Population growth, urbanisation and consumption are set to inflict irreversible damage on the planet, the United Nations said on Wednesday, and called for urgent agreement on new environmental targets at an Earth summit this month. The U.N. Environment Programme sounded the alarm in its fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5) report, published two weeks before the Rio+20 summit in Brazil, one of the biggest environmental meetings in years.

If electricity consumption in your household continues as it does now and vehicles continue to be used without control in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, expect a three-fold increase in carbon dioxide emissions after four decades. 

Kimu Naidoo from Greenpeace writes to Times of India about the struggles, campaigns and fight that various activists have put up in the name of justice and environmental protection in India. Organisations such as Greenpeace aim to tell the truth about our actions and the changers in this field who are making a difference to the world. 

Once known for its cool climes, Himachal Pradesh is witnessing the ill effects of global warming as, in the last four decades, the average maximum temperature has increased by 5.2 degrees Celsius in the state. While the average rainfall has remained static, the cycle of rain and snow has changed marginally.

 

Global warming has impacted climate in HP: Study 

 

World Environment Day is a call to arms, albeit a green one 

 

Even as a government commissioned Green Report recommends the scrapping of 34 dams on the Ganga’s tributaries, the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi, construction continues on 300 dams. Over 300 dams are planned on its various tributaries to generate electricity for a power-hungry nation.

Asia and the Pacific is consuming more resources than its ecosystems can sustain, threatening the future of the region’s beleaguered forests, rivers, and oceans as well as the livelihoods of those who depend on them, says a new joint report by the Asian Development Bank ( ADB) and WWF.

Starting from plating up green food to offering discounts on environment-friendly rooms to launching a new eco-sensitive infrastructure plant, corporate India is going the whole hog to show its greener side this environment day. With the hype and hoopla, created around the World Environment Day (June 5), many companies across categories — hospitality, consumer goods, apparel and even cosmetics — are trying to make the most of the occasion.

On Monday afternoon, when the power supply was suspended abruptly in Theni, residents were resigned to their fate to beat the sweltering heat, while office rooms came to a standstill. But one building that continued with its business as usual was the office of the Planters Energy Network (PEN), an NGO that offers electricity solutions to the plantation industry. But for the air-conditioner, the entire electricity needs of the office are met with solar power.

Environment and climate change will now be a part of the basic training of India’s top administrators. The government has decided to set up a specialised centre on climate change at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) at Mussoorie in the northern state of Uttarakhand.