Assam Tribune: Ignoring the crucial linkages of a river’s upstream, midstream, and downstream flows can endanger not just the river, but human communities and ecology sustained by it. A disregard of ‘environmental flows,’ by construction of dams, has already harmed many rivers in the Western Ghats, giving rise to political as well as environmental issues. [...]

Scientific American (blog): One day after new test results showed that only 32 percent of U.S. 8th graders are proficient in science, a group of 26 states has helped draft a document that may bring about a major overhaul of science education in this country.  Known as the Next Generation Science Standards, the draft sets ambitious [...]

The Hindu: The former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation G. Madhavan Nair said here on Thursday that human intervention was not the only reason for climate change, but that solar radiation also had a major role in global warming and climate change. Interacting with students at the ‘Science-mathematics-environment awareness camp’ organised by the [...]

Centre for Global Development: Adaptation to climate change in developing countries is to a large extent about building resilience, including social and institutional responsiveness to change. In that sense it is about “development.” However, adaptation finance is not development assistance. It is better thought of as a financial transfer based on the “causal responsibility” for [...]

CDKN [Sam Bickersteth, CEO]: The Government of Vietnam, IIED and BCAS (Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies) have just hosted the Sixth annual Community Based Adaptation (CBA) conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, 16-22 April. I participated, together with CDKN’s Asia Director, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, many members of CDKN network and some 300 others from 61 countries: it [...]

Himalayan Times: Ace mountaineer Appa Sherpa, who has conquered Mount Everest for 21 times, is planning to announce a greater alliance for the preservation of Himalayan region in the country and taking an initiative to form an international support group for the overall development of the region. “With an aim to preserve the entire Himalayan [...]

India Today: Naysayers notwithstanding, new studies show that Himalayan glaciers are indeed melting possibly due to climate change. The rate of their melting is not as alarming as projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 but is significant enough to seriously impact water availability in Asia in future. The warning comes [...]

KuenselOnline: This is the  sixteen article on the GLOF research and mitigation project between May 2009 and March 2012.  The articles will highlight latest findings on glacier, glacial lakes condition and natural hazards in the Bhutan Himalayas. Experts from the department of geology and mines (DGM), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan Science and [...]

IPS News: Sri Lanka’s capital city Colombo, the vibrant economic and administrative heart of the bustling island nation, is rapidly turning into a city of slums. Home to over 30 percent of the country’s population, one in every two people living in the Greater Colombo Area is a slum dweller. Sadly, Colombo’s bulging urban population [...]

Economic Times (WASHINGTON): It’s believed that global warming is quite a recent phenomenon, but a new study has suggested that the world’s oceans began warming more than 100 years ago, much earlier than previously believed. The findings, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, could help scientists better understand the Earth’s record of sea-level rise, [...]

IRIN: JOHANNESBURG – People often use “coping” and “adapting” interchangeably in the context of disaster response – an issue the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seeks to address in its new report. Disaster risk management includes both coping and adapting, and the two concepts are central for adaptation to climate change in both research [...]

OECD report says pollution will become biggest cause of premature death, killing an estimated 3.6 million people a year by 2050. Urban air pollution is set to become the biggest environmental cause of premature death in the coming decades, overtaking even such mass killers as poor sanitation and a lack of clean drinking water, according [...]

Nature: As the next IPCC assessment nears, scientists use palaeoclimatic data to hone their models. It is hard to imagine beaches in northern Greenland or driftwood washing up on islands of Canada’s Arctic archipelago, but both were a reality some 6,000 years ago. “At least seasonally, those areas must have been ice-free,” says Gavin Schmidt, [...]

There is a strong relationship between freezing winter conditions observed in some parts of the world this year and the shrinking ice caps in the Arctic, scientists believe. Some assert that the extraordinarily cold winter conditions experienced in recent years can be an indication of global cooling, but others say the cold and snowy weather [...]

U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Map enables users to see which plants are most likely to thrive in any U.S. area. The interactive USDA Plant Hardiness Map allows users to view the plants most likely to thrive in any U.S. region. Image by United States Department of Agriculture. Chihuahuan desert plants like autumn sage, hummingbird mints, and [...]

Ask four Nunavummiut from Clyde River about their recent two-week trip to Nepal, and they’ll tell you the ten-thousand-kilometre journey to the Himalayan country was “a trip of a lifetime.” Hunters Laimikie Palluq and David Iqaqrialu, along with Mike Jaypoody, a young filmmaker and computer technician, and University of Colorado researcher Dr. Shari Gearheard travelled [...]

There is mounting evidence that Asia and the Pacific are undergoing weather patterns more extreme than previously experienced, attributable to the effects of global climate change. Reduction of the impact of climate change is gaining importance in the international agenda. Increasing intensity and frequency of climatic hazards are impacting negatively upon environmental and socio-economic systems. [...]

