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 while the Berlin Summit on climate Change was in progress, 20 European companies, under the aegis of the European Business Council for a sustainable Energy Future, have forged alliance for "promoting technologies it fight global warming". The Council mctions as a sister concern of the Fear-old us group that …
WHEN vegetation sprouts in a desert, it is a good sign; but when the ice in the Arctic and the Antarctic begins to turn green, there is something terribly wrong. There have been a spate of reports in recent weeks pointing towards a possible change in the shape of the …
FINANCIAL planners in insurance companies across the world hold their breath as the world leaders squabble over new cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at the Berlin Climate Convention Summit. The phenomenon of global warming might seriously affect their future, says Richard Keeling of the Harvey Bowring Lloyd's Syndicate, London. The …
SPECULATION is on about the effect of global warming on fish production. The world's marine population is, as it is, subjugate to various factors such as water temperature, salinity, ocean currents, predator-prey relationship, food and nutrient availability, rainfall and pollution due to human activity and new technologies. This interesting and …
WHILE scientists debate the reality of global warming, an extraordinary experiment in the Pacific has dredged up impressive evidence in favour of the seemingly preposterous idea that pumping iron into the sea might stave off the heating of the planet. The theory is that many parts of the ocean lack …
THAT biomass can be an antidote against global warming is an optimistic proposition. It seems unlikely that afforestation can keep pace with the rate of pollution of the atmosphere. Even if it did, it appears inconceivable that enough land would be available to grow trees to absorb sufficient volumes of …
AS EUROPE sticks its snorkel out of the muddy and deep waters of the continent's most devastating floods this century, the efficacy of its dykes comes under pained introspection. Cutting across the Netherlands, Germany, France and Belgium is a realisation that the continent's much-praised flood control practices may be soft …
RICE staple diet of a large part of the world, was not entirely benign. Paddy fields, existing predominantly in tropical developing countries that account for about 90 per cent of globsl rice production, have been blamed for producing vast quantities of global-warming methane. But now, the former director of the …
"THE west is the best". Rocker Jim Morrison in a song called The End. The song revolves around the phrase, exposing its contradictions with images of incest and "children going insane". Today, Morrison is dead and the song has become a classic, mark of a bygone countercultural moment. But the …
The ozone layer over the Antarctica was nearly as severely depleted in November last year as it was in 1993, when it reached a record low, reveal several airborne and space sensors. According to Richard Bevilacqua of the US Naval Research Laboratory, ozone levels began falling in May 1994, and …
THE ozone layer protects the earth's surface from the harmful effects of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Ozone depletion would therefore imply an increase in UV radiation which, scientists fear, could lead to an increase in skin cancer and cataracts, and perhaps adversely affect agricultural systems. But now climatologists point …
Friends of the Earth (FOE) Netherlands organised a Greenhouse Tour from September 3 to December 11. They travelled by boat through the many canals and rivers in the Netherlands, visiting 42 municipalities that have signed the Climate Alliance, a declaration in which municipalities have pledged to do all they can …
AT A halt in Geneva during a recent globetrotting trip, Union environment minister Kamal Nath figuratively explained his view of the uneven environmental realities of the world. He asserted that the much-blamed population of the South, with "4 children per family" hardly taxed the earth's resources as much as the …
The present targets set by various countries to limit carbon dioxide emissions are not enough to avert an increase in its atmospheric levels, concludes the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The report says that an accumulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the …
THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Convention (IPCC) report has confirmed the basis of what many environmentalists have been posting warnings for some time: that the current global emissions of greenhouse gases cannot be sustained by the natural environment. According to this report, even current emissions need to be downscaled by …
GLOBAL warming, depletion of the ozone layer and loss of biodiversity have become the most terrifying bogeys of the world community in recent years) and have spawned a series of international conferences and workshops. The book under review is a selection of some of the papers presented at one such …
AFTER the world community woke up to mid fact of living in warmer climes, of the first things they did was to jibe Climate Change Convention. ir then, they have been scurrying Wd to create a global greenhouse Mw. which requires both industrid and developing countries to jointWelder the responsibilities …
THE industrialised world seems to be sincerely following up on George Bush's swaggering statement in early 1992 that the lifestyle of us citizens is "not negotiable". It shows no inclination to thrash out the problem of rising greenhouse gas emissions, but instead wants to jump the gun and start "joint …
WHEN temperatures soared to alarming levels this summer in India, the rising level of global warming was squarely blamed. Many saw the rise as a confirmation of their worst fears that all of Earth is getting increasingly warmer. Although it is inconclusive as yet whether global warming was actually responsible …
1980s Growing public Concern over scientific Evidence that Earth is getting warmer and the need to control the emission of greenhouse gases NOVEMBER 1988 First session of the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organisation DECEMBER 1990 The UN General …
