Friday, 24 May, 2013

Latest Updates

Lizard named after Obama was wiped out by climate change

Well it was just a matter of time before some commie scientists named an extinct animal after the 44th president of the United States. Obamadon gracilis is the name, and the foot-long creature — which was discovered in a fossil bed in Montana — has been extinct for about 65 million years. And ironically, its extinction may indicate that paleolithic changes in climate affected animals differently than previously believed. Paleontologist Nicholas Longrich explains that scientists are now rethinking the idea that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs spared smaller lizards like Obamadon:....

Ten Years of the Biological Diversity Act

India’s Biological Diversity (BD) Act was enacted in 2002. There is now a decade of its existence to reflect on.The genesis of the law can be traced to the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD), which was signed at the Rio Summit in 1992. While assessing the 10 years of the Act, one has to be mindful of how India itself has undergone change in these years. By the time the Act came into force, trade imperatives had begun to influence environmental law and policy making both at the national and global level. The final shape of the Act and the manner of its implementation through the BD rules issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests....

Endow-Bio, Inc., the First National Endowment for Biodiversity

This is the birth announcement of Endow-Bio, Inc., the First National Endowment for Biodiversity. Please help us to publicize our brand new, all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) public charity. Endow-Bio, Inc. operates wholly within the U.S. Our current crises of nature, conservation and culture call for an audaciously hopeful response in the form of this new public charity. Our mission is to further conservation of biodiversity of native species and their habitats in the U.S., to expose the full breadth of our environmental problems, to show there are good-hearted people working to solve these problems who would ....

Protecting Livestock and Wildlife through Transfrontier Conservation Areas: An Interview with Steve Osofsky

“We are looking to make wildlife and livestock more compatible by dealing with diseases, by dealing with human/wildlife conflict, and at the same time seeking economic opportunity in both of these arenas.” Steve Osofsky, director of wildlife health policy for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), developed the Animal & Human Health for the Environment And Development (AHEAD) program at WCS and served as the first wildlife veterinary officer for the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks. In an interview with Worldwatch Research Fellow Molly Theobald, Dr. Osofsky discusses how farmers can both help and benefit from wildlife c....

Blogs

Court verdict on Games Village has let us down: Environmentalists

The Supreme Court’s Thursday verdict, allowing construction of the Commonwealth Games Village on the Yamuna banks has come as a “disappointment” to activists fighting to save the river and its floodplains. ...
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Thursday,30 July, 2009 | Hits: 108

MCD head office Town Hall India’s most polluted, says ministry study

The air around Delhi’s Town Hall — the seat of the Capital’s Mayor and 271 other lawmakers — is the most poisonous in the country. ...
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Tuesday,11 August, 2009 | Hits: 127

4 States drawing too much groundwater

Four north Indian states — Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi — are depleting at least 30% more of their groundwater resources than previously estimated by the government, a new report from the US National Aeronautical and Space Administration, or Nasa, says. ...
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Wednesday,12 August, 2009 | Hits: 105

‘We may survive, our kids won’t’

Says environment minister summing up the State Environment Report India 2009: Seventy per cent of Indian rivers are polluted. Underground water in 19 states is contaminated. Air pollution in 90 per cent Indian cities can cause respiratory diseases. Indian forests are depleting. This sums up the findings of State Environment Report India 2009 released by Environment and Forest minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday, the day negotiations for global climate change started in Bonn. “We may survive the environmental hazards, our children will not, if environment strategies are not implemented in right earnest,” said George Varughese, President of NGO Development Alternatives, which prepared the report for the Environment ministry. Pollution of air, water, land and forests has increased since 2000, when the last India environment report was released. What is most worrying is the phenomenal rise in reparable suspended particulate matter (RSPM), a cause of respiratory ailments, in urban areas because of the increase in vehicles — it has gone up four times from 2 crore in 1991 —and industrial activity. “The estimated economic cost of damage to public health from increased air pollution, based on RSPM (Reparable Suspended Particulate Matter) measurement of 50 cities with a total population of 110 million, reached Rs15,000 crore in 2004,” the report said. This money is enough to educate Delhi’s government schoolchildren. With drinking water demand expected to double by 2025 from the present 25 billion cubic metre and 70 per cent of water sources polluted, the report said water could be a cause of major unrest in two decades. The worst hit would be the agriculture sector, with scarce water resource impeding food security, the report said. It is already being witnessed. Since 2000, per hectare yield of wheat, rice and cereals has declined, after showing upward trend for five decades. Overall, the report said, rising pollution could have major impact on food, water and energy security....
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Tuesday,11 August, 2009 | Hits: 108

Near Yamuna bed, ‘O-zone’ layer to be left intact

The Yamuna river bed will now be protected from turning into a concrete jungle.The Delhi De elopement Authority (DDA)-the largest land development agency in the Capital-has barred any future concretization on the river bed.This decision was taken at the DDA Board meeting which cleared the plan for zone “O” (riverbed/riverfront). It is the zonal plan, which specifies the usage of the existing vacant land in the city. ...
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Monday,10 August, 2009 | Hits: 116

Chemicals washed ashore on Guj beaches raise a stink

Usually, the road to south Gujarat beaches is buzzing with traffic, But this Sunday the Story was different. Tourists stayed away from Tithal. Umargam and Umarsadi beaches in Daman Because of the overpowering stink of chemical residue strewn all over after being washed ashore over that last week. ...
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Sunday,09 August, 2009 | Hits: 169

Legalities of climate change

A recent climate change declaration poses significant challenges--and opportunities--for India: “The core issue is the obligations India can afford to undertake, given its own development priorities.” ...
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Tuesday,04 August, 2009 | Hits: 85

AMC's solid waste plant to clean up Pirana

Your drive down Pirana, on city's outskirts, makes you feel dizzy because of noxious industrial gases and stench from garbage dumps and sewage treatment plants. ...
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Monday,03 August, 2009 | Hits: 90

Global warming threatens Lakshadweep corals

The hard corals of Porites species, found in abundance in the blue-water lagoons of the picturesque Lakshadweep islands, are facing a threat to their existence. ...
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Friday,31 July, 2009 | Hits: 178

Developed nations must spend 1% of GDP for clean tech: India

India on Friday proposed financial allocation in the range of 0.5%-1% of developed countries GDP annually to developing nations for mitigation and adaptation of adverse impact of the climate change. ...
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Friday,31 July, 2009 | Hits: 91

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