Policy Wise

A new report by Mckinsey and company estimates that US can reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by half at a manageable cost,
The United States could reduce GHG emissions in 2030 by 3.0 to 4.5 gigatons of CO2e using tested approaches and high-potential emerging technologies. These reductions would involve pursuing a wide array [...]

A new study conducted in Punjab by the Chandigarh based Post-Graduate Institute for Medical Education and research has shown high rates of mutated DNA,
Preliminary results from a two-year study commissioned by the Punjab Water Pollution Control Board found mutated DNA in blood samples of 65 percent of the people tested. The study also found high [...]

Environmentalists instinctively reject or ignore technological solutions to global warming because they are bent on making people atone for their sins. Their ridicule of geo-engineering reveals that, for them, climate change is a moral tale about humanity’s greed and arrogance, where the happy ending is a much-reduced human population where everyone lives simply and meekly. [...]

On policy Wise, we have frequently discussed the issue of biofuels with Jatropha frequently projected as the best alternative. Now Maharastra has taken the lead among Indian states and wants to use Public-private model to encourage farmers to plant Jatropha.

To meet the growing need for biofuel to save fast depleting natural fuel resources and clean [...]

As expected, the Nobel peace prize for 2007 has been awarded for raising awareness about global warming to Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental panel on Climate changed headed by Indian scientist Rajendra Pachauri.
The IPCC came out this year with its fourth report which categorically established global warming as a phenomenon which is inevitable. [...]

Green buildings are no longer the craze of the building industry; they are becoming rapidly mainstream. The latest ‘green building’ to join the list is a building in Athens:
The five-story structure in southern Athens produces zero emissions, uses no fossil fuel and meets virtually all its own energy demands — in winter and in summer [...]

An interesting story illustrates how global warming can change economic fortunes,
Every four years or so, killing spring frosts hit Quebec, nearly obliterating the year’s harvest around St.-Jean Lake, while Down East Maine, some 563 kilometers, or 350 miles, southeast, reliably produced millions of kilograms a year for use in jams, pie fillings and muffins.
But temperatures [...]

Biofuels have been offered an alternative to conventional energy sources. But new research from the Nobel prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen suggests that they might end up causing more damage,
German Nobel-prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen and his team of researchers have calculated the emissions released by the growth and burning of crops such as maize, [...]

An interesting new article in Foreign Policy argues that it might be too late to stop global warming and the world should be prepared to live with its effects,
A realistic look at climate change suggests that it is time to change the debate. In 2005, a paper published by the U.N. Environment Program put [...]

The lowly jatropha which can be grown virtually anywhere can provide a partial solution to the global energy crisis,
Goldman Sachs recently cited jatropha as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. A Bear Stearns analysis last year found that U.S. farmers only have the capacity to replace about 7% of the [...]