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17 April, 2010

The Natural World Vanishes:
How Species Cease To Matter

By John Waldman

Once, on both sides of the Atlantic, fish such as salmon, eels, and, shad were abundant and played an important role in society, feeding millions and providing a livelihood for tens of thousands. But as these fish have steadily dwindled, humans have lost sight of their significance, with each generation accepting a diminished environment as the new norm

20 March, 2010

Bluefin Tuna Loses Out
By George Monbiot

Idiots. Morons. Blockheads. Numbskulls. Nothing quite captures the mind-withering stupidity of what has just happened in Doha. Swayed by Japan and a number of other countries, some of them doubtless bought off in traditional fashion, the members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) have decided not to protect the Atlantic bluefin tuna

07 February, 2010

What Every Environmentalist Needs To Know
About Capitalism

By Fred Magdoff & John Bellamy Foster

Ecological crisis cannot be solved within the logic of the present system. The various suggestions for doing so have no hope of success. The system of world capitalism is clearly unsustainable

The Wrong Kind Of Green
By Johann Hari

How conservation groups are bargaining away our future by selling themselves off to some of the biggest polluters on earth

19 January, 2010

The War Against Nature Resumes
By George Monbiot

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. The Welsh assembly is celebrating the occasion by launching a project to exterminate the badger. I won't pretend that this story ranks alongside the catastrophe in Haiti or the meltdown in Afghanistan, but it casts an interesting light on humanity's continuing impulse to conquer nature, and shows how, even when cloaked in the language of science, our relations with the natural world are still governed by irrationality and superstition

04 January, 2010

Coal And Its Ruptured Landscape;
Navigating The Ruins Of Appalachia

By Frank Joseph Smecker

Along the backbone of the eastern United States, better known as Appalachia, a relatively new trend in coal mining is underway. Mountaintop removal (MTR), a process through which the ubiquitous hankering for cheap energy, harnessed by the coal industry and, combined with explosives to blow tops of mountains into a state of environmental and socio-economic ruin, has been plaguing Appalachia for decades. Industry giants like Peabody Coal Co., Horizon Resources LLC and Arch Coal Inc. (among others) have taken advantage of coal mining legislation to advance the efficiency of coal extraction through MTR

16 June, 2009

Development At The Cost Of Destruction
By Zafar Iqbal

Pakistan has initiated a mega power project in its administrative part of Kashmir without fulfilling mandatory environmental obligations required for development projects

05 May, 2009

Echoes From The Mountains
By Manshi Asher

On 9th April 2009, almost 2000 people affected by dams, mines, urbanization and destructive 'development' projects in the state of Himachal Pradesh gathered and held a historical rally in the streets of Bilaspur shouting slogans of “Aaj Himalaya Jagega – Loootne wala bhagega” and “Vikas chahiye vinash nahin”

02 May, 2009

Gujarat: An Ecological Nightmare
By S Faizi

The business bosses are rightly grateful to the Gujarat government for the massive corporate welfare benefits they receive at the expense of the tax paying public. But the hapless public has little recourse as the state has been turned into an ecological nightmare by the avaricious corporates and an authoritarian government. This tragedy is compounded by the virtual absence of a political opposition; and the civil society has either been silenced or co-opted, with just a few remarkable exceptions

29 April, 2009

Sane EnvironmentalismTo Save Earth
By Aaron Wissner

Sane environmentalists recognize that money system of our global culture inherently encourages damage to Earth; and that a new money system which does just the opposite needs to be devised and adopted. Until this new system is in place, they seek to minimize their use of money; work to renew and restore Earth; and gently invite, encourage, and support others to join in this mission to save Earth

09 February, 2009

Developing Sahyadris And Eating It Too
By Gopal Krishna

Even as sponsored destruction Sahyadris is underway, new discoveries of previously unknown species made in the forests amid the increasing vulnerability to extinction of more and more species must set the alarm bell ringing

06 January, 2009

What Is Ganga River Basin Approach?
Some Questions

By Gopal Krishna

While the commercial benefits of damming rivers has been talked about a lot, the in-stream and off stream monetary and non-monetary benefits and advantages of flowing rivers has not been assessed so far. Does basin approach mean undertaking that assessment?

