Why the US is shy
European governments are looking forward to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Although the US wants to follow suit, it has some apprehensions
In favour of
...biodiversity or bio-plurality? What is of essence is to sustain all that is in the biosphere rather than conserve few forms of biodiversity, …
No charity at home
Is the individual's attempt at environmental awareness limited mostly to sermonising about big issues?
Healthy advertising
Are advertisers bound -- legally or ethically -- to take potential health hazards into account?
The view from below
Development strategies cry out for a "bottoms-up" approach that involves the intended beneficiaries
Gimme eat!
In America today, the revolutionary question is not how to get food to eat -- it's what and how much
Unconventional interference
The United States has decreed that GATT will have the last word on intellectual property rights, thus throwing the Biodiversity Convention to the …
When fathers harass their sons
Among white-fronted bee-eaters, a bird species found abundantly in east and central Africa, fathers torment their sons and physically prevent …
Need for an overhaul
Scientific research and organisation must be completely re-oriented to a more balanced development of the planet.
The global environmental fiasco
After six meetings on how to restructure the Global Environment Facility, a consensus remains elusive.
Going public
A unique experiment to involve the people in bringing water to desert communities is under way in Rajasthan.
Beyond home
Bill Clinton's absence from the Copenhagen summit on social development underscores the post-Cold War parochialism that has gripped the American …
Walking tall
Jonas Salk, the man who humbled the dreaded polio virus, was that rarest of scientists, the "unconventional upstart"
Global democracy tilts at the axis
Are the "forces of freedom" in the West muscular enough to deepen democracy at the global level?
Earth health
Clinically clean, gleamingly coloured, hermetically sealed fruits and vegetables face the challenge of organic food
A green front is not enough
It is time to question whether the new green urgency of big business is a genuine change of heart
Straight from the puppet's mouth
Why should it matter if messages are effectively conveyed through tales, songs and plays rather than from the mouths of scientists bogged down in …
Sprucing up
...production techniques could go a long way in creating a pollution-free milieu as the final aim would be to achieve a no-waste company discipline
Urbane and stupid
Sitting in urban comforts and planning for a rural set-up can only spell doom for any activity on the development front, for the village is a …
Wealth engenders debt...
... seems like a paradox, but when that wealth is produced by affluent countries through importing undervalued resources of the poorer regions,…
After the last tree is felled
'Sustainable development' cannot afford to be another epithet in the lexicon of development, but should dispel myths about human-made and natural …
The silver spoon
Development in the small-farm sector holds the key to a holistic progress in the Asia-Pacific countries
Good but not true
The United Nations does not take into account sustainability of the environment in assessing progress using the Human Development Index, …
Turning to God
Godfrey Baseley, the man behind "The Archers", BBC's popular serial on agricultural information, is dead. His 'gossip' was valuable advice to the …
An alternative perspective
While small irrigation projects are the need of the hour, the government is obsessed with big projects