In Short

South Asia

Japan blames China for smog

A tough year for the scribe

From the blurbs

From the blurbs

Book Excerpt: India ignored its aqua ‘geography of histories’, favouring the terra

For a great many people even today, the sea is a very distant object

Tarnished terrain

Pesticides used in rice cultivation are having just the reverse effect than the one intended -instead of decimating pests, extensive studies …

"Snow leopard habitat may be lost due to climate change"

The snow leopard is facing a huge threat from climate change and a hostile human population in Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Nawaz, an authority on the …

Japan’s demographic decline shows that conformism does not always work: Srabani Roy Choudhury

Down To Earth speaks to JNU Japan expert about the ‘now or never’ statement by Japanese premier Fumio Kishida on his country’s …

Climate change is triggering a migrant crisis in Vietnam

It looks as if climate change is forcing 24,000 people to leave the Mekong Delta every year

Agricultural biotechnologies necessary to defeat hunger, poverty in Asia-Pacific

The United Nations food agency is urging Asia-Pacific countries to consider both low-tech and high-tech solutions present in the biotechnology toolbox

CITES CoP 2019: Critically endangered saiga antelope not to get highest protection

Instead of being placed in Appendix I of CITES, a voluntary moratorium by saiga range states not to export the antelope’s horn has now been …

Jakarta acts to stop being the next Atlantis

Stopping Jakarta sinking cannot happen overnight, but the city is finally taking the action needed to stop groundwater extraction

Micro snail species discovered in Meghalaya’s Mawsmai cave

The last time a species of the Georissa genus was discovered in India was 170 years ago in 1851

Public banks responsible for $800 billion in damages to nature annually: Report

Some 450 public development banks worldwide are exposed to a ‘dependency risk’ worth $4.6 trillion, due to their investments in nature-…

Sudden stratospheric warmings: Why cold winters may persist

Down To Earth spoke to UK climate researcher Richard Hall about the relationship between the climatic phenomenon and global warming  

How China plans to phase out single-use plastics by 2025

However, it must ensure fair practices to achieve environmentally-driven, economically viable expectations

Girls less physically active than boys due to societal factors: Study

The research also found that 80% of school-going adolescents do not do the recommended one hour of daily physical activity

Capturing the promise of offshore wind

Emerging offshore markets can learn from Europe's success and use it in a domestic context 

Ten zero-waste cities: Community participation worked wonders for San Fernando

The whole community played an integral role in making the implementation of the zero-waste programme city-wide, a success

Ten zero-waste cities: How Taguig in the Philippines became clean

Down To Earth profiles ten cities across the globe which have got rid of their waste problem using the ‘zero waste model’

Rural youth population rising in agriculturally rich areas, but …

A new, global report explains why unemployment rate among rural men and women has tripled since 2011-12

800 women still die in childbirth every day globally: Unicef report

The lowest coverage levels tend to be in the poorest countries where maternal mortality levels are highest, it says

African lions attack humans over larger areas than Indian leopards, tigers: study

Scientists speculate that this is due to social structure differences between the cats; Lions live in prides while tigers and leopards are …