Global warming has led to oceans also warming over the past century – more in some locations and less in others. Between 1901 and 2020, sea surface temperatures (SST) rose…
The use of sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆) will grow exponentially as India expands its installed renewable capacity. As the country continues its journey towards the target of 500 GW of non-fossil…
Plastic is pervasive in our lives – now in everything, everywhere, all at once. But plastic’s most sinister avatar is the one that’s barely visible - microplastic. It is less…
The April heat wave in South and Southeast Asia this year was detrimental to vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, noted a report by an international team of scientists. It highlighted the…
Consider this sentence: Many urban areas have depauperate flora and fauna due to anthropogenic disturbances. If we replace the words 'depauperate' with 'very few species', 'flora' with 'plants', 'fauna' with…
Cities and towns are often built close to riverbanks and floodplains for easy access to water and transport. Historically, in India, the fertile land of the riverbed and floodplains, that…
You might have seen organic food products at your local grocery store. But what is the process that goes into certifying these products as organic? And why are they so…
When members of two species have a relationship that is beneficial to both, the interaction is called mutualism. The term was first used by zoologist and paleontologist Pierre Joseph van…
When India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget in February 2023, she referred to millets as "shri anna" or the best of all grains. Her rebranding of millets…
Mass flowering is an enchanting phenomenon that occurs across the world. In India, the neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) bloom, where swathes of the landscape become carpeted in flowers, is a well-known…
“Policymakers and planners think that open lands hardly contribute anything and can be used for some development pathway,” said Vivek Saxena, the CEO of Haryana State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management…
Ahead of the 27th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) to be held in Cairo, Egypt, in November 2022, there are growing demands for a Loss and Damage (L&D) Finance…
Greenwashing refers to "the practice of making products, activities, or policies seem more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than they actually are," according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, one of…
Who can forget the image of Tarzan swinging from tree to tree, crossing streams hanging on woody vines? Tarzan's natural bridges and ladders in the forest are a category of…
Biodiversity finance is the practice of raising capital and managing funds for biodiversity conservation. It comes under the umbrella topic of conservation finance, which aims to financially support the conservation…
In April 2022, several images of dead fish floating in the Banganga tank, located in Mumbai’s Malabar hill area, circulated on news sites and social media platforms. Clean up efforts…
Fossil fuels kickstarted the industrial age for humanity. However, humans now face the possibility of running out of these fuels by the end of this century. So, where do industries that…
The summer of 2022 has been particularly harsh all over India, with unrelenting heat spells signalling evolving climatic systems. With March being declared as the hottest in the India Meteorological…
As the world is struggling to combat climate change, one idea – planting trees – seems to be taking hold as a panacea for curing the ills of pollution, soaring…
Forest fires, also called wildfires and bush or vegetation fires, are described as uncontrolled, often widespread burning of plants in forests, grasslands, brushland, and tundra. These fires can be of…