08 September, 2008

Murdering Mother Earth
By Jason Miller

Yes, We’re Matricidal: Murdering Mother Earth one forest, one species and one atom at a time

31 August, 2008

'Jamna Maiyya': Comodified In A World Class City
By Sarandha

Now the river banks are up for sale because it is too much land lying 'empty', devoid of 'development', waiting to be constructed upon. Now the river itself is as dirty as a sewer. Now the government plans to 'reclaim' this lost, forgotten land, and show-case it to the world as a specimen of 'A Site of Recreation'

02 June, 2008

Living With DDT
By K A Shaji

Damning reports. Alarming statistics. There's a strong case against India's lone DDT manufacturing facility in Kerala but the plant shows no sign of shutting down

13 March, 2008

Mangrove Man
By K A Shaji

In Kerala, Kallen Pokkudan is the last word on swamp ecosystems. He talks of a Dalit's oppression in the same breath as the slow death of an ecosystem

13 November, 2007

Use Of Russian And Canadian
Asbestos Rising In India

By Gopal Krishna

Asbestos is a proven human carcinogen (a substance that causes cancer). Lack of health surveillance of asbestos exposed workers and consumers is an invitation to disaster from wholesale public exposure, especially babies and infants in India. Some 45 countries have banned this killer fiber. But countries like Russia, Canada, Kazakhstan and Brazil continue to produce, trade and promote this ticking time bomb in India

23 October, 2007

Uncommon Grace: Biology And Economic Theory
By Charles Sullivan

Ecology and biology are the natural capital upon which nature works. They are the underpinning of all social and economic paradigms—bar none. Impair and denigrate them and everything in them, including us, is diminished. Damage them excessively, and everything falls, including our precious ownership society

26 September, 2007

Let's Respect Our Mother Earth
By Evo Morales

Letter from President Evo Morales to the member representatives of the United Nations on the issue of the environment

12 September, 2007

Making A Meal Of Bt cotton
By Bhaskar Goswami

In the Malwa belt of rural Punjab, mile after mile of Bt cotton fields are under attack by the mealy bug pest. Bathinda, Muktsar, Faridkot and Ferozepur, Punjab’s four major cotton-growing districts, have been badly affected. The so-called ‘magic bullet’, Bt cotton has turned into a bitter pill for farmers who were promised profits but who are now faced with huge losses

31 August, 2007

Bt Cotton And Economic Drain In Punjab
By K Jayaram

The much hyped Bt Cotton and increased yields, reduced plant protection costs were fall flat with the Mealy bug infestation on Bt Cotton in Punjab. There is a huge economic drain from Punjab due to cultivation of Bt Cotton. The honeymoon of Bt Cotton was over and trouble started now

The Fight To Save The Rocky Mountains
By Joshua Frank

The battles rage on by a courageous few to protect the freedom of the wild in these desolate, iconic parts of the Rocky Mountains. If the courts don't side with the legally-inclined environmentalists who want to preserve this wilderness for black bears and not for vacationers, Red McCombs and his investors can be certain that other radical activists will take to the Forest Service roads to confront the development of our untrammeled public lands

27 August, 2007

Punjab In Ecological And Health Devastation
By Umendra Dutt

There is not a single village in Punjab which has not witnessed cancer deaths in last five years.Every village has faced cruelty of deaths- young, old, married, single, man, women, rich, poor, farmer, laborer – there is no distinction. Even children are not spared. No discrimination at all. The death count starts from 4-5 and goes upto 60 or even more in a single village and one can find same number of cancer patients too

10 August, 2007

Park Of Pollution
By K A Shaji

The residents of a Dalit village in Kerala's Kanjikode industrial belt have been dying a silent death

31 July, 2007

Environment, Sustainable Development
And Globalisation: A Plea To Indian Legislatures

By Dr.Zafar Mahfooz Nomani

The India today needs to usher in a season of transformation, a season of stewardship to make long overdue constitutional commitment to protection and improvement of environment and security of future generation

21 June, 2007

Panchayats Can Deny Permission For
Field Trials Of GM crops

By Kavitha Kuruganti

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) - which is the apex regulatory body for looking into GM crop research and development in the country – brought in a new condition for any GM crop field trials to be conducted in India from this year onwards. As per this, Panchayats have to give prior permission for such a trial to take place in their jurisdiction before the GEAC considers any application. Panchayats have to make good use of this authority that they enjoy now

05 June, 2007

Hotspot As Trouble Spot
By K A Shaji

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, one of the world's top bio-diversity hotspots which hosts several endemic species of plants and animals, might just fall off the world biosphere map altogether if the proposed multi-dam Pandiar Punnapuzha Hydro-electric Project comes up at Gudalur near Udhagamandalam, better known as Ootty

03 June, 2007

Nilgiri Rail Road: Trouble In Jumbo Heartland
By K.A.Shaji

Guess who is going to inherit the dubious legacy of forest brigand Veerappan in the Sathyamangalam range of forests, which form part of the highly sensitive Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve? The Indian Railway, it seems. Sounds strange….?

29 May, 2007

Earth, Inc. Sliding Into Bankruptcy
By Stephen Leahy

Build a shrimp farm in Thailand by cutting down mangrove forests and you will net about 8,000 dollars per hectare. Meanwhile, the destruction of the forest and pollution from the farm will result in a loss of ecosystems worth 35,000 dollars/ha per year. Many leading development institutions and policy-makers still fail to understand that this ruthless exploitation for short-term profits could trigger an Enron-like collapse of "Earth, Inc."

