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 …
Firefighters struggled to gain control of fast-moving wildfires that consumed tens of thousands of acres of drought-stricken areas of Texas on Monday, as high winds spurred flames that have killed a mother and her child, destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes and forced Gov. Rick Perry to cut short a …
Record-breaking triple-digit temperatures were prolonging a devastating drought that has been baking the South and the dry spell could extend into next year and beyond, climate experts said on Thursday. "Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse... we are seeing expansion of this drought. This drought will continue …
La Nina, a weather phenomenon typically linked to flooding in the Asia-Pacific, African drought and a more intense hurricane season over the Atlantic, could occur in a weak form this year, the World Meteorological Organization said Thursday. A borderline La Nina situation has developed in recent weeks in the tropical …
This factsheet presents expected drought losses under the high climate change scenario with possible response measures (e.g. insurance) for Maharashtra, India. It asserts that making rural communities more resilient to the impact of climate change requires a comprehensive portfolio of adaptation measures. It highlights that decision makers need the facts …
In view of the vital importance of water for human and animal life, for maintaining ecological balance and for economic and development activities of all kinds and considering its increasing scarcity, the planning and management of this resources and its optimal, economical and equitable use has become a matter of …
Your favourite jowar ki roti may soon carry genes from bacteria that live in the digestive tract. City scientists have successfully developed jowar (sorghum) varieties that are tolerant to drought and salinity. The sorghum varieties get these special properties thanks to a gene called mtlD, derived from Escherichia coli. The …
Cholera outbreaks seem to be on the increase, but a new study has found they cannot be explained by global warming. A bigger factor may be the cycle of droughts and floods along big rivers, according to Tufts University scientists who published a study in The American Journal of Tropical …
Consumers in the developed world are becoming increasingly apathetic about global warming, while Latin Americans – who have suffered much from unusual weather patterns – are becoming more concerned, according to a survey. Nielsen’s global study of online consumers comes as scientists and politicians, among others, debate the role of …
Texas has endured its worst one-year drought in recorded history. And the hottest July. August is on course to be hotter still, setting another record. So, is this the result of climate change? Scientists hedge, particularly when it comes to the drought, because they are reluctant to pin any single …
The Munamalgaswewa community water supply scheme has turned into a failed project in the Puttalam District according to residents. The project was inaugurated two years ago on the request of the people of the Munamalgaswewa area in the Karuwalagaswewa Divisonal Secretary’s Division who did not have drinking water. The residents …
Although the rain this summer has been pouring down over Denmark, most scientists agree that global temperature increases will intensify periods with summer drought already in 2075. The large scale project CLIMAITE, led by Risø DTU, has published its first synthesis paper in the journal Global Change Biology, and the …
Kolkata Heavy rainfall has led to floods in several districts of the state, putting the rice crop in West Bengal in jeopardy. Although the state was hopeful of reaching record production in 2011-12 backed by good rainfall in the first half of the monsoon, prolonged rain has inundated vast areas …
Britain said on August 17 that hundreds of thousands of children could starve to death in Somalia if the international community did not ramp up its response to the famine there, and pledged a further $48 million to aid children and livestock owners. The latest pledge brings Britain's total aid …
The Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian tribes in Oklahoma have filed a federal lawsuit to protect water rights they say derived from long-ago treaties and to prevent exports of water from their traditional homelands without their permission. The dispute had been simmering for more than a year, since the export of …
A band of showers has offered some relief to parched areas from Kansas to Mississippi, but the historic drought causing billions of dollars in losses in the South is showing no signs of abating soon. Some parts of hard-hit Texas saw more rainfall in one day last week than they …
The famine in the Horn of Africa is manmade - the result of artificially high prices for food and civil conflict, the World Bank's lead economist for Kenya Wolfgang Fengler told Reuters Tuesday. "This crisis is manmade," Fengler said in a telephone interview. "Droughts have occurred over and again, but …
Beyond freelance gunmen, Islamist militants, cholera, malaria, measles and the staggering needs of hundreds of thousands of starving children, aid agencies scrambling to address Somalia’s famine now may have another problem to reckon with: the wholesale theft of food aid. Somalis displaced by famine and drought line up next to …
Power generation at Damodar Valley Corporation has increased following incessant rains in the past ten days. “The record rainfall in the catchment areas of DVC helped increase in water level at the three dams —Telaiya, Maithon and Panchet, helping generation of power from all its plants,” the General Secretary of …
A devastating drought deepened over the last week in many areas, spreading through more of the Plains and going into the Midwest as triple-digit temperatures baked already thirsty crops and livestock. The Corn Belt states of South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana saw drought develop quickly as the important corn-growing …
The present study has been taken up to quantify the possible impact of the climate change on the water resources of Indian river systems within the constraints of the uncertainty of climate change predictions. The study uses the PRECIS daily weather data to determine the spatio-temporal water availability in the …
