Climate

Trees to Predict Climate Change

Following a long-term research a geographer from Guangdong Province has claimed that ancient trees could provide clues to the pattern of global climate change. // Li Pingri, 75, from Guangdong Academy of Sciences has opined that rising temperatures globally is not only a result of the greenhouse effect but in fact was a part of the cyclical order of nature. 'Through th...

A Timely Reminder Of Devastating Health Impact Of Climate Change

AMA President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, today welcomed the Stern Review as a timely and authoritative reminder of the devastating health //impact of climate change on the world’s human population if the international community failed to act now. Commissioned by the UK Government and prepared by former World Bank chief economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, the report has been described by British...

Impact of Climate Change in Africa

Africa is the continent that will suffer most under global warming. Past history gives us lessons on the likely effects of future climate change//. Of greatest concern are the 'large infrequent disturbances' to the climate as these will have the most devastating effects. In a remarkable study from the Kenyan Tsavo National Park published today in the African Journal of Ecology, Dr Lindsey Gillson...

Climate Sceptics Issued With Challenge by a U.K Scientist

Farmers in Wimmera, Australia, survey an empty dam, which has left them with fields of stunted wheat.// Parts of Australia, which are in the grip of the worst drought in memory, have sparked an intense debate about global warming. Alan Thorpe, Chief Executive of Natural Environment Research Council in U.K., and one of the world's leading climate scientists has challenged those questioni...

UN Secretary General Urges G8 Summit to Act on Climate Change

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the G8 summit of the world's top industrialised nations to take measures to combat climate change, warning that inaction would be costly. In a statement before the G8 summit in June at Heiligendamm in Germany, Ban said the eight participating nations should "devise and implement a long-term global framework to tackle climate change that ad...

Climate Change can Raise Incidence of Disease: Expert

Sambalpur (Orissa), Climate change triggered by massive industrialisation will increase incidence of diseases like malaria, plague and dengue//, said a United States expert at a discussion organised by an Orissa-based NGO. "There has been a trajectory change in the global climate compared to the pre-industrialised scenario and it will increase the prevalence of diseases like malaria,...

Penguin: an Alternative Bio-indicator to Monitor Climate Change

We are used to hearing about the effects of climate change in terms of unusual animal behavior, such as altering patterns of fish and bird migration//. However, scientists at the University of Birmingham are trying out an alternative bio-indicator – the king penguin – to investigate whether they can be used to monitor the effects of climate change. “If penguins are travelling further...

Latest IPCC Report Highlights Need for Integrated Climate/human Behavior Models

Adapting to the global climate change impacts outlined in the IPCC's Working Group 2 Report, "Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation// and Vulnerability", will require new evaluation tools to help choose the best way forward, according to the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), an international network of environmental scientists. This quest for adaptation strategies...

Kolkata, Mumbai to Face Maximum Brunt of Climate Change

Mumbai and Kolkata will be the worst sufferer among Indian cities with flash rains, floods and fall in water tables as well as water conservation //potential, says an international report on climate change. According to the fourth assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the rise in sea level and flooding of villages would become a regular affair in th...

Climate Change Threatens Sundarbans and World Heritage Sites

Climate change and human interference may destroy much of Sundarbans in India and Bangladesh as well as 25 other World Heritage sites, says a new UNESCOreport.// "Sea-level rise is the greatest threat and challenge for sustainable adaptation within South and Southeast Asia. A 45 cm rise in global sea levels would lead to the destruction of 75 percent of the Sundarbans mangroves," the...

Experts Congregate for UN Climate Summit in Bangkok

The world's leading climate experts and state representatives from 150 nations gathered in Bangkok Monday for a five-day meet on the UN's recommendations for curbing// carbon emissions to slow global warming. "The time is now," said Chartree Chueytrasit, deputy permanent secretary of Thailand's ministry of natural resources and environment, in opening remarks at the UN's Intergovernme...

Capricious Climate in Indonesia Adds to Farmers’ Wo

Java's rice fields reverberate with the activities of farmers from dawn to dusk. But there is a pervading concern amongst the lot, for the climate// has not been on their side to assist them with good yields. Some farmers feel the weather has also turned capricious. Indonesia’s rice farming had continued undisturbed for generations, even in the face of war or economic disturbances. But now,...

Why Humans Fail to Act on Climate Change

Many people know about the dangers of global warming, but only few act. // The explanation, says Professor Andreas Ernst of the University of Kassel, has two parts. One, human beings get stubbornly comfortable in their habits. On the other, the human species is biologically programmed to act in its own best interests - and its members aren't very different from common rats on that poi...

