The Mountain Tsunami 20 June:  The post disaster situation in Uttarakhand mountain region is becoming worst as the information is coming related to death toll due to the impact of heavy rain fall and cloud burst. It has been recorded that huge number of people are stranded at places and are seeking help for food,

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FAO: There has been a rapid uptake of the term Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) by the international community, national entities and local institutions, in the past years. However, implementing this approach is challenging, partly due to a lack of tools and experience. Climate-smart interventions are highly location-specific and knowledge-intensive. Considerable efforts are required to develop the

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TheForeigner: Putting a label on people does not always explain the problem. If you don’t know, ask. What does the term “climate change refugee” really mean? My previous column looked at some of the current science, showing what is and is not known about people moving due to climate change. Significant potential exists for climate

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Even the world’s tallest mountain – first conquered by man 60 years ago today – cannot escape climate change. A recent study led by a graduate student at the University of Milan in Italy reveals declining snow amounts and retreating glaciers in the Mount Everest region, reaffirming fears that many scientists hold – increasing global

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Guardian: Dawa Steven Sherpa is the new face of Nepal. Born in Khumjung, a village just 12 miles from Everest, he is in his 20s, speaks five languages, has a business degree from a British university, and is the director of a highly successful trekking and guiding company based in Kathmandu. He has climbed Everest

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AsiaOne: Around 9.6 million people in Bangladesh will be bound to migrate domestically or internationally due to climate change by 2050, said a study. Displacement and short-term internal migration are the most sensitive effects of climate change, according to the study, titled “Climate Change-Related Migration in Bangladesh”. People will migrate for longer periods to earn

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Dawn: Climate changes have continuously taken their toll on Pakistan over the last few years – whether it’s an increase in flooding or a change in weather patterns. As a result, mango lovers are still waiting for the arrival of this year’s full-fledged mango crop in the market, which has been delayed because of changes

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The Verge: Microsoft is teaming up with GlacierWorks to launch Everest: Rivers of Ice, an interactive website that lets you explore the areas around the world’s tallest mountain. Built entirely in HTML5, Rivers of Ice contains gigapixel panoramas that capture life in the Himalayas, and depict the daunting task for mountaineers wishing to climb 29,000

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The Hindu: The expensive geo-textile tube project to arrest embankment erosion in Brahmaputra’s Majuli is feared to do little to stop the river’s strong corrosive powers From a distance it looks like a corrugated astro-turf, adding a shade of green on a small patch of a rather long and dusty embankment (or dyke) for protection

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NASA: A new study of glaciers worldwide using observations from two NASA satellites has helped resolve differences in estimates of how fast glaciers are disappearing and contributing to sea level rise. The new research found glaciers outside of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, repositories of 1 percent of all land ice, lost an average

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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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Antonio M. Claparols (Philippines): Think about it. Ours is a country so rich with natural resources, strategically located at the center of the Coral Triangle and blessed with species of which only  10-20% are said to be discovered. Imagine how many of the undiscovered species may have gone extinct and how the discovered ones are

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TR Foundation: For years, Deepa Newar and her neighbours lived with the fear that their livelihoods – and even their lives – might be swept away without warning. Newar and her fellow residents of Jhirpu Phulpingkatti, a village some 112 km (70 miles) northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, live perched on the bank of the

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Guardian: More than 32 million people fled their homes last year because of disasters such as floods, storms and earthquakes – 98% of displacement related to climate change. Asia and west and central Africa bore the brunt. Some 1.3 million people were displaced in rich countries, with the US particularly affected. Floods in India and

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CGIAR: Almost 40 years ago, Revelle and Lakshminarayana (1975) coined the term “Ganges Water Machine” trying to find a solution to the fundamental problem of land and water development in the Ganges, where 80% of the monsoon-driven river flow occurs during 4 months from July to October. The dry-season flow of the Ganges in the

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Buenos AH: The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is the last surviving paradise on Earth. This legendary Shangri-La, now a member of the United Nations, is home to over 700,000 people. Until 1958, it was practically closed to visitors. When Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister, visited Bhutan during that year he rode in on a

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RTCC: The world’s largest cities are feeling the effects of climate change and are leading efforts to adapt to them. That is according to the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group that includes London, New York, Cairo and Sao Paulo. Terri Wills, director of global initiatives at C40, told RTCC that the group has had to

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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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Scientific American: Increased melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and other ice losses worldwide have helped to move the North Pole several centimeters east each year since 2005. Global warming is changing the location of Earth’s geographic poles, according to a new study in Geophysical Research Letters. Researchers at the University of Texas, Austin, report

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CNN: As temperatures climb in parts of northern Europe, some bird species, unable to find other ways of adapting to the warmer conditions, are simply not migrating as they once did. Most birds are acutely sensitive to changes in temperature. Scientists now say that changes in climate and warmer temperatures in parts of Europe have

