A cloud burst over arid Himalayan town of Leh in Ladakh on August 6, pouring some 250 mm of rain in an hour. The sudden downpour triggered flash floods and mudslides, killing over 180 people and wiping out the old town of Leh and two villages. Weathermen say the high-altitude …
FISHERS’ folklores are full of them but the creatures of the deep sea are still a mystery. An inventory of marine species, to be released in London on October 4, would answer the age-old question— what lives in the oceans? The Census of Marine Life, a network of researchers from …
Scientists at the Australian Academy of Sciences have issued a statement on dangers of global warming. The statement notes carbon emissions need to be cut by more than half by 2050 to keep temperature rises to less than two degrees. This is the first time the influential institute has taken …
China has tremendous climatic and ecological diversity, so the impacts of climate change on natural and managed systems might likewise be expected to be diverse. Yet so far systematic studies have been rare. Here, the impacts of historical and future climate change on water resources and agriculture in China are …
BLACK carbon, or soot, was known as a threat to only the public health until 2007 when the UN climate agency, IPCC, said it is a major contributor to global warming after CO2. The fine particulate matter, which efficiently absorbs sunlight and causes atmospheric warming, is released in large amounts …
CALL it a conspiracy between cloud and pollution. Stretches of clouds, impregnated with fine pollutants, or aerosols, reflect a large amount of sunlight over India back into space. This could be a major factor in the reduced radiation on the Indian soil, said researchers from Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology …
SEA level is rising, but only in parts of oceans. US researchers have said certain countries across the Indian Ocean, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and Bay of Bengal would see higher than the average sea level rise predicted by UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. On the contrary, …
Pune Leh cloudburst was an impact of global warming, feel scientists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. They said extreme events have been increasing in monsoon season due to warming.
Sadanand Tandel’s house is the dream of every tourist. A terrific sea view, waving coconut fronds and in a few dozen steps one can walk into the sea waves. Through Tandel’s eyes, however, the view is somber. Till 1991, 30 of his coconut trees stood where the sea is now. …
Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs play an important role in tropospheric chemistry by affecting the OH radical concentration, production of organic acids and photochemical oxidants. In order to develop efficient air pollution abatement strategies, it is important to know the sources and fate of VOCs, specially in the South-East Asian …
FOR TWO decades snowfall was one of the parameters Indian meteorologists used to predict monsoon in the subcontinent. They believed there was an inverse relation between snowfall in the Himalaya and monsoon; the wider the snow cover, the weaker the rainfall. But since 2007 the India Meteorological Department has dismissed …
US $1 TRILLION WORTH OF MINERALS Afghanistan is suddenly richThe Pentagon recently announced that Afghanistan is sitting on mineral wealth worth US $1 trillion—about 1,000 times the government’s annual revenue. The untapped mineral deposits, including iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium, a key raw material for laptop, cell phone and …
To examine changes in the wintertime seasonal (December, January and February) temperature and precipitation over the Siachen Glacier, one of the largest glaciers outside the polar region, an analysis of its temperature and precipitation indices is planned. In the present study, temperature and precipitation indices over a period of 23 …
As the oceans simultaneously warm, acidify and increase in PCO2, prospects for marine biota are of concern. Calcifying species may find it difficult to produce their skeleton because ocean acidification decreases calcium carbonate saturation and accompanying hypercapnia suppresses metabolism. However, this may be buffered by enhanced growth and metabolism due …
Climate change is leaving Ladakhis rather confused. This cold desert perched on the roof of the world is now warmer. There is more rain. Ladakhis are seeing these changes as a mixed blessing. Till some years ago Ladakh received merely 35 mm of rain. No farmer or household counted on …
This four minute video highlights the human face of climate change negotiations and shows why climate change is not only a sustainable development issue, but an issue of survival to Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
We present evidence that the Indian Sundarbans is experiencing the effects of climate change over the last three decades. Observations of selected variables, such as the surface water temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and transparency show significant long-term variation over a period of 27 years (1980
The impacts of climate change are expected to be generally detrimental for agriculture in many parts of Africa. Overall, warming and drying may reduce crop yields by 10 Original Source
Some of the Arabian Gulf states are busy developing several large, reclaimed islands and offshore townships. These structures are undoubtedly futuristic and the ideas are quite novel. However, there are serious issues of long-term sustainability of these townships. This article reviews and discusses natural hazards that have struck this region …
