Sinks: A carbon reservoir

There is lot os uncertainly on the question of carbon sinks. To what extent can they actually absorb carbon dioxide emissions? And, should …

Time for a rethink

The climate regime needs to get out of the rut it is in

The way out of energy and climate change dilemmas

Providing energy to the poor does not make good business. Take electricity. Connecting the 2 billion in the world who do not have access to large …

SPREADING SMOKE

Strict US legislations are forcing cigarette companies to shift business to developing countries, where they are helped by lax laws and …

Bonn and beyond

The climate change meeting at Bonn tentatively agreed to postpone resolution of issues

Worldly wise

India hardsells its troubled protected areas abroad

Forgotten healers

Traditional medicine system has time and again proved its worth. Then why the cold shoulder?

India's game plan on GATT: Will it work?

The government says there are opportunities to improve the Dunkel packager but not all are convinced that it is trying hard enough. …

Anxiety helps hasten ozone safety deadlines

Despite Third World pleas for generous grace periods, Montreal Protocol nations have moved forward the phase-out dates for chemicals threatening …

Diary of a political carnival

UNCED saw the largest ever gathering of heads of government in history. Ceremony, glitter and pomp were played out against a backdrop of …

A social force called water

The state is struggling to meet the rising water demand. It is time to learn from the days when people arranged their own water. In cities and in …

Sharing the air

The rich nations are trying to frame the rules for trading in emissions. However, the methods being used to allocate these are questionable. ANIL …

Achieve development

The market, simply, cannot be left alone

Hong Kong: a beginning?

In making TRIPS responsive to needs of poor countries?

We, the people

Industrialised countries uneasy at the prospect of a shift from traditional political rights for the individual to rights that link communities …

Helping slum-dwellers to help themselves

Involving the community in slum improvement has worked successfully in the Philippines and Mexico. Hidebound bureaucrats in the Third World, who …

Dying in stages

Thirty million HIV-infected people in the world live in developing nations. With no cures in sight, all they can do is wait for death. And lack …

Creative carbon accounting

The Kyoto protocol, agreed in December 1997, was the first step to curtail emissions of the industrialised world. It is now being used to set up …

Within the enemy

Humankind faces the most prolonged and worst exposure to pollution within the four walls of its homes - indoors - where biomass combustion spells …

Defence of science

The Indian Science Congress fails to address country's key concerns like health. Instead, it ends up becoming a forum for grousing about …

Dictating terms

The US forces its agenda upon other member states at the fifth review conference of the bioweapons convention

Heavy metal

Vaccines with mercury can cause autism, but removing the metal is uneconomical for developing countries such as India

The battle for knowledge

What are patents? Why have they become politically contentious and a major source of friction between rich nations and the developing world?

Blown out

A deadly cyclone causes large-scale devastation in Pakistan and despite early warnings the toll on the Indian side is as high

Banning science from meeting fiction

Is quite different from letting politics crassly dictate research