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In 2009, when policymakers in New Delhi set a goal to produce 20,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020, few gave India more than a slim chance. The world’s solar-savvy countries put together were generating that much solar power at the time, and India was contributing virtually nothing. But today, with acres of land in [...]
Processing Indian and foreign electronic waste has become a crucial source of income for thousands of Indians working in the nations’ sprawling scrap markets, but at what cost? Despite laws that prohibit e-waste dumping, India is only growing as a repository for the rest of the world’s electronic waste, and the workers who dismantle it are [...]
Does it look like a bad day to go out for a run? Maybe a little too hazy out there? Here’s a tip: It is. Don’t do it. A study released today by Hong Kong University and published in the journal Environmental Research has found that lower visibility due to pollution has a direct correlation [...]
I’m back from Cancún, and I miss the weather there, if not the all-night hours of the assignment. You can read a longer version of my analysis of the conference over here, which includes some details on the last-minute drama as Bolivia tried to block adoption of the Cancún Agreements, only to be deftly overruled [...]
I’m not down in sunny, congested Cancun yet—I’ll be arriving next week for what’s become an annual holiday season trip to the U.N. climate summit. (At least this year won’t be as cold as Copenhagen, though I’ve heard that the food is just as bad.) I’ve already written a preview of the major issues on [...]
You’ll hear it over and over again in the debates over the global climate negotiations: while the U.S. has put more carbon overall into the atmosphere than any other nation (and is still the number two emitter overall), the lion’s share of future carbon emissions will come from the big developing nations. China, now the [...]
India has launched a new “green” court this week in the latest push from Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to toughen up the nation’s environmental laws. The National Green Tribunal, as it’s called, will be composed of 20 judiciary and environmental expert members who will hear cases regarding environmental protection and rights around the country, and [...]
Black tar balls and oil sludge have surfaced this week on the famed beaches of Goa, the small Indian state so beloved by the day-glowed ravers of yesteryear. According to the AP, pudding-like oil deposits some six inches deep have soiled popular beaches like Colva, Candolim and Calangute, the likes of which draw millions of [...]
They haven’t gotten anywhere near the attention they deserve, but the floods that have struck much of Asia over the past couple of weeks may be the biggest humanitarian disaster in recent memory—bigger even than the earthquake that hit Haiti in January and the 2004 Asian tsunami. Both of those catastrophes killed far more, but [...]