21 May, 2007

Supreme Court Upholds Importance Of Biosafety
By Kavitha Kuruganti

In the orders passed after the May 8th hearing in the GMOs PIL filed by Aruna Rodrigues and three others, the Supreme Court of India clearly upheld once again the importance of biosafety when it comes to Genetically Modified Organisms

10 March, 2007

Development Through Industrialization?
Or Environmental Colonialism Leading To Catastrophe?

By Aseem Shrivastava

The question is whether city-based media outlets are reporting the facts adequately and accurately and whether urban elites have the integrity and courage to face the monstrous injustices that their leaders are busy inflicting on the countryside and its hapless populations

03 March, 2007

Task Ahead For New Government:
Green Agenda For Sustainable Punjab

By Umendra Dutt

The SAD-BJP government has taken the reins at a very crucial juncture; the new government can play a historic role by evolving a Green Agenda for Sustainable Punjab. The new government should demonstrate that it is highly concerned about the ecological and agricultural catastrophe leading to farmer's suicides, depleting natural resources, degraded environment, and intense environmental health crisis posing a serious socio-economic and ecological challenge to the state. The new government should resolve to adopt the green agenda for a sustainable Punjab with an imperishable prosperity which will be free of debt, suicides, displacement and diseases caused due to environmental discrepancy

22 February, 2007

Cleaning Up Exxon's Greenpoint Oil Spill
By Joshua Frank

It happened over 57 years ago when Exxon Mobil leaked at least 17 million gallons of oil in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint. The 55-acre spill, which is estimated to have been larger than the Exxon Valdez catastrophe, went undiscovered until the late 1970s. Since then little has been done to hold the guilty parties accountable. But on February 8, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo finally filed notices of intent to sue Exxon Mobil and several other companies to force a massive clean up of the polluted neighborhood

14 February, 2007

Sorrow Tale Of Jajjal: The Village
Cursed By Cancer

By Umendra Dutt

Jajjal needs a new start for life. Let us hope the new government in Punjab takes care of this and evolve a strategy and action plan for cancer free, toxicity free, debt free and suicide free Jajjal. That should be light of hope for thousand of other villages facing the same doom. So, that there should no more Manish and Kartar Kaurs not only in Jajjal but whole of Malwa region. But there is a question - Who has time for this?

12 February, 2007


The Forgotten Issue Of Environmental
Crisis In Punjab Elections

By Umendra Dutt

It is the high time to take up the issue of environmental health crisis, depleting water resources, prevalence of high pesticide residues and subsequently the ecological and agricultural sustainability of Punjab. Elections are providing an opportunity for this. Those who want to save Punjab from an offing environmental and agricultural chaos should ask political parties to spell out their agenda for the same

28 December, 2006

There Was Once An Old Tehri Town
By Harsh Dobhal

Despite three decades of local concerns, international criticism and governmental investigation, as the Tehri dam finally starts producing electricity and drinking water reaches distant Delhi, the most pressing questions have gone unanswered

28 November, 2006

Conspicuous Consumption Comes Out Of The Closet
By Mickey Z.

"Today's consumption is undermining the environmental resource base. It is exacerbating inequalities," United Nations Development Program (UNDP) declared in 1998. "If the trends continue without change ... today's problems of consumption and human development will worsen." The UNDP concludes: "Runaway growth in consumption in the past 50 years is putting strains on the environment never before seen." So...what's in your closet?

25 October, 2006

Humans Living Far Beyond Planet's Means
By Ben Blanchard

Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday

Mitigating Water-crisis In Punjab :
Empowering Society With Water Vision

By Umendra Dutt

The impending water crisis in Punjab has not only eclipsed its agriculture and economy but also ruined the ecology, health, life style and social fabric of the state. It has severely destroyed the water heritage and cultural value system also

19 October, 2006

Fiction And Environmental movement
By K. Venugopal Reddy

India's environmental movement began indisputably in the early seventies. However, a critical understanding of the text 'Nectar in a Sieve' published in 1954 by Kamala Markandaya implies that it had its ideological moorings from the first decade of India's independence

09 October, 2006

Environmental Health Crisis
In Punjab, Who Cares?

