Recent News about Climate Change and Survival and Sustainability Solutions
A new research project investigating the Amazon Rainforest’s ability to act as a carbon sink discovered something unexpected and seriously disturbing. They figured out the Amazon Basin is already a net carbon emitter and a powerful accelerant to global heating.
Rapidly melting glaciers in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand broke apart yesterday, launching a battering ram of water which quickly shattered a dam and flooded the entire region.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) just released its annual report on the state of the climate crisis in 2020. It is now tied with 2016 as the hottest year ever recorded.
The World Bank has committed $105 million to improve the inland water transport infrastructure in Kolkata, the capital city of the Indian state of West Bengal.
After finding the bird flu H5N8 virus in five different panchayats within the state, the Pinarayi Vijayan-headed government of Kerala has issued a high alert and ordered extensive kills of likely exposed birds, to keep the virus from spreading further.
As global heating increases worldwide, species from small to large, even including the human race, have already begun a mass migration from lower latitudes or altitudes to further north or further upwards. The implications of those moves will in the long run be significant, both for themselves and for the ecosystems they are invading.
On December 3, the Danish government voted to halt all new oil and gas licensing effective immediately. With Denmark the biggest oil and gas provider in all of Europe, this is perhaps the boldest step yet by any nation in agreeing to bring an ultimate halt to fossil fuel use.
Despite the pandemic having forced drastic cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions tied to planes, trains, and automobiles, the World Meteorological Organization says 2020 will still end with emissions running at least at 92.5% of normal. So much for extreme measures making any difference.
Barefoot College International, a global Social Enterprise based in India, recently announced an innovative new partnership with a student-led social enterprise, SUN Foundation, in a move by both organizations to combat the global threat of climate change for students in low resource communities.
Farm in Trivandrum (FiT), a joint farming initiative formed by a group of dynamic youths is a perfect example how young minds can not only make best use of the given resources but also inspire others in the process.
An interactive map developed by the Environmental Justice Atlas team at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) in collaboration with India's environmental organization Kalpavriksh has revealed how the strict wildlife conservation policies undermine the rights of indigenous people and local communities living within protected areas across India.
A letter drafted by 52 environmental organizations and activists across 12 Himalayan states of India on July this year, directed to the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change highlights how regulatory decisions and industrial projects have contributed to immense ecological damage in the world’s youngest mountain range.
Newlight, a biotech company has developed a material -- made by microbes -- that converts the potent greenhouse gas methane into ocean-degradable, reusable, regenerative foodware, starting with drinking straws and cutlery.
Khushi Chindaliya, a 17-year-old girl from Surat has been appointed as Regional Ambassador for India by the United Nations Environment Programme - Tunza Eco-Generation.
“Climate change triggered glacier retreats pose a big threat to sustainability of springs which are beyond the control of local communities to manage,” added Arun Kansal, professor and head, Regional Water Studies, TERI School of Advanced Study, New Delhi.
Ice stupas, a form of glacial grafting in which natural processes can exclusively shape their growth, partnered with support from local indigenous populations in higher altitude regions threatened by global warming, could provide a simple water storage method -- and the opening of an exciting field of holistic, aesthetic and technical inquiry.
In a message pointed to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UN secretary general António Guterres warned that investing in expansion of fossil fuels industry such as the coal mining sector would mean more deaths and illness and rising healthcare costs.
According to the new proposed Environmental Impact policy, if the government decides to destroy, lets say, your backyard, with the power vested upon them through this policy they can and they will without your say.
Glacial lakes spawning from rapidly melting ice and shrinking glaciers in the highlands of Bhutan threaten to unleash a deadly force in the form of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), posing a serious danger to downstream communities and infrastructure.
The new draft notification, if implemented, might give too much power to industrialists and corporates to carry out industrial activities at the cost of sustainable environmental goals.
Archana Soreng, a climate activist from India has been named by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to his new advisory group comprising young leaders who will provide perspectives and solutions to tackle the worsening climate crisis.
"In India, over 6 million people across Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have been affected by the floods, including an estimated 2.4 million children alone", UNICEF said on Thursday.
In a valiant act of defiance against climate change, two million people gathered in Lucknow, India on the 5th of july and planted over 250 million trees.
According to a study, climate change would so affect the winters, it would reduce apple production in India and also limit the effects of geoengineering and its output.
