Page 45 - Climate Change

Climate change fingerprints all over monsoon this year, say experts

Barring the cumulative rainfall over the country, this year's monsoon has been anything but normal and experts point to climate change as the underlying cause. From a cyclone with the longest lifespan in the Arabian Sea to devastating floods in parts of northwest India and the adjoining Himalayan states, as well as a prolonged break in the monsoon, the unmistakable imprints of climate change are evident this year, asserted Mahesh Palawat, vice president (Climate Change and Meteorology) at private forecasting agency Skymet Weather. In early June, cyclone Biparjoy delayed the onset of the monsoon over Kerala and the advance over southern India and the adjoining western and central parts of the country. Meteorologists say the cyclone experienced rapid intensification initially and maintained its strength due to an unusually warm Arabian Sea. They emphasise that cyclonic storms in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are intensifying rapidly and retaining their potency for longer perio

18 bodies found in Greece as firefighters battle wind-driven wildfires

Firefighters on Tuesday found the burnt bodies of 18 people believed to have been migrants who had crossed the Turkish border into an area of northeastern Greece where wildfires have raged for days. The discovery near the city of Alexandroupolis came as hundreds of firefighters battled dozens of wildfires across the country amid gale-force winds. On Monday, two people died and two firefighters were injured in separate fires in northern and central Greece. With their hot, dry summers, southern European countries are particularly prone to wildfires. Another major blaze has been burning across Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands for a week, although no injuries or damage to homes was reported. European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017. In Greece, police activated the country's Disaster Victim Identification Team to identify the

Climate change doubled chance of conditions that led to Quebec fires

Climate change more than doubled the chances of the hot, dry weather that helped fuel the unprecedented wildfire season in eastern Canada that's driven thousands from their homes and blanketed parts of the U.S. with choking smoke, according to an analysis released Tuesday. What's more, human-caused climate change made the fire season in Quebec from May through July 50% more intense than it otherwise would have been and increased the likelihood of similarly severe fire seasons at least sevenfold, researchers said. "The biggest takeaway is, this is because of us that we have seen so many fires this year, due to greenhouse gas emissions, said Yan Boulanger, a research scientist in forest ecology for Natural Resources Canada. He was one of 16 researchers who collaborated on the analysis for World Weather Attribution, an initiative that aims to quickly evaluate the role of climate change in the aftermath of extreme weather events. Canada is in the middle of its worst wildfire season on

Wildfires, extreme weather driving denialism about climate change online

Researchers tracking social-media commentary are noticing a paradox. For some people, climate catastrophes are in fact evidence that climate change isn't real

Swiss glaciers threatened as heat drives zero-temp level to record altitude

The Swiss weather service said Monday a heat wave has driven the zero-degree Celsius level to its highest altitude since recordings on it in Switzerland began nearly 70 years ago, an ominous new sign for the country's vaunted glaciers. MeteoSwiss says the zero-degree isotherm level reached 5,298 meters (17,381 feet) above sea level over Switzerland overnight Sunday to Monday. All of Switzerland's snow-capped Alpine peaks the highest being the 4,634-meter (15,203-foot) Monte Rosa summit had air temperatures over zero Celsius (32 F) where water freezes to ice, raising prospects of a thaw. Even Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain along the Italian-French border at some 4,809 meters (15,800 feet), is affected, the weather agency said based on readings from its weather balloons. The new high altitude eclipsed a previous record set in July 2022, a year that experts say was particularly devastating for the glaciers of Switzerland. Readings have been taken on the zero-degree altitude ..

