Discovery News: As the climate changes this century, the ranges of most mammal species will shrink – in many cases because animals won’t be able to get to areas suitable for them, says new research. And while some animals will do just fine or even better than before, certain animals could face catastrophic losses of [...]

The Tibet Post: His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorjee addressed the “Bodh Dharama-Vishva Shanti” summit, a large gathering of Indian and Tibetan Buddhists at Dharamshala on Wednesday. His Holiness thanked the Government of Himachal Pradesh and its people for their assistance and hospitality to the Tibetan people. “I think, Himalaya is an [...]

International Organization for Migration: As part of IOM’s annual International Dialogue on Migration – dedicated in 2011 to the theme “The Future of Migration: Building Capacities for Change” – the IOM membership selected the topic “Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration” as the focus of a workshop in Geneva, Switzerland on 29–30 March 2011.1 The [...]

weADAPT: This work is part of a Policy Brief on Climate Change in Nepal produced by Practical Action in 2008 and provides a summary of climate change as currently experienced in Nepal, and projections of future changes. Climate change in Nepal Some level of uncertainty is inevitable in measuring and anticipating climate change. Attributing individual [...]

The News Pakistan: A Bangladeshi disaster management expert, Khurshid Alam, on Friday emphasised the need for training the local community in playing an effective role in recovering from natural calamities and minimising the adverse effects of an emergency. Local knowledge should be incorporated in designing a disaster management plan. It is very important to learn [...]

Alertnet: At present, close to one billion people suffer from hunger. Experts agree that there is a high risk of climate change affecting food security at the global level, with the most negative impacts in the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The additional risk of climate change could put several hundred million at risk of [...]

Alertnet: Indigenous communities around the world are highly vulnerable to climate change but instead of seeing them as victims, policy-makers should tap into their centuries-old knowledge of adapting to extreme weather patterns, aid workers say. In Iran, which has some 700 nomadic tribes, pastoralists have been successfully adapting to climate fluctuations for 12,000 years, development [...]

GHT: The impact of climate change could fall disproportionately on women and children, more so in the remote mountains of Nepal. Participants of the Climate Smart Celebrity Trek met with media and local authorities at a press conference in Jumla today and discussed how the changed climate impacts the livelihood of the families, which in [...]

The claim that global warming and climate change aren’t real gets increasingly ridiculous each year. For one, the science just makes it so much more obvious as it develops (but, truthfully, it’s been obvious for years). Additionally, the real-world climate disasters just keep increasing. In the past two years, for example, 42 million Asians have [...]

Extreme weather-related disasters displaced some 42 million people in Asia Pacific in the past two years and such events will only become more frequent with climate change, said a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday. Climate change will cause a surge in migration in this century and governments in the region [...]

Mr. Cyril R Raphael: In this article Mr. Raphael writes the agony of mountains in general by taking an example of overall development in one of the Indian mountain states called Uttarakhand. His discourse covers the social and economic development, governance, leadership, availability of basic amenities, health, education, livelihood, effectiveness of information and communication, role [...]

The instant communications technology that nurtured grassroots revolutions in the Arab world could also help farmers cope with climate change, according to Iowa State University researchers. And so the researchers – Steven Fales, a professor of agronomy; and Gene Takle, director of Iowa State’s Climate Science Program, a professor of agronomy and of geological and [...]

Population is ‘our biggest challenge’ says government chief scientist Sir John Beddington. The next world population milestone of 8 billion will come sooner than we think – perhaps as early as 2025 – yet we remain reluctant to debate the issue. A forthcoming Royal Society report may force us to While many commentators look ahead [...]

The environment is already affecting patterns of human migration. On the island of Hatia, along coastal Bangladesh, 22 percent of households have migrated to cities as a coping strategy following tidal surges. But we would be wrong to assume that our only concern should be for the millions of people who might try to leave [...]

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 [...]

Nepal Mountain News: Despite its relatively small size, Nepal is so strategically located on the boundary between Asia’s two eco-biological domains that nearly one in every ten bird species in the world is found here. Altitude variation in the Himalaya and its climate diversity means that the country has 867 species of birds: more than [...]

The Oxfam is taking the note through its campaign called ‘Hungry for action at the UN Climate Change Conference’. The campaigners say that when there is no food how people are going to survive on this planet, so we need to be aware of the facts and should take immediate actions towards adaptation and mitigation [...]

