EQ: Read About Things Green, Know Your Environment Quotient

EQ: The Quint’s green newsletter. Read about climate change, alternate energy, raise your environment quotient

E-India

• An Australian Court has revoked governmental approval for the Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine and has sent back the proposal to the Environment Minister for further consideration. Environmentalists believe that the project could damage Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Several banks have refused to finance the project on environmental grounds.
• The Environment ministry has proposed a new ‘Nagar Van Udyan Yojna’ or urban forestry scheme. The proposal aims at developing at least one city forest in each city having a municipal corporation and will seek to create 200 such forests in the next five years.

• Kerala’s state forest department has arrested members of a poaching gang responsible for slaughtering over 20 elephants in just the last ten months.

E-Mage

• Highlighting our appalling waste problem, the environment minister informed the Lok Sabha that 60 major Indian cities including Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru generated over 3500 tonnes of plastic waste every day. Plastic is hugely hazardous – it harms animals who consume it accidentally. It also chokes our already overburdened drainage systems.

E-Video

“Kodaikanal won’t”, a rap video which takes on Unilever’s Indian subsidiary over mercury poisoning in Kodaikanal, has gone viral on social media. Watch the video here:

E-Economy

• The World Bank has presented a new draft framework of social and environmental rules to guide its lending policies. While the Bank says these new rules will give it a ‘leading edge’ in environmental and social standards, human rights organisations have criticized the new framework and have called it a ‘dangerous rollback in environmental and social protections’.

E-Renewables

• A new exhibit showcases the incredible power of algae to become the bio-fuels of tomorrow. Plentiful and easy to sustainably grow, photosynthetic algae absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen and scientists believe it has the ability to become tomorrow’s green fuel.

E-Law

• The Bombay High Court has directed the authorities to ensure that Navi Mumbai’s mangroves are not further destroyed and degraded. Mangroves are critical ecosystems and their rapid disappearance in many parts of the country has raised serious concerns.

E-International

• Warning that “there is such a thing as being too late” President Barack Obama called for immediate and urgent action on climate change. Noting that “no challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations than a change in climate”, he announced that all US power plants would need to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 32% from 2005 levels by 2030.

E-Tech

• In a novel use of technology, China will be deploying drones and satellites to monitor pollution in the country. The devices are expected to better identify sources of pollution and help the authorities in formulating a response.

E-Nature

• The world’s only living Giant Panda triplets turned one year old this week! Impossibly cute, Meng Meng, Shuai Shuai and Ku Ku were born in Chime Long Safari Park in southern China and marked the occasion with a cake made of bamboo and fruit.

E-Quiz

• How many alien invasive species are lurking in your neighbourhood? Join the “Spotting Alien Invasive Species campaign” in mapping them!