By Umendra Dutt

Any action to save Punjab from ecological catastrophe and environmental health crisis is a great service to fellow countrymen. It would be a service to our Motherland, Humanity and God and more over it is as sacred as any worship. We all pray for the wellbeing of all, but have to live the very life which pleads this

05 October,, 2006

Land Of Five Rivers In Water Crisis
And Water Chaos

By Umendra Dutt

But there is another side of the picture also which shows doom, distress and destruction is fast engulfing this land of five waters. It is a Water-Chaos in the Punjab. We can see farmers committing suicides due to failure of pumps, neighbors in farms killing each other over the quarrel for irrigation water, Women are bound to fetch water on their head from as far as 3 kms, and a vast majority of people have no option other then to drink sub-human water

29 September,, 2006

Fumigating Bhopal
By Harsh Mander

Late one evening, a young man of 34 was found hanging from the ceiling of his home in Bhopal. His name was Sunil Verma, the date, July 26, 2006. More than 21 years earlier, he had lost his parents and five siblings in the gas massacre on December 2, 1984.He died wearing a T-shirt declaring 'No More Bhopals'. At the time he took his life, no one had been punished for the crimes of the Bhopal massacre. With him died, perhaps, even the hope for justice

04 August, 2006

Pesticide Spray Proves Disastrous
In Salkiana Village, Jalandhar

By Kheti Virasat Mission

Report of a Fact Finding Visit by Kheti Virasat Mission

04 May, 2006

Non Violent Protest - Then And Now
By Anuja Mirchandaney

Reflections on the Narmada Bachao Andolan's recent experiences in Delhi

29 April, 2006

"There Is A Fury Building Up Across India"
By Arundhati Roy & Shoma Chaudhuri

In this interview, Arundhati Roy updates her essay on the Narmada issue, The Greater Common Good, published in 1999. It was conducted by Shoma Chaudhuri over a period of several days in person and on email

20 April, 2006

The Corporate Hijack Of Organic
Farming Initiative In Punjab

By Umendra Dutt

The Punjab Government has leased out thousands hectors of land to various companies especially the agri-business corporations for Joint Ventures. Due to one or other reasons best known to government officials no body want to share the exact figure that how much land was given to agri-business corporations so far

18 April, 2006

Don’t Damn Narmada
By Angana Chatterji

The Congress government must accede to the NBA’s demand and halt construction of the Sardar Sarovar until the affected are ethically rehabilitated as per the provisions of the NWDTA and Supreme Court orders of 2000 and 2005

11 April, 2006

Forgotten People
By Joe Athialy

India's two best known struggles are waging a battle for justice under the trees of Jantar Mantar in the capital — the Narmada dam oustees and Bhopal gas victims. Both have a 20-year history, albeit emerging from different contexts

01 April, 2006

World Water Forum Not The Place
To Solve Global Water Crisis

By Laura Carlsen

Water flooded Mexico City the week of March 16-22, causing major traffic jams, provoking street confrontations, and filling the pages of local and international newspapers. Yet nothing got wet

29 March, 2006

A Fictional Representation Of Our Future

Year 2070 a power point representation

Freshwater Rights
By Arun D Ahluwalia

To be retaining our rights for safe drinking water even within cities, we need to launch a mass communication programme in effective and thoughtful ways to enforce Freshwater Rights. Those who may consider these to be a joke will find themselves on the receiving end not very far off in the future

23 March, 2006

Punjab State Policy On Organic Farming
By Umendra Dutt

The Indian State of Punjab is going to have a state policy on organic farming very soon. The Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh has announced this in current session of the assembely.Though announcements made are always political but, policies always drafted without any political vision.This lack of vision takes policies always away from the very people on whose name and welfare the policies were declared

09 March, 2006

Pesticide Lobby Launches Offensive
On Environmental Groups

By Umendra Dutt

The Pesticide Industry has now gone on an all out war cry, not against the Pests, as is their mandate but against public science, concerns of health and the ensuing public opinion that is growing against their products

02 March, 2006

Sponge Bath Nation
By M Rajshekhar

The Indian state of Maharashtra has taken a step towards using water more sustainably. Will the rest of India follow? Unlikely

01 March, 2006

Eco-Crisis In Punjab And Governmental-Toxicity
By Umendra Dutt

This is election year in Punjab . Therefore, it is indeed very useful time for the civil society. The society must ask questions to every political party about their agenda and plans for environmental health crisis and sustainable life systems in Punjab

16 October, 2005

Man Will 'Wipe Out' Rare Creatures Of The Deep
By Severin Carrell

The deep ocean is one of the world's last great wildernesses. But not for long. Two kilometres below the surface, scores of rare and exotic species are being wiped out at a dramatic rate

Against The flow
By Joe Athialy

Commodification of water is increasingly being resisted

22 September, 2005

River Interlinking: Narmada Part 2?
By Purushottam S. Kulkarni

As India is preparing to take up a major river linking project the question being asked is this" Are we heading in the same direction as Narmada?" Where as always and as millions have done before, the rural folk will have to face displacement, move to road side slums and make way for "development"

31 August, 2005

Environmental Health Crisis In Punjab
By Umendra Dutt

The Punjab has only 1.5 % landmass of the country but it consumes about 18% of pesticides used in India and moreover the south-western districts of Malwa region are consuming near 75% of pesticides used in Punjab

23 August, 2005

Cancer And Pesticides
By Jatinder Preet

Cancer is widespread in the villages of Punjab, broadly called cotton belt

23 July, 2005

Ecocide
By Tom Turnipseed

Ecocide means destroying our ecosystem by actions of the human species. Human activity like war and the profligate use of our ecosystem’s resources is ecocidal

22 July, 2005

Scorched Earth
By John Vidal

With forest fires, failing crops and reservoirs running on empty, southern Europe is in the grip of the worst drought since records began. But why is it happening?

