Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
Technology developed at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories to remove toxins from groundwater contaminated by nuclear waste may offer clues about how to resolve a catastrophic environmental crisis in Bangladesh where arsenic polluted wells are slowly poisoning and killing hundreds of thousands of people.
The National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research in Japan has developed a new catalyst that it says is very efficient at removing nitrogen-oxide contaminants from diesel exhaust. The new catalyst is made from a mixture of gallium oxide and alumina. It works by promoting a chemical reaction between NOx …
For the scientists, it is nothing less short of a discovery. For Gujarat, it's a good tiding in the face of increasing pollution levels. On February 4 this year, two scientists from the city-based Gujarat Ecological Society (GES), a non-government organisation, found coral reefs in the Gulf of Kutch.
The Casade frog ( Rana cascade ) and the Western toad ( Bufo boreas ) are dying, so is the Pacific tree frog. But there is probably no single cause for the dwindling population of these sentinel creatures, says zoologist Andrew Blaustein of the Oregon State University, USA. Increased ultraviolet …
Global warming is accelerating faster than what climatologists had calculated. In 1995, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change predicted that global warming would rise between 1
Reducing heavy metal pollution can help improve bird populations, report Finnish researchers. Tapio Eeva and Esa Lehikoinen of the University of Turku, Finland, studied pied flycatchers ( Ficedula hypoleuca ) and great tits ( Parus major ) around the copper smelter at Harjavalta, southwest Finland. A decade ago the plant …
microscopic particles of atmospheric dust, sea salt and smoke known as aerosols are essential to the formation of clouds and the production of rain and snow. But recent years have also seen a new source of aerosols
scientists in the United Kingdom have undertaken a unique project that could help to pinpoint oil and gas deposit sites. The project, which will take two years, involves studying weather information dating back 320 million years and correlating it into a global database. The scientists go back in time to …
A treatment system that converts waste timber into valuable chemicals will be tested at Corryong in the Upper Murray later this year.The process, known as "Fast Pyrolysis", was developed by Melbourne University scientist Branko Hermescec, through work at the Institute of Land and Food Resources. Fast Pyrolysis converts sawdust, worth …
Researchers have discovered how airborne sea salt particles may be involved in helping to determine the levels of some greenhouse gases as well as air quality in coastal urban areas.
Swimmers in Hong Kong will have more information about water quality if environment chiefs adopt a ground-breaking technology. The technology, developed by City University's centre for coastal pollution and conservation, will be tested at three beaches. The DNA-based method can gauge the presence of 15 types of pathogens, including those …
THE projected rise in sea level due to global warming and climate change is the kind of stuff that makes doomsday stories. The threat from such a rise has ominous portents for a large portion of the human population. Yet several scientists say that problems related to global warming may …
IT IS about the ozone layer. And it is not bad news. Some Australian scientists say if the amount of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) being released is reduced, the most famous layer of the Earth's atmosphere will begin to repair itself. However, before you rush to go tell your friends, bear …
The Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) has developed a high rate digester for fibrous and semi-solid municipal waste with the promise of revolutionising the waste disposal industry. Described as TERI acidification and methanation process, for which patent has also been filed, the digestor is said to be quick, economically viable …
For long, potted plants have been touted as a solution to the sick building syndrome, a range of symptoms that leaves people feeling tired and irritable but with no specific illness. But, Peter Dingle of Australia's Murdoch University thinks it is a "great urban myth'. He set up five cabins …
Streams in UK's Lake District are becoming significantly less acidic. Ed Tipping of the Windermere-based Institute of Freshwater Ecology compared pH (a measure of acidity and alkalinity) levels in rain and river water samples collected in 1999 with those in 1998 and 1971-73. He found reduction in acidity in 1999 …
Bio-remediation, a process in which bacteria clean contaminated soil and water, is proving useful in cleaning the environment. Says Ryuichiro Kurane of the Industrial Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo, this can be done by increasing the activity of existing bacteria by stimulating them with nutrients such as phosphorus. Another is …
today , they are promoted by the West as a scenic wonder. But less than a century ago, they were regularly shot by fisherfolk as "nuisance animals" that emptied their nets. During World War II, soldiers used them for target practice and, even 40 years ago, they were categorised as …
in recent years, the rainfall pattern in midsummer in the densely populated Tokyo and Yokohama in Japan has changed from gentle to tropical squall-type rainfall, involving sudden, violent winds with torrential downpours. Researchers at Tokyo University's Centre for Climate System Research believe it is due to the "heat island phenomenon", …
