Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
A HINT that Washington may soften its opposition to measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions was given at the recent session of the Framework Convention on Climate Change in New York. In an implicit dig at the Bush administration's attitude -- which was widely blamed for watering down the terms …
A VOLCANIC explosion does not affect only those living in the vicinity -- it's impact can be global and it may be felt for years afterwards. A volcanic eruption can cause unexpected changes in the earth's climate and environment and the onset of the Ice Age, global cooling, depletion of …
MOTIVATED by the need for a holistic understanding of the impact of human activity on the earth's natural phenomena, scientists in the last decade have been studying the earth as an entire system, focussing their attention on large-scale physical and biotic (related to living things) interactions. The pursuit of this …
EVEN THOUGH tough environmen- Indian delegation that took part in tal negotiations are still ahead in the the earlier discussions have been post-Rio Summit phase, many on the replaced. This could easily put India. at a disadvantage in forthcoming Ozone, Biodiversity and Climate Change convention and at meetings of the …
CAN ONE consult a book from a library in Paris while sitting in Delhi? The obvious answer would be no, but given the pace at which modern communication technology and computers are being developed and adopted by libraries, it may well be possible in the next few years. Readers will …
THE WEB is getting tighter. The South is finding out that the funds it was hoping to get to pay for global environmental problems are entangled in countless issues. The Global Environment Facility (GEF), set up to administer funds to be paid to the South to deal with global problems …
PARTICLE physicists at Fermilab near Chicago may have sighted the elusive "top" quark, one of the smallest constituents of matter (Science, Vol 258, No 5086; New Scientist, Vol 136, No 1851). An experiment at the Tevatron collider -a large particle smasher -yielded a pattern of particle debris that was anticipated …
Bitter cold and acute food shortages could take a toll of an estimated 30,000 Armenian lives if attempts to open relief corridors through Turkey and Georgia fail, warned President Levon Ter-Petrossian recently. Especially at risk in the nation of 3.5 million are thousands of refugees who fled the fighting in …
THE SPLENDOUS of a tropical rain forest invariably make a profound impression at first sight. "Here I first saw a tropical forest in its sublime grandeur- nothing but the reality can give any idea how wonderful magnificent the scene is..." exulted Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution significantly shaped modern …
RECENT findings that global warming of the lower atmosphere could trigger major ozone destruction have added an alarming new dimension to the climate change scenario (Nature, Vol 360 No 6401). British scientists John Austin of the Meteorological Office, Neal Butchart of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Keith Shine …
SCIENTISTS from the University of Michigan in the US have discovered that stony lumps of calcium carbonate, known as otoliths, found in the ears of most fishes, can offer clues to seasonal temperatures thousands or even millions of years ago (Science, Vol 258 No 5085). The finding has given a …
AT THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting in Harare in November, efforts were made to reorganise its bureauto ensure sgientists from the developing world are better represented. But IPCC secretary N Sundararaman said finding scientists from developing countries was difficult and some governments were reluctant to allow scientists to …
THE GLOBAL Environmental Facility of UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank, administered by the latter and designated as an interim fund under the climate and biodiversity conventions'. has become the most contentious issue in international environmental negotiations, pushing issues of climate change and biodiversity into the background. At a recent …
Environmental space may be defined as the total quantity of natural resources that can be used on a sustainable basis, for example, the total quantity of carbon dioxide that can be released into the air by humans without damaging atmospheric processes like the global climate. To ensure equitable distribution of …
AFTER the hype and pomp of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, diplomats met again in Geneva in December to start work on implementation of the emasculated climate convention that world leaders were so eager to sign as proof of their green credentials. Despite warnings from Bert Bolin, chairman …
DYING will acquire a new meaning once the Transplantation of Human Organs Bill 1992 becomes law because the bill declares a person is dead once the brain stem dies. This is a dramatic departure from the current definition of death, which is that a person is dead when the heart …
AFTER discovering that babies are not as passive and helpless as they appear to be, adults are trying to figure out whether infants can do sums. In 20 years of research, it has become known that babies can differentiate and even tell if someone's lip movements match the speech they …
SCIENTISTS at the University of Delaware have produced an accurate satellite image of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, enabling weather experts to track the deadly El Nino, the warm current in the Pacific which brings in its wake droughts to India, Africa and other parts of the world. …
WHO MERITED the gold medal and world record for the 4,000 metre individual pursuit event in cycling at the Barcelona Olympics -- Chris Boardman or Lotus Engineering, the manufacturers of the bike? And are Nigel Mansell's eight Grand Prix wins this year a reflection of his skills or a credit …
KIDNEY stones, a human nerve disorder and a fungal crop disease may all be relegated to history, thanks to the discovery by scientists at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi of a gene that helps to break down oxalic acid, the main culprit. Asis Datta, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, …
