The west Indian state of Gujarat is flipping the switch on Asia’s largest solar power field as part of its 600 megawatt solar energy addition to India’s power grid. The Gujarat Solar Park, spread across a desolate 3,000-acre (1,200-hectare) swath of desert, can supply 214 megawatts of electricity, making it larger than China’s 200-megawatt Golmud Solar Park.

In the spirit of celebrating World Earth Day, Centre for Social Markets (CSM) and BNM Institute of Technology will come together on April 21, for the ‘Push Backwards for a Cause’ campaign in which 35 two-wheelers will be pushed by 200 students, backwards. The event will take place on the BNMIT campus, Banashankari 2nd stage, near BDA complex

British Deputy High Commission-Kolkata and CII along with West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) are working with technical partners CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, Eunomia Research and Consulting, UK and Jadavpur University on a first-of-its-kind project in India titled “Fiscal Instruments for Climate – Friendly Industrial Development in West Bengal and Odisha.”

A study into how the Pacific Ocean leaks into the Indian Ocean has revealed details which researchers say could improve climate predictions. This so-called Tasman leakage in the south of Australia is the second-largest link between the Pacific and Indian oceans after the Indonesian through-flow to the country’s north, according to an international team led by University of New South Wales.

 

A Way To Improve Climatic Conditions  

In a rapidly growing city like Chennai, ‘sustainable’ is sometimes ignored at the cost of development. Waste is disposed of thoughtlessly, food is thrown away without care, and energy/electricity is used with no regard for environmental consequences. Recently, several young minds seem to have woken up to this growing problem. 

 

Little Green Steps 

India’s Wular Lake, a popular picnic and tourist spot nestled in the Kashmir Valley, is an unlikely site for conflict. But India’s plan to build a structure on the Jhelum River at the mouth of the lake that will allow it to release water during the river’s lean winter months has outraged neighboring Pakistan, which believes the project will give India the power to control how much water flows downstream to its farmers.

 

  

While addressing a conference on the National Water Week this week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underlined the brewing water crisis. It could as well have been called the ‘National Water Weak’ — for this precious commodity for life is struggling to survive. The maximum blame for wastage of water is often put at the doors of agriculture. The Prime Minister also pointed out that agriculture consumes three-fourth of our water resources.

There is an intimate link between security of livelihoods and sustainability of lifestyles — both across nations and within countries. It is well accepted that the world cannot afford the profligate consumption patterns of the rich in the world, particularly the US. Many years ago, Mahatma Gandhi had pointedly asked, “How many worlds would India need to emulate the lifestyle of Britain?” Gandhi’s far-sighted wisdom confronts us today as the world grapples with related challenges of economic growth and climate change. 

As the Asian monsoon season starts, climate experts are warning that intensifying droughts and floods could threaten food production in key rice-growing areas, posing a threat to hundreds of millions of people across the region.

Meat eaters in developed countries will have to eat a lot less meat, cutting consumption by 50%, to avoid the worst consequences of future climate change, new research warns. The fertilisers used in farming are responsible for a significant share of the warming that causes climate change.

 

Eat less meat to prevent climate disaster: Study