EQ: Dangerous Sea-Level Rise, E-Waste, Green Jobs and More

EQ: Read about all things green, build your Environment Quotient.

Fishermen row their boats in the Sunderbans. (Photo: Reuters)

E-India

• Rank 5 in e-waste production: A disturbing new study reports that India is the fifth largest producer of e-waste globally. The improper disposal of this waste can cause serious health and environmental impacts. The government’s new E-Waste rules could improve the situation.
  

E-Waste management is necessary to prevent certain chemicals from leaking into the environment. (Photo: iStockphoto)

• Stiff fines for environmental violations: The environment minister announced that non-compliance of green rules will be punished by high fines and a new civil penalty law will be introduced to change the current penalty levels.
  

The government will crack down on illegal deforestation. (Photo: iStock)

• 40 million Indians at risk: The 2015 UN Global Environment Outlook figures show that rising sea levels are likely to affect millions of Indians, especially those living in high risk cities like Mumbai and Kolkata.
  

Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai (Photo: Reuters)

E-Business

• Profiting from waste water: A new report shows how India’s soaring quantities of waste water could create an opportunity for water recycling and treatment plants. By some estimates, the size of the water recycling industry could be as much as $17 billion.
  

A waste water treatment plant in Germany. (Photo: iStock)

E-Renewables

• Green jobs on the rise: According to latest figures, jobs linked to the renewables sector rose 5% in 2015. The sector employs an estimated 8 million people globally.
  

Solar panels installed at a solar plant in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh. (Photo: Reuters)

E-Transport

• Beijing to adopt world’s strictest emission standards: Alarmed at rising pollution in China’s capital, the government has decided to adopt stringent vehicle emission norms from December 2017 onwards
  

Air quality in Beijing poses severe health risks for its residents. (Photo: iStock)

E-Law

• Diesel vehicle ban in Kerala: With increasing concern about the negative impacts of vehicular pollution, the NGT has ordered the Kerala government to stop registered diesel cars with an engine capacity of 2000 cc and above.
  

Diesel bans are expected to reduce pollution across the country. (Photo: iStock)

E-Stat

• 3.3 million: The number of people killed by air pollution annually
  

File photo of pollution on the roads of New Delhi. (Photo: AP)

E-International

• The world’s most worrying environmental threats: A new UN Report has highlighted the alarming risk to human health from animal transmitted diseases, accumulation of toxins in food crops, climate change and plastic waste in oceans.
  

Diseases like swine flu pose significant risks for humans. (Photo: iStock)

E-Nature

• To release or not to release Ustad? The debate over Ustad, the suspected man-eating tiger continues as it’s argued that he was indeed a man-eater and thus needed to be removed from the wild.

Ustad, or T-24, has allegedly attacked at least four people. (Photo Courtesy: Ranthambore National Park)

E-Video

Did you know that the metal rings on six-packs of drinks can pose a serious hazard to marine life? A new innovation has made these rings edible – watch the video here:

E-Quiz

Where in India would you find the Rushikulya Rookery, site of the mass-nesting of the Olive Ridley turtles? (a) Karnataka (b) Odisha (c) Gujarat (d) West Bengal

(Shalini Iyengar is a lawyer and Research Associate at the International University College of Turin.)