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 …
Nepal has become the first country to implement the concept of community forest use effectively, by assembling its grassroot forces, especially the rural women. The first Regional Community Forestry Users' Group Workshop was inaugurated by Salim Miya Ansari, state minister for forests and soil Conservation on May 23, at the …
NINTH-ISLAND rookery, the picturesque abode of 12,000 penguins in southern Australia may well turn out to be the oily grave of these precious birds. Over 500 tonnes (t) of fuel oil leaked into the seas near the rookery after a 37,500-t ore carrier, the Iron Baron, hit a reef near …
In the last 2 decades India has seen 2 major exoduses triggered by health catastrophes: the first, after the Bhopal gas leak in 1984; and Surat's plague-scare exodus exactly 10 years later. But were the risks as great as the rumours which induced the panic? Perception of a risk is …
The experiment in Panihati, where you have used folk technology and oxidation ponds (Down To Earth, June 30) for treating sewage and reusing the water for rice and fish cultivation, has earned much applause. But why did the experiment take so long? This took us a whole process of unlearning …
The Tasmanian government's grandiose plans to build a road right across the Tarkine -- Australia's largest remaining wilderness -- have run into rough weather. Situated in north-west Tasmania, the Tarkine is home to aboriginal sites, temperate rain forests, and a host of rare plants and animals. Environmentalists want to ensure …
After successfully thwarting the efforts of the Thapar-Dupont combine to set up a Nylon 6,6 project in their state, Goan greens are now opposing the construction of a multi-million glass fibre plant backed by the Binani Zinc group. The group, which had proposed developing major projects in Colvale village of …
Kathmandu has finally found a way out for its mounting problem of waste management. In a letter to the Mayor of Kathmandu municipality, the residents of Chunikhel, an obscure village in Kathmandu valley, have proposed a site in the valley which could be developed as a permanent dumping ground for …
The ecologically fragile hill state of Himachal Pradesh is in for more degradation as the state government gives the go-ahead to set up 3 cement plants. The state has suffered already due to unabated quarrying of limestone, especially in the districts of Sirmaur and Dharamshala; many of these operations were …
Beset by food shortages, North Korea recently took the unusual step of signing an accord with its arch enemy -- South Korea -- in Beijing to accept 150,000 tonnes (t) of free rice to avert the crises. It is the first instance of the communist North officially deciding to receive …
QUESTION: What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest? ANSWER: Stand up You've got it right, because how do you get lost, when there is no forest? Less than 1 per cent of this Arctic Circle island's expanse of 102.776 thousand square miles is wooded, and …
NO INDIVIDUAL can hope to remain anonymous as integration of computing and telecommunications has vastly improved the ability to collate, classify and analyse information about each person. These databases have become as indispensable to the conduct of business and government as wires to an electrical system. Life outside this world …
TheSea with aDoubleBottom is the story of the Black Sea. The film questions the lack of scientific initiative in trying so find solutions for reducing the pollution in the Black Sea. The Black Sea is called the double river because excess hydrogen sulphicle fiound in the lower part of the …
Indian-born scientist, V.N. Mallikarjun Rao has been bestowed with the title of "distinguished scientist' by Dupont. Rao who had joined the company in 1973, has 55 patents in different areas which contributed to the development of polymers, agrichemicals, flurochemicals and spandex fibres for which the company is now famous. In …
IN KEEPING with the need for spreading the message of environmental protection and conservation of nature, the Union ministry of environment and forests organised a dance programme with Nature as the theme, on the occasion of the World Environment Day and the 17th Anniversary of the National Museum of Natural …
Even as environmental groups in the USA maintain silence over the concerns of the southern countries, European groups have taken the lead to initiate debates over the present unsustainable consumption patterns and lifestyles of Europe. One of the pioneering attempts in this direction was made by Friends of Earth (FOE), …
About 50 Turkish environmental ngos, student associations and labour unions have started a nationwide anti-nuclear campaign, following the government's signing of a consultancy contract for the country's 1st nuclear power plant to be set up at Akkuyu on the Mediterranean coast. Numerous street demonstrations, walks, signature campaigns and an Anti-Nuclear …
The highway being planned in the Ayr-Glasgow corridor in Scotland has run into a "traffic jam". Environmentalists are enraged that the project had been speeded through without completing a thorough environmental assessment. Their response is the "Stop the Ayr Road Route Alliance". People have taken to the streets in protest …
GREEN thinking which has enveloped organizations worldwide, has meant that environmental considerations are uppermost when starting new industrial ventures and in minimizing the ill-effects of their present activities, products and services on the environment. While this is easier said than done, it can be achieved through a commitment to an …
Big Daddy has finally been forced to sell himself. In what the Washington-based ngo Development Gap termed a "desperate and amateurish attempt at public relations", in May the World Bank (wb) paid to advertise itself through American newspapers. Washington's plans slashing its international aid has put the International Development Association, …
