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 …
FACED with a serious paucity of storage capacity, the Russian navy has asked the government permission to dump radioactive nuclear waste in the Pacific. A Russian foreign ministry official said the government might have to allow the dumping if navy experts prove that the tankers in which the waste is …
THE AUSTRALIAN parliament has passed legislation that gives aborigines the right to make claims on government-held territory if they can prove their unbroken connection to the land. Under the law, passed in December, aborigines are obliged to respect mining, ranching and other leases on any property they win claim to. …
• Violin-makers may soon have to use plastic instead of rare hardwoods, according to the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society, UK. Supplies of pernambuco, used to make violin bows, and impigo, used in clarinets and oboes, are falling to crisis levels. Wind instruments, however, pose the biggest problem as customers …
FOR THE residents of San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico's poverty stricken southern state of Chiapas, the New Year began with a bang. Just minutes into 1994 -- as locals and tourists ushered in the New Year with music and fireworks -- Uzi-toting, machete-wielding guerillas of the Zapatista National …
The visit in mid-December of a delegation from the Japanese International Nature Farming Research Centre (INFRC), gave a big boost to organic farmers in India. The Japanese are proponents of a high-technology alternative -- the Effective Microorganism Method (EMM). INFRC president Teruo Higa explained EMM involves the use of cultures …
A SUSTAINABLE society is one that is prepared to monitor the impacts of its activities carefully, openly and democratically, analyse them and use its wisdom and knowledge to solve problems. The knowledge capital of a society is just as important for sustainability as its natural or human-made capital. Several meetings …
THE URGENT need for foreign exchange has forced Vietnam to roll out the red carpet for foreign tourists. However, Vietnamese officials voice concern over tourism's negative impact on the environment, threats of uncontrolled growth around scenic areas and lack of infrastructure to sustain tourism in the long run. Environmental considerations …
BRITAIN'S voluntary bodies should be stripped of their charitable status, says Voluntary Action, a report published by the home office of the UK. The report, which is a comprehensive review of 1,200 organisations and hundreds of local groups in 14 different communities covering one million people, recommends that tax concessions …
SOUTH Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) chairperson Khaleda Zia called for a movement for the empowerment of women. At a SAARC ministerial conference in Kathmandu, she said non-governmental organisations could play an important role by coming up with "innovative programmes". Zia also urged legislation to ensure equality for women …
HIT BY a severe recession, Japanese companies are reducing spending on research and development (R&D;) and many firms are scaling down low-priority or long-term projects in favour of those that offer immediate returns. Japan's ministry of international trade and industry surveyed 28 big companies and found their total spending would …
IN WHAT he called "Colombia's gift to the world", immunologist Manuel Patarroyo has handed over all rights to his synthetic malaria vaccine to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a newsletter of the organisation says. The first scientifically accepted field study of the vaccine, reported in March 1993 in the British …
A PROPOSED Australian law that allows aborigines to claim land has been criticised by the country's business community, which fears it could curb mining. The proposed native land-title legislation arose from a 1992 high court ruling that recognised the native title to land under the country's common law. The ruling, …
The present framework for NGO involvement and environment education is based on a background of visits to a large number of PAs over the last tow decades and recent visits to TRs with a more specific purpose of focusing atentionon these issues. Talking to local people, field staff of the …
• Western mining companies are rushing towards a new eldorado: Cuba. This year, Joutel Resources of Canada became the first western firm to sign an exploration agreement with the Cuban mining agency Geominera. And, with a mining analyst calling Cuba a "genuinely under-explored area", Joutel is being followed by Australia's …
BANGLADESH'S Grameen Bank -- a cooperative banking system with easy loan repayment conditions -- has inspired US President Bill Clinton. When he was governor of Arkansas, Clinton launched the Goodfaith Fund, modelled after Grameen. Now, he plans to launch a similar scheme on a national level to extend lending to …
NEPAL'S carpet manufacturers have alleged that some environmental groups are the booming carpet industry in the name of a cleaner environment. Bijay Bahadur Shrestha, former president of the Central Carpet Industry Association, accused the government of not pursuing a clear-cut policy on the carpet industry, whose exports amount to $205 …
THE CREDIBILITY of China's controversial Three Gorges project to build the world's largest dam across the Yangtze river has received a setback. Two US government agencies -- the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers -- said they will sever their involvement in the project after completing work …
With the demise of Sunil K Roy, often described as "a soldier, diplomat, administrator and environmentalist, all in one", environment has lost one of its best friends. Starting his career in the army and later, the foreign service, Roy was appointed director general of tourism by former prime minister Indira …
AFTER much dithering, Russia has joined Europe, Canada and Japan in the US-led international space station project. Russia will merge its Mir programme with the US Freedom programme for the project, the first of its kind. Orbiting where Russia's Mir 1 is currently deployed, the project will consist of the …
DEVELOPMENT does not imply destruction of the environment. This was a message sought to be given by the India International Trade Fair held in the Capital in November. Essentially an exhibition on consumer goods, the fair also featured a section on the environment with examples of eco-friendly products and technologies. …
