The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Even weeks after about 600 bluenose dolphins were washed ashore at Zanzibar's Nungwi beach, a popular tourist destination, scientists are still clueless. Experts say the dolphins might have been hurt by oil pollution, poisonous seaweed or simply a fast-receding tide, reports Reuters. Others hint that sonar from us submarines might …
the Union ministry of environment and forests (moef) is set to replace the Coastal Regulation Zone (crz), an enactment for the protection of coastal areas of the country, with the Coastal Zone Management Plan (czmp). The plan will come into force in a few months and will be based on …
corrosive oceans: Increased carbon dioxide emissions are rapidly making the world's oceans more acidic. If this continues it could cause mass extinction of marine life similar to that which occurred 65 million years ago when dinosaurs disappeared, according to Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology. The …
A recent major oil spill off Estonia's northwestern coast has damaged the marine ecosystem in the Baltic Sea and its delicate bird population, authorities said. The spill was located in the coastal areas of Laane and Harju counties, some 100 km southwest of the capital, Tallinn. It was caused by …
quake forecast: Researchers at Yale and the University of Washington, both in the US, suggest a new way to forecast severe earthquakes. They say that big earthquakes, like the 2004 Sumatra earthquake, may be caused by the build-up of sediment on top of subduction zones
The decommissioned French aircraft carrier Clemenceau is heading for India after being released by the Egyptian authorities. It is to be dismantled at the ship-breaking yards of Alang in Gujarat pending the Supreme Court (sc) decision on February 13, 2006, on whether the ship should be allowed to enter the …
the proposed plan to link 37 major rivers in India may hit the very source of precipitation for these rivers. This warning was issued in an article published in the January 10, 2006 issue of the journal, Current Science. The report, an outcome of a one-day meeting of scientists from …
This special report does not seek to paint a comprehensive picture of the state of the oceans. It does not set out to recapitulate the many years of debate on ocean overfishing. WBGU concentrates instead on those key linkages between climate change and the oceans that are the topic of …
scientists have raised concern over India lacking a programme to regularly monitor harmful algal blooms (habs), which may lead to massive fish kills and even threaten public health. Though non-toxic blooms have been commonly reported from Indian waters, the cases of hab s have been on the rise since 1981. …
a huge quantity of dead fish recently washed ashore at Karachi coast in Pakistan, with scientists attributing the mass death to pollution by the July 2003 oil spill from tanker Tasman Spirit, off the Karachi coast. They also blame dumping of by-catch by foreign trawlers into the sea for the …
harmful growth of algae that affects the marine ecosystem especially fish, human health and tourism can be controlled using a safe biological weapon, claim researchers. The scientists from the Indian Statistical Institute and the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, both in Kolkata, and the Institute for Environmental Systems Research at …
increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are turning the oceans acidic, warns the Royal Society, Britain's leading scientific organisation. The growing acidity is very likely to harm coral reefs and other marine life by the end of the century, the society said in a report prepared by a panel of …
deep sea genetic resources need to be protected from excessive commercial exploitation for pharmaceutical or industrial applications, warns a report by the United Nations University
the decreasing snow cover in Southwest Asia and the Himalaya is threatening marine life in central and western parts of the Arabian Sea, which lie thousands of kilometres (km) away. According to a study published in Science (April 22, Vol 308, No 5721), reduced winter and spring snow cover in …
A massive seal hunt, supported by poor coastal communities for the big money it brings them but opposed by animal rights activists, began in Canada on March 29, 2005. The Canadian government justified the hunt, citing record levels of seal population and decreasing commercial fish stocks; seals have voracious appetites, …
Marine life in the Arabian Sea might be in grave danger. A Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (modis) image, taken by us space agency nasa on February 22, 2005, shows high chlorophyll concentration in the sea (ribbons and swirls of yellow). This denotes high presence of phytoplankton, tiny ocean plants, near …
chernobyl and cancer: The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident has led to higher incidence of thyroid cancer in the Republic of Belarus, according to a report published by Martin Mahoney of Roswell Cancer Institute, Buffalo, USA in a recent issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology . Between 1970 and …
China is battling a massive oil spill, one of the worst in its history, following the collision between a German and a Panamanian ship in the South China Sea, near the Pearl River. The German ship, which was headed to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen when the accident occurred, …
sanjib kumar roy Port Blair the andaman and Nicobar islands face a severe pollution threat from foreign trawlers that intrude into Indian waters and are apprehended by the country's security forces. The Indian Navy and the Coast Guards seize at least two such vessels every month. Most of these belong …
