-The Economic Times Along with your tablet, smartphone and car keys, get ready to pack a gas mask. And if you thought the recent smog in Delhi and the more-than-usual pollution levels (20% higher) in the last fortnight were due to the burning of residual crop in Punjab and Haryana, you are wrong. After a steady improvement since the late-1990 s, the air in Delhi — and all other Indian cities —...

-The Hindustan Times There is a nip in the air even though winter is yet to arrive in full force in Delhi. The Capital, however, is choking with winter smog due to a heavier pollution load. The levels of respirable particulate matter (PM10) have surged 47% and nitrogen dioxide levels have increased 57%. The current levels of fine particulates are four to six times higher than the acceptable limit. Along with...

-The Times of India The warning is ominous — climate change and global warming will make vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria - already causing havoc in the country more lethal. A landmark report on climate change and health, published by the World Health Organization on Monday, said that in the last 100 years, the world has warmed by approximately 0.75 degree Celsius. Over the last 25 years, the rate of global...

-Al Jazeera Treaty to ban chemicals that harmed the Ozone layer came about when there was consensus between science and politics. In 1974, chemists Mario Molina and Frank Sherwood Rowland published a landmark article that demonstrated the ability of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to break down the Ozone layer, the atmospheric region that plays a vital role in shielding humans and other life from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. It marked the opening salvo of...

John Vidal, who was in Rio for the '92 Earth summit, looks back at that momentous event, and how the 2012 version compares Helicopters thundered up and down the chic Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Tanks guarded the bridges and tunnels. The favelas were in lockdown, schools closed and supermarkets stood empty. Unexpectedly, George H W Bush, the 41st US president, flush with success at the collapse of communism, had arrived in...