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Contributor

Consumerism/Lifestyle

Video & Report: Disconnect with nature driving mental illness in urban areas

24th June 2016

Science Daily reports: Mental illnesses and mood disorders are common in cities, scientists found that this is partly due to the reduced access to nature. The authors of the study published in the journal Science said that the growing tensions from the necessary role of the urban cities have disconnected humans from the natural world….

Morvarid Fernandez

ALTERNATIVES

How to achieve sustainable clean water for everyone

Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the one-size-fits-all approach of centralised infrastructure and instead pursue a suite of solutions tailored to local needs. Could it be possible to have water systems that have no adverse impact on the environment? Such a transformation will require new technology but also new ways for people to interact with water….

Development/Growth

It’s raining big cats on dogged, destructive development

23rd June 2016

Irfan Syed writes: After it finished reclaiming land from water and then claiming the air (high-rises), the city of Mumbai, being a financial, marketing, and glamour capital and therefore having ceaseless immigration, has been devouring land, like a super-starved T-Rex. After eating up most of legit land, it’s been turning its attention to… the forest….

A view of the Vizhinjam fishing harbour

Aneesh/Wikimapia

Conflict/Dispossession

How ‘development’ is set to create 2000 jobs, but destroy 50,000 livelihoods in Kerala

Job creation for Keralites from the controversial Adani-run Vizhinjam Port project is estimated at around 2,000. Compare that to 50,000 fisherfolk who’ll lose their livelihoods. Anjana Radhakrishnan takes a closer look at a project that already seems a social, ecological and economic disaster in the making, but has so far escaped the national media’s attention….

ALTERNATIVES

Why global capital fears ‘Brexit’

Helena Norberg-Hodge writes: Today, banks and corporations run Europe. For big corporations and financial institutions, diversity is an impediment, whereas monoculture – in all aspects of life, from seeds, fast food and clothing, to architecture – is ‘efficient’. For them, a single Europe-wide market of 500 million people was an essential step to further growth:…

Conflict/Dispossession

Report: More earth defenders were killed last year than ever before

The non-profit Global Witness has documented 185 killings across 16 countries of people defending their land, forests and rivers against destructive industries in 2015. It’s by far the highest annual death toll on record. Communities that take a stand are finding themselves in the firing line of companies’ private security, state forces and contract killers….

ALTERNATIVES

Forecast: The world nears peak fossil fuels for electricity

22nd June 2016

The way we get electricity is about to change dramatically, as demand for fossil fuels comes to an end— in less than a decade. According to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast, massive shifts are coming soon to power markets because electric cars and affordable battery storage for renewable power are arriving faster than expected….

ALTERNATIVES

Ashish Kothari: Livelihoods vs. Deadlihoods

Economic development and modernity have transformed livelihoods into deadlihoods. They are wiping out millennia-old livelihoods that were ways of life, with no sharp division between work and leisure; replacing them with dreary assembly line jobs where we wait desperately for holidays… Less visible is the pauperisation of those deprived of natural resources they depended on….

Conflict/Dispossession

Draft National Forest Policy sets up another battle over Forest Rights Act

Nitin Sethi reports: The government has made public its draft National Forest Policy, to replace the existing one crafted in 1988. Incorporating consequences of climate change but entirely ignoring one of the three forest related laws, the Forest Rights Act, the policy brings new focus to plantations, growing trees outside forest lands and wood industry….

Bloomberg

Digests/Specials

Corporate debt crackdown: Is it what pushed Raghuram Rajan out?

21st June 2016

Is ‘crony capitalism’ behind Rajan’s impending exit? RBI has been cracking the whip on major banks, collectively saddled with Rs 5,00,000 crore of bad loans. The banks in turn started forcing big debtors–including Reliance, Essar and Adani-to sell prized assets to repay debts. The numbers in this May 8 report in The Hindu speak volumes….

ALTERNATIVES

‘GDP = Development’: Debunking the myth

20th June 2016

Aniket Motale writes: Many new age economists have realised the limitations of GDP as a measure of development, including a few Nobel Laureates like Joseph Stiglitz. US politician Robert F. Kennedy once criticised GDP saying, “It measures everything, except that which makes life worthwhile “. Let’s take a closer look at the arguments against GDP….

CLIMATE CRISIS

The climate change PR disaster

Bob Pickard writes: It is remarkable how little has actually been done to deal with climate change – and the current lack of public affairs urgency is absolutely breathtaking… There are many reasons why climate change is such a vexing communications conundrum; but as a PR professional, here is what I‘ve pieced together so far….

Representational pic

Development/Growth

NDA cleared more projects in wildlife habitats in 2 yrs than UPA did in 5 yrs

18th June 2016

Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava reports: The National Board of Wildlife, the highest advisory body to the government on wildlife issues, has cleared more industrial projects in and around wildlife habitats in past two years of NDA rule than what its predecessor UPA-II did in its entire tenure of five years, shows the data compiled by CSE….

CLIMATE CRISIS

The Peak Oil dilemma

David Blittersdorf writes: Our industrial society can handle about a 10% voluntary energy reduction across the board, doing things like walking more and carpooling. To get to the necessary level (which, by some estimations, will be about a 60-80% decrease in energy usage), will be impossible unless we change the way we think about things….

ALTERNATIVES

Interview: Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for U.S. presidential elections

Dr. Jill Stein is an organizer, physician and pioneering environmental health advocate– and the Green Party’s candidate for president of the U.S. She presents herself as an alternative to a Democratic Party where Bernie Sanders may have support, but Hillary Clinton is the presidential candidate. In this interview, Stein discusses her campaign with Ashley Smith….

Representational pic

ENERGY

The cost of Modi’s US Visit: Rs. 2.8 lakh cr for a “dying” technology and “obsolete” reactors

17th June 2016

Prabir Purkayastha writes: The US, after a brief flirtation with nuclear energy, has pretty much decided not to invest any further in this technology. India is helping to revive a patient – the US nuclear industry – which has one foot already in the grave, at a cost of a whopping Rs. 2.8 lakh crore!…

CLIMATE CRISIS

Report card: Environmental governance under NDA government

Two years of NDA government have meant a mixed bag for environmental governance in India, according to a performance review by the non-profit Centre for Science and Environment, While there was commendable progress on pollution control and waste management, forest governance took on a more industry-centric approach and the Paris Agreement was a missed opportunity….

ALTERNATIVES

Report: Coal and gas to stay cheap, but renewables still win race on costs

16th June 2016

Bloomberg reports that cheaper coal and gas will not derail the decarbonisation of world energy. By 2040, ‘zero-emission’ energy sources will form 60% of installed capacity. Wind and solar will account for 64% of the 8.6TW of new power-generating capacity added over the next 25 years, and for almost 60% of the $11.4 trillion invested….

Representational pic

CLIMATE CRISIS

From floods to forest fires: a warming planet – in pictures

Droughts, floods, forest fires and melting poles – climate change’s impacting Earth like never before. From the Australia to Greenland, photographer Ashley Cooper’s work spans over 30 countries. This selection from his new book shows a changing landscape, scarred by pollution and natural disasters – but there’s hope too, with the rise of renewable energy….