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 [...]
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SciDevNet: Reducing methane and black carbon emissions could quickly tackle climate change while improving food security and people’s health, especially in developing countries, a study reports. Scientists identified 14 emission control measures that, when applied together, could reduce global warming by around 0.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, avoid up to 4.7 million premature deaths, and [...]
Times of India: Chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra K Pachauri has said that nuclear energy cannot be a universal solution to resolving issues like shortage of energy. The IPCC is an international organisation promoted by the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Meteorological Organisation, for study and assessment of the [...]
BBC UK: A rapid rise in air pollution from fossil fuels and biomass burning has worsened winter smog and extended its duration in many parts of South Asia, scientists and officials have said. In Bangladesh, India and Nepal the temperature has plummeted and clouds of fog and smoke hang in the sky blocking sunlight for [...]
Energy Bulletine: The costs and consequences of climate change on our world will define the 21st century. Even if nations across our planet were to take immediate steps to rein in carbon emissions—an unlikely prospect—a warmer climate is inevitable. As the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, noted in 2007, human-created “warming of [...]
Bangkok Post: A city once famous for its extensive network of canals, known locally as khlongs, Bangkok had long since been filled over to make way for an ever-expanding network of roads in this rapidly modernising city of 12 million people. Across the developing world, the pressure on cities to build new industrial, commercial, residential [...]
Health 24: Greener vehicles won’t make us healthier. They’ll have no effect on the human misery from accidents, pollution and physical sloth linked to car culture, say health experts. Transport policy changes recommended by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focus too much on better fuel and engine performance, and not enough on health [...]
The New York Times: With its massive chalk-white face of ice and snow, Thorthormi glacier in northern Bhutan looms high against a bright blue sky, nearly 4,450 meters above sea level. At the glacier’s base, a wide lake of murky water completes the dramatic scene at the rooftop of the world. But the beauty of [...]
From the Atkins to the Dukan, protein-based diets are big news in the celebrity world. But what effect is our love affair with meat, fish and cheese having on the environment? Barely a week goes by without news of another ‘wonder diet’ hitting the headlines. Along with the bedroom antics of the Premier League’s finest [...]
Science 2.0: Although the fundamental tenets of many religions may have some bearing on conservation activities, the relationship between spiritualism and environmentalism is perhaps most obvious in the case of Buddhism. The close ties between Buddhism and conservation-mindedness were recently described by His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, in an essay published [...]
Scientific American: Warmer temperatures will combine with numerous other factors to make diseases like malaria and West Nile virus harder to control. Climate change can influence how infectious diseases affect the world, particularly illnesses spread by vectors like mosquitoes. Now scientists have developed some understanding about how rainfall and temperature can influence malaria, dengue and [...]
Reliefweb: Shared knowledge provides better Climate Change adaptation. In order to strengthen the work on climate change adaptation in Asian countries, more knowledge is required and a better exchange of experiences. A newly created regional platform will provide those who work with climate change adaptation with the correct tools so that they can better develop [...]
IPS: CUZCO, Peru- “This year the freeze killed my crops, our small livestock died, and now I can’t even sleep because I’m worried sick thinking about how to put food on my family’s table, since I’m a widow,” said Rosaura Huatay, an indigenous farmer in Peru’s northern Andes highlands. Huatay and four other campesinas or [...]
Deccan Herald: A team of US and Korean scientists blame high levels of air pollution in South Asia for a sharp rise in the intensity of tropical cyclones over the Arabian Sea during and before the monsoon, writes Kalyan Ray . Increased air pollution in South Asia including India is pushing up cyclone intensity in [...]
Pak Observer: The International Energy Agency (IEA) in its annual World Energy Outlook Report has warned that the world has just five years to avoid being trapped in a scenario of perilous climate change and extreme weather events. It warned that the current trends of rising fossil energy use will lead to irreversible and potentially [...]
Practical Action: This briefing focuses on the impact of climate change on Nepal’s rural poor. A great deal has been written on the challenges of providing clean energy and the risks to urban populations but, as this paper outlines, climate change also has many other consequences. Rural communities, whose livelihoods are intimately tied to the [...]
