In 2023, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded a total of 399 disasters related to natural hazards. These events resulted in 86,473 fatalities and affected 93.1 million people. The economic losses amounted to US$202.7 billion. The 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic was the most catastrophic event …
Ten Indian states have been pulled up by the Supreme Court (SC) for neglecting its orders on the inclusion of environment as a subject in school curricula. Those reprimanded are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Jharkhand. A bench comprising Justice …
• Humanitarian aid tends to favour high-profile emergencies at the expense of less visible long-term suffering. Forced migration is one such invisible disaster • Forced migrants could be refugees, internally displaced persons, environmental migrants, development-induced migrants, human traffickers, and economic migrants • According to the United Nations, over 175 million …
How do pests select which plants to attack in the field? By smelling odours plants emit, believe most entomologists. And an entire industry of pesticides has evolved around this principle, to ensure pests can't get that appetising whiff of the plant they want; insecticides are made to confuse them. But …
nowadays the us consistently steers clear of global warming mitigation measures. In one such move, the us Environmental Protection Agency (epa) rejected a petition seeking to regulate greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act (caa). The August 28 decision follows a controversial amendment to the …
Research on nanoparticle emissions from vehicles is still in the academic domain. This is largely because the uncertainty over formation of nanoparticles and their measurement methods. As a spillover, regulatory mechanisms are not yet able to take into account this new science. They still use mass of emitted particles
Improved engine technology and fuel quality has thus created a new debate. “Ironically, particle control regulations may have made the situation worse,” points out Wexler, referring to increased nanoparticle emissions. Andreas Mayer, an engineering consultant based in Switzerland, does not quite agree. “Engine development does reduce the number of the …
The Western world has come a long way in its drive to reduce air pollution from vehicles. Just over a decade back, the focus was on total suspended particulate matter (which includes natural dust too) and the black smoke vehicles emitted. Epidemiological evidence made governments shift the focus to respirable …
• An analysis of news clippings* on water published between February 2002 and February 2003 shows a definite pattern. Media emerges as a matchmaker which plans, creates and packages news to catch the middle-class imagination • The two most popular subjects of reportage on water are scarcity of water, and …
• China is the largest producer and consumer of fish. Its zero growth policy for capture fisheries since 1998 will prevent the depletion of fish stock, while most of its future demand will be met through aquaculture • In 2000, global fishery production was 130.4 million tonnes (mt) and China's …
function opensmog1(){ var popurl="html/20030831_smog1.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } The recent release from the Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb), Parivesh, January 2003, presents deadly facts about air pollution levels in Indian cities. According to the report, Ahmedabad's air is the most noxious. Kanpur, Solapur and Lucknow follow closely, with small particulate levels (pm10) …
The environmental industry is quite nebulously defined. Less a sector than an agglomeration of many kinds of goods, services and technologies, this us $550 billion industry is nevertheless on a growth roll. Especially in the developing world, where environmental regulation is becoming more stringent, and whose exports must match up …
Majority of rural households in India use only kerosene for lighting. Most of the lamps are hurricane-type, which produce very poor light intensity of about 60
• According to the 2003 Forest Survey of India report, area under bamboo is 8.96 million hectares, or about 12.8 per cent of total forest area • India has the world’s largest bamboo forest, with 136 species, including 11 exotic ones. 58 species flourish in the north-eastern region alone • …
function opengr4(){ var popurl="html/20030715_gr4.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=425,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } Example: India & China Developing countries today are passing through what nutrition experts call a ‘dietary transition’. The dietary transition consists of a number of interlinked shifts: • A change in the methods of food production, processing, storage and distribution. As a capitalist economy …
function opengr3(){ var popurl="html/20030715_gr3.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } Land of the Fat In the last week of June, the big fight regarding obesity in the US took on real flesh as more than 100 lawyers, consumer advocates and activists landed up at Shillman Hall in Northeastern University, Boston, US, to attend a …
Economists C P Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh call this phenomenon the “calorie consumption puzzle”. Delving into the data released by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSS) on nutritional intake in India
