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 …
LOGGING may resume in the forests of Seattle in USA after a 3-year ban, but on a limited basis. Judge William Dwyer had issued the logging ban in 1991, after environmentalists had filed a lawsuit against the erstwhile Bush administration for "deliberately refusing to comply with the laws protecting wildlife". …
AUSTRALIA is losing its koala bears, says the Australian Koala Foundation, a conservation group. "If nothing is done, there will not be any koalas in 30 years time," warns Deborah Tabart, spokesperson of the group. Losing the koalas will indeed be tragic for Australia. Not only is this cute ball …
In January this year, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) had, with much fanfare, introduced a clause in the Environmental Impact Assessment notification by which feasibility reports were to be made available to environmental groups for comment. However, organisations like the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Associated Chambers …
TV AS a medium pays only passing tribute to the environment. Even the advent of the World Environment Day on June 5 went virtually unheralded. Doordarshan was conned into treating its long-suffering viewers to something called Prakritim Vande, subtitled Transparencies on Nature (sic), a series of paintings by Komala Varadan, …
THE Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) will hand over its collection of 610,000 varieties of crop germplasm -- the largest in the world -- to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, to ensure that plant breeders all over the world have equal accessibility to this valuable material. …
THE apathy of the Nepalese government to the pollution of the once crystal-pure waters of the Bagmati river has landed it in court, writes Jan Sharma from Kathmandu. Environmentalists have filed a petition at the country's apex court, questioning why action should not be taken against prime minister Girija Prasad …
There have been 180 landslides in Sri Lanka since 1945, says the National Building Research Organisation (NABRO), accroding to a Panos report. Indiscriminate tree-felling, poor drainage and unscientific construction have eroded the soil in areas like Nuwara Eliya, Kegalle and Kandy. With help from the United Nations Development Programme, NABRO …
KATHMANDU'S summer of discontent seems to have set in. As the residents of the capital city of Nepal faced an unprecedented drinking water shortage, Bimarsha, a Kathmandu weekly, reported that the World Bank had withdrawn its $60 million support from the rehabilitation of the urban drinking water supply in the …
COMMUNICATING with children is no easy task -- writing books for them is even harder. In a conversation with a child, there is scope to answer the hundreds of questions that are asked. But a story book must be able to get its message across clearly. There are no second …
AS CAMPAIGNS against environmental degradation by unsound development strategies gain momentum, environmentalists all over are coming under increasing pressure to substantiate every charge they make. Gone are the days when appeals in the name of pristine nature stirred many souls to shed tears for vanishing woods and endangered birds. In …
WHAT do you do when a rapidly exploding population starts an exodus to the cities and chokes up the roads, making commuting a nightmare even at high noon? Go in for more cars and better roads designed to take the load? Or do you promote an alternative mode of transport …
TO EVERY car sold in the Netherlands, the Dutch buy 2 bicycles. To own an automobile is no longer a status symbol. On the other hand, the Dutch are very particular about their bicycles. In a country of 15 million people, there are about 14 million bicycles. Since 1970, people …
REMEMBER the man and boychild in Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thief? In the prewar grump in Europe, a bicycle could get you places and get you jobs just by its mere objective presence. But, subjectively, without a bike, you were man emasculated. In India, the bike is slowly being converted …
THE Sri Lankan economy is being threatened by the evils of privatisation, according to environmentalists. They maintain that this has resulted in large-scale deforestation in several tea and rubber estates in the country, especially in the Horton plains and Namunukula in the south. The wanton destruction not only threatens the …
THE inauguration of a 400 kw mini hydro-electric project, at Chilambu in Solukhumbu district, 240 km northeast of Kathmandu, has given a boost to hydel power generation in Nepal. The $8 million plant, set up with the help of the Swiss government, is providing electricity to 30 villages in the …
SRI Lanka's forestry master plan is to be revived, reports Mallika Wanigasundara from Colombo. The plan, which was prepared between 1983 and 1986, with the help of the Finnish Development Agency and the World Bank, had to be shelved because of fierce opposition from environmentalists. One of the main objections …
of 829 basic health units covering 96 per cent of the rural population. Only 229 actually function as health units, according to a Panos Features report. The rest are used as godowns, rest houses, barns and small industries. Besides, there is a paucity of basic medicines and sophisticated equipment even …
INFORMATION is power. "Information highways" serve as economic channels for world trade now, just as the sealanes, railways and roads were the foundation of trade and commerce in times past. Small wonder, then, that -- like wealth -- its distribution is skewed; it is the economically-deprived who are also the …
AMONG the many perishable theories that poured out of the minds of management gurus was the notion of sunrise and sunset industries. Beyond the phase of maturity, the prophets laid down, industries would gradually perish. The lifecyle of industries and human beings, it was suggested, is so similar; and it …
DOING business with Britain is not Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's cup of tea any longer. Following allegations in the British press that Mohamad had accepted a bribe from a British contractor, the prime minister has imposed tough trade sanctions against that country. In a move geared to send Britain's …
