Other – Global South Policy Review

Reviving Roots: Jugaad-Driven Sustainability in India’s Old Markets

Saumya Singh

The article emphasizes how traditional trades contribute to reducing waste and conserving resources through ‘jugaad’, offering a deeply local solution to global environmental concerns. It depicts India’s fading but resilient repair and reuse culture through a visual and narrative journey across five cities, highlighting traditional artisans and marketplaces, it celebrates sustainability embedded in Indian daily life through jugaad!

Groundwater Extraction Moved Earth’s Axis- Tubewells Changed The Planet

Anthony Acciavatti

Excessive groundwater extraction—over 2,100 gigatons between 1993 and 2010—has shifted Earth’s axis by nearly 80 cm and contributed to rising sea levels. This human-driven change outweighs the impact of melting ice sheets on polar motion. Major contributors include western North America and northwestern India. While the tilt won’t affect seasons, it reveals how over-pumping groundwater can destabilize the planet, emphasizing the need for sustainable water use.

Plastic in every level of food web, say scientists

Yvette Austin

A study by the Universities of Sussex and Exeter found microplastics in nearly every level of the terrestrial food web. About 12% of over 580 invertebrates examined contained plastic, with earthworms showing the highest contamination. Polyester was the most common type found. Researchers warn this pollution threatens biodiversity and highlights that plastic pollution is a serious land-based issue, not just a marine concern.

Nothing to fear from Trumps higher tariff threat in agriculture

Dr Devinder Sharma

When I recently read that the US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick had very specifically asked India to open up its market for highly subsidized American farm produce, I am reminded of what a former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Nicholas Stern, during his travels in the country at that time, had succinctly remarked: “I agree it is a sin to provide the US farmers the kind of subsidies they get, but it will be a recipe for disaster if India does not open up.”

The same kind of hypocrisy has been exhibited time and again by successive US Secretaries of Agriculture.

Going Bananas: How Climate Change Threatens the World’s Favourite Fruit

Nina Lakhani

The climate crisis is threatening the future of the world’s most popular fruit, as almost two-thirds of banana-growing areas in Latin America and the Caribbean may no longer be suitable for growing the fruit by 2080, new research has found.
Rising temperatures, extreme weather and climate-related pests are pummeling banana-growing countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia, reducing yields and devastating rural communities across the region.

Climate change is disrupting the human gut in a new path to illness

Sharmila Vaidyanathan

Research has already found that high atmospheric carbon dioxide levels can diminish the quantity of plant micronutrients like phosphorus, potassium, zinc, and iron, along with protein concentrations in vital crops; these effects add to the complexities that affect the gut microbiota. Climate-driven food shortage and undernourishment could affect the composition of the human gut microbiota, exacerbating the effects of climate change on human health, according to a new review article published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

One heatwave can lead to back-to-back hot spells: Study

PTI

A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz looked at why South Asia continually experienced extreme heat events during the March to April 2022 period.

Comparing the heatwaves of March and April, the team found that each was driven by a different atmospheric process — the former by winds in high altitudes and the latter by dry soil conditions, which were created as a result of the former.

Climate change poses new challenges for troops at the Indian borders

Kalyan Das

Global warming is not only altering weather patterns but also increasingly posing challenges to the defence forces stationed in high-altitude areas along the borders (LoC with Pakistan and the LAC with China).
Erratic and less snowfall along with unpredictable rainfall patterns and drying up of natural streams in the Himalayas over the years are major concerns. And its effects are visible on the ground with infiltration risks to disrupted infrastructure projects, according to senior security establishment officials.

UN climate talks face a credibility crisis as countries disengage

The Conversation

In Baku, Azerbaijan, the so-called “finance-Cop” was a disappointment. Now, the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is facing a credibility crisis.
A key failure in Baku was about how much money developing nations will be paid for adaptation projects that help communities and infrastructure withstand the impacts of climate change. The outcome included US$300 billion (£239 billion) for both adaptation and mitigation with no clarity on whether this will be in the form of grants or loans. This falls far short of what developing countries need.

Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change

Garo Batmanian

Nature-based solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural ecosystems, that address societal challenges such as climate change, human health, food and water security, and disaster risk reduction effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits. For example, a common problem is the flooding in coastal areas that occurs as a result of storm surges and coastal erosion. This challenge, traditionally tackled with manmade (grey) infrastructure such as sea walls or dikes, coastal flooding, can also be addressed by actions that take advantage of ecosystem services such as tree planting. Planting trees that thrive in coastal areas – known as mangroves — reduces the impact of storms on human lives and economic assets, and provides a habitat for fish, birds and other plants supporting biodiversity.

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