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, …
Research Team Braves Frostbite & Steep Climb, Surveys Chhota Shigri Glacier, Says Depletion Greater In Past Decade. Worried about the day when the Himalayan glaciers have melted, the Yamuna is a marsh and your taps have run dry? It’s unlikely to happen soon. Scientists from JNU’s School of Environmental Sciences …
This new report by South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People presents an analysis of the state of water sector in India. It says that climate change offers a unique opportunity to revisit water management & provides recommendations in this context. This report tries to capture the relevant issues …
Climate change is altering the face of the Himalayas, devastating farming communities and making Mount Everest increasingly treacherous to climb, some of the world’s top mountaineers have warned. Apa Sherpa, the Nepali climber who has conquered Mount Everest a record 21 times, said he was disturbed by the lack of …
The past history of organic life can be the key to the future, said ex-head of Geology Department, University of Jammu, Prof SK Shah while delivering the SP Nautiyal Memorial Lecture at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology on Thursday. Delivering his talk on bio-events and climate change, Prof Shah …
News editors from 18 Asian countries deliberated media’s role in fighting climate change in a two-day conference “Himalayan system in a changing climate future and media’s role” which ended yesterday in Kathmandu, Nepal. The receding Himalayan glaciers, rising temperatures, glacial lake outburst flood, and rapid urbanisations were some of the …
Islamabad—Climate change is a rising threat to all nations of the world including Pakistan and India. But without positive will and change of mindset there is little possibility for a positive progress. Experts, at a seminar on Monday, agreed that strategic interest, military ambition and absence of data are the …
The total volume of water that has melted from all of world’s polar ice sheets, ice caps and mountain glaciers over the past decade would repeatedly fill Britain’s largest lake, Windemere, more than 13,000 times, according to one of the most comprehensive studies of Earth’s frozen ‘cryosphere’. Using a unique …
Himalayan glaciers and ice caps that supply water to more than a billion people in Asia are losing mass up to 10 times less quickly than once feared, a study published on Thursday reported. Based on an improved analysis of satellite data from 2003 to 2010, the findings offer a …
U.S. scientists using satellite data have established a more accurate figure of the amount of annual sea level rise from melting glaciers and ice caps which should aid studies on how quickly coastal areas may flood as global warming gathers pace. John Wahr of the University of Colorado in Boulder …
Looking at the swirling grey waters of the Bhote Koshi River, Ratna Kaji remembers when it turned into a "monster," leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. "It came down roaring, washed away homes and people when they were sleeping," the 77-year-old said of the 1996 flood, caused by …
The melting down of the Himalayan glaciers due to climate change may be solving the current water crisis, but can also have a devastating effect on animal and human lives in the long run, environmentalist and polar explorer Robert Swan has said. “What scares me is that people think that …
LONDON: Human carbon emissions could put off a "lethal" ice age which is due to start within 1,500 years, say British scientists at Cambridge University. According to them, levels of CO2 in the atmosphere could actually insulate against a catastrophic ice age which would see glaciers advance over Europe and …
Realising the danger faced by people of Chitral due to avalanches, a local youth has invented a machine to warn about movement of avalanche in mountains and highlands. “It will help to minimise the devastation caused by avalanches,” said Mohammad Khalid, who has a master degree in electronics from University …
Developed for troops serving on glaciers high in the Himalayas, the non-flushing “bio-digester” toilet made by India’s top defence research body is now being offered to companies and poorer states. It is one of 200 technologies produced by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) identified as for-sale via the …
Mission to reduce chances of glacial lake's outburst fails to achieve target. The Thorthormi glacial lake in northern Bhutan is considered the country's likeliest climate-induced disaster. The lake, perched at a height of more than 4,400 metres, is swelling because of melting ice, and is in danger of bursting its …
This report provides a comprehensive account of the glacier coverage of the entire Hindu Kush-Himalayan region based on a standardised analysis of satellite images over a limited time frame. The report and the database serve as a significant step in filling the gap in information on the glaciers of the …
Climate Change Of late, farmer Rinchen of Semtokha is seeing some strange behaviour in her garden. When trees in her garden at this time of the year shed leaves, a few apple trees have flowered again; and a plum tree is bearing fruit for the second time. The banana plants …
National Glaciers Within the last three decades, glaciers of Bhutan shrank by 189sqkm, less than half the size of one of the country’s smallest dzongkhags, Pemagatshel. It is a fall by 7.3 percent, compared with 860sqkm in 1980, which, when recorded in 2010, dropped to 671sqkm. Going by a recent …
International Rivers has created a state-of-the-art Google Earth 3-D tour and video narrated by Nigerian activist Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International and winner of the prestigious Right Livelihood Award. The production was launched at COP17 in Durban. The tour illustrates how melting glaciers in the Himalayas …
More than 710,000 people died as a direct consequence of 14,000 extreme weather events, and losses of more than USD 2.3 trillion occurred from 1991 to 2010 globally reveals the Global Cimate Risk Index 2012. The Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index is an analysis based on the most reliable available …
