Page 5 - Drought

Drought leaves more than 7.2 mn people needing food aid in Ethiopia: UNOCHA

UNOCHA said the climate-induced drought in the East African country is the most severe in 40 years following four consecutive failed rainy seasons since late 2020

Heatwave scorches Pakistan, mercury shoots to 51 degrees in Jacobabad

Unconfirmed reports suggest at least three people died of acute water diarrhoea in a remote area of Sindh, Kaccha, in Dadu as the temperature rose to 49°Celsius

From India to France and the US, wheat harvest faces the weather test

Droughts, flooding and heatwaves threaten output from the US to France and India, compounding shrinking production in Ukraine

The promise and pain of insuring natural disasters at the state level

While claims and compensation for victims are settled expeditiously, the pressures on revenues prevent many states from making top-up contribution to the SDRF and NDRF

California sees driest spring in decades as data says drought to deepen

California is experiencing one of the driest starts to spring in decades, data showed Friday, and absent a heavy dose of April and May showers the state's drought will deepen

Climate disasters pose growth threat in Middle East, Central Asia: IMF

The frequency and severity of climate-related disasters are rising faster in the Middle East and Central Asia than anywhere in the world: IMF

Amid Russia-Ukraine war, wheat farmers look to alter planting patterns

Countries like Australia and India have responded with increased grain exports, but there's little room for others to immediately do the same, mainly due to recurrent drought, experts have said

Study finds human actions speed up climate-driven floods, droughts

A new study has found that streams altered by human activity are at a higher risk of flooding.The research was published in the journal Nature Sustainability.The study from the University of Waterloo analyzed the seasonal flow patterns of 2,272 streams in Canada and the U.S. and found that human-managed streams - those impacted by developments like dams, canals, or heavy urbanization - had significantly different flow patterns compared to streams in natural watersheds.Greater flow increases in managed watersheds indicate more severe flooding -- possibly as a result of the increased paved surfaces in urban regions. Flow dampening on the other hand can lead to water shortages and a loss in biodiversity in managed streams.The study used natural watersheds untouched by human activity to measure the impact of climate change on streamflow. Using them as a baseline, the researchers then compared flow in managed streams within a radius of 115 kilometres to measure the impact of human ...

Shock-proofing the economy: Quality jobs the best possible safety net

Since jobs will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, an unemployment allowance should be the next big social-security initiative, writes T N Ninan

Australia facing more floods and droughts due to global warming: Report

Australia is facing more catastrophic weather events as a result of global warming, which will cause death, injury, financial and emotional stress globally, a report has warned.

Simultaneous droughts across globe can threaten food security, study says

Droughts occurring simultaneously across different regions of the world could place an unprecedented strain on the global agricultural systems, recent collaborative research has found out

Drought-hit farmers in Chhattisgarh to get Rs 9,000 per acre aid: CM Baghel

Chhattisgarh CM said if crops sown by the farmers in the state during the ongoing kharif season get destroyed due to drought-like conditions, then they would be given a assistance of Rs 9,000 per acre

California wildfires rage as US West grapples with heat wave, drought

The fire disrupted service on three transmission lines providing up to 5,500 megawatts of electricity to neighboring California.

Floods may be nearly as important as droughts for future carbon accounting

In a global analysis of vegetation over more than three decades, Stanford University researchers found that photosynthesis -- the process by which plants take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere- was primarily influenced by floods and heavy rainfall nearly as often as droughts in many locations.The paper, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, highlights the importance of incorporating plant responses to heavy rainfall in modelling vegetation dynamics and soil carbon storage in a warming world."These wet extremes have basically been ignored in this field and we're showing that researchers need to rethink it when designing schemes for future carbon accounting," said senior study author Alexandra Konings, an assistant professor of Earth system science in Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). "Specific regions might be much more important for flood impacts than previously thought."More photosynthesis in combination with ...

PM Modi to address virtual high-level dialogue at UN next week

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a virtual high-level dialogue on desertification, land degradation and drought at the UN convened by the President of the General Assembly next week

How Covid crisis exhausted what Mr Modi had in plenty all these years

The three things that derailed the economy in the past - war, drought and oil - were mostly absent during his regime, but with the Covid crisis Mr Modi's luck seems to have run out, writes T N Ninan

Chronicle of crises foretold

A book on the drought in Marathwada offers a compelling preview of the human and environmental costs of poor policy-making, caste inequalities and globalisation

10 things that reminded us in 2019 it was time we acted on climate change

Amazon wildfire, cyclones, hurricanes, water crisis and rising pollution were only some of the many natural and man-made disasters we face last year

Parched India will see 'water refugees' in future, says Rajendra Singh

A lot of time has been lost, but it's still possible to overcome the crisis, Singh said

A perfect environmental storm and opportunity for India to think globally

Six hundred million people in India are at risk from increasing temperatures