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 …
REMOTE sensing is the science of studying an area or object without actually coming into contact with it. All objects on the earth emit electromagnetic energy. This energy includes not only visible light but also other radiations in the electromagnetic spectrum. The portion that is visible to the human eye …
BETWEEN the 1960s and 1990s, if there is one thing that is different, it is the level of material consumption of the richer sections of the world. Says Swedish environmentalist Anders Wijkman, "When I used to go to school in the 1950s, I was one of the few kids in …
ANIMAL stories have always been the staple fare of children's fiction, but now a conscious attempt is being made by some publishers to bring out children's books with environmental themes. These publications are generally well illustrated and this makes them even more attractive to children. The 1991-92 collection of Children's …
FOR SOME time now, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank -- the second biggest bank in the world -- has drawn flak from NGOs for its penchant to finance large, capital-intensive projects while ignoring their social and ecological ramifications. When the bank's board of governors met in Hong Kong in May, …
AS THE body of Petra Kelly, co-founder of Germany's Green Party and civil rights activist, was laid to rest in the Bavarian town of Wurzburg, the peculiar circumstances that led to her death have raised many disturbing questions about the future of Europe's green movement and its relation to the …
A Nigerian judicial commission of inquiry has uncovered a gruesome incident in which the police massacred 80 unarmed villagers demonstrating for compensation in lieu of their land taken over by Shell International. The Guardian alleges that not only did Nigerian authorities cover up the killings, they also suppressed the commission …
THE BILL Clinton-Al Gore team, as expected, put the Democrats back in power in the US after 12 years. Gore, the vice president-elect, has been widely acclaimed as a "sincere environmentalist" and his book, Earth in the Balance, is seen as one coming straight from the heart. But exactly how …
POPULATION growth in developing countries is a horse that is flogged at every international forum. It is a threat to sustainability, because if consumption levels of developed countries are coupled with it, global resource requirements would become exceedingly large. Unhappily, the point that is underplayed is that consumption levels of …
SCIENTISTS at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) in Hyderabad have developed clean fuel, a coal gasification technology, but are finding no takers, even though their new technology is important, given the worldwide concern for global warming and pollution from thermal power stations and the fact that India has …
LITERATURE, they say, is a reflection of the way a society perceives itself. Indians have, from time immemorial, celebrated the interdependence of human beings and nature. The modern era saw them grow apart. The greater the distance between them, the more romantic became the treatment of nature in literature. Indian …
THE NEW US administration of Bill Clinton and Al Gore promises to be environment-friendly. Gore, derided as the "ozone man" by outgoing president George Bush has sound environmental credentials. His book, Earth in the Balance, has been called visionary by some. Others liken it to Hitler's Mein Kampf and they …
INDIA'S politicians and bureaucrats have often been compared to the five blind men and the elephant, with the difference that they have consciously chosen to be blind. For years, they have woven a shroud of secrecy over the state of the country's natural resources and every bit of relevant data …
In 1981, there were 181.03 million illiterate females in India. By 1991, this figure reached 197.34 million -- an increase of about 16.31 million in just one decade. And, this occurred though the literacy rate for Indian females aged seven and above increased during the same decade from 29.75 per …
CLEAN manufacturing technology is governed by the "prevention is better than cure" dictum. End-of-the-pipe strategies for controlling pollution can never be as cost-effective as waste abatement programmes, which reduce effluents by simply increasing efficiency. Clean manufacturing processes need not use high-technology; they could involve practical approaches to manufacturing which cut …
A RECENT article in The Guardian of London on the role played by the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens in tropical botany has sparked a debate regarding its acquisition of tropical plants. The article pointed out proudly certain plants in Kew Gardens have facilitated the discovery and exploitation of many modern …
IT IS A daring and formidable task to synthesise the insights of social and physical anthropology, physiology, epidemiology, micro-economics and macro-economics. This has been attempted with considerable success in this book by focussing primarily on survival strategies of rural households in "developing" countries in the face of both chronic and …
IN A RECENT article, entitled Decline and Fall of Amphibians in the New Scientist dated June 27, mention is made of the declining population of the common Indian bullfrog, Rana tigerina, attributed primarily to the harvesting of frogs to meet the Western culinary demand for frog-legs. How the New Scientist …
A MAJOR leap in Indian jurisprudence occurred when Chief Justice P N Bhagwati interpreted the Indian Constitution to mean that Indian citizens have a Right to a clean and healthy environment because without this, the expressly stated Right to Life is meaningless. However, little effort has been made to define …
WHAT DO the Gulf War, Greenhouse effect and the Narmada project have in common? They are all related to energy, an issue that took centre stage in the 1970s. The oil crisis of 19 made the West realise it could no longer take for granted the supply of cheap oil, …
GEORGE Fernandes may have been looking for a short cut to lasting fame when he announced on July 19, 1990 the setting up of the Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC). To many, the prospect of a railway line along the west coast was the fulfillment of a dream. The idea was …
