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 …
of 829 basic health units covering 96 per cent of the rural population. Only 229 actually function as health units, according to a Panos Features report. The rest are used as godowns, rest houses, barns and small industries. Besides, there is a paucity of basic medicines and sophisticated equipment even …
INFORMATION is power. "Information highways" serve as economic channels for world trade now, just as the sealanes, railways and roads were the foundation of trade and commerce in times past. Small wonder, then, that -- like wealth -- its distribution is skewed; it is the economically-deprived who are also the …
AMONG the many perishable theories that poured out of the minds of management gurus was the notion of sunrise and sunset industries. Beyond the phase of maturity, the prophets laid down, industries would gradually perish. The lifecyle of industries and human beings, it was suggested, is so similar; and it …
DOING business with Britain is not Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's cup of tea any longer. Following allegations in the British press that Mohamad had accepted a bribe from a British contractor, the prime minister has imposed tough trade sanctions against that country. In a move geared to send Britain's …
THE grassroots level environmental concerns of Bangladeshi citizens may finally be reflected in the Bangladesh government's latest National Environmental Management Action Plan (NEMAP), according to a report by Mostafa Kamal Majumder. A series of 24 consultation meetings with a cross-section of the population -- NGOs, farmers, religious leaders, teachers, chairpersons …
KARACHI and Lahore, the 2 major metros in Pakistan, need extensive cosmetic surgery. A Panos Features report says that Karachi generates 5,000 tonnes of garbage a day and only about a 3rd of it is lifted. Holding their noses, the Japanese have very generously gifted around 100 refuse vans to …
In Nepal, the Environment Conservation Council, headed by prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, has stipulated permissible smoke limits of 65 Hartridge smoke unit (HSU) on diesel vehicles and 3 percent carbon monoxide standards on petrol vehicles. Initially, the new regulation will cover only government and diplomatic vehicles, reports Jan Sharma …
A NATIONAL environment survey whose findings could be presented to Parliament annually has been proposed at the first meeting of the National Environmental Council. The environmental survey could be based on the pattern of the national economic survey, suggested Union minister of state for environment and forests Kamal Nath. The …
ON NEW Year's Eve, 1991, newspersons covering the 2-week Sangharsh Yatra from Madhya Pradesh to Gujarat against the Sardar Sarovar project (SSP) witnessed an ominous phenomenon: an area under prohibitory orders changing its contours like an amoeba. The Gujarat police stopped the yatra at the interstate border in Ferkuva village, …
DESPITE (or is it because of?) his lifelong work in fields directly related to environment, Eisenbud is not likely to be a mascot for most of today's environmentalists. About the green movement's persistent anti-technology tone -- especially in its initial period -- he notes that it has often been technology …
IN THIS provocatively titled book, the authors point out that laws governing the use of "the commons" were not usually written because the complexity they dealt with was not amenable to generalisation. Laws were also subject to constant change, as a balance had to be struck between the availability of …
The price of power THE Arun III controversy continues to dog Nepal, reports Jan Sharma from Kathmandu. In an uncanny coincidence, just as loan negotiations for the construction of the Arun III hydroelectric power project were about to begin with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and Germany's KfW …
THE Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is uneasy about Russia's enormous oil reserves. A major worry, reports the Asian Wall Street Journal, is the huge volume of Russian oil that is flowing into world markets -- estimated to be approximately 10 per cent of OPEC's total exports. Among OPEC …
THE sharp decline in frog and toad populations worldwide has disturbed amphibian watchers (BBC Wildlife, March 1994). The findings of the Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force, a network set up by the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union, reveal that amphibians are struggling for survival all the way …
MORE films are being made on environmental issues than ever before; films that closely document issues, as well offer different points of view on the growing global environmental crisis. Many NGOs, activist groups and individual filmmakers have been have being driving their points across through the powerful and seductive medium …
GREEN barriers loom menacingly large on the horizon. On March 28, while addressing the leaders of the G-15 nations, Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao expressed his apprehensions over the introduction of fresh trade barriers in the garb of non-economic concerns. Then, speaking at the business forum of the G-15 …
I AM not a botanist and being a Bengali with a particular inclination for non-vegetarian food, I almost shared the sentiment, "Grasses are meant for cows." But reading Grass Evolution and Domestication has been an interesting experience. Reading this book, one is made to realise that the "grass family" is …
Over the past 30 years, the environmental movement in the West has grown dramatically and moved from strength to strength. But little has been written about how this movement has been organised. The early heady days were full of writers like Rachel Carson, Barbara Ward and Barry Commoner, and of …
INTEL Corp has introduced a new generation of chips by launching two fast versions of its Pentium microprocessor. This is part of an aggressive marketing drive by the computer giant, the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, the International Herald Tribune reports. The company's is anxious to garner a share of the …
THE idyllic Maldive islands face a threat from an old enemy and friend -- the sea. Despite repeated calls for technological and financial support to keep them afloat, at various fora like the UN's Special Debate on Environment and Development in 1987 or the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro …
