-Down to Earth A behind-the-scenes look helps one know that human as well as economic costs need to be paid upfront to make either solar grade silicon or put together a million lithium batteries A recent analysis performed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shows that it is a business-as-usual scenario. The global average temperature has been 1.02 degrees Celsius (°C) higher than the baseline. The World Meteorological Organization has announced the...

-IndiaSpend.com Women farmers are taking the lead in reviving the cultivation of native varieties of millets that are resilient to drought, salinity, extreme heat, pests and diseases; need less water than paddy; and are richer in nutrition. Nestled in the remote forested hills of Odisha's Malkangiri district, Bondaghati is home to the Bonda tribe, one of the 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) in the state. Some 12,321 Bonda people lived in...

-Down to Earth There is scientific consensus that rapid and deep cuts to emissions in this decade, and not later, will avoid scenarios of uncontrollable warming and high mitigation costs later this century Most countries have set a target timeline — 2030 is the commonly chosen horizon — to achieve the goals outlined in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Agreement, 2015. The Paris Agreement is the international treaty to help...

-Scroll.in The result is a big mess, in the words of one official. In nine months since September, a file containing a proposal seeking environmental approval to upgrade a highway in Sikkim has travelled about 1,500 km from Shillong to Kolkata to Guwahati, before returning to rest in an office in Kolkata. Until last week, the file had not been examined, an official in the environment ministry said. The story of this file...

-Down to Earth Bihar usually gets heavy rains in July and August; floods in June are an unusual occurrence, experts said Several villages have been flooded after 3-4 days of early monsoon rains in the catchment areas of the Gandak and Burhi Gandak rivers in Nepal and north Bihar. Affected districts include West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur. Other rivers including the Bagmati, Koshi, Kamla Balan, Bhuthi Balan and Ghaghara are also...