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 …
DURING the first 20 years of evolving environmental policy, the name of the game was pollution control. However, this remained very much a game of the North because the South's game was development. The Brundtland Commission came up with an elegant compromise: sustainable development. And, it has proved a challenge …
THE FOREST Conservation Act (FCA) was enacted in 1980 to check the widespread and wanton felling of trees on developmental project sites. But the act's stringent provisions -- especially one requiring central clearance for all projects -- took away control of forest land from state governments and left people who …
This volume collates 29 papers on environmental management, air, water and wastewater management, ecology and environmental pollution control and noise. The book reflects the extent of information starvation in India: most of the papers are quite dated. Some are so basic they would find a place in undergraduate tutorial notes. …
What makes the King Mahendra Trust different from other NGOs working in the field of nature conservation? The Trust is the only non-governmental organisation which has been established through an Act of Parliament. It is guided by an independent, autonomous board of trustees. We are self-sustaining. Our approach is also …
MORE AND more US companies are appointing executives for environmental affairs, according to a survey of Fortune 500 companies. Consultant Arthur D Little says 49 of the top 100 US companies on the Fortune 500 list appointed "green" executive vice-presidents in 1991, a rise from 38 the previous year. Another …
THE REFUSAL of the Union railway ministry and the Goa administration to participate in the Kamla Chowdhury committee, set up by the Union ministry of environment and forests to review the Konkan railway project, has rendered the work of the committee both difficult and meaningless. The railway ministry, in fact, …
THE RECENT Group of Seven (G-7) summit clearly indicated what the outcome of the Rio conference is likely to be. There was no significant mention of any environmental issues nor was the subject of environmental aid debated at the summit. The single environmental issue discussed at the G-7 summit -- …
CARLO Ripa di Meana, the European Community's commissioner for environment since 1988, has resigned reportedly following criticism by member-states of his refusal to attend the Earth Summit in Brazil in June. He will become the environment minister in his own country, Italy, and be replaced at the EC by commission …
A US high-level military planning group has issued a report strongly recommending the development of nuclear weapons for specific use against Third World enemies. Some of the proposed weapons include an electromagnetic pulse bomb that can knock out enemy communications and other electronic gear at low risk to human beings …
A RECENTLY released report, Defending the Earth, prepared by the US-based Human Rights Watch and Natural Resources Defense Council, is a first-ever effort at documenting state harassment of individuals and groups protesting environmental degradation in different countries. The report covers nine countries, including the now-defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. …
BRAZIL: Trade union leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes was one of 1,681 rural workers and activists killed in the struggle over land in Brazil between January 1, 1964, and January 31, 1992. The Pastoral Land Commission reports only 26 of the murders have gone to trial. Only 15 ended in …
Truth is what once my father taught me, but that was years and ages back. Today it gives me a cynical look from the ozone hole. Its voice has lost its music, choking on chlorofluorocarbons, it is just a voice that has airlessness to cross. What do I care about …
MOST OF the world believes industry can only harm the environment, Stephen Schmidheiny disagrees and in Changing Course, he explains why. The main theme of his book is that governments and industry can cooperate to preserve the environment, or at least not harm it. The argument, for which one has …
DESPITE resistance from his country's religious leaders, Pakistan's Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, is going ahead with plans to implement a comprehensive family planning strategy. And this is being done through Pasbaan, the social development wing of the Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP). Pakistan, with a projected population growth of …
EARTHWORMS may hold the key to the problem of disposing urban waste. For the last 18 months, Lata Srikhande, honorary secretary of the Save Pune Citizen's Society, has been disposing of all her domestic organic waste, from banana peels to egg shells, in her roof-top garden which is rich in …
THE COMMITTEE appointed by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao to examine the viability of the Tehri hydroelectric project will not submit its report before mid-August. It was supposed to have the report ready by the end of June. One of the experts explained, "We have been asked to give …
LOW GROWTH rates, high unemployment and an ever-increasing cut in development expenditure are some of the woes ailing Pakistan as a result of toeing the IMF line. And, all of this, says Akmal Hussain, a member of the Prime Minister's Consultative Committee on Economic Policy during the Benazir era, "is …
