India is on the verge of clearing its first genetically modified food crop, Bt brinjal, with several others in the pipeline. Does India need GM crops? Are they safe? How much does the consumer know?

The International Conference for Renewable Energies is to be held in Bonn, Germany. But here is a sector dwarfed by fossil fuels, and although governments can proactively root for renewables, and some have, the options given to developing countries are quite limiting. After travelling in Germany and the UK, the future of renewable energies, says KUSHAL P S YADAV, is truly in the balance.

The last decade has seen a spate of judicial activism related to both environment and human rights. Two questions pertinent to recent judicial activism are dealt with in this article: 1. Has judicial activism contributed to environmental justice, in the sense of keeping in view the social implications of environmental problems and equity in access to environmental resources. 2.

It is dangerous to breathe in most Indian cities, and even though the government accepts this, precious little is being done about it.

Global climate change is today a spectre which allows for no ostriches. Scientific data is piling up to indict human activity as the source of the current phase of warming. The debate is whether the affluent North or the developing South has been more responsible and who will be polluting more in the near future.

One would that if more than 1,000 scientists belonging to various countries and working for 10 years, pointed out the grave danger posed by increasing carbon emissions to the climate as well as the global economy, world leaders would take notice and initiate restorative action. Instead, they choose to either pass on the buck or worse,

Are the nations of the world serious in their much-touted efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions? Vinayak Rao examines the motives, moods and manifestoes in the run-up to the forthcoming climate change conference in Geneva.

The government is sowing the wind for energy, attracting investments with the promise of fiscal felicity.

While several cities across the world have revived their tramways, Kolkata naively ignored its tramways and witnesses the last days of this non-polluting and once-efficient mode of transport. Read this special report in Down To Earth.

Kolkata witnesses the last days of a non-polluting and once-efficient mode of transport, while trams make a comeback in cities around the world.

Vaccine trials in a Madhya Pradesh government hospital are making children sick. Down To Earth finds out that harmful chemicals in high amounts is the culprit.