Electricity consumption from the manufacture of artificial intelligence (AI) chips has soared by more than 350 percent worldwide between 2023 and 2024, according to new research from Greenpeace East Asia. In East Asia, the global hub for AI semiconductor production, growing electricity demand from AI chipmaking has been met primarily …
A 29ft rubber whale, Molly the Minke, is being paraded on the back of a truck in the UK. The float will go through 38 towns and cities before it gets shipped to Dublin for the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which is meeting at the end of May. Greenpeace, the …
MUCH before the 3-week Review and Extension Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) began in New York on April 17, the battle lines had been drawn. Although the 5 nuclear nations -- with the exception of China, which prefers an extension of 25 years -- strongly favour the treaty's indefinite …
SAFE REACTORS: A new model of safer reactors is coming up, announced Framatome of France and Siemens of Germany. The 2 nuclear power reactor suppliers have joined hands to desigrethe new and improved European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR) for export and home markets. They have floated a joint venture, Nuclear, …
THE dirty linen of the developed countries was brought out in the open and, as expected, created a furore. The setting was the 3-day workshop on the Basel Convention held in Dakar, Senegal, between March 15-17. Green activism had already heated up the debate on the transboundary movement of hazardous …
THE us-based ngo Greenpeace has launched a campaign against international trade on toxic material, and is now trying to step up the momentum of protest in India against toxic waste import, its production and disposal. Greenpeace held a series of workshops in the country in March, which were the launch-pad …
Late January, the European Patent Office took a tough stand on gene patenting by upholding a patent granted to the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine, Melbourne, Australia. The patent covered the gene for H2-relaxin, a protein that allows the pelvic girdle to widen during pregnancy and childbirth. …
THE proposed Mochovce nuclear power project in Slovakia has created much heat in Europe. A chain reaction of protests has been set off and the whole project has got entangled in a complicated maze of arguments and counter-arguments. Neighbouring Austria and environmental groups like the Greenpeace had already let off …
THE 7-year-long debate over patenting of life-forms in Europe has finally reached its denouement. On March 1, the European Parliament decided to drop a proposed directive that would have introduced common standards throughout the European Community (EC) for the patenting of new plants and genetically-altered animals. Ethical issues seem to …
JAPAN has yet again managed to, controversially speaking, outstrip the sun. It kicked off a worldwide furore in December 1992 when it received its first radioactive nuclear waste shipment in the form of reclaimed plutonium from the French company, Cogema. Now, another shipload of the stuff of nightmares is ready …
The Bay of Biscay was turned into a battleground as Spanish fishermen snipped the nets of 3 Cornish boats in the first week of August, claiming that they exceeded the European Community length limits of 2.5 km. Skirmishes also took place between French and Spanish fishermen. Meanwhile, Rainbow Warrior, the …
All's well that end well for the plump toddlers. France has finally decided to give up its 12-year effort to build a large Antarctic landing strip at the French base of Dumont d'Urville, on Terre-Adelie, near a penguin rookery and bird sanctuary. France had turned a deaf ear to the …
REBEL activists in tiny inflatable dinghies stopping major polluters from using the ocean as a waste dump. The image of David against Goliath. Since the early "70s, a group of people has "showed the world there is something wrong with the planet". Greenpeace began when a small group of people …
MUCH to the dismay of environmentalists in the UK, British Nuclear Fuels has been given a go-ahead for its Thorp plant by the High Court. The decision marks the end of a long battle between the British government and two organisations -- Greenpeace and the Lancashire County Council. The organisations …
Human-induced changes in the composition of the atmosphere has lent urgency to the task of understanding their effect on the earth's climate, which is crucial to life on the planet. Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas found in abundance on earth, has increased by more than 25 per …
PALAEOCLIMATIC data -- geological evidence of climatic change contained in fossils, rocks, sediments and ice -- play a crucial role in studies of atmospheric changes and their effect on climate because it is the only empirical evidence of what happened in the past. Such data serve as a yardstick to …
COMPARISONS between planets in the Solar System, which have distinct atmospheres, especially Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, cast light on the massive interactions that determine the evolution of climates. Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, has an extremely tenuous atmosphere, consisting mainly of hydrogen, helium and nitrogen, which are …
"OUR ANGER has grown to its highest level," fumed Kazuo Shima, the Japanese delegate to the annual general meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), after Tokyo's attempts at yen diplomacy failed to prevent an extension of the global ban on commercial whaling (Down To Earth, April 30, 1993). The …
AN EXPLODING tank of radioactive waste at a secret weapons plant in western Siberia is reportedly contaminating much of the surrounding area. In what is billed as the worst nuclear accident in the region since the Chernobyl disaster, a radioactive cloud billowed northeastward from Tomsk-7. Officials said the exact amount …
Greenpeace India has been working on various issues related to the environment since 2001. Work in India is focused on four broad campaigns namely, stop climate change, sustainable agriculture, preserving the oceans and preventing another nuclear catastrophe. Over the years Greenpeace India has built a strong base of supporters spread …