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Indian Himalayan basins are earmarked for widespread dam building, but aggregate effects of these dams on terrestrial ecosystems are unknown. We mapped distribution of 292 dams (under construction and proposed) and projected effects of these dams on terrestrial ecosystems under different scenarios of land-cover loss. We analyzed land-cover data of the Himalayan valleys, where dams

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I thought that it would be time to stop writing about the environment, specifically about climate change, that my previous articles had  lambasted and even backed up with actions to mitigate,enhance,restore and rehabilitate our natural resources. However, today’s extreme heat prompted me back to writing. The day’s temperature was over 37-degrees  Centigrade. Frankly, without exaggeration,it

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SMH: Sea levels may rise as much as 69 centimeters through 2100 as water temperatures rise, glaciers melt in the Andes and Himalayas and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica shed water, European scientists said. The new estimate exceeds a previous forecast of as much as 59 centimeters by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on

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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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Cancún, Mexico — Researchers taking a new look at the snow and ice covering Mount Everest and the national park that surrounds it are finding abundant evidence that the world’s tallest peak is shedding its frozen cloak. The scientists have also been studying temperature and precipitation trends in the area and found that the Everest

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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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Business Standard: Climate change is likely to bring down the production of key foodgrain crops like wheat and rice in the country by up to 18% in 2020, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today. “Climate change is projected to reduce timely sown irrigated wheat production by about 6% in 2020. In case of late sown

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CDKN: Pakistan is one of the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world: it accounts for just 0.8% of total global emissions, and ranks 135th in terms of per capita emissions.  Unfortunately, Pakistan is also one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world.  Over the past 20 years, 141 extreme events

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World Bank: On World Water Day 2013: 85% of the world’s population lives on the driest half of the land, 783 million people do not have access to clean water, and 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. The economic and health effects will be exacerbated by climate change and its effect on

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World Bank: Climate Change Cutting Crop Production in Eastern Europe and Central Asia by over 25 Percent unless Action Is Taken Now. In parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, climate change is poised to hamper food production and curb rural incomes over the next decades unless farmers get the help they need through improved

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An amendment to the old treaty between the US and Mexico promises to bring back life to the dry Colorado delta. ‘Minute 319’, apart from sending water down the river and restoring the native habitat, also calls for more water sharing between the two countries, writes Henry Fountain. German Munoz looked out at the river

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Science Daily: A team of researchers led by Associate Professor Edward L. Webb of the National University of Singapore (NUS) is calling for the global adoption of a method to identify areas that are vulnerable to sea-level rise. The method, which utilises a simple, low-cost tool, is financially and technically accessible to every country with

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Daily Times: Speakers at the launch of the policy brief on water management in the Central Karakorum National Park (CKNP) emphasised the need for collaborative and synchronised efforts to research the impact of climatic changes in the highlands. They said only the integrated and collaborative approach would help conserve the large glaciers for smooth and

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Science Daily: As temperatures warm, plants release gases that help form clouds and cool the atmosphere, according to research from IIASA and the University of Helsinki. The new study, published in Nature Geoscience, identified a negative feedback loop in which higher temperatures lead to an increase in concentrations of natural aerosols that have a cooling

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Atlantic wire: The dramatic images resulting from this week’s floods in the Midwest are, in a way, a welcome sight. Six months ago, the region was wracked by drought. While the sudden drought-to-flood transition may not be due to climate change, it’s close to what some models predict. High water has been pervasive throughout the

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Spaceindustrynews: Mid-elevation forests – those between approximately 6,500 to 8,000 feet (1,981 to 2,438 meters) in elevation – are the most sensitive to rising temperatures and changes in precipitation and snowmelt associated with climate change, finds a new University of Colorado Boulder-led study co-funded by NASA. The study looked at how the greenness of Western

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Aljazeera: Government attempts a new insurance scheme to protect farmers from floods and other worsening weather problems. After five consecutive dry winters, Abdul Qadeer was jubilant at the prospect of a plentiful harvest of wheat after December rains soaked his farmland. But the 39-year-old farmer’s hopes were destroyed last month by torrential spring rains and

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TckTckTck: A groundbreaking new study, published in Nature Geoscience, has found that global temperatures were warmer between 1970 and 2000 than any other 30-year period in the last 1,400 years. The research, compiled by 73 scientists from 28 institutions worldwide, is the most comprehensive reconstruction of global temperatures to date. It used corals, ice cores, tree rings, lake and

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Alertnet: Pakistan’s government has boosted the funding of a state institution that researches the impacts of climate change, and granted it autonomy, in an effort to increase the quality of its recommendations on climate resilience for government policy and programmes. The Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC) will focus on research aimed at helping sectors