Research showing that the Himalayas and nearby peaks have lost no ice in past 10 years has been met with relief and surprise – but scientists warn against jumping to simplistic conclusions. The rivers and glaciers that descend from the steep slopes of the Himalaya mountain range help to provide water for the 1.4 billion [...]

NRDC: Think fast. What’s the first thought that comes into your mind when you see “climate change”? What’s the first thought that comes into your mind when you see “car crash”? If you are like me, “climate change” conjures a vague image of melting ice and perhaps an image of a forlorn polar bear on [...]

National Geographic: We have the knowledge that can contribute to finding solutions to the crisis of climate change. But if you’re not prepared to listen, how can we communicate this to you? — Marcos Terena, Xané leader, Brazil. The precipitous rise in the world’s human population and humankind’s ever-increasing dependence on fossil fuel-based ways of living [...]

Publication: How can disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation be integrated? This paper reviews the extent of convergence between disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) at a number of scales. It also examines what is at stake if the two agendas do not converge. The authors present updated evidence of where [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Climate change in the form of reduced snowfall in mountains is causing powerful and cascading shifts in mountainous plant and bird communities through the increased ability of elk to stay at high elevations over winter and consume plants, according to a groundbreaking study in Nature Climate Change. The U.S. Geological Survey and University of Montana [...]

An extensively peer-reviewed study published last December in the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics indicates that observed climate changes since 1850 are linked to cyclical, predictable, naturally occurring events in Earth’s solar system with little or no help from us. The research was conducted by Nicola Scafetta, a scientist at Duke University and at [...]

Hockystick: A paper published today in Geophysical Research Letters predicts less 21st century ‘greenhouse’ warming than the IPCC [transient climate response of 1.3-1.8C with a midpoint of 1.5C vs. IPCC's 1-3C with a midpoint of 2C]. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 39, L01704, 5 PP., 2012 doi:10.1029/2011GL050226 Key Points Estimates of TCR and 21st century warming are [...]

Business Insurance: Insurers and reinsurers are becoming more involved in managing risks related to climate change, though more work needs to be done, recent research concludes. In addition, the outcome of the recent U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, was disappointing for the industry, according to a leading reinsurer. In a recent report [...]

Global warming results in habitat loss for many species, new research shows. In a world first, scientists with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the University of Queensland have measured the relationship between climate change and habitat loss on plants and animals on a global scale. Their results, published recently in Global [...]

UN Solution Exchange: A query floated by safter world communication at UN Solution Exchange’s Disaster and Climate Change Community got responses from various members of these communities that what are the way and means to translate traditional disaster risk reduction-DRR and Climate change adaptation-CCA knowledge in action. It is felt that there is a need [...]

Times of India: If not kissing the frog, at least appreciating their ‘croak’ may lead to some headway in to climate research . For the first time frog song is being monitored using automated sound recorders by Indian scientists to track the impact of climate change on amphibians in the forests of southern Western Ghats. [...]

The Hindu: Area of dry land will increase by 11 per cent, says ICRISAT expert. Climate change poses the most serious threat to agriculture world over and to the food security, with countries like India facing the most unfavourable crop prospects, according to Chief Operating Officer of NutriPlus Knowledge Programme of ICRISAT Saikatdatta Mazumdar. Area [...]

Chikagoist: Notre Dame researchers want to turn your house into a power plant. No, not like the Fisk coal plant in Pilsen. In fact, their vision is quite the opposite, turning every building into a passive solar collector with little more than a paintbrush. And in Chicago, with our monumental skyline and sprawling neighborhoods, the [...]

Guardian: The ecologically tumultuous year saw record greenhouse gas emissions, melting Arctic sea ice, natural disasters and extreme weather – and the world’s second worst nuclear disaster. The year 2011 was another ecologically tumultuous year with greenhouse gases rise to record levels, Arctic sea ice nearly equalling 2007′s record melt, and temperatures the 11th highest [...]

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 [...]

Guardian: The Durban climate conference may have agreed a deal – or at least a deal to agree a deal – but the scale of the work that still needs to be done became plain today. Although talks are supposed to start immediately, America’s special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, infuriated the EU by [...]

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 [...]

Guardian: This Q&A is part of the Guardian’s ultimate climate change FAQ The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a United Nations body, founded in 1988, which evaluates climate change science. The IPCC assesses research on climate change and synthesises it into major ‘assessment’ reports every 5–7 years. The most fourth assessment report – [...]

NICCD: Leadership plays a crucial role within processes of change and transformation, particularly those associated with the impacts of climate change and variability. In vulnerable developing contexts affected by more frequent and intense climatic events, local leaders are key in the adoption of innovation and learning, as well as in the capacity of vulnerable groups [...]

