Rich Countries’ Commitment To Development Slipping, Says New Survey
While the world’s wealthiest nations made lofty promises to better the lives of the world’s poorest nations, at the G8 summit in 2005, an analysis of their policies on trade, aid, the environment and immigration by the Center for Global Development shows that they haven’t made good on their promises. Read more »
Dependence Of The Poor On Commons
A 1999 NSSO study on the role of land, water and forest commons in the life and economy of rural Indians revealed that CPRs provide as much as 58% of fuelwood requirements and up to 25% of fodder requirements. It also provides evidence of large-scale depletion of CPRs, with CPR lands in rural India declining by almost 2% every five years. Read more »
Cost-Effectiveness Assessment Of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Options:
A Proposed Methodology Low Carbon Growth Strategies for India. Read more »
Acute Food Scarcity By 2020 Warn Reports
An international and national report both warn that climate change and current policies could lead to acute food scarcity by 2020Levels of CO2 will reach 410 ppm by 2010 based on the current increase rate of 0.5% per year. This level of greenhouse gas concentration equals a 2.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperature. The Advisory Group of Greenhouse Gases said in 1986 that an increase of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times would be dangerous. Read more »
Glaciers Melting 100 Times Faster
A new study has found that the world’s glaciers are melting up to 100 times faster than any time in the past 350 years. The findings, based on the study of Patagonia, South America, have worrying implications for millions of people who rely on the slow moving bodies of ice for fresh water, reports the Daily Mail. Read more »
Reimagining India
India is on the cusp of reforming its vast social-security programmes, a cornerstone of the present government’s political foundations and an expensive gamble on which the UPA stakes its future. This year (2010-11) the government will spend Rs 1.36 lakh crore on various schemes and subsidies, enough to eradicate poverty and hunger and theoretically affords a safety net from cradle to grave. The problem has always been chaotic implementation, massive corruption and endemic mismanagment. Read more »
Tracking Hunger
Emerging India either does not know or ignores the statistics: Half its children are malnourished, a record worse than the world’s symbol for deprivation, sub-Saharan Africa. In 2009, India was ranked 66th of 88 countries in the Global Hunger Index drawn up by the International Food Policy Research Institute. In 2010, India’s rank slipped to 67 of 85 countries. India is home to a quarter of the world’s hungry – about 230 million people – according to a World Food Programme report released on March 2009. More than 455 million Indians survive on US$ 1.25 (Rs 56 approximately) a day or less, compared with 420 million in 1981. The government vows to bring in a new law giving its citizens a right to food, but its efforts are disjointed and often characterised by corruption and a lack of empathy. The Hindustan Times’“Tracking Hunger” series is a nationwide effort to track, investigate and report the struggle to rid the nation of hunger and malnutrition. Read more »