Novel Therapy
Bimal K Banik is President’s Endowed Professor and professor of chemistry at College of Science and Mathematics, University of Texas-Pan …
Pilgrims' distress
Better infrastructure planning and upgrade needed for mega events like Kumbh to avert stampedes
Catching them young
Every year, the Indian Science Congress Association awards young scientists of the country. Down To Earth spoke to some of the winners about …
Perfect model
Biologists use a variety of animal models for experiments. But a mouse or a fruitfly cannot truly represent a human being. Jessica Bolker, …
Why we are bugged
Book>> Spillover • by David Quammen • W Norton and Company • Rs 1,550
USA faces up to the biodiversity challenge
The US President reiterates that the one world, one environment theme is the only way to protect the planet.
Green issues need equitable entitlements
Now that the Cold War is over, concern for the environment will play a vital role in international relations in the foreseeable future.
Revitalised role forecast for people's movements
It is becoming possible to utilise the capacities that exist outside the state -- such as non-governmental organisations -- to influence state …
Being accountable
The reluctance of financial institutions to be made answerable will stymie progress on implementing the Earth Summit agreentents.
North - South tussle over SDC
The proposal for setting up a Commission for Sustainable Development, considered one of Rio's successes, is already caught in a dispute over size,…
Awareness growing about Amazon destruction
AMAZON WATERSHED -- THE NEW ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION George Monbiot Publisher: Michael Joseph, London Price: Pounds 17.99
North deserts initiative on desertification
Africa's success at Rio summit in securing international support for a proposed desertification convention seems to be short-lived as Northern …
Rio has not changed the North-South equation
The UNCED deliberations have to be viewed in the context of northern attempts to maintain hegemony over the rest of the world
Commission of omissions
After prolonged negotiations, what the Rio summit has produced is a weak and poorly represented commission on sustainable development
Did Riocentro learn anything from Flamengo park?
While heads of state deliberated on the future of the world at the Riocentro, social activists and NGOs expressed their sense of frustration …
Forests of global contention
The South's determined efforts to scuttle the forest convention that the North was adamant on pushing through was a major triumph. A blow-by-…
Stockholm and Rio: Bigger, but was it better?
Stockholm wasn't as big as Rio, but I think it had a soul. I expect Rio's soul was there too, somewhere
Passing USA's laugh test
Helping George Bush gain political mileage seemed to be the overriding concern at the recent climate convention negotiations in New York. India …
The Curious Case of Golden Peacock
An international gathering...desi style tamasha. A DowntoEarth exclusive on what happened at the award ceremony at Palampur
California's rare earths mine set to meet a third of global demand
Until the 1980s, the Mountain Pass mine in California provided most of the rare earth materials to the world before China overtook it. China, …
Science and Technology - Briefs
Scientists find new mechanism that contributes to Arctic warming
New research says the Arctic Ocean traps more energy from far infrared radiation than previously estimated
How the Earth’s tilt creates short, cold January days
It all depends on where you are in the world and where your air is coming from
Global warming is universal, speedy and worldwide: Study
In contrast, other well-known cold and warm snaps of the past were more regional
Netherlands ordered to cut emissions
Activists believe more countries will take action soon