Climate Talks Reach Consensus in Bangkok

Climate experts and state representatives from 105 countries met Friday to formally adopt a 24-page report on means of mitigating// the worse impacts of global warming after five days of heated debate to reaching a consensus on the document. "The discussions ended at 3:30 a.m. Friday," said Carloa Traverso Saibante, information officer for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Cha...

Indo-American Develops Model Linking Human Activity to Climate Change

An Indian origin scientist at the US Department of Energys Oak National Laboratory has developed a new methodology to determine to what extent there is a connection between human activity and climate change. The model allows climatologists to relate extremes of a space and time variable like a 100-year rainfall at two locations or two time periods as well as extremes of two or more...

Fluctuations in Ocean Salinity Could Forewarn of Climate Change

Significant increase or decrease in ocean salinity could forewarn of climate change in 10 to 20 years time, researchers say. The results, presented at a recent European Science Foundation (ESF) conference states that a build up of salty water stimulates deep-water circulation, while a diluting of the waters results in sluggish flow. Salt plays a far more important rol...

Outreach Nations Stand United on Climate Change

The outreach nations-- India, Brazil, China, South Africa and Mexico-- which form 42 per cent of the worlds population, will present a united front on the issue of climate change at Baltic resort in Heilingdam today before the G-8 leaders. In a joint statement released after a high-level meeting of the outreach nations, Lula da Silva of Brazil, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indian P...

Manmohan Singh to Meet UN Chief, Discuss Climate Change

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of the 33rd Group of Eight (G-8) Summit on Thursday, besides giving India's viewpoint on greenhouse gas emissions and other aspects of global climate change. An External Affairs Ministry background paper states that while India has 17 per cent of the world...

Bush Isolated on Climate Change Heading into G8

US President George W. Bush heads to this year's Group of Eight summit determined to block binding cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, leaving him isolated among other rich nation leaders who favour stronger action on global warming. On a European trip that in the Czech Republic and ends in Bulgaria, Bush also wants to show resolve in rebuffing Russian objections to US plans for a mi...

US Climate Plan Must Not Substitute UN Treaties: China

The new climate plan of the US should complement rather than substitute the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), China's top economic planner Ma Kai said Monday. The US plan should reflect the common but differentiated responsibilities in the UNFCCC and some details in the plan are to be communicated and discussed with other countries, Ma said...

Tropical Cyclones Play Important Role in Climate-control

Purdue University researchers have found evidence that tropical cyclones and hurricanes play an important role in the ocean circulation patterns that transport heat and maintain the climate of North America and Europe. According to Matthew Huber, Purdue University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences who led the research group, the findings support a 2001 theory by MIT profe...

Moon, the Best Place to Assess the Earths Climate Changes

A University of Wisconsin researcher believes that the Moon might be the best place from which to study climatic changes taking place on Earth. According to Shoapeng Huang, National Aeronautic Space Agency (NASA) data collected over a period of 41 months in the 1970s show variations taking place in the Moon's surface temperature. Accessing this NASA data collected thr...

Climate Change Signal Detected in the Indian Ocean

'From ocean measurements and by analysing climate simulations we can see there are changes in features of the ocean that cannot be explained by natural variability',said CSIRO oceanographer Dr Gael Alory. 'These oceanic changes are almost certainly linked to changes in the heat structure of the atmosphere and have led to a rise in water temperatures in the sub-tropical Indian Ocean...

EU Pushes Asian Nations on Climate Change Goals

Amid discord on climate change policy, ministers from Asia - including India's - met European Union members in the German port of Hamburg for talks on world crises. The two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of 43 nations Monday was marked by a division between European countries seeking deep cuts in world carbon-dioxide emissions and Asian governments countering that they did not caus...

Climate Change Reorganized Tibetan Culture 700 Years Ago: Study

Changes in weather 700 years ago might have forced Tibetans to reorganize their society, an anthropologist has claimed. Mark Aldenderfer of the University of Arizona, who is leading a research project in far western Tibet, is quoted by national Geographic as saying in preliminary findings that an abrupt shift in the Asian monsoon caused famine, population movements and political r...

Climate Change Threatening to Wipe Out Wild Relatives of Key Crops

Climate change is threatening to completely wipe out wild relatives of plants such as potato and peanut, according to a new study released by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). According to the study, in the next 50 years as many as 61 percent of the 51 wild peanut species analyzed and 12 percent of the 108 wild potato species analyzed could beco...

World Cities Join Hands to Combat Climate Change

Fifteen of the world's largest cities have agreed on a $5-billion initiative with major banks to retrofit buildings in their cities to save energy , in the first such enterprise to combat climate change. Former US president Bill Clinton launched the initiative to coincide this week with a summit in New York attended by mayors and governors from 40 of the world's largest cities to di...

