The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
LET us accept the general consensus of scientists that global warming is happening, that it is caused largely by carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels, and that it cannot be reversed without a reduction in the use of fossil fuels. Following on from Rio and more recently Berlin, most …
The fallout of the much-debated phenomenon of global warming may not merely be a rise in temper- ature. it might result in devastating bouts of rainfall, say scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ashville, North Carolina, In a recent study. The days of "fight and moderate" rainfall …
A GROUP Of Scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboragtory In the us have come up with a unique strategy to Pee the carbon dim (Cod gas emans from fuel-burning plants - report responsible for the global war" phenomenon - harmless. Atcordin Klaus S Lackner, the chief physich the laboratory, …
ECONOMISTS who sparked off a furore by valuing the life of a citizen of a developing country at a 15th of an Euro-pean or a us citizen's, faced flak at a meeting in Geneva of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ipcc), held from July 24-28. The governments of India, …
AN INITIATIVE adopted by Kamal Nath, Union minister of environment and forests, to mobilise developing countries to checkmate the move to modify the 1992 London amendment of the Montreal Protocol on phasing out ozone depleting substances (ODS), labels the deeper objective of developed countries to stake out markets for their …
The international community may agree to do without chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) -- the chemicals identified as being primarily responsible for the depletion of the earth's ozone shield -- but the state of Arizona is not about to be bullied into doing so. The state legislature has passed a law allowing the …
SULPHATE aerosols are not all bad. Meteorologists now say tharsulphate aerosols help mitigate global warming. Researchers from the UK Meteorological Office's Hadley Centre have developed a computer model that simulates the way in which aerosols mitigate Predicted (1860-2050) and observed the process of global warming. The scientists claim that the …
WHEN vegetation sprouts in a desert, it is a good sign; but when the ice in the Arctic and the Antarctic begins to turn green, there is something terribly wrong. There have been a spate of reports in recent weeks pointing towards a possible change in the shape of the …
EVEN while the Berlin Summit on climate Change was in progress, 20 European companies, under the aegis of the European Business Council for a sustainable Energy Future, have forged alliance for "promoting technologies it fight global warming". The Council mctions as a sister concern of the Fear-old us group that …
FINANCIAL planners in insurance companies across the world hold their breath as the world leaders squabble over new cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at the Berlin Climate Convention Summit. The phenomenon of global warming might seriously affect their future, says Richard Keeling of the Harvey Bowring Lloyd's Syndicate, London. The …
SPECULATION is on about the effect of global warming on fish production. The world's marine population is, as it is, subjugate to various factors such as water temperature, salinity, ocean currents, predator-prey relationship, food and nutrient availability, rainfall and pollution due to human activity and new technologies. This interesting and …
WHILE scientists debate the reality of global warming, an extraordinary experiment in the Pacific has dredged up impressive evidence in favour of the seemingly preposterous idea that pumping iron into the sea might stave off the heating of the planet. The theory is that many parts of the ocean lack …
THAT biomass can be an antidote against global warming is an optimistic proposition. It seems unlikely that afforestation can keep pace with the rate of pollution of the atmosphere. Even if it did, it appears inconceivable that enough land would be available to grow trees to absorb sufficient volumes of …
AS EUROPE sticks its snorkel out of the muddy and deep waters of the continent's most devastating floods this century, the efficacy of its dykes comes under pained introspection. Cutting across the Netherlands, Germany, France and Belgium is a realisation that the continent's much-praised flood control practices may be soft …
RICE staple diet of a large part of the world, was not entirely benign. Paddy fields, existing predominantly in tropical developing countries that account for about 90 per cent of globsl rice production, have been blamed for producing vast quantities of global-warming methane. But now, the former director of the …
"THE west is the best". Rocker Jim Morrison in a song called The End. The song revolves around the phrase, exposing its contradictions with images of incest and "children going insane". Today, Morrison is dead and the song has become a classic, mark of a bygone countercultural moment. But the …
The ozone layer over the Antarctica was nearly as severely depleted in November last year as it was in 1993, when it reached a record low, reveal several airborne and space sensors. According to Richard Bevilacqua of the US Naval Research Laboratory, ozone levels began falling in May 1994, and …
THE ozone layer protects the earth's surface from the harmful effects of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Ozone depletion would therefore imply an increase in UV radiation which, scientists fear, could lead to an increase in skin cancer and cataracts, and perhaps adversely affect agricultural systems. But now climatologists point …
Friends of the Earth (FOE) Netherlands organised a Greenhouse Tour from September 3 to December 11. They travelled by boat through the many canals and rivers in the Netherlands, visiting 42 municipalities that have signed the Climate Alliance, a declaration in which municipalities have pledged to do all they can …
AT A halt in Geneva during a recent globetrotting trip, Union environment minister Kamal Nath figuratively explained his view of the uneven environmental realities of the world. He asserted that the much-blamed population of the South, with "4 children per family" hardly taxed the earth's resources as much as the …