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Himalayan Times: Minister for Agriculture Development Tek Bahadur Thapa Gharti has directed ministry officials to evaluate the performance of projects based on the benefits that the projects have provided to people. Impact on livelihoods should be the base for evaluating the projects, he said during a performance review meeting of the Agriculture Ministry. “The traditional

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Business Recorder: On Sunday, billions of people around the world celebrated the International Earth Day. The main purpose of the day is to save our mother Earth from the challenges, which are threatening its existence. The global theme for Earth Day 2013 is “The Face of Climate Change”. Earth Day history Earth Day first celebrated

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IIED: The poorest communities (and poorest countries) are leading the world in learning about and practising adaptation to climate change. The rich would do well to learn from them. The flood plain of the Ganges river in southern Bangladesh is only around two metres higher than sea level. Rising floodwaters can wipe out crops and

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C4D: Climate change is increasingly intersecting with the challenges faced by people seeking to emerge from poverty, and changing the way Canadian development organizations – and their partners in the global south – must design their programs to ensure resiliency and continued sustainability. Climate change not only permeates the entire development process, it threatens many

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CNN: Ice in parts of the Antarctic Peninsula is now melting during the summer faster than at any time in the last thousand years, and the most marked speed-up in the thaw has occurred since 1960, scientists say. Summer ice melt in the Antarctic Peninsula has increased almost 10-fold in the last 600 years,  weakening

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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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Telegraph India: World Bank, which is funding a $150-million project on integrated flood and erosion management in the Northeast, has called for a multi-sector approach towards management of water resources in the Brahmaputra basin. The bank’s suggestion is meant to ensure that the states involved benefit from the risks and opportunities associated with a multi-sector

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In a world where it’s commonly believed that one person can’t make a difference, one Indian man is proving that argument to be false. Jadav Molai Payeng is a modern-day hero to those who fight to protect natural habitats around the world. He’s not a traditional activist, but a man who was motivated 30 years

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Asian Scientist: Temperatures in South-East Asia’s Lower Mekong Basin are set to rise by up to three times the global average temperature increase, according to a USAID-funded study. By Alexander Hotz – Temperatures in South-East Asia’s Lower Mekong Basin are set to rise by up to three times the global average temperature increase, according to

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ANI: Cyclical activity below the Earth’s surface does indeed play a part in rising sea levels and global warming, a new study has found. However, the article’s authors, New York University’s Michael Rampino and Carleton University’s Andreas Prokoph, note that changes spurred by the earth’s interior are gradual, taking place in periods ranging from 60

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The Washington Post has updated the story to include climate as a reason for variability in water supplies. While the original did not discuss climate change, the addition of this in the fourth paragraph, plus the inclusion of a quote from former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh now complete the story. We applaud them for updating the story. The

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NYTimes: Glacial ice in the Peruvian Andes that took at least 1,600 years to form has melted in just 25 years, scientists reported Thursday, the latest indication that the recent spike in global temperatures has thrown the natural world out of balance. The evidence comes from a remarkable find at the margins of the Quelccaya

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CMS: The Centre for Mountain Studies (CMS) is located at Perth College, University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland. Since its establishment in 2000, staff and students at the CMS have been active in research and knowledge exchange activities at all scales, from the local, in Scotland, to the global. Projects in Scotland have focused

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BioOne: This comprehensive textbook on upland management in the British Isles combines a critical understanding of upland agriculture and related environmental issues with an assessment of the political decisions that have affected these regions over the past 50 years. Lois Mansfield, an agricultural geographer, has delivered this well, in a detailed and well-illustrated textbook suitable for

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BioOne: The Hindu Kush–Himalayan (HKH) region encompasses a mountainous area of more than 4,192,000 km2 in the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. The region is one of the most dynamic, fragile, and complex mountain systems in the world as a result of tectonic activity and the rich diversity of climates,

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BioOne: Recent studies of future food production in South Asia generally agree that the conditions for production will radically change in the years to come, in particular due to climate change and market variations. However, because we do not know how conditions will be modified and what adaptations will be required by farmers, the article

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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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Alertnet: In Nambeyo village in Kenya’s semi-arid Isiolo County, former pastoralist Joseph Elila and his wife Pauline are busy threshing sorghum to remove the grain from the stalks. The couple has been converted into smallholder dry-land farmers after they lost their entire animal stock to cattle rustlers two years ago. The area is well known

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IIED: Countries need new tools to check whether climate change adaptation is keeping development on-track, and whether costs and benefits are fairly distributed. IIED and partners are developing a framework that does this by assessing risk management and resilience at many levels. As countries increasingly focus on adapting to climate change, and more ‘climate finance’

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TERI: Recently the need for a greater understanding on linkages between biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation and the livelihoods of the local communities has increased the attention of the world leaders. The threat of climate change, which cuts across national and international boundaries, has further catalyzed the importance of the issues and facilitated

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