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- Monsoon arrives early; kills 10 people in Uttarakhand
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- Extreme weather and climate change
- Transition failure
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- Gujarat pollution board gets a makeover in efficiency 33
- ‘Tribals turn extremists because states are too busy making money from land’
- Waste-to-energy plant in Vijaywada shuts down
- India’s population to overtake China’s by 2028; can it leverage the advantage?
- 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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Environment Economics
BRAZIL
Issue Date: Oct 15, 2000
At least 10 per cent of the world's environmental heritage, can be found in Brazil, according to the government officials. Brazil has recently estimated its environmental worth in economic terms. It is the first country in the world to do so. The government-owned Brazilian Institute for Environment and Renewable Resources ( ibama ) reported that the total financial value of Brazil's biodiversity is us $2.072 trillion, which is roughly four times the annual gross domestic product.
Punjab: end of the revolution ?
Issue Date: Aug 15, 2000
Undoubtedly, GR made Punjab one of the richest states in India in terms of per capita income. From Rs 2,674 in 1980-81, the per capita income at current prices rose to Rs 19,770 in 1997-98. Compared to Punjab, Tamil Nadu's per capita income was only Rs 12,989, while that of Kerala is 11,936 in the same year. "It is not right to say that Punjab got a raw deal. They got massive investments as far as infrastructure is concerned. The farmers' lifestyle improved.
Cancer-struck
Issue Date: Aug 15, 2000
Gian kaur, 50, is a breast cancer patient. But in her village her ailment does not make her unique or get her visitors to check on her health. Almost every house in her village Giana in Bhatinda district has an ailing patient to tend to. Cancer or less fatal diseases have taken their toll on Gian's 3,500-odd population. Most of the people do not have the means to fight the diseases, too.
The escape route
Issue Date: Aug 15, 2000
A few months, India was besieged by a drought. But the drought did not lead to a famine. A comfortable grain reserve of 26 million tonnes -11 million tonnes more than would be required in a normal year to stave of the famine. But this may be the last time India can ride over a crisis of this proportion.
Now or never
Issue Date: Jul 31, 2000
Fuel cells have arrived. Or perhaps they haven't. From all appearances it seems these technologies have failed to deliver. Nothing could be further from the truth. Available evidence indicates that renewable and clean energy technologies like fuel cells have lived up to many significant expectations and public policy goals. Are fuel cells the victims of policy and politics? (see p32-39: 2H 2 + O 2 = 2H 2 O + energy).
Dirty business
Issue Date: Jan 15, 2000
Has economic growth become dirtier? While the world economy has grown steadily since 1950, global temperature increased from 13.84C to 14.57C (in 1998). But even after a slowing down of trade in 1998, the temperature continued to rise. Down the years, the volume of international air freight has also increased rapidly from just six million tonnes in 1970 to 24 million tonnes in 1997. However, this mode of transport is far more energy-intensive than shipping, another favoured form of transportation.
Allegations of being sidelined
The issue that surfaced first at the protest meetings outside the Seattle Convention Center and was touted by many as being the reason for the collapse of the talks was transparency within the World Trade Organization (WTO). The seriousness of the issue became apparent when even delegates at the Seattle ministerial began to complain that they were not kept informed of what was going on. At one point, when delegates were taken by surprise at the plenary, many of them started banging their desk and booing.Hormone beef or not
Anyone familiar with the seemingly endless trade wars between the US and the European Union (EU) would not be surprised about their 1998 battle over the beef trade. It started in the 1980s, when the EU first placed a domestic ban on the use of hormones in cattle breeding. The ban was based on the belief that hormones used in meat production were injurious to health, linked to various forms of cancers and to reductions in male fertility. In January 1989, Intra-European and world trade in hormone-treated meat was banned in the EU.No Go
Issue Date: Dec 31, 1999
Some of the chaos outside seemed to permeate into the Convention Center. It was just another day before attention shifted from the protests outside to the proceedings of the meet, and differences between political groups within the wto began to emerge. There were three main groupings: the us, the European Union (eu), and the developing countries.
Banking on growth, only
Issue Date: Dec 31, 1999
Environment is very low on the list of priorities of the World Bank. It does not give grants. It lends money only to credit-worthy borrowers and to projects that promise high rates of economic return to the donor countries and the bank. Environmental projects are given low priority because the returns are minimal.
