Participating in a session on Adapting to Climate Risk, held at the annual World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, Lord Nicholas Stern, Chair, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, UK, noted that the world is heading towards a 3°C increase in global average temperature, and warned that this situation “will bring temperatures not seen [...]
You are browsing the archive for 2012 January.
A recent article in Science Magazine demonstrates how controlling methane and soot can have positive effects in a relatively short time on global warming, the Arctic, human health and agricultural productivity. It should be mandatory reading for all of the Republican presidential hopefuls and for President Barack Obama. If the next president refocuses international climate [...]
This year, the elites in Davos – debating the future of capitalism – faced a little more self-doubt than usual as to whether they have the best ideas to run the world, not least in the face of the intractable euro crisis. But the future of capitalism is just one big global challenge among many [...]
A cold war has been going on among government departments over control of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) cell for the last four months. The devolved Ministry of Environment became the National Designated Authority (NDA) of the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change after it established the cell and placed it under Enercon back [...]
On January 2, 2012, local communities in the Thulokhola watershed in Nuwakot gave the SLPS project research team a heartfelt traditional welcome with garlands and red powder, as well as flowers, fruits, coconuts and water jars adorned with flowers as they proceeded up the hill. The team was first greeted by the local communities at [...]
Based on decades of research by the scientific community, there is now wide recognition that emissions of greenhouse gases are changing the climate in the Himalayan region and that the future impacts from such changes will harmful, especially to the rural population of Uttarakhand. In response, policymakers across India are beginning to consider what actions [...]
Suman K A : Close to a billion population on this planet lack access to safe drinking water, modern energy services and food to lead healthy and productive lives; a great majority of them residing in the SSA and South Asian regions. The problem is likely to be exacerbated with ever growing population, climate change, [...]
The Mountain Research Initiative promotes and coordinates research on global change in mountain regions around the world. As part of that mission, MRI funds workshops that bring together global change researchers from around the world to address specific topics of interest to the mountain research community with the objective of producing a synthesis article for [...]
Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, 8-10 May 2012————-IUFRO and Information: Direction 2012 Information has been central to IUFRO’s brief since its foundation in the nineteenth century, and it has maintained a specialist research group dealing with information in various forms for well over a century. Following the latest re-organisation, this role is now held by the [...]
International Ecosystem Management Partnership (IEMP), co-sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was officially launched on Nov 18th 2011 in Beijing. IEMP is the first UNEP collaborative programme in the south and for the south. The core mandate of IEMP is to synthesis science findings for [...]
It could be much more difficult than we thought to feed everyone in a warmer world. Satellite images of northern India have revealed that extreme temperatures are cutting wheat yields. What’s more, models used to predict the effects of global warming on food supply may have underestimated the problem by a third. In India’s breadbasket, [...]
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Thursday called for a global approach to respond to climate risks in view of vulnerability and inability of developing nation to cope with the challenge. Participating in an interactive Session on “Adapting to Climate Risk” that focused on how the communities, companies and countries were adapting to the risks posed [...]
Looking at the swirling grey waters of the Bhote Koshi River, Ratna Kaji remembers when it turned into a “monster,” leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. “It came down roaring, washed away homes and people when they were sleeping,” the 77-year-old said of the 1996 flood, caused by a massive landslide that blocked [...]
The Himalayan Stove Project is dedicated to preserving the Himalayan environment and improving the health of the people living in the trans-Himalayan region. We provide clean cookstoves to individuals and families living in the Himalayas who now cook with traditional, rudimentary cookstoves or over open fire pits inside their homes, consuming excessive amounts of precious [...]
What was past glaciation in the Bhutan Himalayas like? Current mountain landscapes (i.e. glacier lakes, ancient lakes, water fall, and rock cliff etc.) relate largely to the past behaviour of Bhutan’s glaciers. Although it is reported that Bhutan’s mountain glaciers have shrunk in recent years, past behaviour of Bhutan’s glaciers has not been well studied, [...]
