Green Options

The the year round demand for items like cherries, mangoes, almonds and pistachios is far out-pacing world-wide production, leading to the perception of a shortage of pollinators.

Chaired by President M. Nasheed, the Government of Maldives recently concluded the world’s first ever underwater cabinet meeting. The small island nation of Maldives will perhaps be the first country to go under water, if predictions based on climate change models come true.

The underwater meeting was called to raise this concern and put pressure on the West to act NOW, and for a fair deal at COP in Copenhagen this December. A day after the event, extensively covered by the media (View on: CNN | BBC), the Government of India has announced the setting up of a National institute for long-term research on climate change.

A fungal infection in the Northeastern Little Brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) known as white-nose syndrome has been sickening bats for the past three years. The illness strikes worst when the bats are at their most vulnerable–during their winter hibernation period.

The disease, which presents as white patches on the bats’ skin and disrupts their winter “sleep”, kills nearly 80% of those stricken. Essentially, the infection causes the bats to rouse from their hibernatory rest repeatedly, and so, to stay warm, they [...]