IMAGINE a hill station without pines. Worse, Canada sans the maple tree. This could be a reality. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel claim many tree species that depend on the wind to disperse their seeds like pines and maple might become extinct due to climate change. …
TOWARDS the end of the last Ice Age, 10,000-20,000 years ago, the global ocean circulation underwent a lot of changes. This circulation, called meridional overturning circulation (MOC), carries warm, saline surface water north to cooler regions. Now researchers from Cardiff University in the UK have revealed how the MOC in …
This article reports a comparative analysis of the thrust in solar photovoltaic (PV) research during 1981–1988 and 2001–2008. Global solar PV literature in the latter period recorded a 4.5-fold increase over those in 1981–1988.
Poplar (Populus deltoides) has gained considerable importance in agroforestry plantations of western Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir due to its deciduous nature, fast growth, short rotation and high industrial requirement. Poplar based agroforestry systems are prevalent among farmers of Saharanpur (UP) and Yamunanagar (Haryana) districts of …
Global climate change will have multiple effects on human health. Vulnerable populations—children, the elderly, and the poor—will be disproportionately affected. We reviewed projected impacts of climate change on children’s health, the pathways involved in these effects, and prevention strategies.
Climate change is expected to have large impacts on health at low latitudes where droughts and malnutrition, diarrhea, and malaria are projected to increase. The main objective of this study was to indicate a method to assess a range of plausible health impacts of climate change while handling uncertainties in …
The Cancun Agreement1 carries REDD+ firmly forward as a keycomponent of the post-2012 international climate change regimeby describing its main elements and operationalizing its initialphase. Before Cancun, many details of REDD+ were unclear, particularly concerning the issues of most importance to forest dependent people. There is now agreement that a …
GLACIERS, reservoirs of fresh water on the earth, are assumed to be major indicators of climate change. Since their melting contributes to drinking water, water for agriculture and hydropower in densely populated regions in South and Central Asia, glaciers have become a major concern for these regions. Himalayan glaciers are …
On January 30, attendees at a Koch Brothers’ meet at the California resort, Rancho Mirage, were welcomed with an airship carrying a banner “Koch Brothers: Dirty Money”. The aerial message to 200-odd luminaries from business and politics highlighted the Koch Brothers’ use of vast oil profits to push a polluter …
The World Economic Forum—the gathering of power glitterati each year in Davos—has assessed the top risks the world faces in 2011. According to this analysis, climate change is the highest-ranking risk the world will face in the coming years, when its likelihood and impact are combined. What’s even more important …
India has set itself an ambitious target by committing to reduce the energy intensity of its GDP by 20 to 25 per cent by 2020. The promise is entwined with outcome of the recent Cancun climate meet that marked a major shift in burden-sharing in climate mitigation, with developing nations …
INTENSE heatwaves in July last year scorched much of Europe and several other countries in the Northern Hemisphere. It took many lives, destroyed crops and ignited forest fires. Scientists say climate change will not just influence the average climate but also extremes such as heatwaves. Taking cue a group of …
Why doesn’t carbon trading work? The basic argument for carbon trade is that since global warming is a worldwide phenomenon it does not matter where the emissions are reduced. But it creates pollution hotspots. If the larger energy crisis underlying the problem is to be addressed, the entire energy system—how …
As environment minister in the Portuguese government, Humberto D Rosa has been a leading negotiator at important conferences including the UN Convention on Climate change in Bali in 2007, the Copenhagen conference in 2009 and the recent Cancun Summit. In the context of the Portuguese presidency of the council of …
The National Mission for a Green India has been approved by the PM’s Council on Climate Change. It aims to increase the quantity and quality of 10 million ha. of forest area, achieving an annual CO2 sequestration of 50 to 60M tonnes by 2020. The National Mission for a Green …
