The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Languages are like oysters holding pearls of wisdom. Tove shares one such: "Pekka Aikio, the President of the Saami Parliament told me this in 2001. Finnish fish biologists have just
Hunger and poverty are essentially a human-made problem and can, hence, be overcome by human beings. The apologists of status quo would have us believe that being poor is
Not surprisingly, strong anti-us sentiments were in evidence at the recently-concluded World Summit on Sustainable Development (wssd) at Johannesburg. One reason, of course, was the us refusal to sign the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, despite being the most polluting nation on Earth. Ehrlich A and Ehrlich P best described the sheer …
The National Water Resource Council (nwrc) approved a new National Water Policy (nwp) document on April 1, 2002. The bill based on this document is now pending in Parliament. When compared to the water policy of 1987, it could be said that the 2002 policy explores several new dimensions and …
hunger deaths in the Kashipur district of Orissa last year had captured national and international attention. A recent report of the National Human Rights Commission (nhrc), however, reveals that the real cause of the death was food poisoning resulting from consumption of toxic mango kernels with fungal growth. "A medical …
KALAHANDI . Directed by Goutam Ghosh . Produced by Soudamini Mishra . 45 minutes Pangs of persisting poverty and hunger. Agony of drought-stricken people. Silent sobs of women striving hard to dig out drinking water from the parched riverbed. Despondent villagers forced to migrate due to livelihood crisis. This is …
does corporate responsibility for us companies, one wonders, stop at that country's shores? It appears so, going by the latest directive by the us State Department to a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against the oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation, which is facing complicity in human rights violations in …
after a series of agitations demanding the protection of rights of the traditional fisherfolk community of India, the National Fishworkers' Forum (nff) has finally been assured by Prime Minister (pm) Atal Bihari Vajpayee that its demands will soon be looked into. Even as the nff delegates were hopeful that their …
For Sumani Sahu, of Orissa's coal town Talcher, the days are becoming longer. Mining has eaten away at her village, leaving but a shell behind. Fetching water and gathering firewood keep her occupied from three in the morning to late in the evening. The remaining hours in the day are …
the term patent is not usually well received in India. It immediately brings to mind images of biopiracy, of large transnational entities making profits out of knowledge and natural resources protected and conserved by the poor. Communities have nurtured knowledge and health systems over millennia, a prime example being ayurveda. …
It was in February 2001 that Down To Earth broke the story. A link was established between the unusually high incidence of deformities and diseases in Padre
The protest against endosulfan in Kerala has become a symbol of struggle against pesticides in India. The pesticide industry is worried about endosulfan as much as it is of its other products. As Dave proudly puts it, "I do not defend just one molecule. I am the president for 200 …
In August 2001, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) asked the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to submit a report on the health hazards due to the spraying of endosulfan in cashew plantations in Kasaragod district within four months. ICMR in turn asked the National Institute of Occupational Health …
Pesticides are regulated under the Insecticides Act of 1968 and Insecticides Rules of 1971. In May 2000, the Insecticide (Amendment) Bill 2000, was passed under the shadow of suicide deaths of farmers because of spurious pesticides. This amendment made the punishment for adulterated pesticides more stringent. But it did little …
the World Food Summit, convened by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (fao) and held in Rome from June 10-13, failed to secure an enhanced commitment to its goal of reducing the number of hungry people from 800 million to 400 million by 2015. What it could just do was to …
There were quite a few adherents to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at the World Food Summit. The treaty defines plant genetic resources as any genetic material of plant origin of actual or potential value for food and agriculture. India ratified the pact along …
Over the past couple of decades, agricultural research has seen increasing involvement of the private sector in what was almost exclusively the preserve of public-funded institutions. With research taking place in the public sector, there was no problem with sharing technology. The spread of the Green Revolution technology is a …
