Plastic Overshoot Day marks the point when the amount of plastic waste generated exceeds the world’s capacity to manage it, resulting in environmental pollution. In 2024, the global Plastic Overshoot Day is projected to occur on September 5th. Each country has its own Plastic Overshoot Day, which is determined by …
aerosols are mitigating the effects of global warming over the South Asian region, including India. This was the finding of a new study conducted by researchers from the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (iitm) and San Diego-based Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The study proves that though India's summer temperatures …
I never thought I would be writing an article about airports. But I am provoked to repeat what we know and to say what would not be said often in connection with the sorry state of our public spaces. The Indian Express has published a series on - needless to …
PACKED off. A stunning US study has clinched the battle of evidence on what tiny particles in the air, mostly emitted by the combustion of fossil fuels do to human health. The industry had refused to admit the mounting scientific evidence that had emerged till now. But this study has …
FINE KILL The health effect of ULTRAFINE particles - smaller than 0.1 micron in diameter - on human health was never properly studied. Epidemiological studies done till now only linked the effects of these particles on respiratory diseases not death. A German study sponsored by the Health Effects Institute has …
A study shows that 7.5-10 per cent of males in Delhi suffer from various respiratory diseases. Another says that 10 per cent suffer from breathlessness and their lung function is way below the expected levels. One study from Bangalore records the shooting up of asthma in tune with vehicular population …
These factories do not exist in government records. Nor do they figure in the lists of pollution control boards or other regulatory bodies. Even as they have mushroomed in small towns, they are also sprouting in the dark bylanes of congested localities in large cities. They function from one or …
Up in arms against a proposal of the US department of energy to abandon radioactive waste buried in storage tanks, environmentalists have filed a lawsuit against the department in the US district court in Boise. They have alleged that the toxic waste would contaminate water resources. The tanks, buried at …
despite the closure of polluting units in its vicinity from December 31, 2001, the Taj continues to reel under the onslaught of suspended particulate matter (spm) and sulphur dioxide (so2). According to the latest data of the Archaeological Survey of India (asi), the spm was 286.3 microgrammes per cubic metre …
• Kochi has been selected as one of the centres for a major study, undertaken by the US-based Oakridge National Laboratory, to measure the phenomenon of global warming. • An innovative Green Card Yojana has been announced by the Madhya Pradesh government. The scheme is aimed at using foodgrain as …
Smug and surging If the annual plastic consumption in India rose by as little as one kilogramme per capita, the total demand would increase by about one million tonnes. The plastic industry looks forward to encashing this market potential. High profits and increasing demand ensure it grows exponentially "It took …
While the Indian government appeases the plastic industry, other countries have gone ahead and seen to it that the plastic industry owns up responsibility for its products. They have ably used extended producer responsibility (epr) to get the industry to clean up its act. A select group of countries have …
taking serious note of the fact that hundreds of electroplating units operating in non-conforming and residential areas at Faridabad in Haryana have failed to move out despite legal notices served to them, the Haryana Pollution Control Board (hpcb) has now served an ultimatum to the polluting units to relocate or …
An Alabama jury found international company Monsanto liable for decades of pollution in a small US town named Anniston. The verdict has opened the door for millions of dollars of claims against the company and Solutia, its former chemicals business that was spun off in 1997. The jury has not …
FOR three minutes, the night sky lit up on March 1, 2002, at the European Space Agency (ESA) launch centre at Kourou in French Guiana on the northern coast of South America. It was from here that an Ariane-5 rocket blasted off and put into orbit ENVISAT - the largest …
A recent advertisement by a popular mobile phone manufacturer has raised hackles among the medical fraternity. And with reason. The advertisement shows an expectant mother holding the cell-phone to her body, to enable the would-be father hear the pre-natal cooings of the little one. Great advertisement, one might think. But …
BANGLES and vermilion. The unusual gift made Orissa chief minister (CM) Naveen Patnaik see red. But by giving this present to the CM - along with samples of toxic water and ruined crop - the tribal women of Sukruli, too, were venting their anger. Because an insouciant state administration had …
just as birds stop chirping and go into hiding before a storm and ants begin to march before it starts pouring, some plant species can warn of possible environmental damage
The World Trade Center (WTC) may not be resurrected in New York but the pieces are being picked up by India and China. Steel from the wreckage of the twin towers in the US is destined for a new life in the two Asian countries, where it is meant to …
