Understanding the interplay between climate and land-use dynamics is a fundamental concern for assessing the vulnerability of Amazonia to climate change. In this study, we analyse satellite-derived monthly and annual time series of rainfall, fires and deforestation to explicitly quantify the seasonal patterns and relationships between these three variables, with …
Loss of large areas of Amazonian forest, through either direct human impact or climate change, could exert a number of influences on the regional and global climates. In the Met Office Hadley Centre coupled climate
Some model experiments predict a large-scale substitution of Amazon forest by savannah-like vegetation by the end of the twenty-first century. Expanding global demands for biofuels and grains, positive feedbacks in the Amazon forest fire regime and drought may drive a faster process of forest degradation that could lead to a …
Significant changes in physical and biological systems are occurring on all continents and in most oceans, with a concentration of available data in Europe and North America. Most of these changes are in the direction expected with warming temperature. Here the authors show that these changes in natural systems since …
Desiccation of the Sahara since the middle Holocene has eradicated all but a few natural archives recording its transition from a "green Sahara" to the present hyperarid desert. Our continuous 6000-year paleoenvironmental reconstruction from northern Chad shows progressive drying of the regional terrestrial ecosystem in response to weakening insolation forcing …
Oxygen-poor waters occupy large volumes of the intermediate-depth eastern tropical oceans. Oxygen-poor conditions have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems because important mobile microorganisms avoid or cannot survive in hypoxic zones. Climate models predict declines in oceanic dissolved oxygen produced by global warming. The researchers constructed a 50-year time series of dissolved-oxygen …
Environmental policymaking has been equated with the art of making the right decisions based on an insufficient understanding of the underlying problems. Given the tremendous complexities of the earth system, effective global environmental governance must rely on scientific information on both the kind of problem at stake and the options …
The debate on the advantages and disadvantages of upgrading the United Nations Environment Programme to a 'world environment organisation' (WEO) has gained momentum in both academe and politics. This article contends that a WEO would further the interests especially of developing countries, because it would provide them, first, a high- …
Global warming is devastating health and the environment all over the world. There is a growing cry for energy conservation and combating the effects of climate change globally. But, very little is being done. To get people working on devising practical solutions to this problem, the WWF has initiated a …
The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), India's largest agri-trading platform, has announced the launch of the futures contract in certified emission reduction (CER), a type of carbon credit certificate futures contract. The contract will be launched on April 10 for delivery in December 2008. But, with a number of …
What is the way to counter effects of climate change that are thought to be the greatest threat to humankind and the earth in the coming decades? While the Nobel Prize winning Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) thinks a drastic cut in carbon emissions, which supposedly causes global warming, …
Australia began pumping carbon dioxide underground on Wednesday using an experimental technology that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by locking dangerous gases deep in the earth. Australia is one of only a handful of places trying the technology, and environmentalists immediately criticised the project as a token gesture that …
Poor countries at the U.N. conference have said they will not sign a global warming pact unless industrialised nations guarantee them billions of dollars needed to adapt to the impact of climate change. Nations in the Caribbean and South Pacific recounted how they are being hit by worsening floods, rising …
A U.S. congressional Select Committee plans to hold a hearing on a clean energy partnership with India and other developing nations. At a press conference on Tuesday, Edward Markey, Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said, "There are no hospitals for sick planets. It …
Glaciers are the coolers of the planet earth and the lifeline of many of the world's major rivers. The interaction between glaciers and climate represents a particularly sensitive approach. 2006
The United Nations conference on climate change, now on in Bangkok, is expected to produce an agreement to cut global emissions drastically by 2050. Over the years, countries committed to cutting emissions have submitted their estimates to UNFCCC. In 2004, India estimated that it emits 1,228,540 Gigagram (Gg) or about …
Q.The office of the President of America is considered to be the most powerful office in the world and given the slugfest among democratic nominees, you would have been an ideal candidate. It would have given you an opportunity to push your agenda, which is climate change. Yet you chose …
The Gateway of India will be wiped off the Mumbai skyline. Bhelpuri at Chowpatty will become the stuff of grandmother's tales. No flights will take off from Chhatrapati Shivaji airport. No couple will canoodle at the Marine Drive promenade and even Shah Rukh Khan will not be able to resist …
AL GORE FORMER VICE-PRESIDENT OF USA, NOBEL LAUREATE, AUTHOR AND AWARD WINNING FILMMAKER To me, there is a striking contrast between the confidence and dynamism, the success and legendary energy drive of modern India
