It’s them or us, not all of us: Ukraine war showed rich countries can find money for diversifying their own energy supply but not for global climate finance. It also showed how fossil fuel companies exploited governments’ energy security concerns   The war in Ukraine has killed thousands, displaced millions [...]

Joshimath is a symptom, the disease is the uncontrolled growth model. What is unfolding in Joshimath is a tragedy. But this tragedy is not due to climate change; climate change-linked extreme events may have exacerbated the situation, but the sinking of Joshimath is our doing. The fact is this disaster [...]

Railways fascinate me. Professionally, I advocate for a massive expansion of rail networks to address the air pollution and climate crisis. Rail transport is not only highly energy efficient compared to road and air transport, it can also completely shift to renewable energy. It will, therefore, play a significant role [...]

On its 46th foundation day, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) released two reports that should force us to re-examine our approach towards controlling air pollution. The first report is the ‘National Ambient Air Quality Status & Trends 2019’, which contains air quality data for 344 cities/ towns from 28 [...]

The global economy is in recession, and it is predicted to be more destructive than the Great Depression of 1929 and the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007. India too has been hit hard – tens of millions have lost their jobs, and the economy is projected to shrink by [...]

Set realistic health goals and use latest scientific data to reopen the country, save lives and the economy One of the most endearing episodes of Mahabharta is that of Abhimanyu and his heroic battle to break the chakravyuh. While we celebrate his valour, we mostly ignore a fundamental lesson of [...]

Pandemics and environment have a close relation. Throughout history epidemics have caused large scale deaths, reducing human influence on the environment. Europe’s Black Death, which killed about 20 million people during 1347-1351, led to a drastic reduction in toxic lead pollution in the air for the first time in over [...]

In a war, you don’t only use your best weapons, you use everything in your arsenal. This has to be the maxim in our fight against Covid-19.

A crisis does not emerge out of thin air; it has underlying causes. And most of the underlying causes, if not all, are in front of our eyes; it’s just that we refuse to see and act on them. The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis is not a black swan; [...]

Five major modelling studies reveal that suppression strategy might require multiple lockdowns until a vaccine is available. Governments must prepare themselves and society for such an eventuality.

Silent infections could erode containment efforts’ efficacy; developing anti-virals and vaccine must be part of the near-term vision.

The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), has systematically divided and named all of Earth’s 4.5 billion year history. The length of time has been split from the longest to shortest as eons, eras, periods and ages. According to IUGS, we are currently in the Phanerozoic eon, Cenozoic era, Quaternary [...]