect present and future. This will also aid in sustainable development which essentially will prevent “Destruction in the name of Development”.

AUTHOR:

Tushar Srivastava, Student at Law School, IIT Kharagpur