Author: Deshwale Science and Environment Desk

Beijing cleaned up in a decade. Los Angeles took a generation. Delhi and Mumbai are still debating. On a winter morning in Delhi, the air carries a weight you can feel before you are fully awake. Visibility drops to a few hundred metres. Schools send children home. Hospital wards fill with the elderly and the very young. Politicians call emergency meetings, issue directives, threaten action. And then, in a few weeks, the smog thins slightly, the news cycle pivots, and the city exhales, not from relief, but from exhaustion. Nothing structurally changes. This has been the story for the better…

मुंबई की गर्मियाँ असहनीय होती हैं। कंक्रीट की इमारतों से गर्मी रात तक निकलती रहती है और मॉनसून में नमी पूरे शहर में घुल जाती है। बारिश जब आती है, तो राहत नहीं बल्कि जलजमाव, फंसी ट्रेनें और ठप सड़कें लेकर आती है। इसी मुश्किल भरे मौसम के बीच मुंबई क्लाइमेट वीक २०२६ शुरू हुआ। इसमें नीति निर्माता, कॉर्पोरेट और वैश्विक जलवायु संस्थान के नेता, और नागरिक समाज के प्रतिनिधि शामिल हुए, जो सीओपी३० की तैयारियों पर ध्यान केंद्रित कर रहे हैं। सम्मेलन का उद्देश्य मुंबई को शहरी जलवायु समाधान के लिए प्रयोगशाला बनाना है। मुख्यमंत्री देवेंद्र फडणवीस ने राज्य…

Mumbai’s summers are unforgiving. Heat radiates off concrete towers long after sunset. Humidity wraps itself around the city even before the monsoon clouds gather. When the rains finally arrive, they bring not relief but waterlogging, stalled trains and paralysed roads. It is in this lived climate reality that Mumbai Climate Week 2026 has begun, bringing together policymakers, corporate leaders, global climate institutions and civil society representatives ahead of COP30. The summit positions Mumbai as a laboratory for urban climate solutions. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has emphasised Maharashtra’s renewable ambitions and climate resilience strategy. India has already committed to achieving 500…

Buried quietly beneath the seabed of the North Atlantic lives a mollusc with a lifespan that rivals human civilization. The ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) is a species of clam renowned for its extraordinary longevity, with some individuals living more than 400 years. One famous specimen, nicknamed Ming, was recorded at over 500 years old, making it one of the oldest known non-colonial animals on Earth. These clams grow at an exceptionally slow pace, forming annual growth rings in their shells, much like trees produce rings to mark each year of life. Scientists can count these rings with remarkable precision to…

In the dark, near-freezing waters of the North Atlantic swims a creature that was already alive when Shakespeare was writing his plays. The Greenland shark is now recognised as the longest-living vertebrate known to science, with some individuals estimated to be 250 to over 400 years old. This extraordinary lifespan has transformed the species from an obscure Arctic fish into one of the most fascinating subjects in marine biology. This slow-moving shark inhabits deep Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, where temperatures hover just above freezing. Its world is one of dim light, immense pressure and near-silence. Sunlight barely penetrates these depths.…

Denmark recently drew global attention by switching to red streetlights in selected areas, especially near ecologically sensitive zones and low-traffic stretches. The reason was not aesthetic. It was ecological and safety-oriented, aiming to reduce light pollution and lessen harm to wildlife while keeping roads safe for humans. For cities around the world grappling with the effects of rapid growth on both people and nature, this experiment raises an important question, can something as simple as the colour of street lighting help save lives? In India, where urban expansion increasingly overlaps with natural habitats, this question is especially relevant. Most conventional…

When NASA’s Perseverance rover completed the first AI-planned drives on Mars, it marked more than a technical milestone. On 8 and 10 December 2025, the rover navigated rough Martian terrain using routes created by AI, without humans planning each step. This achievement raises questions about trusting machines when human intervention is impossible. Mars is about 140 million miles (225 million kilometres) from Earth. The distance causes communication delays of several minutes, making real-time control impossible. Traditionally, engineers on Earth analyse terrain images, plan safe routes, and send instructions to the rover. This time, AI took over, identifying obstacles such as…

NASA has officially launched Athena, its most powerful and energy-efficient supercomputer to date, marking a major leap in the agency’s high-performance computing capabilities required for advanced space exploration, artificial intelligence research, and scientific modeling. Athena is a next-generation supercomputing system designed to process extremely large and complex datasets at unprecedented speeds. With a peak performance of over 20 petaflops, Athena can perform more than 20 quadrillion calculations per second, enabling NASA scientists and engineers to solve problems that were previously too time-consuming or computationally expensive. The supercomputer is installed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and operates from…

Henkel India, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Navi Mumbai – Joy of Giving, and with support from the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), has successfully converted Plaster of Paris (PoP) Ganesha idols into durable educational assets under Project HARMONY. This circular reuse initiative not only prevents environmental pollution but also provides long-term benefits to local communities. During Ganesh Visarjan 2025 in Nerul, over 1,000 kg of PoP idols were collected and redirected from water bodies and landfills. The material was processed through an authorised recycling facility, with NMMC officials supporting the on-ground operations. The reclaimed PoP was then…

The ancient Aravalli Hills, one of India’s oldest geological formations, have become the centre of a heated environmental and legal clash as changes to their official definition have raised fears of accelerated ecological damage and renewed mining pressures. Stretching across Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, and into Gujarat, the Aravalli range has long been valued for stabilising North India’s climate, replenishing groundwater, and acting as a natural barrier against desertification from the Thar. A recent Supreme Court decision to adopt a new uniform elevation-based definition of the hills has ignited widespread debate over the future of this fragile ecosystem and its governance.…