News snippets

>> Disney Studio has pledged to remove smoking from its family-oriented films. The media giant's chief executive Robert A Iger said depictions of smoking will be "discouraged" in films aimed at adults released under its Touchstone and Miramax banners. Iger made the promise in a letter to US congressman Edward Markey. >> A journalist with Zambia's Catholic Media Services Television (CMSTV) was amongst winners at the recently concluded CNN MultiChoice African

Ashden awards for sustainable development

Renewable energy pioneers from Bangladesh, China, India, Laos and Tanzania were among the winners of this year's Ashden Awards for Sustainable Development. Kerala-based ngo Biotech was adjudged the winner in the Food Security category. It bagged the 30,000 pounds (us $60,000) prize for developing biogas plants that use food waste to generate gas for cooking.

Environment scientist Robert Goodland on Utkal mining project

robert goodland, an environmental scientist, has come out with a report on Canadian mining giant Alcan's involvement with the Utkal Alumina and Bauxite Project in Kashipur, Orissa. The report reveals series of human rights abuses on adivasis protesting the project. Alcan has now withdrawn from the project. In an interview over email, Goodland shares his views with ranjan k panda

Gujarat announces Rs 13-crore scheme for state's poor

gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on March 29, 2007, announced a Rs 13-crore scheme for the state's urban poor. The programme, called Garib Samriddhi Scheme, envisages, among other things, setting up 175,000 private toilets and 5,000 pay-and-use-toilets in slums over the next five years. It also plans to construct 250,000 houses for its urban poor under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission at a cost of Rs 2,200 crore. The timing of the announcement, with elections due at the end of the year, raises doubts.

Shell fighter bags Goldman Environmental Prize

Willie Corduff, an Irish farmer who opposed oil giant Shell's plans to build a gas pipeline on his land, is among this year's recipients of the Goldman Environmental prize. Awarded annually to six grassroots environmental heroes by the California-based Goldman Foundation, the us $125,000

Stone-age women killed furry babies, research suggests

why are humans the only primates without fur? The answer, new research suggests, could be the rampant practice of infanticide among stone-age women, who killed their furry children and reared only those born 'beautiful'. A paper by Judith Rich Harris, author of The Nurture Assumption and No Two Alike, was awarded the 2006 David Horrobin Prize for medical theory by the publication Medical Hypotheses.

Unrealistic approach killing rural sanitation programme

"Humne khule mein shauch jaane ki pratha chhod di hai (We have stopped defecating in the open)". Painted against a whitewashed wall of the primary school in Baruki village, Uttar Pradesh's Bijnaur district, the slogan claims victory in the battle against this practice.

New filter to remove arsenic from drinking water

a new filter that removes arsenic has come as a boon for communities the world over. Abul Hussam, associate professor at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, has won the 2007 Grainger Challenge for developing a filter that removes arsenic from drinking water. The innovation, called the sono filter, is used as a household water treatment system. Born in Kushtia in Bangladesh, Hussam has established a research laboratory in his village.

Nobel winner Paul J Crutzen on the neglect of nitrogen cycle

Where does the global research on biogeochemical cycles stand? There's been much research on the carbon cycle. But the nitrogen cycle has been neglected. What are the gaps here? We do know how much nitrous oxide and other nitrogen oxides are emitted in total, but we don't know their hotspots. There is also a serious mismatch the aggregate of individual emissions does not tally with the total emission figures for nitrous oxide and other nitrogen oxides. We are perhaps, not looking at the right places for oxides of nitrogen. Interviewee:  Paul J Crutzen

News Snippets

>> Abul Hussam, a chemistry professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, was awarded the Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability. The Bangladesh-born US citizen was awarded by the Lake-Forest, USA-based Grainger Foundation for his work on a filtration system that prevents serious health problems caused by arsenic in water.