Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
ban the plastic polybag and get rid of the plastic waste problem. Across the nation, there has been a public outcry for action. The media has dwelt on the issue ad nauseam . But the Union ministry of environment and forests ( mef ), instead of using this as an …
environmental activists severely criticised the British government after it refused to rule out commercial farming of controversial genetically modified ( gm) crops before the three-year trial period is completed. Cabinet minister Jack Cunningham told BBC Radio: "If we were satisfied that one crop had cleared all the tests satisfactorily and …
why haven't we banned ddt as yet. There are reasons enough to do so. Therefore, it is indeed surprising that the 115 nations that sat down to negotiate a ban on pesticides failed to ban ddt (dichloro diphynel trichloroethane). Perhaps, it is because ddt is used to fight malaria, a …
The height of people appears to depend on the season of their birth. Jan Wohlfahrt and his team from the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, studied 1,166,206 children born between 1973 and 1994. They found that children born in April were almost a quarter of centimetre taller
the Third European Conference on Environment and Health was recently organised in London. Ministers of health and environment from 51 countries, non-governmental organisations and professionals participated in the meet. The theme for this year's conference was Environment and Health in Partnership: Implementations of Actions for the 21st century. Originally six …
the third European conference on environment and health recently organised in London resolved to set an agenda for improving health and environment standards in Europe for the next century. Representatives of 51 countries, international agencies and groups representing consumers and the corporate sector participated in the meet. The theme of …
After sustained lobbying by non-governmental organisations, ( ngo s) the Asian Development Bank ( adb ) has admitted that the Theun-Hinboun hydropower project is having a negative impact on the livelihoods of thousands of people living in central Laos. The admission is particularly significant because, until recently, the adb was …
a plan to use flood barriers to save Venice from flooding is likely to be abandoned because experts say it will harm the environment. The project was decided in the aftermath of the devastating floods in 1966 when the Venice lagoon's natural defences were badly breached by a storm surge. …
What does environmental deterioration lead to? It leads to changes in the planet's life support systems. When these systems become weak, their ability to support life deteriorates. Consequently, the health of individuals living in that ecosphere is bound to be affected. Some species profit by these changes and others lose …
Our bodies exist in the environment and we carry a soup of chemicals within us and we cannot stay insulated from the changes taking place in the environment. If the environment degrades, so does the state of our health. The key to good health is therefore in many ways a …
Scientists worldwide now accept that along with industrialisation and urbanisation, there has been a steady destruction of nature. Cities and industries have both affected clean air and clean water. Industries produce a lot of hazardous wastes; and cities produce a lot of garbage. Hazardous wastes pollute the groundwater. Accumulation of …
"Fifty per cent of the malaria cases are human made. Government spreads malaria by policy" V PSharma Former director of Malaria Research Centre, Delhi "Plague will erupt in small pockets along the Indira Gandhi canal (in the Thar desert). I hope it does not happen" Ishwar Prakash Rodent expert, with …
the government of India plans to issue a notification permitting the import of one million tonnes of soybean. The proposal has been cleared by the commerce industry and clearance is awaited from the agricultural ministry. The ministry of environment and forests ( mef ), which is responsible for the biosafety …
dawn breaks over a skyline of ancient temples and trees. Boatloads of pilgrims step ashore on the river bank and perform their morning ablutions. Peacock cries and the sound of temple bells fill the air. As the temperature climbs, the morning mists disperse to reveal a bustling town in which …
The great smog disasters of the past have made clear that air pollution can kill people in a matter of days: extremely high concentrations of air pollution building up under conditions of low wind speed and stable atmospheric conditions have been associated with excess deaths in the Meuse Valley, Belgium …
iron may symbolise strength, but how many would be aware of the fact that too much of it causes lung damage? Who could ever suspect that a seemingly harmless name like cadmium could be a reason for decreasing sperm count? And not just this, but overexposure to almost all heavy …
ENVIRONMENTAL degradation, ecological imbalances and sustainability top the agenda of seminars and workshops today. But I have always felt that these discussions are quite superficial. I would like to share my experience and views on sustainable agriculture as a woman farmer. I stress upon the term woman farmer, because I …
FROM the look of things, the age of environmental justice has arrived: the courts everywhere in the country, especially in Gujarat and Delhi, are issuing orders for the closure of polluting units right, left and centre. The NGOs are exuberant. The workers are worried about losing their jobs. State governments …
AT THE End of Tears and Anger is a Japanese film on a doctor diagnosing a pollution-related disease. Investigating further, he comes upon its linkages with the social structure. The film bagged the Grand Prize in the 3rd Festival of Earth Vision, held in Tokyo in December last year. The …
AIR, WATER, garbage, radon toxicity, sludge, noise. More than a part of our daily lives, these are perennial if hackneyed jargon. Few people would love to begin their mornings with them, fewer would care to read about them and even fewer disgruntled citizens would care to buy a book and …
