Feature Article

Air Quality Impact Assessment studies of Singoli Bhatwari Hydroelectric Power Plant are reported. The plant site is connected to the dam site via a road. Computations of four pollutants namely Carbon Monoxide, Sulphur Dioxide, Oxides of Nitrogen and Suspended Particulate Matter have been made at various sites around the plant using CALINE-3 model. Sources considered responsible for air pollution are vehicular traffic on road and construction activities around the plant site.

Global warming is already taking its toll. In Darfur, where several hundred thousand people have died in recent years from the internal conflict, climate change has exacerbated water and land shortages (because of growing desertification), undermined agriculture, and fueled conflict over these scarce resources among the poor. March 2008

Managing trees, especially in Agroforestry, is of utmost importance, otherwise they may become too large and/or unstable. The integration of trees on the farmland creates complex biological interaction, which may not necessarily result in yield advantage. The tree architecture plays an important role in deciding the growth of understorey crops.

It Is not immediately obvious what role financial markets can play in addressing climate change. Climate change happens slowly and has a global impact on the physical environment, whereas financial markets react to news in fractions of a second and are almost liberated from specific physical locations. the low energy intensity of the financial sector means that reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would have little impact on the physical operations of financial markets and institutions. March 2008

Climate science tells that the earth is warming as a result of human activities. But considerable uncertainty regarding the precise nature and extent of the risks remains. Economists are needed to develop sensible policies to address these risks, which account for the uncertainties.

Among the different causes of forest fires, accidental causes result into more than 90 per cent fires followed by natural causes. Socio-economic factors, viz., land holding and social participation play an important role in the management of forest fires. This finding was further conformed by the regression analysis. However, education was found inversely related. The lack of interaction with forest department was reported as an important factor for the non participation of the respondent in the forest fire control.

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath provides a verbal mural depicting America's experience in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, with its migration of "Okies" from ruined farmlands in Oklahoma and Texas to a not-so-promised land in California. This historical experience and perhaps the present-day drought of biblical proportions in Australia should alert international policymakers to the risks to world agriculture of a hotter and drier world by late this century as a consequence of unarrested global warming. March 2008

There is tremendous pressure on the natural resources due to increasing population.

Addressing climate change and the economic damage it will likely bring presents policymakers with a dilemma. The benefits of policy action are uncertain and would accrue largely to future generations, whereas the costs of policies run the risk of being more immediate and extensive. At the same time, the costs of inaction are irreversible, potentially catastrophic, and likely to hit poorer countries harder than developed ones.

Agricultural diversification is considered to be the most appropriate strategy that augments growth, stabilizes farm income especially of the small and marginal farmers, generates full employment, protects natural resources and attains the goals of food security.