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 …
at the second meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ( inc ), held in Nairobi from January 25-29, delegates from 97 countries discussed measures to tackle the menace caused by the 12 persistent organic pollutants ( pop s), including ddt . pop s are chemical toxins which do not break …
The European Commission (EC) is taking the UK and France to court for violating European Union (EU) pollution laws. The EC claims that the UK has failed to prevent water pollution from nitrates and France has not come up with adequate plans to deal with waste and hazardous materials. Under …
Environmental issues never really mattered in Indian realpolitik. Pollution, deforestation and land degradation have always been fringe issues - either by choice, neglect or perhaps, by ignorance of those who mattered. Neither the ruling parties nor the opposition ever put in any effort to make an issue out of the …
THE bad news first: The space ship called Earth is in serious jeopardy. All of us (and future travellers) have no easy option. No one can shout, "Stop the ship, I want to jump off." No way. Now some of the cold facts to drive home the point: reckless overexploitation …
Five South African victims of asbestos poisoning have been told by the House of Lords that they can sue their former employer in the English Courts. The ruling means that the uk -based multinational Cape, which produces asbestos and exports it to Europe and the us , can be tried …
On the lopsided negotiating position of the US at CoP-4: The us position in the climate talks is an extension of the belief that the free market can solve the problem that the free market has created. The us is pushing hard to globalise emissions trading, because big industries, whose …
I have written this before and I want to repeat it again: The Western economic model which we are following with such keenness is a highly toxic model. Toxicity is inherent in it. It is built upon an intensive use of energy and materials. To do this, it mobilises an …
The Bangladesh government has announced new measures to combat environmental pollution. The government's National Environment Committee (NEC) has decided to ban the use of polythene by new industries and has requested ministries to limit its use. Plastic is a major contaminant of the country's environment, said the committee. The NEC …
FROm next year, us power plants will be forced to test the coal they burn for traces of mercury. The us Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will also require a selected number of plants to test their emissions for the heavy metal. This will help EPA decide whether mercury emissions should …
For a long time since Independence, Indians almost forgot that thousands of small towns lie outside the metropolitan veil. Such towns it seemed were destined to remain in the shadows of mammoth cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad or Bangalore. National discourse rarely veered round to minor towns …
KANPUR, the legendary Cawnpore of the British Raj, has been re-christened time and again in it's 300 years of existence. Better known as the "Industrial Graveyard" and the "Capital of Tuberculosis" in recent years, the World Health Organisation has added another feather in its cap by declaring it one of …
ALIGARH Aligarh was among the six districts chosen for the Green Revolution along with Ludhiana in the 1980s. The Green Revolution happened and Aligarh, like many other towns, went on to bigger things like rapid and unplanned industrialisation. In the process, the town underwent a drastic change due to incessant …
JAISALMER Jaisalmer is one of the world's prettiest 4 desert forts. And it is one of the few in which people still live. But modern Jaisalmer is also bursting at the seams and using water in a way that may destroy the very Jaisalmer tourists throng to see. Unlike other …
Kottayam in central Kerala is neither an industrial town nor yet an agricultural wonder. Apart from the occasional huge mansions that break the monotony of rubber plantations and palm groves, Kottayarn looks like a town that woke up a bit too late to cash in on the industrial and even …
LUDHIANA Ludhiana"s problem is that of plenty. This industrial town has a per capita income of Rs 30,000, almost 30 times more the per capita income of the state of Bihar which is only Rs 1,067. Woollen hosiery is Ludhiana"s pride and its icon and it also dominates the machine …
THE widespread effects of pollution can be gauged from the fact that the remotest and the most uninhabitable regions on earth are facing the brunt of pollution caused by pesticides and industrial chemicals. Researchers at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, found that atmospheric processes are transporting and dumping chemicals …
THE Worldwatch Institute of Washington, DC,has come out with some findings on the spread of exotic species from one place to another. Calling it "bioinvasion", the institute says this spread threatens biological diversity and has the potential for global disaster. The environmental watchdog group says that the increasingly global economy …
THEY are small and they are Asia's lifeblood. What are we talking about? The omnipresent two-stroke engine. Throughout the continent, these provide low-cost transportation to millions but, ironically, they are killers. The cloud of thick blue smoke seen often in crowded city intersections throughout the region - Delhi, Bangkok, Taipei, …
ONE truck pollutes as much as 50 cars today, but all this is soon going to become history. Diesel engine manufacturers have agreed to pay US $83 million in fines and spend $1 billion to clean up the environment to avoid a US federal lawsuit over alleged cheating on engine …