World Crunch: Melting glaciers in the Himalayas put the small Kingdom of Bhutan at risk. Not only are the “frozen reservoirs” a fundamental water source, but the melting can also cause GLOFS – aka: ‘mountain tsunamis’ – killer flash floods that occur when glacial lakes suddenly burst. The Kingdom of Bhutan, tucked between India and [...]
Huffingtonpost: A tally of lost lives and health care expenditures arising from just six recent weather-related or epidemiological events suggests that the economic toll of future climate change is likely to be even more staggering than previously thought, according to a study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs. The analysis, conducted by a team [...]
Sunday Morning Herald: Amid the bullishness about Asia’s economic future, and the potential for Australia to benefit, there’s a nasty downside risk that can’t be ignored – climate change. With more than half the world’s population, Asia has more at stake than any other region. It has become the largest contributor to the global increase [...]
Earth Times: Flecks of soot from a smoky open stove in India blacken more than just the roofs of the hut it is smoldering in. Fine particles of such smoke lodge deep in the lungs of women preparing meals, gifting them a dark scourge of ill-health and premature death. That same black soot floats higher [...]
Zee News: The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated, a sign of how feeble the world’s efforts are at slowing man-made global warming. The new figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined [...]
Eurekalert: Some people may consider them pests, but ants are key to many plants’ survival. In the eastern US, ants are integral to plant biodiversity because they help disperse seeds. But ants’ ability to perform this vital function, and others, may be jeopardized by climate change, according to Nate Sanders, Associate Professor of Ecology and [...]
Amrit Banstola: The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that ―warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from scientific observations of increases in global average temperature, melting of snow and ice, and rising of global average sea level. And from various evidences from recent studies, the climate change [...]
Himalayan Times: The United Nations Climate Change Conference, Durban 2011, is now warming up, and preparations are taking place. It will bring together representatives of the world’s governments, international organizations and civil society. The discussions will seek to advance the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan, [...]
Republica: Climate change has drawn global attention. Enunciation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC, 1992) is testimony to this, which is desperately trying to save the world from impending climate catastrophe through deliberations at annual Convention of Parties (COP) meetings. This is conceived both through mitigation (direct reduction of green house [...]
Digital Journal: Of late, all is not well with the world’s most wanted caterpillars: the Cordyceps mushrooms, grown exclusively in the Himalayan region. Cordyceps is a rare species of mushroom widely used both in clinical medicine and as a household remedy. There are few countries where Cordyceps grow in the wild. These are Nepal, Bhutan [...]
In central Nepal, where rugged terrain and widespread poverty limit veterinary care, more than two in ten goats will succumb to parasites and disease. Goats are a source of food and a living bank account that can be cashed in for school fees or a medical emergency. For a woman who tends goats, the loss [...]
National Geographic: As I approached Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, the highway divided. What I remembered as a rough two-lane road that ran through town and hosted an occasional vehicle was now a six-lane divided highway full of taxis, SUVs, trucks and buses. Huge shopping centers, ubiquitous cellular coverage and a train that facilitates the arrival of [...]
NRDC Executive Director Peter Lehner and Director of Global Strategy & Advocacy Jacob Scherr joined UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner at the United Nations today to declare victory in the decades-long campaign to eliminate leaded gasoline worldwide. At the event, Dr. Thomas Hatfield of California State University, Northridge, released an independent, peer-reviewed study, which found [...]
Reuters: Like oil in the 20th century, water could well be the essential commodity on which the 21st century will turn. Human beings have depended on access to water since the earliest days of civilization, but with 7 billion people on the planet as of Oct. 31, exponentially expanding urbanization and development are driving demand [...]
Kuenselonline: The Big Four ought to do their bit to reduce the waste created from consuming their products. Cold Drinks Companies It is a very common sight to find disposed plastic bottles littering an area almost anywhere in Bhutan. The most common brands on these disposed plastic bottles belong to four major companies of Bhutan Agro, [...]
