• Anticipating Schadenfreude

    Updated: 2010-10-31 18:16:12
    Home The IU Blog Linkastic Rave Out Extrowords Workoutable About Amit Varma Contact me The old India Uncut Browse Archives By Category Select Category-- Arts and entertainment Excerpts Indian Idol IU Faves Awww Blade Blogging Dialogue Economics Essays and Op-Eds Fiction Freedom India Journalism Letters Media Miscellaneous My Friend Sancho News Old memes Cows Taxes Purplocity Verniness Astrology etc Personal India Uncut Ambitions Poker Politics Science and Technology Small thoughts Sport Thinking it Through Twitter Tweet Banks Viewfinder WSJ Pieces WTF By Date Select Month-- September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March

  • The Cockroach Party of India (Marxist)

    Updated: 2010-10-31 18:16:12
    Home The IU Blog Linkastic Rave Out Extrowords Workoutable About Amit Varma Contact me The old India Uncut Browse Archives By Category Select Category-- Arts and entertainment Excerpts Indian Idol IU Faves Awww Blade Blogging Dialogue Economics Essays and Op-Eds Fiction Freedom India Journalism Letters Media Miscellaneous My Friend Sancho News Old memes Cows Taxes Purplocity Verniness Astrology etc Personal India Uncut Ambitions Poker Politics Science and Technology Small thoughts Sport Thinking it Through Twitter Tweet Banks Viewfinder WSJ Pieces WTF By Date Select Month-- September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March

  • Leading environmental campaigners support nuclear and GM

    Updated: 2010-10-31 01:22:34
    For years they campaigned against nuclear power and genetically-modified food. But now some leading environmental campaigners have performed a U-turn and said that they got it wrong. The activists now say that by opposing nuclear power they encouraged the use of polluting coal-fired power stations, while by protesting against GM crops they prevented developing countries [...]

  • Biodiversity talks end with call for ‘urgent’ action

    Updated: 2010-10-30 09:46:05
    The UN biodiversity meeting in Japan has agreed a 10-year plan aimed at preserving nature. Targets for protecting areas of land and sea were weaker than conservation scientists wanted, as was the overall target for slowing biodiversity loss. Most developing countries were pleased with measures aimed at ensuring they get a share in profits from [...]

  • China: Cash reward for one-child families

    Updated: 2010-10-30 09:35:37
    Families in Yunnan Province are being enticed with a 1,000- yuan ($149) cash reward to abandon plans to have a second child even when they are legally allowed to do so, according to a family planning policy rule announced Wednesday. Yunnan-based Metropolis Times reported Thursday that the policy was approved during a hearing in Kunming, [...]

  • Planned Parenthood sues Montana over birth control

    Updated: 2010-10-30 09:32:53
    Planned Parenthood of Montana has sued the state for denying teen girls access to birth control through Montana’s low-income health insurance program. Montana Public Radio reported that teens insured through CHIP, part of Healthy Montana Kids, cannot obtain birth control if it’s being used only to prevent pregnancy, though they can get birth control to treat [...]

  • Now is the Time to Move Beyond Petroleum

    Updated: 2010-10-29 19:24:55
    Thanks to Bianca Jagger, whom I met at the Peak Oil Conference for alerting me to her Huffington Post article. In her talk at the conference, she emphasized the problem of population growth, as you will see below. ———————- Today we stand at a crossroads in history. The warnings from our most respected scientists are [...]

  • UK: report reveals large fall in sterilisations

    Updated: 2010-10-29 14:19:56
    There has been a fall in the number of men and women opting to undergo sterilisations and vasectomies over the last ten years, new figures show. A report from the NHS Information Centre reveals that the number of women having sterilisations in NHS hospitals fell by three-quarters, from 48,200 in 1998-99 to just 12,000 in [...]

  • David Attenborough: in the beginning

    Updated: 2010-10-29 14:16:45
    …………………………………………. There was a time when David Attenborough was accused of not appearing passionate enough about the planet, keeping his own counsel for a long time on global warming before responding by saying that he didn’t want to comment until there was ‘overwhelming scientific evidence’. Today he tells me with mock indignation that he has been [...]

  • Are we having another food crisis?

    Updated: 2010-10-29 11:44:19
    The world food price index is at its highest since 2008, when food prices rocketed and millions of people suffered. This year the crisis seems to be happening again. Prices for the staple grains that underpin the world’s food supply soared after forecasts for the US and Chinese maize harvests fell in October, Pakistan lost [...]