One Earth: In India, extreme weather basically means the annual monsoon, and this season’s rains, which ended a few weeks ago, were a constant topic of conversation during the five days I’ve just spent traveling around the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. U.P., as people call it here, is one of the poorest states in [...]

Radio Netherlands Worldwide: The Climate Change Risk Atlas ranked Nepal as the fourth most vulnerable country in the world last year. Given the vulnerability of the Himalayan country, USAID donated $30mn for the Hariyo Ban project last week. The programme hopes to build mechanisms that will help Nepal cope with climate change risks. Along Nepal’s [...]

Climate Change and Himalayan Cold Deserts: Mapping vulnerability and threat to ecology and indigenous livelihoods The remote cold desert stretches of high altitude Himalayas, having a fragile ecosystem are characterized by complex interplay of climatic and geo-morphological processes, availability of limited natural resources and economic  conditions leading to accelerated resource degradation and associated environmental consequences [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Business Recorder: The humanitarian emergency caused by the few last months’ devastating floods in Asia is a warning that the situation could get worse, The people affected by this crisis have lost everything, and their difficulties are only just beginning. Two countries Pakistan and Thailand have been badly hit by the disaster. Hundreds of thousands [...]

WWF: On the 19th of November the Royal Government of Bhutan will host the Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas Bhutan 2011. The event will bring together leaders from the governments of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal to agree upon and commit to a plan for adaptation to climate change. Included in the plan are [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Dr. R. S. Tolia: Writes this article as his ‘Third Inning’,  days those have been happily spent on reflecting over and about mountains and mountain people. This has taken him to various mountainous parts of India, neighbouring Nepal and recently to the beautiful city and canton of Switzerland, Luzern, in the northern Alps.  Besides learning [...]

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 [...]

UPI: More than half of tree species in eastern U.S. forests aren’t adapting to climate change as quickly or consistently as predicted, researchers said. Nearly 59 percent of the species examined in a study by Duke University researchers showed signs that their geographic ranges are contracting from both the north and south, a Duke release [...]

Daily Pioneer: All resources should be pooled to preserve our biodiversity because it concerns us all, writes Dinesh Pant The Himalayan region is a treasure-trove of biodiversity, abundant natural resources and a people who live their lives in tune with nature. This amazing landscape and environment, which in a sense defines India because it has [...]

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 [...]

Noreen Haider: On the night of eighth September 2011 unusual amount rain started lashing the districts of southern Sindh including Badin, Mithi, Mirpur Khas and Saanghar and continued unrelentingly for the next two days before it took a break. Its immediate effect was that large areas became inundated and communication was broken down.  The rain [...]

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 [...]

Telegraph: A third of humanity, mostly in Africa and South Asia, face the biggest risks from climate change while rich nations in northern Europe will be least exposed, according to a report released Wednesday. Bangladesh, India and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are among 30 countries with “extreme” exposure to climate shift, according to [...]

Reuters: Rapidly growing megacities in Africa and Asia face the highest risks from rising sea levels, floods and other climate change impacts, says a global survey aimed at guiding city planners and investors. The study by risk analysis and mapping firm Maplecroft, released on Wednesday, comes as the United Nations says the world’s population will [...]

Washingtonpost: Humans have mined resources from the remote and rocky coast of Peru and Chile for more than a century and a half, gathering the guano deposits of seabirds for fertilizer and gunpowder. Those seabirds flourished on anchoveta in the coastal waters, while Peruvians in the highlands ate the same fish as dried snacks. Now [...]

HIMAL South Asia: The loss of their nomadic lifestyles is pushing the Van Gujjars, traditional herders of the Himalaya, into poverty and cultural alienation. For centuries the Van Gujjar community has been practising ‘transhumance’, moving between two distinct ecozones of the Himalaya. Every summer, the Van Gujjars move from the forests of the Shivalik range [...]

Guardian: Report says refugees forced to leave homes by weather caused by global warming may end up in even worse afflicted areas. Hundreds of millions of people may be trapped in inhospitable environments as they attempt to flee from the effects of global warming, worsening the likely death toll from severe changes to the climate, [...]

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 [...]

