Page 11 - Global Warming

Global carbon credits market expected to touch $250 bn by 2030, says expert

The global market for carbon credits is expected to witness an upward trend and touch the level of USD 250 billion by 2030, an industry executive said. The market for carbon credits took a hit due to multiple reasons, including Russia-Ukraine war, interest rate hikes, and reduced demand leading to falling prices up to 80 per cent, Manish Dabkara, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of EKI Energy Services, said in an interview. "The market for voluntary carbon offsets which valued at around USD 2 billion in 2021 witnessed a downturn, and now valuing at USD 500 million. However, various ratings and research firms are bullish on the improvement in the carbon market," Dabkara said. Citing a Barclays report, the industry executive said, factors like stringent climate policies by various countries, their commitments under Paris agreement to reduce carbon emissions, and corporate sustainability goals are likely to contribute to the growth of the carbon credits market which is expected to

Thousands under evacuation, homes burn as wildfires race through Washington

Fast-moving wildfires raced through Washington state on Friday, burning some homes and prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people in small rural communities. One of the largest blazes, the so-called Gray Fire near Spokane in eastern Washington, began around noon and a few hours later had surged through 4.7 square miles (12 square kilometers) of grass, timber and wheat, pushed by 35-mph (56-kph) winds, according to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Level 3, or Go Now, evacuations were issued for Medical Lake, a community of about 4,800 people and some homes and other buildings had burned, authorities said, although it wasn't clear how many. National Guard troops were called in to help evacuate patients and staff from Eastern State Hospital, a 367-bed psychiatric facility in Medical Lake. Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said deputies were running from house to house urging people to leave their homes, NBC News reported. We've had to rescue people by b

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

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

Melting of Ladakh glacier could form three glacial lakes, says study

Accelerated melting of the Himalayan Parkachik Glacier in Ladakh could give rise to three glacial lakes with an average depth ranging between 34 and 84 metres, scientists have found. These lakes could be a potential source of glacial lake outburst floods in the Himalayas, the scientists from the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, said. Parkachik Glacier is one of the largest glacier in the Suru River valley, which is a part of the Southern Zanskar Ranges, western Himalaya. The Zanskar Range, part of the Himalayas, lies in the union territory of Ladakh. The glacier's yearly melting rate was 6 times faster between 1999 and 2021 (22 years) than that calculated from 1971 to 1999 (28 years), the scientists found using satellite data to determine its glacial retreat from 1971-2021. The findings are published in the journal Annals of Glaciology. The study attributed the accelerated glacial retreat to ongoing climate warming, which also causes surface morphological or geologic

July set to be hottest month as temperatures breach 2019 high: Scientists

July this year is set to be the hottest month on record with average temperatures exceeding that of July 2019 by a significant margin, according to a new analysis by scientists. The EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) noted that these temperatures have been related to heatwaves in large parts of North America, Asia and Europe, which along with wildfires in countries including Canada and Greece, have had major impacts on people's health, the environment and economies. Data shows that the previous hottest month on record was July 2019. According to the new analysis, the global mean surface air temperature averaged for the first 23 days of July 2023 was 16.95 degrees Celsius. This is well above the 16.63 degrees recorded for the full month of July 2019, which is currently the warmest July and warmest month on record. At this stage, the report said, it is virtually certain that the full monthly average temperature for July 2

Global warming: An overheating planet requires extreme solutions

Rising causes of death would include not just heat itself but exposure to ground-level ozone, malaria, dengue, and West Nile virus

Nearly 200 mn under heat, flood advisories as US braces for severe storms

Nearly 200 million people in the United States, or 60% of the U.S. population, are under a heat advisory or flood warning or watch as high temperatures spread and new areas are told to expect severe storms. The National Weather Service said a dangerous heat wave began to scorch the Northeast and mid-Atlantic on Thursday and will continue into the weekend. Severe thunderstorms and flash floods are possible for parts of the Northeast and South, New England and South Florida. Meanwhile, the string of record-breaking temperatures will persist for the Southwest and Midwest. It's (hitting) all the big cities, said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center. That's why the population (affected) is so high. Scientists have long warned that climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, will lead to more and prolonged bouts of extreme weather. The prediction for continued excessive heat comes a day after the World Meteorological ...

Have global temperatures reached these levels ever in last 100,000 yrs?

Without rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the Earth is currently on course to reach temperatures of roughly 3 C (5.4 F) above preindustrial levels

Scientists say record heat numbers paint the story of a warming world

The summer of 2023 is behaving like a broken record about broken records. Nearly every major climate-tracking organisation proclaimed June the hottest June ever. Then July 4 became the globe's hottest day, albeit unofficially, according to the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer. It was quickly overtaken by July 5 and July 6. Next came the hottest week, a tad more official, stamped into the books by the World Meteorological Organization and the Japanese Meteorological Agency. With a summer of extreme weather records dominating the news, meteorologists and scientists say records like these give a glimpse of the big picture: a warming planet caused by climate change. It's a picture that comes in the vibrant reds and purples representing heat on daily weather maps online, in newspapers and on television. Beyond the maps and the numbers are real harms that kill. More than 100 people have died in heat waves in the United States and India so far this summer. Records are crucial for

