This paper presents a status report of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) on two crucial development parameters—inequality and poverty—that have a significant bearing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; especially SDG-1 and SDG-10). The paper tracks the origins and movements of absolute and relative poverty, …
Since the origins of agriculture, the scale of human cooperation and societal complexity has dramatically expanded. This fact challenges standard evolutionary explanations of prosociality because well-studied mechanisms of cooperation based on genetic relatedness, reciprocity and partner choice falter as people increasingly engage in fleeting transactions with genetically unrelated strangers in …
About 60% of the European wetlands are located in the European part of Russia. Nevertheless, data on methane emissions from wetlands of that area are absent. Here we present results of methane emission measurements for two climatically different years from a boreal peatland complex in European Russia. Winter fluxes were …
Russia has become the latest company to join hands with India to help the latter achieve its massive solar power targets. The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Russian Energy Agency (REA) have recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up large scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects …
Egypt and Russia are going to sign a final contract on the Dabaa nuclear plant next month, after Russia made the best of three offers, Egypt's electricity minister told reporters Monday. Minister Mohamed Shaker said in a press conference that Egypt considered offers from Russia, China and South Korea but …
India’s commitment to construct at least 12 nuclear power plants, having highest safety standards in the world, with Russian assistance is important for country’s energy security. The two sides have outlined an ambitious vision for nuclear energy and construction of at least 12 reactors by Russia’s state-owned Rosatom at a …
Russia will begin building two nuclear power plant units in Iran next week, Mehr news agency quoted an Iranian nuclear official as saying, under a deal signed in Moscow last year between subsidiaries of the two countries' state atomic agencies. The Mehr report did not elaborate but the comments by …
BEIJING - Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli met with Russian natural gas company Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller here on Tuesday, calling for closer strategic energy cooperation between the two neighbors. Hailing the progress of bilateral energy cooperation under the guidance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir …
The world’s leading oil producers are preparing for the possibility of oil prices halving to $20 a barrel after a second day of financial market turmoil saw a fresh slide in crude, the lowest iron ore prices in a decade, and losses on global stock markets. Benchmark Brent crude briefly …
Following the recent launches of a communication satellite and astronomy observatory, India's space agency has announced an ambitious plan to increase satellite launches to around 12 a year, up from 4-5 annually. This will mean a launch every month. Addressing students at an event in the western city of Pune, …
In recent years, polar bears have become the lovable poster children for climate change in the Arctic. And as their preferred sea ice habitat continues to diminish year after year, thanks to warming temperatures in the region, it seems there’s no end to the polar bear’s troubles. Now, a new …
Global dimming refers to the decrease in surface solar radiation (SSR) observed from the 1960s to the 1980s at different measurement sites all around the world. It is under debate whether anthropogenic aerosols emitted from urban areas close to the measurement sites are mainly responsible for the dimming. In order …
The $3-billion Russia-India joint project of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Tamil Nadu will be unveiled soon, coinciding with the annual summit of the two countries. The first unit, at the phase of guarantee operation, is expected to be completed at the end of this year by Russian civilian …
Following the 1986 Chernobyl accident, 116,000 people were permanently evacuated from the 4,200 km Chernobyl exclusion zone. There is continuing scientific and public debate surrounding the fate of wildlife that remained in the abandoned area. Several previous studies of the Chernobyl exclusion zone indicated major radiation effects and pronounced reductions …
Air contaminated with pollutants such as ozone and tiny particles could cause the premature death of about 6.6 million people a year by 2050 if nothing is done to improve air quality, warns this study published in the journal Nature Assessment of the global burden of disease is based on …
Contributions to historical climate change have varied substantially among nations. These differences reflect underlying inequalities in wealth and development, and pose a fundamental challenge to the implementation of a globally equitable climate mitigation strategy. This Letter presents a new way to quantify historical inequalities among nations using carbon and climate …
Russia has successfully launched a Proton rocket, carrying a Russian telecoms satellite, from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the second successful launch since the disastrous loss of a Mexican satellite in May. The Proton-M took off at 10.10 pm local time (19.10 GMT) from the desert launch site. “The …
Almost one in every seven Russians is now living in poverty, according to official data published Wednesday. In the first six months of 2015, the number of Russians living below the minimum income of 10,017 rubles ($147) a month grew to 21.7 million people -- an almost 15 percent increase …
Pledges from dozens of nations to rein in carbon emissions aren’t enough so far to avoid catastrophic climate change, according to four European research centers. Plans submitted by China, the U.S., the European Union and other top polluters won’t limit global warming to the 2-degree Celsius (3.6-degree Fahrenheit) threshold that …
Most accurate count to date is over seven times higher than last estimate – but almost half have been cut down since the start of civilisation, say scientists Scientists have already calculated how many fish there are in the sea (230,000 species), and how many species there are on the …
It turns out that allowing trawl nets to drag deep below the ocean, and other forms of deep-sea fishing that scoop up or kill many species, is a real threat to marine environments and vulnerable species. It also doesn't benefit fishermen. That is, researchers from the University of Glasgow and …
