UN Solution Exchange India and Bhutan: Query: Enhancing the Reach and Effectiveness of Climate Himalaya Initiative Knowledge Sharing Platform – Advice. Reply by 24 June 2011 Moderator’s Note: Enhancing the reach and effectiveness of knowledge platforms like the Climate Himalaya Initiative (CHI) is crucial as they play a critical role in knowledge sharing, advocacy, research [...]

Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University: Few members of the public understand that nearly all climate scientists are convinced that human-caused global warming is occurring. Yesterday GMUreleased the first of four reports from our latest national survey on Americans’ climate change and energy beliefs, attitudes, policy support, and behavior. In this report:  Americans’ [...]

Climate change is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development, with adverse impacts expected on the environment, human health, food security, economic activity, natural resources and physical infrastructure. Global climate varies naturally, but scientists agree that rising concentrations of anthropogenically-produced greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere are leading to changes [...]

AllVoices: On Error-free Projections by UN Climate Panel. United Nations Inter-governmental Panel of Climate Change has projected in its 2007 report that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035. The projection by none other than one United Nations body was enough to chill the spine of the environmental activists and others. 2007 climate panel of United [...]

Glaciers are the world’s largest reservoir of fresh water, holding approximately 75% of the world’s fresh water. Over the past century, most of the world’s mountain glaciers and the ice sheets in both Greenland and Antarctica have lost mass. But glacier melt is not limited to these areas. Glaciers are located on every continent, except [...]

IPS News: Heavy rainfall means that over 500,000 people living in mountainous areas in Uganda need to be relocated as they live in areas at risk to landslides. In 2010 over 300 people died on the slopes of Mount Elgon, eastern Uganda after days of heavy rains led to landslides on the mountain. Thousands more [...]

AsiaSociety: Glaciers in Asia are creating an uncertain future across the region.  From Nepal to the Tibetan Plateau, Bhutan to India and the Bay of Bengal, a way of life is under threat.  The climate is changing and life as we know it from the mountains to sea is falling out of balance.  These glaciers [...]

Greaterkashmir.com: The state of Jammu and Kashmir in India has a geographical area of 24.16 lakh hectares with 22 districts, 82 tehsils, 142  community blocks, 4136 panchayats and 6652 villages with a population of 101.3 lakh, of which 76.27 lakh live in rural areas (75.19%) with a literacy rate of 55.5% only. Out of the [...]

Approximately 30% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from land use and land use change. Sustainable land management (SLM) projects have the potential to not only reduce GHG emissions, by reducing emissions from biomass burning, biomass decomposition and the decomposition of soil organic matter, but also to sequester carbon (C) through practices that increase biomass [...]

MydigitalFC.Com: Last week, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) published on their website a draft before issuing the final guidelines for eco-tourism in and around protected areas. These guidelines have mainly two objectives: Provide alternative livelihood opportunities for local communities and have low-impact tourism that protects the ecological integrity of wilderness areas, secures wildlife [...]

Indian Express: Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said the Ministry will now declare wetlands by referring to a detailed wetland atlas produced by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Ramesh said he had written to chief mninsters of all states six months ago for declaring wetlands within their states, but not a single [...]

Eurekalert: We often think of rainforests and coral reefs as hotspots for biodiversity, but mountains are treasure troves for species too —especially in the tropics, scientists say. But what drives montane biodiversity? The diversity of plants and animals in tropical mountain ranges may have something to do with the stable seasonal temperatures found in the [...]

Continuing developments in GIS software are opening up a number of possibilities for capturing and processing geographical data, and then presenting it via the internet. The ability to manage information on water and sanitation services and then overlay it onto Google Earth images has wide-ranging benefits for project planning and design, and for monitoring, advocacy and [...]