Feature Article

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) elected new leadership last week in Geneva, Switzerland, unanimously re-electing the Indian economist Rajendra Pachauri as chairman but choosing new heads of the three working groups that coordinate the writing of its massive reports.

Parisian pollution is nothing compared with that of Beijing or Mexico City. Yet Paris, with 11 million people crammed into a region just 20 kilometres across, is to take centre stage in a new research project on the impact of megacities on air pollution. The MEGAPOLI project, which starts next month, will focus on building regional air-pollution models for every city in the world with a population of more than five million. It encompasses 23 research organizations from 11 European countries, along with 24 collaborating partners outside Europe.

As we become an ever more urban species, cities will be a crucial front in the fight against climate change. Scientists, architects and planners must join forces to make our metropolitan future clean and sustainable. (Editorial)

Researchers confirm that surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were warmer over the last 10 years than any time during the last 1,300 years, and, if the climate scientists include the somewhat controversial data derived from tree-ring records, the warming is anomalous for at least 1,700 years.

The proxies used by the researchers included information from marine and lake sediment cores, ice cores, coral cores and tree rings.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is enclosed herewith.

A field experiment was conducted during 2003

Global warming is inevitable. Therefore, the need is to develop strategies to reduce the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration through biomass seems to be a cheap and viable option. There are several land-use options which can sequester carbon. Their potential of locking carbon differs not only with the type of species, but also with the agroclimatic zones. Hence, location-specific land-use systems need to be

Majority of residential units and small-scale commercial operators in India dispose wastewater either onsite or into the public drainage systems, without paying any attention to the public health and environmental impacts. Need for high investments and the requirement for large operational space are the reasons often quoted against the installation of a proper wastewater treatment unit. This communication presents a viable and cost-effective technology using coir geotextile, for the
removal of organic matter from wastewater. Coir geotextile

The results of trend analyses of the discharge data of four rivers in northwestern Himalaya, namely Beas, Chenab, Ravi and Satluj, are presented here and the impact of climate change in the last century is discussed. In the case of Satluj river, studies indicate an episodic variation in discharge in all three seasons on a longer timescale of about 82 years (1922

At the current rate of use the crude oil reserves of the world are predicted to deplete in about 40 years. Therefore, it has become necessary to find and devise methods of processing a renewable raw material for conversion into transportation fuel. Some countries are manufacturing ethanol from sugarcane or cereal grains and blending it with petrol to reduce crude oil imports. This entails diverting agriculturally productive land for the production of fuel. An alternative is to use inedible

There is a gradual increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs)like CH4 and N2O in ambient air due to intensive agriculture, rapid industrialization and the expanding transport sector. About 80% of N2O is produced biologically and the major sources are agricultural fields, wetlands, sediments, animal
wastes and landfills. Emission of N2O from the soil is due to nitrification and e-nitrification processes.