1990

CSE organised a seminar on the 'Economics of the Sustainable Use Forest Resources' and also a seminar on the 'Traditional Water Harvesting Systems of India'.

1991

With the world's economic development based on fossil fuels, limits are being reached because of its impact on the atmosphere. The Centre's publication Global Warming in an Unequal World pointed out that a global framework of inter-country cooperation is urgently required. Given the enormous differences between the levels of economic development and per capita greenhouse gas emissions, equity must become the key principle for managing the world's atmosphere in a sustainable manner. That same year, CSE published Floods, Floodplains and Environmental Myths: Third Citizens' Report on the State of India's Environment that focused on the causes and effects of floods in the floodplains and river valleys of Ganga and Brahmaputra Rivers. The report, citing scientific studies and field reports, stunned environmentalists by arguing that floods in these regions, more flood-prone and which support more poor people than any other region of the world, can be controlled through better management of the rivers' floodplains themselves.

1992

Down To Earth magazine was
launched when leading
publishers were closing
popular science publications

CSE's biggest intervention in the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro was its proposal that the world's poor must have a 'Right to Survival', which, in operational terms would mean funds to ensure that all the world's rural poor are mobilised to regenerate their degraded village ecosystems. This programme would not only put a floor to rural poverty and stem distress migration from rural to urban areas but also make a massive investment in the rebuilding of the natural capital on which the survival of the rural poor depends. The same year, the Society for Environmental Communications started publishing Down to Earth magazine. This influential fortnightly newsmagazine on science and environment was launched at a time when all of India's leading publishers were closing down their popular science publications. Today, Down To Earth reaches nearly 60,000 serious readers spread over most districts of India and across the world. The same year, CSE also published Towards a Green World: Should Global Environmental Management be Built on Legal Conventions or Human Rights? CSE also published The Price of Forests, a compilation of the proceedings of a seminar on the economics of the sustainable use of forest resources held earlier in the year.

1994

officebuld.jpg (5784 bytes) On CSE's invitation, Maldives President MA Gayoom delivered a talk on the Maldivian environment in New Delhi. CSE moves to its new home in the Tughlakabad Institutional Area. The building was designed by the renowned Ahmedabad-based architects, Radhika Doshi Katpalia and B V Doshi. The five-storied structure is spread over 1000 sq/m. A particularly interesting feature of the building is the design which incorporates several cascading terrace gardens. The building has been designed to harvest rainwater. Rainfall flows from the top terrace down to the bottom terraces where it is finally collected in underground water storage tanks. The building's garden includes several important Indian survival trees. The building accommodates more than 110 permanent staff and 40 volunteers and contract staff.