  • South Sudan: Population data essential for development planning says official

    Updated: 2010-10-29 11:39:02
    The Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) can only play an effective advocacy role of engaging development partners when reliable data needed for planning purposes are available, Margaret Labanya Mathya, a Director General at Southern Sudan Cebter for Census, Statistics and Evaluation (SSCCSE) said this week. Mathya made these remarks on Monday while opening a four-day workshop [...]

  • Arab League launches State of the World Population Report

    Updated: 2010-10-29 11:28:22
    In an effort to pledge its support for the cause, the Arab League launched the State of the World Population Report for 2010, titled “From Conflict and Crisis to Renewal: Generations of Change,” from its headquarters last week. “I’m happy to launch the State of the World Population this year from the headquarters of the [...]

  • 1 Million Children in Papua New Guinea Live with Violence

    Updated: 2010-10-28 20:05:08
    Population Media Center is developing 2 radio serial dramas for broadcast in Papua New Guinea as part of the UN’s Millennium Development Goal Campaign. We’re currently in the middle of our Writers’ Workshop, and within the next couple weeks we should be seeing the start of production. PMC’s formative research shows a critical need to [...]

  • U.S. Military: Peak Oil between 2012 and 2015

    Updated: 2010-10-28 19:16:30
    During October 7-9, I attended the International Peak Oil Conference of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO). I expected that the presentations would be depressing, but they exceeded my expectations. One of the speakers was Rear Admiral Lawrence Rice, Director of Strategy and Policy, U.S. Joint Forces Command. He confirmed [...]

  • Fear for Britain’s birds this winter

    Updated: 2010-10-28 12:03:34
    The goldcrest saw numbers plummet by three quarters. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said many species suffered a decline last year because of the coldest winter for 30 years, especially smaller birds. Coal tit numbers fell by a fifth and goldcrests by 75 per cent. Long-tailed tits declined by more than a [...]

  • Catholic bishops warn of ‘civil disobedience’ over contraceptives

    Updated: 2010-10-26 16:16:14
    Raising the ante against the use of contraceptives Roman Catholic bishops yesterday warned of “civil disobedience” against the administration should President Benigno C. Aquino III fulfill a promise to hand out artificial birth control methods. In a statement posted yesterday at the Web site of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the bishops [...]

  • The Politics of Birth Control

    Updated: 2010-10-25 16:48:37
    Pop Quiz: Match the country with its government’s birth control news: 1) In Country A, the president pledges to provide birth control to poor couples who want it. 2) In Country B, the legislature hedges on making any commitments to providing low-cost birth control to women who want it, in the face of loud opposition [...]

  • Water map shows billions at risk of ‘water insecurity’

    Updated: 2010-10-24 16:46:42
    About 80% of the world’s population lives in areas where the fresh water supply is not secure, according to a new global analysis. Researchers compiled a composite index of “water threats” that includes issues such as scarcity and pollution. The most severe threat category encompasses 3.4 billion people. Writing in the journal Nature, they say [...]

  • The New Oil

    Updated: 2010-10-24 16:45:33
    Sitka, Alaska, is home to one of the world’s most spectacular lakes. Nestled into a U-shaped valley of dense forests and majestic peaks, and fed by snowpack and glaciers, the reservoir, named Blue Lake for its deep blue hues, holds trillions of gallons of water so pure it requires no treatment. The city’s tiny population—fewer [...]

  • World’s Rivers in ‘Crisis State’, Report Finds

    Updated: 2010-10-23 16:43:06
    The world’s rivers, the single largest renewable water resource for humans and a crucible of aquatic biodiversity, are in a crisis of ominous proportions, according to a new global analysis. The report, published Sept. 30 in the journal Nature, is the first to simultaneously account for the effects of such things as pollution, dam building, [...]

  • Groundwater Depletion Raises Likelihood of Global Food Crises

    Updated: 2010-10-22 14:17:11
    Thanks to the Post Carbon Institute for this article. ——————— Out of sight, out of mind means deep trouble when it comes to the reserves of freshwater stored underground. New numbers are out on the rate of groundwater depletion around the globe, and if they hold up to further scrutiny, the world is almost certainly [...]

Current Feed Items | Previous Months Items

Sep 2010 | Aug 2010 | Jul 2010 | Jun 2010 | May 2010 | Apr 2010