Greenland's ice has completely melted before, raising sea levels: Study

Greenland's ice sheet vanished completely and its land was covered with vegetation at sometime within the last half a million years, raising sea levels by at least 1.5 metres globally, an international team of scientists has found. Previously believed to have been a "fortress of ice" with mostly unmelted ice, Greenland's ice sheet history is undergoing a major and worrisome rethinking in light of these findings, the scientists from the University of Vermont (UVM), US, and other institutes said. Published in the journal Science, the study also provided "strong and precise evidence that Greenland is more sensitive to climate change than previously understood - and at grave risk of irreversibly melting off." As recently as two years back, an accidental rediscovery of a Greenland ice core, initially dug from a depth of about 1,400 metres, was analysed to be a direct evidence of sediment just beneath the ice sheet being deposited by flowing water in an ice-free environment during a ...

July 2023 likely to be the warmest month on record, NASA scientist claims

He said it will be the hottest month in "hundreds, if not thousands, of years." The US space agency observed a spike in the temperature when the super El Nino event hit during the 2015-16 winter

Delhi may suffer losses of Rs 2.75 trn by 2050 due to climate change

Delhi is projected to suffer losses of Rs 2.75 trillion by 2050 due to the impacts of climate change, with changes in precipitation and temperature patterns posing significant threats to the lives of the most vulnerable populations. The warning comes from the city government's draft action plan on climate change. The plan, which is pending approval, highlights "heat waves/higher temperature and heavy precipitation events over fewer number of days" as major challenges that the city will confront in the upcoming years. India introduced its National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in 2008, following which state governments were instructed to create their own action plans. The State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) must be aligned with the strategies laid out in the NAPCC. In January 2018, the central government directed the states to revise and strengthen their SAPCCs, taking into account the evolving national and international climate action, science and policy ...

Tokyo's heat smashes 150-year trend as extreme weather bakes globe

The hottest place in country was Kiryu, a city about two hours north of Tokyo, where the maximum temperature hit 39.7C over the weekend. Japan's all-time record is 41.1C

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded on Earth: NASA, NOAA

Last month was the hottest June on record going back 174 years, according to independent analysis by scientists including those from NASA and NOAA. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also found that it is virtually certain (above 99 per cent) that 2023 will rank among the 10-warmest years on record and a 97 per cent chance it will rank among the top five. The El Nino climate pattern is one reason temperatures are so hot right now, NOAA said. The cyclic pattern causes hotter than normal water in the Pacific Ocean, and the extra heat alters weather around the world and raises global temperatures. June this year was the warmest globally at just over 0.5 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average exceeding June 2019 the previous record by a substantial margin, according to European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Globally, June 2023 set a record for the warmest June in the 174-year NOAA record. The year-to-date (JanuaryJune) global surface tempera

Earth sizzled to global heat record in June, July: Meteorologists

An already warming Earth steamed to its hottest June on record, smashing the old global mark by nearly a quarter of a degree (0.13 degrees Celsius), with global oceans setting temperature records for the third straight month, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday. June's 61.79 degrees (16.55 degrees Celsius) global average was 1.89 degrees (1.05 degrees Celsius) above the 20th Century average, the first time globally a summer month was more than a degree Celsius hotter than normal, according to NOAA. Other weather monitoring systems, such as NASA, Berkeley Earth and Europe's Copernicus, had already called last month the hottest June on record, but NOAA is the gold standard for record-keeping with data going back 174 years to 1850. The increase over the last June's record is a considerably big jump because usually global monthly records are so broad based they often jump by hundredths not quarters of a degree, said NOAA climate scientist Ahira ...

Ground beneath us is heating up, civil infra not designed for it: Study

The ground beneath us is heating up, giving rise to the phenomenon of "underground climate change" and our civil infrastructure was not designed for it, scientists say. The continuous heat diffusion from buildings and underground transportation, seen in many urban areas around the world, causes the ground to warm at an alarming rate, found to be 0.1 to 2.5 degrees Celsius per decade by researchers. The heating up of ground leads to its deformation that includes both expansion and contraction, causing building foundations and the surrounding ground to move excessively and sometimes develop cracks, thereby impacting structures' long-term performance and durability. "The ground is deforming as a result of temperature variations, and no existing civil structure or infrastructure is designed to withstand these variations," said Northwestern University's Alessandro Rotta Loria, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and who led the US-based study published in the .

India's green hydrogen push and challenges, everything you need to know

Although first production is expected only in 2026, India has been negotiating bilateral agreements with the European Union, Japan and other countries to start exporting the fuel

Third hottest day as Wednesday's temperature matches record set Tuesday

Earth's average temperature remained at a record high Wednesday, after two days in which the planet reached unofficial records. It's the latest marker in a series of climate-change-driven extremes. The average global temperature was 17.18 Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world's condition. That matched a record set Tuesday of 17.18 Celsius (62.9 Fahrenheit), and came after a previous record of 17.01 Celsius (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit) was set Monday. Scientists have warned for months that 2023 could see record heat as human-caused climate change, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil, warmed the atmosphere. They also noted that La Nina, the natural cooling of the ocean that had acted as a counter to that warming, was giving way to El Nino, the reverse phenomenon marked by warming oceans. The North Atlantic has seen .