Business Green: As doctors warn of rising climate impacts new research predicts sea levels will rise 75cm by 2100 Medical experts have urged policy makers to take concrete steps to tackle climate change, warning that failure to do so poses an immediate, grave and escalating threat to the health and security of billions of people [...]
CDKN Blog: In Malkangiri, one of eastern India’s poorest provinces, lives Mangu Adari. The year before last, Mangu planted paddy, millets, lentils and beans on his two hectares of somewhat unproductive rain-fed farmland. The monsoons arrived early in June, a month in advance, and then the rains stopped for weeks; most seedlings wilted. Last year, once again, the [...]
News Daily: Plants and animals are shrinking because of warmer temperatures and lack of water, researchers said on Monday, warning it could have profound implications for food production in years ahead. “The worst-case scenarios … are that food crops and animals will shrink enough to have real implications for food security,” Assistant Professor David Bickford, [...]
Reuters: The Earth’s natural resources like food, water and forests are being depleted at an alarming speed, causing hunger, conflict, social unrest and species extinction, experts at a climate and health conference in London warned on Monday. Increased hunger due to food yield changes will lead to malnutrition; water scarcity will deteriorate hygiene; pollution will [...]
The Daily Star: Climate Change is ‘increasingly recognized as a public health priority’ according to WHO (2009) and Lancet (2011). Lancet, mentioned that climate change will have its greatest impact on those who already are the poorest in the world, and it will deepen inequities, and the effects of global warming will shape the future [...]
Amrit Banstola: The climate change is disrupting to human health as it causes various health effects. The health effects are vivid in developing countries like Nepal. The precautionary principle, as articulated at the 1998 Wingspread Conference, http://www.sehn.org/wing.html holds that “When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should [...]
Economics Times: The US has provided over USD 65 million to the government of Nepal for food, climate change and health services as part of efforts to achieve the objectives of President Barack Obama’s global initiatives in these fields. The assistance was provided through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under its ongoing [...]
Friday Times: What role has climate change played in this year’s flooding? Climate change is the multiplier only – it is bad for everyone, especially the poor but it is even worse for the poor under bad governance. The present flooding in Sindh has affected all 23 districts, almost the entire province. The damage is [...]
Friday Times: With several inherent flaws, the draft National Climate Change Policy is likely to suffer the same fate as its predecessors A man asked a neighbourhood grocer for 25 kilogrammes of grain and said he would pay later. The grocer agreed and started weighing five portions of five kilos each. Each time he weighed, [...]
Economic Times: Increasing pollution levels are threatening fresh water bodies worldwide, but the problem is assuming the shape of an environmental crisis in a developing country like India. A study of lakes in Thane, Maharashtra, undertaken by environmental chemist Pravin Singare of Bhavan’s College, Mumbai, and colleagues, shows how they are being contaminated by the [...]
Dawn: Speakers at a seminar on flood relief measures have said that in the wake of climate change reports, it has become crucial for Pakistan to make special efforts to meet the challenges posed by natural disasters whose frequency has increased over the past few years. They added that this could be done by identifying [...]
Daily Star: Heaving seas, scorching summers, dying forests and watery end to the coastal areas are some of the penalties people around the globe have to pay, scientists believe, for failing to do something about global warming fueling climate change in the last one decade. Climate change will have wide-ranging and mostly damaging impacts on [...]
Womens eNews: The documentary “Weathering Change,” released today, shows how climate change is disproportionately impacting women. In one Nepali woman’s village, the forest has been depleted and only a quarter of the inhabitants have enough to eat. Walking into the forest near her home, Sarada Chaudhary likes to look up. Above her head, branches weave [...]
UPI: The United Nations appealed for $357 million for flood-ravaged southern Pakistan. An estimated 5.4 million people have been affected by the floods stemming from heavy monsoon rains. Nearly 1 million homes have been destroyed and 72 percent of crops lost in the worst affected areas in Sindh and Balochistan. In launching its Rapid Response [...]
