Headlines
On 22 May 2010, the world celebrates the International Day for Biological Diversity (IBD) under the theme 'Biodiversity, Development and Poverty Alleviation'.
The International Day for Biological Diversity will be celebrated in 11 countries around the world – from Tunisia to the Philippines and from India to the United Kingdom.
This year's event is a unique opportunity to raise public awareness on the importance of biodiversity for sustainable development and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.
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Thursday,20 May, 2010 | Hits: 507
Shifting rivers in India's largest tea producing state and abnormally high rainfall this year is destroying hundreds of acres of tea gardens and could cut output in the world's second-largest tea grower.
More than a tenth of the 18,000 hectares of plantations, or tea gardens, in India's northeast state of Assam could be washed away as the mighty Himalaya-born Brahmaputra and other smaller rivers flood the region where century-old operations grow over half of India's tea.
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Wednesday,19 May, 2010 | Hits: 247
The Department of Atomic Energy is easily the worst-functioning department of the Indian government, says Praful Bidwai.
Three weeks after a scrap dealer from Mayapuri in Delhi was hospitalised with acute radiation sickness caused by exposure to cobalt-60, the authorities finally traced the source of the radioisotope to a laboratory in the chemistry department of Delhi University. Meanwhile, one of the 11 people who were seriously exposed to the source died. And the condition of another two is reportedly grave, with platelet counts way below normal and falling. Doctors can do little to help the victims except give them repeated transfusions.That highlights the poignancy of the suffering of poor and innocent scrap-workers on account of utterly irresponsible conduct on the part of several agencies, including Delhi University, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and the Government of India .
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Thursday,06 May, 2010 | Hits: 282
The Prince of Wales has called for a major environmentally-friendly refurbishment of Britain's historic buildings to "avert the climate crisis".
In a new guide aimed at the owners of run down mansions and estates, he said it was a "tragedy" to see such buildings abandoned, derelict or destroyed.
Not only because of the loss of heritage but because of the "terrible waste of resources" as the country struggles to become more energy efficient.
The Prince is to fit solar panels on his home in London, Clarence House, and already uses ground source heat pumps and other forms of renewable energy on his wider estate.
He said historic buildings should be leading the way in the fight against climate change by insulating roofs, harvesting rainwater and even generating their own energy.
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Saturday,24 April, 2010 | Hits: 160
Biofuels such as biodiesel from soy beans can create up to four times more climate-warming emissions than standard diesel or petrol, according to an EU document released under freedom of information laws.
The European Union has set itself a goal of obtaining 10 percent of its road fuels from renewable sources, mostly biofuels, by the end of this decade, but it is now worrying about the unintended environmental impacts.
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Wednesday,21 April, 2010 | Hits: 165
Food security has been a major developmental objective in India since the beginning of planning. India achieved self-sufficiency in food grains in the 1970’s and has sustained it since then. But the achievement of food grain security at the national level did not percolate down to households and the level of chronic food insecurity is still high. Over 225 million Indians remain chronically under nourished. In 2000-01, about half of the rural children below five years of age suffered from malnutrition and 40% of adults suffered from chronic energy deficiency. Such a high level of wasting away of human resources should be a cause for concern.
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Thursday,29 April, 2010 | Hits: 372
Cambridge (United Kingdom) : World leaders have failed to deliver commitments made in 2002 to reduce the global rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, and have instead overseen alarming biodiversity declines. These findings are the result of a new paper published in the leading journal Science and represent the first assessment of how the targets made through the 2002 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have not been met.
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Wednesday,28 April, 2010 | Hits: 448
Geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for cooking and heating. It is simply power derived from the Earth's internal heat.This thermal energy is contained in the rock and fluids beneath Earth's crust. It can be found from shallow ground to several miles below the surface, and even farther down to the extremely hot molten rock called magma.
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Tuesday,13 April, 2010 | Hits: 121
By bringing the benefits and the knowledge of science to their people, Haseena and Tajunnisa have helped secure the future for the resources on which their families depend. Their home, Agatti, has, now become a model, writes Papri Sri Raman.
Kavaratti (WFS) - On January 29, Haseena and Tajunnisa, two young women from the beautiful Agatti island in Lakshadweep, received the 2008 Earth Heroes 'Young Naturalist' awards, given annually by 'Sanctuary' magazine in collaboration with the Royal Bank of Scotland. This unusual recognition came to these women, who are in their 20s, for their spectacular effort in mobilising a fishing community to become the keepers of nature.
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Tuesday,09 March, 2010 | Hits: 198
United states : More than 10 million pieces of trash were plucked from the world's waterways in a single day last year. But for Philippe Cousteau, the beach sandals that washed up in the Norwegian arctic symbolized the global nature of the problem of marine debris."We saw flip-flops washing ashore on these islands in far northern Norway near the Arctic Circle," Cousteau, a conservationist and grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, said in a telephone interview.
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Tuesday,13 April, 2010 | Hits: 111
