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MOST POPULAR
- Monsoon arrives early; kills over 30 people in Uttarakhand
- Rains over past three days extreme weather event: scientists
- Pedestrian questions
- Transition failure
- MoEF changes stand on relocation of Dhari Devi temple for Alaknanda dam
- Extreme weather and climate change
- Gujarat pollution board gets a makeover in efficiency 33
- Yamuna set to cross danger mark in Delhi
- Dhari Devi idol goes missing
- Collectors turn entrepreneurs
- Environment ministry wants to restore night traffic through Bandipur tiger reserve 52
- A green facade 45
- Diesel: when bad policy makes for toxic hell 38
- Gujarat pollution board gets a makeover in efficiency 33
- What’s good insulation? 30
- How vulnerable are India's nuclear power plants to disaster 28
- Grand distraction called river interlinking 28
- Eat at your own risk 27
- Green energy takes toll on green cover 26
- Temporary solution, permanent jam 25
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Statistics
Leaving their mark
Issue Date: May 15, 2002
With almost all the countries entering the 'patents' bandwagon, year 2001 witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of patents application. The International Bureau of World Intellectual Property Organisation received a total of 103,947 applications filed worldwide, which not only represented a 14.3 per cent increase over the number of applications filed in 2000, but also marked a milestone of 100,000 international applications filed in one year.
No more diverse
Issue Date: Apr 30, 2002
Looked at on a geological timescale, the planet's biodiversity has always been faced with threats of one form or another. But, at present, the threat is more pronounced than ever: species loss is said to be 27,000 every year. The main reason behind this loss is degrading natural habitats.
Thinking afresh
Issue Date: Apr 15, 2002
Freshwater is the most fundamental natural resource. But its sources are fast dwindling or becoming contaminated throughout the world. At the start of the 21st century, nine countries with around 35 per cent of the world population were believed to have less than 2,000 cubic metres of renewable freshwater available per capita per year. This implied acute water scarcity. Nations in this list included India, Nigeria, Kenya and China.
In a mess
Issue Date: Mar 31, 2002
With urban and industrial development accelerating at a fast pace, waste disposal is becoming a major problem. Inordinate focus on household waste has often disguised the much larger volume generated by activities like manufacturing of goods. Industrialisation and level of affluence influence both the composition and quantity of waste.
Unproductive augmentation
Issue Date: Mar 15, 2002
Despite environmental pressure against the use of chemical fertilisers, the deadly substances continue to be used unabated across the globe. At the end of the 20th century an average of 91 kgs of fertilisers were used for every hectare of cropland -- an increase of more than a third since the mid 1970s. This masks huge variations, from just one kg in Rwanda or Mongolia, to more than 700 kgs in Switzerland.
Planting a timebomb
Issue Date: Feb 28, 2002
Asia accounts for 62 per cent of the world's plantations. With 89 per cent of the new plantations coming up in the continent, they are increasingly becoming the source of debate and conflicts. Who owns them and who derives benefits from these? Are they grown to reforest wasteland or are they being grown in place of natural forests? All such questions decide whether any plantation will help in sustainable development or not.
Ravaged future
Issue Date: Feb 15, 2002
Today, around 36 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Of these, 11.8 million are children and young people. Half of all new cases of HIV -- almost 6,000 daily -- occur in young people 15 to 24 years of age. What aggravates the problem is the widespread ignorance about the epidemic among the young men and women, many of whom do not know how to protect themselves from the spreading scourge. Worse still, in the last 15 years, the number of under 15 children with HIV/AIDS has increased ten times.
Far from an eyewash
Issue Date: Jan 31, 2002
Forests are depleting worldwide -- the State of World's Forests 2001 report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (fao) states the obvious. But it also goes beyond the obvious in analysing the loss in a fashion that Indian government has found it hard to commit itself to. While plantations might be gaining ground, natural forests are falling prey to increasing mismanagement.
Never to be renewed reality
Issue Date: Jan 15, 2002
The world's highest energy consuming country, the us , has done little to promote renewable energy. Being one of the major emitters of heat trapping gases like carbon dioxide, the us would be expected to demonstrate some more moral responsibility towards promoting alternative energy resources.
All gas
Issue Date: Dec 31, 2001
Negotiations over the past four years have diluted the already weak Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997. The protocol requires industrialised countries to reduce emissions of heat trapping gases like carbon dioxide to about five per cent below 1990 levels. This target is to be achieved between 2008-12. At the latest round of discussions in November 2001, countries such as Japan, Canada and Australia managed to extract major compromises from the EU and developing countries.