BBC: A new batch of emails and other documents from the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Climatic Research Unit has been released on the internet. There are more than 5,000 emails, while other documents include working papers relating to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). A similar release in 2009 triggered the “ClimateGate” affair [...]

Guardian: While government leadership is unlikely to be strong, companies are taking the lead and there is a serious business agenda. A dim light is shining on Durban: what does this mean for the climate talks? After a hectic year of meetings in three continents and soon in Africa, the annual climate platform is attracting [...]

IPS: Chungda Sherpa, a former herder from eastern Nepal, has a warning tale ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Durban. At World Wildlife Fund-Japan’s ‘Climate Witness’ programme in Osaka and Tokyo this month, to apprise communities around the world how climate change is threatening lives and livelihoods, the 48-year-old described how the [...]

Oxfam: Review of Climate Change Adaptation Practices in South Asia. Climate change is predicted to have severe consequences for South Asia, particularly in agriculture, which employs more than 60 per cent of the region’s labor force. Some of the predicted impacts of climate change include: increased variability in both monsoon and winter rainfall patterns; increases [...]

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 [...]

MRD Journal: Winter Tourism and Climate Change in the Alps: An Assessment of Resource Consumption, Snow Reliability, and Future Snow making Potential The winter tourism industry is facing considerable challenges with climate change; it is increasingly responding with investments in snow making facilities. We present a study on 3 tourism destinations in the Swiss Alps [...]

Mountain Partnership: Water, energy, forests: regional experts identify key issues for Central Asia. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Effective adaptation strategies are required in response to the impact of climate change in mountain regions. With a view to better integrating scientific evidence and mountain people’s experience into international discussions, experts from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan met [...]

Kuenselonline: Lack of equipment and trained personnel impedes analysis of available met data Climate Change A major part of the Eastern Himalayas, where  Bhutan is located, is undergoing a warming trend of about one-degree Celsius per year. The director of department of hydro meteorology services, Karma Tshering, yesterday in his presentation  “climate change over Bhutan from [...]

Republica: limate change is considered the greatest environmental challenge faced by mankind in human history. Changed pattern and quantity of precipitation in concert with temperature extremes manifests itself in a number of catastrophic outcomes like drought, slides, snowmelts, floods, agricultural productivity loss, and upsurge in diseases which impact both the natural and the human systems [...]

IISD: Insanity has famously been described as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Does this maxim apply to the UN climate negotiations? If so, are those of us flying to Durban later this month about to join an exercise in mass madness? THE MADNESS OF KING COP Since the Conference of [...]

The Sunday Morning Herald: ‘THE claim ‘the science is settled’ is plainly false due to the many problems with the AGW [anthropogenic global warming] hypothesis (e.g. global temperatures have not risen since 1998 despite rising CO2 levels; alarmism is based on flawed models that do not reflect empirical measurements.)” STEPHEN HARPER ”Why is the Australian [...]

E Agriculture: In her paper, “The role of ICTs for community-based adaptations to climate change” Simone Sala studied the potential impact of ICTs in Climate Change and development. It Explains that ICTs can be a more than valuable asset if integrated intelligently in the information and communication flow. She underlines that “ A systematic approach [...]

The Ecologist: Beyond climategate-can we keep the politics and science of climate forecasting separate? The pressure is on climate forecasters to give us more accurate predictions of impacts, such as rising sea levels, but ahead of the Durban climate summit scientists say we still have much to learn When it comes to the environment, how [...]

Sunday Morning Herald: A draft UN report three years in the making concludes that man-made climate change has boosted the frequency or intensity of heat waves, wildfires, floods and cyclones and that such disasters are likely to increase in the future. The document being discussed by the world’s Nobel-winning panel of climate scientists says the [...]

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 [...]

Mail Online: Scientist who said climate change sceptics had been proved wrong accused of hiding truth by colleague. It was hailed as the scientific study that ended the global warming debate once and for all – the research that, in the words of its director, ‘proved you should not be a sceptic, at least not [...]

Forbs: The Last Shangri-la? A Conversation with Bhutan’s Secretary of the National Environment Commission, Dr. Ugyen Tshewang. When flying to Paro, within the Kingdom of Bhutan, one is likely to see Chomolungma (Nepal’s Mount Everest, सगरमाथा) out the left side of the Drukair jet.  You might also view Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the [...]

New York Times: Nepalganj (Nepal)-Here’s an unlikely starting point for clean energy: No toilets, and plenty of dung. In developing countries where domestic animals are ubiquitous and sewage systems rare, biogas technology — in this case methane derived from feces — can provide both valuable fuel and improved sanitation. Unlike directly burning animal dung, the [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

Wall Street Journal: There were good reasons for doubt, until now. Are you a global warming skeptic? There are plenty of good reasons why you might be. As many as 757 stations in the United States recorded net surface-temperature cooling over the past century. Many are concentrated in the southeast, where some people attribute tornadoes [...]