UNITED NATIONS

Environment ministers from 42 countries have decided to evolve new strategies and approaches for regional co-operation to protect the environment of Asia and the Pacific region. This was decided during 'The Ministerial Conference on Environment Development in Asia and the Pacific, 2000,' organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific .

Sinking atoll

Global warming literally threatens to swallow the small archipelago in the Indian Ocean and the worries are begin to show upon the people. In his recent state visit to India, Maldives president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom expressed deep concern over the threat to Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. India has agreed to cooperate with the island nation in any international forum on the issue of global warming.

Radioactive Mirage

India’s desperate pursuit of nuclear energy will be expensive and risky. Small wonder industry wants to dilute its liability.

For a cleaner world

A watery affair

even in a scene which was as spectacular, chaotic and confusing as a circus, it was a lone, odd voice. While all the participants were harping on the water scarcity facing the world, a pamphlet doing the rounds at the Second World Water Forum, held at the Hague in the Netherlands from March 16 to 22, 2000, pleaded a difference in opinion.

'GREEN' GOAL

India, Pakistan and Nepal have called for regional cooperation to tackle environmental problems in South Asia. The subcontinent in South Asia is bestowed with immense natural resources, vast fertile plain land, thick forests and extended shoreline. Yet, water and air pollution, lack of proper and efficient management of resources, extending fallow lands and encroaching desert are some of the real hindrances in the process of development in the region, said Biplap Bhushan Basu, director of the Calcutta-based School of Fundamental Research.

Still in the Woods

THE second session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) was held from March 11-22 in Geneva. Delegates conducted their first substantive discussions of six programme elements: underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation; fragile ecosystems affected by desertification and the impact of air pollution on forests; needs and requirements of

Coming of the know-all

IT is the era of knowledge revolution. And we are living in a 'knowledge society' ever since we learned how to make a fire and where to find food. The values of competition and materialism mostly dominate the human society today. In my mind, a future cannot be built on such narrow objectives. If life on earth should survive, what we first and foremost need is cooperation, which is becoming alarmingly divided. One salient feature of the post-Cold War period is the

Russia's role raises hopes and fears

AFTER much dithering, Russia has joined Europe, Canada and Japan in the US-led international space station project. Russia will merge its Mir programme with the US Freedom programme for the project, the first of its kind.

Clinton impressed

BANGLADESH'S Grameen Bank -- a cooperative banking system with easy loan repayment conditions -- has inspired US President Bill Clinton. When he was governor of Arkansas, Clinton launched the Goodfaith Fund, modelled after Grameen. Now, he plans to launch a similar scheme on a national level to extend lending to the poor in America's interior cities and rural areas.