23 April, 2005

Narmada: Where Terror And Hope Collide
By Angana Chatterji

At least 65 people died in Dharaji village, near Bhopal, and many remain missing from flash floods as waters were released on April 7 from the Indira Sagar mega-dam on the Narmada river

01 April, 2005

Bt Cotton In Punjab: Lesson
In Effective PR Exercise

By JatinderPreet

The sleek PR machinery of the U.S. chemicalgiant Monsanto aided by spineless and misinformed media and the statecollusion assured India officially joined the GM community on March 26,2002, when it was first given the green signal for the commercial cultivation of genetically engineered crops

22 March, 2005

Damning Verdict On GM Crop
By Paul Brown and David Gow

Final report on world's most comprehensive field trials says oil seed rape varieties would harm wildlife and environment

12 February, 2005

Who Pulled The Trigger... Didn't We All?
By Arundhati Roy

Must we in our hypernationalism take a man who has already suffered enough and reduce him to fish bait? Can we-and our media-stop judging S.A.R. Geelani

01 February, 2005

The Tsunami And The Brandt Report
By Mohammed Mesbahi and Dr. Angela Pain

Ecological and human disasters such as the 2004 tsunami will continue to occur as long as the current Global Economic system is allowed to exist in its present form

07 December, 2004

"Jude Finisterra" Interviewed
By Democracy Now!

Interview with "Jude Finisterra", a member of the political action group "Yes Men" who in a masterpiece of subversive journalistic deception forced Dow Chmicals, the present owner of Union Carbide which caused the worst industrial disaster in Bhopal, to take responsibility

The Story Behind The "Yes Men" Breakthrough
By Yes Men

Chronicle of the events that led to the Dow/BBC fiasco

03 December, 2004

Coporate Responsibility: Finisterra's Lesson
By Binu Mathew

Jude Finisterra's subversive appearance on BBC interview on the 20th anniversary of Bhopal gas tragedy created a lot of embarssment for Dow chemicals, the present owner of Union Carbide and the major news media around the world. It also reminded the world the lessons of corporate responsibility and natural justice

02 December, 2004

Living Dead Of Bhopal Gas Disaster
By Jeremy Lovell

Two decades after a leak sent clouds of lethal gas into the homes of hundreds of thousands of poor Indians, the world has failed to either help the victims or punish the culprits

Bhopal: A Living Legacy Of Corporate Greed
By Justin Huggler

The Union Carbide factory has never been cleaned up. It is still poisoning Bhopal. Recent tests showed the chemicals still at the factory site have contaminated the ground water.There is mercury lying on the ground inside the site

Injustice At Indira Sagar Dam
A Report

Independent people's commission's report of the present situation of displacement, resettlement, relief and rehabilitation, in the villages and towns affected and submerged as a result of the the Narmada Sagar Dam in western India, and those that are due to submerge in the future

25 November, 2004

Water Wars
By Mohammed Mesbahi

In the year 2000 private water corporations operated in 100 countries and 10% of the world’s water was privatised.In May 2000 Fortune Magazine predicted that water would become “one of the world’s biggest business opportunities”

24 November, 2004

Trespass Against Us
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Twenty Things to Know About Dow Chemical on the 20th Anniversary of Bhopal

18 November, 2004

Over 15,000 Species Face Extinction
By Sonny Inbaraj

Over 15,000 animal and plant species face extinction, reveals the World Conservation Union or IUCN in its '2004 Red List of Threatened Species'

18 October, 2004

Your Old Mobile Is Destroying The Planet
By Geoffrey Lean

Governments from around the world will meet next week to tackle the latest toxic waste crisis - mobile phones

17 October, 2004

China's Secret Dam
By Jasper Becker and Daniel Howden

China begins huge project in World Heritage Site, displacing up to 100,000 people and devastating unique tribal societies

15 October, 2004

One-third Of Amphibians Face Extinction
By Steve Connor

A global study revealed that almost a third of amphibians face extinction - and pollution is cited as the biggest cause

The Genius Of Wangari Maathai
By Anna Lappé and Frances Moore Lappé

Several prominent Norwegians have questioned the Nobel Committee for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Wangari Maathai. Why honor environmental activism in an era when war, terrorism and nuclear proliferation are even more urgent problems? What they miss is Dr. Maathai's special genius

22 September, 2004

Large Dams In India --Temples Or Burial Grounds?
By Angana Chatterji and Robert Jensen

"There is no future here; we are living out our days, focused on survival. The Narmada gave us life; they have turned her against us."

