Two technologies that shape our future
Battery and meters are two widely used technologies, yet no one stops to think how they work. They determine our future. They dictate how we …
Changing climes
Climate change is a very slow process, notoriously difficult to understand. Is it happening in India? Residents of some Himalayan towns, where …
Organic thread
Even as Bt cotton invaded Indian fields in the past few years, some farmer groups kept pushing for organic cotton. In 2009-10, production in …
Troubled Beautiful Minds
They are there—each residential area has its mentally disturbed people; each family has anecdotes of crazy relatives. Nobody wants to …
Frozen at gateway
The Doha outcome is all talk no action. In 2007, the Bali Action Plan had called for an urgent reduction in carbon emissions by developed …
From the dirtiest to the cleanest: Mexico City’s journey
Mexico City is today recognised as one of the cleanest cities in the world, and the credit for this goes to Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon who recently …
Kudankulam meltdown
The spectre of Fukushima continues to haunt the world, forcing governments in most parts of the globe to rethink their plans to tap this …
Secretive tribunals, hidden damages
Canadian academic Gus Van Harten is well known for his efforts to reform the global investment treaty regime through his research papers, …
India’s many investment treaties make it vulnerable
Senior international lawyer Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, who heads the investment programme of the International Institute on Sustainable …
'Building and retaining capacity is the toughest challenge'
Balakrishna Pisupati is in the hot seat as chairperson of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), where he has to deal with regulatory and …
Flat in 20 days
Global climatic anomalies allied with local weather conditions produced the most freakish hailstorms in central and north India in February and …
Future compromised
The Earth Summit was a historical opportunity to set the world on the correct development trajectory. Negotiators from 191 countries came …
Technology is the key
With developed countries doing little to restrict global warming, a ray of hope comes from the development of favourable technologies
Future tense
Asian countries voice concern over the irresponsible attitude of the North in reduction of greenhouse gases
A bad bargain
If the atmosphere is a common resource shared by everyone then should the South let itself be bullied into accepting a US diktat on emission …
The last fetter
-- involving use of symbolic communication -- there is evidence that our ancestors could speak.
Reaction time
Electronic conferences can speed up decision making which lengthy, costly and conventional deliberations cannot
Locking horns with the bull
International agreements like the Basel Convention are not enough to defeat corporate agendas firmly rooted in the stock market
No laughing matter
Activists are increasingly resorting to attention-grabbing techniques to bring development issues into the public domain
World's state as precarious as ever
STATE OF THE WORLD 1993 Edited by Linda Starke Publisher: W W Norton & Co Price: $13.99
The culprit is...
STATES OF DISARRAY-THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF GLOBALISATION.UNRISDreport on the World Summit for Social Development, Geneva, March,1995
Summing up poverty
The latest Human Development Report highlights the need for people- and resource-friendly development
Science spoof
THE THIRD CULTURE·John Brockman·A Touchstone book·Simon and Schuster· 1996·Price Rs 450
Book notice: Global green guide
Yearbook of International Co-operation on Environment and Development 2002/2003 The Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Earthscan Publications …
The cactus and its uses
Cacti are prickly, and pleasing. Extremely ungainly, they flourish in arid conditions where no plant will survive. Succulent inside, their thick …