CSE

Going off-grid to power solution

Supply issues comprise one part of the energy conundrum, as we discussed last fortnight. The cost of energy and our ability to pay for it is the other. The matter gets vexed because the rise in price of raw material of all energy sources is accompanied by huge inefficiency in distribution and accounting. But importantly, we remain a poor country where cost of energy is a factor in its availability and accessibility for all.

Powerless and lost

The power blackout in northern India on two days should not be dismissed or misjudged. Analysts are jumping to conclude that the crisis was foretold. They blame delays caused by environment and forest clearance procedures and demand winding down the regulatory framework so that we can re-energise ourselves. Their other favourite whipping horse is ‘free’ electricity to farmers, which is said to be crippling the state electricity boards. These explanations are naïve and mistaken.

Training Programme on Urban an Industrial Wastewater Treatment for practitioners, consultants, professionals, students and researchers, 6-10 August, 2012

A training programme on Urban an Industrial Wastewater Treatment was organised by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) at the Anil Agrawal Green Centre. The programme was held between 6-10 August, 2012.

When battered people took on the pesticide industry

Today, I want to tell you a true story of extraordinary courage. The past week, I was in Kasaragod, a district in Kerala, splendid in beauty and with abundant natural resources, but destroyed by the toxic chemical, endosulfan. The pesticide was aerially sprayed over cashew plantations, for some 20 years, in complete disregard of the fact that there is no demarcation between plantations and human habitation in this area. It is also a high rainfall region and so, the sprayed pesticide leached into the ground and flowed downstream.

CSE's Environmental Assessment of Jasodharpur Industrial Area in Uttarakhand

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) presented its environmental assessment of Jasodharpur Industrial Area (JIA) in a public meeting on June 11, 2012 held at Maganpur village near Kotdwar town in Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand.

The Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board had requested CSE to carry out this assessment.

Troubled Waters - A report by Mining Watch Canada and Earthworks

A recent report by MiningWatch Canada and US-based Earthworks on how the mining waste disposal into water bodies is creating havoc. A review by CSE.
 
Download Troubled Waters (pdf)

EIA analysis of an expansion project in Raigarh - Korba West Power Co. Ltd.

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) carried out a technical analysis of the EIA report of the expansion project of thermal power plant of M/s Korba West Power Company Limited. The analysis was carried out on the request of Raghuvir Pradhan of Ekta Parishad. The public hearing for the project was scheduled on February 9, 2012.

Anil Agarwal Dialogue on Green Clearances

Press Release

• Two-day Anil Agarwal Dialogue on Green Clearances kicks off in Delhi with 150 participants from NGOs across India

• Dialogue organised by CSE to discuss clearance processes, whether these processes are working, and what they aim to achieve 

Why excreta matters

Water is life and sewage tells its life story. This is the subject of the Citizens’ Seventh Report on the State of India’s Environment, Excreta Matters: How urban India is soaking up water, polluting rivers and drowning in its own excreta. It has a seemingly simple plot: it only asks where Indian cities get their water from and where does their waste go. But this is not just a question or answer about water, pollution and waste. It is about the way Indian cities (and perhaps other parts of the world that are similarly placed) will develop.

What’s critical at Durban: removing the firewall between developing and developed countries

Durban, December 6: Remove the firewall at all costs: this sums up what the rich countries are doing in the climate negotiations at Durban to remove the differentiation between past polluters – responsible for climate change impacts currently occurring – and the future polluters, who need ecological space to grow. 

This is the core of the politics at the Durban conference on climate change. The rich countries are doing all they can, in different ways, to remove this distinction, for until the distinction remains, they will have to take action first to reduce and create carbon space for the poorer countries to increase their emissions.