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 …
the universe we live in is full of patterns. The regularity of seasons, the movement of heavenly bodies and the intricate pattern of waves on a beach are all ubiquitous patterns around us. The human mind has developed a formal system of thought to study and understand these patterns mathematics. …
Controversy reared its head once again on the East Coast Road (ECR), a 700-km-long highway being constructed from Madras to Kanyakumari. Activists of the ECR action committee (AC) were assaulted by miscreants at Kadapalkam village (40 km north of Pondicherry). The ECRAC is a group of non-governmental organisations demanding the …
THE agency that has ushered in the era of Internet activism is a bureau called Jansen and Janssen, named after Thomson and Thompson, the two detectives who feature in the Tintin comics. Jansen and Janssen is a spin off from the powerful squatter movement which occurred in Amsterdam in the …
A RECENT study of the sea defences around the Gulf of Tonking in northern Vietnam highlights the role of mangroves in strengthening the coastal defences. Researchers from the University of East Anglia, UK, and the Mangrove Ecosystem Research Centre in Hanoi, said that planting mangroves on coasts is more effective …
A RECENT move by the Maurya Sheraton, a five-star hotel in New Delhi (the only hotel in the Asia-Pacific region to be awarded the prestigious diploma of excellence at the 1993 Pollution Solutions Environmental Awards), to further boost its 'green image' al but blew up on its face. The hotel …
Patients having heart diseases or those suffering from symptoms like recurrent rapid heart beat despite drug treatment, are now introduced to an electrical device -the defibrillator, manufactured by Guidant Corporation of Indianapolis, US. About the size of a cassette tape, it is implanted in the abdomen or chest and linked …
A large proportion of China's population is physically and mentally impaired. This condition could be remedied with a simple solution. According to health ministry estimates, more than 10 million cases of mental retardation in China - including hundreds and thousands with the visible handicaps of cretinism - are a result …
The Beit She:n Valley in northern Israel has witnessed a miracle of sorts. A small rainwater collection plan in this valley has expanded into a massive network of chennels, carrying some 9,000 cu m of water an hour. The 200-sq- km flatland records an annual rainfall of 300 mm. The …
Proctor and Gamble (P&G;) is launching Febreze, a new spray that permanently removes garment odours, such as cigarette or pet smells, without having to wash or dryclean the cloth. P&G; says Febreze comes under a new category called 'fabric refreshers' because unlike sprays which use perfume to mask the odour, …
Anne Marie Mueser of New York tasted victory after fighting for 10 years against a company that built one of the largest utility projects in northeast US. Recently, the Iroquois Pipeline Operating Company, its former president and three other former executives admitted that they had violated federal environmental laws by …
Jute plants in Bangladesh are under seige. About 2,025 ha of jute plants have been attacked by pests in six thanas (local administrative units) of Jamalpur district. Pests locally known as :da poka, doga kata, senga poko and a kind of brown grass-hopper have laid waste crops on vast areas. …
FORTY years of suffering and deprivation later, victims of one of the world's worst pollution disasters were finally promised compensation in a recent settlement. An agreement was reached between 1,500 Japanese victims of Minamata disease - caused by mercury pollution in Minamata Bay - and the Chisso chemicals company, which …
The process of cryo-recycling of plastic wastes has recently been developed by Harry Rosin, director of the Hygiene Institute in Dort- round, Germany. The method uses freezing rather than burning techniques for treating mixed plastic wastes. Wastes are frozen at temperatures as low as -160
The dynamism of Western academia never ceases to amaze me. Once an idea enters the people's mind-set, scholars of all hues begin analysing it from the standpoint of different disciplines. This is quite unlike what happens in a country like India. Gunnar Myrdal in his '60s trilogy, Asian Drama, had …
LIVING in conjunction with nature and not in opposition to it, is what the people of Masvingo province in southern Zimbabwe are doing. They are using indigenous methods to manage the natural resources of the region. A grass roots organisation, the Association of Zimbabwean Traditional Environ- mental Conservationists (AZTREC), formed …
WOMEN face a great risk to their own health during pregnancy. A joint study conducted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization highlights the normally underestimated fact of maternal mortality. The report says that there are nearly 80,000 more pregnancyrelated deaths per year than previously …
FROM July 1 onwards, companies will be able to call a single number at the World Bank's (WB) Washington Dc headquarters to enquire about possible loans, political-risk insurances or credit guarantees for business projects in developing countries and the former Soviet bloc. These services for private companies are offered by …
DYNAMOTIVE, a firm in Vancouver, Canada, has come with a path-breaking technology that utilises house- hold waste for removing noxious gases from the exhausts of coal-burning power plants. This technology could spread like wild-fire among the developed nations of the world (The Economist, Vol 339, No 7963). Going by statistics, …
A RECENT report by a British development non-governmental organisation (NGO) squarely blames the western countries for causing widespread destruction of the environment due to intensive prawn farming. The huge demand for shrimps in the West has also led to loss of farmland and unemployment in developing countries. According to the …
