Catastrophic scenarios of ecological and social collapse are part of the climate change narrative. However it plays out – and we’re all along for the ride, some of us longer than others – it won’t be painless. Those advocating measures to mitigate climate change today paint a pay-me-now-or-pay-me-later
Safety training and technological fixes can cut the massive death toll from fires each year
Nearly all major Indian cities have a brush with destructive but often preventable accidental fires each year, leaving in their wake lost lives and destroyed property. The blaze in the Eastern Railway headquarters in Kolkata on the evening of March 8, which killed at least nine people, is particularly egregious because it took place in a modern multi-storeyed special building. What the preliminary account of the fire and its aftermath suggests is a textbook case of poor attention to fire safety basics and, possibly, the absence of robust fire mitigation technologies. Whatever the sequence of events, the unfortunate incident in the central part of a vibrant city has taken the lives of a group of first responders, including four firefighters, a police officer and some railway staff. Apparently anxious to intervene, a group of personnel lost sight of their own safety and tried to speed up to th