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 …
STUDIES on the interrelationships between gender, poverty and environmental change in rural India remain a grey area, tackled by very few economists, a notable exception being Bina Agarwal. This well-chiseled monograph focuses on variations across regions and shifts over the last two decades. It studies the impact of environmental degradation …
CIVIL wars and ethnic conflicts spilling across national borders evoke varying responses. At times, even though assistance and funds may be readily available, it does not reach the needy due to lack of coordination and communication among non - governmental organisations (NGOS) working in the field. Jon Bennett, former director …
VIRTUALLY routed in the 1984 parliamentarry electionsthe BharatiyaJanata Party (Bip) made a remarkable comeback in the 1989 and1991polls. The party also came topower in four states in the 1989-1990state assembly elections:RajasthanUttar Pradesh (UP)Madhya Pradesh (MP) andHimachal Pradesh (HP). 1992saw the four BJP governments dismissed following the demolition of Babri Masjid …
BJP's policies on science and technology (1991 manifesto) have come a long way from those envisioned in the 1984 elections. With a clear pro-urban bias, the 1984 manifesto had promised to evolve :ppropriate technology for Indian industrial needs", and develop high tech areas like -biochemistry, cybernetics, avionics, electronics, nuclear technology …
An agitation against the O"pur dam (at the cortfluence of Banas and Dal II Tonk district Rajasthan, has not @etl@, a sympathetic chord with the stake govem- ment The dam, which envisages providing drinking water to several districts besides irrigating 1.7 larkh ha of land, will affect 70,000 People. The …
"On Enron, a single message has been delivered: any or every deal will survive only on the strength of its merit and not on the capacity to corrupt us or that of threats by any super power," 5ushma 5waraj, BJP spokesperson, had said, rationalising the decision to scrap the 2,015 …
WE HAVE a perspectivebut nopolicieson environmentdeclares Sitarain Yechury, the suave Communist Party of India-Marxist (cpi-m) politburo member. Green causes, till now, have lain low on the election agenda of red partiep. The main thrust of the cpi-m's election manifestoes (1984 and 1989, particularly) has been on economic issues facing the …
The Pooyamkutti hydel power project in Kerala's Idukki district cleared by Kamal Nath, is another hotbed of controversy. Conceived by the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) decades ago, the project was to produce 700 MW of power by building series of dams on the PooyamKutti river. A KSEB report had …
Kolaghat's (in Midnapore, West BengaD 1.260 MIN thermal power project has been the bane of thousands who have been struck by silicosis due to flyash generated by the project; silicosis is caused by sustained exposure toactive silica' floating around in very fine dust form, which lodges itself in the respiratory …
AS THE party in power at the Centre for 45 out of 49 years, the Congress(i), with all its factions, can be held mainly responsible for India's achievements and failures. In the politically tumultuous '70s, ,environment' was attracting international attention, with the UN- sponsored Conference on Human Environment taking off …
THE concept of environment concerns itself with issues likewaterforests and podutionall of which exercise inutti-dimensional impacts on common people's lives. With the rising con-sciousnes;s in the fieldpolitical parties of all hues hageover the yearsadded 'green sections' to their manifestoes. Our analysis shows that the parties' responses to environ-mental issues are …
AN ALLIANCE of environmental groups have stepped up its campaign to get Pacific Telesis (parent company of the Pacific Bell Directory) to stop printing its phone books with paper made from ancient rainforests, by taking the issue before the company's shareholders. Rainforests Action Network (RAN) along with two other shareholders, …
THE simple shield of a net soaked in insecticide could save thousands of children from becoming targets of malarial carriers, reveals a study backed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank. Extensiv6 studies in Kenya, Ghana and Gambia where bednets impregnated with …
THE Russian Supreme Court's judgement was toud and clear: no to nuclear waste. And claiming a pat on its back was Greenpeace, the international environmental organisation, which had moved the Court on Russian plans to import nuclear waste from the western nations for reprocessing. The landmark judgement was all the …
In a span of five years, Dutch sci4ntists R Hoekstra, C Elij and others at the Delft-based Institute of Applied Physics, have developed a spectrometer called the global ozone monitoring experiment (GOME). A spectrometer is a spectroscope equipped with a photoelectric photdAeter to measure radiant intensities at various wavelengths. GOME, …
The gulf countries are oil the blink of all environmental disaster. More than 200 vessels - wrecked during the two wars in the region - carrying military hardware, explosives and oil, are lying on the floor of the Persian Gulf, according to Mahmoud Abdul Raheem, coordinator of the Kuwait- based …
Polluting companies in the US - the country which has often screamed the loudest at the merest hint of environmental negligence - can now rest easy. Protecting them from engendering environmental disruption are several American states. Strange as it may sound, one US state after another is now adopting laws …
THE Ramagundam and Singareni coil belt will be the focus of an environmental study to be carried out with the help of IRS-1C, India's third remote sensing satellite, to draw up an eco-development programme Loi the area. Rarnagundam is one of the hottest spots in southern India where the mercury …
Austerity measures to prop up the crumbling UN, hit by an acute financial crisis, has resulted in the unprecedented step of enrolling unpaid volunteers. This has become necessary, say UN officials, to continue running the organisation. The volunteers are mostly being hired to keep the UN's peacekeeping department afloat. in …
THE sixth gathering of the signatories to the Ramsar Convention on the world's wetlands, at Brisbane, Australia recently, has revealed a disturbing picture. California, us, reportedly lost 91 per cent of its wetlands in the past 200 years, more than any other area in the world. In fact, the us, …
