Every time we receive a call on our fancy mobile phones and spend hours talking over it, little do we care to think about the effect the gadget could have on our bodies and the environment as a whole. But while the service operators compete with each other to add more customers to their accounts and put up cell phone towers in every possible corner of the country to expand network coverage, experts feel that it is high time that multi-disciplinary studies should be undertaken to understand the impact of radiation from cell phone towers on the environment.

Indian consumers feel the most guilty about their environmental impact even though they have a smaller average footprint than consumers in wealthy countries, a survey said Thursday. The 17-nation study by the Washington-based National Geographic Society found a “major disconnect” as consumers in rich nations had the least sustainable lifestyles but also felt the least guilty about their impact.

As the world looks for a zero waste solution, waste pickers from Mumbai are gaining a new respect and are proud of contributing to real environmental sustainability, says Sushila Sable, a waste picker who has been attending the UN climate change conferences for the last four years. Not only has she been participating in these meetings — at Copenhagen in 2009, Tianjin, China, 2010, Durban, South Africa, 2010 and last month’s meet in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — but as a member of the Alliance of Indian Wastepickers, she has also spoken to delegates on the story of road to zero waste in this city.

The impact of a warming climate on reefs is already upon us — complex changes have begun that could fundamentally change what reefs look like in the future. This in turn could impact on fish populations and their availability. That was the overarching message from a panel of coral reef experts, who are on the forefront of understanding the impact of a rising seawater temperatures and ocean acidification.

 

The El Nino weather phenomenon is unlikely to hit monsoon rains, the weather office chief said on Wednesday.  El Nino, also called “Little Boy” or “Christ Child”, is a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific. 

More than 2,600 of the world’s top marine scientists today warned coral reefs around the world were in rapid decline and urged immediate global action on climate change to save what remains. The consensus statement at the International Coral Reef Symposium, being held in the northeastern Australian city of Cairns, stressed that the livelihoods of millions of people were at risk.

Top Marine Scientists Warn Reefs in Rapid Decline 

The world is warming, incomes are rising, and smaller families are living in larger houses in hotter places. One result is a booming market for air conditioning — world sales in 2011 were up 13 percent over 2010, and that growth is expected to accelerate in coming decades.

Extreme heat can accelerate wheat aging, an effect that reduces crop yields. The overall decline could be as much as 50 per cent with two degree increase in temperature and is way above than what has been anticipated in existing crop forecasting models.

A boulevard is a walkers’ joy. From time immemorial planting trees on either side of the road to give shade to travellers is considered a noble act. In modern times, Salumarada Thimmakka, who planted hundreds of trees by the roadside received worldwide accolade.  Bangalore earned its famed name – the garden City – mainly due to its greenery. 

Two Maharashtra villages recently experienced electricity for the first time — thanks to Tata Power Community Development Trust’s (TPCDT) new initiative ‘Project Suryaprakash’. Remotely located Limbarvadi and Bhadaskonda villages in the Mulshi region of Pune benefitted from the project.