For billions of people, mountain meltwater is essential for drinking water and sanitation, food and energy security, and the integrity of the environment. But today, as the world warms, glaciers are melting faster than ever, making the water cycle more unpredictable and extreme. And because of glacial retreat, floods, droughts, …
The earth is hotter than it has been in the past 2000 years and the largest ice shelf in the Artic has broken into two after having existed for 3000 years. But all that Russia does is procrastinate over endorsing the Kyoto Protocol
Motion and change are the sum total of a glacier's life. These massive ice-fields were for long considered a delightful compromise between the seasonal variations in snow level. However, the balance of nature has now melted into the past. Despite looking the picture of tranquillity while metamorphosing, glaciers are today …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
An unstable glacier in Peru has raised fears of flooding. A huge lump of the glacier, which feeds Palcacocha lake in the Andes, is threatening to crack and drop into the lake below. Peruvian authorities are using satellite images from the us -based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa) to …
The Union ministry of water resources has recommended that a satellite be used for mapping all possible information on water sources. The Indian Space Research Organisation (isro) is likely to start work on the satellite, which will provide information about glaciers, aquifers, rivers and other ground and surface water bodies …
Global warming could tip the Earth into a completely new climate state in which cycles of freezing and thawing are switched off, assert two Belgian scientists. If true, this would crash the hopes of all those escapists who peddle another ice age as a reason for not worrying about the …
Forewarned is forearmed. With this motto, Argentina has embarked on a mission to launch two Earth observation satellites so that it is alerted against environmental threats. Named Saocom 1 and 2, the satellites are supposed to improve the management of emergencies such as forest fires, droughts and floods. While monitoring …
it might be the lull before a storm. This year, the Bhakra dam is gushing with more water than normal. Its inflow in July 2002 was as much as 38,000 cusecs
The new buzzword in the climate research circles is vulnerability and adaptation. Just like most of the climate discussion the words have become so dense, that their meaning is lost on most, except the most conversant and involved. It is almost as if the effort is to convolute the science …
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 …
Flood Studies in India brings to fore several aspects of this natural disaster that are not yet conventional wisdom in policy circles. The book looks at floods from a variety of expertise areas, such as civil engineering, meteorology, hydrology, remote sensing, geomorphology and geography - the only way to do …
