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 …
TAKE CARE of your economics, your lifestyle and your environment, and your health will also take care of itself. The report of the WHO Commission on Health and Environment, Our Planet, Our Health, prepared for the forthcoming Earth Summit, inextricably links environment and health. Yet, the report argues, health rarely …
DEVELOPMENT has two sides, as Sudipto Sarkar of the People United for Better Living in Calcutta told the Calcutta High Court recently. The court is hearing a case against the proposed reclamation of eastern Calcutta's wetlands. The voluntary agency informed the court that the West Bengal government's idea to develop …
"ECONOMICS is the science of studying people's behaviour in their ordinary day-to-day life." That is how undergraduate textbooks define the subject. The book under review, however, talks about an economic revolution. But it is not clear who this revolution is being waged against. After reading the book, one learns that …
PATRICIA ADAMS attributes the current environmental imbroglio of developing countries to their debt crisis, which has been aggravated by loose lending, corruption and anti-democratic policies. She unearths various links between borrowing, lending and "development" projects to expose the mercantilism of Third World development. She does this by asking simple questions …
THOUGH a great deal of fuss has been raised in scientific circles over methane production by rice paddies and cattle in the developing world, which is likely to heat up the earth, the atmospheric chemistry of methane is still a grey area. Scientists-are finding that it is quite possible that …
THE first deal to trade pollution permits has been signed in USA. This fortnight, two American power plants have agreed to buy from the other the right to emit sulphur dioxide. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will buy the right to emit 10,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide, the main cause …
FOUR buses of the Chola Roadways Corporation at Nagapattinam in the coastal district of Thanjavur are different from the rest of the fleet. They are fueled by a half-and-half mix of compressed natural gas (CNG) and diesel. The pilot project is the first of its kind in the country. India …
LARGESCALE use of CNG as an automotive fuel can give breathing space to people in the heavily-polluted metropolitan cities of India. Motor vehicles are said to be responsible for 60 per cent of the total pollution load in Bombay, some 12,000 tonnes of pollutants daily, including 40 tonnes of lead. …
IF it were not for the widespread pollution caused by human beings, global warming caused by green- house gases like carbon dioxide and methane would have made the earth a lot warmer than it is. The world is thus in a bind: reduce pollution and save the ozone layer, but …
THE last thing you would get to know from the US-based World- watch Institute's State of the World 1992 is the state of America's own environment. Instead, you get an update on the rest of the world- from A for Algeria to Z for Zambia. This is by no means …
In one example of an innovative approach, satellite monitoring is being used to enforce compliance with bilateral agreements covering the use of driftnets in the Pacific Ocean between the United States and Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Once the United States detects a possible violator, coast guard officials are allowed …
HUMANITY never needed a global social contract more than it does today. With the nations of the world jointly facing a global ecological crisis but sharply divided in economic terms, there never was a greater need for humanity to live as one. The forthcoming United Nations Conference on Environment and …
AN Indian environmentalist recently offered me a five-word analysis of pollution in the Netherlands, which made up in crispness what it lacked in elegance. "Holland," he said, "is drowning in prgshit." The same point is made, less pungently and much expanded, in this 126-page report on the humanmade horrors of …
When the green rating results of steel sector were released recently by CSE, industry was quick to pass the buck on poor quality of Indian raw materials and other obscure and ‘uncontrollable’ technical factors. But are they the only reasons leading to poor performance? Surely not. As the two-year survey …
Very different global rules are needed for human wellbeing Averting climate change does not need emission reduction pledges, timetables and a common legal framework. Climate governance cannot be considered only in terms of environmental damage because it is now a part of the economic debate around the competition for scarce …
There are two opposing visions of the new climate regime and the unresolved issue is whether the multilateral consensus at Paris will be around climate justice, reflecting the concerns of the majority of the human population, or environmental integrity, which reflects the approach adopted in the negotiation text, released on …
There is a direct and intimate relationship between our practices and priorities and the future of our planet – Earth. Our choices will affect the future of our planet and its inhabitants, be it humans or millions of other species for whom this planet is the only home. Earthcare Foundation …