Canada firefighters wage battle to save communities after mass evacuations

Firefighters battling wildfires in western Canada received help from reinforcements and milder weather Saturday, after the nation's worst fire season on record destroyed structures, fouled the air with thick smoke and prompted evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents. Flames were being held at bay 15 kilometres from Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, and weary firefighters had a reprieve around Kelowna in British Columbia. But the firefighters were nowhere close to declaring victory, especially with drier and windier weather forecast for the coming days. "We're by no means out of the woods yet, Mike Westwick, wildfire information officer for Yellowknife, told The Associated Press. We still have a serious situation. It's not safe to return. The fires near Kelowna, about 90 miles (150 kilometres) north of the US border, are among more than 380 blazes across the province, with 150 burning out of control, according to the Canadian Press. Another 236 fires

Melting glaciers could create new ecosystems before end of century: Study

Melting glaciers could create new ecosystems covering an area between the size of Nepal and Finland by the year 2100, researchers said. Glacial area outside the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets could be halved because of human-caused climate change under a high-emissions scenario, they said in a study published in the journal Nature. This glacial melting could cause a rapid ecological shift as novel ecosystems develop to fill emerging new habitat, they wrote. However, analyses of this change at a global scale are lacking, they said. Jean-Baptiste Bosson, from the Conservatory of Natural Areas of Haute-Savoie, France, and colleagues used a global glacier evolution model to examine the predicted twenty-first century trajectory of 650,000 square kilometres (sqkm) of glaciers found outside the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Deglaciation, or glacial retreat, will continue to occur at a similar rate regardless of the climate scenario until 2040, the modelling predicted using glac

How satellites are helping agriculture sector adapt to global warming

To acclimate, the old ways are increasingly being replaced by the new. In this case, granular data aimed at tracking the progress and health of vines in a fast-warming environment

Study seeks protection of ecosystems that emerge under disappearing ice

A new scientific study published Thursday suggests the world should start preparing to protect the ecosystems that emerge from under the disappearing ice, as a warming planet is inevitably causing glaciers to melt. If nothing is done to stop global warming, the world could lose glaciers totalling the size of Finland by 2100. Even a best-case scenario if the targets of the Paris Agreement to stop climate change are met foresees glacier shrinkage the size of Nepal, according to the study published in the scientific journal Nature. The analysis from Swiss and French scientists adds to worries about glacier melt and a growing call to step up efforts to protect the planet from climate change. In their research, the scientists say humans have grown to live with glaciers for millennia, and the worrying retreat of the ice cover currently amounting to 10 percent of the Earth's land surface will require both action to stop it and adaptation for its impact. Glaciers play a key role on the

Climate change may turn Thar Desert green by century''s end: Study

India's Thar Desert, known for its arid expanse, could undergo a transformative shift due to the effects of climate change, a study suggests. While many deserts across the globe are predicted to expand with rising temperatures, the Thar Desert might defy this trend and actually turn green within the next century, the researchers said. The Thar Desert is located partly in Rajasthan, and partly in the Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan, covering over 200,000 square kilometres of territory. It is the world's 20th-largest desert and the world's 9th-largest hot subtropical desert. Several studies have projected the growth of Earth's deserts under the influence of global warming. For instance, experts have estimated that the Sahara Desert could increase in size by over 6,000 square kilometres annually by 2050. However, the newly published study, published recently in the journal Earth's Future, offers an unexpected perspective on the Thar Desert. By employing a combination of ...

Youth must be equipped with skills to shape climate-resilient future: UN

International Youth Day is marked annually on 12th August and the 2023 edition spotlights green skills and the major role young people will play in driving the much-needed shift

Climate change not problem for Delhi alone, says minister Gopal Rai

With climate change posing a threat to water security in cities such as Delhi, the city government's Environment Minister Gopal Rai has said extreme weather is not a challenge for the national capital alone and collaboration among states is a must to effectively tackle such situations. In his first interview following last month's unprecedented floods in Delhi, Rai noted that developing nations, including India, are grappling with the consequences of actions of developed countries. He emphasised that making environmental protection, climate change and air pollution integral to national politics can pave the way for ecologically-friendly development across the nation. "Climate change doesn't only affect Delhi, it's a challenge for the whole world. Developed nations have contributed the most to climate change because they exploited natural resources without proper checks and balances," he said. "Many countries followed the path of developed nations and excessively consumed natural ..

