Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Dinesh Prasad Chaurasia & Others Vs State of Bihar & Others dated 12/04/2024. The matter related to improper disposal of fly ash by the thermal power station run by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Kanti, Muzaffarpur, …
The cold war between the superpowers not only left the entire world cold in fear, but perhaps also cooled the Earth, say Russian researchers K Y Kondratyev and G A Nikolsky. Their theory is that the atmospheric nuclear tests of the early 1960s released into the stratosphere vast amounts of …
THE NEW US administration of Bill Clinton and Al Gore promises to be environment-friendly. Gore, derided as the "ozone man" by outgoing president George Bush has sound environmental credentials. His book, Earth in the Balance, has been called visionary by some. Others liken it to Hitler's Mein Kampf and they …
Basing methodology on global justice N S Jodha THE ESSENCE of the conclusions of the World Resource Institute is aptly reflected in the Gujarati proverb, "What is mine is mine and what is yours is ours." Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain question this conclusion. In the first place, they find …
IT IS POSSIBLE today to make a CFC-free domestic refrigerator. Yet, eco-friendly fridges are not found on shop floors. As the 2000 AD, CFC-free, Montreal Protocal deadline approaches, reports from the European Chemical-makers Association show the European Community's (EC) refrigeration sector increased its CFC use by 4 per cent between …
I HAVE been uncomfortable with the "transfer of technology" demands of developing countries during their environmental dialogue with the North. Let me explain: We do stress, based on irrefutable data, that the North is responsible for the bulk of the perturbation that human beings have caused to the properties of …
FOR SOME publications, it is more interesting and instructive to review the context rather than the content. In the case of One Earth One Future-Our Changing Global Environment, the content is by now common knowledge. Based on the discussions and presentations at the "forum on global change and our common …
PRODDED by fears that the ozone layer is being depleted at a much faster rate than reported initially, representatives of 56 countries met in Geneva recently and largely agreed on a proposal to bring forward the date for phasing out use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from 2000 to the end of …
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 …
THIS BOOK, a collection of articles by six authors, is meant to be a sequel to Blueprint for a Green Economy (Earthscan), which was published in September 1989. The theme of the earlier book was that economics can and should come to the aid of environmental policy. Properly interpreted, economics …
IT WAS no mean task to iron out differences to get an agreement on the atmosphere chapter in Agenda 21, the whole of which was bracketed at the last prepcom by Yemen on behalf of the Arab group. As the use of oil was singled out as one of the …
ENVIRONMENT has emerged as a major concern for the world community. And rightly so, since the global environment is affected by the actions of different countries. The theme has several dimensions: from saving the ozone layer to protecting biodiversity; from trade in hazardous wastes to managing tropical forests. Discussions on …
Forests: For the South, this is perhaps the most crucial and most difficult battle ahead. The North has been insisting on a legal framework to manage the world's forests. Each preparatory meeting saw bitter negotiations as southern countries rallied together to prevent this assault on their sovereignty. This time again, …
WILL HE go? Will he sign? Will he give money? All these and many more questions on the behaviour of the US President George Bush are threatening to overtake the Earth Summit at Rio. Bush's cat and mouse strategy is an effort to push the Europeans, Asians and Africans to …
WITH so much worry about the rapid ozone depletion taking place in various parts of the earth, Indian scientists are closely monitoring the ozone layer over India for possible depletion trends. Opinions are many and varied. According to S K Srivastava, head of the National Ozone Centre in New Delhi, …
WHILE the developed world gears up to phase out ozone depleting gases by AD 2000, Mafatlal's Navin Fluorine Industries has set up India's first halon-1211 manufacturing plant, in Surat. Halons are major ozone destroyers. Under the Montreal Protocol, industrialised counti-les have agreed to phase out ozone-depleting gases completely by AD …
ADVANCE copies of the World Bank's prestigious World Development Report, 1992, duly printed on recycled paper, focusses on development and environment this year. It came bound with a paper seal bearing the words, "Embargo until May 18". The report, taken in its entirety, is truly an embargo on greening the …
MR BUSH says he will go to Rio as he is now satisfied with the global agreement of climate. Nothing can be a sharper indictment of the climate convention. Whereas the world needs long-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the western nations on whom the onus of change falls, have …
THAT America rules the waves became abundantly clear to me when I witnessed USA flex its muscles over the entire world at the last session of the Climate Change Convention. The UN was reduced to functioning as an extension of the US state department. And George Bush made a "neutered" …
You won the 1991 Lok Sabha elections with a thumping majority. This must have raised local expectations. What are your future plans? While the barrage has solved the problem of water, other problems have emerged. The easy availability of water has encouraged sugarcane cultivation. Now we have too much sugarcane …
IF it were not for the widespread pollution caused by human beings, global warming caused by green- house gases like carbon dioxide and methane would have made the earth a lot warmer than it is. The world is thus in a bind: reduce pollution and save the ozone layer, but …
