Full Coverage: Environment

31.08.2005 While US and Japan are preparing to equip the WTOÂ’s Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) Agreement with provisions to safeguard national biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge, developing countries are lagging behind in their entrepreneurship in this regard.

31.08.2005 Dumping of second hand IT devices is in the agenda of the upcoming Indo-EU summit, going to be held on September 7 in New Delhi.

31.08.2005 Alaskan Natives are staging a six-week vigil in Washington to protest the U.S. Congress' ninth attempt to pass legislation allowing for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The indigenous groups say if the legislation passes, their culture and the refuge's natural wildlife will face extinction.

30.08.2005 Launched in January 2005, BIOTIK is an initiative in biodiversity informatics looks at developing two knowledge bases of the tree species of Western Ghats, India and Northern Annamites of Lao PDR.

25.08.2005 U.S. environmentalists criticized a Bush administration proposal to raise fuel efficiency of light trucks by replacing current standards with a fleet-wide average standard, saying the proposed changes will do nothing to help American motorists at the pump, or reduce America's dependence on imported oil.

24.08.2005 STOCKHOLM, Aug 23 (IPS) - The crisis-weary African continent, which has two of the world's longest rivers -- the 6,400-kilometre Nile River and the 4,370-kilometre Congo River -- is suffering from a virtual economic paradox: a shortage of water amidst potentially plentiful supplies.

22.08.2005 In a major setback for the Coca-Cola company, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board has ordered the company's bottling plant in south India to stop production. The board issued the order to the company after Coke flouted its earlier orders of not installing an effluent treatment plant and releasing large amounts of cadmium in its sludge.

19.08.2005 The European Commission Avis (Opinion) on Croatian request for EU Membership, presented to the nation as “very positive opinion”, is anything but, at least in the segment related to the environment and ecology in Croatia, says Osjecki Zeleni environmental Association.

19.08.2005 The day after all 25 European Union member states should have written their own national legislation to match an EU directive setting higher recycling and recovery targets for packaging waste, only five have met the deadline.

19.08.2005 Twenty four Republican lawmakers are opposing provisions that would allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be included in a budget bill. They argue that the bill is the wrong place to debate opening up the refuge for oil exploration.

18.08.2005 Daurala - a town of Meerut city is well known across the country for its sugar units. However, the impression of a successful and thriving industry is belied by the fact that over 18000 residents are leading a life of high risk. They face possible early death due to serious ailments like thyroid cancer, neurological disorders and nervous breakdowns. Large quantities of effluents have rendered thousand of acres of the agriculture land toxic for cultivation. Even animal husbandry has been adversely affected, placing at high risk the development of this relatively wealthy town.

16.08.2005 Environmental views are being shut out of hearings for possible changes in the National Environmental Policy Act, the cornerstone of America's environmental protection framework, pro-environment groups charge.

10.08.2005 The Swedish Agency for Development and Cooperation SIDA and the Regional Environmental Centre B&H provided 50,000 Eur, with additional 25,000 EUR from the municipal budget of Prijedor, for the implementation of the first project under the Local Environmental Action Plan (LEAP).

10.08.2005 Can a movement really die? On Thursday, three economic, environmental, and social policy leaders discuss the future of the environmental movement, the progressive movement, and what it means to think big and fight the big fights. Submit questions in advance or join in live.

08.08.2005 Last week, August 3, the Tirana Municipality adopted a decision to introduce fines and penalties for citizens that donÂ’t follow the official schedule for waste collection as installed by the Municipal Council.

08.08.2005 Read full report of the Tiger Task Force that was submitted to the Indian Prime Minister which presents an action agenda to save the tiger involving local communities and holistic conservation efforts. Read story here. The task force has recommended that tiger conservation efforts will come to a naught unless the government makes an effort to involve the local communities and allows them to make a traditional living from the forests.

05.08.2005 LIMA, Aug 4 (IPS) - Seven local farmers were killed when police attempted to block a protest march to the site of a copper mine under exploration by a British firm in the northwestern Peruvian region of Piura, according to local residents and authorities and a Catholic bishop.

04.08.2005 Globally, hunger is on the decline--except in Africa. Poor roads, population growth, growing deserts, and a faulty famine-response system all play a part, report Christian Science Monitor journalists in Niger and South Africa.

04.08.2005 One of the absolute resources of tourist ecosystem in Velipoja beach is ViluniÂ’s lagoon, which, according to the numerous information boards on the road to the lagoon, is a protected area. The lagoon is a home to a variety of fish, endemic plants, extraordinary birds starting from the nightingale up to the woodpecker and other birds, which are rare in our country.

04.08.2005 The Indian environment ministry is considering making stringent norms to deal with growing e-waste like discarded mobiles and computers. India also faces a bigger problem of trying to tackle thousands of tonnes of e-waste that is being dumped by Europe.