10 September, 2004

Living With Floods
By Naren Karunakaran

In Bihar, India’s most flood prone state, a ‘new’ understanding, basically harking back to traditions of yore- the concept of ‘living with floods’ is finding greater acceptance amongst the populace

31 August, 2004

Illegal Logging In The Solomon Islands
By Chin Ching Soo

The Voko people of the Iriri village have been an inspirational development story for Solomon Islands and community development workers world-wide. For over the past 20 years the Voko people have pursued sustainable development and have rejected exploiting their timber resources for the sake of protecting their environment

19 August, 2004

Harsud Lost Too
By Angana Chatterji

"They stood there, the guards, and ordered me to tear down my home. It felt like my bones were breaking"

18 August, 2004

World Faces Population Explosion
By John Vidal

The world is heading for wildly uneven population swings in the next 45 years, with many rich countries "downsizing" during a period in which almost all developing nations will grow at breakneck speed

10 August, 2004

Sardar Sarovar - Flood Of Fears
By Lyla Bavadam

Year after year, hamlets and villages in the valley vanish forever under the waters. Some resurface when the floods recede, with their farmland irrevocably lost on account of waterlogging

04 August, 2004

Drowned And Out
By Medha Patkar

Amidst this season of destruction, with the Sardar Sarovar and Narmada Sagar dams immiserating thousands of families, it is necessary that Indians stand up and respond to these injustices

26 July, 2004

Price Of Life
By Praful Bidwai

Rs. 15,000 to compensate you for a grievous injury that scars your lungs or kidneys for life or even affects your immune system? Well, that's what 95 percent of the victims of the world's worst-ever industrial accident received-after 10 to 15 years of lost income and aggravated health damage

05 July, 2004

"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal"
By Snehal Shingavi

Two survivors, of the Bhopal gas leak, one of the worst ever industrial disasters, speaks about the tragedy and their struggle for justice

04 June, 2004

Auto Emissions Killing Thousands
By Julio Godoy

Unrestrained consumption of fossil fuels is killing tens of thousands of people in Europe, new studies say.In France alone automobile emissions kill up to 10,000 people per year

23 May, 2004

India Drowning?
By Neeta Deshpande

As the Sardar Sarovar dam rises slowly, Neeta Deshpande remembers the villages now submerged and wonders about the future

08 May, 2004

Bhopal's Legacy
By Mark Hertsgaard

As the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy approaches, Bhopal is back in the news. On April 19, two poor women, Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, survivors and advocates for the victims won the most prestigious environmental award given in the United States

05 May, 2004

Prawn Farms Destroying The Life of Fishworkers
By Goldy M. George

"The prawn farms have ruined our lives. Since the prawn farms are built the water is poured into our farms and villages. Our crops are destroyed. Even we are unable to fish properly since they destroy the fishes "

Bhopal Gas Tragedy Lives On
By Scott Baldauf

Nearly 20 years after an accident at a Union Carbide chemical plant killed thousands here, there are signs that a second tragedy is in the making. New environmental studies indicate that tons of toxic material dumped at the old plant have now seeped into the groundwater, affecting a new generation of Bhopal citizens

27 April, 2004

Monsanto's Biopiracy
By Vandana Shiva

Millennia of breeding by millions of Indian farmers is being hijacked by Monsanto which is claiming to have "invented" the unique low-elasticity, low gluten properties of an indigenous Indian wheat, rice lines derived from such wheat and all flours, batters, biscuits and edible products made from such wheat

05 April, 2004

Genetically Modified Crops In India
By Devinder Sharma and Aditi Kapoor

GM food diverts precious financial resources to an irrelevant research, comes with stronger intellectual property rights, and is aimed at strengthening corporate control over agriculture

25 March, 2004

Betrayed By An Oil Giant
By Andrew Gumbel

Fifteen years after the Exxon Valdez disaster devastated the fishing communities of southern Alaska, the coast remains polluted and compensation is unpaid

21 March, 2004

Decision To Raise The Sardar Sarovar Height
Inhuman And Undemocratic

By Medha Patkar

The decision by the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSP) to 110.64 metres with immediate effect and approval granted by Election Commission is yet another blow to the Indian democracy


17 March, 2004

Super Highways: Lines On The Palm
Or Tattoos Of Dictatorship ?

