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 …
Unique coast guard: The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is working for the formation of a monitoring and liaison committee to improve the dismal environmental condition in the islands off the Karachi coast and check the unhindered discharge of effluents into the sea. SEPA director general Shafiq Khuso says the …
calling trouble: As per a study of Sweden-based Karolinska Institutet, 10 or more years of mobile phone use increases the risk of acoustic neuroma, a tumour on the auditory nerve. no more allergic: Researchers from the University College London, UK, have found that by inactivating a molecule called p110delta, effects …
Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, when completed, will transform parts of the southern coromandal coast qualitatively. Since historical times, this portion of the coast (Palk Bay, Adam’s Bridge) is used only to fleets of small crafts involved in coastal trading and fishing. Sethu Canal will transform this into a coast that …
The Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project under the consideration of the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India, envisages creation of a ship navigation channel to suit different draughts (9.15 m, 10.7 m and 12.8m) through dredging/excavation in Adam’s Bridge, parts of Palk Bay and Palk Strait. The navigation route will originate …
if the findings of a recent study were to be believed, the Union government's proposal to interlink rivers across the country would adversely alter the habitat of a variety of fish. The study, by scientists from the Cochin University of Science and Technology and the Kerala Agricultural University, was conducted …
the world's marine policymakers have failed to agree on the details of setting up a process to assess the state of the oceans. At the Global Marine Assessment (gma) International Workshop held from June 7-11, 2004, they deliberated on the scope, framework and funding of the assessment process to pave …
erecting safeguards: To protect marine species and reduce seawater pollution, the Chennai Port Trust has decided to facilitate storage and treatment of ballast water of ships coming into the port. Invasive marine species, which are carried by ballast waters to new environments, constitute a major threat to the world's oceans …
In the 1990 Hollywood film, Arachnophobia, a South American killer spider hitchhikes to the us in a coffin, and then goes on a breeding and killing spree. Fiction has now turned into fact. While a Chinese mitten crab is wreaking havoc on an English river in a similar manner, a …
In what seems to be an ecologically unsound measure, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is covering the land around 11 ponds and lakes of the city with concrete. That the project is a part of a beautification and conservation drive makes it starkly incongruous. Scientists and environmentalists have warned that …
Hormones leaking into streams from cattle ranches are altering the sexual characteristics of wild fish. This alarming fact was revealed during a study conducted by researchers from the us-based St Mary's College of Maryland. The findings once again put a question mark on the validity of using hormones to stimulate …
it is a must for environmental regulators to consider the long-term impacts of an oilspill, indicates a recent study. Researchers have found that the devastating effects of the Exxon Valdez oilspill on Alaska's waters and beaches are far worse than what was estimated earlier. When the Valdez tanker hit a …
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (itlos) at Hamburg, Germany, has directed Singapore not to carry out land reclamation work in a way that is damaging to the marine environment, or to Malaysian interests. The court, however, rejected Malaysia's plea seeking a complete suspension of the activity …
are multinationals overlooking the impacts their activities could have on fragile ecosystems? This question is being repeatedly asked by many specialists, with the spotlight on Pepsi Foods Limited (pfl)
The crisis that hit the Karachi port in Pakistan on July 27 has steadily gained catastrophic proportions. Tasman Spirit, the 24-year-old Greek tanker that ran aground off the Karachi coast, was carrying 67,000 tonnes of crude oil at the time of the accident (see:
A 40-foot blob of slimy flesh that was washed up on the shores of a beach in Chile has confounded scientists who are trying to identify its origins. Some say it could be a rare giant octopus or squid while others believe it to be discarded blubber from a whale …
Scientists from the Geoscience Australia expedition have discovered an uncharted 120-square kilometre (sq km) coral reef in Queensland's Gulf of Carpentaria. The reef is so far said to have escaped notice because of its remote location and due to the fact that a large portion of it lies about 20 …
Clearly, a cat's waste is an otter's poison. Southern sea otters in their prime are dying in huge numbers off the California coast in the us due to a mysterious disease that marine biologists think can be linked to cat faeces in the sewage dumped into the ocean. Scientists at …
How can one conserve a wildlife sanctuary better? By flagrantly trespassing on one part of it. Then picking up the tab for planting trees on another in recompense. This is precisely the logic underlying a petition filed by Essar Oil Limited in the Supreme Court (sc). The case, scheduled to …
To give succour to those affected by the huge slick from the oil tanker Prestige, Morocco has temporarily lifted its ban on Spanish fishing boats. The move should ease the strained relations between the nations. And for Galician fisherfolk, it is a timely respite.The vessel sank in the coastal waters …
