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 …
THOUGH one dislikes pessimists who seem to have given up on our collective ability to put development onto a genuinely sustainable path, the fact remains they have enough evidence to demonstrate their case. The pace of destruction continues to outstrip our paltry efforts to limit the social and environmental impacts …
We are united by a common premise: that human activities are needlessly causing grave and perhaps irreparable damage to the global environment. The dangers are clear to all of us. -- Al Gore, vice president of the United States, speaking at the Commission on Sustainable Development, June 14, 1993. "What …
LIKE OTHER countries, India's strategy at global environmental negotiations is to protect its national interests while safeguarding environmental space for future development needs. Climate Change: India played a leading role within the Group of 77 countries in pushing the issue of equity and stressed that the countries that are responsible …
THE COMMISSION on Sustainable Development (CSD), established as a UN organisation at the Earth Summit in 1992, seems bogged down by talk bereft of action. The commission, consisting of 53 countries elected on a three-year rotation basis, was set up as a global forum to coordinate action to implement an …
IT WAS former UK environment minister Michael Howard who proposed to his Indian counterpart, Kamal Nath, that their countries should form an alliance to push post-Rio environmental issues. Britain was especially interested in reactivating discussions to secure a global convention on forests. Final agreement on the convention, incorporating India's positions …
As a follow-up to the Rio summit, the Canadian environment minister set in motion events that have led to a new environmental grouping. The discussions were held for two days and had no formal agenda or speeches, but it set in motion events that have led to a new grouping …
WITH THE end of the cold war, the Group of 77 (G-77) is increasing both in size and clout. Once a loosely-knit association, G-77 now consists of 129 developing countries and its influence, especially in the field of environment, is on the rise. Frequent references to G-77 resolutions in the …
AFTER years of trying to make family planning enthusiasts understand that population control is not merely condoms, pills and other birth control devices, next year's international conference on population in Cairo nevertheless looks like it will be dominated by, well, condoms, pills and other birth control devices. The second preparatory …
WHEN CHINESE leader Mao Zedong opposed curbs on China's population growth on the ground that productivity of each extra pair of hands outweighed consumption of each additional mouth, international birth control activists were aghast. The country already accounted for about a quarter of all humans on the earth, they said, …
What are India's strong points at environment negotiations? Our main strength is credibility -- our record of conservation of natural resources. We have $600 billion worth of forests and forest products, but we do not use them to raise revenue. Indian negotiators at environmental talks still speak of transfer of …
ENVIRONMENTAL planning, generally considered a luxury for developing countries, is becoming an integral part of Egypt's economic strategies. The country's parliament has been debating a comprehensive environment protection law in which stiff prison sentences have been urged for polluters -- even if they are heads of state-owned industries. Egypt's environment …
Environmentalists and voluntary organisations from all over the country plan to get together in the near future to protest against lacunae in the National Environment Tribunal Bill, which will be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament. This decision was taken at the National Workshop on Human Rights, Environment and …
Narmada Maiya (Mother Narmada) is a curious mix of reportage, diary, report, and analysis on the much-debated Narmada Valley dam project. Originally written in Marathi in 1990, it has now been published in Hindi. The book attempts to cover a wide range of facts and figures on the Narmada project, …
WHAT DO an exotic dish of frog legs and the homely egg have in common? Extreme cruelty in bringing them to the table, according to Compassion In World Farming, a British voluntary organisation that has campaigned against factory farming for more than 20 years. The organisation has brought out two …
THE OGONI tribals of Nigeria have pushed environmental degradation to the top of the agenda for the country's presidential elections, which were held in June, by protesting against US firm Willbros laying a pipeline, which would carry oil from the heart of the Ogoni territory to the port of Bonny. …
Classrooms will turn green soon if a proposal by the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) to introduce environmental lessons for students and professionals is approved. MET has set up a committee headed by V H Easwaran, former director of the Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development, to devise formal …
The Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGQ has given a detailed reply to the show-cause notice issued by the ministry of environment and forests (MEF), which alleged the ONGC had failed to prepare a detailed risk assessment study (RAS) and threatened to revoke ONGC's environmental clearance following the Bombay High-Uram …
THAT A capitalist USA wants to share with the world its ideas for cleaner businesses comes clearly through in Management for a Small Planet. The message: We have made mistakes and botched up the world's environment. So, beware the pitfalls of blind industrialisation that have made the US environment the …
THE ATMOSPHERE in New Delhi's National Museum of Natural History was charged on June 5, World Environment Day. The Care for the Environment Contest, organised jointly by the museum authorities and the ministry of environment and forests (MEF), was over and the People's Perception on Caring for the Environment exhibition …
WHEN THE UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights meets in Geneva in August, we may see another forward step by the growing movement for international acceptance for the concept of environmental rights. The meeting will review a three-year study on the links between human rights and the environment by the sub-commission's …
