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, …
For the first time in 24 years, this report comprehensively summarizes the status — population size and population trends — of Antarctica’s five penguin species, continent-wide and in key regions. These species total at least 5.7 million breeding pairs nesting at 660 or more sites across the entire Antarctic continent. …
Uttarakhand High Court on March 30, 2017 declared all the glaciers, including Gangotri and Yamunotri, rivers, streams, rivulets, lakes, air, meadows, dales, jungles, forests wetlands, grasslands, springs and waterfalls as living entities. High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital in the matter of Lalit Miglani Vs State of Uttarakhand & Others …
This annual statement confirms that 2016 was the warmest year on record, approximately 1.1 °C above the pre-industrial period, and 0.06 °C above the previous highest value set in 2015. Noteworthy extreme events in 2016 included severe droughts that brought food insecurity to millions in southern and eastern Africa and …
Meteorological studies have indicated that high alpine environments are strongly affected by climate warming, and periglacial debris flows are frequent in deglaciated regions. The combination of rainfall and air temperature controls the initiation of periglacial debris flows, and the addition of meltwater due to higher air temperatures enhances the complexity …
This report provides regional sea-level rise scenarios and tools for coastal preparedness planning and risk management in the United States. It refines six global sea level rise scenarios (Low, Intermediate Low, Intermediate, Intermediate High, High, and Extreme) decade by decade. The report provides a range of possible scenarios and the …
The government of Bolivia, a landlocked country in the heart of South America, has been forced to declare a state of emergency as it faces its worst drought for at least 25 years. Much of the water supply to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, and the …
A scientist has engineered a way to possibly solve the problems of glacial melting in the Himalayas through artificial glacier towers called an ice stupa. The continuous glacial melting in the Himalayas has created a problem regarding water sources being scarce, which farms and wildlife strongly depend on. For the …
The World Meteorological Organization has published a detailed analysis of the global climate 2011-2015 – the hottest five-year period on record - and the increasingly visible human footprint on extreme weather and climate events with dangerous and costly impacts. The record temperatures were accompanied by rising sea levels and declines …
The World Meteorological Organization has published a detailed analysis of the global climate 2011-2015 – the hottest five-year period on record - and the increasingly visible human footprint on extreme weather and climate events with dangerous and costly impacts. The record temperatures were accompanied by rising sea levels and declines …
Order of the High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital in the matter of Tara Singh Rajput Vs State of Uttarakhand & Others dated 07/11/2016 regarding the issue of felling of trees indiscriminately as well as the unauthorized constructions, in the close vicinity of Bhimtal Lake area, Nainital district in the …
The climate, cryosphere, and hydrology of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region have changed in the past and will change in the future. This literature review investigates the state of knowledge on climate change and its projected impact on the cryosphere and hydrology of the HKH, with a specific focus …
GLOF is low-frequency event, but it often causes enormous loss and damage of life, property and human environment in downstream regions. The economic losses caused by GLOF are much higher than the project costs to early consolidate moraine dam and release flood waters. Glacial lake outbursts can be very difficult …
The high Arctic archipelagos around the globe are among the most strongly glacierized landscapes on Earth apart from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Over the past decades, the mass losses from land ice in the high Arctic regions have contributed substantially to global sea level rise. Among these regions, …
Integrated water resource management serves as a foundation upon which the planning and implementation of climate resilience is being pursued in Bhutan. Water has been sculpting Bhutan’s landscape for millennia, flowing down from majestic alpine mountains to the narrow valleys and deep gorges that make up the country’s iconic landscape …
The Himalayan glaciers feed major Asian river systems sustaining the lives of more than 800 million people. Though the rates of retreat of individual glaciers are uncertain, on the whole the Himalayan glaciers have been losing mass at an increasing rate over the past few decades. With the changing climate, …
Changes in the hydrology of high-altitude catchments may have major consequences for downstream water supply. Based on model projections with a higher spatiotemporal resolution and degree of process complexity than any previous intercontinental comparative study, we show that the impacts of climate change cannot be generalized. These impacts range from …
As Donald Trump, the climate change denier won the US presidential election has declared victory and will be the 45th president of the United States, this report released by the US Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) presents credible and compelling evidence that climate change is happening now in the United States …
In February last year, an ice wall collapsed on Sonam post at 21,000 feet on the northern Siachen glacier, burying 10 soldiers of the 19 Madras regiment. That was only the latest in a growing number of avalanches on the world’s highest battlefield that has forced the Army to review …
Pink snow was a high-latitude curiosity described by Arctic explorers such as Britain’s John Ross. Upon receiving word of the reddish snow, the London Times speculated in 1818 that the color came from meteoric iron deposits. Biologists know now that the red hue is the result of a chemical reaction …
This publication is a joint effort by the GEF partnership to showcase some of the insights gained from the now substantial portfolio of GEF-funded adaptation projects. The GEF has invested over $13 billion to help communities in the developing world adapt to climate change, notably through the Least Developed Countries …
