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 …
Fariburz Sahba, the Iranian architect who designed the, Baha'i Lotus Temple in New Delhi, is a sad man today. Dust and emissions from vehicles and industries around the temple are causing its marble exterior to peel off. Though the architect says the temple, made from the finest marble -from Athens …
LEAD is the number one environmental threat to children in the US. However, in India, lead is only one of the major environmental threats to children in overcrowded urban areas, which have high traffic density. Lead is used in petrol to improve its octane rating. In most of the industrialised …
VITAL Signs responds to the need for information on the trends that are reshaping our world. It surveys 42 global indicators, such as the decline in per capita availability of food and water, economic recession over the past two years, increasing water scarcity and the population increase to outline the …
STAR PLUS began a new science and technology series called Equinox in December. The first episode -- an hour-long documentary called Heavy Metal -- dealt with lead. Though the first of the series was essentially on pollution, Equinox will look at a variety of technological issues in the weeks ahead. …
RECENT Canadian studies suggest that hydroelectric power generation may, in some cases, be a major source of greenhouse gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide, and so be as polluting as thermal power generation (Ambio, Vol 22, No 4). The gases are produced, explain John W M Rudd of the …
When a team of young French civil servants selected by the Paris-based Foundation Nationale Entreprise et Performance (FNEP) visited India in the second week of November, the media was quick to assume they had come to India with a technology offer. A press release from an apex industry organisation further …
INDIA'S interest in petroleum has grown rapidly. Understandably so, because the investments made are large and the returns fair, and could be even more attractive if we priced it properly. But, despite the growing interest in the mechanics of petroleum, it is virtually impossible to find a book that is …
A TEAM of US researchers have said carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon pollution levels in Kathmandu were the highest among Asian cities, writes Jan Sharma in a Panos report. The average carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon content of emissions of 8,000 vehicles monitored by the team were 3.95 per cent and 0.76 …
WHAT CAN you do, as a citizen of India, if someone decides to set up a power plant or a polluting factory in your neighbourhood? Probably precious little. You could appeal to the local pollution control board, but if its bureaucrats disagree with you, you could demonstrate on the streets. …
France has 58 million people living in 22 regions, 96 departments (counties) and 36,000 municipalities, varying in population size from 100 to 2 million. Two-thirds of the municipalities have less than 500 inhabitants and so several municipalities are grouped into boards to deal with, for example, management of water or …
IS THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), proponent of saffron Hindutva, turning green? In Maharashtra, the party recently led two anti-pollution agitations that have impressed even the BJP's opponents, save the ruling Congress, which dismissed the protests as an "unnecessary politicisation" of environmental issues. Both campaigns targeted new industrial projects -- …
Nearly a decade after N C Mehta filed a public interest petition for the closure of industrial units in Agra, whose atmospheric pollutants he alleged were damaging the Taj Mahal, the Supreme Court (SC) has ruled in his favour. This is Mehta's second victory in less than six months -- …
CAVIAR, the ultimate synonym for luxurious living and a major Russian export, is facing a triple threat of poaching, pollution and petroleum. Female sturgeon swim down the Volga river to the Caspian sea with their bodies heavy with the eggs that are pickled to form caviar. But with poachers flourishing, …
WITH THE collapse of the Soviet Union and the ongoing changes in communist China and Vietnam, the market today rules supreme. Entrepreneurs mobilise resources -- finance, raw materials, knowledge and labour -- to make products that cater to market demand. Whether they are farmers, miners, industrialists or providers of services, …
THE TITLE of Frederique Apffel Marglin and Tariq Banuri's book, Who will Save the Forests?, sounds more like a rhetorical question or an impassioned plea than the launch of a sophisticated academic enquiry. One reason for this is perhaps that the forests of the world face such a bleak future …
ALTHOUGH the tulip originated in southeast Asia, the tiny European nation of Holland has transformed the flower into both a national symbol and a major foreign exchange-earner. Between March and May every year, when the tulips bloom, thousands of tourists rush to take in the sight of the rainbow colours …
AS ONE of the most ambitious blueprints for energy and industrial development takes shape in Singrauli, the inhabitants of the region are sinking deeper into misery for they know a new project always means another displacement for them. In 1960, when the Rihand dam was built on the Son river, …
Why have some World Bank members opposed the NTPC loan on environmental grounds? Our plants meet almost every Indian emission standard, which was a bank conditionality. If we can be trusted with projects worth $9 billion, we can be trusted to look after the environment, too. The Environment Defense Fund …
THOUGH Singrauli's thermal power plants have affected the availability of potable water in the area, studies show they have contributed only marginally to the high levels of dust and gaseous effluents there. None of the wells in the area supply potable water that meets official Indian standards. Water from wells …
AN ENVIRONMENTAL and socioeconomic survey of Singrauli was commissioned in May 1988 by the National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC) and executed by the French public sector corporation, Electricite de France International. Indian voluntary and environmental groups working in the area protested against being left out from the assessment team and …