A new study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution concludes that some immediate changes need to be adopted to support biodiversity.
Landslides and flash floods are common in Nepal and India's north-eastern state of Assam and Bihar, during monsoon that falls on June through September. This year’s monsoon rain has devastated and displaced nearly four million people in India and neighbouring Nepal, with dozens missing and death toll rising to at least 189.
Lightning strikes during the annual monsoon that runs from June to September are fairly common in India, but the season in Bihar has only just begun. Authorities have warned of more thunderstorms to come.
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to rise steadily on the planet. It just shows that a few months of lockdown even on a global basis is not an extreme enough move to make any long-term difference in the fate of the planet and the climate crisis.
Bruce Dunn, the Director of the Safeguards Division and concurrently Officer-in-Charge, Environment Thematic Group and Erin Sinogba, Communications and Knowledge Management Consultant, Environment Thematic Group, has prepared a thoughtful approach to how to start a green recovery in Asia, after the COVID-19 threat subsides.
With the ongoing challenge of tackling COVID-19, a state of the environment report released by Down to Earth on Thursday said that climate change still poses the biggest economic threat to the world both in terms of impact and likelihood in the next decade.
India is ordering new equipment to control the its worst desert locust outbreak in decades. The latter part of controlling this situation has brought up questions about how ecologically unhealthy a choice the use of pesticides are.
Sunitha Devi, in charge of cyclones at IMD, said, "A low pressure area has formed over southeast and adjoining east central Arabian sea and Lakshadweep area. It is very likely to concentrate into a depression during the next 24 hours and intensify further into a cyclonic storm during subsequent 24 hours."
The UN's weather agency warned on May 26 that Covid-19 would amplify the risks of what was expected to be a record-breaking hot summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
A biochemicals company by the name Avantium from the Netherlands is raising big hopes for a sustainable future with their pioneering project that can make plastics from plant sugars.
The ambient temperature inside cars could shoot up to as much as 65°C and induce conditions akin to a heat stroke, says a study led by researchers at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.
India has been in strict lockdown since 26 March to flatten the curve, but for the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change it has been business as usual.
Troops from India and China fought in a skirmish along its Sikkim/Tibet border on Saturday. No one was seriously hurt.
'Hariyo Makha–Sikkim Against Pollution' has not only helped eliminate pollution and other demerits arising due to improper disposal, but also helped support many students with their college education and offered employment opportunities to the locals.
As meat supplies were being stalled due to the coronavirus lockdown, Kashmir turned to locally grown vegetables adopting new seeds and climate-smart growing methods as an alternative.
If greenhouse gas emissions are not controlled now, 50 years from now, areas of the planet with one-third of humans will become as hot as the hottest parts of the Sahara within 50 years.
Monsoon in India this year is going to be a mixed bag with June predicted to receive below normal rainfall while July will witness extended dry spells. This will be followed by excess rainfall in the months of August and September, the Times of India reported.
This year, there may not be a water shortage in the city of Chennai, thanks to the northeast monsoon in 2019 and the release of Krishna water from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
The government of Sikkim high-level team conducted various inspections for storing a buffer stock of food grains during the pandemic lockdown.
After a COVID-19 lockdown which lasted since 12:01 AM on March 25, Sikkim, the one state in India with zero confirmed cases of the coronavirus present, is taking the first careful steps to allow its residents to resume normal life.
We need to understand and accept now -- more than ever -- that how we have lived so far has shifted towards a new normal, and that we have the power to reimagine and recreate a world where we co-exist with nature.
In a new report entitled "Renewable Capacity Statistics 2020", provided courtesy of The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), there was a significant expansion in renewable power over fossil fuels, with renewables accounting for 72 per cent of all power expansion.
India will gradually resume at least partial normal life in the country despite the pandemic, and try to revive stagnant economic activity.
2019 had recorded the highest monsoon rainfall after a long haul of 25 years. This year, according to the first long-range forecast from the India Meteorological Department, India is all set to receive a normal Southwest Monsoon. The big question will be whether it is delayed.
A French startup called Carbios has come out with a solution to the gnawing problem of plastic pollution - a mutated bacterial enzyme that can almost completely digest old plastic bottles in just a matter of few hours.
Sometimes it is the smallest gestures by one person to another which make all the difference in making it through the challenges of the pandemic.