Huffington Post: Gardening in a suburban area is more difficult than most people imagine. There are problems with soil quality and plot space, water and weather. But nothing is more menacing than the docile deer. Decades of development left the deer virtually unthreatened by natural predators, and the arrival of humans and their gardens provided [...]
Guardian: Numbers of people displaced by environmental and weather-related disasters likely to increase, Asian Development Bank warns. More than 30 million people were displaced last year by environmental and weather-related disasters across Asia, experts have warned, and the problem is only likely to grow worse as climate change exacerbates such problems. Tens of millions more [...]
The New American: “Global warming is more likely to improve rather than harm human health,” according to a new study published by three non-profit climate research organizations. Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report directly challenges findings of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which publishes regular assessment reportsused by governments worldwide, including [...]
Amrit Banstola: Harsh weather and extreme climatic events are expected to become more common as a result of climate change in Nepal (LI-BIRD, 2006). Extreme weather events such as floods, landslides, heat waves, storms, extreme cold, fires, and droughts are among the well-established consequences of climate change in Nepal. Health conditions like heat stroke, injuries, [...]
One Pakistan: Flooding, drought and superstorms boosted by climate change are not only poised to ravage human habitats but mental health as well, according to Australian researchers. “The damage caused by a changing climate is not just physical,” they said in a report released this week by the Brain and Mind Institute at the University [...]
Alertnet: The recent statement of the UN Security Council identifying the impacts of climate change as a threat to international peace and security is most timely. Nothing can be more severe as a looming threat to humanity than the rapid climatic changes witnessed by the world today. Putting an end to the debate over climate [...]
IISD:The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has released a report titled “Accounting for Health Impacts of Climate Change.” The report highlights that Asia and the Pacific host the greatest number of people vulnerable to the projected adverse impacts of climate change, which will challenge the public health community at the global, national, and local levels with the appearance of [...]
This joint publication of IIED and Irish Aid is part of a series that aims to clarify the links between the environment, climate change and key development sectors, and provide guidance on strategies available for mainstreaming the environment and climate change into national policies. This briefing focuses on health. Nearly one quarter of the global [...]
WeekendObserver: According to the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) in its scientific report, “Global temperatures are expected to increase 3.5 to 8 decrees Fahrenheit by 2050, and there is a 1 in 10 chance that the increase could be far worses, a risk that many expert believe is too great to be [...]
NepalNews: The UN-HABITAT, the UN human settlement programme, has warned that the rapidly urbanising places like Kathmandu are at the risk of unprecedented negative impacts of climate change on the quality of life and economic and social stability. Climate change effects such as extreme weather events, damage to buildings and urban infrastructure, problems of waterborne [...]
Dawn Pakistan: As the World Population Day dawns, two images spring to mind: the first, news reports of Pakistan’s 180 million population, set to grow to 275 million by year 2050 — clearly unsustainable for this poverty-ridden country. The second: a husband, anxiously parading up and down outside a labour room, thinking, “Girl or boy”, [...]
WasteManagementWorld: The United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization reported in mid-June that widespread implementation of just 16 measures to reduce emissions of black carbon and ozone (principally the precursors methane and carbon dioxide) can give the world a fighting chance of limiting global temperature rise to two degrees or less. These proven [...]
Eldis Resource: Building on the information presented at the 2009 Joint Indo–U.S. Workshop on Climate Change and Health in Goa, India, this paper reviews relevant literature and data, to address gaps in knowledge, and identify priorities and strategies for future research in India. The authors argue that: Climate change and associated increases in climate variability [...]
UPI: British researchers studying the behavior of a viral disease of cattle and sheep from the 1960s to the present say climate change could cause disease outbreaks. Scientists at the University of Liverpool say more than 80,000 outbreaks of the disease known as bluetongue in Europe were reported to the World Animal Health Organization between [...]
DeccanHerald: Lack of original thinking in agriculture sector is a big drawback in our country. The latest World Bank Report on India, “Undernourished children – a call for reform and action,” finds the number of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world. The report says approximately 60 million children are underweight [...]
