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 …
when a non-native species of plant or animal invades, some native species are threatened by the encroachment on their niches. Some loose the battle and go extinct. The time lapse between the introduction of the new species and the extinction of the natives can be so long that the loosing …
jhum is slash-and-burn agriculture. It comes naturally to Khrieni Meru, 45, farmer from Khonoma village of Nagaland in India's Northeast. But it isn't half as violent a practice as it may sound from the term
Shifting cultivation has been considered destructive to the ecology, but rarely have constructive solutions been suggested. Several scientists feel the pressure on these ecologically fragile areas will worsen with an increase in population. However, contrary to popular belief, population increase is not always the culprit for deforestation. A review of …
Create a scientific community that can interact with farmers and, on the basis of their study, draft a knowledge database, suggests Ramakrishnan. He feels government agencies should wake up to the unsuccessful trials and adopt better alternatives, "which can be conducted after an extensive study with good background data.' He …
The magic of the Himalaya is heady. It has led many researchers and travelers to record their impression of this mountain range. Himalaya : Life on the edge of the world, is one such labour of love by David Zurick and PP Karan both professors of geography at the Eastern …
The death of wild animals in a zoo is, indeed a shocking phenomenon. On one hand the government and international agencies spend crores of rupees to save the tiger and on the other we murder 12 tigers due to gross negligence. The highly qualified doctors who vaccinated the tigers at …
Cotton, grown on just five per cent of Indian agricultural land, consumes more than 50 per cent of the total pesticides used in India. Cotton gowers rely heavily on pesticides to control insects, diseases weeds and growth regulators. The intensive use of pesticides endangers human health as well as soil …
The most visible impact of air pollution is the haze, a brownish layer of pollutants and particles from biomass burning and industrial emissions, that pervades most regions in Asia. A recent international study, the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), has revealed that this haze is transported far beyond the source region, …
latvia has decided to push for a deal on a compensation mechanism in oil pollution cases, said Andris Berzins, the country's prime minister. This decision has been taken in the wake of an oil spill from Lithuanian oil concern Mazeikiu Nafta's terminal into the Baltic Sea on March 7, 2001. …
Asian countries seem to compete with each other to spew out waste. Rising populations, increasing urbanisation and better incomes mean the volume of waste generated is bound to go up in the future. How much of the municipal solid waste is organic and what other substances present depends, to a …
Asian floral and faunal species are threatened by fragmentation, physical alteration, habitat loss, pollution, introduction of exotic species and overexploitation of ecosystems. About 20 per cent of world's freshwater fish species have become extinct, many of them endemic to Asia. Be it mammals, birds or reptiles, they all suffer a …
About 830 million people around the world have not got sufficient food to eat because of natural disasters, armed conflicts and poverty, says the United Nations World Food Programme. "From generation to generation, people do not have enough food to eat,' said Catherine Bertini, the agency's executive director. The worst-hit …
PLANTS of same genera can be found in eastern Asia as well as in parts of the temperate zone of North America. But in Asia there is more variety of plants within the genus. The temperate landmass was once contiguous. Landmasses making up Asia and North America today were severed …
research has shown that south Asians living in Canada have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular problems when compared to other ethnic races such as Chinese and Europeans. The cardiovascular problems taken into consideration included conditions such as angina, impairment of cardiac muscles, and prior cardiac surgery. Sonia Anand and …
global warming over the next century could turn out to be much worse than previously estimated, says the latest report of the uk Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research. Even if greenhouse gas ( ghg ) emissions are stabilised (which would require an overnight cut of 60-70 …
the book is truly an international effort, both in terms of contributors as well as the content. With articles authored from various parts of the world, the book documents rainwater harvesting systems and efforts to conserve water across the continents of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and America. As in the …
the Southern perspective on the linkage between trade and environment, which has resulted in some conflicts between developed and developing countries, is moving from mere protests to more proactive proposals. Several South Asian countries are making serious attempts to consolidate their positions on how the link between environment and trade …
The United Nations (UN), in association with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has granted an aid of US $153.7 million out of the total US $461.2 million cost of 14 environmental projects in various countries. Among the projects approved was a US $7.85 million grant to scientifically assess climate change …
Sahashradhara, Dehradun, India. A soft drink shop greets thousands of tourists at this confluence of a thousand streams. So what's the big deal? Well, its just that the shop is located right inside a microhydel powerhouse that supplied electricity to three nearby villages for over four years. Two year ago, …
As the world wakes up to a depleting finite sources of power like coal and the growing opposition to big dams, countries all over the world with water resources and difficult areas to electrify are opting for the community mode of electricity generation and distribution. "Today, a confluence of technological, …
