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 …
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is expanding its list of 17 heavily polluting industrial sectors to 24, although it has failed to enforce compliance from the units already under the highly polluting category. A recent CPCB status report on the action taken to control pollution in "problem areas" points …
TILL the other day, the Rajasthan chief minister, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, seemed to spend much of his time frozen on an anti-environmentalist platform, ranting against the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF). Last fortnight, he seemed to have passed the megaphone to Orissa's Biju Patnaik. That both these stormy …
The car revolution has finally swept over China. The leaders of China's Communist Party have unveiled a plan to expand the automobile industry and boost private purchase of cars, once considered an aberration in the land of bicycles and handcarts. The production goal for vehicles by the end of this …
Lead-free petrol, which the ministry of environment :nd forests (MEF) is All: seeking to introduce in W, the 4 major metrop titan cities by April 1, 1995, is hazardous to health, says H B Mathur, professor,of mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. An expert on automobile pollution, …
Singapore's squeaky clean has suffered a body ith a recent govern d kclosure that the has a serious pollu 1rOhlein. In,.-nid ber, the island's cnvi ncrit ministry said that air pollution had reached an unhealthy level and advised people with serious heart and lung ailments to stay indoors. Singapore authorities, …
WHEN the birds stop chirping and go into hiding, you can expect a storm. When the ants begin to march, you know rain is on its way. In the same manner, some species of plants and animals behave in ways that warn of possible environmental damage -- as "early warning …
EVER since the public interest petition filed by M C Mehta has made waves in the media, a lot of people have assumed that the Taj is under threat from industrial pollution and shifting the industries is the only solution. Scientifically, the damage from industrial pollution is yet to be …
THIS is the 6th in the World Resources series -- which provides information on environment and development -- and has a special focus on people and the environment. These chapters deal with natural resource consumption, population and the environment, and women and sustainable development. A 2nd section has a regional …
"Green cover" -- a near-generic, near-pacifist environmental term today -- was coined at a time of bitter war, by Allied troops hiding from Japanese bombing runs in Malaya's forests in World War II. In the next great war, the Vietnam war, ironically, green cover was home to the Vietcong and …
A recent study by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has suggested that modifying and upgrading the existing machinery and technology in power plants and reducing transmission and distribution losses can ensure the availability of an additional 12,000 mw of electricity. According to the study, this will require an investment …
Apart from massively polluting the air, 4-wheelers present another environmental problem -- the annual disposal of billions of litres of engine oil that need to be replaced every 4,800 km for cars and every 32,000 km for trucks. Engineers at the Florida-based TF Purifiner Inc, recently devised an oil-cleaning system …
THE complaints kept pouring in. For the past few months, residents of Siraspur village in North Delhi had badgered the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) about noxious fumes emanating from illegal cottage lead smelters in their locality. A CPCB team paid a "surprise visit" to the area on May 2, …
THE World Health Organization has identified New Delhi as one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, a dubious distinction that Delhi now shares with other megacities like Mexico City, Seoul and Beijing. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), about 2,000 tonnes of pollutants are hurled …
ENVIRONMENTALISTS who wish to revert to a non-polluted era may have to revise their glorious vision of an idyllic past before the industrial revolution. A recent analysis of lake sediments in Sweden reveals that lead pollution was a problem even 2,000 years ago (Nature, Vol 368, No 6469). Ingemar Renberg …
DESPITE (or is it because of?) his lifelong work in fields directly related to environment, Eisenbud is not likely to be a mascot for most of today's environmentalists. About the green movement's persistent anti-technology tone -- especially in its initial period -- he notes that it has often been technology …
FOR the past 10 years, over 12,000 inhabitants of Meethapur village on Delhi's Badarpur border have been racked with cough and breathing problems that often degenerate into asthma and tuberculosis. The Batra Hospital & Medical Research Centre (BHMRC) -- which caters to Meethapur in the absence of closer medicare centres …
THE people of Ratnagiri, a coastal district in southern Maharashtra, are a jubilant lot today. A recent report by an expert committee instituted by the state government has vindicated their opposition to a large copper smelting unit proposed in the district. The committee said firmly that such industries would endanger …
Can the high pollution levels in Delhi lead a person to commit suicide? A 40-year-old deputy secretary in the ministry of rural development, L Balachandra, had committed suicide at his Pragati Vihar residence in the Capital on March 29. Police suspect Balachandra was driven to this by the exposure to …
In the March 8 hearing of the Taj pollution case, the Supreme Court agreed to consider a more humane way of tackling the problem instead of relocating the hundreds of polluting industries in Agra and shutting down the Mathura refinery. Although the Court has threatened to close down the refinery …
A JAPANESE company has developed a device to discourage pigeons from perching on statues, temples and other buildings and control the menace of pigeon droppings. Called a "bird stopper", the device works on a recent discovery that the homing characteristics of pigeons are influenced by the earth's magnetic field (New …