Stephen Bailey: You need a bit of height to appreciate the size of a brick factory. You need to get close to appreciate the human cost. From a hill over Duwakot you can see people labouring in the grey mud beneath the towering chimney.  Down in the factory you can see the weather beaten faces,

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Hill post: The Himalayas are being pounded again. Timber was stolen first; medicinal and aromatic herbs next. Now power projects are stealing water, life line for 30 million mountain folks and 3 billion in the Himalayan-water-dependent nations, as far as Vietnam. [1] The reassessed country-wise potential is: Pakistan: 41,722 MW, India 108,143 MW; Nepal 83,000

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ABC News: Climate changes and rising carbon dioxide levels don’t just affect the environment. Experts say they also affect your nose. Warmer temperatures and higher carbon dioxide levels mean certain plants will thrive, and those are the plants that tend to make us sneeze during allergy season. Allergies may seem like a minor nuisance, but

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EJNet: The most comprehensive survey of the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming ever done reveals a 97.1 per cent consensus. The research team surveyed the abstracts of over 12,000 scientific articles published between 1991 and 2011 on the subjects of “global climate change” or “global warming” to see to what extent they endorsed or

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Science Alert: Ocean warming has already affected global fisheries in the past four decades, a new international study has found, driving up the proportion of warm-water fish being caught and posing a threat to food security worldwide. The new study, conducted by researchers from the University of Tasmania’s specialist Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

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Sciencecodex: A recent study indicated that the urbanization in eastern China has significant impact on the observed surface warming and the temporal-spatial variations of urbanization effect have been comprehensively detected. This work was led by YANG XiuQun, professor of meteorology in the Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, School of Atmospheric Sciences at Nanjing

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Scidev.net: While satellite data has shown aerosols — tiny polluting particles in the air — to be rising over India, a new study based on primary data gathered from measuring instruments installed in a network of stations confirms the trend. The study, by a team from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, and Indian Institute

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Scidev.net: Nepal is looking at waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies to address its huge energy deficit and also manage growing urban and industrial waste. Half of Nepal’s households are off the national grid while supply shortfalls and interrupted power cause industries losses worth 60 billion Nepali rupees (US$ 700 million) annually. Last month (26 April), the ‘Waste-to-Energy

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The Earth’s climate is more sensitive to changes in CO2 than previously thought, according to new research. New data taken from an Arctic sediment core that has recorded the climate for the past 3.6m years, suggests climate models, including those used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have not given enough weighting to

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CNN: While Brazil’s Government tends to favour a one-size-fits-all approach to energy provision, an indigenous group in the far north has come up with its own more sustainable solution, as our São Paulo correspondent reports. A few years ago I lay in a hammock in a mud and wattle hut in a Makuxi village, shining

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The world is driven by fossil fuels like oil and gas. This has some negative repercussions: Rising energy prices due to decreasing deposits, dependence on unstable oil and gas producing regimes and global warming. It becomes clear, that a revolution in the way how we produce and use energy is necessary. Central to this energy

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Himalayan Times: Reducing green house emission is indispensable for attaining sustainable economic growth, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has pointed out. The report on green house gas emission of South Asian countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal, prepared recently has mentioned that negative impact has been made in economic growth by

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We’ve all heard about rising sea levels and the possibility of more frequent, stronger storms. But oyster death? The Post’s Darryl Fears on Monday highlighted one of the many consequences of carbon dioxide emissions that scientists are only just beginning to detect — and most Americans have probably never considered — in Washington’s nearby Chesapeake Bay.

