India releases new stone crushers guidelines to curb air pollution

The Centre Pollution Control Board (CPCB) published new guidelines for stone crushers, who are responsible for significant dust emissions leading to air pollution. The document outlines ways to measure emissions, control pollution as well as financial aspects of implementation. The proposed measures have been shared with state pollution control boards, too, which include installing telescopic chutes at the end of conveyor belts. Covering of materials during transportation and wetting of roads to suppress dust has been given prime importance. Water consumption must be sustainable and should be reused and recycled whenever possible. Consent to Establish (CTE) and Consent to Operate (CTO) are compulsory to minimise illegal crushers. The stone crushers’ unit must comply with emission norms under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. These units should obtain green belt development plan. Surprise inspections and health survey for workers on a half yearly basis conclude the proposal.

Smoke from Canada wild fires chokes New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut

More than 400 wildfires have led to mass evacuation across Canada. Persistent hot and dry conditions are fanning the flames of Canadian wildfires, which have scorched an area over 10 times larger than average, NASA tweeted. Scientists agreed that the key finding is the massive scale and persistence of the fires in general, which occur in Canada during May and early June, but not at the scale, which is across seven provinces, for over a month now. According to the Canada Drought Monitor, nearly all of the country’s 10 provinces have reported an abnormal level of dryness. 

The states of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut issued air quality alerts, with officials recommending that people limit outdoor activity as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, turning the sky in some of the country’s biggest cities a murky brown and saturating the air with harmful pollution, reported the Guardian. New York City had the worst air quality of any big city in the world on Wednesday. Second-worst was Lahore. Delhi, which consistently ranks among the worst cities for air pollution, was sixth-worst, reported the Guardian. 

Stock prices of major polluters fell after negative court verdicts: Study

A new study found that company share prices dropped after a fresh climate lawsuit or a negative court verdict, DTE wrote, citing The Guardian report. The researchers looked at how the market and the investors reacted to 108 lawsuit filings and verdicts against 98 companies listed in the United States and Europe from 2005 and 2021. They found that climate cases with unfavourable court verdicts reduced firm value by -0.41% on average. Companies that emit the most, termed ‘Carbon Majors’ in the study, were affected the most, the findings showed. Their value dropped by -0.57% following a new lawsuit against them and by -1.50% after an unfavourable judgment. These companies include those operating in energy, utilities and materials sectors.

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