| 
Weather not yet fair for climate deal
- The hope for a just and legally-binding climate deal to keep the global temperature rise to 2°Celsius is waning as the U.N. Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or COP 17, reaches its crucial round in the second and final week of consultations here.
- 2°C ceiling — which, they say, will not be sufficient to protect small island nations from disappearing from the face of the earth — the developed nations are playing hard to get on the Kyoto Protocol front.
- Worse still, the attitude of the developed nations on their commitments to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) — agreed upon at last year's Cancun conference — is fluctuating
- 37 nations required to reduce their greenhouse emissions by 40 per cent by 2012 are fighting hard to shift the responsibilities to the developing countries and small nations
- The GCF aims to collect $30 billion by 2012 and $100 billion by 2020 to help smaller countries gain capacity and maintain growth at the same time.
- The European Union countries, now in economic troubles, are equally evasive about commitments on both KP and GCF
Farmers battle outbreak of army worm in kole fields
- Farmers are battling an outbreak of outbreak of army worm or swarming caterpillar (Spodoptera species) in about 1,230 acres of kole paddy fields
- Pesticides have been sprayed in the fields there. After the spraying, water from the paddy fields would be drained out.
- The total life cycle of the insect is around 40 days. After the pupal stage inside the soil, adults emerge within 10 days for fresh generation.
- It is regarded as a pest and can wreak havoc with crops if left to multiply.
- Its name is derived from its feeding habits. They will eat everything in an area and once the food supply is exhausted the entire "army" will move to the next available food source.