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Skeptical Science: Skeptic Argument: Climate is always changing. We have had ice ages and warmer periods when alligators were found in Spitzbergen. Ice ages have occurred in a hundred thousand year cycle for the last 700 thousand years, and there have been previous periods that appear to have been warmer than the present despite CO2

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CNN: Environmentally-friendly biofuel may have come a step closer with the news that scientists in the UK think they have found how a genetically-modified bacterium can produce diesel oil – on a very small scale so far.  British scientists may have found a new way to pump high quality diesel into the tractors, trucks and

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Guardian: With governments failing to promote green energy, top scientists say the drive to keep temperature rise below 2C has stalled. The development of low-carbon energy is progressing too slowly to limit global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday. With power generation still dominated by coal and governments failing to increase investment

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WRI: Indian cities are urbanizing at an unprecedented scale and pace. Over the next few decades, India’s urban population is expected to increase significantly, from 377 million in 2011 to 590 million by 2030. The problem is that the country’s existing urban transport infrastructure is already over-capacity. This fact–coupled with the alarmingly high rate of

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CNN: Using biofuels as the European Union demands will force up costs for British motorists, make food more expensive for poorer countries and may increase the greenhouse emissions they are meant to cut, a report says. Biofuels, widely seen as the green way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may in some cases be worse for

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ABC Net: The small, landlocked country of Bhutan is aiming to increase its national happiness by becoming the first country in the world to completely shift to organic farming. About 80 per cent of Bhutan’s 800,000 residents depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The country plans to use the organic status, which it hopes to

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RTCC: Scientists in China have revealed the world’s lightest material, a carbon gel six times lighter than air, could provide a boost to a number of emissions slashing technologies. From batteries to desalination, a new carbon aerogel derived from graphene, could have a big role to play in improving a number of existing low carbon

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Tribune: Since February, the Pakistan-Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) has been negotiating with the business community and plastic bag manufacturers to shift to an eco-friendly alternative for plastic bags. The agency’s efforts began when the Ministry of Law and Justice notified the Prohibition of Non degradable Plastic Bags (Manufacture, Sale, Use) Regulation 2013 earlier this year.

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CNN: The Group of Least Developed Countries, a key partner in the long-running United Nations climate talks, has told the Climate News Network it is willing to agree a core demand of the industrialised world on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases. In what could be a far-reaching move, the world’s poorest countries say they are

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‘Adaptation Ideas’ is a new series of Climate Himalaya. Here we will be showcasing a number of simple, practical and innovative ideas those could be adopted by individuals, communities and organizations for various environment friendly adaptive practices at home, offices and in public places.  The purpose of this ongoing series is to disseminate and communicate

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CNN: Producing more goods and services while emitting less carbon is the dream of many economists. In the race to see which countries can best manage to do this, East Asia is stealing a march on the US and Europe. And contrary to popular conceptions, China has now become more energy-efficient than Germany and the

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Researchers have come up with a neat solution to the problem of producing some forms of biofuel waste – add it to cement, and make concrete nearly a third stronger than other versions. LONDON, 23 March – Engineers are working on yet another way to deliver more energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions. The latest

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WWF: Denmark, followed by Israel, Sweden, Finland and the US provide the best conditions today for clean technology start-up creation, with companies in the Asia Pacific region following closely behind when it comes to commercial success, the first Global Cleantech Innovation Index shows. In Coming Clean: The Global Cleantech Innovation Index 2012, Cleantech Group and

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Huffingtonpost: As the realities of global climate change become ever more alarming, advocates of technological approaches to “geoengineer” the planet’s climate are gaining a following. But the technologies that are promoted — from spraying sulphate particles into the stratosphere, to dumping iron particles into the ocean, to stimulate carbon absorbing plankton, to burning millions of

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‘Adaptation Ideas’ is a new series of Climate Himalaya. Here we will be showcasing a number of simple, practical and innovative ideas those could be adopted by individuals, communities and organizations for various environment friendly adaptive practices at home, offices and in public places.  The purpose of this ongoing series is to disseminate and communicate

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GIGAOM: Fjord IT opens its first data center space in Oslo and is banking on a air cooling technology and cheap hydropower to attract European customers who want low-carbon cloud services. Norway, known for breathtaking glacier-carved valleys, fjords and abundant hydropower, is also increasingly the home to green data centers that can use the cold

