Alaska sees record temperatures in heatwave
An "all-time high" temperature record has been set in the US state of Alaska, despite much of the country sitting in the Arctic circle. Temperatures peaked at 32.22 Celsius (90F) on 4 July at an airport
Glacial Melt
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Climate change crisis in India
In an era of unabated and unplanned development, there is greatest possibility of the environment being irreversibly affected. One such crisis which has created a worldwide impact in global warming. With a sudden rise in temperatures throughout the world, climates have changed drastically, endangering the existence of each and every life form on earth. Here we look into climate change issues related to India.
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Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon
Black carbon in soot is the dominant absorber of visible solar radiation in the atmosphere. Anthropogenic sources of black carbon, although distributed globally, are most concentrated in the tropics where solar irradiance is highest. Black carbon is often transported over long distances, mixing with other aerosols along the way. The aerosol mix can form transcontinental plumes of atmospheric brown clouds, with vertical extents of 3 to 5 km.
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Uttarakhand to restrict tourist flow to Gangotri glacier
With alarm bells ringing over the rapid melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, the Uttarakhand Government has decided to regulate tourist flow to the protected areas of Gangotri National Park, includin
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Melting glaciers'
It won't take more than a few decades for many Himalayan glaciers to disappear, leaving the Ganga, Indus and Brahmaputra as seasonal rivers.
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Possibility of cold war over Arctic meltdown (Editorial)
With oil above 100 dollars a barrel and Arctic ice melting faster than ever, some of the world's most powerful countries -- including the United States and Russia -- are looking north to a possible en
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Stronger evidence of global warming
With more recent data on the Himalayan glaciers from the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites, scientists of the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of the Indian Space Research Organisaation (ISRO) at Ahmedabad now have much stronger evidence of the finger print of global warming in the observed alarming retreat of these glaciers. The new results were presented at the ongoing National Space Science Symposium (NSSS-2008) here by Dr. Anil V. Kulkarni of SAC. In 2004 Dr. Kulkarni and his colleagues investigated the spatial extent of 466 glaciers in the basins of Chenab, Parbati and Baspa using remote sensed data and compared them with the 1962 topographic data of the Survey of India. They found an overall reduction of 21 per cent in the glacial surface area. They had also found that the process of deglaciation had led to the fragmentation of large glaciers resulting in the reduction in the mean surface area of glacial extent from 1 sq. km. to 0.32 sq. km. during 1962-2004. The new data pertains to two additional basins of Warwan and Bhut comprising 253 and 189 glaciers respectively. Together with the earlier data on 466 glaciers, the cumulative area of these 908 Himalayan glaciers has been found to have reduced from 3391 sq. km. to 2721 sq. km., implying a total area reduction of 20 per cent. Another new finding is that the snow line
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MIRROR OF OUR TIMES (Editorial)
The Arctic reflects what ails a world gripped by global warming. As the ice melts and nations vie for rich mineral resources once hidden under the snow, the writing on the wall is often ignored, says Fatima Chowdhury Thousands of miles away in the Arctic region, fate stands delicately balanced at the edge of time. Located at the North Pole, the region includes the Arctic Ocean surrounded by the five Arctic states
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Quite shocking!
In future, climate change is likely to be the single most significant cause of biodiversity loss, writes Sanjay Gubbi, assessing its overall impact.
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Natural rifts may have weakened Antarctic ice shelf
When it comes to Antarctica's disintegrating ice shelves, climate change often gets fingered as the cause. But it turns out global warming was not the only culprit behind the continent's biggest ice break-up in recent years.