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 Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NFEJ) is celebrating transmission of 250 episodes of Aankhijhyal, a programme on environmental, social and sustainable development concerns. Aankhijhyal is an impact-oriented investigative programme that has managed to gain an impressive audience in Nepal. Issues such timber smuggling, glacial lake outbursts and outbreak of …
The world is getting warmer. This can cause glaciers to melt and within the next 10 years, water from Himalayan lakes can come hurtling down in torrents, and result in floods which could threaten thousands of lives. According to a recent report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), global …
the brightening and dimming of the Sun may account for a 1,500-year cycle of cooling and warming on parts of the Earth, suggests a study. The study was done by researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, New York, usa. According to them, a very slight …
A supposedly scientific expedition into the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (ndbr) has stirred the minds of people in Lata village of district Chamoli, in Uttaranchal. They say the expedition was a farce. They claim it was a surreptitious attempt to open the region to high-end tourism with tour operators and …
Latest NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) satellite maps reveal that most of the world's glaciers are shrinking. Rick Wessels of the US Geographical Survey, based in Arizona, compared thousands of satellite images to aerial photographs dating back 20 years and found almost every mountain glacier in Patagonia, the Himalayas, …
" i oppose the Kyoto Protocol because it exempts 80 per cent of the world, including major population centres such as China and India, from compliance and would cause serious harm to the us economy.' This retrogressive statement made by us President George W Bush in a letter to Republican …
although the importance of Himalaya-Karakoram as the largest storehouse of fresh water in the lower latitudes, and the important role of their snow and ice in maintaining the flows of the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra during the lean period was well perceived and understood since ancient times, scientific …
ice in the Pine Island Glacier, which lies in the Antarctic Ice sheet is melting and raising the sea level. This is the first evidence of glacial melting raising the sea levels. "In terms of ice discharge, this is nothing like anyone has seen before,' says Andrew Shepherd, researcher at …
this is more evidence to prove that the Earth is warming up. Ancient ice cores drilled from deep inside Himalayan glaciers reveal that the last century has been the hottest period in past 1,000 years and the last decade has been the hottest ever. The drilling has yielded a highly-detailed …
There are at least 26 "potentially dangerous' glacial lakes in the Nepalese side of Himalayas, according to the Inventory of Glaciers. The risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood ( glof ) still poses a great threat for Nepal and the draining of excess water from the Tsho Rolpa glacial lake …
Melting Himalayan glaciers are threatening to unleash a torrent of floods into mountain valleys, and ultimately dry up rivers across South Asia. A new study, due to be presented in July to the International Commission on Snow and Ice (ICSI), predicts that most of the glaciers in the region will …
A study of ice cores from the Himalaya reveal a substantial rise in industrial pollution over the past few decades, claim some Chinese researchers. Ice cores from remote mountain areas are believed to contain accurate records of atmospheric concentrations over tens of thousands of years. Scientists from the Lanzhou Institute …
According to the Chinese scientists, ice cores from the Himalaya, the world's highest mountain range, indicate a significant increase in pollution levels over the past few decades. Wang Ninglian, an associate researcher with the Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Cryopedolgy under the Chinese Academy of Sciences ( cas ) said …
Glaciers , the huge and seemingly sedate rivers of ice, are the source of life and, ironically, death too. These masses not only add to the serene and pristine beauty of the higher reaches of the Himalaya, they are also the source of north Indian rivers. Thus, with global warming …
B etween 40 and 50 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent collided with the rest of the Asian landmass. This collision caused the Earth's crust to buckle and rise forming the Himalaya. The uplift of the Himalaya was a gradual process over a long period. As the elevation of the …
On august 4, 1985, a moraine-dammed glacial lake, Dig Tsho, burst in the Khumbu Himal area of Nepal. Within four to six hours, the lake had emptied into Lagmoche valley, one of the tributary valleys of the river Bhote Kosi, which flows along many Sherpa settlements. For more than 90 …
Bacteria thrive beneath glaciers where their activity can erode rocks, say Canadian and British geologists. Martin Sharp of the University of Alberta in the UK and his colleagues found colonies of bacteria growing and producing carbon dioxide under two Swiss glaciers. Once dissolved in water, the gas weathers the rocks …