Climate change has long-since ceased to be a scientific curiosity, and is no more just one of many environmental and regulatory concerns. It is the major, overriding environmental issue of our time, and the single greatest challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a growing crisis with economic, health and safety, food production, security, and other [...]
It is official: India has the world’s most toxic air. In a study by Yale and Columbia Universities, India holds the very last rank among 132 nations in terms of air quality with regard to its effect on human health. India scored a miniscule 3.73 out of a possible 100 points in the analysis, lagging [...]
The best reassurance that Pakistan can have is full Indian compliance with the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty. This article is not about the complex political or strategic reasons that the water establishment in the government and/or the army in Pakistan may have for projecting water as a new core issue between that country [...]
Climate Change and Development short course: 5 – 18 September 2012: The purpose of this course is to equip non-specialists with a broad understanding of what climate change may mean for low-income populations and what the scope and prospects are for adapting to change in the context of development issues and poverty reduction. The course [...]
The 4th edition of the Earth Care Awards has been launched Earth Care Award For Excellence in Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation for SAARC Region Countries Eligible countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives To highlight activities emanating from different sectors in response to the call for local level action [...]
Through fellowships and residential writing workshops, a new project ‘Support to Improve Climate Change and Information Services in South Asia’ (SICRISA) is providing training and support to South Asian scientists and social scientists. We are now looking for mentors who will be able to help the participants to: Publish in peer reviewed journals And where [...]
Reuters: Picture this: a terrible drought forces you to abandon your meagre plot of farmland, so you migrate to a city where the jobs are, only to end up living in a slum regularly submerged by floods. It’s a scenario that’s going to become more and more familiar in coming years as climate change and [...]
The days when doctors used to advise the sick a visit to the pristine hills may soon be over as trends indicate that higher altitudes would be more susceptible to diseases caused by an erratic weather pattern attributed to climate change. The draft of the first of its kind compilation of various studies aimed at [...]
Universities and research institutions working in the mountain and hilly regions of Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan have agreed to work together as a network for mountain-focused teaching, research, and outreach in the Hindu Kush–Himalayan (HKH) region. The collaboration was cemented at a conference of more than two dozen university vice chancellors, deans, professors, [...]
WSJ: There’s no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to ‘decarbonize’ the world’s economy. A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about “global warming.” Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global [...]
The significant negative impacts of climate change have become an interest shared not only on an international and national level but also on a local community level. Farmers in rural areas face the negative impacts of climate change in the form of harvest failure, the reduction of farming production and also the degradation of the [...]
There are many forces at work making it difficult to stop global warming. Many assume that the cost of creating a healthy planet will be astronomical in comparison to the results it will yield — partially because the benefits will be far in the future. The old standby of restricting carbon dioxide (CO2) and other [...]
DAVOS: Pointing out that Pakistan has “excellent” relationship with India, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday said cooperation between the two to tackle climate change was “doable”. He said Islamabad wants to work with New Delhi on this front. “Yes, certainly there can be cooperation. We have excellent relationship with India and we want [...]
If public interest in climate change can be measured by political speeches, the issue has fallen on hard times haunted by uncertainty in the science and a continuing economic downturn which demands attention. In his 7,000-word, annual State of the Union address, U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday mentioned the words “climate change” once, while [...]
Sudhirendar Sharma Tagged as fragile, remote and marginal, these three aspects have featured prominently in discussions and deliberations concerning development in the mountains in our part of the world. Retired but active academician N S Jodha, a former senior staff with the Kathmandu-based Integrated Center for International Mountain Development, has been credited for using these [...]
DNA: The melting down of the Himalayan glaciers due to climate change may be solving the current water crisis, but can also have a devastating effect on animal and human lives in the long run, environmentalist and polar explorer Robert Swan has said. “What scares me is that people think that it is fine for [...]
SciDevNet: This policy brief, published by Science, examines how agricultural science can help improve policies for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Global food production must rise to meet global food needs, but predicted increases in extreme weather events — combined with stresses such as poverty, conflict and weak governance — threaten food security. At the [...]
