From Europe: Bee harming insecticide now banned!

In a widely popular decision among environmental groups and scientists, the EU voted last week to ban all outdoor use of one of the world’s most popular insecticide-“neonics” or neonicotinoids. These compounds have been suspected to have a very negative impact on the health of the honeybees and wild bees around the world, especially in […]

Why is an increase of 2° Celsius such a big deal?

The key factor in all climate change articles and especially the Paris Agreement, is that we should not let the temperature increase beyond 2° Celsius. According to current trends, with all our mitigation efforts, the temperature of our Earth is expected to rise by 3.5° Celsius at the end of this century. And without any effort […]

Earth Day 2018: Plant a sapling and be a part of this Earth

From Eco-Intelligent, a very happy Earth Day to all of you!

What can tree rings can tell about forest fires?

At school, I’m sure every child was once fascinated by the knowledge that the rings on a tree trunk can tell it’s age. The very fact that the age of a tree can be recorded this way used to be unreal, and to actually count the rings of a cut tree and figuring out the […]

The Heat Island Effect

When you are living in a city, you naturally feel the need to crank up the AC; whether at home or in your cars. It feels hot, oh so hot. In Delhi, summers can touch temperatures of 45 degree Celsius or more! But when you move to open spaces, where there is a bit of […]

Coastal ecosystems severely under threat due to climate change

The narrow zones of the world where the land meets the sea hosts some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. Coastal wetlands, estuaries, backwaters, deltas, lagoons, reefs, bays all come under a broad term called coastal ecosystems. Together, they add up to 1.6 million kilometers. of coastline. Each one is unique, but has […]

Geoengineering: Is this the only way to save the world?

With the world slowly but steadily descending into living hell (no, I’m not exaggerating), scientists in the field of environmental science are hard pressed for solutions. There have been many that have been proposed and implemented. Some of which, I have mentioned in my blogs as well: restoration ecology, wildlife conservation, genetic modification and manipulation, […]

Positive feedback loops: Controlling global climate

(This is the fifth post in the “feedback loops” series.) Climate is weather, over a long period of time. Unlike weather, climate is predictable. It has a number of factors like solar insolation, rainfall, temperature and latitude/altitude that controls it in a particular place. Also, climate encompasses a large area. Because of the spatial and […]

Environmental education: Aiding conservation and restoration

If you are keeping up with the recent developments in the lines of COP 22, you’ll know that the countries that signed it, along with the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate change, have been in a conference in Morocco, discussing the role of education in achieving mass momentum to tackle climate change. This is vital if […]

Across a gradient: How changing environment dictates community composition

Landscape ecology has evolved specifically because of certain phenomena that are unique to the big scale. One such phenomenon is the variation of vegetation along a gradient. This gradation is central to the vegetation continuum concept, which seeks to explain that presence or absence of a species in an area has as much to do […]