By Vandana Shiva

Superhighways are not our destiny or the lines on the nation's palm. They are graveyards of cement and tarcoal, which are burying our soils, our villages, our freedoms

Free Trade: Benefit or Peril For The Environment?
By Kumar Venkat

A great deal of uncertainty remains about the long-term environmental impacts of globalization. But the evidence we have so far suggests that free trade unconstrained by environmental protection could be a recipe for disaster

10 December, 2003

‘Slapped’ Into Submission
By Sunita Narain

How corporations threaten institutions raising issues of public interest

26 October, 2003

Road To Ruin
By Matthew Engel

America produces a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. What does the Bush administration do? It ignores all attempts to curb environmental damage. Here is a look at how America is Ravaging the Planet

16 October, 2003

Monsanto Retreats From Europe
By Steve Connor

Monsanto, the huge American biotechnology company which has pioneered GM crops, is withdrawing from many of its European operations

30 September, 2003

Biotechnology Will Bypass The Poor
By Devinder Sharma

Agricultural biotechnology advances are being desperately promoted in the name of eradicating hunger and poverty. What is being very conveniently overlooked is the fact that what the world's 840 million hungry need is just food, which is abundantly available

28 September, 2003

No GM please, we are British !
By Devinder Sharma

In a historic verdict, the British people have rejected genetically modified crops (GM crops) and foods

06 September, 2003

Europe's Harvest Crisis
By John Vidal and Heather Stewart

Fear of severe effect on economies after heatwave devastates grain crops

20 August, 2003

State Repression In The Narmada Valley
By Angana Chatterji

The injustices in the Narmada Valley must be scrutinized by international human rights organizations. The government must comply with the rule of law

17 August, 2003

Manufacturing Consensus For Collective Suicide
By Himanshu Thakkar

The Indian governments move to link major rivers in India is going to be an environmental disaster. But the authorities are going ahead with the plan disregarding warnings from environmentalists

31 July, 2003

Temperatures, Sea Levels To Rise
On Scottish Islands

Climate change will force temperatures up and precipitation down across the Scottish islands over the next 100 years

30 July, 2003

Bush, The rainforest And A Gas Pipeline
To Enrich His Friends

By Andrew Gumbel

President George Bush is seeking funds for a controversial project to drive gas pipelines from pristine rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon to the coast. The plan would enrich Bush corporate campaign contributors

28 July, 2003

Linking Rivers: Some Elementary Arithmetic
By Nilakantha Rath

Some elementary arithmetic about the cost per unit of water and per watt of power separately, make one despair that instead of doing the first things that are crying out to be done first in regard to irrigation, people are being fed this pie-in-the-sky

24 July, 2003

India's Dream, Bangladesh's Disaster
By John Vidal

Troubled waters for Bangladesh as India presses on with plan to divert major rivers. UN urged to act amid warnings of social and ecological disaster

20 July, 2003

Bush Ready To Wreck Ozone Layer Treaty
By Geoffrey Lean

New US demands tabled at a little-noticed meeting in Montreal earlier this month calls for an excemption in the usage of the pesticide, methyl bromide, now the greatest attacker of ozone left in industrialised countries

Gm Foods: Towards An Apocalypse
By Devinder Sharma

After taking control over one-third of the world's crude oil supplies George Bush appears ready to take over the world's food market

15 July, 2003

Thirst Below Sea Level
By M Suchitra

Despite being enriched by two monsoons and four rivers, Kerala's Kuttanad region has become `a desert of backwaters' after many developmental trials

26 June, 2003

Biotech Wars: Food Freedom Vs Food Slavery
By Vandana Shiva

Our bread is our freedom. Our freedom will ensure our bread. And each of us has a duty to exercise bread freedom for the sake of the earth, for all species, and for ourselves and the generations to come

11 June, 2003

Monsoon Risings
By Chittaroopa Palit and Achin Vanaik

Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Chittaroopa Palit talks about the movement, its past, present and future

01 June, 2003

Great Wall of Water
By Jasper Becker

Today heralds the climax of a massive engineering feat to dam the world's third longest river. Todya Yangtze river starts to rise by 400ft to create the Great Wall of Water. While China's leaders celebrate, many of the 700,000 people displaced by the work are bitter. And fears remain that the scheme could spell disaster for the environment

30 May, 2003

Under Siege In The Narmada Valley
By Angana Chatterji

On May 14, 2003, the Indian government decided to further increase the height of the Sardar Sarovar Project to 100 meters. Over 12,000 families will be drowned out. Where will the people go?

15 May, 2003

Earth's Vital Signs Show The Pain of Poverty
By J.R. Pegg

An examination of Earth's "vital signs" reveals alarming trends of poverty, disease and environmental decline that threaten global stability, according to the Worldwatch Institute's annual report on trends shaping the world's future.