The Diplomat: Earlier this month, the Doomsday Clock – popularized by the graphic novel Watchmen – was moved a minute closer to midnight, leaving it set at five minutes to midnight, or “Doomsday.” This isn’t the closest it has been (that was back in 1953, when the United States and Soviet Union tested thermonuclear devices [...]
Guardian: Three years after it was decimated by cyclone Aila, Bainpara in south-west Bangladesh is being rebuilt with UK assistance. On 25 May 2009, the village of Bainpara, in the district of Khulna on Bangladesh’s south-west coast, was wiped off the map. Driven by the 120km/h winds of cyclone Aila, a 12ft wall of sea [...]
TIME: Climate change might hit us in the most vital place of all — the dinner plate Why do we care about climate change? Obviously we worry about what warming temperatures might do to the geography of the planet — particularly melting polar ice and raising global sea levels. We fear the impact that climate [...]
The Gazette: For the last 11,700 years, mankind has lived in what geologists refer to as the Holocene epoch. This interglacial period has been defined by its stable warm climatic conditions that have allowed Homo sapiens to populate the Earth and become its dominant species. Many scientists now believe that over the last 200 years, [...]
Noreen Haider: It has been more than six years when the Northern areas of Pakistan were hit by one of the most devastating earthquake in the history of the region. The earthquake measured 7.6 on the Richter scale and within the very few first seconds created an unimaginable devastation in an area of more than [...]
Guardian: Leading experts lend support to Freedom of Information request concerning climate sceptic foundation chaired by Lord Lawson. Leading climate scientists have given their support to a Freedom of Information request seeking to disclose who is funding the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a London-based climate sceptic thinktank chaired by the former Conservative chancellor Lord Lawson. [...]
CDKN: India is a large country with a diverse climate. Diverse seasons mean diverse crops and farming systems. There is a high dependency of agriculture on the monsoon rains and a close link exists between climate and water resources. Two thirds of the area is rain dependent. Add to this picture the small land holdings, poor [...]
Climate Progress: A few simple and clear pictures (and links) showing how the planet continued to warm and change around us in 2011 by Peter Gleick, water and climate scientist, in a Forbes repost These facts are just part of why all national academies of science on the planet and every major geophysical scientific society agree that [...]
CDKN: Disasters and Climate Change Disasters can be sudden, such as earthquakes or floods, or may build up gradually, such as a drought. An important consequence of climate change will be the increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme events such as floods, droughts, windstorms and heat waves. Whether hazards become disasters depends on [...]
APN: The adverse effects of climate change and natural climate variability pose a significant threat to humanity, with the poorest communities being the most vulnerable. Scientific understanding of our climate is advancing at a significant rate, with new information emerging about the likely impacts of climate change, the options to adapt to these changes, and [...]
Earlier this month, Bangladesh’s foreign minister chided the world’s developed nations for failing to honor their pledge to help this low-lying, water-logged nation adapt to the effects of climate change. Of the $30 billion that poor countries were promised three years ago, just $2.5 billion have been disbursed. “Our achievements — social, economic, environmental — [...]
Greenfudge: One European bicycle culture consulting firm, Copenhagenize Consulting, released there results for a study exploring the world’s most bicycle friendly cities. By no coincidence, this index is named after the world capital for bicycle culture, Copenhagen. The index takes 20 major cities and analyzes them on 13 categories, including; advocacy, bicycle culture, bicycle infrastructure, perception [...]
Through Climate Change community of UN Solution Exchange India the Earth Day Network has floated query on Women and the Green Economy for its Campaign (http://www.earthday.org/wage) to increase the opportunities for women’s leadership in designing and advancing the new Green Economy. It finds that there is limited participation of women in the discussions, planning, and leadership of the newly [...]
Scientists should increasingly make critical contributions to ensure food security and environmental sustainability, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) systems ecologist Dr Bob Scholes said on Friday, adding that there was a need to better understand the link between climate change and food production. More attention should be given to developing agricultural practices that [...]
