Guardian: Glaciers on or around Everest have shrunk 13% in 50 years with the snow line 180 metres higher than it was 50 years ago. Global warming is melting snow and ice on the world’s highest mountain at an accelerating rate, researchers have claimed. A study by a team led by a Nepali scientist at
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The Hindu: Chinese authorities have granted approval for an environmental assessment of a controversial 2 GW dam project — slated to be the country’s tallest dam — despite concerns voiced by a number of environmental groups. The Ministry of Environmental Protection this week said it had approved a year-long assessment of the Shuangjiangkou project on
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The Atlantic: Government officials say it’s been caused by statistical inaccuracies and climate change. But is that the whole story? As recently as 20 years ago, there were an estimated 50,000 rivers in China, each covering a flow area of at least 60 square miles. But now, according to China’s First National Census of Water,
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Despite the Himachal Pradesh (India) government recently proposing to withdraw a Special Leave Petition (SLP), filed by the previous BJP regime, against the Rs 1,600 crore Himalayan Ski Village project proposed by the earlier Congress government, the state is not planning any moves to revive the project. Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy, who only three days
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PR Web: University of Massachusetts Boston professor and leading conservation biologist Kamal Bawa and conservation photographer Sandesh Kadur announce the release of their book Himalaya: Mountains of Life. Five years in the making, the book focuses on the Eastern Himalaya—the first time the region’s threatened biodiversity and cultures have been documented together by a preeminent
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Justmean: Over the next 50 years, we will need to face global food and farming realities. We will need to meet the challenges of providing better nutrition for more people in spite of rapid environmental change while cutting back our overuse of natural resources, ecosystems and the climate. All this calls for social innovation in
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East Asia Forum: If one were on the lookout for the region with the most meagre potential for cooperative management of its transboundary river basins, South Asia would be a strong contender. Merely to mention the larger co-riparian states sharing the region’s two biggest and most important Himalayan river basins — India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and
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Heavengb: Climate is not a stationary phenomenon, it varies from time to time. It is a product of weather which always experiences variations over space and time (Rasul, 2012). Climate change is resulting from a growing concentration of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) and uses of fossil fuels and other anthropogenic activities has become a major worldwide
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Mountain Partnership: Whether we live at sea level or higher, we are connected to mountains and affected by them in more ways than we can imagine. Mountains provide most of the world’s freshwater, harbour a rich variety of plants and animals, and are home to one in ten people. Yet, each day, environmental degradation, the
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The Thirdpole: The Tibetan Plateau covers approximately 25% of China’s land area, spreading out over 2.5 million square kilometres in the west of the country. Home to the largest store of freshwater outside of the poles, it feeds water into Asia’s major rivers which supply water to over a billion people. As a result of
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Climate News Network: India has made giant strides in increasing rice production, both to feed its own people and for export. But the price has been massive water consumption, and rising greenhouse gas emissions. LONDON, 30 January – India has to find a new model of development if the twin challenges of job creation and
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Chinadialogue: Forcing herders to abandon nomadic way of life failing to stop desertification near the source of the Yellow River, an investigation reveals. Sanjiangyuan – which literally translates as the ‘three river source area’ – feeds China’s mightiest rivers. The 300,000-square kilometre region, high on western China’s Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, provides a quarter of the Yangtze’s
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Alertnet: Abdul Jabbar was in his house in the Bindu Gol valley of Pakistan’s northern Chitral district when a glacial lake burst through the ridge holding it back high above. “We felt the ground shaking and heard the roar of the water, and we ran out of our homes,” he said. The 2010 flood destroyed
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MRD Journal: Rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns across the Hindu Kush–Himalaya (HKH) region resulting from climate change have an influence on water resource availability and food security for the downstream population. This review seeks to objectively assess the available evidence of the impacts of climate change on glacier hydrology and the wider implications upon
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DipNote: Do you know which country’s constitution promises that a minimum of 60 percent its land area will be maintained as forest for all time? Which country’s government pledges to protect, conserve, and improve the pristine environment and safeguard the biodiversity of the country; prevent pollution and ecological degradation; secure ecologically balanced sustainable development while
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Times of India: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought expert help from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) after being told by Central Pollution Control Board that despite Rs 5,000 crore spent to reduce pollution, the Yamuna was staring at a catastrophe as over 2,400 million litres of untreated sewage flowed into it every day.
