The Punjab Energy Development Agency has released a draft green hydrogen policy aiming to achieve a green hydrogen and ammonia production capacity of 100 kilo tonnes per annum by 2030. The policy proposes extending incentives under the existing “Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy 2022” to new green hydrogen and …
THE INTERNATIONAL Flood Action Campaign Committee says the Flood Action Plan (FAP) for Bangladesh, coordinated by the World Bank, ignores environmental aspects and will uproot thousands of people. The Brussels-based coalition of European parliamentarians, nongovernmental organisations and academics, demands environmental impact studies be done before project work begins. This could …
CHINA -- one of the world's largest markets for tiger and rhinoceros parts -- has imposed a ban on the trade of rhino horns and tiger bones. These substances are no longer to be used in medicines, though the ban will be delayed by six months to allow liquidation of …
IN JANUARY 1935, the monthly meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in London was unusually acrimonious. A young researcher from India, Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar, had presented a paper in which he proposed a revolutionary theory regarding the fate of certain kinds of stars. The pre-eminent astrophysicist of the time, Arthur Eddington, …
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 …
WHILE Washington continues to maintain there is no proof that China is exporting nuclear missile technology to Pakistan, US intelligence says it has proof China shipped components to Pakistan that made it possible for the Pakistanis to assemble their own version of the Chinese M-11 surface-to-surface missile. In addition, an …
RUSSIA -- and the Soviet Union before it -- has dumped twice as much radioactive waste in the sea as 12 other nuclear countries put together, a special commission set up by President Boris Yeltsin reports. The dumping, first reported in a British weekly is said to be still continuing …
RICH INDIVIDUALS usually tend to be arrogant. So do rich institutions, such as the World Bank, which is prepared to accept, albeit after much pushing and prodding, that it may have been wrong in hindsight. But it is definitely not prepared to accept, at any given moment, that it is …
IN US President Bill Clinton's nightmares, an endangered owl species must play a starring role, for he is trapped in the dilemma of protecting it or the jobs of thousands of loggers. The spotted owl once haunted his predecessor, George Bush, but Bush decided in favour of the timber interests …
FEARS that oil demand would decline because of a US-proposed energy tax have been expressed by delegates at a meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The Clinton administration had proposed the tax in an effort to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. OPEC representatives are worried that the …
A TACTFUL reply to seven members of the US congress who had complained about the Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant in Britain, US president Bill Clinton says he will take up the matter after a full review of Washington's non-proliferation policy. The congresspersons had warned the plutonium produced at the L2.8 …
UNDER pressure from influential figures in the US congress, the Clinton administration has exempted ethanol and methanol from the proposed energy tax. The tax is to be levied at 25.7 cents per million British thermal units, with a surcharge of 34.2 cents per million BTUs on refined petroleum. Oil for …
IT TAKES energy to produce energy. But different commercial fuels yield different amounts of energy per unit weight. Scientists at the National Productivity Council carried out an "Embodied Energy Analysis" of Indian fuels and found it takes as much as 3 kilocalories of combined energy from coal, diesel and fuel …
AN ANSWER to the country's deepening energy crisis could be biogas, which besides being a non-polluting energy source, also provides enriched manure and improves local sanitation and health standards. Biogas consists largely of methane gas and it is produced through the anaerobic fermentation of cattle dung and other organic wastes. …
THE NORWEGIAN embassy in Washington is being flooded with letters protesting Oslo's decision to resume commercial whaling in June and scientific whaling in April (See Down To Earth, July 31, 1992). Norwegian minister of fisheries Jan Henry Olsen has warned if the ban on whaling continues, his country would be …
What happened in your village in 1980? The horticulture department got 10 ha in 1978 or 1979 -- I can't remember exactly when -- from Shyam Singh Bhandari, the village pradhan, to build a seed farm for potatoes and apples. This was a part of our forest of oak, rhododendron, …
THE ARNOLD Schwarzenegger-starrer, Lost Actfon Hero, is to be advertised in space. Columbia Pictures is paying $500,000 to have the movie's logo and name painted in large red, yellow and orange letters on the payload of the unmanned commercial rocket, Conestoga 1620, due for launch in early May. The payment …
EVEN IN a freezing Ladakhi winter some houses stay comfortably warm, without either coal or electric heating. That's because these houses face the sun and they are well insulated, featuring heat-absorbing surfaces in dark shades. They are the products of a new architectural technique called passive solar architecture, which keeps …
THE US government says the energy tax under consideration could reduce the US budget deficit, cut oil imports and meet environmental goals. Nevertheless, the controversy it has sparked is heating up and US oil companies are challenging the levy. The tax is to be based on the heat content measured …
FINANCE Minister Manmohan Singh has presented a budget that seeks to push the economy from stabilisation to growth, through structural adjustments. In order to give a boost to exporters, he has moved from partial to full convertibility and reduced customs duties on imports. To ensure there is no resulting threat …
China's attempts at modernising its energy industry will cause more than 100,000 coal workers to be laid off immediately, while hundreds of thousands more will be retrenched in the coming years. The state-owned coal conglomerate, which employs three million workers, intends to close down 30 mines this year, after determining …