Climate change: Life-threatening heat forcing Germany to ramp up defences

The country is already experiencing some of the worst-case effects of rising temperatures. Roughly 1,600 people have died this year as a result of the heat

Scorching skies, drowning earth

Amid the extreme weather events, echoes from ancient myths caution us about our planet's fragile existence in the face of climate change

IIT Madras study may help assess impact of power plants on climate change

Study done during Covid-lockdown shows power plants have high cloud-forming potential, if other polluting sources are negligible

'Developed nations overconsuming carbon budget; too little left for others'

Developed countries have consumed more than 80 per cent of the global carbon budget, leaving countries like India with very little carbon space for the future, the government said on Thursday. Responding to a question by BJP MP CM Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Kumar Choubey told the Rajya Sabha that India is doing far more than its fair share to combat climate change. Developed countries have consumed more than 80 per cent of the global carbon budget (since 1850) for limiting average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, leaving countries like India with "very little carbon space for the future", the minister said. Rich nations are "eating into even this reduced entitlement" for India. Despite this, India has chosen to walk its climate talk, conscious of the need to pioneer a sustainable development pathway for the entire globe, while attending to the needs and aspirations of its people, economy and society, he said. Climate science defines carbon budg

IMD Weather Today (Aug 10): Subdued rain over these parts of country

IMD predicted that there's possibility of isolated severe rainfall over Uttarakhand till August 13. IMD also predicted that subdued rains will take place in Central, South India, and West

Brazil's Amazon Summit ends with roadmap to protect world's rainforests

Brazil's Amazon Summit closed on Wednesday with a roadmap to protect tropical rainforests that was welcomed as an important step in countering climate change, but without the concrete commitments sought by some environmentalists to end deforestation. Leaders and ministers from eight Amazon nations signed a declaration Tuesday in Belem, Brazil, that laid out plans to drive economic development in their countries while preventing the Amazon's ongoing demise from reaching a point of no return. Several environmental groups described the declaration as a compilation of good intentions with little in the way of measurable goals and timeframes. However, it was lauded by others, and the Amazon's umbrella organization of Indigenous groups celebrated the inclusion of two of its main demands. It is significant that the leaders of the countries of the region have listened to the science and understood the call of society: the Amazon is in danger, and we do not have much time to act, the ...

Amazon nations seek common voice on matter of climate change, urge action

Eight Amazon nations urged industrialised countries on Tuesday to do more to help preserve the world's largest rainforest as their leaders met at a major summit in Brazil to chart a common course on how to combat climate change. They said the task of stopping the destruction of the rainforest can't fall to just a few countries when climate change has been caused by many. The members of the newly revived Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation, or ACTO, hope a united front will give them a major voice in global environment talks. It is time to look at the heart of our continent and consolidate, once and for all, our Amazon identity, said Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva. The leaders aim to fuel much-needed economic development in their countries while preventing the Amazon's ongoing demise from reaching a point of no return, according to a joint declaration issued Tuesday, the first day of the two-day summit. Some scientists say that when 20 per cent to 25 per cent of th

July was hottest month on record by far, European scientists confirm

Now that July's sizzling numbers are all in, the European climate monitoring organisation made it official: July 2023 was Earth's hottest month on record by a wide margin. July's global average temperature of 16.95 degrees Celsius (62.51 degrees Fahrenheit) was a third of a degree Celsius (six tenths of a degree Fahrenheit) higher than the previous record set in 2019, Copernicus Climate Change Service, a division of the European Union's space programme, announced Tuesday. Normally global temperature records are broken by hundredths or a tenth of a degree, so this margin is unusual. These records have dire consequences for both people and the planet exposed to ever more frequent and intense extreme events," said Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess. There have been deadly heat waves in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, Europe and Asia. Scientific quick studies put the blame on human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Days in July hav