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 …
IT SEEMED an incident straight out of the pages of science fiction. On February 23, a team of Scottish scientists announced under that they had created the first ever clone of an adult animal and introduced to the world a seven-month-old sheep called Dolly. The experiment may well be a …
THE recent World Health Organization (WHO) report Investing in Health Research and Development predicts that depressive illness will be the single most important cause of disability in the developing world. Many health researchers may be amazed and even skeptical about the validity of this prediction. However, this report is only …
Among the plethora of film-based TV channels and programmes, one channel that stands out is Discovery. Since its inception in August 1995, the channel has built up a reputation for providing informative yet entertaining programmes on science and technology, health, wildlife, archaeology and culture. According to Kiran Karnik, chief operating …
BACK in the '60s and '70s, an advertisement for a muscle- enhancing process called the Charles Atlas system featured regularly in the US media. The most frequent was in comic form with the following story line: Mac, a skinny young man, tries desperately to attract the attention of beauties at …
An Act to provide for the establishment of a National Environment Appellate Authority to hear appeals with respect to restriction of areas in which any industries, operations or processes or class of industries, operations or processes shall not be carried out or shall be carried out subject to certain safeguards …
climatologists have always regarded carbon dioxide (co2) as dangerous since it is supposed to be one of the principle causes of global warming. But then co2 also performs the valuable function of enhancing floral growth. Rise in atmospheric co2 concentration and possible concomitant climate change has been seen to affect …
The government of Ecuador has invited private bids to build a second 514-km oil pipeline under a 20-year operating concession. The 500-km state pipeline built in 1972, has already been expanded twice. Currently, Ecuador can produce a maximum of about 385,000 barrels per day. The hallmark of the new pipeline …
prime Minister (pm) H D Deve Gowda has done it again. During the chief ministers' and power ministers' meet in mid-October 1996, Gowda had questioned the usage of public interest litigations (pil) and had said, "Whether they are public interest litigations or political interest litigations, I don't know.' Recently, that …
the world's only known natural habitat of the rare Kitti's hog-nosed bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai) could be threatened by Thailand's bid to bring natural gas from offshore fields in Myanmar. The size of a bumble bee and weighing only two grams when fully grown, the bat is considered to be the …
On not being assigned any environmental cases, although he is known for being interested in environmental affairs: I have been deliberately kept away from anything to do with the environment as far as assignments are concerned. The reason for not assigning any such case to me can only be answered …
the phenomenon of global warming is surely not confirmed as yet. An area may have become warmer not because of an increase in global warming but because of certain natural variations. But whatever be the cause, it is time we took note. For Earth as a whole, 1996 ranked among …
in rohtak district of Haryana, a scandal involving the illicit felling of about 10,000 trees worth about Rs 50 lakh has recently surfaced. Apparently, several persons including some forest department (fd) officials have been framed in several cases. The trees which belonged to the fd, were reportedly felled between December …
Date: February 17, 1997 Venue: International Court of Justice (icj), The Hague, The Netherlands Subject: First international environmental lawsuit involving the Danube river and the destruction of its ancient wetland region in Hungary the Szigetkoz wetlands (literally
the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation's (saarc) Integrated Programme of Action identifies 12 areas in which the member countries could cooperate. Science and technology (s&t) is one of them. A technical committee
industrialists and environmentalists are at loggerheads over a law being draf-ted by the European Commission (ec) which would force companies to pay for the environmental damage they cause. As per the draft law, European Union (eu) members will have to impose a strict
on the face of it, fire is damaging. But as far as ecology goes, it may prove to be constructive. One of the products of fire, charcoal, is an inert addition to soil that has more of physical rather than chemical effects. Yet it is well known that charcoal can …
Northern Kenya is again facing the onslaught of droughts, having received scant rain in the last two years. The tell-tale signs are growing malnutrition, rising grain prices and falling cattle prices. The government of Kenya has been too slow to acknowledge the crisis. Only recently did it ask for help …
though environment-related issues and crises have been repeatedly highlighted by the media in Pakistan, not much has been done to improve the situation. And it is unlikely that the forthcoming elections in the country will make any difference. Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party's manifesto, which is the most articulate on …
in a decision that will make industry more accountable to the people, the Cabinet secretariat on January 15 made public hearings mandatory before giving environmental clearance to any industrial project or activity, both private and government. The hearings would be conducted with respect to all the 29 industrial sectors that …