Shalini Dhyani: Writes about the increasing pressure on the Himalayan ecosystem in Indian Himalayan region due to tourist influx, immigrants from neighboring country, environmental degradation and increasing population pressure. She suggests Payment for Environmental Services- PES a way forward through appropriate planning.   “The most striking feature of earth is the existence of life, and 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, [...]

PakObserver: WHILE Pakistan was still grappling with last year’s devastating floods that marooned one-fifth of the country, it has again been hit by the natural calamity causing devastation of enormous magnitude. According to National Disaster Management Authority, 5.3 million people have been affected by this summer’s heavy rains in 23 districts of Sindh. Of these, [...]

The Nations: A total lack of seriousness when it comes down to the necessary nitty-gritty of dealing with both the existing and potential catastrophic effects of climate change has pushed Pakistan into a fast descending spiral of utter hopelessness right across the board: A situation exacerbated by political shenanigans, human greed and a dangerously escalating [...]

UNNC: The head of the United Nations disaster risk reduction agency arrives tomorrow (6 Oct) in Pakistan to discuss possible measures to reduce the impact and recurrence of major floods, which have inundated much of the Asian country in the past two years. Margareta Wahlström, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, is scheduled [...]

BBC: Scientists have begun to predict the animals that may become extinct in the next century because of climate change. Researchers at Brown University in the US have combined predictions of climate change with the geographic ranges of well-studied amphibians. While the animals will try to migrate to areas with more suitable weather, short-term temperature [...]

UNEP: New UNEP Report Spells Out Green Economy Benefits for Indonesia’s People and Biodiversity. Conserving key rainforests in Indonesia could generate revenues three times greater than felling them for palm oil plantations.  In doing so, such actions can also deliver multiple Green Economy benefits from combating climate change, securing water supplies and improved livelihoods while [...]

FutureChallanges: Unstable climatic patterns, natural disasters, water scarcity, agricultural destruction and other evidence of environmental degradation is widespread today in most countries of the world. But the high impact of the deadly side of climate change has become much too common in the countries of the deprived. Among the countries worst affected by Climate Change, [...]

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: 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, [...]

Kashmir Observer: Estimates of the magnitudes of past seismic events foretell a very shaky future for this pastoral Valley writes Dr Afroz Ahmad Shah. The earthquake studies in the state of Jammu of Kashmir, and primarily in the valley is still quite juvenile. Any kind of conclusion or opinion at this point of time will [...]

Eureka Alert: Species’ ability to overcome adversity goes beyond Darwin’s survival of the fittest. Climate change has made sure of that. In a new study based on simulations examining species and their projected range, researchers at Brown University argue that whether an animal can make it to a final, climate-friendly destination isn’t a simple matter [...]

Vimal Khawas: Mountains form one of the most important bio-geographical resource zones of the world. They are remote areas covering 52 per cent of Asia, 36 percent of North America, 25 per cent of Europe, 22 per cent of South America, 17 per cent of Australia, and 3 per cent of Africa making up, in [...]

IPS News: At least 200 million people in the world are in danger of being left without water, because they depend for their supply on glaciers that are melting, although paradoxically the process creates the illusion of plentiful water resources. While the average global temperature has risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius in the last 100 [...]

Environment News Services: Environmentalists are blaming climate change for the unprecedented massive monsoon rains in Pakistan, which so far this year have affected eight million people, claiming 350 lives and damaging 1.3 million homes. Over the past month, the country’s southern region has received the highest monsoon rains ever recorded, local metrological experts confirm. In [...]

The Atlantic: From the increase in frequency of heatwaves to the spread of infectious diseases, changing weather patterns are already affecting us all. The consequences of climate change sometimes appear far off. But warming and changing weather patterns are already driving changes in public health. The following are seven ways in which climate change affects [...]

The Telegraph: The importance of the India International Centre in New Delhi is gauged, in part, by the number of armed security men who pass through its portals. These come to accompany — and, one supposes, protect — the big shots, the fat cats, the ministers and MPs and ambassadors and generals who wish to [...]

Business Bhutan: The impact of climate change on the forests of the alpine zone in Bhutan will have a detrimental effect on the habitat of threatened species including the snow leopard, takin and red panda, claims a World Wildlife Fund report. One of the most enigmatic cats to rule the snow capped mountains in Bhutan, [...]