This is the 33rd issuance of the annual assessment now known as State of the Climate, published in the Bulletin since 1996. As a supplement to the Bulletin, its foremost function is to document the status and trajectory of many components of the climate system. However, as a series, the …
after plundering biodiversity hotspots of the South, the ambitious biotech industry is now eyeing Antarctica. As per a report of the Tokyo-based United Nations University, the continent's microbes, with their unique biological properties, have already become targets of "free-for-all' exploitation. While tourism and mining are banned or regulated on the …
The Antarctic ozone hole is bigger than it has ever been at this time of the year, threatening populated regions of South America and New Zealand with harmful levels of ultraviolet radiation. Last year's hole was smaller than those recorded over the previous decade, leading to hopes that the protective …
Desolate, cold, inhospitable, relegated to the backyards of exploration and knowledge. Antarctica did not emerge from this unfortunate fate till less than 100 years ago, before which, whalers and seafarers were its only visitors. Cartographers barely acknowledged its presence (or chose to ignore it altogether). And the first explorations, which …
It is the earth's final frontier. Antarctica, a gigantic mass of ocean-encased rocky islands south of the Antarctic Circle, is the earth's southern-most continent. There is no place colder or drier. Stark but majestic, uncompromisingly bleak but alluring, 98 per cent of the continent's 14 million kilometres (km) is sheathed …
A 1996 expert group report on the Indian Antarctic programme says: "The programme has so far been working in complete isolation with no substantial element of international cooperation. While actual attempts are being made by various countries through the aegis of SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) to join hands …
The official history of India's presence in the Antarctic begins from December 6, 1981, when the icebreaker M V Polar Circle steamed out of Goa with a 21-member team. But would it be true to say that the real history begins a decade ago, in 1971? This was the year …
On a hot June day in 1981 S Z Qasim, then environment secretary, reached out to answer a telephone. The caller was Indira Gandhi, the prime minister. The conversation was brief and to the point. "Can India reach Antarctica?' asked the prime minister. Qasim, who had only an academic knowledge …
this year's ozone hole over Antarctic is not only much smaller than what it was in 2000 and 2001, but it has split into two. The so-called hole, actually an area of thinner-than-normal ozone, was measured at 15.6 million square kilometers (sq km) in September 2002
The ozone hole above the Antarctic has recently begun its annually occurring expansion. As per the estimates of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), it would grow significantly over the next few days. The first patch of low ozone concentration was detected near South America. Within a few days, this had …
a severe heat wave swept across the southern, central and northern parts of India in May. More than 1,100 people are said to have succumbed to the scorcher. In Andhra Pradesh, the unusually intense and prolonged heat claimed more than 1,000 lives. This prompted state chief minister Chandrababu Naidu to …
Rising sea levels are one of the major consequences of global warming. This could be most evident in the vast west Antarctica ice sheet. But a new study done by us researchers of the region's several inland ice rivers shows that after a long period of rapid movement and thinning, …
Antarctica seems to be melting and contributing to the slow rise of the ocean levels, scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) report. Using two sets of radar data from the European Remote Sensing Satellite, the scientists found that a large amount of …
Benny Peiser, an anthropologist at Liverpool John Moores University has shown through a computer simulation that more than 1,000 fatal impacts in a 100,000-year period. These fatal impacts were mostly airbursts over land. For instance, a 60-meter-wide object blew up above a remote Siberian forest. Other blasts occurred in or …
A new range of substances to replace ozone-depleting substances like chlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons, which are banned under the Montreal Protocol, are doing more harm than good. These alternative substances, such as n-propyl bromide and halon-1202, may also have the potential to damage the ozone layer. Although these alternative chemicals, used …
A long awaited breakthrough has been made with a decision to establish the first secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty System in Argentina, 40 years after the treaty came into force. A blocking veto against the choice of Buenos Aires has been removed by the uk . Despite the growing number …
over the past 50 years the population of Antarctic emperor penguins has declined by 50 per cent. And, global warming could be to blame. Christophe Barbraud and Henri Weimerskirch, researchers at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Villers en Bois, France, have shown that an abnormally long warm …