Investigating Coral Reefs to Help Understand Past and Future Climate Change

Increasing Earth temperatures and rising sea levels. Both of these are effects of climate change. The current concern is that human activity is changing our climate at a rate well above the natural climate cycling. Understanding how the Earths climate system works and responds to human impact is therefore of uttermost importance. To predict future climate change we must first go ba...

Deforestation Plays a Critical Role in Climate Change: Study

Avoiding deforestation in the tropics can play a key role in reducing future greenhouse gas concentrations, a new study by the Global Carbon Project and CSIRO has revealed. Deforestation in the tropics accounts for nearly 20 per cent of carbon emissions due to human activities. This will release an estimated 87 to 130 billion tonnes of carbon by 2100, which is greater than the amou...

Climate Talks Reach Consensus in Bangkok

Climate experts and state representatives from 105 countries met Friday to formally adopt a 24-page report on means of mitigating the worse impacts of global warming after five days of heated debate to reaching a consensus on the document. "The discussions ended at 3:30 a.m. Friday," said Carloa Traverso Saibante, information officer for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Ch...

Why Humans Fail to Act on Climate Change

Many people know about the dangers of global warming, but only few act. The explanation, says Professor Andreas Ernst of the University of Kassel, has two parts. One, human beings get stubbornly comfortable in their habits. On the other, the human species is biologically programmed to act in its own best interests - and its members aren't very different from common rats on that po...

Capricious Climate in Indonesia Adds to Farmers Woe

Java's rice fields reverberate with the activities of farmers from dawn to dusk. But there is a pervading concern amongst the lot, for the climate has not been on their side to assist them with good yields. Some farmers feel the weather has also turned capricious. Indonesias rice farming had continued undisturbed for generations, even in the face of war or economic disturbances. But now,...

Experts to Discuss Climate Change Health Risks: WHO

International experts will discuss health threats in the Asia-Pacific from global warming at a meeting to be held in Malaysia from July 2, the World Health Organisation said Thursday. Climate change contributes directly or indirectly to about 77,000 deaths per year in the region, according to WHO estimates. "We have now reached a critical stage in which global warming...

Everest, Five Other World Heritage Sites Face Climate Change Risk

Six World Heritage sites, including Mount Everest, could be at risk from the impact of climate change, feel environement protection experts and groups . Urging the United Nations to act quickly on the matter, groups like Greenpeace and the Climate Justice Programme have petitioned the global body to list the locations as being "in danger". Nations that have signed the...

'Lights Out' as London Does Its Bit for Climate Change

Some of London's key landmarks and top hotels are to go dark for an hour on Thursday evening as the British capital does its bit for the fight against global warming and turns off its lights. The Houses of Parliament, luxury hotels like the Ritz and key businesses have confirmed they will take part in the "Lights Out" campaign from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm (2000-2100 GMT) Thursday....

Global Climate Change and Toxic Chemicals: A Potentialy Lethal Combination

As temperature influences the toxic effects of chemicals, so does chemical exposure influence the temperature tolerance of an organism. The consequences of this harmful reciprocal relationship on four freshwater fish are explored in a new study published in the latest issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. The authors evaluated the effects of three organic chemicals commo...

Climate Change Poses Maximum Threat to Public Life in Developing Countries

Climate change poses the maximum threat to public health in the developing countries, has said a recent study in Springer's Journal of Urban Health , despite the fact that they have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions. "The rapid economic development and the concurrent urbanization of poorer countries mean that developing-country cities will be both vulnerable to healt...

IIT Delhi Scientist Finds Climate Models Consistent With Ocean Warming Observations

Climate models represent variability in ocean heat content on interannual-to-decadal time scales much more realistically than previously believed , a study by an Indian scientist has revealed. Krishna Achuta Rao, previously at Livermore's Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI), and now at IIT, Delhi, used 13 numerical climate models to find the apparent disc...

Early Arctic Spring Indication of Climate Change

Spring in the Arctic has been registered weeks earlier than a decade ago and is likely linked to climate warming, a team of researchers said . "Despite uncertainties in the magnitude of expected global warming over the next century, one consistent feature of extant and projected changes is that Arctic environments are and will be exposed to the greatest warming," said Toke T. Hoye o...

Rivers in China Shrinking Due to Climate Change

The volume of water flowing in two of China's longest rivers -- the Yangtze and the Yellow -- is reducing steadily because of climate change linked to the contraction of wetlands, warned the country's leading scientists. The China Daily quoted scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as saying after an analysis of aerial photographs and satellite pictures, that the wetla...