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Govt. of Bhutan: Thimphu, November 30: A Financing Agreement (FA) to formalise the European Union’s (EU) support to Bhutan under the Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) was signed between the EU and the government. The Officiating Secretary of the Gross National Happiness Commission signed the FA in the presence of the EU Ambassador to Bhutan,
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Global water crisis: Reporter William Wheeler talks about water stress from the effects of climate change high in the Himalayas where India and Pakistan’s great rivers start to Haiti’s fresh-water pollution. In the Nepalese Himalayas in 2009, I trekked into the Langtang Valley, just short of the Tibetan border, and to a village of empty
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“Once that drop was ice among the great peaks whence the river came; that very same drop may be one of the snow flakes which perhaps a hundred years ago alighted on the highest point of the valley, on the divide of the Zarafshan Pass, fifteen thousand feet above the plain. This is the end,
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Phys.org: On the night of Aug. 5, 2010, as residents slept, water began rushing through Leh, an Indian town in a high desert valley in the Himalayas. Average total rainfall in the area for August is about a half-inch. During this 24-hour period more than 8 inches fell, causing severe damage and leaving 193 dead,
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Tribune: The European Union has provided a grant of 1.2 million euros for conducting a climate change impact assessment study in Swat basin in the wake of Munda Dam multi-purpose project in Mohmand Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). For the study, a joint venture comprising two renowned firms – AHT of Germany
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Bhutanclimatechange: Bhutan is increasingly serving as a conduit for illegal wildlife smuggling between India and China, undermining the country’s conservation efforts. Dawa Wangchuk reports Bhutan takes greats pains to conserve its rich biodiversity, evidenced by the fact that 70% of the country’s total land area remains under forest cover. But these efforts are now being
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Prevention Web: The United Nations, European Commission and national authorities have launched a new project in the Western Balkans and Turkey that will reduce disaster risks and increase resilience to climate change. The project launch is planned for 30 August in Zagreb, Croatia and it is aimed at high-level participants from disaster management authorities and
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Huffington post: Climate change is bringing many uncertainties, especially to the world of water. No continent will be harder hit by climate change than Africa. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that African river basins will be especially affected by climate change, and are expected to face worse droughts and more extreme floods
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Bhutan Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Y Thinley stressed on the need to preserve the fast-depleting natural resources for future generations while speaking at the eighth convocation of KIIT University here on Sunday. “Continuous and limitless growth has depleted natural resources, which is limited. We have to understand that natural resources do not belong to us
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Altertnet: For farmer Asadullah Kerio, water shortages are a thing of the past. Since 2010, he has been irrigating his land with treated wastewater from a nearby ‘constructed wetland’ in Majeed Keerio village in Shaheed Benazirabad district, some 271 km (168 miles) northeast of Karachi. “Use of treated wastewater has invigorated my farmland by increasing its fertility
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UNSE: Ms. Ruchi Pant of UNDP New Delhi India floated a query at UN Solution Exchange India’s Climate Change community to get the responses for National Biodiversity Authority of India NBA. The background note with her questions and summary of responses have been given in the following section. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is
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Cockrell School of Engineering: Professor Daene McKinney is part of a group of more than 30 scientists from 15 countries around the world who are studying Nepal, Peru and other places affected by rising glacial lake levels. High above a community of villagers, Nepal’s Imja Lake rises quietly each year, expanding its reach in both
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Bio-One: This study presents satellite data and in situ measurements to estimate the concentration of suspended solids in high altitude and remote lakes of the Himalayas. Suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations measured in 13 lakes to the south of Mount Everest (Nepal) in October 2008 and reflectance values of the Advanced Visible and Near Infrared
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Kashmir watch: Since its inception/establishment (in 1973) the annual celebration of environment day on June 5th is observed in (almost) every corner of the world. The theme of the World Environment Day (WED) 2012 is : “Green Economy: Does it include you? ” which speaks of taking eco-friendly initiatives at the grassroots level. But mostly
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Chinadialogue: The idyll of Kashmir is ill prepared for an influx of tourists, writes Athar Parvaiz from north-east India. Environmentalists fear the features that attract visitors could prove the region’s undoing. India’s seventeenth century Moghul emperor Jahangir is probably best known for his comment on the valley of Kashmir: “If there is paradise on earth,
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Environmental Research Web: University of California, Berkeley, scientists are drilling into ancient sediments at the bottom of Northern California’s Clear Lake for clues that could help them better predict how today’s plants and animals will adapt to climate change and increasing population. The lake sediments are among the world’s oldest, containing records of biological change
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Glaciers around the world may hold clues about how Earth’s remote ecosystems have been influenced by the industrial revolution. They capture large amounts of carbon-containing dissolved organic matter (DOM) that is later released to downstream ecosystems where it provides food for microorganisms at the base of the aquatic food web. While many scientists believe the
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SciDevNet: This policy brief, published by the International Project Office of the Global Water System Project and produced to inform the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), outlines how scientists and policymakers can advance water security by focusing on interdisciplinary research, and ensuring that all stakeholders are involved in developing sustainable solutions to water problems.
