Every October as the rains recede, Delhi prepares to choke on poisoned air which peaks for 3 months from around Deepawali. This year the Delhi Government even asked public for suggestions on how to cope with these recurrent foul air episodes, which was particularly bad this year. PM2.5 (particulate matter below 2.5 microns in diameter) concentrations, a good surrogate for[Read More...]
Citizens participating in preservation of environment are an important aspect of fighting decay of environment. Scientists have proposed (“Researchers explore how citizens can become agents of environmental change: A blueprint for how to educate people to maximize their impact.”) a blueprint for methods of educating people to maximize impact of people’s participation. By walking in the woods, rafting a river,[Read More...]
Delhi’s choking is in the news every year during this period. This year, it broke all the ‘box office’ records of worst air quality. The Supreme Court ‘acted’ as a ‘concerned’ authority. It asked the Delhi and other related government to ‘stop’ ‘blame’ game. It has given some order and ‘decided’ that ‘enough’ is ‘enough’. Arvind Kejriwal blamed the Punjab[Read More...]
An indigenous Amazon Guardian has been shot dead by loggers and another wounded after they were ambushed by loggers. Paulo Paulino Guajajara, known also as Kwahu Tenetehar, was shot in the neck and died in the forest. His colleague, Tainaky Tenetehar, was shot in the back and arm but escaped. The Amazon Guardians have been patrolling their territory in the[Read More...]
We condemn the clandestine and illegal manner in which the Odisha government is facilitating the transfer of land acquired from the local betel vine growers and fisherfolk in Jagatsinghpur district to Jindal Steel Works. The alienation of agriculturally fertile land from the peasantry for the purpose of industry snatches away from them their perennial source of income and livelihood. The[Read More...]
The Prime Minister of Australia is fuming. Having made his mark on Australian politics by being the mining sector’s most avid defender, Scott Morrison was disturbed by the week’s events in Melbourne that saw clashes between police and protesters outside the sixth annual international mining and resources conference. It made sense for the protesters to kick up a fuss at[Read More...]
About 12,000 years ago, late stone age humans precipitated the neolithic (agricultural) revolution that marked the start of the steady rise to civilization. Coincidentally, this occurred at the same time as the beginning of what is now known as the Holocene Epoch, the geological epoch in which humans still live. However, since the industrial revolution commencing in about 1750, just[Read More...]
The renowned author and whistleblower Evaggelos Vallianatos describes British environmentalist and campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason as a “defender of the natural world and public health.” I first came across her work a few years ago. It was in the form of an open letter she had sent to an official about the devastating environmental and human health impacts of glyphosate-based weed[Read More...]
Promoters of genetic modification (GM) in agriculture have long argued that genetically engineered Golden Rice is a practical way to provide poor farmers in remote areas with a subsistence crop capable of adding much-needed vitamin A to local diets. Vitamin A deficiency is a problem in many poor countries in the Global South and leaves millions at high risk for[Read More...]
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on climate change mitigation advocates a Carbon Tax of $75 per ton of CO2 by 2030 that, if progressively implemented in the G20 countries alone, would prevent an estimated 4 million air pollution deaths by 2030. However the effective climate change denialist Coalition Government of Australia, a G20 country that is among world leaders[Read More...]
