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 …
Loss of large areas of Amazonian forest, through either direct human impact or climate change, could exert a number of influences on the regional and global climates. In the Met Office Hadley Centre coupled climate
The potential loss or large-scale degradation of the tropical rainforests has become one of the iconic images of the impacts of twenty-first century environmental change and may be one of our century's most profound legacies. In the Amazon region, the direct threat of deforestation and degradation is now strongly intertwined …
Some model experiments predict a large-scale substitution of Amazon forest by savannah-like vegetation by the end of the twenty-first century. Expanding global demands for biofuels and grains, positive feedbacks in the Amazon forest fire regime and drought may drive a faster process of forest degradation that could lead to a …
Heavy rainfall in the Southeast and record snowpack in the Rockies have eased dramatically the nation's worst drought in more than a century. Drought conditions are the least severe since January 2006. A quarter of the USA is suffering some form of drought today, down from 65% last summer, federal …
Soaring food prices, a devalued currency and drought mean millions of people in Somalia cannot feed themselves, the United Nations said on Monday. And the crisis will get much worse if April-June rains fail or are well below average, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said. Somalia, a country of nine …
The police in Somalia stood near the corpses of lambs in Dagaari. Drought is killing livestock and destroying livelihoods. She cannot afford rice or wheat or powdered milk anymore. At the same time, a drought has decimated her family's herd of goats, turning their sole livelihood into a pile of …
For those who get running water at the turn of a knob in their houses, this may sound somewhat outlandish, even bizarre. Hundreds of young men are being forced to lead a bachelor's life and hundreds of young girls prefer being "sold" outside the state rather than marry in their …
The Union Agriculture Ministry has worked out a package for revival of the farm sector in the drought-hit Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on the lines of the Rehabilitation Package for Vidarbha and other drought-prone districts where farmers' suicides were high. Among other measures for relief, the …
Barcelona: Perhaps the most striking image of Spain's drought, so severe it has forced Barcelona to ship in water, has been that of the underwater church which emerged from a drying dam. For most of the past four decades, all that has been visible of the village of Sant Roma …
A handful of the world's largest agricultural biotechnology companies are seeking hundreds of patents on gene-altered crops designed to withstand drought and other environmental stresses, part of a race for dominance in the potentially lucrative market for crops that can handle global warming, according to a report being released Tuesday. …
A prolonged drought in China's Liaoning province has left 850,000 people short of drinking water and affected spring farming in many areas. According to the provincial drought relief headquarters, from January to mid-April, the region received 20 millimetres of rainfall, which is 73 per cent less than normal years. The …
Australia will spend A$3.8 billion ($3.5 billion) to fight climate change, including A$200 million to rescue the Great Barrier Reef, as part of a four-year plan outlined in the government's budget on Tuesday. More than A$1 billion would be spent to improve renewable technologies like solar, wind and geothermal energy …
The New South Wales government warned yesterday that Australia's main eastern state was facing another "horror autumn" of drought to already devastated farmlands. The government said the area of the state officially in drought had increased to 48.4 per cent from 42.9 per cent a month earlier as farmers wait …
Cleaner air due to reduced coal burning could help destroy the Amazon this century, according to a finding published on Wednesday that highlights the complex challenges of global climate change. The study in the journal Nature identified a link between reduced sulphur dioxide emissions from coal burning and increased sea …
The Amazon rainforest plays a crucial role in the climate system, helping to drive atmospheric circulations in the tropics by absorbing energy and recycling about half of the rainfall that falls on it. This region (Amazonia) is also estimated to contain about onetenth of the total carbon stored in land …
ANTHONY MCMICHAEL heads the International Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, and is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He talks to VIBHA VARSHNEY and MARIO D'SOUZA about the health risks from global environmental changes What are the impacts of climate change …
A wildfire that began along a popular hiking trail forced 1,000 people to evacuate their homes in the hills northeast of Los Angeles on Sunday, officials said. The cause of the 400-acre (162 hectares) fire, which started Saturday afternoon as Southern California logged near-record temperatures, was still under investigation, said …
The US Midwest has enjoyed nearly 20 years without a major drought but forecasters worry the corn belt's luck could dry up this year, further squeezing tight global supplies amid soaring food prices. With its last major drought in 1988, the Midwest has reached its average span of 18.6 years …
While making policies and designing disaster recovery programmes, the different gender roles and responsibilities that are socially attributed to men and women should be taken into account. The programmes should focus specifically on the women's component in the general scheme or women-specific schemes. The gender perspective should be incorporated into …
The real solution for meeting shortages is to increase supplies instead of imposing controls. There is ample scope for increasing production of food grains -Brij Bhardwaj World is facing serious crisis in terms of finding enough to feed teeming millions and at the same time also meet the growing needs …
