The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
Children absorb more information by watching TV than by reading, says a study done by Juliette Walma van der Molen and Tom van der Voort of Leiden University in the Netherlands. Five news stories were distributed among 152 children aged 10-12 years. Half the children received information from the original …
green banking has become big business in the Netherlands. Two years ago, politically-correct banking and investment was limited to three small idealistic banks-Triodosbank (originated from the anthroposophic movement which sees human beings in relation to the cosmos), asn Bank (founded by the trade unions) and the Other Investment Fund (founded …
how has a tiny country like the Netherlands managed to become the world's third largest exporter of agricultural products? The answer to this also explains the ecological crisis Dutch agriculture confronts today: the intensive use of fertilisers and pesticides. Even though estimates drawn by the Centre for Energy-Saving and Clean …
the role of the Dutch as pioneers in international environmental policy seems to have been relinquished. The question of reducing carbon dioxide (co2) emissions to three per cent below the 1990 levels by the year 2000, is under debate in the Netherlands. Although climate change was a hot issue in …
GOVERNMENTS the world over can do just that - pat themselves on their backs - for work well done. Dutch scientists, reviewing a year of the international ban on ozone- destroying chemicals have estimated that a total of 1.5 million possible skin cancer cases have been averted in the us …
it is an experience most of us would have had many times. How come mosquitoes and other winged creatures are partial in their biting habits? They seem to have distinct favourites, whose blood is selectively devoured. While scientists always suspected that it is something to do with one's skin or, …
a flight -free Sunday afternoon. It would be an extraordinary experience for the neighbours of Schiphol Amsterdam Airport, when activists will disturb air traffic for two hours. Recently, the neighbours of Schiphol (and of the five regional airports) as well as environmental organisations offered an appeal to the minister of …
Akzo Nobel nv , a Dutch chemicals company, has been charged with stealing technology that makes solar energy cheap enough to compete with conventional electricity. A Dutch entrepreneur Peter van der Vleuten is planning to initiate legal action against the company alleging the theft. He had started a US $37 …
the International Court of Justice in The Hague has delivered its profoundest judgement yet: nuclear arms should not be used in war. However, it was unable to make up its mind on whether the restriction included the usage of such arms as a means of self-defence. Eleven days of hearing …
THE agency that has ushered in the era of Internet activism is a bureau called Jansen and Janssen, named after Thomson and Thompson, the two detectives who feature in the Tintin comics. Jansen and Janssen is a spin off from the powerful squatter movement which occurred in Amsterdam in the …
THERE are very few countries in the world that have such a sophisticated environmental policy as the Netherlands. And there are very few countries on the face of the earth that have polluted their environment so much, as have we in the Netherlands. These two facts, of course, are interrelated. …
RECENT research conducted on the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has shown that a large proportion of the population living around the airport has developed serious respiratory complaints. A higher than average number of people suffer from stress and cardiac problems. It is suspected that there may also be …
A 'POWER tower', 7,000 metres-high, which could produce pollution-free energy from the North Sea, is being proposed by researchers in the Netherlands. Its proponents claim that the tower coUld gener- ate nearly twice as much electricity as Drax, Britain's largest power station, by harnessing the same natural ~ystem that cauSes …
The first Dutch agriculture minister of urban origin, Jozias van Aartsen, has upset farmers in the country, charmed free-market enthusiasts, and at the same time added fillip to the green movement. In his recent policy paper, he envisions a rural development scheme with less regulation and financial- support. He suggests …
The Dutch plan of using India as a dung dump has been debunked. Import of the highly contaminated cattle dung as manure, had been banned by the Indian government last September, but it took the agriculture and fertiliser ministries several months of dithering to finally say no to a persistent …
Researchers at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, have photographed images of the growth of Helium-3 crystals. The crystals, grown at a temperature of 0.001' Kelvin - close to the lowest temperature obtainable theoretically, which is 0* Kelvin - were shot by a charge-coupled device camera (Science, Vol 268, No …
THE Netherlands is one of those rare nations actually spending 0.7 per cent of the gnp on development cooperation. But the country's aid programme has recently drawn renewed flak from its rightwingers. The criticism has been triggered by the minister of development cooperation, Jan Pronk. To the popular right-wing daily …
The Netherlands government's recent go-ahead to Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport to build another runway that will double its passenger load and treble its cargo capacity is meeting with increasing resistance from the Dutch. Their main grouse is the inevitable increase in engine din; even though 10,000 houses will be sound …
Friends of the Earth (FOE) Netherlands organised a Greenhouse Tour from September 3 to December 11. They travelled by boat through the many canals and rivers in the Netherlands, visiting 42 municipalities that have signed the Climate Alliance, a declaration in which municipalities have pledged to do all they can …
FLOWERS have traditionally been used to display humane emotions. Of late, however, they have become a symbol of profit. Dutch floriculture firms and Indian entrepreneurs are joining hands to cultivate exotic varieties of roses, lilies and gladioli. However, there are fears that the deals may have adverse environmental consequences. Earlier …
