The power of the zephyr
The government is sowing the wind for energy, attracting investments with the promise of fiscal felicity
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Green standards put india in the red
Several Western nations have decided to stipulate high environmental standards for the goods they import. The step demands the substitution of several chemicals deemed harmful with ecologically benign ones, and suitable technological modifications an e
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Wasteful profits
From barefoot ragpickers to rich kabariwallahs moving about in cars, the country's waste recycling industry caters to countless Indians.An attractive business proposition that most people choose to overlook, scrap Is even being imported now
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A plague on this country
The plague today holds the same threshold of dread that it did in the 14th century. So when the Black Death struck India late last month, the administration and the country's health system collapsed under the power of both
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Cracking the cancer code
In recent years, scientists have closed in on cancer, pinning down precisely how its hellish manifestations are caused and spread. Their findings mean a whole new way of looking at and treating the killer disease
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The spirit of los Haitises
Humans and forests stand at a bitter crossroad in the Dominican Republic, where conserving remnants of rainforests jeopardise the survival of the small farmer
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When alienation ruins
Sandalwood smuggling, epitomised by Veerappan, has become a collective phenomenon involving entire villages, which even the ban on sandalwood exports has been unable to curb. Deregulation of the sandal tree, currently under state control, is now being deb
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Panchayats, European style
WHAT CAN you do, as a citizen of India, if someone decides to set up a power plant or a polluting factory in your neighbourhood? Probably precious little. You could appeal to the local pollution
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A Public Effort
Where the government has failed miserably in providing quality service to the people, some ngos have set an example on how urban waste can be managed. Vatavaran in Delhi and Exnora in Chennai are two organisations, which have set at rest doubts on the dif
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Don't bite that apple!
The government"s plans for boosting horticulture to earn foreign exchange do not take into account the hidden costs of deforestation, fertiliser and pesticide use and heavy water consumption. Keeping in mind this and the fact that the poor can seldom affo
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Agriculture: no relation to ecology
In India, the issue of food security has always been intimately involved with that of ecological degradation. In 1he late '60s and early'70s, the green revolution was introduced to increase food
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Debate renewed on blame for global warming
THE 1990-91 edition of World Resources, brought out by the Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI), concluded developing countries as a group contribute to nearly half of the global warming problem. This was an astonishing finding, given that it
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Can we make this U turn?
"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
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Shimla in a shambles
The beautiful resort is fast greying under the onslaught of modernity
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Snuffing out lives with pollution
Premature deaths and disease caused by a polluted environment is the most pressing problem in the world today, says a WHO report prepared for the Earth Summit
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Japan: Some home truths about nuclear power
<p>The severe quake that hit Japan earlier this month and the devastating tsunami that followed it were unfortunate. These two events triggered a series of explosions at Fukushima Daiichi and a few other nuclear power installations. The Dept.
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Ambanis play power games with nuclear energy and ethanol
Although the Ambani brothers have parted ways, Anil Ambani and Mukesh Ambani are busy in their pursuit to expand their businesses in the energy sector. While Anil is taking the nuclear route, Mukesh
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At their mercy
Biotech companies and the World Trade Organisation took centrestage at the fourth conference on biological diversity, leaving traditional communities to fend for themselves
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Industry wary of entering handicapped market
New, more efficient aids are being developed for the physically handicapped under a government project. The stumbling blocks, however, are the mass production and marketing of these aids
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Collaborators consolidated
THE intentions of the recent Jungle Jivan Bachao Yatra, during which environmental activists and villagers living around India's national parks and sanctuaries went on a 45-day walkathon through 18