-The Hindu     In spite of the rosy picture painted by the World Bank, the prospect of eliminating extreme poverty remains distant In a protracted period of gloom and persistent recession with feeble signs of recovery in a large part of the developed world, the World Bank, Brookings Institution and others can be forgiven for their euphoria over the accomplishment of a key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) - of halving extreme poverty in...

-AP UNITED NATIONS: A new UN report is forecasting that the world's population will increase from 7.2 billion on Thursday to 8.1 billion in 2025 and 9.6 billion in 2050. The report, released on Thursday, said most of the population growth will occur in developing regions which are projected to increase from 5.9 billion in 2013 to 8.2 billion in 2050. During that same period, it said, the population of Developed Countries is...

-The Hindu ALAPPUZHA: The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) formally declared the Kuttanad below sea-level farming system as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) at the International Forum on GIAHS held at Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan from May 29 to June 1. Sources said agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan attended the conference, though an earlier decision was to send a delegation to the Forum. The government is expected to declare the...

-The Hindu New Delhi should stop its flip-flops and adopt a coherent policy in its negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions If the great Scott Fitzgerald were to have walked into the grand plenary hall of the Durban climate conference in 2011 to announce once again, "show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy," all fingers would have pointed to the tiny Indian contingent in the room. There, Fitzgerald would...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Are we too late? Or is there time to arrest the rollercoaster ride to doomsday predictions? Either way, has the science of climate change ever influenced negotiations at climate meets? Nitin Sethi looks at the politics of climate change. On May 10 the planet marked a milestone of sorts. Scientists recorded that for every million molecules of air, 400 were of carbon dioxide - the key...