15 May, 2003

Clearance For Raising Narmada Dam Height
By Gargi Parsai

The Narmada Control Authority gave its clearance for raising the height of Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat from the present 95 metres to 100 metres enlarging the area and habitations under submergence this monsoon season

Interlinking Rivers -The Millennial Folly
By Shailendra Nath Ghosh

The Vajpayee government’s resolve to link up all major rivers of the country, if acted upon, will go down in history as the millennial folly

13 May, 2003

Bhopal Activists End Hunger Strike

Two women survivors ended their 12-day hunger strike in Washington and launched Global Relay Fast

08 May, 2003

Reviving Traditional Water Harvesting in Bihar
By Savita Gokhale

The traditional water harvesting system which is thousands of years old in the Indian state of Bihar is amazingly relevant today

07 May, 2003

Organic cotton: At last, freedom for farmers
By Meena Menon

More and more cotton farmers in the Maharashtra state of India are turning to organic farming

04 May, 2003

SARS — A Full-Blown Farce?
By Kalpana Sharma

This panic about SARS, is it really necessary?

SARS, Wars And The Farce
By Satya Sagar

Is the global panic of the SARS just a farce?

02 May, 2003

Bhopal Survivors Start Indefinite Fast in New York

Two women Survivors of Bhopal gas tragedy Start Indefinite Fast in New York Against Dow Chemical's Injustices

29 April, 2003

Bt Cotton: The Flop Show
By Devinder Sharma

Devinder Sharma analyses the Bt cotton debacle and suggest some measures that are necessary to bring in accountability among the scientific and regulatory authorities.

Bihar Bans Monsanto From Selling Seeds
By Imran Khan

Monsanto India Ltd, a subsidiary of the US multinational, has been barred from selling seeds in Bihar for allegedly marketing substandard products

28 April, 2003

India Says No To Bt Cotton
By Ashok B Sharma

The Indian government's regulatory authority, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), unanimously rejected the proposal for commercial cultivation in north India

Drowning Out The Truth
By Kuldip Nayar

The point at issue is not the existence of the Narmada Dam but the Modi Government's propaganda, on resettling the people who have been uprooted.

26 April, 2003

Resist Bio-Imperialism
By Vandana Shiva and Ratheesh Kaliyadan

Vandana Shiva visited Plachimada of Palakad district in Kerala to inaugurate the first anniversary and second phase of Anti Coca-Cola agitation and “to pay tribute to brave Earth warriors”. She chats with RTHEESH KALIYADAN on related issues.

17 April, 2003

Bt cotton Experiment A Failure

Field data on India's first Bt cotton harvest reveal that the experiment was a total failure

Interlinking Rivers, Interinking Disputes?
By A. Vaidyanathan

Whether the linking of rivers will promote integration or generate more disputes and tensions?

Bhopal Victims Will Appeal
The Dismissal Of The Class Action Suit

Organizations of survivors of the December '84 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal will appeal the recent dismissal of their class action suit in the USA within the next 20 days

Budgeting Interlinking of Rivers
By Sudhirendar Sharma

Estimated to cost Rs 5,60,000 crores (US $ 112 billion) ,the project to interlink Himalayan and peninsular rivers is going to be economic and environmental disaster for India

Manufacturing The Poor
By Jonathan Mathews

Under the banner of populist protest, multinational corporations manufacture the poor to discredit the work of eminet environmentalists from the third world.

Shifting the Risks of Biopharming,
Taking a "Dirty Industry" South?

At a time when the environmental and human health problems posed by the genetically modified pharmaceutical crops need clear scientific authorization, people are brokering contract pharming deals on the web

A Scientific Fairytale Providing a Cover-Up to the
Bt Cotton Fiasco in India

By Devinder Sharma

The Economists and scientists paying lip service to the biotechnology industry are working overtime to prove that the introduction of the first genetically modified crop in India - Bt cotton - was a big success. Devinder Sharma takes a look at this lie machine.

The GM Potato Hoax
By Devinder Sharma

After the failure of the much-hyped 'golden rice', comes another magic bullet from the trashcan of biotechnology industry -- a protein-rich genetically modified potato

Bhopal Gas Tragedy Could Have Been Avoided

Secret Union Carbide documents reveal for the first time that the technology used at the fatal Bhopal factory was unproven, and would pose unknown risks.The corporation knew the danger, but regarded it as an acceptable "business risk".

Interlinking mirages
By Medha Patkar & L.S. Aravinda

Will a linking of rivers proposed by the government of India actually prevent drought? Or merely transfer drought?

Development in the Narmada Valley: An Edifice to Injustice
by Angana Chatterji

In Memory of Bhopal
by Binu Mathew

The victims of Bhopal gas tragedy is still suffering even after 18 years since the worst ever industrial disaster occured

Torture Me
Poem by a Bhopal survivor

Endosulphan- The Killer is Back

The lifting of the ban on the killer insecticide endosulphan spells doom for the villagers of Padre