City residents flocked to see the canvas, which was supported by hundreds of poles, displayed around a famous lake here. To make people aware of their plight, more than 200 children from a polio rehabilitation centre in Gandhinagar held a march also, to coincide with the `pulse' polio immunisation day. The children, seated in trolleys and ambulances, also went through about 50 villages around Ahmedabad.

The painting was put together by the efforts of well-known poet Madhav Ram- anuj in cooperation with the state government's health department, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Reliance Industries.

``The entire project was finished within 10 days and this included raising funds for this programme, fixing the wooden framesaround this huge lake, pasting the primer on the canvas and inviting the 1,200 artists and arranging for their lodging and boarding,'' said Ramanuj.

Ramanuj claimed that the coming together of such a large team of artists to paint on a single theme on the same canvas was the first event of its kind.

Pak nuke scientist announces green institute plan
Top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan is turning his attention to human development and has announced plans for an independent body of environmental experts to deal with problems linked with economic growth, according to IANS.

Khan announced the setting up of a National Institute of Environmental Science at a three-day environmental meet held in Islamabad recently. He said the institute would deal with issues that emerge out of the current economic development pattern. A panel of six scientists will prepare a detailed blueprint for the Institute by June 1999.

Khan said the traditional growth model was ignoring human developmentconcerns and said government, industry, research and academic institutions must give greater emphasis to improving living standards in the country. He said this involved increasing environmental awareness among the masses.The seminar, titled Emerging Environmental Issues in Pakistan, which was attended by experts from Central Asian nations, urged the government to use expertise available with the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and the Energy & Environment Society of Pakistan.

The experts suggested the need for annual state-of-the-Pakistan-environment reports covering selected issues of immediate concern.

No oil drilling in Arctic, activists tell Chevron
Arctic activists announced the filing of a shareholder resolution calling on Chevron to ``unconditionally cancel any future plans for oil drilling in coastal plain, 1002 area, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and immediately stop the expenditure of any corporate funds targeted to achieve this objective''.

In June 1998, Chevron, BritishPetroleum and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation finalised a lease for oil exploration and development in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge.

The ASRC and Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation jointly own 92,000 acreson the coastal plain near Kaktovik, the only community within the boundaries of the refuge. The oil industry already has access to 95 per cent of America's Arctic, according to the Public Interest Research Group.

Franklin Research and Development filed the resolution with Chevron. The state PIRGs' national lobbying office, US PIRG, is coordinating a national campaign to protect the Arctic Refuge from drilling.

Green grants for new generation leaders
The Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at Columbia University has won a million-dollar grant from the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation to train a new generation of environmental leaders from developing coun- tries. The centre is a consortium of five institutions: the American Museum of Natural History, theNew York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Wildlife Preservation Trust International, as well as Columbia.

In each of the five years over which it will be administered, the MacArthur grant will provide two graduate fellowships, two visiting scholar fellowships, three mid-career training fellowships for environmental professionals and funding to bring six highly placed international environmental officials to CERC's Environmental Leaders Forum, held each spring.

Green grants for new generation leaders
The Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at Columbia University has won a million-dollar grant from the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation to train a new generation of environmental leaders from developing countries. The centre is a consortium of five institutions: the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Wildlife Preservation Trust International, as well as Columbia. In each of the fiveyears over which it will be administered, the MacArthur grant will provide two graduate fellowships, two visiting scholar fellowships, three mid-career training fellowships for environmental professionals and funding to bring six highly placed international environmental officials to CERC's Environmental Leaders Forum, held each spring. E-mail: rm242@columbia.edu.

Energy-efficient houses save money
Owners of energy efficient houses in America's heartland can reduce energy consumption by up to 65 per cent and reduce the house's long-term cost by approximately $52,000, according to a University of Michigan study.

The trick to the savings is as simple as increasing the thickness of exterior walls to 12 inches and filling them with insulation, according to graduate students Steven Blanchard and Peter Reppe, authors of the study.Over the life of the house, the increased purchase and financing price of such a ``green'' house would be offset by lower energy and maintenance costs. Blanchard and Reppeused a technique called life cycle analysis to determine the total energy consumption of a 2,450-square-foot house built in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that resembles many of the new houses being built across the country.

Life cycle analysis quantifies everything from the production of the materials used to construct the house, through its use by a family of four and its eventual demolition.

Blanchard and Reppe found that over its lifetime, the standard house used energy equivalent to 2,525 barrels of crude oil. The same house, designed to be energy-efficient, used energy equivalent to 1,008 barrels.

The purchase price of the energy-efficient model would be $22,000 more than the estimated market value of $240,000 for the standard model.

If energy costs remain the same for the next half-century, the lifetime cost of the energy-efficient house would be $799,361, compared to $800,361 for the standard model. But if energy costs rise by just 1 per cent annually, the total lifetime costs of the energy-efficienthouse would be $51,761 less in 1998 dollars.

Medal for Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak Company has won the 1999 Gold Medal for International Corporate Environmental Achievement, according to The World Environment Center. The presentation will made on May 21, 1999, in Washington. George Fisher, Kodak chairman and CEO, will accept the Gold Medal on behalf of Kodak personnel worldwide.

``The Jury cited, from among Kodak's achievements, the significance of the reusable and recyclable single-use camera design and the specific link between management compensation and environment, health and safety performance,'' said Joel Abrams, chairman of the WEC Gold Medal Jury and Professor Emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh.

The WEC Gold Medal Jury, which is completely independent of WEC and its programmes, bases its decision on an exemplary environmental policy, globally uniform application of that policy and an international EH&S leadership that sets new corporate boundaries. The jury is made up ofdistinguished international environmentalists from academia, government, industry and non-governmental organisations.

Your next car could be green
The world's major automakers have demonstrated that the technology exists to bring the next generation or electric, fuel cell and hybrid vehicles to the consumer market and a non-profit organisation has been launched to encourage consumers to purchase them.

The `Your Next Car' campaign, launched by the Washington-based Breakthrough Technologies Institute, is designed to encourage and accelerate the transition to the next generation of motor vehicles and other advanced transportation systems.

At the Detroit auto show last January, the big three automakers showcased electric, fuel cell and hybrid vehicles, demonstrating that the technology exists to build ``green'' cars.

For the cars to make it to market, however, there needs to be consumer demand, writes Roland Hwang in a paper published by the Union of Concerned Scientists.