Environment

VIRTUALLY since the dawn of human civilization, the total amount of fresh water available for human consumption and use has practically remained constant. It is just half a per cent of the total water on … Read more

IT took very little time after becoming US President for George W Bush to shed the centrist image carefully projected during the presidential campaign and embrace the far right conservative platform, for which his Republican … Read more

THE capital city of Delhi, among the most polluted cities in the world, has been set by the Supreme Court upon a chaotic and painful course of having to ensure that all public transport buses … Read more

THE devastating earthquake in Gujarat centred in the Kutch region reminds us once more of the devastation that can be unleashed by natural events. The loss of tens of thousands of lives, the injuries caused … Read more

LAST week many people all over the world observed Earth Day, on the thirtieth year since it was declared, and the national dailies carried photographs of the Prime Minister with school children carrying placards and … Read more

THE post-Kyoto Protocol phase, or “second commitment period” of the global treaty on climate change which is to take effect from 2012 onwards, is scheduled to be finalised at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP … Read more

G8+5: Numbers Don’t Add Up For Climate Change   THE G8 Summit held in Heiligendamm, Germany on June 6-7, 2007 had climate change as a focal theme. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel, currently holding the … Read more

  The Prime Minister, as head of the Council on Climate Change, released the much-anticipated National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) on 30th June 2008. The NAPCC was expected to lay down a national … Read more

                        New policy on ethanol-blended petrol: will less sugar be more sweet? The government has been actively pursuing a policy of promoting ethanol- blended petrol (EBP). Petrol blended with 5% ethanol (E5 petrol) was introduced … Read more

IT can be argued that increased use of electricity does not automatically mean a proportionate increase in CO2 emission. However, if we look at our current energy options, there is little doubt that fossil fuels … Read more

Climate change and global warming makes for some strange bedfellows. We had the spectacle recently of Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the vice chairman of the Planning Commission, teaming up with the Liberty Institute, which claims to … Read more

THE havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina last week in the USA’s Gulf of Mexico region, and the response by the US government in terms of preparedness, rescue and relief, has shocked not only the people … Read more