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RTCC: The latest Globe Climate Legislation Study was published in January 2013, focusing on 33 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. For the first time climate policymakers have a clear idea of how countries around the world are attempting to control their greenhouse gas emissions. We have selected the highlights from Globe’s analysis

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Himalayan Times: Climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. It includes major changes in climatic parameters like temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among other effects, that occur over several decades or longer. The longevity of transportation infrastructure, the long-term nature of climate change,

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Ecoinventos: Here we have uploaded a number of ideas taken from Econinventos those could be used in our offices towards ‘carbon neutral’ living and reducing our carbon foot prints. These ideas will help in reducing the impact of climate change and also the global warming phenomena that we now days hear from our climate scientists.

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Triple Pundit: The tiny nation of Bhutan attracted worldwide attention recently when it announced that it intends to convert its agriculture to 100 percent organic farming in the coming years.  For many, its claim is no surprise; the Kingdom of Bhutan has been incorporating sustainable growing methods into many of its agricultural practices for years.

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The Voice of Russia: The increasing use of biofuel to help meet the UKs commitment to renewable energy – is being hotly debated. Members of the Department for Energy and Climate Change are considering whether to accept plans – for new subsidies to burn trees in British power plants. But some scientists believe renewable energy

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Guardian: Will the oil-rich country become a key engineer in a new global climate deal, or will it sabotage progress? Regardless of one’s position on el Comandante Hugo Chávez, the death of the Venezuelan president opens the door for a policy debate on a critical issue for Venezuela and the world’s security: climate change. As

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Skeptical Science: A few months ago we looked at some hopeful climate news, including Mexico passing comprehensive climate legislation nearly unanimously, and many other efforts from a variety of countries to reduce their carbon emissions. Ultimately the biggest emitters need to get on board as well.  China is often used as a scapegoat and excuse

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Guardian: Team of scientists use radiometric dating techniques on Russian cave formations to measure historic melting rates. A global temperature rise of 1.5C would be enough to start the melting of permafrost in Siberia, scientists warned on Thursday. Any widespread thaw in Siberia’s permanently frozen ground could have severe consequences for climate change. Permafrost covers

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Mongabay: The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched a global set of statistics on carbon emissions from deforestation, agriculture and other forms of land use for the 1990-2010 period. The dataset, which is part of the FAO’s database of statistics known as FAOSTAT, is based on FAO estimates of forest biomass, deforestation,

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Tribune: Speakers at a seminar held on Thursday called for tangible steps to fight climate change and provide potable water to as many as 1.2 billion people who, they said, lacked access to clean drinking water. The event was organised at the Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) by its Department of Applied Chemistry and the

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Down to Earth: Himachal court tells state to stop sale of non-essential items in non-biodegradable packs TAKING a strong stance on the adverse effects of plastic on health and the environment, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has ordered a statewide ban on the sale of junk food in non-biodegradable packets. The ban, effective from April

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The Hindu: South Asians share a common historical lineage, of revering and desecrating their rivers with equal impunity at the same time. No wonder, major rivers across the sub-continent are at various stages of neglect. Add legacy of failed institutions to this neglect and you get an all-pervasive picture of environmental callousness, of which polluted

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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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Scientific American: China burns nearly as much coal as all other nations combined, including coal shipped from the U.S. Chinese coal consumption surged for a 12th consecutive year in 2011, with the country burning 2.3 billion tons of the carbon-emitting mineral to run power plants, industrial boilers and other equipment to support its economic and

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The Ecologist: Luke Dale-Harris questions whether our concern over climate change is actually driving us to invest in renewable technologies that negatively impact the very natural wonders we are aiming to preserve. Even if the naysayers are right and they produce little else, wind farms most certainly generate debate. Ever since they started to become

