The gas game
Fluorocarbons, which created a hole in the ozone layer, have generated intense global debates. But these have been more about business than …
A reliable HIV self-test
Nitika Pant Pai, assistant professor at the department of medicine, McGill University, Canada, and her team have analysed data on acceptability …
Ways to budge Karzai
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Locating the State
In September 2004, Down To Earth carried a two-part editorial on the failure of the State to deliver basic services. In the September 15, 2004 …
Reversing food cycle
Processed and packaged food and sweetened beverages have become a part of our life. They have replaced traditional and fresh foods. Food companies,…
`Growing food is like printing your own money'
Ron Finley grows food and for this he has been branded as a guerilla gardener, a renegede, an ecolutionist. It all began four years ago, when Ron,…
‘How can India be a defendant, and not a claimant in the Bhopal case’
Union law minister, Veerappa Moily, on October 27, announced the government will not pursue the ongoing lawsuit in the US for compensating Bhopal …
`We've strong evidence that eating sugar contributes to heart disease'
Kimber Stanhope, nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis, US, is studying the health effects of fructose, a component of …
Southeast US will bear the worst of this year’s winter, says AccuWeather
This US-based independent weather agency set off gasps of dread and many counter-forecasts last week when it indicated “the return” …
Cancun clinches deal—for polluters
Cancun has restored the sanctity of multilateral negotiations under the UN climate convention. People had lost faith in it by the end of the …
Whose budget is it, Mr Jaitley?
Being the first full year budget of the National Democratic Alliance government, there was expectation that the finance minister's announcements …
Vitamin D complex
When sunlight falls on the skin, it forms an essential nutrient, vitamin D. For people in India, which has an average of 300 clear sunny days in …
Clash of the cyberworlds
In an increasingly digital world, the issue of Internet freedom and governance has become hugely contested. Censorship and denial of access occur …
Battle for the Internet
As the Internet becomes the public square and the marketplace of our world, it is increasingly becoming a contested terrain. Its potential for …
Universal health scare
The country’s planners are debating how to provide healthcare to all. In a drastic shift from the 65-year-old public health system, the …
Time-out
The 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Durban in December 2011. Negotiations were heated and …
Troubled Beautiful Minds
They are there—each residential area has its mentally disturbed people; each family has anecdotes of crazy relatives. Nobody wants to …
Sunshine sector loses sheen
About 40 kilometres from Delhi, in the bustling real estate market of Noida-Greater Noida, lies the biggest irony that the renewable energy …
Future compromised
The Earth Summit was a historical opportunity to set the world on the correct development trajectory. Negotiators from 191 countries came …
Secretive tribunals, hidden damages
Canadian academic Gus Van Harten is well known for his efforts to reform the global investment treaty regime through his research papers, …
India’s many investment treaties make it vulnerable
Senior international lawyer Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, who heads the investment programme of the International Institute on Sustainable …