The global cost of disasters is growing: The economic burden of disasters is intensifying. While the direct costs of disasters averaged $70–80 billion a year between 1970 and 2000, between 2001 and 2020 these annual costs grew significantly to $180–200 billion. But the real cost is far higher. Disaster costs …
Half of all households in Britain could face water restrictions unless exceptionally heavy and prolonged rain falls by April, water companies and the environment agency have warned. Environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, will hold a crisis meeting of companies, wildlife groups and other river users next week after the Centre for …
Some 5.6 million urban shade trees were killed by the record drought that baked Texas last year, the Texas Forest Service reported on Wednesday. Last year was the driest year on record in the state and the second-hottest, according to the National Weather Service. The shade tree die-off represents some …
Will the warming planet be able to sustain coming generations? Few questions about the future matter more. But although modellers can forecast temperature changes and even precipitation, they struggle to say how climate change will affect the factors that make the planet habitable, such as food and water availability. Last …
Simple models of plant response to warming climates predict vegetation moving to cooler and/or wetter locations: in mountainous regions shifting upslope. However, species-specific responses to climate change are likely to be much more complex. We re-examined a recently reported vegetation shift in the Santa Rosa Mountains, California, to better understand …
Andhra Pradesh will request a Central assistance of Rs 3,006 crore towards drought relief according to the revised norms, the Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, has said. While seeking liberal assistance, the Chief Minister told a nine-member Central team that the State would send a revised request soon. …
The Union government has released a sum of Rs 868 crore to take up minor irrigation projects in the drought-affected taluks of the State. The State government had submitted a proposal to take up about 493 different minor irrigation projects in 81 drought-affected taluks at a cost of Rs 685 …
The United Nations said on Friday that the famine that has killed tens of thousands of people in Somalia this past year has ended, thanks to a bumper harvest and a surge in emergency food deliveries. But conditions are still precarious, United Nations officials warned, with many Somalis dying of …
Weird weather kept vexing large swathes of the United States over the last week, with unseasonably warm and dry conditions melting northern snows and spreading drought through the southwest, even as heavy rains soaked parched pastures in Texas and Oklahoma, according to climate experts. Unseasonably warm temperatures were noted in …
More intense heat waves due to global warming could diminish wheat crop yields around the world through premature ageing, according to a study published recently in Nature Climate Change. Current projections based on computer models underestimate the extent to which hotter weather in the future will accelerate this process, the …
Crop models demonstrate that food production is vulnerable to climate change in many regions through a combination of temperature change, water stress and extreme weather. Although there is considerable uncertainty in these models, and some debate way that ozone pollution, carbon dioxide fertilization, and water shortages may interact with climate …
Rainfed areas currently constitute 55 per cent of the net sown area of the country and are home to two-thirds of livestock and 40 per cent of human population. Even after realizing the full irrigation potential, about 50 per cent of the cultivated area will remain rainfed. The business as …
Crop water requirement and crop physiology has changed in the recent times. Hence, knowledge on climate change effects need to be updated to work out mitigation strategies, Ashwani Kumar, Director, Directorate of Water Management, Bhubaneshwar, said here recently. Inaugurating a two-day training on “Stakeholders' Consultation on Climate Change Platform” at …
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Thursday called for a global approach to respond to climate risks in view of vulnerability and inability of developing nation to cope with the challenge. Participating in an interactive Session on "Adapting to Climate Risk" that focused on how the communities, companies and countries …
Union Minister of State for Water Resources & Minority Affairs Vincent H Pala has said that pilot and demonstrative artificial recharge studies have encouraging results in recharging the run-off, sustenance of extraction structures through increased availability of ground water , increase in irrigation potential, improvement in environment )through increase in …
Recent clusters of outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases (Rift Valley fever and chikungunya) in Africa and parts of the Indian Ocean islands illustrate how interannual climate variability influences the changing risk patterns of disease outbreaks. Although Rift Valley fever outbreaks have been known to follow periods of above-normal rainfall, the timing …
Agricultural expansion and climate variability have become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon basin. Recent studies have demonstrated considerable resilience of Amazonian forests to moderate annual drought, but they also show that interactions between deforestation, fire and drought potentially lead to losses of carbon storage and changes in regional …
Ground water levels are depleting fast in the State. Latest studies by the ground water department reveal that all districts in the state have witnessed a critical fall in the water table. Dr K. Venugopal, joint director, ground water department told Deccan Chronicle that of all the 23 districts covered …
The State government will extend the repayment period for crop loans taken by farmers from cooperative institutions by one year in taluks that have been declared drought-hit in the State, Cooperation Minister Lakshman Savadi said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters in Bangalore, Savadi said the rescheduling of loans will be …
Karnataka has sought Rs 2,605.99 cr Citing that the drought situation in the State is indeed of a serious nature, the Central team which visited the State to assess the drought situation in December has opined that there is no exaggeration in Karnataka’s claims. Speaking to Deccan Herald, Bijay Kumar, …
Real-time monitoring by technological tools, such as smart meters and sensors, can help big cities save up to Rs 27 lakh a day and at least 15 per cent of water that's lost owing to leakages and pilferage. Unaccounted for water (UFW) is high at 20-50 per cent in urban …