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UNDP Regional Centre: As a matter of national urgency, the Bhutanese Government – with assistance from an international climate change adaptation fund that was established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and partner organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the Global Environment Facility, the World Wildlife Fund and the Government
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Kuenselonline: The Wangchu river that runs through Thimphu city, Bhutan’s biggest and fastest growing urban centre, is more polluted as it passes through the main town and flows downstream, a report prepared by the National Environment Commission concludes. The report collected data between March last year and April this year, from monitoring sites set up
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University of Minnesota: Over the past 50 years, 60 percent of all ecosystem services have declined as a direct result of the conversion of land to the production of foods, fuels and fibers. This should come as no surprise, say seven of the world’s leading environmental scientists, who met to collectively study the pitfalls of
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Environmental News Network: The soils and sediments at the bottom of rivers are rich in organic material. They can store carbon for thousands of years according to a study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Despite often high rates of erosion and sediment transport, the riverbed can hold organic carbon for 500 to 17,000
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Assam Tribune: The Planning Commission has accorded investment clearance to implement anti-erosion works to protect Brahmaputra dykes. This project is estimated to cost Rs 8.35 crore. The dyke works relate to 69 km (Uluberi) and 78 km (Borigaon). The proposed scheme envisages anti-erosion measures for a 9000-m long reach on the south bank of the
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WWF-Nepal: A five-year program to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change and threats to biodiversity in Nepal, was officially launched at a ceremony in Kathmandu on 8 Nov 2011. The Hariyo Ban program is a new investment in biodiversity conservation in Nepal, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The program will
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Brisbane Times: Time is running out for Kashmir’s premier tourist attraction, writes Ben Doherty, in Srinagar. Through the dawn mist, Dal Lake is beautiful. As the first shafts of sunlight break over the Himalayan foothills that hug the lake’s perimeter, the still waters are slowly brought alive by the silent ferrying of the shikaras back
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Asian Age: Wetlands consist of marshes, swamps, bogs and similar areas. The functions of wetlands are filtering out of sediments and nutrients from the surface water and support all life forms through extensive food webs and bio-diversity. Wetlands contribute to a number of important processes including movement of water into streams and rivers, decay of
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Mega dams have the multipurpose applications and considered as the greener energy source than most alternatives. But as compensation to this development it may result a wide range of environmental degradation. This study aims to search the fact of environmental impacts due to the existing and proposed mega dams of the Himalayas and also to
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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,
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IDSA: In recent times, the world has witnessed a major surge in regional unrests caused primarily by the shortage of water. Tension builds up between two or more countries when an effort is made by any upper riparian country to control the waterways of transboundary rivers. Factors like population surge, industrialization and other development activities
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KashmirLife: Week the rains stopped just before the water could spill over the banks of river Jhelum and flood Kashmir. But we are facing the danger of a devastating flood. Can Kashmir save itself? A Kashmir Life report. Given the behavior of the Jhelum river, hydrologists and engineers at the Irrigation and Flood Control would
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BoiOne: The Indus River Basin is characterized by downstream areas with the world’s largest irrigation system, providing food and energy security to more than 215 million people. The arid to semiarid basin is classified as a net water deficit area, but it also suffers from devastating floods. Among the four basin countries, Pakistan is most
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Environment News Service: Hydropower, the biggest economic driver in the Himalayan country of Bhutan, is threatened by serious water shortages as the country’s glaciers melt due to climate warming, finds Bhutan’s latest National Human Development Report. Many of Bhutan’s glaciers are melting at a higher rate than those in other mountain ranges, according to the
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Tribune Paskistan: The government knew the floods would be back. It had at least eight months to prepare for it. But its focus lay elsewhere — cutting deals, juggling power, privatising public assets. No greater callousness could have been exhibited than that towards the fate of the abandoned four million flood victims who never received
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IPS: Years of poor policies and neglect are taking a toll on Kashmir’s unmatched ecological assets, that also happen to be international tourist attractions. Typical of damaging policy inconsistencies is the case of the Wullar lake – once regarded as Asia’s largest freshwater body – that has shrunk in size from its original 204 sq
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AsianAge: Receding Himalayan glaciers are resulting in the formation of glacial lakes which climatolgists warn are growing at an alarming pace. The Himalayas have 55,000 glaciers but the creation of these lakes could destroy the settlements located close to them. Prof. G.M. Bhat of the department of geology in Jammu University warned that the increasing
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ClimatePrep: PRBO Conservation Science is a non-profit organization with a mission to conserve birds, other wildlife, and ecosystems through innovative scientific research and outreach. PRBO’s highest priority is to develop and promote conservation practices that address the challenges of rapid environmental change. Since the early 1980′s, we have focused a large amount of our work
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Lakes and other wetlands are an important source of methane, the third most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. However, the absolute contribution of methane from these ecosystems to the atmosphere and the role of abiotic and biotic factors in determining overall methane fluxes are still under debate. As a consequence it is presently difficult
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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
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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
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