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The Ganga today is more polluted than when the Ganga Action Plan was launched in 1985. Dams, barrages, canals and extremely high pollution pose an ever-increasing threat to the health and life of the river, writes Brijesh Pandey IN THE upper reaches of the Ganga, numerous hydel projects threaten the river’s ecosystem. And in the

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Book Review by Dr. Sudhirendar Sharma: The resolute perseverance with which Dinesh Kumar Mishra has chronicled major rivers, flowing through the flood plains of Bihar, during past three decades makes one realise if this civil engineer could have been anything but a ‘river biographer’. Meticulous with details, ranging from mythology to hydrology, the narrative weaves

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Scientific American: The world must spend an extra $700 billion a year to curb its addiction to fossil fuels blamed for worsening floods and heat waves and rising sea levels, a study issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF) showed on Monday. The world must spend an extra $700 billion a year to curb its

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Asia Sentinel: The world faces another 17 years of potentially growing emissions from China’s industries Despite having become the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases nearly two years ago, China is at least another 17 years away from peak emissions, according to a new report by the HSBC Climate Change Team, issued late last year.

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Yahoo News: Soot, the black carbon that triggers smog and bouts of coughing, is also the biggest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide, says a four-year assessment by US researchers. The new study concludes that black carbon, the soot particles in smoke and smog, contributes about twice as much to global warming as previously

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Science Daily: In addition to causing smoggy skies and chronic coughs, soot — or black carbon — turns out to be the number two contributor to global warming. It’s second only to carbon dioxide, according to a four-year assessment by an international panel. The new study concludes that black carbon, the soot particles in smoke

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ADB: Empowering the poor through access to energy — ADB promotes new approaches for scaling up access to energy for the poor. Access to modern, cleaner energy is essential to human development. Yet the majority of the world’s energy poor are living in Asia and the Pacific: more than 700 million people still have no

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MRD: This paper presents a detailed review of atmospheric pollution observed in the Hindu Kush–Himalaya (HKH) region and its implications for regional climate. Data from in situ measurements made at high-altitude stations in the HKH region, observations from satellitebased instruments, and global climate modeling study results are discussed. Experimental observations discussed include both atmospheric measurements

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Reuters: Green schemes to fight climate change by producing more bio-fuels could actually worsen a little-known type of air pollution and cause almost 1,400 premature deaths a year in Europe by 2020, a study showed on Sunday. The report said trees grown to produce wood fuel – seen as a cleaner alternative to oil and

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SciDevNet: Climate Innovation Centers can promote clean technologies but need backing with a coordinated effort, says policy specialist Ambuj Sagar. Technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help people to adapt to climate change will be a key part of how developing countries respond to the climate challenge. But the relatively limited capabilities of these

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Santiago: Animals and plants are moving up mountainsides seeking cooler temperatures. Some fish species have smaller ranges and less abundance. Other species are diminishing in their numbers, unable to adjust to climate change, with extinction being a possible outcome. These findings come from a wide-ranging study — Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems and

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Fastcoexist: A Safer Stove For The Developing World, Created By Indian Student Entrepreneurs.. Having an open fire in your house is dangerous, and it’s not good to inhale the smoke. But it’s how billions of people cook and heat their houses. The Greenway Smart Stove aims to change that–with no moving parts and at a

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The Telegraph: The creator of the four billion pixel interactive image of Everest has warned that more must be done to tackle climate change in order to save world’s highest mountain. Since the image, made up of 477 individual photographs taken during the climbing season in spring 2012, went viral, David Breashears says he has

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Practical Action: This short video was taken during a visit to the Ochola family, a poor family living on the outskirts of Kisumu in Kenya. The head of this family of 8 is Betty, a widow for the past two years.  The family make their living from farming a small plot of land they own and

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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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Guardian: National Intelligence Council also sees water and food shortages and suggests world is at a ‘critical juncture in human history’ A US intelligence portrait of the world in 2030 predicts that China will be the largest economic power, climate change will create instability by contributing to water and food shortages, and there will be

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