More than a fifth of the world's migrating species are at risk of going extinct as a result of climate change and human encroachment, according to this report by the United Nations. Migratory species globally are facing critical challenges, with nearly half in decline and over 20 per cent threatened …
SERIOUS differences over biodiversity management surfaced during an Indo-British workshop held recently in New Delhi to prepare a blueprint for conservation of biodiversity in different Indian ecosystems. With the British wanting easy access to information on genetic resources and the Indians doubting the ability of "those from other cultures" to …
TO MOST people, mountains conjure a vision of a world of plentiful resources, populated by content and happy people. But this idyllic vision of mountain life is far removed from reality, for life in the mountains is a grim tale of a relentless battle against declining land productivity and ever …
THE SOUTH Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) ratified the setting up of a technical committee on environment at its July 8-9 foreign ministers' meet in Colombo. This gives permanent status to the ad hoc committee set up in November last to examine the recommendations of the SAARC secretariat report …
EVERY time an American family decides to take its car out, the resulting carbon dioxide adds to the existing stock in the atmosphere for at least a hundred years. When the polar cap cannot bear the trapped heat, it will melt and drown the distant country of Maldives or Bangladesh. …
THE MINISTRY of environment and forests (MEF) has merged the two separate committees on wetlands and mangroves to constitute a National Committee on Wetlands, Mangroves and Coral Reefs. But if the new committee is to achieve any success in saving these precious ecological resources, it will have to solve the …
THIS was one storm that the meteorologists couldn't predict. When Vasant Gowariker, scientific adviser to the Prime Minister, and a team of meteorologists from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), announced in early April that the coming monsoon will be on the lower side of normal, the prediction drew a great …
EL Nino refers to the warm current that flows southward along the coasts of Ecuador and Peru, between January and March, which marks the end of the local fishing season when the sea temperature falls. Some years, however, the temperature continues to remain high. This anomaly, which occurs every two …
Nearly 50% of terrigenous materials delivered to the world's oceans are delivered through just twenty-one major river systems. These river-dominated coastal margins (including estuarine and shelf ecosystems) are thus important both to the regional enhancement of productivity and to the global flux of C that is observed in land-margin ecosystems. …
In India, recent micro-experiments clearly show that environmental regeneration is possible if native wisdom and local decision-making is respected. Towards Green Villages sets out an environmental improvement strategy that is based on real life experiences of grassroots work in which people have improved their environment together with their economy. Three …
Preparations for the Rio+20 United Nations conference on sustainable development have begun, but the first round of preparatory meetings did not address important issues such as sustainable resource use, production and consumption. The Rio+20 United Nations (UN) conference on sustainable development, to take place in Rio de Janeiro in June, …
Background The difference between countries is whether international cooperation is to be based around the “green economy” or around the “green economy in the context of sustainable development and eradication of poverty”. The former implies that all countries can move towards more sustainable pathways without compromising growth, while the latter …
The task for global governance in dealing with climate change is to focus on the interconnectedness between carbon dioxide emissions, standards of living and global ecological limits. The interdependence between countries makes the global commons, or carbon sinks, a shared economic resource as well as an unprecedented global environmental crisis, …
Access to Energy and its linkages with poverty alleviation are well established and much talked about around the globe, especially in the developing world. On a recent visit to villages Jaltalla, Kotla and Khunnu- Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand these linkages seemed abstract in absence of inclusive and integrated approach to development. …
The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI) and EcoFINDERS are pleased to announce the First GSBI Conference - Assessing Soil Biodiversity and its Role for Ecosystem Services, to be held in Dijon, France, December 2-5th, 2014. This will be a dynamic international meeting summarizing the current state of knowledge and recent …
The aim of the Conference is to encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary communication between scientists, engineers, economists and professionals working in ecological systems and sustainable development. Emphasis will be given to those areas that will most benefit from the application of scientific methods for sustainable development, including the conservation of natural …
Environmental pollution is considered to be our world's most dangerous and constant threat. Our world is exposed to hazardous pollutants and chemicals from different sources every day. Industries, vehicles and basic human activities (like cooking) are spreading toxins around our world on a daily basis; these toxins affect our environmental …
पृथ्वी की संसाधन उत्पादन करने की जितनी क्षमता है उससे ज्यादा हम उसका दोहन कर रहे हैं। हम ये भूल जाते हैं कि हमारे पास सिर्फ और सिर्फ एक पृथ्वी है लेकिन अमेरिका जर्मनी जैसे देशों की उपभोग दर पर अगर पूरी दुनिया जीने लग जाए तो हमें 3 से …
