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 …
A huge outback dust storm swept eastern Australia and blanketed Sydney on Wednesday, disrupting transport, forcing people indoors and stripping thousands of tonnes of valuable farmland topsoil. The dust blacked out the outback town of Broken Hill on Tuesday, forcing a zinc mine to shut down, and swept 1,167 km …
A dust storm swept across eastern Australia and blanketed Sydney on Wednesday, disrupting transport, placing health authorities on alert for widespread respiratory illness and stripping thousands of tonnes of topsoil off Australia's main farmlands. Following are answers to questions about the storm. WHAT CAUSED THE DUST STORM? During winter in …
A summit of world leaders has dimmed hopes for a strong new U.N. climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen in December, with details looking ever more likely to be left for 2010. But climate change experts and observers also refused to focus on the negative, noting that …
Sept. 23: The state government is planning to declare more mandals as drought-hit after receiving reports from the respective district collectors even as it sought Rs 9747.42 crore aid from the Centre to tide over the crisis. The government had declared 981mandals (in 22 districts barring Hyderabad) out of a …
Sept. 23: The deficient rainfall has turned 50 lakh acres of fertile fields in the state into brownish barren swathes of land. With the southwest monsoon coming to a close by the month-end, there is no relief possible now and food grain production is likely to be just half of …
A week of climate talks comes to a head in the upcoming G20 summit in Pittsburgh, where emerging powers will press rich nations for major funding to combat global warming and its impact. Negotiations ahead of the UN climate showdown in Copenhagen in December are at a critical stage and …
Rahi Gaikwad VIDARBHA: Around one crore voters in the Vidarbha region are set to exercise their franchise on October 13 for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Six months will have elapsed since they last voted for this year
There's an old joke that goes: "Inflation is when you pay Rs 50 for the Rs 20 haircut you used to get for Rs 5 when you actually had hair." With the sharp spike in prices of essential foodstuff, it's no laughing matter. On the eve of the festive season, …
KOHIMA, Sept 16: An inter-Ministerial Central Team, led by S C Gargh, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Agriculture, is visiting Nagaland to assess and take stock of the prevailing drought-like situation in the State. According to a release issued here today by the Project Director of Drought Monitoring Cell Dr …
ROURKELA: Even as the fickle monsoon is set to deal a body blow to the farming community of the district with looming crop loss, it has also made life miserable for the common man. Muggy weather has taken sap out of common man
A week of subdued rainfall activity has marginally deepened the seasonal rainfall deficit in the country, indicating beginning of the withdrawal of the monsoon season.
There is an urgent need to adopt long-term relief measures to tide over the current crisis, and the policy-makers should not go back to the business-as-usual attitude once the emergency situation recedes. Alok Ray India is suffering from a double whammy. On top of the impact of the global recession, …
Using Africa's vast agricultural resources to help tackle climate change could earn the continent $1.5 billion a year, a World Bank head said on Tuesday. The region should also tap its underexploited renewable resources, particularly hydropower, to meet increasing energy demand and boost both growth and development. "It is essential …
East Africa should tap its large cogeneration potential, burning waste from its sugar and tea output to cut reliance on hydro power, which is increasingly hit by drought, an energy analyst said on Wednesday. Stephen Karekezi, Director of the African Energy Policy Research Network (AFREPREN), said the region was relying …
Sitanshu Swain Mumbai: A study by top ranking institutions has warned of drought leading to a countrywide agricultural loss of more than $7 billion by 2030. Also, it would impact the income of 10% Indian population. With droughts occurring every 25 years, extreme climate change could change the scenario to …
The late rains provide scope for minimising crop damage The resurgence of the monsoon in September, when it should normally have been on its way out, has lessened the concern about drought. But these rains have come so late in the season that wiping out the anticipated deficit in kharif …
The National Water Board (NWB) is meeting on September 18 to discuss a five-point agenda, with focus on the review of 2002 national water policy. The meeting, which would be attended by all State water resource secretaries, takes place after a two-year gap and coincides with the drought in 278 …
Vinson Kurian Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 15 Research conducted at Texas A&M; University has sought to link the 1918 El Nino, among the strongest in history, and the flu pandemic that year. The El Nino of 1918 coincided with one of the worst droughts in India, according to Prof Benjamin Giese, lead …
Monsoon this year has failed most of India, causing drought in even well-irrigated and rainfed areas. Read this latest Down To Earth report on how our food preferences are making us vulnerable to drought. To read the full story click here: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover.asp?foldername=20090915&filename;=news&sid;=39&sec;_id=9 See Also: Feature: Rain Shocked www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/node/277687 Report: Drought …
