The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
WHILE no two health care systems are alike, certain questions are germane to all: How do markets for health care work? Should governments work in the health care market? Why, and to what extent? What form could such intervention take? What is the trade-off between equity and efficiency? The first …
DOORDARSHAN carries hagiographies of its political masters with more alacrity and less creativity than most TV networks. But Our Shared Future -- this year's prime time tribute to the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, on his 50th birth anniversary -- was an intelligently done, half-hour documentary on Gandhi's environmental initiatives. …
Now that Doordarshan has acquired a whole bunch of new, invisible channels, it should mean more indigenous programmes on science, environment and development. This was borne out to some extent in the first week itself, but it meant nothing in practical terms. Nobody could see the programmes unless they were …
WHILE it has become fashionable to talk of ecological economics, minus the jargon, the subject simply attempts to calculate the full cost, which includes environmental costs, that the society should pay for producing a commodity. And that is where it differs from everyday market economics -- it takes into account …
WITH US unemployment remaining steady at an unhappy 7 per cent, the only consolation that President Bill Clinton had to offer Americans is that the Japanese are finally experiencing the same problem. In an effort to counter the joblessness that is troubling the world's largest economies, Clinton proposed a global …
CHINA'S plan to build the Three Gorges dam across the Yangtze river with a 185-m-high reservoir level "would not be an economically viable proposition", according to the World Bank. Probe International reports the World Bank endorsed a Canadian feasibility study of the dam, which contained evidence that raising the water …
PERHAPS economics started off on the wrong foot with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Its early emphasis was on the process of creation of wealth as an outcome of humankind's toil against nature. This assumption of an antithetical relationship between humankind and nature has coloured much of traditional economic analyses …
This book is a collection of papers from the inaugural conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics held in 1990 in Washington. The society defines ecological economics as the study of "the ecology of humans and the economy of nature," and of "the web of interconnections uniting the economic …
THAT A capitalist USA wants to share with the world its ideas for cleaner businesses comes clearly through in Management for a Small Planet. The message: We have made mistakes and botched up the world's environment. So, beware the pitfalls of blind industrialisation that have made the US environment the …
IS THE Indian economy becoming more and more environment-intensive? The greater the use made of energy and materials by an economy to produce goods and services worth one unit of its GNP, the greater its impact will be on the environment. Available data shows economic development in India relies upon …
Everyone these days is aware of the phenomenon of global warming, even if they find it difficult to distinguish between stratospheric ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect. Global Warming: The Economic Stakes is about the greenhouse effect and the resultant environmental pollution and global damage. Incoming radiation from the sun …
WHEN THE Swedish municipality of Overtornea declared itself an "eco-municipality" (See box), the eco stood for ecological. Today, it is increasingly identified as also meaning economic -- an indication that environmental concern is becoming an integral part of rising urban living standards, rather than a rural luxury. Orebro, one of …
RESIDENTS swim and even fish for salmon -- which is safe to eat -- in Lake Malaren, between the Parliament building and the prime minister's office in Stockholm, giving Sweden's capital a unique environment, compared with most other large cities. Stockholm has 15 municipal beaches and plans to establish more, …
A project to clean up Gothenburg, 450 km south-west of Stockholm, has had a catalytic effect on the city's environment since it was launched five years ago. Efforts were initiated in cooperation with Volvo, Sweden's largest car manufacturer, and other major companies; consultations were held on the use of a …
THE SMALL northern municipality of Overtornea was the first to adopt the concept of "eco-municipality" in Sweden. The concept focusses on the relatively undisturbed environment, the local structure of trade and industry and the local lifestyle, but with job creation as the driving force. Overtornea's 1986 action plan states: "Economic …
IT IS TIME for a grand reconciliation between nature and us. Ecological economists fear we may have already entered an era of "uneconomic growth", which impoverishes rather than enriches. They remind us that however sophisticated our technology may be, it cannot hold back the sea or replace lost topsoil. A …
WESTERN urbanisation began with the Industrial Revolution and was accompanied by both economic and social development. But in India and most other developing countries, urbanisation does not reflect development. India's urban population increased from 10.84 per cent in 1901 to 25.72 per cent in 1991, but the majority of Indians …
THE PAPERS on political themes in this compilation are based on the proceedings of a seminar in Honolulu organised by the University of Hawaii and the East-West Centre. The seminar ambitiously sought to assess independent India's political and economic development to chart out an action path for the 1990s. It …
VIKINGS are taking to the market. A thick, yoghurt-like product made by Iceland's Viking inhabitants and pure, bottled water from glaciers are becoming part of the country's efforts to exploit one of the world's most pollution-free environments. Export diversification efforts come in the wake of a sharp fall in cod-catch, …
What is the significant insight that you have gleaned over your years in environmental politics? We've realised the circle of dependency that exists between the government -- with its five-year cycle of being in power -- and industry -- with its 20-30 year cycle of investment planning. Industrialised countries depend …