The National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) attached to the Department of Space, government of India, is planning to set up a network of LIDAR (Laser Radar System) with the help of indigenously developed sensor tools in ten locations across the country in the first phase to study the aerosol distribution over India. This was disclosed [...]
Earth Child Institute (ECI) Nepal officially inaugurated its first initiative “Global School Campaign” on Jan 21, Saturday, to inform and empower children on global environmental issues, and encourage them to adopt green, healthy and sustainable lifestyles in their schools and communities. To achieve the goal, they are envisioning to collaborate with 200 schools around the [...]
Scientific American Blog: Kanchha, our Sherpa guide, took off at an unexpectedly fast pace along what seemed little more than a dry and dusty yak track. We chased after him as best we could, affected as we were by the combination of altitude and the large lunch we had just consumed at the teahouse at [...]
Voice of America: A team of scientists is urging that agriculture be a top priority in climate change negotiations, saying it’s vital for global food security and for reducing carbon emissions. The recommendations appear in the January 20th issue of Science magazine. The international team was led by Sir John Beddington, Britain’s chief scientific advisor. [...]
UPSC Portal: 1. Overview India is faced with the challenge of sustaining its rapid economic growth while dealing with the global threat of climate change. This threat emanates from accumulated greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, anthropogenically generated through long-term and intensive industrial growth and high consumption lifestyles in developed countries. While engaged with the [...]
BEN: Australia’s infrastructure is not prepared to withstand the consequences of catastrophic climate change events such as floods, droughts, coastal erosion, tropical cyclones, fires and seal level rise. The report released today calls on all stakeholders to address regulatory frameworks gaps, which are acting as barriers towards effective climate adaptation. It analyses the extent to [...]
We are pleased to share the main points highlighted in “World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2012 Highlights of 16th January, 2012″: (By: Linkages, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Reporting Services, 18th January, 2012. The highlights is available at: http://www.iisd.ca/ymb/energy/wfes/wfes2012/html/ymbvol187num8e.html#top) The fifth World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2012 opened in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on [...]
2012 International Conference on Geological andEnvironmental Sciences(ICGES 2012)29 to 30 June 2012Jeju Island, Korea (South) ICGES 2012 will be published as conferenceproceeding, and all papers in the proceedingswill be included in the E&T Digital Library, andindexed by EBSCO, CNKI, WorldCat, Google Scholar. The deadline for abstracts/proposals is 10 March2012. Enquiries: icges@cbees.orgWeb address: http://www.icges.org/cfp.htmSponsored by: CBEES [...]
http://disccrs.org/disccrsposter.pdf Dates: October 13-20, 2012 Location: La Foret Conference and Retreat CenterColorado Springs, CO Application Deadline: February 29, 2012Participation limited to 30 early-career Ph.D. scholarsAirfare and on-site expenses are supported through grants from NSF and NASAhttp://disccrs.org Eligibility: Ph.D. requirements completed between August 1, 2009 – February 29, 2012 in any natural or social science field [...]
NASA: Hubble Solves Mystery on Source of Supernova in Nearby Galaxy 01.12.12 Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have solved a longstanding mystery on the type of star, or so-called progenitor, which caused a supernova seen in a nearby galaxy. The finding yields new observational data for pinpointing one of several scenarios that trigger [...]
NewYork Times: Agriculture has long been a stepchild in global negotiations over the climate. Hopes had risen that this might change at the latest big global climate session, in Durban, South Africa, in December. It did not. Now, a group of experts led by John Beddington, the chief science adviser of the British government, is [...]
EurekaAlert: Modest advances for agriculture in Durban signal need for scientific input While last month’s climate negotiations in Durban made incremental progress toward helping farmers adapt to climate change and reduce agriculture’s climate footprint, a group of international agriculture experts, writing in the January 20 issue of Science magazine, urges scientists to lay the groundwork [...]
PHYSORG: Biodiversity is declining rapidly throughout the world. The challenges of conserving the world’s species are perhaps even larger than mitigating the negative effects of global climate change. Dealing with the biodiversity crisis requires political will and needs to be based on a solid scientific knowledge if we are to ensure a safe future for [...]
